Martina and Ray

Today was the first time I've met Martina and Ray as they were based in the US and they've only communicated with The Stage via emails. For me, the feeling is a bit strange as usually, I will meet a majority of my clients at least once or twice face to face or over the phone before the wedding day and I'm a bit worried that I don't have a grasp of what Martina and Ray are like before their wedding day!

As with most people from the States, it turned out Martina and Ray are both very friendly and very nice and of course....with very bright smiles!




Even their friends are great...as you can see one of Ray's brother performing the "teapot dance" routine!



Honestly, I have to say a big thank you to Martina and Ray, because if they didn't decide to take their ceremony at ocean park, it probably will take me another couple of years before I have a chance to go...that's because I probably can't go till my daughter is old enough...and not to mention I've probably lost 3 pounds by sweating under the midday sun for two hours kekeke...

And if it wasn't for this midday sun, I never would have guessed how easy going Martine and Ray were....as they did not complain a single word during the shoot!





It was very nice meeting Martina and Ray and sincerely wishes both of you a very happy married life back in the States!

Cookie and Alex

Cookie and Alex are good friends of mine and as with taking photos for friends...I'm always a bit worried, but luckily this time, it is a pre-wedding so if anything goes wrong, we can try it again later....

We started the day in the Northern Territory...as you can see...the sky was picture perfect!!!




After spending couple of hours in NT, we moved to Yau Ma Tei....



And yes...you've guessed it...then we went to Shek O hahah..so basically...we went from North to South in a single day!!! Eventhough the car ride was a bit longer than expected it was great fun since we joked and talked just like good friends does and I think the shoot went very very well!





The two photos above are my favorites for the day....but after taking these photos...i had a very very bad headache since it was sooooooooooooooooo windy!



The only thing that didn't went to plan was by the time we reach the beach, the sun was pretty much fully set (since we've had so much fun in the rock formations) but to my surprised, the photos were not that bad.


Don't know why...i couldn't stop myself from laughing everytime i see Alex's pose in the photo above hahaha...oh....not to mention Kaikai, our friend and our driver for the day!

Sandy and Sun

Sandy and Sun...what can I say? Reason being, on our way back home, Sandy already suggested and guessed what I was going to say...so in a way...Sandy and Sun know what I'm going to say! Rather saying the typical things again and again I probably will keep it short!

OK, in short, we've spent almost 6 hours in CU alone and honestly, if it wasn't for Sandy and Sun, I will never ever visit so many different places in CU and I was very very amazed how big the CU campus is...and having studied in Australia, you can imagine how big CU is in order to amaze me!




As Sandy and Sun both studied in CU, the theme of this pre-wedding was based around CU and they would like to take photos around the places where they've been during their time in UNI...and the uni canteen was one of them.










Sandy and Sun, hope both of you enjoyed the day like we do and all the best to your upcoming wedding la!!!

Amy and Eddie

This is a very special wedding since if I stuffs this up, I probably will sleep "standing upright" for the rest of my life as this is the wedding of my wife's very very good friend....aii....an additional problem is that I will have no excuses as they've allocated plenty of time to take photos....aii once again...

As with most of my life, I was very lucky again, Eddie and Amy is one of the easiest couple I've worked with since they are very playful and they never tried to hide their love for each other at all!




After all the "administrative" tasks were completed, we have three hours to spend on photo shoot and the places they've chosen are places that I've never heard of or haven't shoot at before....aiii once more....







As the day goes by, it got hotter and we've decided to go back to my place to take a rest, since I've always wanted to take photos around my place, I was able to persuade them to give it a try and I think the photos turned out alright.





Amy and Eddie, hope you like my photos if not...I will sleep upright ga la hahaha....congratulations on your wedding and wishes you happiness ever after!!

Joy and Jackal

This was the first official job after my "paternity" leave and to be quite honest, I was a bit worried at first but I was very fortunate to have Joy and Jackal as my "first" couple!



Joy is a very pretty and joyful bride (maybe that's how she got her name from), she loves to smile, loves her family and loves Jackal! Eventhough the day was not that hectic, my feet were still very sore the next morning, but it was all worth it as I have the chance to work with this terrific couple!









Since no outdoor shoot was scheduled during the day, we took some timeout in the afternoon and took some portraits in Jackal's clubhouse and the hotel lobby (very lucky to get a moment where no one is using the stairs!)

It was a great day and I think I was very fortunate to have Joy and Jackal as my "first" couple and it will be pretty hectic from now on!

Agnes and Ivan

Is being a while since I've attended a wedding as a guest rather than a photographer, and this time it is my "buddy's" wedding. I've met Ivan couple of years ago and I remembered the first time I've met him, I showed him our company's web-based system...and 5 years later we worked in the same team and he's my working "buddy", at that time, he taught me a lot and I was a bit disappointed when he decided to leave us.

Anyhow, we still keep in touch (thanks to skype and facebook) and hopefully will work with him again in the foreseeable future!







Ivan is signing his life away...his HAPPY LIFE!!




This is not the bestman...he's Ivan's father!!!


Of course, how can I not post the photo of my colleagues!

Agnes and Ivan, wish you all the best in your married life and can't wait to see "little Ivan" and/or "little Agnes" soon!!

Jay and Gordon

A beautiful bride, a humorous groom and a bunch of playful sisters are the best ingredients for a simple yet enjoyable wedding. As the couple will have their big banquet later in the year, today it was just the registration with close friends and relatives, the registration ceremony was short and sweet (honestly, this is all you need...). Jay and Gordon was very relaxed and they were able to enjoy every moments of it, also because of Gordon's humorous nature, the registration was filled with laughter.

Jay is a very beautiful bride, especially her eyes...






Eventhough the day was filled with rains and thunderstorms, we were very lucky to have around 30mins of outdoor portrait, and thanks to Tracy (the hotel event manager) we were able to take some quick shots in the pool area.




Remember I've mentioned a bunch of playful sisters? Here they are enjoying the "wet" grass heehee....sorry for the ones that I've made you sitting on the grass la...


Thank you to Alex and Cookie for referring this couple to me...hope they will like my photos and congratulations on your upcoming wedding la....kekekeke =)

WPHK Gathering

Tonight, WPHK (Wedding Photographers of Hong Kong) had our first official gathering, during dinner, all the wedding photographers attended shared their backgrounds, how they got into wedding photography as well as what they would like WPHK to achieve for its members in the industry.

It was an evening filled with laughters and sharing, personally...I have learnt so much from other wedding photographers where I will never ever meet if it wasn't for an association like WPHK!



WPHK's website: http://www.wphk.com.hk

The Stage needs your support!

Dear Clients,

Thank you very much for your continued supports for “The Stage”.

“The Stage” is delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted as one of the final contenders in the annual ESDlife Bridal Awards in the following categories:

Category 16 - 新人至愛婚紗攝影 – 最佳攝影 (香港)
Category 23 - 新人至愛新婚紗攝影
Category 26 - 新人至愛婚禮攝錄

If you believe “The Stage” should be the overall winner of these categories, please give us your support by voting us in the following link:

http://www.esdlife.com/campaign/bridalaward/2009/vote/vote_vote.asp

In order to complete the voting, you must vote all categories or simply select “不適用” for the categories that you might think is irrelevant.

Deadline is 22 July 2009 and your timely supports are very much appreciated.

According to the information listed on the ESDlife website, all successful voters will receive ESDlife coupon to the value of HK$30. Please check out the ESDlife website for further details.

Thank you for your support!
The Stage Limited

The Importance of Photo Albums

Many wedding photography packages in the market require their clients to pay an additional price for a designed photo album, however, at The Stage we not only give it away as a present to the newly wed couples (snapshot packages, please contact The Stage for the latest packages), it is also professionally designed according to our client's requirements, reason being, we treat our clients as individuals and we want to do our job to the best we can.

For myself, I believe photos have a much bigger impact if they are viewed within a professionally designed album than stand alone since it gives the viewer a greater sense of coverage in what have happened during a wedding or a pre-wedding shoot. All the albums created by The Stage are designed by a team of professional designers working for The Stage full time.

Keeping the designing phase within The Stage, it allow the photographers and designers to have much more interactions in communicating their ideas in order to produce the best output as the photographers can give the designers a first person view of what they want to express when taking a particular photo.

I'm very happy that Valerie and Marco gave me their recommendations to post some of their pre-wedding album pages up on my blog (please contact The Stage if you want to view the whole album), it was taken sometime last year in Sydney and I sincerely hope they like the designed album!

Please goto the following site for the rest of their shoot. Part 1 and Part 2

Also, I would like to say a big thank you to Nicky for his company during the two days of shooting!

For the latest wedding and pre-wedding packages, please visit The Stage's website or email info@the-stage.com.hk.

Nicole and Jerry (featuring May and Ivan!)

Today was hot, humid, stuffy and extremely bright and we stuck out in the midday sun for over three hours! Eventhough we only stayed in TST's "Red House" it was not a very comfortable experience especially for Nicole and Jerry!

Jerry is Ivan's cousin (friend of mine) and Ivan and his wife (May) also tagged along to help out during the day, if it wasn't for their help, I'm sure the three of us will be melted already.


Nicole and Jerry was a fun pair to work with (especially after they've eaten lunch) so the hot weather and bright sunlight didn't affect us from enjoying the day.



We've stayed in the shadows (but believe me..not much cooler) for most of the three hours since whenever we are out in the sun, Jerry will sweat like crazy...if you look closely...you can see Jerry's sweat (deliberately didn't remove it from the photos heehee...)



Eventhough it was hot, the couple still perform exceptionally well, even under the sun!


As you can see from their bright smiles, they certainly did enjoy the day!




As the sun was high up during midday...I took this chance to try out infrared photography...eventhough the photo didn't turned out as good as I expected it to be...but I think is worth trying again next time....

As May and Ivan was also here...we took a couple of photos while Nicole and Jerry was having lunch (yep...in their wedding outfit right in the middle of TST)





Hope all of you like the photos and thank you for making this extremely hot day goes a bit faster... =)

Clarice is two months old today la!

So happy that Clarice is two months old today!! She's a very happy child and sincerely hope that she will remain this way for the whole of her life and more importantly bring the same happiness to the people around her!