A Great First - Photographing A Wedding

OK, so this is the 3rd weekend I'm unable to do any photo post-processing. No PP equals no posting :( This is getting frustrating! My company laptop has the security feature that somehow prevent the "illegal" copy of the Photoshop CS4 from being installed. I've placed order for a new Dell Studio15 and all I can do is hope for them to be delivered as soon as possible.

Did my first ever wedding shoot for a cousin of mine yesterday. It was a great first experience. All I can say is that wedding photography is definitely not as easy as it seems. Didn't manage to get all the shots that I've earlier planned. Events happened at a lightning speed and the next thing you know, you've missed it. The key here is be fast, shoot, and only figure out if the shot is good later.

Few learning from my first wedding assignment:

- Shoot in RAW if possible. I know that RAW files take up much of the memory but use this to shoot the event that may not be repeatable. This would be useful as I noticed that some of the important shots got underexposed.

- Get the details of the itinerary and discuss with the couple so that you'll know when to plan for the next event. In my case, I wasn't even aware that the couple was preparing for the march-in during the dinner!
- Ask the bride & groom to take note of your presence and try as much as possible to give you a good angle. I know it's best to let the event flow naturally but in certain scenes, you just couldn't get the best angle with all the relatives & friends trying to get a piece of the action. (and I'm sure they would want their photos to turn out with their faces in instead of their back!)

- Change a new set of battery for the flash gun for the dinner if you've been shooting the morning session. My flash suddenly gave up at the critical moment causing me to lose an important scene.

- It's always easier to work in a team of two. I couldn't keep up with the convoy somehow and missed the arrival back to the groom's house. *sigh*

- Keep the ISO the lowest possible to avoid noise.

Here's a shot... sort of a teaser. Shall upload the entire album once my new laptop is here! (p/s: thanks to Derick & Jonsern for the detailed tips)

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Be Right Back

As you've known, the HDD of my laptop crashed last Thursday causing me to lose much of my photography work and other work documents. So I'm in no mood for any photoshoot this weekend. Instead, I'm surveying on laptops as I plan to get one for personal use. ...Then again, my company is upgrading us with a new HP laptop very soon.. I'm in a dilemma - should I or should I not get one? If yes, what model would you recommend?

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Love Me... In Historic Georgetown - Weifoong & Wanchin's Pre-Wedding Vol.3

This is the final installment of Wf & Wc's pre-wedding photos. The shoot was done in quite a rush at several heritage locations around Georgetown as we were trying to squeeze in as much locations as possible before the sun sets. In the end, we managed to do it much to our delight!

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To Wf & Wc, this is my early wedding present for you :) It's taken me many hours of post-processing to complete the entire three series (not to mention having to bear with the lagging speed of my laptop!). So, hope you'll love the photos.

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Click to view the full album >

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Love Me... At the Field - Weifoong & Wanchin's Pre-Wedding Vol.2

Here's the second series of Wf & Wc's pre-wedding shots done at the lalang field in Tanjung Tokong. It was a very quick session that we managed to squeeze in between the morning session at the beach as well as the formal afternoon session. Enjoy...

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Click to view the full album >

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The Shortlisted Entries

This is my only shot (out of 4) that made it through the final 70 of the claimed hundred of entries submitted for the Historical Wedding Gown Photography competition which took place 2 weeks back. The 70 prints are now being displayed at brand new Penang Times Square, in conjuction with the 1st Penang Culture, Art & Lifestyle Fair from May 1st-3rd.

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I finally made my way to see the rest of the entries a while ago. After checking them out, I can only put the judges credibility to question. Are they professionals who know what a good shot is? Only 10-20% of the entries are good. The rest are what I term as rejects - I easily have better shots which are featured here in my blog that didn't even make it pass my final selection!

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No offence to the rest of the participants but those level of sub-standard work would not ever make it past a more credible photography competition! The results will be announced at 5pm tomorrow. Judging at the scenario, I doubt my shot can win the top prizes. Whatever the outcome is, I know of my own capability and the quality of my work - and those alone already made me a winner!

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Love Me... At the Beach - Weifoong & Wanchin's Pre-Wedding Vol.1

After 2 weeks, here's the first series of Weifoong and Wanchin's pre-wedding photos shot at Batu Feringghi. The title "Love Me.." was actually inspired by the song "Love, Me" by Collin Raye which is Wanchin's all-time favourite love song. In this series, I tried to bring out the love theme by inserting lines of poems to some of the shots. This turned out well in complementing the flow of the photos in my opinion. It took me a lot of effort to get this done and I'm personally happy with this album - What do you think?

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Keep an eye for the second and third series of this couple's pre-wedding shots, slated for release in the next 2-3 days..

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[Click here or the image below to view the full album]

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A New Identity?

Out of boredom the other day, I tried to whip up a new signature/logo to be used on my work. The current signature that I used, if you noticed had been scaled down a little with shadow added to highlight it. I like this for its simplicity but at the same time, I want one that is more sophisticated. I want something that people can easily associate to my work.. sort of a brand! So I came up with the one on the right! Now that I love both, I figure that I'll use the new one for my assignment-based work while retaining the current for my personal shots.

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At the same time, I registered a new blog at WordPress worrying that my domain could be taken ;) I'll switch over once my Blogspot reaches its limit.

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