What busy two weeks of October we had. We traveled to Hong Kong and shot this pre-wedding session, attended a wedding and shot another wedding. So humble that we get to do what we love to do. To witness and capture genuine moments. Life is groovy.

Each wedding, each pre-wedding shoot, each couple are unique — But this pre-wedding session especially meant something to me. Joseph, the groom of this shoot was the Best Man for our wedding. A man of passion, wisdom, integrity; a son whom honors his parents, and a child that seeks after God’s heart. And Joseph and Jasmine currently resides in Cambodia, and we were able to meet up in Hong Kong for their engagement shoot.

I am not familiar with the locations in Hong Kong, and I don’t have a car nor interested in driving, so we had to be very strategic with our logistic. When you are shooting at home, you have the luxury to pack, carry extra gears, drive your clients around, and location-hop. Just to throw some facts out there, the population density in Canada is 4 people/square km, and in Hong Kong, is a whopping 6452 people/square km. So you can imagine, every corner, every streets are filled with busy people with busy lives. Once you arrive at a location, you just start shooting away. So I mentioned we had to be strategic with our logistic, we also stripped down the amount of equipment and shot Guerrilla style. No, not Gangnam style.

So we came down to the following locations:

1. 1881 — Heritage Building
2. Take the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor — A must-see destination according to TripAdvisor
3. Ladder Street
4. Public Market

1881 – a beautiful preserved & restored historic Victoria architecture. I just wished I had the location to myself as we arrived, it is simply stunning. Not only we were not alone, there was a full-on wedding party shoot, an editorial shoot, another engagement shoot, than there was us. And how can I forget. . . hundreds of tourists snapping in and out.

Money can’t get you this flower bouquet — It was a last minute idea and Jasmine made it herself the night before. #Impressive

Hair & makeup? Jasmine did it herself as well. Joseph is one lucky man.

The Star Ferry. Another reason why I absolutely love Hong Kong. You have crazy modern skyscrapers, super high-end retailers, but then you can take the Star Ferry to experience a piece of Hong Kong culture for $2.50 HKD (~35 cents CDN)

Joseph requested to shoot at this location as we were dropped off by taxi.

Hollywood Street — The antique street.

To wrap up the shoot, I suggested to shoot at this Public Market to capture the busy ambient lights that you won’t find in many other places.

And…. that’s a wrap!

// For this guerrilla-styled pre-wedding shoot, here are the equipments used:
One camera, one lens, one beautiful assistant.
1 x Canon 5DmkIII
1 x Canon 50mm/1.2
1 x Assistant – Ellie

Lighting: One small reflector that fits into my camera bag
No flash used whatsoever. Using large aperture at f/1.2 is like having an extra set of lights with you all the time.