I LOVE it! Can you feel the rawness of the photo? And to think this was shot at the staircase of an apartment. 2 speedlights, 1 sb-600 for hair light and 1 sb-800 bounced on to a white umbrella.

(God knows why the pics are bunched up together despite me placing a break line after each image.  -.- Will figured it out later)

Coming Soon.

So it takes me to be sick and in bed to finally edit the photos. There are few more I but edited the ones I like best. I was fortunate to have Mado assisting me in this shoot – he gave a lot of suggestions in terms of the lighting. In most shots, we had 2 light sources; a flash mounted on to umbrella, and placed to the left of Hunny and another flash (dialed down to a few stops) pointed directly to Hunny from her right side. 

In the first shot above, I tried to emulate the exact same shot that I took of her 2 years back at the exact same spot – compare it with this photo.

Enjoy the rest!

Excerpt from wikipedia:

 

Six degrees of Separation (also referred to as the “Human Web”) refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is on average six steps away from each person on Earth. It was popularised by a play written by John Guare.

 

Thus, my task for this assignment is to take portraits of six different people beginning by person say, A. Then A will recommend someone he or she knows, i.e. B. B then recommends C and so forth till I end up with 6 people. Add a catch to that – the portraits have to be taken in 6 different location in Klang Valley. 

Phew. Sounds daunting huh given that I had only 2 weeks to work on it? But I’m actually pleased that I signed up myself for the assignment. Not only did I made new friends, I’ve also manage to prove that the theory is true! Cool huh? I’m not ready though to release the photos here just yet as I’m still working on getting the bio and comments from the 6 people. But it’ll definitely be up in the next few days.

In the meantime perhaps I could share some two not-so-common shots of mine from Hunny Madu’s first EP tour at Laundry, The Curve last Friday. P/S: Did Laundry just installed new stage lighting? I’m sorry to say this but it’s crap! You’ll either get blue-toned skin or just plained washed out aka white. Or then again it’s just me not getting the white balance right. 

Well, I’m still exhausted and the heat in KL is getting unbearable. But if I don’t blog now, I’ll have a backlog of things to write about because I have a lot to shoot in the upcoming days. Even by today, I’m already set back since I had a shoot with a band just a few hours ago. Sigh, time waits for no man indeed!

Let’s get on with the story shall we! Just a bit of background to begin with. I first met Ms Hunny Madu way back when were kids – our dads used to be in this Superbike gangs where they often organize trips around Malaysia during the holidays. I couldn’t remember much about the childhood days and we pretty much grew up not knowing about each other till a fateful evening sometime in mid 2007. I was reintroduced back again to Hunny through her brother whom I somehow bumped into while in the States. Hunny mentioned that she needed a photographer for her first ever gig at Bangkok Jazz. In short, Bangkok Jazz was a success – I took some (still is) of the best shots of Hunny and about one and half years later, I still am what Hunny say as her Official Photographer.

18 February 2009 was the date Hunny picked as her official EP Launch date. The CDfeatures 4 songs, all written by Hunny herself. And I’m not saying this because I’m her friend, but if you want to hear a combination of hip hop and jazz, GET THE CD! (Just between you and I, I’m one of her biggest fan. Seriously!).

The evening started out with the arrival of the guests consisting of the media, family and close(est) friends. While the guest lingered around waiting to be ushered in, I surveyed the stage and the location. It was my first time at No Black Tie despite being a Jazz enthusiast – so I was pretty much in awe by the wooden walls that covered the entire interior. Hunny’s managers, Hibat and Suraya (who run Beaming Stars) did a great job of preparing and co-ordinating the entire event. There were the posters and banners of Hunny, there were those press packs and there were also those cute honey packets. Let me just talk about the posters a bit. Suraya did an amazing amazing job – not only it had a nice big picture of Hunny, but it also had a cute section to credit the ‘sponsors’. And guess what, ena photography is one of them! I was so excited about it! I did not have a logo (and I still don’t) but Su manage to create a simple yet effective one. Thanks Su!

Ok ok.. I think I need to cut this short, but in all, here’s what happen:

Hunny performs 2 songs. Media listens to a playback of her CD. Hunny performs 1 song. Q&A session with Hunny.

The evening was brought livelier by her own brother/Fly FM DJ/2008 Most Eligible Bachelor nominee, Mr Hafiz. Poor abe (as what he’s referred to by his family and friends) had to rush back in the afternoon traffic jam after the PC ended since he was scheduled to go on air.

All in all, I think the event was a success. My gratitude goes to Hunny for having me around through out her journey as a hip hop jazz performer. If I’m not her OP, I’m not sure where I would be at this point of time. Honestly, many of photo assignments that I’ve taken up are initiated through Hunny’s friends and family.

If you’re interested in purchasing the CD and watching Hunny perform live, the following is the schedule for the EP Launch tour set to kickoff end of this month at Laundry, The Curve:

27 Feb 2009 – EP Tour Launch @Laundry Bar, The Curve

13 March 2009 – An Acoustic Jam @ The Apartment, KLCC

3 April 2009 – EP Gig @ Bangkok Jazz

1 May 2009 – Tour Finale @ No Black Tie

Now on to the pictures!

And my favorite shot of the day: