To have her set foot in my studio was a huge honor. While we chit chat over hot tea, I wondered if I could get Mary to shed her image as a hard hitting journalist. She is also a mother and wife. There’s got to be the gentler side of her. Yet, I had confidence crisis then…seriously doubting whether I could do a good job for Mary.

Started the shoot with her husband, Jan Fah and daughter, Flora to hugging her. Being a Chinese Hakka myself, where hugging is an foreign culture, Mary out of her comfort zone but happy to play along.

Then I asked Jan Fah to hug and kiss Mary. “Very shy la! We are old couple and we don’t do this!” Mary complained, then relented & eventually enjoyed it.

Actually, we were hugged and kissed a lot when we were babies. As we grow up, we hug & kiss less but we have never forgotten that nice feeling of being held and loved.

Thank you Mary for showing us that it’s never too old to kiss.

Gotta deflate the tires before you get into the desert to gain more traction. You’ve gotta inflate it again before you get into normal roads. While deflating takes a few minutes. Inflating all four tires took over 30 mins!

Now, a desert is the exact opposite of a rainforest. It’s barren and dry. Every direction you look, the desert looks the same. Perhaps the only similarity it shares with a rainforest. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot in a desert. Russell, my assistant during GPP week, pulled some strings and got a fleet of 4WD to get us to the nearest desert in Dubai. Immediately after finishing my Photo Friday lecture, we left for the desert. It was already 4pm.

Got to the desert at 5:15pm. Sun sets at 6pm. We had 45 minutes to find a spot, setup lights and shoot. Well, Gregory Heisler would complain that’s too much time. Yet having zero experience working in the desert, it posed a challenge.

My gear of choice was the Elinchrom Quadra & the 39″ Deep Throat Octa. It was a massive task to keep the softbox in place with strong wind beating against us. Two guys held down the Octa on a c-stand. Shot with two bodies (D3 with 70-200mm & D700 with 14-24mm) as changing lenses in the desert is OUT OF QUESTION!

Radhicka weaved her magic in front of the camera and I just fired away. Elinchrom Skyport chose to misbehave causing an unusual amount of misfires. So I was battling an unreliable radio system, foreign environment and surging adrenaline. Just dug in and made the best of it.

When the sun set, it was as if someone flicked the light switch. It went pitch dark very quickly. There wasn’t much of after glow. The desert became a very cold place very quickly. Thank you Radhicka for being such a trooper & Russell for making first desert shoot come true!

UPDATED 12 May, 4:45pm

While all pre-booking tickets are taken, we have reserved 50% of available slots for walk-ins. There are plenty of slots for the mothers of Kota Kinabalu. Leaving a comment on this blog, FB page or Twitter DOES NOT give you a spot for the FREE shoot. You have to show up & queue for this.

FREE Mother’s Day Portrait Session terms & conditions:

• We will ONLY take a picture if there is at least 1 mother in front of the camera
• 1 framed photo per group
• Each person is limited to 1 photo shoot this weekend
• You DON’T NEED a ticket for the FREE session (however if you do, you get on the express line)
• BRING your ticket/VIP Access card
• Tickets are valid ONLY during the designated time
• Tickets cannot be sold or exchanged for cash/products/services

So here are the goodies:

• FREE portrait session for mums*
• FREE framed photo (size: 18cm x 13cm) for mums*
• Up to 45% off regular priced items if you wanna sign up a package

*mums & her loved ones.

Date: May 12-13, 2012
Time: 12pm-6pm
Venue: 1st floor, Likas Square Commercial Center (right next to the only escalator in the building)

The best Mum’s Day gift in Sabah is not only FREE, it’s PRICELESS.

Not trying to trivialize finer aspect of photography and professionalism. I think about these issues all the time. Yet if we have to strip away everything around photography to its very essential, what would we find?

For Emma, she just wanted a picture of whole family together. Her eldest son, Mohd Yazmier, 12 years old, passed away a month ago. It was then she realized she NEVER had a family picture. A friend reminded her that she took one at our photo booth last December and it was posted on our FB page. Emma contacted us. We printed it with acid-free fine art paper and framed it for her. It’s her Mother’s Day gift.

What really matters in photography? In Emma’s case, it’s documenting life, love and family. It’s memories immortalized on a piece of paper, telling us that at this particular place and time, we were happy. Perhaps we held, hugged and kissed our loved ones. Or perhaps we shared a joke, or held our hands strolling down our favorite beach. Without a camera, we rely only on memories. Unfortunately, we can’t print memories.

Happy Mother’s Day, Emma. We can’t bring Mohd Yazmier back to life, but we hope the photo will keep your memory of him alive and warm your hearts. You reminded us how important our job is holding a camera.

Yes, it’s not easy to marshall four siblings, their spouses, kids and your parents for a family photo. However if you could accomplish this Herculean feat, the reward is immense. Just ask Melissa Leong who called in the calvary from all corners of Kota Kinabalu.

When it’s done. It’s no longer a photo. It’s a limited edition, one-of-a-kind, personalized art piece of your family. This four-feet wide limited edition picture hangs nicely in each of their homes. Five of them, to be exact. What a priceless moment. What a conversation starter. What a joy to return home after a hard day’s work and see this picture. What a way to celebrate life and family!

Photographing large groups is a specialty that we haven’t advertised. Since we are on this topic, I thought I should introduce some of our recent large group portraits to you.

Alice wanted portraits with 6 friends. So here it goes.

SIB Skyline is an active church in Kota Kinabalu. It has a team of youth leaders that build the community by working with young people. They are builders, I thought. Henceforth the tools and theme. You can see a human size edition of this picture at our studio.

Twelve gals walked into our photo booth at Suria Sabah and asked for a group photo. Well, we delivered. They seemed to like our “creative” posing.

Again, if you can bring them, we’ll photograph them.

Do you provide makeup? Wardrobe? Props? This is perhaps the most common question people asked about photographing a family portrait in our studio.

The answer is no, no & not really. But you can bring your own.

We think the best make-up you can wear is a genuine smile or laughter. The best wardrobe is the one the reflects who you are. The best props are toys you are crazy about and stuff with sentimental value to you. We have some accessories but we really prefer you bring your stuff. We want to photograph you, your family, all the warm, fuzziness & insanity of all of you guys coming together–not a family carefully manicured by someone else’s ideas.

Two thumbs up to Linda, Hamilton and Ezra for arriving in our studio with all guns blazing and totally ready to have fun the way only they know how to!

I can understand why a lot of folks feel visiting their dentists is more fun than heading to a photo studio. Nobody wants an unpleasant, impersonal and mechanical experience. This is NOT how we take photos in Louis Pang Studio.

Jessie, Joanne & Rachel came by our studio several weeks ago. “We want some pictures with Mum,” said Joanne & Rachel who live and work abroad. It’s a rare chance for them to have some pictures to remember their mum since they are away most of the time. We had a lot of fun! Laughed so loud that our neighbours tried to peer through our office to see what was going on.

It is OK you are not looking into the camera.
It is OK you laugh so much that you don’t see your eyes.
It is OK to hug and kiss your mum though it’s not something you do everyday
It is OK to have too much fun that your hair and shirt is a little messed up…because
EXPRESSION ALWAYS BEATS PERFECTION.

Photographers are such visual creatures. New places, people, environment and cultures are always good stimuli. Having the good fortune to teach at Gulf Photo Plus and thus shoot around Dubai is great fun. Big thanks to the GPP team for arranging for the shooting locations, transport and models. I owed it to Russell (a.k.a miracle worker/assistant/slave/buddy/coffee maker) for the smooth running of the workshop. Hit a few bumps but Russell always figured out ways to make things work.

At the workshop we worked with available light, artificial light (with small flash) and combining both. Posing, directing, business end of stuff were also discussed. Great bunch of students who really engaged me and asked a ton of questions. Here are some shots I did during the workshop.

Had always been told that we shouldn’t shoot at mid day. Never tell a photographer “NEVER” because we’ll do it. Noon day sun in Dubai is as harsh as it can get. It was a matter of posing and positioning the body and face in the right angle to work with this hard light.

Another picture taken at noon.

Radhicka brings magic every time she steps in front of my camera.

I was in Penang yesterday to photograph the bridal session of Jennifer & Hin who jetted in from Melbourne. Penang has always been one of my favourite locations for photography…just love the historical buildings and the incredible hawker food on offering.

The shoot chimed alone really well, I was in a zone and Danny was brilliant help with the strobes. In the middle of it, there about 4:30pm, we could feel the earth moving and swirling under our feet. I thought I was feeling light headed, but Danny felt the same thing. People dashed out of buildings. Got wind from Twitter than a 8.9 earthquake just took place near Indonesia and a tsunami warning was in place.

Emergency personnel showed up and told us to evacuate.

Our final location was the Batu Ferringi beach. As soon as we put our bags down and Jenn got into position for the first photo, emergency volunteers came in and told us to evacuate the beach. We pled them to give us 5 minutes just for one shot. You gotta nail your exposure, composition, lighting and posing under 5 minutes!

I salute the dedication and organization of the emergency personnel. They did a brilliant job finding us on a tiny stretch of beach. While I wasn’t worried at all since I had lived through 3 tsunami warnings, I didn’t want to be nonchalant about it.

Run! Take cover!

Traffic was crawling as everyone fled the beaches. For a long time, we were stuck in coastal road leading to the city center, barely 50 meters away from the sea. I thought, “If tsunami struck now, we would be all dead.” There was no high ground to run to to save our lives. We did all the pre-production work, preparation and planning. We thought we had everything figured out yet an incident like this just taught me how little control I have.

Thanks for your prayers and concerns that your poured on our Facebook wall. The tsunami warning was called off shortly after 9pm. I am catching a flight home in a couple of hours. Cheers!

The final shot from the beach.

You know the famous saying, “Ah, spring …When a young man’s fancy turns to love.” (cue fluttering hearts please)

(Actually, the accurate version is “In the Spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Written by Alfred Lord Tennyson in a poem entitled“Locksley Hall”.)

I think the bestest of best thing about spring – besides spring flowers – is Easter.

To Christians worldwide, Easter is a very holy season. To Walmart and Cadbury, Easter is all about chocolate, colourful eggs and white lilies. My three favourite things in the world! All lumped in a day.

Oh jooooooy.

My mom makes the best chocolate cakes. Says me. She tells me that the best cocoa comes from Tawau. What do you mean, “best cocoa comes from Tawau”? Like Tawau, Sabah, Tawau?

And so, I Goggled “chocolates in Sabah”. And as usual, Mother knows best.

Did you know that we are one of the world’s top cocoa producer, along with Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia? Godiva, M&Ms… all use Sabahan cocoa. Doesn’t that make you proud?

Turns out, in Tawau, there are many cocoa plantations (and even more oil palms) dotting the land. Somewhere deep in the Tawau Hills National Park … there lives a witch with a chocolate and candy house, waiting for Hansel and Gretel…

No! I’m just kidding. Something about “somewhere deep in the the forest…” makes me progress to that.

Anyway, deep in the forest of the Tawau Hills Park sits a one thousand-acre Teck Guan Cocoa Village. This village has its own factory, accommodation and mini museum that offers tours to choco maniacs who’d endure 40 minutes of bumpy car ride just for a taste of chocolates.

According to a New Straits Times article published in May 2006, the village offers a two-hour long tour of the facility, shows off cocoa trees and cocoa fruits, screens a cocoa video, offers you cocoa drinks (of course) in the midst of its very fertile volcanic soil.

Active travel blogger mysabah.com/wordpress (http://www.mysabah.com/wordpress/?p=217#disqus_thread) went to the Village in May that same year. He said the people there were very surprised by his visit because he literally walked into the facility without a prior appointment. Staff told him that people usually come in groups brought by tour companies.

Anyway, he wrote that Teck Guan Cocoa Musuem at Tanjung Batu Laut is managed by Majulah Koko Tawau Sdn Bhd, and despite his “surprise” visit that day, the staff were accommodating and showed him around.

“Cocoa Butter,” mysabah.com revealed, “is more high quality and cost three times more expensive than Cocoa Cake. That’s why white chocolate, with cocoa butter as key ingredient, is more expensive. Nestle (Ovaltine), Milo, M & M Mars are their customers too.”
Of course, he suggested visitors call before they drop in – he provided telephone number 089-775566, ext 2601.

Back in Kota Kinabalu in July 2009, an American biotechnology specialist named Dr. Douglas Furtek from the Malaysian Cocoa Board gave a talk entitled “Sabah: The Gourmet Chocolate Capital of the World” at The Sabah Society secretariat office.

Turns out, there is a team of specialists here in Sabah working on improving the chocolate quality we produce. Everyday, I imagine they sit in a stark government-run cafeteria, eating chocolates. And getting paid for it. Holy moly. What a job.

Dr Furtek said he hopes Sabah will one day be the gourmet chocolate capital of the world.

You and me both, Dr. Furtek. You and me both.

Behind Her Lens – BHL (I’ve checked the initials – it’s not a swear, it’s not trademarked) is a sort of spin-off of Louis Pang Studio blog. Working at the studio, while necessary, is not so good for the lower half of my body so I take every opportunity I can to get off this chair. Photo assignments, shoes, holidays, kids, girlie issues…if they take me off this chair and bring me out for a virtual walk, let’s talk about them all here.

Cynthia and Edwin flew in from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah, Malaysia) for their pre-wedding photo shoot one cloudy February day. Cynthia wanted a beautiful sunset for this wedding shoot – so did we. But sometimes, even Mother Nature misses a memo so the skies were dark and threatening all afternoon.

But this picture of the two of them reminds me of some epic love story – full of drama. (I LOVE IT!) The dark skies…. the waves…. the two of them holding onto each other like that….There’s a song from the TV series “The Mentalist” that goes something like this, “Come with me forever, my love, under the darkening sky. Come hide with me, I’ll save you my love.” Cue the song here please!

And from that smile on Cynthia’s face, you just know everything’s going to turn out alright.

p.s. We took lots of pictures during this Cynthia-and-Edwin shoot but this one is so powerful, I can’t bear overshadowing it with another image.

Someone said photography is a key that open doors. Two weeks ago, it opened me to the exotic city of Dubai. I taught two workshops and gave a ninety-minute presentation at the Gulf Photo Plus (GPP), the region’s largest photography conference. Taught for six days straight. Hard work for sure, but what a rewarding experience.

Hats off to Mohamed Somji & Hala Salhi for assembling a world class faculty. Honestly wished I wasn’t attending GPP as a teacher but a student. At dinner one night, I was sitting between Joe McNally and Gregory Heisler, with David Burnett just opposite me. Between them is a millennia of shooting experience, several hundred magazine covers, multiple Alfred Eisenstadt Awards, World Press Awards… Double pinch me PLEASE! These are giants whose work and legacy are the very foundation of the photography world we walk upon. Yet, they are the most gracious, kind, humble and passionate human beings you can meet.

Above: What do you say when David Burnett asked to take your picture? “Yes sir!” I replied.

At this place, you don’t simply call yourself a photographer because it is a profession that is held with great respect, passion and care. I am perfectly comfy under my own skin, yet I am fully aware of the talents and accomplishment of this faculty. Tried real hard not to be starstruck when you get to hang out with your photography heroes. What a humbling and inspiring experience!

GPP runs a whole gamut of photography workshops from travel, lighting, portraits, commercial, editorial, landscape, post-processing, weddings for five days. These are intensive, hands-on and intimate workshops capped at 10-12 participants. They also vary in length, ranging from three days to half a day. All priced reasonably and very well attended with participants from 19 countries! People travelled more than a day to be here. So if you are within a 24-hour flight from Dubai, there is no reason you should miss it!

I enjoyed teaching at GPP. There were no rock stars or prima donnas. The instructors were supportive, helpful and generous. Everyone shared ideas, info and knowledge. Love the classes I taught and the participants I met. We all got a bit teary at the end of the workshops. Every good thing has got to come to an end.

Dubai is a beautiful city where the impossible becomes reality. I haven’t had the time to see enough of it to give a fair review. The people I’ve met have been gracious. You do the usual tourist stuff checking out Burj Khalifa & Burj Al Arab, ski resorts at the Kempinski Mall of Emirates, The Palms.

The highlight of my trip came at the final 20 minutes of GPP during the event’s highly anticipated annual Shoot Out. Three instructors: David Hobby a.k.a Strobist, Martin Prihoda & Gregory Heisler, winner of last year’s shootout. If you not familiar with GPP’s Shoot Out…each photographer is given 20 minutes to photograph an assignment before a packed hall of 300-400 people. The camera is tethered to a laptop and thus each capture comes up LIVE on the screen. Mr. Strobist started, and then Martin. Greg went last because honestly, nobody wanted to shoot after him. David Hobby did an excellent blog entry on the shootout. I just wanna share with you what I learned.

Like the two great photographers before him, Greg was dumbfounded when he was told the assignment was a self-portrait. In the first seven minutes, Greg just walked slowly back and forth the packed auditorium. He was thinking hard. Showed no sign of nerve though. Well I guess if you could handle the portrait of 3 American presidents, you could handle anything.  Then he announced to the crowd, “I will do a symbolic self-portrait.”

For the next 10 minutes, Greg just kept adjusting his composition, props, camera angles, light position. He metered and re-metered his exposures. Up till the 18th minute, two minutes before the deadline, the screen remained empty as Greg had yet to squeeze the shutter release. “Can he do it? Should we give him more time?” I asked myself.

Just past the 18th minute, Greg took the first shot. When the picture showed up on the screen, the crowd erupted. It was perfect & creative. It was so good, that it should be considered one of Greg’s iconic pieces. Anyone who remotely knows Greg would recognize his hat and glasses right away.

I was almost in tears when I saw the first frame up on the giant screen. It felt like a picture where Greg bid us farewell. The frame also shook me to my core. “Do not mistake activity for significance, or the capture many frames as many successes.” I knew I would have raced to grab this light and that modifier, shoot a zillion test frames by the 10th minute. Greg showed me that you can be creative, precise and deliberate at the same time. I felt inspired and hopeless at the same time. God, when I can even be remotely this good?

Check out the GPP Shoot Out video:

You can’t depend on your eyes, if you imagination is out of focus. I left home to teach photography in Dubai. I got home an enriched & hungry student of photography.

Above: the man himself, Gregory Heisler

In Malaysia, school-going kids had a week’s break late January because it was Chinese New Year. Exactly 40 days later – yes, I counted. I took out my desk calendar, used my forefinger and counted the good ol’ fashion way – Malaysian kids get yet another nine-day break from school.

The week kids are ecstatic about, the week parents dread. Unless, of course, if you’re the parent with help in the house. Then, it’s the week the help dreads.

So in October 2011, I drew up a holiday timetable for my four-year-old. Yes, ma’am. A timetable.

Perhaps you’d like to know what was in that list? Here are some of the activities:

1/ A trip to the public library. I LURRRRRVE  libraries. I really, really do. I love the smell, I love the surreal quiet. I love the images in the books, I love the smell of paper, the different textures of book covers. It’s free. It’s air-conditioned. What’s not to love?! (TIP: if you’re particular about the cleanliness of these books, bring along anti-bacterial wet wipes to scrub the book covers with. And choose newer looking books. You’ll thank me for these tips. Think Hands, Foot & Mouth Disease. Think kids with runny noses wiping it on the books.)

2/ Trip to the zoo. This works for kids who love animals and the outdoors. For toddlers, bring the stroller. Zoos have restaurants and restrooms.

3/ Workbooks – My little Ms. Mermaid Princess was four last year and she liked to draw and colour. So I bought her one alphabet and one number workbook, disguised as colouring book and “join-the-dots” book respectively. Of course, I bought her four other workbooks …one for Chinese, one for Malay, one English, one for Science. Thank you, Popular Bookstore!

4/ Science & Math projects – I went online and did tons of research for this. (TIP: Google “home science project”) On Tuesdays, we did science projects. Like build a volcano using baking soda (this is REALLY cool – just remember to do this in the sink). On Fridays, we’d count stuff, add stuff, take away stuff – Maths. So she thinks, oooh, woooow.

5/ Exercise – Ms. Mermaid Princess went for swim lessons twice a week at the public pool. She learned not to be afraid of water. Walks at the park – free. Outdoor playground – free. Her grandmother likes to bring her to indoor playgrounds, these are chargeable and it’s best to bring your own socks. Really, bring your own socks. Even if the playground doesn’t enforce that rule. Bring your own socks. (p.s. unlike the library, you can’t use anti-bacterial wet wipes on the playground equipment so it’s good to go to new playgrounds, which logically, should be cleaner than older ones.) Other kid activities I would have loved for her to do – Pilates for Kids, camping, gymnastics, tennis…

6/ Grandparents – Time to reconnect with grandparents. Ms. Mermaid went out with her maternal grandparents on Wednesdays, 9am to 2pm; and paternal grandparents on Thursdays.

7/ Holiday programme – churches, daycare centres, tuition centres, I understand many of these have programmes for children during the holidays. They’re age-appropriate activities that are fun because they involve interaction and play with other kids. Of course, these are for those sociable kids.

8/ Stock up at home – for quiet time and quiet kids, buy things that the child enjoys doing at home. Since Ms. Mermaid enjoys colouring and drawing, we bought lots of paper, paint brushes, big tubs of paints and an apron. Line the floor with recycled newspaper, tape the newspaper down to the floor. These kept her entertained for a long time. But then, there’s clean-up time… Those kept me “entertained” for an equally long time.

In case you’re wondering, both Ms. Mermaid Princess and I survived the year-end holiday.

Happy holiday, kids!

Because holidays are all about fun!

“Behind Her Lens” is a sort of spin-off of Louis Pang Studio blog. Working at the studio, while necessary, is not so good for the lower half of my body so I take every opportunity I can get to get off this chair. Photo assignments, shoes, holidays, kids, girlie issues…if they take me off this chair and bring me out for a virtual walk, let’s talk about them all here!

Eons ago, when I was still a little lass in blue pinafore, we had a joke about Leap Day and it goes something like this:

A not-so-attractive guy takes a deep breath and asks a girl for a date on Valentine’s Day. Girl looks at him, thinks for a bit and says, no, not on Valentine’s Day…. Poor dejected chap looks for hole to hide in. But girl continues, “Not on Valentine’s Day but is 30^th OK with you?”

Oooooooh, boy is beside himself with excitement. He’s blue and breathless, he’s crazy happy. Until it dawns on him, “February 30^th ??”

Ouch.

But now, I find out that there IS a February 30^th. Really. In the 1700s in Sweden. And in the Soviet Union in 1930 and 1931. There’s a lot of words explaining this in www.timeanddate.com – something about a couple of guys named Julian and Gregorian, something about different types of calendars…

Everything’s OK now, no more confusion. Let’s all agree – there is no February 30^th.

While we got that bit resolved, fascination with the leap year continues, however.

A little town down in Texas, United States of America, called Anthony (Julian, Gregorian…and now Anthony – why are these guys getting us all confused with leap year?) is known as the “Leap Capital of the World” and it continues to host the Worldwide Leap Year Festival up until this day. What they do there then, only God and Google can tell us.

While this town is obviously captivated by the intercalary (yippee, I learned a new word today) day, the Keogh family in Ireland is living it every day. For three generations. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Peter Anthony was born in Ireland on February 29, 1940, while his son Peter Eric was born on the Leap Day in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1964. Peter’s daughter, Bethany Wealth, was, in turn, born in the UK on February 29, 1996. Fascinating!

In Scotland, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on Leap Day (while noone could explain why, *I* can. That’s because you get presents just once every four years. That’s pretty darn unlucky to me). The Greeks, they say, don’t marry during a Leap Year, and God forbid, on Leap Day!

But I don’t like that Leap Year, Leap Day is getting all this negative publicity. Because, look, in Ireland, women can take over the reins and propose to their men on Leap Day. Yes, women propose. Think the 2010 movie “Leap Year”, starring Amy Adams, Matthew Goode and that accent!

Here’s the best part – if the man refuses the proposal (BOOOO!), he is expected to pay a penalty in the form of a gown, 12 pairs of gloves or cold-hard cash! (YAAAAY). During the middle ages, there were even laws governing this tradition. I LOVE IT!

For that reason, in some places today, Leap Day is known as “Bachelors’ Day”

So on Leap Day this year, do something insane. Do something different. Buy your man dinner. Clean the house. Propose to your man.

From “Behind Her Lens”

BHL (I’ve checked the initials – it’s not a swear, it’s not trademarked) is a sort of spin-off of Louis’ blog posts. Working at the studio, while necessary, is not so good for the lower half of my body so I take every opportunity I can to get off this chair. Photo assignments, shoes, holidays, kids, girlie issues…if they take me off this chair and bring me out for a virtual walk, let’s talk about them all here.