2010 > 2011

Greatest achievement for 2010? Shaving off 13 kilograms of pure fat and ironing that tummy out of the way! So what's in for 2011? One thing for sure is to bring my photography business to another level, not that is doing great right now but with patience and perseverance certainly it will work!

Almost forgot that tomorrow is my birthday heh! Hm... I wish that the year 2012 will not be the end of the world because that is when my home will be ready lol.

Bought some new stuff from B&H for automotive photography, probably will take awhile to reach Singapore... Officially looking for hot cars for the shoot!

Happy New Year!

Shooting for wedding! Final!

The reception, the last portion of the whole wedding event for us to look at with regards to what pictures to take and not to take. The most torturing time since you have to be taking pictures while others feast away... (Kidding!) A general rule of thumb for the reception photography is not to take pictures of people eating, munching or drinking. Do you like to be photographed with your mouthful of chocolate cake? No right? Because you will look funny with those chocolate stains on your teeth, so give those shots a miss.

So here are the shots you should take care of...



1) Food - That's right, take pictures of the food. These shots are considered as detail shots too, it helps the couple to remember the wonderful food they had during their reception! So like any other food photography, go for a very tight shot and frame it in such a way that it cuts away edges of the plate.



2) Guest - Take pictures of them while they are not eating, probably in conversation or like this shot above where the lady is flipping through a photo album done up by the bride and groom. You can also have them to pose for you, all you have to do is ask!



3) Send off - Like any other wedding event, for sure there will be guests that have to leave early, so keep you eyes peeled for those people. Call out for the bride and groom for the send off and snap a picture of them hugging or shaking hands!

Well that's about it on how to photograph a wedding event. I wouldn't say that this is a complete guide on what to take or shoot, however we have covered some of the main things to take note of and hopefully it will be helpful to you!

Shooting for wedding! Continue!

Next will be the Ceremony, this portion among the whole wedding event is considered to be the shortest of all three sections. Majority of the ceremony should be between 20-30 minutes long, which means you have a very tight time frame to capture the whole process! Here are the few things to take note and capture,



1) March in - Communicate with the bride and groom before hand, let them know that they need to walk slower than their normal walking speed and to be smiling at all times. This is important because very likely you will be walking backwards and taking pictures of the bride and groom, so tell the couple to walk slowly if you don't want to trip and fall like the photographer in this video.



2) The table - One of the most challenging moments of the whole event since your subjects are seated, you need to be creative and go for the interesting angles to ensure you shots looks nice. You got to sharpen your senses too and be sure not to miss emotions, so watch out for facial expressions not only from the bride and groom but also from the guests. The next problem you could be facing would be guests walking up and snapping pictures too, you do not want them to be a source of distraction in your picture. What you can do is to fill up your frame, since by tightening your shot you reduce the chances of taking a picture with someone in the background.



3) Details - Yeap details, we are not over with that yet. Like I said before details helps to bring back memories, so this time you got to be looking out for body languages from the couple. Watch out for hand especially, it tells a lot about a person's feeling and thoughts! Don't let your mind tell you that it is foolish and silly to be taking detail shots when you got so little time to work with, feel free to be creative after you got the important shots done!

So if you planned ahead on how to do your shots, a time frame of 20-30 minutes should not be a problem at all. Next week we will conclude with the last portion of the whole wedding event which is the Reception!

Shooting for wedding!

Yo... what's up! This week's photo tips we will talk about a few things to look out for when shooting for a wedding reception. Mainly there are 3 portions to a wedding reception, the pre-ceremony, ceremony and reception. This week we shall look at the pre-ceremony portion and cover the ceremony portion next week.

What I am about to share here is my approach and experience on taking pictures for a wedding, I am sure that you can build on the things that I am going to share and develop a better set of ideas and work flow for yourself!

First of all the pre-ceremony is the time where the bride, the groom and the helpers are preparing for the actual event, pretty much they will be setting up the place and dressing up for the rest of the day. Here are the main things to look out for...



1) Details - This is the best time to capture details of the whole event, things like the reception area, solemnization table, guest books, flowers and many other stuff. Such details are important because it helps to bring back memories of the event when they look at the wedding album 20 or 30 years later! So capture whatever details you can!



2) Make up and dress up time - Most of the time the bride will be the first one to be putting on make up and dressing up for the event, usually it takes up more than an hour. It is time to get artistic since your subject is sitting still and pretty much cannot be moving around, set up some of your shots like placing the gown behind her and taking a picture of the reflection through the mirror or even taking close up shot of the bride with the make up artist working on her face. It is time to get creative! Once the bride is done, do the same thing for the groom!



3) Helpers - While your bride and groom are dressing up, most likely their helpers will be busy setting up the place. Most of the time you will not be staying with the bride and groom through out the dressing up time, you will have to run around getting pictures of the helpers. This is a great time to get shots of the helpers in action since they will not be engage in a lot of activities when the ceremony or reception is on going.

Those are the 3 main things to look out for when you are shooting for the pre-ceremony phase, in the midst of capturing those things do look out for special moments or people engaging in activity and showing happiness!

New Directions! 2011

Yo... what's up! Going through a lot of things in my mind, mainly concerning how to go about getting more fans for me Facebook for the new year LOL (NOT!). Just kidding. Some changes like the phototips section on my website, probably going to shift it to my blog instead since its faster and easier to make changes and increase the content of it. Probably going to include some behind the scenes video or picture in the blog too, instead of posting the same stuff that is already on my website and Facebook.

Probably a good way to let people get to know more about me!

Change for the better 2011!

Labrador Park, Practicing Lightroom 3

Lincoln & Sophia 2010

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