Khanh & Nhi - Solemnization by the beach

I wanted my previous post 'Goodbye 2009' to be our last post of this year until I realized I couldn't say goodbye without a post about this special wedding of Khanh & Nhi.
Yes, it was by the beach, at sunset. It is almost every girl's dream (including me :D). My husband and I were both so excited to think of all the beautiful sunset pictures there could be.
The weather turned out to be not quite supportive though. It was drizzling and we couldn't catch any glimpse of the sun. But who cares? Getting married in a little bit of rain is even more romantic (I said a little bit:D). Besides, how often do you get to see a blue umbrella in a wedding ceremony?

The groom dedicated the beautiful song "Two less lonely people in the world" to his newly-wedded wife. It was really touching. Everyone hardly noticed the rain except for the photographers (well, rain and cameras aren't really good friends)

The ceremony was followed by dinner in a lovely cozy place with candles, flowers, and wine. (Not to mention lots of games too). This time we decided to take an extra step to put some of our pictures together in hope of bringing the wonderful atmosphere to those who couldn't be there.

I love how all the red heart shapes lead the attention to our friend, Ryan in this photo. It's cute, isn't it?

Guess what game we were playing.

Well, I hope we did some part in capturing these precious moments for Khanh & Nhi. We wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

Happy New Year to all!

Admiré

Goodbye 2009

This is probably our last photo shoot of this year. We read this article on DIY photography on how to create your own bokeh and have always wanted to test it out. With Christmas coming, where has more beautiful lights than Singapore's Orchard road? You may say.

However, we went to Orchard earlier when the Christmas decoration had just been completed. The place was packed with people. There were big big trees on both sides of the road which blocked part of the decoration (not that I'm not a fan of trees because I am, just not in this case, they do not look good in pictures :D).
Luckily enough, we went to Dhoby Gaught 2 weeks ago and eureka, we found the perfect location with beautiful lights and clear view of the whole street for our shoot.

Before the shoot, hubby and I spent 2 nights drawing and cutting to create some bokeh shapes. It almost felt like primary school again. Eventually, we managed to make a Christmas tree shape, a heart shape, and a snowflake shape.

Our first test with the Christmas tree didn't look so good because the lights were too big and clustered. You can still see some of Christmas trees came out, can't you?

We figured the snowflake worked much much better with these lights.

The car light and the two people walking made the picture more dynamic

We need to make better snowflake next time though, it looks more like star to me now.

The heart shape was not used in the main street though. We found some beautiful lights in front of Cathay Cineplex (near Rendez vous Hotel). They were at the same, perfect size and colorful. It turned out to be soooo romantic.

There you go, this is our Christmas postcard to all of you. Thank you for visiting and leaving us encouraging comments through out this wonderful year. Wish you a Merry Christmas and the Best Year ahead ever!!!

(Canon 40D, Canon 85mm f1.8)

Admiré

Remember when it rained

In the memory of a special rainy day in Florence...

It was a rainy day...

It was raining in Rome...

It was still raining outside the train when we were on our way from Rome to Florence. We were actually not paying much attention to it but wondering if we took the right train (well, La Treinitalia is rather complicated). We sat there, waiting for someone to come and check the ticket. In the end, it turned out we were on the wrong train, a slower one :|. But luckily, our tickets were still valid :| (so much thanks to a kind old man with kind smile)

This is a shot of our train's window. Green represents hope, doesn't it? :)

(Canon 40D, Canon 50mm f1.8)

And it was raining still in Florence when we reached there too... Kinda moody actually. Anyway, can't tell you how much I enjoyed looking at the reflection of light on the wet stone roads there...

(Canon 40D, Canon 85mm f1.8)

After settling down at the 1-star hotel, we decided to take a walk nearby to enjoy a Florence night. The rain stopped for a while. The ice-cream was still great in cold weather! (btw, we were both having a bit of sore throat at that time)

Then... it rained again.

But it was just a small rain.... Perhaps, it was just to invite you to stay back and enjoy the scene being lightened when it came :)

I missed the chilling weather, the rain, the reflection of light and most of all, the cold ice-cream that we shared :)...

Analox

A quote

A. Bensaïd
Like the continuity of considering photography as "the art of not pushing the button"? What exactly do you mean by that?

F. Horvat :
One difference between photography and painting (or drawing, or other forms of art) is that it takes no talent, and practically no effort, to get an image on film. A modern camera - as the one we are using right now - takes care even of focusing and exposure. All my efforts are spent in holding back, in telling myself: "No, this is not yet the best light for Alexandra, not yet her most photogenic angle, not yet her truest expression." The reason for holding back is not only to spare some film - it's like storing my energy, or rather my expectation; it's letting the image I want take shape in my mind, by the very act of refusing the images I don't want. Until the moment when I recognize, in the viewfinder, the image that I want to see - and then there is no holding back any more.

Analox

Observation

6pm@Offenbach train station

I noticed an old couple with a big luggage standing in front of the lift that was not working on the day. Looked around and found no other option, so they walked to the staircase to go down...

I helped the old man carrying his luggage at the staircase while his wife stepped down slowly. You know, aged. When we reached the ground, he thanked and then climbed up to assist his wife. I walked away and smiled...

Sometimes, photography can be more than an observation, when the gift from it is not only the picture...

(Olympus E520, Zuiko 12-60mm SWD)

Analox

Rudesheim, Germany

Rudesheim is a small city, sitting next to the Rhein river and near to Frankfurt by only less than an hour of train.

(Olympus E520, Zuiko 12-60mm SWD)

It's certainly worthwhile to visit: beautiful vineyards, a peaceful town with many small brick roads, plus the river & the famous Niederwald Monument. So getting tourist into your frame is inevitable.

(Olympus E520, Zuiko 12-60mm SWD)

Paying less than 10EUR for a cable car to the top of the mountain, gliding over the grape vineyard, is a MUST. It offers spectacular views that I can't be rested with my camera :)

Views when you're at the top of the mountain

I particularly like this shot (below) as the cloudy sky helped me "paint" the vineyard with shadows, adding a lot more depth to the scene. Hmm... lucky me :D

(Olympus E520, Zuiko 12-60mm SWD)

Special thanks to Vinh for being my tour guide & so patient with me since quite often, I walked a few meters and then stopped for taking photos :">

Analox

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore

Yes, that's what coming up in less than 3 weeks. How's your training going? Rumor has it that there's gonna be 2 marathon dummies in town. Yeah. That's us. And on this lazy morning, instead of grabbing the running shoes, I dragged our dusty photos from last year out to write this blog since we probably won't be able to take any photo this year.

We arrived at about 8am on that day. The atmosphere was amazing with the music, the cheering, the talking and laughing of so many people. It was so 'happening' (as a Singaporean would say).

People from all races came together in sportsmanship.

You could really see the determination and persistence in the runners' every step of the race.

Even when the runners felt like there was no strength left, it was the wonderful supporters, their family, friends or even strangers, that kept them going.

The marathon might be tough for grown-ups, but not for kids because they were having so much fun. They ran freely as if they were playing or chasing each other. And in most pictures we took, the kids had both their feet off the ground just like they were flying without wings. (Unlike adults, always with one foot on the ground).

Their running styles were also kinda cute too.

Holding hands...

... on Daddy's shoulder...

...on Mommy's back...

We had so much fun capturing these wonderful moments at the marathon last year but we're joining the force now. So if you'll be coming down with your camera, do share with us. We would love to see them.

Admiré

A little confession: luck & anticipation

Photographers often talk about their ability to observer, to anticipate and catch the "decisive moment" or spontaneity.

Rather than that, it could be just luck...

I have to confess that I had luck in couples of my photos. Take this as one example :)

(photo taken @Shanghai street, Olympus E520, Zuiko 14-42mm)

My wife & I stood at the crossroad when the traffic light was red. I saw this scene through the viewfinder, set shutter speed to 1/5 sec @Shutter Priority mode to "keep" the motion of the vehicles. However, for me, there was still something missing to make this shot strong enough...

So I kept the camera to my eyes and wait...

The traffic light turned green. Cars in both directions were still moving. My wife couldn't wait for me anymore. She crossed the road and get into the frame... That was it. My luck came. Everything turned right, with her and the bicycle on the opposite directions. I pressed the shutter once & moved.

Yes, I didn't anticipate but this shot is still my favorite, for all these reasons :)

Analox

Frankfurt - Paris

(Olympus E520, Zuiko 12-60mm SWD)

Yes, these are "train photos", i.e., photo taken when I was on the high-speed train from Frankfurt to Paris.

I faced my lens closely to the train window to avoid reflection, kept my eyes opened behind the viewfinder to catch the moment when there is no fuzzy tree blocking the view & the composition is right. Manual mode for metering & focusing was used to save the time of capturing. The trip was about 3h hours and it's pretty tired for your eyes & neck actually.

I'm bored of sitting alone there, with many thoughts about the experiment left @work, some self-reflection questions that my boss asked everyone to think about their research, and more important, seeing my wife in Paris on the next day =)). Just for fun, I tried to shot a picture though my eyeglasses. Right hand hold the camera while my glasses was on the left hand, in front of the lens. Here is one acceptable result, with a fun of experimenting :)

Analox

Trang & Quý

It was some time in May 2009 when my friends, Trang (Tracy) & Quy (Brian) asked us if we could help them on a pre-wedding photo shoot at our university. Simply because their bridal shop did not want to go to such a remote place. Trang & Quy were both our dear college friends. We were then in the mid of pre-wedding shoots ourselves except that we were not the photographers but the models. Ah well, my husband and I kinda missed holding a camera already, we could not be more excited.
We started the day at the Art, Design & Media (ADM). I loved the beautiful green field but the tropical sun made us all felt like we were in a desert. Despite the strong sun light, my hubby made some pretty good use of his lighting equipment.

This picture of the bride was one of our favorites of the day as it shows how beautiful was the gown and even more beautiful was the bride.

Me, I always love to shoot the bridal bouquets. I love them and I can't help it. I must thank hubby for the selective color idea. And, there you go.

Sometimes, I would shoot the bride and groom without them knowing. I love to capture the way they be with each other naturally.

We wish them a life-long journey together, full of laughter, happiness and beautiful memories.

Admiré