39 East

hi kuang

i am sure you will do a fabulous job and we certainly hope we can help you win the award....

btw, do you know which couple we are??
 


Hi Kuang!! Congrats!!!!! and i am not suprise at all!! cos u are good!

anyway, just saw ur mail.. okie, will contact u soon, as we just back not long, trying to get all the stuffs in place.

Congrats once again, and keep it up!!!
 
Kuang congrats! I am looking forward to your fab shoots on my weddin this yr Oct!
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Dear Friends of Pentaserve Photography
For those of you who are looking for photojournalistic wedding photography for the following weekends, 21&22nd May and 28&29th May, we are pleased to inform you that the couples whose weddings were on those dates have shifted their wedding forward [and back] and I am now available for those dates.
Pentaserve Photography will also be representing Nic Ong, a photojournalistic wedding photographer, so if you are looking for spontaneous wedding photography with a twist of fine art thrown in, please feel free to call or email us to find out more about his photography. We have a sample album of his for viewing at our studio.
In the meantime, to all the couples, best wishes in your planning process.
 
hi babu!
wah, u found yrself a part-time job as kuang's PA ah? haha!

i noe he'll only be back in may. i jus hopin to see more of his works frm other brides so that i can decide mah. veri confused leh. dunno which photographer better. somemore i trying to budget leh.
 
Hi babu,

Saw your photos at kuang place.... love it.... seems like u had a very grand wedding at Beaufort.... do u mind i kpo and ask how much it cost??? me having wedding at Beaufort too and would like to know how much to dress the place up....
by the way, do u know where kuang went and when is he coming back??? trying very hard to contact him.... sorry for asking u some many question
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and Hi Zen, are u a kai bride too..... saw your post there..... i had a hard time deciding which photographer to take initially but decide on kuang.... feel that his photo has a very different feel to it....... it's defintely worth it......
 
Hey Babu, how are you? Sorry i missed you guys when you dropped by the other day. I should really be offering you a very well paid job as director of PR for Pentaserve Agencies.

Anyway, after 21 long days I am finally back from in camp training. Apologies to everyone who has been trying to get in touch with me. Was out in the wilderness without cellphone signals, so staying in touch was a little difficult for me.

Little eyes, I'll send you an email right away.

Zen, the best advice I can give regarding picking a photographer is that his works should excite you..make you go wow or stir some emotion from you. I personally believe the most important thing is that the picture should be meaningful to you and the photographer's work is something you can relate to.

It's really hard to compare in terms of better or worse photographer because each person's taste and each photographer's style is really different. People who like my work generally love photojournalism and the way in which photojournalistic images are captured. People who prefer traditional wedding photography probably wouldn't touch my work with a 10 foot pole.

But both of them can be equally beautiful. I have seen works of trditional wedding photographer that i love but would probably not emulate due to a difference in style. I don't think they are worse photographers. they just have a different style. So the trick is just to find a photographer that suits your style.

Minhue, can you email your number to me at [email protected] I'll give you a call right away. soory for being away for so long.
 
hi minhue,
sorry i missed ur post.. will pm u for all questions u asked
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Hi Kuang,
Welcome back! We are fine, we just sold our house and busy moving now..
We still owe u and julie one dinner!! kekeke.. will arrange with u guys b4 we out of town again.. anyway, thank u so much of the album again.. meanwhile pls take care and send my best to julie (she seem to lose abit of weight)kekeke..
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catch up soon..
 
Hi everybody, sorry for being out of touch for so long. Life has been very very busy with some other photography projects besides weddings.

Babu are you moved into your new place? How is your new house coming along? I hope the both of you are doing well.

Jessica, yup, got the ticket, just have to sort out the hotel now. Am looking forward to a beautiful wedding.

With regards to pre wedding [we do get quite a few couples asking], I don't do very much of pre wedding photography because my specialization is in photojournalistic actual day photography. We do recommend The Pond and In'Vogue for pre wedding photography because I feel they do it way better than I do. Would I do pre wedding in the future? Perhaps, but right now I'm having too much fun shooting actual day weddings and trying to take my skills to a higher level. It's kinda hard to go in two directions at one time.

Well, gotta run, but hope everyone is doing well and see all of you soon.
 
A Wedding Workshop and BIG NEWS

Dear Friends of Pentaserve Photography, for those of you who are getting married in 2006, we are glad to announce an upcoming wedding workshop on Sunday July 31st in Poppi's at Fort Canning. For more details on the workshop, please go to
http://www.heavens-gift.com/workshop/
For those of you who are interested in attending the workshop, I will be giving a talk on what wedding photojournalism is all about and on getting the most out of your wedding photography budget. During the workshop, we'll also discuss the types of wedding albums available on the market and what makes for a qulity wedding album. If you're interested, please visit the site to find out more and to sign up.

The other BIG NEWS is that as of 1st January 2006, Pentaserve Photography will have a name change and be known as 39 East. The change in name reflects a move towards even higher end products and taking bigger steps towards realizing my vision of wedding photography as fine art. Finalized pricing for 2006 as well as a new new website will be available on 1st September 2006. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you wish to find out more about the changes coming with 39 East. Till then, happy planning everyone and hope to see all of you soon.
 
hi verylastminute,

all except for 'jessica & yusdi' folder. All my Actual day picture are taken by him. Hope this helps.


cheers,
Jessica
 
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for the info. I'm engaging Kuang as my photographer as well, but not quite sure what to expect. The albums he showed us looked fabulous, but then again, those couples are really good-looking. :-)
 
hi jessica,

yr pixs are beautiful!!!! can i check wif u are the potraits pix taken by kuang too? cos i thot kuang doesn't take posed pics? and some of the pix in the preparation like the veil covering u & yr hubby is it a posed pic? look so romantic.
 
hi jessica,

saw your pictures earlier. they're beautiful!
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we went to check out kuang's work during the early wedding prep stage... and boy, i must say his skills and techniques are great! he brings in another style of wedding photography.
 
hi jessica,

check wif u, did u make special request to take the posed pics? cos when i signed up wif kuang, he told me tat he doesn't take posed pics. and if we wan posed pics, we've got to get another photographer. tats why i decided to do PS. in order to hv some portrait shots wif hubby. is it becos yours is AD is overseas tats y he's willing to do posed pics for u?
 
Hi Jessica, thanks for all the kind words you have for me.

Hi Zen, just to clarify the situation, Jessica booked with us quite a long time ago, when I was just starting out here in Singapore. When she did book with us, our contract did not have a clause that limited posed photography, so to honor that contract I went ahead to shoot posed images that she requested.

We have since then, put in a clause in our contract which states we do not do posed photography. The reasons are as follows [we do get many emails asking why we don't do posed pictures]

1. I find doing posed photography and documentary wedding coverage at the same time far too distracting for me and for the couple. The need to run off and take posed images often spoils great moments the couple could otherwise be having with their family or friends which is essential to photojournalistic wedding photoraphy.

2. While moving towards a more extreme form of documentary wedding photography, my equipment and workflow is becoming increasingly specialized making it increasingly difficult to shoot posed images. By Jan 1st 2006 I would have transitioned my equipment and workflow to a fully documentary wedding photography setup. This is my best analogy, go to a GP and he can treat most illnesses right? But go to a cardiaologist or a neurosurgeon and they can only treat one part of the body because of their specialized skills and their equipment, but you would still need to go to them if you need specialized treatment. It is exactly the same with photographers. If you need a specific type of wedding photography and you want it done at a really high level, you need to seek out a specialist. Thus if you need posed photos, my advice would be to seek out photographers who specialize in posed photography. If you need a mix of both, seek out a photographer who is a generalists of course knowing that each ones have their pros and cons.

4. Since posed wedding photography is not my specialty, I do not wish to claim that I can do it just to make a sale. It's really important that my clients are happy with their wedding photography and to do so I'll shoot what i'm good at even if it means I have to cater to a niche market.

Hope this answers your questions, please feel free to contact me . in the meantime, have fun with your planning and talk to you soon.

Kuang :0)
 
hi kuang!

thanx for yr clarification.
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i'm really looking forward to u taking pics for my wedding especially after lookin at jessica's pics. sigh.... i shd hv signed up wif u much earlier to get the posed shots. haha! u take beautiful posed pics too u know?
 
Hi Kuang,

U mentioned on the transition of equipment and workflow to a more documentary wedding photography setup..... May i ask what is the main difference between the documentary photos u are shooting now compared to the new setup. Can enlighten me. Thanks
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Jessica, you wedding looked wonderful. Is your make-up artist from Singapore? I am based in London so I don't really have the opportunity to do trials...

Kuang, Lynette, my bridesmaid will be contacting you with the deposit as she just returned to Singapore. I will have to meet up with you again when I am back in Singapore in December, however, we'll only have 2 wks before the wedding then. We're really looking forward to having you shoot for our wedding as we believe you will be able to capture the essence of the day and the soul of people.
 
Hi MinHue, sure, I'll be happy to share. Please keep in mind though, that this is based on my opinion and different photographers have different ways of working.

OK, so let's see, the difference in equipment for the way I approach documentary photography is that I'll be starting to use Leica rangefinder cameras to document the entire wedding as opposed to solely using digital slrs. These cameras are well known for being discreet and great for capturing moments because they are extremely responsive cameras so that's a big plus for photojournalistc style.

However, they are terrible cameras to use with a flash, which means that in order to get the best light, I need to move. The problem with group shots is that it's impractical and in many cases impossbile to move 10 person to get everyone perfectly aligned with the light. I mean you could, but you'd spend the rest of your wedding just to get that 1 group shot.

The next plus of the Leica cameras is that they have incredible lenses, especially for documentary approach. However, they don't make zooms for the cameras I am using, so it means I'll have to walk closer or further away to get the shot. But after the last 2 years of experience, i ifnd myself getting better shots when I physically move closer rather than just standing there zooming my lens in and out which is what i used to do. Doing so brings about a certian intimacy with the subject which is so vital in documentary wedding photography.

Using the Leicas means I'll have to use film, so next year I will have to go back to film and adjust my workflow accordingly. While it may seem like a small change from the outside, it has huge implications for me and my suppliers. It now means that i can now offer some albums I could not in the past, but it also means some albums I offered in the past is no longer available.

However, more than just a change in gear, the use of film and leicas is also a change in philosophy in the way I approach wedding photography. Using film and leica cameras really slows down the way I shoot. And this is great for me because instead of machine gunning everything with a digital camera which is what many wedding photographers do today, I want to create images with depth and meaning, which means I need to force myself to slow down and think during a wedding instead of shooting mindlessly.

This more mindful way of shooting is also translated into a more mindful way of editing my wedding images. Next year, i really want to spend much more time on my images during the post production and printing stage, not just to give beautiful color and shaprness, but to create images that have more depth and meaning in them by using a more interpretive way of printing them.

How is this different for the consumer? Well, first, it means that I will be shooting far fewer weddings next year. I'm estimating only 2 per month. Of course this is terrible for my business and it would likely wipe out most of my profit margin, but then again, I'd rather be producing art than money anyway.

I will be paying more individual attention to each wedding and spending maybe 4 weeks on post production rather than the current 2. I believe the product the client receives would be closer to fine art with a more unique signature look and this is my long term vision for my wedding photography. i hope someday my images would be so beautiful and profound that it would not look out of place hanging on a gallery wall or on the client's wall next to some great piece of art.

Well, hope i answered your question. I'm looking forward to next year.... :0p
 
hi celine,

unfortunately my make up artist is based in Bali, indonesia. Where will you hold your wedding if in any case I can help.


cheers,
Jessica
 
Dear Friends

It's my great pleasure to announce that two images from Jessica's wedding have won second place awards at the WPJA summer contest. Yay!!!! I was so lucky to shoot such a beautiful wedding. Congratulations Jessica.

The images can be seen at www.wpja.com and they have won under the categories of "Ceremony" and "Portraits"
For those of you who are interested to know what the WPJA is, it stands for the Wedding Photojournalist Association and it's an international association that caters to people who shoot weddings in a photojournalistic style.

It's a great site to browse if you are interested in finding out more about what wedding photojournalism is all about. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you wish to find out more info about wedding photojournalism as well.
 
hi kuang,

congratulation...!!!! well, indeed you are such a creative photographers. Keep on the good works, do visit us one time in Oxford :-)

cheers,
Jessica
 
Hi Kuang,

Your pics are indeed so enchanting. I like your style beri much. A pity my wedding was over..sob sob, but I will definitely get my sis to use you for her AD next year.
 
Hi Oink, thanks so much for the compliements. Gosh, it's so embarrassing because my website is already 2 years old and everytime I look at it I cringe because I've improved quite a bit over the last 2 years. Hope you'll like my new website which is due to be launched in 1 month's time. Hope to meet up with your sister soon. Thanks once again
 
hehe, also wanted to find out, how did you come up with oinkeebabe? Evertime i read the your name, it makes me laugh.
 

Hi Kuang,

Guess u did it again... Congratulations!!!

Thanks for the explanation.... it certainly enrich my knowledge in photography by a far great length.....
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also happy for u that u have found d path to ur photography career...

Really loved the attached picture.....
 

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