everywhere is possible for good photos, sam and ryan

one of the most most common question I got asked by client is “which location is the best for pre-wedding photo session?”

My answer is always, “for my photo shooting style, location is not important at all. shooting wide in pre-wedding session is not my favorite, instead, I am always looking for light, abstract details and emotions before looking at the background”

when I posted on my facebook that HKU is under renovation last month, I got lots  of emails and messages from clients that expressing their worries that it ’s not good to take photo there. My answer to them, ” don’t worry, it ’s going to be OK”

trust me, the background of a location is the least factor for me to consider. With a happy couple (this is more important for me), good lighting  and imagination, everywhere is possible for  good photos.

again, there is no limit, the limit is only your imagination.

location: HKU, Central SoHo, Shek O, Central (night shoot)
makeup: polly of faces hk

big challenge. Can you believe that it was taken at a building renovation site at HKU????
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one more
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the behind the scene shot (more bebind the scene shots at my facebook page)
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» Continue reading everywhere is possible for good photos, sam and ryan

something new learned - elizabeth and kenneth

原來又好耐冇 update。可能係 世界盃啦。

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!

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當時我地係遊客的流動景點呢

» Continue reading something new learned – elizabeth and kenneth

the works behind a photo

this is the photo I posted in my previous post of wedding of jo and desmond. This is corridor at the island shangri la. Usually, I ‘ll spend the time taking photos of the venue and decoration while my clients are having the formal shots around 7:00pm – 8:00 pm before the banquet.

this post is going to tell you the works involved in this photo. It took me  a total of  10 min to shoot it and lots of processing works are required.

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this is the photo that was shoot without lighting and post processing. very nice decoration, but it looks very flat and boring in terms of lighting in the photo. 
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Go ahead to see what works are involved to make it look more interesting

» Continue reading the works behind a photo

I was challenged by cosette and ben

this was a challenge for me for pre-wedding session of cosette and ben

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
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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 !!!
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night shoot at Shatin Central Park
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» Continue reading I was challenged by cosette and ben

something new again - wedding of vivian and vincent

love the post title – it means I got something new in the photos again.

You may notice there are several wedding locations/venues got very very popular among my clients.

for reception venue, AMC, four seasons, peninsula, island shangri la and repulse bay are the most popular

for church, bethanie chapel, St. Margaret church – almost go there once every week during the peak season.

Shooting at the same location every week is a good and bad thing – you get very familiar with the places, but easily get bored at the same time. To avoid getting bored, I ‘ll try my best to get a few new and creative shots every time, if I can get 2-3 new shots on the day, then I am satisfied, and don’t have pressure at all for the rest of the day. 2-3 new shots may sound too less for you, but please remember, we may have over 20 weddings in a month during the peak season, that translates to creating 40-60 new shots in a month, it ’s pretty challenging in fact.

here are the 2-3 new shots in the wedding of vivian and vincent.

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: four seasons hotel hong kong

love love this shot !!!! with this camera position, I always scared that I would fall onto the bride one day (touch wood !!!). the wedding ceremony was at 1200pm, so the chapel was very bright with diffused light from all directions. One flash (just outside the top of the photo) was used to create the dramatic lighting of this portrait. The challenge here is to confine the light to the bride only
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another off camera flash shot, flash was just outside the top right corner of the photo.  To make it look like a window light from the top of the chapel, had to position the flash very very high.  Also have to balance the color, size and direction of the light very carefully to make it look natural.
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another fav of the day. Here is the corridor connecting four seasons and the podium of IFC. There is a big mirror with very beautiful pattern. I tried to challenge myself to shoot in front of the mirror, but without seeing my image in the mirror reflection.
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» Continue reading something new again – wedding of vivian and vincent

pregnancy session of ruby and simon
the sun in my pocket part two

I didn’t do any pregnancy session before (except for my wife Xandra)  as I am not good at that and my time and schedule doesn’t allow me to spend time in this area. But when Ruby asked me to take some photos for her, I don’t have any hesitation and I am really happy to be her photographer. When I started as a freelance wedding photographer back in 2005, ruby was the first few customer whom confirmed booking with me (and we finally had the pre-wedding photo session in 2007) . Since then, we became good friend.

This photo session was done last month and guess what? The new baby will arrive on this coming Friday! God bless Ruby, Simon and their family.

makeup artist: KK Chan

I ‘d like to share some photo techniques I used in this session. Everyone loves to have sunlight in their photo session, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen. In that case, I may use flash to create the feel of sunlight in some of the photos. Look at the photo below, ruby was walking under a “beautiful sunset light”, but, in fact, the day was very cloudy (with little rain), and the color temperature had a blue cast. Two off-camera flashes were used to create the light, you can click the link below to see the detailed set up.

ruby and baby walking under “beautiful sunset light” – created by flashes
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the truth was: it was a cloudy day.
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» Continue reading pregnancy session of ruby and simon
the sun in my pocket part two

e-session of joey and stephen

a set of happy and warm photos.

I love the idea that they preferred to have the night shoot at home instead of going to those popular places. What a great idea, especially during the summer time !!!! We could have a can of coke during the shooting.

locations: Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Shek O, Home

joey, stephen and their babies.
This pic was done by 3 flashes (one for joey, one for stephen, and one for the background). If I could do it again, I would use one more flash so that the background was more “white” (you can notice that the background is not pure white on the left)
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they are music players. Lovely !!!
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» Continue reading e-session of joey and stephen

the sun in my pocket – part one

I was enjoying the “holiday” in last few weeks and very lazy updating the blog.

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.

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» Continue reading the sun in my pocket – part one