shutterbutter.com

Our good friend from our undergraduate days has graduated successfully, and now we have to address him as Dr. JW Chai.

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to him, a fitting and deserving recognition for his years of labour and hard work.

Somehow he obtained quite a few invitation cards, so a small group of us manage to attend the convocation ceremony along with his family members.

We arrived early in anticipation of the crowd but the situation was alright. The first day is only limited to Ph.D graduates, and there are not many of them per year.

1. Members of the Navy Palapes drilling before the U.M. Chancellor (HRH Sultan of Perak) arrives.

2. We purchased a bouquet of sunflowers, and added the customary toy bear that resembles a graduate.

3. Dr. JW Chai received his scroll from the Chancellor. The pink scarf indicates the colour of the Faculty of Medicine.

No hand shakes or palace gestures, just a simple bow before accepting the scroll.

4.Group photo with all the fresh Ph. Ds.

The official photographers were at a distance on an upper level of the hall.

I wonder how did they manage to fit everyone’s face and still be recognisable.

Perhaps it’s time for medium format and print out in super size dimension.

5.

6. Group photo with family and fellow laboratory mates. It’s a tradition to have the UM logo and date stamp as backdrop in every convocation events.

Sharing some old videos that I discovered recently (hmm…. this statement sounds odd).

1. A costly affair when your gears are unbalanced and have a nasty fall.

That photographer couldn’t even manage to get up instantenously.

2. An embarrasing moment for a wedding photographer. May have potentially damaged his memory card.

He should have his assistant behind him on the look out.

My ex-student approached me a week before the actual date to photograph his cousin’s wedding. I met the couples on the actual day of wedding, a less than ideal situation as I felt awkward when approaching the bride for the first time.

1. Arrived early and waited for the make-up artist to put on the final touches.

2. Meanwhile, another make-up artist prepared the flower-girl.

3.

4. Arrival of the groom and his party.

5. Obstructed by the in-laws.

6.

7.

8. I particularly like this part onwards.

This room has wide windows with plenty of directional lights, thus creating a sunny bright environment.

9.

10. A spontaneous pose by the couple, probably an experience from their studio shots.

I’m not complaining, in fact it worked very well and natural.

11.

12. Laughter during tea ceremony. A large ang pow helps too.

13. Making an entrance. The bride was too concern about her long flowy evening gown, fearing she may miss her steps.

A peculiar tradition (perhaps it was the restaurant’s suggestion) that I noted was that the bride’s parents were following closely behind the couple. Usually, both parents would be seated at the main dining table.

14. Joy with each toast.

15.

Huey Cing is one of my closest house-mates when we were renting a linked house during our uni days. As most of my house-mates are girls and they were living on the upper floors, I hardly get to know or talk to them.

I only got to know Huey Cing better when all the house-mates held a meeting to expel a certain house-mate, which happened to be Huey Cing’s good friend. Huey Cing had to be our mediator. Anyway, that particular house-mate had allowed her parasitic boyfriend to live-in together without contributing to utilities.

When Huey Cing was working as an editor for a nearby newspaper, we used to have early morning updates on current events over cups of coffee. I know she’s a neat freak and cockroaches are her mortal enemies. We somewhat lost contact after terminating our rental until one day she approached me to contribute photographs for her company’s project on Chinese New Villages (Tanjung Sepat and Sungai Ruan). It was then that I was introduced to Kok Fai.

A few months ago, Huey Cing approached me to be her photographer on her registration of marriage and wedding day. It was a great honour to me, and I hope to deliver my best.

1. The bouquet of flower with pink roses, Huey Cing’s favourite.

2. The registration was at Thean Hou temple. When we had arrived, there was a group of curious Middle Eastern tourists who were intrigued after seeing a few Chinese couples dressed in their best. A small group of the tourist approached us for a photo-season, certainly to be shared with their fellow countrymen back at home.

3. We readied our gears for our portraiture session. It was a narrow window of opportunity before their parents arrived. It was also quite challenging to avoid the horde of tourists that would otherwise be part the pictures’ background.

I feel that we ought to have arrived way earlier so that we have more time and the session could be done in a calmer and more relaxed manner. Lesson learnt.

4. I must thank my good friend (Zybisko14) for helping out.

He was shooting from the temple grounds, and I was with the couple to direct the poses.

5.

6. This is my most favourite shot of the session. The expression is very natural.

7.

8.

9. After the brief photography session, the family members arrived and we promptly proceeded first to the Commissioner of Oath’s office and then the marriage registration hall.

10. It was at this point when we realised Huey Cing had forgotten to bring along an important document.

Here, she was trying to hush the Registrar for leniency, and she promised to deliver that document afterwards, on the very same day.

11. The swearing process.

12. Followed by exchange of rings.

We then had our lunch at Marco Polo Restaurant. Again, another incident occurred. Half way to the restaurant, we realised that I had left Huey Cing’s handbag at the Registrar’s office. The couple had to head back to Thean Hou temple, and luckily the handbag was retrieved.

Phew! What a day! 

While waiting for my friend to get ready for her registration of marriage, I grabbed some shots of her little niece and newphew.

1. A standard grumpy expression, pouting her bottom lip upwards.

In fact this was her natural state, often for several minutes when we pointed our cameras at her.

It was still early in the morning, so she was still in her pyjamas.

2. A disinterested look, nonchalant to whatever we were doing.

3. And finally after a long while, a bright smile from her.

Yeah, she was still holding her muffin.

4. Boy with toy.

The next morning, it was just a simple tea ceremony. The couple had earlier held a church wedding in Puchong, and as such the tea ceremony was a formality to fulfill Chinese wedding traditions.

However, I’m sharing only a snippet of the photo collection as the majority of them were of the documentary type and personal to the couple.

1. From yesterday’s cupcake tower.

2. The bride with her bridesmaids.

3.

4. After the tea ceremony had ended, we continued with some personal shots.

Time to be creative and apply what I learnt from a wedding workshop that I had previously attended.

5.

6.

7.

Related link:

1. Sneak Pic: Tim & Jayne by Through Our Eyes

2. Our favourites from Tim & Jayne by Through Our Eyes

Lending a hand to a friend, I covered a dinner event and help out photographing the actual traditional Chinese wedding aka tea ceremony the very next morning.

The house function was held in Eng Ann, Klang. And the part being a local is that I met a lot of guests that have known me from somewhere else. Most were surprised to see me photographing and covering an event, as they have thought I held a different permanent day job. Oh well!  

1.

2.

3.

4. I’m impressed with the low-light capability of my aging D300. I had to shoot without flash in order to avoid red colour cast from the red tent, so I boost up my ISO levels.

5.

6.

Got an invitation to help out in an interesting pre-wedding organised by Through Our Eyes.

The couple had approached my friend and requested to have a photography session at University Malaya, the place where they both first met each other. How sweet.  

We shot around the campus, particularly the Faculty of Computer Sciences and Information. Although the couple had already obtained prior permission from the university authority, it was still a bit of a challenge to shoot as most lecture halls and computer laboratories were locked (it was a Saturday). To further compound that, it was a drizzling later in the morning and a particular security guard was not that co-operative.

Here are some shots to share:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. The following were shot at the herbarium at Rimba Ilmu.

9.

Related link:

1. Favourites from Meng Han & Woon Yen by Through Our Eyes

Passion flower, quite an amazing flower with unique pattern from a climbing vine.

1.

2.

I rather be somewhere deep within our lush Malaysian tropical rainforest, all alone (with enough food supplies) to shoot Nature.

I badly need some peace and tranquillity away from humanity, which at times I disdain.

1.

2. The small creek running along one of the main route of Gasing Hill, Petaling Jaya.