I feel glad (and lucky) that there are still so many clients that love having pre-wedding photos in Hong Kong and always bring me lot of interesting locations – and kavy and ben are definitely one of them.

they both live in Ma Wan, so we started the shooting at the Ma Wan old village. The last time I was there was already four years ago. This is such a beautiful and quiet location that I love it very much, and it was just like a hiking that we walked around to look for photo opportunities — no specific route, no specific scenic point — that ’s the way of shooting that I love very much.

location: Home, Ma Wan old village, the peak, temple street.
make up artist: cherry from Makeup Rainbow

this is one of my fav photo of the day. this was shot at the peak and here is my thinking process behind this photo.

When I arrived, I saw a patch of light passing through the branches and I immediately thought it was a photo opportunity there. After asking kavy to stand under this light, the next thing that I needed to consider is what should kavy do to blend into the environment. When I take photo of the bride, I always think how I can do the best for her and what should be highlighted in the photo, it can be her eyes, her face, hair, the dress, the shoes, the body figure, the emotion, the smile …. … you name it, the possibility is just unlimited. In this case, I found kavy ’s dress (the back) look awesome, and I was thinking putting her back as the highlight of this pic. By positing her at the right location, with the light and shadow on her back, it gave us a very three dimensional look of her back and her figure. that ’s how this photo was created, all by available light only.

before we started shooting outdoor, we took a few photos at home first

the lovely Ma Wan old village

2nd location: the peak

last location: the temple street. never thought I would take pre-wedding photo here. they brought me here because here  was where Ben first dated Kavy out. Oh … … first dating at temple street ????? Ben, you ‘re awesome !!!!!

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

* Cheerful & out-going

* Prepare to carry equipments for me

* Can work under pressure — trust me, I can be very mad and crazy sometimes

* very FLEXIBLE on the working day (please expect to work on BOTH weekday and weekend)

* good command of english and cantonese

* knowledge of taking photo is NOT required

The part – time assistant ‘ll helps me in the following areas

* taking care of Simon photo session

* taking care of the wedding couple, may need to work VERY CLOSE to the bride

* taking care of all equipments

* setting up lighting equipments

* helping simon communicate with the clients

* shooting behind the scene photos on  some occasions

If you are interested, please send me an email you information, working experience, recent photo, and expected salary (per day) 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(5月至9月)的兼職攝影助手

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
• 不需要有攝影知識

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：

• 照顧客人，simon及simon的攝影器材
• 需要幫新娘整理衣服
• 預備燈光器材
• 跟客人溝通
• 間中亦要拿起相機影相

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

I am sorry to tell you that there will be an increase of my rate for engagement (pre-wedding photo) session on 1st May, 2011 The new rate card will be released on May 1st , 2011.  If you plan to hire me as your pre-wedding photographer, the old rate will be honored if you confirm the booking (with deposit arranged) before 1st May, 2011.

All bookings will be charged at the new rate afterward.

and also I need to give a big thank to all the trust and support that my clients gave to me, without them, I can never get any good photo by myself.

you can see the full story at she.com

I didn’t enter any contest for more than a year already, so these two-awards is a good start for me.  you can click my profile page at ag.wpja to see more informaiton

I always love entering the wpja contest as I found their images always very inspiring, so don’t miss to see the contest result for other winning images

Judges Comment: What an elegant portrait. The veil envelops the bride’s face beautifully and her arms are so delicately placed. Her peaceful smile, along with the subtle toning, makes this an exquisite photograph.

Judges Comment: This was a good attempt at a different type of portrait. The busy carpet does somewhat distract you from the bride and her gown.

I feel so happy and relax now that I am going to have a break in next three weeks, no more photo shoot in next three weeks. finally, have time to relax, can spend more time with shulin (shulin is about to go to  school, and I ‘ll accompany her in the 1st two weeks ‘ school time, so exciting !!!! after that, she has to attend class on her own)

To my surprise, my schedule was fully packed in last three months, the number of weddings and pre-weddings reached a record high during that time. I never expect there ‘re so many bookings as it was a low season during this period of time because of the hot and rainy weather and oversea pre-wedding shoot is so popular nowadays.

I ‘d like to express my thanks to all the clients that love my photo style, love taking pre-wedding in hong kong, and their love of the summer heat !!!

I also feel so lucky that all my clients are so unique, and have all the trust on me. here is the sneak preview of mr. and miss bunny ’s prewedding session.

locations: polytechnic university, Wan Yan College, shek O, central
makeup artist: amy ng from allure make up

my fav of the day !!!! I have this image in my mind for a long long time, I even drafted lighting diagram on paper. But I have to wait ….. wait for good timing, wait for great color of the sky, and  the sea cannot be too rough …. …. and most important, have to wait for a suitable couple, trust me, I would not ask clients to do something that are not suitable for them. thank bunnies for helping me in this shot. And also special thanks for canly, you can’t imagine how difficult to set the light in water !!!

our 1st stop – hong kong poly university. We didn’t stay long, just 30 min for a few photos.

our 2nd stop: Wan Yan College. we started in a very beautiful chapel

after photo taking in the chapel, bunnies changed into their high school look – it ’s such a good idea that they could get more relaxed and we got photos with very different style and showing funny  side of their characters

really impressed by miss bunny – lots of preparation for this style. even the hair style – she tried to make it a little messy !!!!

3nd stop: shek O, so many people there …. …

wow!!!!!! 2nd fav of the day. don’t miss to see the preparation video of this shot on my facebook page

what a beautiful sunset at Shek O !!!!

last stop: central

what a funny couple – 真係估你唔到 !!!

thank you so much for the happy time. bunnies, see you later !!!!

寫呢篇文時， world cup 已產生最後兩強…西斑牙及荷蘭…兩隊都好好，真係唔知捧邊隊。

其實做 freelance 攝影師真係幾好，如果聽日冇 job，就幾夜開波都唔怕。不過我通常都一邊執相，一邊睇波（唔信你睇睇呢度）。

一路睇，就發覺強隊同弱隊真係可以好大分別… d弱隊好多時都錯失機會，比個空門你都射唔中，帶個波又帶唔好。一遇到逆境波，就踢到亂晒龍……

有時影相都好類似……個個攝影師都想靚人靚景，最好新娘靚到似 model。係網上看到有d行家批評客人唔合作，rundown 唔好，化妝師又唔合作，影相時間唔夠等等……  其實有無諗過真正考驗攝影師實力就在此刻！與其埋怨客人，不如克服自已的不足！

幫 elizabeth 同 kenneth 影相當日，環境都非常差。在大潭開始時還可以，去到赤柱美利樓，影左一陣就開始落雨，重要果日唔知點解咁鬼多遊客，全部人就迫晒入美利樓避雨。在小小的空間，又咁多人，一時間我都有d慌張，真係唔知點影好。壓力總是自已比自已，因為感覺客人對 Simon 的其望很高，又覺得 simon 乜野地方都影到靚相 (我都希望係)。當時心裡不停叫自已 focus focus ，think think … …. 最後終於都克服到心裡那種慌張的感覺，唔理身邊d其他人，繼續影影影……

所以有人說：要超越的，不是別人，要超越的，是昨天的自已。

下面幾張就是在那小小空間影的相，出來的效果……可以啦，談不上甚麼佳作，但最重要克服自已的不足！

當時我地係遊客的流動景點呢

雨終於停了，馬上出去影多幾張

第一站：大潭

軍人墳場，其實當時已經無落雨，不過都天黑黑，天陰陰，所以所有相都要落燈

最後一站：中環

We didn’t go to University of HK  on the day, instead we went to a student hostel in the Chinese University of HK . For the outdoor session, no stanley market, no shek O this time, we choose to go to the Ma On Shan Park. What about the night shoot? When we ‘re on our way to Central, we suddenly changed our plan and went to the Shatin Central park instead (OMG, I have never heard any other wedding photographers taking wedding photos there at night before)

I was worried before going to these three locations as I had never taken any pre-wedding photos there (and I don’t think  I ‘d suggest them to my clients). Guess what!!!!!  I  got lots of new shooting ideas and lots of new photos on that day. What I learned this time —  we really need to get out the safety and comfort zone sometimes, and take the risk, in order to get inspired. A very great experience for me !!!

make up artist: rainbow (tel: 92586602)

one of my fav photo taken at the Ma On Shan Park. Big thanks to cosette for trusting me. you can click here to go to my facebook fans page to see how I got this in ma on shan park

a comic book corner at the student hostel  - both cosette and ben lived in this hostel when they studied in CUHK .
I felt very anxious before going there, as you can expect, there is few nice and beautiful spot  in a student hostel like this. Having said that, this is the place at where I got the most interesting photos !!!! Feel very excited about it !!!

night shoot at Shatin Central Park

our 1st stop : Ma On Shan Park

our 2nd stop: Chinese University of HK

I did a lot of this kind of top shot recently

other interesting shots inside the hostel

it was taken outside a room that Ben lived before

our unplanned last stop: Shatin Central park.
seldom taking this kind of wide landscape shot (can you find them in the photo?)

can you imagine this is a spot in  shatin ??????

if you like these photos, don’t miss to see other “behind the scene shots” at my facebook page

Last two months ‘re really busy (both business and personal). I have stopped shooting for two months since the birth of my 2nd daughter in February, yet the two little girls and all the photo post processing works kept me busy. Since entering April, the schedule was getting more and more crazy, packed with 3 to 4 weddings and pre-wedding sessions every week. The break in Feb / Mar just pushed everything into April … …

A few updates … …

My name is Shuyan (書恩)

Sorry to let you know late that my 2nd daughter was named Shuyan. A very lovely baby, but she doesn’t like to be alone, whenever she ’s awake and finds nobody next to her, she will start to cry. Once I sit next to her and start talking to her, she will stop crying and begins to smile. So lovely !!!!

photos of Shuyan and her Kung Fu sister.

shulin and her friends

How about shulin? she is no longer a little baby any more. She is a BIG girl now. Can’t imagine she can grow up so fast. Started to speak a lot in last two months, learned to count from 1 to 10, don’t like us to feed her any more, instead, she like to hold the spoon and eat by herself (of course, half portion of the meal is on the ground finally … …)

shulin and her friends .. … ah pooh, amanda and rabbit

something big happened last week … … we bought a new bed for shulin  — a bed without fence. now she can climb up and get off the bed all by herself

Simon.the.Studio

Another big thing happened this month. I opened my own studio!!!! Everything happened very fast — it took less than one week from the day having an idea of my own studio, finding a property agent, looking for space to confirming the apartment.

I always thought it was a miracle that, without a studio, I could be able to shoot hundreds of wedding in last five years. Bring a 17″ laptop and meeting clients in coffee shop and cafe was not a easy task and not a very pleasant experience for all my clients as those places are getting more and more crowded and noisy. Really have to say big thank you to all the clients that trusted me and booked me in last few years.

I do think all my clients should  have a better place for meeting me and seeing my works, the new studio is in SoHo, Central — a very pleasant location, especially at night, and very convenient for my clients (it is only 15 min walk from one IFC, along the mid level escalator) . With a fixed location, now I can show you more albums, more photos, and with a much bigger screen (there is a 110″ projector screen installed in the studio !!!!)

finally, let me update more wedding and prewedding photos in next few days !!!

the location of the studio at night

studio on google map

Thanks for everyone ’s blessing.

shulin ’s mui mui was born this morning with a weight of 2.4kg. Xandra ’s safe though has pain at the wound at the moment

it ’s my second time watching the birth of a baby, yet it’s  still very amazing for me. The baby is so small and fragile, have to be handled with extreme care.

My parents helped me to take the following photos in the evening. Loving!!
Thought I am very tired now as I got little sleep in last two nights (and still need to do some retouching works now), but I am too excited and can’t wait to share the photos of mui mui with all of you.

bed. Ready !!

formula milk. Ready !!

diapers. Ready !!

clothing. Ready !!

Camera. Ready !!

Mama. Ready !!!

PaPa. Ready !!

Shulin. Ready !!

Exciting !!! Our original planned delivery day is Feb 20 (人日), but after the routine check last week, we need to move the date earlier to this coming thusday. Yes !!! Two more days to go !!!!

more news will be put on my facebook fans pages and twitter page in next few days !!!

we are giving some practice to shulin for taking care her mui mui

great, shulin !!!. And a little bit like a ” C nine” 仔 already !!!

Last few weeks – as busy as usual, no need to mention again – don’t want to bore you … …

What I am going to let you know and surprise you is: Xandra and I are going to have our second daughter next month !!!!!!!!!!! We ‘re so happy and excited for the arrival of this baby. We planned for it long time ago – after we had the 1st baby (Shulin), both of us thought that it would be much much better to have another child so that the two children can  grow up together.

Before Shulin was born, I invited Lawrence to take our first pregnancy photo session. So to be fair to the younger baby, I arranged another photo session last week and we ‘re glad to have Ken Lam (the Kodak UK photographer of the year “2009”) to help us this time.

Even though the weather of the day was not good, we had lots of fun. It was so cold and wet outdoor that we finally decided to have the photo taken in a shopping mall and train station.

Here is a sneak peek. Ken, thanks for your great works, the photos are wonderful and you captured the happiness of my family.

Also great thanks to Canly, polly of faces hk and “Dai E” for all your great help on the day !!!!

More news of the baby coming very soon … …

Love this shot!!! we had this photo taken at the Shatin New Town Plaza shopping hall

babies, babies, babies … …

the working Ken Lam and big thanks to Canly and “Dai E” ‘s help on the day !!!!

our whole team of the day !!!!! Thanks everyone !!!!

From my experience, after the very busy season from Sept – Dec, I will start to get sick in Jan. This was the case in last two years. But it happened earlier this year, both Canly and I got sick since early dec. It was really tough as all wedding jobs ‘re very demanding and we had to work long hours.

When I started to get well last week and thought that the sickness was over, my daughter Shulin got inflected (from playgroup I believed), and started to vomit since last wed. And after that, my whole family got inflected and we all had vomit and diarrhea since last Thu and Fri. Yes, I had diarrhea, a disaster for a wedding photographer (and I had wedding jobs on last Thu, Sat and Sun).

Thanks that the anti-diarrhea medicine really worked, though I was very tired on the weddings days.

As of today, I am completely recovered and ready for all the challenges again !!!!!

********************

mimi and ramsy ‘s wedding was on last sat. I was blessed that, I had a beautiful and nice bride on the day, with a very handsome groom, and a super happy bridal party. Though I was not feeling very well, the photos turned out great – and it is definitely one of my fav wedding in dec.

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

my fav shot of mimi and ramsy of the day

a few of the “getting ready” shots
the “groomsmen” and the bouquet

the girls

love the colorful dress and all the happy bridesmaids

the tea ceremony – the happy mimi ‘s sister

lovely – “mimi is mine, ramsy don’t come close”

mimi had prepared gifts for every bridesmaid

1100 am at Ramsy ‘s family

ready for the ceremony

everyone ‘s ready !!!!

1430 ceremony at the four seasons hotel

love this shot, look at mimi ‘s mother, she started crying already

congratulations !!!!

laughter and tears

who is the lucky bridesmaid?

a few of my fav portraits at four seasons

OH !!!!! So beautiful !!!!!!

love the idea of this group march in

as ramsy said, he is a very bad dancer, but he ‘s willing to dance in front of everyone (like a terminator) , it ’s all because of mimi

a thank you speech to parent and family

ramsy ‘s three sisters

love this big big screen. So good for the same day video show!!!!!

a very very good band. the ballroom ’s full of applause throughout the whole night

I didn’t do too many oversea photo sessions in last two years. There are several reasons behind.

First, looking at my working schedule and my family life, it is almost impossible to be away from home town for anything over 3-4 days. In addition, I hate flying home and then having to shoot a wedding the day after. there are so many accidents that can happen and I really don’t  like taking the risk of it.

Then, I can’t work out the justification of the time and effort needed for oversea assignment. When I stay in Hong Kong, I can shoot 3-4 weddings/pre-weddings a week, and I can still work on post-processing and albums and meet clients for the rest of the time (not to mention, have the time to play with shulin as well), so why spend the extra time on travelling for shooting just 1-2 couples a week.

last, and the most important, I love capturing the happiness and the love of the couple, much more than capturing the magnificent view of a location. I feel so happy when I get comments like “wow, the bride is so beautiful in your photo”, “your photo is so warm” . it is all about people in my style.

But don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with oversea pre-wedding, it just doesn’t fit my style and work schedule very well at the moment. And it is always good to have your photo session at a remote location when you can forget all your works, and no interrupt from your blackberry.

OK, back to clara and kevin, I couldn’t be happier when they flied all the way from Shanghai to HK to have their pre-wedding photo session here.

“Hi Kevin, there are so many nice locations in Shanghai and people in HK love having pre-wedding  photo there, why do you come to HK instead?” I asked Kevin

“yes, the locations are nice, but when you see the view everyday, and everyone having the same photos at the same location, you feel bored. And we love your style instead” answered Kevin

Oh Kevin, you got the point !!!!

locations: the Peak, Shek O, Central

Here are my fav “day” and “night” shots

with only a few photo sessions in august, I had more free time to clean up the photo editing and album backlogs. Apart from it, really enjoyed the extra time I had with shulin. We went to different playgroups (little gym, ballet junior …. …) or went to swimming everyday – this was such a wonderful time (you can see some photos and video on my facebook fans page) !!!!

Before writing this blog, I was packing my equipments to prepare the photo session tomorrow – the bar mitzvah party of hugo. This is the kick-off of the peak season and my schedule was fully packed before the Chinese new year. Hopefully, I can update the blog more frequently in this season … …

In this and the next few posts, I ‘d like to share some photo techniques that I frequently use

I love shooting in available light, especially on a wedding day. But I also use a lot of off-camera flash, especially during the portrait sessions.

Here is an example – the bar mitzvah portrait session for hugo I did early this month. This is one of my fav image of the day – I love his expression a lot. You may think we had wonderful sunset light in this shot … …but … …

click here to see how this photo was created.

but, in fact, the light was created by a large  softbox held by Canly (as you can see in the 2nd photo). In the 3rd photo, the flash is off, and Hugo ‘s face was in shade actually. There was sunlight in the photo, but the sun was at the opposite side of the camera and it gave a rim light to hugo. The tricks here are , we have to control the power, the color and softness of the flash carefully, so that it can mix with the sun light well and make the light look natural.

more other techniques will be shared in next few posts. Any comment is welcome.

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.

a touch of breeze … … another fav of the day

“behind the scene” to demonstrate my patent pending human light stand and cotton made reflector :-p

Tony, thanks for bringing me to such a beautiful location in Hong Kong

having fun with my flashes

see you in Oct !!

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

All bookings will be charged at the new rate afterward.

(updated: 20 May) new rate card uploaded to the "about me / rate card" page

Don’t miss to go through the wpja.com and agwpja.com to see all the winning photos, there are so many good photos, and definitely get inspired.

click here to see the complete photographer ranking. And congrats to Dino from Philippines, he is the only Asian wedding photographer that get into the top 5 !!!!

photo from wedding of irene and alexis. ranked 12th in the “ceremony” category

photo from wedding of iris and sunny. ranked 18th in the “Full Frame Black & White” category

photo from the wedding of julie and rob. ranked 19th in the “get ready” category

thanks for all the good memory you gave to me in last two days … … you don’t know how excited i was after the 1st night of your wedding. I was deeply moved by all the touching moments between you two … … the time you spent to prepare the surprise for each other, the words you said to each other, the love you showed to each other, and also the trust you have on me … …. all of these just made me couldn’t hold the tear any more at the end of yesterday.

thanks ken for capturing the memory and preparing this video for all of us.