Every picture tells a story

When Alvin Buen arrived in Abu Dhabi seven years ago, he did not even know how to use a camera. Now he is a partner and lead photographer in a studio.

Alvin Buen went from working in camera sales to becoming a partner in Lime Studio. On a recent shoot in the studio, he photographed Naji and Amelie Manih. Delores Johnson / The National

Alvin Buen may be well known on the Abu Dhabi photographers' circuit now, but seven years ago he knew nothing about cameras.

Arriving in Abu Dhabi in 2006, he got a job working as a shop assistant in a store's camera section and tried out photography on the suggestion of a friend.

He turned out to be rather good at it. In fact his services became so popular that he left his job to become a photographer full-time and has shot about 100 weddings since 2011.

He speaks about a typical day taking pictures as a lead photographer for Abu Dhabi-based Lime Studio, which he owns with his business partner Richard Haddad.

4am-9am

If I have a wedding in Abu Dhabi at 5pm I wake up at 6am or 7am but if the wedding is in Dubai I wake up at 4am or 5am. [If I am in the office that day], mostly I wake up at 9am because…I often finish at 3am or 4am because I am editing or we have shoots like bands and weddings.

Once I get ready I start editing again. Weddings need more [detailed] editing. In one wedding we shoot 2,000 to 3,000 pictures, so it takes two to three days to edit them. They choose 200 to 300 pictures for a photo album. Sometimes they have pimples they want to remove, because you put them in an album which you keep for a lifetime. They want to be the prettiest bride in the world for that day.

1pm

I get into the office. I check the schedule, bookings, the internet. I came here in 2006 and by luck I was hired in Abu Dhabi Mall by one of the studios there, Salam Studio & Stores. It's a store [with a] photography section. I had zero knowledge about cameras when I started there. After four years of working in sales, one of my friends said you are selling cameras, why don't you try to take a shot? That was in 2010. Then one of the best friends of my sister told me to shoot her engagement, before the wedding. I told her I don't know how to shoot it, and she didn't worry. I called one of my friends to ask him how to [use the camera] and he helped me for one week to teach me.

Then we went to Dubai to do the shoot and that picture went viral. People who attended the wedding asked who took the picture, [and the bride said] it was the brother of my friend. Everybody called me and said, can you shoot me like this? I was still working in Abu Dhabi Mall but I decided to make a workshop to teach basic photography. The hotel I used, Vision Hotel, was the hotel managed by Richard [Haddad]. After that he asked me [to become his business partner in the studio]. I didn't want to lose this chance.

2pm

Richard comes and we have a meeting for one hour or two hours maybe to speak about what happened and what the next booking is. Sometimes we have three jobs and we are only four photographers here [so we have to book a freelancer].

Mid-afternoon

I go to my computer and start editing again. Mostly corporate events start in the morning, up to the afternoon. Sometimes we have a job in construction. That's different; you need to go there in the morning, up to lunchtime, maybe a five-hour or six-hour job. We also shoot some concerts [and] comedy events in the evenings. Concerts, especially at the InterContinental, the people arrive at 9pm, so we are already there at 7.30pm. We start to check our equipment to see if anything is missing. If it is still we have time to come back to the office or my home.

5pm

More editing. Lime Studio is known mostly in weddings. The cost depends on the people we shoot. We will shoot you for a small amount, but don't expect we will work for 13 or 14 hours. It could be six hours or seven hours, but still the quality is there. [The cost] starts at Dh4,000 but the sky is the limit. Now we also do some engagement or pre-wedding video shoots, so we give a 30 seconds or 40 seconds teaser. We produce a movie which says this man or this woman will be married on this day.

Midnight

I'm still working if it is a concert. [Some concert jobs] finish at 3am. If it is a Filipino wedding, mostly at 11pm they are finished, but Arabic and Indian weddings go on until 2am or 3am, so it is like a 24-hour job. But since I enjoy it I don't care. When I go home of course I feel the tiredness.

3am

[When I get home] I sit down at the computer and put the pictures on the memory because if something happens, you would lose the moments of the client. In the night after finishing I am still editing at the computer. Editing is the hard part. If you don't start it straight away, there is another job coming.

4am

I go to sleep.