First up, I am still alive, and I am sort of back. 2010 has been a year of change and one of the major change was me jumping from Nikon to Canon. I secretly deliberated the switch for close to a month but the switch was swift and surprisingly, not that painful.

Guess I am not that sentimental to Nikon after all.

In case you are wondering, I switched to Canon because it has a strong lens line-up, fullframe with 21MP and skin tones that I have grown to appreciate. Not only that, I am also working with Canon shooters regularly so it made sense to at least get a color profile that is similar.

Some things I miss about the Nikon is the solid body, cheaper AF-D lenses, and fast and accurate AF. Canon has better solve the AF problems that the Mark 2 is having. Oh, and the myth that Canon lenses are cheaper, totally not true!

2010 also marked the end of “Through Our Eyes Photography” and I am glad that Tim roped me in to start. If not, I would not have discovered my passion and interest in wedding photography. Towards the end of 2010, a new brand was launched and well, no prizes for guessing the name, Nicholas Leong Photography.

You can visit the new site by going to http://nicholasleong.net/portfolio or click on Wedding Portfolio on this site. Hopefully, this means I will be back blogging regularly.

I must be a lucky man for various reasons. One – for having a gorgeous, loving and caring wife. Two – for having great family and friends. Three – for having great friends, who doubles up as great photographers.

While waiting for my other awesome photos from a bunch of really great photogs (Mark, Ian, Ming Wei, Jong, Kar Heng and Kian Kheong), here are some from Edwin Tan.

The above is his favourite, and also one of my favs. And that is also why I call him the Master of Reflections :D

And next fav is a group shot of me and my friends (I know Kar Heng has another funny one too), and this one is made more awesome by Malcom’s half constipated face and Ai Lin making the effort to jump even though her foot was injured. And surprisingly, the shortest guy jumped the highest.

And then there is the “dance and twirl” shot which looked quite ridiculous when you are doing it, but I guess the pic showed that it is worth making yourself look funny!

And last but not least, is me pushing Sharon in a luggage cart! And that is me pretending to run and push. I tell you, I very good in posing wan! :P

So, that is just a taste of what he shot that day. For more pics of us, visit his blog at edwintcg.com/blog. Be a fan of his work as I have :)

And if you are looking for a wedding photographer, then don’t forget the name Edwin Tan!

My Wedding Ceremony in KL from Nicholas Leong on Vimeo.

After the Cebu ceremony, we now have the SDE slideshow prepared by Compozitions! by Kar Heng. Assisted by Kian Kheong and special appearance by a very special Uncle Bob too :)

Amazing how I have 3 fave slideshows from 3 weddings! Kuching one to come soon, got to re-edit :P

Our Wedding in Cebu from Nicholas Leong on Vimeo.

Well, it is probably gonna be a few more weeks before the shots reach me, so here is a sneak peek of what went on in Cebu. This was the slideshow prepared by Mark Leo to be shown during my wedding reception in KL, with shots by Mark and Ian Chong.

Personally, I think this is awesome :D

You might have read this on Through Our Eyes Photography blog, but if not, here goes.

When I first heard of Wedding & Portraits Photographers Malaysia (WPPM), I wasn’t sure if I wanted to join the Enthusiast or Pro category. While I have been shooting with Tim since 2008, being certified seems like a next step that I wasn’t too sure if I was ready to take. The biggest question was, what was the ultimate reason I wanted to be certified?

Some may say industry recognition and some may say so can charge more (just saying, no one told me that :P)! I have never been a fan of forced accreditation because it restricts the freedom of the service industry and wedding/ portrait photography is pretty much a service.

Luckily, WPPM is not a must, it is more of a want. And I found myself wanting it more. Not because I wanted the title, although “WPPM Certified Photographer” sounds rather cool, but because I believed in their code of ethics and because I wanted to know if I was up to the standard.

And so, I submitted my initial shots, which were slightly different from what you saw up there. In front of a crowd (which is not the norm by the way), my shots were reviewed and I was given feedback on what to improve, and how to select my portfolio by established names like Patrick Low, Braendan Yong, Jason Victor and Jack Tan. For that review session alone, I would say, it was worth every single cent I paid for my Pro membership.

Having peers of the same passion and interest review your work is a fantastic experience. This was not my first review experience of course, having had some shots reviewed by Wiki Lee, Jenny Sun, Grace Tan and Jon Low during the RedNinja Camp and I dare say with each review session, I have improved. And I guess that is at the end the point of WPPM (and RedNinja as well!) – to share, to learn, to better oneself.

So, finally, I submitted my 20 shots as shown in the montage above. Sorry if some were cut off as I used an automatic montage creator to do one up. But I hope I gave you a glimpse about my journey into WPPM and I am now proud to say that I am A WPPM Certified Photographer.

Most wedding/portrait photographers who made their Page on Facebook will easily garner thousands of fans. For Through Our Eyes Photography, 100 was quite a big deal for us. And this is where the marketing plug begins!

As a sign of appreciation for the support we got, we are running a simple contest for 3 free sessions shot by us under the following categories:

1. Pre-wedding inclusive of make-up session by Adorn by Shinny Ong (http://adornbyshinny.blogspot.com/)

2. Family/ Newborn session

3. Solo/couple/ misc portrait session

The sessions will be within Klang Valley. If it is outside of Klang Valley, you will have to bear the transport and accommodation cost.

How to participate? Simple! Just write to nickleong@throughoureyes.my on why you should be selected, and a picture to accompany the email. You can also submit on behalf of friends or families that you think deserve a free portrait session.

Closing deadline for submissions is 01/08/10. That is 1st of August 2010. Chosen people will get a one year period to claim the shoot.

Hope to hear from all of you soon! You can help spread the word too if you know of any friends. They can get the details here or here.

Back in 2008, I was asked to help out in a wedding. Tim (my current partner in Through Our Eyes Photography) asked me if I was interested to shoot a wedding. I said yes. Armed with a D40 and only a 105mm, I went about covering the make-up session, the tea ceremony and the dinner.

I had fun. And my journey began.

The beginning of the journey was interesting as I got exposed to my first Indian wedding, my first Baba & Nonya wedding and I met many people. But I still wasn’t serious. In fact, I decided to sell off all my digital equipment, went on film and the wedding photography aspect pretty much went down the drain.

It wasn’t long that I started missing the digital side of things and also the fun of wedding photography. There was something about capturing those special moments that was very rewarding.

And so I returned. And I made a vow that I would try to make it this time. I guess along the way some people told me that I took good photos, and that probably spurred me on anew. Hopefully, I don’t disappoint them.

Other than buying gears, I decided that education was another wise investment. So I went to my first ever workshop with RedNinja, and I will be going for my second workshop tomorrow, Inspire+. I also bought books and DVDs to pursue further knowledge and seek inspiration from others. And trust me, these are investments I would never regret.

Of course, wedding photography is about the people. And I decided that since I am already shooting people, why not do portraits as well? And so I added that into my list of things to do – portraits.

This wasn’t easy for me because if you know me as a person when I am shooting, I tend to be quiet, reserved and trying to nail that moment at a quiet little corner. By going into portraits, and shooting some of them solo, I then needed to make myself more personable (is this a word?). Making that move made me grow as a photographer.

And so, here I am today. Ready to take on even more challenges. I’ll be doing my first family portrait shoot this weekend, and I will be going on my first major overseas assignment next year, assisting the awesome Steph Tan.

I have revamped the blog (please visit!) and made efforts to market the service on Facebook (please please add/like us! :P).

As I said, this is quite the marketing plug but a story that I would like to share with my readers here. It has been a great journey so far and I can only see it getting better from here.

I would not have made it without the support of my family and of course, my lovely wife Sharon (well, technically wife-to-be). She has been the constant supporting voice, telling me that I take great pictures and telling me that I should pursue my dream. I love her, and I hope I make it because I would hate to disappoint her.

Recently there was this campaign by a local satellite TV provider for Malaysians to tell their 1Malaysia stories. If you are not familiar with the 1Malaysia concept, it is basically a concept by our leaders to promote unity in the country. And a lot of brands/ companies are milking the concept dry by launching their own 1Anything campaigns.

This MyStory campaign is probably another one trying to get us to be a little patriotic. I thought since I had some free time, and I can’t shoot video, I thought I would write my story on the blog.

I remember a time when I wasn’t reminded of the race of the person I was playing with, hanging out with or chatting with. I remember a time when I read the newspapers and find that the leaders working for the people, not fighting for “rights”. I remember a time when I didn’t need a slogan or a brand to depict a united country.

This is my story. And that WAS my Malaysia. Now someone please give it back to me.

I shot them. Well, not the kind using guns but using a camera. And no one died in the process. It was the first time I shot at Universiti Malaya and it was quite fun. It rained but we did what we could, and we got some nice diffuse lighting for the shots since it was cloudy.

This wasn’t a solo session as I had Kar Heng and Kian Kheong in the session as well. I noticed that when there are other shooters, I tend to direct less and go with the flow. Of course I need to change that aspect especially if I am considered to be the lead.

Anyway, I had the chance to try funky shots like the panning shot above and while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I thought it was quite nice. Then again, I have a quirky taste, so couples should probably becareful when they hire me :P

Looks like I might miss a blog post tomorrow, because tonight I feel like playing games rather than edit photos. Then again, this weekend will see me having two shoots – a wedding on Saturday and another couple session on Sunday – so I might have to clear these photos before the queue reaches a mile long.

Time to take a break. :)

Last night, I sat down to edit the photos from the Heritage Station Hotel shoot as I needed to submit 5 shots to the management as per the agreement. The photos featured in post are the ones I submitted along with two other shots from the previous post.

And the title reflects not my last act of photography, but most likely the last time I’ll ever shoot at the Heritage Station Hotel because it is now closed! :(

I really enjoyed my shoot at the hotel and it was my first time shooting a serious assignment alone. I shoot at zoos alone a lot but this was entirely different. I had to compose, communicate and direct all by myself and I have to say I enjoyed the experience tremendously.

Having said that, I would still prefer company for my next shoot but I’ll probably attempt another solo session soon enough.

It is sad to read in the papers that the hotel is going to be closed because I doubt we will find another venue that will give us the same nostalgic ambiance and the classic look that we go there for. I hope KTMB preserves that portion of the building and continue to allow access for photographers for a token fee like they do now.

My heart goes out to the staff that were evicted yesterday and I hope that there is a happy ending for them all at the end of this saga. Here is to Heritage Station Hotel and may it stay on for many more photographic journeys in the future.

That was also my initial location for my own pre-wedding but looks like a change of plan is needed now. Universiti Pertanian Malaysia maybe?