Comments and Feedback

I've added a comments / Feedback area for clients who would be so kind as to share their experience as to the service and support from David Cheok Photography...

Thank you for your time..

Coffee or Donuts?

Protecting your images

You know you're a professional photographer when you start spending more on protecting your client's images than going on holidays.

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them you do not really make much money (to spend on yourself/family) out of professional wedding photography. My apprentices didnt believe me until I showed them what was necessary to be a professional photographer that has the client's interests as priority. Here's why. Probably one of the biggest fears of a professional photographer especially a wedding photographer is loss of images. No amount of money or compensation can make up for the moments and memories lost. And yeah, it has happened to me once early in the start of my career. Even though I compensated my client for the loss of some of their berbedak images (luckily it was mostly guests berbedak), it still remains with me till this day. The fact that I did lose some cannot be changed. This was due to IT error or rather lack of knowledge of a new OS. This is the same lesson I try to share and enforce the experience with my apprentices. Contingencies and backups are not cheap but unfortunately it is a necessary part of working in this field. No proper professional in this field can say to their client, "Sorry, I lost your images because my hard drive failed.. my computer blew up.. etc..." All it means is that you're not doing enough or placing enough importance on their memories."



To the left here is a collection of data and power protection system. Below, this is an array of external 1TB drives. The Biggest S2S is configured as RAID 10 to produce high speed and full redundancy. This means if one hard disk fails.. there is still a mirror drive.. and a third spare drive that automatically rebuilds itself back to full redundancy. There are 5 drives in this blue box with a total of 2.5TB of space rendering only 1tb of usable data space. Below that are 1Tb Lacie D2 drives that holds other wedding related data.



Below is a special industrial strength 3KVA UPS by Emerson/Liebert that can provide over 2000 watts of power AND simultaneous filter and condition the power that feeds my macs/lcds/hdds. This keeps the power source clean and provides lightning and power-loss protection to the system. These are the little things that I do to ensure protection for your wedding images even though its sometimes overkill (thus spending more than I probably should) but its the least I can do for your support.

YOUR wedding: Photographers, Makeup and Henna Artists

Recently, I've been hearing a few comments and questions that has been disturbing me.. the following ones tops the list..
Your wedding is YOUR wedding. Know what's important to you and DO them YOURSELF. Prioritise what you want from it and what's most important.. then you can start delegating tasks to people who are willing to help you.
1) IF pictures are important to you and you like the work and style of your favourite photographer, inquire and book him/her yourself. Do not depend on others to do it for you. You will regret it when it comes close to your day only to find you do not have ANY photographer to cover your wedding competently. A photographic style is unique to that photographer and only he/she can shoot that way... its not like there are 10,000 photographers here that can be hired out from Supasave or QQestore.. the best ones are usually booked way in advance and can only shoot one wedding at a time.. they do not accept 5 weddings a week and dish them out to their friends and colleagues. Even IF pictures are not so important.. also make sure you have at least one photographer booked... if not by you.. then maybe the folks. The same here applies to wedding videographers.



2) Henna (Pacar) Artists are even harder to come by than photographers especially those that do the indian art styles.. to date, I only know of two.. and two whose work I think are good.. namely Zainon and Isma.. recently, I had a bride who's pelamin vendor promised to get her a pacar artist but called in the final hour ( the night before the Sanding on the malam berbedak) to tell her they couldnt get one.. I passed her Zainon's number (at midnight) and Zainon came over that morning, dragging with her kids out with her, just to do her pacar... now that is what i call commendable service.. of course, the premium is there but when times are like this.. it was the matter of having your wedding with what you want or nothing.


3) Make up Artists - like Henna artists and photogs.. book your choices early.



To date, these three are the hardest items to come by in the wedding industry... make sure you take care of it on your own and do not relegate the task to others if they are your priority.
On a side note, over the last two weeks, there have been so many inquiries on 8-8-8. I shudder to think on a whole, how many weddings will take place that week and how the supply of vendors that month will be stretched out. If you plan to have your wedding that week/month, I suggest you move it to another date.. especially if you want your favourite choices. Even now, its already too late to book many photogs and makeup artists...
Some food for thought.

Congratulations, Ucinghitam!

Hehehe.. biting the bullet and joining the club soon..

Macbook Pro LED LCDs

How good are they? Are they worth all the hype?
Below are some results from a test..

This is the calibration report from the Lacie Blue Eye Pro calibration software after performing a calibrate. This was done several times to ensure consistent results.

Below is the report from a report carried out a couple of months back with my Dell 2707 desktop LCD.


And below the results from the Lacie 321.


The colored bars represents the change/variation in color consistencies of each color of the respective monitor. Comparing the three, Lacie beats the Dell and Apple LED LCD hands down in all aspects.. All the hype about the performance of LEDs doesnt seem to add up? Well. The new LED Lcds are brighter and boast longer backlit lifespans.. but that's about it.. for everyday use, its great.. for professional color work.. maybe not.

PS. Do NOTE that these are Apple's white light LED and not the RGB LEDs found on some super expensive NEC monitors.. so dont compare apples and durians..

Special offer

Year 2008 Special Charity Drive Offer



For wedding dates (one per month) :
Jan - Wk 2 or 3
April - Wk 2 or 3
May - Wk 2 or 3
July - Wk 2 or 3
Oct - Wk 2 or 3
Dec - Wk 2 or 3

Donate B$200 to a charity* of your choice (pass me official receipt-read below) and get B$400 discount on my fees** for your wedding***.
You contribute to the needy of our society AND benefit with never before discounts for my wedding packages whilst our charities benefit from added support from our community. It may not be much but every little bit helps. Together, we'll help build a better caring Bruneian society.

Terms and conditions:
* Must be a registered charity/organisation etc. Which you donate to is up to your affinity for that cause.
** 2008 fees at B$2800, N/A to other packages/services.
*** For Malay weddings limited to 4 events, Chinese weddings limited to the morning session and one night reception only.
Important - Receipt from Charity organisation MUST be made out as received from YOU i.e. your name and David Cheok Photography. This will be verified with the charity you donated to.

PS. I got this brainchild idea from someone just now who asked me jokingly that if they added me in Facebook, would they get a discount? Well, this is the only way I would give a discount :) That way, we all benefit and contribute at the same time :)

PPS. There are no other discounts for anything else for 2008 and these discounts ONLY applies to the weeks mentioned. This is not a promotion for my wedding services. It is a call for people to contribute to helping our community services. I'm just offering the incentives.

Bookings 2008

I've been talking to a couple of past B&G in the last few weeks. Not just catching up but also finding out a few things. Apart from a few having recently just given birth to new members of their family but also that some of the friends and colleagues have been getting them to call me to convince me to book them in on closed months for 2008. Ok guys/gals. I get the hint :)
I'm opening up another slot for each month in 2008 for three weddings instead of two but that's about the max. I need at least a week of rest to get work done as well as personal family time. I'll update the booking chart later. Those who were thinking of booking through friends and colleagues, please contact me directly. Thank you.

Vomiting and Diarrhoea

I've just had a bout of the two.. and I've heard recently quite a number of ppl have gotten it.. just wondering.. anyone of your got it recently?? Could it be the water?

Registration with Mr or Ms

A few people have tried registering for the private galleries with names like Mr X or Mrs ABC... sorry.. Mr or Ms or Mrs is not a first name.. if you want to see the galleries, please use your proper names. Its out of respect for the clients who's pictures you want to see.. I have to try my best to keep a record of who has access to them. I'm sorry if your application has been rejected because of that. Please register with the proper records.. Thanks.