After photographing weddings at various venues across the years, be it grand hotel ballrooms, small intimate bars, cosy dimly lit restaurants, and even shophouses – I always find myself wanting to photograph more at Min Jiang at Dempsey. It still remains one of my favourites for short ROMs (marriage solemnisations) or actual day weddings, whether it is a lunch or dinner reception.

What happened was, Ryan, a fellow wedding photographer casually asked if we should find some wedding photographers and videographers to go on a street shoot together.

So I asked on a Instagram post to see if anyone wanted to join us if we had arranged.

Eventually, the photo walk that was supposedly a smaller scale one, quickly escalated to a bigger one that I had to scramble to seek help in finding a space to house everyone lol. It seemed like the wedding scene peeps has been waiting for a moment like this, to meet and chat with industry vendors but never had the opportunity.

Until I innocently asked one day.

So, we have finally arrived in the month of August. August, in Singapore, is traditionally a lull month for wedding creatives because of the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival / 七月’. During this period, weddings are normally avoided because many Chinese believe that it is not a good month to hold auspicious activities.

As the malls start to play Christmas songs, and the year runs down to its inevitable end, I'll just start by saying - we survived. Sorta. Soaked in the festive mood, but yet taking in the harsh realities of what Covid has done to us at the same time, I took a while to gather my thoughts to pen this. This year has definitely been one to remember, for all its fragilities and dualities. For every small win that we can celebrate, we would be countered with the seemingly overused phrase of "one step forward, two steps back". For weddings to take place, we have to adapt to the many restrictions to limit the spread of Covid.

Okay, we all know that Fujifilm is gonna launch the medium-format GFX100S soon, and I had a chance to hold and test out the beast of a camera, thanks to Ivan Joshua Loh, a Fujifilm X-Photographer in Singapore.

This is just going to be a short, quick post on my initial thoughts on the new camera.

‘Hey, it’s too damn early. Gosh, waking up at 4 am for a pre-wedding/engagement shoot? You’ve got to be kidding me. I need my sleep.’

Photography is all about light. And what’s better than normal light? Golden hour light. The golden hours in Singapore, from experience, typically is around 6.30 am - 7.30 am depending on the location for sunrise, and around 6 pm-7 pm for sunsets. What’s the golden hour?

The way the Singapore government has handled the Covid situation has impressed many, here and around the world. Several countries are reporting second or even third waves of Covid infections and deaths, but here we are in the heart of the central business district (CBD) in Singapore, happily snapping away.

As it was slightly drizzling, I had decided ‘Reflections’ to be the theme of the day. I thought I had it easy.

There are so many things I had wanted to do, but never really found the time to, especially after my first kid. One of it was visiting the neighbourhoods that I grew up in, or rather, neighbourhood. I have lived in Tampines all my life. Yes, even now that I’m married with a kid.

Singapore’s famous shopping street, Orchard Road, can be pretty bustling once human traffic streams in, especially around the late morning as retail starts bursting into life. You get to see all walks of life, from the ‘busy’ office worker who decides to have an early coffee break, to the young student on his/her way to class (or shop).

And then you get uncles like me, with a camera in his hands, perched and ready to strike. To photograph, that is, with my trusty and current favourite camera, the Fujifilm X100V.