training

WPPM 2010

My long overdue blog post is finally here! For the past 2-3 months, the Wedding & Portrait Photographers Malaysia (WPPM) committee slogged to get everything organized for this inaugural conference. A few hundred photographers gathered at Berjaya Times Square hotel to hear from talented photographers such as Jerry Ghionis, Lito Sy, Charlie Lim and many other local photographers.

The event started off with a bang at the WPPM Canon Opening Night. Here’s Peter, one of the key persons behind WPPM. The other 2 key people are Alvin Leong and Patrick Low.

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

RedNinja.tv got Mojo? camp

After a few months of planning, our first RedNinja.tv event has finally taken off the ground! The got Mojo? seminar and camp was a huge success. We had a lot of fun with so many talented photographers in the country, some who are thinking of making the leap into full time wedding photography. Many photographers said they learnt a lot from Wiki Lee and his wife Ilona, who shared their hearts to everyone. On top of that, they felt the personal mentoring sessions by the team mentors (Jon Low, Mark Leo, Jenny Sun and I) were really beneficial.

I hope that after this camp, a lot of these photographers will put what they learnt into practice – whether it is regarding honing their style in photography, posing a couple, or about how they run their business. Here are a few behind the scenes shots taken at the camp in Corus, Port Dickson.This is Wiki doing some ninja impersonation with Ilona by his side.

Thanks to Canon, we had a few prizes to give away.

Things you learn at camp: As a ninja photographer, you need to be agile. Very agile – like being in this squatting position for hours.

Wiki giving tips to the photographers during the model shooting session.

I managed to take a few snaps as well even though I was there to mentor the team. Here’s Sonia & Reyhan looking really good! All model make up was done by Shinny Ong, who did an amazing job. The beautiful gowns are sponsored by Pretty in White.

The following photos were taken by Mark. He recently made the switch from Nikon to Canon. (yay!) Here’s a photo of Mark looking like he’s doing the macarena. On the right, Jon Low, who was one of the key organizers for the event and on the left, Ian Chong, who surprised us by showing up at the camp unannounced. Ian is one of the other photographers who I have worked with closely over the past few years.

These are Mark’s shots. Models are Rachel & Ser Young.

Shu Wan, Stories’ amazing digital artist was there at the camp as well. This time, she took up the camera and was shooting away instead of touching up images! Here she is in blue (her favourite colour!)

And these are Shu Wan’s shots.

And finally, a group photo of the team I was mentoring. I had fun with all of you!

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

Introducing… RedNinja.tv!

Years ago, when I first got into the whole art of photography, I didn’t really know where to turn for help or training. Everything I learnt about photography was through my own trial and error, reading the darn camera manual that I didn’t understand, or searching for information online. Other times, I had some photographer friends who helped explain technical concepts to me. And trust me, it took a couple of sessions for me to grasp all these concepts!

Over time, I took photography classes conducted by various Malaysian photographers, and that helped a lot. I am the sort of person that learns things hands-on, rather than just reading that darn manual (again!). This year, I had the privilege of learning from world class photographers at WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas.

After speaking to many Malaysian photographers, I realize that I am not the only one who craves good teaching material. Why should all the good speakers only congregate in the US or Australia? It was with this thought that the 5 of us – Alex Lam, Jenny Sun, Jon Low, Mark Leo and myself came up with the idea of bringing quality training to Malaysia; focusing on creativity, technology and business.

Hence, the birth of RedNinja.tv!

Our first event, called, Got Mojo? is happening on the 23rd-25th April 2010. We’re bringing in Wiki Lee, a renowned photographer from Australia. He will speak on finding your style in photography, techniques in developing yourself, including marketing and communications.

Photo taken by Wiki Lee

This is a 2 part event:

1. Seminar (23rd April) – RM50 at P1 auditorium, PJ

2. Camp in Port Dickson (24-25th April) – RM950 for individual registration or RM850 for groups of 3. This includes bus transportation from BU, hotel accommodation and food! There will be practical and theoretical sessions for this camp. And you get to be mentored by Jenny Sun, Jon Low, Mark Leo, Alex Lam and myself. This camp is designed to be more personal so that we get to spend more time with everyone. All of us will be speaking as well during the camp.

Look at the schedule here: http://redninja.tv/schedule-001/ There is limited space at the camp. Register for the camp or seminar here: http://redninja.tv/register-now-001/

I do hope to see you there!

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Cliff Mautner’s Plus Class at WPPI 2010

During the WPPI 2010 conference, (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International), I signed up for an additional Plus class with Cliff Mautner. 2 full days with Cliff and 20+ other photographers equates a really inspiring session.

Photography is all about light. Cliff shared with us about the direction of light, and how the quality of light is more important than the quantity of light. He challenges us to quit running for the open shade! Cliff’s style of shooting against the harsh sunlight definitely has more character than soft lighting.

But at the end of the day, his perspective is that great moments are more important than great lighting.

Cliff shared with us a quote by Jay Maisel, “Take a look at what you’re looking at”.

And another… (i can’t remember whose quote this is)…
“What use is having great depth of field if there is not an adequate depth of feeling.”

How true. Here’s Cliff at work, sharing tips with the class.

Our class was divided into teams so that we each get an opportunity to direct the models.

And here are some of the results…

If you’d like to read about my WPPI 2010 experience, read part 1 and part 2 as linked here.

View photos from a Trash the Dress photo shoot I did in Vegas here.

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings, Running a Business

My WPPI 2010 Experience… cont’d

It’s easy to overdo yourself when you attend WPPI. There’s just so much going on simultaneously. With multiple Platform classes ongoing and a huge trade show to visit, I constantly felt that there was not enough time to do it all.

(Read part 1 of my WPPI experience)

One of the things I managed to do was a trash the dress photo shoot with other photographers around the Vegas strip. Here are a few shots from that session. I’ll be putting up other images later. [updated: view the photos from the Trash the Dress session here]

After a few days of rushing for classes, I realized that it’s best I choose my classes wisely, and be there really really early for popular speakers!

I was disappointed when I couldn’t get into Jasmine Star’s Platform class even after queuing for 45 minutes. Good thing was that the organizers for WPPI had a back up plan, and those that missed out, heard her speak the next day! And what a blessing it is, when I won a shootsac during her session!

Here’s me with Jasmine and her husband JD (taken at different times!)

Jasmine Star inspires me to dream big, to believe that anyone can succeed… after multiple failures. We all have failures in life, but as long as we fail forward, we’re moving in the right direction.

In her first year of shooting weddings, she shot 3 weddings, and then the next year, 37 weddings! And all this without paying for marketing! She communicated who she was through her blog, and when people saw that, they were attracted to her. Use every opportunity to be ME.

She cares for people around her, and completely believes in helping others, eg. vendors. The question we should ask ourselves as photographers is, “What can I do for others? To help others?”

Kevin Kubota, in his Platform class, brought up a very important question that we all need to answer:

It makes me think… what are my goals in life? Can I quantify them? Or is success some vague concept in my head that seems unachievable? How would I know if I have reached there?

The other 2 key speakers who influenced me a lot in WPPI 2010 are Marcus Bell and Dane Sanders. Marcus showed the class a very touching video / photo slideshow and shared his passion in capturing moments for his clients. I was moved to tears when I saw the video.

The bridal couple came up with this surprise for their parents, who had been married for about 50 years. The video showed old footage of their parent’s own wedding, their moments in life when they had a newborn, intercutting with footage from their child’s wedding day, years later. The expression on the parent’s face as they watched and reminisced old days and how far they have come was so moving.

It just reaffirms my belief that what I do is so important. I am here as a photographer to capture bits of history in people’s lives, whether it is the moment they say their vows to one another, or when a mother feels her child in her tummy kicking, or when a family demonstrates their love to each other.

Years from now, I want someone to look through the images that I have taken, and remember… not me, the photographer, but the feeling they had when that image was made.

Which, at the end of the day, comes back to that question of “What will success look like to you?”

Dane Sanders, author of the book, Fast Track Photographer, shared with us this quote. I love it.

I am looking forward to this journey of life, and what it holds for me.

On the last night of WPPI, we celebrated the work of many talented photographers from around the world. Awards were given out to the winners of the 16 x 20 print competition, and also International Prints of the year award for various categories.

I am so proud to say that Asian photographers are rising and making a mark internationally. Louis Pang won the International Portrait Print of the Year award, and CM Leung won 2 International Print of the Year Awards, not to mention many mentions of accolades of excellence! That is so exciting! Congratulations to the both of you!

Here’s a group photo of the Malaysian ‘contingent’. Jenny had left Vegas earlier in the day. Glad to share all these exciting moments with you guys!

Read about Cliff Mautner’s Plus Class here.