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