Too Old to Kiss
May 15th, 2012 | PortraitsMary Chin is the Christiane Amanpour of Sabah. Even after 37 years in journalism, her blood boils when this award-winning Daily Express journalist talks about corruption and injustice. Very bit as fiery today as she was a young cadet journalist, I was told. Sharp, hard hitting, straight to the point, no hold bars…just like her CNN counterpart. I was quite intimidated by her when I was a rookie journalist with the Borneo Post many years ago. One person in journalism that you don’t wanna cross.
To have her set foot in my studio was a huge honor. While we chit chat over hot tea, I wondered if I could get Mary to shed her image as a hard hitting journalist. She is also a mother and wife. There’s got to be the gentler side of her. Yet, I had confidence crisis then…seriously doubting whether I could do a good job for Mary.
Started the shoot with her husband, Jan Fah and daughter, Flora to hugging her. Being a Chinese Hakka myself, where hugging is an foreign culture, Mary out of her comfort zone but happy to play along.
Then I asked Jan Fah to hug and kiss Mary. “Very shy la! We are old couple and we don’t do this!” Mary complained, then relented & eventually enjoyed it.
Actually, we were hugged and kissed a lot when we were babies. As we grow up, we hug & kiss less but we have never forgotten that nice feeling of being held and loved.
Thank you Mary for showing us that it’s never too old to kiss.
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Desert Shoot
May 14th, 2012 | Photography Tips, PortraitsGrowing up in Borneo, I am familiar with dense rain forest. Learned a lot about it when I was on Boys Brigade’s expeditions. We wielded machetes and had leeches sucking us dry as we tried to navigating through 10km of it. I was certain dehydration and exhaustion would eventually kill me. Helpful officers and more experienced BB members pulled me through.
Gotta deflate the tires before you get into the desert to gain more traction. You’ve gotta inflate it again before you get into normal roads. While deflating takes a few minutes. Inflating all four tires took over 30 mins!
Now, a desert is the exact opposite of a rainforest. It’s barren and dry. Every direction you look, the desert looks the same. Perhaps the only similarity it shares with a rainforest. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot in a desert. Russell, my assistant during GPP week, pulled some strings and got a fleet of 4WD to get us to the nearest desert in Dubai. Immediately after finishing my Photo Friday lecture, we left for the desert. It was already 4pm.
Got to the desert at 5:15pm. Sun sets at 6pm. We had 45 minutes to find a spot, setup lights and shoot. Well, Gregory Heisler would complain that’s too much time. Yet having zero experience working in the desert, it posed a challenge.
My gear of choice was the Elinchrom Quadra & the 39″ Deep Throat Octa. It was a massive task to keep the softbox in place with strong wind beating against us. Two guys held down the Octa on a c-stand. Shot with two bodies (D3 with 70-200mm & D700 with 14-24mm) as changing lenses in the desert is OUT OF QUESTION!
Radhicka weaved her magic in front of the camera and I just fired away. Elinchrom Skyport chose to misbehave causing an unusual amount of misfires. So I was battling an unreliable radio system, foreign environment and surging adrenaline. Just dug in and made the best of it.
When the sun set, it was as if someone flicked the light switch. It went pitch dark very quickly. There wasn’t much of after glow. The desert became a very cold place very quickly. Thank you Radhicka for being such a trooper & Russell for making first desert shoot come true!
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A Free Gift for Mothers
May 11th, 2012 | Portraits
UPDATED 12 May, 4:45pm
Welcome to the FREE Mother’s Day portrait session to be held May 12 & 13 (Saturday & Sunday), 12pm-6pm at Likas Square, 1st Floor, right next to the escalator. We will welcome you with smiles, snacks and live music. Due to popular response, expect long queues. We ask for you to be patient and gracious. You DON’T need a ticket, but if you do, you get on the Express line.
While all pre-booking tickets are taken, we have reserved 50% of available slots for walk-ins. There are plenty of slots for the mothers of Kota Kinabalu. Leaving a comment on this blog, FB page or Twitter DOES NOT give you a spot for the FREE shoot. You have to show up & queue for this.
FREE Mother’s Day Portrait Session terms & conditions:
• We will ONLY take a picture if there is at least 1 mother in front of the camera
• 1 framed photo per group
• Each person is limited to 1 photo shoot this weekend
• You DON’T NEED a ticket for the FREE session (however if you do, you get on the express line)
• BRING your ticket/VIP Access card
• Tickets are valid ONLY during the designated time
• Tickets cannot be sold or exchanged for cash/products/services
So here are the goodies:
• FREE portrait session for mums*
• FREE framed photo (size: 18cm x 13cm) for mums*
• Up to 45% off regular priced items if you wanna sign up a package
*mums & her loved ones.
Date: May 12-13, 2012
Time: 12pm-6pm
Venue: 1st floor, Likas Square Commercial Center (right next to the only escalator in the building)
The best Mum’s Day gift in Sabah is not only FREE, it’s PRICELESS.
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The Heart of a Picture
May 11th, 2012 | Personal, PortraitsPhotography can be quite complicated. There’s exposure, lighting, posing, composition, timing, expression. When you enter competitions, judges would pixel peep to find if there is an iota of overblown highlights or lost details in deep shadows. Then there is the perennial debates about Photoshop. When does photography end and the Adobe software begin? Don’t get me started on gear wars and debates. How about wardrobe? Is it a Vera Wang or Armani? Heard about the available light vs artificial light debate? Gosh! Ceasefire please?
Not trying to trivialize finer aspect of photography and professionalism. I think about these issues all the time. Yet if we have to strip away everything around photography to its very essential, what would we find?
For Emma, she just wanted a picture of whole family together. Her eldest son, Mohd Yazmier, 12 years old, passed away a month ago. It was then she realized she NEVER had a family picture. A friend reminded her that she took one at our photo booth last December and it was posted on our FB page. Emma contacted us. We printed it with acid-free fine art paper and framed it for her. It’s her Mother’s Day gift.
What really matters in photography? In Emma’s case, it’s documenting life, love and family. It’s memories immortalized on a piece of paper, telling us that at this particular place and time, we were happy. Perhaps we held, hugged and kissed our loved ones. Or perhaps we shared a joke, or held our hands strolling down our favorite beach. Without a camera, we rely only on memories. Unfortunately, we can’t print memories.
Happy Mother’s Day, Emma. We can’t bring Mohd Yazmier back to life, but we hope the photo will keep your memory of him alive and warm your hearts. You reminded us how important our job is holding a camera.
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Is My Family Too Big For You?
May 10th, 2012 | Portraits“There are 14 of us. Can we fit into your studio?” If you can bring them, we’ll photograph them. That’s our promise.
Yes, it’s not easy to marshall four siblings, their spouses, kids and your parents for a family photo. However if you could accomplish this Herculean feat, the reward is immense. Just ask Melissa Leong who called in the calvary from all corners of Kota Kinabalu.
When it’s done. It’s no longer a photo. It’s a limited edition, one-of-a-kind, personalized art piece of your family. This four-feet wide limited edition picture hangs nicely in each of their homes. Five of them, to be exact. What a priceless moment. What a conversation starter. What a joy to return home after a hard day’s work and see this picture. What a way to celebrate life and family!
Photographing large groups is a specialty that we haven’t advertised. Since we are on this topic, I thought I should introduce some of our recent large group portraits to you.
Alice wanted portraits with 6 friends. So here it goes.
SIB Skyline is an active church in Kota Kinabalu. It has a team of youth leaders that build the community by working with young people. They are builders, I thought. Henceforth the tools and theme. You can see a human size edition of this picture at our studio.
Twelve gals walked into our photo booth at Suria Sabah and asked for a group photo. Well, we delivered. They seemed to like our “creative” posing.
Again, if you can bring them, we’ll photograph them.
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