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
the truth was: it was a cloudy day.
» Continue reading pregnancy session of ruby and simon the sun in my pocket part two
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)
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 … …
I seldom do commercial shooting as I am not keen on working with models. I love to work with ‘real people’ in weddings and always find lots of joy in weddings.
But when I know my friend gracy of JustGracy was going to have a new series of advertisement and portfolio, I don’t have any hesitation to be part of this project.
Before the shooting, we discuss on the style and both of us like to have a clean and simple style of big head shots. It is always a challenge to do big head shots as it requires more detailed lighting setup, but I like the results a lot.
We had lots of fun on the day, with 3 models, 3 makeup artists, with lots of different lighting setups. Non-stop shooting from 1100-1900, awesome!!!
Here are some of fav shots of the day, and any comment is welcome.
You can also visit JustGracy for more other photos and my facebook fans page for the “behind the scene” shots
model karen, styling by Gracy
» Continue reading model portrait session – JustGracy
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 ??
“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
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 !!!!
) 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 !!!!
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