Can’t believe Spring has changed to Summer. Took me a season to churn this out. Heh. Me baaaddd.

During my Easter break, Pink Elephant Lab (PEL) had a London/Paris workshop sesh. As I mentioned earlier, when mba Nana is in town, you better be down (with her).

Me, being me, I honestly didn’t bother checking what kind of genre this round’s workshop was going to be. Munich workshop was about people and live spaces (if I remember correctly).

I only realise what I was down for, the day before.

The experience has been an exhilarating one.

First we learnt to take pics with different settings on people on a Macro scale, then we moved into taking closer pics of em’ and finally, super close – think Humansofnewyork – kinda close.

The last obstacle was the hardest for me most of us as we have to go up to people, and personally ask them for their permission and stuff.

The power of having dslr on your neck, approaching people, is like flag day (donation). Even if you’re at a place with throng of people, they will make an effort to walk around you so that we won’t interact. Kinda like when the red sea split after Moses hits the ground with his stick.

That day, was one of thoooose days where karma just gets back at you for being one of those people that make way to ignore the dslrs and charity boxes.

Sometimes, people are kind enough to partake our activity. Sometimes they just ignore you with their aloof facial expression and sometimes they talk with you before rejecting. (Ouch!)

Note to self: Always put some coins (and/or notes) when you see student having flag day! and stop for a bit when people approach you on street unless your mother tells you to not talk to strangers then please, listen to yo momma.

Here are few pictures I’d like to share during the session.

This is definitely not portrait but you gotta love a crowd by food stalls!

*The first round, people at a distance*

Then…

We went closer (nearer) to people. It was still candid.

Gotta love the variety of ages. It tells what people of certain age group do at the same location and on a same day/season. This lady above, I think she was aware that I was taking her picture but she was cool about it. Must be that £1 juice’s magic… keeping people in good mood. 🙂

The final “mission” was the hardest for all us. We had to go up to people, stop them for their time and work with the lighting we were at, not to mention adjust the camera setting when the picture we took doesn’t come out the way we’d like it to be.

I was all jittery and rather challenge the bungy jump at Macau Tower. At least the agony would be over after a minute or so. Never mind the height of 233m AFFL (above finished floor level).

But this scaredy cat managed to actually get quite a number of portraits. *Phew* That was a near death experience. Hehe 😝.

This two guys are a part of a band, The Thirst and they happened to be busking around.

This guy reminds me of my brother, with his army shirt all. He was super friendly. You gotta love people with caps/hats. It just adds personality when photographing them.

All in all, I’d say that this experience has been a first for me. It really stretches you out of your comfort zone. There is not enough words to tell you how vulnerable I felt during this activity.

I was like pleaseeee, anyone of you with laser eyes? Please shoot me! Save me from myself! What was I THINKING!!??

At the end of the session, we had a small discussion and my exact words after saying the vulnerable bits was, ‘…At this point in my life, there is absolutely nothing that I can give (whatever that may be).’ Nothing to say. Nothing to advice. No lust for coveted bags or shoes. Yup, thaaat bad. Just wanna curl into a ball and stuff myself into a rat hole and hibernate for the next 500 years. Drama, I know. But really! There are not enough words for me to explain how I felt. Just recalling and typing this is making me all giddy again. Haha.

But, despite all these mixed emotions, that feeling of satisfaction is there to comfort you. It’s like, ‘I did it. I actually did this. People actually make time for me. A total stranger.’ 

I can’t be much for proud of the girls and myself for getting out of this day alive. It may not be much, but we learnt something new and we’ve got a memento that’ll last for quite some time. 🙂

Now, I’d like to take the opportunity to apologise if any of these photos have hurt your eyes cause they were soo bad or something. I’m only good as my teachers are. Bahahaha.

You can view my Portrait Cikgu/Guruji portfolio here.

It’s been a looong fruitful day gang!