Congratulations to Vincent and Lijuan!

Location: Oriental Hotel, Singapore. Plenty of lines, lights, blurs, textures to work with.

In the morning…

The gatecrashing…

Things you can put into the ang pow.

Waited for them to step into the spotlight along the corridor for this shot.

Flash remotely fired from the left of the camera.

Just before their first march in…

Vincent enjoyed his wedding thoroughly!

He was friendly with everyone!

More photos here!

It’s a long story… But at least I got back the rental cost and a little more.

Congratulations to Peter and Jeraldine! Thank you for sharing the compliments you’ve received on the photos!

For me, it is always the details that make a wedding or engagement special. It definitely makes any photographer’s job easier too.

The preparations!

The families and guests!

The specially made cage for their rings.

Their entrance showered with petals.

Dr Phua is one of the most popular Justice of Peace around. It is nice that he always takes time explain to the guests and families present about the proceedings, even when he is running a tight schedule on a popular marriage date. Not to mention his very condensed marriage-counseling-in-a-handshake.

And we carried on for more photos!

More photos here!

This was a really fun shoot for an engagement session.
Venue: Changi Village Hotel and Changi Golf Club

It’s always the details that make the event special.

The champagne cork popped prematurely, so Jeremy was flicking it into the air for this posed shot.

And here’s the final parting shot at their Changi Village Hotel room.

More photos here!

THOMAS & ADELINE’S STORY from Kor Shu Yen on Vimeo.

Spent countless sleepless nights to come up with this animation as a presentation for my friends’ wedding. Figured it was something worth sharing. So, enjoy!

Definitely want to try out the first and second improvisations.
Maybe even the fourth one too.

Link: 4 DIY Photography Hacks You Can Do With Boxes

Ok, now that she has uploaded the pictures to facebook, I show the pictures here. :p

My “signature” shot! :p (Just kidding!) But I did tell them to hold it there till it feels awkward.

Note to self: With so many lady friends who aren’t keen on catching the bouquet, I will make them pose like they saw a rat or mouse or cockroach or something.

Finally, the last shot of the session!

More photos here!

Because Carolyn says I cannot anyhow-ly post pictures with people’s faces. :p

The nails, though pink, look equally tough.

The Tea Dress

The Bling Shoes

Wedding Favours – Shot Glasses

The Ring Bear-er! Geddit?

I really enjoy the stories behind every client I’ve come across in my wedding photography sideline.
Their courage to love despite their differences.
Their readiness to give beyond their means.
Their determination to make the marriage work despite the odds.
Real, gritty fairy tales of love.

Congratulations to Jason and Jiangyu! They have got to be the brainiest couple I’ve met.

Rather funky, this partial get up.

The gatecrashing!

I like the “phantom” hands and foot in this one. That’s how you achieve the fluttering gown effect!

A little bit of technical details here. The living room area (right side of the photo was much brighter in comparison to the room the bride was in. So a remote flash was placed on top of the door and triggered to light the interior and the bride.

I actually like the furniture on the right of the picture even though purists will find it an eyesore.

More photos of the newly-weds here!
Didn’t upload as many photos this time. But if you are interested, I can show them to you if we meet.

Yes, it is some kind of a joke for Kelly, Amanda and of course, Brenda, the model.

All apparel from chic-aloud.livejournal.com

I remember in my schooling days, I would sit at the coffee table in the living room with the television tuned to SBC channel 8 while doing school homework.

12 years on, I am sitting at the coffee table in the living room, with the TV tuned to a cable channel, while trying to do some work on the laptop.

The only difference – there is a lot more distraction, thanks to the Internet.

Congratulations to Chris and Lilian!

This was a miracle wedding that happened with only 4 weeks preparation! Plus, they even persuaded me to do a morning highlights montage for them, which is another miracle in itself! :p

Click here for more photos!

Congratulations and a big thank you to Darren and Danessa!

Make up

The gatekeeper – she’s on a first name basis with Singapore’s first president!

The gatekeeper had to settle for an IOU, unfortunately.

The ring bearer

At their church reception

Worship

Chopsticks are unbreakable together.

“You do understand that you can never return to the Bachelors’ Club, right?”

To their suite in Marina Mandarin!

Danessa got the hotel to add a romantic touch to the room…

…but this was way more fun!

So is this…

…and this

We tried out falling petals too.

Then we moved around the hotel for a shooting session.

Do NOT Disturb!

More photos here!

Congratulations to Willy and Cheryl on their ROM Engagement!
Thank you for bearing with me during the shoot. Really glad you liked the pictures. So I guess the suffering nonsense I made you go through was worth it. ;D

After 21 months of static microsites, microsites and even more microsites, I will be moving on to the darker side of development.
I relish this opportunity to take on a role that requires competency in totally different skill sets. And even more, the challenge of constant change.
I’m definitely sticking around to witness my accelerated hair loss to something more stressful. More importantly, to see what I’m made of.

Right after what was essentially a quick look-see of Prambanan, we were whisked to Borobudur. Suffice to say, this ancient site is was magnificent to behold. Built in the 9th century, this Buddhist temple withstood the tests time and theft.

We were there at a time of a public holiday, which explains the huge crowds.

Yogyakarta is probably better known for the ancient temples or candis found in the region. Since I am at that word, I would share that I made quite a little boo-boo while in conversation with one of the hotel staff: I had pronounced candi as how an African might say “candy” only to be corrected subtly that it should be pronounced chan-di. So don’t anyhow-ly pronounce, yah?

After the accidental adventure at Mount Merapi, we opted for the more common attractions that draw tourists to Yogyakarta. First of which we visited is Prambanan, a Hindu temple built in the 9th century.

While it withstood the earthquake in 2006, some of the structures are at risk of collapsing and were sealed off.

We didn’t have a lot of time at Prambanan as we needed to rush to Borobudur in time to catch the sunset. But I managed to get a few quick shots of this ancient relic.

Proof of presence.

I was in Yogyakarta a few weekends back.

The girlfriend and I had planned the trip but not the itinerary. We had only a rough plan to visit the candi in the area, notably Borobudur and Prambanan. Everything else, we would decide when we find the local tour operators. We ended up on an unforgettable, accidental adventure from which I would dub the girlfriend, “Merapi Super Woman.”

We sort of squandered day one walking through Malioboro not buying any of the handicrafts on sale as we couldn’t think of any use for them. By chance, we ventured into an alley teeming with backpackers’ lodges and tour operators. The complex network of alleys within alleys beckoned adventurous spirits to weave through them and discover for themselves the secrets of Yogyakarta and Central Java, one tour operator at a time, one faded poster at a time, one quaint eatery at a time.

Night falls by 6pm in Yogyakarta. Not wanting to search aimlessly for tours to go for, We sought advice from an independent tour operator found in the alleys. He recommended that we could go up Mount Merapi, an active volcano to catch the beautiful sunrise. We took his word that it would be “a relatively easy 4-hour walk” the mountain and that a windbreaker would be sufficient to fend of the sub-ten degrees temperatures and signed up for the “guided walk.”

The “guided walk” would start off at night so that we could reach the summit in time for the sunrise. We returned to our hotel to rest till the tour operator came by to pick us up at 10pm. The journey took over 2 hours to reach Selo, a settlement at the foot of Mount Merapi.

The chill of the night took us by surprise and we quickly donned the rented windbreakers to fend off the cold. We were allowed to rest a little, but I just could not miss looking up to the skies above…

Full of stars

Before long, the guides led us on the “walk” which tuned out to be quite an expedition. The gradients were consistently steep, the trails were narrow and flanked by even steeper slopes, and did I mention that we were equipped with torchlights to walk in the dark?

So it wasn’t exactly a walk as the tour operator said. And it took us longer to reach the near the top as we struggled throughout the journey up. The group we were in split up and left us behind so that the rest could move up the mountain faster. To keep ourselves warm in the chill, we kept moving up slowly till reached the ridge line where we had a clear view of the day breaking at the horizon…

A rather surreal view, at least for this city dweller.

The sunrise soon came and I scrambled to set my camera up to automatically take pictures at regular intervals. My fingers were all numb from the cold and figured it would be a better idea to just leave it out in the open to do its automatic thing while I hide behind some rocks to shield myself from the wind chill…

Then I had a little fun shooting some portraits…

Soon after, everything got brighter. This was the ridge line we stayed at. Ahead was the clear trail up to the crater…

The view on the west…

The “little” mountains to the east…

Close up of the mountains to the west…

The visibly tired girlfriend with the view of the west…

And just when you thought going up Merapi was tough, the road down was worse. The girlfriend, though tired, was sporting enough to have this grumpy photo of hers taken…

By the time we reached the bottom where we started out, our thighs were sore and our toes, bruised. We were treated to a surprisingly pleasant breakfast of a banana pancake/crepe thingy that the rest house whipped up before we were sent back to Yogyakarta city. Along the way, the driver even made 2 brief stops for the shutterbugs to take a clear shot of Mount Merapi for remembrance’s sake…

So now the girlfriend and I can say that we were accidental mountaineers who have climbed an active volcano. Have you?

I was attending to matters of national importance (i.e. reservist) for the last 2 weeks and it was the best 2 weeks of this year.
The following is a quick run-down of activities.

1 Jun: In-process.
Met up with old and new camp-mates.
Visited the eMart for a shopping spree with 11B credits and returned with a backpack that’s more suited for travelling, very high-end earplugs and a very good LED torchlight.
Ended the day with an 8km route march.

2 Jun: Lecture and IPPT training.

3 Jun: Weapons training and IPPT.

4 Jun: TSR questionnaire and IMT.

5 & 6 Jun: Go for range.

8 Jun: Infantry Gunnery and Tactics Simulation

9 & 10 Jun: Field mission

11 Jun: Virtual Battle Simulation – like playing CounterStrike or Call of Duty.

12 Jun: Out-Process and Cohesion Dinner

13 Jun: IPPT

I’m already looking forward to the next reservist training. I liken it to an military-themed vacation. It makes me feel young again, because everybody behaves in a hilariously juvenile manner.
No I can’t blog about it because the details are classified.