Some good news to share, 2 of my images have been awarded 1st and 3rd placing in the final Quarter of ISPWP competition.
1st placing under The Wedding Dress
(Kellie and Jim, that’s an awesome dress that you guys design, love it!)
3rd Place under First Dance
(Ken & Lee Yen: Finally won something with this image! Looking forward to our baby photography session soon!)
More images from the Jos+Rach series. One of the biggest challenges and part of the fun is how we make this set of bridal images look like it’s not photographed in Singapore!
Speaking of which, time to scout for more venues for wedding photography 🙂
One very useful tip of the day for everyone who likes to do wedding photography, either as a hobby or as a full-time job. Do not touch the wedding dress… no touchie, non, tak boleh!
So what’s the big deal with moving the wedding gown? Here are some incidents to share:
Incident #1
I know many videographers & cinematographers who are very passionate with their job, and one such bloke (no name mentioned) took the wedding gown from the apartment to the ground floor for some video clips. Being a very creative person, he took the gown and hung it on one of the trees by clothes hanger. Beautiful golden sunlight that day, perfect for snippets that has lots of nice lens flare effects. I greeted him from afar and went up to the bride’s apartment.
Minutes later, I heard the bride’s mother and bridesmaid screaming and yelling and to cut the long story short, the gown was blown against the tree trunk and part of it got soiled quite badly. How badly? It was enough to ruin the bride’s big day and the videographer could only apologise profusely for it.
Incident #2
Read this over a professional forum where one bloke tried to emulate another famous photographer’s stun of hanging the wedding gown on a construction site scaffold. He hung it behind a door frame and he probably thought hey, who’s going to work on Sunday at the construction site? Half way through filming, two workers came out from there… Cutting the long story short again, the gown got 2 boot marks on it on the front and part of the veil was torn.
Nightmarish isn’t it? If these are not scary enough, think about how much some of these gowns cost. Some of my clients pay as high as USD$13k for a gown , USD$2800 for a Cheong Sum (traditional Chinese gown) from labels like Tan Yoong or Vera Wang. Would you want to be responsible for any mishap to them?
Bottom line is, unless you have telekinesis, leave that to the parents or the bridesmaid…(if it’s necessary for you to move the gown to a place to photograph it)
If you find this tip useful, please share it with your friends (you can tweet or share it on Facebook through this blog). More tips to come soon! 🙂
Yes, equipment discussion is not really my cup of tea, but some of you might find this post interesting to read, maybe. First, let me qualify myself.
1. This is purely for info sake. I’m not sponsored by any photographic related companies nor paid by anyone for writing this.
2. One should use equipment according to his /her photography style – there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all-uber-setup.
3. These equipment that I’m reviewing are based on what I’ve used and what has worked for me. To put it simply, this setup compliments my style of photography.
4. Good photography is not about how well-equipped you are, it’s about how well you use your equipment.
5. When in doubt, please refer to point #1 🙂
Ok, here’s a snap shot of my bag just before I packed the contents into my dry box.
What's in my bag
A. Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L Image StabliserB. Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L Mk 2
C. Canon EF 85mm f1.2L Mk2
D. Canon EF 35mm f1.4L
E. Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L
F. Canon EOS 1Ds mk 3
G. Canon EOS 5D
H. My trusty 8-year old Swiss-made blower
I. Gary Fong’s flash diffuser. Some call it Fongdom, most of my clients call it the tupperware 😀
A. Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L
One of my first Canon ‘L’ series lenses that I bought back in 2002. Use this mainly for outdoor portraits and / or in situation where I want to compress the scene. I don’t use this alot indoors because f2.8 is just not fast enough for me. Personally, I find this lens very useful on a dull day, especially when we want to isolate the subject from the background. For example, the photo I shot in Bath, UK
or use to compress the scene, as in this example that I shot in Marina Barage, Singapore.
or for a reasonable amount of bokeh or background blur…
to be continued…
Been a week since I got back from photoshoot in Melbourne and weather was really fine, though some of the days were pretty chilly, but it got really warm, especially on the day that returned to Singapore.
Some of my favourites from the Melbourne series, more to come later, I promise 🙂
I had the privilege to photograph Johannes & Olinda, a really fun and lovely couple who have come a long way from a distant relationship. Kudos to both of you as I always have a lot of admiration for couples who are able to sustain long distance relationship , because it’s not easy at all.
Yesterday’s photo session was really challenging in the sense that we encountered many, and I really mean many resistance throughout the course of the day. I think we were stopped at least 4 times for taking photos, and sometimes, it’s just not worth my time and energy to argue with the relevant authorities because at the end of the day, I have look at the picture and put the photoshoot as the main priority. I’m beginning to start asking for their supervisors’ contact because I would love to speak directly to them to have an understanding why photography is not allowed even though it is a public place.
Some highlights and sneak preview from the series:
Soo Kiat & Maggie met while they were studying in UK and this long distance relationship has certainly come a long way (Maggie’s from China and Soo Kiat’s our home grown Singapore boy).
Some pictures that I like a lot from their series 🙂
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