Minh Ha – Professional Photographer

WELCOME TO MINH HA PHOTOGRAPHY! Lathrop, CA Professional Portrait Photographer devoted to capturing the beauty of people and the relationship in their lives, for those who truly appreciate and value the art of fine portraiture photography as priceless heirloom that is passed down from generation to generation.  Specialized in custom design portraits – Corporate business portrait photography and executive headshots, family portrait photography, newborn and baby photography, children photography, maternity or pregnancy photography, lifestyle photography, beauty and fashion photography; serving the central San Joaquin Valley – Lathrop, Manteca, Tracy, Mountain House, Modesto, Lodi, Livermore, Stockton, Ripon, Pleasanton…

“Chic” Experience – How It All Started…

I used to own and operate a full-service high volume 1 hour portrait studio business with a friend/business partner in San Jose, CA back in 1998. We rented a retail space, close to 1000 sq. ft., and built everything from scratch. Our business mainly targeted the teenage students and seniors from middle schools and high schools. We were situated in a great location with amazing traffic exposure. Our studio was within walking distance from most of the major schools there. We started having customers immediately after our grand opening. Business was going really well! We had customers flocking to our door almost regularly throughout the year. There were days where we were shooting all day nonstop with back-to-back sessions, without even a break for lunch- especially Proms season. It’s crazy!

We became quite popular within such a short period of time. We were passionate and highly motivated in creating edgy fashion magazine-style images that flaunt our subjects’ attitudes and exude their characters and personalities. We experimented with limitless variation of funky poses, style of lighting (soft, hard, dappled, bounced, reflected, filtered…), film types, extreme wide camera angle lenses, painted backgrounds, props, printing colors (black & white, sepia, cross-process (color boost), chemical developing and printing tricks, printing paper brands and textures… anything to pack a lot of punch, creativity, and impact to our images. Our customers were head over heels over the special effects of our custom portrait packages! They purchased tons of portraits and passed them out to their friends and relatives everywhere. It didn’t take long before everybody started raving about us all over town!

It was the best experience I’ve ever had! I had the opportunity to hone my photographic skills, photograph all kinds of people (multi-ethnic backgrounds, from infants to elderly and everything in between) day in and day out; stretch my imagination, produce flattering results consistently every time regardless of my subjects, even with a limited amount of poses consisted in the smallest package…

I have since moved on from the days of high volume, slam-bam, in & out type of photography business. It was a stepping stone for me. Today I operate my portrait photography business under my own name, Minh Ha Photography. Since the company bears my name, I’m obligated to do my very best. I want to keep clients’ service personable and highly customized. I do fewer sessions so I can devote more time and create something truly artistic, meaningful and unique for you, rather than rushing you through like a factory. I spend time with you and help you plan and coordinate everything, so your portraits will have a lot of emotional impacts and sentimental value, and every one of your portraits will be beautifully enhanced for perfection.