I was invited last weekend by both Edwin Tan and Nicholas Leong over to their new gallery located in Bangsar South. It was a fun event with plenty of other photographers about with food and even a photo booth!



Put photographers in front of the camera and you end up having loads of wacky pictures. Some just too wacky that it has to be censored. Or should I leak one or two up on this site.







 

I know I had way too much cake at the event but am a little sad that I missed the champagne popping session that you guys did after I left. At least I didn't get splashed with champagne ;)

(Image source: Reuters/Chris Ison)

Now who says that wedding photographer's don't need 600mm lenses? I guess its better to shoot with a 600mm rather than having a couple of fists from the bodyguards in your face instead.

Check out more photos of the royal wedding here.

Not to stand too close to the bride and groom when they are about to pop the champaign!



Ok the image was a little blur as I think I sort of self consciously tried to move away.



Seriously, I could have sworn that he was aiming it at a totally different direction.

Well, at least I can tick this off my to-do wedding list.

Yes, I have finally gotten around to sorting through some of the images from my photo archives and yes, I have uploaded them to my Portfolio page. Here are some of the images which I have uploaded.



Capture the shot above while shooting Siva & Sumitha's wedding together with the Stories team.



This shot was taken during Eric & Debbie's wedding, also together with the Stories' team.



Took the shot of Mun Tzin quite recently :)

Head over to my portfolio page to view more!

Now in case you do not know that if you scroll to my menu bar on my blog and select wedding photography, you get directed to http://www.stories.my. Why do you ask? That is because most of my wedding photography work is up on their site together with Grace's and Johan's work.

But of course that might confuse some people especially with the inquiries that comes through to me, I usually have to respond a little differently for wedding packages and requests. Anyhow, that isn't the story today. The story today is the launch of the new Stories Facebook Page, yay!



About half of the number of inquiries that we get originate from Facebook, so it only made sense to have a page where everyone can interact, discuss questions regarding wedding photography (or your gown, or deco even if you wanted to!). It also features ongoing promotions, and contests in the future.

Head on over here to find out more about the page :)

http://www.facebook.com/Stories.my

Yes I didn't manage to squeeze in a blog post last week. Why? Mainly I was busy with work, late teleconferences as well as preparing with the RedNinja.tv gang for the got Mojo? seminar and camp over the weekend. Definitely had an amazing time with the participants and all of the great fun and sharing that we had. Totally sapped all of my energy from me until I got sick on Monday when I returned to work.

It was such an honour to have Wiki and Ilona over as the main speakers and I am very sure that the participants had an equally fantastic time as well. Just search for the #gotMojo on Twitter and you will see their responses :)

Anyway, since a post should not have no images on it, I am going to post some shots which I took over the weekend.









I also liked this shot which Grace shot of me. She said I was doing the macarena which I don't recall that.



Big credits goes to:

Models: Rachel & Ser Young
Make Up & Hair: Shinny Ong (her work is amazing, just look at the models!)
Gowns by: Pretty In White (Pretty in White was one of our sponsors as well)

Couldn't have done it without them

After a grueling time throughout yesterday's wedding shoot, I was just asking myself how does one recuperate from a long day's work? That got to both me and Grace talking about those photographers who shoot two to three weddings in a row.

Now the story began yesterday when I was up very early for a shoot in Puchong. I dragged myself out of bed at 5ish and reached the groom's place before 6.30am. By that time I was already wishing that I had slept earlier the night before but thanks to some printer problems, that kept me up till way past midnight. Anyway the shoot went on until about 2pm in the afternoon so that would mean we have already shot for 8 hours non-stop.

During the morning shoot where we were shooting at the indian temple in Shah Alam, we had to go about barefoot and walk around barefooted on the tarred road which was riddled with small pebbles and stones (extremely painful experience). And not to also mention that it was broad daylight and the road was definitely heated up!

By the time I got back home after the shoot, I was completely wiped out and my feet were aching! I just couldn't help but take a long and refreshing cold shower and rest as much.

Now the question comes to mind, how do you recuperate from a long shoot?

I know some photographers tend to take power naps.

Others might go for foot massages.

Some eat extra energy bars.

Anyone knows a quick and easy way to recuperate some of that lost energy and aching feet? If you do know, please write them down in the comment section.

Note: This question is open to all, not just those in the photography line :)

Image by Maggie Smith - source

First of all I would like to wish everyone out there a fantastic happy new year. 2009 went by in a blaze for me and I really do look forward to 2010 because I want to put 2009 behind me and look forward to a brighter and better future ahead. I blogged about my new year resolutions and starting later today, I will be tackling them one at a time. I foresee 2010 to be a tough year where I will be facing a lot of changes and challenges but I am very determined not to live like how I lived 2009 and slowly change and improve.

In my post about Weng Jou and Yvonne's portrait shoot, I mentioned a little teaser at the end of the post. Well, its now the 1st of January 2010 and I would like to also announce the launch of Stories! Want to know what Stories is about?

It’s finally here! After weeks of hard work, we are launching Stories by Integricity Visuals. Most of you would know that the team at Stories originated from the brand Wedding Story. In 2009, our photography services at Wedding Story has grown by leaps and bounds. It is with much excitement that we announce to you a specialized boutique wedding & portrait photography service from Stories.

With this new launch, we are pleased to give away special treats to couples who are interested to make a booking for 2010. We will give away gifts worth up to RM1,500 for the first 5 couples who confirms a booking with us!

Call us for a consultation to find out more details. Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year!

That's right, I have been shooting together with Grace and the WeddingStory team and now I am pleased to announce the launch of Stories.

Just a short post this time round while I recuperate from a busy week as well as food poisoning after traveling to Penang last weekend and driving through 8 hours of traffic (together with everyone else travelling up North for the Raya holidays). At the end of the week, I took a day off to check out Jerry Ghionis' seminar. This is what I learned, just on Friday.

There were more than 130 participants.

I think there is going to be a change in the industry. It all starts with us!



Of course, both Ian and Grace had to join him on stage as well!



Had dinner with a bunch of photographers after the seminar which lasted almost for 12 hours.

I found out that when it comes to food, photographers are shy! There were 9 of us, 10 soup dumplings on the table and after dinner, there were 3 left because everyone was too shy to take the dumplings.

I found out that Park Royal serves Haagen Daaz ice cream in their lunch buffet!

Bought a number of products which were very useful in yesterday's shoot.

I found out that I haven't blogged much so I prepared some photos ready to be posted up.

I need more sleep, but am glad I managed to satisfy Ian's cravings for "bak kut teh". He really is like a pregnant women, always got cravings for certain type of food whenever he is up in KL.

It has been a while since I have blogged about weddings I've shot and I definitely have a lot of photos all stored up in my hard disk at home waiting to be posted online. I think I shall go with the thinking that it is always "better late than never". Before I continue ranting about things which should have been, let me start the post up.

To be frank, it wasn't really a wedding as both Chi Wern and Chin Ling got married in Singapore the week before but they had a vow renewal session here in Malaysia so that friends and family in Malaysia will not be missed out.









His best man, flew all the way back from London to be a part of this happy occasion!







The groom's mum looking over the happy couple.



As I mentioned in the beginning, it was a renewal of vows, so the ceremony was a little different. I will let you see if you can spot the difference.







Once the entire ceremony was over, it was time for the bride and groom to head out.



Where we then proceeded to take a couple of shots before the tea ceremony.







Dinner was held on the same day as the church ceremony but there was time in between to take a break.







When you have friends helping you out as your emcees, you definitely have to expect them to play some games with you on stage.



Games like asking the groom to feel several hands and ask him to identify the bride's hand.



As well as getting the bride to feel for her husband's hair as well among other guys.





This is one of the very rare occasion where I managed to capture the cork in the frame as well. Talk about being lucky :)



The best man giving his toast, the funny thing is that I gave the 3rd toast as well! Yes, me, the photographer who is also an old childhood friend of the groom. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone there to capture me giving the toast :P





The night ended with a blast and I definitely had loads of fun shooting their wedding. It was just totally awesome! The feeling was different because there were so many familiar faces and when you know the guests, it becomes a little more personal .

* Apologies for the confusion, I am trying out a new desktop publishing tool and it seemed to have screwed up the entire post and I have lost everything! *

The one thing I really hate to do is to retype an entire blog post which I have spent quite a fair bit of time writing. It saddens me that a simple mistake or being totally oblivious to the new tool which I am trying out can cause about 30 minutes of work down the drain. Nevertheless, the post must go up! Let me try to recapture what I have written in my earlier post.

I wonder how many people out there get up on a Monday morning, feeling worn out and said to themselves,"Wow, its going to be a great week ahead!". Most of the time I hear from my desk is that people are either feeling the Monday blues or they are updating their Facebook status about what a wonderful weekend they had recently. Personally, my weekend was the bomb!

Together with the WeddingStory team, we headed to a part of Malaysia I have not been in over 10 years, and that was the island, Langkawi. Feeling excited about Stuart & Amy's wedding, I took the 8am flight to Langkawi on Friday and I can safely say is that, don't fly so early in the morning. Why? Think about it, if your flight is at 8am, then you would probably need to be at the airport by 6.30am to check-in. Which means you have to leave your house at 5.30am by taxi. Hence you need to be up at 4 something in order to get ready.

And that was what happened and I have to thank Alex and Grace for hosting me and Mun Tzin the night before so that I didn't have to take account the time needed to travel from my house to their place. Also I have to thank Mun Tzin for waking me up in the morning by rubbing her wet fingers against my face. That really didn't give me a shock at all.

By the time we arrived in Langkawi, rented two cars, checked into the hotel, the first thing I did was sleep! Yes, sleep was the first thing in my mind and after a quick nap, whilst Alex and Mun Tzin went to pick Kee Sitt and Sharon up from the ferry dock, I felt hungry. A quick walk along the main road where our hotel was located, we found ourselves in a cosy restaurant ordering some dishes and eagerly waiting for our food to arrive



Kee Sitt then decided to try out Nigel's camera while we were waiting for our food to arrive.



By the time the first dish arrived (fried rice in case you were wondering if this was some special Langkawi grown rice), we were all too hungry to take more photos of the rest of the food. Ok, I admitted that once I started eating, I didn't stop until the food was gone!



The one thing I remembered about Langkawi was that it was a duty free island, meaning that all alcohol, chocolates and cigarettes were very cheap. It was so dirt cheap that they even served my chinese tea in a beer mug.



After lunch we decided to walk about and check out some of the stalls across the street from the restaurant. Apparently Alex and Nigel found a new toy, Langkawi Poken!



Kee Sitt loved playing with his new toy so much so that he took loads of pictures and videos with it. Can't wait to see all of them when he is done with it.

After lunch, the team got ready and drove about 45 minutes up north of the Island to the famed Andaman resort. There we were to shoot Stuart & Amy's beach wedding. I will leave more details about the shoot in a separate post. :)



This was the view from the bride's room. Look how lovely the scenery is.



And last but not least a view of the beach side where the ceremony is to take place. The decoration and the lovely sea breeze was just amazing, makes everything feel so romantic. The wedding lasted from 4pm all the way till past midnight and it was just so much fun!

I was totally wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel which means only one thing for me. I need more exercise!

Stay tuned for day 2 of the Langkawi trip.