One year is coming, since I last shot the wedding of Joshua and Wendy. Joshua is actually a photographer too who shoots wedding, he has a nice aesthetic sense and a good taste in picking music which I really adore based from his work and a video he prepared on the wedding day. He found me through an online directory where he also advertised in. Well, sometimes your competitors need to hire you too. hehe.. Kidding, we’re cool!

Both Joshua and Wendy are very kind and nice couple from how they treat and talk to people, I have a peaceful feeling every time seeing both of their faces and smile. Happened that this wedding has a lot of photo opportunity thanks to the people and environment, I’ve created a shoe shot with some blings that says ‘I DO’ which I really love until today, looking forward on creating my next best shots in 2012 and the following years to come. Before I go, Joshua sang “Stand by me” with his ‘Heng Tais’ via the a Capella way, you can see from the sameday slideshow done for them here.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone of you!

&.b.t.w. - For 2012, I hope that I can be a 60% artist and 40% of business person. I want to focus on solidifying a style or way of creating images that is unique to myself. Of course, need the 40% business side so I won’t starve!

&.&.b.t.w. - I hope to shoot more at places I’ve never been to out of Penang or even Malaysia on 2012. New places means new problems to solve and that leads to new inspirations!

&.&.&.b.t.w. – 2011 has been a great great year. We are blessed with a lot of very kind clients and our total sales grew a +139% compared to year 2010 when we just started out. Thank you so much for your support! You know what, even by simply giving us a LIKE for a blog post would have turned to an opportunity for us to be known by your friends that could be our prospective clients. Can’t thank all of you more with all the supports given to us!

&.&.&.&.b.t.w. – Placed an order of 5 books from Amazon. I think it’ll be my Christmas present for myself. What you get for your Christmas?

Being hospitalized got me thinking and made me start questioning myself what I am doing for the past 2 years and why I’m doing so… Why do I want to risk the rest of my life with a career I’m not sure whether it could last good? Why do I want to bear such heavy responsibility each week? Why do I want to go through hectic ‘competitions’ among so many other photographers out there? Why do I have to stress myself so much physically and mentally every week? Is it all worth it?

Seriously I don’t know and maybe I won’t even know this life time, there’s no guarantee in life too. Perhaps not everything in this world could be explained logically or we would know the true worth of something before we start doing it, career or relationship wise for an instance. I’m seeing what I do now like raising my own ‘child’, our parents don’t question whether is it worth it to have us on earth isn’t it? Maybe I’m thinking too much during the time being hospitalized but it’s good that I am thinking instead of feeling comfortable on what I’m doing. Just feeling wanted to voice out a bit cause sometimes working alone most of the time is really… not easy.

The shot below was an applause by the bride just after the same day slideshow ended. This photo alone means a lot to me, for the effort put on to the whole event and ensuring the slideshow could be played on time etc. It feels awesome to be appreciated I’m glad both Li Ling & Chang Chian love the show I put on the screen and there’s lots of laughter thanks to the group of very fun Heng Tais that make the slideshow a joy to watch! Enjoy the show below.

&.b.t.w. – My Dengue was caught when I’m at a car park warming up the car. The car door was opened only for seconds then there’s more than 30 mosquitoes inside! So, be careful you guys.

The wedding dinner of Jenny & Juan was held at Mansion 32 in Penang. This is a restaurant I always wanted to shoot since last year cause I really love the ambient, the building, and the lighting there through other fellow photographer’s work. I’m very grateful that both of them entrusted me and my second shooter in documenting this important date of theirs.

When we first met face to face for discussion, I immediately know that I would have a lot of photo opportunities based on how out going and friendly both Jenny & Juan are. The photos turned out to be exactly how I visualized. This is the wedding with the most laughter and tears I have covered till date. Not just the couple and family members cried & laughed, they even resonated me and my second shooter’s heart despite us being the ‘observer’ of the process only.

Some highlights about this wedding would be Jenny’s 9 elder sisters. They are all real fun to photograph! I encountered the most ‘unusual’ tea ceremony ever, with some of the sisters hiding in cupboard and behind curtain. Not just that, drinking of the tea with straw too! Looking back at the series of photos and slideshow kept making me laughing non-stop. If you missed their sameday slideshow, click this. Enjoy the rest of the series and have a great week peeps!

Mi

The mother and the 10 daughters, I’m real lucky to be able to capture the family of Jenny’s!

Flowers and decos are done by Floral Sense Creation, they are real beauty.

One of the real heart moving moments when both Juan & Jenny exchange their wedding vows..

They have a ‘signature jump’ for wherever they go.

Next, we have some extra time, so I did a short portrait session with them.

Juan is a Canadian and also a photographer while Jenny is a Penangite in origin. Well, there’s really no geographical boundaries for true love. I feel that being able to find that right one who fits perfectly well in our heart till the day getting married is simply an amazing journey. I could feel in the heart that how in love both Jenny and Juan is from the way they talked and looking at each other, you’d feel like crying together with them when they were exchanging vows.

Am really glad that I have been given the opportunity to shoot this important day of Jenny & Juan’s wedding as there were lots of photo opportunities, many of the family members are real easy going doing ‘extraordinary stuff’. This is the same copy of sameday slideshow played during their wedding reception at Mansion 32. I love the challenge of this assignment very much, the tension and time pressure I had to put this up to the screen on the very same day. Did I left out Jenny’s 9 sisters? Check them out in the video, the makeup artist is Jenny’s sister too. Hope that you guys would have some good laughs with the funny moments. Have a great week!

PS: Check out more of their beautiful wedding day photographs here too!

Mi

Mi

This post, I’m sharing some of my favorite shots. Hope that all of you had a great family reunion during Chinese New Year.

Mi

Joshua is a photographer too, who has very nice aesthetic sense that really I admire and good taste on fine music. He’s a multi-talented individual who could play guitar, sing, and shoot nice photographs. He emailed me last year and I can’t believe he’s the Joshua Teoh I know somewhere on the online world.

I start shooting from Wendy’s house and Wendy’s shoe has these “I do” blings at the bottom. I’m very lucky to find suitable rack to use and the Christmas tree as background to execute the shot below. I’m proud of this shot cause it’s something fresh to me and I’m delighted with the out of camera shot below.

Joshua’s intention to give Wendy a surprise by singing “Stand by me” when he’s at the bride’s house gave me an inspiration to do something different for their sameday slideshow at the morning I woke up. This slideshow mark my first time to shoot video(ok, I’m learning!), and to do a sameday slideshow with a very different approach from my norm of doing. Both Wendy and Joshua were very pleased with this video I’ve created for them, hope all of you would enjoy too. Have a great Sunday!

Mi

This is the first sameday slideshow I done it at my fastest pace, started shooting from 6.30am till 3.30pm and the slideshow is ready for playing around 2.00pm for the guests viewing pleasure during the lunch. Below, photo credit to my great 2nd shooter, Calvin who assisted me throughout the shoot, without him, this is not possible. I was caught in the act sitting on the floor working on the slideshow.

I am sharing with all of you what I’ve played during the luncheon of the wedding below this picture. I did this slideshow that conveys a happy mood, hope you’d feel it and clears your Monday blues. For better viewing experience, Pause the video to let it loads completely before you continues watching.

Mi

Stephen is a groom from Ipoh and Amy is a bride from KL, both working in Penang and this wedding was shot in Penang and Cititel for the dinner session. I love many of the kids in this wedding, they are so cute and not camera shy! Also, I learnt a lesson through this wedding, never stay too near to too many balloons. Enjoy the full series.

Mi

The chewing endurance, the brothers were required to finish up the whole plate of biscuits with marshmallows, lemon, bitter gourd, and wasabi.

I love this game a lot and the whole session is a L-O-L one!

During same-day-slideshow was played.

Back to the shoot, let me reintroduce Susan and Gim Eng to all of you. Sounds familiar? Remember the couple who brought me to Langkawi for their Love Diary(pre-wedding shoot)? There you go.. Keep reading, this wedding is different, really.

It’s a great satisfaction to us, photographers to see our photos being printed on large photobook.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Susan & Gim Eng march in with their 1 year old son. It’s not what you think, both of them are legal husband and wife for 3 years already but they’ve chosen to have their wedding dinner in conjunction with their baby Sebastian’s one year old birthday!

Gim Eng giving me “signal” not to shoot so much of him as he’s camera shy. hehe.

Warning, the following photos require a 3D spec from the cinema to view correctly. Neh… just joking.

When we were on our way in the ferry to Langkawi for Susan and Gim Eng’s pre-wedding shoot, we talked about their programmes for this dinner. They had a dance floor but have a concern that not much people would participate. As all of us know that Asians like us are a little shy when comes to dancing. I told Susan that it shouldn’t be a problem, if both of them husband and wife brave themselves a couple of moments with not much people :p Refer to photo above. Kids are always the most generous volunteers, they are part of the attraction to the “shy-er” adults. As you see, adults think that these kiddos are cute and come to the front with cameras or mobile phones to take picture. Some may guide their kids how to spin or shake too. So gradually, there goes the chain reaction…

I believe the “Heng Dais” and “Ji Muis” (best-man, bridesmaid, good friends) would come along to “reinforce” the bride & groom and have fun too.

Last but not least, the correct kind of music is important. With all that, everyone would be having a great time at the dance floor and it’s just hard to stop once heated up!

That’s all for now. Have you followed us on Facebook yet? I have created our official Facebook page, the main intention of this page is about sharing information with readers who follow our work and blog. You can simply follow us by clicking the “LIKE” button. Or, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and you will see our Facebook box at the right, you can “LIKE” us from there straight away. When we have a good amount of people, I’d like to offer some free portrait shoots to our followers too as a reward.

At the moment, we are also collecting questions. Do you have anything you’d like to ask such as topics from photography to makeup & styling etc? Ask us by sending your question to [mi@milanteh.com], I will randomly select the questions and try my best to answer them as a blog post here based on me and Joan’s mutual knowledge. Thank you and see you there, have a great Friday!

Mi

This wedding has been a very special one to me personally especially the very moving and heart felt speeches one after another, they made my eyes teary on the spot and even when I’m culling the shots to be posted here this afternoon. All these are made possible by Jocelyn and Joe because they led-and-let me to be part of their special day.  I’m really glad that I’m part of their wedding and the energetic crowd and children who had fun at the dance floor are simply amazing!

Well, I think I’m not really good in telling stories in English but I’ll try to improve! Jocelyn, Joe, if you are reading this, I wanted to thank both of you here for having faith in me for capturing your special day at Penang. I was emotionally involved and had every minute of fun even that I’m shooting. Have a safe trip back!

Jocelyn has been very very kind. She get out from her chair like every 10 minutes in the middle of the makeup session and keep on digging every little thing she could thought of to let me shoot cause she fear that I might feel bored! She even told Joe to brush the ring so that I could have a shiny one. She’s a lovely bride every photographer would love!

And there I have it. Brand new looking rings for details shot! :p

See the yellow ‘thingy’? It’s a garter for the night’s garter ceremony! Which is my first time shooting it.

Isn’t that all the details lovely? Jocelyn is the master mind for them.

Under the witness of the Goddess of Mercy, Joe has thoughtfully proposed to Jocelyn few years back at Kek Lok Si, Penang.

I love this cake. They are so ‘theme based’ and lovely. Most important of all, it’s edible! ;p

Jocelyn was explaining to the guests why there’s a saying in the Hokkien language to tell the elderly to dry their tea cup during the tea ceremony. Something like this, ‘teh lim da da, sin niao ghia sai meh ni zhoh ba ba ma ma.‘ LOL. If you’re not a Chinese speaking person, you might need a translator.

Family and friends, from as far as the US, India, Indonesia, and Scotland all in one place for one special occasion.

Mi