For most of the weddings in hong kong, it’s not uncommon for clients hire 2 photographers and 2 cameramen (video) for their weddings. Together with assistants, there may be around 6-7 crew members in a wedding. though it may be necessary for a wedding with 300 or 400 plus guests, but I always think it’s difficult for the couples and families  to act naturally in front all these camera and strangers, especially inside the hotel room. If you let me choose, I ‘d rather to shoot a small wedding alone, without other photographer or camera man.

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?