Keith and Joyce: Engagement

I'm often asked, why do I do what I do....what fuels the passion? And its so generic and cliched to say just 'well, because I love it'. While it rings true in every fibre and sense of the phrase, so many ingredients make up that love. It never is just a singular component. Nor is it one big umbrella with nothing inside it.

If I had to point my finger at one of the main reasons I get out of bed to do this everyday, why I make the sacrifices that I do, and why we work so hard for this, I would zealously hold down my finger on the fact that every couple I meet reminds me love is so good. Amidst all the moments where your better half will drive you completely mad, do all the things that grind up the irritation wall, make you sad....at the end of the day, you can't help but be pointed back to all the good and beautiful things that makes love so grand. From a look that says 'there's no one else but you', to the clasping of hands to assure 'you're safe', to the simplest of kisses for no reason at all but just because.

I know for me, each couple I cross paths with flips a page in my appreciation book for my own husband and I often (even though its usually shrouded by an enormous blanket of fatigue) after a shoot really look forward to going home to see him because of what two people in front of my lens, have reminded me about my husband or our relationship that makes me smile.

For Keith and Joyce, it's in the way he makes her laugh.

In those goofy, childlike, snippets of time where he makes a face, or a silly noise which causes that endearing smile to blossom on Joyce's face, it reminds me of all the peter pan moments that I so fondly remember about Ju. He has the uncanny ability to sometimes quell my most sour shades of blue and make me laugh. My favourite are the surprise bear hugs from behind :) And that makes me happy.

So, that's why I do what I do.

Here are my favourite snaps from our engagement session together! Joyce and Keith did another session with me prior to this and I will share it a little bit later because the feel is so different :) For now, enjoy these!

Gimme graffiti and dilapidated buildings anyday!! :D



I have said time and time again, I dont really know what the big fuss is about getting fancy complicated photos that require lots of posing, or light setups, or unorthdox composition. I really truly believe that if you couple great light, with the simplest of interactions between a couple, it can always result in something pretty. Gimme great light over great background anyday!






Mmmm... yummo light!! :D




This was probably one of my fave shots of the day.










Keith and Joyce are great and so trusting. They were totally not hesitant with any instruction or place I took them to. They even were willing to sit in this dusty shack of a mess for me! :D








Random paddocks of grass are my favourite.. :D




Keith is also a photographer and Joyce plays the flute... here is them doing their silly THANG! I did not ask them to do this! They were just mucking around and I like it lots! :D


Thank you both so much for being so trusting and so willing!!! See you this saturday! :D

And for the rest of you, another FAQ post is next in answer to the overwhelming number of emails and messages we've received!! :D

Intermission

Things are a little crazy at the moment. Living in between guest homes, hotel beds, and so on can be extremely tiring, taxing emotionally, and especially physically. It's been fun... definitely don't get me wrong, but try doing all that, plus shoots in between, and running your office and business virtually while on the move. Its INSANE! :p I feel like I need an extra 8 arms and 5 heads. But that would make me extremely ugly. And I fear I'd then freak out every single client or person I cross paths with. So perhaps not :p

As I am sitting here at 30 minutes past 1, for some abnormal reason, I am somewhat stuck on what to write. Perhaps it is the fact that I am just exhausted. Or maybe there is just so much clockwork happening in the rusty chambers of my brain that I just can't think straight at present. So when these enigmatic moments happen, the best thing to do is to sprinkle some highlights and wait for clarity to present itself to divulge the full story :)

Here are a couple of places our feet met with:

The 12 apostles, Great Ocean Road. 

The weather was absolutely AWFUL pretty much the entire time we were in VIC. In particular while we were galavanting around the beautiful Apollo Bay, the storms reached such a ferocious intensity in wave after wave of torrential rain and hurricane like winds, we were worried that the windows would shatter from the force. Thankfully, there were brief glimmers of sun, and when they came, they were glorious like below :) The 12 Apostles was definitely a HUGE highlight on this incredible drive on the edge of the Australian continent. 

Remnants of the VIC fires, Yarra Valley

The news of the vicious fires that ate up so much of the VIC landscape, was worldwide knowledge. But to know what is happening, and to SEE the aftermath in person is a totally different story. My heart literally crumbled as I saw the following scene.

It was common to have the above as the 'typical' backyard for alot of homes around the Yarra Valley. Ju and I travelled to this region to taste the wines, and we were warned not to go because of the recent fires. But I am glad we did. I think people need to know the kind of horrific damage that amassed from the disaster... so many homes were claimed, lives were lost, businesses burnt to the ground, and so much of the aussie wildlife have lost their homes. I saw the following image in the media, and it really is heart breaking.


My hope is that people keep supporting the pledge to raise money for the recovery of the region, but more importantly - go and visit the place. These people's lives revolve around the visitors and tourists that come to these places, so its so imperative to provide support in this manner too.

Random bits of nature, Cape Otway

Renting a car, and having a GPS is the best. You really get to stop wherever you like and soak in whatever peaks your interest. Here is something that made my eyes happy at Cape Otway.

And for those who are looking for images from shoots, here is a sneak peak! I know!! I hate sneak peaks, but like I always say, some images are better than none, right?? Enjoy!

Back soon with more postcards :) Please tell me if I should stop posting these!! I'd hate to be boring the living daylights out of all of you :)

Out of Office: Extended

Hello everyone!

If you have been wondering, where on EARTH has Jenny Sun disappeared to, and why she has left her blog so unloved, it's okay :) Normality WILL resume soon :)

I am just doing some extended travel for the next couple of weeks, with ALOT of shoots in between. It's gonna be craaaaaaaaaazy I tell you!! After looking in my calendar while I am away, I realized that I have something happening pretty much EVERY day.

Anyhow, because the husband and I are currently in the middle of a road trip, and have been in the outback, then on the coast (literally on the edge of the Australian continent), braced the craziest storm ever (we thought the windows were going to explode!!), we really haven't had a chance on the internet at all sadly enough :(

So I thought while I am using the last 20 minutes that this $2.50 will buy me on this computer, I thought I'd let you know that blog posts will resume in the next week or so. I just wrapped up some awesome sessions, with more along the way, more weddings, and some neato surprises that I hope to update you all on when I get back :) I promise you it will be worth it!

For now, while I am away, I am doing a survey to help make this blog a more kick-ass interesting place for all of you to visit :) Please vote!!!! What you put down will literally shape what I will do with this blog space in the near future! :D

FAQ: Posing and Post Processing

Hello thursday! I always love thursdays because its the day before Friday. And we all know that Friday is the REAL day that the weekend starts right?? :)

Anyhow, I thought it would be such a nice idea to start answering the hoard of questions I normally get emails about, in the hopes that it helps any one of you out there. I am not attempting to be a know-it-all-guru AT ALL, but if these posts do help you in anyway, I'll be really happy :)

So, lets get on with business right? I've basically copied the latest question I've been emailed in that particular subject (since it answers all previous questions along the same lines) below :)

Posing

Q: How do you normally pose or guide your clients during a shoot? We love how you seem to know how to draw out a couple's personality and their natural smiles in the frame? What is your technique?

A: You know, funny enough, I don't really have a technique when I shoot my couples. If I had to describe the way I shoot, I would probably term it as 'casual'. I like my shoots to remain very laid back, easy going, and breezy, and liken our sessions to us hanging out together with some shooting in between :) More often than not, I give fairly general instructions to my couples and let them interpret it as they like. If it doesn't look quite right, I'll correct it, but usually I go with the flow and keep my shoots very quick, fluid and work with whatever I have. I actually enjoy and like it when my clients make mistakes in their own quirky way because...well, its THEM :) I tend to draw alot on the client's energy and their chemistry with each other, being sensitive to their personalities. I wont ever make them do anything that is uncomfortable, or that they wouldn't do normally as a couple! And on top of all that, alot of the times I get fabulous couples to shoot, who are just beautiful, fun, and themselves in the frame. I know, I am very lucky - I don't take that for granted! :)

Post Processing: Actions

Q: I just love how your photos seem to pop. How do you get your photos looking the way they do in post production?

A: I think I get at least one email a day about this :) I was going to post this video that took you step by step through one way that I get my images edited. But it ended up being about 100mb large, and whenever I uploaded it to a video site, the compression was awful and made my photos look dull and soft :( So here is the next best thing. Anyhow, I love using photoshop actions in my photos. There are some that I have created on my own, and then there are others which some seriously awesome people have created for our lovely photo creation purposes. I'll talk about the TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS today. These are by far one of the most versatile, yet simple to use photoshop actions I've had the pleasure of using in my workflow. I tend to use a combination of actions in the set together, to create my final image. Here are a few examples of mixes (and the actions I used in the TRA set) below:

Clairefy + Oh Snap! + Warm it up Kris (+ sharpening)

Clairefy + Yin/Yang + Contrast! + Warm it up Kris (+ sharpening)


And since I don't always play around with punchy colours, here is an example of the new kind of post processing that I have been playing with:

Curves adjustment + yin/yang + clairefy + cool as a cucumber (lowered opacity) + pool party
(+ sharpening)


The most important thing though (especially as you can see in the first two images) is that you have to get some kick-ass light to begin with (you can't photoshop in great light!!), which helps to make sure your SOOC (straight out of camera) shots are as close to perfect as possible.

Okay, so that wraps up FAQ #1! Let me know if you found that helpful or if you would like more of these posts! :) And remember, if you have any questions you would like answered, just drop an email to info@jennysunphotography.com with the subject line 'FAQ' with your question, and I'll be sure to add it for future posts :) It can be anything about shooting, post production/work flow, marketing/business, clients, if you are curious as to whether I find coriander offensive or not :)

Til next time! :D

Small Random Purchases make me happy

Okay, I am totally not allowed to, or supposed to be blogging with this INSANE schedule I have for march and april, but rules are meant to be broken. And I love that blogger allows you to write the entry whenever you do have time no matter what time of day it is, on the road (if you have 3G!!), and then it will automatically publish it at a later date + time which you choose! This post (and the next one coming) is one such example of technology servicing the people, and not people servicing the technology! :D

Anyhow, Ju and I recently headed out to the malls, with my very practical list of items to buy:
(1) new hair dryer (after we so conveniently fried ours :p)
(2) garbage bags (this was utmost top priority! the 911 kind)

Well, I'm proud to say that I was well behaved and bought the garbage bags. All 50 of them! But if you knew it was out of dire necessity (and also knowing what else was in my bag at the end of the evening), you probably wouldn't be so proud of my spending restraint. You see, a couple of weeks back, when I was emptying the trash, I got really really mad at the bag company!! Boo to them, because as I was putting trash in the NEW bags which I had just fitted our steel can bin with, I realized there was a leak! Low and behold when I pulled the bag out, there was a shiny new hole.... and coming out of it in accelerating speed was all the oil, water (which was scented of fish), crumbs, and food scraps from the day's meals we had.

Bad huh? Wait.

So being the diligent wife (hah :p), I composed myself after nearly shrieking at the sight and mess, and moved the trash to a new bag. Only to find.... the trash was falling out of ANOTHER hole in this NEW bag. Double whammy. This cycle kept going until I realized by the fourth bag, that the entire set of bags I had bought was probably corrupt. I was utterly distressed, and annoyed of having to clean the same mess about 4 times. So you see, our 911 garbage dilemma was serious. We HAD to get new bags. No. Matter. What. And so we did :) Plus I am proud to announce that these latest bags are MUCH MUCH better than its predecessor.

Anyhow, because planned purchases are so NOT fun, here is what kept my new garbage bags company as we went home from the malls that night.

These purchases made me smile :)

I love toned arms (Anna Rina!! You have grown seeds of envy in me! LOL!!), but despite my job, I've been growing in areas that I do not like! So Ju was nice enough to buy me some light weights while he bought some heavier ones. We are on a mission to look and BE fitter.
*sigh* Its such a hard road, I tell ya!



I'm telling you, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my flats. While I adore the look of heels, my feet would initiate world war 3 with me, if I ever placed them inside anything that is higher than 5mm. So, with that, my love affair with finding the coolest flats to add to my shelf continues all the time :) And if they are comfortable, even better. So far, my yellow flats from paris have been queen in my cupboards. Until I saw these. They are so OTT, but I love that about them. I still believe they can look cool in a casual AND dressy outfit. Challenge my shoe theory, and you'll be sorry! :p *kids*

Alright, next post is going to be all about your FAQs!! SOOOO many of you have asked questions about posing, light, post processing, style, gear, locations, and so on....I figured it is about time to address these topics bit by bit on this blog space to stop me from typing the same things a thousand times :) I would LOVE to be able to answer all of you individually and personally, but with my time, schedule, and travel commitments, its hard to reply to every single message that comes into my inbox. So if you would love your questions answered, please send them to info@jennysunphotography.com with the subject 'FAQ' and I'll add it to the FAQs-to-be-answered-on-my-blog vault.

For now, I have to run. There are planes to catch, shoots to shoot, and another war to fight with this crazy inbox of mine amidst all the other things that have to get done! It's so busy I can't breathe!! :) Sayonara for now!!!

Chloe and CK: Engagement

As the end of the week is drawing to a close, I just couldn't leave this corner of the web as it is without a post with photos from a shoot, right?? :)

So here is another fabulous couple who flew in all the way from the states to let me take their photos! I'm always SO honored when clients take such incredible lengths in terms of time and distance so that we can spend some time together with the camera. And needless to say, even though it was a short couple of hours, Chloe and CK were beautiful and awesome in front of the lens! They were sweet, romantic, and so classy, and they didn't hesitate at all to extend these parts of their personality to the frame!

Here are a few of my favourites from their session with me in KL:

Love love love the pretty light here. We were so lucky this morning!!






I sometimes wonder what the big deal is about getting fancy poses, or really out of the box composition. Sometimes, pictures can look beautiful just by playing with the idea of simplicity. In a look. An emotion. A single touch. Sometimes, just pretty light alone can make a lovely images. Less can be more.




There's that pretty light again, with the simplest of interactions between any couple. You may think I'm weird, but I really love it. I'd rather hang something like this on my wall, than an image where I can barely make out my face :)

I'm not sure why I shot this wide, since I rarely ever take wide shots, but for some reason I thought it looked really pretty as a 'scene' :)










This was one of my favourite ever portraits of a bride. Chloe is really chic and modern, and I felt it really showed off her sass and glamour!




I love the sultriness in the following two images. They have a really hollywood glamour feel to them. Well, to me anyway :)










Then it was out to play in the back alleys. Now, if you know me REALLY well, you will know that I LOVE shooting in the most dirty and ghetto of spots. No kidding. The more run down and dilapidated it is, the more I will love it :D














Thank you so much for an awesome session Chloe and CK! I hope you are having a fabulous time there in the states! I hope to make it to your part of the world really really soon! :D