Many Things To Do

As my last blog post has stated, I've been swamped. Still am. There are at least six other people on Facebook I have not returned replies to. It's wedding season too, so work is definitely taking a lot of my time. STUVAC has begun. I have received my first 'take home exam' and it's due tomorrow night. After that I have a sit in exam and then volia! That's one year of uni complete. While STUVAC is happening, I have arranged a photo shoot that still needs plenty of organising and it's in two weeks time. Too many things happening. Much to do. Much in my mind. Oh and, I'm thinking of relaunching a brand new blog for these future projects I'm working on, and steering away from blogpost that talks about my every day life. Bahaha!

Catch you soon.

Swamped

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I've been swamped with wedding albums at work and assessments at uni and haven't had the time to go out and to shoot something interesting. I am however working on a project and hopefully will be collaborating with my makeup artist friends and photographers on this. A storyboard is being put together, but I am short on a model. Hit me up with a message if you any know any aspiring models who are interested in creating a portfolio (preferably asian).

Can't believe spring is here.

In the meantime, check out the latest albums I've edited shot by the Sutoritera team.

Rosemary & Frankie

Eloise & Ben

Stacey & Aiden

In Love: Bernado & Celeste

I first met Bernado through a Facebook group for one sixth scale collectors. I posted a status seeking couples who were interested in a free portrait session in Sydney, and Bernado contacted me straight away. His third anniversary with his girlfriend was coming up, and he wanted to surprise her. We kept minimal contact to avoid suspicion, and come first of September we met up at the NSW Art Gallery and made slowly made our way around the Royal Botanic Garden and eventually to Mrs Macquarie's Point for golden hour. 

Shot with Fujifilm XT1 & 35mm.
Edited and processed with a modified VSCOFILM via Adobe Lightroom.

WTF Cafe: Cabramatta

An overview of my experience at the establishment since its opening.

.... 

 Please do not do anything to my food, WTF ;) 

My first time at What The Fudge Cafe was at Canley Heights and it was between Eddy and Aaron. Their overall service was pleasant indeed and consistent ranging from their quality of food to customer satisfaction. I walked out of there knowing I would come back soon enough as I was most impressed. In the area I live in it is hard to come across good service. So when I heard Cabramatta was opening a What The Fudge Cafe which was very odd as they already have an establishment in Canley Heights, a neighbour away, I was under the impression that the same level of quality would be as consistent as Canley Height's. This was not the case. 

It was summer. I had just finished uni and sitting in the train with Loc we decided to head down to Cabramatta's WTF. I told him that I really liked the one at Canley and explained to him my great experience there, thinking that it would be the same as Cabramatta's.  But after that day, I walked out disappointed. There was no physical menu and we had to look at the board to order. The meat in my burger was dry and the small amount of fries they gave you compared to Canley's was noticeable. Their frappe's tasted watery and the music played did not suit the ambience of the place. 

I went there a second time and this time with Aaron. The quality of food improved. The burger was juicy and their frappes did not taste as watery as last time.  Their taste in music remained the same. I don't remember what genre the music was, but when we stood infront of the counter ready to pay the staff asked us, "How was everything?" to which I replied "Food was great!" followed by jokingly asking "But what's up with the odd music?"

A few weeks later I returned with Loc. By this time I was expecting everything to be perfect. We were greeted with a friendly staff member. She took our order and we sat there and waiting for the arrival of our order. During the wait, I realised that they have changed their playlist. It sat well with the ambience and style of the restaurant. Our food arrived. The burger remained consistent as last time. Tick. The frappe was stronger. Tick. And then we heard a guy swearing and acting all frustrated over the phone. His attire was business casual. He was not a customer. He was not a staff member. He was most definitely someone who looked like he ran or owned the restaurant. He had a foul mouth, and was expressing anger and rage over the phone. I honestly have no idea what was happening but I was in shock that he didn't take into consideration that there were customers in the establishment trying to converse over topics whilst having a meal. He may have had a rough day, but hell, I've raged at people over the phone but not in front of clients at work. Luckily for him, Loc and I were the only customers there. My conversation with Loc became awkward, brittle and we lost our appetite. An almost perfect experience, spoilt!

From that day onwards, I did not want to go back. I was lost for words. And then last night happened. Eddy, Aaron and I decided to have dinner outside. We were originally going to go to Green Pepper Corn but plans changed, and I reluctantly agreed to go back to give WTF another chance. And to my surprise last night we were greeted by a super friendly staff. They made us feel welcomed. They took our order in a happily manner. Their food was great. They were super awesome. And they even photobomb'd my photo! (which you will get see in the photos below). I even instagram'd last night and captioned the wonderful customer service provided. This was the first time I walked out WTF with a happy ending (no pun intended) ;) 

I hope the next time I am back that their service remains as consistent as last night. I get irritated and annoyed at restaurants that fluctuates their customer service. I want to be confident enough to walk in without doubting whether the service would be bad this time, and good another time. But if last night is the type of service I attain again, then it just shows that they have massively improved in the past few months upon their opening. As creepy as this would sound, I wouldn't mind finding out the staff member's shifts from last night. They were the best! 

Fujifilm XT1

Edited and processed with a modified VSCOFILM via Adobe Lightroom 5.

In Love: Eileen & Peter

It is a nice cool afternoon. The soft rays of the orange sun penetrates the branches of trees which fall softly on the green grass. Kids rode on their bikes along the pathway with their parents minding them from afar. Dogs chased after sticks and at other dogs nearby. A group of five girls rode horses around the oval. It was the beginning of a serene evening drawing to a near. It was golden hour. 

It’s been a while since I’ve attended an engagement session and I’ve definitely lost my touch with how to interact with clients. As I sat in the backseat of the car thinking about what I wanted to re-learn on the day of the shoot, Dan and Tai conversed away. Tai bragged on about the new lens he bought. Dan raged at everything in sight. The typical stuff. 

Throughout the day, they asked Elieen and Peter questions while I listened intently from behind to what was asked. It was merely simple questions such as: "How'd you guys meet?", "Where are you from?" and to get deeper - "What does getting married mean to you?"  as we posed them for the shots. It's all coming back to me now. Kind of... Heh. 

Another Day At The Q on Harris

I've been there four days this week for coffee and sometimes breakfast. I'm not sure why but the ambience of the place makes me sit back and chill. Coming here always makes me relaxed and all of my troubles are left behind as soon as I step in, order my regular coffee and sit by the window seat staring out into life. And I just love the staff here. They are the friendliest.

The Q on Harris.

{BTS}: House Of Organic Australia: Ft. Sam Gallaway

Hmmmm... Coconut water... 

I cannot stress how much of a privilege it was to be able to do a photo shoot for House Of Organic Australia. I had never done a photo-shoot like this before and on the day I discovered many strengths, and weaknesses that I hope I can overcome in the near future. One of my weak points was my ability to direct. It is something I still lack in experience and I am currently working on it. I'm not sure how else to improve on it, besides do more photo-shoots, but perhaps google could tell me. I'm pretty sure google has all the answers. 

House of Organic Australia

Food Is Love

Menya Noodle Bar has a 90% rating on Urbanspoon and they do indeed serve delicious noodles. At first glance of the restaurant it didn't look like much. It is rather busy and small but the noodles and soup are top notch, and I'd totally recommend a visit. Much like Chat Thai, I'll definitely be visiting Menya again. In terms of pricing their menus range from $10 - $13. Nothing you can't afford. 

Menya Noodle Bar

Lunch at Chat Thai. Try it, you will.

*Shutter clicks*

After two hours of photo-shooting for House Of Organic, we all decided to come out for lunch break. I have to say, I was very surprised when I was going through Chat Thai's menu as the prices were very much the same as the Thai restaurants in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, such as that of Canley Vale and Height's. If I remember correctly, the Beef Pad Thai I ordered at Chat Thai only cost us $12.50. And remember, this is a Thai Restaurant located in the city. You would usually expect it to be pricey but that was the opposite in this case. It was cheap - Cheap eats, great taste. It's a restaurant that offers value for money and you seriously cannot argue with that once you've gone in and tried their food and coffee. You must definitely and certainly must try their iced-coffee. That sh!t is the bomb! I don't really know how to review or describe what food taste like to convince you to go, but I know I was very satisfied with my plate of Pad Thai. 

Food, photos and an epic sunset.

If you haven't checked out Loc's blog yet, please do. His blogposts are written beautifully accompanied by the lovely photos he has taken. He only just started too, but his blog already looks so professional.

The Paramount Coffee Project

What can I say? I ordered a Caramel Popcorn Milk Shake and enjoyed that a lot. It tasted amazing, and I would rather have that over popcorns and cokes when I'm having movie-nights. If you're dropping by you should, no you must, definitely try it. It is a tad pricey and will cost you $8. City food is city food I guess, so don't be surprised at some of the prices that appear on the menus. 

Originally I had no plans for Tuesday. It was suppose to be just another day of work, that is, until Loc Facebook'd me the night before asking if I wanted to go out for lunch. We then proceeded to ask Aaron, and volia we planned a set time and place. 

Sydney Winter Festival 2014

To be honest, I wasn't sure what the hype was but the Sydney Winter Festival wasn't that great and there wasn't much to do there. It kind of reminded me of Vivid with its colourful lights, but even Vivid wasn't that great. Or maybe I'm just too over complicated? Hmmm...  However, I didn't come out to enjoy what the Winter Festival had to offer, but to rather use it as an opportunity to finally shoot something with my newly bought Fuji X-T1.

A collection of All Things DC

To One Sixth Oz,

This is no hobby. It is an addiction. And once you start collecting there's no turning back. We all know how expensive this hobby is and I would like to thank you guys for your sincere honesty and respect when selling figures in our Facebook group. It is very unfortunate with what happened today to one of our fellow members, and I hope that we have rid any other scammers from the group and continue to grow with an undying passion for our hobby and give respect and honesty towards all members of our community. Let us move forward, and hope that no such thing ever occurs again. 

Reflective Blogpost: We are just past halfway. Did you realise?

We're now seven months into 2014. That's just half a year gone (Duh!). I realised this as I was editing my latest wedding album Sandy & Cheung whilst listening to Time by Hans Zimmer. I am amazed at how fast time has flown. Is it because I'm too occupied with work and uni? I'm not sure. But I what I do know is that seven months into 2014 I have learned quiet a bit. To be a bit more specific, I have learned quiet a bit in the areas of photography. 

It has not even been more than a year since I started working for Sutoritera as a photo editor, and in my time here I have culled through many thousands of photos and edited them accordingly. I am still learning. And I am always learning. Each album that I have come by has challenged my creativity, especially when it comes towards off-camera-flash photos - something I am still working on at the moment. 

Every single wedding album I have gone through, I have been exposed to different and difficult lighting situations in certain events of the wedding day. Sometimes the photos are too green because of the lighting within our client's houses. Sometimes everybody's faces are pink, yellow, red and green because of receptions like Villa Capri. I have grown to learn that these things will be inevitable on the day of the shoot. These are the external environments that we cannot control, and thus we must compromise and do our best to ensure that photos are still being taken, even if they are going to look like rainbows and colourful unicorns. Wooo. As an editor, when I come across these photos they are the most painful thing to fix up. Hell, there was even a time where I had to black and white the whole ceremony because of the horrendous yellow and green faces formed by the Churches' walls and coloured glass windows. But as I said, some things are just inevitable. 

While that may be the case however, each photo, each album and each shot that was taken on the day by Sutoritera's photographers, I have seen and learned from them. I observe their framing, imagine where I would be standing to get that shot as well as asking myself what that photo will mean after I take it. In other words, what story am I telling? Because I have not officially shot a wedding yet, I also sometimes find myself looking at their camera settings in different lighting situation to get the gist of what appropriate settings will be used in this environment or that environment. I hope when the day comes and that I am able to shoot a wedding that what I have learnt and what I have been exposed to comes into play effectively. 

***

Since I've already gone all reflective about this year I may as well continue. Since my time as a photo editor  I have been asked this question many, many, many times. "How did you get your job?"

This story goes way back. But to keep it short, my cousin who is now a photographer for Sutoritera, used to buy a shit load of camera gear and had a high end DSLRs. He took lovely photos and my interest in photography sparked from there onwards. Eventually he met a guy called Dan and I met him soon afterwards when my cousin took me out to North Narrabeen to shoot the sunrise. After meeting Dan I followed his blog and was updated with photos he posted and stories he wrote. And hence why this blog exist. I was inspired to just do more than take photos, but to write and reflect upon each photo, and the experience I felt when taking them. Eventually, I began to assist him on pre-wedding shoots throughout my senior years of high school until the completion of my HSC. I enquired about how I was interested in working for him after relaunching his brand from "Daniel K Cheung" to "Sutoritera". 

... And that's my life story. Whoop, dee, dah.

Here's a few wedding albums that I've completed.  

Mini Blogpost: My First Camera - Fujifilm X-T1

I've never owned a "proper" camera before...surprisingly. So I wasn't surprised at the reaction I got yesterday from friends on instagram yesterday when I posted a photo of my XT-1 captioning it, well..."my first proper camera." Oh and, when I say 'proper' I mean that I've never owned a DSLR or a CSC where I could take advantage of all it's features -  i.e interchangeable lens.

Before the XT-1 I was using my Fujifilm X100. It's a small digital compact camera with a fixed 23mm. And thus, with a fixed lens I was unable to explore photography beyond the scope of the 23mm due to the x100 not having an interchangeable lens feature. This did somewhat, however, force me to experiment more to move up closer towards my subjects when shooting. I could say though, it's an ideal travel camera to shoot stills, but anything that involves a moving subjects - don't bother shooting it. The x100's auto focusing is horrendous. Literally.

I have in the passed been fortunate enough to borrow friend's and cousin's Canons and Nikons for shoots but  found them very inconvenient due to it's size and weight, until finally I was introduced to Olympus' OMD EM5. It was a light weight system, with the design of DSLR's. However, being an X-Shooter I wanted something similar but only Fujifilm. So when Dan of Sutoritera got his hands of them I took it out for a spin, and after the first few minutes immediately I knew I had to have it.

So here I am a few months later with the XT-1 thanks to Sydney's CBD Digidirect store. Fortunately, I placed an order for the camera while they were having a ten or fifteen percent off sale and got it for $1439.00. It currently retails at $1599.00 Body Only. If you're interested in one keep posted on their Facebook updates as they have sales regularly.

For a full review on the XT-1 you can have a read of the following articles by Dan:

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - Initial Impressions

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - 8 Hours Later

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - The ideal travel photography camera? 

Mini Blogpost: Post Vivid at Grill'd

Vivid lights left us quite drained. Our legs were sore from all the walking and we were hungry. So we trained it to Townhall Station, got off and made our way to Grill'd. Thank god it was open till late. 

Love is in the air at Vivid 2014

Let me be honest here; Vivid 2014 wasn't that great for me. Much of my friends who went for the first time were underwhelmed and a tad disappointed. And I couldn't agree with them more. My first time at Vivid was last year. I felt the same way as they did - underwhelmed and my impression of the night was a mere "meh, that's all?. As a result of that, I only strolled around Circular Quay instead of heading down to Milsons Point where I could have taken some extra photos of the Harbour Bridge lit up.

The Q on Harris

Have you been to the Q on Harris? You should. It's a ten minute walk from UTS' main building. Located in Ultimo, 597 Harris St, it's a small little cafe that serves great tasting coffee.

F.U.K U

I remember sitting at the Q on Harris, discussing over coffee what restaurant Loc was going to host his 18th at. He knew he wanted Japanese, but he also knew that there was budget. There's always a budget. At the end of the day however, I didn't think how much we spent mattered. We just wanted to have fun and have more food. 

Fuku Restaurant Sake and Wine Bar is located at Shop 1103 Level 1 6444 George St Sydney. Food was delicious and it was very nicely presented, however service was slightly inconsistent at times as we had to ask the manager twice or even more on when one of our dishes would arrive. Despite that, the night was one filled with fun and very interesting topics were brought onto the table with Van hushing everyone due to its inappropriate contents. 

May the 4th be with you.

Most of you would know I'm a massive Batman fan. However, I've have only started showing that in recent years and then neglected Star Wars for a while. I stopped talking about it, but what I did not stop is loving it. Today is May the 4th and I wish to share with you a story from my childhood.

When I was about seven to eight years old I remember running into Toys R Us every time my mum took me to Parramatta. I ran to the Star Wars section and picked up this box with Darth Vader and Darth Maul. It was a figure that stood about thirty centimetres tall. Darth Vader had a removable mask and Darth Maul was a two piece figure with his body split into two like how he was sliced by Obi Wan in the prequels. I would beg my mum to buy it. It was a boy's dream to have such an expensive yet awesome figure, but she didn't. She simply told me that it was too expensive and that I had enough toys at home. And literally, I did. I had plenty of toys when I was younger. More than what my sister had when she turned my age. I was a spoilt kid... and probably still am. 

It was only about this time last year in 2013 that I started collecting 1/6th scale figures. Ever since I was young I wanted this figure at this size, but in my mother's eyes they were overpriced and she still sees them that way. I do too. But they bring me joy, knowing that I own a piece of history, especially if the figure is iconic.

This year I received one of the many figures I have bought. I value this piece more than any other, even my quarter scale beast of a Batman. I bring to you Darth Vader; A fallen Jedi and leader of the 501st Legion brought to by Sideshow Collectibles. 

Reflections: Hello May

Amis

Amis comes from the french language and translate to friends.

A week or two ago Loc invited a few friends to his Royal National Park outing on Facebook. His intention besides having the great fun that was enjoyed on the day was to catch up. Catch up, and let one another catch up and so on. It was an unique outing. Typically outings that I've been invited to or have hosted have centred within and around the city area with its busy streets and overly crowded restaurants. So to go out into the national park that was beautiful with green trees, autumn leaves, and fresh air was different. It was relaxing. It was spacious. It was refreshing. This day made me and others realise that there's more to do than just hang at the city.