ceremony: kau yan church
reception: island shangri la
makeup artist: polly of facehk
video: ken of simon.the.photo

havn’t been uploading video here for a long time. I ‘d like to upload more video, but it really takes time for video conversion and uploading. Let me upload more videos from Ken in next two weeks.

did you notice that I posted less and less portrait photos on wedding day posts? I found that most of my clients love my photojournalist style on wedding day. Yes, we still do some portraits, but it usually doesn’t take more than  10-15 min. The followings are some of my fav portraits of Jo – which we did under 5 min (just before we left the church and still able to catch the last few min. of sunset light from windows)
as time is very short.  we only used available light and NO flash or video light was used. But the result was still stunning !!!

desmond in the morning

the bridesmaids

the beautiful bride – jo

the game

meeting the bride

meeting desmond ’s family

big family

the wedding gown

wow !!!!!!

arrived at  kau yan church

praying before ceremony

a big chaos for managing 4 pairs of flower boy and girls

ceremony at  kau yan church

something interesting at the back

congratulations !!!!

jo and desmond sang a song after the ceremony

reception at island shangri la. You can not imagine how much works involved in the photo, will be shared in later blog post

friends of jo. preparing hand made cake for the reception !!!!

gift for guests

reception about to start

desmond prepared a song for jo

see how much jo enjoyed this moment !!!!

same day video edit by ken of simon.the.photo

thank you jo for your big thumb up !!!!!!

However, I couldn’t wait to write up the wedding on last sat – vickie and joseph.

if you are a long time reader of this blog, you may already know vickie is my assistant during the period of 07-08. Since I knew her wedding day, I was so looking forward to this date.

vickie, you ‘re super gorgeous on the day !!!! Here is a sneak preview of the day.

ceremony: st. teresa church

reception: mandarin oriental Hong Kong

makeup artist: polly of faces hk

one of the fav bridal portrait at st. teresa church

the happy getting ready shots in the morning

becoming a hair stylist ????

joseph in the morning

the game – bridesmaids vs groomsmen

“baby 抱抱”

tea or champagne ceremony ???

all the happy girls

vickie and her beautiful wedding gown

behind the scene – busy steaming of the veil during the tea ceremony

ready to go !!!

details of the dress

ceremony at st. teresa church

so cute !!

congratulations !!!!

one of my fav bridal portrait at mandarin oriental

a happy party

yeah !!!!

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 !!!!

The Catholic Cathedral is not very popular for me, only have 4-5 weddings there every year.  Personally, I don’t like all these big catholic church, specifically, their arrangement on wedding day. All of them just look like a wedding factory (sorry about this term), 4-5 weddings a day, one after the other, crowed with all different groups of people,  time is always very tight and makes people nervous.

Have said that, all these catholic Churches are very beautiful, both outside and inside.  I shot the wedding of Valerie and Andrew at the Catholic Cathedral in last wedding season. Love this couple – always had smile on their face, especially Andrea, you could hear the big laughters from him (something like haha haha) throughout the whole day.

ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
reception: peninsula hotel
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: Noel Chu

Love the following pic a lot. My fav shot of valerie of the day. When we arrived, there ‘re so many people at the church (from previous wedding). And Valerie had to wait inside the limo as there is no bridal room there … … Look at the way Valerie looking at the church, you can see how much she looked forward to her own wedding. Always love this kind of window reflection shot, the results are always unexpected !!!

nice rings. taken by the Ricoh GRD III.

a very nice invitation card. Both Ken and I wondered how we could  capture this special metallic feel, finally we decided to put some water drops on it. Not bad ar !!!

wedding gown by Noel Chu. Lots of details !!!

ready !!!

the crying father behind.
Lots of emotion on a wedding day. As a wedding photojournalist, we have to keep focus on what ’s going to happen.
love the layering of this pic

another limo shot during the wait – lucky we had a ceiling light inside – just strong enough to make this shot

the ceremony

“I do”

the crying valerie

don’t cry baby

we are the final wedding of the day, so we could do a few portraits inside after the ceremony.

very special decoration at peninsula

it ‘s not easy that jodie and alvin could be together today.

It ‘s a long story … … one day when jodie flipped through some old books, she found a letter. it was a letter that alvin wrote to her over 10 years years ago. At that time, jodie didn’t notice alvin at all and had no interest developing any relationship with him.

out of curiosity after she saw this letter again,  she searched alvin ‘s name on ICQ (still remember ICQ ??). Guess what ?? Alvin ‘s ICQ account popped up at the top of the search. Despite the fact that alvin was already working aboard, they started to communicate through ICQ for two years and that ‘s how they started their relationship.

it is a miracle and god ‘s work that they exchanged the vows, the rings in the church today. A wedding that ‘s full of happiness, joy and tears.

ceremony: 循道衛理聯合教會安素堂
reception: hong kong parkview

Look at alvin! This is what love and happiness are !!!! My fav of the day !!!

happy bridesmaids

waiting for the arrival of the groom

when alvin met jodie

moments during the tea ceremony

no special lighting, no special location
it ‘s just their happiness that makes this photo stands out

waiting for the start of the ceremony

beautiful jodie !!!

the ceremony is about to start

hey, all my petals are gone !!!

nothing to say … … photo speaks for itself

I am yours … …

lovely details

15 min bridal portrait session after the ceremony

another fav of the day.

we ‘re married !!!!

reception at parkview

congratulations !!!!

I knew lina when she was a secondary school student and I was her bible teacher in church at that time. How time flies and she is going to marry next year !!!!

Hi Lina, hope you like this set of photos – a special gift for your wedding.

makeup artist: polly of faces hk
photo location: HKU, Shek O, Central (night)

one of my fav. Look at the dress, can you believe that we had a natural wind in the pic ??

our 1st location: HKU

so cute !!!

day time: lina looks elegant

2nd location: Shek O. Look at them !!! very very different style at Shek O …

we love sunshine

so colorful !!!

Raymond ‘s cool, isn’t he?

last location: Central

another fav of the day

this was taken at the entrance of a bar on Wyndham Street

Hi Cherry and Freddy,

I love you and thanks for your support and trust !!!!

ceremony: st. andrew ‘s church
reception: langham place hotel

so happy that freddy can fly … …

I said “happy bride, happy bride”

then I said, “beautiful bride, beautiful bride”

let ‘s go , baby !!!

before going to church, I had a one hour bridal portrait at the railway museum

that one is cool !!!

cherry ‘s ready, waiting for the start of the ceremony

the church was fully packed with friends

a view of the church from the back

listening to the choir … … remember to smile

I do, I do

Hey, how ‘re the rings ??

not only we had happy couple, but happy bridesmaids as well.

congratulations

the happy and funny bridesmaids

a few bridal portraits after the ceremony

the bouquet toss … …

cherry loves this dress, so we tried to shoot a few portrait with it, before guest coming

behind the scene – two off-camera flashes ‘re used for the above photo, one (CTO gel and held by canly) shoot through white umbrella on camera right, another one (CTB gel) held by Ken on camera left and shoot through a plant (sorry, couldn’t remember where ken got it) to create the blue pattern on ceiling

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

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 !!!!

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

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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 !!!!

A moment after the ceremony … …

“Alice, I have something to say to you … …”  said Ronald. “But, I don’t know how to say it … … ”

“So, I prepared a letter for you”.

Ronald brought out a letter from his pocket, passed it to Alice.

Not many man is willing to write a letter to his love today. It ‘s so warm, so romantic … …

ceremony: Shatin Baptist Church
reception: Harbour Plaza Metropolis, Patio.

ronald giving the letter to alice. so sweet, so romantic

Alice reading the letter

the letter

ronald played the piano and sang a song for Alice

bridesmaids in the morning, preparing the game

looked cool and smart

alice and her father

ronald knows how to play guitar as well !!!

when ronald met alice

the happy groom

look like a TV series … …

tea ceremony

so many interesting and touching moments at the ceremony

the shatin baptist church

an extraordinary choir

the parents

reception @ Harbour Plaza Metropolis, Patio.

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 !!!!!!

I had made a small (or big ) mistake that I finally couldn’t take photo during the reception at night. When I was worrying about this, I was so happy that ann choi could offer to help me in this wedding (in fact, she had to postpone another family portrait session to help me)

I haven known ann for over a year, she is always on my recommendation list when people asks me for photographer referral. A real PJ (photojournalistic) style and crazy wedding photographer like me, and it is always a fun to work with her. You can see Ann ’s photo for harriet and jim here

date: 24 oct 2009 2008
get ready: island shangri la
ceremony: St. John’s cathedral
reception: repulse bay

everyone was beautifully dressed !!!

the newly wed – harriet and jim

simon.the.photo x annchoi, Hi Ann, thanks for your help !!!

getting ready

the happy wedding party !!!

beautiful bride !!

a happy moment !!!!

the bridesmaids ‘re ready

harriet ‘s sister georgie

alice

nice photo

are you ready?

harriet ‘s parent

harriet was deciding which earrings to wear … … guess which one she choose finally

ceremony at the St. John’s cathedral

a nice church for wedding

the church was fully packed

“hey, give me five”

reception at repulse bay

nice weather, nice location

congratulations !!!

it was as very relaxing day, no game, no bridesmaid, no groomsman, no need to travel around, in fact, we stayed at home whole day until the ceremony at 5:00pm.

We took a few portrait of them at home in the afternoon, then we planned to continue the portrait session at the club house. Unluckily, soon after we started, we ‘re stopped by the club house staff … … Still wondering why they ‘re not allowed to take a few wedding photo at their own club house !!!!!!

date: 28 sept 2008
ceremony: Methodist International Church, HK
reception: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley Club house
video: Ken of Simon.The.Photo
makeup artist: Maggie Li

Don’t worry, we could still take beautiful photos at home !!!!! This was taken on their bed !!!!!

Telun – Getting Ready

the flower girl – so adorable.

the short portrait session

I love their wooden curtain a lot

always love veil shot of the bride !!!

on our way to the club house … …

ceremony at the Methodist Intl church

the ceremony started at 5:00pm. Never been so late for a church ceremony.

exchange of rings

reception at the jockey club

Let ‘s welcome the newly wed. They ‘re singing the song “漫步人生路” to kick start the night !!!

date: 14 Sept 2008
ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
reception: Island Shangri-la
video: Ken of simon.the.photo

my first time to select a “father daughter photo” as the 1st photo of the blog. The photo itself tells you why I select it. Everyone was having fun playing the bridal pickup game outside and left netta and her father alone here.

love between father and daughter

kelvin and the groomsmen

netta ‘s younger sister – another touching moment during the tea ceremony

she prepared a gift (hello kitty) and a greeting card for the newly wed.

kelvin ‘s mother and netta

love this veil shot

beautiful face, beautiful eyes … …

going to church

my fav of the day – netta ‘s waiting inside the car before the ceremony

ready to go

don’t cry any more … … and became a happy flower girl !!!!

ceremony at the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

the church ‘s fully packed !!!

Kelvin looked at Netta

And Netta looked at Kelvin

netta couldn’t hold her tears any more

the signing

love this moment !!!

congratulations to the newly wed !!!!!!

back to the hotel. we just had 15 min (or less) for a few portrait shots for them.
when I was taking this photo, Netta asked “Where should I look?”
”you ‘re so beautiful and gorgeous, just look at the camera. No need to look around to pretend to be natural.” I answered.
Looking the result, do you agree?

happy kelvin !!!

nice decoration !!!!

nice dress – formal photo area

let ‘s welcome the newly wed

cake cutting

same day video edit by Ken of Simon.The.Photo, Great job !!!

farewell time

“we are so shy in front of the camera, we don’t know how to pose,  and my fiancé doesn’t like taking photo, we ‘re so worry that we can’t have any good photo”, say the bride

“don’t worry, 9 out of 10 couple are shy in front of the camera. If you can relax, enjoy the day, enjoy the moment, it is not difficult for me to take good photo of you two.” say Simon. I believe all wedding photographers ‘d agree on that.

However, for nicole and allan, they are just the “1 out of 10”. Both Ken and I found that we can take good pic/video of them anytime, anywhere on the day. In fact, they are the first couple that eats up all my memory cards (a total of over 50GB CF card) in one day !!!!!

date: 18 oct 2008
ceremony: St. Margaret ‘s Church
dinner reception: madison, Central
hair stylist: Tsukumi Ito of private-i  (I love the hair style she did !!! highly recommend !!!)
video: Ken of simon.the.photo

the gorgeous nicole!!!

the bride !!!!

“Hi Allan, where are you ???”

get ready

wow !!!

look at that !!

love the color of this shot

OMG, the bridal pickup game was so funny that everyone … …

笑到肚痛 (couldn’t stop laughing)，

同標晒眼水

the tea ceremony

hi every one !!!!

did I say that Nicole really know how to pose in front of the camera … …

one of my fav!!!! guess where I took this pic !!!!!
hint: I only had around 15-20 sec to take this shot before we had to leave there

ceremony at St. Margaret ‘s Church

exchange the rings

kiss kiss kiss !!!!

congratulations !!!!

so happy that the church was free after the ceremony, and we had a lot of time for photos of them alone there.

beautiful sunset light !!!!!

cake cutting — a new angle for this shot

the buffet reception at madison

there is a game that every guest had to find a notice on newspaper placed by allan

here is the notice!!!!

love the dinner !!! They only invited their best friends, and it seems every one could sing and play music that night !!! Allan was singing a song to Nicole

that made she cry … …

arron is a WPJA award winning wedding photographer from California and came to Hong Kong to shoot the wedding of Catherine and Kevin here. I got to know him because he hired me to second shoot with him for this wedding. (Sorry, I can’t post any photos of this wedding here … …) As he stayed in Hong Kong for a few days, I invited him to help shooting in one of my wedding, and it ‘s so inspiring to see a foreigner shooting a local Chinese wedding.

date: sept 27, 2008
ROM: wedding registry at Hong Kong City Hall
BBQ reception: Royal View Hotel

one of my fav of the day.
It ‘s very difficult to take photo in the cross Harbour tunnel, not to mention a wedding photo inside.
ida and errol hired an open top double deck bus for their transportation, and that ‘s why I got a chance to take this photo inside

arron in action !!!

get ready – the yellow color curtain gave us a look of sunset light

my fav moment

the bouquet … … thanks wendy (bridesmaid) allowing me to use her back as background in this pic

arron and I got a lot of interesting shots at this location

throwing rice !!!

another bus in the morning

Hi everyone !!!!!

thanks arron for inspiring me for this photo – we had to play with off-camera flash, slow shutter speed, available light and motion in this pic.

always love to see happy tea ceremony

who ‘s who

getting ready on the bus

So happy to see Mandy (maid of honor) !!!!
she was my student of bible study in church xx years ago. Sorry, I couldn’t recognize her until she told me. 真係女大十八變！！

we got a lot of beautiful pic of the veil

arron … … never give up any chance taking good photo !!!

are you ready?

I am yours !!!

arron always had a lot of new ideas for interesting photo !!!

“you ‘re mine !!!”

this boy ‘s so interested at the veil

and so are the bridesmaids

let ‘s go !!!

thanks everyone for helping me to take this photo (even though all of them got a new hair style !!)

another two fav photos of the day. We got some free time before the BBQ reception, and I was so happy to see all the bridesmaids could sit together and share the happiness with ida

pretty ida

congratulations !!!!

Just a few updates:

1) because of the busy schedule, I can’t meet any new client before Dec, I am giving priority to my existing client first

2) Shulin is growing very fast, I even found that she can be looked and behaved a little different  if I didn’t see her much after having2-3 days’ shooting. I have already scheduled a photo session with Claudia (playground photography) end of Nov to take photo of Shulin and me. So looking forward to it.

3) there are so many interesting shootings in last few weeks, a lot of new concept ‘re tried. I also had a change to work with another award winning wedding photographer from US, it ‘was so inspiring to see him working in our local Chinese wedding. Stay tuned, more update on blog very soon.

OK, back to the wedding last Sunday – Irene and Alexis. They had a two-day wedding – and we only had the ceremony on day one, so we had plenty of time taking portrait of them. Irene is a piano teacher, in fact, I met her in some weddings before in which she played piano in the reception. Alexis is a very busy IT person, always flying around the world, I only had chance to meet him 1 week before the wedding.

look forward to their wedding (day two) on coming Friday.

date: 19 Oct 2008
ceremony: Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
makeup: Eva and Polly of faces HK
hair styling: Jan
video: Eric and Ringo of one shot

my fav of the day … … Irene really knows how to pose herself !!!

in the morning, photo taken at Irene ‘s piano at home

then we went to the Tai Tam reservoir

love the dress and love the jump !!!

we got very nice sunlight on Sunday

arrived at the church. beautiful sunlight from the window

Polly and Jan ‘re busy on the final touch up for Irene

Let’s start the ceremony

Congratulations !!

all the beautiful bridesmaids, see you again on Friday !!!

after the ceremony, we had around 30 min to take some photos inside the church

another fav of the day !!!!!

wow !!!

the hip-hop Alexis made everyone laugh !!!

We didn’t had any specific route that night, just walked around in the city … … Love to see that they ‘re having a lot of fun inside candy shops

and the ice-cream shop !!!!