With a bunch of mates that are playful and cheery it sure made Adrian and Sharon’s wedding day a lot more interesting and full of laughter.  The ladies have earlier planned up events of obstacles for the gents; from a gastronomical foodie challenge to yoga stunt moves to wedding agreement read-aloud, everyone seems to have a funny good laughter experiencing Adrian and Sharon’s wedding day, especially us. We are very delighted and enjoyed the jokes, laughters, and memories while we document their big day.

Someone cracked a joke and Sharon couldn’t stop laughing…

JS with the red fan “acting” as a roundabout for the couple to circle through. This is a traditional Chinese custom, the groom will bring the bride out and back to her house.

Adrian & Sharon preparing to leave for the groom’s place at Kepala Batas.

That’s the handwritten wedding agreement

Here’s the lucky boy that hitting the “tam pooi” with oranges and angpow inside it.

Well wishes from guests of the dinner reception.

The superstars going on stage for the cake cutting and champagne toast.

Sharon’s daddy enjoying some “moves” with his old school mates.

Finally, one for the bridesmaids.

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The night before, I was nervously revising the church procedures of the church wedding that is happening the next morning. Lucky thing was we had a rehearsal a day before the actual wedding day at the church together with the whole band (everyone from the wedding organizing team). Earlier in the wee hours of the morning, I got in Perth together with Lee Ling and after some rest and unpacking, we head to the church for rehearsal.

I finally got to meet Michael and Fiona after only chats and Skype calls a couple of months ago. Just want to tell you that I’m so glad to be able to capture all the sweet and memorable moments that both of you are going through. The rehearsal went through alright and after understanding the church rules for photographers, I reminded myself of where are the places that I couldn’t be standing and where I should instead be standing. I would like to thank the Priest of the church for bearing with my endless questions and repeats! Thank you. Big thank you to my cousin and cousin-in-law Eliza and Brian for having me and helping me around Perth. I’m so grateful.

Early morning sun at 5:30am bathed my room and I woke up feeling energetic and anxiously looking forward to Michael’s (groom) place to shoot some portraits of the guys and then proceed to Fiona’s (bridegroom) place for the make up preparation. Here’s some photos to walk through the highlights of the day:

The ladies in the limo…

David, Michael and Brian on their aviators… you guys looked great!

Michael hired a Chrysler 3000 limousine for his wedding…

The guys look on when you the limo arrive…

Start of the church wedding by the priest…

Lighting the candle of unity…

Exchange of rings…

Michael & Fiona walking out…

One with the bridesmaid and groomsmen…

While the guests chilled at the party, we went off for some portraits of the couple…

The couple at UWA…

At the garden of UWA…

Aviator shots of the guys…

Did anyone tell you Michael, that you look like Raymond Lam Fung?

A walk down beautiful UWA…

Here’s beautiful blue house in the middle of the city, perfect for some photos of the couple…

Look at the pretty blue skies of East Perth…

Street portraits of the couple at East Perth…

Once again, thank you so much for having me Michael & Fiona. I am truly honoured to be part of your wedding day. My best wishes to both of you!

Here’s a short photo music slideshow of Michael & Fiona’s wedding in Perth last March. I’ll let the photos do the talking for the moment and stay tune for more photos on the next post.

Enjoy!

You are in for work early morning, tons of emails waiting to be read. You open them one by one and it says Hi Loong, please… Hi Loong, Could you… Hi Loong, Do this.. and that… Typical morning of every email-connected employee. Mundane routine every single workday. You head right to work on those emails and phone calls starts coming in, IMs start popping on your taskbar. Distractions. You attend to those and left your email hanging on there. After calls and IMs exchange you get back to the email and you forgot where you took it off and now you repeat the whole process again. Not a simple email asking how are you? or how is it going? but more work request or information request kinda thing where you need to search for information and gather them to be expressed in an email to be replied.

What’s worst is when your boss is giving you a task that you have never done before in a very tight schedule. Not a small task but multiple projects. You request for training, but the answer was no. You ask for more time, but he tells you that was the time that was committed to upper management. Feeling unfair you were wondering why wasn’t the schedule being discussed with you before proposing it up? You are going to do it alone, not him. Well, that’s the scene many are going through daily. Fair? No. So. Do.

Malaysians clock more than 10 hours a day everyday. That’s 2 hours or more work for FREE. Should we learn to take it slow and “do the best we can”?  That’s a very subjective phrase and very vague to be defined exactly as not everyone’s best are the same. You are only comparing to yourself. Not others. So should your boss. Whatever happens you need to go home at the end of day no matter what, you need to eat no matter what and what’s most important is that you need to attend to your loved ones after work. Balance. We strive so hard to strike while the sunrise and sunset times are set for centuries, but we (at least me) find it hard to follow.

Work/personal life should be like day turns to night.

May god bless you with health, longevity and happiness to share with us every moment together with all your great-grandchildren, grandchildren, sons and daughters, in-laws, and the whole extended family. Happy Birthday MaMa…

I’m proud that our family still carries the tradition to perform tea ceremony during birthdays for the elders. A tradition that is getting lesser practice as the new generation slowly change the chinese customs. It’s an honour to kneel before you grandma and offer my sincere wishes and present to you.

Here are some of the photos of the tea ceremony, new great-grandchildren of MaMa, relatives, and cake cutting ceremony during dinner. Hope you enjoy it…

I am Baby Low

MaMa with us… and me

Jeffry with Aunty Geok Lian

MaMa was making a wish

Grandchildren join in the fun to cut the cake together

It was also the Big Uncle’s birthday

MaMa with her children

MaMa with sons, daughters and son/daughter in-laws

MaMa with the group of grandchildren and great-grandchildren

Adorable, perfect-for-each-other, so in love…

Meet Marcus & Eunice.

I’m delighted to see that both of them got dressed up matching each other when they arrived. It’s plain and simple. Perfect for portraits.

These are all taken at a new place in town, Straits Quay near the coastal area of Tanjung Tokong, Penang. It was Christmas season at this time of the year and the place was decorated with all the christmas decorations which made it beautiful to shoot. While some photos are taken outdoor, most of it are taken indoors mainly due to rain which lasted for a few hours. Thanks to you guys who lasted throughout the shoot and following whatever directions that was told. Great to be spending this time together with you lovebirds.

Hope you enjoy these favourites as much as I do:

Yes?

No! Haha…

One for the corporate/serious look

Fun loving couple.

I was nearly out of luck trying to secure a place in this Annual Photowalk by Scott Kelby although not organized by the man himself. Nevertheless this event is held at other countries across the world by a photowalk leader.

Photowalk leader? Yeah I was under the impression that we were guided and introduced to places of interest for photography. Turns out not as what we expected so we just tag along anyway.

The trails are Penang heritage area so most of my photos here are taken around that area in the morning a couple months back.

Old wooden door at Tan Jetty

Verticals.

Me trying to play with the puppy while taking a photo.

Amelie cafe on Armenian Street.

Cheah Kongsi also at Armenian Street.

Kind chap giving food to the pigeons on Armenian Street.

Soo Hong lane.

Famous Queue-up rice “Nasi Kandar Beratur” where there is a long queue to buy a plate of rice starting at 10pm.

Random shots of one of the events in Sunway Carnival Seberang Jaya, Butterworth a while ago. It is called Perfect Transformation Make Up Show 2010 organized by Dee Beauty Forever Academy. Most of these events are held at Penang island, not so much at the mainland Butterworth. This is a good sign that shopping malls at Butterworth (or only Sunway Carnival) are improving and getting better at events.

For this post, I will be doing more of a photographer’s-how-to post. I will try to explain mostly how these shots were taken instead of an “event write up” post.

Make up artist busy working on their models. Taken from the left side of the stage to obtain the cascading pattern of the make up artists. This photo as well as the rest are taken with the 70-200mm lens.

Due to the crowded area and lack of “Media Pass” most of the shots are tight and long. Taking a wider composition might be including elements that distract the viewers.

Shooting at 200mm with a shutter speed of 1/160, ISO 800, it’s important to note there might be possibilities that the photo could be blur due to camera shake. For these kind of shots, take a burst of a few shots and choose the sharpest one. Of course you can choose to get to a higher ISO, but that would mean too much noise for a crop sensor camera like the Canon EOS 40D.

Lighting are a mix of video lights and sun light through the transparent roof of the mall. This shot is taken without flash and minor touch up on the face to boost levels and contrast.

Note the texture of the gown. Any exposure higher/brighter than this could blow out the highlights of the gown and make the gown look bland without details.

This photo shows a wide range of light levels. From the darkest eye lid to the brightest white wig. Focusing on the eyes, and metered using Evaluative metering the photo turns out to be under exposed. To get the above photo a exposure compensation of +2/3 was used.

Eye contact. One of the key elements of an intriguing photograph.

Mixed tungsten video light with flash light from other photographers. Notice the warmer tone on the model’s face.

Any ideas or thoughts? Feel free to leave them below at the comment form.

Chinese wedding normally starts off with the entourage of the groom (with their relatives, friends and family) to the bride’s residence in the morning. They would have to go through the formal tea ceremony as well as some “obstacles” or road blocks made intentionally by the “ji mui” (so called sisters represented by friends and family of the bride). This is a method or customs that grooms will go through to “claim” their partners back to their own residence and be called their wife.

Here we have Boon Khian with his friends, “heng tai” (brothers) and family on his way to Chay Hoon’s residence. It was a Saturday morning and everyone was excited to arrive at the bride’s house to see what they will be facing .

Boon Khian or known as Foo is escorted by his heng tai to the bride’s house.

Eggs in tea. Traditionally served to the groom upon arrival.

Tricky questions game by the bride’s “ji mui”

Love declaration by Foo to Chay Hoon

Sealed with a kiss by the man himself

Wasabi coated biscuits. I was forced to take one and it was mild and still OK to be eaten. Last obstacle.

Finally the key to the bride.

Chay Hoon.

“On your knees one more time” said Chay Hoon.

Bridesmaid escorting Chay Hoon and Foo.

One for the road before heading off to the groom’s place.

Jewellery gifts presented by groom’s family. It’s a tradition by the Chinese family to give gold and jewellery.

The kid is allowed to choose one from the food tray on the bride & groom’s bedroom.

One for the STEC club.

I’m glad and honoured to be given the assignment to photograph Boon Khian (Foo) & Chay Hoon and to be able to experience one of life’s important milestone. Congratulations and may you have a happy wedded life.

Patuxay Victory Monument in Vientiane

The final stop in Laos is at Vientiane. Before starting off to visit places around Vientiane we stop to fill up at Shell. As you can tell from the picture, the price per litre of unleaded petrol is not cheap. 7140 kip = Rm 2.78 as of today. Most of them travel by bikes and vans. The rich will have rides like Ferrari or Aston Martin while the lower income citizens normally ride a motorcycle to move around town. Middle class? Good question. Due to the economy of the country, the gap is huge between rich and poor. Either you’re an owner of a hotel, golf club, export company, etc. or a worker for them. So there you have it, general idea about the Lao economy.

First stop is the Vientiane Frienship Bridge.

Opened on April 8, 1994, it was the first bridge across the lower Mekong, and the second on the full course of the Mekong. The cost was about US$30 million, funded by the Australian government as development aid for Laos. Friendship bridge is a bridge over the Mekong, connecting Nong Khai province and the city of Nong Khai in Thailand with Vientiane in Laos. Traffic in Thailand is on the left side (right hand drive) while traffic in Laos is on the right (left hand drive). The changeover will happen before entering countries at both ends of the border. There are buses and trains that commute between Nong Khai and Talat Sao bus terminal in Vientiane.

Police on guard along the coast line.

We’re trying to walk over to the other side.

The white sign board on the right is the limit that we can walk. Not a single step further.

Many tourist travel by train as a cheap transportation method and also to experience the ride crossing the bridge.

Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) is a bizarre outdoor collection of huge concrete sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu deities and real and imaginary beasts.  Built in 1958 by mystic Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, who left the country after the communist take-over and, in 1978, went on to establish a nearly identical park (Sala Keoku or Sala Kaew Ku) across the river in Nong Khai, Thailand. Located some 24 km from the city, it’s about 6 km to the east of the Friendship Bridge – hence it’s well worth visiting on the way into or out of Laos if you’re crossing the Friendship Bridge, thereby saving you an extra 48 km round trip if you visit from and return to Vientiane. Getting transportation from the Buddha park can be difficult so it is best to hire a tuk-tuk for the entire Vientiane – buddha park – friendship bridge (or vice versa) trip. Another idea is to take the bus. No. 14 leaves Talat Sao station to Xieng Khuan for 5,000K oneway, and it is no problem to flag down a bus on the way back or to the Friendship Bridge.

We enter from the mouth of this statue.

And we came out from the top of the statue. Nice view from here overlooking the whole of Buddha Park.

The steps are steep and not much space for your feet on each step. So be careful. As seen here, Dad is trying to get down by removing his bag from his shoulders.

Another view of the whole statue.

Many stories and folklore about these statues. An experienced tour guide will be able to explain all this to you.

One of the statue on display is this. Story has it that this deity apparently was angry and trying to eat up the moon.

The reclining Buddha is especially impressive.

This is the Talat Sao Mall. New and most of the tenants were relocated here from the previous Vientiane Department Store. This mall is the first public mall with an indoor car park. Big deal here. What’s on sale is mostly food , handicrafts, clothes, and lots and lots of fake iPhones, Nokias, etc. Basically replica mobile phones from China at a bargain price. I was quoted RM 250 for an iPhone-look-alike. This price is pre-bargained and could get lower once you start nego-tongue-twisting with them

It was Chinese New Year, hence lots of red lanterns are being put up outside and inside the mall.

While in town, our last check-out place is the Patuxay Victory Monument/Gate. A must visit place in Vientiane as it could be mistaken after the similar monument in Paris. The Patuxai was fashioned after the Arc de Triomphe of Paris, although the ornamentation is unmistakably Lao.

Built in 1962 using funds provided by the United States, this monument was built to commemorate Lao soldiers who had died in battle serving their country before the revolutionary wars. The monument has a mix design of French and Lao arts, and works in recent years on the monument grounds has transformed the surrounding field into the most popular park in Vientiane.

Located on Lane-Xang Avenue, only a walking distance to the morning market, major hotels and guesthouses; this place is an ideal location for visitors to visit and enjoy. From roof top you can see the broad view of the city and the Mekong river. If you’re visiting Vientiane right now whether for business or for holiday, this site is worth visiting.

Great view of the capital of Laos.

On your way up there are many souvenir stalls selling clothes, ornaments, key chains, home decoration displays and many more.

Another view of the Patuxay from the ground.

The meaning is understood although the grammar might not be right.

Some descriptions on the wall about the Patuxay.

During late afternoon until night, there will be a play of the musical fountain here.

As the Lao used to say: Sabai dee (Hello) and phohp gan mai (See you again)