I really love capturing couples from east Malaysia, especially Sibu, though this place is not new to me but I always amazed by how the road looks like and filled with natural bumps due to the soft soils from the earth formation. People here are simple thinking and pure hearted. I just found out a day before that Spencer was working in Germany and he flew over a few friends all over from Germany to attend his special day. So we spoke about how they felt about the country, and we all laughed that nobody will ever know where is Sibu if they share this back home, so much for the first visit to Malaysia. Catherine was an amazing bride, she is simply gorgeous, and found out that she actually graduated from University of Oklahoma which is 2 hours from where I studied back then, we joke around during her make up session and it all went pretty well. People here are all very cooperative on assisting us to get a good shot. One advise for getting your bridesmaids, it is best to invite those with a new feeling rather than someone that has taken a role of a bridesmaid for a dozen of times. The person that carries a new feeling will definitely provide your day with a unique experience. Hehe this is just my personal advice. That is why in Sibu, the new feelings are there.
Daniel and Sydnee are both living in Ohio, before that both of them had a distance relationship between UK and US and they have survived the long distance relationship. I believe what made them actually clicked is because of communication, they are able to share anything, argue for anything even there are no conclusion. I had a very strong impression with Sydnee, simply because she is one of the extraordinary bride that I have encountered, very expressive, straight to the point, know what she wanted, she will do anything to strive for what she want, and always do thing in a professional way. Sydnee is a doctor and she practice one of the rare profession as a female doctor, a urologist. People said that she is a fortunate one, but she does know what she's doing, and she has been my personal medical advisor once in while whenever I need an answer in any medical issues. When I first get in touch with Sydnee, she written a long list of her expectation, however we both share the same expectation so I really wanted her to get on board in our session, because she shared many of the virtues that we have been trying to pursue since day 1. At first, due to my travel schedules, I almost unable to make it for her pre-wedding, but somehow my schedule in Oahu had moved forward so we able to shoot during day time, if not, what I had proposed to her was, to cover her pre-wedding after I landed in Malaysia, and head straight away to cover her pre-wedding at mid night, do the editing and slideshow, and send it over to her wedding day which is scheduled to be held on the next day. That was a plan that can be done by a super energy guy like me, but thank God my schedules were move forward and at least i can get some rest in between. As you can see, Sydnee doesn't want any super duper editing, all she wanted is natural, what she is as a person, and she can simply accept who she really is, that I an amazing attitude that i have seen from many US asians, accept who you are, and able to be confident of how we actually look. I just wish there are many brides like Sydnee here, where we don't need to fix anything bad in order to look fresh and good.
Many thanks to Shang and Tiffany for having me in this special day of theirs. I had lots of great time in Hawaii, so happy to be able to visit this beautiful island again after 15 years since I first went there. Tiffany and I have been communicating about the logistics for several times and I almost unable to be there for them due to my tight schedules and I almost made another Bride cried for not able to capture her pre-wedding but it worked out pretty fine after that, lots of arrangements behind. First of all, this is not a paid wedding, its family occasion, Shang is my cousin living in the States, and in the pictures you can find lots of my relatives especially my grandmother, my aunt, uncle and my cousin sister. Its like a different family reunion. However, I was working pretty hard LOL; my aunt had finally saw how I worked, running around, hiding somewhere, doing all kinds of ninja style in order to get my shots, it was a difficult one shooting alone, she came and said to me "I have finally see how you work, its not easy", however I made it. Yey! Not to mentioned with lots of shopping we have done after that with my uncle from Taiwan.
Just love shooting something different. Guess what, there are few things that I have finally able to capture here in my career life. First, I have finally shot a wedding with 4 pregnant bridesmaids (which supposed to be a taboo in traditional chinese style). Second, all the bridesmaids were wearing black (which is also another taboo in traditional chinese wedding). Third, they all went into a limousine (a car that will never able to drive around Kuala Lumpur). Fourth, my first assignment in United States. And lastly, its a wedding that is filled with 4 wine glasses for each person, the western style! Yes I love it so much, I wish we can do it back in Malaysia. I have broken 5 records in this wedding, well worth the effort.
There were so many love in this wedding, especially the people around, they are open to share anything with you, especially in terms of the value of appreciation, people simply willing to appreciate one another. Shang and Tiffany, though I can never thank you much like how you thank me, I surely hope to see both of you shine like always. And apologies for not able to make it to your occasion in Maui, but I am sure you guys had a wonderful time. And lastly, you are definitely a good husband and you are my model of a good daddy.
Alfred & Aenon got me into a couple portrait session while I enhanced it into a Beloved Session for them. Yes we do offer Beloved portraitures, well as you all might be wondering what is a Beloved Portrait is all about, well this is a empowered portraiture session that we invite you to see yourself and the person in front of you with kindness and compassion through my vision and through your own vision. It is not those torturing session where you have to pose in order to achieve a good result, in this session, you will be experiencing another level of experience of being photographed, a session like no other, it rewrites the story of being in the photo, a fabulous effects that you may feel yourself changed, or enhanced, after the session. During the session, Alfred and Aenon have been invited into a world filled with exploration and hope, a feeling of being connected in another dimension. It is not like another model shoot, as your stories is going to chine through, exploring through my lens and through your own emotions, just in a short 2 hours session. :)
One of the greatest and funniest couple that I have ever encountered. I guess this is the last one, after capturing their pre-wedding in Kyoto, couple portrait in their high school, and ROM in Carcosa Sri Negara, this day, they want to make it big. Both Jerry and Carmen had being together for many many years, I mean it, many many years since high school, both of them used to exchange lunch box in school, yes we did that reviving session few months back. After witnessed their long wedding arrangements, we have been so close together, I really believe that Jerry is really the one who is suitable for her, Jerry has a very big heart which can accept her in any ways, no matter what she did or how clumsy she is, Jerry is always the one who provide her comfort and love, that made Carmen the most fortunate one. How I know Carmen, had to recall back old memories while I was shooting her best friends ROM in Singapore, and this girl Carmen is always the noisiest in the gang, that caught my attention and she kept on asking me to capture her moments. And soon later Carmen attended few of my workshops and began to love photography, before Carmen was a super busy lady working in a corporate world doing forex stuffs and got inspired by me and began to venture something that she really love to do, she quit her job and venture into wedding planning. I did not know I had such powerful skills. Haha... and what she does had really made me believe on what I am doing, to do something we all love to do and feel meaningful about it.
I really feel very happy during that day as we all laughed like a good friends, well after so many assignments they have engaged, I guess we sort of really able to blend in like a best friend, it is easier for me to be able to enhance those experience for them, according to their own personality. However, behind many laughters, of course there are many tears, understood those background of them, really made me appreciate this happy day of them. Are you able to relate how I feel? I guess only the person who knows them will be able to relate it.
Happy for you Jerry & Carmen, I know we will still stay in touch and I am sure there will be many opportunities to come soon!
Finally after a year I manage to start blogging about my wedding assignments again, I really love to look back those pictures again and recalling those essential feelings on mine during their big day. For those audience that reading this, I am actually blogging this on the day of 2014 July 20th. Yes, if I have missed it, happy anniversary to you Andrew & Chen Chin. I had been recalling those days we had while we in Bali shooting both of you in the water fall, while I was dipping myself on the river, yes, those challenging moments. And this day, we are all well dressed. It was a sweet feeling. Maybe I have not told you that, Andrew, you are one of the most sentimental guy that I have met, soft spoken and I can see that you really love Chen Chin very much. During the ROM, I just wish that it can be longer and the solemnised can talk a little more haha, reason because I really want to see Chen Chin in tears hehe. And yes she did, a little later during the dinner. I wonder what you have told her that touched her. Wish both of you happy, always. From the deepest part of me.
CK and Irene, I always smile when I think about them, this sweet couple bears a lot of inner content within them, the one who has the most inner content is always the bride of course hehe. When we first spoke about the location for the shoot, we gone through several and finally we decided to use Troika for her gown shot, to create something simple and nice and focus more about their emotions. I was quite amazed on how the pictures had turned out to be, as Irene is a property negotiator, choosing a location like this is really easy and that well matches their profession. In order to make their pictures filled with inner content, I have personally crunched the idea several times due to Irene's deep personality, for CK he is pretty much simple and easy going, both reflected a good contrast for each other and both emotionally supportive in nature; CK provides Irene the love she wanted, and Irene provides the understanding that CK needs. I had once trying to crunch about how this couple mingle with each other many years before as they have been together for many years, I guess "TIME", is a major content in this series. So we travel through several periods of time, the past and the future, in order to create this series, where the subconscious play a major role within the picture. It may have seen that from the outward expression that Irene is being easy, but the most valuable thing is whats on her mind when she look at it, and how valuable she felt about the session. Happy for you both CK and Irene, happy forever~
Do I do any Boudoir Photography? Yes I do, just only that they are not published. Recalling back those series that I have done, they are all different in order to meet different expectations of the individual. For this time I am given a limited permission to post some samples to collect some memories. I believe the perspective off from a male photographer is rather different, though female can produce another form of perspectives but I do believe that a male are more sensitive towards these kind of shots, in a specific way. As for this individual, the reason she approached me was because she does not want to have those Japanese AV looking style that most people shoot, thats right, I totally agree with her and what we did was rather a more mature style that able to expresses her in total, bringing out her inner beauty together with the outer, so that she can remember her own beauty after many years later. I know that many would like to have a personal series of their own but those that have the courage to ask definitely seeking for something important about her. I can still recall my very first Boudoir assignment many years back, where I was surprised with the profession as a photographer, we are actually given that great amount of trust in order to produce the outcome that the individual expected. That made me thinking for a while, and those are the great responsibilities we hold, for creation.
Had lots of fun with Jake and Yu Hwan, they are the ones that are so truthful and real and they are very sincere kind of individual. Both of them really enjoy life together, even though it has been many years but they still find their time to travel around the world. I can see from Yu Hwan eye's that she is indeed found the man she wanted to spend her rest of her life with. There simply no stress to mingle with this two people. And we felt very thankful, finally our Bali assignment has come to an end and me and Remy are ready to pack our stuff to fly back home, Malaysia. Like I said, on every Bali trip I will hurt myself in some ways, for this time, I stepped on a sea urchin and it hurts so bad! Yea, the pictures were beautiful, but I have to watch my step all the way in order to approach my shots, and especially most of the shots were candid, acting fast is an issue hehe. Oh it was a tiring trip, wake up everyday before sun rise and reach home at night, and finally we will get some rest. Good bye Bali, I will see you again very soon after a few months time. And thanks to all our couple that trusted us along the way in this trip, you guys are really awesome. Had plenty of pork ribs and fried ducks, got to loose some weight now.
If you ask me what kind of couple most loving, I can say in general Christians are. Though they are many loving couples out there but Christians kind of love have added the spiritual part in their love, that allow them to see things inside of the individual. For Hwee and Jenna's case, the most memorable shots was the praying part. I did not asked them what they pray together but I am sure it is something important. Though not to forget human beings love beautiful things and so Jenna is a kind of unique lady that would love her to look like an angel, and she love my sunlight shots, because she love it so much, I made the theme Summer Kind of Love in order to express her love for the Light. It was a long journey for the first day, we travelled to several places, got ourselves splashed with sea water during the early part of the shoot, that was interesting LOL, and Remy was screaming about her hair being wet heheh... If you see the 3rd picture on top, that was 1 second we all got splashed, well that was exciting, and to get all the nice shots we really need a fearless heart, at least for me, not sure about the couple hehe... as long I did not drop my camera body thats fine. Bali is something unique for me, every time I go to this place I get myself hurt somewhere, and for this time I was not sure what will I go through. Simply because of this Bali assignment trip, I got to make myself walk cross a river with my half body wet, climb through trees, hike up rocks, and maybe got bitten by some kind of species or animal, and thats only happen for the shooter because we need to do that in order to capture all these nice shots LOL. So Bali is in fact my top list of most tiring trip. For Jenna's case right after we shot the next couple a day after, I bumped up with them in Tanah Lot, and Jenna grabbed me and ask if I have the energy to do another half day shoot here in Tanah Lot, at first I was thinking "what can I shoot in tanah lot?" its all dark but they ended up confirming the shoot and so we went here during the early morning, and guess what, WOW, I did not know that the beam that came from the other side was so amazingly awesome! Its like... its like.... the light of God LOL. Well thats what I called it that day. I said, "hey look! Its the light of God, lets start praying~" we all got so excited and laughed, and we kept on looking those pictures from the camera screen and like WOW all the way back home. Well that series indeed had finally satisfied Jenna that day, where she needs the Light out from me.