Last November, in the middle of last year’s Hong Kong wedding season I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Wendy and CK. Wendy and I first met over drinks – we were introduced by her piano teacher who is also a good friend of mine. CK, the groom, has been a film photography enthusiast for years, but now he shoots with a Nikon D700. So yeah, we get along well =)

Wendy has been one of those invaluable supporters of mine that I mentioned in an earlier blog post, particularly with tidbits of legal advice as I was rummaging through paperwork to get my business started. So I really wanted to get a ton of great shots on her wedding day. Fortunately, the bride and groom choose some beautiful venues for their wedding day: prep at the Upper House, ceremony at Union Church and reception and tea ceremony at China Club.

The Upper House, Pacific Place

Union Church, Midlevels

China Club, Central

…and one more portrait at Upper House before the night ended.

Well considered to be a master of lighting and environmental portraiture, Joe is a bit of a superhero of mine in the world of photography. Last year when The Hot Shoe Diaries book came out, I had my sister in NY help me smuggle a copy before it was available for sale here in HK.

Aside from learning buttons and dials, flash compensation and iTTL during the workshop, I was probably most impressed by Joe’s ability to bring thirty-something years of shooting experience yet still maintain an almost child-like sense of humor and enthusiasm. His approach to portraiture was methodic yet carefree, almost Brett Favre-like. It was just incredibly fun to watch and learn from.

As an added bonus of the workshop, I had a chance to shoot with other photographers from across the region. Wedding, landscape, journalism and corporate shooters and hobbyists took the day out to hone their craft. All the credit in the world goes to esteemed wedding photographer Louis Pang and his webshooter.tv team to put together an awesome experience. It was fun meeting y’all!

Here are a few other blog entries going over the day:
Joe McNally’s blog
Louis Pang’s blog (has a nice capture of me getting my learn on)
Qippy’s blog
Anna’s blog

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Below is my favorite shot from the workshop with the lovely Evon Tan. I thought the black veil was a pretty cool thing to play with, and my mind started to wander into 1980′s-Madonna-Like-A-Prayer-land, and this is what we got.

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playing with light is way too fun.

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Joe and I nyan nyan~ at the end of the workshop =(

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a nice WTF shot on seamless grey! thx for grabbing this one Louis!

This was also my first assignment that I was able to shoot with the new Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR2. For the gear heads out there, it is delicious.

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Constructing the final table hole cams

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Main Event Champion trophy

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Best part of the final table – really, really mean staredowns!

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PokerStars Team Asia Pro: Celina Lin

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PokerStars Team Asia Pro: Bryan Huang

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PokerStars Team Asia Pro: Raymond Wu

Last night was the first Digital Photography Essentials workshop at the Random Art Workshop in Causeway Bay. Big thanks to Kelly, Jacinta, Karen and Tosh for coming to class armed with some good questions and plenty of energy on a Friday after work. It was great to see a wide range of skills amongst students, and it nearly brought a tear to my eye to see a small family of Nikons spread out across the table (D60, D5000, D90, D200, D700)!!!