L.O.V.E Albums
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Promotions
L♥VE ALBUMS ? What is it? Coming soon.
L♥VE ALBUMS ? Apa tu? Akan datang .
Dalam Bahagiamu, Kenanglah Daku | Remember Me In Your Happiness
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Event Photography, Toughts Sharing
Selamat, selamat, selamat hari raya…Eid Mubarak to all Muslims out there. Big appetite, big feast during this festive season, and say hello to sore throat, and all other sorts of ‘makan banyak’ illness… So, if you are currently suffering one of these illness, and can’t wait to finish reading this entry, you can directly go to the web gallery : http://dagangnet.cheritapictures.com .
While we enjoy visiting our family and friends during the celebration of Eid, we must not forget to be grateful of how lucky we are, being able to celebrate this Eid with our family and friends, shower our kids with as much ‘duit raya’ that we can afford, and put a smile on their face when they have many new clothes to show off among their friends, while some kids on a few other parts of the world has been taught to be satisfied with the least that they can have.
They had to be satisfied with the least number of beloved people that they can have around them during Eid (and other times). They had to be satisfied with whatever clothing that was donated to them, be it new or old, whether they like it or not. They grew mature earlier than other children at their age. They understand the meaning of independent sooner than most of our kids.
Our assignments during the last week of Ramadhan had made us realise many things that is normally overlooked in our daily life. Thank you to Dagang Net Technologies Sdn Bhd for giving us the opportunity to be part of the event. Dagang Net organized iftar for the residence of Asrama Darul Falah, Asrama Damai and Rumah Amal Limpahan Kasih.
Personally, it was hard for me not to remember them. They made us feel welcomed at all time. They truely understand the meaning of family, more than many of us nowadays; which lead me to think : what have we taught our kids? Have we been there enough for them? Will our kids grow up to be as strong and independent as these kids?…..Hmmm…
Here are some photos taken on 22nd of September 2008 at Asrama Darul Falah, Bukit Persekutuan, KL.
Share some love…
I’m here. Can you see me…?
We found our ‘brothers’ in this place
Survival
The following photos are taken at Asrama Damai Kuang, Selangor, on 24th of September 2008. The home provides shelter not only for orphans but also for single mothers.
I can’t help getting emotional looking at this boy.
After Iftar, while their elder brothers and sisters perform their prayers, these kids enjoyed playing… err… I don’t know the name of the game, but I know I used to have fun playing it …Hehehe…
Finally, on 25th of September, our last destination was Rumah Amal Limpahan Kasih, Puchong, Selangor.
Lend me your hands
Sharing is caring
Look carefully at the girl in pink hijab. I think she looks like Aishah Sinclair. Or issit the other way round? Hmmmm….
Tags: asrama damai, asrama darul falah, dagang net technologies, orphanage, rumah amal limpahan kasih
From Switzerland With Love : Mr. & Mrs Temperli
Posted by Syed Fadhil | Filed under Contemporary potraiture, Wedding
David from Switzerland and Zsuzsanna from Hungary, got married on 080808 (Hmmm..that’s a very unique date). 2 days after their marriage, they flew to Malaysia for their honeymoon and I was given the chance to shoot them while they hangout around KL city, on the 13th of August.
David himself is a photographer, and his works can be found at http://www.fotogenius.ch. I know David from PhotoMalaysia.com photography forum, back in 2007. We met for the 1st time when David came to Malaysia on 2007 for a vacation, alone. And this year he came back to Malaysia, with his newly wed wife. Hopefully the next time they visit Malaysia, there will be 3 of them…The more the merrier…. 
David, the next time you visit Malaysia, don’t forget to give me a call, so that we can hangout at our usual spot : the camera shops… Heheheeee….
Tags: contemporary portraiture, honeymoon, kuala lumpur, post-wedding
The Price and Pride of Wedding Photography Service
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under General, Toughts Sharing
Assalamualaikum and hello to non-Muslim readers. Today I’m going to bring your attention to an issue which has been discussed in the PhotoMalaysia online forum lately. The discussion was about the difference in pricing between many wedding photographers in Malaysia, which was an issue that has been loooong discussed nationwide, and perhaps I may say, worldwide too.
The reason why I brought this topic into this entry, is mainly because I have written quite a long reply to conclude this discussion in the forum, as below. And also, I would like to know how far does the consumers out there understand why there is such huge difference in wedding photography service price in the market. Hence, I’ve included a brief poll to find out what you think about this matter. Your vote is very much appreciated
Loading ...For further reading and understanding, I strongly suggest you to go straight to the source of this discussion. Here’s a part of the discussion, quoting myself.
Hello boys (and girls),
I dont know what’s pushing me to help this young gentleman to sum up the conclusion of this thread/discussion, but sumhow, I feel like this is the least that I can do and hope that we all can benefit from it. This is indeed a very good discussion and we should appreciate the effort made by the threadstarter in raising this issue. However, having too many issues being discussed in 1 thread will only obscure the route to finding a conclusion to the thread and will lead to further misunderstanding among others.
If any of us here wish to prolong this discussion, I seriously agree with Engku’s suggestion to have a face-to-face discussion, as a discussion in forum is definitely not the best way to find a solution, let alone summarizing the conclusion.
In the beginning of this thread, the main discussion was :
Ali is working as a photographer covering all of events (product, model,wedding, meeting..ect etc) and he owns a photography company that gives all of photography services.
Abu works in a bank and taking his photography as a part time job. Both have almost the same level of skill in photography.
The Problem:
For a wedding, Ali charges his customer with RM2500 per a wedding plan with a custom album. While Abu’s price is only RM500 with the custom album (the same package but diffrent price). And their quality is about the same.
Due to the huge price diffrent, Abu seems to have more customer rather than Ali because Abu think a 8R custom album + digital printing will cost him about RM200 and he is still making RM300 profit to maintain his camera services plus Abu does has a staedy job in hand.
The Question:
1. Does Abu made a ‘crime’ for charging RM500 for a wedding plan compared to Ali (RM2500)..?
2. If yes, why..?
……………..
A friend of mine said that this kind of photographer (Abu) is killing the other photographers, but I do not think so. So what do u think..?To make it simply understandable, let’s just focus on the original topic as above, for now. After a few pages, many agreed that none of the two made any crime. Both have their own target market, and as long as they are happy with the price that they charge, we can all live in harmony. Peace.
Some forumers mentioned about how Abu will damage the market by (unintentionally) creating false perception among the consumers out there that wedding photography (business) can be done at such low cost, whereas the fact is, the service that Abu offer at such price is nothing near to what can be called a business, as he disregard many other things that should be taken into account as his working cost. This is where the issue of “jaga periuk nasi” occurred.
It is not Abu’s fault if Ali fail to secure enough jobs to maintain his business, but the least that Abu should do is to create some awareness among his customers that he is not running a serious business. He did all the jobs at such low price merely because it’s his hobby and he has a steady job in hand.
As for Ali, he must always look for ways to justify why his service is worth RM2k+. As he is running a business seriously, he must put more attention into his output quality, be it in terms of efficiency, product quality and so on. Therefore, each one of them will be able to continue providing services for their own target market.
What will happen next to Abu or Ali is out of the topic. Whether Abu will someday become Ali, or Ali will run out of business is beyond the scope of the original discussion.
Towards the middle of the discussion, the issue of pricing was more dominant;
And to the orang yang kurang mampu, the photography is just like a dream and they dont deserved to have a wonderful history of themself. Some of the wedding in kampung don’t even have a photo album because the price is too high. RM2K is enough to buy a cow for the kenduri..
Dear friends, we must bear in mind that wedding photography is not a basic need. I prefer to consider it as a luxury as it is not a necessity. I came from a low income background family and none of my brother, sister and cousins have a wedding photographer on their wedding day, simply because, we could not afford it. Back then, before I own an SLR, we had to ask somebody in the family to take their pictures with some chap ayam P&S camera (analog, not digital), or sometimes even a pakai-buang Kodak camera will do. And yes we were satisfied even though the photos are all only kept in plastic pocket albums.
The thing is, we should know how to ‘ukur baju di badan sendiri’. If we can’t afford the luxury, the wedding can still go on. We still have our own ways to keep our wonderful histories in memory. After all, according to Islamic teaching, a wedding must not be as ‘luxurious’ as what we can see nowadays.
I believe the efficiency of a photographer is what I mean here. Last 2 days I overheard a conversation of a photographer finished his post processing of 3000 photos in 3 days - a photo of a government’s event. Very impressive, and it made me realized that its not impossible to finish a 22 pages of album in 18 hours (post process). 18 hours a not a day. Bear in mind, a good shot needs very less post processing. And a good photographer knows what will he shot before take a shot.
The point is do u charge your leisure time to your customer..? Is that fair?
Very good argument. Yes, 18 hours is not a day, but what is the normal amount of working hour that a normal human being can accept.? Say, 8-9 hours and that will need at least 2 days to finish 1 album design. This is merely the album design, but we also must enhance the rest of the photos that are not included in the album, prior to designing the album itself. Hence, considering that each photos need to be enhanced, plus number of days required to finish an album design, with regards to the normal working hour per day that is acceptable for a normal human, wouldn’t at least 5 working days be the least that is required to finish the post processing work? Not to mention we must also consider the time taken to send out for printing and assemble the album.
Talking about post processing works, some forumers here have also highlighted the depreciation cost of computer hardwares and softwares, the cameras and other equipments, and other overhead costs that also constitute the pricing. This is also an explanation as to why Abu’s service cannot be classified as a business as I mentioned earlier.
……… But come to think about it for an assignment, how many hours do u really spend at the event..? And how many hours do u really spend to post processing..? How many hours u do nothing, sit and relax after u shot the event..? Because normally, high price is because most of them covered their leisure time after the event since photographer didnt work 9am-5pm everyday. I believe many of the wedding photographer only do the post processing by their mood and not constantly 8-9 hours per day.……….…………
To conclude this, let’s take simple example of a normal working day routine. Let’s say a person’s monthly salary is RM2000 , average calculation of his wages per day is RM2000/30days. That means, he is paid about RM67 to work from 9am-5pm. During the 8 working hours, how many hours does he spend going to n from the pantry to make/have a drink, washroom, smoke break, lunch break, and a few sessions of chatting with colleagues around him? These are considered unproductive hours but yet it is still acceptable as we must understand that humans are not robot.
So, in these wedding photographers case, we can’t simply label that they are charging the customers on their leisure time, as those so-called leisure time that is used to take a normal break, drink, or eat during the event or the post processing is suppose to be included in the total working hour. As long as the person need to be there to complete the job, this so-called leisure time must be considered because we are not hiring robots as the photographers/designers.
Finally, towards the end of the thread this issue is being discussed;
………………. And yes, most of u did wrote about business and how good business for a photographer per job, and forgive me Mr.SL, a good business is a good business.. But for a muslim, there is a limitation in the profit - meaning how much money can u get from the work.. Its a bit complex and has nothing to do with charity.. So please dont simply jump to conclusion saying that Im a racist or whatever and made people hard to understand the situation here.
Again, I must say that it is very much appreciated that the threadstarter also came up with issues related to muamalat, and wasatiah. And I do agree that it is something a bit complex to be explained. Nevertheless, I feel that I need to at least say a little bit of my opinion based from my very limited knowledge, in order to avoid some misunderstanding among the forumers and the viewers.
If I am not mistaken, the Quranic verse that was mentioned in this thread (Ar-Room, verse 39) is actually mentioning about ‘Riba’ (interest, usury), among other 8 Quranic verses (if I’m not mistaken) regarding the same topic. There have been many discussions and arguments regarding the difference of Riba (which is haram in Islam) and allowable profit up to a certain limit (which is halal in Islam). For further reading I suggest THIS , and THIS among others.
In order to discuss this, I certainly urge not just the threadstarter but all of us here, to firstly be able to understand and identify the cost structure of this photography business. Without the basic understanding of the cost, there is no way that we can finally make a judgement whether a person is taking ‘Riba’ from his business, or merely taking profit from his business in line with the teaching of Islam.Therefore, I think it is inappropriate to label that a person like Ali is making his profit against the teaching of Islam, without understanding the fundamental costs involved.
Summarily, we can get two conclusions here :
1-With regards to the original topic being discussed : Abu did not make any crime. But the effect of his practice is, the consumer out there might get wrong perception on this photography business. Therefore, discussions like this may benefit them in terms of understanding the situation better.2-With regards to the pricing issue being discussed : We must first indentify the cost structure of this business, before we can move on to discussing other matters related to it, especially in terms of Islamic business practice.
Phew…that was the longest reply I ever made in PM… I’ll keep quiet for a few days.. I promise…
. If I have made any wrong statement or explanation, please forgive me as my intention was only to clear some misunderstandings here.
So after this, let us all continue with our passion in photography as usual….Thanx for reading this.
So tell me now, what do you think…?
Another Skinstar’s Wedding | Ayed & Mimi
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Wedding
Remember we mentioned in our previous post that Fadhil missed his flight from KB…? Hahahaa.. Well, this was the event.
He is Syed Mohd Faidz (a.k.a. Ayed ), Fadhil’s elder brother. And she is Norizzati Syamimi. Lovely couple !
Well, this entry is suppose to be a teaser, while waiting for the web gallery to be ready… So, do come back and check out the web gallery, ok…?
Web gallery is now available for viewing. Check it out! http://ayedmimi.cheritapictures.com
Note to Ayed : Bro, noticed I changed the title specially for you…? Hehehehe..Why I didn’t think of that word in the 1st place.. Huh.. I must be crazy… :-p
Amboi suke nar.. Taulah dah kawin…
Faizura & Jai | Engagement | 16th of August 2008
Posted by Cherita Pictures | Filed under Wedding
Phew.. This event was right a day after the RPB event. The previous event ended at around midnight, whereby Aziel covered the event alone while Fadhil were in Kelantan for another event (and the gallery is coming soon). Not to mention that Fadhil missed his flight from KB to KL on the 15th night and had to tumpang his brother’s ride and reached home around 7 am on the 16th for a few hours nap before this event.
Ha haa.. lesson for you, Fadhil and others out there - make sure u check your boarding time carefully, double or triple check, especially in cases of no-tickets issued (hehehe… you know which case I’m referring to…).
So, here’s an engagement ceremony we covered, held in Senawang, Negeri Sembilan, between Faizura and Jumali (a.k.a. Jai). More photos can be viewed at their web gallery : http://faizurajai.cheritapictures.com
Haaa… curik coklat hantaran yeee…. Hehehe..takdelah…
Haa… baru bertunang, tak boleh bergambar dekat-dekat…ekau duduk la diam-diam kek situ haa…
Wonder what she’s wondering…?
Ooo… ekau minang adik den yoo… I’ll be watching u…..
Tags: faizura, jumali, malay engagement, negeri sembilan, senawang, seremban
A Corporate Dinner
Posted by Cherita Pictures | Filed under Event Photography
Hello everyone.
Hope it’s not too late to wish all Muslims “Selamat berpuasa”, and “Ramadhan al-Mubarak”. We’ve been delaying a few things lately, hence this post is way too far from the actual event date.
The event was a corporate dinner for Reliance Pacific Berhad, held in Admiral Marina & Leisure Club, Port Dickson. The event was held on 15th of August, 2008. Here’s a few from the event.
During registration.
The CEO, Datin Irene officiating the launching.
Group photo, before all guests proceed for the next event.
Tags: corporate dinner, corporate event, Event Photography
I Love Patrick
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Contemporary potraiture
I had a chance to shoot one of my little cousin - Yaya. She is very bubbly and will always smile from afar, whenever anyone call out her name, but will never easily settle for a shoulder, a hug or even a kiss on her cheek, unless she is so much used to the person. Nevertheless, she’s always the bubbliest.
But during these few shots, she seems to be very comfortable with Patrick (SpongeBob’s best buddy), that she almost totally turned her ‘bubbly switch’ off, to enjoy her friendship with her new friend. I couldn’t remember how many times I talked to myself about how cute she is during the shoot and the post process.
Guys, actually I would love to write more , but I’m currently too sleepy and weak. Well, Ramadhan is just around the corner now, so I must finish some incomplete tasks - if you know what I mean. My bad - procrastination…!!
A few other photos can be viewed at my flickr . O my, I can’t wait to get Yaya’s photos framed….!!!
“Mmmm… I love you, Patrick”
“Can I hear your heart beat…?”
Tags: baby, emotion, friendship, love, potrait
Fatin Azhar Shot Me In Dirt!!!
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Toughts Sharing
I thought I wanna give my little sister a chance to use my camera and learn with it. (Hahahahah…rachun…rachun….). This morning, I broke my nails while changing some auto parts. That was definitely not the first time I spent intimate hours with my little car, but I feel like asking my little sister to shoot my pic after that.
It was nothing much, just replacing the battery and some bulbs. At first, my dad insist to do it, but I said I can do it myself coz I’m not like my other younger sister who had to call my dad when she had a flat tyre in college while my dad was in office. Ughh…Gimme a break!? Girls, you really have to know some basic things about your car, honey. Don’t just drive your car and leave everything else to the mechanic.
No, no, no. Don’t tell me that u can’t change the flat tyre yourself because you were wearing skirts or baju kurung. Owwh, come on, I had once change my flat tyre while I was in my blue-silk Kebaya with 4 inch heels on, what do you think of that…? There was also an incident during my internship, that I had to travel to many places for 1 month driving an old Proton Saga rented by the company, with another female and 2 male colleagues, when we had a flat tyre and the 2 boys just looked at each other before telling me to my face that they didn’t know how to replace the tyre….I was like, “Whaaatttt…?”
Well, the thing is, I was not trying to intimidate the other 2 boys, as perhaps they have not came across that situation while driving their father’s or relative’s car, so they don’t bother to know. Ok, understood. What I’m trying to say is, girls, you mustn’t always think that “O, I can always find a guy to do this”… Why should you if you can do it yourself? Plus, what happen if you are stranded in some place? Would you trust a stranger to help you?… Oww.. not me, I wouldn’t.
Ok, enough with my rantings. I’ve gone too far. Hehehe …Back to the picture. Actually, this is the first photo captured by Fatin using a dslr camera. So, bravo lill sis. She’s only 14, the youngest in the family. I thought I just wanna give her some exposure in photography… That’s all..
Tags: car, dirt, fatin, fatin azhar, lady driver
It Is Almost Complete!
Posted by Aziel Azhar | Filed under Toughts Sharing
Phewww…. See the difference in this blog…? Well, that’s because (I think) we are almost 80% changing our look. Hehehee.. I hope it is worth the effort, for somebody like me, who has never been taught formally about how to scratch my own coding.
At certain points, I even had to shout out in my YM stats asking for help…. Huhuhuu… Kesian diri sendiri..
But, that’s ok. I’ve been blessed with friends who are always willing to give help and comments. Sometimes I had to work until late night (or early morning), but, hey, I’m not alone. To you guys (you know who you are), thank you so much for your company. I really appreciate it. What would I do without you…?
Carried away with this, I have not been checking my emails and friendster, myspace, etc, for the past few days. So, sorry guys for my late reply. Well, I still need to continue ‘upgrading’ this blog, but I guess I wont be too busy with it anymore as it is almost complete.
OK for now…!! 
