Sunday, June 15, 2008

Are your wedding photos worth the spending?

Most of us paid at least a few thousands ringgit to the bridal shop for the photo album and a few framed enlarged photos to be put in our bedroom. Usually this is also the key area whereby the pre-negotiated price of the bridal service package gone up in the later stage. Some of my friends even have the price double up due to additional photos to include in the album after the commonly used "once in a lifetime" pursuasion dose was induced during the photo selection session.

I find that for most people (including me), those photos taken indoor at the bridal shop's studio as well as outdoor at some common wedding scenic places and compiled into a big nice album, will eventually be sitting quietly in the cupboard or store room since a few months after the wedding event. Now the question: is the few thousands spending on those photos really worthwhile?

In my humble opinion, real life photos of the actual event days (which are also "once in a lifetime") are always more valuable and memorable than the acting photos taken to produce the wedding album. It is wise to use the same budget or allocate more budget to emphasize more on the photo shoting during the actual event days, such as the engagement day, signing ceremony of marriage certificates (yes it is plural, because you need to sign at least 2 copies. I signed 4 copies - 2 original certs and 2 international transcripts), and the actual wedding day.

It is always a good idea to hire an experienced professional wedding photographer and/or videographer to take photo/video during those important days. The photographer should know well the procedures, always standby in good position to take the most natural shots of memorable moments. Those moments are really "once in a lifetime", and if you missed to capture it into picture or video at the moment, any retake won't be meaningful to you. The photographer should produce albums similar to the one done by the bridal shop as well, and give you all the films or JPEG images (for digital photos) together with the albums as the deliverables.

In fact, I find that studio bridal photography is not really "once in a lifetime". Some people who doesn't satisfy with the work at one bridal shop will just go and retake the photography at another shop. Even after the wedding, you can also always go to the bridal shop with your spouse and take the bridal photography if you want.

Therefore, you should put more emphasis, and budget more, for the photo shooting during the actual event days which are "once in a lifetime" and really happening (not acting), rather than the studio bridal photography. Then you'll feel the spending is worthwhile.

Friday, June 13, 2008

"Getting Behind The Figures" investment workshop by MSWG

The Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG) will be organising a Workshop on "Getting Behind The Figures". This workshop will enable the retail investors to acquire a thorough knowledge and skills in analysing and interpreting the Annual Reports and Financial Statements of listed companies.

The details of this workshop are as follow:

Date: 30 June 2008 (Monday)
Venue: Conference Room
BURSA MALAYSIA BERHAD
Ground Floor, Exchange Square
Bukit Kewangan, Kuala Lumpur
Fee:

RM120 (Normal)
RM84 (30% Discount for MSWG Subscribers)



If you are interested to attend this workshop, please call to 603–20709090, contact persons are Ms Sharina, Ms Rohana or Ms Faiezah.

Yahoo! to display Google ads in their search results

Yahoo! has just signed a non-exclusive pact with Google, which will enable them to run Google text-based ads alongside search results on some of Yahoo's Web properties in the North America region.

This
strategy is similar to that of IAC/InterActiveCorp's (IACI) Ask.com search site, which sells its own ads and displays ads from Google. It was said that the two companies has in fact run a limited test in April, in which Google placed ads alongside to about 3% of Yahoo! search result pages in the US region.

This deal is expected to boost their revenue by as much as $800 million a year and generates an estimated $250-450 million in incremental operating cash flow for them.


Google is seen to get the dual benefit of gaining a major publisher in Yahoo! and keeping them out of the hands of Microsoft, which previously offered to acquire Yahoo! for some $44.6 billion. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has previously stated that they would not be interested in pursuing Yahoo! if Yahoo! decided to partner with Google.

Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.