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India: Sights, Smells, Sounds

A kaleidoscope of colours, smell and taste. I did not imagine India to be anything else but interesting. In my list of countries to visit, India is definitely not one of my top 10. But at the end of June 2010, I had a taste of India. AND, felt the burning heat of the sun, all 40 degrees of it. I was in India for a corporate shoot. 8 days, 4 internal flights, many hours on the road and 5 cities later, I felt I had seen two different sides to India.

On one hand, you have poverty…

Children with growths on their heads, young girls who barely look like teenagers holding on to babies, begging on the streets…

And then you have development…

Fancy buildings that look so futuristic. Offices with coloured glass windows. High end apartments that only few can enjoy.

What a contrast.

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Maternity Portraits: May Lee & Adrian

It’s amazing when as a photographer, you can connect with your clients. It only took a few minutes for us to feel comfortable with each other. I only met May Lee & Adrian on the day of our shoot, and within two hours, we parted as friends. The love that they share for each other is just so obvious. May Lee, you look gorgeous! And Adrian, you’re not too bad yourself too! :)

I love this bib and clothing that has cute words like these. Even before your child forms their own opinion, the parents have decided what the kid should ‘think’. :) Yup, my kid will definitely have t-shirts that say things like “I have a cool mom”.

It was a beautiful day.

Thanks for a wonderful photo session together! Can’t wait to hear the good news really really soon! :)

A mother’s unending love

In May and June, I ran a competition to give away a free portrait shoot. One of the two winners is Selina, whose story is written beautifully by her husband Robert. Here is his write up that won her a free portrait shoot:

Last year July, my wife was pregnant. We were very happy waiting for the arrival of this second child.

However, in the 3rd month of the pregnancy, my wife experienced the membrane ruptured where there was very little amniotic fluid inside the water bag. When she was in the 5th month, the fluid never increased. Doctor advised us to terminate this pregnancy as the complications would cause abnormalities in the baby, and infections to my wife which may lead to death.

My wife, who had been happily waiting for the second baby, refused to terminate. She went to see several famous gynaes in the Klang Valley and all she got was the disappointing news.

She was still very persistent and flew to Singapore on her own without me knowing to seek the final opinion.

The Singapore gynae said she should continue the pregnancy. She should give the little life a chance to choose his life.

Throughout the remaining of the pregnancy, my wife encountered bleeding, fluid leaking every night when she was sleeping, she had mood swing, she was exhausted, and been refrained from many of the daily activities that she likes to do. She was not allowed to go swimming, yoga, shopping, driving, going up stairs, walking, and this was a torture for an active person like her.

The day had come and she was in the labour room with 7-8 doctors surrounding her. They were expecting that this baby was not going to make it. Baby is finally born at 7th month. I am proud to say that my wife and baby are both healthy. The doctors said this is a miracle! We have created a miracle baby!! Our son is now 3months old and he is growing like a full term baby!!

I am thankful for my wife for her persistence. She has gone through the pain throughout the pregnancy and I really want her to be deserved for this photo shoot, together with our miracle baby.

This is a family that really stuck through thick and thin. I had the pleasure of meeting their 2 wonderful children Jovie & Jovan, the miracle baby. Here are some shots from our portrait session!

This is Jovan, the miracle baby. He was a little sleepy during our photo session.

Seeing Jovan here and hearing their story reminds me of how good God is.

A little sisterly love going on here…

Some father-daughter time.

And finally, some photos of Robert & Selina together. Robert, you have an amazing wife, who has such a strong spirit and energy! And two beautiful children, whom I’m sure bring tremendous amounts of joy to the both of you. You guys definitely deserve this shoot.

Accidents while on shoot

I’m still traveling in India on this corporate shoot, but will be glad to return to the comforts of my own home (and a loving husband) soon. While at one of the many construction sites, the 3rd-party strap (but, but it was an uber comfortable neoprene padded one that was supposed to cushion the weight of the camera on my neck!) I was using came undone from the buckle, causing my precious 5D Mark2 to fall with a resounding thud.

I picture it in slow-motion over and over again, wondering if I could have dived in Matrix-style to save it before gravity got the better of the DSLR. What’s done is done, I guess and I’ve resolved to be very, very careful when buying camera accessories.

As a professional, I always carry a backup camera body and for good reason. I would feel a whole lot worse if I let my clients down because I was not well prepared enough. As the scouts would chant, “Be Prepared!”.

Canon, pretty, pretty please get this fixed quickly when I get back, and I hope it won’t burn too big a hole in my pocket.

A Glimpse of India

I have never been to India before, but I have this stereotypical image of people living in slums, cars honking all the way, and poverty stuck in my mind. When I arrived in India about 5 days ago, I realized that there are certain things to India that I never saw. Firstly, I think they speak a lot more English than some other third world countries. I met drivers who went to university, studied IT but never graduated. There is also quite a lot of infrastructure readily available to the people.

Perhaps the places I went to were ‘sanitized’ in some way. I am in India for 10 days to shoot various IJM projects, mainly in the cities of Bangalore, Nellore, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Jaipur. When I arrived in Chennai that night (10pm local time), we traveled for 2 hours to this toll way, and started shooting video + stills! I didn’t expect my shoot to start at midnight, but it was rather fun.

I even got to climb a truck in the process. (Sorry a bit blur, taken by a work colleague). I think I smelt a little cow-ey after that.

After shooting for 3 hours, we traveled another 2 hours to our location, Nellore. It’s a small town between Chennai and Bangalore.

The drivers in India are pretty bold… and mad, I would say! It’s scary to drive here. And I fear for these women who stand in the middle of the road, sweeping the highway. Seems like a little futile too.

At this moment, I’ve left Nellore, traveled 8 hours to Bangalore by car, flew to Hyderabad, and New Delhi. I did not manage to upload many photos, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of my journey so far!