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

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 !!!

getting ready

the happy wedding party !!!

beautiful bride !!

a happy moment !!!!

the bridesmaids ‘re ready

harriet ‘s sister georgie

alice

nice photo

are you ready?

harriet ‘s parent

harriet was deciding which earrings to wear … … guess which one she choose finally

ceremony at the St. John’s cathedral

a nice church for wedding

the church was fully packed

“hey, give me five”

reception at repulse bay

nice weather, nice location

congratulations !!!

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 !!!

get ready – the yellow color curtain gave us a look of sunset light

my fav moment

the bouquet … … thanks wendy (bridesmaid) allowing me to use her back as background in this pic

arron and I got a lot of interesting shots at this location

throwing rice !!!

another bus in the morning

Hi everyone !!!!!

thanks arron for inspiring me for this photo – we had to play with off-camera flash, slow shutter speed, available light and motion in this pic.

always love to see happy tea ceremony

who ‘s who

getting ready on the bus

So happy to see Mandy (maid of honor) !!!!
she was my student of bible study in church xx years ago. Sorry, I couldn’t recognize her until she told me. 真係女大十八變！！

we got a lot of beautiful pic of the veil

arron … … never give up any chance taking good photo !!!

are you ready?

I am yours !!!

arron always had a lot of new ideas for interesting photo !!!

“you ‘re mine !!!”

this boy ‘s so interested at the veil

and so are the bridesmaids

let ‘s go !!!

thanks everyone for helping me to take this photo (even though all of them got a new hair style !!)

another two fav photos of the day. We got some free time before the BBQ reception, and I was so happy to see all the bridesmaids could sit together and share the happiness with ida

pretty ida

congratulations !!!!

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.

Agnes getting ready — a lensbaby shot

wow — I am jealous of Lawrence having such a beautiful bride as his client

ready and waited for kevin

after the ceremony. From what I observed, Agnes is a quiet person.  it ’s lucky of me that I captured this moment

I love this simple portrait a lot — bring out the best of a beautiful bride

details of her evening dress

the reception at four seasons hotel

Lawrence in action on Barker Road

Ok, where is Kevin? … Ha Ha … … Lawrence always laughed at me that I didn’t care about the groom … may be he is right. You can find Kevin from Lawrence ’s blog here

記得，記得，記得:
Remember to support me by becoming a fan of
simon on facebook

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

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

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

Again, I love the movement of the hair

Dancing on the cliff

At the end of the workshop, we have prepared a gift for Anie (Yervant ’s wife) and Yervant

After that, we went to a wine museum for wine tasting. A few shot inside the museum

The mother photographer Shannon from the States and her lovely baby Candy. Bebind is David from UK

Then, we went out to have Sunset shooting

Amazing !!!

Great view

Crazy photographers — guess what they ‘re doing ??

Our party – Let’s have some Greek dance

Plate dropping !!!

Jim is dancing on the plate. Come & visit Jim ’s site, he is going to release a new camera bag for photographer.

My team !!!! (left to right, behind to front) Mario, George, Rafael, Simon, Mark, & Costas and his wife, and Yervant.

Crazy Simon. I am waiting other crazy photos of mine captured by others

Crazy Simon again. Thank Joe for sending this photo to me

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

John Garner from Bookcrafts is showing his album. Yervant uses Bookcrafts for his album, I love their quality. I am thinking of including his album in my future package

Yervant is showing his award winning albums

We are walking to the Fira to see how Yervant shoot
\

He tried to select some very simple & ordinary places and explained to us that the most important is looking for LIGHT

Even at simple location, he has the ability to turn it into a gorgeous  photo

Explaining how he sees the light, color & how to create the mood

Just learned something new and I am trying new technique

Nice details and shadow

Nice location

It looks like in a dream

A bride in the color of white & blue

The sun light was wonderful for landscape shot at 7:00. Same location, but much better shots than those I got yesterday. Much more colorful & have more contrast

the wonderful sunset

We had a welcome party last night. There are around 25 photographers from all over the world to participate. Very excited for the next few days.

I love cat and I miss my cat in Hong Kong

Cat and postcard

An overview of the Fira area

blue & white

The architect

the sea view

You can find a lot of café here & spent the whole afternoon here under the warm sunlight

nice café

a door to heaven

Tomorrow I ‘ll leave for Santorini, Greece to attend the Dancing with Yervant  wedding photographer workshop. I am so excited to meet Yervant in person and see him shooting in action. 

3 years ago,  I watched the "Master of Wedding Photographer" DVD, I was so surprised that wedding photography could be so different. When I saw Yervant in the DVD, he had so much fun shooting wedding and his images were stunning !!!! After that, I made up my mind to change myself from a corporate businessman to a full time wedding photographer.

After being a full time wedding photographer for 2 years, I believe it ’s time to learn something new. If possible, I ‘ll try to update the details of this workshop on my blog during the trip.

I ‘ll be back to Hong Kong on May 9. Please email me or send me SMS during that time.

This content of this issue is very rich & informative

Directional Lighting
I believe one thing that makes a professional wedding photographer different from an amateur photographer (your uncle or friend) is the USE OF LIGHT. We’ve all seen the awesome photos of brides or grooms dramatically illuminated in a beam of directional light. Check out the "Getting Lucky With Directional Light." to know how a wedding photographer create such awesome pictures.

Wedding Photojournalism Myths
There are so many wedding photographers in Hong Kong talking about wedding photojournalism, but I found that a lot of them just don’t understand what they are saying. In this article, it mentions the most common misconceptions of PJ in the market

What about pets at weddings?
An very interesting article, and it comes with a very good timing for me. I ‘ll shoot an Engagement session on next Monday and the client will bring along their pets (5 cats & 4 dogs)

Pls click WedPix Magazine on the sidebar for more information.