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Portraits

Shichi-go-san celebration for a Japanese family: Yohei & Fumiko

Yohei and Fumiko have been living in Malaysia for the past 2 years ever since they moved here from Japan. In 2014, we photographed their family for the first time, and now, it’s really lovely to see their children all grown up!

Their son Shotaro is going to be 5 years old in May and the main purpose of the shoot is to celebrate his anniversary. According to Fumiko, Shichi-go-san, which means seven, five and three, is a Japanese annual event to celebrate healthy growth and the hope of longevity for three and seven-year-old daughters, and three and five-year-old sons. So Shotaro turning 5 is a special occasion for their family and they wish to remember this moment by having nice photos taken.

What a great idea!

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Happy 4th Father’s Day

This morning, I woke up in bed, 73km away from home at a town called Port Dickson, body still sore from last night’s wedding shoot. I thought of my kids at home, being cared for by my Indonesian helper the night before as my husband is away in New Zealand, setting up the Integricity NZ office. I drove home, packed my kids to church single handedly and was reminded about how much Alex is missed this Father’s day.

I cannot imagine life as a working single parent, and I take my hats off to those moms who had to fill the role of a mother and father to their kids because of various circumstances, or vice versa. Having a father figure is so important to every child. I am so glad that Alex is the kind of man who takes time to do simple things with our children, whether it is baking a cake, painting some eggshells, reading books to my son so that he can potty train him at the same time or carrying them on his shoulders when they are tired.

He is the kind of man who would gladly step up and help a friend in need, one who is generous and a person who truly cares. I hope our children will catch these traits from their dad as they grow up. We miss you, dad this Father’s day. Come home soon.

20150404_KRYSTA_KYLE_313Baking a cake

20150405_KRYSTA_KYLE_345Creating a mural on the wall for Krysta’s room

Alex_swimming-kids220151229-FAMILYHOLIDAY_AVILION-74Enjoying father-son time in Port Dickson

20160507-HOLIDAY_JAPAN-066Planning the Kyoto itinerary with Kyle

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2016 Pre-Wedding Promotion

2016-pwpromo

Our pre-wedding packages just got more interesting – our Classic and Luxe package now includes hair & make up for both packages, giving you more value for every ringgit spent. So what’s included in our packages? Here’s just one of the options available for you:

Classic Package B (RM3,200)
1 photographer from the Stories team and 1 assistant
4 hours of photography coverage
1-2 shoot locations within Kuala Lumpur
Approximately 200 soft copy medium resolution images on USB
Slideshow montage
16″ x 11″ art print
10″ x 10″ chic album (20 pages)
Online password-protected gallery
One look for hair & make up

Contact us for our full rate card to see more options! Book anytime before 15th July 2016 and shoot by 30th September 2016.

Casual Fun: John & Praveena’s Pre-Wedding

Was her name Jaavaani, or Pravani, or something like that? John didn’t quite remember, after meeting Praveena at workk for the first time in Singapore. She was annoyed because he could not pronounce her name properly, plus the extroverted John was a little too loud for her liking. Finally, after a few weeks of calling the wrong name, he got it right.

20150904-PREWEDDING_JOHN_PRAVEENA-02Getting to know each other

Praveena: We worked really long hours and found common friends with those who had as little work-life balance as us. Our clique was called “Macarena Madness”, named after some incident where John had to do the Macarena for losing a challenge. Over the years, we’ve had many challenges (e.g. weight loss challenge, 6 pack challenge, KFC double down challenge). We trained for a marathon, had various drinking sessions and even dressed as corpse bride and groom for Halloween.

While I was getting fond of him, I realized that John might have feelings for me only after thinking about all the nice things he had done for me (e.g. making breakfast on my birthday, bringing me home when I’m drunk, defending me when other teased me, protected me from questionable strangers). I guess John slowly grew on me.

John: Working long hours, we got to talk a lot. We worked through nights and went for breakfast together. Not realizing it myself, I started doing things that favor her and sharing secrets with her, so much so that the colleague behind me asked me if there was something on between us. Not good at lying and taken by surprise, I didn’t have an answer and that was when I realized that there was probably something going on. I realized I enjoyed making her smile!

20150904-PREWEDDING_JOHN_PRAVEENA-01Dating phase

Praveena: John asked me to be his girlfriend in true Love Actually style – with the cue cards – because he knew I liked that movie. After the initial anxiety of telling our friends and family (who thankfully were supportive), it was pretty much the same usual things we did after. It was just nice to know that John was always there to have my back.

John: There was a phase when I thought she liked another guy and she thought I liked another girl. But once I realized we were actually talking about each other (Praveena kinda gave me a big hint when she was drunk), I was overjoyed and went on to text her about it the next day. She was feeling embarrassed for a moment cause she was still thinking the girl I liked was someone else. But I told her all was well and hinted her that she was the one I was talking about. Playful me wanted to let her feel embarrassed a while longer and so hinted her to let her realize it herself. xD

Then we had our first date and we got together. Since we already got to know each other in office and spent maybe one or two months thinking that each other liked someone else, we didn’t really have a dating phase of knowing each other more to ascertain if we like each other, but more of went on to the dating phase of knowing each other more.

Being in the same line and having similar mindset about how things should and should not be done at work, we quickly realized we are a great match! =p We were excited to move on to the next phase of the relationship!

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Documenting Ethan’s Water Birth

I must admit that the thought of seeing a woman going through labour and finally delivering her baby scares me. A little. Even though I have 2 kids of my own… but I went through c-section and I never really experienced childbirth the way it was meant to be…. natural and painful. So I was a mix of emotions when Crystal hired me to document the birth of her baby Ethan last month. I was a tad bit worried that I might pass out when I saw blood.

The whole experience was new to me. About a year ago, I was also supposed to photograph another birth, but that didn’t quite happen the way we expected (pun not intended!). When Crystal’s delivery date drew near (18th May) and she started having contractions, I was a bit of a nervous wreck! I would check my phone frequently for updates, and was all charged to head out to the hospital when needed. On Thursday night, she checked into Pantai Hospital but by Friday evening, she was still far from delivering her baby!

That Friday night, I went to watch a movie, and even lugged my camera gear into the cinema, just in case! Crystal really suffered through hours of labour, and it was only on Sat night (11pm) that I was called into the hospital. I must say, she is one tough cookie. With no painkillers, she laboured and delivered beautiful baby Ethan at 3am on the 22nd of May. I could see how supportive her husband Wei Leong was through the entire process. Even though it was pretty back-breaking to help support Crystal in the tub, he did it over many hours with occasional stretches. I think Crystal was in the tub for a good 7 hours!

When Ethan came out, there was a sigh of relief and lots of happy smiles around.

Overall, I am just so amazed at this miracle called birth. How wonderful it is to witness a human being coming into the world. It is just so beautiful.

20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-060 20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-061 20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-071Extra interesting notes:
1. Lighting was extremely difficult in the dim room, since they wanted to create a more relaxing and conducive environment. Flash photography wasn’t allowed and occasionally a spotlight would be turned on at times – so thank God for high ISO and experience shooting in low light!

2. The little floating duck is a thermometer! How cool is that. It was the first thing I spotted when I arrived.

3. The nurse and doula was in the room all the time, monitoring the contractions, keeping Crystal warm by pouring water on her. Dr Paul came in towards the end to receive the baby. I truly respect those in this profession, their personal lives are dictated by the lives of others!

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