I always believe in giving. “The more you give, the more you get back” is the mantra I still believe in today.

Every now and then, I try to give wholeheartedly as much as I can.

So when Louis Pang contacted and invited me to share my journey as a photographer at his Inspire+ seminar last weekend, I didn’t think twice about it. I said “Yes” immediately and had gotten goose bump after I had agreed to the invitation.

The idea of sharing the stage with my mentor is a bit overwhelming.

So last weekend, I shared with a room of aspiring photographers about how I went on and did an 180 degree turn from someone who was burnt out a year and half ago to someone who is shooting from the heart, improving and enjoying his life as a photographer every single day. I shared that every now and then a photographer needs to venture out of his/her comfort zone and create work from the heart.

And I shared my slideshow during the 15 minutes sharing session.

I met lots of aspiring photographers during the 1 day seminar and it was an honour to share the stage with Louis. It was a good feeling to be able to give back to the community and I would like to do it more in the future.

Thank you to all the participants and thank you to Louis for the opportunity.

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It has been a busy end of October for my team & I. We will be covering a 3 day corporate event at PWTC starting tomorrow. We are nervous but ready nevertheless.

Everything has taken a back seat this last few weeks. Albums are far from being finished (Aizat – am getting there! will let you know ASAP), and at the same time, businesses are pouring in. Thank God for the energy that I have and the support of the team behind me.

I am proud to announce that I have two Junior Photographers working with me side by side – Nazir Azhari & Faris Fakri. They are working their way up with me to become an associate and a co branding with my studio, WOW Art & Photography. To start things off, we are running a November White Studio promotion just for my junior photographers all month long.

So far, I am excited with 2010. I’ve been working closely with a creative and talented designer on my branding. And after few brain storming with ideas and concept, I am pleased to revealed the new Hafiz Ismail Wedding Photography logo, as you can see above.

I am also working closely with a website designer for my new web portfolio which will be revealed soon. So stay tuned!

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I will post more on the ongoing projects and what nots in the coming posts.

Til then.

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I was in Terengganu last weekend for a wedding assignment. I love traveling and I love outstation assignments. I would take the opportunity to stay a bit longer after or arrive a bit earlier (like 2 days before) just to absorb the culture, take my time off and take a break.

Day 1 – Thursday
We took off from Shah Alam on Thursday at about 5pm and arrived at the bride’s house at 11pm. Basically, we went straight to our accommodation for the weekend once we arrived and slept like a dog til the next morning.

Day 2 – Friday
The solemnization was to be held right after Friday prayer so we had the morning to kill. Nazir & I went to breakfast – East Coast style. Nazir had Nasi Kerabu.

We went location scouting right after that.

Then off to the assignment til the evening.

We went out for dinner that evening. We headed to Seberang Takir to a place that Nazir had been before. Specialty – big glass fruit juices.

Day 3 – Saturday
The reception was held from morning til about 4pm.

We were free in the evening. We went out for a seafood dinner with Syahril & Farah – two friends of Ailin and our new friends. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily with thunderstorms and high winds that night. No photos. The seafood was good! And cheap too! 4 people = RM86.

Day 4 – Sunday
We took the newlyweds out for an fun funky outdoor session until 1pm. We had Syahril & Farah helping us out. I taught Farah the art of veil throwing. She’s a fast learner!

Syahril & Farah went back to KL the same day while we were too tired to drive back. So we stayed another night.

I went out at 6pm to try at Timelapse photography of The Floating Mosque.

Then the storm came in.

I had a simple dinner later with few friends.

Day 5 – Monday
We headed out of Kuala Terengganu at 9am. We drove slowly and stopped at couple of places.

Thanks to my Garmin, I’d marked few places for future references and for my future outdoor sessions in Terengganu.

We spent about 2 hour in Kuantan. Since it was an internetless weekend in Terengganu, we stopped by Starbucks in Kuantan to catch up with emails and whatnots. We left at about 4pm and arrived at WOW at about 7pm.

Tired but inspired.

Am looking forward to this weekend and the weekend after. I will be in Seremban this week and Kuala Kangsar the weekend after.

I love to travel!

Til the next post.

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Please bear with me – this is a loooooooooong overdue post!

Back in November 2008 (yah, it was a long time ago!), I had the opportunity to follow Emmy & Zanil as their photographer on their honeymoon to Bali.

I was there for 3 days 2 nights. It was my first time in Bali and I had fun. I did my homework on the locations and what I wanted to shoot. We hired Putu as a supir to drive us around the locations.

I had one full day with the couple – from the sunrise til the sunset. It was tiring and fun at the same time. Although I wish I can be there longer and explore more places so that more great photos of them can be captured, it was not meant to be. Hopefully, I can come back to Bali with some other couples to do more Destination Portraiture or Honeymoon Photography.

As a photographer, this is what I really really want. I want to be a jet-setting photographer with assignments outside Malaysia. I want to be able to travel to exotic places and really go out of my comfort zone. Honestly, I want to be like my mentor, Louis (and many other inspiring photographers out there) – where my passport is one of my main business tool.

More importantly, I want to be an International Professional Photographer

Enjoy the photos! Click on the photo for a larger view.

Speaking of travel, I’ll be heading to Melbourne in July. Will update you more on it in the next post!

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I can’t sleep and I have to wake up early tomorrow for a 7am assignment. Blame the nap I’d taken this afternoon.

Today was the first day of the corporate shoot in Johor. We started early – only to be stuck in the morning traffic on the way to the location. Anyway, it was a tiring but a fulfilling day.

I want to share one shot that I’d taken today where an impromptu setup had to be done. This was done with two flash gun, SB900 and SB800 – triggered by Pocketwizards. Both was set at 1/4th power with the SB900 zoomed at 200mm (to the guy behind) and the SB800 at 24mm in front. It’s far from perfect but the client was happy with this shot. Although so much can be improved – such as softer light quality from both flashes (using softboxes) and setting the WB on the camera to tungsten with warming gel on both flashes; I guess it’s a learning journey.

But I have to thank Joe Mcnally for inspiring me. I’ve been going through his DVD and blog/website occasionally looking for inspiration and I am intoxicated with inspiration when I see his work. Now, I have tonnes of his photo on my iPhone for reference. Not just him, but tonnes of photos from other photographers that can inspire me!

Tomorrow will be the 2nd day and I am looking forward to it. I am full with ideas and tomorrow will be a perfect day to execute it.

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Another busy week but I had a relaxing day on Monday. I was in Tanjung Karang with Nazir. We were there for the whole day. I decided to take the Monday off since I was working my butts off on Sunday with appointments from the morning til the evening.

We visited Nazir’s grandma & uncle and had lunch with them. I slept for two hours under the house with the wind blowing as the natural air conditioning. Basically, I was having a break – kampung style.

We left before the sunset and headed to Malawati Hill, Kuala Selangor. We stopped the top of the hill and I managed to capture these two photos.

I arrived home ready for a relaxing evening before the busy week begin the very next day. Right now I am on day 3 (the final day) of a corporate shoot with BMO.com.my. Then over the weekend – a wedding to cover, an outdoor session and a studio session. On Monday, I will be heading to Johor for a 3 day corporate shoot with another client.

A busy bee I am.

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It has been a busy week right after my Sabah trip with Amru. Only now I have the time to share the photos with you guys.

Day 1

We spent one night at Rose Cabin near Mt. Kinabalu park. It was a refreshing break – surrounded by green valleys, and cool breeze. There was no internet connection but I had a great time lazying around and caught up with my sleeping time!

Day 2

We came down to KK on the second day and stayed at the Kinabalu Backpackers Lodge over at Jalan Dewan. It is a 5-star backpackers lodge – clean and fast internet connection. We went out for a street shoot and lunch. Unfortunately the shooting part was cut short by the rain. So we went shopping instead!

Day 3

We went to visit Louis Pang at his office. You can check out the post here.

We went for a movie – the Jacky Chan movie. It sucked. So, I don’t even remember the title.

Then we had dinner at the Philipino market. Amru had his dose of Chicken Wings.

Day 4

The last day. We spent the morning lazying around at Mamutik Island.

We had lunch with Ali, his wife and their 4 month baby girl, Auni. We had tonnes of fun photographing Auni and she such a cutie!

We had an impromptu meet up with KK photographers at the airport – 0.5hr before our flight. And our flight were delayed for about 0.5hrs and we landed at LCCT at midnight.

Sabah was fun. It was a relaxing break. I made a promise to myself to go for a holiday every three months so that I will stay refreshed and inspired all the time. Am contemplating for a break in Melbourne in the beginning of July since I will be very busy starting next month until end of August. What say you? Or a local break?

We headed to Malacca the very next day for an outdoor shoot with Steph. Stay tuned for the post.

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The main objective of coming to Sabah was to meet up with Louis Pang and get inspired again and again. After the workshop back in February, Amru & I booked a flight ticket to Sabah immediately so that we will not waste any more of our time in wanting to learn more and more from the master himself.

Today, we got to meet up with Louis and had an inspiring and humbling 3-hour mentoring session.

The team behind Louis Pang Studio

The WPPI Award won by Louis

We talked about the goals that both of us had set forward during his class, what have we achieved up to now and what’s next. We had Louis go through our Irwin & Vanessa’s Pre Wedding photos – and we were humbled by his comments. We met with the rest of the team and had a closer look at WPPI 2008 Book which had us bubbling with inspiration! We flipped through Yervant’s book and watch the Yervant’s studio tour video. And most important of all, we talked through the next logical steps for both Amru & I.

It was an inspiring meeting. I personally now know that I can achieve the goals I have set upon myself. And I now believe that I am on the right track. And all the corrections that I have made last month was the right decision.

And what’s next? Amru & I are planning to attend the WPPI Convention in Las Vegas next year. So we have to sort out few things in the coming months – Visa, money, tickets etc.

And we have made a commitment to ourselves – to continue to produce timeless pieces that we can be proud of. And of course, these pieces will need to be vetted by the master himself!

All in all, I am now more inspired! Like they say -

Flight ticket to Kota Kinabalu – RM110.
Accommodation, F&B and travel – RM300.
Meeting with Louis Pang – Priceless.

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As promised, I would like to share with you my latest work – along with Amru. Irwin & Vanessa is getting married this coming July and they wanted to do a pre wedding shoot from two Malay photographer’s perspective.

So we took up the challenge and this is the result.

Behind the scene video – a mixture of both photographer’s outcome.

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I will be leaving for Sabah in an hour. (or by the time you are reading this, I will probably already in Sabah!)

Taken from http://www.sabahtravelguide.com

I survived a 10-hour inspiring and first class Pre Wedding Outdoor Portraiture with Irwin & Vanessa yesterday. And with tonnes of money shots to be processed, I am surviving on adrenaline at the moment.

Amru, Nazir & I was with the couple for nearly 10 hours. We had the opportunity to shoot a pre wedding session with Irwin & Vanessa when Amru & I offered them the Malay Photographers’ perspective in pre wedding. FYI, we met both of them at Louis Pang‘s Workshop back in February.

So, they took up the once in a lifetime offer!

There are so many money shots I had gotten out of the session and I will share some of them in this post here’s a sneak preview!

I will be away in Sabah until Friday evening, touching down probably at midnight. Then on Saturday, I will be in Melaka for another Pre Wedding Outdoor Portraiture. My Sunday will be spent at the studio, with two studio appointments and a wedding reception to attend in the evening.

I guess I will be on adrenaline rush until the end of the week!

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