Fraser Motorcycles' Ducati Launch Party in Perth

Fraser Motorcycles is one of the biggest motorcycle retail chain in Australia. They carry some of the biggest motorcycle brands like BMW, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Yamaha and Buell.

Last week, Frasers held a party at the Llama Bar in Subiaco, Perth for the official launch of the Ducati StreetFighter bikes in Perth.

I was hired as the official event photographer by Frasers. Taking along my trusty second shooter friend, Charlene, I also invited another bike-crazy photographer friend, Geoff, to assist me and join us for the shoot.

Here are some of the photos we took at that party:

The excellent Fraser Motorcycles staff


The bike still under the cover
(Photographer: Geoff)


Ian Blackley from the local radio station Mix 94.5 was the MC for the night




(Photographer: Geoff)




(Photographer: Charlene)




..and obviously the media and the press were there too for the event

Here are some of the static display of the a red Ducati and a white one




(Photographer: Geoff)






(Photographer: Charlene)

For all the Perth Ducati bike lovers, you can visit Fraser's Ducati website here.

Lamentation of a A NAS sufferer

Once again, this poem never stopped me from smiling, or should I say, very lamenting.

The NAS Sufferer's Tragic Lament

Oh, how I wish I’d never gone Into a shop that stocked Nikon. I could have simply walked on past The shiny bodies and the glass. I should have spent my cash on booze Or bought my wife some fancy shoes, Or gone to any other store Instead of walking through that door. And even once I’d gone inside My fate remained mine to decide. I could have chosen something cute – Perhaps a Canon point-and-shoot? But, like a moth towards a flame I walked straight past the other names. The Nikon salesman looked at me And rubbed his hands with overt glee. “A camera, sir? You bet your ---!” And that was how it came to pass That in a minute, maybe less, I owned a new D70s. I captured everything that moved, I exponentially improved. My work would hang in the Smithsonian! But then I stumbled on Nikonians… And suddenly I knew the truth, Was faced with concrete, graphic proof. My pictures sucked! My gear was tragic! I had no talent, much less magic.

And so I read and read some more And soon became a crashing bore -- An uninvited tip dispenser On depth of field and full-frame sensors. But, to my shame, my main reaction Was chronic gear dissatisfaction. Woe is me, alack, alas – I had a fatal case of NAS! I had to have the very best There was no way I’d accept less And so I spent and spent some more On lenses, bodies, gear galore. It had to end, that crazy spree, And did when my bank called on me. The heartless swine, I'm sure he laughed As he shut down my overdraft. My credit cards went in the garbage They threatened to foreclose my mortgage My B&H account went too, Along with my (now) ex-wife Sue. So let my tale serve as a caution To stay away from Ebay auctions. Don’t rush out and buy the new Just because you’re NAS-struck too. And what of me, your tragic scribe? How have I managed to survive? I’m well, no really, it’s true, I’m free! But I REALLY want that new D3…

Source: Unknown... would love to discover who the original author was.

Taking Pictures of Children

Children make great subjects to a portrait photographer like myself. Children are often fun to photograph as they have myriad expressions, emotions and energy. They have the ability to live in the moment, to laugh and to play. However, on the flip side, they do sometimes have short attention spans and can be uncooperative and cranky. It is thus important to understand how to work with them, coax, tease and even engage in some sort of play (eg. "peek-a-poo" or "hide and seek") with them to help facilitate a relaxing environment in order for them to let go and express their natural selves. The photographer will then be able to make most of the capturing of those unexpected fleeting moments and priceless memories that the children so often bring.

Here are some of the images of children I have recently captured. Most of these photos were captured at events like weddings and family picnics.

They don't build cars like this - no more

On the way home from work last Friday, while driving on the road, half day-dreaming about what I should shoot for a photography assignment based on the Nostalgia theme, I came pass this really cool looking 1950s/1960s car. That was it. The car would be my main subject. I promptly parked my car along the roadside, jumped across the road with my camera strapped around my neck. Apparently, this car was some sort of a chartered vehicle. Sat inside this convertible were 4 or 5 young ladies, whom I believe were on their way to their prom night. One of girl's father was taking a video of the girls in this "vintage" car, and the driver was patiently waiting at the side of the road.

Sensing I wouldn't have much opportunity to take too many shots, I asked the driver for the permission to take photos of the car and quickly snapped a couple. Satisfied I had half a dozen shots of the car from various angles, I reluctantly saw the car departed.

Here are some of the shots. Hmm... a car with back fins (or sometimes also being called "wings") indeed looks cool, not only in the late 50s or early 60s, but even now. I could daydream and let my imagination run while about Elvis driving in one of these, with one of his hand stretching across the front seat caressing the young Priscilla Presley, while Priscilla busy trying to keep her beehive hairdo intact from the blasting breeze! Ha ha..

Leighton Beach discovery

I was photowalking with a few friends on Friday when I saw this:



Some poor kid must have lost one of his "Ants Attack!" Crocs sandal. This photo was taken at somewhere between Leighton Beach and Port Beach, East Fremantle, Western Australia.

Photowalking in Dullsville

Well, it turned out that there are so much more about "Dullsville" that I have never known. I've lived in this beautiful city for some 20 years now and I often discovered "new places" that fascinate me.

This is an interesting month for me "photographically" speaking. 2 photowalks in 2 weeks. This is definitely the first time where I have done photowalking on consecutive weeks.

On the 15th Feb this month, a bunch of us went to the "historical" suburb of Guildford. Guildford is the only town in the Perth metropolitan area classified by the National Trust of Australia. Close to the Swan River and just 25 minutes drive east of Perth, Guildford is the gateway to the Swan Valley's new food and wine trail.

Here is an interesting read about Guildford from http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/WAGuildford.shtml:

"Given that it is now part of Greater Perth it is hard to imagine that its origins lie in Captain Stirling's determination to establish three settlements in the Swan River area - a port at Fremantle, an administrative centre at Perth, and a rural centre at Guildford. Thus the market town and inland port of Guildford is as old as Perth and Fremantle. There is even some evidence to support the idea that Guildford would have been Stirling's first choice for a settlement and certainly, when the Government established the first schools in the area in 1834 they appointed three teachers - one for Fremantle, one for Guildford and one for Perth."

No wonder so many historical buildings are being preserved in Guildford.

Here are some of the photos I took at the photowalking session:

Perth Skyshow 2008

The Skyworks is a fireworks show that is held over the Swan River in Perth city in Western Australia. It is held every Australia Day on the 26th of January. This year, I went to the Jeff Joseph Reserve with my family and shot some photos of the skyshow from there.

It had been quite an experience shooting the skyshow. It was difficult enough trying to setup my camera in the dark, and having to frame my shot at the start of the firework and in the process got some people annoyed apparently because I was blocking their view. It was good thing that I got it done relatively quickly was able to shoot most of the time using a remote shutter release button.

I shot approximately 40 over shots and here are some of the pictures I took:

Project Dullsville Update - East Perth Powerstation

I went to the old East Perth Power Station to take some photos with a group of photography friends from Flickr. The photowalking was great. The weather was a little warmer than I would have liked but nevertheless, the exploring and the adventure of getting into the power station compound made up for any discomfort. It was an interesting photowalk.

Here's a bit of the history of the power station:
"The East Perth Power Station consists of two buildings containing three power stations each of which retain their equipment and fittings. The buildings themselves are large, economical and stylistically of their time, the second building still embellished with its ‘art deco’ stylistic features. The three power stations, ‘A’ ‘B’ and then ‘C’ stations, were established over a 40 year period from World War One to the mid 1950s so they represent an extraordinarily complete sequence of technological development and provide the opportunity to tell the story of the provision of power to Perth through most of the 20th century. This remarkable heritage will be severely compromised unless arrangements are made for adaptive re-use of the complex that requires the retention and conservation of the machinery and associated fittings within the building. The power station complex represents the pioneering phase of the Western Australian electicity system, and dates from the era when the industry world-wide was in a formative stage. It has historic value for its role in the development of WA and the metropolitan area in particular, for its influence on the standard of living enjoyed by the community throughout the greater part of this centry as the only public power station supplying the metropolitan area from1916-1951, its role as part of the interconnected south-west electricity system. Vacant since 1981, current proposals would ‘gut’ the main power station building, removing plant and equipment, thereby reducing the heritage significance of the plant, and destroying the opportunity to interpret the whole site. Despite the expenditure of over $ 500,000, there has been an alarming lack of public consultation by the East Perth Redevelopment Authority and the site remains unoccupied, its fabric and contents deteriorating, and its future uncertain. The delay by the government in developing solutions for this significant place is inexcusable and has led to its continued decay through exposure to the elements and to vandalism."
Ref: heritage WA, East Perth Powerstation.

Free images?

Two days ago, I received a message in Flickr from someone who requested to use my image for free. He would like to use it for his website and unfortunately he "does not have any money to spend on it". Well, my standard response to him was that he is free to use my image from my Flickr stream as long as he links the image back to my flickr page and credits me for the shot. Very typical and standard stuff. I thought he would be happy with that.

Today he responded to my email by asking for a higher res (I had the photo scaled down to 800x600) and he wanted a 800x250 banner crop to go into a small slide show. He continued to explain that he was not trying to freeload but he had no money to spend on the image.

Now this really strikes me. There have been many requests asking to me for permission to use my images from my photostream for free. On one hand, I am happy that some people like my photos to want to use them, and yet, I am uncertain if I should be more apprehensive than happy.

First of all, I would love to recover some cost that I've put into my equipment. Photography is not a cheap hobby. It is always nice if I can derive some passive income to cover even a small portion of my cost. Secondly, we have to take the photography community into account. With the advancement of digital cameras, photography has become a fairly affordable hobby and for some people and start up career for others. There are many people who rely on the income generated from photography. Hobbyists, therefore, must share the responsibility maintaining the photography "market". Giving away high quality images to someone for free is just about destroying the income professional photographers dearly depend on.

As a freelance photographer who has the aspiration of one day setting up a photography business, I do understand how money can also be a tight issue and careful budgeting is a constant struggle for start up businesses. I can also understand hobbyist website designers building their own website requiring high res images can often contribute to this situation whereby they would ask hobbyist photographers for free images and in return offer to give the photographers credits.

Well, this is sure a dilemma for me. I am struggling to come to a stand on this issue. I appreciate all comments and suggestions. Let me know what you think.

Should we always follow the "Rules of Thirds"?

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting. Its application is also essential to the field of design. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.
-- from Wikipedia.

It is often suggested that the rule ensures that better photographic composition can be achieved if followed. True, I am not going to dispute this at all. However, after shooting thousands of shots of people while applying this rule, I find that my photos are starting to look very similar. I can't really fault anything with this rules except that sticking with this rule rigidly mean that we might end up with shots that are technically correct but not necessary that interesting.

Of course, often people would suggest that breaking this rule is ok. For me, I think that sometimes rules are meant to be broken, but it is necessary to grasp the understanding of the rules before one should venture to break them. As for the Rules of Thirds, yes, they help photographers in capturing balanced, easy-on-the-eye pictures, but they often lead to uninterested, and often identical images.

Fundamentally, I think certain things should almost always remain at the thirds, however, some things should never ever need to be at the thirds. Then again, photography is form of art and all arts are subjective isn't it?

A year of blogging and photography

How time flies. It has been slightly over a year since I decided to blog and to start posting some of my photography works here. It had been an interesting ride I should say.

Looking back, I am glad that I have kept up with my photography. A friend once thought that photography would just be a hobby that would last for, but just a short while. To him, photography was a fad or the latest "toy". Incredibly, not only have I pursued my interest in photography (especially in landscape photography), I am starting to evolve what was originally a hobby into a part time work.

In 2007, I have shot 4 weddings, 2 fashion shows, a couple of portraits for couples, etc. Wow, I've never thought I would be so "into" this. Admittably, I have always had interests in photography, but I wouldn't think about it everyday. I would only really get into the "zone" whenever I travelled overseas or having holidays. However, I am finding myself that there isn't one single day that I would not think about photography or related subjects such as image post processing or about the photography gears.

Hmm, talking about being passionate about something that nearly borderlines obsession. Yea, photography may become an obsession for me if I am not careful.

Project Dullsville

Perth has been labeled by some local and inter states journalists as dull or boring. After having stayed here for 18 years and being a migrant from the ever busy city state of Singapore, I have to disagree with these kind of labellings. Perth may not have huge number of spots for night lives, but it sure has its share of interesting events and entertainments both in the inner city and in popular hang out areas like Northbridge and Fremantle.

In view of supporting the promoting of Perth city, I have decided to do a project on capturing images of the Perth city and the metropolitan area. I hope to showcase a little bit more of Perth through photography. I've named this personal quest as "Project Dullsville". I welcome anyone who is interested in joining me in show casing our great and most livable city we call home.

I will start the project by showing some famous Perth landmarks and will move on to showcasing events that happen in the Perth area and people in the city.

Matilda Bay Boatshed:



Matilda Bay Boatshed at dusk:


Closeup of the Boatshed's door sign:

Fourth Wedding shoot for the year

Just came back from a wedding shoot and thought I'll quickly drop a few lines about my experience today.

I believe this will be my last wedding for the year (well, we are already in December and I don't have any more appointments or engagements for the rest of the year). It had been very much a high tempo shoot, a tiring but ultimately enjoyable shoot. My arms and my back ache like crazy right now. This came from shooting with 2 bodies (my trusty Nikon D200 with a 70-200 mm lens and a borrowed D70s with my lovely 17-55mm lens). Carrying both cameras for a few hours was indeed an interesting experience. For the first time, I had the set up I have always wanted for doing wedding shoots. No only I found that I had the range I needed, I had an absolute great fun in trying out different things because of the range in comparison to my previous wedding shoots.

Ah, there was one repeated mistake that I have made again. I have never used a D70S before, and trying to figure out how to set certain functions of a rather "strange" camera on the day of an actual shoot was a big big big mistake. Not only I had to constantly "guess" how to change the functions of the camera quickly during the shoot, I wasn't quite sure how to use a less sophisticated camera then my very own even though both cameras are from Nikon and supposedly to be similar. Well, you see, on a D200, I had the luxury of the 11 points focusing feature. Whereas on a D70s, there are only 3 I think. I wasn't game enough to try and shift the focus point. I had it left dead centre and it dramatically slowed down the speed in which I was able to get a focus lock quickly compared to my D200.

I did, however, learn from many of my other past mistakes from my previous wedding shoots. I felt that this was my best shoot for this year. Well, I can only hope I will keep improving.

A few more tips before I end this post:

1. It is so important to have a second body. There is absolutely no time for lens swapping during high tempo event photo shoots,


2. Remember to have sufficient memory cards and batteries,


3. one last thing.... remember to bring some water. Shooting a wedding is like doing a low impact exercise. The water you bring with you will come very handy

[edited: I've corrected my very bad grammar - caused by fatigue... or whatever bad excuses I can come up with... note to self.... I must proof read my own writings before I post anything up in the future.]

"Sales Notification from RedBubble"

When I opened my inbox today, the above subject quickly caught my attention. Great, great, I made my second ever sales today. Oh, I meant, I sold another of my photograph from the RedBubble website today. The feeling was initial one of extreme excitement. After all, I have been disappointed for a while now that I haven't been making any sales since the first one 3 months ago.



I felt like a teenager who has just received his first pay check from a summer holiday job. Of course, the real difference is, I am a grown up, trying to make some "passive income" from my photography hobby.

My feeling quickly sunk when I read the details of the email. This time round, all I will receive in monetary term is barely enough for me to go get a MacDonald Big Mac Value meal. Well, something is better than nothing right? A big mac, fries and a coke is better than pimping for attention in some photo sharing sites like Flickr and Zooomr right?

I certainly hope that this is the start of a "successful" part time career for me. I really hope to kick start my career as a photographer. In the meantime, you can always support me by buying some of my photos :)

All my photos are for sales. My RedBubble website is:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/autumnleaf

Hobby, Passion and Obsession

What can start up as a hobby, can quickly turn into a passion, and passion into obsession (or a career). I am talking about my hobby in photography. I am finding myself eat, sleep, daydream, and breath photography these days. Photography has grown from a "healthy" hobby to a really unhealthy one - literally.... I am obsessed with it. There is no one day that will go by without me thinking if I can just look at some photos, or go out and shoot some. I am sleeping less, all because I stay up late at night till wee hours in the morning to surf the internet browsing photos in Flickr or Zooomr, or reading some photography related blogs.



I think that photography is like a deadly virus. Once it gets into your blood, it controls you, your life and your soul. There is always the best photo out there to capture, there will never be enough shots good enough to satisfy our hunger for more images and thirst for seeing the world with new perspectives. Some may even say, photography is like making love. You just want more of it. You will never get tired of having just one more.

So, I am now going to get just one more, just one more best photo ever from me tonight.

"How to Keep Your Job and Be a Part Time Photographer"

I just came across this blog post by alex. Hmmm, the title caught my attention immediately. What is so interesting is that I found this on Digg... which means that a lot of people have read this and voted this post on Digg.

It seems like the advancement and the affordability of digital cameras (especially SLRs) have helped cause a world wide phenomenal... an sudden huge increase in people taking up photography as a hobby or even doing it professionally.

Photography used to be an expensive hobbies. Only the rich and the determined shutter bugs would bravely take up this expensive hobbies. Since the evolution of the digital age, photography has been made relatively affordable to the mass population. The technology has also starting to come about, giving relatively newbies or noobs the ability to create impressive images.

I for one, have jumped unto the bandwagon and took up digital photography about 2 years ago. Now I am at a stage where I think I would love to do some freelance work in the area of Wedding photography. There is something about wedding photography that I have always loved. Perhaps it is about capturing the magic moments, the laughters, the emotion, the tears and smiles are just so captivating. Or, perhaps I simply like looking at beautiful people and beautiful things :)

Well, the post has just re-enforced my beliefs that it is possible to be a part time photographer. After all, my passion for photography has only just begin and it is slowly growing hotter and more passionate by the moment.

Has been quite a while since...

I last wrote on my blog. Wow, nearly 2 months of inactivity. Ok, a quick summary of the major happenings since my last post:

1. went to Sydney and Port Macquarie with my family in October for approximately 2 weeks. Had a great time there. Hope to post some photos here soon,

2. my Good 'o FujiFilm S9500 camera's command dial broke while I was shooting in Sydney. Apparently, this is common fault in this camera model but FujiFilm Australia said otherwise. More soapbox stuff on this topic later.

3. I got another gig to shoot a wedding. This time as an assisting photographer again. I am happy to get this wedding shoot. I love being a wedding photographer. I love shooting beautiful people and beautiful things. I do hope I get more gigs in the very near future as both Simoom and I are really interested in doing weddings.

Well, there you go... the major highlights of my life in the last two months :)

My FujiFim S9500 - One year on

It has just been slightly over a year since I bought my prosumer FujiFilm S9500 camera.

One year on, I wonder how much I have improved as a photographer.

I bought my FujiFilm S9500 when I needed something more than a compact digital. I was getting really into digital photography. Work colleague of mine had Canon Digital SLR camera like 350D and 20D. I figured that I didn't know enough about photography to justify spending a few thousand Aussie dollars. I chose a AUD $800 prosumer instead. A pretty decent one I thought at that time. It would last me 2 years before I make the move to the DSLR world.

Now, one year on from my 2 years plan, where am I now? Have I achieved much in my photography skills? Am I ready for the big jump to DSLR world?

In this 1 year that I have my Fuji prosumer, I have shot nearly 5000 shots with this camera. This is by no mean plenty, but nevertheless, it is not too shabby too. I have even shot a wedding with this camera. I have grown to love this camera. Fuji does well with its CCD sensor technology. The photos captured and produced by this camera are usually rich in colours and eyes catching. The camera comes with a 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens. It is none detachable, unlike an DSLR, and so I do not have to worry about dust getting unto the CCD sensor nor the lens itself. The camera built like a small DSLR and has all the manual controls. It is almost the perfect camera for an amateur photographer like me.

This camera has all the features I need - almost. Admittedly it has flaws as well. It is not so great at low light situation. Its auto-focus is not fast whilst long exposure shots usually ended up with lots of "hot" pixels. I've learnt to lived with its shortcomings, I've grown to look past its deficiencies, or have I really?

After my first wedding shoot, I figured I needed someone more, something that will help me capture the shots I have missed during my first wedding shoot to redeem myself from all the mistakes I made with my Fuji. I started coveting for a DSLR. This happened some 2 months ago. Finally, another wedding gig, I decided it was time to "abandon" my Fuji and get something more "professional" if I want to take my photography further. I had a choice to make, sticking with my Fuji "aint goin' to cut it"!

I bought my new love, a Nikon DSLR. Nothing too fancy, just something that will get me through the weddings. No more missed shots or so I thought. I was delighted having a spanking new camera, a DSLR. No longer am I an amateur no more. I was going somewhere with my photography...!

However, just 2 weeks ago when I was packing for a business trip across the country, I wanted to bring my spanking Nikon DSLR camera along with me. Alas, the camera is way too big to fit into my travel hand luggage. The slug that huge camera bag of mine through all the airport security and the possibility of sticking the bag in the cramp aircraft overhead luggage compartment didn't appeal too much to me.

My faithful Fuji S9500 came to my rescue. "Take me, take me instead!" it screamed. It was too deafening to ignore. I took my S9500, and I'm glad I did. Neatly packed into the camera bag, the entire bag went into my haversack no problem. Travelling with my Fuji was such an ease. I was glad I took it with me. My trusty FujiFilm, I found my love for you again.

............... **** ...............

Shots I took in 1 year ago (August 2006):





Shots I took 2 weeks ago (August 2007):

Photoshop Extreme Makeover

Thinking of how we can make someone a glamorous supermodel or pin up model... watch this video to see how much effort it takes to do that!

More on Wedding Photography - knowing your equipment

Well, after doing 3 wedding shoots, one of the most important lessons I've learnt is the need to know your equipment intimately. At the wedding shoot, there is absolutely no time to muck around your equipment or to start trying out new things. It is important to know every little details how each camera operates, how to set up the functions, how to even switch between functions without taking your eyes off the viewfinder.

I had to learn a few lessons about not knowing my equipment well enough which resulted in missed shots and out-of-focus or incorrectly exposed shots.

Here are some of my past experience to share with everyone and hopefully you won't make the same mistakes.

Wedding #1:
First ever wedding. Lead photographer with no backup except in the church service.

Equipment: A FujiFilm S9500 prosumer camera. No backup camera. A newly bought Nikon SB-600 flash gun.

Lessons learnt: Through-The-Lens(TTL)-Metering interface between the camera and the flash gun is crucial in a high tempo event shoot. It is nearly impossible to use manual settings on the flash gun on such events. As the FujiFilm S9500 camera does not "talk" to the Nikon SB-600 flash gun, I only could contend with the manual mode, which resulted in quite a few under or over exposed shots. I have missed quite a few shots during the church service. The S9500 is a great camera for outdoor shoots, but for indoor, low-light condition, it is simply terrible. The fact that SB-600 flash that I bought specifically for that wedding shoot could not use the TTL mode as the FujiFilm S9500 does not support it meant that all the flash shots I did was based on "guesstimates". I had to guess how much power I had to set the flash to produce for each shots based on the distance I was from the subject I wished to illuminate. This flash is a great flash, don't get me wrong, it is just that the camera wasn't design for TTL with any flash gun in the world, thus, not suitable for wedding shoots. Wrong equipment nearly cost me greatly!

Had the groom not asked his other friends, with flashy Canon 30D and big L lenses to cover the church service as well, it could have been a disaster for me.


Wedding #2:
Second wedding done a few months later.

Equipment: Bought a spanking Nikon DSLR. Now have TTL with the flash gun. Also bought the Gary Fong's lightsphere specifically for indoor low-light shoots.

Lessons learnt: Biggest mistake, got the camera 2 days before the actual wedding shoot. Didn't get to learn how to use the Nikon camera properly. What was I thinking? A DSLR with some 11 points matrix focusing, different type of AE-Lock and AF-Lock function. I was thinking I could simply read the manual and learn which buttons to press and how to set certain functions and I would be all set. How wrong I was!
The biggest problem I had was in getting the focusing correct. The AF-Lock works different from my FujiFilm. The 11 points matrix focusing and metering feature means that I had to be clear where the focus point was set in the view finder. Unlike the FujiFilm, the focus point is never always at the centre. I couldn't simply take it for granted to have the main subject framed in the centre, half-press the shutter, re-frame and press the shutter and capture it. I had to observe where the focusing rectangle was set on the 11 points insider the viewfinder among many other information like my ISO number, my f-Stop, shutter speed, and finally, the "dot" that represents a auto-focus lock.... Ah, not knowing my equipment well enough cost me some shots. I had some blurred shots as the results. The only consolation is that it turned out to be just a relatively few shots. Most shots turned out fine.

To sum up, it is very crucial to know your equipment very well. Buying new equipment 2 days before a big wedding shoot does not cut it. I've learnt my lessons. I was able to do my 3rd wedding with less equipment related problem and focus more on the shooting. I hope that you will not encounter similar problems like what I had.