As promised, here are some of the pictures from my cousin Sarinah's engagement ceremony. The ceremony was held erm... On last X'Mas (*sings, "I gave you my love, but the very next dayyyy you gave it awayyyyy thisss yearrrrr to save me from tearsss I'll give it to someone specialllll"). I finally finished editing all the pix and passed the completed albums (one formal and one informal) to Sarinah on 13th January 2008 (on her birthday!). And only now I'm blogging about it. >.<

Let's see now... I was approached to be the main photog for the ceremony 'cause apparently the original photog went to Malacca and wouldn't be back for the ceremony. -.-" I knew I wouldn't want to use my Panasonic Lumix FZ-5 (however much I love that li'l camera!), so I rented a Nikon D80, with a flash attachment as well.

My parents and I were planning to arrive a couple hours before noon. Well, at least, my mom and I were. My dad... Took his own bloody sweet time and dragged and dragged and dragged... And we finally arrived at Sarinah's house at... Well, at noon. Syira was going to be my assistant on that day, and she greeted me with, "Star karat!" (Translated : "Rusty star!" - A saying amongst the Malays to mean the latecomer is like a jaded celebrity.)

I quickly went and set up my lighting kit and had some (read: a lot) shots of the hantaran (gifts) for the male side from the female side. A hundred and fourty-two photographs later, Sarinah was done with her dress and make up for the proper shoot. But before that, here are some pics from the interim.

This was shot by Syira! (Erm... After I setup all the camera settings. Haha.) I think it's quite a good picture. :)

Remember Hakim, the cousin whose pic I posted in my Malacca trip entry? The one with the long hair? Here he is again. I like this picture. :D By the way, his long hair is all gone now.

I have no idea who this kid is, but I just had to snap a picture of her. Awww... :(

Erm, this pic is actually from after the whole ceremony is over, but since I'm posting pictures of li'l kids, I figured I'd cheat and post this one here too. :D Isn't she so freaking adorable?!! Look at those cheeks and the button nose and those huge eyes!

I created some mood-setting shots for the albums that I gave to Sarinah. This was one of them. I had 12 photographs which I sent to be blown to 8R which I used to make the formal album less boring. Haha.

I had significant moments, like this picture above of the engagement ring being shown off for the first time, blown up to 8R too. I believe this picture was taken by Syira too. Way to go, Syira! :D

The initial photoshoot of Sarinah with relatives and friends done (which I didn't post in this entry) before the arrival of the male side's representatives were just to pass time. Once the male side came over, it was a mad scramble to get good pictures of the ceremony. There were several DSLR-holders blocking my shots, or in the spot where I wanted to be, but I made do with where I was.

I wanted to be on my cousin's left, taking a side shot of the wearing of the ring, but there was someone else using a Canon DSLR already there. Talk about battle of the dark and the light sides! :P Speaking of light, I had my lighting behind that Canon-guy and he actually helped block a bit of the light from this shot, so that's good. Haha. I think otherwise, the white gown would look more washed out without him standing there. :P

My lighting equipment was a pain sometimes. I have some shots where the light from it was so strong that it washed out the background till it was pure white. :( I cut the light a bit using my reflector umbrolly at first, but I noticed that it was giving too harsh of a shadow, so I changed - and stuck with - the soft umbrolly.

This picture of Sarinah and her parents, for example... The light reflected from my uncle's shirt was so bright, it was actually white! I had to edit the white highlights away, but in retrospect... I suppose I should have gotten rid of the reflection totally. Oh well. I had 200+ pictures to edit, so I guess this didn't cross my mind. Haha.

One of my favourite shots... I believe I edited this photo first from the whole batch. And yes... The engagement ring is actually the cute one beside the gigantic flowery one. Haha.

A photo of Sarinah and her Mak Andam. Erm... From what little I know of traditional Malay wedding/engagement stuff, a Mak Andam does the make-up for the bride (and groom? I have no idea... I would guess so, right? Or does the groom have a male version - a Pak Andam? Haha.) and actually have a part to play during the wedding. Right? No? Someone enlighten me please!

The informal album is full of shots like this one where my cousin's just goofing off and having fun. :D

And of course, candid pictures of whoever else was there... Here's Syira, staring off into space, thinking of Mr. Right... Who is Taufik Batisah, apparently, to her. Hahahaha. :P

Me and Syira posing with the Nikon D80. Woot woot. Nikon D80 FTW! :D Err, that white thingie is an index card that I taped on one side of the external flash to use as a bounce card. You would point the flash towards, for example, the ceiling, and when your flash goes off, most of the light would bounce off the ceiling to light your models from the top and some would bounce off your bounce card and light your models from the front. The effect would be a softer lighting effect on your models and not the harsh lighting you get when you use your camera's built-in flash without a bounce card.

Erm, was that a short tutorial on bounce cards? o.O

Sarinah thought her second hairdo (with her second outfit which was not posted here) was a bit too high for her liking, so at the end of the ceremony, she changed back to her normal clothes and asked me to help her flatten it a bit. Haha.

I suggested a bouquet throwing session and the ladies were game enough to do it. But 3 of them cheated and avoided the bouquet. -.-"

Last photo for this entry. The four female cousins who are of marriage-age. :P One down, 3 to go? Hahaha. So, that's it for the engagement ceremony pictures. I condensed from 550 pictures to 200+ for the album, and from that to just 16 for this entry. Hahaha.

In other news, my mom decided to reconnect back our Starhub Cable Vision, and I went with her on Friday to sign up for the channels she wanted. I did a self-installation which saved us S$32+... If you're savvy enough, you can connect the damned set-top box yourself too, and not bother with paying Starhub to do it for you... Faster too, 'cause you don't have to wait till they get someone around to your house to do it. The Entertainment group was already showing when I finished setting up the set-top box, and the rest of the channels were switched on yesterday.

Having cable TV is not good for my health, I tell you... On Friday alone, I spent 4 hours stoning in front of the TV without realising it. -.-" And yesterday... Erm... I intentionally sat through the first 4 episodes of The Amazing Race Asia's Season 2. Have you watched any episode? Can you tell me what the hell is up with the frequent blatant product advertising within the show itself? I know the original US version had some, but the asian version went a step above it, man, with almost an advert every 10 minutes. =.="

Anyway, after watching 4 episodes of that, I ended up watching Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out (which is always fun)... And then caught The Perfect Game on Star Movies. Gah, I had to force myself to switch off the television before I could go and stone in front of my PC instead.

:P

At least in front of the PC, I get some things done. Like blogging. Haha.