Casual snapshots in Newcastle

Greetings from UK!  I’m actually on a train traveling towards Central London – they actually have wifi onboard their National Express!

This is going to be one of the shortest trips ever, after spending 17 hours getting my butt to Newcastle from Sg yesterday, I’m spending 8 hours in Central London doing some shopping and meeting clients there, hopefully grab some funky toys from Hamleys for the boys.

Had one of the worst oil dripping fish and chips in Newcastle yesterday, but well…that gave me enough energy to take some photos around Newcastle upon Tyne)

🙂

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Join our Fan page on Facebook

After much procrastination, I’ve finally launched my own fan page on Facebook…and if you haven’t join us, please do right now, drop by and chill out 🙂

I’ve got some really interesting stuffs and annoucements lined up for everyone on that page, so stay tuned!

294 fans and counting already! 🙂

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Seiyang & Stephanie

As promised, more updates from me. :0

Lunar 7th month is just another month for me, it doesn’t get anything less busy, assignments are on going, especially for the overseas weddings that I’m preparing for in two weeks time.

Some favourites from a recent series. Fantastic and sporty couple 🙂

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To London?

MPA and WPPI, these are the two organisers of the toughest photography competitions for wedding and portrait photographers, and looking at the previous winners from the different category, photographers like myself will probably spend days hammering out the prints, send them to USA or UK, and hope for the best.

Just received a congratulatory email from Master Photographer Association in London (MPA) that one of my images has made it to the finals for the Overseas Wedding Photographer of the Year Award!

That came together with an invitation to the awards ceremony in London come Oct 2009.

However, much as I would love to attend the awards ceremony, as well as see the other finalists and winner’s print next to mine, plus the chance to mingle with some of the veterans in this biz, I happened to have an assignment overseas.  The biggest irony is, both the clients happened to be based in London, but their wedding will be held in their hometown back in Asia.

Good news and bad news come in a pair, usually.

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Mark & Amelia – 15 August 2009

I love my job.  So how do I know it? At the end of the day, you’re tired, but you just want to look forward to working on the images. 

Well initially, they were supposed to get married on Oct 17 this year, and it being a very popular date, I’ve lost count of how many couples I’ve turned down so I referred some of the other photographers to her.  Amelia was one of the couples who expressed their disappointment that the date wasn’t available in my comments page here.

Guess what?  Few weeks later, I received a call from Amelia asking me which are the available dates in August 2009, and that she will try to book the hotel accordingly.  Some photographers probably find it hard to believe this because most of the couples’ wedding dates are determined largely by the availability of the hotel (i.e the banquet venue). This couple is definitely very different from the rest.

Mark & Amelia, if you’re reading this now on a plane or at the airport, thank you once again.  We all had a great time yesterday and do enjoy your honeymoon!

Shot yesterday on the eve of my birthday (and now that the kiddos are asleep I’ve picked up some of my favs from the series)… Sneak peaks only 🙂

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Oh yes, the importance of the photographer to the wedding couple on their big day is another reason why I love this job and  Mark & Amelia has reaffirmed that 🙂

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John & Jo

Last month was really mad mad mad, out of the 5 assignments, 3 of them were postponed from June all thanks to H1N1 flu.

This is the 2nd shoot for the month of July, I met John and Jo when I was covering the wedding for one of their friend’s wedding back in December 2008.  It’s always good to know that your previous clients have been referring their friends to you, more than just another job opportunity, it’s a sign that the couple is happy with your work.  And no, I don’t have commission system in place, so I’m always very happy when clients refer their friends to me 🙂

Despite the rain, we had a very fruitful session. Plus, John and Jo are both very confident individuals (if you know what they work as, you’ll understand why) which made the photoshoot a blast.

Some favorites 🙂

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One of the entries for the MPA Master Photographer Award

After working on the images for the annual MPA Master Photographer Award, life is slightly more normal now. Preparing for print competition is tedious, and doesn’t help that I procrastinate a lot when it comes to selection of images (entry fee is one, the printing cost is another thing altogether), and spending hours with the print guru to get the right print, and reprinting thanks the perfectionist nature of such competitions.

One of the FAQs when I discuss photoshoot venues with the couples is “Which is your favourite place in Singapore?” . Actually, there are no favourites, and as mentioned in my previous post, all venues are determined by my couples.  Just that some venues tend to be the choice for many of my couples.

I must have visited this site more than ten times within the first half of 2009, and I make it a point never to repeat any shots or produce similar looking photos.  After all, no one will pay big money for photographs that are easily replicated 😉

This is one that I really like, a lot.

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Joy & Beng Seng

Ok, this is really to make up for the past month of inactivity…

Another cute series, I happened to know the both of them way back in my previous job, and until recently did I get to know that they were dating 🙂

I’m really glad that they have decided to tie the knot, and here’s my take on their wedding portraits.

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Sylvia & Dongmin (Part II)

To continue the Sylvia & Dongmin’s series (the couple based in Los Angeles, California) that I posted recently, here are some of the my favourite portraits that we’ve shoot.

Like all my photoshoots, locations are all decided by the couples simply because:

1) I try to involve the couple as much as possible in the planning and creative process.

2) Giving the couple a sense of ownership.  Speak to my couples whose bridal portraits have received awards, it’s their achievement as much as mine.

My role is the artistic director and advisor. What works? What’s too overdone / cliche?  High value works is a continual quest for novel ideas, at the same time balancing it with the consumable photos.  Now that’s lots of hard work!

Here are some from Sylvia & Dongmin’s series:

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Looking back, we sure did have lots of fun! 🙂

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Overseas shoot for 2009 / 2010

Now that the H1N1 saga has simmered down, there have been many enquiries about overseas photoshoot.  I’m pleased to announced that we have currently planned trips for the following cities for 2009 and 2010 🙂

Mid September 2009 – Melbourne (1 more slot)

Late October 2009 – Melbourne / Adelaide  (2 more slots)

Mid Nov 2009 – Kyoto (1 more slot)

April 2010 /Aug 2010 – Paris / Venice  (3 more slots)

March 2010 – Los Angeles and San Francisco (2 more slots)

For more info, please email me at stephen@lyricalmoments.net .  All our overseas shoot have limited slots, so do book early! 🙂

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