Takeshi & I are different. He's taller, I think.

When it comes to wedding photography, it's a challenge to balance what's tried and tested and works with something original, unique and tentative.

Sometimes, clients come to me because they like certain shots that I've done.....like you go to Katong to eat the laksa but not really the otah that comes along with it.

However, it'll become mechanical once I settle into the comfortable routine of nailing the few "signature" shots (if any, ha ha!) and console myself that I've done a good job. My wife is my worst critic...I say worst because she knows nuts about "creativity" or "definitive moments" (she'll say 'I know how a nice picture looks like, ok?'). Nonetheless she's a critic and there is nothing that irks and/or humbles me more when she takes a look at the pictures and say:"Hmmm...those look fam-mee-liar!"

It means I've replicated a shot that has worked before, and in doing so, hope that it'll work again.

The picture may or may not have appealed to clients, but the message is loud and clear: Be original! You don't sell char kway teow! You don't have to fry 300 plates with the same taste! But that's how business works! Takeshi Kunishiro sells because of his brooding/frowning/tragic characters in almost all his movies; I look for laughters when I watch Stephen Chow; and do not swap adrenaline rush with soapy love stories when I am game for Jackie Chan.

Every success comes with a consistent, replicated formula!I think it's alright if my plate of char kway teow tastes the same as yours, since it's fried by the same boss. But imagine if Jennifer and Karen sit side by side and browse their respective wedding photographs shot by the same person and they look like carbon copies of each other's?

Should wedding photographer follow that same route? After some time, the answer should be obvious. Just see if the pictures look "fam-mee-liar" or not.