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

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

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)

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

I am sorry to tell you that there will be an increase of my rate for engagement (pre-wedding photo) session on 1st May, 2011 The new rate card will be released on May 1st , 2011.  If you plan to hire me as your pre-wedding photographer, the old rate will be honored if you confirm the booking (with deposit arranged) before 1st May, 2011.

All bookings will be charged at the new rate afterward.

ceremony and reception: peninsula hotel
make up artist: Mini Chan
video: ken of simon.the.photo
celebrant: anthony lam
decoration: masterpiece wedding decoration

here is the same day video edit by ken of simon.the.photo
ken tried to challenge himself by using a music only (no lyrics) for this same day edit. Like the feeling, so warm and documentary

venue setting up in the morning

a few getting ready shots

beautiful eyes !!!!

the boys having breakfast

the girls ‘re ready

beautiful location for wedding ceremony

congratulations !!!!

laughter and tears !!!!

we didn’t spend much time for portrait on the day, just 30-45 min for that. Here are a few my fav  ”bride and groom” portraits

from having the idea of taking this shot to finishing it, it took less than two minutes. thanks everyone ’s help on it !!!!

the tea ceremony

banquet at the ballroom. Lot of great moments that night!!!!!

wow !!!! it seems gary loves that dress a lot !!!!

showing the same day video edit. Ken, great work !!!!

farewell time

If you like their pre-wedding photo, the wedding day same day photo edit, don’t miss this wedding day video prepared by Ken

ceremony + reception = island shangri la
make up artist = Zi Wan of violet
wedding planner = pink wedding
music and band = ME2 production
decoration = The Mozz
video = ken of simon.the.photo

ceremony and reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong
makeup artist: Man Chan of Miracle (tel:27391988)
music and band: unison production
video: ken of simon.the.photo

my fav bridal portrait of the day, taken at spoon of intercontinental

getting ready shots

the happy wedding party !!!

wow!!!

love all the games of the day, everyone was so involved

the poor groomsman

beautiful words from charles

and the happy tears from rachel

don’t miss to watch the summary video below prepared by ken

split second moment, just have to make sure 100% focus to take this shot !!!

rachel ’s father @ tea ceremony

charles ’s family @ tea ceremony

LOVE this shot – four layers in composition.

the happy charles  family

get ready before the ceremony

after learning that they got to know each other at a wine tasting gathering, then I thoughtwe should take some photos at the wine shelf at the spoon

the ceremony

nice decoration

“my love for you ….. …… ”

we love seeing surprises prepared by the wedding couple.

but we never expect to see so many big diamonds on a wedding day … …

After changing into a evening gown, venice walked into the ballroom from the changing room. To her surprise, “I have prepared a special desert for you” , said kenny. When the dish was uncovered, we saw shining light – it is a  set of diamond jewelry. Under the spot light, kenny helped her to put them on in front of all the guest.

Hi, all the other groom, if you are still thinking of what surprises you ‘d like to give to your bride on the wedding day, you may consider kenny ’s idea !!!!

reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
ceremony: no wedding ceremony on the day
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the plan

love.surprise.diamond

diamond of love

whole day summary prepared by ken of simon.the.photo

get ready shots in the morning

kenny in the morning

the game. kenny was asked to do the proposal again

happy tea ceremony

a beautiful moment at home

changed into wedding gown. As they already had the wedding ceremony before, the rundown of the day ‘re very relaxing, we got an one-hour portrait session inside hotel in the afternoon.

a very very nice veil shot

another surprise prepared by venice. she asked her friends to perform a dance for kenny. Cool !!!

lot of nice nice details of the dress

a touching summary video prepared by ken of simon.the.photo.
Great works!!
it may takes 1-2 minutes to buffer before it plays

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if you can ‘t watch the video above in IE, you can  try the following one

BTW, I asked you to guess where I took the following photos in Four Seasons. Sorry, I almost forgot to give you the answer. Click the following link to SEE !!

this is really a difficult guess!!!! We took it under the coffee table at the lobby !!! I can still remember how shocked the banquet manager was when she saw us. hahahah, don’t worry, I don’t think I can do it again as it would never get another couple as crazy as Charis and Tsui Kit in the future … … Thanks the bridesmaid taking this photo for us, or no one will believe me.

And I have implemented a new commenting system here, now you can link your facebook, twitter or yahoo identity with this blog and no need to re-enter information everytime. TRY IT and see if it works. Big thanks !!!

(update: OK. can’t make the facebook connect to work, give up, give up … … )

Honestly, I personally feel that tsui kit has a “hyperactive” problem , he just never stop, full of energy anytime, anywhere !!!

But, on the wedding day, I learn the other side of him, and it is very touching to me.

In the middle of the day, charis took me into a room and asked me to take some photos of a present that she received the day before – this is the last present she received from tsui kit as his girl friend.

What is it? This is a box full of notes, paper, letter … … Since the 1st day they met eight years ago, tsui kit believed that he ‘s going to spend the rest of his life with charis. Day by day, he wrote down what he felt about charis onto this little notes, paper, he never showed them to charis for eight years, and never told her about this. He kept this box of papers to himself, until the day before their wedding, it became the last present to his girl friend.

what a man, very impressive !!!!

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel
makeup artist: Eva of faces hk
video: ken of simon.the.photo

a box full of love and memories

charis ‘s reading one of the letter

the same day video edit by ken

the flower girl – very adorable

I felt happy to meet a group of happy bridesmaids on the day

“papa, more smile please,” said Charis

the crazy team

love this photo, it is expression of everyone that makes this photo work !!!

a big hug from mama

I love you two !!!!

a getting ready shot – wedding ceremony at four seasons hotel

everyone of tsui kit ‘s family was busy at this moment

when I was taking picture of charis walking down the aisle. I heard someone was sniffing next to me. OMG, tsui kit was non-stop crying already.

the beauty

and the handsome !!!!

when a crazy couple met the crazy photographer
can you guess where I took this shot, feel free to put your answer at the comment below, I ‘ll put the answer a few days later.
[hint: somewhere inside four seasons hotel]

a scene setting shot

are you ready???

tsui kit singing a song – very impressive when he talked about the details of why he choose this song

I shot michelle and tony ’s wedding early Oct – what a beautiful wedding. Though Michelle has a very high standard of requirement of every single detail of her wedding, it ’s not difficult to take picture of them as everyone ’s so nice and always had smile on their faces. After we prepared the childhood video for them, we found out that michelle and tony knew each other when they ‘re still a child and the two families ‘re very close already. So you can imagine how happy the two families are. Congratulations !!

ceremony and reception: JW Marriott Hotel
video: ken of simon.the.photo

I did a same day photo slideshow for them.  All photos are direct jpg output from camera, other then B&W conversion and simple burn and dodge, not much Photoshop editing was done.
The slideshow was re-edited (from 4:3 to 16:9 and a faster song is used) for web display purpose. It may take 1-2 min to load … …

ceremony: St. Margaret ‘s Church

reception: four seasons hotel hong kong

video: tomoko of simon.the.photo

on arrival at the church. Karen was still in the limo, with the reflection of the bridesmaids on the window. My fav photo of the day

the whole day summary prepared by tomoko. A brief introduction of tomoko: she joined my team since last year. Prior to joining us, she has been working with NHK for years and with experience producing over hundred documentary films before. I really love her style – documenting a wedding, with lots emotions and details.

wanson in the morning

bridesmaids in the morning

karen and her mother

karen and her two brothers

still remember MO Chai (毛仔) in their engagement session ??

waiting for wanson

the tea ceremony

the departure time

wow !!!!

nice shoes

preparing for the ceremony

love this shot – it doesn’t work without happy bridesmaids

nice moment

the ceremony

happy karen

crying karen

the crying wanson

two thumbs up !!!

congratulations

love this backdrop, thanks for using the e-session photo on it

“媽咪，你唔好唔開心呀。”Karen said in the video

you can click this photo to see who is who

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 !!!!

cool !! my fav of the day for roger

the first dance

ceremony: the peninsula hotel Hong Kong, garden suite
reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong (day 1) & Kowloon Shangri-la (day 2)
make up artist: gracy of JustGracy
video: ken of simon.the.photo

the boys in the morning

vivian – getting ready at home

ready for the ceremony at peninsula – garden suite

the ceremony

roger, you may kiss the bride

a happy moment

let’ s have some fun, boys and girls

reception at intercontinental

my fav of the day for vivian

a lovely video prepared by them

what about vivian ‘s surprise. she prepared a basketball player balloon for roger. Why basketball? you can take a look at their e-session photos to see why

speech by father

watching the same day video edit prepared by ken

let ‘s celebrate !!!!

congratulations !!!!!

Though the weather was a little bit too hot, I love the idea, especially, we could have a lot of fun with such a big group of awesome people.

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

don’t miss to go to my facebook fans page to see the “making of” video (with the help of 5d mk II)

BTW, the blog software was upgraded in last few days (you shouldn’t notice any difference at the moment), with the upgrade, I can add more interesting features to this blog later. Thanks Kaiser ’s help on the upgrade. If you find any misbehaviour of this blog, pls let me know so that we can correct it asap.

like the color, the pattern and lines.

the dream team !!!!

all the boys

and the girls

nice shoes

the bouquet (in spaceship ??)

the iron cage was taken from a stand of a coffee table. thanks the help from canly and ken

a moment in the morning

love the expression and the feel of action. Mrs Leung (大妗姐) ‘s very good, worked with her so many times.

practicing the jump

two nice shots at jason ‘s home

the bridal room at four seasons hotel. it ’s challanging to take photo as it ‘s quite dark here.

the ceremony at four seasons

very nice decoration – simple and colorful

the table setup

waiting for the march-in. without the new 5d mk II, I was unable to take this shot
technical details: 85 f1.8 wide open at ISO 3200. Amazing noise performance.

the four seasons ballroom

gigi and her sister

a surprise from jason

So the song was so meaningful to him and he sang this song to miranda again on their wedding day.

ceremony: St. Teresa ‘s Church
reception: Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel
video: ken of simon.the.photo

I have to say, anthony is really good at singing, and no wonder he finally won the singing contest in university

and he can play guitar as well !!!

lots of touching moments, don’t miss  watching the video below

summary video prepared by ken of simon.the.photo. it takes 2-3 minutes to load
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beautiful bride

yeah !!!

tea ceremony

love this shot

preparation before going to church

we got wonderful light everywhere that day

ceremony at st.teresa’s church

congratulations !!!

all the bridesmaids are

good friends of miranda at secondary school

location shooting at TST before going to Sheraton

did I say “we had wonderful light everywhere on the day”

my fav of the day !!!!

thanks for all the good memory you gave to me in last two days … … you don’t know how excited i was after the 1st night of your wedding. I was deeply moved by all the touching moments between you two … … the time you spent to prepare the surprise for each other, the words you said to each other, the love you showed to each other, and also the trust you have on me … …. all of these just made me couldn’t hold the tear any more at the end of yesterday.

thanks ken for capturing the memory and preparing this video for all of us.

date: 13 sept 2008
ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong
makeup artist: Maggie Li

love this moment. Joyce has a big group of cousins, they ‘re singing a lovely song  (and dancing) to Joyce. You can imagine that Joyce couldn’t stop crying  …  …

same day video edit
filming and editing by Ken of Simon.The.Photo
We had a little problem playing the video that night, there was some hang up at the last 30 sec. We believe it ‘s caused by the bad burning of the DVD media. I talked about it here because, first, I ‘d like to thank Joyce and Wilson for their forgiveness of our mistake, second, I don’t like to hide my mistake, and just let everyone know, Simon and my team made mistake, we are not perfect, but we ‘ll learn from it and keep on improving ourselves, trust me !!
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nice bouquet

wilson getting ready, like the wedding photos of their parents behind

preparation of the games, can you read the eight Chinese characters

no doubt wilson ‘s enjoying the game very much

waiting for Wilson

a private time of Joyce and Wilson

a big wedding party – 30 bridesmaids and groomsmen in total

Joyce has a very long and beautiful veil, and everyone loves it

Hi, I need some ironing as well.

Wilson … … ready for the ceremony, are you nervous?

Joyce … … ready for the ceremony

adorable – six months old baby – made me think of my daughter at that time

Let ‘s go

ceremony at the Bethanie Chapel

tiny detail, but lovely moment

Let ‘s start, shall we!!!!

beautiful veil, isn’t it?

congratulations !!! Mr. and Mrs. Fok

love this shot, so romantic

I know, I know … … joyce ‘s face was blocked, but this is the only one photo I got. It was so surprising that Wilson carried her suddenly and ran towards the stage.

I went to the 2nd floor to take this shot while they ‘re having the formals

beautiful light, beautiful light !!!!

They mainly used lighting as the decoration of the reception venue, love this concept, beautiful, unique and environmental friendly

the beautiful light pattern of the stage was changed from time to time

nice live music

KISS on stage

gift to parents

the wedding party prepared a very funny video for the newly wed

that made everyone laugh !!!!

In Chinese, mid-autumn festival is a time for family gathering, sharing the good time with your love ones … … it ’s this feeling that made the day so warm … …

date: 14 Sept 2008
ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
reception: Island Shangri-la

here is their same day video edit,
filming & editing by Ken of Simon.The.Photo
it takes 1-2 to load before it plays