I was pleasantly surprised when Maria and Christophe brought me to a wee lil street in Chinatown that I had never noticed before. Imagine that, I’ve lived in KL for the past 11 years and Maria and Christophe, who are expats, had to show me where a certain street is *shy* ;p Maria liked the heritage buildings and old walls around the area and when I have clients like that, I am over the moon! Derelict buildings, graffiti-ed walls, construction sites - the more un-pretty the location, the more excited I get :D

As her parents were in town for a visit (great timing!) we took some shots with them before walking around the area for some portraits of Maria. It’s not everyday that I have a portrait session where locations are just sussed out as we walk along the area, so this was a nice change from my usual modus operandi ;)

Christophe thanks again for having me shoot the session (and searching Google for me. Yay for technology again!) and Maria, you are an absolute natural in front of the camera. Thanks for trusting me and just going along with all my suggestions. It was great fun! Glad to hear that you two had a great time in Laos and here’s to more public holidays in Malaysia = more travel time ;p Cheers

Ee-Lyn actually contacted me early last year and back then, she had wanted to have a portrait session as an anniversary surprise for her boyfriend Aaron. The idea was scrapped when Aaron prepared a BIGGER surprise for their anniversary. And Ee-Lyn wrote back to me and said she’ll look for me the following year instead.

Frankly speaking, whenever people say that to me, I think of it as a nice way of saying “Thanks but we won’t be needing your services” ;p So imagine my surprise when I received an email from her in January, saying that she wanted to have a portrait session done to celebrate her 25th birthday. And like Sally Field in her Oscar acceptance speech, I thought to myself, “…you like me, right now, you like me!” (Yes, I’m full of myself. Its my blog, so that’s perfectly acceptable! ;p)

Thank you Ee-Lyn and Aaron, for hanging out with me on that morning, for having pictures taken ‘just because’, for being yourself :) I hope you like the pictures as much as I enjoyed shooting them for you. Here are some of my faves from that day. Can’t wait to share the rest with you when I return to KL in April :) Til then, take care and enjoy the BB and iPhone ;p

Yes they do :)

This might be inappropriate for me to write but when friends are gone, lovers leave you or your job goes down the dumps, family will still be there. Some may say they’ll be there for they have no choice, but I truly believe that however dysfunctional you may think your family is, we’re all bound together by love. Seriously.

So it was with pleasure that I recently met up with a few families to shoot their family portrait session. As each family shared some of their time with me, my heart filled with gratitude that so many people have opened up their doors and welcomed me with open arms to capture a small part of their lives.

I recently said to my brother that I felt so lucky at this point of my life, to be doing what I am absolutely passionate about, that sometimes I’m afraid my luck will run out and one day I won’t be doing this anymore. For now, I’m embracing and enjoying this part of my life as much as I can and it is with utmost gratitude that I would like to personally thank each and every family whom I’ve shot not only recently, but since I’ve started my career.

Thank you :) Oh and please excuse the sappiness. I get a bit emo whenever I’m editing pictures like these and I start imagining what the kids will feel when they see these shots 15 years down the road ;p It’s either that or it’s the time of the month. Hur hur hur ;p

Much Love.

Chad contacted me just two days before the shoot. It was quite a last minute thing as he decided to surprise Ploy for Valentine’s Day. So after a round of emails and phone calls, I picked them up on the eve of Valentine’s Day and we headed off to Lake Gardens for our portrait session.

As individuals, Chad and Ploy are really nice people. But together, they were uber sweet. There were alot of laughter between the two of them and whilst initially, you could tell that Ploy is shy, after awhile she started warming up to the lens and boy oh boy, did I have fun shooting these two then!

Chad and Ploy, I had fun hanging out with you two! Hope you enjoyed your dinner at Luna Bar and your short whirlwind visit to KL!

Thought the overcast weather was going to spoil this pre-wedding session. But it turned out to be one of THE most fun sessions I’ve had for 2010 sofar.
Thought Haw & Melissa weren’t gonna be up for some of my crazy ideas. But it turned out they were more than eager for it.
Thought that I couldn’t have couples better than the ones I had in 2009. But it turned out that I’m waaaay wrong.

2010, you’re looking mighty fine so far ;)

Even during the preliminary discussion for Melissa and Haw’s pre-wedding session I was already feeling excited. Well, I wouldn’t know whether you would classify this as a pre-wedding OR a lifestyle portrait session, for it was a mixture of both ;) One thing for sure, this was a couple who wanted photos that reflected their fun, crazy personalities. And they specifically said they didn’t wanna overdo it on the lovey dovey stuff. But of course, I still forced them into quite a lot of cheesy poses for that’s how I roll! Cheese rules yo!

On the bright side, I’m not gonna force the cheese down your throat as I’ve limited the number of cheese for this blogpost and decided to share more of the wacky shots :D

Melissa and Haw, you two rocked this session like nobody’s business! Thanks for sharing your story with me - the fact that you two were colleagues for 3(!) years before you started dating and the Toyota story (hehehe…) got me laughing :) Y’know what, the thing I love the most was the fact that it felt like I was hanging out with friends throughout the session. The way that you two make each other laugh all the time and have comfortable silences at certain moments, I can’t explain it but it was sweet to be part of it all. Can’t wait for the big day!

Melissa & Haw wins the award for the coolest jump. Hands down. No, feets up.

Yes, somebody was skipping. Hehe…so cute ;)




Haw’s vintage Toyota was from his grandad’s days. Fo real!

And family means no one gets left behind, especially during a family portrait session!

Thanks to the holiday season and the fact that everyone’s back in town for their family reunion, I’ve been shooting quite a lot of family portraits recently. Not that I’m complaining, not at all! It has been absolutely wonderful being part of so many different families lives for just a wee moment and I must say, quite an interesting experience to work with lil kids ;)

Was asked by a friend whether or not I get sick of shooting families day in day out. Heck no! Every single family portrait session feels different for me. Different families have different vibes when they’re together and whilst it is a bit harder than shooting couples, I have fun especially when it comes to families with young kids as it gives me a valid excuse to go all crazy!

The key thing I always always share with my wonderful clients would be - HAVE FUUUUNNN! And I’m happy to say that they do! Most of the time anyway! Despite moments where junior might be abit cranky or another young one might not be feeling too camera friendly, everything just comes together when families relax and work their thang in front my lens!

As Jesh De Rox once said, we should all take not being serious seriously, or something alone those lines. Here are some of my fave shots from recent family portraiture sessions which I’ve been so so lucky to have been part of :)

Thank YOU for sharing a slice of your life with me. Yay!

Not long after shooting lil Hayley’s 1st birthday party, I had the pleasure of taking family portraits for this cute family of three. Together with her doting parents Boon Yow and Julea, we spent a sunny morning together where lil Hayley showed me just how ‘cool’ a baby can be ;)

Boon Yow and Julea, thanks so much for having me shoot your first ‘official’ family portraits. You’re both so accommodating and friendly that it was an absolute breeze to shoot your session! And I was pleasantly surprised by just how many nice spots there were to shoot around your housing compound. Plus the lovely sunny weather, it made for an awesome portrait session! Will give you a buzz soon :D

Here’s some of my favourites from the day.

This portrait session was organised a couple of months back when the Oei brothers decided to give their mum Piek See a family portrait session as an early birthday gift. Of course, she didn’t know about it till a couple of days before the session.

By then, the boys had not only organised to have an adorable, cute, charming, funny, witty and not to mention humble as well as muscular photographer *cough*me lah*cough* but they had also organised a two-night stay at Grand Dorsett Subang as well as a make up artist for her. Isn’t that uber sweet? Kids, learn from these boys!

I’ve known the brothers for quite some time now as they’re trainers at Pushmore (except for Ian, who’ll be working out there next year :D right Ian? Hehe) and while I’ve never told them this, but ever since I met them, I’ve always thought to myself, “Dah-yum, these boys are well brought up!”. So when I got to meet Piek See, I understood why the boys are such gentlemen :)

Piek See, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you! Hope you enjoyed the session as much as I enjoyed hanging out with you and your three (big) little boys. Thanks again for the yummy Japanese lunch and hope you all have fun relaxing (and eating!) with the rest of the family in Hong Kong. And boys, thanks for having me shoot your first ever family portrait in aaaaages, I had fun! Oh, and don’t bother exercising during the holidays, I need time to catch up! :p Have a blessed Christmas ahead!

The boys also double as Piek See’s bodyguards when they go on family outings :p

Boy band shot!

Edit December 21, 2009: John-Hans, you didn’t have to sing accolades about me on your blog, but you did :) For that, I am truly humbled and grateful. Its shooting clients like your family which reminds me why I gave up so many things to pursue this dream career of mine, why having this passion for what I’m doing now is worth it. Thank you :)

No I haven’t fallen off the edge of the world.

For those who follow my (mostly inane >.<) twitter updates, you would know that the past couple of weeks has been a whirlwind! The fantabulous type of whirlwind :D It being the peak season for wedding and portrait photographers in Malaysia, I’m sure fellow photographers would understand how crazily busy it can get.

Not too busy to have a bit of a life (which for me means going for a workout :p Yay!) but busy enough to have neglected this lil corner of webspace for the past THREE weeks! That IS a long time, isn’t it? Didn’t even realise it has been that long of an unintended hiatus til I checked the date of my last post!

Despite having a ridiculously long ‘to-do list’, decided to take a breather from editing to blog as I miss yakking in this lil blog of mine. So what’s been happening? Well, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot quite a number of absolutely fun portraits, a wedding in Kota Kinabalu as well as meet up with a few uber nice couples who are hiring me for their weddings next year (Yay! Can’t wait!).

When I tell friends about how nice some of my clients are, they’ll jokingly (I think) ask me “Did you scare them into being nice with your biceps?” Of course not! Especially not now when my muscles have shrunk due to not working out consistently *sobs*

Anyway, before I continue on senselessly with my verbal diarrhoea, here’s a compilation of some of my favourite shots from some recent sessions. wOOt!

For those who check out this blogsite regularly, you would recognise The Chow Family as Jacqueline is one of my good friends :) I actually shot their ROM, wedding ceremony, her pregnancy, her first kid and now her complete family of four. Its absolutely great to be part of their life this way! Jacqueline and Chak Leong, thank you so much for your support from waaaay back then ;) Hugs

When I received Diane’s email requesting for a portrait session as she had ‘reached a turning point’ in her life, my curiosity was piqued. Turns out this absolutely friendly lady will be migrating to Perth with her family before Christmas and she wanted to mark her stay in Kuala Lumpur! Her session was held at Traders Hotel where she and her husband first stayed when they arrived in Kuala Lumpur sometime back and I think it was rather apt what with the KLCC and the park nearby :) Diane, all the best with your new home down under and thanks for being such a breeze to work with! 

Alicia and Andrew recently had their registration of marriage (ROM) at Thean Hou temple and yours truly was honoured to be part of the ceremony alongside their close friends and family members. These two are an absolutely fun-loving couple and I had a blast shooting them that day. For real! There were also quite a lot of hilarious (albeit a bit wacky? hehe…) shots from that day, but I won’t be posting them up here lest they hire a hitman to get me ;p Alicia and Andrew, heartiest congratulations again on your nuptials! You two rock, big time :D

Rosalie and her family were absolutely accommodating! We had a short and sweet session at their cosy home and throughout the whole session, lil Bella was snoozing away without a care in the world! She did open her eyes for a while to see what the commotion was all about, but decided it wasn’t worth her beauty sleep! Hehe…And their family corgi, Coco was absolutely cute too! It was an absolute pleasure to be part of your first ‘official’ family photo :) 

Lil Hayley’s 1st birthday party was held at Bijou in Mont Kiara and it was an absolutely festive affair with like a gazillion lil kids in attendance and fun & games to be had by all of them! Party planner Yee Send did a fantabulous job with the decor and organising the themed party. Had fun seeing the lil ones goin’ wild during the games and yes, I did have them yummy cupcakes too ;)

It’s been quite awhile since I last met up with Juliana and Pelle so it was really nice to have the time to catch up with them and their baby girl Luna, whom I’ve never met before. Look at her! Isn’t she adorable? They make an absolutely gorgeous family and I must say, it made for an easy shoot ;p Julie & Pelle, you two make great parents! Catch up soon. Hugs 

I had tons of fun shooting Theresa’s session as she was up for all of my suggestions. We mixed things up a bit by going to two locations so 1 part of the shoot was at a park and another part was at a more urban location. Theresa, you worked it girl! And congratulations to you and your fiance on your wedding next year. It’s gonna be a blast ;) 

Kenny & Mandy’s wedding in Kota Kinabalu was started off with the ‘chip san liong’ (picking up of the bride) where the groom & his bestmen had to go through ‘gruelling’ tasks to get thru’ to Mandy ;) They were great sports as they went thru’ it all whole heartedly. This was followed by a tea ceremony at home and reception at the Magellan Sutera where they had 700 guests. Absolutely grand dinner!

The day after their wedding, I had the pleasure of shooting Kenny & Mandy’s post-wedding portraits. We didn’t have much time before sunset but managed to get some relaxed portraits of the newlyweds before it got dark. Mandy and Kenny, thanks so much for having me be part of your big day. Hope you two had fun! See you soon :)

There’s actually a couple of other portrait sessions and weddings which I would absolutely love to post up on the blog but for now, those would have to wait for its nearly 3 am and I’ve gotta get some rest before a family portrait session at 9 am. Gotta get me some snooze so that I can chugga chugga choo choo!

Til the next blogpost, have awesome days ahead peeps and thanks again for dropping by :)

Much love.

Anna-Rina Photography (that’s me!) will be in Perth, WA for 5 weeks come 2010!

I’ll be down under for wedding photography and a couple of portrait sessions between February 24 - March 30, 2010. Seeing that I’ll be there for quite some time, I’m opening up bookings for additional portrait sessions.

If you’re interested in getting a fun-filled, relaxed portrait session with your significant other, family, friends or even a solo session, gimme a holler at info(at)anna-rina.com for more details. You can also check out some images from recent portrait sessions here.

Spread the love and have an awesome week ahead! x

Thanks to Enrick for the image & Chak of Foldees for designing the below ;)