So to cut to the chase..

For those who are not aware, Dreamworks is a wedding planning/decoration organization which has brought a different perspective and level in Indian wedding industry. Dreamworks means a lot to me …it has been my baby. It was from early days of Dreamworks, that I picked up my first camera and have been shooting eversince. Our objective was to set a trend and I truly believe that Dreamworks has been the pioneer trends setters. We have come a long way and i am proud to say that we have not only planned many weddings but we have touched and dwelled in many lives as they begin a whole new journey of marriagehood..

Now for the shocking News !

Effective from 1st January 2010, we are officially closing down our services!!! This simply means that we will not be taking any future bookings for decoration ! However, for clients who have booked us for the year 2010, please do not despair. We will still be around to complete all the committed functions to the best of our abilities and to the pinnacle of your satisfaction.

This news might be shocking to some, dissapointing to some, while others might be grinning from ear to ear .

Belows are the reasons why I took this drastic decision  

1.      Concentrate on my photography

• Photography is my passion. All this while I was not really concentrating on this since most of my time was taken up by Dreamworks. Now, I can strengthen my skills and knowledge in photography and photography only. 

2.      Travelling

• I love to travel, and I do real life people photography. Am planning to travel as much as possible and start working on my dream project            

3.      Further studies

• Ha ha ha … back to school! Am planning to take up some professional photography course in overseas to polish my skills.

4.      Expand my business in photography 

• Due to heavy demand, I’m adding pre wedding shoot as part of my services ! 

5.      Overseas shoots

• I’ve been rejecting overseas shoot all this while due to my commitment in Dreamworks. With this break up … I’m available world wide ! 

6.      Better service to clients

• Speed up on post production and albums 

7.      Workshop and training   

• Conduct classes for beginners and amateurs 

8.      Spend more time with family and frens 

9.      Healthy life style

• Start going gym and work on my 6 pacs…. He he he

10.  And last not the least…. I’m Fedup …… !!!!

• Been in this wedding decoration industry too long.
• With all the dirty tactics by some… or maybe one or two competitors
• Being within the circle
• Being the victim of bad mouthing and bitching by certain squatters

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my clients, suppliers, co- partners, business associates, print and visual media’s and not forgetting all Dreamworks ex-staff (excluding those who have made my life torcherous – you know who you are! he he he) without you guys we wouldn’t have made it this far ,

Just a note to our fellow “ex competitors”….
I am not selling Dreamworks off. Neither am I going on bankruptcy. Instead I am just ending the services on my own accord in order to pursue and focus on my other aspirations esp in photography. So… Dreamworks is not for sale !!! Please do not use this as a dirty tactic to contra market your own business. I wish you all the best and hope that you could provide clients out there the best service possible. Good luck and Happy New Year.

Signing of,

• Guna 
• Padma Arumugam
• Ghayathri Baskaran
• Shiva
• Netra
• Davendra

( the pillars of Dreamworks)

p/s : Comments and Feedback Are Welcomed and Appreciated

The very first thing that I asked Nisha ,” Are you nervous ? “ 

She stretched her henna decorated hand out to mine and said ,” See how cold my hand is… I am damn nervous Silan…” 

I managed to give her a comforting smile and took up the next 10 minutes as my personal mission to cheer this girl up.. .. while shooting, I cracked a couple of jokes here and there … inducing some laughter .. which produced not only great vignettes of the bride but a much relaxed bride. As I was about to step out the room… she looked at me, smiled..and said ” Thanks Silan.. You made my day..” 

Believe it or not.. the wedding took a clean 20 minutes..yes only 20 minutes..since it was a Malayalee wedding. Everyone knows that Malayalee weddings are one of the quickest occasions known to most.. They probably live up to the famous words of Caesar’s “Veni Vidi Vinci” That’s it. 

I would have to agree that it was not an easy task as I had to be discreet and inobtrusive  , in respect to the two official photographers on the floor. I guess being suave and sleek is not my cup of tea. Nevertheless it was a very exciting and enjoyable frame of time.. 

20 minutes of sheer workout that included running, jumping, crawling, squatting , so on and so forth.. Below, are the results of my fun escapade.. Best part of the whole thing was that 70 percent of the pictures were natural depiction of pictorial essence itself.. and there is no way better to project that than in Black and White!!! There was absolutely no flash involved throughout the shoot. It was all thanks to natural lightings and my favorite lenses non the less  

Enjoy,

RG

It is a great pleasure to extend my warmest greetings to the Hindu community on the occasion of the Festival of Lights.

May this festive season and the year that lies ahead be filled with peace, happiness, joy and prosperity

Cheers! Have a blast!

rgsilan @ papparazzi / dreamworks

(Caution: The following film contains adult elements and partial nudity. Viewer discretion is advised.)

Knowing I have to rush for GREG’S new office launching, where i’m already late… I decided to write later at nite

Went for the launch with my partner Sree. Had a good time at Gregs office meeting some interesting ppl there….  Greg… congrats !

Then we headed straight to Sree’s hse….. had wonderful lunch by Janet…. Nasi Lemak with spicy chicken sambal and the condiments!

Came back home n treated myself with a good movie while my gud fren rushed to airport to fetch our maid back from Indonesia ( Raya holiday)

A mega cooking was going on in my kitchen by Guy3, Padma n Rida. Post Raya celebration for my maid ! menu… Rassam, fish sambal, sambar, ‘karruvadu sambal, pumpkin perratal, ikan bilis sambal, bendi perattal and egg omelette…. huh… too many sambals…. maybe influence  from my earlier post…. ‘cili’ he he he

Had great dinner. Few packs of whiskey ! 

Then i read the the comments by Kev @ kervinchong@yahoo.com

The distinction of a professional photographer and an amateur is very thin lines indeed of separation. It always galls me when a supposed professional (is he accredited? Who is the judge? Is he/she part of reuters/ NG/ magnum or other acclaimed credentials?), if not I don’t think he/ she can claim to be professional. Or is professionalism cheapened by those who can own expensive cameras, print fancy name cards and go about selling themselves to those will pay (more like these people are mercenaries). The gist is that no one deserves to be called amateur more so by so called professionals. I’ve seen people with P&S that takes better photos than most ‘professionals’, the only quality that separates them is that one can afford some big ass camera while the other makes do with his/her skills as best as they can with what is at hand.

I’ve been an ‘amateur’ photographer at chinese weddings, all relatives. They had hired five ‘pro’ photographers to swarm the poor couple to capture every angle and it looked as if the ceremony was not about the couple’s wedding but of people attending to look at photographers taking the couple. So why not dispense with the actual ceremony and hold a mock wedding where every shot is picture perfect? Again back to these pro photographers, at that time we had cousins, uncles and people attending taking point and shoot and other non-pro cameras. I have shots of my 7 year old cousin taking the wedding and you know what? he was the most adorable feature there and it value added not cheapened what the pros were doing! At all time the bunch of pros were courteous and when I approach and even apologised if I was in frame, they told me courtly they did not mind me or my presence and it was part of the ‘actual’ happening for the ceremonies.

So advise to pros, don’t look down on amateurs.
Second, people take the perfect shots during pre wedding photo shoot, the actual ceremony is about atmosphere and celebration with your loved ones and it is the outside photographer that is the intruder not others, so he should make the best use of the situation at hand.
Thirdly, if you cannot handle an actual situation of shooting in real life where things are chaotic and not controlled (crowd control haha first I’ve heard, a chinese wedding would scoff if you suggest such a thing), you don’t deserve to be called a photographer.
Fourth, let say you are in iraq, the war photographer will not ask the soldier to stand while he take a shot of a rebel shooting him, photojournalism is about reacting to your surrounding not making the surrounding react to you. If you can’t handle the heat stay with product and model shoot.
Next, amateur photographers are people, you do them a discervice by saying they ruin your shots and take away your moments. We are smart enough to know when to allow you so called pros to take the shots, and even if I have shots, I’ve always sent the entire collection ‘for free’ to the couple while ‘pros’ get paid to do it, seems like they should be hiring me instead.
Lastly, arrogance from people who think so highly of themselves is unbecoming of a pro, maybe like the studio name, paparazzi is appropriate.
A humble person does not blame his tools of others for their failings. If you can shoot non-indian weddings I’d like to see those photos, then we can be the judge.

Now this is my reply……..

Kev, Thank you for your comments. I personally think you are way out of line here. 

I must agree that it’s not the equipments, it’s the person holding the camera and the skill set that he/she holds. I am hired to shoot weddings and that is the passion and the love I have for my job. I deliver hundreds of amazing shots at very event (including corporate events and yes also non Indian weddings) – Yes I am self boasting here maybe due to all the credit my clients give and praises I usually get from others. And that motivates me more. So does that mean this makes me arrogant??? Also it’s just not a matter of shooting, a professional photographer needs to have knowledge about camera, situations lightings and adaptations at different times. I can bet you my bottom ringgit that most of the wannabes photographers would not have much knowledge on this – You say that some of the amateurs can give better shots in a P&S situation than a professional, well tell me the ratio – they might deliver 10 good shots – I need to deliver the hundreds – so i guess I must be wrong to call myself a photographer, or even a professional! 

I am also amazed that your cousin needed 5 professional photographers to shoot their wedding – wow – the wedding must have been held in a stadiumJ Why would someone need 5 photographers – I don’t think even Datuk Siti Nurhaliza’s wedding had that manyJ. Your cousin must have hired some 3 wannabe photographers and got thrown in 2 for free. I dare you to tell who the 5 professional photographers were! I wanna have a coffee chat with them! Don’t worry since u have outbeat them… u can be included… maybe u can give us some tips… don’t worry…. u don’t have to do it for free … we will pay for it…  

Come on! U want to tembak…. tembak laa…but sebelum luu tembak …..belajar macam mana mau pegang itu senapang :-) 

Comparing Iraq to a wedding is a joke. You can’t control events or happenings at a war zone BUT you have wedding rehearsals and itinerary and plans for a wedding to make the wedding run smoothly so that everything can be achieved. Hmmmm imagine a rehearsal at a war- “AT 12pm Iraq shoulder shoots US soldier” ha ha ha ha. Your comment was hilarious. However I must say the mock wedding would be a good thing for you amateurs for your training ground – if you need help I can always be there to help. Back to weddings and not war –having all this wannabes is part and parcel of events I MUST AGREE but there is a limit to everything and I don’t think all this wannabes are as supportive and amicable like you to the “pros”.  With my blog someone with a mobile phone might think twice before going up to the “mandap / wedding” area to do this – who will this benefit? 

Brader ! ….. don’t give ‘kuku bird’ story. 

Let me educate you on paparazzi – the shots that the paparazzi shoots are one of the most expensive pictures sought after all over the world. So are they bad? The studio names fits us as I must say we do have better and better shots each and every time (oopps …i am sorry as I am ARROGANT!) 

I have not blamed for my failings – I am saying that this has not been our BEST work as we did not have amateur photographers like you there to move away as we ask them politely (YES we are polite – like all other photographers and our bunch are quite a joyful bunch of people!!) Ohhhh – I hope that is not too difficult to digest for you.  

Also, there is a lot of ceremony in Indian and Malay weddings compared to Chinese weddings – I believe that is undoubtedly true. I have done multiracial weddings. Even flew in a 22 hours flight to Boston to shoot a non Indian wedding there! (I was hired by one of the most prominent wedding photographer in the country to shoot along with him as a guest photographer!) 

I must add that I am not condemning amateurs’ photographers – I have a few under my wing who are guided and share all the knowledge I have so that they are able to learn – and all done “for free”. 

Also, here is my number  +6019 289 0860, call me and I will invite you over to my office for a slide show of all the NON INDIAN weddings I have done – Do not forget to bring your own “pop corn”

I would like to finish this post with a PANTUN

Buah cempedak di luar pagar,

Ambil galah tolong jolokkan !

Jangan engkau kurang ajar,

Sudah pasti aku kerjakan!

Hitler menang tubuh Nazi,

Bila kalah tembak kepala sendiri!

Jangan engkau kutuk Papparazzi,

Menyesal kau, aku GERENTI !  

NIAMAH !!!! -  i got permission to use this by Patrick Teoh !

(Patrick Teoh –  September 27 at 10:05pm  – No permission really needed but since you asked…Sure go ahead and link. And thanks)

Cheers,

RG

p/s : COMMENTS BELOW CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE & HILARIOUS QUOTES & PANTUN- READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED

“Let’s end it with this or else the whole family will be down at your office or your blog shooting u down.”

 and also this 

“am sorry i am no one to threaten you for your info… We all know you’re a big gangster also…. We also know who you are (dark marchi)…”

 All i wanna say is … siapa makan cili, dia rasa pedas… if u r from singapore … it will be terlalu pedas!

Pls be informed the reason I edited my earlier post … where i spell the word fu@# – FCUK: French Connection UK is just bcoz there was this person mr/ms/ mrs R who called me being one of the relative of the bride / groom … who totally understand what we went thru…. who were very diplomatic… advised me … corrected me …. even apologized to me when i explained the actual situation on what we went thru…. i edited my earlier post… even i called him /her n thanked for the advice given i told her/he  that”  I will bring this issue in another category under my titbits column… ” he / she said  ”i will be the first person to comment.  thanks mate. I m closing comments in this post”  . Those who wishing to comment… pls go ahead as Iwill put it as pending, and post on my very next topic related to this.  Once i got my related topic up… i will shift all the critics there, as I wanted this post for my clients well wisher to post their wishes

regards,

rgsilan

 Valghe Valamudan !