Jess & Kiat

System Migration

Well well well... time sure flies, and its been a while I didnt update this blog. Sorry 'bout that fellow readers but I sure had some pretty roller coaster ride for the past couple of weeks. Anyway, I'll start off again with one of the biggest decision I made over the week. It's about my switch from utilizing Canon EOS DSLR to Nikon.

I started off into DSLR photography a couple of years ago with the then world's best selling DSLR - Canon EOS 350D. It was in a class of its own. For the money paid for 350D, I got the famed low -noise images of Canon. It was great then. And that was the main reason why I chose Canon over Nikon, which then was offering entry level DSLR hunter, the Nikon D70s as well as the Nikon D50.

The Canon EOS 350D served me well. I toyed with it, travel to a couple of places in Europe with it, and it brought me home loads of beautiful images. From Paris to Monaco, London to Boston, Rome to Amsterdam. Apart from these, the 350D opened the door to digital photography to me... and this I will forever be grateful.

Fast forward to end of 2007. I bought my second DSLR - the Canon EOS 40D, which is one series above the 350D. I fell in love with this piece of machine and for the first time I was confidence enough with the image quality. The technical spreadsheet oozes with great stuffs : 3 inch LCD, 14-bit images, DIG!C III processing powers, and other stuffs.

Then it hit me.


Nikon came out with 2 new DSLR which practically "wowed" the photography community. Nikon introduced to the world the 2 brothers : Nikon D3 and Nikon D300. It has set a new benchmark to working digital photographers. While most hardcore Canon EOS users will swear and scream out that nothing beats EOS, I for one would have to defy such conventional brand loyalty. For me, things are pretty simple. Credits need to be given to where it is due. I choose Canon EOS back then because Nikon DSLR was suffering from crap load of noise when high ISO is being used. But now, the noise issue is solved. Not only that, the image quality produced by both D300 and also D3 surpassed that of Canon's, and could easily put on paper a much better technical spreadsheet.

And since I am shooting a lot of weddings, I realize that the color reproductions of Nikon D300 is simply amazing. Fascinating is more like the appropriate word to use actually. Yes, read my lips : F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G . The tonal range is great, the colorful stuffs are vivid, and more importantly - the skin tone redention is natural. This camera spells one thing which I have been missing out with the Canon EOS DSLR bodies - proper and accurate white balance and image processing.


With the said factors and coupled it up with numerous other facts, I decided to make the leap. It's gonna cost me a bundle, but what the heck, great images means more smiles for brides and grooms :) and thats something good to wedding photographers.

So, I went on a selling spree to get rid of ALL my Canon EOS DSLR system, including lenses and camera bodies. Then dived right on into Nikon D300 with some award winning lenses. And after toying with it for a couple of days now - I can only smile from ear to ear with loads of content. :) All I can say to some critiques on my decision to shift to Nikon, is merely 2 words.

NO REGRET

Rachel : Walk With Me

I started to fancy a new method in post processing my photos of lately. The wide angle format of movies always tend to fascinate me - well, at least if its done properly without distorting a model's face to make it look like some horizontally challenged pancake. Couple this wide aspect ratio with a slight desaturated look and I obtained a cinema-effect like output.

Off me and Rachel went outdoors for a quick shoot about. It wasnt very far away from our house, and since this series is something I wanna do for her, its gonna be special. So, keep posted on the final output of how I am gonna put up these photos all together.

As for the moment, I wouldnt wanna waste precious space in a single posting cuz there are kinda a lot of photos which I would wanna share in here.

Carreen & Ivan : Bridal Photoshoot At Putrajaya

Did a shoot at Putrajaya over the weekend as planned. Simon of EternalShots and also Micheal aka Zique were also there to shoot the videos. We headed out to Putrajaya kinda late in the morning, about 10.30am approximately, and I knew its gonna be a hot and sweaty affair :P Anyway, I suggested to them that we do a shoot at the Putrajaya Botanical Garden. So off we headed there.

Unfortunately, the cost of shooting in the vicinity of Taman Botani was kinda high. We were told that we will need to buy special passes in order to conduct any form of shooting. I was rather shocked when the ticket comes at the following price tag :

1. RM150 to shoot within the vicinity of Taman Botani
2. RM200 to shoot within the vicinity of Taman Botani and inside the Morrocan Castle.

Now I was being told that it took the goverment about RM4mil. to build the castle, which was painstalkingly handcrafted by some imported Morrocan peeps. Lemme guess... the taxpayers paid for it, and now we have to pay RM200 to shoot inside, while some foreigners were seen shooting their time off with compact digital cameras without tickets. Great!

Well, I shall not drag this along since its not really appropriate to do so here in this post.

Anyway, we moved along and found a couple of public parks. I made the best out of it (heck I don't need those Morrocan Castle). Sun was kinda high and I had to utilize my usual shooting style - the strobist way! We took turns to shoot video and also photos, and after about 2-3 hours, it's a good wrap.

All of us made our way to Puchong for a jolly good Bak Kut Teh (herbal pork stew) for lunch, and I guess it was a good way to ease the hungry tummies and end a fun filled half of a weekend.

My Latest Acquirement : CANON EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM

Today is kinda something like a historic day for me.

I've been wanting to have this lens for a long long time, probably since the day it was launched. The one thing which have stopped me from purchasing it is because of its non L (CANON's Professional Series Lenses) grade, and yet a L lens pricing factor. This is a reputable lens which is capable of producing superb image quality - which some say is even better than some L glass' output.


I took the plunge today. Bought this baby and tested it out with my CANON EOS40D. All I can say is the output is really superb. The Image Stabalization works like a wonder, zipping and zapping with its gyro to ensure virtually shake free photos. Colors are crisp and vivid. Chromatic controls are good. I can just sum it up with one word.

Sweet!

Careen's outdoor photoshoot will take place tomorrow at Putrajaya, and I can say that this lens will see its first time action then. :) Until then, cheers!

Careen & Ivan

I was honored to have the opportunity to shoot Careen who is a long time friend of mine. We attended the same University and had been neighbors for some time during my final year in the academic institution. Anyway, Careen and Ivan would be having these lifestyle couple photos which I took for them today pretty soon. :)

We set out around 8am this morning to Bukit Jalil Recreational Park to take some rather simple couple shots. I told Careen I would wanna keep the theme simple and clean for this shoot, in order to extract the most out of Ivan and her characteristics. Thus, fanciful props and other stuffs would be a distraction. In order to achieve this, I just asked them to dress up in simple plain colored tops with denim pants.

The MUA for this shoot was Rachel. She later told me she applied this cool thing on Careen's make up to help reduce oily residue. :) Good for me and the work I am gonna do! Rachel was using Smash Box's Photo Finish - and I am really amazed at the advancement of cosmetics! We did a shoot for a couple of hours in the eraly morning sun, and while Ivan was already sweating, I can hardly notice any "shiny" effect on Careen's face!


Anyway, we wrapped up the shoot around 11am, and proceeded to PJ to meet up with Simon at his place to let Careen try out some bridal gowns. And boy, I am glad she did find something she is ok with in the choices of wardrobes. So, the next outdoor bridal shoot of Careen is scheduled to take place in the coming weekend.

So, stay tuned!

Bridal Photoshoot Package

Phewww... the last couple of weeks has been very busy and tiring. Shot another wedding, a corporate profile shoot, and up next would be a high profile product shot which is of high confidential criteria. To top that up, I've done a few album layouts and printed them out. I guess I can at least go back to my hometown this weekend with a big relief for being able to finish up all my scheduled tasks.

Anyway, I have started offering a photoshoot package for Bridal and also Lifestyle portraitures. I'm currently targeting to provide this service at very affordable price. I've done a thorough survey in the current bridal market, and noticed that many newly weds go through a somewhat scary process by attending to local Bridal Boutiques. In fact I actually walked into a few located in SS2 Petaling Jaya (a local bridal house area where you get about 16 of such shops in an area merely 400sq. meters) and somewhat got very in detail information.

Simply put it this way. One would normally start off by signing up a RM2,800.00 package which comes with many items which seem too good to be true. But of course, this comes with many terms and conditions and also hidden costs. At the end of the day, when one walks out of the shop - there can only be 2 outcome (well probably 3).

1. You will feel happy not knowing how you have been cheated off your hard earned money

2. You will feel angry and sad for having to fork out more money to get what you want, and know you are in that deep hole where you have no options but to spend more.

of course if you are lucky, you will get the 3rd outcome which is; you get a darn good deal and have spent a good amount of money for products which are definitely value for money.

Now, I am to provide such photography services to newly weds, or couples who are so much in love :) and yet prove to them that good things need not necessary be expensive. It might cost you a fingernail or two, but definitely not an arm or a leg :P My services are designed in a manner where I work around the theme "Simplistic Elegance". Some have already asked me how do I manage to get the cost down to such a low level and if there is any catch behind this promotion.


I can say this : There is no catch at all. The reason why I could charge a low rate is because I dont implement massive little details which cost a lot, and yet make very little or insignificant affect on photo outcomes. And these small amounts add up to be what my potential clients saved up. My technique revolves around utilizing dynamic and dramatic lighting for portraitures, and this is what I can promise to deliver to all my clients. :)

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.