I have known Nick for quite some time now ever since the Lowyat photography days and when he asked me to shoot his pre-wedding, I couldn't say "no" to him. Here are some of the photos from the session. Boy, did I really have so much fun shooting the couple. Both Nick and Sharon were very sporting and they were a really funny couple to photograph. A huge thanks to Mun Tzin as well for helping me out.



I really love capturing the bouquet especially when they are so nicely decorated such as the one above.



The head piece was from Pretty in White! I really love birdcage veils.



We started the shoot from inside the room which was themed after a middle eastern design.













After shooting for a while, we decided to try and capture the sunset. I really love sunset shots and I really love the warm colour tone!









All the best Nick and Sharon. Can't wait to shoot your wedding next month! Gosh, time really flies!

With a new blog design, I guess its time to post up some photos. Digging through some of my photo archive, I found some photos which I shot a couple months back. Joshua has been one of my best friends and we go a long way back. Having also both studied in the UK, he was always a great host whenever I visited him in Coventry. This time, he came back to Malaysia to propose to Adeline and she said "yes!".

Although both Joshua and Adeline had a tight schedule here in Malaysia (he's working in the UK and she's working in Singapore), I had to make do with the little available time they had. Although the two of them were in Malaysia, it didn't mean that they were in Selangor. The short time before church started was the only time they could spare. Nevertheless, the 35 minutes we spent together was well worth it!

Here are some of my favourite shots from that day.







Joshua is a talented musician and he plays the drums and the piano. Check out his blog over here.







I know Joshua quite well and to be very honest, he seems to always like to put his hands like that against the wall. Even when he is thinking to himself. I guess it was meant that Adeline could easily charm him from that angle :)





I secretly took this shot after we were done and they wanted to see some of the results of the earlier shoot.







Last but not least, a group shot of the four of us having lunch after church.

Joshua and Adeline, congratulations on your engagement and I can't wait for your wedding next year. Although I won't be shooting it but I am glad that I can be part of your wedding next year as one of your groomsmen.

Sometimes I wondered why I signed up for a workshop which was something I most probably knew everything that was going to be thought. Really, the very first 30-40minutes I was just flabbergastered because I really knew what the trainers were teaching to the rest of the students.

Then it hit me, absolute pride. I began to think again, where was my meekness especially the time when I was down? What happened to that? Just because I took a few "good" photos (note the quotes, "", at good) doesn't mean that I am the best? Not really, I am totally far from being called a "good photographer" and ever lightyears away from being called "the best".

Anyway, the workshop with the trainers (Andrew and Mohd Haidar) over at the Nikonian Academy brought a new light to me. There are far more people with so much more experience that I can learn and absorb from. I need to be a sponge and absorb all of it. There were plenty of tips I picked up along the way and definitely shooting under such bright sunlight was a pain (I realised so many hotspots or overexposed areas on my shots!).



Part of my homework is to choose the best three but frankly, I haven't found them yet. I took two which I liked and posted them here but I haven't found my favourite 3 yet. I need to go back home, sit down in front of my PC and start post processing them.



Lastly I would like to take the time to thank the trainers, Andrew and Haidar for teaching us the fundamentals of shooting outdoor portaits as well as Nicole who was our model for the day. Thanks so much, an afternoon with you guys made me realise that I have got a lot more to learn.

Getting back on track? A question I was asking myself previously in regards to the whole area of photography. Sometime in January, I assisted another wedding photographer to shoot a wedding and after a long and tiring day, I noticed that my photos didn't turn out as well as I would hoped for. Then it really hit me that I have plenty more to learn and it really got me down.

It was a tough time for me as I was rather demoralised and instead of just sitting there and sulking, I decided to get back to basics, start afresh and re-discover my style. With that in mind, I signed up for 4 workshops simultaneously with the hope of learning as much as I can and gaining more experience.

Last week, I attended my first workshop and here are the results from it. The workshop was conducted by Jayhan and it was a strobist style workshop where one would work with portable flash whilst shooting outdoors. There were only two participants that day, me and Saiful a.k.a Xandman, travelled to Bukit Jalil on a hot Sunday afternoon.

We started off by shooting in a hut using Jay's portable flashes but in the end we had to resolve to our Nikon's CLS system and two SB-800s because the triggers were not working. Although we did manage to use Jay's more powerfull portable strobe light for the outdoor shoots.


Jayhan teaching Saiful and Nadia who was our model for the day


Saiful shooting with his 70-200mm f/2.8. Now that is one lens I would love to have!

And here are some of the results from the "indoor" shots.




Frankly I didn't have the time to post process the other shots I took in the hut as I feel that the whole strobist style which I wanted to learn was more of that taken outdoors. When I have the time, I will definitely post them up here.

The next bit of course would be for us to go outside. And this time, I had more fun shooting, not with my 50mm portrait lens but with my 10-20mm wide angle lens.


Jay call's himself the human lightstand

And here are my results from that session.









Ok, this shot was taken using natural light though

At the end of the workshop, or shoot I would say, I felt that perhaps I have improved a little or perhaps I am still a little lost looking for that style of mine. Prior to this, I had a chat with Shaolintiger and he gave me some very good advice and I still keep it in my head everytime I go for a shoot.

Patience is the key and I will definitely think a lot more before firing away at my shutter. With that in mind, I would also like to thank Louis Pang who has been a great inspiration to me and for helping me with my queries.

I got another workshop lined up this weekend with the Nikonians Academy and an outdoor shoot with the guys over at Lowyat.net on Sunday.  Looking forward to a productive weekend and putting what I learned into real practice.