John and Charlene Pre-wedding

We did have lots of memorable moments shooting with John and Charlene.

This is probably the first couple that made it at 7am sharp. So the shooting started at 7 am. I and Andry always love morning sunlight and we always try to convince our couples to start early. However, it was always late due to make-up, hair do...and simply it's just hard to wake up early. I know that all the brides will be very excited the night before the photo shoot that they could not sleep. I myself couldn't. And that's also one reason that makes the early wake up even more difficult. But John and Charlene made it.

But... (Hah! I hate this) we did not have good luck with weather. The moment we finished the very first shot at the beach, it started to rain. It rained heavily and there was no sign that it will stop raining any soon. We were all a bit off. But John made some jokes and cheer everyone up. He's good at that and we love him for that. For John, nothing seems impossible :)

Charlene's make up is lovely and I love the hair do. It's very suitable for beach shot, sexy and attractive.

Back to the rain story, so we waited and waited from 7.30 to 9 am. The sky was so grey and it's still drizzling at 9am. We decided to move to the next shooting location and would be back to the beach at noon if the weather got better.

This time, John introduced us to a new shooting location which is inaccessible to public. So we got some new ideas for this time and it turned out great.

Let all the pics speak for themselves for my poor vocabulary could not describe well how great John and Charlene looks together. To quote John's comment "Charlenen looks like a magazine model". In fact, John told me that some audience asked him whether this is real wedding photo shoot or some magazine photo shoot for Charlene looks so professional. This I have to admit.

Here are some pics to share. Thanks again, J&C, for give us this opportunity to document their love story, and it is a romantic one.

This is one of my favourite from the day and so far.

I also love this "kissing in the rain" shot, it's romantic.

The PROCESS and the PRINT

Inspired by David DuChemin blog, I thought it's fun to write a blog about the PROCESS of editing a photo and the final PRINT. Well, the best is still, of course, no editing but sometimes "reality" is not that perfect: the weather, some funny distracting objects in the background or to better express our intention in the picture. And the fact that Virgos are perfectionism is absolutely true for Andry (sadly not for me though we're both virgo).

We are now trying not to put too much editing to a photo, first it saves our effort in editing (well sometimes it's really painful as it takes hours just to edit 1 photo), second it requires us to improve our hard skills further. But most of the time, photo editing helps to improve the photo much better, pushes the main object into focus and puts a bit of artistic elements into the photo and makes it unique.

The below photo illustrates well my point.

Andry has done a good job in finding the right angle and setting the right exposure. I always love the unique angle in each of his photo. I have done a good job in instructing the bride and the groom in this posture. I thought the bride has done a brilliant job in jumping up and curving her back as shown in the picture. But if you look at the picture with a meticulous eye, you can see that the tail of the gown gives an impression that the groom has had a hard time in lifting the bride up (actually he did hehe). But what we want to express in this picture is that the bride is like flying, we want it to be energetic and fun.

That's why if you look at the picture after editing, Andry has done an excellent job in removing the tail of the gown. I am still not sure how he did it but with my level of patience, I would never make it.

Another thing is the tone of this picture. On that day, it was raining heavily in the morning, that's why the sky, and so is the sea look grey. So Andry has tone up the color a little but by making the aqua color more saturated.

Lastly I notice some funny black object in the background (probably it's a ship) but it looks distracting to me. So I did the finally touch to remove it from the background. And here you go, the final print.

Love me - Yiruma

Huy & Hoang ROM

I love the intimacy and the decorations of Huy and Hoang solemnization. Everything is in purple, from the bridal bouquet, the bride's make-up, the groom's tie to the reception table's decoration...And as I said in the previous blog entry, most of these decorations are prepared by the bride. She did her own make-up, she made their own ring pillow and she decorated the cover of the guest book. I called it the purple wedding. And for your information, the color purple represents loyalty, long lasting, trustworthiness and happiness. These are all we wish the couple for the start of their journey together...

Here are some images from the purple wedding

Here she is, the bride, doing her own make-up.

Here's a more close-up image of the gown. I thought that the gown matched the bride perfectly.

Here they are after the "I DO, I DO"

... All the guests are paying intense attention to the vow exchange moment, even the little one as you can see :)

Let's congratulate the couple once more

Huy&Hoang Prewedding

I know, I know, there hasn't been of much of an update. Many ups and downs have been going on recently. However, with our baby girl due in 3 weeks, I thought I have to update this blog now before all the photos are piled up in our hard disk.

It was a really fun experience shooting for H&H, exploring this new old location under Singapore hot sun. Yes, this new old location is NTU campus, the place where we have spent our 4 years undergraduate here. And for me, it's another 4 years of postgrad school. I always thought that NTU campus is the most beautiful uni campus in Singapore with all the greenery and up and down hill paths. It's also a romantic location but strangely we never explore this location before. So, thanks Huy for his suggestion and we were pretty excited for the shot. And H&H love nature settings so we thought that probably no other location is more suitable than the NTU campus.

The bride surprised me (and continued to do so during their ROM) for she can do the make-up on her own and it's really professional. Plus she knew what works best for her and she did it really well.

Here are some pics to share. I will post more later and probably another blog entry for their ROM too. Enjoy!

This is a fav of mine during the shot. Romantic surrounding and look at the the bride's expression, isn't she lovely.

Here it is, the new Art school at NTU, very unique architecture.

This shot was taken at the roof top of the Art school.

I love this shot, the bride''s smile is just gorgeous

Son & Man Prewedding

Son is an old friend of us since university time. Son is well know for his "special" character and many other things, just to list a few here: Son - the first class honour graduate, Son - who can consume Cadbury in pretty large amount, Son - the patriot and is dying to contribute to his country haha. I think it's enough.

Son and Man met in Italy (this I'm not so sure as the groom claimed that they know each other way before coming to Italy for their Master degree). Anyway, it's not important. Man is a really good cook and the way she decorates and sets the table will probably tell you something about her...artistic and meticulous. Man studied architect so probably that's why. Her gown is gorgeous...and she designed it herself. I love the gown, it is exactly the gown that I also wanted for my wedding but did not have the talent to design and describe it to the tailor.

Shooting for Son and Man was really fun. We all made fun of Son as he does not know how to pose at all....However, it was a really hot day even though we have tried to start early. It was a bright sunny day. We spent only about 3 hours shooting in the morning.

Son and Man is also in Hanoi right now for their wedding. Congratulations! A couple made in Italy! And by that u know what i mean...love, romantic, artistic and everything made in Italy is just beautiful :)

-LOVE-