Published Work: Expatriate Lifestyle & Time Out KL

I've been busy on editorial assignments for Time Out KL and Expatriate Lifestyle lately. It was exciting to shoot for such titles. I love the challenge in editorial assignments due to the fact that there is a very small window to shoot and also I'll have to shoot with minimal equipment. Not to mention that I have no idea of what the location presents itself, in terms of settings, lighting and finding good angles. In such cases, I'm happy to see that common sense and making the most of the situation turns out really well for me. Check them out. :)

My shot is on the cover! Time Out KL, April 2011 Issue. 

Credits on the inlay, and I shot the chocolate cake image too.

Here are the section which most of my images are published in the April 2011 Time Out KL issue.

My photos are featured in the cover article of March 2011, Expatriate Lifestyle magazine. This beer photo is not mine, though. I'm posting this cover to illustrate which issue was my photos published.

The editors loved this photo. I strongly feel that it really projects the character of this bar owner of The Green Man, Dougie Roberts 

Here's Allison Martin, owner of Bulldog English Pub for Expatriate Lifestyle, March 2011.

Prior to the March Issue, I've shot this cover for Expatriate Lifestyle for the February 2011 issue with my partner Denis Erroyaux, from Brussels. Again, it was truly amazing.

Here's the inlay for Expatriate Lifestyle magazine February 2011 issue with our credits for the cover.

This is my favorite shot that I took. We took advantage of the natural light coming in from the windows and filled with a 580EX flash with a translucent white umbrella reflector from camera left. I loved the way Christine Sterk, Managing Director of Asia On Time sits herself in a very relaxing pose.

Beach Wedding

Hello All,

Here's some of the wedding photos I took for a lovely couple (they choose to keep their names unpublished). Let's just say, they're Mr. & Mrs. H. They were shot in Port Dickson beach. We had a great three-hour session from around 4pm till sunset. When these photos turn out on the LCD screen, I just jumped out of my skin they're gorgeous!  Here they are...enjoy!

p/s: BTW, that lovely dress? Mrs. H designed and made it on her own. It's fantastic!

The money shot: "The Sunset Kiss". Just perfect, don't ya think?:)



Here's another shot with some ambient background.



"Last Light". The sun was really setting down. By the time we finished this last shot, it was almost pitch black and we had a hard time getting back to the car through the sand. Lucky we had our mobile phones, which doubled as torch lights!



Just Lovely.








This is one of my favorite shots. It's at the beach, yet it really looked like they were in the Amazon!




The evening light is just beautiful, accentuating their lovely expressions. Simply amazing.


Can you get "Dizzy in Love"?  I'm pretty sure you can when love is "spinning" around.

How I did the Campbell's shoot

Recently I've been pretty tied up with several work, which involved our studio and some personal work. It's been a long while since my last upload and I've been procrastinating the updates, until today it hit me that the update will never get done unless i just yank it. So, here goes.

My latest work involves the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) category. In this assignment, I was hired by an advertising agency to photograph Campbell's soup products, which is under the Kimball Malaysia's distribution. What I'd like to share with you are some after and before photos of this commercial assignment, just to give you an idea of how simple my workflow is for a big job like this.

Art Direction credit goes to Steven Kee.

Here's a line-up of Campbell's Instant Soup in boxes.

Another line-up of some muscular Campbell's Condensed soup in cans.

Prego is also under the same group under the Malaysia distribution.

Here's another variation of the Prego's shot I did for the art director's selection.

So, here's how I did it.


Lighting

Lighting setup was pretty straight forward.
I had two side lights, one light to wash out the background and another overhead light for front fill. Exposures were measured using a flash meter.

The products was laid out on white plexiglass, which gives a nice smooth reflective effect. I love it because this cuts me time in post. It's just shoot, colour correct and bam! it's done! 

The Shot
For each setup, I used WhiBal and QP card for colour reference.

Post-Production
Imported the images in Lightroom, batch colour correct and export to hi-res TIFF! Simple as pie.


Hope this inspires you all to give a go at some product shooting on your own. Cheers!

Bella's photo shoot. (Wow! It's been a while since I last updated this blog)

Hello Friends,

It's been really quite a while that I've updated my blog. I was pretty blocked out with work and personal matters until now. As a matter of fact, I still am. But I has come to a point that life and work will always be jam packed with events and unexpected matters. If I were to wait for a free time to update, then the next update will be a long time from now.

Now, procrastination on updating my blog has to stop. Hence I'm updating this short post with what I've been doing lately.

Last week on the 14th, we had a short session to photograph Bella. This was her second visit to FOTOMOMO since February 2010. Bella wanted to update her portfolio in line to seek modeling assignments in town. In the beginning I thought that I could handle the session on my own without an assistant, but then again, I wanted to spend more time thinking about the overall look that we'll be shooting. On the last night before the shoot, I posted a notice seeking assistants in Facebook. It was quiet as expected, until in the morning, my good friend Denis Erroyaux, from Belgium, who's also a photographer, currently staying here in KL called me up offering his service. In my head, I said "Dang, why didn't I thought of him last night?"

I was glad to have Denis around. An extra pair of hands really speed things up, and free me up to shoot. Here are some out takes of our shoot. Enjoy!

A typical group photo to wrap the day. "Where's your shoes Denis? Safety 1st, isn't it?"
From left: Denis Erroyaux, myself, Bella and her husband, Rex.

Now, for some funny faces.

Denis giving me the grin because I took his job as an assistant for a while when I dialed down the flash power of one of the flash heads. "Hey! That's my job." he said.

Night Class: Basic Studio Lighting for RM50/person. Would you be interested?

UPDATE! CLASS IS FULL. Thank you!
Hello all, please note that this Night Class is now FULL! Those who's registration number(turn) are #11 and above will be on my waiting list. Don't worry, you'll be privileged to be notified 1st before I announce future classes/workshops. Thank you for your support.

Hello friends, and friends of yours,

I'm just throwing a crazy idea. I'm in the mood of sharing (because I have some breathing space, finally, but only for a short while before work gets crazy again).

Here's the idea.

Idea #1: Night Class. 31-MAR-2010, 8.00pm-12.00am
Ideal for working professionals, hobbyist, or part-time photographers with a day job. This class is an ideal opportunity to learn hands on basic studio lighting. It's 4-solid hours from 8.00pm till midnight 12.00am. You can come straight from work, and get back home in bed, ready for your next day. It's just a fraction of your time, and a lot to gain.

Idea #2: Basic Hands-on Studio Lighting.
Since it's night time, it only makes sense to learn something in a controlled environment. Rather spending time chit chatting over some mamak stall, let's all spend some solid 4-hours to gain something for our knowledge.

When I say "Hands-on", this means that you get to shoot, measure light, set the light and learn some basic studio etiquette. This basic experience would be valuable for you in terms of opening up some doors to assist other established photographers and learn from them. Established photographers are looking for assistants that are reliable, dependable, knows what to do, and how to work around a studio environment.

Idea #3: Basic Expectations.
Here are some things can expect to learn in 4-hours.

1. What the heck is a light meter/flash meter?
2. You crazy? Light  meters are expensive. How can I measure light without a light meter?
3. Where do I position my lights?
4. I'm a newbie. For God's sake, I don't have four lights... How do I light with just one light?
5. How do I get that glossy white floor finish?

Summary.
In short, when you walk out of our studio door, I want to make sure you walk away empowered with these skills, which are your basic survival skills in mastering studio lighting.

1. You'll know how to measure light, and set exposure without a flash meter.
2. You'll know basic studio etiquette, so that when you rent a studio, the studio owner's gonna keep you in his/her good books (which may get you some discounts, just maybe).
3. You'll know how to light with one or more lights.
4. You'll know how to manipulate simple light to create various background tones.

RM50? You crazy? What's the catch?
RM50 to learn survival skills in studio lighting?
Yes. I'm crazy.
No, there's no catch.

Wait, there's one or two catch.

1. To ensure that information can get through your heads, and stay there for a long period of time (and also because of studio space), I can only take 10 persons maximum for this night class. 
2. You'll NOT become Joe McNally overnight in 4-hours, but I can assure you that you'll feel less intimidated with studio lights. Consider it as your first date with studio lighting, yes?

I just thought that it's time to give back. There's a lot that I've learned along my short photography experience, those of which I also learned from other great photographers. It's only fair that I passed along some of that knowledge to be spread around.

When photographers are empowered with knowledge, only then quality will arise. When quality arise, there's more great Malaysian-born photographers. When that happens, our photography standards will eventually rise and hopefully we won't have to charge peanuts just to make a living, because some clever photographer is desperate for money they lowered down their fees to succumb to client's ridiculous demands.

Location of the Night Class.

FOTOMOMO STUDIO

No. 9D, Jln Petaling Utama 12

Bt 7 1/2 Off Jln Klang Lama

46000 Petaling Utama

Selangor, Malaysia

Map to our studio here:

http://fotomomo.com/contact/

View FOTOMOMO STUDIO in a larger map

"If you think I'm crazy for giving away RM50 fee per person, consider this, perhaps you're crazy not to attend."

Now, did I get your attention? Register now. Sorry, registration is closed because class is full.

Register via this form below. You'll be contacted on payment methods and seat confirmation. Hurry, while stocks last and first-come, first-serve!

Commando Lighting Workshop: Now Open

Hi All,

Save up your money for the most value-for-money (compared to other lighting workshops in Malaysia) lighting workshop you've been waiting for in 2010. Further details after the poster.

I've whipped up a whimsical poster for this exciting workshop too. Here it is:



Payment Details:
Workshop fee is RM380 only.
Maximum participants is 10 people.

1. RM180 to confirm seat.
2. RM200 due during workshop date.

Please make payments to this account:
Account name: FOTOMOMO STUDIO
Maybank account: 562366109121

The step. Important:

1. Once you've made the RM180 initial payment, please email to azhar@fotomomo.com with either these topics/email title:
   
   "Commando Lighting Workshop"
   
   I will be able to filter your messages and sort them accordingly. This way, your email will be safe from getting mixed up with other incoming mails.
2. In your email, please write your:
   a. Full name (so that I can verify this against the bank transfer receipt/notification)
   b. Your phone number (so that I can contact you for urgent updates)
   c. The transaction time stamp and reference number of your payment transfer. The transaction time stamp will differentiate your payment and the other participant's payment.

---

Workshop Details/FAQs

Is this an outdoor or indoor workshop?
The workshop starts with an introductory and theory session in the studio, and some indoor shooting. After lunch we'll move out to location shooting that will be determined prior to the workshop. At this moment, I'm still scouting for a nice location to shooot, that is convenient for us to move about.

I don't have a camera. Can I join?
This is a hands-on full manual lighting workshop. You can have the cheapest China Made flash, but you would at least need a DSLR with a kit lens to enjoy the benefits of this workshop. Therefore, the answer is sorry, if you don't have a camera, it would be unfair for me to let you join. I suggest you get to know your camera first and enrolling in several basic photography workshops out there. The Commando Lighting Workshop aint goin' nowhere. We're still here and you're welcome to join the next workshops in the future.

I have a camera, but I don't have a flash gun(speedlight). Can I join?
Yes.

Word up Zack Arias!

Zack Arias has been one of my major lighting guru and reference for photography all this while. I admire his spirit and outlook on photography as art, business and passion. His passion for photography definitely rubs on to others including me. It's been a while since Zack was featured as a guest blogger on Scott Kelby's website. It has only been last night, during my quiet time before going to bed I watched this inspiring video, and I wish to share with all of you. Original post at Scott Kelby's website here.

Summary:
This video illustrates that as a photographer, we have our emotional cycle just like any human being, our ups and downs. What's important is to keep remembering that every photographer goes through the same cycle. With a bit of perseverance and focus, we can all rise to the occasion and become a better photographer and a better person. Cheers to Zack Arias. Check out Zack Arias's website here.

6th & 7th Simple Food Photography Workshop open for registration

It's here! My 6th & 7th Simple Food Photography Workshop is now open for registration. Each workshop caters for 5 participants max.

Email me at: azhar.ariff@gmail.com to register & secure a seat.

I'll update the list of the participants here on this post, so please check which slot would you like to enroll.

Updated:
25-JAN-2009 (6th Workshop)
1. Mohd Faiz Hashim (paid RM80. Thank you!) pushed to 28-FEB-09.
2. Apan Rashid (paid RM80. Thank you!) pushed to 28-FEB-09.
3. Jailani Besar (paid in full. Thank you!)
4.
5.

31-JAN-2009 (7th Workshop)
1. Shamabd (paid in full. Thank you!)
2. arief hamid (paid in full. Thank you!)
3. Yadziz (paid in full. Thank you!)
4. Shafik (paid in full. Thank you!)
5. Zuraini (paid in full. Thank you!)

Payments:
Kindly email me your transaction number after you've made the RM80.00 retainer fee.

Cancellation:
By all means, if you can't make it to the workshop after paying the retainer fee, please inform me as soon as possible. I will only refund 50% of your retainer for any cancellations. This is because of the slot has been allocated for you and finding are replacement for your slot is uncertain.

Alternatively, you can get your RM80 retainer back if you find a replacement for your seat in the workshop.

What to bring?
1. DSLR
2. 50mm lens (f1.8 or better) if possible. Otherwise, kit lens or any lens will do.

Cheers!

Azhar Ariff.