Today, I booked a big studio to do a family portrait with this big family group of 15 people… since home session just cannot fit!  We had great fun!

So happy to see my old clients from Happymoments.net, … old meaning, I’ve met them six years ago when I was designing their wedding march-in video.  After 6 years, they are now celebrating their 6th wedding anniversary with their 4 years old boy at the same hotel they held their wedding at.  The session was very fun as their boy was super adorable and friendly.  He was very creative and took part in directing the family poses for the session too.  Oh.. i love seeing old friends and clients!

It always feels good to see old clients again.   I’ve done their session around 1.5 year ago.  Now they have another baby boy and wish to capture him at six months old….i.e.: same time they gave his brother a session. I always learn from my clients of how to become a caring good mother.  And this mother is surely one of the good examples I learned from.  :) It’s with the care of loving and offering both children equally. We even took shots against the same background so that both of them have the same thing.  I thought that was a very loving gesture, all from the mother’s heart.

More details to be posted soon.

Today, is Mrs. Chong’s 60th birthday!  It was a very warm event as all the grand children, family members and close friends were here.   It was a very well-planned evening by her children and I can feel Mrs. Chong is very loved by every one who knows her.   I was honored to take part in taking pictures for them for the night.

More details to be posted soon.

Details coming soon.

Today, I photographed the baptism ceremony for a 6 months old boy at the St. John’s Cathedral on this bbeeeautiful sunny day.  The ceremony is followed by a cocktail reception at the courtyard.  I will share with you the photos shortly.

Today, I went to shoot for a 7 year old boy’s birthday party at YMCA.  A challenging wall climbing session was offered to the children guests and they all had great fun!  More details to be posted soon.

Today, I was photographing for a 2 year old girl’s birthday party at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel.  The party theme was Winnie-the-Pooh and the event organizer Kareena from Personalizestuff.com did a really good job.  The whole party was very well planned and beautifully decorated. All the guests had a great time.  Besides taking picture for the party, I also helped the guests and families take some family portraits on the spot and give them instant photos to take home for memory.  This is a new service that I had been carrying at parties.

Today, I had an in-home pregnancy session with a 32 weeks mother.  More details to be shared with you soon.

Today, I went to photograph for a 1 year old sweet boy’s birthday party held at the Aberdeen Marina Club.  There was so much to share and I will post this one up soon!!

Today, I was invited by ACA (again.. yes, they love me haha) to help them take some photos of a birthday party they’ve organized for their Good Parenting Project users. The birthday party took place at McDonald!!!   Tell you frankly, I’ve NEVER been to a McDonald birthday party before.  When I was a kid, I always dream to have a McDonald birthday party.  All those birthday hats, gifts, and meal sets look all very attractive to me.  Since back in those days, having birthday parties was a luxury for kids, I never thought of asking to have one nor been invited to one.  I  can’t believe after xx years now, I am finally invited to one!

The party includes around 12 birthday babies who are born in the month of September to December.  There were more than 20 families whom attended the party and everyone enjoyed the food (which you can order like a buffet, thanks to ACA), the games, the cake cutting, and the chatting and sharing times.  I of course enjoyed the kids!  There were so many smiling faces there!

I finally had my ‘first time’!  I enjoyed it alot!I can’t remember how many years I had my birthday lunch at McDonald (well that WAS my favorite back then and when my mom ask me where to go on my birthday, I would scream “McDonald” with my sister!).   I still remember collecting all of the 漢堡神偷 (Hamburglar) souveniers, as he was my favorite character.    滑嘟嘟 (Grimace) is my second favorite! After my lunch, my mom and dad would let us play at the McDonald playground for a loooong time.

Today, I joined with 突破十九 to do some instant portraits to fund-raise for the under-privilege children via this Halloween Party!  It was real fun!  I will post more details to share with you soon.

Today, I was really really excited to have been invited by HKFB to help their members take some family portraits.  This lovely lady Obi contacted me thru Ho-sum.org few months ago as she thought it would be nice to give some family portraits for their members.  As their members are all visually impaired, thus, their children rarely have the chance to take family portraits.  I thought this was a very meaningful idea and I was all up for this!

Obi arranged over 10 dress-ups and costumes for the children to put on for the photo session.  She even arranged a professional makeup artist to help the kids do the hair and makeup.  I shot for 8 hours straight and I was still super hyper and clicking my shutters non-stop till the last session.  I really enjoyed kids from the 4yo-9yo range. They are so full of character and personality. During the session, the kids were so keen to learn photography and wanted to try shooting themselves. I gave them my camera, gave them few quick instructions (such as how to turn the lens to zoom), and they ended up directing the shoot within minutes.  They already observed how I did it, so they just regurgitate what was seen.  They directed the model, told them how to pose, help them fix their dress, told them what expressions to make etc..  It was totally funny and I truly enjoyed looking at them shooting their way.  They looked like mini art directors or fashion stylist to me.   Too bad I didn”t have a second camera with me that day otherwise I would definitely snap the scene and show you.  Frankly speaking, their works rock!   Some of them, you can’t tell the difference whether it was I who shot it or them :P

I hope I can teach them some day!   I always have the idea that it would be so good if I could have a team of photographers who are either all children, all 更生人仕, or all youths, who can go out with me to service the community as a professional team. It would be such a nice concept and I think it would be loads of fun!

I basically shot over 1800 photos today, for 11 families.. around 45 mins photo session each.  Loads and loads to post process!
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Well, not exactly an orphanage I guess, it was Mother’s Choice.   A place with many babies waiting for loving parents to take them home permanently, as well as a place with many single pregnant young girls for training, consultations, counciling  and nurturing care.   I had shot for MC 2 years ago for their annual report.  This time, they wanted to have some diversified shots around their hostel and center so that they can use the photos for their annual report.  I must say, I was DEEPLY INSPIRED by their Wee Care center.  Wee Care is a place where there are many cute cute special needs babies, waiting for a home. The room has around 30 babies in a room, with experienced volunteers playing with them and looking after them all day long.  I met a cute cute boy, he was sooo adorable and was a super model in front of the camera, posing and smiling, and playing with his feet in the cradle.  I took dozen of portraits of him!  As these babies are all categorized as children ‘under the government’, I was not allow to post or disclose any photos with their face from the shoot to the public.  I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). It is good to know these babies’ privacy are protected and I am more than happy to abide to their requirement.

Anyway, I really missed the babies there.  While I was in the playroom with around 10 < 1.5 yo babies, they were crawling to me from all directions and were very interested in my camera (not me probably :P ).  But it feels so good that I was surrounded by babies.   I should have been a kindergarten teacher!  The babies there all love taking photos.  I proposed to MC if I could help them do some real real portraits (in dress-up costumes! hee heeh.. ) just for their memories and some fun-time.  Wouldn’t it be nice if their adoptive parents still have some records of their adopted child at different age with some professional baby portraits as memories (despite the fact that they were not there with them during that time)?  I think these children shouldn’t miss out what other children have for their childhood phase, such as, a set studio childhood photos!

If you are a parent or a children lover and  interested  in volunteering for MC, please sign up their online volunteer form.  They need volunteers who could commit regularly.  Or if you like what they do, make some donations :)

More details to be posted soon.

I was invited to take some event snaps for this parents sharing meeting held at the Christian Family Service Centre (CFSC).  It involves many participant families from the Good Parenting Project (GPP) organized by Against Child Abuse (ACA).  And when I arrived, wow!!  Babies everywhere… all < 1 year old. The youngest was only 80 days!   I wish I had my portable studio and proper gears (backdrops + softbox etc..) with me so I could take more formal portraits of these lovely babies and families, as this was the perfect occasion to offer them some quick family portraits to keep.  I guess this opportunity would come again soon as they might host a family camp in December.  Anyway, I took many cute portraits of the events, will share with you soon.

Many cute babies, home-made birthday cakes, and baby talks everywhere (coz almost all are < 18 months old).  I notice babies can REALLY communicate among themselves. It is amazing to hear them talking.   It was a friendly and cozy party!  and we even did a mini cake smashing session outside.  More photos to share with you soon.

I was invited by BGCA to help take some shots for their annual report this year.

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It was so fun to spend time with these two super cute boys today.  We’ve done some in-home shots plus some shots down at their swimming pool and playground.  More photos to be posted soon.

This little girl… it is like watching her grow.  I had a session with her when she was around 8 months old…. now she is no longer a baby but a beautiful young lady with the cutest expressions and attractive personality.  Today, is also her first time to try ice-cream.  Milestone captured!  More photos would be posted soon.

More details of this birthday party to be posted soon.

Another sweetie…

Lovely moment…

I love outdoor parties.  I just like shooting in daylight!   Today, this lovely darling turns 3 and her mom had amazingly prepared this wonderful birthday party for her.  All her guests had fun running around in this open space and playground.   More photos to be shared with you soon.

Today, I was invited to document this 2 year old baby girl’s birthday party.  This is the 3rd time I photographed her as her beautiful mom just had an in-home pregnancy and newborn session with me few weeks ago (she had a baby boy!)  Besides having loads of toys, drawing pads, games, and yummy food for the party guests, her mom also wanted me to setup a portable studio at her party venue so that I can help her guests take some family photos!   I loved this idea so much!  The guests were very excited about the idea (including the kids) and I’ve captured many families that day.   I will share some photos with you all soon.

Today, I had an in-home session with a friendly family of four with 2 wonderful boys (3.5 yo and 9 yo). The session could not have been so amazing without their daddy’s help. Some children psychology techniques went into the session and I am amazed by their daddy’s skills with his boys! I basically got all the sibling and family shots that I wanted to captured for them. Alot of times, the essence and beauty you see from my works should be credited to my client instead of me. All my clients are really amazing people!

I just returned from my 4 day expedition trip organized by The Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention (SRACP) to China (連南縣). There were 31 of us (volunteers and social workers) in total and our focus was to play games with children, visit their homes, bring them some stationeries gift kits, donate blankets, inspect where the donated money went, and talk to the principals and understand each school’s needs so that SRACP could source more financial / material donations to make improvements. The two specific schools we placed emphasis on were located in very rural area. Due to their location, the children there rarely receive donations or volunteer visits / care. One of them is 后洞小學 (in which we also visited last year) and we had to hike 45 minutes to reach the school as it is located at the top of a hill. Another, is 盤石小學, which is 2.5 hour ride from our hotel.

After visiting these two schools, we were all very satisfied as it was a total success especially the 2nd day with 盤石小學. All the games went on smoothly and you can hear children’s laughter and children running to us smiling everywhere. We played many traditional nostalgic games in which many of you might have forgotten already… such as 掉手巾，麻鷹捉雞仔，放紙飛機，有隻雀仔跌落水，跳大繩，踏氣球，二人三足 etc.. (sorry i had to type in Chinese as i don’t have the name in English for some). While playing with them, it makes us children again. Happiness really can be so simple. The contrast of this world with our materialistic city makes me think whether we are really advancing as we claimed.

Today, I did an in-home family session with one of my high school friends from Toronto. Well, another very GOOD high school friend of mine had bought them a family photo session as a gift for the arrival of their new baby few months ago. Their baby girl is now 5 months old. It is so great that I get to catchup updates of each other while shooting. I will prepare and post some photos up to show you soon (actually, i just had a client who asked me why I don’t update my blog with photos for every post..sorry guys for keeping you all waiting for the blog’s ’soon’ photos… time had always been an issue for me.. there are so many things i wanted to do, but so little time!).

Today, I had an in-home session with a super cooperative and beautiful 14 days old baby boy! He was such a joy to work with and I owe him big on this! This little buddy was awake most of the time, but he was nice and calm, with quite a lot of expressions for a 14 day old! A special thanks to his wonderful mom for helping out throughout the session with all the posing and set :), thank you!!! Great photos will be shared here soon!.. aah. can’t wait to post!

The more I shoot birthday parties, the more I love it! Mainly because it is a place filled with ALOT of beautiful kids and loving parents. It is also a place where all the parents are having good times with their children. Family love basically fills the air. Every time I witness a loving relationship in front of my eyes, it warmed up my heart. And I would try my best to capture these moments for myself and for my subjects to remember. This party was held at a clubhouse and some details include giant bouncy castle, hand painting, puppet show, as well as a beautiful birthday cupcake tree.  More photos to be share with you all soon.

More details and photos to be posted soon.