Sofea Daniella

I had this great oppurtunity to organize a workshop, together alongside with the model of the day - Sofea. Anyway, during the days when I am not shooting wedding, I sometimes organize photography workshops, mainly concentrating on outdoor lighting for portraitures. To be honest, it helps me keep my eyes sharp on lighting conditions and such, especially when I am trying to mould this technique into wedding photoshoots I undertake from clients.

Ok, back to the photoshoot and also the graciously beautiful Sofea.

Sofea was introduced to this workshop by a fellow shooter - Wai Khing (who happened to join the workshop as well). She is a great sport to work with, and definitely very photogenic. Lots of compliments went to her for being an easy person to shoot, as well as very characteristic. Great! I have to be honest that having such model for a photoshoot definitely makes my day a much more easier one.

I've had some fellow flickr'eres who asked me how do I find time to actually setup the lighting conditions, directions and other related factors during a wedding day shoot. I have to admit that timeline for someone's big day is really tight (normally), and as a wedding shooter - there is very little room for mistakes. What I can say is, by shooting a lot of these kinda workshop which deals a lot with lighting does help a lot for me to be able to carry out multiple lightsource for an event such as wedding.


To be honest, I think lighting has somewhat become like a second nature to my photographic senses. I could practically see the bride, visualize how I want the photo to be, setup a quick light according to that scene in my braincells, and snap away... then consider alternative angles... and snap away again. That's how it works - normally.


Back to Sofea again (I need to sort out different posting for different topics).

So... Sofea's shoot took place in few different locations. The very first spot I chose was Bukit Jalil LRT Station. This spot has got a lot of architectural geometry to it. There are staircase steps, lots of view of the open skies, cool and neat architecture of the National Stadium in distance. This spot could showcase a lot of potential as long as you can control the light. Then, comes the ever faithful Bukit Jalil Park - which is just a stone's throw away from the LRT Station. The reason why I chose this spot is because of the timing of the day. Noon time is a pretty difficult time to shoot with flashes for fill. And the existance of little huts for coverage is a welcomed spec for noon time shoot.


I then proceeded with Sofea to an abandoned carpark in Puchong. This was where the location shoot was for the second group of participants. It rained a little bit, so the cover provided was definitely a big plus. Next was Putrajaya, where we manage to capture some of the most dramatic shot featuring Sofea with a nice dramatic sunsetting sky.


The workshop was a long day. But I returned home feeling very satisfied with the outcome, especially when all of the participants actually gathered new information regarding off camera flash lighting. Come to think of it, I didnt manage to shoot much either... but its the quality that I am after.

Up next - 2 wedding back to back in 2 weekends.