it's not the pictures, it's the memories.

My last 2 actual day weddings before Chinese New Year were amazingly chill-out types. Nicholas and Rachel tied the knot on Saturday whilst Chris and Tonya did theirs on Sunday at One Rochester (More about that in a separate post).

Nic and Rachel’s day started like any other wedding – with the usual gatecrash and tea ceremonies but dinner was a different affair altogether because they invited only friends for a chill-out dinner where everyone could let their hair (and whatever other parts) down at Grand Shanghai. 

It was also one of those dinners where I bumped into many people I got to know from other weddings – there was Sonya whom I’m shooting in Bali in March, a lot of the guys were groomsmen at Jeff and Siew’s wedding and also met one of Michelle’s bridesmaids. In fact, Rachel is a colleague of Yin who’s the wife of one of my best buddies – although that’s not how Rachel got to know about me. Talk about 6 degrees of separation!

Anyway, the energy and fun was quite apparent as I looked through the photos so here’s a compilation of the day’s photos in a slideshow.

Oh, and as for the relatives..Nic and Rachel had to do another banquet the next night. I’m glad I didn’t have to cover that – it would’ve been table and group shots galore .

Click on the image below to view the slideshow…Enjoy

2 more weddings this weekend and I get a chance to catch up on work through Feb. I’m near the end of editing all the images for the last wedding of 2007, but there are slideshows and albums still outstanding. And there are still Jan weddings…

I think I must be getting old – I was just sitting there playing with the kids and when I stood up, the back of my knee started to hurt – in fact, it’s hurting like hell now. I can’t even walk properly. Please Please Please let me be able to walk properly for tomorrow’s shoot *fingers, toes crossed*

Training as officer cadets in the army many years ago, I was inculcated with the notion that the mind is a very powerful tool that can overcome all odds. We were drilled to push ourselves beyond what we perceived as our own physical limits to achieve what we never thought be possible before.

I very much carried that sort of dogged determination after graduating as an officer – during tough exercises, through uni, work and very much everything that I try to do.

It’s a little disheartening that I am sometimes not able to apply that when it comes to wedding day photography. I do get mentally thrown off once in a while when combinations of difficult conditions present themselves repeatedly, and so suddenly that it requires me to recompose and reorganise in a very short amount of time. Repeat this, say 4-5 times in a tough shoot and it can be quite mentally draining.

I spent a lot of time today battling some pretty tough conditions – very low light, lots of people, fairly enclosed spaces and avoiding people with cameras who were all competing for the same kinds of angles. In a way, I think I’ve improved - spent a little less time mulling over lost moments and recovering faster to capture new ones.

Today’s wedding was the long-awaited one of Chai Meng and Jolene. They are very good clients, who has been looking out for me ever since they signed up. I know Jolene is a very regular visitor to my blog (hor?) . Chai Meng is a regular with the RSN, so he should know a thing or two about overcoming odds!

As they say in the army, it’s all mind over matter.

Here are the pics from the morning session…more images are here

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