One day I was called to take up food photography. And I took up the challenge to take up the job. I was surprised that they were shy to ask because they think that we Wedding Photographer are not keen to take up assignment like this. LOL. It was a fun assignment and I had suffer back pain after the assignment because I kept bend down to capture the food, and you know what, this restaurant have sooooo many dishes in the menu. LOL.
I love Chloe's house so much! Eventhough Chloe did not think so. Chloe is a girl that filled with hope, she has been living in her house since childhood and finally the day came that Klev will take her to a new home. :) Chloe's house have been lived by a few generations. When I was looking for a place for the gown shot, I saw this wall of pictures, and a tree was painted on the wall. It seemed to me that those pictures signifies family tree, or Chloe is the one of the fruit on the tree. It was a meaningful scene, and thats how I decided to have the gown shot, beside the old pictures. It may seemed to many people that nothing special could be taken in this house. To me, her home is filled with possibilities. The shape of Love is the theme I created for them because the shape of love really appeared many times that day.
The pictures off freelance photographers like us are always against the Bridal shop concepts. Bridal shop expresses the gown where we expresses the stories and emotions. We think that a true wedding pictures is not an expression of beautiful gown because we are taking wedding pictures; we are taking pictures of a wedding.
I had a couple of portrait session with the couple that day, hoping that they can get something nice in return because their bridal shots was not so nice (honest answer :D).
Chloe called me up for an appointment as she would like to redo her pre-wedding photos. But her proposal got turned down by her hubby. hehe... I love this couple. Hope I can see them again one day. Maybe when Chloe deliver her first baby.
Kah Leong and Evelyn are both corporate IT people that work a very long hours everyday. hehe. I realized that most of my customers are very busy everyday. Evelyn is the dominant of Kah Leong as she is known as a powerful lady in the office. :) I know very little about their relationship as they were too busy to share with me. What I did was to observe. I asked Evelyn if she took up any role in the church and the answer was nil. A garden wedding was all they hope for. I realized that it might be a little dull if everything had became a process. I began to think that the wedding deserve a little more meaning. It may seemed a little dull if a wedding is a plain process without any emotional elements. I had a long thought of what song to use for their fastedit slideshow, my problem was if I use a common song it might seemed a little too commercialized and it will became a part of the wedding process, I wanted something that can arouse their mind and emotions. Therefore I picked a christian song which signifies the wedding was a blessing from God and metaphore that God wanted them to do something for God. That was the best thing I can do for them, hoping that their relationship can have more emotional element which might brought them to a higher level of love! And it was quite successful.
The night right after the slideshow, a few people came to me and told me that "your pictures are different from the rest". A guy looked at my card and asked about my elements (Fusion, Spiritual, Journalistic) "What do you mean by Spiritual?". I told him "it's the things you can't see in a picture, it's the blood flowing outside of our body, each person has a spirit arouse from our emotions, in order to make the emotions clicked with the person, the emotions has to reflect the individual's spirit." I hope I did not sound too artistic but he nod his head though. :)
One day I got an email from Ruemz asked me if I am able to shoot a hotel with a fun theme. I asked Ruemz if I can add any people in the shot and the answer was no. hahaha.... I always received unique assignments asking me to do different things. For this time I need to shoot something that reflect fun and joyful without any people in the picture. Ruemz asked me if I have shot any hotels before and my answer was no, I told them that usually hotels will hire specific service agent to cover their pictorial needs. Well surprised that Ruemz took my offer and decide to confirmed me. It was all great and exciting. Of course I always love to take up new challenges in this industry because I want to tell the industry that wedding photographers can also shoot commercial shots. We had a long discussion about the theme we want to create and me and Ruemz sort of clicked in some way because we do appreciate our ideas.
I mentioned about my dream of having a Gallery Cafe and Ruemz offered to display my pictures in the hotel, that was amazing. We are still in the mist of discussion about the concept we want to create. Now I have became the official photographer of Ruemz that will be covering their corporate portrait, opening ceremony and etc. I am really glad that I had given this opportunity to show my works and I am really happy that they liked my works. I will do my best continue giving my best!
If you would like to find out more about this Hotel, please visit www.ruemz.com
It has been a great pleasure shoot both Chee Kean and Chooi Li. They are both fun posers but not elegant posers. hehe. Really love the ambient in the Lakehouse (Cameron Highlands). Chee Kean, a fun guy with specific principles; Chooi Li, a talkative girl who work as a DJ in MyFM. Both of them seemed to blend in nicely.
My first intention for this Cameron shot was a little different. Initially I was planning to do something special and wanted to create a modern elegant style with added some spices of Italian culture. I found that my intention has given both Chee Kean and Chooi Li a great pressure because they do not know if they can accomplish this theme of mine. I began to realized that they actually wanted something fun and alive, more towards candid shot, which is who they are. And so I change my plan immediate during the shot. I knew they like to have their shot taken in the Lakeshouse which reflect something elegant and inert and so I did my best for them. Our session in the Lake House was a long one, have to slowly guide them through the shot, it was tough but it turned out great and fun~ I guess the funniest part is the last session where they had their casual shot taken outside the Lake House. We spent just 1 hour to finish the last session and I got all the shots I wanted. LOL I can't forget about the last session we had as we all were laughing all the way in this session.
Thank you Chee Kean and Chooi Li for allowing me to reflect your memory of your past, present and future. Love the shots we got for the day.
Choi and Christine are both young couple (both outlook and at heart), I remember the first day we met up in Pyramid, Choi and Christine were quite shy but the second time was not too bad. But one thing I like about this couple is their heart and purity. They are young but able to appreciate love and passion, understand each and every single bit about life and value the beauty of sharing one life with another. Through their eyes I can see something pure within them. Their love is just that simple.
During our second meeting, they asked if they can have their dog join up. I was quite excited and ask if they are well trained. But during the shot they brought in another Retriever. LOL. And I found out that the meaning of "trained" is only shaking hands and sit down. The first session was really tough. Especially trying to make everyone (including the dogs) to look at my camera and interact. It was tough and stressful but I think it turned out pretty nice. As long as Choi and Christine are satisfied. ^^
Since we did our young and lively shot, I made the gown shot a little bit mature and elegant, and tried to reflect both Choi & Christine's personal characteristics. I noticed that they kinda like this style of mine and so I followed it and wah laa.... a series for Choi and Christine to appreciate for many years to come.
The session lasted for 1.5 days as they wanted the Modern Shanghai style to be included in their album. Both of them are really busy people and so we did our last session early in the morning around 7am and finishes around 10am so that they can back to their office to work. Pity them. hehe.
So this is what it turned out to be:
Casual - reflection of their present value and appreciation
Gown - reflection of the future with matured family values and intimacy.
Modern Shanghai - reflection of their fantasies of passionate love.
Heng is a busy CEO that looks after a small company and Semanta was a person that seldom take pictures. It was all Heng's idea that decide to take their portrait session in Perth as he spent many years in Perth during his studies long time ago. It had brought back many old memories. We had our shot done all over Perth city, we didn't managed to go pinacles (thought it was my dream location) hehe. It all turned out great! We managed to survive the breezing wind and had our last destination on the jeti for the sunset shot. To be honest, the sun set was quite short indeed but we had plenty of pictures taken.
Before we did our shot in Perth, Semanta sent over a picture with her gown to me and I was worried about the gown because I had some particular idea about that gown. Semanta told me that she could not change the gown since it was a present made by his cousin. Well, I respect her decision and I told her that I will do my best. I guess it had given Semanta some pressure. hehe. From the conversation with Semanta I noticed that the have no high demand on pictures, a portrait is just a process in a wedding, it was all Heng's idea because Heng love to see nice pictures.
A night before the shot while they were ready to sleep, we had a small session. I asked Heng how he describe Semanta and vice versa. Then we had a pretty nice conversation and love to hear what they have shared. I realized that I can't let Semanta think that she is not photogenic. Honestly, I was pretty stressed a night before the shot because I am very serious about their shot. About Heng's demand for pictures, about changing Semanta's perspective, about Semanta's cousin (I want her to feel good about her gown). And you know what, it all turned out amazing!
It is not a matter how the couple look, its all about how they connect each other. And of course, its about the moments, stories and believes that had made this series a wonderful one.
The moment I finished editing their pictures, I was so excited to show them the slide and I showed them the slide during our meet up. Semanta never thought that she can be so beautiful and Heng was so glad that he made Semanta happy. Both of them really appreciate my work and gave a lot of credits during their wedding dinner. I was a little shy to have couples mentioned my name during thier wedding.
I was surprised that Semanta's cousin (the one that designed the gown) came to me and praise my work, she mentioned one thing that I can never forget "You will be very successful one day". I understand that she said, its about my passion, my service and my commitment that made these all became so wonderful to them. It is also because of the HEART.
Thanks for all the great fun! Love you both.
I do not understand, most of my couples had a very long relationships LOL and so we always spent lots of time listening to my couple's little stories. :) Well but they are are still different in many ways. Patrick and Kelly both started their relationship since college and they started their love very soon right after they knew each other. Kelly had said that she had a long thought about it before and her ideal is that a men can never betray his love. They have gone through many numerous tough times but in the end, they have finally decided to married. :) Well the end is a new beginning and I hope they enjoyed their life together. I can still remember the time we had our session together before the wedding. Kelly was trying to look for me and due to time constraint they were not enough time but just happened that day in LCCT Coffee Bean before their flight, I was on my way back from KK and bumped up with this couple. The world is so small, sometimes its just amazing and done many miracles. I took up my little red book and thats how we had our session together.
The Path of Reminiscence was created by me to reflect the past stories that Ming Hao and Lin Chin have encountered. In order to make it beautiful and memorable I suggested using a long bridge to explain their stories. All the pictures here are the reflection of their past, their love memories in Melbourne where they had the test together in Melbourne city center. It will be something memorable for both of them as they will be moving back to Singapore pretty soon. We had lots of fun for this 2 full day assignment. Initially we plan for just a day shot and realized that one day was not enough and Ming Hao and Lin Chin had decided to hire me for an additional day to cover these locations. And so we picked the first day formal gown shot and next day as casual shots. The gown shot we made it as somewhere a feeling of inert love as they have been together for many years. It was all about feeling, inert joy, silent beauty and connections. The second day we turn it to a fun one with many body expressions, excitement, joy, and appreciations. I guess that well described their love and their future to be. :) Hope you enjoyed.
