Here’s the second blog entry on our little report card for 2011 Year end on some of the most recent wedding photography competition/contest we have entered.

Raymond went for the MPA (The Master Photographers Association) judging with the following 20 print images and he has been promoted to be a qualified AMPA (Associate) Photographer. That’s a good baby step from the previous Licentiate qualification. 🙂

Other than the MPA judging for the qualification for Associate, Raymond’s images has also received a Highly Commended award in the Contemporary Wedding Category, Winner for the Contemporary Wedding Category and Finalist for the Yervant Bridal Award, Award of Excellence in the Dennis Hylander Wedding Award in the Master Photography Awards 2011 competition, together with 10 Merits achievement.

The following are the 20 prints submitted for the judging;

 

Featuring Roy and Amy who have been really supportive of us since the beginning! I remember having to squeeze myself against the wall as much as possible cos of Raymond’s specific requirements for the lightings. And also how the security personnel was watching us and so on-the-dot to help us keep track of the remaining time we have to shoot in the museum.

 

Known as the Sleeping Beauty, this is Shuqin doing a super good job in looking all peaceful and serene despite having to suffer by laying on the steps for this shot. I’ll never forget how I drove the golf buggy and flung Raymond out cos I mounted the kerb on full acceleration. The remaining of the session was shot by a “handicapped” Raymond with bleeding knees cos he suffered quite a big patch of wound. Kekekeke. :X

 

Lokie & Lydia with the inverted “Love” or Super Mario Plant…This is the image that bagged the Winner for the Contemporary Wedding Category, as well as Finalist for the Yervant Bridal Award. 🙂

 

Don’t you just love her feathery gown with so much details?? Susu loves gown with so much details… An awesome and enjoyable session with the couple depiste the many many mosquito bites. 🙂

 

Lokie and Lydia holding hands, skipping here and skipping there. Poor Susu had to sit far away at the bench alone and look after our belongings while Raymond, Dominic and I went ahead to explore the area and snap snap for Lokie and Lydia. 🙂

 

Lokie and Lydia sneaking a dirty kiss! Muwahahahaha~ Early in the morning and we were carrying quite a lot of barangs barangs, especially the peachy pink color coat, the fatty jackets, bags of equipment, tripod, lightstands and all.

 

Lokie and Lydia on Charles Bridge… By the way a lot of people have been asking about the smoke from the Chimney..  It’s real. It was quite a challenge getting a clear shot cos the bridge is filled with people and Raymond was shooting from far. Some of the passerbys actually stopped infront of our camera unknowingly to see what’s going on, and we had to NG a couple of times because of that. Some people even kept taking pictures of Lokie and Lydia too! Hahaha~ 🙂

 

Kangwei & Shuqin surrounded by walls of psychedelic colors. 😛
I can’t describe how scorching hot the sun was, and they were standing at the balcony with the sun shining from the top. Imagine a person can perspire even wearing just a tshirt… what about the couple in heavy gown and full suit! But they were still very game on for the shot. 🙂

Colin and Emily in New Zealand with the Star Trail! Still remains as one of our all time favorite piece. This location was not our intended place of shoot for this scene, but Raymond was exploring the area and happened to discover this off road place perfect for this scene. No buildings, no lights, no nothing! Except the prettiest moon I’ve ever seen in my life and the billions of stars in the sky… Kekeke. It was super chaotic, with the strong wind blowing! We spent quite some time setting up the tent (which broke in the end by the strong wind), and we had to keep attending to the “campfire” cos it kept going off.

Then Raymond sent the couple out to the roads to get their car so that they can go back to their hotel, while Susu and I were left in the wilderness and it was super dark! We could have just died there if a pack of wolves or vampires decide to come out and hunt for supper, and it was soooooooooooooooooooooooo freaking cold I suggested to Susu to squat down so that we minimise wind exposure to our body. Then we decided to take a picture of ourselves just in case anything happen to us and this would be our last picture together. It was too dark for the camera to focus and we had to take 2 torches out and shine on ourselves. -_-”

 

 

Eddie and Aileen kissy kissy inside the Honda Airwave. Love the skyroof of this car. Kekeke. I can still remember the car battery was dead by the end of the shoot, and we had to call our beloved friend Mr Ang ZQ for help. He was so sweet to bring dinner for us, and very thoughtful to keep it warm by putting it inside his boot! 🙂

 

Eddie and Aileen kissy kissy again in Zouk! I remember seeing how Aileen was doing her own make up in SOHO before they head out for the shoot, and I couldn’t tag along cos I was feeling unwell. But super glad everything turned out so nicely with the help of Dominic, Joy, Majella and Susu! 🙂

 

Lokie and Lydia in Prague, kissy kissy on Charles Bridge on a freezing cold super early morning. While shooting the security personnel kept coming to us and told us we’re not allowed to take wedding pictures there… Hmm…

 

That’s Irvin and Carrie, shot at the railway track. Makeup artist Jyue Huey was super duper nice to stay on and help around, and also went all the way out to buy us MacDonald’s for lunch despite the rain! I will remember how Carrie specially ordered the giant Red Balloon from US and how the Balloon flew away when Kenneth was “looking after it”. 😛

 

We had Bush, Joy, Majella, Susu and myself assisting for this session! We explored quite a number of places which required a certain level of PR skills to get in to shoot. Kekeke. Love this Peeping Jane image! Luckily Aileen was not wearing those long gown otherwise confirm chop it’ll be wet cos the floor was slippery with soap water. Despite the rainy weather, we still had a lot of fun and managed to capture some yummy pictures! 🙂

 

Oooohhh one of my favourite and the only series where the couple did a cross dress!! Do you know Private actually dislike having pictures of him taken? Yet he was so game to agree to doing a shoot with us! Not an ordinary shoot, but a cross dress one! BRAVOOOO!! Very happy for you guys that you’re finally married!! Hehehehehehe~ 🙂

 

Ok this “painting room” is hot and stuffy cos before we took this shot, the workshop folks were actually baking a freshly painted car inside here. You know, car workshop environment is pretty hot and noisy, and the couple had to bear with all the discomfit to complete the shoot with us! And they were totally burnt out, having to redo and redo until Raymond gets the right expression that he’s looking for. So while him and Susu were setting up the lightings for this, I sneaked down to the coffeeshop to buy drinks for everyone. All of us drank like thirsty camel. After we wrapped up, Susu actually had fun smashing light tubes (wearing safety helmet and safety goggles) and Raymond had fun snapping away while I had fun hiding in one corner till they were done. 😛

 

That’s Roy and Amy in Sleep can wait! Hahaha! We didn’t know that’s the tagline for this year’s Adidas Sundown Marathon, and we already have the snoozing concept before the couple went ahead to liaise with the management for permission to do the shoot on the Marathon day. So just nice, the snoozing concept and the tagline fits perfectly cos they’re so ironic. Hahahaha~

Sometimes when I plan for the props to be used for the shoot, I’ll try to think in the couple’s shoes… It’ll be quite a madness to get a mattress, so I told them they can just bring some thick comforters to do a makeshift bed. But Raymond wanted everything to look as real and ridiculous as possible, wanted Amy to bring a real mattress…. at such a last minute notice, I thought he was insane… but guess what, the couple really brought a mattress for the shoot!!!!!!

This scene was quite a chop chop snap and go, cos the organiser kept rushing us to clear immediately cos they were about to start the race. But it was all good fun and I got to excercise by running up and down during the scene where they changed into gown cos Raymond was shooting with the 70-200 from far and it was too noisy to shout across, so I became the “Pigeon” messenger. But I too heavy cannot fly, so I had to run instead. Muwahahahahaha! 😛

 

Tony and Cheryl throwing moneyyyyyyyyyyy.. of course those are not real money. Hahahaha! The couple had to print the money with the Specimen word stamped across, and cut them nicely to be used for the shoot. Cheryl is an extremely capable lady, and she takes charge of all the logistic matters! Our shoot wouldn’t have been possible without her, especially when we did a “zhu ge liang” scene with bout 20 over people in a single frame, with every individual wearing specific costumes. So after this scene all of us went for dinner together and we had the spicy buffalo wings… being the chilli noob that I am, Level 1 was enough to send me to hell… -_-”

 

TP & Eileen in Sepang!! I’ve seen images of the Sepang circuit that Raymond took when he was shooting for their endurance race few years back. But this time I get to sit the propellor FireFlyz plane which was so damn cool, and also explore the entire Sepang circuit with nobody around. It was early in the morning, all was calm and peaceful… That’s “A” in bikini and “WB” at the back working on the fire extinguisher. Poor “A” had to be the bikini girl after losing to “WB” in the game of scissors paper stone. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! But “A” was an extremely good sport, he was sooo good at posing girly and posing flirty. But TP and TJ had to drive around the circuit to clear their cars of the powder from the fire extinguisher and gave their cars a good wash after that.

Ben, Raymond and myself totally enjoyed ourselves at the shoot, and TP + Eileen were extremely good host to bring us around for all the awesome makan. *drools*…

 

And this image scored the Highly Commended award in the Contemporary Wedding Category. 🙂

Big thank you to Jeffrey for his help!! Without him we might have a lot of problems shooting in such an awesome location. I remember it was early in the morning with no one around, and we needed more space so we took the liberty to shift the cartons of bottled water which was in our way. Then this guy came over to us and told us we are not allowed to shift the bottled water ourselves, if we need anything we have to let them know, and bottled water cannot be placed directly on the floor, need to put them on the platform etc. It was only then we know that guy is Jeffrey cos the couple haven’t arrived yet so we didn’t know who was Jeffrey. Kekekekeke.

Shing Wa and Lynnette went to a number of wet markets to hunt for the smelly trout for the shoot! Those sun dried ones with the heads are pretty common, but they managed to snag this for the shoot  – a complete fish which was pretty huge and still a little slimy! So when she fished it out from the plastic bag and newspaper, the stinky smell starts to roam around the place and attacked our nose. Poor Shing Wa had the closest encounter with the smelly trout cos Lynnette actually had to slap Shing Wa’s face with it. Big sacrifice!!! Hehehehe. 😛

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This image is not among the 20 prints for judging, but scored an Award of Excellence in the Dennis Hylander Wedding Award. 🙂

An image of Roger and Lydia taken on an actual day wedding, this motion car shots is actually one of Raymond’s signature wedding shots. Hehehe. 🙂

Thank you guys for all your love and support! Thank you Boss for giving me time to write this “lor sor” entry, cos I had a lot of fun reminiscing… like I said in my previous blog entry, I will always remember our couples who did their conceptualised pre-wedding with us, and the nitty gritty details of things that happened during the shoots. I do remember our AD couples too!! But because I was more involved in the pre than the AD, so I tend to have more recollection of what happened. Hehehe. 🙂

Also a special big thank you to all the awesome “old birds” in the industry & qualification judges for all your valuable comments + critics and pointers! It’s through these honest feedbacks that we get to learn and improve, and we really appreciate all the teachings & sharing with no holding back. We will definitely remember the points to look out for in our images & the areas to work on. Hopefully we’ll get them corrected & come back even better next year. 🙂

Till the next update tomorrow, keep warm and fuzzy on this cold rainy day ya? Cheers! 🙂

 

Love,
Angeline