Picture Perfect Photography

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2008-12-20T14:35:00.001-08:00

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2008-11-29 Nicole and Andrew wedding

2008-12-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

2008-11-22 Tania and Desmine wedding

2008-11-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

2008-11-22 Jemma and Robert wedding

2008-11-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

2008-10-11 Stephanie and Oliver

2008-11-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

Binh Trinh, what can I say, you and Lin really captured our day. Amidst the road closure, missing padre, everything was in its stride. We and our guests were thoroughly impressed with you and Lin and the feedback was you were easy going, relaxed and captured the real u. Crying children, drunk groomsmen hard to control but man, the finished product was well worth the time and effort. If I could redo the whole wedding thing again, you would be my first call. I don't recall much of the day but the photos have captured it well and I see what everyone else saw. You worked with a backdrop which wasn't the greates waterfall but you made it amazing, You are easy going and made everyone look their best. You made me and my girls feel like princesses and that will forever be a memory I will cherish.

Thank you again for your time and effort on the day. Anyone not wanting to have you as their photographer woudl be a fool. So I say book in now if you want a guy that will make you all feel at ease and make your day extra special. Amazing Amazing Amazing fantanstic photos a must do.

Stephanie and Oliver.

2008-10-25 Peter and Jaime - Wharerata

2008-11-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

I love weddings, especially with clients who are just so relaxing and easy to deal with. They love the images, and so do the rest of their families and friends. I reckon some of these will win awards in the near future.

4th Annual B/W Spider award

2008-11-13T13:05:00.000-08:00

WOW - to be recognised and to have our names listed in such a prestigious competition is an absolute honour.

The Spider Award is the world leading competition for black and white photography, with judges include the head of the Tate Gallery (London). For this year, my sister and I entered 10 images, which me being in the professional and Thu Trinh (my sister) entered into the amateur side. She completely kicked my butt. She received an Nomination, as well as achieving an amazing 3rd place - Honour of Distinction in the Still Life category. I achieved 3 Nominations, and have my names up there on the website, along with some very big names in photography. Very exciting indeed.

Next year, we will definitely compete again and hope to take home more awards next year.

Signs - Thu Tring - 3rd Place - Honour of Distinction

Lizard - Thu Trinh - Nature

The last dance

Abel Tasman National Park

Please stop!

Kodak Gold Awards

2008-11-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

The Kodak Awards is a prestigious annual event on the NZ photography calendar. It celebrates outstanding photography and recognises excellence and creativity in the industry. We are proud to have earned 1 Gold and 3 Silver awards. In particular, the Gold award was in the wedding album category, which is a particularly difficult category as it requires an entire album to have consistently powerful and emotion images, as well as the ability to tell the story. I have always believed that a good wedding photographer must be able to show of entire albums, not just individual files. Hope you enjoy these images.

Please click here to see the whole album.

Silver in Portrait. Lin's first award, yippee.

Silver Portrait

Silver Portrait: another award for a nude image for The Naked Truth project

When is a good time to buy a DSLR?

2008-11-12T20:11:00.001-08:00

The prices of DSLR will always drop, so it is unrealistic to wait for ever. So the important thing is to understand what you need from the camera, depending on your current skill levels and also how far you want to achieve in photography. Once you understand your needs, then your choices will be much more limited, maybe down to just one model from each of the brand. After that, you just need to figure out which one captures your imagination.

Now is the hard part, do you buy it now or wait for the prices to come down.

If you have some major events coming up, then I would suggest you buy it asap, learn to use the camera, and of course put it to good use at the event. With Xmas coming up, there is not much time to wait. Most camera manufacturers release their new models twice a year, February and September. So if you need to capture images at X-mas there is really no point waiting as it is unlikely any big brand would bring out a new model now. They will have specials, but unlikely to have new models.

So what camera should I buy?

DO I NEED A DSLR? (a blog I wrote in my first newsletter)

DSLR stands for digital single lens reflective. Essentially, they are cameras with interchangeable lens that most pros use. The answers to this questions is yes and no:

YES: if you really want to be a good photographer who understands the technical sides of photography and uses the knowledge to create beautiful images. DSLR are very cheap these days, starting at just over $1000 for a body with lens. If you are a beginner, you should attend courses to improve your understanding.

NO: if you simply want take pictures for the sake of record keeping. However, if you think you want to have the flexibility to improve your skills, then please invest in one of the more high end point and shoot which does give manual controls. the Canon G9 is an extremely nice camera that delivers great pictures in both point and shoot, as well as manual modes. In addition, the G9 is a cool looking camera with cheap underwater case. As a bonus, the video resolution is very high, at 1024x768.

Next time, i will discuss which DSLR are worth looking at. Please feel free to ask me any questions.

Photojunction Remix - Smoking Hot program

2008-09-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

PJ remix is the new version of Photojunction that allows creation of beautiful and elegant albums with ease. It has gone a long way over the last year or so. The new interface is much more user friendly, and contains much more powerful features. However, there are still plenty of room for improvement. The biggest thing is the ability for it to be integrated with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, which are essentially two industry standard softwares. If PJ can accomplish in the near future, the album design process will be so much more streamline and efficient, and it would definitely push PJ to be right at the top of the photography industry. There are a few other design features that I would love to be changed, that include:
only one window, instead of 3
more customise option

http://photojunction.com/

Apart from that, PJ Remix rocks, and I love it. You can't go wrong with the program so please give it a go, 30 days free trial, and it would definitely change your album design life forever

Disappointments are opportunities in disguise

2008-09-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Life is never perfect. But it is the "imperfect" moments/events that make life just so perfect. Life is what you make it to be. You can always create joy out of any situation, and vice versa, you can always create sadness out of every situation. I firmly believe that life is truly in your hand.

I recently watched the movie with Steve Carrell where he had to build an ark because god told him so. As no one else could see god, no one believed him, especially his family. The most profound statement from the movie was when god told his wife this,
"if you asked god to bring your family closer, do you think he would simply grant you that wish, or would he provide you with an opportunity to grow together", something along this line.

Disappointments are exactly that, opportunities. Opportunities for us to grow and to look at the world with a more open view. It is sad to see many people who simply just frown at life and blame god this and other people that because their life is just not going well. Negative thinking is an endless trap where nothing is ever good enough, in particularly you are never good enough. What would eventually follow is that they would then compare themselves with everyone and the result would be that everyone is better, more successful etc.

Life is not a competition against others, but is a competition against yourself. Not all of us can be Bill Gate, but all of us can be better than what we are now. When we can understand that, then life will be a fun journey with learning opportunities around every corner. So my aim is to try not to let disappointments to get me down, but rather use them to pick me up and put a smile on my face.

TTD first underwater shoot with Nick and Tracy, crazy couple i tell you :)

2008-09-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

What an experience!

TTD with Kim

2008-09-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Another sneak preview from an amazing shoot with Kim who was just a blast to work with.

Trash the Dress with Christine

2008-09-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful day of shooting with Christine. Here are just some sneak preview, with the fully edited pictures still to come.

More Awards for us at the 2008 NZIPP Iris Awards

2008-09-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

I AM NOW A MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY - Yippee

it is an amazing achievement after only 3 short years of self taught to now join the ranks of many great and talented photographers in NZ. I am also the youngest Master in Palmerston North so very exciting time indeed. Thank you to those whom have helped me with the selection. This is for all of us to celebrate together.

SILVER

BRONZE

SILVER

quite exciting that my highest scoring print happens to be a nude photo.

A beautiful winter wedding with Hene and Jaden

2008-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

It was a cold cold day, but luckily it did not rain very heavily so we had plenty of opportunity to take beautiful images. By 6pm, my fingers were frozen, and i think all of us were pale white. But look at these beautiful images. No pain no gain.
The wedding was small, but intimate. The speeches from the guests were touching and it was a priviledge to have been there to witness the love that was shared with everyone.

j

hh

Essential camera accessories - my list

2008-08-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of essential items that you would need to excel in photography. This is only my personal recommendations. if you have any comments, please feel free to join in the debate

1-Tripod. You will miss out beautiful shots if you dont have a tripod, especially at night when light availability is non-existence. You can also use tripod to increase your shutter speed duration and thus be able to create some very artistic blur effect. Light tripods are easy to carry out, while heavy tripods are more sturdy. Of course, you can always grab these state of the art carbon fibre tripods that are both strong and super light, but are very expensive. If you have the mula, then these would be awesome investments.

I love Manfrotto tripods, so here is their link. www.manfrotto.com.

2-UV Filter. This filter mainly acts as a protector to the lens' front glass element, as well as help to cut out haze and UV light. It is much cheaper to replace a UV filter than the front glass, so please use a UV filter on the front for all your lens, ALL THE TIME.

Cheap filters are sufficient, and Tiffen filters will do the job nicely. I sometimes use B&W for my more expensive lens.

3-Polarise Filter. This helps to dark the blue sky, as well as to cut glare across the water surface on a sunny day so you can see below. Please note that you can over use this effect and create unrealistic shift in the blue sky, and thus practice is required to best use this filter. Like most things, quality does matter. The more expensive filters will give better contrast and clarity, as well as low loss of transmitable light, as well as being thinner.

Once again, Tiffen is fine, but B&W are just the best. If you use wide angle lens, then you will need very thin filters.

4-External Flash. Not only are the external flashes more powerful, they will also give you great flexibility when it comes to using flash in your photography. The golden rule of using flash is to make the pictures looks like it was lit with natural light, and this cannot be done with an in-camera flash. If you can afford it, please go out and buy one, and you will be amazed of the new possiblities that will await you. You dont need an expensive one.

5-Comfortable Bags. If you have alot of gear, a nice bag goes along way to make your photography experience even more enjoyable. Also consider a bag with all weather cover to protect your valuable assets if you happen to be caught in the rain. I love Lowepro bags.

6-INTERNET. Where else can you learn so much for free. I have mostly learnt my photography and photoshop skills via the internet. I am still learning.

Please feel free to offer your feedbacks on this topic. Please also let me know if you find the above information useful, or what kind of information you would like me to cover in the next issue.

HELP ME TO HELP YOU!!!

Glamour Portraits

2008-08-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

What a great day of shooting. I had the absolute pleasure to do glamour portrait for these lovely ladies last Wednesday, 6th August. I teamed up with Spectra (www.spectrahair.co.nz), one of the leading hair salon in town, to provide this wonderful service which aims to celebrate the female beauty across all ages. The girls (not ladies) were great to work with, and they were all extremely delighted with the pictures. Well done to us all :)

My temporary home for blogs (ideas and thoughts)

2008-08-04T03:38:00.001-07:00

This will be my temporary home for blogs until I have one setup that will be embedded within my website. That will be exciting. Dave, my website, designer, it just too busy with work so i guess i will wait patiently for his time.

I will use the space as a mean to show off my latest work, share the news and competition results, as well as a journal on my thoughts and ideas on work, life, relationship, love, etc. This will be the space where I can be myself, share my belief, exchange ideas, and make friends. So please feel free to comment and drop me a line, and join me on this adventure where hopefully we all could discover what life really does have to offer around every corner at every moment.

Binh

The Naked Truth - A photographer celebration of our hidden beauty

2008-07-29T06:35:00.001-07:00

This is my personal project which aims to celebrate the human body without the boundaries of age, size, shape, age and in the near future, sex. It is certainly not the first of its kind in the world, but it is to me and that is important. Too often, we are bombarded by images as to what is beautiful and what is not. We are made to believe that super model bodies are natural, and anything with a slight bulge is unhealthy. It is the media that drives us to think we are ugly, we are not normal, and we need help. I could not disagree more, and I guess this is my personal journey to discover the hidden beauty that too many of us are protecting and hiding from the world.

Being in NZ, sex is a rather suppress thing and many people are shy when that topic is raised. However, I have been made aware recently that this image is a generalisation, and there are in fact many people who embrace sex as a healthy part of life. I have also learnt that one must always ask. The saying goes: "Seek and you will find".

Do not judge a book by its cover.

I have been pleasant surprised by the number of people who have expressed interests in joining the project, people who come from all walk of life with different ideas on cultures, ethic and moral.

I do hope the project will be an inspiration to many, and my photography will give many the self-confidence that was so easily lost, stolen by the media and the unrealistic expectation that is so wide-spread in our community.

www.thenakedtruth.co.nz

I hope you enjoy the photography.