my fav of the day. it was taken at the stanley military cemetery – one of the most popular photo location for my clients. Even after taking photos there over hundreds times, I still love this location a lot, and I was completely fascinated by the ever changing scene there. The view was different every time I went there because of the diffenence of time, weather, seasons.

locations: inspiration lake, the peak, stanley market, stanley military cemetery
our 1st location of the day: inspiration lake of disneyland

another fav of the day !!!!!

we dropped by the peak to take a few photos before we went to the stanley market

next location: stanley market

another fav photo at the military cemetery

congratulations !!!!! Look forward to seeing you two again in your dec wedding !!!!

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 !!!!

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 !!!!!

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 !!!

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 !!!!

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 !!!!!!

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 !!!!

I did several anniversary sessions every year, and I always love doing it. Why ??? It is not uncommon that most grooms are not interested in wedding photos, so if a man love to do another photo session with his wife after wedding, the session usually turns out very very sweet !!!!

look forward to this session for a long long time, as they booked it almost 1 year before their wedding (even though I was  not their wedding day photographer), so it was booked almost two years before. Thank hazel and derek for having me as your anniversary photographer, really enjoyed a lot on the day.

locations: home, central, Pak Nai, Gold Coast (night shoot)

both hazel and derek love taking photo and they took their DSLR on the day.

we started the day at home with wii  !!!!! yeah !!!!!

2nd location: central. beautiful smile

smile, baby … …

a how we created this beam of light ???

awesome !!!!

3rd location. Pak Nai.  we had beautiful sunset light on the day

gorgeous

one of my fav shot of the day. The background is a small river, love the pattern and love the color.

“behind the scene” of the above shot. One light (with shoot through umbrella), an additional reflector was used as fill light

Recently I got an email from a bride, she said she got upset on the day because of all the hassles – not enough sleep, rushing schedule,  the arguing wedding party … … My respond is, from my experience, there is no perfect wedding, no matter how much you have prepared. And that ‘s all these “little surprises” that make your wedding memorable and unique.

I love the wedding of clara and thomas a lot. It ‘s so relaxing on the day, not only they separated the wedding into two days, but they are indeed very relaxing, nice, easy going couple.

Something really terrible happened on the day. They planned to have the wedding ceremony at 3:30 pm. Guess what? the celebrant didn’t show up before 3:45pm, and there ‘s no phone call, no message from her. To my surprise, Clara didn’t get upset at all, and she could still enjoy and have fun with her friends. I was really impressed. Happy couple is happy couple, nothing can stop them enjoying the day.

This is my 1st time to have wedding at the government LCSD wedding venue (there are six of them). What a  good idea, but I believe there is a lot can be done and improved by the government. We had the ceremony at the repulse bay beach, very very nice location, but all the facilities are very minimal (and raw, I can say), not up to a modern wedding venue standard. Not to mention, the restroom is very very far away … … Hope it can be improved in the future and don’t waste this beautiful scenic location.

get ready: four seasons hotel
ceremony: repulse bay beach, LSCD Venue
video: Chan Kai

one of my fav shot of the day. I took this at the Stanley Market, BTW, thanks for the very nice dinner.

a few fav shots in the morning

I was challenging myself in this pic. a very dark corridor,  shot by 50 1.2 wide open, all by available light, moving subjects and manual focus.

thomas ‘s mother

it ‘s so warm

changed into wedding gown

:-p

nice weather, nice view, nice location

lots of beautiful details in the ceremony

happy couple enjoying the day. Can you imagine that  the celebrant didn’t show up without any notification just 30 min ago.

congratulations !!!!

we had a special guest – a sea gull

nice sunset shot

stunning !!!!

don’t know how to do the above pose, don’t worry, the crazy simon can do the demonstration for you.

the working team: Chan Kai, karen from yung ‘s harmony, SoFie, Simon and Canly

another night shot at the stanley market

stay tuned for the update of the 2nd day of their wedding.

Happy wedding is definitely my answer.

lydia and wales ‘ wedding is one of the happiest wedding in last wedding season. Not only we have happy couple, but we have happy wedding party and families as well. I was very very impressed that when they finished the wedding ceremony, both of their parents came out on stage and gave the blessings to the newly wed. Very very touching !!!!

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

I did the same day photo edit.  click the following link to see the same day photo slideshow

here is the same day photo slideshow. it may take 1-2 min to load [hana-flv-player video="http://www.simonthephoto.com/customers/09/1206-lydia-wales-flv/video.flv" width="586" height="328" description="lydia and wales same day photo slideshow" autoplay="false" loop="false" autorewind="true" splashimage="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4330384406_dce25a4a45_o.jpg" /]

if you can ‘t watch the video above in IE, you can  try the following one

I didn’t met tracey until a few days before the wedding. Thanks for her trust on me and changed the rundown, the time of the ceremony and the setup of the venue, so that we could have such a beautiful sunset wedding

ceremony and reception: Atrium, Island Shangri-La
makeup artist: polly of faces hk
video: ken of simon.the.photo

beautiful wedding, beautiful light.
At the same time, it was a challenge for photography with such a strong directional light

my fav bridal portrait of tracey. love the details of the veil very much

their wedding was very simple. Just simple game and tea ceremony in the morning and we ‘re free for the rest of the time before the ceremony

So lot of time for portrait

“behind the scene” – ken of simon.the.photo

before going to the peak, we did some portraits inside the hotel suite first

some of  my fav shots at the peak

the ceremony

some more free time after the ceremony

pianist of the night – Derek Pang. I met a lot of different musicians in different weddings, but I was really impressed by Derek ‘s performance, I could feel his heart and passion throughout the whole night. Highly recommended!!!!!

I shot zoe and jack ‘s pre-wedding session a few weeks ago, again, we had wonderful sunlight everywhere, you can see and feel beautiful sunlight in most of the photos below.

location: Inspiration Lake at disney station, pak nai, and Yuen Long Stadium

Don’t miss to click here to see the whole team of the day

my fav of the day at pak nai – one of the best location in Hong Kong for sunset shots

an interesting shot at the Yuen Long stadium. A little story behind.
Zoe loves running  a lot, so she had an idea to take photos at the stadium. When we went there in the afternoon, to our surprise, there was a secondary school sport day, and we couldn’t take any photo inside. At that moment, I could feel that zoe was a little bit disappointed and not happy about it. Then we changed our plan to go to Pak Nai. After the sunset shot, we finally decided to go back to the stadium again, and could finally go inside. Honestly, I found the light there was even better  at night.

1st stop: inspiration lake at disney

I love zoe ‘s dress – feel so young match her perfectly!!!

2nd stop : pak nai

last stop: yuen long stadium. You can feel that zoe ‘s so happy inside the stadium !!!

I didn’t do too many oversea photo sessions in last two years. There are several reasons behind.

First, looking at my working schedule and my family life, it is almost impossible to be away from home town for anything over 3-4 days. In addition, I hate flying home and then having to shoot a wedding the day after. there are so many accidents that can happen and I really don’t  like taking the risk of it.

Then, I can’t work out the justification of the time and effort needed for oversea assignment. When I stay in Hong Kong, I can shoot 3-4 weddings/pre-weddings a week, and I can still work on post-processing and albums and meet clients for the rest of the time (not to mention, have the time to play with shulin as well), so why spend the extra time on travelling for shooting just 1-2 couples a week.

last, and the most important, I love capturing the happiness and the love of the couple, much more than capturing the magnificent view of a location. I feel so happy when I get comments like “wow, the bride is so beautiful in your photo”, “your photo is so warm” . it is all about people in my style.

But don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with oversea pre-wedding, it just doesn’t fit my style and work schedule very well at the moment. And it is always good to have your photo session at a remote location when you can forget all your works, and no interrupt from your blackberry.

OK, back to clara and kevin, I couldn’t be happier when they flied all the way from Shanghai to HK to have their pre-wedding photo session here.

“Hi Kevin, there are so many nice locations in Shanghai and people in HK love having pre-wedding  photo there, why do you come to HK instead?” I asked Kevin

“yes, the locations are nice, but when you see the view everyday, and everyone having the same photos at the same location, you feel bored. And we love your style instead” answered Kevin

Oh Kevin, you got the point !!!!

locations: the Peak, Shek O, Central

Here are my fav “day” and “night” shots

This photo session was done last month and guess what? The new baby will arrive on this coming Friday! God bless Ruby, Simon and their family.

makeup artist: KK Chan

I ‘d like to share some photo techniques I used in this session. Everyone loves to have sunlight in their photo session, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen. In that case, I may use flash to create the feel of sunlight in some of the photos. Look at the photo below, ruby was walking under a “beautiful sunset light”, but, in fact, the day was very cloudy (with little rain), and the color temperature had a blue cast. Two off-camera flashes were used to create the light, you can click the link below to see the detailed set up.

ruby and baby walking under “beautiful sunset light” – created by flashes

the truth was: it was a cloudy day.

thanks KK for taking this behind the scene shot for me

Here is the lighting diagram
two off camera flashes ‘re set up. One was put in a 28” softbox at camera right. Another one was put behind ruby at camera left. I intentionally put the second one very close to the edge of the photo so that we could see some flare from it. Both flashes ‘re CTO gelled to give the warm look

Most of the other photos ‘re shot at home.

knew KK for years, but didn’t know she is also good at drawing

I love this one – very warm

both ruby and simon are football fans

another fav of the day

Ruby, 加油，加油，加油，加油，加油，加油 ！！！

Here is the sneak peek of the e-session we did last week.

locations: University of Hong Kong (HKU), Bel-Air Club House, Cyberport
makeup artist: polly of faces

there are some many nice locations at the Bel-Air club house.
my fav photo of the day

love the pattern of the hand rail very much. Thanks for giving me the time to create this shot ( I had to move around a lot to find the best pattern)

1st location: HKU

love the (tree) shadow pattern behind

what a happy day !!!

2nd location: Bel Air Club house

another fav of the day

gorgeous !!!

beautiful face, beautiful make up !!!

sylvia loves this dress a lot

last location: cyberport

a touch of love

sunset shots

thank you, thank you !!!

I love the idea that they preferred to have the night shoot at home instead of going to those popular places. What a great idea, especially during the summer time !!!! We could have a can of coke during the shooting.

locations: Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Shek O, Home

joey, stephen and their babies.
This pic was done by 3 flashes (one for joey, one for stephen, and one for the background). If I could do it again, I would use one more flash so that the background was more “white” (you can notice that the background is not pure white on the left)

they are music players. Lovely !!!

1st stop: CUHK
as alumni of CUHK, we need to do a shot in front the logo.

2nd stop – shek O

Though having been to Shek O hundreds of time, every time if we had time to walk around, always surprised to find some new interesting place and angle

love this shot

cute couple, aren’t they

we met lawrence at Shek O, and grabbed his client (alison and kyle) together to get this shot !!! Thanks Thanks.

magic sunset light !!!

almost impossible to get this shot if you look at the the following photo below (the beach was fully packed). Thanks  my assistant  canly Siu B for helping me to clear up this little area !!

congratulations !!!!

with only a few photo sessions in august, I had more free time to clean up the photo editing and album backlogs. Apart from it, really enjoyed the extra time I had with shulin. We went to different playgroups (little gym, ballet junior …. …) or went to swimming everyday – this was such a wonderful time (you can see some photos and video on my facebook fans page) !!!!

Before writing this blog, I was packing my equipments to prepare the photo session tomorrow – the bar mitzvah party of hugo. This is the kick-off of the peak season and my schedule was fully packed before the Chinese new year. Hopefully, I can update the blog more frequently in this season … …

In this and the next few posts, I ‘d like to share some photo techniques that I frequently use

I love shooting in available light, especially on a wedding day. But I also use a lot of off-camera flash, especially during the portrait sessions.

Here is an example – the bar mitzvah portrait session for hugo I did early this month. This is one of my fav image of the day – I love his expression a lot. You may think we had wonderful sunset light in this shot … …but … …

click here to see how this photo was created.

but, in fact, the light was created by a large  softbox held by Canly (as you can see in the 2nd photo). In the 3rd photo, the flash is off, and Hugo ‘s face was in shade actually. There was sunlight in the photo, but the sun was at the opposite side of the camera and it gave a rim light to hugo. The tricks here are , we have to control the power, the color and softness of the flash carefully, so that it can mix with the sun light well and make the light look natural.

more other techniques will be shared in next few posts. Any comment is welcome.

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 !!!!

I found this is an very interesting place – a lot of stone caves and tunnels, so lots of opportunity to play with the light.

locations: Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, stanley military cemetery, Stanley Market
Makeup Artist: penny of faces HK

my fav of the day. you can see the original version (without retouch) at here

gigi, thanks for helping me to get this shot. Love it.

1st location: Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence

lots of different kind of stone tunnel

another fav of the day

2nd location: the stanley military cemetery. Both Victor and I love this shot so much ….. …. but it is difficult to put it into the final album … … so put it here to share

nice good sunset light

victor got a new roadster just before the photo session, sure, couldn’t stop take some nice shots with it

love this shot so much. When we finished shooting at the cemetery  and drove back to the stanley market  for changing dress. I found the color of the sky so beautiful, but it ’s getting dark very very quick. Thanks Canly ’s help putting up the off-camera flashes so quickly (one with CTO gel inside the car, and another one with CTB gel far at camera right)

two night shots at stanley market

thanks gigi and victor. See you again in your wedding in 2010