No Chance For Meltdown!

I was shocked to learn that a couple was devastated by an occurance which took place during their wedding day. The photographer whom they hired screwed up their big day's photos - by using cheap third party flashguns (there are a lot of China made US$15 flashguns in the market), which subsequently got burnt. Apparently most of their photos after that was either blur or underexposed.

I could only feel sorry for them, cuz such moments wont repeat itself again. And for that, I'm writing this today, on why one ought to consider better professional photographers if they can afford it. And, also a word of advice to some newcomers in this industry : Please dont stinge on your equipments. Its someone's happiest moments we are capturing. A wedding photographer's job is not just about capturing beautiful photos; but it is also your job to ensure that the whole day's results are secured to the highest level of expectations.

A lot of people do question why wedding photographers charge so much. Well, apart from obtaining an individual signature service as an artist who "make" images of your big day - professional wedding photographers are (or, should be) aware of how important these photos are. Thus, we spend a lot on reliable equipments, back-up cameras, back-up batteries, back-up memory cards in GIGS of amount, and even back-up flashguns. There is simply just NO ROOM for such technical error. The word catastrophic meltdown just simply must not even come across of an existance for our job.

While some people may just brush away the idea of paying a lot for merely "back-ups" which doesnt even belong to them - this is the service which the newly wed should think of as a form of investment. An insured invesment.

Photos are very much something which is very subjective. A certain beauty may not be seen as such by someone else, and in fact might just be pondered as merely crap. Thus, I would say that to some important degree, the reliability of a wedding photographer to deliver professionally is very very crucial. This should be one of the main factors that newly-weds should opt to consider.

I certainly hope this posting will serve as a reminder to us all - newly weds, as well as photographers alike, that quality services do come at a slightly more higher price. But is it worth every penny of it? I would say so...

Strobist Workshop With Nadia

I conducted a strobist lighting workshop for two photographers over the weekend, and the model of the day for us to shoot was Nadia. She's fairly new to cameras, so we did get a bit of cam-shy initially. Didnt take too long for her to warm up to the pace though. *smiles*


Anyway, the workshop was for Saiful and also Mark, who both uses Nikon systems. Because of this, I sat out of the shoot most of the time (I uses Canon system, and also because they are PAYING me for the workshop! So they are essentially the bosses LOL.) while giving basic lighting pointers, dos and donts, as well as guiding Nadia how to pose.

It was definitely a tedious day since I had to drive down from Alor Setar back to KL in the wee hours of the morning (started journey around 3.30am and reached KL around 10am), and then proceeded to meet the lads at Bukit Jalil Park by 2pm. Spice that up with a late night sleep prior to this due to Chinese New Year gatherings. So, I guess one can only imagine how I conducted this workshop with bloodshot eyes :P Nevertheless, it all gone well with both Mark and Saiful enjoying the day and finding useful tips and tricks to light up some nicely portraits of Nadia.


I manage to snap only a few photos of Nadia due to the fact that I miss my blog so much :P (yeah right!) and thought I needed some photos of this event. Well here they are, and please do mind that these photos have gone thru a somewhat heavy handed post processing in PhotoShop CS3. :P

Jun & Eugene Sartin

This is one video montage I did quite some time ago, when I was over in the US to shoot for this lovely couple's wedding reception and also a simple outdoor post-wedding portraitures. So, enjoy the soothing voice of Nat King Cole while the slides bring you thru some beautiful places I did shoot before.



The various location of the shoot was done in The Flume National Park, New Hampshire and also The Valley of Fire, Las Vegas Nevada. I guess I am lucky to have such great oppurtunity to shoot such simple event yet a memorable one.