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. :)