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

Image taken by Liz

Will post the images after the ad is released.

UNHAPPY PHOTOGRAPHER is a post from: blog by eulee

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.

WILLIAM, MARIE + ALEXIS is a post from: blog by eulee

That was the Sunday evening. On Monday the plan was to hit the Botanic Gardens early in the morning to catch that sunrise and the beautiful light streaming in the little ravine. And after that it was up the Penang Hill to David Brown’s restaurant. If you ever make the trip to Penang, don’t miss this. A late afternoon tea with scones in the cool weather is the way to go. It rained when we were there, minus the mist we had when I shot Chris and Zinee there. The original plan was to have a go at the beach but the balmy, overcast weather would make potentially eye-popping images dull. So we decided to postpone the shoot and head to town to see what we could get.

I’ve never seen the streets of Penang so quiet before. Then again by the time we were there, it was late evening on a workday. Mental note: good time to shoot next time. So we had plenty of fun, running down the streets, got them to swing each other. Plenty of fun.

So next day we had the appointment at Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion or commonly referred to as the Blue Mansion in Glen Goei’s movie. It’s not a very big space but plenty of corners and angles to get the shots. The sun was strong then and reflecting all over the place so we worked it to our advantage. We really maximized the different light we got throughout the shoot.

And finally the beach! It was awesome! Blue sky, sunny and windy. Made it very pleasant to be out in the beach. We were all glad we postponed the shoot coz this was the best we can ever hope for. Celia was in this striking red dress which looked stunning against the blue sky. Towards the end of the shoot, we made sure we expended all our energy and that explains the energy pumping images. There’s something about the beach in the evening, you just feel like running non-stop. It was jellyfish season and we didn’t dare touch the water. We saw at least 5 nasty ones following the tide in. A nasty experience in a photoshoot if we ever got stung.

This trip I finally nailed the Botanic Gardens location for both my DIY shoot and Allen and Celia’s. I’ve been eyeing that place for awhile. We didn’t get the chance to ride the tram up Penang Hill because of a 1-year service interruption but we took the jeep up and that gave us a lot of time to shoot elsewhere. The empty streets in Georgetown in the evening allowed us to have our own fun. I make trips there frequently so if you’re interested to do your shoot there, or if you know someone else who might be, let me know.

ALLEN AND CELIA PENANG SHOOT is a post from: blog by eulee

Before sunrise....boring

The variety if images we had were a bit limited coz it took time to setup each shot, instead of moving freely and working with the light. But we’re happy with what we got.

Visitors to Penang may remember the famous seafood place call End of the World. It was an old rickety coffee shop in a fishing village. The site is now a forestry reserve office and the EOW has since been relocated to the roundabout near the ex-Mutiara Beach Resort. I don’t know what happened to this 5-star hotel but it’s abandoned now.

Anyway, at the place where EOW was located is an old fishing jetty where I shot a project many years back on fishing so we revisited the place to see what it’s like now. The jetty was still around so we set up the camera on the tripod and fired away.

So that concludes our little project. Many thanks to our camera crew below who made all this happen:

Read about the first day’s shoot here.

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

DIY* DAY 2 is a post from: blog by eulee

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.

DIY* DAY 1 is a post from: blog by eulee

At the moment I do all my shoots on location, instead of in my studio. I’m enjoying doing this because:
1. Images can have different settings. You can have a choice of environment eg, at home with a lifestyle twist, against a black backdrop for a more arty feel or outdoors for the fun. There’re so many options available.
2. For kids, a change in environment may make them apprehensive. Having it at home or outdoors will bring out the best from them.
3. Unlimited change of attire. As I’ve mentioned, you can wear anything and everything. The only limit is a 2-hour timeframe coz even if you’re not exhausted from all that changing, the photographer is from shooting.
4. You have toys to attract your kid’s attention. Put on Sesame Street, Thomas or Bob, and we have a smiley kid. And that looks great on the pictures.
5. If your kid is tired, take a short break, have a kit-kat, and he’ll be bouncing all over from the sugar fix. And we’ll have another go at this.
6. I feel great after a shoot with great images. And I’m sure you will too.

Call (97616405) or email (eulee@photographybyeulee.com) me to find out more details. Spread the word! Thank you much!

FAMILY AND KIDS PHOTOGRAPHY is a post from: blog by eulee

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:

Dylan

Thomas, May and Dylan

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

THOMAS, MAY AND DYLAN is a post from: blog by eulee

This is how you do it

So what's next?

Nope, not right

The girls' version of Charlie's Angels

The whole family

The whole family, not so serious after all

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

SHARM’S FAMILY SHOOT is a post from: blog by eulee

The space was a huge relief. No problems with power points, positioning lights, camera and notebook. Wouldn’t it be nice if the remaining shoots were like that….

Setting up the camera and notebook. Image from my iPhone.

Test Shot

YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES SHOOT 2 – WEIGHTLIFTING is a post from: blog by eulee

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

The first time for Darius. Well done!

Desiree and her 'Bear-siree'

The Family

Little Darius

Darius and Mum

Private family time. Desiree unexpectedly starting feeding Darius

The family in playroom

Techie info. I used both of my Elinchrom lights. One was fitted with the 80X80cm softbox, and the other with an umbrella. No reason for this combination. Except maybe the softbox will not be large enough for a full body standing portrait but for this purpose, the smaller softbox will do just fine. So softbox on camera right and umbrella on camera left, just to fill the shadows.

Lighting Diagram

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

DARIUS AND FAMILY is a post from: blog by eulee

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:

Social media links

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

SOCIAL MEDIA is a post from: blog by eulee

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.

Work-wise in 2009. My core business is still wedding photography. I love this business and being a part of someone’s wedding. My corporate/commercial work, comprising events, product and advertising has been consistently providing the variety I look for. I am also moving into family photography in a bigger way as compared to the previous years. While I’ve been shooting families regularly, it’s only in 2009 when this area has picked up.

2009 is also the year my business moved on from a sole-proprietorship to a Limited Liability Partnership. My business partner is my fiancee Lydia and she’s been great in providing emotional support and a listening ear for me to bounce ideas off. 2010 will be the year that she’ll officially become my life-partner .

Lydia and I at Pont Neuf, Paris

I love to share. I am always excited about helping others discover things about photography and their camera. It was with this intention that I started officially my photography workshop in 2009. I fashioned it after my short stint in the tv series on Channel News Asia called Scene City. In it, guest photographers were brought to different places in Singapore to handle different photographic challenges. So to spice things up, my workshops are completely hands-on and located in different areas in Singapore.

So what’s the most popular post so far? Surprisingly, the highest statistic is about me…hmmm….followed by my post on my workshop. And then about my short article on Canon G11, which was posted immediately after the news was released.

So what’s in store for this blog in 2010? I hope my blog will be a useful resource for anyone interested in photography. I know I should not generalize that much and look for a more niche audience but I hope there’s something here for everyone. I’ll try to write more about techniques, tips and reviews in the hope that you can glean more useful information. I will still post current work to inspire and to sharing something new. Of course I can’t post everything due to some confidentiality issues.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog, dropping a note, commenting, and I sincerely hope that you’ve learned something all this while. That said, please feel free to give me ideas on what to write about too.

Have a great 2010 ahead!

A YEAR IN RETROSPECT is a post from: blog by eulee

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.

Check out the colours!

Sharon and Nadine. My favourite mum and daughter shot

I want that camera!

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

NADINE AND FAMILY is a post from: blog by eulee

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

SNEAK PEAK: RITA AND RAY’S PRE-WEDDING IMAGES is a post from: blog by eulee

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!

Desiree and grandparents

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.

DON’T FORGET THOSE BUBBLES is a post from: blog by eulee