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.

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………

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 !!!!

And it was even worse that the wedding started at park island — a place where we could only go by either bus or ferry, no taxi, no private car. Just imagine how bad it can be with thunderstorm when we are getting off the bus with all the equipments and bags we have.

just giving you an idea of the things we (Canly and I) bring on a wedding day

• my thinktank skin set for carrying lens around during shooting
• lowepro rolling bag for carrying all unused items from one place to other
• manfrotto bag for carrying all light stands
• Newswear chestvest for canly carrying all flashes and lighting accessories around
• a two steps ladder
• a 15″ laptop for doing same day photo slideshow

So what happened finally? The wedding was full of blessing !!!!! Yes, we did have thunderstorm, but only when we ‘re indoor, during the ceremony, inside hotel or on shuttle bus. Whenever we ‘re outdoor at park island, at bethanie chapel , at park view hotel, the weather was so good and sunny !!!!!

Even though I prepared umbrella, rain coat, rain cover for my bags, we didn’t need to open them at all !!!

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: parkview hotel
makeup artist: rainbow (tel: 92586602)

Here is the same day photo slideshow.  the song is changed for web display purpose.
(It takes around 2-3 min to buffer the video before it plays, be patient)

You may notice there are several wedding locations/venues got very very popular among my clients.

for reception venue, AMC, four seasons, peninsula, island shangri la and repulse bay are the most popular

for church, bethanie chapel, St. Margaret church – almost go there once every week during the peak season.

Shooting at the same location every week is a good and bad thing – you get very familiar with the places, but easily get bored at the same time. To avoid getting bored, I ‘ll try my best to get a few new and creative shots every time, if I can get 2-3 new shots on the day, then I am satisfied, and don’t have pressure at all for the rest of the day. 2-3 new shots may sound too less for you, but please remember, we may have over 20 weddings in a month during the peak season, that translates to creating 40-60 new shots in a month, it ’s pretty challenging in fact.

here are the 2-3 new shots in the wedding of vivian and vincent.

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: four seasons hotel hong kong

love love this shot !!!! with this camera position, I always scared that I would fall onto the bride one day (touch wood !!!). the wedding ceremony was at 1200pm, so the chapel was very bright with diffused light from all directions. One flash (just outside the top of the photo) was used to create the dramatic lighting of this portrait. The challenge here is to confine the light to the bride only

another off camera flash shot, flash was just outside the top right corner of the photo.  To make it look like a window light from the top of the chapel, had to position the flash very very high.  Also have to balance the color, size and direction of the light very carefully to make it look natural.

another fav of the day. Here is the corridor connecting four seasons and the podium of IFC. There is a big mirror with very beautiful pattern. I tried to challenge myself to shoot in front of the mirror, but without seeing my image in the mirror reflection.

some of my fav shots in the morning

Oh !!!!!

vivian is a happy bride, isn’t she?

ceremony at bethanie

so much in love

congratulations

thanks everyone ’s help to get this shot done

a few other portraits after the ceremony. I put a flash outside the window to create the “sunset” look.

reception at four seasons

nice backdrop and evening dress

same day video edit

lots of happy moments !!!!

As you know, in Hong Kong, we have two big fireworks show over the Victoria harbour every year (one is on the 2nd day of Chinese new year, the other is on the 1st of Oct National Day).

In 2009, we had three fireworks show because of the 2009 Asian games opening on Dec 6th.

nothing ‘s luckier than the year of 2009, I had outdoor weddings in two of the fireworks shows and was able to watch the show very close at a very comfortable location. Jennifer and Fan ‘s wedding ‘s one of the two. The couple came from Shanghai to have their wedding in Hong Kong, with only their best friends and close families ‘re invited.

ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: sevva, Central
makeup artist: Man Chan of Miracle

To be honest, I am not very good at shooting fireworks as I didn’t shoot any fireworks before in Hong Kong and tried to avoid the crowded places. Luckily, the photos turned out good, IMHO.

sevva, a very nice location!!!

beautiful shoes with lots of details

very nice QiPao – and Jennifer brought out the best of it !!!!

a moment during the tea ceremony. Love this shot.

changed into wedding gown. Always love to work with Man Chan – she ’s very professional and nice.

we went to HKU for a 30 min location shooting before the ceremony. Here are two of my fav

beautiful chapel as always

congratulations !!!

who is the lucky child?

beautiful wedding gown

jennifer ‘s helping setting up the venue

cake cutting in front of the HSBC, COOL !!!!

love the smiles from mother behind

Fan ‘s speech

I just had the last weddings yesterday, and will have a few days’ break before the 1st wedding in 2010.

Another beautiful wedding I did on Monday – jennifer and chiu, I did the same day photo slideshow myself. There ‘re so many great images that I had no difficulty preparing the slideshow, it only took me two and a half hour to prepare it (from image transfer, photo selection, editing, slideshow preparation, to video rendering … )

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: Harbour Plaza metropolis, Patio
video: ken of simon.the.photo

pls click the following link to see the same day photo slide

here is the same day photo slideshow. it may take 1-2 min to load
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if you can ‘t watch the video above in IE, you can  try the following one

“natural” – to be natural, I tried to be as little intrusive as possible on the wedding day, just capture the moment (of course, in a beautiful way)

“happy” – that ‘s difficult, I can only capture the happiness but couldn’t create it for my client. I have seen so many clients that got upset by little details of wedding or pushed by the fully packed schedule. It is pity that they just couldn’t enjoy the “big day”

If you asked me to choose one of the happiest wedding in this season, janet and edmond  ‘s wedding is definitely one of them. Not only you could always see smiles from them, but truly beautiful smile !!!!!
BTW, Janet looks very very slim and fit. Guess why? ….. ….. She is a yoga instructor …. …. No wonder !!!!

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)
makeup: penny of faces hk
hair stylist: jennifer (worked with her a few times, love her hair styling)
video: ken of simon.the.photo
Civil Celebrant: michael Lai (highly recommend)

my fav bridal portrait of janet

the happy couple

getting ready shots – lots of cameras. From bottom left to right. Janet ‘s boss Nitai, penny from faces, Frances – friend of Janet, and Ken of simon.the.photo

all my team members agree that  Janet can also consider doing toothpastes commercial actress. Beautiful smile and teeth!!!

the “panda” groomsmen

the game

janet and father waiting for edmond and enjoying the game

ceremony at Bethanie Chapel

love this shot – good moment, framing and lighting

I do

I do

a very very beautiful moment

couldn’t hold the tears

a few portraits after the ceremony

at edmond ‘s family

rushing to AMC to catch the final sunset light at the pier

the long and tired tea ceremony time

same day video edit by ken of simon.the.photo
Thanks Janet and Edmond for enjoying the video so much !!!!!
love this sequence of shots

congratulations

Even it could be very tired sometimes, I feel blessed as we had lots of beautiful weddings and people in last few weeks.

The beautiful wedding of Christy and Plato in early Oct.

ceremony: the bethanie chapel
makeup artist: Eva of faces hk
reception: Langham Hotel

the two photos below are my fav of the day – both taken at University of Hong Kong (after the ceremony)

Beautiful light and perfect timing of the flying veil !!!

Really love this photo – A corner at HKU that I never thought we could take good photo before.

father and daughter

the bride pick up game session

yes, I make it !!!

happy moment

I love shooing tea ceremony, always lots of touching moments

nice available light

gorgeous !!!!

ceremony at Bethanie

happy bridesmaids

a long long match – in line

who’ s the lucky bridesmaid ??

congratulations !!!

I love this pic !!!

another pic at HKU

reception: Langham Hotel -  love this backdrop

happy parents

touching moment

1) it is really a beautiful place, and has lots of photo opportunity both inside and outdoor

2) compared to to other catholic church, we can have more time and flexibility. Recently, I had a very very bad experience at the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception – it was a rainy day and it rained so bad after the ceremony. Even thought there is no other wedding or event after my clients ‘ ceremony, we ‘re all forced to go outside …

3) It is not uncommon to have wedding after wedding for other catholic church.

4) If you have time, you can have a very nice cocktail at the studio at the roof (you can take a look at andrea and ken ‘s wedding here)

getting ready: Excelsior Hotel
ceremony: the bethanie chapel
reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)

video: Ken of simon.the.photo

My fav ceremony time at Bethanie is after 4:00pm – beautiful sunset light

some interesting details shots

a very special ring shot. I use their engagement session album to hold the rings.

kahing and the groomsmen in the morning

kaman and her father

don’t cry, don’t cry

when kaman met kahing

the happy wedding party

preparing to go to Bethanie …… I love this shot

kahing practicing uncover the veil …

my fav bride image of the day

ready to go !!!!

ceremony @ bethanie

nice place, isn’t it?

plenty of free time after the ceremony

did I say we have beautiful sunset light?

congratulations !!!!

karen and larry had a very bad weather on their wedding day, but it didn’t stop them enjoying the day as you can see from the photos below.

And believe me, miracle can happen !!!

ceremony: the bethanie chapel
reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)
make up artist: gracy of JustGracy
decoration: gary.kwok flowers
video: one shot production

how bad is the weather? take a look at these two pic below

Nice !!!

preparation of the game. Not only the bride and groom enjoyed the day very much, but we got a happy wedding party as well

ready !!!

change into the wedding gown

ceremony at the bethanie chapel

my fav of the day, lovely !!!!

congratulations !!!!

mr. and mrs. Szeto

a few portraits at bethanie after the ceremony

Did I say miracle? We got magic sunlight after the ceremony

the banquet ‘s full of touching moments —- karen ‘s mother

larry ‘s giving a surprise to karen

how good was larry ‘s keyboard playing and singing, you may know a little bit from karen ‘s expression

love this shot so much !!

the first dance

love the light effect !!!

I can’t believe 2008 became a history so fast. It is a very challenging and meaningful year for me – the arrival of Shulin changed everything, and it was also the most busiest year since I started taking wedding photo in 2005.

I am excited to have the wedding of kitty and john to end 2008 – my 2nd time to have a new year eve count down wedding at four seasons hotels.

date: 31 dec 2008
ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Four Seasons Hotel HK

Happy new year from Ken, Canly and Simon !!!!! Waiting for the countdown !!!!! You can see more crazy “behind the scene” photos on my facebook fan pageppy

We had 1 hr for location shooting in the afternoon, as most of their friends came from oversea, Kitty ‘d like to go with the whole wedding party to some interesting locations in Hong Kong. We decided to go to Central, and finally we went to the “大排檔”on the stanley street.

The schedule in the morning was rush as we had to leave for Bethanie at 0930. just a few get ready shots were taken

leave for Bethanie Chapel

the happy bridesmaids

ceremony at Bethanie

the arrival of the bride !!!!

waiting for this moment

this was a religious ceremony

love this shot

kiss the bride

mother of John gave blessing to the newly wed

congratulations !!!! Mr. and Mrs. Koeshadi

same day video edit made everyone laugh !!!

Kitty sang two songs for John – 我願意 and you raised me up

the count down time

congratulations !!!!!!

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 !!!!

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)

It was so happy to take photos of such a group of funny bridesmaids

get ready shot of Andrea

wow !!!!

the bouquet

An extraordinary kiss

a beautiful bride

at Bethanie, I love this moment — Andrea ’s father looking at her

I love this place

after the ceremony, they had a party at the studio above

taking a few shots of andrea during the party

andrea and her best friends

after the party, we had a 30 min photo session

one of my fav of the day

We got a lot of beautiful shots here

wonderful couple, wonderful location

at intercontinental

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

getting ready — Christy ’s father

beautiful christy

the lovely flower girl helping Christy

The wedding party enjoyed the game session very much and I could take a lot of great shots

Wow !!!

ceremony at the Bethanie Chapel

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Lam !!!!!

a shot by my assistant  (Siu B)

Private photo session – a corner inside Bethanie

their wedding rings

We only had a few outdoor photos — this was one of them. taken at the swimming pool of the hotel. In fact, it was still raining, and they had to hide under the tent.

dancing inside the hotel

we walked around inside the hotel to find photo opportunities … ..

we even went to the car park for this photo

the reception

cake cutting !!!

Ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
Reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)

My fav of the day. I love taking picture of putting on the veil. Not only it looks beautiful, it also marks the change of a lady into a bride

Gwen ’s sister and the bridesmaids ‘re helping her

Looks gorgeous, doesn’t she?

I love this picture — a nice curtain at the back and nice windows light from the left

a happy moments between Gwen and the bridesmaids

Before the ceremony, we had 15 min portrait time at the Bethanie.

A long waited moment

A top shot by my assistant "Siu B"

the father ’s giving away the bride

a very nice chapel

the paper signing. I shot this pic at the back of the chapel

another nice shot by "Siu B"

Hi Hi !!!

They kept talking and laughing all the time, it ’s not difficult to take picture of them

We got 30 min to take some portrait before we went to AMC. I really love this location, we got a lot of colored window light and look at the window pattern at the top right corner, it is just beautiful

Another nice location with beautiful light from the door outside. and there are lots of details on the door — something we can’t fine in other locations.

dancing with the bride

Thanks Gwen and Ian waiting for this moment. Instead of going to AMC, we waited for the sunset and went to the top floor of the Bethanie to take this shot

Another sunset shot

Congratulations. I believe we broke the record again, can you count how many of us in the pic?