fbpx Skip to main content
Category

Tips + Ideas

Family Portraits: Alan, Alicia & Ava

Just to add some sugary cuteness to your day, here are some photos from Alan, Alicia and Ava’s family portrait session recently. At the start of every family portrait session, I always tell parents that the outcome of the photography shoot will always depend on your baby’s mood. It’s really difficult to predict how babies will really react, but some tips that I give to families are:

1. Make sure your child has enough rest the night before / afternoon before the shoot. If I don’t get enough sleep, I’d be grumpy too.

2. If your child has never been to the park before and you want to do a shoot in the park, I really don’t know how he/she’ll react once he sees grass. Might be a good idea to visit the park as a family a few weeks before the shoot so that you can introduce the little one to grass. (and possibly bugs too!)

3. Bring some snacks in case your child gets hungry. (or if the parents get hungry!)

4. Expect to sweat. Malaysian weather can be unforgiving at times… so dress comfortably!

5. Just play with your child during the photo session. Don’t get upset if things don’t go the way you expect it to. You can never force kids to look into the camera when they don’t feel like it, or haven’t warmed up to the photographer. The more flustered you get, the more likely you won’t get the type of photos you’ve been hoping for.

Have a great mid-week!

Continue Reading

Wedding Ideas: A fun-loving invite

I’d like to share this card design idea that was created for Matt and Chin Yi’s wedding. I was invited as a guest to this wedding, and I absolutely love the creative concept that is behind their wedding invite. It was designed and photographed by their friends. Hope this little post will inspire you while you go about your wedding planning!

By the way, the little round date on the top right corner is like a pop up button. Kinda cool.

Wedding Do’s & Don’ts (as told by Grace Tan)

Some time back, Abirami Durai, a writer for Faces magazine contacted me. She asked me if I was keen on contributing some tips for couples who are about to get married and if they could feature my wedding in the magazine. The first thought that came to me was… “My wedding? That was 5 years ago!”

I said yes.

I don’t claim to be a wedding expert. I can only share from my experiences – whether it was from planning my own wedding or from going through many weddings as a photographer. (by the way, the article said I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings… just to let you know that the numbers are more modest than that, maybe a hundred plus?).

If you are interested in getting a copy of this magazine, you can buy it from any normal bookstore. It’s the July / August 2011 issue.

Do let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment here and maybe you can share some tips of yours as well.

There isn’t any photographer credit mentioned for my wedding images featured below. I’d like to thank to Andy Lim, Joseph Siew and Yean Tai for these photos here!

Continue Reading

Photographing Large Groups

At weddings, it’s normal for the couple to request for group photographs. Most times, the group size ranges from 5-20 people. However, if you are like Ben and Angela here, you might request for ALL your guests to be in the same image. While it’s a cool idea, there are some challenges a photographer faces when shooting such a large group. How do you even organize the people? How do you see everyone in one image? How do you even light everyone properly, especially if it’s an indoor venue?

Unless you have a huge, multi step platform with about 15 steps that can comfortably fit 10 people per row without one person blocking another, there’s no way to properly achieve this shot.

Tip: So, if you plan to do a large group image like this (anything beyond 50 people)… please make sure there is a way for the photographer to be elevated above the guests.

I wish I had a behind the scenes shot to show you how we achieved this shot. The photo was taken at Zion Lutheran Church in Brickfields, and it didn’t have a 2nd floor where I could be elevated. So Ben organized a tall ladder for me, Johan placed 3 speedlights behind me and held the ladder steady while I climbed it to get this shot.

Ideally I would have liked to see everyone’s faces better without any distortion, but given the space constraints, I could not use any other lens other than a wide angle lens.

Having said that, I am quite happy with the results and I think it’s a pretty cool and unique group photo!

So, it is possible to take large group shots and also make it interesting. Hope that helps! Over time, I hope to share more tips on planning for your wedding, especially from a photographer’s point of view.