Oh Darlin

Last Sunday was not another typical Sunday. I got to follow my good friend, Alep, to do a shoot for darlin.kl whose own by another friend that I made through him, Emmy. I became friends with Alep since 2017 through another mutual, we went to Kelantan together to shoot our first wedding but fate has it that I am still doing wedding and Alep has found his niche in fashion photography. Since we live 7 mins away from each other, we got very close and we would share all the silly and fun things we had in our own work.

I know its in me somewhere that I want to be able to do fashion shoot as well but I want to do it my way which is more towards laid back and muted or should I rephrase it into fashion portraiture. I’m glad that in this shoot, the models are wearing natural palettes which are totally my aesthetics (even I matched with them).

So we started the day very early, had our breakfast at local favourite and then made our way to the studio which happened to be a woodwork studio in Klang named PM Woodwork, owned by Alep’s super talented friend, Pojie. The first time I saw that space through Alep’s previous work with darlin.kl, I told him right away that the next time he has a shoot there, I want to follow (with a super serious face!). Actually, this shoot was supposed to be on Saturday but because I really want to join but I have a wedding on Saturday so the ever so kind Alep went through all the hassle to inform and make sure everyone okay with rescheduling the shoot to Sunday, just to accommodate my schedule.

The goal of the day was to shoot the scrunchies from darlin.kl but I had way too much fun because first, lets face it I have always wanted to shoot at that place and finally made it there and second I got to meet a lot of creatives doing their things which totally inspire my little heart. Alep also invited Saiful Chin for the shoot and he came with a friend, Mus. Since we had a bunch of photographers gathered under one roof ( i told ya it was like a street meet, only in a studio), I totally took the opportunity to have myself photographed while the models, Rekha and Aqila, have their outfit change. Also thank you to Aida who made me look alive and for making the models look so beautiful.

I think it is my nature to try to do everything on my own so being surrounded by people who actually do amazing things really help to unleash that side of me. Apart from documenting the session which I aim to put together into a video (one thing that I used to enjoy doing back in uni days but I kind of stopped doing because I was so focused on photography), I also enjoy being the sidekick to the main stylist aka the owner of the brand, Emmy. I also learned a thing or two about lighting with Saiful Chin who is well known of his efficiency in shooting and posing, apart from a little tip on client negotiation. Overall, it was such a fruitful session and it’s a nice break from my typical wedding shoot which I am by far still not tired of doing.

Special thanks to Alep for being the mastermind in initiating this photoshoot, to Pojie for providing us the cool space filled with your amazing woodwork and for being such a accommodating host with coconut water no less, Aida for making us look so fly, Emmy for styling the models (go check out her batik headbands at darlin.kl), Rekha for not judging my poses and for teaching me how to pose indirectly, you’re such a fine lady, Aqila for being such an easy model to work with (and your bf for buying the coconut water and tau fu fa which I did not have time to eat), Zack for picking me up in the morning and for holding the reflector, Saiful Chin for the insightful inputs (not for trying to sell me off to Sony), Mus for bearing with my endless request to take my photos and for enduring my awkwardness and Nazurah for being my hype girl always. I had so much fun in this shoot, thanks guys!