Took the fastest family portrait yesterday for Desmond and Sandra. Desmond and I go back a long way, back to secondary school that is so I was more than happy to take this portrait of his family with him in his MBA graduation gown. The gown was completely black so I had to light it in a way to accent the shape and made sure it didn’t get lost in the background. Did this a couple of times before so it wasn’t too difficult. I enjoy shooting with a completely black background.

The entire shoot lasted shorter than the setup time. It was mainly due to the very photogenic and game Mae Lyn and Eu Jin. They were very comfortable in front of the camera, a fact which I didn’t quite expect. Tell them to do something, and they did it, and gave the biggest smile too.

Here are a few images from the shoot.

More family portraits can be seen in the Family Photography category of this blog.

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.

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.

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'»

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'»

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'»

I’m a big believer of social media. You know those Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in stuff. Oh how social networking and businesses have changed with the arrival of Facebook. Email is so passe in keeping touch. We’re always online when on the move. On my iPhone I have Whatsapp, Ping!, BeejiveIM, TweetDeck, Facebook and of course the ubiquitous SMS. All in the spirit of getting connected to everyone. Sure, there’s always information overload…no, I don’t really care what you had for lunch but if it’s mindblowing awesomely cheap and good, let me know!

From a business perspective, there’s more interaction between businesses and consumers. Big brands are taking notice of social media to engage consumers. It tears down the walls of communication, no longer can the big brands remain aloof, indifferent to feedback and opinions. It forces them to be on their toes since bad press can easily spread like wildfire. That’s the downside for them….but not for the consumers.

Small businesses depend on it for advertising. It’s like one big referral business avenue. I get a lot referrals especially for my wedding and family photography business and I love social media because I’m closer to people. It allows me to share my thoughts and ideas easily. You will feel that you know quite a bit about your photographer even before meeting him. Often when I meet people the first time, they’ll ask me about the stuff I blogged about. And the connection is instantly made. Is this important in engaging a photographer? I think so! Especially in a wedding, I’m sure getting to know your photographer is important. I’d much rather have someone I know and trust cover my wedding, instead of a total stranger whom I have difficulty communicating with.

Also, social media is a great platform to communicate updates like promotions, recent work, etc. Previously, emails were the most used and abused methods. Spamming was getting out of hand. With social media, we get around all this.

I must admit I have been updating my blog so much I kind of neglected my website. So yesterday I included buttons to link to my blog, facebook, twitter and linked-in profile. Although I’m not totally sure how I can directly get into my linked-in profile. Let me know if you know how. Currently you’d have to do a search for my name. So here it is, the updated portion of my homepage:

Follow me on facebook and twitter and keep updated with what’s happening!

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'»

It was Desiree’s birthday yesterday and we had some chill out time before we celebrated her birthday. So we found ourselves in the playground downstairs with Michael, who very wisely brought along those bubble-blowing thingy. Jeesh, I don’t even know what they’re called. Ok, I’m out of touch. Can’t go wrong with those things….never fails in putting a smile on kids, and that’s the key to the pictures.

Before that, Desiree went completely mad around the playground climbing up and down the slide for the umpteenth time, expanding a lot of the youthful energy she had. Grabbed a couple of shots and then headed back for the indoor family shots.

Happy Birthday Desiree!

For the indoor shots, I fired 2 580EX flashes mounted on stands: one on camera left a bit slightly behind them, set at Manual at lowest setting 1/128, just to provide some accent light. Main light was on camera right, pointing at the ceiling for bounce and set at Manual, at 1/8 setting. With these two lights, I could use a smaller aperture for maximum sharpness and with a reasonable shutter speed. There was almost no ambient light in the picture. I left the colour temperature to a bit warmer since the place had warm lighting. But had I depended solely on the ambient light for lighting, it’ll be hard to get the direction and quality of light you see.

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

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'»