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.

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 of going outdoor for location shooting, ada decided going back to their office, what a great idea!!!!! Nothing better than taking wedding photos at where they met each other and fell in love.

banquet: HKCEC
make up artist: elaw @ The look studio

one of my fav of the afternoon photo session. love the red color, isn’t it matched to the color theme of the wedding? the inclusion of the company name does link everything together in the photo

BTW, extraordinary couple gets extraordinary coverage. They sent some of the photos to SCMP and their wedding was featured on almost a full page coverage on SCMP, awesome !!!! Don’t miss to click the image to read more about their true office love story

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 !!!

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 and we could continue the shooting in the afternoon and at night.

makeup artist: Man Chan
locations: maryknoll convent school, 1881 heritage

1881 heritage is a very nice location, but it is also difficult to shoot over 6-7 hours just inside a hotel room. that ’s the case for cindy and bennalt. After checking in at 2:00pm, we spent the rest of the day there as it rained so bad outside that we couldn’t go out at all.  It became a challenge for me to spend such a long hours at the same location, but sometimes, this kind of limitation would inspire new ideas. Without new location, new background, it forced to you look at something different at the bride. I noticed that cindy got  beautiful and healthy hair, then, the question was how to feature and highlight her hair in a photo. thanks cindy ’s help and worked with me to get this photo, love it very much. My fav of the day

our first location: maryknoll. another fav of the day. so romantic, isn’t it?

just a plain wall, but their beautiful smiles helps a lot to create this beautiful picture

bad weather, no problem. I got a sun in my pocket (the tiny flash) that can create a sunset look anywhere and anytime.

when I took this shot, it rained very bad. thanks Man Chan, Ka Mui and shirley ’s help for holding three umbrella together to get this shot. Thank you !!!

start shooting at 1881

nice room, isn’t it ? Tried a new lighting setup in this photo, you ‘ll see this kind of photo more and more in the future.

all the following photos are taken at the night time. thanks for the sun in my pocket again.

this dress is stunning !!!!! 

But all the people are different, the dress, the decoration, the family, the light, the smile, the tears are all different, the possibility of photos is just unlimited.

wedding of sam and ryan was early this year,  though a little bit late, it ’s such a beautiful wedding that  I can’t afford not posting their wedding here.

Did you remember sam and ryan? they ‘re the couple that I took the pre-wedding photos at HKU renovation site !!!!

ceremony and reception: grand hyatt hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
makeup artist: joe from hoolala

always having lots of fun taking pictures of them

here is the summary video prepared by ken

I find that “putting on the chinese 掛 ” is always an important and emotional moment in a chinese wedding

sam ’s ready

a special shot of the arrival of ryan

the funny bridal pickup game

tea ceremony. love this shot — like the contrary of the people at the foreground and background

tea ceremony at ryan ’s home

arrival at grand hyatt

we got around 30 min in the afternoon for portrait

ready for the ceremony in the evening

decoration of the reception area

I love this purple color a lot !!!!

got a few minutes to take photos of sam in the ballroom

same day video edit by ken

I feel glad (and lucky) that there are still so many clients that love having pre-wedding photos in Hong Kong and always bring me lot of interesting locations – and kavy and ben are definitely one of them.

they both live in Ma Wan, so we started the shooting at the Ma Wan old village. The last time I was there was already four years ago. This is such a beautiful and quiet location that I love it very much, and it was just like a hiking that we walked around to look for photo opportunities — no specific route, no specific scenic point — that ’s the way of shooting that I love very much.

location: Home, Ma Wan old village, the peak, temple street.
make up artist: cherry from Makeup Rainbow

this is one of my fav photo of the day. this was shot at the peak and here is my thinking process behind this photo.

When I arrived, I saw a patch of light passing through the branches and I immediately thought it was a photo opportunity there. After asking kavy to stand under this light, the next thing that I needed to consider is what should kavy do to blend into the environment. When I take photo of the bride, I always think how I can do the best for her and what should be highlighted in the photo, it can be her eyes, her face, hair, the dress, the shoes, the body figure, the emotion, the smile …. … you name it, the possibility is just unlimited. In this case, I found kavy ’s dress (the back) look awesome, and I was thinking putting her back as the highlight of this pic. By positing her at the right location, with the light and shadow on her back, it gave us a very three dimensional look of her back and her figure. that ’s how this photo was created, all by available light only.

before we started shooting outdoor, we took a few photos at home first

the lovely Ma Wan old village

2nd location: the peak

last location: the temple street. never thought I would take pre-wedding photo here. they brought me here because here  was where Ben first dated Kavy out. Oh … … first dating at temple street ????? Ben, you ‘re awesome !!!!!

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 fee, then don’t care about anything of the wedding.    :-)

make up artist: man chan
locations: 1881 heritage, Tai Tam Reservoir, military cemetery, stanley market

wow !!!!! this is jonathan !!!!!

and this is helena.

final touch up !!!

out 1st location: 1881

2nd location: tai tam

3rd location: military cemetery
with such happy couple, we didn’t need any special lighting or location, I just needed to capture the moment !!!!

night shoot at stanley market

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

Don’t believe in me, you can see the photo below. this is a photo I got at our first meeting, hahaha, I am still keeping it in my mobile. I didn’t open my studio yet at that time, and we were still meeting in a cafe inside IFC.

Have you ever got any client like this in your meeting??? I think I am lucky to have sweet couple like this as my client.

location: HKU, Shek O, Stanley military cemetery, Stanley market, Central
makeup artist: phoebe lam

the photo session was perfect !!! We got plenty of sunlight the whole day and this is my first time to had photo taken at both Shek O and stanley military cemetery in one single day.

1st location: HKU
one of my fav of the day — there was a very strong sunlight coming from the window. the difficulty of this photo is that I need to position fiona under the sunlight very very precisely so that we can see her face and figure as well as the details of the veil under the sunlight. Of course, this photo could never work without fiona ’s beautiful face, do you agree?

time for a coffee

2nd location: Shek O.
I usually don’t go to the Beach  earlier than 3:00pm because the sunlight is too harsh for photo. However, as we needed to go the stanley military cemetery later, we didn’t have a choice. It was quite challenging for photo unde this light condition!!!

we got two little friends on the beach

It was really a miracle being able to take a shot like this at the beach in the early afternoon !!!!!

3rd location: stanley military cemetery

last location: Central and stanley market
here came the two little friend again

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 !!!!

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 !!!

I always find that the less crew member there is, the more natural the people  look in front of my camera. Of course, being working alone doesn’t guarantee you good candid photos, you also need other techniques and experience to get it …. ….. still lots to learn.

gisa and chris, one of my fav wedding in last season. a small but very warm wedding. I didn’t start shooting before 4:00pm, and as a winter wedding, you can expect the light is on the low side after 4:00pm, so i had to work in a very low ambient light level for the whole evening. It was even more challenging that the wedding ceremony was held at the bar area inside the fine dining French restaurant Capise  inside four seasons at 7:00pm. what light level can you expect at a bar area after 7:00pm ??? It ’s so dark that I could only see shadow moving around  inside  the viewfinder of my camera … … very challenging !!!!

ceremony and dinner: caprice, four seasons hotel
make up artist: eva of faces make-up studio

my fav shot of the day
love the way they kiss each other, Oh …. ….  so much love inside !!!!
the bar area ’s very small, with all the guests, there ’s not much room I could move around. Before the ceremony, I already planned to take the most important moment at this location,  and hoped to include the  guests in the photo so that you can have a sense of the atmosphere of the ceremony. There is not much light, even I pushed the ISO to over 2,000. flash had to be used, the tricky part is how to balance the flash and ambient light while controlling the light quality of the flash, and didn’t let the flash to kill the atmosphere.  

some of the getting ready shots

what a happy, cheerful bride gisa is

we did a very fast 30min portrait just before the ceremony

other ceremony shots

what a nice and fine dinner location, isn’t it?

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

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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 !!!!

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 !!!

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

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