Loading images...
It’s not often you get to shoot magazine covers so of course I jumped at the chance. The thing about magazine covers is that it’s never boring, unknown or obscure. The cover sells no matter what people, your parents, your boyfriend/girlfriend, teacher, BFF tell you. People do judge the book (or in this case, magazine) by the cover. So if a magazine wants to survive in today’s mostly digital, online world, the cover has to do its job.
So obviously, this contemporary Christian magazine still has to do what other magazines do. Put someone well-known on the cover versus someone else. Anyways, people who make magazine covers usually don’t have time for photographers to fuss over the shots. They give you thirty minutes and you better nail the thing down or it’s bye-bye, and you’ve got tons of P&P (Photoshop & Prayer) to save the crap you just shot.
For Winnie, my appointment was 5pm and I showed up at her Mid-valley studio at just a quarter past four. Ten minutes to introduce myself to the receptionist, scout around. She’s a genuinely nice lady and really simple and down to earth so she actually meets me, gets her assistant to make me coffee and ask me my shoot ideas. Since we’re not shooting for Business week, including the studio logo and name is out of the question so she thinks two of my ideas work out and offers a room. I see the a couple of possibilities there so she goes off and I setup.
To keep things fluid, fast, and portable, I throw up a Lastolite EzyBox on a Manfrotto 1052BAC stand. Since I’ve no time to fuss with line-of-sight crap, I shove on my RadioPopper PXs on a Canon 580EXII flash.
Clock hits five and it’s action time. Took a couple of frames, moved a to a glass door and bam, much better than the textured wall. Still not getting it. The editor said beauty so here’s this E&Y Entrepreneur of the year winner, savvy business woman and beautiful at the same time. I didn’t want to position her too hard so I changed ideas, asked her to sit and put her hands together. EzyBox up close, my favorite 70-200 2.8 lens at f/3.2, dialed in +2/3EV to factor in all the white and my 5D Mark II’s brain took care of the rest. Did a couple more but I knew I had the cover.
The first shot, I like the textured wall so I had a tight grid on the flash head to create a natural vignette. Flash head zoomed to 70mm.
The logo for A Cut Above featured blue glass with horizontal texture so this door reminds me of the logo in a subtle way so that’s the reason for the backdrop. Felt something lacking and the don’t really like the door frame so next…
The cover shot here. Flash down -1EV with +2/3 for ambient. I did soften this in LR3 a bit for a final but this is exactly what I got out of the camera. Notice I left space at the top for the Magazine masthead. I shot three of the same, with space on the left and right.
Did a standing shot but it’ll didn’t excite me so that’s wrap. And a couple of shots which they also ran inside for the article.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Chinese: ä¹Â皇爺; Cantonese: Kow Wong Yeh) is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
It was a hot afternoon that we visited the Ampang temple on the 14th of October. According to many, it’s suppose to rain for nine days and nine nights but nary a drop of water was seen and it was literally a scorcher of a week. Arriving at four made it easier to get parking and of course avoid the times where there would be hundreds of people everywhere! That made it easier to shoot. We did bump into a couple of photographers, including Cheryl Hoffman who runs the 9 Emperor God’s blog here. It’s always fun to meet online friends in real life!
Anyways, here are my shots from that day. Sorry for the delay as my schedule got quite hectic after that. And, yes, today’s Diwali day so for my Hindu reader’s, Happy Diwali!
For the Photographers, the shots were primarily taken on 2 lenses, a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 and my favorite, the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 IS II.
As photographers, many of us sometimes don’t know how to give back to society. Photography charity is not as common as other types but there’s still a role for photography to play. The most obvious is to highlight or enlighten people about the cause. For me, it’s partnering with SEMOA Berhad who works for the advancement of the Orang Asli in the Peninsular. Besides providing a 4×4 vehicle and driving, the photography can be used to help illustrate the plight of the people and their living conditions. They also can show what ordinary people can do to help. Giving of yourself or your skills is actually very uplifting and encouraging and you not only feel better about yourself but also touch the lives of others. Here’s some photos from last Saturday’s trip along with Sanofi-Aventis.
The interiors were lit with two Canon 580EX IIs triggered by RadioPopper PXs. One flash was justin-clamped to the roof with a Sto-fen diffuser to provide ambient light while another unit was fired through a Lastolite EzyBox hotshoe for directional light.
It was a bright, hot, sweltering day that the official opening ceremony for SEMOA’s Kebun Orang Asli in Tras. We had the privilege to cover the event and it was an amazing day. It started of course with a day that was so bright, there was about five-stops difference in light between outdoors and indoors. Again, I relied on my RadioPoppers to illuminate the scene. We had like five flash units going off to equalize the light difference. Enough speedlights and you can match the power of the sun! Besides Yang Berhormat Bernard Dompok, Minister of Plantation, Industries and Commodities, we also had the local Tras assemblyman, Mr Choong Siew Onn.
Kebun SEMOA is an effort by the SEMOA group (supported by many churches and individuals in Malaysia) providing education, help, and medical care to the local indigenous population (orang asli) in the Tras, Raub and Bentong area.
© ekml|visuals and Xenitude Visuals (959053-T)