Here’s a random update on what’s happening at Raymond Phang Photography today. Raymond and Ben are out shooting since morning, will be back later for a break before continuing the next session till past 11pm. They’re both dressed in sleek black formal attire, so they look something like this now;

RayBen the Men in Black. Minus the watches, the hair for Raymond, the white shirts inside, and the tie. -_-”

Susu’s ears are feasting on loud music with her earphones plugged in, and her eyes are feasting on photo editing.

I became a chef and prepared lunch for the RayBen and text them the menu;

Fragrant Lice with Dragon Scale
Why the Cow jumped over the Fence
Together we Trotter
The Love of Panda
The Wedding Luncheon
Poppy Tuesday Water

Which are actually Plain white rice with Bak Kwa, Broccolis and Veggies, Pig Trotter in Vinegar, Bamboo Shoots, Luncheon Meat, and Corn/Carrot/Potato/Tomato soup.
Now the Chef is back to blog and then reply the emails.

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Anyway, here’s a quick update on one of our conceptualised pre-wedding series. We actually shot this last year in August, and we still have quite a number of backlogs which we haven’t got the time to share.

This is a Poker card game themed concept photo shoot, shot on a rainy day in Singapore.

Diamond – It works everytime. “Queen of Gambler” showed hand for this round and the “Saint of Gambler” won the game with the Diamond 3 card in hand. It’s also actually an intended pun. Kekeke. Diamond is a girl’s best friend, and for this case the Diamond happens to be a guy’s best friend too!

Disclaimer: No pocket was burnt in the process of the photoshoot and gambling as a vice activity is strongly discouraged.

Special thanks to Deming for helping out at the photoshoot, throwing poker cards, throwing “money”, playing the role of the Croupier plus right hand man, and carrying the props! Raymond, Ben,  myself and Susu enjoyed this session, especially when we have such a dedicated and committed couple! Cheryl (“Queen of Gambler”) is an awesome help and she is extremely capable! Tony (“Saint of Gambler”) was super funny and very good in creating the mood for the shoot. Hahahahaha!!  We’re really thankful for their trust and co-operation, and most of all for appreciating our photography work!

Awfully Raymondlate. HAHAHA~ Actually it’s a post-it note with Raymond’s name on the box and I stuck it to cover the Chocolate word.

There you go! Damn awesome damn chocolatey chocolate cake!!

And there’s a Thank You note as well… Hehehe…. As usual, the cake monster finished most of it at one go.
Till the next update with more images, take care!

Lots of Love,
Angeline

We did a quick Lou Hei together, but instead of the Four Lettered Words, we spewed things like “10 boyfriends for Susu”, “早生贵子” for Ben and Becky (even though they’re not yet married) etc. It’s a 乱七八糟乱乱捞 lou hei session for us… and we actually forgot to say RPP HUAT AH! Hahahahaha! That gives me the excuse to Lou a second time… then I can feast on the yummy Yu Sheng again. Kekeke.

Anyway, Roy and Amy engaged Raymond to do their conceptualised pre-wedding where Ben and I assisted for the shoot on two different days.

Conceptualised pre-wedding by Raymond Phang – this was shot when the Adidas Sundown Marathon race was about to begin. Chaotic, mad rush, but glad it turned out well.

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And here’s the set of actual day wedding images by Ben, with MooMedia for the Cinematography;

Ben will tend to take note of little details on the wedding day, such as the time, the surrounding area (which most people don’t really take the time to have a good look despite living there for years), couples’ love momentos to each other, trophies etc… which speaks a lot for the couple throughout their growing up years.

While Amy was in the room having her hair and make up done by Joanne Low, here’s what happened on the outside… Love the mood here.

Here’s Amy the bride and one of the jiemei peeking out. Love her expression! Hahaha~

Top :: The convertible dresses on the sisters are really versatile, you can wear it in a million ways! Maybe not exactly a million, but you get the drift… you can wear it in many many different ways! Love the royal purple color!

Just a side note, for brides looking for bridesmaid dresses, maybe you can also check out this shop named Occasion at Raffles City Shopping Centre. If I’m not wrong, the shop is located at #03-29B. I happened to pop by few months back and saw quite a number of bridesmaid dresses in different patterns and sweet colors. Price is reasonable, and if I didn’t remember wrongly, they have a price tier for the number of dresses you purchase.

Bottom Left :: The cakes seemed too good to be true for a gate crashing right? Heh heh heh heh…

Bottom Right :: Here’s the actual one… instead of delicious Nasi Lemak wrapped in Banana Leaf or Fried Hokkien Mee wrapped in Opeh Leaf, the sisters wrapped the food in diapers. *coughs*

The bride is ready!

And now… let the gate crashing begin!


Roy is now a certified and highly trained daddy because he now knows how to take care of a Baby! Kekeke.

Yes, an empty red packet for the sisters.

Moving off to Roy’s place…

We have Vince and Yubing here for the tea ceremony!! Vince and Roy are brothers, and we shot Vince’s wedding in November 2010!

This image came about right after Roy carried Amy into the bedroom. Teeheeheehee~ So cute!

Loving the cute moments… I mean, how often do we get to see something like this when the wedding ceremony is over? Especially the image on top where Amy fed Roy with the Tang Yuan?

Here’s one of Ben’s Feet Touch Feet!

The view from opposite.

Love Nicole and Kaylyn’s expression.

Here comes a ring shot.

An image of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Wedding Cake.

Roy and Amy had their solemnization on the same day, and they engaged my favourite Justice of Peace/Solemnizer (JP) Dr Phua Tan Tee!

Dr Phua Tan Tee gives people a warm fuzzy feeling with a fatherly figure, he’s good with English, Mandarin, and also Hokkien! He never fails to liven up the ceremony with his jokes and advices.

And I loooooveeeee.. the way you loooook at meeeeee….

Amy’s beautiful wedding dress is from Divine Couture!

A close up shot of Dr Phua Tan Tee!

Here’s Kenneth & Martin the awesome emcees for the evening.

Ashton the Page Boy holding the bouquet of flowers, quietly following behind Nicole and Kaylyn the two flower girls.

Lights dimmed for the next segment of the dinner banquet – The Wedding Dance!!

Champagne Popping – one of my favourite part because of the interesting expression when couple try to pop the champagne. Hehehe.

Again, it’s the various interesting expressions which works for me here.

Couple gave a speech..

And the guests don’t know whether is laugh until cry or cry until laugh. :p

YUUUUUUUMMMM SEEEEEENNNGGGGG!!

The farewells with plenty of hugs..

Love this image too!

More hugs..

And a kiss to end the day.

Mandarin Oriental is one of our favourite hotels with impressive quality of service and food. Not forgetting they have a powerful weapon – the all capable Bethany!! She has a super duper powerful memory, she remembers the slightest details and names of couples getting married in Oriental even though their wedding is not handled by her! Do consider Mandarin Oriental if you’re clueless on where to hold your wedding banquet. Of course it will be good to check for availability and book early to avoid disappointment as well. That’s a piece of advice we give to couples, and the same advice that couples feedback to us after the wedding too. Hahahaha!

Have a happy weekend! Cheers!

Lots of Love,
Angeline

Raymond and I packed our “luggages” and went back to our respective family home on 22 January 2012 for the Reunion Dinner. It’s kind of a mad rush every year because we’ll have to eat at one place and then rush to the next place for second round. But the Reunion dinner at Raymond’s place is always filled with food and lots of food! Here’s a slight glimpse into our Lunar New Year;

Truckloads of Vegetables… from my favourite mushrooms and broccolis to mixed veggies and beans with beancurd skins. Some people actually practice eating Veggies for the first day of the lunar new year, so if there were any leftovers, they can be kept for the next day.

Of course we also do have the Yu Sheng! My super all time favourite food to eat during the Lunar New Year! Especially this Yu Sheng which is home made. I can eat this every single day for all my meals! Hahahahaha! Last year we ordered truckloads of them, and I finished the entire plate myself over lunch and dinner. Super shiok to the max, and it’s healthy too! Kekekeke. But I don’t have the luxury of doing the same for this year though. Oh well, they say moderation is the key! So I shall try to practice that.

We never fail to make the table dirty whenever we do the “lou hei”. With all of us trying to compete who can “lou” the highest, the food bits always come splattering down the plate and fly all over the place. Thankfully for us we have 2 mobile vacuum cleaner who will roam beneath the table like hungry sharks waiting to eat some of the yummy food. And also “Lou Hei” is one of the times where you are officially allowed to spew strings and strings of the Four Letter Word. HAHAHAHA! Of course the four letter words must be auspicious. Since this is the Year of the Dragon, we have auspicious words like “龙马精神” and “龙腾虎跃” etc.

This is how the table looks like after we were done with the gobbling. We had sea cucumber with fish maw, Pigs trotter in vinegar sauce, pig stomach soup, Veggies veggies veggies, two different types of prawn, bak kwa, steamed white chicken, big pomfret, yu sheng, dessert which was pear + apple + almond drink which was pretty refreshing. I must admit it was quite a feast and I’m thankful that we were able to enjoy such good home cooked food.

Here’s a picture of skinny Raymond Phang. LOL!

After staying on for a while, we scooted off to my Parent’s place which was about 10 minutes walk away. Unfortunately by the time we reached, they have already finished eating, and have almost finished washing up. I was feeling kinda sad, especially with lesser people around for the Reunion Dinner at my Parent’s place. Anyway, the Reunion Dinner should be slowly enjoyed with family and it is a good opportunity to catch up with your family (especially when you don’t see them very often). Good opportunity to reconcile any differences or misunderstanding over the past year, good opportunity to have a heart to heart talk.

Reunion Dinner at my place is slightly different. We eat together with my First Aunt (大姑), my Uncle’s family (叔叔), my Parents + Elder Brother, and my Grandma whom I call Ah Mah. Every year it’s the same, steamboat all the way. I like it cos I get to pick whatever food I like and cook it the way I want. There’s quail eggs (high in cholestrol!), toufu, veggies, fish, prawns, fish maw, crabstick, fishball, meat, squid etc.

So we chatted for awhile and my Grandma said she want to go back home cos she was feeling tired. My uncle went back home too, and it’s left with me and my family, together with Satin the doggie.

I helped out to open up the various goodies and poured them into the individual containers.

There were the mini fish filling samosa (surprisingly crispy, yet not very oily), prawn crackers, honeycomb.

Crispy squid cracker (good stuff, everyone’s favourite), and the crispy cuttlefish roll.

Roasted cashew nuts, and mixed nuts with raisins.

My super favourite goodies made by my Second Aunt! The savoury peanut one is Raymond’s favourite, and the Sweet Pineapple one is my favourite!

Of course there were other goodies such as the bak kwa, the candies and stuffs as well. I specially brought my Pok Chui (Olympus Camera) back so that I can snap snap some pictures of my relatives and family, but because I brought Satin back home and she kept crying when she don’t see me around, I had to lug her along for house visitings so I left my camera at home. -_-”.

Usually for the first day we’ll go to Church (Bukit Panjang Methodist Church) in the morning for service, followed by my Maternal Grandma’s place. Then to my First Aunt’s place, my place, and end at my Sixth Aunt’s place (yes I have a lot of aunts. Haha!). Something different for this year, we actually sneaked an attack on SUSU!! Muwahahahahaha! We went to her place to surprise her, and her mummy was sooooooooooo excited to see us!!

We were treated to a heaven lot of good food cooked by Susu’s daddy who is a Hainanese (he used to work as a cheft). Got Prawn Paste Chicken, got Sweet Sour Prawn, got Yummy Mutton and Beef, got Broccolis, got Noodles etc! Then there were cakes made by Susu’s mummy.. the Vodka Vanilla fruit cake, the marble cake, the vegetarian meat beancurd which tasted like yummy carrot cake, cookies and biscuits baked by Susu’s “dao” twin sisters. Not forgetting the home made prawn crackers, and we even had bananas.

Card games is the most popular way to kill time during the Lunar New Year, and so we stayed on at Susu’s place for a few rounds. We left the place with about $16 worth of 20 cents and 10 cents coins, and a stomach which weighed approximately 5 kilograms heavier than when we first entered Susu’s house. Hahaha!

Second day of Lunar New Year was spent at my Second aunt’s place, followed by Raymond’s relatives’ place. Then we left to meet Chris Woon at his place to fix his computer. Initially it was only the router, end up had to provide an all rounded full service for him. HAHAHAHAHAHA! So funny!! We missed the time for my Third Aunt’s place, so we went off to visit Uncle Larry who was Raymond’s extremely strict photography mentor. But he’s really really nice outside work, I like him!

Third day of Lunar New Year was spent at Raymond’s and supposedly my Fourth Aunt. The list goes on and now we’re back at work! Hehehe. Actually during all the past few days of the Lunar New Year, Raymond has been working overnight till 5am in the morning on the wedding backlogs to make up for time spent during the day visiting. We’re still working on the November couples, and it’s the same routine every year for us because the year end is always the peak wedding season where we receive more bookings as compared to the rest of the year. So do be a little patient with us while we work diligently on the images!

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Because this is the Year of the Dragon (龙 – pronounced as Long), so I gotta start off the first blog post of 2012 with a LONG entry. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Gotta applaud you for surviving through the first half! Now go drink some water, stretch your back, and rest your eyes for 5 minutes before continuing the rest of the entry. Kekekeke.~

We received this awesome Macaroon tower from Serene and Chek!!

Because it was pretty huge and we couldn’t fit it inside the fridge, we had to gobble and gobble, and put some on a plate to fit in the fridge. Then we realised that there’s a hidden chocolate tower in the middle!! Ben, Susu and I were thinking whether is this a solid piece of chocolate block, or is the inside empty. So Ben took a knife and cut off the top. It’s empty! But the chocolate was super duper yummy! It’s a best friend to those who have sweet tooth like me. Hehehe.

Next came the Garrett popcorn from Lydia and Ah Loke!! We haven’t opened it yet, probably gonna wait till we have another Raymond Phang Photography movie night in the office to munch together. Hehehehe.

Gosh this picture is quite out of focus, but the greedy monster took over and I quickly opened to munch right after snapping this one picture. OOPS!! Thank you Lynnette and Shing Wa for this! 

Totally non Lunar New Year related, but here’s how we spent our Christmas last year!

First time we had a Christmas Tree! Bought the plastic plant at Daiso for $2, and DIY the decors ourselves. My mum gave me the Santa Claus and stockings. But too bad no reindeers on sleigh visited us cos the stocking was empty even until today.

Raymond gotten himself a Mamiya RB67 medium format which is pretty versatile cos you can switch to using a digital back or a instant polaroid with the 120mm film. The black and white was so super awesome, every single bit of details, the highlights and shadows… you can chuck Photoshop or Lightroom aside already!

And here’s a giant basket from Eileen & TP with a message that wrote Dear Raymond, Angeline, Susu & Ben. Thank you for your hard work! Love, TP & Eileen. Kekekeke.

It’s a Crabtree and Evelyn basket filled with truckloads of goodies!!

And a Christmas cupcake from Serene and Chek! And because the Santa Claus looked so cute, end up nobody was willing to eat the Santa Claus. But the fondant was awesome! So sweet and sugary!!

Jean and Julian bought us Ben and Jerry’s and also snacks from Bangkok!! Wahhhhhh… all these yummy food I cannot resist!

Ichiro Films also gave us a box of goodie! It’s a box of multi flavoured Marshmellow!! Love the thoughtful packaging… and you can even play Tic Tac Toe with your friends. Kekeke.

Here’s something from Ben and his Liebe Liebe awesome sweet pretty kind hearted gentle and funny girlfriend – Becky Bex! A Neon writing board and Battlefield 3! Unfortunately till now Raymond haven’t got the time to play the game though… But I’m having fun drawing on the board!

Up next is something from Angthommie! Paul Frank tops for everyone at RPP! Whooohoooooo!!!

Then a Christmas Log Cake from Lynnette and Shing Wa, which turned out to be really yummy!! I am a cake monster… so… less than 10 minutes half the cake was already gone. :X

I gave the cakie a moon! So it looked like a mini hut on top of a chocolate hill with a nice moon hanging from the skies. Kekekeke. Should have taken from a higher angle then can see more things such as the door of the hut etc… but greedy monster took over again. I will fail badly as a food photographer because of this greedy monster. Wahahahahaha!!

Then yesterday Elizabeth and Choon Kwang came over to pick up their Actual Day wedding images, and brought us this!! Together with a stick of Toberlone which miraculously disappeared right after. So no pictures.

And we finished all the sugar “spies” (gummy bears) they sent us over the year, so no pictures of the evil bears too.

And this is from Amy and Roy~~~ DooooNuuuutsssss…. I actually bit a mouth in the top two donuts. and left them in the fridge after gobbling up the chocolate coated one.. you know, just like how the male dogs mark their territory… Muwahahahahahahaha!

They also gave us a surprise ”wedding present”!! The words are not in focus, but here’s the love letter;

Dearest Raymond & Angeline, Thank you so much for the great photography work! We’re truly blessed to have you in our wedding celebrations! Take care & keep in touch! Love, Roy Amy 2012.

Here’s what inside the box! RAYMOND WITH HAIR!!! WAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

And he’s holding a camera while we self snap, which is always how we snap pictures of ourselves. Hehehehehehe. Love it to bits, and now everyone knows how Raymond looks like if he grows his hair.

In between the years a lot of couples really took great care of us and make sure we were well fed with the goodies and yummy cakes and sweets!!!!!! Wahhhh… the expansion of our body size aptly shows our appreciation for your love. A big big thank you to each and everyone of you who have contributed to our expansion in one way or another. Muwahahahahahaha!!!

May the Year of Dragon bring to you abundance of good health, happiness, and rich blessings! HUAT AH!!!!

Lots of Love,
Angeline

Hero or Villian? Hmm… But sweetheart is definitely most appropriate for she is a sweet lady! (:

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And here’s a long overdue update on Raymond Phang’s recent achievement on winning the third place for the WPPI 2011 Second half online competition for the Bride and Groom Together wedding category. This image of the couple with the star trails was taken in New Zealand last year in April. Everytime when I see this image, it never fails to bring back fond memories. Shooting in New Zealand was awesome! Although the weather was a little chilly and the wind was super strong, we had a lot of fun! It just feel so relaxed in New Zealand as compared to shooting a conceptualised pre-wedding in Singapore.

We will be visiting the beautiful country again this year in April, and we are currently left with 1 last slot for our Botaks Combo (super affordable package for local actual day + conceptualised pre-wedding in new zealand + casual bridal in new zealand). Do email us at contactme@raymondphang.com to enquire ya? This New Zealand shoot is for couples who are getting married in the months of late September/October 2012 onwards. Cheers!

Love,
Angeline

Nonetheless, disclaimer first and foremost, I did not want to bring my usual gear to shoot for a couple of reasons. Namely, if I was to be the “xiong di”, I naturally gotta be the hands to carry items throughout the day and very likely be involved in the gate crashing games which means it’s pointless for me to be bringing tons of gear. Most importantly I would not want to intrude and block the photographer’s angle who happens to be Derrick Ong, an established photographer in the industry.

Moving forward, I did not went as a photographer this time round. I went as a buddy with a Micro Four Third system - Olympus EP2 (Angeline’s precious camera which she named it “Pok Chui”) and her manual prime lens – Kern Paillard Pizar 26mm F1.9 which is older than alot of us I think. My purpose was to absorb in the whole event and forget I’m a photographer but to document with the manual focusing lens as an observer, a brother, a friend and to keep the colors and shots as RAW as possible. The more film like, the more blurry, the more technically wrong as I possibly can. Hope you enjoy the series as much as I had documenting them!

Somehow love the empty space next to Sherlyn, waiting for Jeff to come. Haha.

Love,
Raymond Phang

Feedback welcome on this set of images. This is the first time im trying a rangefinder so please be gentle! Most of the shots are taken at waist level without focusing thru the rangefinder with a rough gague of the distance. The m9p makes me feel like a photographer again! Haha!

Hope you guys will enjoy this series – my virgin try at wedding with the Leica M9-P. Happy Boxing Day!

Happy Boxing Day to you guys!

Love,
Raymond Phang

Here’s wishing all our friends and family a merry blessed Christmas, and a rocking awesome New Year 2012!!! (:

As the days draw closer, our promotion is also coming to an end soon. Just another 8 more days to go! (:

To our new readers who are curious about the ongoing promotion, here’s the details;

We’re having a promotion in celebration of our year end achievements with awards achieved from various international wedding photography competition. We don’t usually do this, but this time round to spread the joy (besides having a mini celebration by binging on chocolate cakes ourselves)…. we’re offering to all couples……

20% off all wedding photography packages / services by Raymond Phang!!

Yup, 20% off for ROM/Solemnisation, Actual Day Wedding, and even the Local + Overseas Conceptualised Pre-Wedding, or Post wedding. Despite giving a 20% off Raymond Phang’s photography service rates, rest assure we’ll put in an
additional 200% of our love and effort in all the shoots + editing. Hehehe.

Check out the blog entries to the various competitions and award winning images here;

http://www.raymondphang.com/blog/2011/mini-wedding-photography-contest-report-card-update-one

http://www.raymondphang.com/blog/2011/mini-wedding-photography-contest-report-card-%e2%80%93-update-two

http://www.raymondphang.com/blog/2011/mini-wedding-photography-contest-report-card-%e2%80%93-update-three

Kindly note that the promo is only valid till 31 December 2011 for new sign ups of Raymond Phang’s wedding photography services and cannot be used together with our “Botaks Combo” .

For bookings or enquiries, please kindly email us at contactme @ raymondphang.com. Do include the code “Hurray!” and we’ll get back to you in the fastest time we can.

Check out our Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/raymondphangphotography for updates, and have a merry merry weekend!!

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And here’s an interesting quote from a friend, which sets me thinking;

‎”We are often too busy with our own things and not aware of what is around us. We tend to rush even taking pictures of beautiful things we see. A friend told me that the actual scenery is much more beautiful than the photo. A camera could only capture 1/10 of what we can see. The best camera is your eyes, the best album is your memory. Use your eyes and heart to feel…”

Hmm… So what do you think?

Love,
Angeline

So Raymond, Ben and I arrived at Vivocity ahead of time and we kept looking at the sky for fear of a change in weather. The water feature playground was located outdoors so if it rains, it will spoil our plan cos there’s no where else in Vivocity  for Trevor to play with the water without getting caught in the rain. Trevor really likes the water.

Janet sent me a whatsapp message and told me Trevor was sleeping, and she’s going to wake him up, scoot down to Vivocity really soon. So I asked her to get Trevor and Herman to play as per normal, while we sneak up and go on stealth mode, shooting them from far with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens.

It’s funny looking at us three humpty dumpty sneaking around the playground which was filled with kids screaming their heads off and running about the place. We spotted the Father and Son at one end playing with water and Herman was busy capturing shots of the playful Trevor. But Trevor being the sharp and alert boy soon spotted us, led Herman to Raymond and uh-oh, we were exposed. Kekeke.

I think Raymond looked like a bad guy with the giant lens and that kinda scared the little kid. Trevor then got conscious with us around and became a little more wary.

But with Herman and Janet’s constant assurance that Raymond is not a big bad wolf, Trevor started to wander off and continued to play with the water. Of course he didn’t dare venture too far away where Raymond was cos he was camping at the far end, pointing his scary lens at the kid.

So most of the time Trevor tried to run away from Raymond and the couple had to “chase” Trevor back so that Raymond can see his face and expression.

This image says Trevor is having fun!

Love this image of Mother and Son doing the same thing!

The floor is a little slippery, so parents have to really keep a tight watch on their kids. Trevor actually fell, but Herman was as quick as an eagle, pulled Trevor with a single swoop, even before Trevor’s head touch the ground!!! Both Ben and I were amazed at how fast Herman reacted, it’s just like the movie “Twilight” where Edward Cullen miraculously appeared infront of Bella out of nowhere and shield her from the oncoming vehicle when it was about to crush her flat like roti prata!
Trevor started crying a little, but after some love and comfort from Herman and Janet, the brave little boy was back to normal again.

So we left the area, and went to the other open area with a huge waddling pool.

See, the sunshine boy is back!

One of my favourite image.

It’s supposed to be a secret how this image came about, I’m not gonna reveal what happened exactly but I can only say we had to ask for this shot. Kekeke.

Although this was supposed to Herman’s birthday, Trevor became the star and had a change of clothes again!

We were bidding our goodbyes after the last scene, and Ben offered his box of sweets to Trevor. Trevor took it with permission, and was so sweet to return them to Ben after being asked to do so.

Although BB Trevor was a little wee bit shy, but the highly intelligent boy enjoyed himself playing with the water, and I could see Raymond’s face was filled with smiles when he took the pictures, peeping at the family through his viewfinder. Ben and I enjoyed ourselves too as this is one of the less stressful shoots we have ever had. Hahahaha!

To BB Trevor, your daddy and mummy really love you a lot, a lot, a lot! We hope you will grow up to be a happy boy, healthy boy, sweet boy, and love your parents even much more than how much they love you.

Love,
Angeline

The Leica S2 is built like an ordinary sized full frame DSLR camera albeit a little bigger, and I thought it looked like a simple quiet fella when I displayed it out on the table alongside my Canon 5D Mark II. Leica S2 just feels like the kind of guy who has been rejected, ostracized and outcast by the society with his head hanging low in a dark corner. Looking modest, simple and clean with very few buttons, the Canon 5D Mark II just seemed to look a little flashy side by side. But what I was about to find out later when I tested the camera got me dumbfounded.

The resolution produced by the waterproof body camera with a 30mm x 45mm sensor which was larger than a standard 35mm full frame DSLR was simply mind blowing at 37.5 megapixels. I can shoot an image, crop in the eye lashes at 100% and it’s still has enough resolution to print tack sharp 8”x12” prints. The tiny details that are often pixilated become so obvious now. Every crease, folds, tiny hairs, wrinkles (woooopps) are captured in minute precision. However you’ll either need to make sure your hands are steady like the tripod or you’ll need a tripod for maximum results as the shutter mirror slap is insanely different from the run of the mill DSLRs. The slightest movement can easily cause an image to go out of focus. The AF (auto focus) is quite accurate but you won’t want to expect it to be as fast as the standard DSLR cameras.  But once it locks on to the subject, it WILL be piercingly sharp. The legendary Leica lens brings life to the image and subjects simply pops out – almost 3d like. Talk about 3d needing 3d glasses!

One exciting feature that can really put my mind at east for all my shoots is the dual memory card slots design, a feature I require that’s lacking on the 5D mk2 unfortunately. The Leica S2 is designed to house two separate cards – a Compact Flash (CF card) and a Secure Digital (SD card) simultaneously. You can program the camera to write RAW files to one card and JPEG to the other or write RAW files to both cards at the same time, creating an automatic in-the-field backup. Not only that, you also have the flexibility to program the Leica S2 camera to write sequentially so that when the first card is full, it will automatically write to the second card.

If you’re looking for features which are getting common in cameras such as the HD video mode, or the various scene modes which comes with color filters and various settings in-camera, then you’ll be sorely disappointed. You might ask, “Hey! The camera body alone cost thirty over grand but doesn’t do all the bell and whistles of a sub thousand dollar camera?!” Kid you not, this beast is in a league of it’s own.  The Leica S2 is designed for the top end professional market where features practical to the photographers are heavily emphasized on, such as the dual-shutter system. This allows you to select the camera’s built-in focal plane shutter OR the built-in leaf shutter for insane flash sync speeds of 1/1600 seconds. You can severely kill the sunlight outdoors using flash while maintaining nice bokeh blur as you no longer have to crank up the aperture – strobists should understand how useful that can be!

The Leica S2 is like what the Chinese always say “wo hu cang long” – crouching tiger hidden dragon. This baby will not be as useful in my Actual Day shoots when sometimes speed is the key to a make or break image, but it will definitely be a lot of help for my conceptualized pre-wedding shoots where I can control most elements inside the picture. However note that the Leica S2 is not designed to compete with the professional series from major manufacturers such as Canon or Nikon. The Leica S2 is in a league of its own.

Presenting the Big Old Board  (Da Lao Ban) of Raymond Phang Photography! He looks like he can drink some “Jia Jia Herbal Tea”.

No, I think he need a dozen cans of Beer, a carton of Jia Jia Herbal Tea, a truckload of Oldenlandia Water, and a sea of Watermelon juice to cool him down.

His anger appeased after drawing our faces to make us look like monkeys.

Don’t you think he look so much lovely now?

Introducing – SUSU! She’s the Digital Plastic Surgeon at Raymond Phang Photography! She’s an expert in painting the details of your beautiful wedding gown, she can give you 8 packs without making it look too fake like a plastron, and magically erase your pimple/wrinkles away.

Of course she can do much more than that. Err… does burping loudly and saying excuse me right after, attempting to do a nonchalant fart in your face and raiding the fridge counts?

Next up would be Mr Benedict Chan a.k.a Ben Chan! Ben is an awesome photographer with Raymond Phang Photography, and one of the most hardworking one here too.

Besides Photography, Ben also enjoys Long Boarding. Here’s Ben posing with a safety cone which he uses for practice and his cute little white doggie side kick named Xiao Bai.

Here’s Xiao Bai practicing Yoga on the long board with Ben generously showing off his protruding plastron which was a work of art specially designed by Susu. You can have one too!

Ben is now wearing the Emperor’s Clothes… Ben is fierce with his temporary tattoo on his arm. So temporary that there’s no need to wash it away or peel it off after the shoot. The tattoo only appeared in this one picture. Again, all thanks to Susu.

Every company has a sai gang warrior, and here’s the one from Raymond Phang Photography – ANGELINE!

All the faces are painted by Angeline who wanted to make everyone ugly. LOL!

We still have two naughty Chihuahuas – Bailey and Satin to be photographed, but it was way too late already. We had fun making all the props though – the giant cigarette, dung crown and all. Haha. Hope you guys enjoy this series! Cheers!

Peace out!
Raymond Phang & Angeline