Malaysia Wedding Photographer – The Journey of Paul Kong

A special presentation which I prepared for a workshop, but this one is an enhanced version : “IMAGINATION ”.  Hope you all like my style & my work. I will share more of my experience of the workshop I conducted together with Edwin & Joshua.  Kindly  wait for few minutes for video loading. Click for HD for better visual . Enjoy viewing

* Please turn of f the web music at the bottom of the website while viewing the slide show.

Special Thanks to Edwin Tan & the organiser for the invitation to conduct this workshop for Film and photography Society, Multimedia University Cyberjaya . I am looking forward to share my knowledge & skill to the participants.

More info , pls clieck here : Film and photography Society 

*Guess which photo above is taken by me?

Recently I have prepared some artworks & article for the coming issue of THE HIPLIST – WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS.  In fact, it’s my dream to have my name in the magazine  3 yrs ago since I started wedding photography. Here are some artworks which I would like to share with you all.

I simply love this shot so much. Peggy, bride from HK with her hair curl before dressing up with her chinese traditional costume , “Kwa”.

More of her wedding photos : http://ckwedding.com/journal/?p=2073

I have been in wedding photography industry for some time and I am grateful for doing what I want to do now. It’s an honour to witness so many weddings , document their wedding and gain trust from clients. Furthermore, I feel thanksful for the help and support from my industry peers. Wedding photography has totally change my life and myself. I compile some of my recently works here and would like to show you all before my flight to Perth later. I am so excited for my first prewedding assignment in Perth. Hope you enjoy viewing the slide show.

I would like to dedicate this presentation to those I love and those who love me too.  I hope I can travel further for more destination wedding & gain more experience from it. Thanks.

 Thanks all for loving my works.

We are so excited and proud of our participating in Glenmarie Wedding Fair 2010.  It a success for us as we were able to attract our invited quests, as well as walk-in quests to come over our booth. It’s our first wedding fair ever took part and we were serious about it. Our  latest albums, prints, slide shows were showed and we were glad that we received great respond for our latest work. It encouraged us to perform better in our coming assignments. Here some Highlight of the day.

Our canvas prints were displayed at the entrance of the hall.

Showing our albums and prints.

Discussion with clients.

  Showing our slide show

Our latest album, a wedding assignment covered in Brisbane, Australia.

 I feel so grateful that I have the help of my family members & so friends who came to visit us. You all make me felt warm in my heart. In addition we able to make friend with some many wedding vendors in the fair. 

My family members who support me on the day.

 Paul & Emily (Director of Meetings & Events)

I would like to apologize to anyone who waiting for us. Thus I had prepare a Special Presentation DVD for you all. Hope you have a vieew on it and love it as I do.

The Collection of CKwedding Photography

We are also engaged as the event photography team of the event. The staffs of the fair were awesome and great to work with. We believed we have did a great job ! 

 We are also engaged to photograph the photos used on the promo brochure of the wedding fair .

 We can’t wait to show you the special presentation slide show that we had prepared for the wedding fair. Stay tune and hope you all will like it as I do.

Since I choose wedding photography as my career path, I have been ask on how I manage my time & thought I only work on weekends. In fact , I work even weekdays. Thus, I thought I would be great to share my life as a wedding photographer, and give you guys an idea of what a typical day of wedding photographer is like. Wedding photography career is a path of non stop learning & self upgrading as technology change fast, it’s difficult work to maintenance the passion, quality of work, balance of life & etc . I hope this short article from me can enlighten all my friends, clients or anyone who considering this career by providing a better understanding of being a wedding photography. Comments welcomed!

Typical Weekday
9:00AM – 10:00AM: On my computer & start work by getting online and checking my emails, facebook inbox, twitter accounts. Highlight all mails to be follow up or replied.
10:00AM – 11:00PM: Breakfast & newspaper reading time.
11:00AM – 12.00PM: Respond to sales inquiries and client requests.
12:00PM – 6.00PM: Post produce images from recently wedding assignment or preparing for meeting with clients , vendors or industry peers, call and follow up on prospective clients, post social media notices on our Facebook/Twitter pages regarding any updates on the blog or our work, study other photographer works & blog.
6:00PM – 6:30PM: Stop for a while, cleaning house / car, jogging or gym.
6:30PM – 7:30PM: Dinner time after taking shower.
7:30PM – 8:30PM: Continue post production of recently wedding assignments, preparing DVD, disc buring.
8:30PM – 9:30PM: Work on administrative tasks such as accounting, documentation, sometime meeting clients during this period as they are getting home from work.
9:30PM – 11:00PM: Spend some time with the family, rest for a while.
11:00PM – 12:30PM: Plan for the work of the next day / week, blog write up, marketing planning & some learning before sleep.
12:30PM – 2:30PM: Continue post production if I have energy.

Above schedule applied during peak season, we are a bit flexible during off peak season.

Typical Weekend (Wedding Shoot)
Prior Night: Charge all necessary equipment, pack the cloth for the next day if special room is allocated for us, Prepare equipment by cleaning and packing up all needed lenses, camera bodies, lighting, stands and tri-pods, etc.
5:30AM – 6:00AM: Check all the equipment, and have light breakfast ( bread & soya bean).
6:00AM – 6:30AM: Meet with second shooter and drive out to wedding location. Most of our in state wedding locations (within Klang Valley) take around 30-45 minutes to drive to.
6:30AM – 9:00PM: Main photographer (Me) shoots bride and bridesmaid preparation while second shooter will cover the groom and groomsmen.
6:30AM – 9:00PM: A quick portrait session of bride, bridesmaid & their parents.
9:30PM – 10:30PM: Game session of bridesmaids , groom & groomsmen.
10:30PM – 11:15PM: Tea ceremony after gaming, family portrait & leave to groom’s house.
11:45PM – 12:45PM: Reach groom’s house, tea ceremony, family portrait & try to grab a quick bite of something on the run.
12:45PM – 1:30PM: Drive out to bridal party and couples shoot location. We only have 30 minutes , so we need to do it quick.
1:30PM – 5:30PM: prepare slide show for displaying during reception dinner.
5:30PM – 6:00PM: Set up for hall decoration shoot.
6:00PM – 8:00PM: Set up in our positions for the ceremony and shoot candid while we are waiting for the procession to begin.
8:00PM – 11:00PM: Shoot the ceremony from all angles during bride & groom marching in, toasting, cake cutting, first dance, capturing key reaction shots (i.e. crying, smiling, etc) from family members and close friends of the bride and groom .Main photographer takes main position covering the primary subjects while secondary photographer shoots reaction shots of the bridal party and guests.
11:00PM – 11:15PM: Setup and shoot one last large group formal with everyone on the dance floor.
11:15PM – 11:45PM: Open dance, join them!!
11:45 – 12:00PM: Pack up all of our gear (while hoping nothing was lost or stolen), say goodbye to our bride and groom.
12:00AM – 1:00AM: Drive home.
1:00AM – 2:30AM: Arrive at home, put equipment away, and continue backing up all images to ensure that we have duplicates of every image shot at the event, take a shower and sometime we take dinner during this time.
2:30AM: Collapse in bed & dream about the wedding.

After a shoot in Singapore.

Playing around with clients after shooting.

This is the way I enjoy life

Recently I travel outstation quite a lot for wedding assignments. Haven’t really been home and relax for some times.  This morning I found 2 items in my mail box, the batch of my first Accolade of Excellence award from WPPI & a wedding invitation cards. These 2 things are indeed my motivation and encouragement of being a wedding photographer. Ya, I only able to get one award, not 2 , 3 or more, but this encourage me to achieve more in future.

Furthermore, I feel glad that my clients treat me as their friend too. The wedding invitation card is mailed from Singapore by Frances Tu. I will fly to Singapore to shoot their registration of marriage & engagement session and I can’t wait for that anymore, so excited!

Some of you may ask what I do before I do wedding photography in full time.  Indeed, it’s a huge jump from my previous profession to my current career. I used to be a Mechanical design engineer in Sony and responsible on some mechanical design of LCD TV. I was also a mechanical engineer in a cooling tower design firm. I did lot of technical design. I have spent 2 years working as part time photographer before doing it in full time.

I’ve always been asked what I like best about being a wedding photographer. I love photographing people, telling stories, & be friend with my clients. I found no better place for that than in weddings. In addition, I think the most gratifying part about being a wedding photographer is to be able to meet people, share my knowledge and learn from others too. It has given so much opportunity for me to broaden my perspective of life. In fact, I’m thankful that things had turned well and able to make lot of friends with my clients, industry peers & some of my mentors.
Here’s a picture of me with my clients, Sam & Elaine which taken last 2 days in their wedding in Melacca, a historical state in Malaysia

Sam and Elaine! Congratulations and I hope you are enjoying newly married life! Thank you so much for the opportunity to shoot your beautiful special day and witness your wedding!
It was truly an honour – not just to photograph such a milestone in your life, but to know you. Thanks a lot for your hospitality

I wish everyone a great & fantastic New Year ahead; I look forward to aim higher this year.

During my recent Australia trip, I have been travelled to Brisbane & Gold Coast. It’s a great experience to conduct photography session alone in a country I never been before for three days. Yes, it’s indeed the most tiring assignment I ever done before.  However, everything it’s worth. I appreciate the hospitality of Soh’s family & Susan’s family. Thanks for all the arrangement, food, transportation, accommodation & etc.

This is Susan’s mother. She was the one who prepared my breakfast & lunch almost everyday.

My lovely clients, Ben & Susan, I will miss you ~ can’t wait to show you the photographs I took for you both. All the best to you and wish you both have a great newlywed life!

This was the scenery from the room I stayed. I was treated one night stay at Surfer Paradise, Gold Coast!  Yes, It’s a great place for a swimmer like me! I hope I could spend more time there.  People started to swim at 4.30am!! I was impressed!