I just got back to Hong Kong from Macau, where the Macau Poker Cup Championship (MPCC) at the Grand Lisboa wrapped up over the weekend. There were events throughout the week, including the 6-Handed High Rollers and the invitation-only Tournament of Champions. Amidst all of the action, crucial Asia Player of the Year points were up for grabs as Team Asia Pros Raymond Wu and Bryan Huang raced for leaderboard standings.

I was focused on shooting the main event, which included about 250 players competing over 4 days. Having setup a MacBook and netbook by the bloggers table, I was editing on the fly and uploading player photos to two displays in the poker room.

Hats off again to the PokerStars Macau team for organizing another successful event. You can also see some of my images on the PokerStars blog.

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Photographers-a-plenty at the kickoff festivities

Asia Player of the Year, Bryan Huang and Team Pro Raymond Wu signs an autograph

Women in full force

Jeff Lisandro and Joe Hachem

Tony Dunst

PokerStars’ Fred Leung

Julian Hasse takes down Kelly Flynn at the Main Event Final Table

Last week PokerStars Macau held its most successful Macau Poker Cup event to date at the Grand Lisboa poker room. The big story of the event was Japan’s Kenichi Takarabe, the last man standing in the Red Dragon main event. Takarabe overtook Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang of Singapore, who held the chip lead for most of the tournament.

Despite attending several poker events, I still have not managed to pick up the poker addiction. But even as a spectator I could not help but to appreciate the sheer passion for the game shared by all the players. Even the PokerStars Macau team (for the ‘regulars’ of the poker room, you would’ve at some point met Fred, Dom, Danny, and Roberto among others) run the tournament with a professionalism and love for the game that is truly admirable.

Among the players, the friendly competition and mutual respect for each other’s game were awesome to observe. The scene in the room actually reminded me a little bit of the photographer community – just a bunch of people doing what they love.

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A spectator watches over the tournament action

Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin taking down a pot

Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang’s most loyal fan

Red Dragon main event final table: Kenichi Takarabe (Japan) vs. Bryan Huang (Singapore)

A few years ago, I met Stephanie in Hong Kong while photographing an event in Central. Like me, her and her husband Tom’s move to Hong Kong from the US marked a chapter in their developing careers. Earlier this year, Stephanie was 7-months pregnant and had asked me to help photograph a maternity portrait session in her home. We took our time to plan our shots which would eventually be slightly fine-art in nature and a little less photojournalistic than my other portraiture.

Last April, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Stephanie gave birth to beautiful baby Gabriel. Here are some of the pregnancy and newborn baby shots (taken at 8 weeks).

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Last week was all about Legend Fighting Championship, Hong Kong’s first professional mixed martial arts competition, leading up to Fight Night last Thursday June 24th at HITEC’s Star Hall in Kowloon Bay. Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity meet with some of the fighters who were still getting over jetlag and cutting weight. Among them were new and returning fighters that were in good spirits and overall were really nice dudes.

Last January, Legend 1 had the tall task of becoming the first MMA production in HK. This time around, I felt Legend 2 raised the bar even higher for fight promotion in Hong Kong, drawing what I thought was the biggest, most excited and most MMA-savvy crowd I’ve seen here. The fights did not disappoint either – showcasing brutal knockout power, advanced grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, paired with fair officiating and judging. As a huge fan of MMA anticipating big things for the sport in HK, I’m very excited =) And oh yeah, did I mention Legend 3 in September?

Here are shots of the excitement from the Legend 2 fight card.

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Vivek Mahbubani aka HK’s Bruce Buffer

Takuma flattens Wang Zhen for a rear naked choke

Jo Nam Jin eats a headkick from Kevin Belingon

China’s Zhang Tiequan guillotine submission over Daniel Digby, 0:30 in Round 1

Rob Hill lands a superman punch on the chin of Kwon A Sol

Taiwanese Justin Lee shocks the Hong Kong crowd with a first round KO of Kenny Yeung

Adrian Pang knees Yu Woo Sung on his way to the lightweight belt

February 5th marked the very first Photo Lab session (original blog post here) at the Random Art Workshop in Causeway Bay. The goal of the meetup was for photographers of all levels to share our work and ideas, get feedback and learn.

Thanks to everyone for sharing some really cool images (not easy to put work out there, I know!) and really interesting insight and feedback. And of course thank you to Joyce Yung for providing a great venue and grabbing this snapshot.

In the session we discussed how to:
- shoot from inside shade with very bright outside sunlight
- choose focus depth of field in different situations
- frame different landscapes? When to shoot wide versus focusing on details
- maximize background motion blur, use ‘panning’
- capture sun rays peeking out of clouds

We also debated the pros and cons of shooting:
- landscape vs. portrait orientation
- dead on straight (Joe made an awesome reference to Andreas Gursky’s style) vs. at an angle
- with post-processing vs. out of camera
- simply! Sometimes it’s best to just focus on one simple subject.

Next session’s theme will be “Food and Family” – however you want to interpret it. All are welcome to follow the theme, or share any other photos of your choice.

Date: Mar 2nd Tues 7:30-9:30PM
RSVP: info@randomartworkshop.com
(open to those who have taken a photography class or any other RAW class before)

Tonight we wrapped up our fifth beginner’s photography class, Digital Photography Essentials at RAW in Causeway Bay. Nikon, Canon, Ricoh and Olympus shooters were all present and eager to learn. Thank you to Florence, Alan, Jackie, Maurice, Tim and Anne for coming out and staying a little later to watch my boring post-processing workflow!

As a note to all Digital Photography Essentials class alumn, you are invited to the first of what will be monthly RAW Photo Lab sessions at RAW. This is open only to those who have taken a photography class/trip or other RAW classes and workshops. It’ll be a great way to continually practice photo taking skills and to have a platform to share your work, get feedback and ideas under a very friendly environment! The session will be informal and very interactive where everyone can share their photos (or stories behind the photos) and learn from each other. Discussion will be lead by myself and photographer Joyce Yung, and the plan will be to just relax and mingle.

Please RSVP (send an email to: info@randomartworkshop.com) by Jan 28th for the first session on Friday, February 5th. Beer, soft drinks, and snacks will be provided! Sweet!

To be honest, I genuinely would’ve really enjoyed putting down the camera and just being a fan in the stands. But shooting a sport that I have grown to absolutely love in what I considered to be a historical event for HK was way too good to pass up. So when the night began the pressure was on. I claimed my ringside corner and my client took his seat at the judges table behind me (with clear view of my camera LCD display the whole night, yikes).

Overall production was great. Music that matched the brand, dramatic walk-ins (can never go wrong with a smoke machine), great announcer,  a few knockouts etc. so there was plenty for me to shoot and it was incredibly fun. Despite that it was physically draining as the event lasted about 4 hours, and I had to worry about blocking fans’ view of the ring all while trying to keep my focus points locked on through my viewfinder. Simultaneously, I was importing CF cards and generating previews on the laptop because I knew I’d have to get some media shots to the PR guys immediately afterwards. I got water (well, maybe some spit too since it came from a fighter’s mouth) sprayed accidentally on my face, and blood nearly got on my camera, but I consider that part of the fun =)

Special thanks to Ralph Berrett for his great shooting MMA tips. He’s got a great podcast that I hope comes back online soon.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the night.

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The multi-talented Vivek Mahbubani

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Jo Nam Jin checks the clock

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Matt Cain gets the heel hook

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Kenny Yeung entering the ring

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Khuukhenkhuu Amartuvshin near rear-naked choke before the end of the round

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Bae Myung Ho walks in then proceeds to ground and pound

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Zhao Zilong wins by referee stoppage

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Nam Yui Chul vs. Adrian Pang: don’t leave it in the hands of the judges

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Marriage Registry

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Congratulations!

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Hong Kong Park

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Dim sum + cake!

The First 48 Hour Film Project in Hong Kong

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David Tao, Zinédine Zidane and Rain at IWC flagship store opening @1881 Heritage Boutique

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3rd Annual Hong Kong International Comedy Festival @Takeout Comedy

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Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Bryan Huang at Bank Roll Poker House Grand Opening

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Grandtag Financial Anniversary Banquet @Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong