The hotel we were staying in is the Sebel @ Pier One, just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You couldn’t ask for a better location. Sydney is also one of the more picturesque cities for photography and not too far away from Singapore.

Being at the pier, they decided to do the makeup just outside their suite right at the pier, you could see the reflections of pier 2 in the sliding door.

The whole atmosphere was full of laughter right from the start. Just for the preparation alone, I took almost 900 shots… I usually have time to filter and remove the duplicate shots but everyone was so energised that I couldn’t stop shooting.

One of the nephews of the couple, Matthew was looking at the bride doing the makeup through the glass, I went up and captured him smiling.

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The groom surprised the bride with 2 rolls royce to fetch her to the chinese gardens.

The convertible gave us some fun photoshoot opportunities.

The bridal party had lots of fun participating in the shoot as well.

We got a shot over looking the Harbour bridge.

And went around ‘the rocks’ going wild!

Having a wedding in Sydney is really fun as everyone goes up to congratulate the couple and doesn’t mind making up the shot as well.

The convertible had the license plate “I DO” and the stretch limousine had the plate “I DO 2″.

The car plates are really appropriate and personalised for weddings. There were lots of passers by shouting “I do too / I do three” as we drove by.

This was just across their hotel at Pier 2.

Andrea was really natural in these photos, being just their comfortable selves which makes photography so much easier and fun.

David’s dad, Ossie was really charismatic and kept a wonderful smile on the whole day.

I saw a cruise boat approaching the bridge, then I saw the low clouds which were nicely illuminated by the lights from the bridge and quickly ran out to get this just in time. Thanks to the new camera (Nikon D3), I could capture this shot without tripod and very quickly, with the other cameras it would have been extremely hard to get a good shot.

Congrats again to Andrea and David for being such a nice couple to be with and it’s my honour to be there for their wedding. And they couldn’t have chosen a better place than Sydney for a Wedding. It was beautiful and I absolutely enjoyed it.

I’ve uploaded more photos onto facebook. Enjoy

The Palazzo is the Venetian’s brand new sister property and together with 700+ rooms, they are the largest hotel in room capacity. It’s situated right on the main strip (it’s the 2 buildings in the background, left yellow-lighted one is the Palazzo and the one on the right of it is the Venetian)

The rooms are all suites and are fabulous

Our day trip was to the Grand Canyon and on they way, we passed by Hoover Dam, where a lot of movies have been filmed, including X-Men & Transformers.

Some took the helicopter rides for a breathtaking aerial view of the canyon.

While the bus ride there took about 3 hrs, the ride there was well worth it. The view is spectacular and most took out their cameras happily clicking away while others took some quiet time for some inspirations.

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A lof of people queued up for this spot. Some of the parents hearts nearly dropped when the kids just hopped out after taking the photo.

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Skies were beautifully blue and makes a great background for photography.

The 2nd day started with the convention honouring their best performers. The top 2 were carried into the ballroom in floats.

There were performances that dazzled the audience.

And speakers which inspired and kept motivating.

We had to take a few of these huge group photos. Logistically challenging but the organisers pulled it off well.

Few privileged achievers were treated to a special lucky draw where several air tickets were given away.

The theme for the gala dinner was hollywood. Everyone had fun dressing up and posing for the cameras.

Various teams took turns to entertain the audience with sketches as well. Of course, ‘Emmy’ awards were given to the performing teams as well.

There was a special treat when “Grasshoppers” came on the stage and had everyone going wild. They invited some lucky ones to come onto stage for their last item.

No gala dinner is complete without lucky draws. It happened that the top prize winners chosen were the senior members and both decided to return the prizes to be redrawn!

I think everyone had a blast of a time in Las Vegas. So did I.

We took a visit to the Hollywood Walk of the Stars where everyone took photos with the stars on the floors and the costume characters on the street.

We then visited Universal Studios where the main highlight was the tour where we were shown how some of the hollywood special effects were done.

Everyone had a great time in the tour tram being entertained by the thrilling special effects.

I had to leave after the guided tour to join the other group which opted for the city tour and met them at the Farmers Market.

We then took a stroll down Rodeo drive where all the branded shops and expensive cars are.

Some of them caught Victoria Beckham (David Beckham’s wife) shopping and they even had a photo of her snapped from a distance.

Dinner was at a nice hilltop overlooking LA city.

The evening light was fantastic for family and individual portraits.

Guests started arriving and the stars mingled in with the crowds. Here’s K.F Seetoh of the Makansutra fame.

A crowd of enthusiastic people awaiting the ceremony gathered at the foyer area before the doors opened for seating.

The presentation revolved around a theme of visiting the galactic system and the performances were accompanied with wonderful costumes and stage lighting.

Some of the award winners had great personalities, like Victor Woo from SMRT Taxis.

The Singapore Zoo won the Best Leisure Attraction and the Group CEO Fanny Lai wore a Zoo themed dress which Jenny Chua complimented on stage. (Is it available at the Safari Zoo shop??)

I think K.F Seetoh was the most entertaining on stage being comfortable with the camera and the audience the cracked the audience up with his candid jokes.

Everyone was treated to a good buffet spread after the ceremony.

 

Some of the guys from St. James Powerhouse looking suave.

I met lots of friends, too many to put up on the blog but here’s some..

Here are the fun people from the Singapore Zoo, obviously having fun after winning the award.

And the girls from Where magazine.

And of course not forgetting Julian. (Good luck on getting your new camera at the IT Show)

Myself and David took a chance to take a shot with the Porsche Cayman S before the crowd came in.

Guests mingled and chatted in the lounge area first.

When they revealed new range, some of the lucky guests had a chance to examine the $200k+ watch up close.

Even little 4 month old Caitlyn was having fun there.

Met some of my JC mates whom I haven’t seen for ages.

Our guys took turns to capture some nice curves from the Porsche Cayman S

And the babelicious Gen posing with the car after all the hard work organising the event.

Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew made a short visit to the airshow. Oh and to the photography buffs out there, that’s a Nikon D3 I’m holding in the mirror.. more about that later..Â

To many of my corporate clients who are looking at more interesting ideas for events, I found the Flying Club http://theflyingclub.sg which can offer plane rides for guests and event have the hangar as a venue for events. It’s located at Senai which is just 15 mins away from Singapore.

The following will be for the photography buffs who’s keen on finding out more about the Nikon D3.
The previous 2 shots were taken indoors at ISO4000 (Most cameras limit is ISO1600, this camera can take up to ISO6400 with HI1:ISO12800 & HI-2:ISO25600 boost). ISO4000 seems to be my favourite ISO now Met a photographer friend who was covering the show for ST Aerospace and we brought the camera to darkened cockpit to test how the camera fares at low light. The camera’s performance definitely impressed both of us.

Here’s a 1:1 Crop of another image of the cockpit at ISO6400, HI-1 & HI-2. At ISO6400 it’s still quite clean, at HI-1 still acceptable.

Here’s another shot at ISO4000. You may click on it to view the full image.

Here are more images .. all the images are untouched straight from the D3. Aperture Priority, Automatic White Balance.

The presenters were particularly entertaining as their wit and candid jokes put smiles on the guests’ faces, as winners were announced.

Singapore Idol Hady Mirza put up a performance for the guests.

One of the winners is Mr Ho Kwon Ping for CEO of the year (Market Capitalisation of $500m or more).

One of the things that kept popping up in their winning speeches were how important their life partners were in their success. The way Mr Ho talked about how his wife Claire Chiang made the whole audience go ‘awww.. so sweet’. I looked back at Claire and saw the way she was looking at her husband and almost brought tears to my eyes. I think they should get ‘couple of the year’ too..

Congratulations to Banyan Tree for having a great CEO and team.

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Thanks to the organisers and ladies who had to be on stage almost all the time to assist in presenting the awards.Â

Our station was really popular as the guests took photos and collected them on the spot.