Blog of a HK Wedding Photographer

still remembered the karate master Black and amazed by his awesome jump on the beach - which splashed water onto my camera.

Here are the final photos I ‘d like to share with you

date: April 2008
Locations: Nam Sang Wai, Shek O, Central
make up artist: KK Chan

our first stop - Nam Sang Wai — Black gave us a big surprise !!! Esther, are you OK?

last stop of the session- my fav of the day: "catch me if you can"

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I love taking photos in Central, I can easily find locations with good color, texture, and light. I had taken numerous pre-wedding sessions in Central, but this was the first time leading over 25 persons.

Both mei-kee and söeren came from Germany, now working in India and chose Hong Kong for their ceremony. It was the first time for most of their friends being in Hong Kong — when mei-kee decided to take some photos in Central in the morning, everyone was excited to follow us and have a walk altogether.

You may think it was very difficult to manage such a large group on the street, instead, they ‘re such a fabulous group that I had so much fun working with them.

date: 27 feb, 2008
ceremony and reception: the peninsula hotel, hong kong

Tips: In other to work with such a big group,

• you have to be very confident on what you ‘re doing
• plan ahead what you are going to do in next 30 sec
• give clear instructions, of course, you have to shout loudly

the big "group shot" — when I was taking this photo, all the passer-by around stopped and looked at me !!!

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I should have updated this blog a few days ago, but I have to admit that I was a little bit lazy, and spent lots of time playing with shulin.

Recently, the temperature is so high that it becomes very difficult to have any photo session outdoor, so I must find some ways to deal with it. As promised, I ‘ll share some ideas with you that worked very well in my last engagement session of christie and ronald.

date: 25 July, 2008
makeup artist: Rainbow

suggestion No. 1: staying at home 

at noon, the overhead sun is so hot to stay outside — why not stay at home, lie on the bed, (and turning on the air condition as high as you can !!!).
I had several e-sessions taken at home before, but this is the sweetest one I ever have

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Christina and Johnny planned to have this session in April, but Christina got her ankle hurt so we had to delay until last week.

date: 23 July, 2008
locations: Wetland park, big wave beach, the Peak

As it ’s getting more and more difficult to shoot outdoor in the summer, I started to understand why we need to have a studio, . Not only the heat, but also the overhead strong sunlight that makes your eyes uncomfortable. So, is Simon going to open a studio? … … never, I hate studio work, it ’s so boring, I like the excitement of walking around to look for new location and good light ….. …. if you ask me to work in a studio, I ‘d rather going back to an office and becoming a businessman again.

Having said that, any way to cope with the heat? OK, stay tuned, I ‘ll share with you a few ways (with examples) tomorrow !!!!!

BTW, I opened a facebook page, please support me by becoming a fan of mine on facebook.
 

last location of the day - the peak. we first took a few "landscape" photos. Then I passed my Canon 1D to Johnny and let him play with Christina. The result is quite interesting. I used three flashes for lighting setup, anyone like to make some guess of the setup. You can put your guess in the comment section below … …

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I feel very sorry that I didn’t blogged andrea and ken ’s wedding for a long time. Every time I talked to audrea on email and phone, she was so eager to see her photos here (even after she got all the photos already … …) Last few months were busy time for me, taking care of my baby as well as clearing all the outstanding jobs before holiday (April - June) takes up all of my time.

I am very happy now that all the outstanding are cleared and I am working on weddings after my holiday and some outstanding albums.

date: 28 March, 2008
ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong
Make up artist: Rainbow

Happy couple & happy parents during the ceremony

video filming and editing: Ken Wong of simon.the.photo
(be patient, it takes time to load the video)

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I had been to Wetland Part three times in last 7 days and it was so hot there. Have you read the appledaily today? they found out that it was over 46 C in the afternoon there. 46C, can you believe it ?????? If you like to have photos there, please be prepared …. …..

clippings from apple daily

when I read the newspaper this morning, I learned that yesterday, so far,  was the hottest day of this year, no wonder we felt so hot yesterday!!!! When we were at the Wetland Part in the afternoon, we just couldn’t stay outside. Finally, we only spent around 30 min outdoor, and still got completely wet !!!!

In the morning, our 1st location was the Mary Knoll school, not only my first time to be there, but also my first time to meet Philip. I learned from Carmen that he doesn’t like taking any photo. It was a little bit challenging at first, but he was such a great guy that loosen up very soon, in fact much better than I expected !!!! And he made a joke that the amount of photos I took for him yesterday was more than all he had in last 10 years !!!

Look forward to their wedding in Oct !!!

date: 21 July, 2008 

Locations: Maryknoll convent School, Wetland Park, Pak Lai (unplanned location), Craigengower crickets club

make up artist: Katherine and Elaw Wong

after finished the session at Wetland Park, I suggest them to go to Pak Lai, one of the most beautiful Sun Set location in Hong Kong. The temperature was much lower at that time and we had a blast there !!!!

Hey Carmen, are you OK?

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a happy wedding last Sat. I always found that I am so lucky that all my clients are so happy and friendly on their wedding day, and this is not an exception for vienna and tony. Not only they are fabulous, but also their families, wedding parties, friends and students as well (yes, vienna is a teacher, and lots of her students came to the ceremony to celebrate with them)

date: 19 July, 2008
ceremony: Kowloon City Baptist Church
reception: Regal Kowloon Hotel

the arrival of the bride  - my fav photo of the day

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it rained most of the time in last few weeks, several photo sessions ‘re postponed. When I talked to Ben last week, he told me that he would go ahead the photo session on last Monday (14 July) no matter it rained or not. What a great man !!! So what happened — instead of having a rainy day, we had the hottest and sunny photo session. It was so hot that Ben almost got sunstroke when we finish the first stop at the Wetland Park.

date: 14 July, 2008
locations: Wetland Park, Shek O, Club JJ’s of Grand Hyatt

my fav of the day. I found this red wall inside the visitor center.

look at Ben, he ’s not holding a mobile. He almost got a sunstroke after one hour outdoor shooting. He ’s holding an ice pack to cool himself down

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The story began on a Christmas night … Kevin went to the Christmas ball at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the second he found fiona, he already knew she ’s the one of his life. The love inside pushed him to make a "first move" — inviting a girl to dance … ….

Did the love story start like this? … … probably not. Fiona didn’t give him a chance, walked away and left the poor Kevin in the dark.

After that night, Kevin couldn’t forget Fiona ’s face, he got help from his friends in HKU to find the contact of Fiona. And finally, he managed to get Fiona ’s ICQ no. To his surprise, she was studying Electronic Engineering degree (he graduated from the same department as well), so he kept contacting her and offered to teach her some of the courses.

I didn’t asked them the rest of the story … … May be Kevin can share the rest with you later … …

date: 29 June, 2008 (a rainy day)
ceremony and reception: Langham Hotel
makeup: nancy kim

We started shooting at Fiona ’s home in Tseung Kwan O in the morning, followed by location shooting at HKU, then back to Tseung Kwan O. Even though it took long time traveling and it rained so bad on Sunday, they really loved to take some photos at HKU.
Happy looking at the rain drops

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If you have seen the wedding photos of winnie and raymond before (day 1 and day 2), you ‘d expect that their wedding video should be very amazing as well. Take a look of this video and you will know more about this awesome couple !!!!

filming and editing: Ken of simon.the.photo

I was very excited last two days as I resumed to work last weekend after my long vacation and I had shoot two weddings. The weather was very bad with rain (heavy !!) most of the time, but the brides ‘re gorgeous and the little rain drops didn’t affect at all. Before the weddings, it was quite busy last week preparing and cleaning all the equipments. It was a mess as I didn’t do any shooting last two months, it took me some time to figure out where I did put all the stuff … …

I ‘ll show you some preview of the last two weddings in next few days, stay tuned … …

Before that, I ‘d like to share ada and lawrence ’s wedding with you (and thanks for Lawrence Tsang ’s referral). This was a small wedding in which ada and lawrence only invited their close friends and families.

The ceremony was held at the garden suite of peninsula, I had shot a few weddings at this location before, but this is my 1st daytime wedding there.

date: Feb 16, 08
reception and ceremony: peninsula hong kong, garden suite

just by looking at these two photos, you know how happy ada was on the day

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Today supposed to be my first day of work after my long vacation, but we had to postpone it because of the typhoon. Instead of today, I ‘ll resume to work in the coming weekend (two weddings on Sat and Sun) — It is going to be busy very soon as I have a long list of wedding and engagement session to shoot in July … …

I go through some of the photos today and would like to share this "post wedding" session to you. Remember Angie and Martin? they had a wedding on a rainy day in Feb, and we had to cancel all morning activities, so finally I offered them a free 4 hours photo session and that ’s why we had this "post wedding" session 1 week after their wedding.

The more I do "post wedding" shoot, the more I like it. In fact, I found Martin was quite anxious on the wedding day because of the weather and all the logistics, however, without all the pressure and time constraint, I found him enjoy so much in this session

And guess what? after a rainy wedding …. we had afull day of sunshine this time !!!

location: Central and Lei Yue Mun

my fav of the day.

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this was a rainy and cold day. It was so cold that no one liked to stay outdoor for a few seconds.

this is my 2nd time to have a wedding at the beautiful Bethanie Chapel. I love this location a lot, not only because of the beautiful architecture, and I love their booking system as well. When you book this venue, you have a 4 hour session, so you don’t need to rush before and after the ceremony.

date: feb 2, 2008
ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Langham Place Hotel

Even though we couldn’t go out because of the bad weather, there ‘re so many beautiful locations inside the chapel. I was trying a new concept, inspired by another wpja award winning photographer Dino Lara

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