{blog} nicolethen studio

cheese and toast

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:20:03 +0800

my cooking style is very practical…it goes something like “ok, i need carbo, veggies and taste (go!)”. it’s usually mixed in some kind of soup base just so everything’s in one pot and i use the pot as a bowl. so when i suddenly get inspired to cook something special, it’s usually quite short burst.

this was one of the days when i wanted to head to a favourite cafe for a sandwich, coffee and read a book but was turned off by the possibility of it being crowded so i shopped my own ingredients instead and ate at home <3 enjoyed it very much!

"just for you": sueann

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:29:09 +0800

i haven’t shared the individual portrait shots from sueann’s shoot and i want to share it ;) because the “just for you” portraits is one of the collections at {nicolethen studio} that I’m passionate about. well, i’m passionate about all of them, they each have their value but woman to woman or lady to lady or girl to girl…we all wear so many hats everyday and play such integral roles in our worlds that having a time set aside to remember you at each point in your life…to just pause and feel beautiful and at ease with yourself…is something that i feel so strongly for!!

sueann had turned twenty one and in her list of twenty one things she had to do was to have her portrait taken. (on a side note: i tried to do the twenty-ish list of things i had to do before my birthday after hearing sueann’s story…and then i realized that having less then a month to accomplish the entire list was a ridiculous plan haha)

just like me, she was a little camera shy, and i guess coming from someone who avoided the camera like a plague when i was in my early teens (i’ve worked hard at working through this fear haha)…i understand what it feels like to be afraid that the shots are just not going to look nice. but in the little moments where i see she has let her guard down and that beautiful sunshine smile spreads across her face and i quickly focus, snap and capture her gorgeousness…wow!!

random january

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:25:31 +0800

i LOVE(!!) market lor mee

met caroline for dinner at the soup restaurant

we had the chicken with ginger, sweet potato leaf with chilli and fried but super soft tofu. wa…eat until so full and happy :D

tiger in a basket haha

at OUTBACK i think…they have the best mashed potatoes!! ahhh want some now

Just some random photographs from January haha. today gonna support my friend’s event at the Singapore Arts Museum (SAM). It’s a dialogue/debate thingy about Singapore’s cultural heritage at 2pm. It’s only for an hour so if you’re available and happen to be around the area do drop by! (click facebook page)

valentine's day

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:58:14 +0800

valentine’s day lookbook with the love bonito team :D thank God for the amazing weather and finding a location to shoot. Many thanks to Vivi of the Scandinavian Dining & Bar at Robertson Quay!

Ok, i gotta go!!

chiangmai: genesis home

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:58:12 +0800

on the back of Calvin’s pick up truck was INSANE!! INSANE I tell you!! I’ve never travelled so fast on the outside before…on the road…my hair was tangled in knots when we stopped and my face was like…flapping!! haha

one of the purpose of the trip there was to visit a few orphanages and see what were their needs, get to know the children and the helpers at each home and see how we can contribute.

so the first day we met the children of Genesis Home. and there was this little boy, one of the youngest there (his parents both have AIDS and are unable to take care of him) and he was really grumpy at first by the strangers being there. then afterwards he started pointing at my white converse and then to his slippers. not really understanding what he was saying but i just took his hand and he just started giggling and laughing all the way.

he then went to the shoe rack and took out his well…sort of white…school shoes and put them on too! haha how cute <3

{nicolethen studio portraits} she makes him smile

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:54:28 +0800

i had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate Cindy & Weiqi’s union with a portrait session. Cindy had picked out a pretty lace dress from ASOS and she looked so gorgeous! Of course, Weiqi was looking sharp too and the both of them looked so cute together.

We shot under extreme sunlight in the mid-afternoon sun and the light was so harsh but we made it work ;) Many of her friends can’t believe it’s her when they look at her photographs, “she doesn’t look so demure!” her friends say. In between whether she has trouble walking on granite stones and grass or she says something funny, a laugh will escape from weiqi’s mouth and his eyes will light up because Cindy makes Weiqi smile from the inside and making her happy, makes him happy.

She’s one who’s shy about how gorgeous she is, never playing it up and that’s what i think makes her all the more endearing. I definitely felt so honoured to be able to capture the way they love and I wish them a blessed and beautiful marriage that will grow from strength to strength with much laughter, joy and love!

adventure with sis (part three)

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:01:15 +0800

so yes, part three of my adventure with sis haha - sidetrack, i realize i’m a very chapter by chapter blogger. i like to segment my photos and each post the photographs need to complement each other and stuff. weird haha and so that’s why i have posts that are entitled “part three” - but anyway, onto our adventure.

after a super full dinner of chee cheong fun and porridge (yum!), we decided to take a walk and headed towards ann hsiang hill area. and as we were crossing the road I spotted this huge lomography sign glowing bright red in the night. cool! they were having some kind of event…not sure what it was though haha but nobody stopped us when me and my sis cruised right in to check out the new store.

but if you frequent the other toy camera shops in singapore as much as i do (which honestly is not that…much haha but enough…i frequent the 2nd hand camera shops more often ;)) well, you’d have seen most of the stuff already. so when we browsed enough, shuffled in the crowd enough and stepped on enough streamers, we continued our walk. that was when we were deliberating about photographing a stranger (haha) and then it was time to head home <3

the end of the adventure! till the next one :D

{nabillah} song with soul

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:02:46 +0800

I need to share this before it’s too late! Some time back I did a portrait session with the beautiful and talented Nabillah for her The New Paper feature. Her story is a special one, she with many odds against her has actually secured a place at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London!

However, due to the high fees of the school, she has been trying to garner media support in hopes that someway, somehow she’ll be able to get the fundings she needs. During our portrait session, she played for me a piece and the second photograph is her in the middle of that song. She doesn’t just play the piano, she plays the kind of music that touches your soul and make one swell up just at it’s beauty. And I know, that one can be technically perfect but never create that kind of music that carries weight. It was definitely an honour to listen to her song.

Here’s the link to the TNP article where you can read more about her story and if you can help or know someone who can please drop me an email at info@nicolethen.com and i will link you guys up ;) thank you (click)

chiangmai: "the caves"

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:58:50 +0800

old ruins

we travelled in these pickups!

M+W with marcus doing some mid action talk :P haha

walking to the entrance

entrance of the cave…well, you have to climb a bit of course haha

oh hey cave wow wee done.

“i’m batman…” he whispers

more cave

beautiful mountains

saw this little girl walking towards me

and one more when she got closer

after having a scrumptious lunch we headed off to the caves. we were suppose to go there with the children or something…but they were still in school. right at the end when were heading off there was this little girl walking towards me and she was looking at me giving the “what is she doing?” after i snapped a couple of shots, i waved. and she broke into a cute smile and waved back <3

adventure with sis (part two)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:33:02 +0800

following our coffee stop at The Plains, since they closed at 7pm, we headed off in search of food. just randomly, not knowing where we should stop to eat and having no direction in mind, we found ourselves in Chinatown.

“too expensive”

“too crowded”

“hey hawker center, want to go up?”

it turns out that there’s this store on the 2nd floor hawker center that has been open for a really long time. my sister’s friend used to come here with her grandparents when she was little. they serve breakfast food like chee cheong fun, yam cake, fried beehoon and porridge. we were there at night…yes, breakfast food at night…haha and there were people queuing!!! and i think here’s why, with the commercialization of many food joints well…the food’s just food…you know? but when you eat porridge and chee cheong fun from this store, it’s that exact taste of how chee cheong fun was or how porridge tasted when I was young. and it just gives you that comforting feeling of “ya…this is my home (singapore)” and i miss that. haha i know, it sounds a bit corny but with so many coffeeshops closing i’d gladly admit my love and cling on to whatever real singaporean coffeeshops there are.

# which reminds me of my friend/sister’s-boyfriend upcoming exhibition about places in singapore that mean something to you! will share soon :) do share with me places that makes you go “ya…this is my singapore” i would love to visit them too!!

a story to note

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:49:00 +0800

this is a little story of maybellene’s note. on hotel pen and paper, maybellene, huddled in the corner of the room with sebastian, using the bathroom wall as support attempted to pen down the han yu pin yin of her speech translated into chinese. having lived a couple of years in australia, her chinese was a little rusty and they had a good laugh over it. haha

thank you speeches are one of my favourite moments at weddings. you just can’t help but choke up with emotions when they share how much and why they love their family and friends. but the cutest part of this story is that during the outfit change, as maybellene and her little crowd of bridesmaids waited in the room helping her to polish up her speech with the right phrases, maybellene read out the words from her ipad and already started to shed her tears.

haha and of course, when they finally took the stage, there was much tears and much laughter too. a special time when family and friends will love and remember their love for one another as the couple walked off stage, balls of tissues in hand.

# more to come from maybellene and sebastian’s christmas day wedding!

www.nicolethen.com (info@nicolethen.com)

chiangmai: "getting settled"

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:15:26 +0800

flowers on the floor

heading to our rooms

i didn’t know bougainvillea could grow to be trees haha

breakfast area

the view in the morning at the first hotel stop over

ma’ sista

dy chilling

thai food lunch, i have never seen chilli padi that SMALL!!

we moved up the next day off the city of chiangmai into a smaller area called chiangdao. the nature around us was just so amazing and beautiful. couldn’t stop looking at the gorgeous mountains that painted the skies in shawdow-y greys as we drove to our destination.

the weather at chiangdao was lovely too. a little chilly, so i could snuggle up in my winter jacket from time to time :) we had thai food which was super SPICY. tom yam soup usually has slices of chilli padi, this one had chilli padi the size of beans congregating in my tiny little bowl. haha eggs, kang kong, pork slices and stuff, all yummy! but then again, when one travels in a big group and the focus is not exactly a holiday, one just learns to eat whatever is served to you. but it was kind of fun that way too ;)

{nicolethen studio} portrait with lemon

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:29:42 +0800

lemon wanted to mark her 18th birthday with a portrait session! and i think there’s always something so special about pausing in time and remembering who you are at that point in time. we had a lovely time and made a little “picnic” area for her too and she just looks so pretty! hope you have an amazing 18th year lemon <3

these three days are going to be packed!! today i’ve got lots of errands to run, collect my gear for tomorrow and have our weekly meeting. then tomorrow, it’s Cindy & Weeqi’s ROM :D followed by a casual photosession with cindy’s “friends” hahaha how cute! i’m so excited and happy for them!! then saturday morning it’s a family portrait session with Ginny & her family and we’re bringing the “studio” outdoors. got so many ideas :D

finally at the start

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:41:56 +0800

yes! i’ve finally blogged my way through most of 2011 and now i’m at the beginning of the trip to chiangmai. having not flown for a good 7 years, i can’t tell you the EXCITEMENT and sheer joy i had of being able to shop inside the barricade haha

in the end i only bought a copy of British Vogue for my trip there and back but had a great time browsing the cosmetic shops, marc by marc jacobs and just chilling out in there haha

the flight was pretty thrilling, or rather the take off was, haha the amount of faith one needs to have in the unseen air pressure, physics of the plane and know-how of the pilot is crazy! i know why people freak out, i mean that a plane this size can take off and “float” in the sky is just insane!!

we arrived at the hotel pretty late past twelve and i was ready to call it a night. but someone went to get supper and i managed to sneak a piece of chocoate banana prata bite before sleeping ;)

bai nian time

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:03:58 +0800

a whole day of visitation today and tomorrow it’s another early start to get dressed and ready haha. so i’m gonna hit the sack. i’m sleepy…:P here’s some outtakes from the CNY lookbook i did with the lovebonito team ;)

we were battling all sorts of obstacles from the tight time line, lack of time for the shoot itself, rainy weather and setting sun. but we managed to pull through! yay <3 lots of love to the team :D

# models: beatrice, zianna | styling: velda & daphne

happy chinese new year

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:32:06 +0800

taken during the new year when i was in chiangmai using my film camera, i added happy new year texts to my firework pictures but didn’t get a chance to use it because i didn’t get back until a few days after the new year and the film didn’t get developed so soon.

so now’s the perfect chance for me to use it! haha happy chinese new year everyone :)

adventure with sis (part one)

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:40:18 +0800

i love “adventure” nights with my sister. the first one was really fun but i didn’t take much pictures so this time i spammed. yes, it’s a three part adventure too! hee. we started out first at THE PLAIN and were the last customers of the day. i love this place, i wish i’d have the chance to use this place as a studio for a portrait session ;D

i love the coffee and the poached eggs! i LOOOVVVEEE eggs :D hee after coffee we walked around this place that i can’t remember and walked towards chinatown to find dinner (yup coffee first? i know haha cause THE PLAIN closes at 7pm). and at chinatown, that’s part two of our adventure ;)

## ahhh!! just wanted to say thank God :D my laptop a bit something wrong already. has problem reading external hard drives like CDs or thumbdrive stuff. prayed over my laptop (yes, i know it sounds weird lol) and it worked!! phew…not sure what the problem is. hate having to consider buying something new…hope not, fingers crossed.

let your light shine

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:09:00 +0800

sneak peek of portrait session with lemon

when i was in primary and secondary school, i had absolutely no idea what i wanted to do. but i knew one thing for sure, and i told my parents with utmost conviction that,”I never want to be a business man…”

fast forward a decade and i find myself loosely termed as a business person. sure, my job’s not about selling. i just want to create amazing photographs for a living. the creating photographs part is easy…well relatively easier then the “for a living” part.

i hate talking about money. i hate selling things that i won’t buy, so i don’t. but one thing i’ve learnt is that if i want to remain in business and not have to convert my dream back to a hobby is that i have to be honest about pricing. internally i understand why, the training that i do, the skills i’ve acquired, the knowledge and know-how, the experience, the expertise, the ability to bring out the best in someone, to allow everyone to have fun, the workshops i pay to attend, the time i take to prepare for a shoot, the time it takes and the gazillion thoughts running through my mind during a shoot/wedding, the intense problem solving while remaining calm on the surface, the follow up, the long hours of editing, replying emails, operational costs, equipment maintenance, then making sure i enjoy creating, making sure my clients get sufficient attention, making sure i have a life for inspiration, making sure i have time to spend with my family and loved ones. internally i know why i should price things a certain way but i’m scared to share it. i’m nervous that people won’t understand and terribly come to a conclusion that i’m trying to get more then i’m giving.

it’s tough being a photographer and also having to wear the hat of a business person. how can i explain to someone all the many reasons that go into the way i price things without making them feel like they owe me a living? because that’s not what i want at all! i just want to share with them the value of what i provide. haha sometimes it is tough.

but i shall strive through it and struggle to find the right path and way if i have to. because i do believe that somehow what i do can bring joy, hope and love some way some how. and oh how i enjoy seeing that sparkle in someone, drawing out their beauty in our photoshoot and making them see and understand their beauty! because i think in our society where everything has to be perfect and is so narrow in it’s clasification that our true beauty is smothered and cast aside. so i say let your light shine! and when a girl goes away from the shoot affirmed of her beauty, it brings tears to my eyes ;)

tell the ones you love that you do!

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:10:48 +0800

Here at {nicolethen studio}, we love stories. I love LOVE stories!! Whether it’s the sacrificial love a mom has for her child, the special friendship between sisters, the inspired love of your parents or the love between a couple!

One thing I love about photographing weddings is that at weddings, people take the time to explicitly tell their loved ones how much they love them and cherish to them. But why wait for that special date? Do it today :D

I’d like to invite you to take this opportunity to share your love for your loved ones in a story! Choose one of your favorite “Love is…” photographs on our Facebook page, click “share it” and share your own personalized “Love is…” tag line along with the story and the people who inspired your tagline ;) Favourite 3 stories and taglines that are unique and inspiring will receive a $100 voucher to be used at the studio!

Winners will be picked on the 30 January 2012 12pm, so start spreading the love <3 Drop us an email at info@nicolethen.com to find out about our portrait collections.

{nicolethen studio} facebook page

work to play

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:15:59 +0800

from the studio, we dressed up and headed out to have dinner together. it was during the time i was feeling terribly unwell. coughing and a throbbing headache. so uncomfortable that i was talking with a slur and trying to move slowly so that my headache won’t work up which resulted in a slow floating motion haha and thus somehow managing to convince the girls for a while that i got “drunk” from my cider apple drink thingy.

which reminds me of a time in university where i was in a project group with i think 6 guys and me the only girl and after lunch they wanted to head to the school bar for a drink. in the afternoon? haha, they told me it’s the best time. when i was there, i ordered some super low alcoholic drink and they looked at me…looked at my bottle…looked at me…and said “this one i drink in secondary school one.” hahaha

but let’s not side track, i absolutely loved the buffalo chicken wings and the pizza!!

yum yum :D