If you have noticed my posts lately, I haven't been for any photography workshops for a while already and not because I have stopped learning but I am a little more selective in what I want to learn and also pursue a new area in photography as well. When I received an email via WPPM that Nigel Barker was having a workshop here in Malaysia, the very first thought that came to my mind was, "Who in the world is Nigel Barker".

Of course, thanks to Munz who was next to me at that time, she told me who he was!

Anyway, for those of you who still don't know who he is, Nigel is a judge on Tyra Bank's reality show called "America's Next Top Model" which he does on top of other stuff as well. But most importantly, he was a photographer. A good portrait and landscape photographer as well, stronger in the field of portraiture in my opinion.

And the next thing I noticed was that it was not his workshop but more like a 1-day seminar. He had a workshop in Langkawi but it was held during the weekday and it fell during the same time I was away in Chicago hence it didn't really suit me (ok, the price was the main deterring factor as I knew I couldn't afford if :P).

Held at the Ritz Carlton in KL, I left my apartment late as it was a Sunday morning and I knew that traffic would be clear. I was right, I reached there within 15 minutes. Making my way to the conference room, I bumped into familiar faces at the conference such as Johann Sopiee, Patrick Low, Jim Liaw, Ning Liaw, Matt Marzuki, Eric Ooi, Fiona Lim and many more. Of course I made new friends such as Chen WS and Darren Chang as well.

Due to my super efficient "just in time" manner in which I arrived at the location just 10 minutes before the start time and I was seated all the way behind together with Fiona. What was shared wasn't the usual technical mumbo jumbo which you might have heard from workshops. It was about Nigel's life, his experiences and what he does now that inspires us all to be better photographers and to also see that there are things to life that are a lot more worth it than just money alone.

Overall, this conference had one of the best food served! Ritz Carlton provided yummy and delicious food while lunch was at Shook! at Starhill. The amount of food there was amazing and I definitely overate especially on the soft shelled crabs and risotto.

My only feedback to the organizers is that I did wish that the project screen on which Nigel shared his photos and presentation were projected to the back and not just on the TV at the front. Also it would be good that the photos which Nigel shot during the conference could be projected up as well.

On a last note, I managed to help Fiona win one of the three lucky draw prizes by calling out her number. Talk about freaky.

I finally gotten around to compile some of the portrait photos I have taken recently, and by recently I mean quite a while back. Anyway it was one of the requirements which Grace gave me and asked me to do which was due in January last month. Well, all I can say that it is always better to be late than never! :D

The slideshow contains some of the portraiture sessions which I shot whether it may be a couple portraiture, to a personal profile image as well as behind the scenes shoot.

p.s. Make sure that the video has fully loaded before playing it to enjoy the full experience

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Do let me know what you think of the slideshow in the comments section, thanks!

Aaron works in the same company as I do and he previously helped me organize the photography workshop I thought at my firm a couple of months back. This time when he emailed me again, it was for something totally different. He was going to be in front of the camera together with Susan instead of behind it.

Frankly, I believe that Cyberjaya is a little hidden gem when it comes to photo taking. I believe there is plenty of potential here in terms of the photos you can get. I just need to experiment more and recce the place out a little bit more and I am sure I can find more unique locations.

So when Aaron asked me to shoot his portraiture session, I jumped at the chance to suggest Cyberjaya.

Here are some of my favourite shots from that day.







The weather wasn't really what I had hoped for, instead of the sunny and dramatic skies I know Cyberjaya has, it turned out to be dark and gloomy. To make it worse, it started to drizzle as well during the shoot.

Despite the weather, we powered through with more shots!









The sun did eventually set earlier than expected or it probably hid behind some clouds, so we headed towards Putrajaya for a couple of shots there as well.





As a confession, we took these photos right after work so I had all of my lighting equipment and no one to help me hold them. Hence I had to employ the street lamp to assist me with my lighting.











I can't wait for my next assignment to be in Cyberjaya or Putrajaya, I definitely want to try other locations other than just using the usual bridge shots there.