Good Monday everyone!

I’ve got a feeling that the brand new week will be absolutely fantabulous!

Am gonna be outstation from Tuesday till Thursday and when I come back to KL, I’ll be shooting a portrait session, reception, solemnisation and wedding from Friday till Monday.

All great couples who I can’t wait to shoot! I feel so blessed

The above will also mean that I won’t have much time to revert to emails so I would appreciate your patience and understanding if I were to revert to you a wee bit later, like sometime early next week.

I’ll still have my phone with me at all times, so feel free to give me a buzz on my mobile if anything urgent comes up.

Here’s to an awesome week ahead for you, me and everyone else

Woot!

Above pic shot by Brian of M8 Studio sometime last year.

On another note, I’ve been thinking about my parents alot lately and I miss just being with them back in KK.

On the bright side, I’ll be going back quite frequently from September onwards so I’ll be able to spend more time with them then Yay!

Don’t forget to give your parents (and annoying siblings!) a hug today

Just a quick post to let you know what I’ve been up to for the past 1.5 days - attending Louis Pang’s workshop!

I don’t have much time to blog about it now as I wanna hit the sack and catch some winks since we’ve got a loooong day tomorrow at the final part of the workshop.

There’s a few emails which I have yet to revert to- will definitely do so on Monday once the workshop is wrapped up. I’ll also try to update my blog and write a review on the workshop by end of next week *fingers crossed*

In the meantime, here are some ‘behind-the-scenes’ snapshots from earlier today.

On left: Louis - the energetic trainer for the weekend

Kee Sitt of the Wedding Story team documenting the workshop on video

Imagine having to snog infront of so many photographers. Pressure wei :p

Henry was told that he can’t keep the kitten in the house….

…he decided to eat it instead.

Kindly note that no animals were hurt throughout this shoot. Although I think the kitten might have passed out for a while due to young Henry’s bad breath. Hur hur hur. I kid, I kiiiiid.

A month ago I shot an advertorial for 3C magazine.

It wasn’t my first advertorial shoot, but it was the first time that I had the opportunity to go on the KL Hop On Hop Off bus.

And boy, was it fun!

We were on the bus for nearly 2 hours going round the main sights of KL and it was nice to see KL in a leisurely manner instead of looking at it while being stuck in the traffic jam.

Definitely something I would recommend to those who are visiting KL

I think the magazine’s out already (though I haven’t bought a copy - YET), will scan it once I get a copy and update this blog post then.

In the meantime here are some of the shots taken throughout the session.

The first few pics were shot at the Pavilion. We got kicked out after the first few shots. Dammit.

In the bus. It was a weekday and most of the tourists would get off at each tourist sight and we would just stay on the bus to take pics. The driver must’ve been wondering WTF?

Yes, obviously it was for Toshiba. Anyone from Toshiba reading this? Wanna give me a free laptop for the pics :D?

At the Eye On Malaysia, which is also known as the White Elephant of Malaysia in certain circles.

If you’re wondering why in the world would people bring their laptops onto a bus, well darling, FYI, the KL Hop On Hop Off has free wi-fi on board. I kid you not. I even went online for a bout 5 minutes to check my email while we were taking a break :p 

I was absolutely knackered by the end of the shoot but had tons of fun with the team from 3C and also the 2 models who are also local talents (songwriter, singer, host).

Ryan, thanks again for the opportunity to shoot for the mag Woot!

Thanks to a referral from Peter, I had the pleasure of shooting Angela’s family recently when her sister came to KL for the holidays.

The shoot was done at Hilton Hotel where they were staying and the kids were a blast to shoot

Here are some of my favourite shots from that day.

Thanks again for inviting me over Hope y’all had as much fun as I did!

Gee. How time flies eh?

It’s now time for the 2nd meet up which stemmed from this meet-up.

If you’re a female photographer or even an enthusiast who’s interested in picking the brains of those who are already in the industry, feel free to join us this coming Thursday at Bangsar Village’s Delicious.

So far, I think 4 or 5 of us have confirmed and we’ll be there to tokkok, singsong from 7.30 pm onwards :p

As before, it’s nothing formal, just an opportunity to touch base with those in the industry and to share our common interests as well as help each other out with whatever questions there may be.

So don’t be shy If you have any q’s regarding the meet-up, feel free to leave it in the comment box. Cheerio!

June 12 - Jogged around the hills of Bangsar. Ok, ok. I admit, once again, it was more of walking and wheezing :p

June 15 - Had no shoots on Sunday so I went climbing. Wheee!

June 16 - Gym workout;
Chin Up : 5 reps + Dips : 10 reps - 2 sets
Hammer Curl : 22.5lbs x 10 + Shldr Press : 20lbs x 10 - 2 sets
Bovr DB Row : 32.5lbs x 10 + Seated Leg Raise : 20 reps - 2 sets
Back extn : 20 reps + Side Extn : 20 reps - 2 sets
Hip Adduction : 45kg x 20 reps + Hip Abduction : 45kg x 20 reps - 2 sets
Chest Press : 19kg x 10 reps - 2 sets

June 17 - WOD from June 16. 5 sets of the following done within 24 mins 37 secs;
10 alternating one-legged squats (used green band as support)
12 ring dips
15 pull-ups

June 18 - WOD Crossfit “Fran”: did 21 - 15 - 9 reps of the following within 10mins 46 secs (shaved approx 6 mins of my previous time a month ago. Wheee!);
20 lbs dumbell thrusters
Pull ups

Managed to squeeze in 3 rounds of the following ab workout after “Fran”;
30 sit-ups
30 leg raises
20 Russian twists (8kg kettlebell)

June 23 - Gym workout;
Warmup on treadmill - 1km took 7 mins (WTF?!) And that’s without nicotine for the whole day. Gawdammit. I need to go faster. Arrrggghhh.
Chin up : 5 reps + Dips : 10 reps - 3 sets
Hammer Curls : 25lbs x 10 + V Ups : 20 reps - 3 sets
Back Extn : 10kg x 10 reps + Side extn : 15 reps - 2 sets
Hip Adduction : 47.5kg x 20 reps + Hip Abduction : 47.5kg x 20 reps - 2 sets

June 24 - WOD “Three Types of Pull Ups”: 5 rounds of the following done within 17 minutes 30 seconds;
3 weighted pull ups @ 8kg
5 strict pull-ups
7 kipping pull-ups

3 rounds of the following ab workout done within 15 mins 11 seconds after the above;
30 sit-ups
30 leg raises
20 Russian twists (8kg kettlebell)

Jogged 2 rounds of the upper trail of TTDI Park, took me approx 28 mins. Yes, that’s damn farkin’ long! At one point in time, my heart rate went up to 170. Gasp! Its the fags!

Btw, I just bought the Polar RS100 in hopes that having a new ‘toy’ will motivate me to take running seriously. And yes, I’m still trying to figure out how to use it properly. Eeks. Hope this works.

Edit: June 25, 2008 - Jogged 3 rounds of the lower trail of TTDI Park, approx 22 mins. Eeks. How in the world am I gonna hit 10km in 50 minutes by August?!?

G36 recently opened up an adidas Originals Store at MidValley. Here are some shots taken during the launch which was attended by a few local celebs and media.

On a personal note, it was kinda surreal to be shooting for adidas as I was working at the head office for 4 years prior to taking the leap into full-time photography.

It was great though to see familiar faces - my ex-colleagues, the media people whom I used to liase with.

Thanks again for entrusting me with taking the pics for the launch guys. Had fun catching up with y’all again

June 10 - Jogged around the hills of Bangsar with young Keeran. No, wait. I wasn’t exactly jogging all the way. It was more like walking, wheezing and bitching for approx 6 km. And that took me almost an hour. Yes, absolutely fail dot com.

June 11 - Jogged at TTDI Park with Mike T. Did 1 round of upper trail and 1 round of lower trail, approx 2.8km. My shins started to hurt in the middle of the first round, found out from Jonathon later on that it was most prob cause I didn’t stretch it after each jog.

After the jog, we took a short break at Devi’s Corner and then headed over to Pushmore for the workout of the day. It was 21 - 19 - 15 - 12 - 9 - 6 - 3 reps (total 7 sets) of ring push up and pull ups. Instead of doing a full ring push up, I did knee and completed it within 26 mins 28 secs. Humbug.

Oh, and I also registered for the 10km category in the upcoming adidas King of the Road run which will be happening on August 10, 2008.

This year, they’ve got really nice running jerseys for all participants. Somemore got my size woh. A friend of mine said that’s the only reason why I’m so gung ho about running all of a sudden :p LOL!

Early bird registration closes on June 30 (another 2 weeks time!), so for those who are interested, head on over to the adidas Malaysia website to download the registration form.

My only target for this run is to complete the 10km within the qualifying time of 60 minutes. Wish me luck peeps!

Ever since I was featured in the Dove 3R announcement ad late last year, I’ve received a few emails from fellow photographers and enthusiasts asking photography related questions.

I’m not an expert on all things technical but I have replied to these emails on what I know and have learnt so far. The emails from fellow photographers have never stopped and it surprises me that people ask me photography related questions when I myself am still learning as well :p

But I’m more than happy to share what I know (as for the stuff I don’t know, I’ll refer you to the experts :p). To make things more convenient, I’ve decided to start a category ‘For Photographers’ so that I don’t have to keep on repeating myself like a broken recorder in emails :p

One of the most frequent question I’ve received is “What gear do you use when you shoot weddings?”.

I was a bit shy to answer that question initially as I felt like what I had wasn’t as good as what establised photographers in the industry were carrying around. Then I thought, bugger it. As long as my shots turns out decent who cares what gear I use.

Picture of me slacking off (i kid, i kiiiiid) during Amy & Terence’s wedding shot by Amy’s brother, Alex. Here I am with my 2 boyfriends - Onni and Paco.

For weddings, I would usually bring along my whole ‘arsenal’ of gear and this includes;
- 40D and 400D camera bodies (with the names of Onni and Paco respectively ;D)
- 24-70mm, f2.8
- 10-22mm
- 50mm, f1.4
- 100mm, f2.8 macro
- 580EX Flash
- 3×2GB CF Card and 2×1GB CF Card
- extra batteries!!

Of course, I don’t carry the whole shebang with me throughout the wedding. That would be absolutely suicidal! :p

The 100mm would usually be used for macro and detail shots taken during the preparation period and the 50mm would be used when I’m taking casual portraits of the couple prior to the start of the reception.

Throughout a wedding ceremony and reception, I would use the 24-70mm on my 40D and the 10-22mm on my 400D. This saves me from having to change lenses in the middle of the ceremony and I also get two different perspective at the same time.

For those who are just venturing into wedding photography but do not (yet!) have the budget to invest into fast lenses, you might wanna start off with the Tamron 17-50mm, f2.8 first.

No doubt, it is a third party lens and might not be as fast and sharp as a Canon lens but if budget is your main concern, then that’s something I would recommend. I actually shot my first few weddings with that lens. If you were to check out my ‘Weddings’ set on my flickr here, the first 3 rows of pics were shot with that lens.

BUT it would be better if you can save up for a fast lens as IMHO, it makes a big difference in terms of speed and quality. I used my Tamron for about 6 months and then I got ‘poisoned’ by Glenn who loaned me his 28-70mm, f2.8 (the version before the 24-70mm) for Daphne’s wedding.

Some examples can be seen below;
Bouquet shot with 50mm at f.14, ISO400, 1/1250

Shot with the same 50mm lens BUT I took the lens off the camera body, turned it around and turned it into a macro lens :p ISO400, 1/500

Using the 100mm macro lens at f2.8, ISO400, 1/250 sec

10-22mm at 10mm, f4.5, ISO400, 1/13

24-70mm at 30mm, f2.8, ISO400, 1/30 with bounce flash

Hope the above information was helpful to those who had sent me an email and who have previously left questions on my flickr and comment on my blog.

Thanks for taking the time to leave a question tho It’s nice to know I’m not talking to myself in the blogosphere…or whatever you call it.