It’s Chinese New Year eve today and I would like to wish everyone a very blessed Chinese New Year. I hope everyone is having a great time with their family members. It took me about 9 hours to reach KL yesterday. Three long hours stuck at the Singapore Causeway. I thought that if we left earlier (like 4am), we would beat the traffic. Boy, I was wrong! During this festive celebration, I pray that you would have a great time and have a safe trip back to your hometowns.

Since it’s reunion dinner night, I would keep this post short and just post some pictures from Sai Mun and Sharon’s wedding day. You probably would have seen the portraiture shoot I did for them in an earlier post. There are so many pictures to choose from but I decided to pick a few for your enjoyment.

While we were sitting around, I saw a beam of light shining on the bouquet. I did not hesitate to take this shot below.

Finally a group shot of the boys and myself. We’ve been friends for 15 years. It’s great that Sai Mun decided to join the bandwagon.

I’m so happy right now! No, not because it’s a Friday but because for the first time ever, my photos are published on another website besides my own. I’ve been working with Wedding Story for some time now. When Mark told me about the new blog post, I was thrilled. It is also Mark’s first time to write a blog post on Wedding Story as well. Wedding Story offers photography services as well as videography services. They are a great bunch of people and I highly recommend you to check out their website and engage their services.

So here is the link to Wedding Story’s blog post. You might also find a photo with me inside. Hmm, feels like a “Where’s Wally?” moment for a minute there. Do read the rest of the blog posts and check out Wedding Story’s other works as well.

I’ll be heading back to Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family members. I would assume that there will be heavy traffic all the way from the causeway to KL and Ipoh. I’m definitely not looking forward to that part of the trip. What I’m looking forward to is to spend time with Lai Yeen’s family as well as mine. We’ll be taking family portraits this year and I hope to blog about it sometime in the next couple of weeks.

So for those who are traveling, stay safe and have a great time with your family during this festive season. God bless and a very Blessed Chinese New Year to you!

It’s been a crazy week for me. I’ve been fighting fire at work and at the same time rushing out the pictures that have been sitting on my desk for weeks. So many things are happening around the world at this moment.

- Malaysia is having its by-election in Kuala Terengganu today (here)
- Another suicide attack in Kabul (here)
- Citibank has decided to split the company into two (here)
- Israel is still attacking Gaza (here)
- Kimora is pregnant (here)
- Miracle landing in the Hudson River where lives were spared. Thank God! (here)
- Steve Jobs is looking for a new liver (here)

Only makes our lives so small doesn’t it? Another big news for me was that my niece fell and cut her inner lip when she was at school today. My sister told me that she was in shock and was too scared to speak. I was told that there were blood stains on her shirt all the way to her shoes. I can’t wait to go back to see her during CNY and see how she is.

Anyway, back to my original post. I was busy processing photos and I came across a few interesting ones. I was shooting a wedding and left one of my cameras at the table while I went around taking group photos with the wedding couple. Little did I know, someone cheeky decided to snap away a few shots of Mark and I on the job.

Now, whoever took these photos, you better own up! Your composition is just wrong and the white balance is all wrong. Worse of all, you didn’t take my good side!

Ok, I’ve to wrap up now. Time to go for dinner with my wife. When I’m back, I’m gonna check for fingerprints on my lens… I’ll eventually know who you are!!! You’ve been warned!

My 1 year old nephew is probably the cutest kid in the whole wide world! Being back in Ipoh for the New Year holidays gave me the opportunity to snap away on this little cutie for the entire trip.

Isn’t he just cute?! Look at his little Ultraman T-shirt! He’s actually a very cheeky fella. Sometimes, he would cry and burst out in tears, demanding for something that his parents do not allow him to get. Look at those big big teardrops…

But within seconds, when he knows everyone was ignoring him, he was back to his normal self again. Cheeky fella!

Like I told you at the very beginning, isn’t he the cutest kid in the whole wide world?! And people say that he looks like me when I was at that age. Oh come on, how could that be?! Look at the picture below..

That’s me. Yup, me. No, seriously, that’s ME!!!!! Look at our mouths… look at the cheekiness…. look at his Ultraman T-shirt vs my Donald Duck T-shirt…. how can we be alike?!

Oh well, all I can say is, “Nephew, when you grow up, please don’t look like your uncle!!”

This was one of my first pre-wedding shoots during the busy period of 2008. Prem & Theresa got to know about me from a friend I met at the Planetshakers and Tim Hughes Worship Concert. Both of them are full-time Christian workers and it is a joy to be hired as their wedding photographer back in November. I decided to bring them out on a pre-wedding shoot a few weeks before their wedding in Singapore. Here are some of the shots I took from that cloudy day…enjoy.

I’m a little behind on my post processing and I’m trying to catch up these few weeks. Looks like I’ll have to burn midnight oil for a few more weeks to come. Meanwhile, take care and God bless!

Back in December, one of my close friends got married. I’ve known Sai Mun for many years now. We studied in the same school, became classmates and later, for a short period, became housemates in KL until Sai Mun furthered his studies in Australia. I’ve met Sharon on several occasions and she’s a wonderful and pleasant person. I think they make a beautiful couple. I had the opportunity to photograph their wedding with another photographer friend of theirs on their wedding day. I’m happy to show you some of shots we took during the portraiture session. I’m still processing the rest of the photos from the wedding ceremony and the reception and I hope I’ll be able to post them soon.

Right after the luncheon, it was raining heavily and I was praying that the rain would stop in time in order for us to start the portraiture session. The time was 5.30pm and we had only one and a half hours to do the shoot. Sai Mun and Sharon had a studio shoot with the family at the wedding studio. It was part of the wedding package that they took. So, needless to say, I was rather worried that I might not have enough time to take enough shots. We started out at the lobby of the hotel and I took this photo in the lift.

I was so glad that the rain stopped right before we left the hotel. After the downpour, the sky allowed us to take some rather dramatic shots.

We later drove along the Ipoh Railway Station and decided to take some shots there.

I was very concious of the time and I was asking them that if was possible if the studio shoot could wait because I wanted to wait for the “magic hour”. Being the wonderful couple they were, they very much obliged. Sai Mun and Sharon are a wonderful couple and they were very easy to work with. They also had no problems showing their affections in public after they got married!

After we got the “magic hour” shot, it was time to leave. I was surprised that Sai Mun and Sharon were excited to take more shots after the studio shoot with the family. I waited for them to finish their studio shoot and we continued thereafter. We ended up in Ipoh’s old town at night and got some really interesting shots.

Half way through, Sai Mun’s friend came by to collect some stuff from him. He was riding a motorcycle and naturally, we asked if we could use it!

We were all hungry by the time we finished. We ended up having Ipoh Chicken Taugeh for dinner. It was indeed a very memorable day for me at least. I’m proud that I had the chance to spend the most time with the couple from start to finish on their wedding day.

P/S: Sai Mun and Sharon, it’s great to be able to attend and to photograph your wedding. I wish you all the best in your future together and I hope that I’ll be seeing some lil’ juniors really soon…

After reading Zack Arias’ post on photographing those you love, I made a decision that day to photograph my family members as often as I can. As photographers, we might spend lots of time photographing other people but not our loved ones. Sometimes, we miss the opportunity to capture those special moments where they are at their peak as it were. Moments where we’ll remember for life. Photos that capture the very essence of that person and how we remember them by. I wished I had my camera before my grandma passed away few years ago, I would have loved to have several photos of her and how she lived out her days at our home.

The next time I’m back home, my nephews would have grown several inches tall, my nieces would be cuter than before and my parents would have grown a little wiser. This is to serve as a reminder to myself that time really flies and if we don’t stop and look around, we might miss out on those special moments. Looking through the tonnes of photos that I took over the New Year, I can’t stop but think how blessed I am with such a loving and caring family. I’d like to share a few of those photos here today.

I’m missing them already…

First of all, a very Blessed New Year to everyone! 2008 just came and went and now we are ushering in the new year.Reflecting back, 2008 had its ups and downs. There were some bad decisions and some which were good, some which I regretted and some which I didn’t. I guess I’ll sum up my year in the following ABCs…

Arrival of Lai Yeen in Singapore since getting married
Both of us were staying at my cousin’s place until we found our own rented apartment
Changed jobs and only to go back to my old company 3 months later
Decided to look around for a church to settle down
Ended up worshipping in a church where we were both least expected to be
Finally got my very own Playstation3! I never owned a console since the Atari days.
Got to know some great friends at the Planetshakers & Tim Hughes Worship Concert
Had the opportunity to work with several great photographers this year, two of which shot my wedding photos
Invested in a whole lot of poisonous gear…
Jesus loves me! It’s not how much we love Him, but how much He loves us! The one truth that set me FREE!
Kept my promise for 3 months that I’ll not buy anything for a year
Learnt Singapore roads using my GPS but I still get lost
Maintained a constant weight through out the year
Never made any goals for 2008. A big mistake.
Opened a very expensive bottle of Chateau Lafite for Chinese New Year
Passed my theory test and got my Singapore driving license
Quickly went over to the Toyota Showroom and bought a new car
Registered 15,000km mileage on my brand new car in less than 6 months
Shopped around Hong Kong with my wife again
Took some hilarious photos at Madame Tussaud’s HK.
Understood my priorities at work, at home and at play… a very hard and painful lesson indeed
Visited Ipoh for 4 times this year, an achievement on its own
Weddings, weddings, weddings! 2008 was filled with them!
X-rayed my chest, did a blood test and finally got my PR status approved!
You came to my new blog! Something that I believe would benefit me very much in the future.
Zzzzz… I obviously can’t find anything that goes with the letter “Z”… haha!

There’s so much that I would love to achieve for 2009 and I am more determined than ever to see myself completing them and striking them out of my to-do list each day. I hope by the same time next year, I would have a new set of ABCs, and most of it would be high points in my life.

Take care and I pray that you will have a wonderful and successful 2009!!