This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of Jason and Amanda. She has that killer smile that’ll melt everyone’s heart. Love this shot! Had really great fun with this family especially after being there taking Jason and Adelene’s wedding pictures a few years back. It was like a small reunion, this time with an addition to the family.

Here’s another one of those shots with Adelene.

Lydia and I got back from the US recently and when we were in California, we stayed with Kelly, Richard, Chelsea and Troy. Here are a few pictures of this beautiful family and the their equally beautiful cats and dog.

These images were from a shoot in Paris last year for Esther and Huan. It was lost when my blog was attacked so here it is again.

Pregnancy images of Randy and Kara. The rest of the images can be found here.

You’ve heard of Trash That Dress…but how about Trash That Car? That was what Alex and Delia did at the end of the shoot. Yesterday was one of those days that made me glad I’m doing what I’m doing. A great couple, whacky ideas, perfect weather, in light of the flash floods we’re getting. We brainstormed the location that allowed us to drive a car into, and secluded lest the cops were called when we start painting. As it was we had a few curious stares. We realized there isn’t much choice in urbanized Singapore. Last time I did something like this was as at the Changi reclaimed land. I think there must be some huge buildings there now. Thank goodness my friend Sean did a shoot like this before and he gave some ideas.

I wasn’t too sure about the light in the evening since Sean did his shoot in the morning. But we drove around till we found the perfect spot. And we couldn’t have asked for more! A big open field that gave us space to move the car and a great clean background! I was all prepared to setup my speedlites but thank goodness, the lighting was just amazing!

We started the shoot with Alex and Delia with the car. I wanted a more lifestyle approach to the shoot and I drove my car next to theirs to get the shot from high. Now you know why I loved the location. Plenty of space to move two cars around. This shoot definitely made my day. Until England lost to Germany. But that’s another story.

Here’re a few of the pics:

And a few production pics taken by Lydia.

I had a laugh when I saw this picture. Once awhile, we’re allowed to be dissatisfied with how things are going at a shoot. Lighting’s off, angle’s off, things are not working as I’ve envisioned it. And so on and so forth. Liz took a picture of me at this particular instance when I felt that. I like this portrait..it’s emotional. Deep in thought and sulking a bit, I looked straight into the camera looking for answers and she took this picture. What was not working was the tight angle at this spa and beauty center, which had a lot of reflective surfaces where my lights could be seen everywhere.

The place was beautiful, so I wanted to bring out the character and the intrinsic designs so thoughtfully incorporated here. We were shooting a series of portraits of four employees for an advertisement. So in this place, the employee would pose with the different chemicals that are mixed for each customer. Pretty neat stuff considering it’s open for everyone to see and admire. In this shot, I used one key light to camera right, with a softbox, and one highlight to camera right also but behind the subject. Of course it didn’t work out. In the final shot, the highlight was left outside the room shooting through the glass. The final shot really worked.

We had a few rooms to shoot the portraits and one of them was a room designed to serve the guests tea. Liz was of course the lighting model of the day and here’s the test shot. One key light in a softbox and one highlight behind shooting through and umbrella, and making sure the vertical strips of wood had enough light to differentiate it from the back while throwing a bit of light on her. The final image was from a slightly different angle but an even stronger image.

What’s that blurry thing in front? This is what it looks like under the same lighting, taken by Liz

Will post the images after the ad is released.

Check out this footage of me in action…..all 3s of it courtesy of Liz who assisted me in this shoot. This happened yesterday as we were wrapping up the last bit of photography for the YOG. You should’ve seen me telling the gymnast to go as slow as possible so my 5D Mk2 and lights can catch up. If only she could defy gravity and the laws of momentum…my life would be so much easier.

The idea was to get a series of shots to superimpose them onto a life-sized panel. I don’t know how that will turn out. We’ll have to wait and see when the YOG exhibition opens.

I’ve been asked this question many times and to be perfectly honest I think a good image surpasses the basic techniques like composition, lighting, contrast, colour, etc. Sure, every photographer and aspiring ones, need to know all this. Instructional photo books flood the market with these basics. So what makes a good image? Continue reading 'What makes a good image?'»

A few pictures from Ignatius and Mui Ling’s pre wedding shoot last month. We happened to be in Penang in the same weekend so we decided to take a few shots around town.

More of such images can be seen in my Wedding Photography webpage or in the Pre-Wedding Photography category of this blog.

A simple, beautiful wedding in charming and idyllic Penang. The dinner was held at the very posh and delightful Rasa Sayang Resort, a highly acclaimed hotel, with a gorgeous garden and vintage old, lush trees facing the beach. We had some time during the day to explore the grounds and get some good pictures.

A very memorable part of the wedding dinner was the part when Poh Huat and Siew Len formed a train by pulling friends and relatives along, as they went table to table to greet guests. It was impromptu and they didn’t have any alcohol in them! In all my years of shooting, this has to be the first for me.

More of such images can be seen in my Wedding Photography webpage or in the Wedding Photography category of this blog.

My favourite equipment when I shoot portraits outdoors is (besides the camera and the flash, of course) the Canon’s wireless transmitter, ST-E2. You would need this to trigger an off-camera flash and really, that’s the way to go for good portraits. Alternatively, you can use another flash to trigger the main flash, while disabling its light output. Check out the flash manual to do this. Continue reading 'Shooting Outdoor Portraits with Speedlite (Flash)'»

On my way to Aceh in April I received two smses in a span of 5 mins, from friends who do not even know each other. And each one asked me to do shoot for a friend. That was how I met Alila, a singer/songwriter who was such a livewire when she stepped into the studio. Such a joyful and bubbly person! Someone introduced her to my facebook the day after she was just checking out my website. And then she realized the images were from the same photographer! She wanted a few simple images for her CD so we brainstormed a short while and came up with images along these lines. Continue reading 'Alila'»