January 6 Photo Shoot

 Many times when we travel we take a photo class.  Michael really wanted to take a class in Malaysia as he thought his photos had gotten into a rut.  So he found someone who offered to take you and your friends around and take photos of you that he would give to you.  This is not what we wanted, so he asked Wilson if he would give us some photo tips in a class.  Wilson was intrigued and said yes.

We had to take a 30 minute Grab ride to the other side of town where Wilson had a studio.  He was only doors away from a temple and the temple was on a beach.  This location is a very tiny Chinese enclave where he grew up in and now lives and works.  

We started out in his studio location.  The main area is on ground level, but the room he wanted to meet in had a door at about chair level.  I had to sit on that floor and then turn and crawl in order to hold onto a chair and get up.  It was awkward and embarrassing.  The chairs and table in this room - his meditating room - were all very low - but not Japanese low where you sit on the floor.  

The first thing he had us do was to take pictures of a chair.  The second one is my favorite.

He also had a collection of small pieces of pottery sitting in front of a window.

He also talked about white balance.  Michael had sent him links to our blogs and he actually looked at them.  Because the sun never came out in Melaka, I had set my white balance to a preset of "shade" and then forgotten that I had done that.  Wilson also thought my photos were too warm.  He really wants his photos to look as close as possible to what our eyes see - so he sets his white balance at 5600 Kelvin.  To me that makes daytime photos look so washed out - see photo of temple above.  And I made some adjustments to the photo.

But I am game to keep taking photos at this setting.  Maybe later in the evening I will be happier with the setting.

There was this weird white board setting in front of the alter.

Until suddenly it wasn't there.  The composition is so much better without it.

The graveyard.

There were a lot of large stones in the setting.  I don't know where these steps lead to as they are blocked off.

There was an abandand building that was great fun to photo.

A couple on the beach.

Wilson taking photos.

There was a party on the beach taking wedding photos.  Now - is the photographer in the cape full of himself or just having fun?

We were lucky as the skies had been grey, but now color was coming through.