I spent 3 weeks in Bangkok but only started shooting towards the end of my trip. I did want to enjoy my time there after all and so my first shoot was with the lovely Wang Ying from China. When I first met her with Mikkel at Starbucks, I got the impression of a quiet and slightly shy but smiley, pleasant girl. Once in front of the lens, she morphed into such an incredible character I can’t even describe it with words. She is the kind of person who takes her work seriously and it was amazing.
This is how Mikkel watches ‘porn’ on his laptop.
Crashing Mikkel’s room was a good idea with air-conditioning and mini bar! We decided to go with a story-style shoot instead of something fashion based. I have to work on my scripting since I don’t do this often but the emotions that Wang Ying delivered made the photos. I don’t exactly have behind-the-scenes clips but I do have footage of me getting fits after seeing Mikkel shoot the video vertically. It’s a funny story now (to me anyway) because I’ve had so many friends shoot videos like that on my point-and-shoot camera. I always ask them this question, ‘Have you even seen footage on TV filmed like that (tilt head sideways with hand gestures)? Just watch this video and you’ll know what I mean!
I should watch more art-house films and learn to think of interesting if not weird story lines. I really miss SBS channel and all their late night foreign crazy stuff. And now for the melodrama/series of emotional portraits.
We wrapped up the shoot with a huge meal at Basilico (fantastic Italian on Soi 33), shopping at Lumpini Night Market (awesome local designers) and a lot of watering stops. It was a good day.
This was my second shoot in Singapore and it was with Patricia Silk from Diva (Model), Aaron Kok (Stylist), Clarion Wee (Stylist’s Assistant), Hannah Oh (MUA) and Shawn Danker (Assistant). Patricia delivers the most amazing poses on a shoot. She doesn’t just pose, she acts out the emotions, she moves by the shutter. We were all in awe just watching her.
It was quite a day, we were reprimanded by an old waitress for doing hair and makeup at McDonalds (and got a lot of distasteful stares–Welcome to Singapore), almost got run over by a train (more on that later), was close to getting heat stroke and developed major sunburns under the deceiving overcast sky.
Getting all glam at McDonald’s.
The tracks at King Albert Park.
Food break.
Endangering our lives in the middle of the railway tracks.
At one point while shooting on the tracks, a train was coming towards us and we had to grab all our clothes, makeup and equipment and run down the pebble slope. The train operators were screaming at us and we were in such shock being so close to being run over. Before you think ‘what were you doing on the tracks in the first place, stupid?’, this railway is hardly ever utilized because it’s meant for cargo and long distance trains which only come by every few hours. The operators came over to chase us away so we went across the bridge to a wider, safer track but what an adrenaline rush! Sort of a close-shave-with-risking-our-lives moment.
Anyway here are the final shots as well as the behind-the-scenes video.
Sweaty, dehydrated, sunburnt and a few seconds from being run over or rolling down the slopes with all our stuff, was it worth it? Certainly a shoot I would never forget. Pity I have no video footage during that little incident! Damn.
Railway workers united. Aaron, Clarion, Me, Patricia and Hannah.
My first shoot in Singapore was with Ukrainian Nataliya Zapolina from Mannequin, with Aaron Kok and Clarion Wee as stylists. It was unfortunate that I was unable to contact the makeup artist because of some mixups so Nataliya did her own makeup this time and the results were fantastic. Luck was still on our side that day.
Even though I’ve been to Singapore plenty of times, looking for a shooting location somewhere besides my hometown has always proved to be a challenge. Aaron was incredibly helpful in helping me with the locations and we decided to go with the old Supreme Court. That place has been used probably a gazillion times by other photographers for wedding, fashion, etc etc but heck I liked the place so why not? I took it on as a challenge to show it differently through my eyes.
I love having proper stylists on the shoot because they always have everything possible with them! <3
As you all know, I tend to (unintentionally) make the models suffer one way or another and this time it was putting Nataliya in heavy fabrics under the unforgiving tropical sun. According to Aaron, the pained look we got out of Nataliya worked well with the whole mood of the shoot and again, it was well worth it. We had a number of curious spectators and there was a wedding shoot going on at the same time and apparently the photographer berated the party to “work it like the pros!” after watching us hog up all the space. So cute.
Her bone structure is simply amazing.
My favourite series of shots.
Amazing colonial architecture for a European feel.
Feeling the burn.
This time we also have a short behind the scenes video for the world to see
We felt nauseous at the end because of the noontime sun but that’s alright…. right guys? Right? Hehe.
Sweaty and exhausted. Clarion, Nataliya, me and Aaron.
This was one of my last shoots for Breeze before I moved to Kuala Lumpur and in conjunction with Breeze’s 1st Anniversary party 2 months ago the clothes were provided by Baleno and IP Zone. I have to admit, it was tough trying to make casual wear a little more…. fashionable but after hours of making rounds through the store we managed to pick a few items to shoot with. Our models were Charlene and Mark, Grace (from the Androgynous shoot) to assist me on the styling, hair and makeup and Richard as my ever ready assistant.
Quick fitting with the models.
Routine hair and makeup. Plus a big mess.
I had no idea where to shoot until the very last minute and decided to just go up to my trusty rooftop, one of my favourite places to shoot simply because of the vast space, view and convenience. I may have exhausted it a little too much though. Oops. I do not recommend it for people with Acrophobia because it is 18 floors high and on the edge of a hill. Hehe.
Mark taking in the view.
Grace with her ‘guns’ ready to terminate all lovey-doveys.
Give me your PMS face! More pain, more pain!!
The shoot may have seemed very simple but I found it to be quite a challenge because of limitations to how creative I could get. Looking back at it now I think I could’ve pushed a little more but we did exhaust ourselves for it. Simple clothes and simple setup felt more difficult than it seems, hard to believe I know. Again as with all Breeze shoots, the video and the pages.
Thank goodness for ice cream and long sessions at Mosaic. Oh yeah.
This is my second shoot with Samantha Denise and we had Danielle Hampton for hair and makeup, together with Georgia Verschuer as the model. We didn’t need as much coffee this time unlike our previous shoot but what we should have prepared for was a lot of warm clothes (more on that later).
I never took notice of Georgia’s collarbones till now. Gosh.
Prepping in Samantha’s studio.
We shot by the cliffside close to Bondi Beach near the houses and featured a blue Porsche convertible. It was a lot of fun riding down Bondi with the top down, wind in my hair, sun in sky, well you get the picture. Note to self: buy a convertible when I start rolling in the big ka-chings $$.
Samantha, our stylist.
I really love that you can get such clear skies and blue seas in a major city like Sydney. The weather was gorgeous until it decided to turn its back on us in the middle of the shoot. The clouds rolled in with strong winds and the threat of a major storm happening. Poor Georgia actually goose-bumped all over, she has not an inch of fat on that body of hers. I have to admit, the change of weather did add a little extra to the photos. You’ll see what I mean
This is how Mikkel watches ‘porn’ on his laptop.
Me + Ying = <3 Come to KL soon!
