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 !!!!!

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

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

Though the weather was a little bit too hot, I love the idea, especially, we could have a lot of fun with such a big group of awesome people.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo

don’t miss to go to my facebook fans page to see the “making of” video (with the help of 5d mk II)

BTW, the blog software was upgraded in last few days (you shouldn’t notice any difference at the moment), with the upgrade, I can add more interesting features to this blog later. Thanks Kaiser ’s help on the upgrade. If you find any misbehaviour of this blog, pls let me know so that we can correct it asap.

like the color, the pattern and lines.

the dream team !!!!

all the boys

and the girls

nice shoes

the bouquet (in spaceship ??)

the iron cage was taken from a stand of a coffee table. thanks the help from canly and ken

a moment in the morning

love the expression and the feel of action. Mrs Leung (大妗姐) ‘s very good, worked with her so many times.

practicing the jump

two nice shots at jason ‘s home

the bridal room at four seasons hotel. it ’s challanging to take photo as it ‘s quite dark here.

the ceremony at four seasons

very nice decoration – simple and colorful

the table setup

waiting for the march-in. without the new 5d mk II, I was unable to take this shot
technical details: 85 f1.8 wide open at ISO 3200. Amazing noise performance.

the four seasons ballroom

gigi and her sister

a surprise from jason

a quick update of myself in the 1st two weeks of 2009. The first thing I had in 2009 was : I got a flu !!!!! I was feeling sick and had a very bad cough. I got 6 weddings and pre-wedding shoots in these two weeks and it ‘s a challenge for me to work when I kept coughing all the time. It ‘s getting better and better now, hopes no more cough before the wedding on coming Sunday.

another beautiful wedding I ‘d like to share with you. This is the wedding of Loretta and James on the Christmas Eve. Not a big wedding, but everyone was so nice and friendly on the day.

When I first met James in the morning, my first impression was: this guy really had a very good taste of dressing!!!! Then I learned later that Loretta worked in the fashion industry – and she choose all the cloths, tie, shoes … .. for him. Lucky man, isn’t he?

We did a same day photo slideshow at night, my assistant Siu B helped me to create this slideshow. He did a very good job and everyone loved  it. This is the first time to show a same day photo slideshow on this blog.

date: 24 dec 2008
ceremony and reception: Plateau (the pool house) of Grand Hyatt
video: ken of simon.the.photo

I love this venue very much. I got some free time before the reception and took the beautiful shot of the venue. This is a kind of “multiple exposure” shots (with some Photoshop manipulation).
I used a off-camera flash to illuminate different parts (tables and flowers) on different exposures and merge it into one photo. You can see the shots of individual exposure here.

the same day photo slideshow

share this wedding with your friends

Did the love story start like this? … … probably not. Fiona didn’t give him a chance, walked away and left the poor Kevin in the dark.

After that night, Kevin couldn’t forget Fiona ’s face, he got help from his friends in HKU to find the contact of Fiona. And finally, he managed to get Fiona ’s ICQ no. To his surprise, she was studying Electronic Engineering degree (he graduated from the same department as well), so he kept contacting her and offered to teach her some of the courses.

I didn’t asked them the rest of the story … … May be Kevin can share the rest with you later … …

date: 29 June, 2008 (a rainy day)
ceremony and reception: Langham Hotel
makeup: nancy kim

We started shooting at Fiona ’s home in Tseung Kwan O in the morning, followed by location shooting at HKU, then back to Tseung Kwan O. Even though it took long time traveling and it rained so bad on Sunday, they really loved to take some photos at HKU.
Happy looking at the rain drops

another location at HKU

the hall behind is where they first met … …

Included the raindrops in this pic to tell you the weather of the day.
Thanks Vickie holding the umbrella for me

a lovely pairs of wedding shoes

after the location shooting, we returned to Tseung Kwan O and prepared for the games and tea ceremony

it ’s for the games

the socks are from all the groomsmen …. … you can imagine the smell on a rainy day

the exciting families !!!

ceremony at the Langham Hotel — Fiona and her father

kissing the bride

catch it !!!

fiona and her best friends !!

Let’s welcome Mr. and Mrs Lam

awesome!!!! Kevin didn’t know playing piano at all, but he learned one song before wedding and played it for Fiona

A big surprise to Fiona

congratulations !!!!

I chatted with David and found that he just bought a new DSLR camera a few days ago, so I asked him to take some photos of Pauline in the hotel suite. The moment he started to click click click, he got loosen up very soon, and I got a lot of nice pictures with them.

date: 2 jan, 2008
reception: peninsula hong kong

the professional photographer of the day — David

behind the scene shot

David ’s showing his great work to Pauline

the wedding shoes

the bouquet

the wedding rings

soon after I took this shot, David tried to do a similar one himself

OK, we still had some free time, David suggested to go to the temple street to have a afternoon tea. We ‘re leaving.

wonderful David on temple street!!!!

I believe David really loved this place — the temple street, and he was full of energy and ready for anything in front of the camera

the reception at the peninsula hotel

a shot before the reception

ready for the reception

my fav of the day. After the ceremony, One shot and I brought Christine and Sam to the swimming pool for a 15 min portrait session. It ’s just after sunset so we still got some warm light, I love the contrast of warm light on them and the cool blue color of the swimming pool

the wedding shoes

get ready in the morning. Their apartment ’s very nice and had lots of available light

a close up shot the bouquet

the wedding dress

guess what Sam ’s saying outside the door … …

change into wedding gown

there ‘re so many nice photo locations inside their apartment

before heading to Clearwater Bay, we had 30 min photo session in Central

Christine and the bridesmaids

“catch me if you can” … …

getting ready @ Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club

the ceremony – Christine ’s sister Fiona

what a nice location for ceremony !!! (photo by my 2nd photographer – Ken)

the weather was perfect !!!!

the wedding ’s full of fun

landscape shot of the sunset

guess what they ‘re looking at ?

Christine and Sam ‘re dancing next to the swimming pool (and believe me, they ‘re real good dancers !!!!!)

the first dance (they started with some romantic music, yes !!! they ‘re very good at dancing and I took a lot of great dancing pics of them!!!!!!)

like the lighting in this pic

then, they changed into a fast Salsa dance !!!

and everyone got excited !!!!!!

DM (D = Tak or Duck, M=Mabel) is a special couple, both of them are working in the wedding industry, while dm is a photographer, Mabel is a make up artist, so they have attended a lot of weddings and they ‘d like to have an extraordinary wedding themselves , and they really like to share the joy and happiness with all friends. The wedding party, the dress, the rundown, the invitation, the backdrop, the march – in, the wedding video, all the details ‘re so unique, they planned their wedding for over 10 months and everything was recorded on their 329 wedding blog.

date: 29 Mar, 2008
reception: Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC)

amazing, isn’t it? They had a bowling session with their friends and looked like they ‘re really good at that. This is one of my fav photo of the day — I found it very difficult to take bowing photo — sometime the lighting ’s not correct, focus ’s not right, or press the shutter too early or too late, when everything ’s correct, then the expression ’s not there. I shot around 6-7 pic before I got this shot, and the second I got this, I jumped and screamed!!!!

amazing amazing — look at the corsage !!!!

get ready, mabel and her mother. The sunlight was there for only 1 min, so lucky to have it at the right time and right moment

the wedding shoes

Mabel and suky. Mabel couldn’t stop herself helping the bridesmaid on makeup

the game … sorry dm, this photo is so funny that I have to betray you to put this on blog

the happy parents

amazing details … … of their car

you haven’t seen this kind of wedding photo before, have you?

rice throwing … …

before lunch, we had a 15 min private photo session. As you expected, they never stop running, laughing, jumping in front of my camera

let’s play basketball

jump, jump, jump

they had arranged a special march-in during the reception, they ran into the ball room and had a dance with the whole wedding party !!! This is the rehearsal in the afternoon.

the bowling session

as a photographer, dm didn’t disappoint you and he had prepared some very special photos on every single table

the band – ladybird

the real march – in and dance session — awesome !!!!! You can see the video on their 329 wedding blog

look at mabel, her parents ‘re speaking on stage.

They have prepared a video showing all the preparation works of past ten months. you can look at the full version of the video at their 329 wedding blog

they couldn’t stop crying in front of their best friends

don’t cry, don’t cry … …

the talented photographer — dmwedding

We broke the record again — we had over 41 persons (is it correct?) in this self portrait !!!!!!! Congratulataions and Good Show !!!!!!!!!

As a girl from Shanghai, I found Isabella very special compared to other brides here in Hong Kong. Most of the time, she ’s very quiet and look very elegant on the day, but sometime, she can be very very hot, especially when we had the night shooting in Central

Date: Nov 25, 2007
Ceremony and reception: Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong

Isabella looked perfect in Qi Pao. It ’s around 2300 in Central.

the invitation

the wedding shoes

isabella and her parents

the wedding dress

Isabella in Qi Pao – ready for the tea ceremony

change into wedding gown for the ceremony

the ceremony at Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong

I do … …

Husband and Wife

They had a lunch reception

enjoying every moments

farewell time — guess what is the the blue color at the left ??

After the reception finished, we had a short photo session inside four seasons. I still remembered what Isabella told me — When she looked at my website, she thought most of my pics are done by Photoshop until I showed this photo to her in my camera. I hate doing effects in Photoshop and most of photos ‘re done in camera.

we went to the peak afterwards — already very dark

a moment inside the ballroom

thanks for inviting me as your wedding photographer

When I first shoot the ROM of Carla and Hong 1 year ago, they ‘re pretty shy in front of the camera.

A few months later, I took the "post wedding photos" for them, much better this time, it took me 30 min before they got loose up.

On Sept 29 this year, they had their banquet at Hotel Nikko Hong Kong. To my surprise, even after one year, they still look like newly wed !!! But this time, they are very sweet and with lots of smile  all the time.

Be careful of the shoe!!!

getting ready shot. Nice to work with Florence of SaySo again. Her work is awesome !!!!

The game !!! Hong, do you need help?

I see happiness ….

After we had the tea ceremony at Hong ’s family, we went down to have some shootings on the street. EVERYONE got excited in these 15 min !!!!
One of my fav photo — I like the color of this background. We got this by luck – this was a truck just passing by behind them.

While I was taking the above pic, I had a cheer squad behind me to help cheer them up

Have you ever had a dream of jumping and dancing on the bed in a hotel room?? Let’s have the dream comes true. Everyone was out of control at this moment !!!!

A happy moment !!!

My fav of the day. everyone was there behind Carla. I like the light, the contrast and the three dimension look.

gorgeous !!!!

Carla was so excited that she started to dance !!

As Carla is a piano music teacher, we definitely have music performance during the reception, we had a wonderful children choir

The conductor was Carla ’s younger brother. Very impressive

I need my assistant

Hi Hi !!

We had a blast on their wedding day, everything was perfect.

Their love story is amazing, don’t miss and take a time to read this. I learned one more thing on their wedding day — the reason they choose Hotel Conrad for their reception — it is the place at where the first time Gordon dated Joanna to attend a seminar. Wonderful !!!

date: 23 sept 2007
ceremony: St. Margaret ’s Church
reception: Conrad Hotel

My fav photo of the day. This was taken just after the ceremony. There was a shower and we had to stop taking the group photo outside church. Just after Joanna got on the car, I noticed the raindrops on the windows, the reflection of Gordon, and the way Joanna looking at Gordon — all worked together very well

the wedding shoes

Getting ready shot

Gordon had a final check on the decoration of the car

Gordon and the groomsmen ’re having a small "meeting" before having the bridal pickup games

Amazing details of Joanna ’s dress. The bridesmaids are helping to fix the train

Stunning !!!

We had lunch at the LRC, there was a staircase with wonderful light

reception at Hotel Conrad Hong Kong

the toast

first dance

Congratulations !!!

Jacqueline & Vincent ’s wedding surpassed everything I had expected. The weather was perfect, the bride and groom were relaxed, and every guest was excited with them.

wedding shoes. Jacqueline ’s shoes ‘re perfect for this kind of reflection shot. To prepare this picture, we need to have a clean glass surface (the tea bench was perfect for this case). Then, we need to move the bench next to the windows. Metered the exposure correctly for the shoes and tried to over exposed & washed out the background

amazing dress details

I am always happy to have beautiful bride for this kind of close up shot. And Jacqueline was so relax in front of the camera

the groomsmen

the bridesmaids

chinese tradition. the bridesmaid had to throw rice to the couple after the "bride pickup" in the morning

a shot at Vincent ’s family

we had a chance to visit Jacqueline and Vincent ’s new apartment in the afternoon. A relax moment between bridesmaids and Jacqueline in the kitchen

When I was in Yervant ’s Santorini workshop last month, everyone was very surprised that a typical chinese wedding can last more than 12 hours and we had to get up very very early. It can be very tired after the lunch time. Lovely bridesmaid, sorry for taking this shot of you, but I believe Jacqueline ’s going to love it.

Getting ready before the ceremony

exchange of rings. ceremony was held at Four Seasons. the light was beautiful for this moment, it was coming from the big windows on the right.

Vincent ’s sister and mother. Everyone was so involved at this moment
 

After the ceremony, we had a private shooting time at the sky floor

the gorgeous ballroom at four seasons

Congratulations !!!

I find myself obsessed with wedding shoes, and I love to capture the shoes in a fashion way. I love Carol ’s golden shoes, together with the red dress, body movement and the sunlight. it is a perfect shot

Getting ready, chatting with the MOH

It ’s ready !!!

Looks great !!!!

the bridesmaids — they ‘re discussing the game session

the groomsmen

Carl had to dress like "Mashi Maro" — Carol ’s fav cartoon character

Ready to go !!!!

a kiss from Carol

my fav shot of the day. This was taken under apartment of Carl ’s family. We had tall buildings both sides with sunlight in between of them. the ray of light worked perfectly.

A sexy bride

Looking for Carl?

wedding rings

the reception hall was packed with guests

the ballroom at Conrad Hong Kong

a very special moment  between father & daughter. a few minutes later, Mr. Chan had to give his daughter to another man

Mr. Chan ’s speech was very interesting and funny

I love their backdrop a lot. It is very stylish !!

wedding shoes. the "double happiness" is a shadow from the windows

wedding dress & iris

iris & her three sisters

cool !!

the game session

this shot was taken at the corridor of the hotel. light is dark. Usually, photographer just used flash. Instead, I looked for good available light and waited until they stepped into this location. If flash is used, it definitely would kill the mood.

the wedding party

try to make a fun shot out of an ordinary scene

making up. the makeup artist is Maggie Li

another available light shot. the light is from an opening of the corridor

location shooting at the Peak

group shot after the ceremony at Langham Place Hotel

the rings and souvenir

They ‘re amazing in front of my camera

Just bought a new Lens Baby lens and trying it

toss of bouquet

I love this shot. We did this shot very fast. Here was a bar just opposite to the ball room, but didn’t belong to their banquet and it ’s still open to other guests. I found the light very good here, so I asked the staff of the bar if I could take a few photos here for two minutes. So we need to do everything quick. I used a video light for lighting instead of flash. We could use flash to do similar light, but it might take longer time to setup. The color of the video light also matched the available light very well

the wedding shoes. the background was the carpet of the hotel room. Always look for something interesting for background

the bouquet

the bridal pickup session

the groomsman

this shot was taken below the apartment of Alan ’s family. I found the pattern of the ground very interesting, so when they left for AMC, I didn’t follow them and wait inside the apartment until this moment happened

Christina

location shooting at AMC

there ‘re a lot of nice locations inside AMC

the ballroom

congratulations !!!

Thanks Corinna for sharing their love story, it was an amazing one. Back in 3 years ago, Corinna was still living & working in Hong Kong. On one normal day, her colleague (& Corinna ’s best friend) asked if she could take care one of her relative coming from UK and take him to go sightseeing in Hong Kong for a few days – that ’s how Corinna met Charlie.

Charlie just stayed in Hong Kong for a very short period. After that, he went to Thailand to learn cooking Thai food, and both of them kept contacting each other, Corinna provided information to him on which part of Thailand he should go visiting. But to Charlie ’s surprise, Corinna finally came to Thailand and became his tour guide in Thailand and Vietnam.

After that, Charlie went to Australia to start a new job, he found out that he couldn’t stop thinking of Corinna & ‘d like to see her again. Finally, he asked if Corinna could come to Australia to live with him. He even wrote a resigning letter for her & asked her to quit the job immediately.

Less than 3 month since they met each other, Corinna quited her job and went to Australia to meet Charlie !!!!!!

We planned to have location shooting after the tea ceremony at Charlie ’s family, but we finally didn’t have enough time going back to the hotel & changing back to wedding dress. So I suggested them to wear whatever they feel comfortable daily, I am so happy they love the idea. In fact, they prefer photos like this.

The wedding shoes

"Can I have a pair of these?", the dog think … ….

"Corinna, you look beautiful", the dog said … …

putting on the shoes

When Charlie met Corinna

We went up to the roof to take a few shots. See they ‘re sitting on those water pipes !!!

Charlie ’s parents

location shooting at Lei Yue Mun

naughty Charlie

I love them. They had so many different expressions on location

It’s hot

Let’s cool down

cool down & enjoying the moment

reception at Sheraton (the ballroom has wonderful snowing effect)

They ‘re showing their wedding picture taken in Australia

the wedding was at Helena May on Jan 20, 2007. Emily had put a lot of effort into every single details of the wedding.

the wedding shoes

The wedding rings. I put it over their "JME" monogram

Getting ready in the morning

The ceremony was held at 道風山. Emily ’s ready for the ceremony

the church was full of details as well

A special moment

Exchange of Vows. Look at Emily ’s mother, such a great moment

Kissing the bride

So excited.

After the ceremony, I brought them to the train museum at Tai Po. Jimmy is a train model collector, and he likes this place a lot

Let’s have some fun

Have some more fun again

the decoration at Helena May was wonderful

details of the specially designed lamp cover

Their "JME" Monogram

They had 4 very big (it was very big) portraits hanging at the reception

Jimmy loved playing drum, he played with his music teacher at the banquet

the drum performance. Emily & Gordon (Emily ’s brother) were so excited

Emily was singing to her family

A special Hawaii dance from Jimmy ’s friends

Do you wanna book me on my birthday in 2008? Sorry, it was booked already.

the first dance. I like this pic — Vivian enjoyed the moment a lot with her mother looking at them behind

the wedding shoes

the bouquet

Getting ready shot — Vivian ’s father was help her to put on the dress

The game — everyone needed to drink a glass of … … I don’t know what it was, but sure it didn’t taste good

Vivian ’s ready  !!!

Vivian & Mr & Mrs Wong. Mrs Wong was already crying at this moment

Love declaration

the tea ceremony

Guess what the bridesmaids are say to make Vivian so happy … …

Going to Keith ’s family

After the tea ceremony, we did something crazy on the street. See all the cars behind them (they ‘re still moving) !!!

Behind the scene: Both Ken & I had a lot fun. Thanks Rainbow for taking this picture for us

Going back to Repulse Bay Hotel

Preparation before the ceremony

Vivian ’s father was already very excited !!!

The ceremony at the Repulse Hotel

The ceremony was full of love from everyone

Husband & Wife

A kiss during the dance

I love this photo so much, it is so romantic. It seems that the world only two of them left

Looks so pretty

I found Jimmy really enjoying the shooting

I always love that kind of simple background inside wedding photos

I can tell you there are so much actions on the day. They never stopped running around

the bouquet from heaven … …

Sleeping Beauty … … 

take off the shoes and feel it

A portrait took after the dinner

I got a crazy idea again, and I was so happy that they also liked it. We did around 5-6 times to make sure we could take a good shot before a policeman came close and stared at us

I found nowhere to put my logo in the photo, everything is in perfect location. I am looking forward to their wedding in Oct 2007