Folks, there’s one more slot for my upcoming workshop in April. Let me know fast if you’ve decided to join us. Details can be found in my Workshop page.

Help me spread the word! For a limited time only, I’m offering a 10% discount on Family and Kids Portrait Photography. Plus you’ll have more high resolution processed softcopies. You have a choice of having it done indoors or outdoors or even both, if you can manage it within 2 hours. No limits to the change of attire, feel free to wear your entire wardrobe. Pets welcomed and loved

Continue reading 'FAMILY AND KIDS PHOTOGRAPHY'»

Ok, it’s really not as simple as it sounds in theory but it’s heck of a lot of fun. I like to entertain the couple I’m shooting normally, so I ended up entertaining ourselves. Today’s shoot lasted less than 20 minutes, in between shopping at Queensbay Mall and dinner at Hammer Bay (I kid you not, that’s the name). Dinner was grilled stingray or ikan pari bakar. If you ever come here, try the satay too. It’s from this nondescript stall just by the entrance. The ‘makcik’ is very generous with the chicken…chunks of well-marinated meat.

The light changes really fast after sunset and that explains the 20 min shoot. Interestingly, the lights from the makan place served as a giant light source and I was happily using it. The Penang Bridge is in the background but barely visible due to the large aperture I was using. f1.4 to f1.8 most of the time. But I wanted just the lights visible only so that worked out quite well.

Here are a few pics from today’s shoot:

Stay tuned for more pics from tomorrow. I think it’ll be a fruitful day!

* For those unacquainted with my project, we’re doing our own pre-wedding shoot in Penang.

A few years back I covered a wedding in which the groom’s a commercial photographer. Of course, I then asked the million dollar question “So who shot your pre-wedding pics?” and he replied nonchalantly, “me, of course!”. It’s now my turn to be asked this question whenever I tell people I’m getting married soon. And the answer is the same “me, of course!”.

As photographers, we’re a fan of our work. I mean, it’ll be a slight problem if we’re not. So it seemed to make perfect sense that we shoot it the way we always do. For that groom, he did the shoot in Australia and got a friend to press the shutter. He was like the creative director, setting the camera up on a tripod, select the focal range, aperture and the friend then had to capture the moment. Thank goodness we’re in the digital age. I can’t bear firing rolls of film to do this.

So for Lydia and I, she came up with this idea to get my Dad to fire the camera away. My Dad had been largely responsible for my fascination with photography some twenty years ago. So he was the perfect candidate. Plus it’ll be great fun for the family.

I don’t know how this will turn out but hey since it’s a DIY project, we won’t have much to lose if it doesn’t work out the way we want it to. On the other hand, we could get some very interesting shots. Will update you in the next few days when we do the shoot in Penang.

Pink was the colour of the day. Everything was so well colour-coordinated, right down to the pink bedroom slippers. What amazed me was the amount of effore and love put into different cards for personalized messages for the couple. The ceremony was held at the Raffles Town Club, also the venue for the ROM of Ignatius and Mui Ling, whom I had the pleasure of covering too.

Here are a few pics from the day itself starting from the preparation in the morning until lunchtime.

Continue reading 'NERN HOONG AND JO ANNE ROM'»

Description: Lowepro Mini Trekker AW
Price: $70

Looking for a home for my Mini Trekker. This model has been discontinued but that doesn’t stop it from being a great bag. This is a victim of my spring cleaning and I realize I’ve been severely underutilizing it. Plus it’s a bit small for me now since I usually carry 2 DSLRs PLUS my notebook. The 1D and 5D with battery grip doesn’t leave much space for my macbook.

If you don’t use a battery grip, you can still fit in a notebook in the front flap. My 13″ macbook fits perfectly. But it’s a squeeze if you fit a large camera like the 1D. A bit more information can be found on B&H website.

Blink. The power of thinking without thinking. In this book, Malcolm Gladwell discusses how sometimes too much information and analysis can get in the way of our judgement. Snap decisions are made subconsciously, or even unconsciously. And sometimes this beats all the scientific analysis in a way that even the person cannot honestly explain.

The book begins with the discovery of whether a statue was legitimate or not. A lot of data was taken and analyzed over many months and the scientists were convinced that the statue was an original. On the other hand, a few experts, seeing the statue for only a few seconds felt uneasy and were convinced that it was a very good imitation. They were right They didn’t know how they came to the decision, just that it didn’t look and feel right. Their spontaneous reaction in this case was better than the carefully considered one.

Continue reading 'BLINK AND THE DECISIVE MOMENT'»

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. In his book, the Outliers, he mentioned that to succeed in your field, you need to spend 10000 hours honing that skill. I have no idea how he arrived at that number but in his analysis of successful people, that seemed to be the common denominator. The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending that number of hours in their field.

I was told by another photographer that a client joked with him that since he had the same equipment as my friend, he should be charging the same thing. Although in jest, that might be the way he perceived my friend’s work, forgetting that the camera doesn’t make the man.

I sometimes come across people in a wedding shoot having a ‘bigger and better’ camera than mine and they perhaps feel that they’re ‘better’ than the professional photographer. Funny how people think that the camera determines the level of competency. I can think of this analogy, if you have the same pot as a chef, does that make you one? Or if you buy the same racquet as Roger Federer, you’re on way to the Grand Slams. People seem to think that photography bucks this trend.

Going back to Malcolm’s 10000 hour rule:

Continue reading 'THE CAMERA DOESN’T MAKE THE MAN'»

I had another great Saturday shooting this family. Lydia was assisting me this time and we brought the backdrop for the shoot. So we set the backdrop in place, all the while supervised by Peanuts, who were more interested in licking our faces than anything else. He’s such a cute dog, and timid too. At the start he didn’t dare venture onto the black backdrop, probably thinking we just created a hole in the universe. And falling into it wouldn’t be too much fun. He’s also an amazing model, patiently posing until we call it a wrap. It’s hard not to fall in love with him.

Lauren has the biggest smile, and reserves it especially for Peanuts. I’m just amazed at the strong interaction between her and man’s best friend. Very heartwarming indeed. After about an hour shooting indoors, we ventured out. Not many place to go in the searing midday heat but I’m happy with the locations we chose. It’s just around the block and convenient to pop out and pop in without being drenched with sweat.

Here are a few images from the shoot:

More of family photography images can be found in the Family Photography category of this blog.

So I’ve finally made up my mind. It must be the most well-researched and tested software I’ll ever purchase. I’ve ran it to the ground, compared it with Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 beta, tried all sorts of funny things with it, go through my entire workflow to make sure I can get used to it fast and I’m satisfied. Unlike Photoshop, where there aren’t many choices out there, Aperture and Lightroom are both great choices but Aperture works better for me. At least for my workflow. I love the adjustment brushes and the slideshow capabilities. Plus working with the full screen. Speed-wise, I thought Lightroom was faster but in the end, the difference was imperceptible.

If you’re using Aperture already or are thinking of it, here’s a very useful website to learn tips and tricks: http://aperture.maccreate.com/.

Well now that I’m ready to buy it, I’ve been told it’s out of stock. Duh! And I think the money I spend deserves a nice little box, a CD and a bunch of useless material, instead of just downloading the key. I can wait. I have 20 more days to use the trial version.

Had a great shoot last Sat with a beautiful family. Dylan’s a 17-month old Elmo lover and loves to dance to Elmo’s songs too. Oh did I mention he loves ice? So Elmo and ice were his main companion throughout the shoot. With such a combination, he provided plenty of laughter for all. We did the shoot in the house and then proceeded to Botanic gardens in the evening. The house was very tastefully decorated and there were plenty of areas to shoot in. I just love the little courtyard in the middle of the house. A very nice touch indeed!

Botanic Gardens never fails to deliver when it comes to providing a backdrop of lush beautiful greenery. We were also blessed with good warm lighting which gave a golden touch to the pictures. It was a bit crowded but there were pockets of space to give the privacy and the backdrop.

Here are a few pictures from the shoot:

Continue reading 'THOMAS, MAY AND DYLAN'»

Just came back from a press release of Aperture 3 and to add a bit to what I posted earlier. Nothing much new that you can’t get from the web but having someone go through it was quite an experience. A lot of emphasis was given to the iPhoto and Aperture compatibility. If you use iPhoto and the Faces and Places features a lot, you’ll be very impressed with these. The face recognition algorithm is much more advanced and you can manage it at the project level instead of library level.

What I found impressive was the Places feature. As long as you have a GPS enabled camera, you’ll have a lot of fun with this. Here’s a screenshot of my iPhone images with the location service enabled and the places tagged. You can use it even in the slideshow where your slides can be automatically captioned with the location. Very impressive indeed.

So Faces and Places are cool. Just that as a professional photographer who works mainly in Singapore and who catalogs images based on event instead of faces, I can’t say I can find a lot of use for it. Sure, if I’m a National Geog photographer, Places will be extremely useful or if I go vacationing a lot. Or if I constantly take pictures of my friends and family, Faces may be useful. But counterintuitively, I find that because the face recognition processing is done all the time, I feel it slows down my other processing. I can see that processing in the status. I’m not sure but perhaps, that can disabled.

Continue reading 'APERTURE 3.0 MEDIA BRIEFING'»

In a beautiful wedding ceremony at the Orchard Presbyterian Church, Chris and Lin tied the knot last month. Something really funny in the morning happened when Chris was required to sign a love declaration and unbeknownst to him, a piece of paper was peeled away revealing a whole list of other promises! And this was after he signed on it.

There was something very special about the attention given to the details, from the colour of the flowers, dresses, and the very elegant bridal gown. Lin looked really great when walking down the aisle. Their mothers started the processional with each holding a candle. It was very touching and significant sight. The bridal party was also a long one, all the while keeping Chris in eager anticipation.

I have not been shooting in the church recently and I remember how grand it was the last time I shot there. I had to take a shot, holding the camera high above my head, just beside the pulpit, with live-view on to capture the grand interior of the church. I’m glad that shot turned out ok.

Here are some of the images taken from a selection that was shown at the dinner:

And more here..

More of such images can be found on my Actual Day Wedding Photography web page or in the Wedding Photography category of this blog.

Had someone check out my light that did a nosedive a few weeks back. Conclusion: it’s still working fine except there’s this piece of plastic about the size of a key on your keyboard that came loose. It was the source of the rattling sound and it seems to be some spacer or something like that. Do you know what this is?

I’ll probably keep it for awhile before I junk it.

I still like to tell the story of how this light of mine fell 4m and suffered only a cracked shell and this loose plastic piece. Next time I tell it, it might have fallen 5m or more….

Oh what a hilarious time I had with this family. Fun-loving and spontaneous would best describe them and that made it a very enjoyable shoot last weekend. The shoot was at their house and I set up two lights, after rearranging furniture. Midway through the shoot, we gave it a different feel by using a black backdrop. Here are a few images from the shoot:

More of family photography images can be found in the Family Photography category of this blog.