there is a story behind the following two photos that I ‘d like to share – a story about my photography approach.
It was the wedding of winnie and marcus, around 6:00pm, everyone was taking a rest to prepare for the cocktail. Not many guest at the cocktail area, so I took the time to take some shots of the decoration. After taking a few shots of the (blank) backdrop, I ‘d like to add some elements to it to make it more “alive”. So I set up the camera on tripod and WAIT for something to happen in front of the backdrop. In fact, I was anticipating children running around (it is not uncommon, is it?). After 1-2 min, a waiter walked across and I got the 1st shot below. I love it, better than a blank backdrop and it looked more interesting. After a few min., nothing interesting happened, my assistant Canly asked me “ What are you waiting for?” , “ waiting for something unexpected” I answered. the very second I said this, to my surprise, winnie finished changing wedding dress and walked across the backdrop — Wow, that ‘s how I managed to get second shot below.
So, do you think it is by anticipation or by luck to get this photo ??
sometimes I am amazed how people get to know me. I don’t have a studio or office, other than those two listings on yahoo and google search engine, I don’t do any print advertisement. I always wonder if I can still do any business if there is no internet … …
Michelle and Tony didn’t have any plan for pre-wedding photo before their wedding day. The plan didn’t change until they went to the hotel last year for site visit and, so happened my other clients (Karen and William) were playing their pre-wedding photo slideshow in the ballroom. Felt so glad that Michelle and Tony love my photos and get my name finally from Karen and William via the hotel staff.
That ’s how we get to know each other, amazing, isn’t it ??
So, how do you get to know simon. Take some time to answer the poll below. If you know me through other channel, please let me know in the comment section, so that I can add it to the poll.
OK, back to michelle and tony ‘s session. I almost thought we ‘re going to postpone the session as we started on a rainy day. When we arrived at Shek O in the morning, it rained so bad that we had to stay inside the car for a while.
I couldn’t stop myself asking them why they didn’t postpone the session … … guess what answer from michelle … … “I need to get this photo session done asap, so that I can go out to eat … …” cool !!! Look forward to your wedding in Oct !!!!
rain drops falling on the happy couple
rain stopped finally … …
one of my fav of the day.
Loading ...
» Continue reading how do you get to know simon – michelle and tony
on arrival at the church. Karen was still in the limo, with the reflection of the bridesmaids on the window. My fav photo of the day
the whole day summary prepared by tomoko. A brief introduction of tomoko: she joined my team since last year. Prior to joining us, she has been working with NHK for years and with experience producing over hundred documentary films before. I really love her style – documenting a wedding, with lots emotions and details.
“I love you, simon”, “I love you, canly”. – the most heard beautiful words during the e-session of terry and stephen. Whenever I get a great photo, always love to show it to my client on the camera lcd. Love to see their reaction and feel encouraged if they love the photo. This is not an exception for terry and stephen. But what made the day different was, when I showed the LCD to terry, she always loved to say “I love you simon, I love you canly” – wow, that made us so happy on the day!!!!!
Hi Terry, we had to say “We love you too !!!!”
locations: St. Stephen College, Shek O, Central (night shoot), does it really care?
we started the session at St. Stephen college, stephen, thanks for bring us here.
the above photo was done by one off-camera flash (shooting through a white umbrella) to make it look like a classroom lighting
guess what? we met a group of students on the campus and they ‘re playing musical instruments. Thanks for playing the “Canon in D minor” for them!! So romantic !!!!
» Continue reading “We love you too.”, said simon and canly e-session of terry and stephen
wpja (wedding photojournalist association) just released the result of their 09 Q1 contest. So nice to learn that I am ranked as one of the top 20 wedding photographer. This is highest points and ranking I ‘ve ever achieved in wpja contest.
to give you some background of the wpja contest, it is a contest that only allows photojournalist style wedding photos to enter and NO IMAGE ALTERNATION (that is photoshop) is allowed. hence, it is a contest of photography technique, rather than photoshop technique. That ‘s why I like this contest a lot. (Having said that, there is nothing wrong using photoshop to enhance your clients’ photos, in fact, I did a lot, but I just like the style of wpja contest)
an extract from wpja contest rules ’Images submitted to the Contest must not have been altered either in-camera with filters or with digital capture effects, developmentally or electronically.
Images manipulated through the use of toning, increased saturation or desaturation, selective sharpening and/or blurring, dodging and burning, cloning, blemish removal, correcting or reducing distortions, or adding film grain/noise are not eligible for entry. Images in which the focus or perspective have been manipulated by lens effects (ie. tilting, shifting, or swinging) are also not allowed. This includes, though is not limited to, bellow attachments, tilt shift lenses, etc. However, cropping and color to black & white conversions are acceptable as well as slight adjustments to levels/curves.’
here is the winning image from the wedding of yann and alex. ranked 3rd place in “ceremony” category
the Q1 contest was very special as it only allowed black and white entry. I always find B&W photo difficult to handle – once the color is removed, you ‘re forced to focus on the CONTENT of the photo (people ‘s expression, composition, lines and pattern, contrast .. …) You can see the judges ‘ comment here
» Continue reading simon.the.photo ranked as one of the top 20 wedding photographers in wpja 09 Q1 contest
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 !!!!
Loading ...
) 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 !!!!
last 5 messages