Blog of a HK Wedding Photographer

still remembered the karate master Black and amazed by his awesome jump on the beach - which splashed water onto my camera.

Here are the final photos I ‘d like to share with you

date: April 2008
Locations: Nam Sang Wai, Shek O, Central
make up artist: KK Chan

our first stop - Nam Sang Wai — Black gave us a big surprise !!! Esther, are you OK?

last stop of the session- my fav of the day: "catch me if you can"

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I am so excited to share the good news with you. The Artistic Guild of Wedding Photojournalist Association [AG]WPJA just announced their Q2 wedding photo contest last Saturday, when I read their web site, I couldn’t believe that I was ranked as the top 4th artistic wedding photojournalist in this contest !!! And I am the only photographer from Asia in the Top 10 !!!!

 I had 3 photos ranked top 10 in the contest — 2nd and 3rd place in the "get ready" category and 10th place in "sense of place" category. Here are the winning photos

2nd place in the "get ready" category - you can click here to see the judges’ comment. this is from Winnie and Ivan ’s wedding on March 8 (sorry, I haven’t written up their wedding on the blog yet). I love the lighting of this photo so much — I had done a lot of modifications of the lights on site  - the windows light, the room lights, the bed side lamps, the table lamps and off-camera flash … … judges ‘ comment "Outstanding light!"

3rd place in the "get ready" category - (judges’ comment here)  - from mei-kee and söeren ’s wedding on Feb 8

10th place in the "sense of place/architecture" category (judges’ comment here)
- from nina and james ’s wedding on jan 4

Finally, I ‘d like say thank you to the following persons

• thanks Winnie and Ivan, Nina and James, Mei-Kee and Söeren for inviting me to take photos of your beautiful weddings
• thanks my partner Ken, my assistant Vickie, Siu B for all their help in these weddings
• thanks my wife Xandra for giving so much support to me

I love taking photos in Central, I can easily find locations with good color, texture, and light. I had taken numerous pre-wedding sessions in Central, but this was the first time leading over 25 persons.

Both mei-kee and söeren came from Germany, now working in India and chose Hong Kong for their ceremony. It was the first time for most of their friends being in Hong Kong — when mei-kee decided to take some photos in Central in the morning, everyone was excited to follow us and have a walk altogether.

You may think it was very difficult to manage such a large group on the street, instead, they ‘re such a fabulous group that I had so much fun working with them.

date: 27 feb, 2008
ceremony and reception: the peninsula hotel, hong kong

Tips: In other to work with such a big group,

• you have to be very confident on what you ‘re doing
• plan ahead what you are going to do in next 30 sec
• give clear instructions, of course, you have to shout loudly

the big "group shot" — when I was taking this photo, all the passer-by around stopped and looked at me !!!

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(Updated 19 Aug, 2008)
Thanks for everyone ’s interest, the vacancy is filled up already

Hi everyone, do yo like to work with Simon in weddings? I am now hiring a contracted assistant working from Sept - Dec, 2008

if you have the following characters and abilities, you ‘re the one I am looking for

    * Cheerful & out going
    * Prepare to carry heavy equipments for me
    * Can work under pressure — I always shout at my assistant
    * very flexible on the working day (please expect to work on all Sat / Sun)

The assistant ‘ll helps me in the following areas

    * taking care of Simon in a wedding
    * taking care of all equipments
    * setting up lighting equipments
    * helping simon communicate with the clients
    * shooting in some occasions

The assistant are expected to work around 15-20 days each month, If you are interested, please send me an email you information, working experience, recent photo, and expected salary to wedding (at) simonthephoto.com

有無興趣跟 simon 在婚禮中一起工作？ 我現正招請為期四個月(9月至12月)的攝影助手

如你覺得自已

• 性格開朗
• 能夠應付笨重的攝影器材
• 不怕婚禮攝影工作的壓力
• 有星期六，日也要工作的心理準備

我相信你絕對可以應付道份工作。

至於攝影助手的工作範圍包括：

• 照顧simon及simon的攝影器材
• 預備燈光器材
• 跟客人溝通
• 間中亦要拿起相機影相

每個月大約須要工作15-20天。

立即行動！！把你的個人簡歷，近照，要求工資電郵至 wedding (at) simonthephoto.com

I should have updated this blog a few days ago, but I have to admit that I was a little bit lazy, and spent lots of time playing with shulin.

Recently, the temperature is so high that it becomes very difficult to have any photo session outdoor, so I must find some ways to deal with it. As promised, I ‘ll share some ideas with you that worked very well in my last engagement session of christie and ronald.

date: 25 July, 2008
makeup artist: Rainbow

suggestion No. 1: staying at home 

at noon, the overhead sun is so hot to stay outside — why not stay at home, lie on the bed, (and turning on the air condition as high as you can !!!).
I had several e-sessions taken at home before, but this is the sweetest one I ever have

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Christina and Johnny planned to have this session in April, but Christina got her ankle hurt so we had to delay until last week.

date: 23 July, 2008
locations: Wetland park, big wave beach, the Peak

As it ’s getting more and more difficult to shoot outdoor in the summer, I started to understand why we need to have a studio, . Not only the heat, but also the overhead strong sunlight that makes your eyes uncomfortable. So, is Simon going to open a studio? … … never, I hate studio work, it ’s so boring, I like the excitement of walking around to look for new location and good light ….. …. if you ask me to work in a studio, I ‘d rather going back to an office and becoming a businessman again.

Having said that, any way to cope with the heat? OK, stay tuned, I ‘ll share with you a few ways (with examples) tomorrow !!!!!

BTW, I opened a facebook page, please support me by becoming a fan of mine on facebook.
 

last location of the day - the peak. we first took a few "landscape" photos. Then I passed my Canon 1D to Johnny and let him play with Christina. The result is quite interesting. I used three flashes for lighting setup, anyone like to make some guess of the setup. You can put your guess in the comment section below … …

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I feel very sorry that I didn’t blogged andrea and ken ’s wedding for a long time. Every time I talked to audrea on email and phone, she was so eager to see her photos here (even after she got all the photos already … …) Last few months were busy time for me, taking care of my baby as well as clearing all the outstanding jobs before holiday (April - June) takes up all of my time.

I am very happy now that all the outstanding are cleared and I am working on weddings after my holiday and some outstanding albums.

date: 28 March, 2008
ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong
Make up artist: Rainbow

Happy couple & happy parents during the ceremony

video filming and editing: Ken Wong of simon.the.photo
(be patient, it takes time to load the video)

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I had been to Wetland Part three times in last 7 days and it was so hot there. Have you read the appledaily today? they found out that it was over 46 C in the afternoon there. 46C, can you believe it ?????? If you like to have photos there, please be prepared …. …..

clippings from apple daily

when I read the newspaper this morning, I learned that yesterday, so far,  was the hottest day of this year, no wonder we felt so hot yesterday!!!! When we were at the Wetland Part in the afternoon, we just couldn’t stay outside. Finally, we only spent around 30 min outdoor, and still got completely wet !!!!

In the morning, our 1st location was the Mary Knoll school, not only my first time to be there, but also my first time to meet Philip. I learned from Carmen that he doesn’t like taking any photo. It was a little bit challenging at first, but he was such a great guy that loosen up very soon, in fact much better than I expected !!!! And he made a joke that the amount of photos I took for him yesterday was more than all he had in last 10 years !!!

Look forward to their wedding in Oct !!!

date: 21 July, 2008 

Locations: Maryknoll convent School, Wetland Park, Pak Lai (unplanned location), Craigengower crickets club

make up artist: Katherine and Elaw Wong

after finished the session at Wetland Park, I suggest them to go to Pak Lai, one of the most beautiful Sun Set location in Hong Kong. The temperature was much lower at that time and we had a blast there !!!!

Hey Carmen, are you OK?

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a happy wedding last Sat. I always found that I am so lucky that all my clients are so happy and friendly on their wedding day, and this is not an exception for vienna and tony. Not only they are fabulous, but also their families, wedding parties, friends and students as well (yes, vienna is a teacher, and lots of her students came to the ceremony to celebrate with them)

date: 19 July, 2008
ceremony: Kowloon City Baptist Church
reception: Regal Kowloon Hotel

the arrival of the bride  - my fav photo of the day

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it rained most of the time in last few weeks, several photo sessions ‘re postponed. When I talked to Ben last week, he told me that he would go ahead the photo session on last Monday (14 July) no matter it rained or not. What a great man !!! So what happened — instead of having a rainy day, we had the hottest and sunny photo session. It was so hot that Ben almost got sunstroke when we finish the first stop at the Wetland Park.

date: 14 July, 2008
locations: Wetland Park, Shek O, Club JJ’s of Grand Hyatt

my fav of the day. I found this red wall inside the visitor center.

look at Ben, he ’s not holding a mobile. He almost got a sunstroke after one hour outdoor shooting. He ’s holding an ice pack to cool himself down

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So happy to have my friend Claudia of playground photography visited us three weeks ago. Just give you some information of playground, they are very specialized in kid and baby photo on location and definitely one of the best in town.

We didn’t plan to do any photo, but when we grabbed out camera, the two crazy photographers just couldn’t stop taking photos of the lovely Shulin

Hi Claudia, thanks for visiting us

the two crazy photographers

Claudia and her new Nikon D3

click the following link to see some of the photos taken by Claudia. We ‘ll do a proper session later when Shulin reaches two months old.

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The story began on a Christmas night … Kevin went to the Christmas ball at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the second he found fiona, he already knew she ’s the one of his life. The love inside pushed him to make a "first move" — inviting a girl to dance … ….

Did the love story start like this? … … probably not. Fiona didn’t give him a chance, walked away and left the poor Kevin in the dark.

After that night, Kevin couldn’t forget Fiona ’s face, he got help from his friends in HKU to find the contact of Fiona. And finally, he managed to get Fiona ’s ICQ no. To his surprise, she was studying Electronic Engineering degree (he graduated from the same department as well), so he kept contacting her and offered to teach her some of the courses.

I didn’t asked them the rest of the story … … May be Kevin can share the rest with you later … …

date: 29 June, 2008 (a rainy day)
ceremony and reception: Langham Hotel
makeup: nancy kim

We started shooting at Fiona ’s home in Tseung Kwan O in the morning, followed by location shooting at HKU, then back to Tseung Kwan O. Even though it took long time traveling and it rained so bad on Sunday, they really loved to take some photos at HKU.
Happy looking at the rain drops

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Hi All,

Thanks for all your support, available dates from Sept to Dec 2008 are all fully booked, I am sorry that I can’t take any new order (wedding, pre-wedding, post-wedding … …) for this period. If you ‘d like to engage me for pre-wedding photo session, the earliest available date is mid Jan 2009. jan 20 th, 2009