Blog of a HK Wedding Photographer

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

(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

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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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

(sticky post) Hi all Brides and Grooms,

My current price list has already been expired on May 31, and I am preparing a new rate for all new bookings. I am sorry to tell you that there will be a 20%-30% increase of my rate in the new price list. Engagement (pre-wedding) and wedding day shooting rate will be adjusted on 15 July and 31 July  8 Aug respectively. If any of you had received my quotation in last two weeks, or you plan to hire me as your wedding photographer, the old rate will be honored if you confirm the booking before 15 July (engagement) and 8 Aug 31 July (wedding day)

(update: 22 July) New rate for pre-wedding session was uploaded at the about page
(update: 1 Aug) the existing rate for wedding day photo service will be extended to 8 Aug

I should have publish this item several hours ago, but I got a crazy crying baby last few hours, she just kept crying no matter what you did. It happens once every few day …. Anyone have any advice?

This is my 1st father ’s day as a father !!!! We didn’t have any celebration, just stayed quietly and safely at home. the little girl grew bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger in last 3 weeks. I really treasured the time with her, the smell, the touch, the smile, the crying … …

my father ’s day present — little angel in my arms. I didn’t have any nice father/daughter photo until today. thanks Xandra for helping me taking this photo, though she was very tired

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today is the birthday (two weeks old) of my baby girl. There ‘re so many new (and bad) things happened last two week … ….

First, I was so glad that I  decided to take a long vacation from April to June — the look of the baby kept changing everyday, you just can’t afford not seeing her for just one day. And there ‘re so many "FIRST TIME" for me — first time to bath the baby (it was real exciting and challenging !!! ), to change the diaper, to feed the baby, to hold her in my arms.  The baby just needs so much attention from you, apart from sleeping, she will start crying if you don’t hold her in your arms or leave her alone.

I also started to understand the love of a mother, there is so much sacrifice (and pain) for Xandra the few days after the delivery. On day eight, there was a serious bleeding of her, and she had to be admitted to the hospital to have an operation immediately. It was very frightening when I saw all the blood on the bed, the floor, inside the ward. Thanks God, Xandra recovered very very well after the operation and she is very very well.

And I ‘d like to say thank you to your love, your blessings and all the messages on this blog, they are real support for me. And also thanks the beautiful and lovely gifts from Ruby, Stefanie and Veronica, the clothes are so lovely and baby loves them a lot.

Here are a few photos I ‘d love to share with you.

day 10 - 2008: A Space Odyssey, or an Indian dancing baby ?

day 13 - so much love from xandra.the.mama

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do you like my new HTC mobile phone wall paper?

hello everyone, thanks for your blessings !!!!! !!!!

My little baby girl was born on 20 May morning, with a weight of 2.6kg. We ‘re so excited (or nervous) the night before that neither Xandra nor I could sleep the night before. Yesterday was a busy day, sending all the SMS, calling our family and keep everyone updated … …

this is our 1st family photo !!!!!
the moment we hold her, the feeling ’s so warm and so real. She was so lovely in our arms.

my little angel

 PS. Pls apologize that it will be a little slow for me to work on the backlogs this week as I can only work in the night time.

it ’s a happy day. On Monday, Xandra and I went back to the Chinese university of HK  (CUHK) at where we first met long long time ago. Thanks Lawrence for helping me to take the photos — they are absolutely stunning and both Xandra and me love them a lot.

The baby is expected to arrive in around 10 days — very excited !!! So glad that we can put this photo session into action before she arrives.

PS. I think I was too excited on the day, since then, I was very very sick for the last few days. Though I could still work on the backlogs, the fever and muscle pain really killed me.  It ’s getting better now, it may take 1–2 more days to recover completely.

We broke into took some photos in a lecture hall — this is one of the classroom I spent lots of time for my engineering degree long long time ago. The setting is still the same, but everything is renewed with much nicer AV equipments

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Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that I am going to be a father this month (around end of this month)!!!!!

That’s why I am taking a long long vacation from April to June, I don’t want to be away or working when the baby arrives. I was so busy last few months — non-stop shooting from last Oct to March, followed by all the post - processing and album work, then I started to relocate all the furnitures and rooms, not to mention, had a long list of baby things to buy. So happy that I made the decision to take this break and now I have more time for Xandra and prepare for the birth. Sorry to all nice couples whom I can’t help your wedding during this break

I am so glad and excited for the arrival of this little angel, this is a long - waited baby — a baby girl. I just took some photo with Xandra early this week at home — I was so worry that the baby would born earlier and I didn’t take any photo at all (what a shame for a photographer).  Here are some shots to share with you.

I am going to have an outdoor photo session next week with the help of a nice wedding photographer (guess who he is ?) , so looking forward to it !!!!

Hi All,

(this is a sticky post - stayed at the top of the blog for a while) We just finished the busy season from Jan - Mar and I am going to take a long, long vacation from April - June (more on this vacation later). This vacation is planned for a long time and I stopped taking any wedding job between april and june since 9 months ago. There will be only a few shootings which were confirmed long time ago. And I will try to clear all the backlogs in next few weeks.

Outlook of 2008 is very very strong, with over 90 shootings booked !!!! And most of the Chinese "good days" are engaged. If you are looking for wedding photography in Oct, Nov and Dec 2008 , please be informed that all weekends (except Oct 4,  Oct 12.  Nov 23, Dec 13 & 14) are already booked.

(updated: 29 April) I am sorry that I ‘ll stop meeting new client during my vacation in May (except those that had confirmed before), you can still contact and book me via email and telephone.

(updated: 15 May) thanks for all your support, booking for Nov 2008 is completely full, and I am sorry that I can’t take any new order for wedding and engagement shooing in Nov 2008.

(updated: 4 June) booking for Oct and Dec is 95% full now, if you have booked me an engagement session and plan to have the shooting later this year, I highly suggest you to confirm the shooting date as soon as possible.

(updated: 10 June) client meeting resumes after mid June, here is my meeting schedule

your friendly wedding photographer — simon.the.photo

 Still very tired … … Yesterday I shot the wedding of Winnie and Raymond. this is one of the most entertaining wedding I ‘ve ever attended. Will post some photos later this week.

Wake up very early this morning. Wow !!! just make it to see the beautiful sunrise!!!

When I thought it is going to be a beautiful day, I found my mobile phone got hang up, and I had to "hard reset" it. Oh, it took me two hours to recover everything from it.

the mobile just hang up at this screen, no matter what I did — remove battery, soft reset, it didn’t help

Hi All,

Happy valentine’s day and wish you all having a wonderful and sweet time with the one you love.

I am preparing a dinner for Xandra tonight, and most likely, going to turn the kitchen into a mess.

Kung Hei Fat Choi from simon.the.photo

(Left to Right) Vicky, Simon, Xandra, Esther, Siu B, Ken, Rainbow  & Chi MIn (under the table)