Dear all,

Have finally decided to move to a new blog address. This time round, my blog will be sitting on a local host, so that’s great news for everyone

Here’s the link http://www.lyricalmoments.net/blog/

Cheers!

Stephen

Contrary to popular beliefs, professionals photographers like me never treat our cameras as toys – when you go pro, your camera is no longer a “toy” anymore…and seriously, photography is no longer a hobby, more like work that you enjoy.

So boys will always be boys and what are boys without their toys?

Somehow, the male species have this persistence/quest for perfection in their toys, be it modding /*zhng-ing* their cars/bikes, beefing up their PCs with the latest parts to hit another 3D benchmark… so many to name. So to cut the long story short, here’s my toy:

Want to listen to a system that beats a 20k dollars speakers system? It’s an ipod line-out to a pair of capacitors (the green box that looks bit like C4), and out to the headphone amplifiers (the black box), and to the ear /headphones.

And no, my Wacom tablet has no part in this, except taking a break :D

Shot another beautiful wedding over the past weekend and Cheryl & Eric are such nice folks and easy to work with.  Cheryl is your girl-next-door and Eric’s the cool dude, both of them really lived the moments on their big day, so bravo to both of you!

We were really blessed with good light when we did the outdoor photoshoot.

Love boat

More to come later…

Couple of photos from a recent shoot. Karen happened to be the sister (the real-blood sister, have to qualify that since the word “sister” in chinese weddings might mean bridesmaids) of Elizabeth, one of my long time friends back in uni days, and only until the day we met up to show Karen and Ryan my works, did I realise how Elizabeth and Karen are related.

This is one really fun and loving couple and here’s the first part of their wedding photos, a series of portraits that has a good mix of quirk, elegance and fun.

I can’t help smiling everytime I look at this one

One of their favourite images from the series.

Some shots taken right after his first concert performance in school.  No photos from the performance because organisers has requested the parents to refrain from taking videos and photos because it can be really distracting, and despite the reminders from the emcees, we still have some members of the audience waving frantically when their kids performed to get their attention to look towards the camera.

Just a few thoughts…

1. Waving and getting attention from your kid while he/she performs on stage is simply inconsiderate. Not only do you distract the child in performing his/her best, but I as an audience would be put off in someone in front of me starts standing up and take pictures.

2. I know my kid spent hours rehearsing for the 2 minute performance and Tristan been talking about it weeks before the performance and how he looks forward to mummy and daddy being there to watch him.  I’m there to give my fullest support and I want to give him my fullest attention.  Comeon how often do these opportunities come by?  Emcee already announced that photos has been taken during the rehearsal and available for ordering downstairs, and a professional video crew was actually on site to produce a DVD (which costs only $30 anyway).  It’s really sad to see people busy with taking photos, rather than being there to support and enjoy the performance. Yes, you can view the video/ photos over and over again back home, but the experience is going to be different.

3. It’s a reflection of how much people respect the organisers wishes for no photography.  Getting in the way of the professional crew doing their job is one thing, disregarding the reminders (and mind you, the words “no photography” of the performance were printed in bold on the invitation card) simply shows how much respect people have for others.  I’m beginning to understand why sometimes our youth and children acts this way.

Can’t help it but took a quick shot while I was walking out of the concert hall to pick up my kid. The beauty of range finders, they’re absolutely quiet and f-stop 1.0 allows you to shoot in almost pitch darkness w/o flash

Anyway, some photos of Tristan in his Bee costumes. I love my Noctilux

Some news to share before I post more pictures shot over the past few weeks. 2 of my images has emerged top 10 placing in the Brides Magazine 08 competition! The images are judged by the panel from WPJA and Brides Magazine (based in USA) selects their choice of the top 10 from each categories and finalists.

8th placing under “The Bride”

Judges’ Comments: Color and soft light fill this image to draw you in to the sweet exchange.

 7th placing under “Parents”

Judges’ Comments: This family is so full of life and happiness it makes you yearn to be a part of their festivities. We love the repetition of the wine glasses lifted in a toast.

*goes back to my Mac pro to hammer out more images*

Ok ok, apologies for neglecting this blog for a while… and to all the clients who’ve been bugging and spamming MSN messages to update my blog, here’s one of the series that I shot recently.

Tricia and Issac were one of the first couples to meet up with me in 2008 and time really flies!

The gown from Amanda Lee Weddings.

The sisters (and I mean blood sisters) getting ready

Carebear Stare :p

Not curtains

The groom and his groomsmen, one of the happened to be the 1st runner-up of Singapore Idol, Jonathan Leong…eh let’s focus our attention on the bride and groom.

I love Tricia’s expression here.

Stairs (no Carebear )

Pairs

Hotel staff arranging the champange tower. Simply love the moment, that happened only 1 sec.

Kiss before their march-in

The groom and his bass.

These 2 are really quirky shots…

Kiss by the rose

More updates before the beginning of next week, I promise

Time to update more photos from the last trip in Europe, next series to showcase is in UK.

Had the priviledge to work on a series with a couple who have been working in London for the longest time, and they are finally tying the knot in their hometown in Penang next year…and yes, yours truly will be the one documenting their weddding day as well

Catherine and Jun are really fun to shoot and they never failed to bring us to nice eateries, especially the famous roasted duck at Four Seasons, which is simply amazing, especially the skin (which btw, we visited it 3 times in total, and I’ve yet to check my cholestrol level…)

Some of my favourites from the series:

Unlike the Paris couple, we didn’t have an umbrella when it rained. Really like the mood and feel of this image.

Once again, thanks to Catherine & June for bringing us around London, and I have to say it again, the duck rice is damn jolly good!

Can’t believe how time flies when we’re all busy – it’s been a month since we got back from Paris!

Weather in Paris is pretty warm and relatively humid, it rained on the day we shot there, but at the end of the day, we had a really great session.

Gowns are designed and sewn by the talented Dax Lye, who flew with us to Paris and shopping shooting with him around was fun, especially the Louis Vuitton and Hermes and La Maison du Chocolat *GRIN*

Anyway, here are some of the shots from the Paris series:

This is what I love about my job, capturing fleeting moments like this – the right kind of dog with the right colour running in the right direction at the right time.

Something a bit more moody…

I just love the different elements coming together in various layers.

Our male subject has this things for veils…don’t ask me why, pictures with him toying with these look the best in the series

Photoshooting in the rain – Photographer love it, couple don’t mind it, gown designer (i.e Dax) crying somewhere right outside of the picture, hee…

Oh, umbrella courtesy of Meng, our driver. Luckily it was a non-branded umbrella…meaning, no flashy words like ‘Sony’ ‘Panasonic’ ‘LG’ 

Another of those quirky pictures from the series…

Papillon

There’s a childlike and timeless quality to this picture. One of my favourites from the series…

Moody skies again.

Many thanks to the couple, Derrick & Corinne for being such  great sport; Dax for his magic hand (and brush) in making the couple look stunning; Joe for assisting the shoot.

Alright folks, I know this come a bit late, I’m currently doing photoshoot in Paris and London and will be back in Singapore on 28 August.  In the meantime, I’ll be a little slow in replying your emails because of my schedule and limited connection to the net.

Au Voir!