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

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

Backup will take up quite some time, especially when we have to burn and verify all the discs, properly label them, double check that all files can be opened in another machine, and then store them in appropriate disc folders. Afterwhich we’ll need to also back up the files in the NAS (network-attached storage system). So in total we’ll have a copy of the wedding images in the main workstation, another copy burnt in DVD archives, and another set in the NAS. We’ll be setting up another NAS backup system in another location for the “just in case”. Call us Kiasu, but the backup is really necessary and especially important, and to ensure that the systems run + shut down smoothly, we even invested in backup power supply for the individual CPUs and NAS in case of power breakdown.

I think I have digressed again. -_-”

Anyway, today’s entry is to introduce Raymond Phang Photography to you guys, with an addition to the creative team.

The living Mascots of Raymond Phang Photography – Satin (on the left) and Bailey (on the right)!!! Satin is a very tamed and gentle + extremely shy chihuahua. Once you carry her she can just fall asleep in your arms. She don’t bark at all until she started learning all the bad things from Bailey. We adopted her, and she’s actually the sister of Bailey. Always bullied by Bailey, super curious, and you have to slowly approach her else she’ll just run away and hide underneath the table.

Bailey is a super playful, vocal, highly intelligent Chihuahua. We bought him from a friend when he’s about 2-3 months old when he used to hug pencil to sleep in place of a bolster. He’s super curious and enjoys playing hard to get. He’s quite vocal initially when guests come over. But once guests settle down, he’ll quit his barking and starts to wander off doing his own things. The next time he’ll start barking again is when guests leave. Somehow he knows it when it’s time. We’re still figuring out how and why.

This is Raymond our principal photographer. He observes the event, goes with the flow and captures as it is on a wedding day. We always tell couples 80% of Raymond’s style of shooting is like a fly on the wall, he doesnt interact much on the wedding day unless absolutely necessary. The remaining 20% would be posed shots such as unconventional group photos, or in the spur of the moment he’s suddenly inspired by something, he’ll ask if couples would like to have a quick posed shot to be taken. That’s why some couples thought our shots look like pre-wedding when they’re actually taken on a wedding day.

Raymond is a spontaneous person, cheeky, talented and highly intelligent. Throw him lemons and he’ll use the skin to sundry make dried lemon snacks, use the fruit to make lemonade, save a little to be used for lemon meringues and also for beauty purposes to lighten skin etc. =_=”

He graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma totally not related to Photography, went to NS, and Photography is his first full time job. We were formerly known as Raymondfotographie when we first started out, and we did a rebrand few years later to the current Raymond Phang Photography. The journey to where we are now (although not very accomplished) has not been the most easy, and we never could have done it without the support and understanding from our family.

But don’t see he cheeky cheeky, he’s an extremely serious person when it comes to work. We are not allowed to disturb him when he’s at work, otherwise we’ll be in deep shit. I can say he’s quite a demanding person also with high expectation to the work quality delivered. An anal perfectionist always hoping there’s more time on hand to perfect his works.

*Stress*

Next comes Angeline (aku, saya dan sendiri). I handle all the admin stuffs such as email enquiries, maintain and update the blog and facebook, paperwork filing, accounts, pricing structure, PR, HR, marketing, meetup with couples, daydream for the conceptualised pre-wedding and liaise with couples for the logistics, assist for pre-wedding shoots and provide opinions (which my boss calls me the art director), do R&D, cleaner, PA to boss, album layout + touch ups bla bla bla… =_=”

Not very intelligent, and I always picture my world to be super duper colorful (cos I love colors), filled with amazing things/ideas that we’ll probably not see happening on Planet Earth. My favourite activity of the day would be sleep. Because it’s the only time I can dream of the impossible, especially things I’d like to see it happen in reality but can never happen. Things such as giant marshmellow cottage house in shades of pastel pink and yellow sitted on a huuuuuuuuuuge patch of nicely trimmed carpet grass with red+white spotty mushrooms growing here and there (not forgetting dandelions too), then there’s bunnies hopping around chewing on baby carrots, bambi lazing around, subtle golden sunray peeking through the clouds. And then innocent kids giggling chasing each other across the field, suddenly the sky starts to rain. Not the normal rain but sparkly diamond dust, with an awesome hugeass rainbow sprouting from the far end.

Everything is nice, warm and fuzzy. But not all of my dreams end up on a sweet note. Sometimes it continues to something like this; the kids suddenly feel the earth moving, shaking, and realised it’s a quake. Bunnies hopped for their lives, bambi still lazing around, kids screaming and running in circles. The quake got more and more violentl, and the clouds slowly turned dark. The kids look up to the sky and see a pair of giant hands reaching out for them! They got toppled over and started spinning around. End up it’s an evil witch with nose the length of a cue stick. She captured the kids and put them into the snowglobe as puppets. Hence the diamond dust rain. -_-”

*Stress*

Next up is SUSU! She has got a lot of nicknames such as Susu (her real name is Sulin), Susulini, Sushimi, and sometimes new nicknames when we’re inspired to call her something else. Muwahahahaha! Susu first joined us in September (2009?) when we put an Ad looking for D-Eye artist, which is actually D.I Artist (Digital Imaging). Her email caught our attention amongst the many application, so we decided to ask her for an interview where they had to process some raw images.

The result of her images came out with purple colored skin tones, but we decided to confirm her anyway because of her attitude. Personally we find that attitude is one of the most important factor. She can click well with us, and had the room + potential to improve.

I remember the first day of work I placed a box of chocolates and sweets on her desk, and kept feeding her with food in case she shy don’t dare to raid the fridge for food. Now she’s a professional fridge + cupboard raider, and her skills have improved tremenduously over the past years. No more purple cast, and much more detailed.

Susu is a “I’m anything one” person, but sometimes she’s also not that person. Pretty prideful at times, but definitely crazy enough to do stupid things such as flashing to a field of cows in New Zealand with truck driving past and driver saw her flashing, humping the sakura lookalike tree in Prague just to make the petals fall for a conceptualised pre-wedding shoot and had people fiercely asking her to better stop it yet she continue humping the tree.

Sometimes she’ll play angsty music in office, and she can listen to a song on repeat mode for the whole day. Sometimes we’ll have little chats in between work, talking about Lotus and discussing how the robber will let us go if we tell him his lotus will not open if he robs us.

Besides doing DI work, susu is also a good photographer, and second shoot sometimes. Not forgetting she also assist Raymond for conceptualised pre-wedding shoots carrying lights (sometimes have to hold till whole body starts to vibrate like lao pok car engine), throwing food and money etc.

In short, this angsty anything one lady here specialise on the digital imaging work, does occasional shoots, and also assist for conceptualised pre-wedding when required. Oh if you’re a hug person like Susu, feel free to hug her.

*stress*

Next up, our new addition – BEN CHAN the crazy potato!! He has a few nicknames too, sometimes I call him Benito, Benoi, Bennie etc.

He was first introduced to us by Angthommie (Thomas the awesome photographer from peeeeeeeepiiiiiiiing thom). So Angthommie text me the website to view Ah ben’s works. Not bad, this lad has got potential. Ah ben has been assisting Angthommie for a couple of shoots, also second shoot at a few weddings as well.

The first time I met Ah Ben face to face was at SOHO, when he came up with Angthommie to borrow the Sun Gun for a pre-wed shoot. He looked so serious and no nonsense, I scared. HAHAHAHA!

So after their pre-wed shoot ended, we met up at Lavender area for supper at Cheng Mun Kee (delicious meatballs). Ah Ben was super quiet, super shy. But maybe because he was too tired to entertain us, so nevermind.

Then he started helping us with some DI work as well. He dropped by SOHO alone, he was super quiet as usual, so anti social, sit one corner don’t dare take water to drink etc. But strangely, feedback from Angthommie is that Ah Ben is NOT LIKE THAT ONE…..

Which is true… because after working with him for a few times, he slowly started to open up to us. He’s really sweet and good natured, extremely hardworking and effort 100%.

Besides photography, Ah Ben enjoys breaking an arm or a leg with this activity called Long Boarding. Hahahaha! His favourite drink when he’s tired happens to be Red Bull + Naughty G, he can eat like 2 packets of Nasi Bryani at one go for lunch and feel hungry 10 minutes later. If you guys are interested to have your wedding shot in Film, Ah Ben is also the man you can look for.

He has assisted us for a couple of conceptualised pre-wedding shoots such as Roy and Amy, Tony and Cheryl, Eileen & TP, did a few batches of editing for wedding day, also second shoot for a few weddings as well.

Raymond is very pleased with Ah Ben for his work attitude, and also the potential to be an awesome photographer.

So Ah Ben will join us officially as a full time photographer in October, and we’ll be participating in the Style Weddings Love Affair 2011 roadshow happening from 6-9 October 2011, 11am to 9pm at Main atrium level 1 Plaza Singapura. We will be launching a super attractive promo bundle for full day wedding photography coverage for Ben + Susu’s photography service, only for signups at the roadshow. You will not regret coming down for a visit. Hehehe.

Not forgetting there’s the Red Hot Deal happening at every hour where you’ll get additional discounts/freebies on top of the existing promotion. So do drop by our booth to say hi and see some of their beautiful photography works ya? Looking forward to see you guys soon!

Love,
Angeline

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I’ve been listening to his songs since young under the influence of my dad, cos my dad has been karaoke-ing to his songs every now and then when LD (Laser Disc) was very hip and hop and cool. So he sang a genre of songs from hokkien to chinese, from oldies to modern songs, it’s like food to my ears everytime I hear him sing.
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So anyway, Jacky Cheung was one of my favourite singer, super duper love his power packed voice, the way he does the vibrato, his sense of humour and all. Muwahahahaha! Eh, it was damn high to hear him sing Live can!! Especially when he dance and hop like a grasshopper, still can maintain all the pitch accuracy! Not easy, this one must have a lot of stamina and years of “kungfu” then can achieve. Don’t believe you try to sway your head left right or jump up down a few times while trying to sing a tune (especially the high notes, maybe using the falsetto voice), if you don’t have training or don’t know how to control sure will go abit off key one.

I was damn happy we managed to snag the front+middle block at Row 7 from the stage!! All thanks to Jes + Guan for the lobanggggggg~~

But because security was pretty tight, no cameras/recording devices allowed cos they do bag checks. I tried my luck anyway and smuggled my Pok Chui (Olympus EP1) with the yucky disgusting kit lens. Managed to get past through Chester’s help! He helped me block the camera’s view from the checks… HAHAHAHA! :p

Unfortunately at ISO 1250/1600, it was still very noisy.

But it’s alright, better than nothing! We managed to snap a few pictures, but had the security kept coming to us, flashing their torches at us, verbally giving us warning to better stop snapping. We take out iPhone to snap also cannot. End up don’t care, just have to keep a lookout for those vultures. :p

So cool lahhhhhhhhhh~ There were a small group of girls sitting at the row behind us standing and waving their lightsticks and screaming like mad, the hardcore supporters!! And there were people shouting JACKY, or JACKY I LOVE YOU etc during the concert. Even guys. -_-”

His shimmery red costume and red hat.

The lightings was quite cool for this one. It’s like he’s standing in a bubble, with the rainbow color moving and surrounding him.

Laser lights. Piu piu piu!

At some part of the concert, he had to go left, go right, stand high up on the platform etc, and he became so tiny we cannot see him very well. But thankfully there’s the big screens at both sides of the stadium!

One segment with a light-hearted tune was dedicated to late Lydia Sum whom Jacky Cheung held in high regards and great respect. Jacky Cheung then tried to do a banana split, that was funny especially when he kept owww-ing and ahhh-ing afterwards from the ache. Hahahahaha!

Then he decided to come closer to us, got off the platform, came a little bit infront when he was sharing his jazzy tunes for his Private Corner segment. He was pretty funny, asking us to take notice of his Adam’s Apple, see how it vibrates when he sings. For friends who were seated at the back can watch the big screen and see an even bigger adam apple than the rest sitting infront (hence the last picture above with his hands like that). LOL!!!

More soulful tunes.

Love his expression here. Totally enjoying what he’s doing. That’s a very important source of motivation and sometimes you really need a lot of this to keep you going during tough times.

He sang quite a number of my favourite songs, a few Cantonese songs as well (some I haven’t heard before cos I’m not a Cantonese, I don’t speak Cantonese, but can understand a bit of Cantonese though, hence didn’t listen much to Cantonese music). They’re all really, really, nice. So much feeling put into it! It was really inspiring.
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In between the songs, there were mini explosives/fireworks bombing off here and there, once it suddenly pop unexpectedly and my first reaction was to cover my ears with my hands while the whole world was like looking nonchalent… I felt like a weirdo then. =_=”

Towards the end I somehow felt a bit heartpain for him cos he had to sing for like 3-3.5 hours straight, non stop, so loud, so pro, so nice. And for 5 straight days. He is awesome!! I think his voice was starting to become abit like sandpaper already at the end… Hope he gets sufficient time to let his vocal chords rest for awhile before moving on for the next tour destination!

Last song already, gotta leave. So sad. It was about 11.30pm or so, want to shout Encore also no heart to shout. :(

That’s Guan and I.

Raymond Phang and I!

I didn’t know a few of my friends and also couples were there for the concert too until they somehow manage to spot us at the stadium, and saw my Facebook images. Ah, my fellow friends and couples got good taste! Muwahahahahahahaha! Alrighty, till the next entry, take care!!
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Lots of ♥,
- Angeline

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So we reached the museum, bought our tickets and we were super excited! There was a national day promotion going on (think it was the last day already), you get free access to the Shipwreck exhibition if you purchase the Salvador Dali’s and Van Gogh’s. Awesome! I was super excited about Dali’s so I told Raymond we’ll go visit the Shipwreck first and leave Dali to the last.

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The Shipwreck was pretty cool, I was expecting a lot of golds and pearls and rare treasures…. maybe skulls and bits + pieces of the ship. But it was all ceramics, gold and silver pieces of artefacts. Pretty amazing and awesome stuffs too! And I like how they laid the plates out individually, each with a serial number of their own.

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There were interesting pieces of objects such as tweezers, mirrors, storage jars, silver ingots etc. The gold were super polished and it kinda looked very delicate too, I wonder how these managed to survive through the years!
We came across this corner where there were 4 mini “counter” for you to emboss pretty patterns on papers. Raymond had fun playing with it, and even took out his name card to emboss. The result turned out pretty good, so I suggested to him to bring his boxes of namecard, slowly sit down there to emboss. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

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The Shipwrecked exhibition has been extended till 2 October 2011.

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Shipwrecked relates the story of an astonishing cargo of some 60,000 objects carried from China by a ninth-century Arab dhow, presenting a dynamic tale of trade between China and West Asia along the maritime silk route.  The cargo had lain undisturbed on the ocean floor for more than 1,000 years before its discovery near Indonesia’s Belitung Islandin 1998. Many surprises were yielded upon recovery, ranging from huge numbers of mass-produced ceramics to exceptional items, such as the earliest complete examples of Chinese blue-and-white dishes and intricate items of finely worked gold.

The exhibition features hundreds of highlights from this remarkable find, considered to be the largest quantity of Chinese trade goods and luxuries from Tang Dynasty China ever discovered.

Excerpt taken from Singapore Tourism Board: https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/new/new03a.asp?id=12323

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Next, we went ahead to Van Gogh’s exhibition. You’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting to see the physical artwork, cos like the title of the exhibition suggests – Van Gogh Alive, it’s actually an exhibition of his artwork put together using the latest sound and projection technology.

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Initially we were pretty excited, and we went all the way to the inside and sat on the floor, trying to absorb ourselves with the sight and sound. Raymond felt so inspired and comfortable that he decided he’s not gonna leave. =_=”

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Admittedly I’m a noob when it comes to art pieces, especially masterpieces from great artists. Personally I feel i’ll enjoy the works better if they were in physical form instead of the shifting projection. After 1 round of presentation, I didn’t feel good, started to feel dizzy. Recalling of the experience I had then, I’m starting to feel my head spinning again as I’m typing this.

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So I had to pulled Raymond up who was happily vegetating there, and we continued walking to the other end, finally saw some physical still copies, with interpretation and description. I cannot help but to feel very sad after looking at each pieces and reading about his life from the descriptions. Then there were a lot of “if-onlys” popping up in my head again… If only he’s still around, if only there’s someone who can make him feel better, if only he had the support and recognition, if only if only if only…

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The Van Gogh exhibition is on till 9 October 2011, and you can read more about it from the Marina Bay Sand’s website: http://www.marinabaysands.com/uploadedFiles/Marina_Bay_Sands/Content_Blocks/Company_Information/Media_Center/2011/Museum%20Press%20Release%20-%20Van%20Gogh%20Alive%20(FINAL)%20-%20March%2028%202011.pdf

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We left and grabbed some food at the SweetSpot. The cookies are yummy – just the kind I like, soft and sweet. I didn’t feel any better with the spinning head, but how can I miss the Dali exhibition?? So we went to the Dali exhibition!

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Apologies for the whole chunk of words, cos I’m pretty much a law by law person. They said no photography, so I abided and hence no pictures to share.

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But here’s one from Raymond’s phone! Hahaha!

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Dali and us! With my sexy 48-46-49 vital stats. HAHAHAHA!!
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Here’s an image of Dali if you’re wondering how he looks like. These images are not ours, I grabbed them off the internet and copied the sources in a notepad to credit the images, but before I could save it down, I accidentally deleted it!!

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An image of Dali’s Spellbound. So cute!! Love the sleepy eye… hahaha~

This is what you’ll see outside the museum, the melting clockkkkk..

The faceless woman in flame with chests of drawers…

A section with damn awesome furnitures!


Adam and Eve ant the evil serpent.

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I am super amazed with Dali’s works, his thoughts, his philosophies! And if only I can meet him personally!!! I kept thinking of Dali when I got home, and for the whole night I couldnt sleep well at all!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…… how is it possible that such a person exist/ed??

Here’s a few quotes from dali;

Have no fear of perfection – You’ll never reach it.

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I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.
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There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane, I know I am mad.
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What is important is to spread confusion, not to eliminate it.
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“Since I don’t smoke, I decided to grow a mustache – it is better for the health.
However, I always carried a jewel-studded cigarette case in which, instead of tobacco, were carefully placed several mustaches, Adolphe Menjou style. I offered them politely to my friends: “Mustache? Mustache? Mustache?”
Nobody dared to touch them. This was my test regarding the sacred aspect of mustaches.”
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And then he wrote a book (The Secret Life) about lobsters and telephone demanding to know why when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a boiled telephone.

I think he’s crazy, and I like it!!

Dali’s exhibition till 30 October 2011, read more about it from Marina Bay Sands website here;

http://www.marinabaysands.com/uploadedFiles/Marina_Bay_Sands/Content_Blocks/Company_Information/Media_Center/2011/Dali%20Museum%20Press%20Release.pdf

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Hope you’ll enjoy the exhibits as much as we do, and enjoy the weekend!

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Lots of ,♥
- Angeline

Here’s wishing all of you a super happy prosperous and big huat (not big fart hor) lunar new year! May all of us grow wiser, kinder, gentler, more humble, more patient, and more blessed in Year 2011! Always be young at heart, contented, and live your life to the fullest! That when you look back at your life many years later, you’ll find truckloads of colorful and meaningful memories so wonderful  you’ll not feel anything like you have lived your life in vain.
 

Raymond, Susu and I decided to take some crazy fun shots in the studio after receiving a lovely surprise from Serene & Chek Chai! It’s a box of mini cupcakes!! SO PRETTY!!! And I think we have a wee bit of telepathy because a day before Serene’s email telling us what surprise she’ll be getting for us, I was telling Raymond about my cake craving. I can eat all the cream in the world, get fat and explode I don’t really care as long as it’s cake and it has cream. So needless to guess who ate the most number of cupcakes… ME ME ME ME ME!!!
 

We took my Pok Chui camera to snap because Raymond’s two Canon cameras are with a friend for shoot. No choice, gotta make do with the less than optimal quality. We wished it was in a better quality so that we can have it printed out for keepsake. But oh well, pok chui was the bestest solution at that point of time for a self timer group photo. So here’s what we got;
 

The mini cupcakes in Number 1 Hero’s hands, Susu with coconut tree growing on her head carrying Satin, and myself with Bailey!
 

First attempt not very good, so we tried another one!
 

Previous one head got cut off, so had to re-take!
 

Satin was a wee bit camera shy, but Bailey was doing good! Hero 1 says these cupcakes give you muscles! 
  

Now Satin is finally showing us a little of her face!
 

Had to take another one cos previous ones couldn’t see the mini cupcakes clearly. Oh no, Susu and I are looking like twins. =_=”
 

After putting down the furkids, we decided to take one showing  “拜年”。We didn’t have oranges in the fridge, so we tried to find alternative! Being alcoholic freaks (not really… Hehehehe… only like to make people drink), we decided to dig out the alcohols in the fridge except for Raymond.
 

My favourite favourite shot of the lot aside the one with Susu and I looking like twins! Thanks to Mr Hoho and Mrs Hoho for the black tee that Raymond is wearing.
 

Thank you Serene and Chek Chai for the lovely mini cupcakes!!!! HUAT AH!!!!
 
 
Till the next entry, take care!
  
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Lots of ♥,
- Angeline

 
So she got suuuuuper high, started laughing like hyena, “cursing and swearing” while Raymond and I were happily taking video – at least some memories for  her to look back when she’s older. And I secretly think it might make the most awesome wedding gift for her in the form of a video montage. Muwahahahahaha!
 
I got a terrible headache afterwards, and Susu started hiccuping non stop. With every hiccup she had, it will be followed by an “aiyo” sound from her. Then she started sprawling all over the floor, volunteering her tshirt and jeans as a mop cum broom. She crawled all the way from the meeting area to the toilet, complaining that the light switch was so high and beyond her reach, she broke the lock to the toilet door, hugged the toilet bowl, wet her tshirt when she tried to wash her face, wasted a few glasses of water when she almost fell asleep without closing the tap, hugged the toilet bowl again, and puked gloriously like the Merlion.
 
 
WHAT A WAY TO START THE NEW YEAR! Hahahahahaha!! Raymond had to leave at about 10ish for a shoot till about 2am, so Susu and I watched the pathetic fireworks together. I think she caught like 5-10 second glimpse of it and then concuss again. We had to send her home when Raymond returned from his shoot.
 

For Susu, it was a Happy new year “吐011″! Muwahahahahahaha! How was yours?
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That aside here’s one of my favourite series of wedding images shot in Year 2010! Keng Been and Elayna’s actual day wedding~ The couple had the morning whipping session for the groom and brothers, tea ceremony, some quick outdoor shots, and dinner banquet. You should see the dinner reception where the table was laid with all the super nice goodies, very pretty and it makes you feel like lingering around as long as you can and finish gobbling them all.
 

I was feeling hungry and this image of the buns appealed to me with the smooth texture, pastel color and cute little umbrellas. So I had to post it.
 
 

One of my favourite getting ready shot.
 

For Cinematography, the couple engaged Ami from The Wedding Paparazzi.
 

The sisters were all clad in school uniform, seemingly innocent, but wait till you see their power at the gate crashing…
 

I like the “kungfu manual” they were holding, it was part of the gate crashing props. I saw it at Mini Toons or More than words one day, expecting cartoons or drawings to be inside, but it is actually a plain notebook! And they come in different titles for the cover page, and if I remember correctly, it’s about $2.90 or $3.90 each. Nice!
 

Elayna putting on her chunky earring, and I thought it matched pretty well with her gown together with the other pieces like the bangle and ring. Her ring is very unique, and I’ll share a close up picture of it at a later part.
 

When mummy put on the veil for her, she got a little emotional and started tearing. A very touching moment, and often at this point of time Raymond will usually be affected too.
 
 

Now let’s go welcome the groom shall we?? I love Elayna’s doggie, especially the pointy tail that looks like an antenna! Hahahaha!
 

Here’s dog dog with the tail down, secretly warning Keng Been of the coming storm.
 

But Keng Been was not daunted by any of the sisters’ evil plot or tricks. I like the image with dog dog included inside, with everyone facing away from the camera except for dog dog. Yes, the brothers wore the same school uniform too!
 

The games started even before they arrived at Elayna’s unit!
 

Sweet school girls with geeky glasses. Don’t you just love them? And because a lot of relatives / friends will surely be taking pictures with their cameras as well, they tend to upload the pictures to facebook within the week. At least there’s something for excited couples to browse through after the wedding ceremony is over. But on our side we take a much longer time looking through every images individually and edit them because we shoot in Raw format. So we will usually take at least 1 month to 3 months depending on the wedding season to complete the editing. In this case, we really appreciate all our couples who didn’t haunt after us for their wedding images, like Keng Been and Elayna!
 

Now back to the gatecrashing part. The brothers were actually welcomed to Hawaii once they arrived at the lift lobby of Elayna’s place. Posters of pretty Hawaiian girls pasted on the wall with a table full of props for the brothers. So exciting!
 

See how happy the sisters were!
 

“Fine, I will sacrifice my chastity and strip down to nothing if it makes you happy!”

“Nooooooooo, darling, let me do it!”
 
 

Meanwhile, Gary decided to heck care and flaunt it. Feeeeee-U-weeeeeet!!
 

And let the games begin!
 

Raymond spotted one particular brother who likes to “piak” people’s underwear. Muwahahahahaha!
 

Hmmmmmmmm…………. I can’t help but to notice that the sisters nowadays are getting more and more into “nipples”… wait till I share with you on Andrew and Claris’ actual day wedding. Poor poor brothers…
 

While one was being tortured, the other stood by and laughed at his poor misery…
 

Look what happened next…. Muwahahahahaha!
 

Next, the sisters presented a dish of something. Looks like fermented curd or weird looking poisonous Cheese…
 

But once again, Gary the brave warrior beats all the brothers hands down!
 

And decided to sabo Keng Been this time round when Keng been was innocently eating the pink fluffy bun… =_=”
 

Poor Keng Been was forced to have a taste of the yucky curdy thing.
 

Moving on, the brothers were then asked to doll up and look pretty.
 

Oh my goodness… Keng Been had indeed went through a lot of suffering for his princess!
 

Next, the sisters present more kungfu manuals!
 

Keng Been buay tahan already…
 

Decided to make his first offer of bribery
 
 

End up it was a trick!!!! And it got the sisters reeeeeally unhappy~
 

Sensing the wrath of the sisters boiling like hot lava, Keng Been quickly took another ang pow and put in some money to appease them.
 

Angry sisters rushing Keng Been to quickly hang over the ang pow, or else. Keng Been pretended to look as if he has placed a lot of money inside this time round, with a happy and excited face.
 

Who knows, it’s a cutesy note of $50!!! Sister is reaaaaaally unhappy this time round, and if she unleash her power from the kungfu she has mastered from the “Heavenly Wordless Manual”, nobody is able to determine Keng Been and his brothers’ fate within the next 2 seconds.
   
 

Brothers trying to stall time and appease the sisters by looking as smiley as possible while Keng Been decided to make a phone call for help! I guess he has already utilised his 50-50, Ask the audience, and now he’s left with the final Phone-A-Friend.  
 

Who would have thought that the sisters really loved the cutsey note, and in fact they wanted more~
 

So when Keng Been presented the legal tender note to them, the sisters got even furious to the point of breaking down!
 

The gatecrashing went on and on and on, and I shall spare you the details of it by skipping to this image with the KEY!
 

Finally Keng Been stepped foot in the house after being tormented and tossed around like salad by both the brothers who kept sabo-ing him, and the evil sisters.
 

He gets to meet his beloved princess!! Look at the kids’ expression… I’m sure the curious kids must be wondering what on earth are the two of them doing, why are they doing it, and how does it feel. Will it hurt or give them wings? Will they exchange the satay and burger they had last night with each other during the “transfusion”?
 

Awww… so sweet!
 

So the couple had some time for a quick outdoor shoot at the rooftop of the car park.
 

Class photo of the 14 “pai kia” students and 2 teachers.
 

They love their teachers! Awwwww~~ (:
 

Now let’s get ready for the morning assembly and say our pledge with pride!
 

As you can see, when the teachers were not noticing, the students were all up to no good! Just like how you secretly munch on snacks when the teacher turned his back towards you, or how you quickly unfold the notes with answers you have in your pencil case because you didn’t want to study for your spelling test. Kekekeke. 
 
 
Bullying incidents on the left, sharing censored material stored in their mobile phone at the back, girl tugging another girl’s collar with the other pulling the pony tail, and two other female students plotting to elope together. Wah, not easy to be the teacher of this class!

After the shoot when everyone let down their guard, who knows the brothers decided to sabo Keng Been again!
 

They carried him and tossed him in the air like roti prata! Only difference is they managed to catch him when he fall and not turn and walk away or smack him down against the floor. Muwahahahaha!
 

It’s the weird tang yuan (sometimes red date soup, sometimes egg with mee sua, sometimes half cooked fish etc) feeding time.
 

And a hearty tea ceremony session!
 

Oooh la~la~~
 

Keng Been happily removing the veil for Elayna for her next change of Cheongsam.
 
 

Loving the window light and how it soften the whole image.
 

 Raymond Phang’s signature motion car shot on actual day wedding.
 

And here’s dog dog with a change of outfit too!! A red ribbon!
 

Here’s the second part of the wedding with Elayna getting ready for the evening banquet.
 

This is the first time I’ve seen a super blinged up handphone cover! With crystals, ribbons, pearl, flower and everything else. Too bad I cannot survive with this because I often abuse my phone with too much work, need to keep in pocket, squat down and throw all over the place.
 

And now, the many many boxes of wedding favours and goodies!!
 

Little buckets of raspberries, boxes of popcorns, and sticks of macaroon!
 

This must be bars of chocolate and customised M&Ms! A lot of thought has been put into setting up a corner like this!
 

Pretty “cakes” and lollipops, in the theme of red and black.
 

TADAH!!
 

Whirly cream sticks~
 

Pretty roses, and I believe Elayna must be a big fan of roses!
 

Luckily I wasn’t at the wedding, otherwise I would have shifted the entire table back to the studio. Muwahahahahaha!
 

The couple had their wedding at Marriott hotel, and Michelle the wedding coordinator was a great help!
 

More of the wedding favours… SO CUTE! Elayna is a partner of WeddingFavours.com.sg, and the many varieties of wedding favour given out in our goodie bag at the Style Weddings roadshow last year was kindly sponsored by them!
 

 
 Here are some of the wedding favours by their company, and the images taken are from their website :: http://www.weddingfavours.com.sg/index.php

This is actually a handphone charm. So sweet!
 

Wedding favour box with robot bride and robot groom. Hehehe.
 

Wine stopper with heart shape crystal drop.
 

Little bearer of blessing handphone bears, and it comes with the chocolate!
 

You swept me off my feet favour box.
 

This is a pink blossom flower pouch which doubles up as a corsage!
 

They have a variety of wedding favours ranging from as low as $0.50, with new stocks and designs coming in frequently and clearance sale items as well.  Super cute bridal cookies, handphone charms, ring pillow, feather pen, favour box and  lots more! It is highly encouraged that you join their mailing list for the latest updates, and if you would like to customise your own wedding favours, you can drop them an email enquiry at sales@weddingfavours.com.sg.  :)

Now, back to the wedding! Yes, this blog post took me a lot of time to write! Hahahaha! But I’m enjoying it!
 

The flower girls, scattering petals even before the march in.
 

Little girl complaining to Keng Been, and the facial expression is a matter of few seconds.
 

Bangyao the bilingual emcee for the night whom Raymond mentioned has done a wonderful job.
 

Here’s an image of the couple’s wedding ring. Yes, their wedding ring!! The most unique ring we have shot so far, and the couple designed it themselves. I haven’t had the chance to speak to the couple (will be meeting them really soon to show them the wedding images!!) about the ring, but personally I think this is a 2-in-1 ring, which serves as an engagement ring and a wedding ring altogether. That’s why got the diamond on top of the rose. Hehehe~ 
 

Maybe you might have to be a bit more careful when you’re wearing or handling clothes with frilly or lacy designs, but I thought this ring has an even greater meaning since it is a design by the couple themselves. You cannot buy this off the rack in a jewellery shop, and you won’t see a second couple wearing this for their wedding. I’m not so sure why the design for the Keng Been’s ring, but this is exactly the point! Only the couple knows the siginificance of it. And whenever they see the ring, it will remind them of the times they spend together.
 
 

Hor hor, never do homework, last minute then think of Thank You speech!
 

Demonstrating how should a bride kiss the groom? Muwahahaha!
 

I like this image a lot, and Keng Been’s expression tops it all.
 

The March-in.
 

Champagne popping
 

Champagne pouring

And toasting!
 

“Gud lat” brothers doing the yum seng.
 

I love the irony of this image!! Boy Boy finds it noisy so he’s trying to block off the yum seng shouting from his ears, yet at the same time he’s contributing to the noise by joining in with the yum seng!
 

More Yum Sengs from the sisters.
 

And Bangyao gave a speech.
 

Which touched Keng Been’s heart, as well as Elayna’s.
 

Now the couple’s turn to give a speech.
 

A kiss for his lovely wife.
 

Darn! I should have been there to listen what Keng Been was saying! Heartfelt thanks to couples who have invited me to their wedding, but unfortunately most of the time I couldn’t make it to the ceremony as I had to stay in the studio to do backups, clear email enquiries, work on album layout.  We do three level of back up, one in the main computer, one to the NAS network storage system and final level of back up by burning them into DVDs making sure all datas have been successfully verified. After which I need to label them properly, and usually I will take a quick browse of the images as well.

Keng Been plays a tune on the Saxophone specially for Elayna.
 

It moved Elayna to tears.
 

Play a tune on saxophone not enough, must constantly maintain eye contact with the person whom you are playing the tune to. Like that then can shun bian send some electric vibes across to the person. More effective, success rate of sending the message across is higher!
 

Not an easy feat, and mission accomplished!
 

It made Elayna happy, and I am very sure she will remember this special performance for life.
 

As you can see, Keng Been was rewarded with hugs instead of rotton eggs, so it means his performance was good!!
 
 

Raymond had a breeze photographing their wedding simply because the couple enjoyed themselves and let go, they laugh when they are happy, they are not overly worried on whether they will look good infront of the camera. As long as you throw these restrictions away, you will naturally look good. Bottom line is –  your mood affects Raymond’s and also the outcome of your wedding images.
 

Here comes Alcohol, the life of the party.
 

1 glass where got enough, must drink 3 / 4 glasses ah!
 

Love this image too!
 

Oh no, everyone is high! But zoom in on the person sitting down beside Keng Been.
 

Ooops~
 

And Keng Been gulped a glass of weird concoction. Look at the glass…. all goey and blurred and stained…
 

More drinking, gung ho uncles game for more yum seng!
 

And then, Keng Been received a miniature chest as a gift.
 

He opened it up, and found some silver coins in a pile of sand.
 

I’m not so sure if these are the wedding unity coins / arras, but it seems like there are  12/13 coins altogether. The gift represents the bride’s dowry and good wishes for prosperity, symbolising the groom’s trust and confidence with the responsibility of a provider. With this, he pledges his ability to support and care for the bride. The number 13 actually symbolises Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles.
 

On a side note, besides symbolising the groom’s committment to take care of his bride, it also make his wealth hers!!! I believe it should be a latin american tradition for weddings, and it’s a goooooood one! No wonder Keng Been is laughing so hard. But I think he must be crying even harder inside. Muwahahahahaha!!
 

And time to say goodbye.
 
 
Hope you guys enjoy this series as much as I do! Till the next, you guys take care!
 

Lots of ♥,
- Angeline

A video of the process….
 

A gif image of the process…
 
 

And a huge image taken of it!! Susu lighted the bottle while Raymond took a video, and I took behind the scene, which was pretty hilarious cos Susu attempted a few times without success even after Raymond demonstrated a few times. But eventually Susu made it, and this attempt almost burned her eyebrows off cos the flame was so strong!!
 

Susu finishing the Vodka. Muwahahahaha!!
 
 

And here’s a sneak peak of the image Raymond Phang took from the edge of space with his Canon 5D mark. Simply breathtaking isn’t it?
 
 
 

And an image to end it off, which got him a Second placing in the Master Photography Awards 2010 for Yervant Bridal category. Well done!!
 
 
 
Lots of ♥,
- Angeline

So before we say goodbye to the super solid piece of glass, we had a chance to fiddle with it for a month. Only the “expensive eye” series is taken using the Canon 5D mark2, while the rest are taken with my humble camera (pok chui).  Enjoy!

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The most expensive eye in our studio.
 
 

With a dilated pupil. Can spot the difference? This is at it’s original zoom condition only, and the results is already so amazing!
 
 

A closer zoom, perhaps about 2 or 3 times, which I cannot really remember.
 
 

Here’s a 4 or 5 times zoom.
 
 

I super love the lens, and even without any cropping, this is what you see in your camera itself!
 
 

Now for my eyeball taking using my pok chui. Because it would be more ideal to feed this lens with a lot of light, my eye had slight irritation and started to tear. So you can see there’s actually a drop of tear from my upper lid.
 
 
 

The focus is soooooooooooooooooo super macro super close up, a specialised tripod head is recommended for this. A slight micro mm can cause the image to be in focus, or out of focus.
 
 

Unfortunately Raymond’s tripod head is with a friend at that point of time, so we had to do everything with hand, or using the table as a tripod for support, which you can see, is not enough at all.
 
 
 
 

Now for Susu’s eyes! I snapped this with my pok chui too, and I had susu laying her head on the computer table for support. Can see the tiny red veins? Super! And this is at original zoom condition!
 
 
 

Now now now,  super nice!
 
 

Some marble jelly at 3 or 4 times the zoom. The more you zoom in, the harder it is to control. And also it doesnt work like most lenses with a focusing ring, you actually have to literally shift the lens forward or backward, which explains why you need the specialised tripod head.
 
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Aside from the eye series, I snapped some other objects cos it’s really super fun!
 
 

An image of my fingerprint, with dirt which I couldn’t see with my bare eyes. Now you know why the adults/doctors always advise us to wash our hands before we eat.
 
 
 

The trackball of my blackberry Bold!!!!!! Oh my goodness, if you have seen a blackberry Bold before, you’ll know how small the trackball is. To be able to fill up almost the entire frame with the trackball, I don’t know it kind of blew my mind when I first snapped it!
 
 
 

Image source: http://miramarsellia.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/blackberry-bold.jpg
This is how the Blackberry Bold looks like.
 
 
 
 

And then I tried it on diamond ring! Of course this extremely dull and lacklustre ring is one with a fake diamond. I believe one taken with the real deal would be dammmmn gorgeous!
 
 
 
 

The flaws inside the diamond can be seen totally because its on the inside. I polished the exterior many times before shooting, but no use.
 
 
 

The super inside of the inside.
 
 
 

Next I tried it on the Singapore ten cents coin.
 
 

On Raymond’s pendant which is actually pretty small at this little knot area. I was pretty much obsessed with the piece of glass.
 
 
 

Part of the pendant with cracks and dirt clearly seen.
 
 

More image of the ring.
 
 

And more flaws…. Wahahahahahaha~
 
 

I wanted to find the tiniest thing I could in the studio! But i didn’t want to shoot dead ants. So I took out a piece of rice grain. The pock mark black color thingy is actually the underneath of my paperweight – a very fine piece of styrofoam. I was surprised to see so much pock marks too, and you can see the thin line of focus at original zoom condition of the lens.
 
 
 

A closer zoom, you can even see the CRACKS ON THE RICE GRAIN!!!!! When i preview the image on monitor, I thought it was a fine strand of hair or string, so I took the rice grain and examined again. Took another shot, held it under lights, indeed it was a really fine crack.
 
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There you go, an entry on one of my favourite piece of glass! Admittedly there isn’t any practical use for this piece of glass for a wedding shoot especially since a lot of time will be spent just on the technical set up alone, but I thought it’s good to experiment and explore the different sides to Photography! Sometimes things like this helps us see life from another perspective, teaches us not to see things only at face value, appreciate what’s within, and it frees our mind from the things that we always do and is so used to doing – wedding photography. I think it’s a good thing. Something away from the norm, something that fires our passion in Photography once again with every new discovery of equipment and techniques. Today I am happy!
 
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On a side note, Raymond is currently away in Russia, so feel free to direct any enquiries over to contactme@raymondphang.com, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Can’t wait for him to share some pretty images from Russia when he’s back! Cheers!
 
 
 
 
Lots of ♥,
- Angeline

Contemplating what to cook for dinner…
 
 

Susu suggested Hot Dog!
 
 

So we were thinking of creating some new recipes for the Hot Dog dish… how about adding in a dash of Bailey’s irish cream?
  
 

Sounds like a plan!
 
 

So we simmered Dog dog in the bowl while Susu prepares her fork…
 
 

Burying her head in to make sure the charcoal burns strongly enough to get a good heat…
 
 

Who knows her head got stuck instead, and Dog Dog felt like he’s getting a comfy sauna instead…
 
 

Group photo!
 
 

Take 2!
 
 

Then we moved the bowl outside cos Susu wants to shit but felt it was too hot to shit inside the toilet… Our corridoor is air conditioned, so…. why not?
 
 
 

She squeezed and squeezed and out came Dog dog.
 
 

A portrait of the exhausted + constipated mother and the son. Muwahahahahahaha!
 
 

And then Raymond went out to poo too!! He’s done with his business and is caught in the act while cleaning up. Ooooops! Muwahahahaha!!
 
 

Fierce dog dog.
 
 

Angeline sitting beside the bowl admiring and sniffing the wonderful creation from the above two persons. :p

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So all in all, we are pretty much a zany crazy bunch of people. We work hard, play hard, sometimes we have a life, and sometimes we don’t. But when we do, we sure know how to have fun. Hehehe. Cheers!
 
 
 
Lots of ♥,
- Angeline