It is a trip that we will never forget. Part of working outside of our comfort zone is dealing with the unknown. I’ve never shot in a communist country…well, China with its hybrid communism and free market system, does not count. So everything about Cuba is all new to me. I remember that Cliff Mautner talks about not approaching a shoot with pre-conceived notions. As much as I tried to do that, I couldn’t help but fantasize a little about Havana.

Had the scariest encounter with immigration at Havana. You walked up to the counter. There was a shut door on the end of it that only opened when the immigration officer let you through. So you had no idea what you are walking into. After I got through and picked up my bags, another immigration officer intercepted me and held my passport. After waiting for 30 minutes, his colleague finally found the time to interview me further. He relayed everything I said to him via a radio headset to his invisible superior. This went on for 15 minutes, which felt like eternity.

Havana didn’t roll out the red carpet to the tourist dollars from the free world. Our ordeal didn’t end here. Got to our hotel only to be told they had to transfer us to lower a grade hotel because of an electrical problem. The substitute hotel was located in a seedy looking area of Havana. We slept with our doors barricaded that night.

Things got better after we met up with Michael and Vivian the next day. Their travel and hotel arrangement worked out fine. Most importantly they were so in love and excited about the shoot. Michael is a real gentleman who always puts Vivian first. We roamed around Cuba with a 20-person bus which doubled as our production trailer, changing room, and equipment depot. We had great fun shooting in the streets of Havana, taking over the train junk yard, hanging round old American cars, and visiting the tobacco plantations of Pinar Del Rio. While we recceed a bit, much of the shoot was impromptu. Hats off the Michael and Vivian for being such great clients and troopers. We always get the best clients…ain’t that great?

Apart from cigars and baseball, Cubans love Chinese. “You Chino? (Are you Chinese?)” “Se Chino,” we replied. It’s one of the few places in the world where people of squinty eyes are given preferential treatment. Michael, Vivian, Lee Kuen, Jasmine & I didn’t mind that. Thank you China, for being nice to Cuba.

p/s Michael: thank you for educating me about cigars. You are so stylish that I had to make sure I didn’t over shoot you and neglect Vivian!

We are ready to roll out the red carpet and invite you do drop by our brand new studio in Kuala Lumpur. On August 15, 11am to 3pm we are celebrating the new studio with food, drinks and a small fanfare. So all brides-and-grooms-to-be we would LOVE to meet you. Our place is not very big. To make sure that everyone has a good and comfortable time, we have worked out different visiting time slots. Kindly give our studio manager, William (6016-681-8881) a call so that he can put you on our guest list.

See you on Sunday!

Please follow this Google Map for directions.

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It’s day 13 of my road trip. I have been teaching seven of the last nine days. It’s been fun and exhausting. Teaching takes A LOT out of me. It takes energy, boundless energy, to impart. The larger the crowd, the more it takes. The trip affirms me of two things I LOVE. Shooting & teaching. Going outside of our comfort zone is something I repeated in all my workshops. I gotta walk the talk right?

Just wanna share with you a few frames from workshops in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. These are shots created with techniques and equipment I hadn’t tried before. The coolest part was to do it in live audience. I feel alive to come up something new. If you are reading this, please go out with your camera and create something fresh in the coming week.

Next up…Inspire+ Seminar in Penang tomorrow and speaking at Intel next Monday. Take care everyone!

This is how we created the first shot. Triflash through with a Skylite Panel & a silver reflector for bounce. Used the grey-ish sky as my background. The ability to light just opens up so much possibility in our shoots.

Shot during a 20-minute shoot challenge. Inside a elevator, flash behind Priscilla with half cut CTB gel (color temperature blue), and full cut CTO gel on key light with HONL honeycomb. Nailed this under 10 minutes

Thanks to Nikon, Lastolite, Elinchorm and Epson, we brought in plenty of toys for the workshop participants.

Strip light by Elinchorm via Quadra, and white vinyl backdrop by Lastolite…I love these small studio strobes!

70-200mm at f/2.8 for shallow depth of field + 30″ Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe & Triflector MKII to fill from under the chin.

Inside the “secret” hallways of the hotel where kitchen staff bring out the food, I saw a possibility.

There you go, a Cat Woman & Pulp Fiction inspired frame. Two SB800 with red gels at 1/2 power about 70 feet away. The gloss paint and floor surface is wonderful for light to skip over. Key light a SB800 at 24mm, TTL.

Kota Kinabalu is fast becoming a favourite spot for e-session or pre-wedding shoots. I am certainly promoting it with all that I can. You can argue that I am biased, but I LOVE KK. Wrote a short article about that recently and it’s coming out in a national magazine. Now, let’s save that story for another day.

Today, we are here to celebrate Heng Ewe and Han Liang’s shoot. “We don’t have any fixed ideas. We are just leaving everything up to you,” they said. That’s music to my ears! They were surprised that how straight forward it is to organize a shoot with us. Just three simple steps:

1. Book a date for the shoot
2. Pick up a gown from Pretty in White
3. Jet into KK for the shoot & holiday

Heng Ewe and Han Liang did just that. We organized the location, shoot and make-up. They stayed on a few extra days to enjoy our great seafood (with out list of highly recommended restaurants) and beaches. I had a lot of fun with them. As you can see from the picture, they had fun too!

The closest I got to being on TV was hanging out with Drew Gurian at the NTV7’s visitors lounge while the Breakfast Show interviewed Joe McNally last February. I remembered cheering on for Joe when he went on air. Not that he could hear us, but it was just so great to see him inspiring the viewers with his stories & journey while we watched the whole thing live. It was like seeing a family or close friend on TV…and I get to brag, “Hey that’s my pal on TV!” I did made a little wish while watching Joe on air.

That wish came true on 30 June 2010.

NTV7’s Breakfast Show invited me to talk about winning the International Portrait Print of the Year at WPPI, Las Vegas. I was very honored by the invitation. Being the only guest that morning, the hosts, Aisha and Joanne, spent nearly 19 minutes chatting with me on air. If you had missed that, I’ve got it on YouTube. Big thank you to NTV7 for the opportunity. What an honor that you find wedding photography newsworthy.

“Hey mum, I was on TV!”