KL Photography Meetup

longing

week 9/52 for my 52 week project

models |  fungying tan tai, naomi stothard & melissa th'ng

makeup artists | naomi stothard & fungying tan tai

co photographers | daniel adams, nicole lim, liam folie, jason lim, isabella tan, renee ho, raisa norazzam, khairi zawawi & herry phnuah

(I'm going to be writing a lot more than usual for this post so please bear with me.)

I had the honour and opportunity to attend a local photography meetup organized by the very talented Daniel Adams. Daniel planned this meetup about 3 months or so in advance and last Sunday it finally became a reality. I had the opportunity to meet Daniel as well as other talented photographers such as Nicole Lim (whom I already know), Liam Folie, Jason Lim, Renee Ho, Isabella Tan (also known as XBellanotte), Raisa NorAzzam, Khairi Zawawi and Herry Phnuah.
The meetup was held at Taman Wetlands in Putrajaya and it is such a beautiful place to shoot at despite the long distance from some of our homes. Most of us met at 1pm and had lunch together then headed over to the Wetlands.

When we arrived the Wetlands, we went location scouting and checked out the place while the models were getting their makeup done. We came across this park-like place which was on a hill I suppose and it was filled with bamboo trees. The other photographers had no problem walking up the steep hill but for me it felt as if I had vertigo and I had no idea why I was feeling that way. We also came across a slightly stone paved track which separated the bamboo park and the lakes. Right after the stone paved track we had to walk down a hill which was less steep than the previous hill to get to a lake. The lake was surrounded by huge rocks and it was pretty dangerous if you ask me but it was worth it (oh, the things we do for art). Behind the lake was another shallower lake and this time surrounding the lake was a lake bank. The water was pretty clear that we could see little fishes swimming. Some of the photographers who were wearing slippers dowsed their feet in to the lake and eventually put their legs into the lake and braved the mud (the water was only up to just above their ankles).

After that some of them were seated in the back of Raisa's pickup truck while the rest of us leaned against cars and stood around her pickup truck and chatted for a while. As soon as the models were all set we headed to the bamboo park. The bamboo park was a beautiful place for shooting and the lighting was magnificent but I couldn't stand up for too long due to vertigo so I didn't get many shots there without the tendency of falling.

skipping the part where we shot at the slightly stone paved track and the lake surrounded by the huge rocks because I don't have anything very interesting to write about

Finally we got to the shallow lake to shoot. Personally that was my favourite of all because it was the safest and it was beautiful too. After we took shots of the models on the lake bank and shots of the models in the lake the slight drizzle began getting heavier and decided it was time to bounce (not literally though). We quickly and gently shoved our cameras into our bags, took our stuff (and some had to dry their feet and wear their shoes) and ran like nobody's business all the way back to the car park which was quite a distance. When we got into the cars we were pretty sweaty, partially soaked, trying to catch out breath and our hearts racing like no tomorrow but we all still managed to say "that was fun".

Last Sunday was one hell of a day. It was definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had. It was fun seeing other photographers worked and it sure was lovely meeting so many people with the same interest as me. They were all really nice people and they were a fun bunch as well. It's so great how a common interest can bring so many people of different ages together. I would definitely love to meet them all again some time. Sadly we didn't get to have a group photo together nor say goodbye due to the horrendous weather. Thank you so much to Daniel for hosting this meetup, the models, Fung, Naomi & Melissa for being so cooperative and also the makeup artists for the day, Naomi & Fung!

A little summary of what we did during the meetup captured with my phone

Chelsey x