Are you getting married soon without a photography budget? Going for a pre-wedding trip (or even your honeymoon) with the intention of taking some nice shots? Pre-wedding photos are a must for anyone getting married, but do you absolutely need to spend a bomb on professional photography?
After I arrived in Singapore not long ago, I could finally marry my Singaporean fiancée and end a 7-year long-distance relationship. My wife and I decided to take a different approach to our wedding photography – the independent approach. Coming from France, living in Singapore does feel like endless travel to me. Singapore has for sure lots of exotic-looking places to exploit and it was a lot of fun to do location scouting, photoshoot planning, and taking the shots.
The setup was very simple: my DSLR camera on lightweight tripod, and using the 10-second timer built in my camera. So I would get my wife to position herself at the specific spot where we want to take the pic so I can frame the photo as desired, then press the shutter-release button, giving me 10 seconds to join her and pose for the photo. As simple as that.
The idea was to take pictures around various locations in Singapore, to show a variety of places across the island. The series of pictures you can see on this page were taken in two days, with no other budget than public transport.
On the first day, we started in Pasir Ris Park, then pushed to Changi Airport, and then traveled to the pretty Peranakan houses. From there we reached Chinatown and ended the day at Marina Bay. On the second day, we started with Gardens by the Bay, then traveled north to the Botanic Gardens, and finished with MacRitchie Reservoir before it got dark. The Fort Canning Pictures were shot on the day of the wedding, as it is next to the Registry of Marriages of Singapore.
We had considered various other locations such as the Henderson Waves, Sungei Buloh mangroves, the beautiful mosque in Kampong Glam… but well, we had to make choices.
Anyway, enough talking, just scroll down for the pictures!
Fort Canning Park
Pasir Ris Park
Pasir Ris Park (1°22’46.4″N 103°57’02.1″E)
Chinatown
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (1°16’53.0″N 103°50’40.8″E)
MacRitchie Reservoir
Jewel Changi Airport
Peranakan Houses
Botanic Gardens
National Orchid Garden (1°18’43.0″N 103°48’52.4″E)
Gardens by the Bay
Silver Garden, SuperTrees (1°17’03.6″N 103°51’49.3″E)
Future Of Us Exhibition Pavilion (1°16’52.2″N 103°51’40.3″E)
Marina Bay
As you can see, if you are on a budget or don’t want to spend too much on wedding photography, it is possible to take nice pics all by yourself, with limited gear, and in a reasonably short amount of time. We did this over two Saturdays.
And I’m thinking, even if the result can’t always compare with what a professional wedding photographer would provide, at least we can feel proud to say we did this on our own and it will remain a fun memory to hop from place to place, at our pace, trying to get some cool shots.
What do you think?
