On The Move

I'll be flying tommorrow, to a place up north of Jinhua, Zhejiang. The flight is going to take about 2 hours or so, but I hate to think about the ride from Jinhua to Hangzhou airport. I always hate sitting in a shuttle for a few hours. 

Anyway, my final destination is Jinan City in the province of Shandong. This is a business trip for some official matters, so I guess it aint that bad afterall. I will be expecting to fly back to Hangzhou and make it back to Jinhua by next Wednesday. Then on, I am planning on some excursion trips out of Zhejiang for the next following weekends :P

Till then... cheerios~!

Night Strobing At People's Square

Manage to pull this off although its a last minute decision to go into an all out night time shoot. Ya Ting just got back to Jinhua from Ningbo, and she called me up for dinner. So, we sorta chat about how beautiful her blue jacket is gonna look like under lights at night - and it hit me. Why just talk about it when I can get it done and put it into photos.

So I called up Tan, Desmond and Amin; geared up, and we met around 8.30pm to head towards People's Square. I knew for certain that by 9'ish, there wont be much of people who will be there, so shooting would be somewhat more relaxed.

I am posting up a behind the scene shot and a simple portrait of Ya Ting first. More to come.

Cheerios!

Photoshop Tutorial #1

I just came up with a short 20 odd pages or so, of a basic Photoshop Tutorial for post processing portraits. While there are actually many ways and methods which is used out there to turn normal photos into something with a little bit more of a wow factor - here's what I normally do with mine.

I am sharing with all my readers here, since well, my friends and most of the people who happened to chanced upon it find this tutorial useful. To download the tutorial simply click on the link below. It is a PDF file and it shows various methods and steps taken that I would usually go thru in processing my portraits.

Download the file here.

Have fun! 

Jinhua Teppanyaki

I went to a local Teppanyaki restaurant, which could be potentially the only such outlet here in Jinhua City. The place is nested just opposite the new InTime Mall which is located on the Southside of Jinhua (there is another InTime on the northside).

Anyway, the food served by the chef was good. What I've always liked about teppanyaki concept is that you get to see what's being put into the food which you are gonna chump down. No MSG. Less salt. Less sugar. More spicy. Anything that you request can be cooked on the spot, right in front of you. I always feel safe and secure eating from teppanyaki, and I am glad that there is one such outlet in Jinhua.

Here's what I ordered for the evening:

2 portions of black pepper beef (tender and juicy)

1 portion of crispy honey chicken (the shop's famous dish)

1 portion of squid

1 portion of fresh veggie lightly cooked

1 portion of fresh prawns

fried rice

Damage : RMB150. Considering the price, the size of each portion and the service... I would say this is one hell of a bargain. Bear in mind the food was meant for 3 persons. :)

Lu Xiao

This young lady works as our secretary in our company. Her name is Lu Xiao - which literally can be translated to Smile (Xiao), and I can definitely say that she never fail to make me and other colleagues smile while we are in office. One chirpy and active young lady which made Tan and I cant help but to organize a quick photoshoot for her.

We sent her to a local saloon for a hairdo and a makeover session. Unfortunately the day was getting gloomier and started to rain when we wanted to start shooting. Thus, we ended up booking a nearby KTV. Here are some photos of Lu Xiao.

Calvin & Jessie

One of the many things I think I will remember for this Chinese New Year is that one of my best buddies - Calvin, engaged me to shoot his pre-wedding photos. His trust in my capabilities is greatly appreciated. 

Calvin and I has known each other since we were 5 years old. Back in those days, we both studied in Children's Corner Kindergarten (in Alor Setar). Then we both joined the same primary school - Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Iskandar, and subsequently enrolled in the same secondary school - Sultan Abdul Hamid College (SAHC). We were both either in the same class or just the next class up until we were in Form 5. 

Then after splitting ways to pursue higher education where he pursued Mechanical Engineering in POLI-PD and me in INTI College Subang. Subsequently after some rather "adventurous" experiences, I joined POLIMAS where we met up again and we were then both taking Mechanical Engineering.

On to the photoshoot day. It was rather a rushed up job considering the fact that Calvin needed to travel from Alor Setar back to KL for the shoot and also to start working. And my timing in KL also didn't allow much allowance since I will be flying back to China pretty soon. So I had it all planned out for him, right from the outdoor shoot to the studio ones. Calvin wanted it to be as simple as possible so, simple it is then ;). The outdoor location was easy - Cyberjaya park, with simple casual wear theme. Then the next one for studio theme, we went back to my house and used a vacant room to do the shoot. Wahhlaaah job done! 

Those were the days. And now, Calvin is tying the knot on 9th Feb 2009. I would like to wish him and his beautiful wife, Jessie a happy and blissful marriage. 

Back In Action

Phewww... what a break... a holiday I long needed. I was back in KL and also my hometown for Chinese New Year, and the amount of food which I feasted on was definitely worth the hours of waiting and flying and travelling around. Anyway, I am back in China now, feeling rejuvinated and soul full of content. I no longer crave for the nasi rendang or char koey teow - although I know I soon will given a few weeks down the road. Nevertheless, I'm very happy now :)

So, let's see what took place when I was back in Malaysia. 

I became trigger happy. Not that I went shooting up people with some AK-47... but I went for a local model shoot. This took place the very first weekend right after I landed in KL. The models were Monique and Andrea (there was one more but I just wasn't up fot shooting her anymore, so kinda missed out her name).

So  here are some shots of Andrea and also Monique.