love story album

Our official photographer, Ikram Ismail came over to the house last night to give us one half of what we've been dying to see - our story album. (The other half is our official video, of course). It took him two months to complete it. I requested for three story albums, one for each event - akad nikah, berinai, reception. And although I had to pay an additional fee, it was definitely worth every ringgit! The pictures are totally different from the raw ones that we've all seen in fb. I mean, some of the pictures are the same but the editing and effects made a million difference. I've heard stories of how ugly or bleh story albums can be so I was quite nervous to see the outcome. But it turned out beautiful. One can see how much effort he put into the album, to give it a certain sentimental effect. It's not just about airbrushing the bride's face in the pictures, it's about choosing the right picture to have a black and white effect, the right picture to have a hazy, misty effect, the right picture to be the centerfold, which picture to enlarge and so on. So it’s not just about ‘pasting’ pictures here and there. But I guess, you wouldn’t expect anything less from him since one thing about Abang Ikram is that he won’t allow you to choose the pictures you want to put in the album. He will do all the choosing for you. Different from many other photographers kan? Usually you get to choose the best pictures to be in the album but not with him. I guess that’s where the magic lies. What may be beautiful in our eyes (yang perasan ni) may not be beautiful enough for him. Some would say, it’s up to us lah kan, it’s our album, we paid for it, so we can put whatever irrelevant picture we want in it. If you look at it that way then maybe he is not the right photog for you. I took a risk by agreeing to let him choose pictures that would best describe the night for me. And it was a risk worth taking. When you look at an album, you want to see yourself looking back at you, smiling at you, you don’t want to see a different person. You want to see a happier version of yourself and you want to feel again, what you felt on the night the pictures were taken. You want it to be sentimental and intimate. I felt it all last night as I flipped through the albums. I paid the balance with a singing heart. Satisfied! So if you’re looking for a photographer and if he’s within your budget, by all means, I totally recommend him. I won’t get anything by sharing this with you but I just think he deserves this post. Besides quality end product, he’s also easy and great fun to work with, tak berkira about time (some photographers kira exactly 5 hours), polite, sabar (dengan pengantin) and tenang je. You wouldn’t want someone with a sucky attitude following you around for 3 nights in a row right? I’m glad I made the right choice by having him as my photographer. Phewww…lega.

By the way, I’ve just realized that many of the pictures that he put in the album are not the ones that I have put up in fb! Nampak sangat I tak pandai pilih the best pictures. Hello, try going through 11,000++ raw pictures in 12 CDs please and tell me how challenging it is. But I will have to look through the CDs again to choose pictures for the many photo frames (from you) that I received. Thank you! :)