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.

Being a wedding photographer is really an interesting occupation as I get to know everyone’s love story whether they like it or not. lol. Seriously, not for any other purposes but just in hoping that I get to know more about them in the shortest time possible while producing photographs that tags nearest to the couple’s real self.

Something worth mentioning is that Wee Han is an awesome hubby many girls dreamt of cause he loves to cook! He even made me and Joan some nice sandwiches when we were there for the makeover early in the morning. Now here’s my favorite picks for their Love Diary session done wholly in Penang and with Sol Cover‘s dinner gown. Have a great great weekend ahead everyone!

&.b.t.w. – The first shot was not a sunrise but a ‘Flash Rise’ with Joan’s help. Cause when we start to shoot, the sky was actually gloomy and rained a bit too, that explains where the rainbow comes from.

&.&.b.t.w. – I am inspired by Wee Han’s new Honda Insight’s huge rear boot space. Thus tried to create the last shot. They looked very happy but the fact is, we trial and error for a couple of minutes to squeeze them in + having the head angled right + triggering my flash on their hands + keeping them happy in the boot. Applause to the couple!!!

&.&.&.b.t.w. – We did an online contest namely All About U + U recently. Today is the last day of voting(with Likes), hope that some of you could help these participants to win a prize from us. Simply go here and vote for your favorite contestants. Thanks!

Well, the reason of why I wanted to lose weight is embarrassing, really. I couldn’t fit into any jeans of regular size. Felt kinda bad and thanks to the great help of a qualified trainer friend, Sean, I never knew losing weight is that easy.

Sean was a school mate and boy I’m surprised with what I saw from him after about 8 years not getting in touch. He GREW in size. After some catching up, I’ve just realized he is now a certified trainer and based in Petaling Jaya. I’m amazed by his passion in body building and his credentials in this field. To name a few, he is a certified: Mixed Martial Arts Conditioning Coach(NESTA), Strength and Conditioning Specialist(NSCA), Sports Hypnotist(Spenser Institute), Personal Fitness Trainer(ACE), Kettlebell Trainer (IKFF) and so forth.

During my process of losing weight, I only threw in a 30 minutes indoor workout and the most important thing is the food that I take. Thanks to Sean, I’ve got the right knowledge on what to look out for and I never got hungry but ate more meals per day. Not just that, he is capable of motivating me, perhaps because of his knowledge in psychology from his tertiary education.

I also learned that he is pursuing his second degree in Chiropractic, a course that studies about human spine & it’s nerves, optimal relationship of joints, and treatment of musculo-skeletal related problems. I’m worried as I’m typing whether I’d give any facts wrongly cause it’s way out of my knowledge zone! No wonder professionals like doctors look for Sean as their body builder.

Alright, back to what I do best, if you are interested on how to build up your body or losing weight, look for Sean Lee. I did a series of portrait with him earlier and this shoot’s intention is to show the curves of the body muscles. Enjoy the series!

&.b.t.w. – I am very curious about the Siri function of iPhone 4S, with different accents of English, will it be able to function as advertised?

&.&.b.t.w. – I’m not that ambitious as Sean, but it would be nice to dream I have those 6 packs one day…

Cubic Platforms is actually a Lifestyle Concept Store with principal brands such as HTC, DiGi and The Coffee Chemistry Cafe. Not only that you could buy the latest gadgets of HTC, you can also have some nice coffee and food from The Coffee Chemistry Cafe inside the same outlet too.

In another way of saying, you can accompany your IT savvy partner to shop his HTC gadgets here while enjoy the nice food waiting for him and maybe, you can even get your hand on their training program to learn how to use your HTC device better.

I do the talking better via photographs, enjoy the shots and find out more about Cubic Platforms from their page

&.b.t.w. – I really love Sunway Giza Mall, the shops that were made to emulate a lifestyle experience is just great!

&.&.b.t.w. – If you are couple, married or not, we have a contest for you that could win a full day shoot from us, learn more here.

&.&.&.b.t.w. – More and more friends are getting married recently. Nailed this shot in a restaurant this noon while having lunch with the newly wedded friends. The window just opposite me is way too beautiful for me to neglect!

&.&.&.&.b.t.w. – Do you know we have a Facebook page that you can simply follow from the very bottom of this page? Just click on the LIKE!

Mi

Apparently we encountered a bit of hiccup with the submission page after being told by some participants yesterday. Therefore, we decided to prolong the contest period to ensure everyone intended to join get to send their entries to us.

If you are still wondering, the grand prize gets a free full day photo & video session by us and Motion In Style! Not just that, your girlfriend or wife’s makeover will be done by our very own professional makeup artist, Joan. Yes, married or not, this contest is open to couples! We have 5 attractive prizes to be won too.

&.b.t.w. – This series of photos was a couple portrait I shot earlier when preparing for the Penang Has It All blog entry. If you’d like to have a beautiful and memorable photo session with us for free, join our contest!

&.&.b.t.w. – It’s my birthday on 8th September! Bought myself a new logo, will share with everyone soon when I’m releasing : )

&.&.&.b.t.w. – Stole some time from my hectic work to watch Nasi Lemak 2.0, a local film that I’d say it’s my favorite now. It’s a movie that belongs to all Malaysian. Lots of Malaysian culture and true happening depicted cleverly inside. Just watch and you’ll know what I mean.

Mi

Furthermore, we have served a number of couples from overseas coming to Penang just to have their wedding reception because of the weather, food, people, environment and scenery here. And thus, this inspires me to come up with the idea of showing people the beautiful places in Penang. Believe it or not, some Penangites might not even know the existence of certain places I have shot!

Penang is a great spot for vacation, to live in and an ideal destination wedding location of your choice. This round, I’m privileged to have Motion In Style to collaborate with us to produce a short video just for this purpose. Not just that, both of us from Penang wanted to invite you to experience Penang with us. Watch this video first.

In conjunction of showing you the beautiful Penang, we’re having a photo competition. The grand prize winner gets to experience beautiful Penang with us having exclusive couple video filming session by Motion In Style and getting yourself beautiful portraits by us! Details are below:

Wait no more. Take a photo of your partner this week and JOIN NOW! We’re calling for submissions until 15th September 2011.

&.b.t.w. – We used many weeks of time to plan, shoot, then produce the video above. There are actually a lot more places we have went & shot but we’ve squeezed as much as we could to be featured in the video!

&.&.b.t.w. – There were more than 250likes in my sister’s engagement portrait. Which is the highest in my blog so far, 50likes is the second high. I’m actually a little worried + pressured about this cause I don’t know how the 250 came and how I could ‘reproduce’ or surpass this benchmark. But I’ll try my best!

&.&.&.b.t.w. – Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri in advanced to all my Muslim readers out there! Hope you guys have a great great celebration and safe travels.

Mi

My sister just had her wedding day last weekend over Penang. I’m the official photographer for her couple portrait as well as her wedding day coverage. She told my brother in law that, “You can decide whatever you like for the wedding but the photographer must be my brother. I only trust him to treasure this important occasion.”

And wow, those words are extreme heavy responsibility I tell you. hehe.. This post is mainly about their couple portrait or some of you at western countries called it Engagement Portraiture or known as Pre-Wedding Photo here in Malaysia or LOVE DIARY in Milan Teh Studio’s term. Joan did my sister’s makeup & hairdo and we’ve shot all of them in Penang, over the beach, nice sanctuary, mansion, and roadside.

Joseph is a huge fan for cycling and this has largely influenced my sister to follow him cycling around here and there. This explains why there are bicycle in the shots. The shooting process is real challenging cause both of them especially my sister is so mischievous, you’ll see why :p Enjoy the series!

&.b.t.w. – I am deeply inspired by Tofurious & love his way of ending a blogpost with personal happenings. I’ll do it more often as I think it sounds more humanly. And hey, my packages are named “Something Diary”! Suits my ‘theme’ perfectly. Hope I’m not tagged as a copy dog ;p

&.&.b.t.w. – My brother in law created his own battery-powered-leaning-mountain-bike using 6 months time and went fetching the bride with 11 mountain bikes last weekend. It attracted our local news from channel NTV7. If you wanna see the 2 minutes news, it’s available at Facebook or Youtube.

&.&.&.b.t.w. – We’re working together with Motion In Style, a group of awesome wedding cinematographer that many couples sought after to roll out something interesting on August. Please follow us for updates when the time has come (Hint: our Facebook Page is just at the bottom!)

Mi

Not sure where this would take me to in the effort of exploring more possibilities in my work, be it in shooting or the editing approach but I would love to keep trying and failing. Shooting a male portrait is never easy, you can certainly pose a girl in many ways but things are a little different and maybe, limited for guys cause you are not supposed to make them beautiful! Hope that you guys enjoy this series, I’m sharing 40 of them which I really like. Have a great week.

P/S:  If you are not aware, we do have our Facebook page, you’ll just need to find the “Facebook” box on the bottom of the screen you are looking now to follow us. We’re giving out something free on August!

Mi

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.

Workload is clearing up at a good pace now and shootings are slowing down a bit this month. It’s actually a good thing that I have my own down time to do anything that is not related to work. Having to shoot professionally for the past 2 years had me realized something… When business and art meets, we often have to make a decision that helps us make a living. Indirectly, I think the art side is often ‘polluted’ when business comes into mind.

There are things that are unavoidable but I wouldn’t want my work being polluted because of money, I don’t want to be a starving artist either. I am seeking for a balance that I don’t lost my own self in the process of being a full time photographer. I went for an impromptu self portrait session recently, with a tripod and a camera, hoping to free my mind, experiment with colors and new way of having things done. Soon, I’ll be announcing a few free individual portrait shoots in the effort of trying new approach in my work. Follow our Facebook page for coming announcement if you’re interested : )

Mi