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

Bitter and Sweet are actually 2 opposing flavours in life. I never thought too much of that but it suddenly struck me when I got this email from a bride-to-be who had called earlier yesterday but I was already booked for her wedding day. I’m posting the email here, but I’ve taken out the names

Just wanted to email and thank you for sharing your images online. Was quite surprised by the emotions I felt in looking at your photographs and how I could identify some of the moments I’ve witnessed at other weddings, like when the aunties are looking at the bride’s dress and admiring the details, or when there’s a happy but self-conscious look on the bride’s face when the make up/ transformation is done. Makes me excited to be marrying and warmed at the thought of the many emotions that day will be filled with.

Am sad that you’re already booked on the xth of December. It’s been a journey of hope and then disappointments with being really glad that Wes might take the photos and then hearing that he’s not coming back, then getting his email with recommendations today only to realise that you’re booked too. Hopefully I’ll get to engage you some day. How much do you charge for family shoots? In any case, wanted to thank you for what you do. Will check back with your website/blog now and then to get a “fix”!

God bless,
L

When I read the mail, it was one of those bitter/sweet moments for me. I left the corporate world – giving up a stable, (reasonably!)well-paying job, sacrificing family time and life as I knew then to do something that I thought could make a difference to others. Seeing a mail like this – from someone whom I’ve not even shot for – makes all that work worthwhile. If only the date of the wedding was different, I could’ve tried to make a difference too for this wedding. But I guess that’s life – bitter and sweet comes together

So “L”, if you’re reading this, I’m really grateful for the mail, and also for your friend’s call after that. Thank you for your thank yous. I will continue to work hard at my craft, at stringing together the emotions of the day in the best way I know how. I hope that whomever you eventually find to document your wedding day will strive to do the same for you.

has happened the past couple of days. It’s been a pretty eventful week to say the least. I also took a 1 day break from clearing Jan backlogs to reflect on where my photography is going. I’ve wanted to do that for a while now because I’ve started to see my work stay stagnant.

Caught up with Wes yesterday as well and started reminiscing about the old AC days again….haha…I think AC people tend to do that when we meet – as if time stood still . Had quite a long chat about photography too and I really learnt a lot about shooting for myself, my identity when creating images from him.

Anyway, I also spent a large part of this week seeing the doctors for my bad knee. I may have a torn meniscus (again!) so it was off to an MRI scan yesterday. It was not too bad, I actually had 20 minutes of complete shuteye . Going to see the doc today again for a review.

Other than that, I managed this week to shoot 2 bridals and edit a couple of Jan weddings. Not too bad, all in all. An eventful week, like I said .

Here are a couple of pics from this week’s bridals…I’m so happy that it’s going to be shown in Hong Kong! Yippee

It was quite tough waking up really early (well, not that early lah – 5am ) to cover weddings again after a 2-week hiatus. I’m still feeling sleepy right now. I will remember this wedding for the anxious groom – Hock Leong – who kept calling to see if we were ready in the morning before he came-a-gatecrashing, and for the bride who actually prepared his gatecrash . And oh, also for the hour-long hunt for the hand corsages! Anyway, here’s some photos from the morning…gotta rush off now for the dinner!