Recently Syahrin and I was in Jakarta for few days. We decided to get away from the wedding scene for a while. I believe to be a good photographer you have to master all aspects of photography not just to concentrate on a single thing, in other way you have to be versatile.

I always keen into photojournalism. I believe the best way to describe photojournalism is that a picture speaks a thousand word. Most of the photos found in photojournalism tell us a lot of stories and help us to remember and reminisce the events giving joy, grief and inspires us in many ways for the rest of our lives.

Thus, I decided to give it a try at photojournalism. Coincidently while I was in Jakarta, Syahrin and I got a tip off that there will be a demonstration against Israeli aggression. So we did not waste our time, strap our bag and get going to the front of President Palace opposite of Monument Nasional in Jakarta.

About 100 members of Muslim organization known as hizbut-tahrir consist of men,women and kids staged a rally in front of the President Palace, Jakarta, on Friday to protest Israel’s recent air strikes in Gaza. The organisation also called for troops to be sent from Indonesia to Palestine, and urged the government to submit strong protest against Israel and its allies.

What surprised me was that they were high numbers of children involved in the protest.  So here are few of the shots of the rally  in black and white. I need more practice on these photojournalism.

Women holding placards of protest against Israeli aggression.

Youth covering up their face from the official at the protest.

Leader of the Hizbut-Tahrir organizations speaking to the crowd.

A little girl at the protest.

Flags bearer at the protest.

Children bearing the placards.

Protestors chanting their hatred against the Israeli aggression.

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I was in Putrajaya for a wonderful couple at Putrajaya Lake Club. The event was a casual evening dinner for their colleagues. Aliah & Anas are known for their warmth and kindness. They held a special place in my heart and the relationship had blossomed to more than just a client. 

Thanks to Anas & Aliah for being a wonderful client and friend. Here are few of the features from the day. Savor!

Aliah getting ready for the evening.

Its really easy to photograph someone who’s used to get her pictures taken. I guess the phrase, practice makes it easy is true after all.

Boo!!..(Sorry Aliah, i had to post this cause its funny.)

Aliah & Anas with their friends and Aliah’s brother and sister.

 View of the dinner setting. (Picture taken by Hilmi)

Aliah’s fellow TKC (Tunku Kursiah College) friends.

Anas and his close friends with their so called macho-ness pose.

Clearly it was an enjoyable event that they insist on jumping.

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Hey readers, its been a while that I did not update this blog. I guess that for the past few months, I’ve been bombarded with tons of work, not to include the internal and external personal circumstances hehehe…

By the way,since this is my first post for 2009. I’m gonna leave you with few pictures of Aliah getting ready for her casual wedding dinner at Putrajaya. Details of her special events and more pictures will be uploaded in the next post. 

So at the mean time, sit back, relax and savor.

Aliah looking beautifull as usual with Anas in the background.

Details of her dress for the evening.

Love the eye contact.

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One year ago, if anyone had asked me if I shoot wedding photos, I would answer, “Never”. It was June and I just came back from the States - all I see around me were wedding photographers wanna-be; here I’m referring to those who viewed wedding photography as fast-track to easy money. Hence, I noticed from blogs (which I shall not mention) of photographers, barely using the camera for a month, offering wedding packages to the public - how easy it seems! 

While I still have my reserves for this group of wanna-be, I have taken my first step into wedding photography last weekend (You know how people say never say never, right?). Coming from a background of portraits and controlled lighting, I was honestly terrified by the need of quick actions, uncontrolled situations and working among a mass of people. Thank god I was just the trainee this time and thank god it was just the reception!

So, came Sunday morning, we (me, Mado and Kabir) all headed to TTDI thinking that we were late - being me, I have my habits of sleeping late every night and that day was no exception. Upon arriving, I was pleased to find out that we were ahead of time as the make-up artist has not even arrived. While waiting, I managed to get some tips from Kabir on the settings I should stick to while being indoors and outdoors. Mado on the other hand, was MIA - or perhaps he was capturing the details of the dining tables? Anyway, the make-up artist walked in at about 11am - just nice considering the reception was to start at 1pm. The next 2 hours were spent in the bride’s room watching her getting a total makeover. It’s always a pleasure watching the whole process; especially when you already have a bestfriend who’s a make-up artist as well and you know exactly how its suppose to be done. I got a few shots but most of the time I was just noting on her techniques. haha….  

The rest of the day was rather normal for a malay wedding. You have the kompang to accompany the arrival of the couple, you have the merenjis session for the family, you have the makan-makan session, you have the guest greeting moments and finally you have the group portraits with the family. All the prerequisites of a Malay wedding were pretty much fulfilled - it was rather relaxed I have to say, or I should say I was rather relaxed because I was going for portraits shots than candid shots and thus I was taking my time standing in one spot and composing my pictures. (This somehow led to a complaint by Kabir that almost all my shots were portraits. Err… Oops. Can’t escape my roots yet now, can I?)

We finished off the day with a quick round of outdoor portraitures as the sun was unforgivable. At this point it was 4pm and all I could think of was food and water. I think I should have one of those belts where you actually can place lens and a water bottle, and erm, perhaps a banana too, for instant hunger fix.

As to end this post, I’ll leave you with two of my favorite shots from the wedding. 

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Bonjour là lecteurs,

Every now and then we do have clients from abroad, we are blessed and honored at the same time because our work is not just appreciated locally but also from abroad.

It was a sleepy Saturday morning, Syahrin and I were scheduled to shoot a lovely couple Manuel & Hana. Manuel is from France, Paris specifically and Hana is a bubbly and interesting girl from Selangor.

Before we made our way, we had to join Manuel’s entourage from France at their Novotel Hotel.  For a moment, I thought its just an ordinary breakfast at their coffee house. Came to our surprise that we were invited to the 24th floor which is the executive floor, for our breakfast. It is indeed a nice treat by the guys for the breakfast.  Merci~

Syahrin having a serious conversation with a heavy English-French accent. hehe

Claire and Vigina

Eric in our traditional Baju Melayu

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Monday, August 11, 2008

A photographer was found unconscious on the floor as he was covering an event in Petaling Jaya.

Its a rather busy weekend for all of us. I was badly affected by it till I’m down with a terrible flu and currently still nursing myself to get back on feet as this coming weekend is another worn-out weekend. But again I have no complaints or whatsoever because I enjoy it and it does give me a personal satisfaction.

I came across a rather interesting fact about being a wedding photographer, something that you have to develop and learn it by yourself. One of it, is that you have to be good in your sense of directions. There are couple of times when it took me like an hour to get to the event even though by right it should only take 15 minutes to get there hehe..

Another thing, is being polite. Most of the time you are requested by the client to dine after the ceremony; and often, you are too tired that you don’t have appetite. Declining would be rude, so I guess you just have to bare with it

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8.08.2008 is regarded unequivocally as the most significant date for this year. Not just it is regarded as an auspicious date for the Chinese, even people from every corner of the continents is eager for this date, as it marks the start of Olympics, a gathering of young people who share the same goal and the same enthusiasm for sport. As well as the finest athletes in the world compete against each other and it is only held every 4 years once, a tradition back track to the origin of Greek Mythological.

This date also bring a meaningful value to the wedding industry. Most of the couples particularly waited for this date to celebrate one of the most special moment in their life. In a way it would help the male tremendously, lets say 30 years down the road, Im sure they still can remember the date they got married and they wont forget their anniversary (even though once a while they do hehe).  

One thing for sure, even the TWD certainly can’t run from this so called ‘HOT DATE’.  All of us will be gearing up and ready to seize our clients special day of their life. We will be covering as far as Kuala Selangor and as near as Petaling Jaya hehehe..

To all our clients who has put faith in us we thank them. For the TWD members, boys and girls switch on your camera, ready and start clicking!!

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Juani Shamsul or better known by us as Juju was involved in a hit and run accident. The accident occurred when Juju, on her foot, was struck by a motorcycle as she was trying to cross the road. The motorcyclist fled away from the scene of the accident immediately.

I believed she ruptured her knee tendon and she will need to take a rest around 3 months.  It is certainly sad to learned that she will not be joining us to cover our hectic wedding schedule plan in the coming months. 

Juju, get well soon as you rest and heal, know that you are thought of warmly and wished a quick recovery.

Can’t wait for you to join us back and from the rest of the TWD members, WE MISS YOU!!

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Hey! it’s one of the TWD photographers…..

Eleena, one of our team members was selected by KLue magazine for a Nike sponsored photo-shoot.

Her photos is featured in the August issue.  It does bring us pride and joy to us to see one of our members artwork is appreciated by the mass media. CONGRATULATIONS Eleena!!

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Azah..beautiful, personal and cheerful bride while Omar an easygoing, relaxed and casual groom, just as their solemnization day. Coverage of their solemnization ceremony will be posted imminently.

I love her flower bouquet

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