The good, bad and ugly of wedding photography

*Phew!* It's been a long weekend, covering Geoffrey and Joyce's wedding as an official wedding videographer (Elaine did the videography for them while in Sibu). The good news (for me) is that they seem to like the videos which we put together just in time for their wedding dinner, which always feels nice.

For the wedding, Geoff actually bought a brand new Sony HDR-SR12 AVCHD camcorder - so i could use it to shoot his wedding and so he can take it along for his honeymoon after. It's actually a pretty good camcorder, though a little slow to start up and requiring a wide-angle conversion lens to make it useful for event videography.

The Sony HDR-SR12: Pretty good...

Anyway, I've learnt a few things from this experience:

THE GOOD:
1. It's actually FASTER to deal with AVCHD, hard disk-based camcorders than old-fashioned DV camcorders (provided you've got a powerful Mac and the correct software). With my own tape-based DV camcorder, i need to stream the entire tape onto my Mac before I can start editing. So if i've shot two hours of video, that's TWO hours of waiting for the video to transfer onto my Mac.

But on a hard disk-based AVCHD camcorder, i only need to select the clips i want and my Mac will transfer the files, transcoding them into an editable format - in this case, about an hour of video takes and hour to transcode, which sounds the same as a DV camcorder but the difference is that i transfer ONLY what i want.

2. Apple iMovie '08 isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. If you didn't know, Apple did the unthinkable in 2007 by throwing out its very popular iMovie HD video editing software, and replaced it with iMovie '08, which had a completely different user interface and removed a lot of core features.

Anyway, apart from the absence of special effects such as slow-motion or soft-focus filters, iMovie '08 is pretty good. For starters, it's bloody fast. All text titles, colour correction and transitions are applied in real time, which is great because you don't have to wait for it to render before you can view the results.

And if you're upset about the lack of a traditional video timeline, don't be - the new system is far quicker for scanning through hours of video and cutting things into the correct sequence. I've never cut together a video faster than this, and I certainly didn't expect HD video editing to be this quick.

The only other thing that bothers me is the loss of finer audio level controls and the hack-ish manner to get multiple titles appearing on the same video clip. Other than that, it's brilliant.

THE BAD
3. Videography is a lot more tiring than photography, simply because you have to hold the camera up for a lot longer, and you have to plan in advance whether you've got enough battery power left, whether you want the camera mounted on a tripod and whether you should be at spot A or spot B to get a better shot.

The difference to normal photography is that you can't run to a new spot, take a shot, and run back - you need to spend at least five seconds at a spot to have useable footage, anything shorter may be too abrupt or may not leave you enough room to edit fades, wipes or to fill in gaps in your video.

Also, you sometimes cannot afford to stop filming because you may miss something - which is a problem if you've mounted the camera on a tripod and suddenly have to move the camera while recording.

An obvious solution would be to simply employ another videographer, but that isn't always a good idea because video camcorders are very expensive (the Sony HDR-SR12 i was using costs about RM5000, not including spare batteries and wide-angle lens converters), and that you may end up with TWICE the amount of video to go through. And videos take up far more space on your computer than JPEG photos.

The other problem is that, with two videographers, you're already adding to the array of photographers during an event, which can be annoying to people attending the event, or even your subjects (especially at weddings). And you'll inevitably get in the way of one another, which nicely brings me to my next point:

THE UGLY
4. Digital photography seems to have spawned a new species of subhumans - the unofficial wedding photographer. While I definitely condone friends and family taking photos of the bridal couple during a wedding, 'just in case' the official photographers don't get a shot, anybody who is not an official photographer / videographer must abide by one golden rule:

Never, EVER, get in the way of the official photographers. Take this dude in the red shirt for example:

"Look at me! I'm hogging all the best spots"

This particular idiot was in may way most of the time. Now, I've taken photos at loads of events before (what, being a former journalist and all), and I usually ended up in situations where there are plenty of photographers from different publications, and only one good angle to take a shot. The common thing to do here would be to take a shot at that spot, and then vacate it immediately so that another photographer has a chance. It's common courtesy.

At Geoff's wedding, the two hired official photographers were very courteous to me (the lone videographer) and I'd like to think I got out of their way as much as I could. After all, it's not a competition - we're trying to get shots that Geoff and Joyce would like. I understood that if i didn't give room to the photographer, the wedding couple would not get a shot from that particular angle. And the official photographers understood that, if they didn't give me room, nobody else would get the video footage at that particular angle either. It's a give-and-take situation and we all try to help each other out.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the idiot in the red shirt was HOGGING the good spots. He'd stand there, get a shot and then REVIEW HIS PHOTOS while taking up that precious spot, instead of getting out of the way. There were already TWO official photographers covering the action, the wedding couple certainly didn't need another photographer shooting photos that the professionals would have gotten anyway.

What's worse was that he was taking up precious space when the bridal couple was exchanging vows, rings and lifting the veil. I already had my camcorder mounted on a tripod, so I could stretch it over the two official photographers and film the couple without getting in their way (sort of like a robotic arm).

And because the red-shirted idiot was in my way, i couldn't lower my camcorder to the intended height to shoot the video. This was the result:

This is what happens when overly helpful photographer friends get in the way of a videographer

Well, this wouldn't be a problem if there was another videographer at the wedding... BUT WAIT, I WAS the only videographer at the wedding. So what does it mean? Well, Geoffrey and Joyce have about 5 extra photos of him lifting her veil, but no VIDEO of it. Thanks a lot, you red-shirted idiot - i'm sure the wedding couple would love to thank you for that.

And here's another example of his stupidity...

Take note of the three photographers in front of the bridal couple - only the one on the far right is an official photographer

Look, there is only one angle to shoot a bridal recessional, and that's from the front of the couple as they are walking out. The red-shirted fool decided to stand next to the official photographer and shoot the same shot from the same angle. WHY THE HELL FOR??? It's not like his photos are going to be any better than the official ones - they're from the same bloody angle!!!

Why the hell hog more space? As a result, I had to move BEHIND them (which isn't so bad), and the official photographer could not get a photo from the middle of the aisle either, since he was pushed to the right by that idiot.

I'll tell you why the red-shirted idiot did that. If he's anything like most gear-heads these days (me included), it because he just bought himself a DSLR and wants to "try out" wedding photography since it's the trendy thing to do these days and since digital photography itself is a cool new hobby.

"I know... I'll EXPERIMENT during Geoffrey and Joyce's wedding!!! That way, I'll get to hone my wedding photography skills! And then, I'll get to post up all the photos on Facebook and people will be rushing to tell me what a great photographer i am," thought the red-shirted idiot.

Selfish bastard...

Car pix!

I've just updated my Flickr album with more photos! Yay! This time, it's a bunch of car photos I've taken. Hope you like it.



I've got a ton of other photos but I've yet to sort them out. Hopefully, I'll find time to upload them as well. Click here to see the album.

Singapore Zoo! (Round Three)

I love Singapore Zoo. It's one of the few places I can visit several times and still look forward to each trip - mostly because of the fantastic photographic opportunities it presents.

Me with little sis no.2

Unlike most other zoos, the enclosures in Singapore Zoo are very photographer-friendly and allow you to get real close to the animals. Plus, it's got fantastic facilities and very helpful staff.

I like helpful staff.

I also like tigers, but I've shot a few hundred pictures of them already (see previous posts) so I'll spare you from more tiger pictures. So without further ado, I present to you the non-feline animals of Singapore Zoo


Cottontop Tamarin

Many thanks to Kit for telling me what this is (there weren't any signs at the zoo). The Cottontop Tamarin is a small (at most 20cm tall and less than 0.5kg) primate found in the jungles of South America. It's also got a rather cool haircut, which can be puffed up to make it appear bigger when threatened. It eats mostly insects, fruits, buds and small lizards.

Unfortunately, the Cottontop Tamarin is currently an endangered species, initially because they were exported for scientific experiments, though the primary cause now is deforestation (Kill the forest and kill its inhabitants).


Cotton-Eared Marmoset
Another small primate, the Cotton-Eared Marmoset is also found in South America. But unlike the Cottontop Tamarin, it seems to be doing fine, which is strange when you consider how it's the same size and shares the same habitat and diet.

The only difference is that the Cotton-Eared Marmoset is found in Brazil, which brought us wonderful stuff like coffee, Ronaldinho and Ayrton Senna. So yes, Brazil is a great country.

In contrast, the poor Cottontop Tamarind is found in Colombia, which brought us drug lords and Juan Pablo Montoya. Yes, it's doomed...


Giraffe
This is a Giraffe. It is tall (up to 18ft), does everything standing (even sleeping), has the same number of bones in its neck as a human (that's seven, if you're wondering) and has no voice. And, a single kick from a giraffe can kill a man. Yes, this is a giraffe. Yes it is.


Jackass Penguin
Whoever gave the Jackass Penguin its name obviously had a lot of fun. It's a medium-sized penguin (grows slightly over 2ft tall) found off the southern coast of Africa. They are currently a vulnerable species because of pollution, changes to their habitat and because their eggs taste damn good. Apparently. They normally live for up to 10 years, although some specimens have been known to live for up to 40 years in controlled environments (i.e. in an aquarium with optimum space, temperatures, diets and loads of stupid children making silly faces at them).


Common Green Iguana
It's an iguana! And it's bloody ugly. Well, not sure what else to say, really. I don't particularly like lizards - they give me the creeps...


Jaguar
Often confused with leopards (wait... these are jaguars, right?), jaguars are big cats with spots all over their bodies, though they sometimes have very dark fur instead. Found only in South America, jaguars are very similar to tigers in that they're solitary animals, live in dense jungles and actually like swimming (just try dipping your cat into a tub of water...). Their method of attack is damn cool, though - because they have much stronger jaws than most other animals, they are able to bite right through the skulls of its prey, stabbing their brains to death until they die.


Striped Ass
This is the backside of a zebra, normally found on its posterior (e.g. the opposite end to the one with eyes, a mouth, a pair of nostrils and long, goofy looking ears). It also isn't a very good place to stand for at least three very good reasons.


Cannibalism
Here, we see an orange-coloured bird eating another orange-coloured bird of the same species. Which is actually rather good for the bird on the left because its usual diet of fruits, seeds and insects is rubbish. Just be wary if one of these little buggers land on your shoulders - they could lop off your head in a single peck. Honest.

A tiger having lunch

On my latest trip to Singapore Zoo last week, I managed to shoot the white tigers again ('shoot' as in 'click', not 'bang!'). This time, I caught them during feeding time, which is probably the best time since they're not just sitting around like housecats.

*yawn!*

At 2:45pm, some guy with a bucket came to chuck some fresh meat into the tigers' enclosure. This is a step-by-step guide on how to eat lunch (if you're a tiger):

Step 1: Wash your hands before eating. Just in case you recently stepped on shit or something.

Step 2: Patiently wait for the meat to come flying towards you and...

*CHOMP!*

*munch!* *munch!*

Erm... yes, that how a tiger eats.

I'll post some non-feline shots from the zoo soon. Yes.

Sliding tofu sellers...

In an rather refreshing turn of events, I ended up at a race track last night, watching some people whose cars seemed to be facing the wrong direction whenever they entered a corner:

"Look! It's that guy from Initial D!!!"

The starting grid. It's a grid. Cars start on it. Yes, they do.

Yup, it was a drifting event. Organised by Angle D5, it's a Saturday night event held at the PLUS speedway near the USJ toll plaza. We discovered it by accident, though - it was near Warren's house and we can hear the noise at the track from there. So, we decided to have a look.

That's me

Some old Toyota hatchback with a helluva good drifter behind the wheel...

What struck me about the event was the variety in the types of cars used - there were both brand new cars as well as crummy old 1970s Japanese sedans (and most of the better drifters seem to prefer the latter). The audience was pretty diverse too, with Malays, Chinese and Indians freely mixing together, both youngsters and even entire families with baby prams and stuff...

A Skyline R33 - presumably, the owner is affluent enough to risk pranging it.

"Oi! Why got traffic jam???"

An old-ish Skyline R32. Looks completely shagged

We spent about 2 hours looking at these cars go round and round the track, laying about a few tonnes of rubber into it. It seemed fairly well-organised too - with bilingual deejays, track marshalls, ambulances on standby and pretty girls with ultra-tight tops prancing around the main entrance.

Of course, after you pay the RM5 entrance fee, you'll walk in only to find that there aren't anymore big-breasted women inside (apart from some visitors, of course). Darn.

A Nissan Skyline R32 and a Nissan 180SX - crummy old cars, but excellent for drifting!

A participant from Singapore. Can't wait to see his tow-truck bill...

And there you have it. Apparently, they've got another event on Merdeka eve, which - coincidentally - is exactly a year since I've started blogging. I think I'll be there... ^_^

Belum Temenggor National Park

Holy Cow...


Didn't realise how busy I've been - haven't updated this blog for over half a month! And to make matters worse, I've not even finished uploading all my Japan trip photos and I've already gone on another two.

This is the first one.

It was a trip organised by Sony Malaysia, Click! magazine, the Malaysia Nature Society and the education ministry. I won't go into details, but let's just say it's a rare opportunity.

Temengggor Lake

Temenggor Lake is an artificial lake created after the Temenggor dam was erected in the late 1970's, flooding the area with water from various rivers in Perak. This resulted in a huge lake that's over 100km square, over a hundred tiny 'new' islands, the destruction of countless flora (such as the raffelsia) and the displacement of people and animals.

An ex-tree poking out of the water.

The good news, though, is that the whole area is now a protected forest reserve. Which is good because there are a countless number of animal and plant species - some of which are native only to Temenggor forest. Such as one particular species of Malayan tiger, of which the exact name has eluded me.

There are an estimated 600 tigers left in peninsular Malaysia, compared to over 3,000 in the 1950s. With conservation efforts in place, it is hoped that the Malayan Tiger population will grow.

Me and Calvin Goh directly above the former Kampung Temenggor. (Pic courtesy of Mr. Allan from Click!)

The local guides claim that you can take a dive into the lake and see the old buildings - mosques, houses and schools - of Temenggor village, one of the villages and settlements that were flooded by the lake.

Of particular interest are the Orang Asli (natives) in the area, who had to adapt to island life all of the sudden.

Me at a Temiang Orang Asli settlement

The Orang Asli here are of the Temiang race. I don't know much about them, other than the fact that they didn't seem very pleased to see us - mostly because we forgot to bring gifts.

It's not that they're materialistic or anything - rather, it's a custom to bring gifts when visiting someone. So yes, we were being rather rude, which prompted some people in the group to sacrifice boxes of cigarettes, sweets and some money.

Middle-aged orang asli woman

The Orang Asli have really beautiful facial features, even with age.

Tough-looking hunter taking a break from polishing his blowpipe. Ok... that sounds wrong

If this dude looks strong, it's because he is. He claims to habitually hunt all manner of wildlife for food and he can hit a target over 240 feet away with his blowpipe. So no, he's not the sort of person you'd want to piss off. Ever.

The wall of an orang asli house. It's made of something.

View of the islands from the lake. That's haze, by the way...


The trip to the settlement was part of a tour of the lake, which offered a fantastic view. Malaysia is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world - it's a shame most of us don't bother looking.


Pulau Pendidikan - a fairly long drop if you miss a step. The living quarters are at the top of this cliff.


We stayed at one of the many islands - Pulau Pendidikan. It's basically a facility made by the government to conduct talks and to educate the public on wildlife conservation. Nothing much to shout about, although the cook is fantastic - he makes some of the best grilled fish and mutton I've ever tasted!

Sunset at the jetty

The view here is fantastic, although the sunset on the day before was even better - looking just like the rising sun of Japan. Problem is, I missed it - walked down to the jetty without my camera. It would've taken 5 minutes to hike up the hill again, retrieve my camera and get back down, and the sunset would've been over by then. At least I saw it with my own eyes, which is the whole point, really... :)

Jungle ants/termites carrying bits of wood/stones to some other location. No, I haven't got a clue what they're doing.

While Temenggor is literally packed with all manner of exotic wildlife, Pulau Pendidikan itself is relatively fauna free. It's a small island, so there's no way an elephant or tiger would survive, although there are flying foxes, gibbons and ants.

Dead photographers: buoyant

Generally, I had a great time - thanks to the fantastic company of the Click! guys. It's always nice to spend some time with like-minded people who share a common hobby.

For more information about Belum Temenggor:

Link to Belum Tours

Blast from the past

Been moping around the house all weekend and decided to look at all the random stuff I've collected on my computers over the past few years. Ahh... the nostalgia.

Came across a whole bunch of old photographs. These are all from a trip I made to Ireland in 2000 while I was still studying in the UK. They were all taken with my old Canon AE-1 film camera and scanned on someone's then state-of-the-art flatbed scanner.

A seagull!!! Bear in mind I was doing this with a manual-focus camera...

Me on the boat to Ireland. It can get a little drafty.

A self portrait - can't remember where it was taken, though.

That's Dublin at night. The dude on the left is Joshua - haven't seen him in like 13 million years...

No, these pics aren't really anything to shout about. I have been very much into photography for most of my life but I only really started to get serious when digital cameras popped up.

What's particularly sad is that most of the 'creative' pictures I've taken while using film were rubbish, thanks to my rather poor understanding of dynamic range and lighting back then.

In the past four years since I first picked up a digital camera, I've found my technique and knowledge has improved by leaps and bounds. All because I've been able to experiment without having to waste loads of film.

Now the funny thing is, I'm suddenly finding it quite tempting to go out and shoot in film one of these days - just for the sheer hell of it and to see if I can get the sort of results I'm getting these days with digital photography. I wonder if the old AE-1 still works...

This is Japan...

Ah, Tokyo. Unlike my previous trip to Japan, I actually had a day to walk around on my own this time.

Basically I visited a shrine, went shopping for camera stuff at Shinjuku, ate some cheap udon, returned to the hotel, went to another shrine, went back to Shinjuku for more shopping and ate more cheap udon (at the same restaurant, no less).

Yes, it was a blast. Well, sort of. The problem was that it was raining every day I was there - and the sky was always white/dark gray, which meant it was hard to get some nice photographs. Plus, it's really hard holding an umbrella in the rain while trying to operate a Nikon D70.

Here are some pictures to tell the tale (in chronological order, of course).

This is the entrance to the Meiji Shrine

Started off the day at the Meiji Shrine with some Singaporean journalists. Unfortunately, I was the "tour guide" and got everyone to get off on the wrong station (which was about 5km away). Eventually we got to this gate (via taxi), which is about half a km to the shrine itself...

The long gravel pathways surrounding the Meiji shrine are covered by big, beautiful trees. It feels magical, especially since it was rather misty that day.

A Shinto priest at the Meiji shrine

The Meiji shrine is quite popular with tourists, as evident on these prayer blocks - notice the number of prayers in English.

Me standing in front of the Meiji shrine

After that, I said goodbye to the Singaporean journalists and PR lady (since they had to fly home early) and I headed for Shinjuku (otherwise known as "that place in Tokyo where you buy cameras... and Japanese porn")

I made it a point to find a whole bunch of camera accessories that I couldn't find in Malaysia. Not that they're expensive or anything - they're just not imported into the country. Plus, it's kinda like an RPG, wandering around the labyrinth of stores and alleys of Shinjuku looking for obscure stuff for my camera.

I tried this place first:
Bic Camera - a super huge electronics store in Shinjuku with shitloads of stuff. You can spend hours there. They even had MacBooks on sale the day after it was launched in the USA!

Note: And just to clear up some confusion, some major electronics chains in Japan tend to have names ending with the word 'Camera' even though they sell other stuff like PCs, videogames, toys, televisions, home appliances and so on.

Here, I got myself a new ultra-portable tripod (you can never have too many tripods...):
A Velbon P-Max. Weighs only 800g and costs about RM180 (40% off). It's small, but fairly stable and has Velbon's twist-locking telescopic feet.

I also got myself a Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu HG version, but more on that later... ^_^

Unfortunately, the camera section in Bic Camera wasn't well stocked. Or rather, it's probably better stocked than all of the camera shops in Malaysia put together (they've even got equipment for developing your own film!). I mean, they had an entire BUCKET of Nikon DK-21m magnifying eyepieces for the Nikon D70 (something which took two months to arrive when ordered from Nikon Malaysia).

But they haven't got certain harder-to-get accessories, such as colour gels for my flash (if you don't know what a colour gel is, you probably don't need one).

For obscure stuff like that, I had to go here:
Yodobashi Camera!!!

Unlike Bic Camera (which is housed in a huge department store), the Shinjuku outlet of Yodobashi Camera is made up of several shoplots joined together, spanning entire blocks and going up about six storeys high. This is quite confusing as, when you're walking around the alleys, you'll see several stores marked "Yodobashi Camera' and all of them seem to sell the same stuff.

However, the building pictured here is their specialty camera 'section'. The first floor has mostly cheap pocket cameras, the second floor mostly DSLRs (and a huge array of lenses and - *yes!* - colour gels and filters), the third floor with expensive medium-format cameras and lighting equipment, the fourth floor just tripods and other accessories and the fifth floor is just for bags. I think there was another floor somewhere in the middle that specialises in film, but I can't remember... -_-

They sell really cool stuff here, such as a portable camouflaged tent that's tall enough to house a tripod, a camera, a big zoom lens and a photographer in it (it's meant for nature photography, apparently).

Here, I got some diffusers for my flash, the colour gels and some neat plastic-bag case that lets me use my D70 in the rain. Yodobashi Camera ROCKS! (Note, you might remember me mentioning something about the Osaka outlet during my previous visit to Japan).

After that, it was about 2:30pm and time for lunch:
Affordable niku udon (meat udon), with a little salmon onigiri (rice thingy)

And then, I had to rush back to the hotel to drop off my things and take orders for more Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu HG version toys from certain people at home. (More on this later... ^_^):

Boarding the subway at Shinjuku station (O-Edo line)

And then, I went off to the highly controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Yup, this is the one which honours some of Japan's WWII class-A war criminals.

The Yasukuni shrine - this is where the controversy is centered

The fallen samurai who guards the gates of Yasukuni. I think...

It's also the one that Japanese PM Koizumi's been visiting annually - much to the dismay of China, which is apparently still officially bitter about the Japanese invasion of World War 2 more than 60 years ago. On a rather ironic note, they seem to have officially forgotten about Tiananmen Square 1989.

Politics aside, the first thing you'll notice about Yasukuni is that there aren't any tourists there. There are no signs in English leading to the place either (you can walk right past it and not know what it is). There's a supposedly fantastic war museum next to the shrine but I missed it - it closed at 5:30pm and I had only arrived 10 minutes later.

More prayers at Yasukuni - notice that there aren't any English ones by tourists.

At the grounds of the shrine

Having had my fill of history and old wooden buildings, I headed back to Shinjuku to buy more Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu HG Version toys.

Shinjuku at night (from the bridge next to Bic Camera)

HG, of course, stands for "Hard Gay"

Razor Ramon Sumitani (aka Hard Gay)

We've been watching this guy's comedy show (subtitled) in the office recently. We like. A lot.

And this is a Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu HG version:
Note: The hat and sunglasses were purchased separately :)

If you're not entirely sure who Hard Gay is and why I'm so enamoured by some silly child's toy, take a look at the videos below.

Click on the links below for the Hard Gay TOMY videos:

Part 1 on YouTube

Part 2 on YouTube

FWOOOOoooo...!!!

After that, it was back to the hotel and into bed. After a nice hot bath, of course.

The view of Tokyo Tower from my hotel room

And that was my day out in Tokyo. Really wished I had more time. I like Tokyo. It's mad.