When it comes to travel magazines, one rises about the rest; Conde Nast Traveller.
A luxury travel magazine that is aim at the upmarket and independent traveller.
Recently I had the privilege to be commission for the covershoot of Conde Nast
Traveller. Its an India edition. Was told there are 7 editions in the world. What makes
this special to me, its an issue that feature Singapore. Now that you know I am a
Singaporean and this year its extra special because we celebrating 50th years of
nation building.
Recce was done a day before the shoot day. I was the “tour guide” for Miss Divia, the
lovely editor of Conde Nast Traveller. Whom flew in the day before from Mumbai. We
spend half a day scouting for a few locations at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and
Marina Bay area.
Shoot day starts at our base in the hotel room of the iconic MBS hotel. Archana
Walavalkar is our hip celebrity stylist from Mumbai. When I first arrived in the room;
it looks like a “flea market” with lovely designer dresses, colorful accessories and
shoes with killer heels. And some really to die for! I wonder how many luggages did
it take to squeeze all this?
Our gorgeous covergirl is Colleen Francisca. A former Miss Singapore World. We
begin with fitting for Colleen. After trying close to 10 outfits we zoom down to 2 outfits
that we agree that will work well with the cover of the magazine. Next; shoes; accessories…
after an hour Colleen is ready to get her make-up and hair done by make-up artist
extraordinaire, Maninder Krishnan.
Our 1st location is the iconic gazebo along Swan Lake at Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Its a small gazebo with 2 benches on each side. Unfortunately there was 4 students
having a little picnic on one side of the gazebo. After awhile they realized that we were
doing a photoshoot; they were kind enough to give us more space. The light was pretty
and I position a Profoto B1 on the right, hand held by a assistant. My Fujifilm XT-1 was
mounted with the XF23mm. Setting was at 1/180 of a second at F8.
The most challenging part is getting all the element in place. We spend about 1.5 hours
to nail the shot. Especially when the other model is a toddler. Like all toddlers; we have
no control. So patience is key.
The next location is along the futuristic Helix bridge that links MBS to the Marina Bay
Seating Gallery. As the sun begin its journey home; I mounted a ring flash on the XT-1
powered by the Profoto AcuteB. At times I also added the Profoto B1 as a side light
handheld by my assistant.
In all I had a great shoot with the wonderful team from Conde Nast Traveller India and
also our local gorgeous model. Hopefully with this issue of Conde Nast Traveller we will get
more indian visitor to our sunny Singapore.
