Baby Session: Sam

This is a long overdue session, considered as my little gift for this new born. Sam Mama and I are friends and we've been talking about baby stuff when this little one was still in mommy's tummy. When she's born, I have yet to have a chance to  meet her. My promise has been kept and finally, I gotta meet her last weekend.

 

It was a rainy cloudy day, so I was a little worried about the lighting condition. We moved up to Sam Mama's room and were able to manage it with some artificial light (oh well, at least it works, I think). This little princess has been behaving, altho' a little cool. It's really hard to cheer her up.

But she's beautiful (looks like Sam Papa a lot; of course, the pretty version :P)

 

You must be wondering about the family picture. I wanna make sure Sam Papa & Mama aren't too shy to show their faces. Have a nice evening :)

PS - If you have any friends who are interested in having a baby session, please text me. I am working with a couple of photographers on a promo. Cheers!

Wedding Session: Meredith & Andrew

This post has been long delayed. Now my current course is done, so I got sometime to catch up on some shootings, editing and blogging :)

 

This wedding session was taken in the first week of November, the weather was getting cold... lucky to see the blue sky, but still chilly... I dressed pretty toasty and the bride was all up for that. And it's my first time ever to McMaster... it's a beautiful and historic univeristy.

 

Very sweet couple... full of romance....

 

Needless to say, Meredith is such a beautiful bride.

 

It's a very good experience with Meredith and Andrew and my photography friends Tanya and Evelyn. Look forward to the next wedding session (contact me if you're interested in finding out more).

The Fall Colors

Sorry all... this post has been slightly delayed. Today's post is to show what I did for my assignment #1 in the Theory and History class - the Fall colors. The 4 pictures should demonstrate the basic techniques of photography: aperture (wide and small) and shutter (fast and slow). In each of the picture, there are some requirements set as well.

I would like to challenge myself than simply switching the dials to get this done, which was what I did for the Basic course. At first, I was thinking of having my boys be the models. However, that's more challenging that I thought so I gave up after numerous trials. Then, I came up with the idea of leaves. It was quite easy for the slow shutter (bottom right; it looks way much better with my hubby's help posing the leaves on the rock and removing the junks surrounding) and wide aperture (top left).

The most difficult one was the one for fast shutter. My hubby was my assistant and kept on dropping the leaves. The leaves dropped way much faster than I thought. The shutter was set to 1/4000th; the sun got set within minutes and we didn't have enough time to catch the bright light to freeze the falling leaves. We tried the other day with bright sunlight. This time the shutter was set to 1/3200th; pressing the shutter at the right moment. This is what I've got. Pretty happy with it.

Great thanks to my hubby for his support and assistance! hee... the next assignment is coming up shortly :P

Baby Sean

It's been a while that I haven't done any baby session. When I heard my old friends are coming to town for a visit,  I thought it'd be a great chance for me to capture some timeless moments of the little baby... and will take this as my little present for the first time meeting baby Sean.

Plan got changed... weather isn't very nice today. We each got our nap session instead :P We altered the plan slightly by taking some shots here and there when we met up in the evening.

We had a great time. And it's nice to see almost half of my bridal party here tonight, with some new additions :)

My birthday...

It was my xth birthday yesterday... nothing much planned. Took my boy for his swimming class... got breakfast at Mac's and the Little Monkie #2 spilled the whole bottle of milk on the floor. Afterwards, Little Monkie #1 asked if he could go over to grannies' place for some fun time. Of course :) Unfortunately, Little Monkie #2 who had been whining for the whole morning got to stay home.

Thanks to my hubby for taking me out to the Riverwood Conservancy for the Art in the Park event. They had a few artists there show casing their beautiful pieces; there were also musicians there playing guitars, singing songs, etc. We took one of the picnic tables and enjoyed our lunch. We also got a chance to take some pictures. It's been a while that I haven't taken any of the flower & faux.

The above was taken in between the intermitten raining. I got a couple other shots submitted to the Picture This photo contest organized by Mississauga News. Will see how it goes... anyhow, I had a relaxed and joyful afternoon. That's all it matters.

What about the evening? We went to a Korean restaurant for Teppanyaki and the boys (esp for Little Monkie #1) enjoyed it. It concluded with a bday song from the boys with a couple of pastry daddy got from d/t. Also need to mention that they also made a cake for me with playdoh and toy fries & chips the night before, when we had dinner at my friends' place. It's a nice surprise :)

The Big Day of Amy & Thomas

I was honoured to be one of the guests at this joyful wedding of Amy & Thomas. It's a beautiful day, cheerful bridal party and cute ringboy & flower girls.

Sweet sweet...

Disappointed... then melted...

This is the 2nd week since Little Monkie #1 is in full-day JK. I've been flipping thru' cook books and googling online for lunch ideas, treat ideas, etc. Thought that it may be a good idea to start baking something healthy. Found the X'mas tree baking pan from the bottom of the drawer last night when I was prep'g some banana raisins muffins, so I thought he might be more excited to eat a tree. He likes banana, raisin and has requested treats with some rice krispies. Shouldn't go wrong... Smelled good, tasted good... at least daddy thought so and I thought so. Happily packed 3 of them and put them into his lunch bag. I got a couple packed for Little Monkie #2 as well.

To my surprise... my Little Monkie #1 didn't touch them. Wait... a minor correction... he did have a small bite... see the one on top? That's the one he bited. Quite disappointed...  as a matter of fact, he's not a fan of muffins (the ones from Starbucks may be an exception). Unlike his bro Little Monkie #2, he could finish almost the whole muffin by himself. Little Monkie #1 was really hungry after school and asked for the left over rice from lunch. We ended up taking him to M for a Happy Meal; needless to say, he's become a Happy Boy.

When he got home, we went upstairs to change. He's all ready to go back down for TV time. He hold my cheeks with both of his hands, kissing mommy's left cheek, then nose, then forehead and xoxo... all melted.

Shortly after, I left home to pick up Little Monkie #2. Got disappointed again that the treats were still untouched... he said he's saving it. He really meant it! As soon as he took off his shoes after coming home, he opened his little bag then his little lunch box, hold the X'mas trees one in each of his hands. When he got them done, he found the rubbermaid that keeps the rest and took one that's a regular size. It ended up being in his tummy.

Mommy's all happy now :)

A Special Day of My Little Monkey #1

4 years ago, our first baby Little Money #1 was born. 4 years have been past, it's his first day of JK. Mommy's so proud of him that he didn't cry, in fact, he was so excited of going with a smiley face. He's such a big boy now :)

After school we brought him over to his homecare to pick up Little Monkey #2, as well as having a little party for him with his homecare friends. Grannies came over for dinner with his fav pasta; mommy made a hamburger like soccer ball cake, as per his request that has been continuing on for a few months.

 

Mommy also made some small treats for his daycare party. I guess this batch looks way better :P And Little Monkey #2 has requested for a Mater cake. Umm... I still have a good few months to watch youtube... lol...

CNE - The EX

The annual event that ends the summer is here once again. The last time I went was ages ago and I didn't find it fun at all - it's only the rides. This year, when my friend asked me if I would be interested in going with her and her family, I was a bit hesitated. Well... with the Ontario Sci Centre membership discount... and the 2 monkies haven't met their friends for long, let's do that and we're glad that we went.

Our first time ever - had fun for 12 hours straight; we're still on the street at 10pm. Lots of going ons - farm, rides, drawing, park, food, singing, hitting the drums, dancing near by the stage, experiencing the fire hose, on the fire truck, in the police uniform, on and on... Lots of walking too... we're all exhausted at the end and we didn't even have a chance to have a peek in the halls.

Oh well.. next year... I start missing the hot waffle ice cream sandwich... what a great way to end it... yummm :)

Lambo

Not about photography today... just to share with you an interesting experience we had. My hubby and I went out for dating this evening. When we headed into the restaurant, we eyed on the Lambo. The car owner went out at the same time. We were lucky to sit at the window, had the super nice car accompanied and saw the car owner getting prepared for the dark cloudy weather. I was ignorant and thought it could be done automatically like a convertible Mercedes-Benz. In fact, it had to be done bit by bit, part by part. The picture on the right was taken 10-15 minutes after. We wonder what's going to happen if it's gonna rain when he's on the highway...

While we're enjoying our dinner, there're lots of pedestrians passed by. Our stats:

All women, except 1, don't care about this Lambo - they simply passed by;
All men, except 1, turned around and looked at this Lambo - like they would see a hot girl;
All cars, with a man in the car, would slow down or even turn around, for this Lambo;
There were also people stopped by, took pictures or even walked across the street for IT.

In fact, it's a great looking car.

Lisa and Alex - the English couple who got married 30 times, around the world

Photo credit: zonanueve studios

Today, I'll be adding a new blog: I do, I do, I do onto My Fav. I've seen this couple's names on the paper, on the news recently, because of the amazing idea that they have. And the fact is - they got it executed. So what did they do?They've been travelling around the world since last summer and get married at different places.

I was on their blog and FB today and was inspired by the gorgeous wedding pictures taken for them, sponsored by the photographers around the world. The one shown above was taken at monestary in Arequipa, Peru. It's beautiful!

Homemade Blueberry Ice-Cream

What's better than a get-together with friends on a long weekend... today we had a pot luck with close friends. Wait... what about the paper airplanes that I've mentioned in my previous post? I was thinking of having some fun time to fly paper planes with them, as well as the chance to take some shots in fast shutter speed. We still made a few paper planes; it's quite windy tho' so the plan didn't quite work out.

So I gave up and started to prep the blueberry ice-cream for the pot luck. A couple of days ago, I accidentally got this recipe. A friend of friend on FB was making some blueberry ice-cream and got a picture up. I thought it's my friend, so I jumped into the conversation and asked for the recipe. She's very nice and shared me the link. So here it comes the yummy ice-cream in my fav purple color. I will definitely try it again. Lov' it!

Thanks to Jane, the nice girl who shared me the recipe :)

Dedicated to My Hubby

Tomorrow is my hubby's last day at the current company. So I've made some treats for him to bring back for his co-workers. During the past festive season, I made them some classic kid treats - rice krispy. Instead of cutting them into squares, I didn't melt the mashmallows completely, such that they're more chewy. And I rolled them into small balls, also mixed in a bit of dried cranberries on some of them. Surprisingly, his co-workers got them all finished shortly. 

This time, it's mostly the same ingredients, just a bit of variations on the shape. I had fun making them and enjoyed the time to shoot them afterwards :)

Here I would like to wish my hubby luck on his new endeavour!!

PS - stay tune for the next post on paper airplane :)

Engagement Session: Kat & Gareth

This is a delayed session for this lovely couple, in fact, unique... they were first arranged to volunteer to be the models for one of our assignments. Unfortunately, there was slight change of the plan. And now, the course is done; we're happy to have this re-arranged. Needless to say, I'm happy to work with our group members, Janine & Rob again.

Fab weather, lots of laughters, fun & sweet couple (why are they unique... 'coz of their special way of communication... haha...)... was able to shoot some flower & faux, the long missed insects & flowers during the short break.

Kat & Gareth: thanks for having us to capture the timeless, pure and joyful moments of yours. Happy wedding planning!!

Catherine & Robert - Wedding Shoot

Friday, July 20 is the BIG day of Catherine & Robert.

I tagged along with Emma Masterman to capture their timeless sweet moments.

Sunny day. Photogenic bride. Lots of laughters & love & kisses. A perfect union.

Must be a good day today...

I'm excited!!! Got some good news today

and going to see my friends at a wedding this afternoon, at a country club.

Nice weather today, just a bit windy... well better to be in a hot & humid day.

Got my gear ready... doing last minute fun shots with my hello kitty bride and ring...

As my instructor Bob said, "diamonds are never easy to do..." he's right.

I spent the last half hour on these and here is what I've got:

A close up...

Ring on the bouquet...

Too bad that the resolution suffers when the pix got uploaded...

Bunnies

On Sunday morning, the whole family has become soooo excited. We've seen new born bunnies... one two threee four five... there were 5 of them sleeping in the alley of our house & our neighbours'. Bunny mommy wasn't there... so we got a diaper box to protect them from the birds and other animals. My two monkies kept on checking them out at the window, watched them crawling around. Their eyes weren't even opened yet (I mean the bunnies' eyes). They knew where each of them were and relied on each other.

My neighbours were out for the whole day. When they're back and found it out, it's already at 1am, while I was doing my ironing. We were wondering if there's anything that we could do or should do to protect those little lives. Finally, we've decided - let it be. They're wild lives and bunny mommy would be worried if her little babies have disappeared.

This morning when my hubby left home for work, the bunnies were all gone. What has happened in between the few hours? Who knows? We could only hope for the best. Life - you will never know what's going to happen the next minute. Cherish every single moment that you're encountering... good or bad, up and down, so there will be no regrets.

To Live at the Present Moment...

Fun Shot

Woohoo... the wedding photography course is now over. This blog was originally set up as part of the assignments and now the marking is done and I'm planning to keep it on.

Over the weekend, we went up to Collingwood for a short getaway. It's a fun trip and I've got a chance to have a feel of my new baby 24-70mm f2.8 in low light condition (see the above stinky feet and hand of my two monkies... I was going to find a baby hand shot of my monkey #1 to sit it side by side, but failed... sadly). It's a very nice lens, just that I need to work on my muscle.

Keep following... as I have a few photo sessions scheduled this summer: 2 baby, 1 engagement and 1 wedding. If you're interested in having me to capture the timeless moments of yours, send me an email to inquire for the details. To have a sneak peak of my work, visit my FB page at Gigi Fan Photography. You could also click on the link under the My Favs gadget.

Current Trend of Wedding Venue

Last time, we talked about where newly weds like to host their banquets in these days. Is banquet hall still their choice? The other day I've read an interesting article that has suggested new places that people can consider... barns, parks, golf courses, etc.


Believe it or not... art performance centres/museums are on the list too. They can now cater weddings. The ones within the GTA accept wedding banquet reservations include: Art Gallery of Ontario, Living Arts Centre (shown in the picture), Sony Center for the performing arts and Burlington Art Centre.  This sounds unique... with a bit of art essence added onto your wedding day.


Not an artistic person and prefer the water theme? No problem, choices are there for you to pick. Consider the Spencer's at the Waterfront, cruises in Toronto or the Atlantis Pavilions.


Overall, be creative and call the venues on your dream list... have a chat with them and there may be nice surprises. Good luck to all the bride- & groom-to be on their big day planning!

2012 Oakville Family Ribfest

Yummy yummy yummy... the past weekend (June 22 thru 24) was the Oakville Family Ribfest organized by the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar. Numerous award winning rib vendors there. Is that the only thing about this rib fest? Of course not, that's why it's so much FUN to be there. There were lots of bouncing castles, face painting, entertainment on the stage and they are all free. There must be something there to make your family members at all ages being happy there.


Wait wait wait... are we missing something here? Why's there a cupcake showing in the picture? Y-E-S... other than the ribbers, there are also vendors selling corn on the cob, ice cream, funnel cakes, fried bananas, blooming onions, lollipops and... cupcakes. The one featured here is the Margarita Lime by Sweet Temptations Cupcakery. Wooo... mouth-watering... hee...  this year, they've brought us other favors including: Chocoholics Anonymous, Pink Lemonade, Fresh Ontario Strawberry, Peanut Butter Chocolate and Cookies & Cream. Amazing... 

After this fun- and food-filled fest, we're all happy and mom can skip a cooking evening. What a wonderful day!

p.s. Thanks to Katie from Sweet Temptations Cupcakery presenting us the nice cupcake :)

Wedding season... let's begin...

Woohoohoo... this year's wedding season must have commenced. We have received our first invite (nicely designed, like it) from the lovely couple Amy & Thomas. They've been dating for a long long time; we're happy to see their big day has finally announced. The ceremony will be hosted nearby the Bronte Harbour and the reception will be at a convention centre within the area.


Umm... I'm wondering what the current trend of wedding reception is. Would there be more options than the traditional wedding banquet halls? Let me check it out this evening... see if I would have something to share with you all within the next few days.

Please never say these to me, a Photographer...

This is an interesting one that I just found from my friend's FB page. That reminds me what my facial expression was, when I called around for quotes intended for my wedding photography... it was way back in 5 years ago.

After knowing more about photography, I now understand why there are photographers who charge you for $$$$$ - they deserve it; particularly for wedding photography, it's a once in a life moment, no re-take can be done. You have to be talented and experienced enough to know when to click the 'button' at the right second... not a second off... Without the numerous practices, you just can't do it. Can we do this with an auto-mode? Maybe you can have a few lucky shots...

Looking at some of the bullets mentioning about the big names, it has made me laughed... 'coz I were at those places before. Would I go back again? haha... never ever...

Engagement: Ida & Paul

Sunday mornings are usually the time that my hubby and me taking our 'little Monkey B' to swimming class. May 27 was an exception, mommy has to skip class for her own class assignment.

I did my first ever engagement shoot with my great group members, Janine & Rob. It was a great experience... no complaint about the weather at all. Lucky to have the sweetest couple helping us out... lots of fun, lots of kisses, lots of love = lots of beautiful pix.

Ida & Paul, here I wish you the best of luck in the next stage of your life. Happy together :)