Strobist Workshop @ Bukit Jalil Recreational Park

I organized a Strobist Workshop on Sunday, which was like just a day after the bridal shoot which I had over at Simon's place. For those of you who don't know what is STROBIST; its basically just a term used to describe those photographers who uses these smal flashguns on the loose as oppose to using studio strobes (those big big lights in layman's term :P ).

Anyway, we had Jeaney as our model and the location was at Bukit Jalil Recreational Park. A few of ShutterAsia's members participated in this workshop and we met up at the Bukit Jalil LRT station entrance. Once we were at location, I wasted no time and started the workshop itenary. It was a really fruitful workshop, as I am sure the participants learned a lot of new technical know-how on lighting and stuff. This is especially true when it comes to shooting photographs - the strobist way.

Jeaney is a sport. She poses so much so until it aches and yet she pushed her boundries. So, must really give her a pat on the back :) It was really easy to work with her, and I am sure the participants of this workshop would agree to this too.

Anyway, here are some shots which I personally took of Jeaney during this outing. I didnt shoot much as my job was to mainly guide and try to teach the participants on what I know about shooting strobist style. :)

The shooting actually ended around 6.30pm or so, and we headed over to Plaza OUG's CoffeeBean outlet to finish the workshop off with a quick Photoshop tutorial on editing and post processing strobist style photos. I think I did dropped a bomb on the participants by revealing a somewhat surprising photoshop "technique" to them. :P Anyway, thanks to all the participants and also Jeaney for making this workshop a successful mini-event.

Bridal Studio Shoot

The girls from left to right : Aileen, Rachel & Nicole

Had a bridal themed shoot over at Simon's studio on Saturday, and boy it was a fun one. Rachel brought along 2 of her friends to join us for this photoshoot session. Aileen and Nicole are pretty much very sport to try out the numerous bridal gowns which Simon has. And off we started shooting Nicole first, followed by Aileen and also Rachel.

Cross lighting on Aileen

Simon's wife was the make up artist for the girls. She did a great job and I find the make up was very natural, and yet the tonal range did appear nicely on the photos. So, kudos to her on this.

A more contemporary, high fashion styled shot of Rachel

Simplistic approach on Rachel for this portrait

Simon and I started shooting around 11am, and then we manage to get a break around 3pm for lunch. Grabbed a few bites of MacDonalds for ourselves and a cuppa coffee from the nearby SS2 coffeebean outlet and off we went back again to shoot.

High styled lighting on Nicole for this shot

Shooting studio is fun. Proper lighting control is achieved and also the quality of light is better too with the usage of softboxes and other gear related stuff.

Anyway, we finally wrapped up the day's shoot around 6.30pm with some really nice photos which I wanna share here :) Rachel and I went to SS24 for dinner with Nicole and her boyfriend. Had a few bite of penang styled chee cheong fun and also a khau york rice. The food is so-so but I guess the hunger made it taste so much better. Hahaha..

It was a good Saturday to spend out with Rachel afterall. :)

Louise & Kok Tsong's Big Day

I covered Louise & Kok Tsong's wedding last Sunday. I was the solo photographer, and in fact, my very first time covering for the groom's side. I think I shall say that it was rather amusing that the couple requested me to cover the groom's side rather than the bride's side. Under normal circumstances of a solo photographer covering a wedding day, clients (or rather the brides :P) would want her photos taken and her big day recorded on her side. Grooms are... well, just like any other men, are rather much easy going with the photographing.

Anyway, I arrived at the groom's place in Cheras, and started off my task recording down those special moments, as well as minor details which the bride might love to see. It was funny how my mind work at that time. As I kept on clicking my EOS 40D, I kept on thinking, how would the bride wanna see her husband's preparation for the whole day would look like. It eases my job a lot more. I flow with the feel of how I would normally shoot. After all, that's a crucial part of my workflow which is an unseen element in my job. I call this "feel" - a passion for wedding photography. This passion enables me to capture those special moments the couple would embrace and cherish over the time the see the photos I took for them.

It is also this passion which drove me to kept on shooting until almost midnight; despite being hit by fever and also a bad flu, which was like a brewing storm. :P

Anyway, it was overall a fun and easy-going day. Thanks to KT Lee, the videographer who made time fly faster when we were both sorting and editing the photos for a video montage preparation for the dinner at night.

I arrived home close to about 2am, feeling all drowsy and woosy, but happy that my photos made both Louise & Kok Tsong feeling happy and satisfied.

Rachel (my the other half) waited for me and cooked me some bak kut teh instant noodles with 4 biji of meatballs. How sweet of her. :) We shared the noodles and I poped some panadol soluble before tuckin' into bed and dozed off to lala-land.

Pauline & Eric

Shot a full wedding day event last Saturday. Pauline is from Kota Kinabalu and Eric is a local Klang chap. Loving and fun going couple.

Pauline's got this place in Ken Damansara, which is a condominium located (I would presume) in between Petaling Jaya and Damansara. Security was a pain and made me waited at the guardhouse for about 10-20 mins before I could go up and get on going with my job. But then again, thats good security for the residence :)

Anyway, Pauline engaged a Taiwanese MUA, who I must say have done a very good job. :) There were some confusion when the groom arrived cuz there are 2 entrances to the residence building. So I had to run my butt off together with the bride's "sisters" to another entrance :P when the groom's entourage arrived. Luckily I didnt miss any shots which I already had in mind. ~ phew~

The day went smoothly and I manage to capture loads of pics. The most memorable photo of the day would be a group shot (family photo) which took place at a rather small area which accomodated 61 people all together! To add some funk to it - I had like about 1-2 minutes to get it done; right from the moment I answered "Yes I can get it done!" to the groom's mother. And it went something like this :

1. Situation : I realize landscape mode would be a no-no for this big group shot due to the location constraint. There's a nice zig-zag staircase which I can use to create layers of people so that they dont get their face blocked. The ceiling is very high, about 2 storeys approximately, and ambient wasnt helping much.

2. Solution : Showed the groom where I need his family members need to stand thru my EOS 40D LiveView and my SIGMA 10-20mm on it. He gets the idea and started ushering them up the stairs. I poped a 430EX flashgun on the first floor so it will fire into the ceiling, and set it to slave mode at high power. Next, I ran downstairs and the people are already in place.

3. Execution : I set my 40D to f10 (if I recall correctly), adjusted my 580EX to full power and direct it to fire into the ceiling again. Now, 2 lights should be enough to give me a nice bounce light to illuminate everyone's face. I took a shot, knowing everyone's gonna get agitated very soon. chimp at the LCD, looks nice. and took 4 more for safety measures.

Job done.

A few pat on the backs and a nice Bak Kut Teh for lunch... and off I went to get ready to cover their dinner event :)

Again, it was a fun dinner event, and I manage to do some Strobist style shoot for Pauline and Eric. The whole thing got wrapped up by abt 11pm and that's the end of the day for me.

Congrats to Pauline & Eric.