I have moved!

Dear readers,

I have moved to my new photoblog together with my new website. You can click on http://www.reginalim.com/ and choose to visit my website or my photoblog.

(Read below post for info)

This blog will remain alive but will no longer be updated. It has been a good journey here and see you on the other side!

Cheers,
Regina

My new website!

Presenting...

My brand new website! and my new studio! --- Beautiful Days by Regina.

Because we all love a beautiful day right? :) And I believe we are all made to have plenty of days as beautiful as this. So tying the knot, having a baby, growing old together, all are part and parcel of our beautiful days enjoyed. :)

I like every bit of my website, especially all the little sections that I put in a lot of efforts. take a look at "my style", "about me", "my charity programs" and "compliments"!

So go to www.reginalim.com to take a look at my pride. Drop by my new blog too!


So I fulfilled my promise and launched my website before 21st March. I'm looking forward to adding in more photos from the Japan shoot. -- remember that I do not have access to many photos that I have shot but not under my copyrights so current photos are limited.

The other good news is that I am still giving away one free couple lifestyle portraiture in celebration of the launch :)

Basically it's a 3 hour shoot where we will go out to places which has a lot of meaning to you and have fun shooting! You get to take home all the photos and have a chance of appearing in an upcoming magazine feature in a popular mag.

Be the first to email me for this chance. :)

Cheers!

what's going into the mouth of my dogs?

a year after pet food recall

dyl has been very pro feeding the boy and girl homecooked food instead of dried dog biscuit but i haven't had the time to get down to that. maybe, i should seriously consider that.

having a shoot tomorrow and then it will be a race to finish up some stuff in sg and off to japan i will be.

so little time

argh. so little time till i fly off to the land of the rising sun.

yet so much to do!!

this is a week that i will be out of the house more than i'm in it - meeting couples, meeting sarah about our trip, meeting more couples, meeting j, bringing my sister out to sentosa - why did i promise to bring her to sentosa in my most busy week?!

directions

recently i have been thinking a lot about the future directions of my photography.

one of the greatest thing i enjoyed is that i work from home and working from home put me really close to all the people that matters to me - my husband, my dogs, my family.

and i have been struggling with getting a place outside of the home for my work. renting a place for my studio.

of course i have in mind a wonderful idea of how my studio should look like. i can, renovate my house and use it as a studio as many does but i am wondering about the impact of mixing work with home.

in the meantime, i am enjoying meeting couples in town for a nice dinner or a cup of fresh coffee.

and i think, i'm happy letting it stay this way. :)

interesting love stories project

for my friend Nigel, who's collecting love stories. if you have one to share, go to http://love-stories-project.blogspot.com/

quite an interesting idea indeed. :)

Advertising

I am now in the midst of negotiating with the various advertising firms about where and when to place my ads.
It is a really fun but agonizing process because i want everything yet i am probably better off with just one.

As my aim is to maintain quality artistic photography at an affordable rate, i do not want to raise my overheads till really high and that will mean further increasing my rates. I would rather pass on the savings to my couples.

So ponder ponder...

Website review ongoing

I am 95% confident of my website being comprehensive and user friendly and most importantly, chic enough.

However, I do need some reviews and feedback so I can work on improving it before it is going to be launched so publicly - 1) through advertisement 2) networks of friends and families 3) this blog . It is quite scary honestly.

So I have selected a few pple with great taste and artistic sense to help me review the site. currently they are elizabeth and beatrice and sarah and my husband(unfortunately, my husband doesn't fall under the artistic sense because the feedback he gave me was- "all website looks the same to me as long as they serve the correct purpose and is user friendly!")

this is getting fun.

blog overload

I'm once again facing an issue with blog overload.

meaning, i have too many of them! and i have to write in each and everyone of them. i'm better off consolidating them to one blog and categorize them right?

currently, I run
1) reginalimphotography.blogspot.com - which is supposed to be a stand-in while i work at my real photography blog - which is done but i'm not releasing yet.

2) mummyregina - well the aim is to blog more motherly, homely womanly stuff that some readers might not want to read on the main page so i shifted them out separately. but it kinda doesn't make sense now.

3) the real photography blog - secret for now. (actually you can get there easily- but i'm not saying how yet)

considering that i migrated here from my old blog in diaryland, i might not want to move again. then again, blogging can be a sensitive issue, especially when you are running a business and you may not want customer to know every single details of your personal life. very scary. so the prob with this blog is that if my couples google for me, they will get here too, since the blog name give it all away.

hmm...

Fasting

(before i start, i have done some changes to my mummy blog and you can check out QQ's stunning look on my header)

ok, i have decided what i want to fast in this month of lent. lent already started and i realised that fasting tv is just not an option since it keeps me literally sane.

i have decided to fast off shopping and luxury stuff. therefore, no dining in restaurant, no buying unnecessary items, home cook meals as much as possible, all the way till easter.

and this is supposed to apply even when i'm in Japan!

new website is up but not released to all yet

my new website is actually up and running but i'm only intending to seriously launch it after i complete the portfolio with my japan's wedding shoot and a pre-wedding that i will be doing (o yeah, everything just fell into place)

I love it, and many people loved it too, it's exactly how i envision it to be. :)

What happens when my photographer gets pregnant?

Interestingly and somewhat understandable, my couples have been asking me this questions. while some are perfectly nonchalant about it and just go"I'm sure you can handle it well", others are a little concerned.

let me share some stories here (a little bit on the horror side), i have stand in for photographers (men, since there's so little women pg around) who had
1. fractured their legs - therefore had to transferred all assignments 3 months from date of injury
2.fell really ill on day of shoot
3.injured their back

i would say with every photographer there is a chance of course, that he/she cannot make it for your wedding day. the most important thing is that 1. he/she produces work you really like 2. he/she has very good backup plans which you are happy with

so a pregnant photographer should have no impact on your wedding day, just as there are pregnant make up artist, hotel manager, chef. and just to share, one of the world's greatest photographer just had a baby and shooting all the way to her birth. (i'm not even intending to be that adventurous)

btw, i'm not pregnant yet. we are not even working on that now as Dyl's really stressed up over some work issues.

guess i gotta just relax and have fun in japan first!

highlight of the day

i want to share a little highlight of my day.

even since i left JLP, i have not started any form of advertisement. naturally, i am expecting no business, since i am taking a break to re-organise my business thoughts.

but along the way, i started harbouring thoughts like maybe nothing good will come out of this etc. (Sorry God, how could i doubt you?) but amazingly, right when i was getting a little grumpy on working on the new website etc, one couple called me from the states to discuss about engaging me for their wedding day.

wow.

actually, God has been really good, eg, even before i start any form of advertisement and when my website was at its bare minimal, i have closed quite a few assignments.

I cannot imagine my life once I advertise and traffic starts swarming in - with my motto of shooting only 2 per month, I believe my months will get packed up fast. (FYI, usual photographer shoot 4-6 weddings per month but i believe in quality time for the family and my health)

God is great.

a child against all odds

yesterday, an amazing friend called me to encourage me. I shoot her wedding a while ago and she and her husband are 2 of the most loving people i know - Anthony & Yvonne.

She was sharing with me her story of fighting fibriods and basically, she was facing reduced chances of conception, yet, just shortly after that news, she is now expecting.

i am happy to know that God has done such amazing work in their life and that she remembers me and is there to encourage me.

i was sharing with her that the trouble now is that i don't know many friends who truly understand our situation. yes, there are very supportive friends but they do not understand childbirth, marriage, mopping floors, starting business. so with time, we have all drift apart.

the only women i know who knows how trying to conceiev was, are the ladies i meet in my belly dancing classes. all of them have children in school already.

definitely because i married at a very young age and these are just not life stages my friends go through now.

i hope you understand that i am not saying that i do not appreciate you as a friend but that our common grounds are disappearing now but one day, when you are going through that phase, i will be there for you. (",)

new inspiration needed

i'm in a stage where i feel fatigue and tired all the time, i need new inspiration and something gotta change. i don't know what but i will explore that. maybe need to pack up a nice work area.

i love packing, it is so therapeutic.

ok, i am getting nervous at the thought of having a baby soon (nope, the 2 lines haven't appeared in any pregnancy kit) but i am nervous.

kinda the feeling of a storm approaching (ok, it's not that bad, all veteran parents tell me) but the idea of a crying baby in the house scare both of us.

haha.

tax nightmare

being self-employed is really fun, until the day you have to declare tax. the amount of work going on in all the calculations of expenses and profits etc. is scary. i am so confused.

if this is your first year reporting tax as self-employed too, look here.

have fun!

if you are a mother-to-be and self-employed, note that the government pay your maternity leave for 2 months capped at $10,000. look here

but unfortunately, the monthly income is based on the latest iras statement and even if your monthly income has increased in the new year, you are going to be paid the previous yr amt.

26 days countdown

26 days more to my japan trip.

can't wait to be in the midst of busy tokyo again. :)