One of the downsides of living in a vibrant, transient city like Hong Kong is that too often people come and go. Such was the case for Anne and Jean-Marie, who after only a short stint in Hong Kong were returning to France late last summer. Bittersweet as it is returning home, Anne wanted to capture a bit of the old and new to commemorate their time living here in Hong Kong. So we set out to wander around the Central area, and ended up shooting in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong Park and IFC among a few others.

Thank you to the talented Ka Lam for the makeup for this shoot.

Last October, Wendy and Paul had a beautiful outdoor Hong Kong wedding at one-thirtyone, near Sai Kung in the New Territories. I was particularly excited to shoot their wedding day since it would be outside, which is not as common as you might think in Hong Kong.

Wendy and Paul welcomed an intimate group of family and friends to their wedding, many whom traveled from the UK to be with them (and for those that couldn’t, there were live updates from their wedding party – what a great idea!). The morning prep started in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the ceremony and reception took place on the lawn of one-thirtyone in Ma On Shan. Here are some photos from their big day.

The Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers

Ceremony

Wedding Formals

Reception

When they first met in the UK, Kenny was working in London and played tour guide for Macy who was visiting from Hong Kong. The friends that introduced them must have had some brilliant foresight because they eventually dated, settled in Hong Kong, and the rest is as they say, history =)

I had first met Macy and Kenny nearly a year earlier at my old studio space in Causeway Bay, when they were introduced to me as close friends of Natasha and Ben. I could tell they were super easy going as they talked about their wedding plans which included a touch of Chinese and Western traditions. I also felt that there was a very sentimental side to Macy and Kenny, which I later confirmed when they spontaneously decided to combine a trip back to the UK with a casual pre-wedding session to take some photos where they spent their earliest moments together.

Abbey Road

London Bridge, one of the first landmarks they visited.

Tower Hill Station, where they first met.

Wedding ceremony at Union Church

Watermark reception

Hong Kong Park

Lately I’ve been asked to shoot a lot of in-studio corporate headshots, and I have to be honest, photographing executives in business suits is not exactly the sexiest area of photography. Nevertheless, I’ve really grown to like it. For my clients, their need for new headshots usually marks an interesting crossroads in their life. Some have just arrived in Hong Kong in search of new beginnings, others have been here for years but are joining a new firm. Some clients need portraits to update their online or social media presence (eg. LinkedIn, Facebook), others as part of their first steps in setting up a new small business. Some have no concrete plan at all (which I can particularly relate to). So in the hour that I usually spend in a portrait session, I usually get to hear an interesting story or two. As the subject, I think the session is a fairly relaxing break in a busy day – when they can chat, loosen their tie (if the shot doesn’t need one), and maybe even smile!

Here are some outtakes from some recent corporate headshot sessions that were not the final picks but I like them anyway:

Rebecca, executive coach and proud mom (laughing at her daughter making faces over my shoulder).

Angela, Director in recruiting.

Kieron is restarting his career in HK. Ella works for city’super!

It is around this time of year when all eyes in the world of poker in Asia turn to the Grand Lisboa Poker Room for the grand finale of the Macau Poker Cup series hosted by PokerStars Macau. I just arrived from Hong Kong, in time to cover the Main Event which starts with Day 1A tomorrow, and concluding through the weekend. MPC regulars and newcomers from around the region are expected to join the expected field of 250+ players along with Team Asia Pro Players: Raymond Wu, Celina Lin, Bryan Huang and new team member Vivian Im.

At the end of the tournament, I’ll head home to HK to continue what has been a crazy but exciting October – photographing two weddings before dropping back in Macau at the end of the month to cover Legend 6.

Oh yeah, I also turned 30 last week =)

This morning I woke up to news that Steve Jobs had passed away. Although I am a quintessential Apple fanboy, his death really hit home for another reason. To me, he was the perfect mash-up of tech geek, entrepreneur, underdog and student of life. The man just oozes inspiration.

So this morning, I re-watched (several times) his Stanford Commencement address and grabbed this quote:

…have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Sure, this is another way of saying the same thing you hear over and over again – do what you love. But in an industry like photography where the odds always seem stacked against you, and all rational thinking is telling you to quit, I am left some mornings with only a whisper of faith in my heart to keep pushing me forward.

It is that inspiration that I think I will miss most from Steve Jobs.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of shooting the Korean-British wedding of O-Hyun and Mark at the Hullett House in Hong Kong. I was excited to be their photographer because Mark wanted natural and candid shots which meant that we would photograph the night by just capturing moments without interfering very much with the festivities.

The wedding was simple yet beautiful, with an intimate ceremony and dinner reception. During the open bar at the Mariners’ Rest Bar we used the original jail cells from 1881 to make an awesome photobooth!

Ceremony at Hullett House’s St. George

Reception at Loong Toh Yuen

jail cell photobooth!

Fight week was busy for me as usual, starting with a day long portrait shoot in Macau with the fighters. On the day of the event, I grabbed some environment shots of the arena a few hours early to document some of the behind-the-scenes and setup. Then, minutes before the fight it was on to our on-location studio to photograph the ring girls (tough job!), and then of course the 9-fight card itself. After the final bell we did some quick edits for press and media photos before catching our late night ferry back to HK. Hard work for me and my assistant but exciting and well worth it when I think from the perspective of documenting an evolving sport in one of the most rapidly growing regions of the world.

Here are some highlights from Legend 5:

Ring Girls Cupid, Gloria, Tiffany and Shannie

The ring a few hours before going live

Behind-the-scenes production

Hong Kong’s Vincent Siu

NZ’s Gareth Ealey throws a nasty elbow to Korea’s “Hungry” Yang

Knee from Yusuke Kawanago just misses Mark Striegl, but lands on the ground

Legend veteran Li Jingliang utilizing the jab versus Alex Niu

Ground and pound between South Korean Jo Nam Jin and Chinese Yao Honggang

Last April I flew to the United Kingdom for a few shooting assignments. This was only my second time in London, and the town was absolutely buzzing with energy in anticipation of the Royal Wedding that same weekend. OK, so I wasn’t there to photograph Kate and William (I guess my application must’ve gotten lost in the mail) but I was going to shoot my equally beautiful friends Yuki and Simon for their wedding at The Grove in the south of England.

Yuki and I met eight summers ago in New York during our old firm’s analyst training program – I was to be based in New York and Yuki in Tokyo. Years later, we both coincidentally transferred to Hong Kong and found ourselves sitting two office rows away from each other. Shortly afterwards, she introduced me to Simon, a banker she had met while working on a deal in London. I admittedly was skeptical of anyone finding romance in the investment banking world, but Simon was one of the most kind and genuine persons I’d ever met in Hong Kong. Yuki and Simon later moved back to London but I was lucky enough to shoot a portrait session with the two of them around Hong Kong – as a keepsake before they bid farewell to the city. They loved the photos we took that afternoon but the greatest compliment came over a year later when they graciously asked to me to be their wedding photographer as well.

Simon is from Northern Germany and Yuki from Tokyo, so the guest list had an eclectic mix from all around the world. I also picked up a handy German phrase – Wunderbar! – which means wonderful!

Bridesmaids morning prep




Groomsmen morning prep

Wedding Ceremony

English afternoon tea

Yuki’s adorable mom comes to the realization that her daughter is all grown-up =)

Cocktail and Reception

I first met Natasha and Ben over drinks in Central, nearly a year ago. Even for a Friday at the end of a long work week, Natasha was overflowing with energy which I later learned was completely normal. Ben, who is from the Midwest, told me about how Natasha, who is from HK, and his career path had lead him back to Asia years after they had first met as students in Inner Mongolia – first Singapore, Vietnam and eventually Hong Kong. Its crazy the stories that are behind how many of us find our way here.

Natasha and Ben LOVE Hong Kong, so last year when we planned their engagement session it wasn’t hard to come up with some locations.
 

Here are some shots from the Whitty Street Tram Depot, Central’s wet markets and SoHo..

Fast forward to their wedding morning last April…

Scheduling forced us to break away slightly from tradition by meeting before the ceremony – but that didn’t seem to take anything away from the moment.

It had been raining all morning but we pushed on and with some luck we got some great group formals on top of IFC.

The ceremony was inside the Golden Star ferry!

Dinner was at the Watermark and the first dance was to Dirty Dancing (no one puts baby in a corner!)!