Day 5

Wedding Day! We woke up at about 0500hr, while the foreign guests from Germany and Malaysia reached at around 0630hr. Spent some time dressing up, and breakfast was traditional coconut rice. It was my first time dressing in sarong, cool~ I covered the pre-departure events at home with Sony T7. After which, the official photographer took over.

We went to a suite room for official photo taking. There and then, I found out the exact meaning of Bestman! Bestman is supposed to deliver the bouquet of flowers to the bride, so he is the man who goes before the bridegroom. In case anything happens to the bridegroom, the Bestman will look after the bride. Oh my! So, there were a few studio shots on me passing the bouquet to the bride. I had other shots with the bridegroom, and some personal shots as well. So unexpected~ =)

It was very tiring for the couple, because all the studio and outdoor shots were taken on the actual day, before the commencement of the wedding ceremony. So they had to pose and pose. Pavi's brother-in-law told me that during his wedding, the photographer said that he wanted only fresh bride for the shots, therefore the session had to be before the wedding. So, the brother-in-law said to the photographer, "you're taking the fresh bride and I'm taking the stale one!" Coz it's really shag to take photos and by the time night falls, there could be no more energy!

All in all, it was fun but exhausting. The whole wedding ended at about 1400hr, and considering the fact that I was up since 0500hr, it's a whopping 9hrs of continuous work. During the wedding itself, a doctor sat beside me and tried to entertain me, very friendly, very hospitable, but I was just too shag by then to respond to him. The guests were all very high profile, including the photographer who is also a famous singer.

Finding 4

Given the fact that Sri Lanka is a very ritualistic and ceremonial society, as a photographer, something should be done to liberate this. As mentioned, the photographer is one of the best in Sri Lanka, and with all due respect, I don't quite like his style, coz the style is nothing more than being ritualistic and ceremonial. He has good equipment and skills, no doubt, and he even has a team of 5 other workers to carry the wireless flash and different cameras and lens. But to me, photography is something simple yet precious. It is a form of art, and artists have attitudes, to be more specific, attitude problems. And it is precisely this attitude that shape their art piece, which forms the core ideology and style of the snapping.

To me, photography is about capturing moments, yes, just the moments, nothing more, nothing less, not fake moments or fixed moments, just moments. One of the main aspect of moments is emotion, which is conveyed through expressions. So, this is my core ideology when it comes to photography. I am specifically referring to events, not landscape or portrait or scenery shots.

I know that I am a newbie, no proper equipment (but I'll have it soon), no proper training, nothing. BUT, the one thing I cherish is emotion. As mentioned earlier, emotions can't be staged or fixed, if not, they aren't genuine. Yes, under certain circumstances, you just gotta have certain emotion. But more often than now, natural emotion is the greatest beauty of all, just like an unaltered girl who has not been though any cosmetic surgery, or like a virgin who knows no man.

In a nutshell, I love my style and my perception, because that shapes me. And since artists have attitude problems, please expect some frome me. =)

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Pavi will be going on honeymoon trip, and I will be tagging alone. Well, they decided so since they want to bring me to the up-country, which is a faraway place from Colombo. If not, I gotta stay at home and just rot. Since they have decided so, then I'll try to make myself useful by taking nice photos for them. Talking about this, I really need a DSLR!!!

Pavi's sister told me that they'll miss me coz I'll be away for 2 days.. Haiz, it's so heartwarming to hear that. And she carried on to say that Arunima, her 8 years old girl, who is Pavi's niece, will miss me a lot too. Man, this is only 2 days. What if I fly off on 17 May? =(

I'll be taking off at about 0300hr on 17 May 2008, will reach Singapore at 0900hr+. See ya then! Ciaoz!