The Main Entrance

Office interior photography of a regional technology company in Singapore.  They had an impressive entrance and an equally impressive demonstration centre which is meant as a place where prospective clients can watch the realtime execution of the activity going on at different parts of the world, all in a single screen.

The Storyboard at the Office Entrance

The Boardroom

The Regional Demo Centre

The Operator Console of the Demo Centre

Back View of the Operator Console of the Demo Centre

This is the wedding which felt like a United Nations meeting.  The only person who was local in the wedding was me – everybody else was from some other part of the globe!  So you’d probably ask why the couple chose to get married in Singapore?  Well, they actually grew up in Singapore and Malaysia and as such, decided to have their wedding in Singapore.  And being a more convenient place for everyone around the world to meet and fun was also another important consideration….. John and Penny are a real fun bunch and we had a great time taking photos for their wedding!

Did some interior architecture photography of a newly renovated house.  The house was done up in a colonial black and white theme with the objective of making it look artistically neat.  Like most terrace houses the basic problem is a lack of natural light. So brightening up the interior was a challenge.  The architect and builder did a good job with the re-design which allowed more light by breaking down walls between the kitchen and the garden, but also between the kitchen and the dining room.  This also allowed the garden into the living room with greenery flowing right into the living area.  Interior Architect:  The Design Abode; Builder: San Trading & Renovation.

The Kitchen.

Passage way into the back garden adding light and greenery into the kitchen

Front Bedroom upstairs with the wide windows and bamboo blinds.

Exposed ceiling timber painted black against white ceilings

Front bedroom again – notice the old black and white louvres.

Living Room

View from the upstairs master bedroom

The bamboo blinds and black and white louvres

Living Room

The Living Room

The Back Bedroom with the lush greenery right out the window…

Close up of the workspace at the Back Room

The Common Toilet uses mosaic consistent with the colonial theme.

This is the perfect imperfect wedding.  I have never come across anything like this.  And I am sure the average Singapore couple will never consider such an approach.  Everything was done impromptu and on the spot.  Let me explain through words and the pictures that follow….

I arrived at Hort Park expecting a very organised and well planned solemnization.  I was wrong.  There was NO solemnization listed on the activities board at the entrance of the park.  Neither did I see a bridal car at the front porch, nor hordes of guests milling around.

What I saw was a couple and their family waiting for me at the garden, ready and eager to take wedding photos…..together with their two children!!!

The spontaneity that pervaded the photo taking and in fact the whole ceremony was really a breath of fresh air for a Singaporean like me who likes things planned down to the last detail.  And I’m sure many share my thoughts.  We so often worry about so many things and plan details to death.  This simple German couple opened my eyes to a different lifestyle and approach to living.

I went away learning a lot just from watching Anke and Daniel take things one step at the time.  And savouring each moment as it unfolds….imperfect as it may seem.  But that’s the beauty of it, the perfectness of the imperfect.

Thank you Lord for this glimpse to this fabulous couple’s simple yet rich lifestyle.

Can somebody please just play with me?

Hey Mom & Dad, I know of a great place where we can take some nice artistic shots… let me show you the way!

Finally, a shot for the album….

Those leaves are getting into my hair…..

Looks like a scene from the Garden of Eden?

Darn, that must be the Solemnizer who’s calling me now…..

Men and their smart phones….never fails to ring at all the wrong times.

Look at what nice flowers Mummy has……

Mummy, can I have those flowers to play with…..

  sob sob sob

Now when will this boring ceremony end…..

And now for the paperwork….

Portrait of the wedding couple with all their guests (including their two children)…

The spontaniety of the moment….like using your dress to wipe off the sweat and showing your

undies the process….never  mind lah!

Gareth & Bianca chose the Raffles for their wedding hotel and Mimolette for their wedding ceremony/dinner.  Both these locations provided excellent backdrops for good wedding photography and the fuel for a photographer to go out for that elusive perfect shot.  Furthermore, when a Brit meets a Brazilian you can expect fireworks and lots of fun during the preparations and ceremony!  I was not disappointed.

There are just too many good wedding photos to post so I had to select just a few to show here….

This is perhaps my most emotional wedding photography assignment ever.  The bride’s father was very ill and had to be brought to the wedding in a wheelchair and almost semi-conscious when the hours dragged on.  By the time the solemniser arrived and the vows were exchanged, he was already so weak he had to be moved to another room where he lay on a couch.  When the time came for him to sign on the marriage certificate as a witness, the solemniser had to walk to the room to get his thumbprint as he was semi-conscious.  It was a privilege and honour for me to be able to capture this precious moment.  Because of the sacredness of the moment, I did not use flash and instead cranked up the ISO.  And just as well since flash would have taken away the feeling of the moment which was really so emotional.  I cried taking this shot. But I wouldn’t miss this moment for anything else!

This is the most precious moment of the wedding ceremony in my mind. You can see Jeannette holding the marriage certificate and family members placing the bride’s father’s thumb on the ink before press it unto the marriage certificate. I cried taking this shot. As you can see, using flash would have been utterly unappropriate. And it would also have ruined the marvellous feel of the natural tungsten light in the room. So I had to crank up my ISO to almost 6400. The room was totally dark except for the little light peeping in through the open door but blocked by the crowd milling around at the entrance.

This is my first wedding shoot using purely the iPhone and Blackberry.  And it was coverage of a traditional Malay Wedding.

Of course the quality cannot be compared to the usual dSLR but for convenience it does capture the essence of the wedding.  I used the iPhone 4 which has a built-in flash.  So this helps in certain situations like backlit shots.  What was difficult however, was to do be more creative like I usually do with my dSLR and try to do the manual focus and manual exposure since these phone cameras do not have such functions (yet).  You may be wondering how I got away using these camera phones to capture a wedding?  Well, to be frank, it was my nephew’s wedding.  It was held in Kota Bahru, Kelantan.  As you can see from the photos, it was a perfect kampung wedding with all the wonderful Malay food including nasi kerabu which is the local rice with a special salad.  Kota Bahru is only 30 minutes from the Thai border so you also get very good Thai cuisine.  While there me and my wife also took the opportunity to take a stroll down the famous Passion Beach or what the locals call Pantai Terang Bulan (the word passion is off-limits to the convervative PAS who rule Kelantan, so they changed the name of the beach to something more wholesome!).

It was a wonderful time covering this wedding because I missed the kampung feeling so much.  Watching the pengantin go through the wedding ceremony, especially the acara meruncis was really so exciting.  I had the pleasure of swishing the stalk of flowers all over the bride and getting water on their faces!!!

It also opened my eyes to the beauty of the simple lifestyle – people here in Kelantan live with very little but have so much in terms of the real beauty and meaning of life.  I went away convinced that (to borrow a advertising tagline) you don’t have to be rich to be happy!  I learnt so much just being here for 3 short days!

How could anybody resist a wedding photography shoot at a pre-war Tiong Bahru flat with its old mosaic tiles and bamboo chicks?  Yup, that’s how I felt when asked to take pre-wedding photos for Bianca one Saturday morning.  This was Bianca’s home for the past few years but she was shifting out soon and we thought it would be a waste not to capture the memories (not to mention the ambience) of this wonderful flat. This Brazilian ex-model was extremely easy to work with and it was a breeze of a shoot….a morning well spent indeed!

Although it was Christmas Day, I was delighted and glad to have been given the opportunity to capture this couple’s wedding. Deeliply religious and deciding to hold their wedding in Singapore, and the ceremony itself at the glorious CHIJMES, it was a very spirit-filled event. I was really under pressure to ensure the photos did not lose the preciousness and spirit of the moment.  I also enjoyed the sermon that was preached at CHIJMES by an Indonesian pastor – a fiery orator who walks the talk. Finally got a chance to shoot a wedding in CHIJMES so I decided to make it monochrome for a more timeless feel. I was helped by Neia who has a good eye for design (being an architect) and I enjoyed her feedback during the design of their wedding album.  Another challenging but fulfilling assignment in wedding photography. Praise the Lord!