Outdoor Fitness Photoshoot with Angela Arlene Quek
This was one of the most memorable shoots due to the tiring but fun journey. It was insane of me to be carrying my equipment and covering a round of Macritchie Reservoir by feet. I had to bring along my 600-watt strobe since it was getting "late" (nearly noon) and I thought I might need the power to overcome the harsh light; hence, it added to the bulkiness and weight of my loads. Since we would be walking on sand, rocks and slopes, I couldn't use my trolley and thus I had to carry all the equipment over my shoulders. I hadn't recovered from my old shoulder injuries.
Angela and I met up at Newton MRT station before we took a bus over to the reservoir. We scrambled for coins as her EZ-link card didn't have enough value. It was a stunning but interesting start to the day. She was cute.
She had an allergic the night before and rashes had appeared on her face. To keep her promise and not waste my time, she went ahead with the shoot, having to put makeup over the rashes, which was a gigantic sacrifice. I assumed most other people would simply postpone the shoot given this unforeseeable situation.
We began our journey at the "main entrance" opposite Mount Alvernia Hospital and walked towards Treetop Walk. By then, it was late morning and the sun was already showing his arrogance. During the journey, we had great conversations while I struggled to survive with the heavy and bulky load, yet having to put up a relaxing front - it's about "being a man" thing.
Angela helped me with my load and I passed her the lightest but bulkiest item – the beauty dish (light modifier). She was so sweet that she offered to share her precious "cat shit coffee" with me. I got to learn a lot of interesting things about her, including her "wushu" base. At least I knew someone would be able to protect me inside the mini-forest - not so sure about the strength of the monkeys though. Her innocent looks and character further sweetened the tough journey.
Although I had been to Macritchie Reservoir numerous times, it was the first time I took Macritchie Nature Trail. I had the luxury of reading maps from a smartphone with GPS but still felt quite uncertain because of my heavy load - I had no idea how far I could go.
Halfway through the trail, we decided we had to get started somehow. An analogy would be the situation of waiting for the bus at a bus stop - we didn't know if the next bus would be better or worse. It wasn't the best location but it was rather interesting. The narrow path and direction of sunlight from the top were not doing the shoot well. We had photobombs very often that caused disruptions.
I also had a problem positioning my light and I decided to keep it simple by not setting up a second light. I had to take into account that if I wanted to lower the ambient light to eliminate the "spotlight" effect while also keeping the photographs sharp and soft, the background might be too dim since my flash would not travel far as to not overexpose Angela's face. Unfortunately, the ambient light changed rapidly and it gave me a hell of a time to change the setting of my camera and light.
Angela pushed herself hard for some of the poses. For example, we tried to take a running shot and she insisted to run from a distance away to keep it natural. She even went into the grass area some distance away from the main road. Her commitment stunned me.
Featuring ↬ Angela Arlene QuekHairstylist ↬ Angela Arlene QuekMakeup Artist (MUA) ↬ Angela Arlene Quek
Wardrobe ↬ Angela Arlene Quek
Camera ↬ Canon 6DLens ↬ Canon 24-70mm F2.8L IILighting ↬ Godox AD600BM
Place ↬ Macritchie ReservoirDate ↬ Year 2020
Photo Editing type ↬ Advanced
💲 Photographer's fee ↬ Prices & packages for Fitness photography
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