These few weeks have been something of a reflection of life for me on a personal level and also professional. I still remember when I was a kid when my parents bring us to Kuala Lumpur to meet relatives on Hari Raya or any other holidays. I’m always excited about visiting this metropolitan city because of the high-rise building and the modern element to it.

• At Masjid Wilayah, Kuala Lumpur

The when I finished school, I decided to further my studies in Kuala Lumpur and working there because of the opportunities are much more  better compared to Penang, where I hailed from.

Being in this photography business has brought me to a lot of places, especially the countryside, remote villages and some FELDA settlements which is quite a challenge to get there, even by car. Mostly because of the long drive I had to endure and the lack of information about the place. But one thing I learned from my experience from visiting these places is, the longer I stay in KL, the more I love the life of the countryside. It appears to me that with all the high-tech architecture and modern infrastructure KL has to offer, you can never get the same feeling of peace and serenity in the countryside. It is where real life is found and the kind of environment our soul is craving for.

• Silhouette of the bride entering the main hall

For the time being, I’m not considering a move or a career change, but the point is I am thankful to be able to experience the highs and lows of both worlds in my everyday life. When you really see into the hearts of these people living in the village, you can feel the peace and appreciation they have in their heart for the blessed life and how the modern technology doesn’t quite dictate their lives as a whole, although nowadays you can see Astro dishes hanging on the zinc roof their houses.

This is a period of reflection and hopefully I will be guided to the right path of life…

• This is the time for some reflection

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“abadikan detik indah anda bersama kami”

Jika anda indamkan detik indah seperti mereka, hubungi kami di:

Hazairi Basha (Jay)
Marketing Executive
hp: 6013 343 9328
e-mail: hazairi@detikindah.com

——————–

Ridhuan Abu Bakar (diwant)
Principal Photographer
hp: 6012 378 5093
e-mail: diwant@detikindah.com

Detik Indah Wedding & Portrait Photography
SignDeco  Interior Consultant

©2009-2010 SignDeco MGT Enterprise (001908386-W) . All Rights Reserved

I am very keen on doing business since my childhood, but that does not mean I’m business minded or have the necessary skills to be a good businessman. But I just like selling things that I did with my own hands, without being told what to do by the boss. For example, in standard 2, I used to draw scenery and cartoon characters with crayons and sell it to my classmates for 20, 30 or 50 cents. They liked it so much that sometimes they asked me to draw on their bags, pencil boxes and t-shirts. I felt honored that people actually bought things that I did with my own hands, and that gave me some sort of believe and motivation to go further, although the kick off finally came 18 years later.

In April 2009, with the ‘help’ of my boss, were somewhat forced to choose between working as an interior designer in her company, or leave. The environment is getting more and more unhealthy because of mixed commitments and time constraint. I guess I did well in those trying times despite my photography commitments that were limited only to weekends as acknowledged by them before. But, as a quite famous saying says, “it’s better to be an expert in one subject than having skills in 10 subjects but only average at it”. Without much time for reflection and consideration, I left the company to pursue my passion in photography, which I never knew can be a career before this. In the end, if one really works hard, and put a lot of effort in it and believe in what you do, the other factors will come into place by itself. The decision to leave the company and make a living out photography come as a surprise even to myself, because the time it took for me to make the decision was rather a short one. But sometimes you never know what is in store for you until you do it.

End of part 3.

This entry is about the reception ceremony of Izham & Herweeza at Dewan Seri Melati, Putrajaya precint 2, and the outdoor session was held at the stunning Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside, just a minute away from the hall. The location of the outdoor session was done with considerable discussion and shortlisting before we finally settles on Pullman, which also includes the former KLIA runway and the interior of the KLIA terminal itself. I did some research about wedding photography at KLIA but didn’t found any, so we thought being the first couple to shoot at the magnificent airport must have been a milestone for us. But our effort were soon cut short after we found out that the ‘fees’ for photography inside the terminal will cost us RM300 p/hour!!

The Pullman package was much much cheaper at RM230++ which includes 1 night stay and photography around the resort compound as well as the interior of the building throughout. The place was so beautiful I decided to come back the next morning for another short session with them. Definitely a great place to stay with practically unlimited photographic opportunities for wedding, portraiture or simply casual..

I would like to wish Izham & Herweeza a very happy marriage and don’t forget our once-in-a-while shisha session at d’Litar, hahaha….

Reception: Izham & Herweeza from ridhuan abubakar on Vimeo.

www.detikindah.com

—————————————————————–

“abadikan detik indah anda bersama kami”

Jika anda indamkan detik indah seperti mereka, hubungi kami di:

Hazairi Basha (Jay)
Marketing Executive
hp: 6013 343 9328
e-mail: hazairi@detikindah.com

——————–

Ridhuan Abu Bakar (diwant)
Principal Photographer
hp: 6012 378 5093
e-mail: diwant@detikindah.com

Detik Indah Wedding & Portrait Photography
SignDeco  Interior Consultant

©2009-2010 SignDeco MGT Enterprise (001908386-W) . All Rights Reserved

Then, in the middle of 2007, the big break came. Although at that time, I never ever had the slightest of idea that this was going to be my break into the industry, it was the first time I managed to cover a wedding ceremony, although not on an official basis. The feel of photographing a wedding ceremony from the start till the end did leave an everlasting memory mainly because:

1. It was my sister’s wedding, which make it more personal

2. You can shoot so many things of different subjects in one place, which makes it highly challenging

I was gob smacked!! Straight away I felt that this subject of photography is a very interesting area to explore, and after that day, I was left with wanting for more. And there the story begins, but not quite smooth as you might think.

The next break came from a friend of mine, Shahrin Zainal, when he invited me to shoot his brother’s wedding, casually, because at that time my friends started to notice that I just bought a DSLR and I am looking for some opportunities. So he gave me the chance to shoot the wedding alongside the official photographer at that time. Afterward, after the conclusion of the photography session, the photographer approached me if I’d be interested to follow him for wedding assignments in the future and he will gladly pay me a small amount of fee for each event, and the payment will be increased gradually according to the quality of my photographs. I accepted the offer, and the rest, they say, is history…

While the majority of a wedding takes place on weekends, there are few events that take part on Fridays. At that time, I was still contracted to my full time job as an interior designer, so the choices were limited to weekends, and not all weekends I was able to attend a wedding because of office commitments.  My interest in wedding photography rapidly develops into passion and I’m getting busier by the weeks. This pattern continued for a good 2 years before the crunch time really time. My ex- boss started to realize something is happening behind the scenes and it’s not long until time time finally came.

For the past 1 year, I’ve been thinking that this situation might eventually come, that one day I had to make a choice between interior design or photography, and I know that I can never commit to both if I want to be successful. It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. Having said that, my commitment to my full time job never deteriorates, in fact I was working on a big project for the company when that fateful day finally comes. I think the biggest factor for that fateful day to occur on that period of time was because everyone in the office was having massive pressure to deliver on the big project, and most of the time, patience were running short and tempers were flying high.

And finally, in early April of 2009, the time finally came.

End of part 2…

This is the solemnization of my old old friend since the early years of our lives, Izham and his partner Herweeza at Nilai, Negeri Sembilan few months ago. Then the outdoor session was done at the magnificent Masjid ‘Besi’ as it is widely known in Putrajaya precint 2. There are a lot of photo opportunity inside and outside the mosque and we had great time that evening, and I hope they’re happy too. Enjoy the pictures guys…

—————————————————————–

“abadikan detik indah anda bersama kami”

Jika anda indamkan detik indah seperti mereka, hubungi kami di:

Hazairi Basha (Jay)
Marketing Executive
hp: 6013 343 9328
e-mail: hazairi@detikindah.com

——————–

Ridhuan Abu Bakar (diwant)
Principal Photographer
hp: 6012 378 5093
e-mail: diwant@detikindah.com

Detik Indah Wedding & Portrait Photography
SignDeco  Interior Consultant

©2009-2010 SignDeco MGT Enterprise (001908386-W) . All Rights Reserved

It’s a cool Monday night, the World Cup fever is here, while sipping a cup of warm tea, while in conversation with a friend, and suddenly in the middle of the conversation, the person asked me, “What is your passion actually?”. For once, I was speechless and went blank for a moment. This kind of question never before been asked in front of my face, because, theoretically in my line of work our passion are written all over our final work that has been done for the people to see. So it came as a surprise to me it happened to me that night.

But this time, I just couldn’t give a straight answer to the question, or elaborate about what my work really is. I guess that is the problem for me at the moment, what do I really do for a living? As a diploma holder in Interior Design with years of work experience in the industry, I always believe that interior design is going to be my bread and butter for years to come. At least that was what I’ve been thinking until the ‘photography bug’ caught up with me somewhere in 2006.

My father was a photography hobbyist himself in his student days. He was once an active member of the photography club in his school back then, at Sekolah Alam Shah in Kuala Lumpur. You can ask him if you don’t believe. But he kept it firmly as a hobby since he had other bigger interest, which made him what he is today. So, as his only son in the family (others were daughters), I kind of develop a keen interest in photography as well, as I am the only one in the family that always empty out the film whenever there is left in a roll of 12, 24 or 36. But at that time, I’ve never known that we can actually make a living by doing photography. But that all changed in 2006..

When I bought my first DSLR in January of 2007 after months of research and gaining feedback from friends, which is the Canon EOS 350D, I said to myself that the reason for buying this big chunk of metal is just because I love taking photograph of landscape and places that I’ve been to. I’ve never think about making money with photography, let alone make it a career. I am just continuing my long lost hobby which I had in my childhood, that is to take photographs of just everything that I feel is worth clicking the shutter for.

At that time, I am still working with an interior design firm in KL as an interior designer cum draughtsman cum site supervisor cum ‘tukang-kena-maki’. The nature of this line (graphic design & architecture alike) requires total commitment to the job, able to be on standby on weekends because you never know when the client wants the drawings, and to attend meetings whenever and wherever they are.  So, the time I spent on my hobby was limited to a number of days in a week, but that never stops me or rather demotivates me from pursuing my deep interest in photography that started to emerge.

Please stay tuned for part 2 on how the break into photography came..

The pictures below are the Reception ceremony of my old friend from secondary school, Bob and his lovely wife Siti which were held at Pantai Dalam not long time ago.

—————————————————————–

“abadikan detik indah anda bersama kami”

Jika anda indamkan detik indah seperti mereka, hubungi kami di:

Hazairi Basha (Jay)
Marketing Executive
hp: 6013 343 9328
e-mail: hazairi@detikindah.com

Ridhuan Abu Bakar (diwant)
Principal Photographer
hp: 6012 378 5093
e-mail: diwant@detikindah.com

Detik Indah Wedding & Portrait Photography
SignDeco  Interior Consultant

©2009-2010 SignDeco MGT Enterprise (001908386-W) . All Rights Reserved

Yes, the World Cup is here and kicking (not quite I’d say), and at the same time wedding season is also underway. So I guess a lot of photographers, wannabe photographers, camera man, ‘abang’ kamera, ‘mat’ kamera, juru gambar and other nicknames we are all used to be called might having some trouble adjusting their sleep cycle because of both ‘commitments’.

After the first round of matches of the group stages almost concluded, the only thing I can comment about so far is that the quality of finishing has been awful to say the least. The likes of Messi, C. Ronaldo, Gilardino, Henry, Teves and all other so-called big names has yet to show their rights to be labeled ‘the world’s great’. Some say the first game is only the warm- up game, and their true talent will be evident at the second match. Well that is only a lame excuse from their respective fans because since the group stage only consist of 3 games, you cannot afford to take 1 game lightly or treat it like a warm up game. Besides, the build up to the tournament has already filled with numerous friendlies and warm up matches, so that is no excuse for the poor performance from the players alike.

My take is that if this trend of 1-0’s, 1-1,s and occasional  2-0’s score lines, this edition of the FIFA World Cup will be one of the most boring I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and watching the Portugal vs Ivory Coast game last night really got on my nerves as the quality of passing and finishing in the final third from both sides was really poor despite most of them are millionaires.

In my opinion, if Messi, C. Ronaldo or even Rooney dreaming of being among the greats like Maradona, Pele, Beckenbauer, Zidane or Romario, they need to shrug off that ‘it’s-not-a-matter-of-if, it’s-a-matter-of-when-i-will-score’ mentality and show their true hunger for success. But of course this article does take exception from the Germans as they are the only team that played like a World Cup team.

The pictures below are the solemnization of my good friend of 20+ years, Hazairi Jay & Niedzra ‘Anis’ which were held at Subang a couple of months ago. I am not the official photographer for that day but I just wanted to share some of the photos with you guys. Hope you enjoy it, and surely I hope this couple enjoyed their marriage life (which I believe is the case)

• the moment

• flashback kicks in

• once you give that ‘mas kahwin’, there’s no turning back, huhu..

• ‘unfortunately’ unvailable

—————————————————————–

“abadikan detik indah anda bersama kami”

Jika anda indamkan detik indah seperti mereka, hubungi kami di:

Hazairi Basha (Jay)
Marketing Executive
hp: 6013 343 9328
e-mail: hazairi@detikindah.com

——————–

Ridhuan Abu Bakar (diwant)
Principal Photographer
hp: 6012 378 5093
e-mail: diwant@detikindah.com

Detik Indah Wedding & Portrait Photography
SignDeco  Interior Consultant

©2009-2010 SignDeco MGT Enterprise (001908386-W) . All Rights Reserved