Career: More than just a photograph

Two engineers turned photographers tell Siti Syameen Md Khalili more about creative shots with the help of innovative digital services

WHEN Christopher Choong and Jonathan Siau first met at a photography workshop in Penang, the duo never expected that years later they would one day turn their passion into a full-fledged business. As fate would have it, the partners founded Jac Photography.

Together with four other photographers and a graphics editor, they offer their services in Penang.

“Christopher and I are engineers by training, but we never held jobs as engineers. I had a marketing job while Chris was in business development. That should have been our first clue,” says Siau, 37, who takes care of Jac Photography (branch) in Kuala Lumpur.

HOW IT STARTED

The decision to start Jac Photography was not done overnight. “It started with shooting one friend’s wedding, then another and so on. Then more people approached us and that’s when we decided to make it a full-fledged business,” says Siau.

That was in 2004. Today the company offers photo-taking and archiving services to document events, family portraits, and even pregnancy.

“These days everyone calls me or Jon ‘Jac’, which actually stands for Jonathan And Christopher, but we don’t mind as customers now associate the name with our photography service,” says Choong, 38, who runs the business in Penang.

UNIQUE SERVICES

The company covers corporate events, portraits, product and concert photography. Its unique style of photography is evident in its sample shots of weddings, birthdays, kids, babies, maternity and family portraits, at www.jacphoto2u.com

Many of the shots seem candid and this is exactly what it aims to deliver. “When it comes to weddings, events, family and portraits, we love taking candid shots. We take into consideration the environment, the goings-on and capture people in their most natural behaviour,” says Siau.

Other than photographing newborns, young couples today are also eager to document the pregnancy period. “I’ve even been part of a photoshoot where the expectant couple went underwater for the pictures to be taken. We got really good shots,” says Choong.

Wedding photography, Choong says, has taken him to places such as Bali and Melbourne as engaged couples nowadays prefer pre-wedding shots in foreign cities. “They like to have photography done in far away locations, and our photographers go with them,” he says.

LIVE EXPERIENCE

Recently, Jac Photography started its Red Carpet View service which, Choong says, adds glamour and prestige to an event as well as offer tools for quick photo viewing and sharing with participants.

“It involves taking photographs of guests or family members posing before the main event starts. The photos are then transferred immediately via WiFi to our on-location photo editor who will do basic editing for contrast and brightness using Photo Editor on a laptop. The edited photos will be loaded onto our company’s SkyDrive account and company Facebook. Then we have someone at the event going around with a Surface tablet to show guests their photos. All this takes just minutes and guests can even tag their pictures on our Facebook page. Before this, weddings guests often don’t get to view the photos taken. The Red Carpet View service can change this,” says Choong.

“We started this service when we discovered how easy it is to quickly share shots with our clients. I first bought a Surface RT tablet at a Harvey Norman outlet and tried it out. It worked better than expected, so we bought a few more and started the service.”

It also involves playing the edited photos on a projector as a slideshow. “Apart from using the Surface tablet to playback the photos to show guests, they can also view the photos on the projector. So far we’ve had tremendous response and it is generates additional revenue for us,” says Choong.

BUDGET OPTION

Jac Photography also caters to clients with a limited budget with its Photome.my package.

“It’s essentially still our brand, quality and style of photography but customers can drop what they don’t need, such as printed copies or stylish photo albums. They can select their photos later for developing into hard copies,” says Choong.

Photome.my’s starter package offers photography service. “We will package all the files in a CD or upload them onto Dropbox or Google Drive. Though it is basic, rest assured that we will maintain our style and quality. Other services such as extended hours, additional photographers, album design and poster printing, can be purchased additionally,” says Choong, who takes inspiration from AirAsia’s business model.

Always on the lookout for more efficient solutions, he and Siau are currently looking into the possibility of upgrading the Windows 8 laptops to Surface Pro tablets for photo editing and uploading. “We are very happy with the latter but I believe we can further outdo our competitors. We are also keeping a close eye on the coming Surface 2 tablets. We can’t wait,” says Choong.

“At the end of the day, customers just want a job well done, and this we can do with the right technologies, hardware and software.”

The photographers love candid shots.

Siau (seated, second from left) and Choong (standing second from left) with the Jac Photography team.

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