Swee Ching Photography

I haven't done a wedding shoot for 3 months now. Been busy with work and haven't been selling myself that much too. So when asked to fill in as the wedding banquet photographer in less than a week notice, I was a bit reluctant, but accepted the job anyway. As usual, I decided to eat before I start work, so drove through McD for a fillet set to go. I arrived at the venue earlier (around 5:30pm) to do some location assessment. Then, spent quite a fair bit of time to shoot some details of the banquet hall. I've never meet Ryan and Pam before until they show up that evening. After a simple introduction, they're already busy meeting their guests outside the banquet hall, and I'm busy getting a good shot of them. As the dinner was served at 8:30pm, everyone was busy eating and there's not much action to be shot. After the cake cutting, champagne opening and toasting, comes the physically demanding part, where the couple and family members went table by table to toast ...

I can't recall when was the last time I visited Pulau Ketam (Crab Island). I guess it could be about 15 years ago. So it was my curiosity of how much would Pulau Ketam had changed that I agreed to Jeff's invitation to go for this 1/2 day trip (these 1/2 day trips is turning into a de-facto standard trip length for our impromptu photo trips). With reference to www.pulauketam.com, Pulau Ketam used to be an inhabited island full of mangrove swamp, where fishermen travelled back and forth from the mainland to catch crabs, prawns and fishes. Eventually they started to build houses on stilts and slowly the population grows to today's 6-7 thousand. To reach the island, we took a 40-minute speed boat ride from Port Klang (KTM Komuter Pelabuhan Klang station). These fishing boats are located at the river near the main jetty. I can see plenty of mud crabs mud skippers at the river banks. Seems to me the residents of Pulau Ketam goes around with bicycle or motorized bicycle. I didn...

"Easy to climb and nice scenery". That's what I was told by my colleague. This time, Jeff took the initiative to organize this trip. To catch the sunrise, we have to leave home from Petaling Jaya at 4:30am (yawn...) After driving and getting lost with Nokia GPS (map not so updated), we finally reached Broga just before 6am. But we don't know where's the exact location to hike the hill. Following the road, we reached a small (really small) town and luckily, the local kopitiam shop has already started business, so we asked for direction from the locals. By the time we reach the starting point and started hiking, it's already about 6:30am. No fun lugging around heavy tripod and camera bag and racing against time to reach the top of the hill. Took us about 30-45 minutes to reach a location high enough to take some descent photos. Never miss a group photo! Note: Lots of mosquitoes in the morning. So wear longs exercise pants and use repellents.

Day 1 and day 2 of our trip had been very interesting. On this 3rd and last day, we chose to visit the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Pinang Peranankan Mansion and Fort Cornwallis in the morning, as we had to drive back to KL in the afternoon. Again, we were not able to visit Cheong Gatt Tze Mansion, as we were not aware that tourists are not allowed to enter without the tour guide, which is scheduled twice a day only, at 11am and 3pm. Entrance to Fort Cornwallis, built by Captain Francis Light for the East India Company. No trip is complete without a group photo, right? Gun barrel. Our last stop of the trip is the famouse Pinang Peranakan Mansion, townhouse and ancestral hall of Chung Keng Kwee. Admission is RM10, but it was well worth it. It is very huge, with plenty of rooms, more rooms at the back of the mansion, and a temple at the side. Each room is filled with lots of Chinese and Baba Nyonya antiques, from furnitures, clothing to dining sets and even a very old large format camera! ...