virginia and daniel, one of my fav wedding last season.  Again, I shot alone on the day without 2nd photographer, which gave me more freedom of the day. Having said that, don’t get me wrong, even though I love working alone, every wedding is unique and some weddings definitely require 2nd photographer for handling all the formal shots requests.

ceremony and reception: repulse bay
make up artist:  Zi Wan of violet
video: ken of simon.the.photo

My fav shot of the day. It’s a first dance photo, I always tell my clients that dance photos are the most difficult shots to take on a wedding day. Lighting is always very dim if not completely darkness, even there are spot lights at the venue, they are usually unpredictable in terms of ligh intensity, color, or how the hotel staff operates them.  What makes it even more difficult is that you can never stage or setup dancing shots (that means you can’t ask the couple to hold or do it again, anyway, I hate taking staged shots).

I like this shot, it has very good timing, composition, and lighting. There ‘re three layers ….. the bride and groom, the parents,and the DJ in the background. Virginia and Daniel ‘re positioned one third of the photos that showed their importance. And the three layers also allow you to flow the focus from the couple to their parents and then to the DJ. While virginia closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment with daniel, the way that the parents looked at them gives a sense of connection between them. At the same time, the DJ behind worked very hard and it helps completing the whole story of this photo.

I had taken three photos of this particular shots and this one stands out with the best capture of the moment.

In terms of lighting, three off camera flashes were used, their locations, power, color were all planned carefully beforehand. The one thing I don’t like is the light on parents is too strong, though it can be fixed easily in post possessing.

isn’t it good to has a beautiful roof top in the morning to take a shot of the wedding gown.

nice shoes !!!

discussing the game session at the roof top

are you ready?

going to the roof for the game session

tea ceremony

ceremony at the repulse bay, lots of details

very beautiful veil, but didn’t know why it was not used in the ceremony at the end

going to the ceremony

the lighting of the ceremony was very challenging. the ceremony was supposed to be started at 5:00, but  somehow it was delayed to 5:45 pm. light was dim and the whole venue was under the shadow of the hotel, which gave you  a very blue tone. What made it more challenging, the yellow venue flood lights were on and it gave us a mixed light to work with (blue available light with yellow tungsten flood light)

the reception

waiting for the start of the dinner

we had a ” Chinese face changing” performance to kick start the dinner

father ’s speech

maid of honor ’s speech

best man ’s speech

another fav dance photo of the day

and the party never ends !!!

thank you so much !!!!!

congratulations !!!!!

getting ready: MGM hotel
ceremony: the Cathedral

love this moment during the ceremony – a beautiful shot of janis

getting ready in the MGM hotel

the tea ceremony

nice location inside MGM

tea ceremony @ david ’s family

getting ready for the ceremony

wow !!!! it ’s ready !!!!

the ceremony at the The Cathedral

did you see the crowd gathered outside the Cathedral ?

congratulations

after the ceremony and lunch reception, we ‘re free for the rest of the time and had a few hours of location shooting. Thanks david for bringing me to all the beautiful places

Having said that, there’re so many beautiful weddings and pre weddings in last two months. I wish I had more time to share all these happy and beautiful moments here ……

lily and charles, one of my fav wedding – a small but beautiful wedding – which is my most favourite style of works in my portfolio. Nothing rush, people ‘re friendly and I am the only photographer, no 2nd photographer running around.

ceremony and reception: The Hong Kong Country Club
video: Ken of simon.the.photo

one of my fav of the day – father and bride walking towards the ceremony venue, beautiful lawn, pretty line of the bridesmaids, and nice tree shadow. it’s always difficult to take a shot like this when working alone as you might risk missing other important shots because you ‘re too far away.

lily ’s family, lily ’s father always holding his video camera taking video all day.

nice dress, isn’t it?

the game – what a happy man !!

meeting the bride

leaving for charles ‘ family

the ceremony at Hong Kong country club

gorgeous !!!

below are all my fav shots of the ceremony. working alone and taking so many shots with different angels is not an easy task. lots of planning and experience are required.

the cocktail time

a few portrait shots in the afternoon

cool !!! lots of diy items in this wedding

a diy box for storing guests’ gifts

one of my fav shot during the cocktail time.

very very nice music !!!!

the first dance

congratulations !!!

my answer is:

having more programs on your wedding day doesn’t mean you ‘ll have more beautiful photos. do you think you can relax and enjoy when your wedding day rundown is fully packed, I have seen so many couple that are completely exhausted even before the banquet because of the non-stop rundown. I always found that my most beautiful photos are always taken in those simple, but warm wedding

less is more, something that stephanie and alan aimed for. No game, no tea ceremony, we even didn’t have a chance to meet alan and his groomsmen before the ceremony. Everything happened inside the hotel, no travelling around and no rush at all. Having said that, with such a simple arrangement, I found that everyone was so relaxed and enjoyed the wedding a lot!  And there ’s  more touching and beautiful moments !!!!

ceremony and reception: grand hyatt hong kong
celebrant: michael lai
video: ken of simon.the.photo
make up artist: Bart Ko

here is their same day video edit … …. you ‘ll see what does “less is more” mean in this video

I always hope to write about every weddings and pre-weddings photos here, but the fact is, it is getting more and more difficult for me. So, if you can’t see your photos here, don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with your photos, it is just because of my busy schedule.

Anyway, love to share the same day photo edit of the wedding of vicky and daniel here, which I did last week.

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
make up artist: polly of faces hk
celebrant: anthony lam
video: ken of simon.the.photo

here is the same day photo slideshow. slideshow is shortened for web display purpose.

After 5 years, ada, talent development executive of Ogilvy Public Relation, and kevin, now the agency’s digital strategy manager, married last month at the HKCEC. As kevin said, ada is always a happy, creative and positive person, and it was truly reflected from all the details of their wedding – the bright and vivid color theme, the wedding montage, the colorful candy corner, the funny photo corner (click here to have a look of the photo corner), and last but not least, her hip-hop performance in the banquet, everything was just awesome! !!!!

Our schedule in the afternoon was very flexible, instead of going outdoor for location shooting, ada decided going back to their office, what a great idea!!!!! Nothing better than taking wedding photos at where they met each other and fell in love.

banquet: HKCEC
make up artist: elaw @ The look studio

one of my fav of the afternoon photo session. love the red color, isn’t it matched to the color theme of the wedding? the inclusion of the company name does link everything together in the photo

BTW, extraordinary couple gets extraordinary coverage. They sent some of the photos to SCMP and their wedding was featured on almost a full page coverage on SCMP, awesome !!!! Don’t miss to click the image to read more about their true office love story

ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Harbour Grand Hong Kong

having Hacken and Alan on stage giving “special blessing” to the newly wed.
It’ s really 『左麟右李』

some of my fav “getting ready” shots in the morning.

the prayer time of mother and daughter

tea ceremony, Jessica and her brother

am I pretty ?

ceremony at the bethanie chapel

you may kiss the bride !!!!

congratulations

we had 5 min taking a few portraits before leaving the chapel

Then, we went to university of Hong Kong to have 15 min location shooting there.

reception at the harbour grand hong kong

nothing happier than listening to great singing and great guitar music when taking wedding photos !!!

being a senior management of record company, can Ronny sing ???? em………

I think all my clients are smart enough to tell if a photo is posed or captured in a candid way, aren’t they? Yes, I do pose my clients when I am taking portraits of them as I need to do the best for the brides and make sure they look absolutely gorgeous in my photos. However, for wedding day photos, I just hate staged or setup shots. IMHO, touching moments are everywhere in a wedding, you just need to have a correct mind set, experience and technique to “SEE AND CAPTURE” it.  On the other hand, if a photographer just tried to create (or even setup)  the moments  all the time, with this mind set, he (or she) will never see the real touching moment, or even he see it, he will miss that shot, or capture it with wrong composition, wrong lighting, wrong angle. What is worse … … his photos will  turns out very similar (or boring, from my perspective) for the different wedding because he tried to create similar shots in every wedding.

Having said all that, back to peggy and raymond. “love is everywhere” – this is how I describe their wedding.

ceremony and reception: island shangri la

one of my fav of the day: mother and daughter

a few getting ready shots in the morning

yeah !!

the happy groom !!

yes. we made it !!!!

raymond was reading a letter to peggy that made everyone laugh

peggy ’s sister, another touching moment at the tea ceremony

love is everywhere, isn’t it ?

tea ceremony at raymond ’s family

raymond ’s brother

just after having taken the above shot, I moved into another position in a few seconds and managed to capture this wonderful moment. Do you think it ’s by chance, by luck or by experience ???

we didn’t do too many portraits, just a few in the afternoon

instead, we spent some time taking some good family photos, I love this idea

the ceremony at the atrium, island shangri la at around 6:30pm

wow !!!! let’s celebrate !!!

what a happy groom !!!!

a happy and touching slideshow that they prepared themselves

hi hi, congratulations !!!!!!

it ’s not an exception for the wedding of vanessa and jacky, without the beautiful bride and groom, their friendly families, the wonderful wedding party and the awesome wedding planner, we could never capture so many nice pictures and video.

If you have seen the same day photo edit of their wedding before, here is their nice wedding video.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the theme wedding

However,  for brenda and Holger, as they live and work overseas most of the time, they love the city landscape a lot that the decision of having the wedding in hong kong is a no brainer and having some portraits with the real face of hong kong is really something they love to have.

that ’s something that is so unique in hong kong

holger in the morning

brenda in the mornig – what a beautiful dress !!!!

the brenda family

the game session

the first meet

a detail shot

the tea ceremony – one of my favourite time of a wedding day that there are always lots of great moments

the busy tea ceremony – love all the facial expressions of all the different people, it’s so interesting to see what they doing at this moment one by one in the photo

a small touch, a great moment

a few portraits in the afternoon in the hotel room

started shooting in Central, guess where I took this?

we had the ceremony in the ballroom at 6:30pm

the childhood slideshow

the farewell time. congratulations !!!

But all the people are different, the dress, the decoration, the family, the light, the smile, the tears are all different, the possibility of photos is just unlimited.

wedding of sam and ryan was early this year,  though a little bit late, it ’s such a beautiful wedding that  I can’t afford not posting their wedding here.

Did you remember sam and ryan? they ‘re the couple that I took the pre-wedding photos at HKU renovation site !!!!

ceremony and reception: grand hyatt hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
makeup artist: joe from hoolala

always having lots of fun taking pictures of them

here is the summary video prepared by ken

I find that “putting on the chinese 掛 ” is always an important and emotional moment in a chinese wedding

sam ’s ready

a special shot of the arrival of ryan

the funny bridal pickup game

tea ceremony. love this shot — like the contrary of the people at the foreground and background

tea ceremony at ryan ’s home

arrival at grand hyatt

we got around 30 min in the afternoon for portrait

ready for the ceremony in the evening

decoration of the reception area

I love this purple color a lot !!!!

got a few minutes to take photos of sam in the ballroom

same day video edit by ken

Let me talk more about this in next few blog posts.

just finished another very happy wedding this week, and love the same day photo edit very much. Hope you like it as well.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the theme wedding (feel so happy to work with a professional wedding planner like them, highly recommend)

I seldom put a photo without a bride as the first photo in a blog post, this is definitely an exception. joji ’s friends prepared an interview video themselves in which lots of joji ‘ s friends shared their happiness and greeting. That video was so touching that made everyone cried.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo

I love this shot as it is not common to capture the emotion between boys in a wedding. hope you enjoy all photos below.

getting ready shots, evelyn is pretty bride, isn’t she ?

preparing the game

they never stopped making fun in front of the camera

the game !!!

tea ceremony

a moment shot with interesting details

arrived at hotel and had a break….. finally ….

just 30 min portrait in the afternoon, I love that arrangement.

the cake cutting

we had the wedding ceremony just before the start of the banquet

congratulations !!!!

lots of emotion to be captured throughout the whole night

joji, your speech had made everyone cry …. …

going to the after party … …. poor guys … …. these gentlemen got trapped in the escalator for one hour (finally got saved by the firemen)

a same day photo slideshow I did in a wedding during the Easter holiday, really love it !!!! every time  I watched it again in last few days, it recalls my memory of all the happiness in the wedding of annie and angus.

so happy to see annie and angus again after their pre-wedding, which is one of my fav photo session last year (you can see that I have used annie ’s photo in my rate card).

I observed a trend recently that I was shooting more and more alone in wedding , there was no 2nd photographer and I am the only paid photographer for the whole day. I always believe the less no. of crew member on the day, the more natural the wedding couple and the wedding party will look in the camera. Sometimes when I read other photographers ‘ blog showing the large no. of crew member ( multiple photographers,  video cameramen, multiple assistants, the AMAZING list of big and large photo/video equipment …. … ), I just feel curious how they can take picture or video without interrupting the flow of the wedding, without getting attention from all the guests around them.

I am not saying it is suitable to have only one photographer for all weddings, but I am lucky that the style and requirement of most of my clients fit this and I feel very glad about it.

here is the same day photo edit for annie and angus

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: peninsula hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
make up artist: Joe of hoolala

you can client the link below for the same day photo edit

a 5 min of DIY video that is full of love and blessing !!!!

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
make up artist: chris wong
hair stylist: harris louie
wedding day video and same day edit: freddy of more production

a DIY video that made all of us laugh and cry

here is the amazing video, don’t miss it!!!

getting ready

ready to go to bethanie !!!!!

we had very beautiful sunset light at the bethanie during the ceremony

a few portrait shots after the ceremony

best friend ’s speech

very nice singing by chapman

eliza was “invited” to sign a “contract” on stage to give chapman PERMISSION to keep his most important interest  — —– playing MAHJONG with his friends …. … hahahahaha

congratulations !!!!!!

I always tell them, my clients are neither models nor celebrities, and most of them are just average persons.  However, every girl in her wedding gown should be the happiest and the most beautiful girl in the world on her wedding day.  So it is always the responsibility of the photographer to capture the best picture for the bride. There are so many ways to make a person look good in a photo (at the same time, there are lots of other way to make a person look bad), and every WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER should spend time learning all these technique (And I am still learning !!!!).

After having said all these, what if we have some really good looking clients?  this is exactly the case for Kristy and Wilson!!! They are such a good looking couple that the pressure is on me, because, if they don’t look good in the photos, the fault is always on me, isn’t it?

Kristy and Wilson, it is a blessing for me to be part of this wedding and thanks for having me as your wedding photographer.

Hope you enjoy the photos below !!!

ceremony and lunch reception: bethanie chapel
banquet: four seasons hotel
make up artist: Man Chan

what a happy newly wed !!!!!

kristy and her father in the morning

the tea ceremony was full of happiness and emotions

love this gentle moment

ceremony at bethanie

the blessing

lunch reception at the roof of Bethanie

my fav bridal shot of the day, we did it at the lift lobby of four seasons

a different way to show the beautiful wedding dress

520 roses, something BIG ‘’s going to happen !!!!!

mother ’s speech

congratulations !!!!

Lucky that I was the only photographer for grace and bobby ’s wedding, no 2nd photographer, no video. By shooting alone and being unobtrusive, uninterrupted and staying focus, it was easier for me to take candid and natural shot like this.

ceremony and lunch reception: repulse bay hotel

nothing happier than having 4 pairs of clients in one single wedding !!!!!! Thank you Grace and Bobby, May and Danny, Kitty and Poon, and Janet and Edmond, very cool !!!!!! Pity that no time to get all of us to be in one single photo. 

the game

when bobby met grace

the tea ceremony

a very pretty wedding ceremony at repulse bay hotel

love this sequence of photo, grace couldn’t hold the tears any more …. …. 

haha, finally could sit down and take a rest

lunch reception in marquee

really love the sequence of photos below during the farewell time — “laughter and tears” !!

having some rest after lunch (but it ’s already 5:00 pm), we took some group shot and portrait, thanks everyone for this shot !!!

grace suddenly told me that she liked to have a shot like this … … it is already 6:00pm and light started to be dim very very soon. In order to catch the last mintues of available light, you can’t believe that we, in fact, did it just somewhere on the ground inside repulse bay (with lots of other people passing by) … …. 

we did go out to stanley market at night, but it was too cold and windy, that we couldn’t stay too long, just a few shots.
hey Edmond, did you see youself in this photo, thanks for holding my softbox, I intentionally didn’t crop you !!!!!

what even worse, my 17″ laptop broken down just before the meeting and the only thing I could bring was a 13″ old laptop. there was not much I could show from this old laptop and you can imagine how embarrassing and unprofessional it was.

some photographer love to do big and grand wedding, some love to do oversea job,  … … … for me, nothing better and important than having clients that are totally trust me and love my work.

Rita and Seto, without your trust, I don’t think I can be the photographer of your wedding. thanks for your support !!!!!

ceremony and reception: peninsula hotel hong kong

my fav shot or shots of the day
nothing special in term of lighting, composition or post processing, it just captured the moment.
a group of friends of rita prepared a photobook and presented it to her at the end of the banquet.
I think the best technique is — being there and no interruption, isn’t it?

getting ready shots. “papa, you ‘ve got a big tummy” hahaha

OMG …. …

tea ceremony, the light from outside was wonderful

what a beautiful dress !!!

we went to the 1881 heritage (outdoor location)  in the afternoon to do some portraits there. tell you a secret !!! while other photographers had  shot hundred times at this outdoor location,  this was my FIRST time shooting there, the photo are not bad, are they??? hahahahah

the reception …. … a small photo corner

they had the ceremony just before the start of the banquet

congratulations !!!!!

I always find that the less crew member there is, the more natural the people  look in front of my camera. Of course, being working alone doesn’t guarantee you good candid photos, you also need other techniques and experience to get it …. ….. still lots to learn.

gisa and chris, one of my fav wedding in last season. a small but very warm wedding. I didn’t start shooting before 4:00pm, and as a winter wedding, you can expect the light is on the low side after 4:00pm, so i had to work in a very low ambient light level for the whole evening. It was even more challenging that the wedding ceremony was held at the bar area inside the fine dining French restaurant Capise  inside four seasons at 7:00pm. what light level can you expect at a bar area after 7:00pm ??? It ’s so dark that I could only see shadow moving around  inside  the viewfinder of my camera … … very challenging !!!!

ceremony and dinner: caprice, four seasons hotel
make up artist: eva of faces make-up studio

my fav shot of the day
love the way they kiss each other, Oh …. ….  so much love inside !!!!
the bar area ’s very small, with all the guests, there ’s not much room I could move around. Before the ceremony, I already planned to take the most important moment at this location,  and hoped to include the  guests in the photo so that you can have a sense of the atmosphere of the ceremony. There is not much light, even I pushed the ISO to over 2,000. flash had to be used, the tricky part is how to balance the flash and ambient light while controlling the light quality of the flash, and didn’t let the flash to kill the atmosphere.  

some of the getting ready shots

what a happy, cheerful bride gisa is

we did a very fast 30min portrait just before the ceremony

other ceremony shots

what a nice and fine dinner location, isn’t it?

When I heard about it, I knew neither until I see all the friendship may and danny have.

I had seen other weddings on internet that people spent million of dollars on their wedding — having the best venue, best food, best crew … … but you can never buy real friendship from your friends.

Feel so blessed that I can be part of this wedding.

ceremony: St. Margaret ‘s Church
reception: hyatt at k11

one of my fav.
Even though they didn’t have a plan or program to dance, everyone rushed out to the stage to dance to celebrate with them. (in fact, there ’s no dance floor). we ‘re being stopped finally by the hotel and feared that the stage would collapse. lol

here is the same day photo slideshow. Before the day, I thought  it would be a challenge for me, as may and danny had a very very simple rundown … … there ’s no game, no tea ceremony in the morning, she was not going to see all the bridesmaids and danny before ceremony, no portrait session planned …. …. but my worries ‘re gone the second I met may and her family, and saw their friends at the church, they are all friendly persons and so nice to me, it ’s really not difficult to prepare this same day edit. All photos in this slideshow are taken using available light (except those inside church where flash is used)
**** if you have high speed internet, click the HD button at bottom right to see the HD version ***

this is my 1st time to have wedding at hyatt of K11, here are a few fav shot there

a big big surprise from friends … … made them laugh and cry

the “unlimited supply” of Sake

watching  my same day photo edit

the crazy party began !!!!