Zitian & the Highway

I finally got to shoot Zitian on Tuesday. I've always wanted to but have always been held back by mobility constraints which really sucks because it means relying on friends for transport or worse, public transport. It's so much easier to do a shoot when I have a car because I have full control over where and when to go.

Back in March I did a couple shoot for Gerald and his then girlfriend in Empire Shopping Gallery. We didn't manage to shoot in the location I wanted because of time constraints, and also because upon closer inspection, said location was physically unsafe. In the end we shot here and there, resulting in a tangential shoot that was completely different from what I imagined. When we drove away I saw this huge abandoned patch of grassland right in the middle of the highway. Ironically we left the shoot at the best time possible when the evening light was diffused and lovely, and if I had it my way I would have stopped the car and shot right there and then, but alas I was only a passenger so I only looked with longing.

I sealed up that place at the back of my mind as a to-shoot spot. When deciding to shoot Zitian I immediately thought of that place. On Tuesday with only a vague recollection of where the grassland was, we set off just before the evening light in search of that vast pseudo-hill.

While we did manage to find the place, the location quickly became the most precarious place I have ever shot in. While there was picturesque tall grass everywhere there was also a pack of stray dogs watching us intently as we trekked through the grassland to find the shade. There was a huge (I think metre-long) drain separating the flatland bordering the highway from the pseudo-hill. The dogs were on the inner side of the drain while the outer side faced the highway. Fearing snatch-thieves I decided that we should cross the drain and risk the stray dogs.

We started shooting once we got to the other side of the drain, and I was really glad to have chosen the dogs as the lesser evil. Through our meagre hour-long shoot, all sorts of harassment were thrown at us from the highway. Once we started shooting a single motorcycle stopped by the side of the drain and shouted at us, then promptly left. As I was too distracted shooting and keeping mosquitoes at bay, I could only hear screams and whooping from the motorists. However when we were taking five, I looked at the highway and saw that THE WHOLE HIGHWAY HAD SLOWED DOWN as cars lagged behind with drivers peering at us, couples gesturing to each other about the curiosity of us and motorcyclists whooping and catcalling away. I was so grateful for the metre-long drain to separate us from them.

We left as soon as I got some of the shots I wanted. I would have loved to stay longer and continued shooting (Zitian was so amazing I really couldn't resist) but I felt increasingly the threat of stray dogs, mosquitoes and primeval motorists as the evening became darker. I didn't realize how scared I was until we were all in the car and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.



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Today in the middle of a Chemistry lesson my teacher called out my name and asked if I was on a 'photography assignment' yesterday. Apparently she was driving on that highway when we were shooting.

***

Model: Chin Zi Tian
Assistant: Michelle

nicest kind of friday

Recently the wife of a cousin gave birth to a baby and it was cause for happiness for me because it meant that she wasn't going to be able to use her car for awhile. Which meant that recently I acquired a car temporarily.

Also, recently I had a very bad craving for pudding that started last Sunday after viewing Michelle's pictures of the creme caramel she had in Ipoh. Me and Karu looked all over school for pudding but found none. Using the car to its full advantage, I drove us out in search of pudding in Tong Shui shops but couldn't find any. Eventually Taliza bought three boxes of creme caramel mix and a raspberry jelly mix and a mango pudding mix.

On Friday we packed our luggages, camera, lighting equipment and a katana into my tiny car. It was so crammed Karu, Taliza and Michelle probably didn't have much space to sit in. Even so I thought it was still a very pleasant long drive to Mont Kiara where we were to do a photoshoot. When the shoot was over we drove to Damansara to find Taliza's mum who brought us to dinner in an Italian restaurant. By then the fatique of the long day had set in and Karu looked so stoned before his pasta that we were quite worried (also amused) about him.

After an art lesson with Taliza's mum, Karu left; he unfortunately missed out on our midnight pudding-making session despite having craved pudding for almost a week like me. Despite being really tired we managed to whip up a whole refrigerator-tier's worth of mango pudding, raspberry jelly and creme caramel. Then we passed out on the bed.

The next day we were supposed to do another photoshoot in FRIM, but we couldn't manage to find the right outfit. We ate pudding and stayed in Taliza's room instead. I had more time to admire her shower.

pseudo-graduation

Triple A is overhyped. The guys in our gang bought their suits long ago, but I left the shopping to the last minute possible (got my outfit on the afternoon of the event which I highly discourage to avoid repeating my stressful shopping experience) because I couldn't decide whether I should go for the imaginary Best Dressed Female or Best Dressed Male Award.

The first hour of the event was probably the most fun. This was when our friends started appearing one by one looking super dapper. Afterwards though it was just sitting on the round table in unsurprising boredom waiting for the food to arrive, watching Karu draw a pig on his plate with soy sauce. After a while the other guests got pretty bored as well and started leaving the tables to take lots and lots and LOTS of pictures.



The highlight must have been the dance party right after the last performance of the night. The DJs started playing rave music and the lights came on and the guests rushed to the front of the hall to dance. Our gang pushed forward and jumped around with everyone else for a bit, then I dared Ian to lead the dance party to the stage. We both ran onstage followed by our gang, caught up in the loud music and in-the-moment craze. I turned around, and saw the crowd rushing onstage. That felt pretty awesome.

More photos on Flickr

Ropaa

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I recently got the chance to photograph my friend-since-primary-school Ropaa. On the day of the shoot the weather was depressingly gloomy with a very high chance of a thunderstorm, and I nearly cancelled the shoot. In the end optimism prevailed and I went along with it, bringing along a raincoat and a huge umbrella and a ready mind for tons of improvisation. I dragged Mei Huey along to help hold some equipment. We arrived in Ropaa's apartment half an hour before the appointed time so she rushed down to join us and ended up having to do her makeup on the beach using her phone as the mirror. We drove along the winding roads of Batu Ferringhi in search of a clean rocky beach without too many annoying tourists. Our search brought us to the other side of the island in Teluk Bahang where we got a rocky part of the beach all to ourselves. Luckily the weather was clear through the two-hour shoot even though there was a slight drizzle in the middle.

It was fun catching up while shooting and laughing with Ropaa's trying-too-hard-and-ending-up-looking-like-a-pedo poses (her words not mine). I really have to thank Mei Huey for patiently and unwaveringly holding up the reflector, and Ropaa for posing for two hours non-stop. I think we made quite the team and we had a nice dinner at a pretentious cafe afterwards.

They will live to regret this

It was a dark and stormy day when the witch appeared in our fishing village.



~~~

Thank you so much Michelle for being such an amazing model (battling the thunderstorm in full make-up? dominating the raging rainfall in a crop top? handling a live mantis prawn? for pictures? that's what Michelle does without a sweat) and your parents for being such gracious hosts (couldn't have done it without their unconditional support -wipes a tear-)!

More on Flickr

another sunday afternoon

Yesterday I spent the afternoon hanging out with Joanna whom I got to know through Neopets. My younger Neopets-obsessed self was one day bored of her old guild, quit, and went guild-surfing in the forums, and just happened to randomly join Joanna's guild. It was a pretty cool guild, I kid you not. Me and Joanna became friends somewhere along the lines of banner-making and petpage-designing. Fortunately our online friendship went beyond the scope of Neopets, although we stopped keeping in contact until last year when, upon coming to Sunway, I remembered that Joanna used to go to Sunway as well. So I searched up her blog, left a message, and met up yesterday. It's amazing to reflect on how that one click of a link from way back in the past has led to the pretty awesome meeting yesterday.

Our conversations in a cafe led us to SS2 where I bought some velvet backdrop for my pathetically-limited studio shoots. And so today I shot some self-portaits.

Atiqah

Has it really been that long since we were judo partners, unwilling teammates in an innovation competition we didn't care about, and bored classmates in art class making plans to go shopping when we graduate from high school, while mulling over assignments and painting deadlines?