chang*

as i did mentioned in the previous post, i am currently part of a singtel project that involves putting together an online f&b directory. the amount of photography required is intensive, so i am one of the many foot soldiers going about shooting shopfronts. this is by far one of the most boring assignments i have had to endure, but like i said to a few of my friends, it helps to ‘pay the rent’.

the experience has so far been interesting. i have had a lot of stares directed at me – weird ones, shy ones, puzzled ones, angry ones… i suppose walking around toting a larger-than-usual camera invites a lot of attention. what makes this worse is when people do not realise that no, i am not shooting shopfronts for fun and that this is not some personal project.

the reactions in more details – i have had people stop beside me, looking in the direction my camera was pointed. they probably berated themselves for being unable to spot the photographic inspiration and brilliance so obviously gleaming in front of their eyes.

i have had people who gave me a wide berth. sometimes i felt like moses parting the red sea, my camera being the staff. apparently, there are people in south america who believe that when you photogragh someone, you are in fact stealing their soul. quite plausible. maybe if i shoot the marquee of a business i can in fact steal its essence and start an equally sucessful venture the next day.

then there are those who stare angrily at me as though i just hurled some nasty stuff at their parents. it seems like taking pictures of strangers in singapore is some sort of sin. sorry there, i know my rights. if you don’t want your picture taken, don’t come out of your house.

so how have i been dealing with all of these? i find that playing out the storm of the century on my face helps. this is also known as the stare-down, the ‘i mean business, hell i AM business!’ look. this has worked quite well. most singaporeans tend to avoid eye contact for longer than 2 seconds, unless they are in love or frequently hang out with unsavoury characters at random haunts around the country.

also, blasting spacey-sounding indie rock from the early 90s into my head helps as well. actually, the point is that by removing a sense to the environment, i tend to not care so much about what the people around me are doing, or looking at. i employ the previous tactic if i get this one doesn’t work and i start to feel irritated.

if all else fails, i have an official letter from singtel explaining my purpose. at the beginning of the project, i felt a greater obligation to explain myself to the shop assistants and managers. problem is, they will always claim that they are not suited to give me the go-ahead so they put me on the phone with some higher-up who will just ask me to contact the marketing & communcations department. so that got kind of old and i now mostly just shoot quickly and move on without saying much to anyone.

funny thing is, security has yet to give me problems. it is always the tenants.

for more on my thoughts, click here.

meet antonio. he is a spanish gentlemen who serves lebanese food in his japanese manga cafe. he is assisted by a chinese waitress, who he affectionately calls his ‘tastebuds’ and a nepalese dude who is an expert in italian cuisine.

if you are confused, or at least mildly interested by now, i say… precisely! i met him while i was at suntec city earlier, photographing shopfronts for some web f&b directory that singtel is putting together. i am a long away from meeting my target, but that is not the point of this post.

antonio came as a fresh relief after countless stares from shop assistants and owners, who probably couldn’t decide to call security or leave me be. when i stopped outside antonio’s shop and raised my camera, he smiled and gave me a thumbs-up, which promptly caused me to lower my camera because i did not know how to respond.

i then noticed the stacks of manga comics, juxtaposed against the signboards that read like they could be from the mediterranean. he said that he ‘loves the international flavour’. that was how the conversation started, though it was cut short as i had to move along. he told me to ‘come back for some food later’.

so i did that after i wrapped up shooting for the day. i made my way to his cafe – the ‘manga oasis’, on the 3rd floor and nursed a glass of home-made lemon tea with a dash of mint while he prepared my meal – shawama which is basically lebanese kebab and a plate of chicken rice, which i tried to refuse but he wouldn’t hear of it.

above is antonio sans head gear laying down the veggies. he said the secret is extra virgin olive oil, which he uses liberally with his dishes.

antonio having his bald pate covered, thanks to his nepalese chef, whose specialty is pasta with tuna. he used to work in italy. my shawama is almost done.

he showed me the finer points of wrapping a shawama, while extolling the virtue of good hygiene via plastic gloves.

i started eating and boy, was the shawama delicious! apparently, the chicken is roasted after marinating in 10 different herbs and spices overnight. so we chatted while i ate, and we talked about family and stuff like that. he has got 2 kids, aged 4 and 6. he used to work in the states and was trained as a pilot in the past. been places, this guy.

not surprisingly, he said he made the decision to settle down in singapore because he loves the country and thinks highly of the education system. of course, a large part of that is due to the fact that his wife is a local chinese lady.

continuing with the impressive hospitality, he refused to accept payment for the food, booming: ‘how much do you owe me? you are my guest!’. i found out from the waitress that he has basically treated all the tenants of the surrounding shops at one point or another.

what a character. and what an experience to meet a generous soul with a story.

for more of my thoughts, click here.

below are the 6 stills from my COM206 – visual literacy & communication project. i wanted to explore the subject of alcoholism and its effects in a quirky and off-kilter manner through a narrative, and that it is so severe a problem to the point that it penetrates even the subconscious, of which dreams are a product. here it goes:

the first picture establishes the setting. the grass, the mat and the food all point to a picnic scene. the protagonist is asleep. at this point, it is not apparent if anyone else is part of the narrative. the notion of a picnic points towards intimacy as it is an activity shared by couples, family or close friends. note the mat, the bottle and the baguette.

in the next scene we are in her dreamscape. she looks around, dazed and confused, while a sinister jack-the-ripper-esque shadow looms behind her. scale is employed here to make the ‘villain’ appear more menacing. the shadow is created by placing an off-camera flash remotely triggered behind the villain who is just out of the frame. 2 things to note here: as will be with the protagonist’s dreamscape in the subsequent shots, i deliberately created an environment that is bleak and stark, in this case a grey wall. note that she is also wearing a sweater now when she wasn’t before. this helps to reinforce the fact that she is no longer in the previous reality, as well as to emphasize the ‘cold’, relevant to the bleak and the stark.

in the 3rd shot, we get the first frontal look at the villain. he is deep in the photo so viewers are yet able to make him out with clarity. here, the protagonist is walking along a white corridor (achieved through over-exposure with the help of the backlight) that seems to extend indefinitely, in the spirit of the alternate reality. the gesture of the protagonist is supposed to indicate her fear, as she begins to sense a presence.

at this point, she runs – after the realisation that she is being tailed. the villain pursues. his apparent size is larger now, and viewers begin to make out the ridiculous ensemble. a slow shutter speed was used to convey motion.

here, the villain bears down on the fallen protagonist. note the picnic implements that are on the villain. these positive symbols have been subverted to add the surrealism of the dream. the bottle and the guinness hat give clue to the critique at hand. just as the instrument of blunt trauma (baguette) is coming down…

snap back to reality. the protagonist awakes to find her boyfriend, who was the villain in her dream, drinking and taking a big swig at that. her gesture points to the fact that she just awoke and can also be interpreted as a sign of exasperation. whether he beats her or not in reality was deliberately left ambiguous*. though it is clear at this point what she is affected by.

*disclaimer: i can attest that amos loves pamy very much. he is not an alcoholic or wife-beater. i bet they only have sweet dreams of each other.

the end.

of course, we couldn’t let the food go to waste.

it was a challenge trying to compress a story like that into 6 stills. i am aware of the holes in the narrative that would have been plugged if i had more frames to play with but hey, what’s life without a few tough spots?

many thanks to pamy and amos for agreeing to go along with this crazy idea. truth be told, they did not know what they were getting themselves into until it was too late. they are naturally fun people and it was a breeze working with them. thanks to weili and supei, who we bumped into along the way, for helping.

just heard that canon has taken the shroud off this highly anticipated (and hyped) model in their eos line of dslrs, replacing the 5d (which price will hopefully drop substantially).

of note are the 21-megapixel sensor, digic IV processor and ability to shoot high-definition video. dpreview, as usual, has the most comprehensive write-up online.

the latter feature has caused quite a stir in the photographic community worldwide. while no one was surprised (since nikon released the d90 with video capture a few weeks ago), many are questioning the use of such a feature in cameras that are obviously meant to capture stills.

the main argument for such an inclusion is that the lines between photography and videography are becoming increasingly blurred. for instance, mediastorm, largely photojournalistic in nature, has been producing and featuring seminal works of journalism combining stills, videos and audio. if this indeed catches on as the trend, then video capture on dslrs will become ubiquitous in no time.

last heard is that this model will blow about US$2700 (body only) out of one’s pocket. i think i will steer clear for now, though my current camera is screaming to be buried.

for more tech posts, click here.

ok this is actually from a while back from early august. congratulations to deric and orchid who are now in the states.

to the couple: it was a blast covering your wedding day. may you always find love and solace in your marriage.

more on my flickr.

for more posts on photography, click here.