Johan and Mark photographed Vinod and Pamela’s beautiful outdoor wedding at the Royale Chulan in 2012, and ever since then, they have gone productive and produced a lovely baby boy named Rahul. I was privileged to photograph Rahul’s newborn photos at their home. I love seeing our couples grow into little families like this. If possible, I’d like to be there at key moments of their lives, seeing the family grow through the years. What a joy it is to see them happy!
Congratulations, Vinod and Pamela… I am sure Rahul will bring many sleepless nights, but it is oh, so worth it.
Within the fortified medina walls, lie little stories and hidden adventures at every turn. It is truly a maze, and if you are not careful, you’d easily find yourself walking in circles, trying desperately to navigate your way to someplace familiar. When I landed in Marrakech, my senses were just heightened. I love the energy of being in a country like Morocco. Reminds me of my travels to Egypt in the past.
Looking at Google maps within these walls would be completely useless. It’s just a blob of emptiness…seemingly no roads, but in reality, there are hundreds of pathways leading down alleyways where some merchants try to sell fig, dates or bread.
Honestly, I am not too big a fan of their tajine dishes… after a while, it started tasting alike to me. Krysta traveled with us, and she was a trooper!
On the first day, we were led through these pathways, through a small alleyway that was less than 6 feet in height. There were times when Alex had to duck his head because the ceiling was so low. But then, we came to this huge door that revealed a beautiful riad inside.
I’ve grown to love this beautiful location. It’s a small little green patch of grass overlooking a lake, but given the right time of day when the sun is setting in the distance, you have gorgeous sunlight falling over this area, which makes for amazing back light. Ok, if you didn’t quite understand this photographer’s rambling, the location looks like this:
And this is the amazing back light (or hair light) I am talking about.
One of the wonderful things about small weddings is that you have lots of time for portraits. I enjoy creating images of the couple with their families and also close friends in a gorgeous setting. I photographed Jon and Jac a few months back when we did their Mad Men themed pre-wedding shoot. It was easy to connect with this couple, and from that moment on, I knew photographing them would be a breeze. The week after, Jon and Jac had their Chinese wedding ceremony (photos in the slideshow at the end of this post).
For this post, I thought I’d write a few tips on what I think would make a great garden wedding (from a photographer’s perspective):
1. Choose the time of day well
Considering we live in tropical Malaysia, the best time for an outdoor wedding would be before 10am and after 5pm. The sun is lower in the horizon which makes it more flattering for people photos. Have you ever taken a photo outdoors at 12pm, and seen lots of raccoon eyes (dark shadows under the eyes) staring back at you? Yup, that’s the effect of the sun as it is directly above you. So if you’d like more flattering images of yourself outdoors, opt to have your ceremony start at the timing suggested.
I remember this shoot well. It was early in the morning and I drove out of my home just before the break of day. Getting caught in a jam and was worried about being late.
I remember reaching the park, where the family was all ready for the shoot. The first thing I noticed was Josephine’s warm and friendly smile. I felt connected to the couple almost immediately because of their easy going personalities.
Nick and Josephine met each other at work and are recently engaged. I recently met Josephine again at the BFM Enterprise Breakaway and found that she is now running a company providing nursing services. A company born out of her mom’s own disappointing experience with nursing services for her dad, who had suffered a major stroke and sadly was not able to join us for the shoot.
Together with Weiming, we set out to provide this family and couple the family portrait that they truly deserve. Here’s some of our favourites from the session.
Josephine’s brother, David, was a little shy in front of the camera, but eventually he warmed up. :)
My first love has always been travel. I love creating images as I wander the streets, looking at life through my lens. When I travel, I like the idea of going off the beaten track, looking into the side lanes, hoping to glimpse something different. Honestly, I don’t really enjoy taking photos of buildings, but I get really excited when people are added to the equation. It makes me wonder… what are they thinking of at this moment? What are they doing, where are they going?
I came to Barcelona with my family to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. It was really wonderful being with family and his friends, just spending 2 weeks away from work for a while. I hope to rejuvenate and get some new inspiration as I travel. Currently, I am in Morocco, which is an amazing country, full of surprises every corner. More on that later… but for now, here are some shots from my travel in Barcelona.
