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 off the top and get into the water like christie and raymond did in their pre-wedding session, but as least, please take off your shoes and put your feet into the water.

Let’s feel the heat and get wet !!!!

make up artist: polly of faces hk
location: the chinese university of hong kong, Shek O, central

this is the christie at shek O, one of my fav of the day !!!!

this is raymond at shek O, OMG … … Who said I don’t take good photo of the groom?

our 1st stop: chinese university of hong kong

2nd location: shek O

they looked like enjoying it a lot, but in face, it ’s really difficult to stand at this location. thank you for doing it.

let ’s get wet !!!

last stop at central !!!!

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 !!!

location: old central police station, Sheung Wan, Stanley military cemetery, star ferry and Central
make up artist: polly of faces makeup studio

my fav of the day

1st location: old Central Police Station

2nd location: Sheung Wan

3rd location: stanley military cemetery

So you can imagine it  was really a joy taking photo of them!

locations: university of hong kong, Tai Tam, Shek O, Central
make up artist: polly of faces

1st location: HKU
a lot of people asked me if I feel bored always shooting at the same location. Let me tell you something first. Before I became a wedding photographer, I spent lots of time taking landscape photos. that ’s the period I learned the basic of photography and learned seeing light. One thing that I remembered from other masters was, in order to take good landscape photo, you have to understand the place, spend time to observe it, love it.

I think it is the same for location shooting in Hong Kong … …  if you start  to say that there is nothing to take good photo in Hong Kong, you better ask yourself if you ‘ve spent enough  time to understand the place,  to observe it. Even though I ‘ve been to HKU lots of time, the more I go there, the more new photo opportunities I find. Take the following photo as an example, this is my first time to see this natural light on this wooden door, it ’s so beautiful, but at the same time,  I could see that the light and shadow kept moving very fast, so I quickly get alison to get this shot. Within 15 min, the light moved out of the door. A lesson learned, isn’t it?
BTW, don’t miss seeing the mobile phone version of this photos by clicking here

we get beautiful sun light everywhere, all photos below (before sunset) are taken by available light only, no flash is used.

Oh … … beautiful bride !!!

2nd location: Tai Tam

third location: Shek O

too heavy ??????

Canly and Polly !!!!

last stop: central

thank you so much and look forward to your wedding day !!!!

As Gordon said, “Love doesn’t mean being inseparable; it means being separated and nothing changes”

It ’s really a joy taking photos for them, both of them are very nice and kind, and easy to work with. Being based in the states now, they just had their wedding ceremony in Hawaii one week before coming to Hong Kong,  to have a dinner with their relatives here. Even though the stay only last for three days, there ’s no rush on the day as there was not much Chinese rituals to be done. We just spent the whole morning taking photos inside peninsula hotel, then, followed by very nice lunch (thank you wing and gordon), then go to Central to have another hour portrait session.

makeup artist: Gracy of JustGracy
dinner: peninsula hotel
photo locations: peninsula and Central

my fav of the day. except the last two photos taken at central, all photos below ‘re taken by available light only.
love the silk-like texture revealing under the sunlight a lot – a very beautiful dress from Vera Wang. There is another version taken by my Samsung mobile, you can click here to have a look, also not bad as a mobile photo

We only took photos inside the bridal suite of peninsula, yet by playing around the windows light, curtain, sofa and all the different furniture, the possibility are unlimited

beautiful eyes !!!!

another fav of he day — click here to see the “behind the scene” shot to see at where I took this shot

thanks for arranging such nice a lunch for us, this is one of the best crew meal we ever had !!!
click here to see more mobile photo on my facebook page

2nd location: central

the dinner at peninsula – sometimes, there is no need for photographer to always stand at the most upfront position, you may get some interesting shots by trying to move back.

nice play, Gordon !!!

another fav of the day — the very second the dinner and farewell ‘re finished, they couldn’t stop giving a big big hug to each other — looked like just finished a big project

congratulations and hope can see you later !!!

first, when I  arrived at the inspiration lake in the morning (phoebe and julian ‘re still on their way to the park),it was so surprising that the place was already packed with lots of students. Looked like the day was a picnic day for lots of schools and the park was very  popular for school picnic. Within two seconds I uploaded the  photos below to my facebook page, phoebe already left message to me and asked if we need to switch location. you can imagine how difficult to find a quiet place that day … … But I always tell my client that location is not important for me, and I am always looking for color, abstract pattern instead of wide angle landscape in my photos, then, let ’s give it a try

second, when they arrive, the 1st thing that julian told me was “No need to take photo of him”. don’t get me wrong, Julian was a very nice person, but he just really not enjoying any wedding photos at all. hahaha, it may be a big challenge for lots of photographers, but not a big problem for me, as I am always a woman/bride photographer, LOL … …

the day went very well finally, as the park ’s very big, we could still manage to find places for photo shooting, and it’s not bad, it forced me to look for alternatives and explore new photo spots.

Julian is much better than what he told me, and phoebe has a very cheerful personality that it’s really a joy taking photo of them. anyway, I will be shooting their wedding at bali later this year, so looking forward to it !!!!!!

location: inspiration lake at disneyland, wetland park, kam tin, central
make up artist: lesley ho from texure workshop

1st locaton: inspiration lake
photos from my mobile … … OMG … …

found a quiet spot for this photo. not too bad, isn’t it?

in fact, we had very beautiful sun light through out the whole day.

our 2nd location: wetland park, photos from my mobile and lots of students again  @_@

our 3rd location: kam tin, it is my 2nd time taking photo there, really love this location.

there is a very interesting tree house

one of my fav.
love the way all the branches lead your eyes to phoebe and a very unique way to show the dress.
also special thank to phoebe for doing this as she has height phobia @_@

last location: central
Julian saw this photo on my blog before and he really likes it.  this is his only request of  taking  a similar one for him.

thank you and see you two later

also can’t believe that this post is going to be my last one  in 2010. As I am going to have four weddings,  starting tomorrow, crossing the year 2010 / 2011, seems that I am not going to have time updating this blog until some time next week.  This is my 3rd year having wedding shoot on new year eve and I really love celebrating the new year in a wedding. I ‘ll try to upload some photos onto my facebook page from my mobile, stay tuned.

OK, who is the couple to be featured in my last post of the year ???

wendy and princeton. I still remembered the 1st time I met them in a coffee shop early this year. Instead of going through my portfolio, princeton showed me some of the new photography books he just bought and asked me opinions of them. He ’s such a passionate photo lover that asked me lots of questions about photography during the meeting. From my experience, most of the grooms are really not very keen on wedding photos, but princeton is an excepton. you can imagine that it ’s really a joy for me to take photos of wendy and princeton.

locations: home, tai tam, stanley market and  military cemetery, central

1st location: home
one of my fav of the day. Really have to say thanks to canly and princeton for helping me set up the light (it ’s not an easy task for holding the big light in the air for a long long time, not to mention having to control the direction of the light very precisely) like the direction, feathering and quality of the light a lot.
I love the feeling of mystery in this photo and wendy looks so pretty that make me think of the title of this post.

on our way to Tai Tam, we took some photos with princeton ’s Ferrai, cool !!!!

2nd location: Tai Tam, we just stayed there for 15-20 min only

sure, princeton brought along his camera and long lens

will you marry me ??? 

3rd location: stanley market

stanley military cemetery, just enough time to catch the last minute of sunset light !!!!

another fav of the day. 

last location: central
three photos, three different aperture setting, yet maintaining the same look and feel in light quality

awesome pose, princeton!!!!

really thanks wendy for doing this and lay down on the street in central  !!!! look at the picture, it ’s worth !!!!!

thank you !!!!!

Happy new year !!!!!!!

When I first meet Faye and Matthew, I said to myself “OMG, this is such a beautiful lady, lucky me again…..” But faye kept saying to me that she ’s very very nervous as she feel that she ’s not a photogenic person and all her photos don’t look good before. in fact, she ’s so nervous that she couldn’t sleep the night before the photo session.

So, is faye photogenic or not, let the photo tell you

and look forward to their wedding in 2011 !!!!

location: Kam Tin, soho, the peak, central
make up artist: Man Chan of Miracle (tel:27391988)

have you imagined that we can even take good picture inside a 7-seaters van? Faye is changing into the evening gown inside the van, when she finished and I opened the door, oh no, this is the scene what I saw!!!! this is so natural and beautiful !!!!

1st location: Kam Tin
thank you matthew ’s father for arranging such a nice photo location for us in Kam Tin. we had very beautiful available light the whole day that all day time photos below are taken with available light only, no flash is used.

thank Man Chan for providing this beautiful umbrella for us

2nd location: central, soho

3rd location: the peak

as both of them are not located in Hong Kong, I shouldn’t miss taking the night scene of the HK island for them

faye suddenly asked me “can I kiss matthew?” … … it ’s so cute of her !!!!

final location: central.
by now, can you tell if faye is photogenic or not???

locations: soho central, the peak, belair, stanley military cemetery
makeup artist: polly of faces hk

here are my two fav  of the day.

thanks polly for becoming another lighting assistant for me !!!!

by reading my blog, they love the photos at wetland park a lot. it is almost one year since I took photo there last time. I love this place a lot, but it can be tough for clients as it takes almost 20 min walk going to the wooden bridge and it can get very very hot during the summer times.

this photo session was done in sept when the weather was still very hot. I can still remember rene got completed exhausted after taking photos at the bridge. who says it is easy to get good photo ???

anyway, thanks for coming, and hope you did enjoy the photo session and the shopping in Hong Kong

locations: wetland park, inspiration lake, university of hong kong, central, tsim sha tsui
make up artist: polly of faces hk

we found lots of new shooting locations at wetland park this time. 

finally, we arrived at the bridge !!!!

2nd location: inspiration lake

3rd location: university of hong kong. 

night shoot: central pier

tsim sha tsui

star ferry 

Having said that, shooting at new location can be fun, especially in a pre-wedding session. It can be very  challenging as I have to explore the new location and lighting condition in a very limited time.

a very special set of pre-wedding photos for me , thanks kalam and nelson for bring me to some very interesting locations !!!

locations: central, tai tam, dragon i, tazmania ballroom

one of my fav bridal shot for kalam, shooting inside dragon i

before we started, we took a few photo at home

1st location: central. we walked around explored a lot of new places

cool !!!!

shooting inside a chinese herb tea shop

like the dress and the glowing light !!!!

2nd location: Tai Tam

dragon i

tazmania ballroom

another fav of the day !!!

night shot in central

So a lot of my clients arranged interesting  indoor locations for pre-wedding shoot recently. Places such as bar, cafe, hotel, club house, school or chapel are not uncommon. It was both fun and challenging to me as all these locations are very new to me and some of them ‘re even my 1st time to be there.

This time, phoebe and ricky, brought me to a hotel called Luxe Manor in TST – a very nice and modern hotel. As they are going to have their wedding ceremony there later this year, it has  extra meaning for them having per-wedding photos session there.

locations: Dada Bar + Lounge of Luxe Manor, Central, HKU, ifc

our 1st location: Dada Bar + Lounge of Luxe Manor
one of my fav. of bridal shot for phoebe. just a simple curtain inside the bar, but I like the color and the lighting a lot.

2nd location: Central

3rd location: HKU, the main building was still under renovation, so I tried to explore some other interesting spots

final location: ifc

after 3 weeks’  holiday, I resumed shooting last week. (in fact, just no shooting, but still lots of post processing works).

It was a wonderful holiday – shulin started her two-years old  class two weeks ago, and I could stay in the classroom on the first few days and this was really  a wonderful and joyful experience.  Shulin now have to stay in class on her own, and she gets used to it very soon, just cried on the 1st two days. It is very amazing that children can learn things so fast and she really brings lots of happiness to us.

Apart from the several pre-wedding shoots these two weeks, it is so busy this week – we are going to leave our home in new territories and move to kowloon by end of this week. We have been living in Tai Po for over 10 years, this was such a good place to live,  with lots of good memories and  beautiful scenes (sun rise, the tolo harbour and all the trees and birds outside). Having said that, we decided to move so that it spends less time for shulin travelling to and from the school. So you can imagine my home is full of boxes already … … busy packing.

I wish I  can still manage to squeeze some time updating the blog next few days … …. Here is the pre-wedding session of tushiyyah and benny, one of fav session I did before the holiday. hope you enjoy all the photos below.

BTW, we  just exceeded the mark of seven hundred thousand (700,000 ) visitors here, thanks for all your support !!!!

location: St. Stephen College, Shek O, Pottinger Street (Stone Slab Street)

this is my fav shot of tushiyyah. it was taken at a corner at Pottinger Street. It was very very dark, and I challenged myself using several lights in this shot. 3 lights ‘re used with a mix of flashes and LED light, all with different color gel and light modifier (softbox, grid, barn door … …). like this shot a lot, looks so beautiful and all the lightings give a very 3 dimenional look to it.

our first stop: St. Stephen College

we took lots of great shots inside the library !!!!

second stop: Shek O. Got a lot of new ideas to shoot this time

Oh Canly, how could you do that????

another fav of the day, so beautiful and peaceful !!! This was a new angle for shooting I found in shek O

thanks for lying on the sand for this shot !!!!!

last stop: Pottinger Street

It ’s a hot sunny day pre-wedding for charlotte and kelvin. walking on the main stanley market street, we ‘re all attracted by the mini bus selling ice-cream. Without much thought, I asked them if they like to have ice-cream for the photos.  That ’s how I got the photos below …. ….

“Dont’ limit yourself by the location, the limit is only your imagination”

locations: inspiration lake, stanley market, central

don’t miss this behind the scene video. BTW, I started using a new video player that enable html5 video playing on mobile devices. You can try watching using your iphone or iPad, let me know if you have any problem playing it.


1st locaton: inspiration lake

love this shot. this is a big challenge  as it was a sunny day and the sun is very high creating harsh shadow. This can be a nightmare shooting outdoor at this time of the day.  Thanks everyone helping me to prepare the shade, the reflector to modify the light to get this beautiful shot

so pretty !!!!

2nd location: stanley market

the white

and the black

the sleeping beauties

last location: central

thanks everyone !!!

My answer is always, “for my photo shooting style, location is not important at all. shooting wide in pre-wedding session is not my favorite, instead, I am always looking for light, abstract details and emotions before looking at the background”

when I posted on my facebook that HKU is under renovation last month, I got lots  of emails and messages from clients that expressing their worries that it ’s not good to take photo there. My answer to them, ” don’t worry, it ’s going to be OK”

trust me, the background of a location is the least factor for me to consider. With a happy couple (this is more important for me), good lighting  and imagination, everywhere is possible for  good photos.

again, there is no limit, the limit is only your imagination.

location: HKU, Central SoHo, Shek O, Central (night shoot)
makeup: polly of faces hk

big challenge. Can you believe that it was taken at a building renovation site at HKU????

one more

the behind the scene shot (more bebind the scene shots at my facebook page)

1st stop: HKU

funny couple !!!

I did a few special ring shots on the day

2nd stop: soho central, gettting changed at my studio

3rd stop: shek O

another special ring shot

beautiful sunset light !!!!

the yoga master !!!!

last stop: central

nice dress !!!

I feel so happy and relax now that I am going to have a break in next three weeks, no more photo shoot in next three weeks. finally, have time to relax, can spend more time with shulin (shulin is about to go to  school, and I ‘ll accompany her in the 1st two weeks ‘ school time, so exciting !!!! after that, she has to attend class on her own)

To my surprise, my schedule was fully packed in last three months, the number of weddings and pre-weddings reached a record high during that time. I never expect there ‘re so many bookings as it was a low season during this period of time because of the hot and rainy weather and oversea pre-wedding shoot is so popular nowadays.

I ‘d like to express my thanks to all the clients that love my photo style, love taking pre-wedding in hong kong, and their love of the summer heat !!!

I also feel so lucky that all my clients are so unique, and have all the trust on me. here is the sneak preview of mr. and miss bunny ’s prewedding session.

locations: polytechnic university, Wan Yan College, shek O, central
makeup artist: amy ng from allure make up

my fav of the day !!!! I have this image in my mind for a long long time, I even drafted lighting diagram on paper. But I have to wait ….. wait for good timing, wait for great color of the sky, and  the sea cannot be too rough …. …. and most important, have to wait for a suitable couple, trust me, I would not ask clients to do something that are not suitable for them. thank bunnies for helping me in this shot. And also special thanks for canly, you can’t imagine how difficult to set the light in water !!!

our 1st stop – hong kong poly university. We didn’t stay long, just 30 min for a few photos.

our 2nd stop: Wan Yan College. we started in a very beautiful chapel

after photo taking in the chapel, bunnies changed into their high school look – it ’s such a good idea that they could get more relaxed and we got photos with very different style and showing funny  side of their characters

really impressed by miss bunny – lots of preparation for this style. even the hair style – she tried to make it a little messy !!!!

3nd stop: shek O, so many people there …. …

wow!!!!!! 2nd fav of the day. don’t miss to see the preparation video of this shot on my facebook page

what a beautiful sunset at Shek O !!!!

last stop: central

what a funny couple – 真係估你唔到 !!!

thank you so much for the happy time. bunnies, see you later !!!!

Nothing easier than having a gorgeous and pretty bride, cheerful personality, beautiful locations, all in one single engagement photo session.

locations: Hullett House Hotel @ 1881 Heritage, Shek O, Central
make up artist: elaw wong @ The Look studio

Our 1st stop: 1881 Heritage
it ’s easy taking photo of jasmine, isn’t it?
and the Qi Pao ’s very very pretty !!!

the beautiful location at 1881 Heritage

bathing together????

shots done inside the beautiful bathroom

our 2nd stop. Wow!!!! What a different look of jasmine and johnson !!!!

Oh … …. jasmine couldn’t stop laughing … … because of all the sweat and oil … … on johnson ’s  forehead

the beach was crowded that day, but we could try to include them to create interesting picture

a happy day!!!

last stop: central
wow!!!!!!!! so tall

beautiful picture. BTW, I think Johnson forgot to take out his mobile from his pocket, hahaha, need to work on it in the post-processing

last photo of the day. I was trying (and experimenting) something new. Still trying … …  More on that later … …

With such beautiful weather, most of the photos ‘re shot using available light only this time.

location:  Stanley Market, Tai Tam reservoir, Shek O, Central

one of my fav of the day – taken at the Tai Tam reservoir

love this shot so much, very beautiful sunlight from the back

at the top of the world !!!

1st location: stanley market

2nd location: Tai Tam reservoir

3rd location: shek O

beautiful light !!!!

last stop: central

tired … … time to say good bye :-p

everything was in a rush this time, when jojo and afred confirmed their booking, it was only three months left before their wedding day in early July next month. And we just did the engagment shoot last month. As we didn’t have much time left, we couldn’t postpone the shooting even though the weather forecast was very very bad (with thunderstorm ).

It was good that it didn’t rain at all when we started soho central in the morning. Our original 2nd location was Shek O. When we arrived, the weather was still looking good. However, the very second we finished our lunch, jojo had her costum change and I pressed the camera shutter, it started pouring !!!!! And we had to wait and wait in car, yet it didn’t look like the weather ‘d get better.

Finally, we only got three photos in Shek O (YES, only three photos), and decided to continue the shooting in afred ’s home then. So lots of time was wasted on the travelling and waiting in the afternoon. When we arrived at alfred ’s home, it was already 5:00pm, time is running out, we didn’t have much available light left, location was new to me.

It was blessing that, I had an awesome couple and still got lots of great photos, even with so much limitation and constraint. I had to give big thank you to jojo and alfred for their trust.

With such a short time, we couldn’t get all photos edited to produce the album. But a few photos will be selected for canvas and montage production.

JoJo and alfred, see you again in July.

locations: soho central, alfred ’s home, club house of Leighton Hill
makeup artist: Zi Wan

nice photo at alfred ’s home

the rain didn’t stop, yet we finally decided got to the roof and stay under the rain for two minutes to get this shot. Thanks jojo and alfred for making this shot!!!

1st location: SoHo, central

2nd location: alfred ’s home

last location: club house of Leighton Hill

shooting in school is getting more and more popular in recent months’ pre-wedding sessions. I have already been to different schools 4-5 times just in last two months.

But I never have a couple dressed in their school uniform. Kimmie and Leo are the first this time.

I never suggest wearing school uniform to my clients before, as I think it is not suitable for every client and the photos can look cheesy sometimes. I have seen lots of “school uniform pre-wedding photos” on internet that look awful, with wrong setup, wrong makeup, wrong pose … ….

So when I started the photo session of kimmie and leo, I have a little bit of worry, but that feeling was gone once I pressed the shutter. Why? look at the photos below, they just look like real students, and look so cute !!!!!! A big thumb up to them, not only they have prepared the school uniform, they also got school handbook, “perfect” badge as well. Also have to give a big thumb up to make up artist gracy, very very natural make up!!!!

makeup artist: gracy of JustGracy

they told me that they had lots of happy memories in this little corridor

e … .. 乜咁轎呀

thank you for all the supporting actresses !!!! haha, we met a few “real” students and got them to have photos with us

wow!!!!

we couldn’t stop laughing when we started to do this kind of “standard” pre-wedding pose … .. look so funny when dressed in school uniform :-p

our 2nd stop – after shooting in school, they didn’t have any idea where to go, so I suggested them going to my new stuido and this is my 1st time shooting on the elign street. And guess what? we spent more than 1 hour there finally.

night shooting at IFC – love this head piece prepared by gracy

tried something new and funny this time. Cool !!!