Posting date: July 5th, 2009 | Category: personal, wedding photographers | 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
Posting date: December 15th, 2008 | Category: I-do, wedding photographers | a very beautiful wedding in Oct. Not only we had beautiful bride, beautiful (and nice) bridesmaids, but it was so nice to see everyone dressed beautifully as well.
I had made a small (or big ) mistake that I finally couldn’t take photo during the reception at night. When I was worrying about this, I was so happy that ann choi could offer to help me in this wedding (in fact, she had to postpone another family portrait session to help me)
I haven known ann for over a year, she is always on my recommendation list when people asks me for photographer referral. A real PJ (photojournalistic) style and crazy wedding photographer like me, and it is always a fun to work with her. You can see Ann ’s photo for harriet and jim here
date: 24 oct 2009 2008
get ready: island shangri la
ceremony: St. John’s cathedral
reception: repulse bay
everyone was beautifully dressed !!!
the newly wed – harriet and jim
simon.the.photo x annchoi, Hi Ann, thanks for your help !!!
» Continue reading beautiful wedding of harriet and jim – simon.the.photo x ann choi
Posting date: November 14th, 2008 | Category: wedding photographers, weddings | This is definitely one of my fav wedding in Sept !!!! Not only I had a wonderful couple, wonderful wedding party, but a chance to work with a US award winning wedding photographer as well.
arron is a WPJA award winning wedding photographer from California and came to Hong Kong to shoot the wedding of Catherine and Kevin here. I got to know him because he hired me to second shoot with him for this wedding. (Sorry, I can’t post any photos of this wedding here … …) As he stayed in Hong Kong for a few days, I invited him to help shooting in one of my wedding, and it ‘s so inspiring to see a foreigner shooting a local Chinese wedding.
date: sept 27, 2008
ROM: wedding registry at Hong Kong City Hall
BBQ reception: Royal View Hotel
one of my fav of the day.
It ‘s very difficult to take photo in the cross Harbour tunnel, not to mention a wedding photo inside.
ida and errol hired an open top double deck bus for their transportation, and that ‘s why I got a chance to take this photo inside
arron in action !!!
» Continue reading simon.the.photo X arron willcox
- wedding of ida and errol
Posting date: August 25th, 2008 | Category: I-do, personal, wedding photographers | I believe every wedding photographer ‘d love to capture some new images in every single wedding — so do I.
If you ‘re a frequent reader of this blog, you may expect me to give you surprise and post some new images in every wedding. However, the fact is — it is very difficult to do that. First, as a paid and professional wedding photographer, I have to provide very consistent work to my clients. They confirm me as their wedding photographer because they love the previous works I showed to them, so I can’t give them too much surprise just because I like to create some new images to please myself. Second, it can put too much pressure on myself if I always look for new images on a wedding day. Third, I have a lot of new concepts in my mind, however, in order to get this images, I may have to take risk of losing some important moments.
When I discussed it with Lawrence a few months ago, he felt the same and we came up the idea of 2nd shoot with each other, that is, we showed up in each other ’s wedding, but without the responsibility to deliver the photos. By doing that, not only can I try and learn some new technique in a real wedding, but also know what DOESN’T work as well.
I was so glad that Lawrence like the idea and I started 2nd shooting in two of his weddings in August. I had so much fun and it was such a unique experience for me.
I ‘d like to say a big thank you to Lawrence and his clients for their generosity of allowing me to "play" in these weddings and so look forward to lawrence 2nd shooting with me in Sept.
date: 9 August, 2008
ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
reception: four seasons hotel, hong kong
my fav of the day – arrival of the bride.
the long shadow gives a 3 dimensional look to the shot, and it, together with the brightness, leads your eyes to the bride
after taking the above pic, I ran to the back to take this.
» Continue reading learning a different way to shoot a wedding – Agnes and Kevin
Posting date: April 6th, 2008 | Category: wedding photographers | I love Jeff ’s works a lot. As he is one of the top ten wedding photographer in the world, I am always amazed at his Black & White works. If you love Black & White wedding photos, you can’t miss looking at his works
He was recently featured in the Canon Professional Network (the first wedding photographer to be featured), a must read article.
click the below image for the full article
Posting date: August 21st, 2007 | Category: personal, wedding photographers | As you all know, August is a low season for wedding in Hong Kong, we have typhoons, rainy and hot weathers, not to mention, the Chinese ghost festival. With the additional free time, I decided to do and learn something different during this period. One of the thing I ‘d like to do is to meet other wedding photographers in Hong Kong and learn something new from them.
In the past, when I can’t work for a couple, and they asked if I could introduce any other good photographer for them. I always said no because I didn’t know any other wedding photographer in person, and I hadn’t seen their portfolio (a real wedding album). However, after my chat with Lawrence Tsang today, he is definitely on my recommendation list. It is so nice of him that not only he shared his full portfolio to me, but his assistant also showed me how they edit the photos as well. His work is real stunning, and every photos look so natural, but powerful !!!!!
Lawrence is a super super nice guy (& nice father), nice to his clients, hist staff and other photographers …. …. He always think from his clients’ standpoint.
The only area that he needs to improve … … please also be nice to yourself.
(I was asked by my wife to modify the above.)
The only area that both Lawrence and I need to improve … …. please also be nice to ourselves and our wives
Posting date: May 5th, 2007 | Category: personal, travel, wedding photographers | The workshop finished yesterday and I went to Athens & stayed here for 3 days, just to relax. In last few days, we had over 12 hrs of workshop everyday — going out shooting, learning photo skill, photoshop skill, critics session, discussing of business. Someone asked me what I learned … … I believe that the most important thing I learned is more understanding of my weakness, & what I am not good at.
During the critics session, every photographer submitted a few photos to Yervant to have his comment. He said my photos are good, & the brides are going to love them. However, as a professional photographer, he could point out all bad things about the photos — the light is not correct, the pose of the bride is not good. If I enter those photos into a competition, it is straight "OUT" for sure.
This is very useful, makes me step back and think how I can reach the next level of my career. The workshop is definitely the best investment as a wedding photographer.
one of my favorite shot — I like the movement of the veil
» Continue reading Dancing with Yervant workshop
-what I learned
Posting date: May 1st, 2007 | Category: personal, wedding photographers | Yesterday, we had the workshop started. I was so excited to meet Yervant in person. There are 25 other wedding photographers from all over the world to attend this workshop. It is great meeting & sharing with them – some of them have experience over 20 years. It is so interesting to learn that some of them had very different background before they became a wedding photographer, like, IT consultant from Gartner, marketing staff from a soccer team, fashion photographer, commercial photographer, and even a flight pilot.
Yervant is such great guy, not only because of his great photos, but also his contribution to the wedding photographer industry. He is so willing to share his knowledge, he just doesn’t hide anything. And he tries to raise the standard and makes wedding photographer not only equal, but even better than fashion or other commercial photographers.
We did shooting from 4:00pm till 7:30 pm. We followed Yervant to shoot, learned the technique, then we shot. I loved this image the most for the whole day. It was the last shot of the day
» Continue reading Santorini – Day 2
-Yervant in action
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