An Under Water Pre Wedding Session - Joey & Amily

Hi Everyone, Joey and Amily will be getting married in just over a week and thought I'd share with you a Pre wedding session I did for them. Being the fun loving and adventurous couple that they are, they opted to have one of their pre wedding shoot locations to be in a swimming pool. Though it was the first time, doing an underwater shoot for me I decided to take up the challenge as it sounded like great fun. This blog post will be my thoughts and sharing on the experience of having an underwater shoot. It would contain useful tips and information if you are considering to have an underwater pre wedding shoot as well. 

First of all was to get the required underwater gear, which included an underwater casing for my camera which cost about $118 to rent.  As you can see from the image below, it resembles the likes of a satellite dish and weight about a wrist snapping 7-10kgs with the camera inside. The amazing thing is that once it is in the water it weights close to nothing due to the buoyancy of the water.  

Another cool thing cool thing that I learnt is that, you would not need to risk your actual wedding dress being ruined by the nasty chlorene in the pool. You can actually buy an "underwater" bridal gown which is specially made for underwater shoots. It actually safer to shoot in these gowns as they are made to be very light and would not weigh you down when swimming it in. I have seen many of these available on Tao Bao for under S$100. They are pretty long and would make for beautiful movement underwater. 

For this shoot, other than the gear, safety was paramount as I wanted both Joey and Amily to be safe at all times during the shoot. Thankfully my assistant for the day was lifeguard trained and could watch over the couple as I was taking photos. It would also be good if the bride can be somewhat of a stronger swimmer as she would be required to swim in a rather long and bulky dress. 

Lastly, if you are doing it at a condo swimming pool, you will need approvals for the shoot. For us when the management realised that we were going to shoot in the pool itself, they sent the security guards to tell us to stop (We had approval from the owner and not from the management). It was only after much persuasion and convincing that we had a life guard trained person on hand that we were allowed to continue with out shoot, albeit for about 30mins longer before the management office gave firm instructions that we were to end out shoot. Thank God we had all the images we needed and were already very tired anyway. 

These are just some of the thoughts I'd like to share so here are some of the images we managed to capture during this session.  And yes, the photographer needs to be in good shape too. I am not so it was pretty much a workout for me and I was completely hammered after the session. 

Celebrating Jeremy & Kelly ~ Actual Day Wedding

Its always a joyous occasion when you get to attend the wedding of a close friend. I have known Jeremy and Kelly individually for more than 5 years. Kelly was when she was joining my cell group in Church and I was her care group leader tasked to call her as a new comer. Its been a good 6 years since that day in 2009 and Kelly became a core member of the care group helping make an already closely knit architecture cg even closer. I got to know Jeremy in my early days in Genrev cg. I remember fondly when we got together with some friends and had an impromptu photoshoot at chinatown at midnight. It was a crazy time and friendships formed from those days certainly lasted. Even though I have been friends with the couple for this many years, when they approached me one day to say that they wanted me to photograph their wedding I felt so privileged and excited. As a photographer, I get to be an observer and documentarian on a couple's happiest day. For Jeremy and Kelly it was certainly a happy day as you can see from the many smiles and embraces captured in the photographs to follow. It was also a very memorable for me when Kelly thanked me during her speech for being her care group leader. Often times, as a photographer we are flies on the wall and our presence is seldom acknowledged during the course of the day.

Anyway without further ado, please enjoy the images from the Wedding Day of Jeremy & Kelly. 

Photographer: Chris Chang

Videographer: Tanya Lai (Blue Sheep Productions)

Venue: Keppel Club

What's in my camera bag & a "painful" experience

Hi Everyone, just dropping in a post before I get busy with upcoming wedding shoots for the month of May. Its been a busy first month here starting the month with a 2 week long shoot for the SAF followed by various event shoots and meetings with wedding couples. Today I thought I'd talk about the equipment which I use during my wedding shoots. 

Whats in my Camera Bag:

• Canon 5Dmk3
• Canon 6D
• 24mm F1.4
• 35mm F1.4
• 50mm F1.2
• 85mm F1.8
• 100mm F2.8 Macro
• 135mm F2
• Phottix Mitros Speedlight
• Video light Panel
• Glass Prisms
• Black Rapids Double R Strap

As you can see, I bring a good bit of equipment to every wedding and that's because I have chosen use Prime Lenses instead of zoom lenses for my work. Prime lenses are fixed focal length lenses which do not zoom. The advantages of these lenses are the ability to capture images better in low light situation. They are also more capable at producing those dreamy out of focus background shots which work well with my wedding photography style. For most of the day I have the 24mm and 50mm on my 2 cameras and are occasionally interchanged with 35 & 85. The 100mm Macro is used for detail shots  and the 135mm F2 often comes in handy during portrait sessions or when I like to be a little further away from my couple.  

Switching gears a bit, I just had a visit to the chinese chiropractor's clinic aka Sinseh this morning. Had a bout of coughing recently which caused me to strain some muscle in my chest and back which caused me to be in pain when i turn over in bed. Been a while since I received a massage from a sinseh and I must say its one of the most painful experiences I had in recent memory. As I have a wedding this weekend, I thought I'd get myself fixed up before I make it worse. 

Thats all for now folks and will be blogging about the wedding this Saturday really soon!

Shalom!

Chris