Friday, September 24, 2010

Back from Down Under



A rather 'short' recap of the Sydney Trip: Here

Animania Photos: Here

PS. The trip's really fun!

Friday, September 17, 2010

August Photoshoots Update


Had a Rozen Maiden shoot in the heart of the Toa Payoh town, was a really sunny day but there's a lot of decent covers nearby so it was quite bearable. I never really worked with most of the cosplayers except for the leader in this shoot, but they are pretty friendly.

Album: Here


Yang asked me out for a shoot before the Natsu Matsuri event, so I met up with her at the Xiao Gui Lin near the Bukit Gombak MRT station. Probably one of the rare places in Singapore with some kind of China feel, we took advantage of the many rocks and the cliff background to produce the shots. It's not too bad but I was feeling sleepy due to my late night editing the day before.

Album: Here


The day after Natsu Matsuri, I met up with my cosplayer friend who did the Listen! ED version of Mio Akiyama from the series K-On!!

We had two helpers (her boyfriend who is known for making some epic armour cosplay, and a mutual friend of ours called "Yui" heh) who made the shoot very manageable. We went up to the Pinnacle@Duxton, well known for its nice view of the city as well as a rather clean feel. The shoot went well, except for the water spout incident. Haha.

Album: Here


A few months back, there was a group shoot involving the different characters of the game series Guilty Gear. However, because of the size of the group we ended up shooting at a generic location in town. Because I wanted a gritty feel to the series, I asked Evie if she's free to do another shoot in an abandoned location. She gamely agreed to the shoot, and it went well thanks to the help of her boyfriend who carried the reflector and bag.

A lot of people didn't believe that most of the shots were made without the use of a flash. Initially I had wanted to shoot using the flash, but the presence of several concentrated beams of light in the location led me to use them instead. Result's pretty decent although I would have preferred the location to be bigger.

Album: Here


It's time to visit the Final Frontier (aka Tuas) again. We were lucky to get some really decent weather because the last few times I was there, it was raining cats and dogs!

The area we shot look less desert-like than before. I guess in about a year or so, the entire location will be remade into an industrial zone much like the ones in Loyang and Changi. But I love the place anyway, it felt vast and peaceful.

Album: Here


Bad weather turned this concept shoot into an indoor one, so we had the shoot in Yang's house. Not too bad but the room's really small so framing's really important.

During the shoot, we also joked about people owing money and what the three would do in such situations. Well, random stuff can be fun sometimes.

Album: Here

I'll be writing about my Sydney trip soon, so stay tuned! :)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The KL Trip


The time that I have spent recently in Kuala Lumpur proved to be a rather interesting, tiring but ultimately fun experience. Instead of a usual week of relaxation, I decided to challenge myself by having a shoot every day. Although that didn't really happened, I completed six shoots in total... each presenting a unique set of challenges that I tried to tackle as best as I could.

Here are the results of the week long 'marathon'. I would like to thank Misao, Victor, Razrig, Lavena, Kikyo, Ayase, Mbek, Teri, Bunny, James, Reno, Mieko, Byou, Huko Yee, and Cappy for their assistance and willingness to take part in any of the shoots shown below.

Also, a special thanks to Solomon Freeman who have kindly loaned me his D3S, lenses and SB-900 during the two night shoots that I had. The day shoots were done using my usual gears.

DGM Lavi: Here

Post-Mortem: The old train station has its own fair share of photoshoots, but the main attraction of the place (the Heritage Hotel) was closed a few months back, so I utilised the dark corridors to get the 'Bookman' effect. :P

In addition, we somehow created a Korean drama feel for Reno... this is what happened when Lavi's without his hammer, haha.

Macross Frontier: (To be updated)

Post-Mortem: A last minute change that turned the evening shoot into a night one, we still had it at Putrajaya due to its amazing night lighting that gave the city a character of its own. Victor was nice enough to pick up Kikyo and Ayase from the Mines Wonderland, while Misao drove me, Solomon and Mbek to Lavena's house to pick her up. We reached the location on time, although additional preparation delayed the shoot a bit.

I really like the D3S, it is a very capable camera if a bit too heavy for my liking. Noise level's pretty clean even until ISO3200, there's a lot of details that can be extracted during post-processing. Sadly, the zoom mechanics for the playback seem to be a bit archaic for my taste, but overall it is still good.

One thing that I learnt from the shoot was the fact that the humble reflector can do magic sometimes. Heh.

Note: The photos are not ready yet due to a delay in editing, apologies for that.

Pandora Hearts - II: Here

Post-Mortem: More laughs than seriousness, we spent quite a long period of time catching up on things after getting the necessary shots. There's a lot of random stuff that happened during the shoot as well.

Bukit Jalil Park is a very quiet place, seems like nobody goes there except for cosplayers. :P

Town Lolita - Mieko: Here

Post-Mortem: Gotta love Melaka... for the food, the historic architecture, and the relaxing riverside. Mieko was fun to work with, and the place really suits the lolita feel... we even went into a church to take some shots!

I missed out on the epic chicken rice balls though. There will be a next time!

Chang An Huan Ye - II: Here

Post-Mortem: We went to the Thean Hou temple for the shoot. It seems like the place's a regular for photoshoots as there is a marriage registry there, and a regular stream of tourists. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my flash, but we carried on and I am glad Byou like the shots. :)

Durarara!! Here

Post-Mortem: Having a night shoot for DRRR, especially in Kuala Lumpur, seems like a daunting thing because of the recent spat of crimes in the city. I took a gamble in using a rather quiet car park to do the shoot because it was my first time going to that place.

As this shoot took place on the same day as the Chang An shoot, Byou was pretty tired but she soldiered on till the end. Huko Yee is pretty friendly too, it was my first time working with them actually.

One of the local cosplay photographers, Razrig was kind enough to ferry us around the city, as well as bringing everyone back to their respective homes after the end of the shoot. Good job, dude. :)


And finally, before I head back to Singapore I decided to drop by a local ACG event organised by the students of the International Medical University (IMU), which was located pretty close to my house. It was a really small events, but it looks like everyone had a good time there.

GAMP 2010: Here

Ended the whole epic trip by watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on the bus trip back. The movie felt a bit boring though, so I am curious if the Deathly Hallows will be an improvement.

Hope you enjoy reading this entry and looking at the photos, as I wrote this while waiting for my plane to Sydney tonight. I will be at there for the entire weekend (plus a day or two) to attend Main Animania, so till next time folks. :)
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