Blog of a HK Wedding Photographer

still remember vivian and roger – the couple who made me cry.

many people asked me why I cried ( after shooting hundreds of wedding in last few years), I would say I was really moved by what roger said to his father at the end of the two-days wedding.

I was so close to them and could hear what he say, and that ’s what really made me cry.

take a look at the following slideshow, not only me, everyone cried … ….

after seeing the sentimental side of the wedding, the day was also full of fun and surprises.

roger prepared a surprise to vivian before the first dance, in roger ‘s introduction video, he said ” Hi everyone, I am roger, 26, I am a teacher …. …. and I don’t know dancing …. …” What surprised everyone was that roger prepared a hip hop dance performance for vivian. No one knew about it (OK, Ken and I knew a little bit, we got notified that roger is going to dance, but we didn’t know what kind of dance, and we didn’t have rehearsal neither).

Starting from knowing nothing about dancing, roger kept learning and practising for 6 months before the wedding day. How good was the dance? take a look at the following video (prepared by ken)

amazing, isn’t it? back to the photos, it was very challenging to capture the dance shots, it was dark (btw, who turned off the hotel spotlight ) and  motion was fast. To capture the following shots, I had set up 3 off-camera flashs on the site – two on light stands and one (with a 8 degree grid) on a lighting stick held by Canly. Canly did a great job as she needed to keep aiming the flash to roger while he was moving around and had to adjusting the flash power at the the same time. Here are the resulting photos, I love them so much !!!!

cool !! my fav of the day for roger

the first dance

ceremony: the peninsula hotel Hong Kong, garden suite
reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong (day 1) & Kowloon Shangri-la (day 2)
make up artist: gracy of JustGracy
video: ken of simon.the.photo

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If you come in to read this post because of the post title, I may disappoint you.

I get asked by so many clients if I can take good photos on a rainy day, the answer is yes and no.

I understand a lot of my clients love to see ” blue sky / white cloud / sun set ” in their engagement photos, if you expect these, I ‘d never be able to give you the same feel / style on a rainy day. There is nothing wrong with these expectation from clients, in fact, I find it much easier to take happy photo without the worry of  having the  dress, make-up, hair or equipments getting wet.

The weather in last three weeks ‘re so unstable that almost all the outdoor sessions ‘re postponed.  I shot the session of  gloria and vico three weeks ago, it was also a rainy day. The weather was so bad that we had to stop shooting several times throughout the day (take a look at my facebook page to see how bad it was photo & video).

When we returned home at around 7:00pm and changed into evening dress for night shooting, the rain stopped.  As I worried that  it would rain again, I suggested gloria to have photo shooting just at home.  However, we went to Central finally as she like outdoor shooting so much. And you know what? — soon after we arrived at Central, it started raining again. I moved around my flash and tried to see if I can get something different, all ‘re done very very fast as I was afraid the rain would get worse very very soon.

Back to the the question “Is it possible to take good photos on a rainy day” — I believe the following the picture can tell you the answer. This is definitely one of my favourite in last two months ‘ engagement session.

OK. having said all that, I still prefer to shoot on a sunny day … …

location: HKU, Shek O, Central

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on the wedding day, jason had a crazy idea to play basketball with the wedding party in the afternoon.

Though the weather was a little bit too hot, I love the idea, especially, we could have a lot of fun with such a big group of awesome people.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo

don’t miss to go to my facebook fans page to see the “making of” video (with the help of 5d mk II)

BTW, the blog software was upgraded in last few days (you shouldn’t notice any difference at the moment), with the upgrade, I can add more interesting features to this blog later. Thanks Kaiser ’s help on the upgrade. If you find any misbehaviour of this blog, pls let me know so that we can correct it asap.

like the color, the pattern and lines.

the dream team !!!!

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when I am meeting new clients, a lot of them ask me if I can take good photos of them if they don’t know how to pose, don’t know how to smile. I always tell them that most of my clients are just normal people, and they don’t know how to pose/smile neither. However, if they enjoy the photo process, then it is not difficult to take good photos of them.

When I had the e-session of serena and alan, I found it difficult and challenging as I thought Alan didn’t like to take photo at all. In fact, I felt disconnected with him as we talked less than 5 sentences in the whole morning !!

However, the later the day, the more relaxed alan was. And he just looked like another person in the afternoon and at night.

locations: Central and Shek O
makeup artist: Jessica of JustGracy

(an update of myself)
Some of you may know I suffered from the pain of kidney stone last Friday, it really hurted and I was admitted to hospital finally. Thanks everyone ’s care, messages and pray, I am getting much better now and I think the stones stop moving now. Hopes it doesn’t affect the coming pre-wedding sessions in these two weeks

just finished the morning session and we ‘re having a break. Love this shot, the another couple was coming from New Zealand to have their honey moon in Hong Kong

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Bethanie – a very popular location for wedding. During peak season, we could go there 3 or 4 times a month. However, I still love this place a lot.

1) it is really a beautiful place, and has lots of photo opportunity both inside and outdoor

2) compared to to other catholic church, we can have more time and flexibility. Recently, I had a very very bad experience at the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception – it was a rainy day and it rained so bad after the ceremony. Even thought there is no other wedding or event after my clients ‘ ceremony, we ‘re all forced to go outside …

3) It is not uncommon to have wedding after wedding for other catholic church.

4) If you have time, you can have a very nice cocktail at the studio at the roof (you can take a look at andrea and ken ‘s wedding here)

getting ready: Excelsior Hotel
ceremony: the bethanie chapel
reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)

video: Ken of simon.the.photo

My fav ceremony time at Bethanie is after 4:00pm – beautiful sunset light

some interesting details shots

a very special ring shot. I use their engagement session album to hold the rings.

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