A couple of weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to shoot alongside Ray Soemarsono from Apertura. Y’know, those couple Indonesian guys who are right now acclaimed wedding photographers in the US. Erwin and Ray are a couple of, if not, the best wedding photographers you can find. You can read the long story of how I met them for the first time here.

I adore these guys from afar, being they are so true to their photojournalism style as is mine. You can say I adore their work. When they held their first Asian workshop in Singapore last year, I was there, taking notes and soaking it all in. When they continued their way to Indonesia, we hang quite a few times, changing stories and experiences on how it’s like being in a same profession but seas apart. I wondered how would it be like to shoot with them on a wedding.

Then out of nowhere there’s this couple who wanted to book the both of us for their wedding. ESP shoot alongside Apertura. Hahaha… Crazy ain’t it? That was like six months ago (or more, I couldn’t remember), and upon hearing the news I jumped around for joy. Not too many times you could shoot alongside your hero 🙂

And as a bonus, Erwin Wijanto, (not Erwin Darmali of Apertura) who is also an established photographer in the US, was coming as Ray’s second shooter. Not only one, I get two! 🙂 I’ve known Erwin also for quite some time, and he’s got some pretty dang amazing work too.

As the wedding day unfolded, it kept getting clearer and clearer: THIS IS FUN! 🙂 There’s no elbowing whatsoever (hehe), what we had is a mutual respect to each other, minding where we stand so we don’t get in the frame and stuff. And we supported each other a lot. We learned a lot. Since this was Ray’s first, for the whole day I was like a talking wikipedia of Indonesian wedding. “Why did they do that?” “What does it mean?” “Are there more of those?” Questions like that, hahaha… Handry and Lisa were also shooting alongside with me, and all the five of us had some very good times.

I learned so much watching Ray’s work. I found it fascinating that a pair of fresh eyes can give so much new point of view. Awesome. That’s why in a couple of years back, I travel a lot. To give me these new views 🙂

All in all, it was a fun and educational day for all three of us. Learned a lot watching Ray and of course, Erwin with all his gizmos 😀 At the end of the day, Ray said, “You’re gonna love American weddings. If we can match the time of your visit with my shooting schedule, it would be fun.”

You bet, Ray 🙂 We shall be doing this again. Thank you Theddy and Idya for allowing me the opportunity.