Blog of a Hong Kong Wedding Photographer http://blog.simonthephoto.com "I love taking pictures of wedding !!" -- simon.the.photo Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:04:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en virginia.daniel Time flies, it’s already end of jan.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... virginia.daniel

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2012/01/30/virginia-daniel/ janis.david wedding in macau it was my great pleasure to be part of this beautiful wedding of janis and david in Macau last month. Everything was perfect — beautiful bride, friendly wedding party, and it was one of the sweetest catholic wedding I had ever shot.

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

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2012/01/19/janis-david-wedding-in-macau/ lily.charles Finally got some time to update the blog today. My schedule was crazily packed in last two months, so busy that I had to stop all new client meetings and gave all the priorities to existing clients first. What made things worse, I got fever twice and toothache in this critical period, it’s really not fun to work when you’re sick and didn’t get enough time to rest ………. but this is part of the life that every wedding photographer has to live with ………

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... lily.charles

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/12/13/lily-charles/ less is more … … stephanie.alan 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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... less is more … … stephanie.alan

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/video/2011/10/19/less-is-more-stephanie-alan/ vicky.daniel never thought that the peak season arrive so soon, schedule is fully packed in next few weeks.  In order to maintain quality service to all my existing clients, I made a decision to stop meeting new client before end of Oct (details here) . Understanding that there may be loss of future business, but I think this is far more important  giving the best to my clients than taking business.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... vicky.daniel

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/09/27/vicky-daniel/ a true office love story, ada and kevin Five years ago, when Ada recruited Kevin for her company, she never though this new colleague would turn out to be the another half of her life. As ada said, she thought office relationship was a joke, never imagined that she would find a life partner in the office.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... a true office love story, ada and kevin

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/09/05/a-true-office-love-story-ada-and-kevin/ jessica.ronny It ’s a joy taking photos of the wedding of Jessica and Ronny. Not only I have a beautiful and cheerful bride, Jessica , but also the wedding ’s full of fun as well. As Ronny is a senior management of a record company, there ‘re lots of singers and celebrities as their guests in the wedding.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... jessica.ronny

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/08/29/jessica-ronny/ plest.edward sneak peek of plest and edward ’s engagement session

my fav of the day. it was taken at the stanley military cemetery – one of the most popular photo location for my clients. Even after taking photos there over hundreds times, I still love this location a lot, and I was completely fascinated by the ever changing scene there. The view was different every time I went there because of the diffenence of time, weather, seasons.

locations: inspiration lake, the peak, stanley market, stanley military cemetery our 1st location of the day: inspiration lake of disneyland

another fav of the day !!!!!

we dropped by the peak to take a few photos before we went to the stanley market

next location: stanley market

another fav photo at the military cemetery

congratulations !!!!! Look forward to seeing you two again in your dec wedding !!!!

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/engagement/2011/08/25/plest-edward/ love is everywhere peggy.raymond Many of  my photographer friends and clients asked me why all my weddings are full of touching moments and did I ask or pose them to create the shots?

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... love is everywhere peggy.raymond

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/08/23/love-is-everywhere-peggy-raymond/ kristy and martin while some photographers say  there is no good place for photo shooting in Hong Kong, I think I am lucky as my clients keep on giving me surprises by presenting new and nice locations to me. Thanks Martin for introducing and bringing me to this very nice place — lily and bloom – a very nice bar and restaurant at the LKF tower . As I seldom go out for dinner (I am a family man ), this is my 1st time to be there. At the very first second I stepped into this place, Wow!!!! what a beautiful place !!!

locations: home, lily and bloom in central, stanley market, stanley military cemetery, 1881 heritage in TST

my fav of the day, and it ’s one of the most challenging. the view here was so nice that I chose to use a wide angle lens to capture the view, at the same [......]

Continue reading ... ... kristy and martin

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/engagement/2011/08/08/kristy-and-martin/ it ’s a beautiful day … … wedding video of vanessa and jacky ken and I always believe that we only capture the moments and emotion in a wedding, we are not creating it, it ’s the beautiful couple that gives us lots of good images and moments.

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

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/video/2011/07/25/it-s-a-beautiful-day-wedding-video-of-vanessa-and-jacky/ summer … … I am back … … christie and raymond there is always a “love and hate” relationship with summer time for wedding photographer.

HATE: it is so hot now and it ’s really very tough shooting pre-wedding outdoor, not to mention, the humidity and mosquito … … In addition, there is less wedding (that means less business) in the summer time because of the raining and typhoon weather .. … that ’s why so many photographers organizing oversea pre-wedding tour during this period … …

LOVE: it is the perfect time for me to take pre wedding photo at the beach. shooting photos with your feet in the cool sea water is just a joy. I feel so excited and get inspired if the client loves to have photos on the beach, and I really don’t care if my camera or lens get dirty or damaged with the salty water or the sand. Of course,  I don’t need you to take [......]

Continue reading ... ... summer … … I am back … … christie and raymond

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/engagement/2011/07/22/summer-i-am-back-christie-and-raymond/ brenda and holger When I had the pre meeting with brenda and holger before the wedding day, they had a very special request that they likes to have some portraits  that could really represent the city life of Hong Kong. And we finally decided to have the location photo session at the streets just outside the  Landmark and Alexandra House building. As you can imagine that there is really the busiest area of the Central area, and it’s quite challenging for me. And this is not a common place for photo for most of the my clients as they don’t like it because they work here and this place is too common for them.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... brenda and holger

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/07/20/brenda-and-holger/ cindy.bennalt.1881.rain the weather was not very stable recently, a lot of clients asked me the same question: “if the weather is not good, is there any indoor location that is good for photo shooting?” Honestly, other than shooting inside studio or hotel, I really have no idea of any public indoor location that is good for shooting under rain. Let me know if you know any of this place.

Even though I had shoot under very bad weather conditions before, but I really prefer to shoot under sunshine as there is too much pressure on the couple and it is difficult to protect the equipments when shooting under rain.

Cindy and Bennalt asked me the same question a few days before their prewedding session because the weather forecast was really bad. It turned out that it rained the whole day, and luckily, they made the decision to book a room inside the 1881 heritage [......]

Continue reading ... ... cindy.bennalt.1881.rain

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/engagement/2011/06/26/cindy-bennalt-1881-rain/ sam.ryan I believe that every wedding should be unique, even though you may see the same venue, same hotel, and similar bridal pickup games.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... sam.ryan

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/video/2011/06/20/sam-ryan/ Our backyard garden kavy and ben In last two weeks, I was contacted by several wedding magazines for interview regarding my opinion on oversea pre wedding. So guess what? I turned down all these interviews finally. why? Oversea pre wedding  is getting more and more popular in last two years, it’s so popular that it starts to become a COMMODITY. However, if you ‘ve followed my blog for a while, you may notice that I didn’t do any oversea pre-wedding session in last two years. As I always tell my client —  first, location is the least important element in my photo, second, there are so many places in Hong Kong that are so beautiful, together with the additional time and money required for oversea job, I much prefer staying in hk for pre wedding.

I feel glad (and lucky) that there are still so many clients that love having pre-wedding photos in Hong Kong and always bring [......]

Continue reading ... ... Our backyard garden kavy and ben

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/personal/2011/06/17/our-backyard-garden-kavy-and-ben/ vanessa.jacky same day photo edit just met a client and confirmed a pre-wedding session in july. really feel encouraged as I found more and more clients understand and appreciate my style of wedding photos. Nothing happier than seeing people able to speak out the difference of my photography style to other photographer ’s style.

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)

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/video/2011/06/09/vanessa-jacky-same-day-photo-edit/ helena.jonathan if you follow my blog for a long time, you should know that I am pretty much a woman photographer.  i would say more than 80% of my photos focus on the bride only, even my wedding day photo, the approach is documenting everything happening around the bride.

you may not agree, but I always think that wedding is all about the bride, nothing else.

having said that, it’s surprising that, I have several clients recently that the groom really like playing an “active role” in the photos. Sometimes I really feel that the guy has more concern of his outlook and appearance than the bride does.  hahahaha…….. And Jonathan is definitely one of them.  This is a good thing for sure ….. ….. at least I can feel that he is very serious about the quality of the wedding photos, doesn’t like other guys that just help the brides pay the [......]

Continue reading ... ... helena.jonathan

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/engagement/2011/05/18/lets-get-wet-helena-jonathan/ evelyn.joji I always love wedding full of  smiles, laughters and tears. I feel so touching whenever I see the bride cries. But I find it ’s even more touching when I see the groom and his friends cry.

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 [......]

Continue reading ... ... evelyn.joji

]]> http://blog.simonthephoto.com/weddings/i-do/2011/05/04/evelyn-joji/ we are hiring – part time lighting assistant Hi everyone, do yo like to work with Simon in weddings? I am now hiring a part – time assistant working from May – Sept, 2011

if you have the following characters and abilities, you ‘re the one I am looking for

* Cheerful & out-going

* Prepare to carry equipments for me

* Can work under pressure — trust me, I can be very mad and crazy sometimes

* very FLEXIBLE on the working day (please expect to work on BOTH weekday and weekend)

* good command of english and cantonese

* knowledge of taking photo is NOT required

The part – time assistant ‘ll helps me in the following areas

* taking care of Simon photo session

* taking care of the wedding couple, may need to work VERY CLOSE to the bride

* taking care of all equipments

* setting up lighting equipments

* helping simon communicate with the clients

* shooting behind the scene photos on  some occasions

If you are [......]

Continue reading ... ... we are hiring – part time lighting assistant

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