It was one of those unique weekends with rain continuously over two days. We originally planned to do the shoot on Saturday evening but postponed it to Sunday when the weather didn’t look promising. Well, Sunday morning wasn’t much better.

My immediate thoughts were, thank goodness the shoot’s at Capella. That would’ve been one of the best places to shoot indoors. The hotel prides itself with marrying the old colonial building and new architecture. It was the colonial setting that attracted me most and we’re glad that came out well in the pictures. So the cure for a rainy day? Look for the beautiful window light to work with since the light outside isn’t too strong and contrasty. The last few images were a good blend of warm and cool light. I though that came out quite well.

Here are a few images from the shoot.

The star of the day was Darius. It was his birthday and what better way to celebrate than to have portraits taken with family. Darius is also Desiree’s brother. We originally planned the shoot outdoors but changed venue to their house, since it was easier to celebrate his birthday after the shoot. Good thing too since the weather turned bad in the evening. I brought along my lights and decided to use a white wall in the house as a backdrop. I started shooting with a ladder/chair as a prop. Little did I know that sitting there unaided was the first time for Darius and I must say he handled himself very well. Desiree had a go after seeing her brother enjoy himself.

It was playtime towards the end and as the whole family gathered in the playroom, I pulled over one of my lights and started firing away. Totally unplanned but I learned to expect the unexpected when dealing with kids at Darius’ and Desiree’s age. Makes the whole shoot so enjoyable by keeping the photographer on his toes

Continue reading 'DARIUS AND FAMILY'»

Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010! After a season of festivities, everyone’s back to work with, I hope, a fresh perspective to work, life and perhaps a zest, zeal and enthusiasm to make this year count. But take a moment to have some reflection on the past year, and use that as a guide for this.

For myself, this blog was started as a kind of social experiment and i must say I am hooked on it. I started in May 2009, after many years of deliberation and fears that I will not get pass my first post. I eventually discovered a love for writing. I can’t say I’m very good at it but at last I don’t dread it. So my first post was on packing for an overseas shoot in a reply to curious questions on what I always bring on my shoot. At that point of time I was already overseas and that was the perfect moment to talk about it. From then my blogging went on to discuss techniques, equipment, workshops, current work, book reviews and now with my new iPhone, a bit on apps and its camera. After the first post, ideas start popping up and since then, I’ve logged 140 posts! I try to go for higher value content and not just one-liners so I think I’ve done decently looking at my workload.

Continue reading 'A YEAR IN RETROSPECT'»

Oohhh, this shoot was so fun. Nadine was able to walk assisted now and she didn’t waste much time putting her skills to use throughout the shoot. Challenging for the photographer but this photographer really enjoyed playing with her. She was so active that even though she was in her crib, she just paced to and fro, never tiring, giving us the best smiles she’s got.

Sharon and James wanted to do the shoot in the the house. Simple uncomplicated but the challenge was the lighting since it was a cloudy day and lighting was poor. So I got the 2 Elinchroms, and used them bare bulb. Half of the shoot was done with the modeling lamps to work with the existing lighting and to make sure I could shoot wide open. And of course to prepare for the unexpected, dealing with a hyper-active girl.

Here’re a few pictures from the shoot.

Continue reading 'NADINE AND FAMILY'»

This is new to me but probably not for the parents of little kids out there. Jacob Ballas is this huge children’s garden, kinda like a mini theme park for kids of all sizes. It’s Asia’s first children’s garden and a location to shoot Desiree and her family. I met Desiree in 2006 when she was a year old and my she’s grown since then, but she still has that killer smile that melts hearts.

She took about 5 seconds to warm up to me and we walked hand in hand into the park, with her new brother Darius and mom, June and dad, Michael. It rained a bit before the shoot but stopped just before we started and the lighting was great for portraits.

More of such images can be found in the Family Photography category.

Ben and Lydia are very special to me. I shot their pre-wedding images, wedding images, Josh’s images when newly born and when he started to walk and run. Now with Luanne at 1 month plus, it was time for another shoot. We wanted to do something different so the shoot was in their bedroom, while watching the Brazilian F1 race. Josh was so glued to the race at one point of time that we just had to follow suit. Caught that fire on Kimi’s car in the pit lane. Awesome stuff! Thanks Josh.

I started taking top down shots of Luanne and Josh. She looks so good and Josh has that brotherly care for his little sister that I had to capture that. He was so affectionate to her. To get the angle, I borrowed a ladder and shot from far, just so that I avoid lens distortion if I go to close. That’s usually the problem with baby pictures. People forget or are unaware that the closer you are to the baby, the more distorted the image becomes. If you want to do it intentionally, that’s fine, but if not, go as far as possible and zoom in. So anyways, I found a picture of me in their family blog here.

Continue reading 'BEN, LYDIA, JOSH AND LUANNE'»