Clifton Li Photography

HOT HOT HOT!!! How can it be so hot during the end of August? The worst part is that summer holiday will be over soon for me too, as school will start again in two weeks =( … Therefore, I went out and used the remaining days wisely to play with my new toy! Recently I purchased the Canon tilt-shift 45mm. This lens without doubt is one of the hardest lenses to use.

Battling with the manual focus while directing the subject required extreme multi-tasking skills. The difficulty increased as I move further and further away from the subjects, since the focus zone was getting smaller and smaller through the viewfinder. At one point, it took me more than 30 shots until I can get the subjects in focus, mainly due to the moving heads of the subjects.

Here is a quick preview of the pictures:



So this sweet couple’s wedding took place on an extremely hot and humid Saturday. Despite the running sweat that fogged my viewfinder, their energetic minds kept me motivated. I was honoured to have an opportunity to document this memoriable wedding as secondary photographer with Edith Yip.

Kevin will definitely be one of the best husbands around. His sincerity and gentleness basically touched everyone’s hearts. This couple decided to do a little spin to their wedding as the ceremony and reception both took place at the same hall, The Hilton Hotel. This no doubt spared us lot of trouble since everyone was already dinging their wine glasses right after the ceremony. =)

Here is a quick preview of the pictures:

Ceremony and Reception: Hilton Hotel

Last week, I brought new toys from B&H in NYC. So I asked two friends of mine to enjoy themselves at High Park while I try out my new stuff. What did I buy from B&H? A Quantum Turbo battery for my Canon slaves and a Lasolite Reflector.

    

The main objectives were to test how effective the turbo recharge speed during harsh sunlight and compare the differences between a reflector and a slave fill flash. The result was….. Let’s just say it was harder than I thought to obtain a result. They are like apple and orange, totally different effects. The park was surprisingly quiet, probably due to the Pride Parade at Church St. It definitely was awsome since no one became part of the background. Though there was one thing that I dislike totally =(, which was the extremely hot temperature. It was like 43 degrees. Luckly, no one got vaporized.

Here is a quick preview of the pictures (I also did some experiments with vintage retouching styles!!):



Annie Leibovitz is one of the highest-paid photographers and best known for her stunning portraits that have captured the essence of countless notable figures.

Here is one of her behind-the-scene videos that shows her magic by only using minimal amount of artificial lighting:

The photo is built on the light from the Softlighter and the ambient room lamps. Nothing else. Would you have had the nerve to light a Louis Vuitton shoot of Keith Richards using only a sub-$100 brolly box?

And yes, that light is walking itself around intuitively. The post production will always pull much more out of the photo. She always seems to have a celebrity in front of her lens. And then there is the whole gazillion assistants thing.

But the truth is that Annie Leibovitz creates her own weather. She is great with her subjects. She is great at the bedside manner, the broaching of an idea, the tenacity to stick with it and the $$ to do whatever it takes to make the picture inside of her head.

I love her photos, even if they really are giant collaborations.

(© Louis Vuitton / Annie Leibovitz. Click the pic for bigger version.)

I was cleaning up my hard drives and I realized that I had forgotten to post these wonderful engagement photos of Kathy and Derek that were dated back in Fall 2009. They are my close buddies and I met them when I was in university. They are definitely one of the sweetest couples I know! If I remember correctly, the photos were taken at an apple farm in Markham. Since Halloween was coming, it was the pumpkin season! I just love how the orange pumpkins contrast with the bright blue sky.

Here is a quick preview of the pictures:

Aww… So Cute…

It was quite funny to see Derek in such serious look!