First Fullblown Wedding Shoot!

Oh gosh, how quickly things have moved...
A few months have passed since my first wedding anniversary shoot, and now, although I didn't think I was quite ready to handle it, I've completed my first fullblown wedding.

A typical Chinese wedding here in Malaysia kicks off with an early morning start to the solemnisation ceremony. Here, it was a church wedding, which would follow after the usual bride/groom prep, and consequently a 'pick-up-the-bride' games session with the groom and his best men. In the morning half, there was so much that was challenging: I had to calm down a nervous first-time groom (which is usually most people!), mingle with his relatives (doubly hard as his relatives were flown in from England), and make sure everyone was sufficiently comfortable with me around without being intrusive. The most experienced photographer in our tag team was on the bride's side - it was up to me and another member new to all of this to capture the groom's side.

My camera batteries ran out towards the end of the morning ceremony - I use one of the most basic entry level camera bodies and it clearly was not designed for more than 400 shots + flash fired at one go. Thank god for backup photographers - and a backup camera! (This is probably one of the major reasons I'm thinking of an upgrade.....more on this and why I chose to start at entry level later.)

After the rings were exchanged, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed home to what we thought was a continuous few hours of editing - but in reality, ended up being the three of us knocked out cold for an hour while we recovered from being on our feet the whole morning for a good 6-7 hours.

Only then did editing commence - the best photos to be selected and compiled into a video slideshow for the evening dinner party.

That done, and after a quick shower, we zipped back off to the venue of the dinner ceremony - usually a restaurant - and began to take photos, as well as make sure the slideshow is in good condition to play when the button is pressed.

Murphy's Law kicked in as usual, and various contingency plans had to be cooked up, and finally, at midnight, with only time in between to grab some quick bites from the 9-course dinner, we wrapped up and went home.

A few photos from the day here:

First Wedding (sorta) Shoot!

It was December 26th, 2011; Darrell and I had the honour to shoot for a surprise wedding anniversary lunch. It was a first for me (a paying job, yay!) and a first for the both of us because it involves producing an album out of the photos that resulted.

He was the experienced one; I was the newbie starting out with event photography. But I think we did a decent job at the end!

A few photos to be uploaded after we hand the album in - watch my Facebook space!


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Client Schedule for 2012:

Jan 28 - Friendship photoshoot
Jan 29 - Couple photoshoot (tentative)
Feb 18 - Wedding day shoot

Things I want to achieve

Dear Photography powers-that-be,

In my journey with you, I wish to accomplish at least (fingers crossed!) the following (relatively insignificant but would be nice) things:

1) A photograph featured on Flickr's Explore
2) A full paying professional freelance job
3) Reaching the level of Johnny Patience and Wildflowers Photography
4) Being able to print, frame and hang up my own photo on the wall of my future house (aka being proud enough of my photo and knowing that it's worthy of its spot)
5) Be confident enough to be able to drop my day job at any point to take up photography full time.

=)

I joined Flickr in 2009 right after I bought my first SLR. It was the cheapest entry level camera in the range at the time, as I was still unsure of my capabilities despite having spent ages deciding - which involved monitoring my interest in taking photos with a standard digital camera, testing the reception of the photos I took with my Facebook audience, etc.

(I'm the sort that refuses staunchly to spend any huge sums of money unless I'm actually sure that I will use what I invest in to the best of my advantage.)

I posted in groups in Flickr, getting positive responses for a portion of the shots I posted up - mostly shot with my kit lens, the only lens I had at the time. In 2010, I upgraded to my first lens purchase - a 50mm f1.8 prime, which was and still remains my favourite lens in my kit. Lightweight, brilliant for low light, and producing bokeh? Yes please!


One of my first shots with my kit lens



From then on, I began participating in multiple unpaid shoots - mostly for my close friends, but other notable ones include a fashion shoot for Cherwell, the Oxford independent student newspaper, and a yukata-themed shoot for a handful of friends. Many of the photos, though, came out of pure boredom :P

Now, two years and 115 images on, two exciting milestones are being forged!

The first is with the infamous Getty Images, something I'm really ecstatic about given that I've been hoping for a Getty break ever since I found the Getty partnership search in Flickr. They've finally spotted my photostream after ages :) Interestingly, the selected photos are mostly shots I've taken with my 50mm and do not follow any particular theme - they range from conceptual shots of chillies and clothes pegs to portraits from the yukata shoot and a night landscape of Japan's Odaiba Bridge (long exposure, shot not with a tripod but the railing of a staircase. Hee.). I've got my foot in the door - now to open it up a bit wider! :3




The second is a partnership with Artflakes.com, a European online provider of high quality prints and greeting cards with art from photographers and artists. Apparently they spotted my deviantART portfolio (I have multiple scattered around the place) and emailed me a direct invitation. Unlike Getty, it's on a non-exclusive basis, and I'm free to market my photos on other platforms as well as theirs. As far as I can see, it's an opportunity to expand my reach to different regions targeting different audiences - Getty for stock photography and Artflakes for artistic visions. :)

Here's to more fun shoots ahead! :D

Thyme-ology is going to be a photoblog

Yep, I think I finally found a purpose for this little space of mine.

Writing a photoblog probably would help me with remembering little photography lessons that I pick up along the way, all the failures and all the disappointment and frustration, to make sure I never repeat them again. Well, apart from keeping track of my photography, of course...

I recently shot a photo of my company's strategic planning group (read: top 80 people in the company), and it was a bit of a failure on my part. We shot at 11am, by the beach in an open spot with no shade. The timing was due to many things, including the problem of avoiding low tide as that made the sea very ugly to look at in the background.

I did everything I could before the day of the shoot to prepare: scouting out the location, thinking about lighting, getting my boyfriend to teach me about lighting, getting advice from more experienced photographers, borrowing speedlights. It would be my first time shooting with two, and a stepladder to boot. In fact, it would be the first time shooting seriously with a full-frame and a Nikon (I'm a Canon user, and am completely unused to Nikon's controls).

So many factors working against me, huh?

At 11am, however, the sun was so bright and so hot that I was sweating the minute I stepped out. I stood for an hour under the blazing sun, prepping and trying to get my helpful friends to not suffer too much while I tried to remove as much shadow as I could (sun was from the left, shadows were harsh; photographer nightmare).

One speedlight, bumped up all the way, still would not work.
In the end, at the last minute, I was ready to give up and give in, but then boyfriend suggested I use a second flash positioned near the same spot to help fill in further.

It worked to an extent, but the finished product in the end had decent lighting; the problem lay in something I simply was no longer capable of handling on top of technicality - arranging people to make sure that all their faces were visible.

I feel guilty about it. I feel upset, in fact.
There are bound to be complaints when the photo circulates next month (people at the top are fussy, picky, and goodness knows what. I'll probably get bashed. Sigh.).

Can't deny that my photographer ego is dented, even with the mix of good news that I'm finally a Getty contributor - something I'd wanted for a long long time ever since I joined Flickr.

Oh well. Gotta soldier on.

Guess corporate group photography is not really my thing, though..