I’m sorry blog, I’ve been really busy lately. I only have time to update something now because I have more or less settled some big stuffs. I have now finished my 9-month assignment in KL, and starting tomorrow I will go to work in Cyberjaya again. Life will need some adjustments.

I have also embarked on two major photography projects. One was a trip to Bangkok during the Chinese New Year. Another is the wedding of my ex-colleague. I have yet the time to completely process the batches of pictures. The only thing I have now is the slideshow. So there you go, to prove that I am not telling a lie, here is the video ….

It was my wife Mei Fen who suggested me to help out Elvis. It was again another rather last-minute notice, only about 2 weeks. The unique thing about this project is that the bride and groom stay very near each other. Near is really rather an understatement. More like “virtually next door”. They both stay in Taman Nusaputra in Puchong, and get this, in the same street, in the same row! Their house are just a few houses apart!

See the open gate at the left? That's where Melissa stays. See the red and white tent on the right of the picture? That's where Elvis stays!

We went to their house the night earlier, they were having their Bachelor’s Night. But in reality Melissa was also around, so technically there was no bachelor’s night out. But I had the chance to witness the decorations being put up. Which means that there was plenty of photography opportunity for me.

I asked her to pose, but she laughed instead. Never mind, it's good enough!

Mei Fen noticed the shape of the heart. And I noticed the place where it came from. So I asked her to hold the 双喜 as the background

Mei Fen scrutinizing the huge wedding book

Noticed the awesome shadow cast by the lamp

The next morning as scheduled I arrived at Melissa’s place. The make up artist was early. I had expected her to come at around 7:30 am, when I arrived.

The make up artist has already started work when I arrived

Being so near allows me to cover both bride and groom at the same time; something that I rarely have the chance to do. And I discovered that photographing the groom’s side for a change is not such a dull coverage after all! Elvis was so full of energy!

Although I was using f2.8, the heng tais were not that out of focus. Had to further blur them, and also add vignetting. This effect was in the slideshow as well!

This Elvis is just so full of humour! Cracks us up!

I panned the picture, but the effect was not strong enough. Added extra motion to this picture

Since they stay so near to each other, driving the expensive beemer for just a hundred metres just does not seem to worth the trouble. So the boys went out for a drive outside of the taman. I don’t know where they went, but it was quite some time before they came back.

Meanwhile Melissa was hiding herself in a smaller room. This was MY idea Elvis, sorry! =D

Melissa was hiding in a smaller room. Poor girl!

As usual, the games ensues. Nothing out of the ordinary; eat this, drink that. Do this, shout that.

Elvis was belting out a Michael Jackson tune, I think. I love his emotion in this!

Something unplanned happened. One of the doors at the back opened, and Melissa's elderly relative came out! We teased that he had found the bride, and asked him to smooch her! HAHAHAHA!!!

Needless to say, Elvis found Melissa in the end. Elvis did a magnificent feat, he gave Melissa a piggy back ride down the stairs! Everyone was so concerned that he might not be able to do it, but he proves stronger than he looked! (Sorry Elvis!)

Elvis is a strong man!

So there they went again, out the taman, make a few rounds before going back home. The normal rituals follows. There were a few shots that were missing, so I took a few shots for them.

His coat is off, and her veil is gone. Obviously this was taken when everything was over!

Elvis gave me a challenge. He was going to send to me a few of their childhood photos to be made into a slideshow. Yeap, all to be displayed during the dinner tonight! I had to rush back to get the slideshow done. Lucky Puchong is so near home. But in actual fact, I spent much more time PP-ing the pictures that I took earlier in the morning too.

The dinner was held in Chong Wah Chinese Restaurant next to the Galeria Setia Walk in Puchong. Elvis was being his usual jovial self, joking with his guests, even serving them drinks and helping to take pictures!

Let me help you with that!

Say cheese, you're on my wedding!

As usual I had a happy time taking pictures of happy faces. I love it when they were giving feedbacks when they were watching the video presentation that I showed to them.

They were laughing at themselves in the slideshow I think

YAM SENG!

Elvis's brother singing a song with the lovely lady

A very important lesson that I learn that night was the use of M mode. All the while I have been using P mode for my flash indoor scene. However I find that using M is more controllable. Once you get a particular setting tweaked, you rarely need to do any more changes. This is especially true in the chinese wedding environment, where the lighting and the environment (ceiling height, ambient light, etc) are unlikely to change much. Then I used medium JPEGs. Save on my CF space. Taking in RAW will quickly deplete my 2GB CF card. Besides, since I have the exposure properly set, there is no need for the extra headroom of RAW.

If you are interested to know, I set my 430EX to 1/4 power, shutter at 1/60s, aperture at f4 and ISO at 800. I dial up or down the ISO when I need to meter up or down, depending on the scene.

Oh yeah, I need to show you the video too. I can’t seem to upload it to Youtube, there was some violation with the music, so I used VIMEO instead:

As usual, head on to my gallery to see the rest of the picture.

Regine engaged my service 2 weeks before her wedding! I was rather surprised that she would risk her that until the very last minute! Nevertheless, I was also free that day, and so I took on the challenge.

As with almost all my assignments, I always scout for the place before I go to the actual day, especially if the place is in Klang Valley. And what I found out was that the place was really quite small. It was not a bad thing, creative pictures can be produced if you break out of the norm.

I have always worked alone. The drawback is that I can almost always get the shots from the bride’s side. I have always communicated this to my clients before they commit to my service. However this time is a bit different. Two other photographer friends were colleagues with Regine as well. Ivan Ng was a newbie photographer, while Chee Fai is experienced, but wants to learn as well. I admire their spirit of tagging along to learn up. That was how I learned the trade also.

Listening to the phone, talking to her sisters, having her hair set and her pictures taken, all at once

Some say that marriage life is the end, for the guy that is! HAHAHAHA!! =P

Ivan and I met up in Taman Connaught at 6:30 am, intending to have that famous “叶子楣” big pao. But we couldn’t find it. So we went to Regine’s house at 7:00 am.

Long road that leads us here

The makeup artist was late, so we had plenty of time taking pictures of this and that.

Wait

Pedicure

Dunno why, this Vincci shoes seem to be getting a lot of attention on my Facebook post

Since I was covering the bride, I have only minimal coverage of the groom Mun Yew.

The brothers arrived, under a menacing sky

While the brothers are being “played” by the sisters, I remained in the room with Regine, taking more shots of her. I remember seeing a similar shot somewhere, so I did my version of the shot:

Peeking from underneath the veil

It helped a lot that the couple are two of the most funniest couples that I have ever worked with. They posed willingly, and they joked and smiled a lot, and they were very natural at it! It helps too that they looked photogenic as well.

Ehh, this thing genuine ar? Let me bite first!

This is not pure wedding journalism, as I asked them to pose. But as long as the result is okay, I don't care a hoot what is wedding journalism

We went back to Mun Yew’s house, which is only 3 kilometres away! Mun Yew’s family was the modern type. There was no excessive chinese customs to follow. There was not even a dai kum jeh (the chinese master of ceremony, if you will) to help with the coordination. Which is really fine with everyone.

Back at the groom's house

There was pure enjoyment without the annoying dai kum jeh, IMHO. Everyone was laughing away, joking around with the very concept of the chinese customs. They did follow through the entire tea ceremony and everything, but at a very light-hearted pace. Truly an enjoyable moment!

WAHHHH!!! So big, the box is!

Oh no! I think I forgot to feed my goldfish back at home!

The wedding dinner was in Overseas Restaurant in Jaya One. It’s been a long time since I worked in PJ, so I was surprised to find such a happening place in that area.

Overseas Restaurant in Jaya One

The dinner went smoothly without much hiccups. The ceiling was low, and although the environment was orange-tungsten in colour, I had no white balance problem shooting in JPEG, without the coloured dome, in Auto White Balance!

Hand-in-hand

Smile!

The customary yam seng shot

I did a wedding slideshow of the pictures taken earlier that morning. It was a combination of the pictures taken by myself, Chee Fai and Ivan that morning.

When I see the smiling faces of the guests that night, I knew that I had done a good job with the pictures and the slideshow. And of course, I can’t miss capturing the smiling faces!

The slideshow must have been really entertaining. I had a great time capturing their emotions

Mun Yew stopped to look at the slideshow

There was a very embarrassing thing that happened that night, and it wasn’t me! It was Ling Nee. Exactly a week ago, she got so drunk, she broke a glass when doing the yam seng. Guess what? I saw it myself with my own eyes that night! I even captured the moment! I didn’t know I had that picture until I checked back the pictures that I took.

I clicked the shutter the moment the glass fell! Talk about good timing!

It was a happy ending to a happy marriage. But hey, why is this guy crying?

Regine is getting married liao! I'm so sad! Boo hoo hoo!

She was choked up in tears. So was Regine, but I was at the wrong end of the hug

The end

EDIT 12 Oct 2009:

Added a few more previously unseen pictures, taken from fellow photographer that day Chee Fai:

A lot of feel this one

Mun Yew and his doggy. His expression is a joy to take!

I like this angle

Hit you, POW POW!!

Walking towards the car, taken from a high vantage point

This one is really comical. The expression on Regine's face is so much better than my version

Edit 17 Oct 2009:

Added previously unseen photos from fellow photographer Ivan Ng:

Flowery

Ivan has all the credit for this picture. He posed and took the picture of this ring on the flower

The best picture of the entire series, IMHO. No cropping, no PP was done, other than the watermark and resize.

For more pictures, head on to my gallery.

This was more of a favour for an old friend rather than a paid assignment. My friendship with Annie span more than 8 years, and it was under rather unusual circumstances that got so close to her and her family, particularly her sister. So when she requested for my assistance to be her wedding photographer, I couldn’t resist.

My work as her photographer started even before her actual wedding day. She wanted me to prepare a slideshow to be played during her wedding dinner. It was supposed to be a secret. She explained to me that it meant a lot to her, and she specifically requested to play Jacky Cheung’s song, 有个人. She wanted to mean that in every stage of her life, there are friends, families and relatives who were there for her, and those people were the ones who helped shaped who she is now. And by making this slideshow, she is showing gratitude  for them.

You may be interested to know what the slideshow is. I have uploaded it on Youtube, and I will show it to you later.

The actual day of their wedding is on 21st September 2009. It was a Monday, the Hari Raya holiday. Annie already pre-booked my time, so I didn’t go outstation that day, although Mei Fen did go back to her hometown that long weekend.

I have arrived at her brother’s house in Taman Puncak Kinrara at 6:30 am. The makeup artist lost her way, so I had to go out and lead her to the right place.

The mirror was rather small

Annie's mom was a makeup artist in her youth too!

Touch up

The groom arrived on time at 9 am. The usual games ensued. Grabbing coins from a bucket of ice, salt and sands. Eating bananas topped with cream. Brushing their teeth with wasabi-laced toothbrushes. The usual suspects.

Find the 5 cent coin in this bucket of ice

The games went on without much of a hiccup. Hew finally got to his bride and they were off to Kajang where Hew’s parents awaits.

Walking out to the altar to pray to the Heavenly God

After that, we had a short but satisfying lunch. I made friends with Annie’s ji mui‘s. Can’t help it, they were a bunch of friendly and pretty girls!

The day ended in Taman Saga, where their new home is. The last rituals of bed jumping and veil removal where finalized there.

Their dinner were held in Tai Thong restaurant near Leisure Mall. Initially Mei Fen was also invited, but since she went outstation, I went alone. Just as well, if Mei Fen came, Yan Yan would also come. And I wouldn’t be able to do much with that monkey around.

This little girl is Annie's little niece. She was also the flower girl that night.

The original picture did not have as much lens blur

As the time to go onstage to do the yamseng was over, Annie delivered her speech. She originally had wanted her brother to say it, but she figured that it would be more meaningful to say it personally. And she did delivered it perfectly, her voice choked with emotion at the end of her speech. This was the slideshow that I talked about earlier.

It was interesting capturing the emotions of the people identifying themselves and others in the slideshow. Annie did a good job of coming with the idea!

I caught a lot of emotions when the slideshow was being played

At the end of the dinner, everyone was bidding each other sad goodbyes

There were unmeasurable amount of joy and sorrow at the same time

This wedding proved to be one of my most memorable weddings I have ever had. It was not lavish, fanciful or too grand. It was very simple and practical indeed. But it was the feelings you get at the end of it all. Maybe it was the tears and the hugs. Maybe it’s the fact that I covered the event with mostly JPEG, a big personal achievement for myself. Or maybe it’s simply because it was the feeling that Annie recuperate the love that we all shared with her. Whatever it was, we all left with a warm feeling in our hearts. As one of her friends said in his Facebook status, “I had a very emotional wedding dinner over the weekend”.

So did I……..

EDIT 7 Nov 2009: Finally uploaded the wedding slideshow that I projected at the dinner. This was the pictures taken earlier on the morning ceremony:

More pictures here.

I accepted Cheong’s request for me to be their wedding photographer for a day. Their big day was on 24 December 2007. Went to Darby Park to where Cheong’s wife and her family are located.

Start early

As part of the ritual, the sisters started to prepare for the games to be played by Cheong and his brothers before he is allowed entry to his wife.

Loads of food and drinks on the table

The “heng tai“s were really a rowdy bunch. Noisy, loud, boastful, shouting all sorts of profanities, just like me! Typical men. Hehehe….

She had to disable the alarm because the guys were abusing it

The guys were also not very gentle. One of the banana-eating game turned ugly when a sister was involuntarily caught as a banana eater.

Game turned ugly

Suffice to say, there were more tense moment that ensued when the sisters got into an argument with the heng-tais, but the details are much too personal to be disclosed here. So guys, if you are reading this, please be gentle to the ladies. It’s just a game, no need to take heart. And ladies, please do also be wary of such a thing called the men’s ego. It’s a very dangerous beast to be provoked, so do not overstep the borders okay?

Anyway the rest of the ceremony went smoothly and Cheong finally got to his lovely bride. So off they went back to Cheong’s home in Taman OUG.

We're married!

The normal ceremonies followed, the tea ceremony and all the picture takings.

Watcha looking at?

Luckily I did not have to create a slide show for them. Creating slide shows are a real headache and time consuming. So I arrived at Imbi Palace restaurant in Jalan Imbi relatively early.

Powderful car, for a powderful ride

Yam Seng!

The night ended pretty bad for me, because my hand slipped and my whole camera flung out of my grip and landed on the floor! My worst fear came true, my lens’ Optical Stabilizer element stopped working and I kept getting Err 99! GOSH! Lucky the camera survived, and I had my 50 mm lens with me. So I snapped that on instead and I continued shooting till the end of the night with the prime lens.

Towards the end of the night, all pictures were taken with the 50 mm lens instead

Caught these pair of old friends bidding a very long goodbye

What a tiring day and night for me! Go to my gallery for more pictures.

Note: Wanna know what happened to my lens? Yeap, the IS konked. But I had it fixed and within 3 weeks (just before the Chinese New Year!) I got back my lens from Canon Malaysia! Phew!

It was a very hectic schedule for me that Sunday on the 22nd June 2008. First I had an amateur photoshoot with a bunch of friends in Bagan Lalang. Then I had to rush back home in time for my colleague’s wedding dinner in Hotel Maya, Kuala Lumpur. Bernard was my driver that night, that was why I had to end my photo session in Bagan Lalang earlier. I’ll leave that for another post.

Bernard arrived at 7 pm sharp. I quickly showered and changed (in less than 10 minutes) and grabbed my essential camera. Not that I was the Official Photographer, but I figured that I wanted to snap some pictures of my beautiful colleagues to share with you all!

Here’s Bernard. He was my driver that night, so I can afford to drink to all my heart’s content. And if you wanna know, yes, I was drunk that night.

Here are the couple, Fauzi and Thean Ghim. Thean Ghim (or TG as she is affectionately known as) is our colleague. Yes, as you can see, TG converted to Muslim. But I am surprised that Fauzi was a very sporting guy. You see, the couple had both sides of the traditions done for their wedding. The adat bersanding were done at the husband’s side, while the normal tea ceremony was also conducted (at a different day of course). Fauzi even went through the entire painful ritual of “playing the groom”. One of the most memorable was when he was required to bikini-wax his legs! They showed pictures from both the ceremonies, that’s how we knew. Fauzi, I salute you!

See them here? The yam seng ceremony was also conducted that night. I’m sure that they popped sparkling juice instead of real champagne, but the point is that they did the entire ritual, just like any chinese wedding dinner. You see here? They even went round the tables toasting to us!

Ohhh… I did promise you that I will show you pictures of my beautiful colleagues right? Here they are, in no particular order:

Michelle Ooi and her husband. They have known each other since school, so I’ve heard. She has earlier resigned not too long ago, but being in the same department, I guess it’s normal for TG to invite Michelle along.

That’s Eva Farah and Sharifah Fazlin, two of the most beautiful girls around. One of these days, I’m gonna force them to become my models. Here they are again with the bride and Michelle.

Ahhh …. how could I go on without mentioning Carman Chan and Pei Ren. Pei Ren has just joined us not too long ago, but he will be leaving us soon. Can’t take the scope of the job, he said. This guy is older than I am but he doesn’t even look like 30! Carman is a sweet and friendly girl. She just gets along well with everybody. She is the type of girl who is not afraid to speak her mind, and I admire her honesty.

This is Lai Fong and her boyfriend. She is my boss, and she is a pretty little lady too, ain’t she? She may be the quiet type, but she’s really a nice lady once you’ve come to know her.

This is Angel Chong and her son. I’ve seen the little guy in Genting before. At that time, I remember that I brought him to the gents. That night, I was assigned the same duty again! The guy is super active that night. He couldn’t stop moving around, trying to free himself from the baby chair to get down and running. Reminds me of my own Yan Yan. Hmmm…

This picture shows three other pretty ladies that I did not mention before: Eileen, Yarly and Ai Wei, from left to right. Pretty girls in a row huh?

Ahhh …. I just love this Charlie’s Angel’s picture. Notice the hand grabbing Michelle’s shoulder? I wish I could say that those were mine, and I was grabbing the 3 pretty ladies in one go. But having my picture taken with them is good enough.

As you can already guess my now, I cannot claim credit to all pictures. Most of the pictures taken that night were taken by Carman Chan, with my camera.

It was really nice knowing you Fauzi. Thank you for inviting me over to your wedding dinner. I wish you a happily married bliss and a long life together! Cheers!

Had the opportunity to work on a couple who are getting married this weekend in Pantai Remis. I did their wedding dinner in Equitorial Hotel, KL last week, which was intended for the couple’s friends who are not able to travel all the way to Pantai Remis to attend that wedding.

I arrived at the hotel at 6:30 pm, right on time. But I was still late, because I went to the wrong ballroom! Simply because there was another Kelvin having a wedding dinner in the same hotel!

But it was fated. I bumped into an old friend, Vivian Lee in that wrong ballroom! Only when Vivian called Kelly to confirm on the location, we went down to the right place! Kelly was so afraid that the cameraman will give her the slips!

As usual, the necessary roaming around the ballroom to familiarize myself with the nooks and corners of the room.

Notice how I always used ISO1600 for the entire shot? If I had used a lower ISO, I wouldn’t have gotten this dinner table shot with all the tables in the background so well-lit. See the EXIF for the original unprocessed picture and you’ll know what I mean.

Nothing untowards happened throughout the entire evening. The usual things are expected. The kid-who-always-stand-in-front-of-the-camera was present. He was the naughty sort, always jumping around, kinda reminds me of my own Yan Yan. Lucky he’s a cute kid, looks great on camera actually!

Then it was time for the yam seng. As usual, the groom gets to shake the bottle of champagne and pop the cork. Something embarrassing happened; the cork only flew inches away! Everybody laughed at the antics. Hmmmm,…. I wonder why?

I was not always concentrated in the ballroom. I was free to roam around. This is my favourite shot of the evening:

Caught the picture of the sole dinner guest running up the staircase. I thought this picture looked great!

Wonder why Kelly looked like this?

Kelly’s colleagues made a video, interviewing everyone else about how they think about Kelly. You can imagine the funny remarks made by some of them. It was a hilarious affair!

In the end, Kelvin ended up with all the liquors! He was as drunk as a sailor! According to Kelly a few days later, Kelvin threw up a few times that night. And he claimed to have no recollection whatsoever of what happened on that night! Wait till he sees his own videos!

Here’s to a happy ending to you both! It was a very enjoyable project, thank you for the chance!

More photos here.