My Greatest Achievement on Flickr Explore!

I manage to get one of my photos up on Flickr Explore Front Page on the #1 spot! The photo of Jeaney with the dark dramatic sky behind her secured the highest spot for a duration of 8 hours on 20th Oct 2007. I'm very happy with this unexpected result, and it will serve to drive me to strive for more in the future.

Jeaney & Stephenie

Did an outdoor photoshoot and guided Danny along with using off shoe flash techniques a couple of days ago. Jeaney and Stephenie were our models for that day. Being a sport they are, the 2 girls braved dirty leather couch and also an abandoned car park which was kinda dusty and would give a definite ewww factor to most girls.

Anyway, I did some cross lighting with backlight fill for the whole shoot. Danny was clearly very very much attracted to the lighting technique now, and has bought a pair of radio triggers for himself. Sweet! Another buddy to go for flashing photoshoots! :P

Here's a composite image of Stephenie which was done by layering 4 different images into 1.

While here's two image of Jeaney getting all styled up.

Somehow, as much as I liked this photoshoot's outcome, something is still amiss. I wonder what it is. Hrmm...

Jenny & Jerry Ong : Wedding Dinner Special!

Oh wow. What a night I had shooting the newly wed couple - Jenny and Jerry Ong. It was a very special dinner 'cuz Jerry actually sang a love song upon entry for his beloved wife. And his voice is good too, mind you! This is definitely something different, and I'm sure future couples who is reading this might get some funky ideas for their own future wedding dinner. :P (guys - dont kick me please!)

Anyway I got to know Jerry from a local online photography forum. He's an avid shooter as well, and this is more like a favor I'm doing for him. I took many shots last night... approximately about 400 over shots which covered from the begining until the end. Although there are many shots which I personally like, this one below is one which I favoured most of all. Unfortunately, the bride's not in this picture. Anyway, there's something about this picture that just speaks for itself. The toasting moment the groom, Jerry, had with buddies.

This shot was taken at super wide, from a table height level. I am able to capture this shot thanks to the technology in my EOS 40D which comes with a LiveView mode. It enables me to see how the overall picture is gonna be like at odd angles where I cant possibly peek thru the viewfinder.

Anyway, to keep things short and simple - I would like to congratulate Jerry and also Jenny.

Cheers!

Jerry & Jenny's Wedding Dinner

I'm gonna be shooting another wedding dinner this coming Friday night, the 19th October 2007. It's gonna be an auspicious event for Jerry Ong and his wife, Jenny Chong. I've known Jerry via ShutterAsia.com - a photography related forum which I am a moderator there. Jerry's a nice chap to chat with, even I've only met him once.

Anyway, the dinner's gonna be held at Damansara Palace Restaurant. I haven't been to the location, but with my current know how to light up a wedding dinner - I doubt I would have much of a problem. I don't think that place could be any worse than a 20ft. high ceiling with tungsten chandaliers which I've encountered at Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam's Grand Ballroom.

In fact, I will be accompanied by seasoned shooter Siew Khee for this one. So, this is gonna be one hellu'va fun time.

Until then, I'll get my batteries all charged up :)

Photoshoot @ Bukit Jalil : Eelaine Boo

Had a quick photoshoot session, strobist style :) in Bukit Jalil Park this morning. Duke was with me and it was only two of us photographers there. Eelaine Boo is pretty lass who modelled for us.


The session went very fast... well slow in setting up actually. We popped up a few lightstands and also flashguns firing into umbrellas. It was pretty cool cuz you get to see a few flash lights popping over and over and over again throughout the whole shooting session. It was a pretty fun and relaxing shootout this time - making it an enjoyable one.

We'll see when I'm gonna have such shoots again. Tentatively, Jerry Ong did inquired me about shooting him with his fiancee'. I plan to bring strobist style to this too. :) Until then, I look forward to posting more strobist styled shots here.

Shok Chen & Chee Tian : A fun wedding under the sun

6th Oct 2007, Klang - I was being summoned by Simon Liu to cover a shoot of a couple who are getting married in Klang. Since I've never been to Klang before, he provided me transportation. So I dragged my sleepy butt off from bed around 5am to get myself ready for being a trigger happy photographer. By 6am, I was already at Tesco Puchong and hopped onto Lee's car (another shooter) and off we went to Klang.

I got off at the bride's place - Shok Chen, a lovely looking fine lady who was really fun to shoot. She was friendly and obviously happy on this big day of hers. So I setup my gears, selected my best lenses, poped my flashes and was ready to roll. I subsequently found out that Shok Chen and her husband have known each other and dated since their high school days. That's a very very long period of time. It goes to show what true love means, and their marriage seals it off and also marks a new chapter in their life I'm sure. Anyway, there I was, in her room shooting her getting ready to be the bride of the day (alongside her family friend Michael who was also shooting with a Nikon D200)

Soon, Chee Tian - the groom arrived with his buddies and was greeted by some red firecrackers which marks an auspicious begining. Shok Chen's sister (bridesmaid) and a bunch of the bride's "chee mui"s greeted them at the gate who were all ready to let the men have a run for their pants with some really nasty games. You see, these guys cant get pass and go on and see the bride unless they get past these games setup by the girls. Painful. I'm sure. The stuff which was laid for them were some really funky games which include constructing a love shape symbol with bodily hair (except the hair on their head)!! Ouch! I'll leave the imagination to you fellas out there. Anyway, its all good - the groom and his entourage were determined and got to the bride eventually. Some prayers were done after that, and the usual tea ceremony held.

They then proceeded to the groom's place which is a brand new house (lovely and homely place), had another session of tea ceremony there for the groom's family's side, and then lunchtime. A relatively fast event, but fun and happy for all. Lee and I headed over to Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam to get our stuff ready for the dinner banquet at night. There are video montage which needed to be ready for the new couple and thoughtful layout must be seen into it. So we got on to work.

The star of the show walked down the red carpet around 7.45pm. Photos snapped. Flash lights' blinding. Video cameras rolled. Deafening applauses. Both Shok Chen and Chee Tian looked glamourously gorgeous and good looking. It does make me wonder a while how it felt like to be in their shoes.

The whole dinner gala went smoothly, with loads of interesting slide shows being shown over the projector. Both couple's fathers gave their heartfelt speech, which I'm sure the two seniors are very very happy men on that meaningful day. Toasts were given out with loud "yuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmm seeeennnnnnnngggggg!!!!", and cakes were cut... and everyone are very happy, joyous and cheerful (and drunk too most of them :P).

The whole event wrapped up around 11.45pm and I was really tired. Hoisting the 3kg Canon EOS40D with battery packs for a whole day is really draggin' me down. Nevertheless - I was happy. Seeing how Shok Chen and Chee Tian appreciate the pictures I've presented to them; how those grateful and happy smiles were painted on their faces just pushed me that extra mile to shoot a lil bit more of their family group photos. It's all worthwhile. For me, people's smiles are worthy of this, and they are priceless.

And for this, I wish to congratulate the both of them, and also extend a goodwill wish of happy marriage too.

*Accompanying photos to be put up soon.

Wedding shoot coming up!

There's a wedding shoot coming up this weekend. It's gonna be a long day's work... but I'm sure, as with any other wedding shoots I've done - it's gonna be uniquely exciting on its own. I'm definitely looking forward to this one, which was arranged by Simon Liu.

For those who don't know who Simon is; well he's another wedding shooter who's bringing his game up a notch in the current wedding shoot market.

Anyway, I'll be covering the bride's side this coming Saturday. I'll also be shooting a specially requested couple photoshoot of themselves after they have completed their wedding ceremony. Location would be a local park in Shah Alam. This would be really interesting and challenging as the time slot provided for this shoot is gonna be right smack in the middle of noon! (noon spellls as time for worse photography timing due to its weirdo-do-do above the head sunlight). So, this is gonna be one heck-of-va photoshoot which I'm gonna have to squeezzzzzzzeeee every ounce of my creative juices out of my grey matter. :P

But hey! I'm smiling as I love challenges, and I'm confident I can carry it out perfectly well for the couple of the day. So, keep up your tabs here in my blog; and also for updates on my heavily constructed website for the photos to come.

Oh, by the way - that's not all for the day, 'cuz after that - I'm gonna be shooting straight to Concorde Hotel, Shah Alam for the wedding dinner/reception which is scheduled from 7pm till 10.30pm. :)

I bet I'm gonna be knackered!

Jay's photoblog is up

Today, I'm starting up a photoblog which is specifically dedicated to the photographic journey which I'm about to embark on. This blog will serve as constant reminders, as well as a public diary of my photographic works - which is gonna be mainly focused on wedding events, bridal photography as well as lifestyle portraits.

Now, a little bit about myself (you can skip this part if you ended up here from the link in my portfolio website at www.jayhanphotography.com).

I've been into photography for about 2-3 years now. The interesting part of this photographic journey began back when I was posted to the UK, where I bought my first DSLR - a Canon EOS 350D. There I began shooting various subjects; ranging from street photography, to macros and also portraits.

Throughout all these while - I eventually grew fond of taking photos of people. Somehow, people and their surrounding mesmerize me. Better still, when I see them with their most natural expressions. Then I came across this great site : www.strobist.com and learned all about lighting and various other stuff related to photography. It changed my perspective in a 360 degree manner.

Now, I've developed, and still developing my own style of photography. With all the information and also exposure I gathered, I'm dwelving into wedding photography as well as bridal photoshoots - where I can fully enjoy the joys of capturing special moments of joy of the people whom I've grown to know... as well as putting my lighting know-how to good use.

I hope in time to come, this blog will put more smiles onto the faces which I've shot - beyond the photographs you will see here. Then, when there are smiles out there looking thru at my photos - I know that I've succeeded in making someone happy, at least for the slightest moments where out paths crossed.

Cheers!