Twenty ten will be a year to remember! It was a year of travels and milestones, marking the beginnings of a new direction for FIFOTO, blossoming relationships with new love and new found friends. It was a year of ups and downs, thankfully more ups than downs…

Apart from finally graduating with my MBA (after a dreadful 3.5 years of doing studying part-time and working simultaneously), I think the 5 things I’d probably remember 10, 20, 30 years from now are:

1. A year of Travels – I kickstarted my year in Taipei. It was a blast and counting down to the year abroad was just the start of the many travel adventures to come! This year, I traveled to Egypt, Switzerland, China, Korea, Jakarta, Bali, Phuket, Tioman, Redang and in between those, weekend trips to Singapore and Penang!

2. The year I broke my arm for the first time in my life. In early June, I had fractured my left arm from a fall during a wedding shoot. I stood on a stool (which I shouldn’t have, and I’ve learned my lesson since!) and when I fell, decided to break the fall using my left hand, in hope of saving my lenses and camera (which I successfully did! My equipment escaped unharmed!) and ended up breaking my bone instead. In all my 29 years, I’ve never broken a single bone and finally, knew what the pain felt like. The 3 months to follow were as painful – the immobility of one hand caused a lot of inconveniences and I felt handicapped in many ways, a dreadful feeling to your esteem but it definitely gave me a different take on life and I am thankful for all my limbs. More importantly, I completely empathize with the handicapped and in fact, have a great sense of respect for their courage to live normally. I also cannot ignore the fact that Ming was a sweetheart and was there for me to help in every way he could, emotionally and physically which in a lot of ways, eased the burden.

3. FIFOTO studio underway! After many years of finding a suitable property and another 1.5 years wasted on appointing the right contractor, the new FIFOTO studio began construction in August. After months of discussions and mind-boggling material selection, there’s been good progress and the studio is taking shape by the day!

4. “Woman Photographer of the Year” Award. It is indeed a great honor to stand alongside Jim Liaw, who was awarded “Male Photographer of the Year” by WPPM. Completely unexpected, the award to the title came as a very pleasant surprise! I’m excited, grateful and inspired to be recognized by my peers and am rejuvenated from this fast-growing and closely-knit photography community!

5. A year of growing up. This year, I’ve encountered a handful of situations whereby I had to make some painful decisions in both my work and personal life. It has however, taught me how to handle these situations, and in some cases, how to avoid them. It has also made me realize that happiness is key in life and I’m assuming (well, I’m pretty sure) that with that, everything else will fall into place. Life throws you a curve ball every now and then, this year, it threw me a few! At the end of the day, it’s how you handle them and learn from them that makes you a better and improved version of you. Life goes on, but it is the decisions you make that dictates whether you’ll be happy or not….

…Which brings me to my 2011 “Stay Happy” new year resolutions:

1. Eat more fruits
2. Get back to Yoga
3. Cook more
4. Learn Pilates
5. Exercise regularly (jog, swim, weights)
6. Eat healthy (with the exception of my Sister’s CKT stints on my Penang weekend getaways)
7. Save more money
8. Stay in touch with friends
9. Focus on personal photography projects
10. Learn to shoot a car

This will be my last post for the year and I’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all our clients, friends and fans for your fervent support and undying love for FIFOTO! Last but not least, to the FIFOTO team who has been nothing but fantastic, as they are, always, year after year!

In line with my “stay Happy” theme for the year to come, here’s something that signifies just that – LOVE + HAPPINESS, our favorite wedding photos of the year! On behalf of the FIFOTO team, I’d like to wish you a VERY HAPPY 2011!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It’s Christmas time and I’ll be having my first time ever, winter (and hopefully a white one!) Christmas in Korea! Weather forecasts show it’ll be cold… REALLY COLD while I’m there! Warmest temperature will be -8 degrees and the lows of -14 degrees on Christmas eve! Yikes! Am hoping for snow too! It’s been a long time since I had the chance to play with snow and what better timing than at Christmas! Imaging white fluffy snow balls…. white fluffy snow balls!

Wishing everyone safe travels and plenty presents this year! Have a very Merry Christmas!

It’s the last day of work for me before my long year end break and as with all pre-vacation days, I’m drowning in work trying to rush out everyone’s photos for my all my eager clients! Luckily I’m about 90% packed for my Korea trip and I can’t wait for tomorrow!

I looked forward to our pre-wedding shoot with this cute, quirky and one of the most chillax couples! For one, it was back in Penang which meant I got to be home (even though I only saw 1 hour of my bed) and eat my favorite foods! (unfortunately, we didn’t have time for Sister’s CKT). But what I was especially looking forward to was to see how Su Ning, being a stylist,  had put together her gowns! (and of course, they were gorgeous selections intricately and carefully planned which looked fab on her!) And to add to this, I was certain of an entertaining session as Terry was definitely a joker!

And indeed it was a fun-filled session, albeit the lack of cooperation from the weather… (I think I might have lost touch with my weather bomoh skills.. ) It worked out well though as we ended up on a nearby jetty after shooting at the Blue Mansion and the E&O. They were adventurous enough and sporting enough to “rough” it out, especially Su Ning in her pretty white gown, and made our way to the jetty! As some Japanese tourists disembarked a boat, they were intrigued and even took pictures of the bride and groom!

It was a long day for Jason & I as we drove in early morning and left that night itself. But it was well worth the effort! The cute couple is especially fun, bubbly, entertaining… ! Just look at their photos and you’ll see what I mean!

Congrats to Terry & Su Ning!!!! May you have many little cute mini-me’s in no time!

… this was the last photo we took before calling it a wrap and it’s my favorite for the day!!!

Christmas started for me on the night of the party. It was a big do at the new Doubletree Hotel. The walls were up and stage was set for one of the biggest fashion events of the year! And indeed it was a model-clad and star-studded event! The runway show kick-started with models dressed in the latest GUESS collection, strutting their stuff down the long runway. The 2nd set comprised of local celebrities such as Amber Chia, Elaine Daily, Erra Fazira, Nurul, Deborah Henry and international names including famous Hong Kong actress Kate Tsui, and Thai supermodel, Odette.

The REAL party started at the end of the fashion show though, when Mizz Nina got on stage a performed her hit single “What you waiting for”! The crowd went wild when R&B singer Shontelle performed hits from  her latest album, Gravity. My favorite one of which is Perfect Nightmare.

And just as I thought the party had ended, flash mob dancers hopped on stage and did their thang! It was cool to see the crowd suddenly break out into dance. The music was rockin’ when DJ goldfish took the decks and by then, even the guests had gone up on stage to rock it out! Meanwhile, I was assigned the job of paparazzi and tagged Shontelle as she greeted guests in the VIP section and took photos with her fans!

What a way to start my Christmas season! And I’m looking forward to what’s around the corner for Christmas next week!