Got a wedding to shoot this Saturday 25th October 2008. Haven't shot a wedding in quite awhile, so have to re-check and revise a few things. Not that I haven't been shooting, in fact I've shot more stuff these past couple of months than I have ever done before. It's a lifestyle photography project to be used at a car launching and for websites and such, so it's totally different but so refreshing after having done so many weddings.

But, weddings require different skills and since it's usually the same thing over and over again, it gets mentally tiring to try shoot something different. Honestly, I hate the cookie-cutter approach where every wedding is shot almost the same. Bride & Groom throwing flowers in the air, B&G and friends lying in a circle on the ground, B&G doing the love thingy with their fingers, B&G jumping together etc. etc. I just cannot bring myself to shoot these shots. This is why I experiment a lot. Depending on the mood I'm in sometimes I do the manic photojournalistic style with wonky horizons and sometimes I shoot with a more traditional more calculative style. Sometimes I shoot in between.

If I'm in a daring mood and I know the couple won't do enlargements and such I also try to push the limits of my camera by shooting lots of high ISO shots without flash. Sometimes I go to a shoot with the intent of shooting for mostly a black & white final product. I just love black & white but I understand that the clients really need some colour especially if they've paid a lot for colourful clothing, flowers and decorations which really is best shown in colour photos.

However, whatever style I'm shooting or plan on shooting I always have this thing I have to do before a wedding to get some inspiration.

I watch a music video. A specific one actually.

Before almost any wedding I have to look for a video of Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead. It's the best song and video I've found to get me in the zone. Everything about it is perfect, from the lighting to the "so slow it might as well be a photograph" sequences. I have never seen a video that complemented a song better than this.

Anyway, here's the youtube version for those people who've never seen it before.

Lost my iPod Touch today. For a few hours. Damn bloody thing slipped out of my pants whilst I was at a Forum/Seminar at Institut Integriti Malaysia. Couldn't find it anywhere. I sat in only 2 places the whole time I was there and I tried searching for it. No luck there. Decided that no one's gonna return it when they find it. And there's no address or any contact details in there either.

But lucky me, today...(after a terrible weekend when my dad broke my Macbook Pro power adapter which he still denies) it was a seminar about integrity or something like that. So there was this nice lady from 'Perpustakaan' in PJ who was sitting in the chair I was at who found it in between the cushions.

So now my baby's back with me. I don't have anything personal in there but it's the sentimental value of it being my first iPod. And it's so beat up and dented that it's cool.

Anyway, since I was so happy to have got it back, I just had to reward myself by having a T-Bone steak at Las Carretas on Jalan Semantan. I have been craving for steak for a few days now after several nights of having rice and rice and more rice.

So here I am after a good meal, and now enjoying a cappuccino with my baby. I am so happy there are still good, honest people in this country.