Drum Major & Children by Alfred Eisenstaedt. You can see the limited edition print at the Monroe Gallery.

Someone said, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.” If the football team struggled, they get themselves a new manager. If a country was going through a tough time, they elect a new president. If a company floundered, they hire a new CEO. The buck stops with the top guy.

The thing about being a leader is that every, or almost every follower thinks he or she can be a better leader. I was certainly one of them. “If only if I were calling the shots…” Well, today I am, at least in the realm of my office. So how do I compare to people who had led me? What do I know? Or what did I think I know that I didn’t?

I’m spending three days in a workshop “Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results” by the Franklin Covey Foundation. Nothing about photography, lighting or Photoshop…just leadership.

It worth all the effort and time…it got me waking up at 1am thinking, reflecting and now blogging. The workshop asks some hard hitting questions. Do I inspire confidence? Do I show trust? Do my teammates trust me? Are my actions consistent with my words? Do I follow through? Do I deliver results I set for the team? Do I develop those around me? Do I unleash their talents?

No right thinking leader would intentionally wound his/her trustworthiness or sabotage his team, yet often it’s what we DIDN’T intentionally do that prevents leaders and their team from succeeding. Perhaps we intent to cultivate a high trust working environment, but we forget we have policies or bureaucracy in place that blocks that. We may have the intention to motivate top performers, but if we do not celebrate success, the star players of the team may leave because they felt unappreciated. We may think we deliver great services, but if we do not have any benchmark or feedback system in place, we could be failing our customers unknowingly.

Intention is not enough. We need action, execution and follow through. Love in action…leaders in action, that’s what we need.

The Franklin Covey Foundation actually measured the leadership quotient of every participant by getting my colleagues to rate me anonymously in an online survey. You can only improve what you can measure. It’s worth every penny and minute to be here. Big thanks to our trainer, CF Wong for stirring the pot for the last three days.

Oh how fun it was to be at Ellen & Mario’s wedding in Bali. The weather was GORGEOUS. Never knew it could be as cool as 20 degrees Celsius in the wintery months of June & July. Then it was the love story of Ellen & Mario which they told me over breakfast. While Ellen was a little shy, Mario just couldn’t contain his adoration and passion. He went on and on about how much he loved Ellen and how wonderful Ellen was. That officially made Mario the sexiest man alive, a man who wore his heart on his sleeve. He also put a BIG & GORGEOUS diamond ring on Ellen’s hand.

I knew the wedding would be beautiful. Set at Conrad Hotel’s Infinity Chapel, a beautiful glass chapel sitting on an infinity pool that oversees the Batur Volcano, it is impossible shoot bad pictures here.

It was inspiring to hear how Ellen overcame adversity in the Philippines to become a successful fund and relationship managers in Singapore. Mario lost his job during the financial crisis and used that to start a new enterprise, which eventually led him to Ellen. Isn’t it funny how sometimes so much good can come out of adversity?

Mario is the most un-German German I’ve ever met. His mates joked about Mario time which is usually 30 minutes behind schedule. He is relaxed and easy going. What did all the German precision go? Ellen is warm, modest and elegant. She is a princess and a commoner at the same time. When she walks into a room, she commands attention and at the same time, put everyone at ease. What a great combination.

Mario joked about his wedding being a United Nations assembly. Seriously, people from every continent got together. I was honored to me meet Mario’s uncle who flew for the first time in his life because he wanted to be there. Also met Ellen’s gang of gals from Manila. The most important gal in the wedding has to be Stacey, Ellen’s angel. She wasn’t sure if she liked to be photographed but I thought we became good pals.

I loved how the family and friends came through for Ellen and Mario. The boys practiced real hard for the acapella they sang to Ellen. Mario rehearsed non-stop with the boys in the afternoon and his sister belted a great number during the Eucharist.

Here are some highlights to share with you, Ellen & Mario. Hope these pictures will help you relive those precious moments. Bless you!

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upcoming photography workshops: Two-Day Guerrilla Lighting Workshop in KK (August 12-13) & KL (September 16-17)

The famous Batur Volcano which you oversees Bali.

A truly magnificent architecture the Conrad Bali’sInfinity Chapel. Privileged to have photographed here a few times.

Check out Ellen’s Vera Wang!

Details found…the tiny Minox digital camera fascinated me.

One of my favorites…to freeze a quiet moment between Ellen and Stacey before the wedding ceremony started

See Ellen’s diamond ring? Gosh, for a second I wanted to be a woman too! It is so exquisite and beautiful!!

Mario walked into the chapel with his mother.

The first time Mario laid eyes on Ellen in her gown.

Loving the peace and serenity that surrounds this place

This is the first time I witnessed a bride unveiled herself and kissed the groom. I’ve got photographic evidence to back my claims.

Stacey dedicated a song to her mom & Mario.

Ok, the gals loved me.

Did I tell you Ellen knows how to party?

Mario the rockstar!

Elaine & Owen…what a couple and what a wedding. The content of the wedding is as spectacular as its location, Sri Panwa Resort in Phuket. Perched on top of Cape Panwa, 500 feet above sea level, you get this amazing view of Makham Bay. Then Elaine and Owen packed about 100 of their closest friends and family members into this corner of heaven. What a party!

One thing I know about Elaine and Owen is their devotion to their family. They LOVE their parents, grandparents, siblings. They are raised with the best of Chinese and Australian family values. You can tell from how they respect their folks, and how crazily they party with them! Yes, WITH them. Always good to be able to let your hair down and take the edge off.

Elaine and Owen love their folks so much so that they book us based on what their parents said about me. “My parents attended this wedding in Perth and said they’ve never seen better wedding pictures. You’ve gotta get this guy, Elaine!” Wow, thank you so much for the endorsement. Can’t tell how blessed and honored I am to be at this wedding.

My closest friends all know that I am a hopeless romantic. It was a challenge to photograph Elaine and Owen because I was chocking up so much. Let me recount the tear jerking moments…when Elaine’s grandparents kissed & held each other in front of my camera, when Elaine marched in with her dad with tears streaming down her cheeks, when Elaine’s parents held each other during the exchange of vows, when Owen’s dad delivered his speech (that was tears of laughters because he was just hilarious).

I can go on and on. This wedding reminds me why marriage is the most beautiful and important thing. Nothing like loving and being loved unconditionally. All the best, Elaine and Owen! May you grow old loving each other…just as your parents and grandparents do.

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upcoming photography workshops: Two-Day Guerrilla Lighting Workshop in KK (August 12-13) & KL (September 16-17)

Owen said he never looked good in front of a camera. I replied, “Well, you’ve not stood in front of mine yet.” He looked great here didn’t he.

Young lovers being lovey dovey is a given. When you have been married for nearly 60 years and you’re still warm and fuzzy with each other, now that’s LEGENDARY!

Elaine, please stop crying because you are choking me up too!

Awww…

Lovin’ these little details…

Just in case Owen didn’t go on one knee when he proposed, we made sure of it on the wedding day.

We only had 30-40 minutes before the reception started…shooting fast and juggling the lost of day light at the same time. Lovin’ the pressure!

Quite something to see three generations on the dance floor.

Scored 85, Silver with Distinction

Some regarded the annual Australian Professional Photography Awards the toughest print competition in the world. You don’t have it easy with the Aussies, and I respect them for that. For a country of 25 million people, Australia probably has the highest talented photographer per capita. Think about Rocco Accoro, Marcus Bell, Christian Fletcher, Peter Eastway, Jerry Ghionis, Yervant, Pippin Walton, Peter Coulson, Martin Schembri…the list goes on.

Again, this year, we processed our photographs, printed and re-printed, mounted and finally ship four entries via DHL to Australia. You can only submit four, no more; and you can’t have more than one submission from a single shoot, event or scene.

It took a lot of time, effort and money but that’s what it means to push ourselves. Print competitions have done me a world of good. It is so easy to say, “As long as my clients love my work, I am ok.” It IS important that our clients love our work and working with us, but our clients are not editors or fellow professionals who can be our harshest critics.

So each year, I pushed myself to submit prints to WPPI and AIPP. Sometimes my work was flogged and praised. Either way, I walk away a better photographer because I submitted myself to honest and anonymous critique.

I’m applying the same discipline to my business as well. Seeking honest feedback from mentors, clients and colleagues. Amazing how much I can learn when I just listen.

With the print competitions at the back of my mind, I have this extra motivation to work hard and be creative in every shoot. “Perhaps today, I can top myself,” I thought. It is not a race to impress others, but a benchmark to see where I stand with my international colleague.

FYI, we scored 1 silver and 2 silver with distinction. Was told that 28% of submissions were awarded silver and 7.4 % silver with distinction. I am chasing my first gold award, and the four points that I need to be awarded Master of Photography by AIPP.

What about fame and fortune that comes with winning a competition? Well, that’s a nice bonus. The main prize is becoming a better photographer.

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upcoming photography workshops: Two-Day Guerrilla Lighting Workshop in KK (August 12-13) & KL (September 16-17)

Scored 83, Silver Award.

Scored 85, Silver with Distinction

Socred 79.

I am a big fan of musicians, guitarist in particular. I would never be as good with a guitar as I am with a camera. Guess life is fair in a way. You can’t have everything right? Just because I can’t have it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. I have an extensive library of music from CDs and iTunes…but we are not discussing music today. We are talking about light, which in many ways is like music. It’s about flavor and execution.

Jonathan Tse is a budding musician who had taken his work around the region. I showed up at his recording studio hoping to shoot a few frames of the artist himself at work. It’s a great little studio but it is tough place to make an interesting picture if we only have available light and f/1.4 lens to fall back on.

Out come the speedlights, softboxes, and gels. Here are some examples of what we created that day. They ain’t masterpieces but I sure walked away with much better pictures because I am willing to direct, craft and color the light. Can you imagine if I insisted on working only with available light here?

Just available light.

Flash with CTO gel via softbox from camera right.

Same as above but I added two flash in red gels and fired it from the floor near the wall.

Just one single light box from camera right. Used the studio’s black sound proofing boarding as the solid background. Voila.

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upcoming photography workshops: Two-Day Guerrilla Lighting Workshop in KK (August 12-13) & KL (September 16-17)