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

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 !!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

sure, princeton brought along his camera and long lens

will you marry me ??? 

3rd location: stanley market

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

another fav of the day. 

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

awesome pose, princeton!!!!

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

thank you !!!!!

Happy new year !!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

before we started, we took a few photo at home

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

cool !!!!

shooting inside a chinese herb tea shop

like the dress and the glowing light !!!!

2nd location: Tai Tam

dragon i

tazmania ballroom

another fav of the day !!!

night shot in central

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

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

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

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

at the top of the world !!!

1st location: stanley market

2nd location: Tai Tam reservoir

3rd location: shek O

beautiful light !!!!

last stop: central

tired … … time to say good bye :-p

Three umbrellas, seven crazy persons. And YES,  WE MADE IT (shouting on the street  !!!!!!!)

locations: Tai Tam Reservoir, Stanley Market, military cemetery, Central

this one is my fav. The flower pattern, the blue light, the yellow shopping windows light, the reflection on the ground, the raindrops, and donna ’s facial expression. All work perfectly together !!!

1st location: Tai Tam Reservoir

2nd location: Stanley market

3rd location: the military cemetery. 

thank you everyone !!!!!!!

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 !!!!

date: 15 April, 2008
locations: Shing Mum Reservoir, Tai Tam Reservoir, Shek O, Star Ferry, IFC Mall, Legislative council
make up artist: Amy of Ballroom (TST)

at the pier — I used a very slow shutter to capture the motion of the passers-by. As I didn’t bring a tripod, I was lying on the ground with my camera to get a sharp picture

wow !!! on the star ferry, a very different experience for me

In the morning, we went to the the Shing Mum Reservoir – So happy that they chose this nice location, the last time I was there was almost 1 year ago

one of my fav photo of the day

wow !!

the happy irene

another fav of the day

behind the scene — some of the locations ‘re not easy to access. Thanks Irene and Peter for working with me

the pretty Irene. We went to Tai Tam reservoir in the afternoon

what a couple !!!!

my fav location at Shek O

the dancing Irene

When we arrived at the beach, there ‘re so many people. When I was trying to get rid of the other people from the frame, I found this new angle.

the engagement rings

naughty irene and peter — they suggested to have some night photos inside the IFC shopping mall. Of course, it ’s not allowed to take any photos inside, so we had to run around to avoid the security

the gorgeous irene

another shot of the engagement ring

This picture was taken at Shek O after dinner. We ‘re about to leave, but I saw a big wall and thought of trying something different there. I asked them to dance and used a flash to create the shadow on the wall.

At the tram station on Baker Road. They ‘re awesome !!!!

Harvey loved architectural feature a lot, so I included a lot of special building and features at this location. I love this door as well.

I took picture in front of this door several time in the past, but it was always locked. However, a worker was working nearby for some building maintenance work and he went in and out without locking this door.

This location was at the Tai Tam reservoir. I love this moment and the quality of light in the picture. We ‘re under a bridge and the cover above helped me to create a nice direction light from the right

One of my fav pic. Very eye catching color. Soon after this shot, it started to rain again, and we had to stop.

Behind the scene of the above pic.

We had really big thunderstorm and had to a rest at a store nearby

Zoe & Kenneth are going to tie the knot on Oct 28 at Harbour Plaza Hong Kong and I am already looking forward to their wedding.

Special moment

Kenneth did a great job to make Zoe smile whole day

So Lovely

Nam Sang Wai

A perfect match

The water was so cool … ….

They smiled whole day and were so camera friendly

Hi Kenneth, you did it !!!!

Shek O Beach

Guess what Kenneth was doing … ….

By the end of the day, we had some drinks in a café at Central. I liked this place a lot.