For the Love of Romance

Dave and Quin Cheung are unusually gifted photographers. First and foremost, however, they are a happily married couple raising a young family in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The pair makes no secret about being hopeless romantics, as you can see in the spirited images of the fashionable young couple that pepper the “About Us” section of their website. Certainly, this passion for each other and for family is what drives their personal lives, but it’s also what inspires them to create fresh and innovative images for each client they photograph. It’s what motivates them to seek out the subtle exchange of glances that cut to the heart of a bride and groom’s romance, or to capture the exuberance of a laughing family doing crazy jumps in the front yard—a family so clearly lost in the moment that the camera has all but disappeared. 

Both Dave and Quin say that they have had a lifelong need to express themselves through art—whether it was music, drawing or photography. It became clear that photography might be a good career choice in 2002, when the couple went on a backpacking trip through France. “We only had one pack each, but we brought along two old Canon AE-1 Programs, three lenses, and lots of ISO 3200 black-and-white film,” recalls Dave. As they traveled, they fell in love with street shooting. Upon returning home, they were generously taken under the wing of a local wedding photographer named Alex Opao. “He taught us darkroom skills and let us second/third shoot with him at weddings—and we were hooked.” From there, the couple’s passion quickly grew into a thriving business in people photography. “We do everything from commercial CD covers to weddings and portraits. If it’s got a person in it, we’d love to photograph it,” says Dave.

When asked to define their style, Dave and Quin avoid labels, feeling that the terms have been so overused that they’ve lost all meaning. “We’re really ‘mutts’ of photography,” says Dave, “blending everything from the uninterrupted capture of emotions and events to creating high-fashion, hard-lit images.” In their wedding coverage, for example, Dave and Quin will be “out of sight, out of mind” for much of the day, capturing true moments and unsolicited emotions. At times, however, they will also take a more active role in directing the images to create the “epic” posed imagery they are best known for.

Above and beyond simply documenting what their clients look like, the couple strives to capture the essence of their subjects as individuals and as part of a couple or family. As such, they approach every client uniquely; some require a bit of input and prompting to allow themselves to truly be seen, others are much more at ease in front of the lens. “The bottom line is that we love people and documenting them truly and at their best,” says Dave. “Throw in romance and beauty and add a dash of fashion and lighting, and we’ve arrived at the DQ style.”

The Cheungs operate their business completely from their home. “In my former life, I managed my Dad’s piano store, which had two locations and five employees,” says Dave. “Seeing how much money went out in rent each month made us eager to keep costs low in our photography business.” Another reason for working out of their home is that Dave and Quin say they get bored quite easily. Therefore, the idea of shooting in a studio day after day simply isn’t that appealing. They feel they produce their best work and are most inspired when shooting in the environments that their clients choose as really speaking to them. “We also find ourselves traveling out of town (and out of the country) for almost half of our work,” says Dave, “so having a studio is less of an advantage for our clientele.” The couple also runs the business on their own, although they are bringing on staff to assist in their other growing business, the development and sale of a hardware/software workflow enhancement system called DQ QuiKeys (www.dqquikeys.com).

Working with your spouse and out of your home is, they say, a mixed blessing. “We can start work at whatever hour we want, but never being able to leave the ‘office’ has its own difficulties—especially when raising our young boys,” says Dave. “Also, when one of us has a bad day, the other has been there too, so there’s no one else to come home to and share your frustrations with. That being said, we couldn’t imagine it any other way. It’s been so rewarding to be able to share each success together—and having mutual respect for each other has allowed us to work together amazingly well.”

They work so well together that, although they have thought about shooting separately with second shooters, they know that the coverage just wouldn’t be the same—even if they were to hire equally talented photographers. “There’s definitely a synergy we have when shooting together, both in relationship building with the client and imagemaking. We love the challenge of creating better images each week, and we push each other to do just that. Above all the business, we just truly love being with each other. We’re self-confessed hopeless romantics and can’t imagine working apart,” 
says Dave.

That’s not to say that they don’t play to their individual strengths, of course. “We definitely share the load, taking advantage of how we’re each wired,” Dave says. “I’m the geek, so I take care of researching gear and computer purchases as well as managing our website and backups. Quin takes care of client contacts and image retouching, while I design our albums and take care of photographer contacts. Neither of us are numbers people, so we share the accounting work. We’re both equal shooters, so we can really support and feed off each other at sessions. That’s when our affinities really come together to create something special. One of us can be setting up the lights while the other will be shooting and engaging our clients. We’re always cognizant of our clients’ experience during the shoot and never want them to feel like they’re waiting for us to set up or catch up.” With word-of-mouth advertising generating most of their assignments (and a website full of glowing customer testimonials), the couple’s focus on satisfying each client has clearly paid off.

As their business continues to grow, Dave and Quin see nothing but bright things on the horizon. DQ Quikeys has received widespread acclaim since its launch and the couple has recently been experimenting with new lighting techniques and finding ways to efficiently implement more complicated strobe lighting within the constraints of a real wedding day. “The challenge is not only to set up and create the lighting we want, but to ensure we continue to engage our clients and not lose sight of the relationship we strive to build with them,” says Dave.

The couple also recently returned from participating in and documenting a Short Term Mission in remote parts of North Africa, an experience they say has forever changed them both. “We’re now restructuring our businesses to allow us more time to give back to the world in a bigger way,” says Dave. “We truly believe we’ve been blessed, and look forward to the challenges and experiences ahead.”

To learn more about Dave and Quin’s studio, please visit www.dqstudios.com or check out their blog at www.dq
studios.com/givingup. The Cheungs are also in-demand instructors, offering popular workshops and private consultations. For their current schedule of offerings, visit www.yinyangworkshop.com.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop, The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging, Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe Photoshop, and her latest book, Professional Portrait Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers (all from Amherst Media).