PORTRAIT ::: BLOSSOM IN THE DARKNESS ::: YANNI
「黑夜裏的綻放」
…
餘暉過後的玫瑰
會不會在黑夜裏綻放
已釋放過的香味
是否殘留淡淡的溫柔
黑夜裏綻放吧
哪怕只是片刻的美好念頭
從不期待到白晝
哪怕它熬不過黑夜的盡頭
…
模特：蝴蝶
攝影：Felix
…
PORTRAIT ::: AMY FENG
In the world where music and photography peacefully unite, I find a perfect space.
在音樂與攝影融合的世界，我找到了一片完美的天地
TRADITIONAL CHINESE WEDDING ::: GORDON AND POOILENG
Happy Chinese New Year! I wish everyone a prosperous and successful New Year of Dragon! May all your dreams come true and may this Dragon Year bring you joy, peace and good health!
It’s been almost ten years since I’ve come to New Zealand; it’s been four years since I last visited my family back home; and I’ve already lost count of when was the last time I actually spent Chinese New Year with my family. A long time ago by memory. I’ve spent the most important ten years of my life in a foreign land which I now can call my second home. And it is on the festival occasions when one misses his dear most…especially on this day. I remember the happy days we had when we were kids, when families would gather for Reunion Dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve, when firecrackers and fireworks were still allowed to be play at every cornor of the stairwell and courtyards, when cousins and I would plan fun games in grandparents’ house while our parents were watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala Evening. Good times, memorable times! I still remember how we thought the programs were only entertainments for our parents and never meant for children, so I’ve never finished watching the whole show for once in my life…until today. Perhaps the more grown up we’ve become, the more we respect our traditions. And the everyday things we took for granted became treasures that we are afraid of losing, when everything formed part of the history became a history.
Traditions are only traditions when people are willing to put in effort to keep them. Although it may not be quite a tradition to have a wedding on Christmas Day, having your house decorated with Double Hapiness stickers, the bride dressed up in Qi-Pao, exchanging red envelopes and hosting a tea ceremony as a sign of showing gradefulness and respect to the elderlys would definitely imply bringing good fortune to the couple and their family. And on this festive day, keeping tradition would mean having your household filled with the element of RED! I experienced just that at Gordon and Pooileng’s Chinese Wedding. Traditions. The joy of celebrating for the marriage of a couple, their families and our own traditions!
One of the most interesting part of a Chinese weding is Picking up the Bride. The groom’s true love for the bride needs to be testified before many difficult challenges.
In many cases, the bride is in a waiting position inside her house…
And waiting comfortably. LOL
Here comes the Groom!
The groom is fully charged, ready for what’s to come.
And Gordon made sure he did not come alone. Every successful groom is accompanied by many warriors who put themselves forward to fight.
Because chinese wedding never goes easy on the boys.
Look at how well-planned the girls are…they are the ones who sets the challenges!
The groom needs to be very careful with his answers when facing challenges, because for every mistep, there would follow consequences! Various kind of conequences! They involve the ones you can imagine, and the ones you can’t.
So in order the pass through the gate, the boys would need to wise up and strategise their moves.
Every stage you pass, the Groom is one step closer to seeing the Bride.
The brave knight who stays put will eventually see the light of dawn! And pass the gift of love to the hands of the bride.
Bride’s mum was filled with happiness.
Congratulations Gordon and Pooileng, you guys are stars! And I can’t wait till your Western style wedding. : )
AUCKLAND PRE-WEDDING ::: ALBERTON HOUSE SPECIAL ::: JAMES AND ZILING
As far as weather in NZ is concerned, Summer is still MIA. Where is sunshine? Where is walking along the beach? Where are heatwaves and ice-cream? Where are volleyballs, surfboards and all the things that are supposed to make me picture a nice Summer? Stop! Let’s not go there. In the reality, I am sitting in front of my computer, editing pictures I took from December and in the middle of blogging. As I was working throughout the Christmas and New Year holidays, I didn’t feel cheated by the upsetting weather. Well I did work on some of the statutory holidays too, but remind me why didn’t I charge double pay for those days? PASSION! That’s the reason. Well I really like what I do. And being responsible for the couples and individuals in front of my camera has always been what drives me forward. And I am so honored to have many of my friends and friends’ friends who trust me in capturing many splendid moments of their lives.
I’ve got to know Ziling from SHOWTIME, an online platform where models, photographers and makeup artists collaboratively work together to achieve certain photoshoot projects (See our previous projects by clicking the links below). She’s fun, smart and willing to sacrifice anything for a good photos. So when I was asked to shoot her and her fiance’s pre-wedding photos I knew this was going to be interesting. And since we’ve set the location on Alberton House and Muriwai Beach, there’s no reason why wouldn’t it be…
SHOWTIME MODEL [ MAY ISSUE ] ::: ZILING
The history of Alberton house can be traced back to as early as 1863. It was latter expanded to 18 different rooms, each decorated with matching Victorian style of furniture and ornaments without compromise. For couple who are interested in some places special to get married or have a photoshoot, you may want to check out this beautiful venue. : )
People are usually not settled for just one location, so we headed to my favourite west coast. BEST BEACHES there!
AUCKLAND PRE-WEDDING ::: ALPHA AND SUKI
Just as we thought Summer was here, Auckland welcomed another rainy day. Gentle breeze enters my room through the window gaps. Cool and comfy. What can be better than lying in bed reading your favourite novel, editing photos while listening music and blogging? Luxury time.
Ever since the Rugby World Cup, the cityscape of Auckland has changed a lot. Revising downtown Auckland would always mean new discoveries and new surprises for me. Today’s blog features the latest photoshoot from last weekend Alpha and Suki’s Auckland Pre-wedding.
Alpha and Suki met each other back in university, about 4-5 years ago. They spotted each other at the campus and the invisible bond was immediately formed. She was always cheerful, lovable; his easy going personality was perfectly reflected on his big smile that he carries anywhere he went. It wasn’t a coincidence that they both ended up in the same accounting class, giving them the opportunity to get to know each other further… and deeper. On their first dinner date, they knew they were meant for each other. And now several years later, they are now engaged to each other, excitedly looking for their big day in March next year, where they will hold each others hands, sharing life together as husband and wife. 
BRITOMART
VIADUCT
AUCKLAND MUSEUM
IN THE WOODS
The sweet couple, in such beautiful light
MURIWAI BEACH
I was particularly moved by this shot as I was reviewing the photos I took from that day. I feel so happy for you.
ANTICIPATING THE SEASON OF WONDER
靜靜聆聽季節變換的聲音
輕輕掀起一片粉紅的漣漪
昔日櫻花樹下的歡聲笑語
無數陽光底下掠過的倩影
抹不去的便是迴憶
數不盡的叫做期盼
Model: Crystal Ng
Photographer: Felix Wu
WEDDING DAY ::: SANDY AND STUART
It’s just a gradually developed convention that I would normally put guy’s name in front of girl’s when I blog about couples wedding or engagement photos. Interestingly for this couple it feels like their names sound better when you put the hers before his – so it’s Sandy and Stuart not the other way around.I think I am not the only person who has agreed to that. : )
When we were told by Sandy that they were getting married in September back in July, we were all excited and had been looking forward to this day. Sandy and Stuart have been knowing each other for over 20 years, and finally had their ceremony at Brigham Cafe in Whenuapai, Auckland. We were still in transition from Winter to Spring, so the rain was still on and off that afternoon. However, unpredictable in some way is also a prediction, so we had the entire ceremony semi-indoor that comfortably accommodated everybody, and everyone could still get to enjoy the beautiful garden around and without getting the rain. If I were to describe their wedding with only one word. “FAMILY” would be it. It was a simple, relaxed, family-surrounded fun wedding that (officially) brought everybody into one big family.
Laughters wereHere it’s quite hard not to laugh when Sandy said to Stuart in front of everyone, “Now let’s get serious!”
After dinner we headed towards a heritage house for the wedding party.
Here comes the highlight of the night…The band! The band that Sandy and Stuart are in marched into the room with exotic musical instruments, many of which I have probably never seen or head of. The music was drumming my ears because I was so close to them. We were on the 2nd floor and I could VIVIDLY recall the floor was LITERALLY vibrating PHYSICALLY up and down, plus there were many high-spirited people who were EXCITEDLY jumping around me…so as much as I enjoyed getting the cool band shots, I was SIMULTANEOUSLY worried about the stability of this building. Did I mention it’s a heritage building?? The band TOTALLY rocked it! I was told afterwards only half the band (approx 13 people?) turned out that evening. Pheww…I really wonder what would have happened to us if the whole band was there! HAHA! The band will be performing in Europe next year.
Just to around up today’s blog post here’s the evident of other people calling them “Sandy and Stuart”! Whoever baked this must have a super-sized kitchen because it’s very very HUGE!
SHOWTIME MODEL ::: KYLE BAI
It felt like summer hot when I entered my car yesterday afternoon. Oh yeah, summer day light saving officially starts today…which means, it has stolen my precious one hour. So here I am, still siting in front of my laptop at 5:17am! This also means that we have now entered a busy photography season! Exciting, busy, crazy! I still got a lot of photo and video related work I need to catch up on and this is why I am still up so late.
I have been looking around and purchasing some studio and outdoor strobes for the past few days. This will allow me to explore the creative flash photography in a much deeper level. I am so looking forward to do more fashion and commercial photoshoots. Well if you have interesting jobs and feel that I will be able to handle, please give me a buzz here, flickr me an email at felixili@hotmail.com, or add my facebook.
Below are some nothing much but some of the shots I took for Kyle this (or yesterday if you will) afternoon at Muriwai. Please check them out and give me feedbacks if you like or don’t like them. Have a good night (morning)!!
ANOTHER PARADISE
零下一度的氣溫是否能凝固悲傷
南半球的繁星是否不會覺得孤單
匆匆劃破夜空的流星是否在趕場
曾經錯過的美景是否能重新欣賞
相信遙遠的異鄉
那未知的另一端
在雙手無法觸碰的地方
必定存在着另一個天堂
致逝去的爺爺奶奶
LOVE JOURNEY ::: JERRY AND MIMI (A BEAUTIFUL INTERLUDE)
When you are looking at a camera, you do not automatically think about who produced it.
When you are looking at an amazing photo, you do not automatically think about the photographer behind the camera.
But when you are looking at the stars, it would make you wonder…Who was their creator?
Previously, in PART I and PART II of Jerry and Mimi’s Love Journey I have posted some of their beautiful engagement photos taken in Jacks Point, Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown and Arrowtown. After approximately 3 hour drive we’ve finally arrived safely at Peppers Bluewater Resort at Lake Tekapo (Thanks to Jerry for being our awesome driver!). So much for Day One’s photoshoot, and I was glad that they both had a good time being in front of the camera! It’s been an awesome day so far and we just wished we could maximise our South Island experience a little more. And we did!
As we were driving towards our hotel, I told Jerry and Mimi about this Earth and Sky observatory tour at Lake Tekapo and how badly I always had been wanting to go up but never succeeded due to cloudy skies at night. We decided to give it another try since the weather was looking fairly promising this time. We were told how lucky we were because it was the first night in the week to have clear sky at Lake Tekapo! There we go! We wrapped ourselves up with loads of clothes and joined the tour departing at 10pm.
Here’s a photo I took for them in the van going up to Mt John. Thanks to modern DSLR’s amazing high ISO capability, I took this photo in complete darkness! Canon 5D Mark2 + 35mm F1.4L just rocks at night, I mean, in really really dark night! : )
Here’s another photo taken with max ISO, F1.4 at 1/15 second.
It was already fascinating listening to the tour guide telling us about stars and skies, and bits and pieces about astronomy that I had not much clue about. But when I learned that photographer Frazer was there with some special equipments to assist us take astronomy photographs he suddenly became my best friend. Frazer had this interesting tripod that was set to rotate at the same speed as the sky’s rotational speed to allow capture some long exposure photos without us worrying about getting the star trails. Frazer and his assistant help me mount my camera on the tripod and exposed it for 233 seconds! After a few trails and errors here’s what I’ve got. An amazing milky way with a fine details of stars! At that very moment all I thought everything was worth it!
Really thank God for this little extra experience, I was really inspired to put more effort into landscape photography. Because it’s truly satisfying!
The stars are part of the beautiful creation. And so are we. Although we both look small.
Coming up in Jerry and Mimi’s South Island engagement photoshoot, we will see some nice change. : )
TO BE CONTINUED…
DONALD AND KYLIE ::: A ZEN GARDEN WEDDING
You know how sometimes when you look at the weather it makes you feel good and you know that is THE day? That was exactly it – a perfect sunny Saturday morning for Don and Kylie’s wedding. Despite the fact we have now entered into the season of rain and it has been raining throughout the week, this day was so special that even the rain had to take on a one day short holiday.
Don and Kylie not only picked the perfect date, but they’ve also picked the perfect venue for their wedding – The Zen Garden. In our initial pre-wedding consultation I was already excited to hear that they’ve chosen a wedding venue that was new to me. Then when we went out to scout around the venue I was completely blown away by its tranquil surroundings, unique landscapes, character architectures and the defined details with an Orental flavour.
Here comes the beautiful bride Kylie and her father walking towards Don and the guests, with the amazing Zen Garden architecture as a backdrop. This could well be the longest distance grand entrance I have ever seen at a wedding. ^^
The happy couple…
I like how they were looking into each others eyes while exchanging the rings. A sweet moment.
For the grand exit, Don suddenly decided to be spontaneous and headed for a new path “on the water”!
The charming boys and girls : )
The light was just lovely. I call this the shadow shot. It generally works quite well with cool guys.
Beautiful light!
WEDDING STORY ::: DONALD AND KYLIE
Where shall I begin? Sometimes you’ve got to admit that our world is getting smaller and smaller, this is especially true for us who live in Auckland. A friend of mine on the internet turned out to be an old friend of my homestay parents. And thanks to this friend Brian, Tom and Imelda met each other and they became Mr and Mrs Dixon. I believe there’s always some kind of connection between people. It’s like how Vincent and Summer bumped into each other 3 times in a roll and Vincent took the courage to go up to ask for her phone number. I also believe that God has a plan. It’s just like how last week a client was searching for wedding photos online and happened to click on one of the photographs I took in the past. So she found me. In our first meeting, I found out that she has visited my mother church before and we’ve in fact probably already met each other before. How two people could meet each other on this planet is really a miracle. No really. It’s miracle that we know each other. : )
This miracle took place 14 plus years ago when these two had their lives intercepted each other, miraculously through a common friend of theirs. She was a young wild child wanting to experience the world. He was a maturing senior who’s always a few years ahead of the game. They attended the same University together, well technically they did, but no. Because one was in Palmy while the other one was in Welly and in a totally different year. From Palmy, Welly to Auckland, climax after climax the friendship and courtship between Donald and Kylie unfolded as they faced many challenges. A miracle wouldn’t be called miracle unless it had been tested, tested and tested…and will eventually see victory.
On Saturday the 7th of May, together with other 250 guests at Zen Garden, we’ve witnessed the fruit of this relationship, in joy and in happiness.
To be continued…^^
Thanks to Remi and her team. They were so busy that day! Well done!
Some “behind” the scene revealed
Bridesmaid No.2 – Pinny was caught by camera.
The elegant look.
Kylie and her stunning Kay Po.
Busy preparation before the tea ceremony.
The girls…
The cool boys arrived at the waterfront apartment. Don and his “Hing-Dai” (brothers) survived the games!
Despite the “rain throughout the whole day” weather forecast, I think we rocked the weather that day pretty well!.
SOUTH ISLAND ::: DAY 1-2
Although I have been to South Island for way too many of times, each time I discover something new and amazing about this place…
Let’s begin with an iconic photo – the mighty cross and Lake Tekapo…taken on Day 1
Over all the weather turned out to be much better than what the weather forecast, but it didn’t last till the evening though so we didn’t get to see the stars at night. It’s a bit disappointing. However, we were invited to stay with Andy and Elva, which made things even. : )
Day 2 – Second day started with an exciting news – It snowed last night! The streets were covered with ice and snow so everything looked so white and clean.
The beautiful weather insisted to stay with Lake Tekapo. As we were heading towards Mt Cook we could hardly see anything but fog. And as we were driving in the National Park it began to rain, then snow! I’ve never seen snowing like this before so it’s definitely new to me.
I saw this at the i-site and thought it’s a pretty neat arrangement for wheelie bins!
One side is heavy snowing, and on the other side it’s the beautiful sunset colour.
So much for Day 2.
Today is Day 3 and the weather looked beautiful and we could finally glaze Mt Cook in a distance. I took heaps of photos today and I don’t have any good reason why. Tomorrow Crystal will join us and very soon we will have Issac joined us as well. Please look forward to this journey. : )
CELEBRATION FOR EMILY & OLIVER
As soon as I woke up this morning I rushed to church. And as soon as the service ended I rushed to back to studio for photoshoot. And as soon as the photoshoot ended (not really entirely ended) I rushed to Emily & Oliver’s celebration dinner. Now after a long day like this I just want to do my OWN stuff. Test and assignment are just 2 days away this coming week will be another tough week. God bless.
Emily & Oliver had their wedding in the US on 2 April and tonight they invited a whole lot of people to celebrate with them. I admit there are fewer and fewer occasion like this where I am actually sitting at the table as a guest and I am supposed to enjoy just being a guest, but when I saw other people taking photos for the couple I just couldn’t resist not doing it. So I snapped a few at tonight’s dinner also.
This cake is yummy, so yummy!
There’s something amazing being a parent and from the face we could tell how happy and proud Emily’s mum is.
Bonus point goes to Oliver. He is looking at my camera from a distance!
Why did Emily toss with orange juice instead of WINE remained the biggest mystery for tonight.
I love my 85mm 1.2L. It rocks at any reception! Emily just happen to appear in all the rest of the photos.
Tonight they will be staying at…[top secrete location!]
Happy marriage forever : )
GG ALSO FOR A GHANAIAN BOY’S GRADUATION
Just before I took off for our trip last week I swung by Auckland Town Hall to take some photos for this guy. It took me a while to look for a parking spot and I was super glad that I did find one right opposite to the Town Hall building. I saw him was surrounded by 3 beautiful girls and I immediately wonder why he was the only guy in the class. Maybe next year…nursing will be a popular program for guys…who knows?
hearts….^^
LIVING PHOTOGRAPHY & PHOTOGRAPHIC LIVING
It’s been 8 years since I came to NZ. I made a few trips home during holidays but I still feel like I have been away for a long time. I remember about 8 years ago I was full of dreams and purposes, waiting to depart from a place where I had been leaving all my life. I still remember the night before my departure mum was there helping me pack my luggage. I remember I was plucking the only melody I knew at that time on my guitar. I remember we didn’t talk much but enjoy spending that moment together. It was very peaceful. Around this time of the year this scene would play over and over again in my head like it was yesterday.
Photography is an invaluable gift, helping us to document life. It is invaluable only when we appreciate it. And what’s invaluable to us could mean absolutely garbage to someone else. People often talk about capturing the moment or freezing the moment in photography. Sometimes many of us really wish we could have such ability in real life. But we couldn’t. The sun still sets and life goes on. We can’t hold life, nor we can keep it. More than often our eyes are the most reliable lens and our brain is the largest storage device (although memory leakage sometimes does occur). Let them serve you well. So enjoy taking photos. No camera? Don’t worry because there’s more to it. Go ahead and enjoy life.
Here are some random images I captured during the past month or so. I hope we all can enjoy talking living photos, and live passionately.
BELATED JANUARY PORTRAIT ::: EMMA
I was supposed to post this entry back in January but I couldn’t make it. I was lying on my bed. I was editing the photos. I was too tired. And by the time I woke up it’s already February, the Fabulous February.
This is “ONLY” Emma. A portrait session was what she gave to herself as a birthday present…plus a trip to Fiji, plus a birthday cake, plus a Louis Vuitton handbag and perhaps more. She treats herself REALLY well. In order to make sure she’s getting the right style that she wanted, she made a few trips to our studio with her good friend Kimi (all the way from Hamilton). And I am glad in the end she’s happy.
She also brought present for each one of us after she received her photos. A box of fresh buns. They look like buns, smell like buns and each has its unique facial expression. And I got exactly this look –> XD
MICHAEL + AMY
When you are exposed to something that is trying kill you and you have nothing to protect yourself you need to run. You need cover, you need shelter. It was the case when I was photographying Michael and Amy. After the ceremony we headed to North Shore for photo shoot and we were under direct harsh sunlight and it almost kill all of us. It was so hot that it made your head literally want to explode. We are talking about physics here. It was so COOL that we walked all the way down the hill and we found a perfect open shade, where we picked up our momentum again and took some sweet photos. I was also using Andy’s mighty beast lens Canon 200L F2 IS. Hmm…it made me want an 85L. Honestly, I want this effect. After we finished the shoot I headed back to the studio and spent about 20mins in front of the computer and I was able to deliver over 50 images to the clients right away. So they were about to display them at tonight’s reception. I haven’t done this same day editing for so long. I now feel very efficient. : )
Amy is amazing. I really like the how she could naturally pose in front of the camera and give the exact result that I want.
EITHER INCREDIBLY BUSY OR LAZY, WHICH ONE AM I?
好些年月未更新了，不是太忙，就是太懒。上次本来更新写到一半，不过那种想写点什么却又不只要写什么的感觉一直回荡着。下次吧。最近收到了非常让我欣慰得消息 － 国内终于可以打开我这个网站了，还收到了的留言，一点以外至于还真的是特别的感动。于是得送上一次中文的更新。
圣诞前夕去了一躺Bay of Island。原本打算要露营谁帐篷的，没想到计划不如变化，结果跟设想的还不大一样。最后多亏Andy的车够大，我们三人行终于体验了一个披星戴月的夜晚。
圣诞虽然结束了，今年圣诞游行没去，音乐会也没参加。尽管没有感受到太多的节日的气氛，不过周围得空气仍然懒洋洋的，毕竟新的一年快要到来了。我也不得不再次感叹一下时间的飞快。时间的的却却是不堪回首的东西啊！也许因为09年有太多的遗憾，我正对2010年充满了期待，这将会是非常不一样的一年。
最近晚上常常“蜗”在“居”里看《蜗居》。此电视剧可惜国内禁播了，强烈推荐！
最后送上最新拍摄的12月个人写真 <KERA>。
STUDIO PORTRAIT ::: ELVA
Our studio officially had our grand opening last Sunday and we had a tremendous busy day serving customers and those who came to celebrate with us on this special day. We were thrilled that we had a recording breaking sales volume on the day. Exciting! I will post some photos of our studio in the future post.
Yesterday we had an indoor portrait session with Chance and Elva. Finally I could try out some studio lighting and the result is…pleasing. Here’s a teaser. : )
DOCUMENTING ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL SUNSET
If something could make me feel emotional. This is it.
We spent the past 3 days in between Queenstown and Christchurch. After we finished first day of shooting under cloudy weather at Queenstown we headed to the town centre to have dinner as usual. At about 9 o’clock, Eva (our makeup artist) and I decided to go for a walk while waiting for Denny & Nancy as well as Nancy’s mum and Cos to finish their meal.
And as we were walking we discovered something special…
While walking, the entire Queenstown was covered by clouds of fire and this stunning sunset. People were all discussing and giving praise to the beautiful sunset. Amazed, captivated, people slowly gathered around the lakeside, enjoying this peaceful moment.
Many were sitting around the lakeside.
Sill.
Quiet.
Silent.
We didn’t want to move as we were afraid we would break the peace.
Simply nobody wanted to miss this sunset.
Many were with their cameras…
Photography skills was irrelevant.
The beauty of the stunning sunset created by God is self-explanatory enough, regardless what camera you use.
It was extremely peaceful, to the extent of allowing one to sense its hidden sadness.
If something could make me feel emotional. This is it.
Simply stunning.
CLASS, CLASS, IN ITS OWN CLASS
For a long time I have been wanting…wanting and waint to hangout with local photographers in Auckland. I started of by googling on the internet for NZ photography forums but to my disappointment I hardly found any good ones. There’s hardly any in existence and even there are they are not so popular and relatively small. Maybe I am missing out something? So here was I continually searching for photography related community and I was suddenly reminded to join local photography clubs. So I googled again and there were plenty and top of the list there was this Auckland Photography Society (APS) located in Remuera. WoW! WOW!!
So I went ahead by myself and attended the first night of their meeting and it was their last formal session in 2009. I was so blessed because tonight’s workshop topic was about FASHION. 5 of the members previously had an opportunity to go through a series of short fashion classes and had opportunities to shoot about 20-30 models, a few among them were even professionals. So basically they shared the challenges and stress they were put under even though there was one professional fashion photographer at present to guide them. It was quite fun learning from their trails and errors and they even put together a slideshow of their work. Fun! After the workshop I had chance viewing some of the photos took by the Michael the fashion photographer and we had time asking questions etc it was really rewarding. Their final gathering will be their End of Year Award Evening and I think I am definitely more than interested, if time allows after a full day photoshoot that day.
For probably the first time ever, my favourite photographer Jasmine Star will be hosting a workshop in January 2010. What’s more? She’s put up a contest on her blog and THE winner will win a seat to her fabulous workshop. How fabulous (not my fav vocab but that’s the word she uses often) is that? I will need to put some thoughts in planning my shot and try my best not to forget about this contest! Thanks to Justin I now have some ideas to work with and hope it will work. The funniest thing is that over here in New Zealand we are actually living in their future (compared to US). That’s what I call an absolute (time) advantage! It feels like I am getting an extension. But only feels like it. Haha!!
Since the very first day photography was introduced to this world, photos were presented in black-and-white or in the form of sepia only. Till today, B&W never loses its charm. It’s still the most favourite colour theme especially to people who desire to achieve artistic and classic effects. While there are millions of colours available nowadays B&W stands in its own class. It’s just like when you are meeting a line of people from left to right, the ones that have the most characters in its colour and interesting features may stand out. However, B&W is like that person who’s standing at the 2nd place to the right who remains cool, quiet and calm. This is a person who doesn’t give you much “popping effect”, but the more you talk to him the more you want to know this person, and interestingly the more you get to know this person there are more left to be discovered. That’s the magic of B&W.
B&W doesn’t always work. There are times it just won’t work in photography. But when it does work, it’s magical. While some of the clients in our demography welcome B&W, there are still a huge amount of people who prefer the popping colours. Personally, I really like B&W or even the low saturated, muted colours which bring in a sense of depth and substance to the image. Rebekah Elena, a young photographer in US told me how much she adores B&W and she said “if you shoot in colour you are shooting their clothes, but if you shoot in black and white you capture their souls”. Well said Beki!
SOUTH ISLAND PREWEDDING SHOOT ::: MIA & PAUL
Over the weekend we had a huge blast shooting at Queenstown and it’s surrounding locations. Mia & Paul is probably by far the cutest couple I’ve ever photographed so far. Before the shoot we had a discussion of what kind of style they prefer and Mia told me they don’t like hard posing but instead would like some natural moments. I figured out what natural to them truly means in less just within 5 minutes after we began our session. The interaction between Mia and Paul was super entertaining, spontaneous and simply amazing. I am sure my photos are able to tell you how fun and happy they are. I admire their humor and the way they express their love for each other in a relationship.
The photo shoot was extremely successful and now I had a hard time in deciding which photo to edit and post etc. In the end I’ve decided to post photos that shows the localities. Therefore, I’ll start with this steamboat shot. It’s kinda one of the icons of Queenstown.
Matrix? Transporter? James Bond?…When Paul saw this shot he said he’s gonna show them to everyone.
They certainly can pose!
Mia couldn’t stop laughing again…again…and again…
To conclude this entry, I think this photo really sums up who they are…
