Note: All visuals in this post are from www.postsecret.blogspot.com

Y’know how sometimes you have one of thosedays where you feel like just crawling up into a corner to rot away? Or when you feel so depressed that nothing matters anymore? Or when it feels like you’re all alone in your misery?

Whenever I have days like that, I tell myself that I’m blessed to be doing what I love and to have clients who allow me, for a little while, to be part of their lives and happiest moments.

Occasionally I’ll check out www.postsecret.blogspot.com to remind myself that hey, whatever ’secret’ I have in me, it’s actually shared by many other people out there.

It’s also a reminder that however depressed we may get, life is still good. Guess it depends on whether you’re looking at the glass half full or half empty.

Yes, I’m one of those who read self-help books. Dayum, I need a lot of self-help! :p

Here are some posts on the blog which had me nodding my head in agreement at some point in my life. I’m sure we’ve all gone through the same things, personal obstacles which we have to overcome ourselves.

To my family, friends (you know who you are :D) and clients, thank you. Yes, I say this quite often but I just feel really thankful and I do mean it from the bottom of my heart.

Your presence alone reminds me why my glass is half full For that, I am eternally grateful.

Here’s to a great weekend ahead!

Ed & Katie were recently in Malaysia for a short island holiday. Before leaving for the UK, they managed to drop by in KL for a couple of days to visit young Henry and that’s when I had the pleasure of meeting (and shooting) them

Ed & Katie, it was an absolute pleasure to meet the both of you. You’re both so sweet that I would’ve turned diabetic had you stayed on any longer :p I kid, I kiiiid.

Do hope to see you both again soon, if not in KL, well who knows, I might drop by there for a visit

Take care!

Thanks to an sms from Grace I managed to register for the recent LiveWire Media workshop before all the slots were taken up.

This year’s intermediate photography workshop was conducted by Louis Pang, wedding photographer extraordinaire and fellow Sabahan (mau juga bah kan sia cakap fellow Sabahan? Hehehehe…).

It was an interesting workshop for me as all participants went ‘back to the basics’ - shooting without chimping, having limited exposure to shoot, something which may seem simple but in actual fact was kinda hard for me.

I’m bloody used to chimping (looking at the pic preview) everytime I shoot and being asked not to do so for a whole photo session took a while to get used to. And one of the fun parts of the workshop was that we all got to print and assemble our pictures into a wee lil photobook.

Here’s a collage of some of the shots I printed out. Yes, yes. It’s a continuation of my ‘Urban Feet’ series. I do like my fugly feet and lovely Crocs very much, thank you.

During the workshop, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting fellow photography enthusiasts. They were an awesome bunch of people. Yes, even the ones who use Nikon and Mac surprisingly. I kid, I kiiiiiid

Here are some snapshots I took during the workshop;

Fellow participants shooting away (more like super posing riggghhhttt?? :p hehe…)

Checking out each other’s printed pictures;

Guru for the day, Louis. Louis nice arrrr post up such a fugly pic of me on your blog? Waitaminute, that might just be the best picture you have of me :p

Thanks young Luke for taking this shot Here’s me with Louis’ Angels (hur hur hur, call me lame but that does have a nice tune to it ;p) - Jasmine, Kah Yee and Michele

It was an interesting workshop organised by LiveWire Media. Will definitely join again next year Hmm…maybe this time I might wanna try out web designing as well.

I first met Ninie during the audition rounds of the first (and only) season of Fear Factor Malaysia in 2005. While we didn’t end up in the same episodes, we still hung out and became friends after the taping ended.

I’ve seen Ninie’s meteoric rise in the local media industry in the past 2 years - namely her appearances in fitness magazines and reality shows, and also read her blog, The Yoga Instructor’s Diaries.

It’s good to see someone you know achieve so much in such a short period of time. Good on ya Ninie

Oh, and did I mention that Ninie’s my housemate and she’s the main tenant too? Yes, there was a reason to post her pics on this blog.

I’m trying to get 1-months’ free rent. Gee, I wonder if its gonna work? :p

Anywaaayyy, here are some pics shot recently at KLCC. The only source of lighting was ambient light from the buildings around us (except for the split picture with KLCC behind her, that was using my external flash) and all pictures were edited using Adobe Lightroom. Download a 30-day free trial here and try it out

I present to you - the one, the only, Ninie Ahmad the human pretzel!

Ermm…the reflection from the lights wasn’t intentional :p But we had a good laugh when we saw it. Hehehe..

I’m sorry to inform all the guys out there that Ninie’s in a very happy relationship at the mo.

And no, she’s not available for hire like Henry is

Henry, a freelance talent, is currently in Kuala Lumpur pursuing a career in the local talent industry.

With good looks thanks to his English-Iban mixed parentage and an absolutely charming personality, I won’t be surprised to see this talented young man on the local screens soon

Jamie and I had the pleasure of shooting Henry around Kuala Lumpur recently. Here are some of my favourite shots from the session.

Thanks for being such a great model and all the best with your endeavor Henry!

The smoking shot was purely for posing purposes. Young Henry doesn’t smoke, surprise surprise!

Beam me up Scotty!

By the way, if you’re interested to hire Henry for acting, modelling or hosting gigs, feel free to contact him at henrygolding[at]gmail[dot]com.

Lawrence and Eva - words can’t describe what an awesome couple they are.

They’re both talented musicians, gospel singers in the local Christian community and Lawrence also plays the guitar in a local band called Carbolic Smokeballs (They got into Rentak Juara. Woot! Check it out on May 25, 9 pm on RTM).

I met them for the first time during the couple portraiture session and their camaraderie made me feel like we’ve been friends for ages. The love between the two of them is so immense that I don’t think my pictures can even capture half of what they feel for each other.

Their love story is not one without trials and tribulations. When they shared their story with me, I was flabbergasted. It was like a Bollywood movie (Lawrence, better write the story now and sell it off to a movie producer wei :p).

I kid you not.

If I were to write about it here, it’ll take me ages. So I won’t. If you really wanna know, you would have to ask them yourself the next time you see them

What I’ll tell you though is the bit I love the most and that was Lawrence’s first sight of Eva.

The first time he saw Eva, she had tiny lil braids on her head and she was wearing a punjabi suit……while letting it rip on the electric guitar. How cool is that yo?

Below are some of my favourite shots from our outdoor portrait session.

Talk about role reversal Here’s Eva serenading to Lawrence. Hehe..

I love how they both look here, yummy!

Don’t forget to click on play to view the slideshow together with Frank Sinatra’s song Check out the signage pic too ya?
Eva and Lawrence, here’s wishing you two many happiness and the creation of great music in the years ahead! You two rock and I had tons of fun shooting that day

Thanks also for buying me dinner, I loooove Nando’s! Hehe.. Have tons of fun during your wedding day!

Finally, it’s confirmed!

I recently wrote a post to check the interest level of local female photographers on the possibility of organising a meet-up. Received quite a number of positive feedback, had numerous emails flying back and forth and walla!  Meet-up confirmed!

We’ll be meeting on the evening of May 20 (this coming Tuesday) over dinner at Midvalley’s Chilli’s. Besides local female photographers, a number of female photography enthusiast will be joining too

It’s gonna be a very casual session for us to catch up with each other, exchange tidbits about the industry, tokkok, singsong, etc. So far, I think about 5 or 6 pax have confirmed.

If you’re a female photographer who’s interested to join us, feel free to swing by on that day.

Have an awesome weekend ahead! Cheerio!

Warning: The following blog post is filled with a lot of “I this”, “I that”. Call it a “me-me” post if you want. Proceed at your own risk :p

Just a couple of days ago, I was asked by a friend why I bother attending photography workshops when I’m already a full-time photographer (Heh. Still sounds weird calling myself that after 8 months of doing this full-time. Like ’siok sendiri’ only :p).

Frankly speaking, even though I’m doing this on full-time basis, I consider myself a beginner as I’ve still got tons to learn in terms of technicalities. Reckon that those who are into photography would agree with me on that.

I’ve received constructive (and not so constructive) criticism on my photos and I appreciate the frankness of those who ‘bang’ me and dissect the shots that I shoot cause at the end of the day, while the pictures I shoot may be emotive and capture the essence of the moment, I’m still not that strong technically.

For me, photography is a never ending learning process. Every single time I shoot, I learn something new (out of trial and error laa :p) and whenever I attend photography workshops, it opens up a new doorway for me to improve on photography.

Anyway, I recently attended Ted Adnan’s location portraiture lighting technique workshop in Hulu Langat (yes, damn far wei :p). Yes, some would say that you can learn this by practising and getting the technique from photography books or online.

While I do read a lot of books and surf online a lot about photography related subjects, I find that having a practical session helps me ‘absorb’ information easier. I’m abit bodoh one, must learn things by doing it a couple of times :p

Here are some shots from the workshop that day. Different from what I usually do. Yes, yes. My shots are nothing to shout about, just wanted to post these up as a bookmark for meself about what I shot that day ;p

Ted explaining the lighting set-up to us. That’s one of his models, Wanda next to him.

Yes, Wanda was sweating. Yes, it was rather humid that day but she was an absolute trooper! FYI, these pics have just been cropped and there’s no extensive editing (eg; cloning the sweat, hair strands off).

Adeq was also one of the models for the workshop.

Behind the scene - fellow participants of the workshop shooting Wanda

The master in ‘action’ :p Hehe…I kid, I kiiiid.

We were mucking around for awhile and asked Ted to jump for us. He was game enough to do it. Caya laa!

Anyway, Ted’s organising another workshop soon. This time it’s at his studio in Kajang. Check out his poster here for more info.

Had the pleasure of meeting Yati a couple of days before I left Perth. The portraiture session was a gift for her from Khal for her birthday which was sometime in April.

I think it’s absolutely sweet that Khal gave Yati a portraiture session as a gift. In general, I notice that people wouldn’t have a portrait session unless it was a special occasion - a wedding, an engagement, a newborn, etc. It was cool to have portraits just because

Err…am I rambling on again? Sowee!

Yati, it was an absolute pleasure for me to meet you. Sorry didn’t have much time to hang out with you and Gordon. Maybe next time? Will be sending over the pics to you within the next 2 weeks

Take care!

It’s kinda funny how most couples would wait till they’re engaged or married to get their portraits taken.

I’ve had some girl friends who said they didn’t dare to ask their boyfriends about taking pictures for fear that to the guys it would mean ’something serious’.

I asked some guy friends about this and most of them said that they would love to take pics ‘just because’. Then again, most of my guy friends are damn vain.

Anyway….

I reckon it’s great when I get to shoot ‘just cause’ pictures. Pictures you take ‘just because’ you want to.

Better yet when your best friend is in town and you’ve got an awesome abandoned warehouse as your backdrop Now that would be the best time to take ‘just cause’ pictures.

Right? Right? Right? ;p

Thanks Khalinah & Liam for being such troopers and awesome models and amusing me throughout the shoot. Come on, admit it. You had a lil bit of fun dincha, just a lil bit? Hehe…

I had tons of fun getting you guys to jump and run and work your thang for the camera! Take care. Hugs