In less than three days, I’ll be on a plane with my wife to Melbourne. We’re literally flying into the month of May as we head down-under. This trip has been one in the planning since late 2009. I’m glad we made it this far. So effectively my wife and myself will be away from the 30th April evening to 17th May morning. This trip will be especially special for myself, since I’m celebrating my 30th birthday there, plus an early 4th wedding anniversary for my wife and I.

The trip’s primary objective is to help a good friend with his pre-wedding photography. First off, they wanted something that most Singaporean couples don’t have for their pictures; an uncommon location. Secondly, relatives of the bride-to-be live in Bendigo, Victoria, not more than 2 hours away from Melbourne City, in short, savings on accommodations.

And at least for us, the secondary objective is to do some sight-seeing while we’re there and to take that long vacation that I’ve personally have been pining for. On the second leg of the trip, another couple will join us 4 in Melbourne after we’re done what the photos we need to capture in Bendigo. It’s been ages since the last time I went to Melbourne and certainly look forward to seeing that city and spending some time there again. For the few days we’ll be in Melbourne, all 6 of us will be touring the city and the vicinity before the first couple we came to Australia leaves first for home. During which more casual shots will be taken.

On the second leg of the trip, we’ll head down to Sydney with the second couple. And I believe it is the first time we have ever set foot there. We being all 4 of us. I am looking forward to doing the tour at Hunter’s Valley and staying a couple of nights there while we are at it. We are going to take the opportunity while all my gear is with to take some shots of this couple who have been married for just over a year.  We are also excited at the chance to visit Hillsong church, personally more so for me because most of my christian rock music in my iPod originated from them.

In short, there will be plenty of picture taking and I will be lugging along my recently acquired MacBook Pro 15″ i7 to process some of the pictures as I go along and this also allows me to blog as often as I can. Memories like these are definitely worth recording as much as I can, when I can.

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The finished Lion taken at Moon's studio

Behold! Lion of Judah… To be honest I didn’t think it would take nearly 7 hours to ink but it did, knocking the time it took to do my first tattoo off the top of the list of what hurt most.

Moon did an absolutely bang-up job of the artwork which he emailed me the night before. Took all of 12 hours for him to draw in pencil on paper. Respect. He doesn’t usually email his work out for fear of non-committal from prospective clients. But having had my first done some less than 6 weeks ago, I guess I may have earned his trust.

On the day of inking, Wednesday, 31st March, the stencil work alone(just to make sure the dimensions of the drawing fits the arm properly) took almost 2 hours. Most of which was freehand tracing on ink transfer paper. Strangely, I like to admit that though I was in control of my twitch reaction to the pain and used to it somewhat; it does not however make it any less painful. The finer the detail, the more pain you would have to take.

I like to thank Vicki, Kerry, Aron and my Mrs, for being there. Means much to me to have people around. And to Moon for being excellent in work, deed and attitude.

Lion of Judah. King of Kings. I’ll be studying you closely.

Black Emperor Tattoo

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A first glimpse of the unfinished sketch that is going to be inked on me.

I was blown away by the detail that was presented to me by my tattooist today. And apparently it seems a little more life-like than the previous bull tattoo I had him do for me. Right here, you could see that it’s not finished yet, the mane is missing. And already, the direction is what I was looking for. The liveliness in the eyes is unmistakable and the regal look that I was looking for is spot-on.

I will be getting this on my body coming 31st March. I’ll be ustreaming it once again at the same URL posted previously. I’m not looking forward to the pain but I’m definitely looking to the end product. Estimated time under the needle. 4 to 5 hours.

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I’m glad the inking process was over. For a first-timer to getting a tattoo, I think sitting there and taking 4 and a half hours of constant poking and sharp pain, I did pretty well.

And a job well done by Moon my tattoo artist. Not only has he brought to flesh the ideas in my head, he has brought to life the picture he “painted” on my arm.

I’m looking forward to getting the rest of my designs out. Next being the Lion. Check the finished bull below and live recording of the process.

View from the side of the arm.

A shot more towards the front of the arm

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I guess this entry was long time coming; ever since I started talking on Twitter about getting a series of tattoos done, I’ve been bombarded by various questions. So I thought I’ll just compile them into this neat FAQ.

Q: What tattoo are you getting?
A: Image of a bull(ox), lion, eagle and Jesus.

Q: Is that four tattoos or one?
A: Four.

Q: Are you getting four in one go?
A: Nope. I will do it over the course of 18 months to 2 years I believe.

Q: Where will be the tattoos be on your body?
A: Left arm (around the deltoids) for the lion, right arm for the bull, the upper back for the eagle, Jesus on the left chest.

Q: How big are the tattoos going to be?
A: In short, it will not be small. The one on the arms will be a proper half sleeve. The one on the back is going to extend  from one edge of the arm to the other. One on the chest is going cover the full pectoral if possible.

Q: Which one are you getting done first?
A: The bull. Seen here as a mockup. Followed by the lion. The eagle is third. Lastly Jesus, which is probably going to be the toughest.

Q: What inspired you to get the tattoos done?
A: I wanted to get a tattoo done over a year ago. Just not too sure what I’ll get until one Sunday afternoon, I heard this message from my pastor in church. The message is pretty much embodied by this bible explanation I found online here.

Q: Why not just get a cross?
A: See above. A cross would not be the complete picture I want painted on my body.

Q: How long is the bull tattoo going to take to finish?
A: About 4 hours.

Q: How long did the lion tattoo take to finish?
A: About 6 to 7 hours.

Q: Does it hurt?
A: Are you kidding me?! Of course it does!

Q: What does the pain feel like?
A: It’s not something easily describable; take a rubber band, stretch it out and snap it on yourself; now do that 50 times a second. Sometimes it feels like that, other times it feels like cutting yourself.

Q: Who is your tattoo artist?
A: His name is Moon. And his work can be seen here.

Q: Can I see the finish art?
A: Yes. In fact you can watch me get inked live on Ustream. Login here for stream and info http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kevin365. First Live show to happen this Feb 18th at 1030am in the morning.

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Had the opportunity to shoot with Callan again today. A fresh face wanted her shots taken and we obliged. Today we experimented with a one-light setup and I think it went pretty well. Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Anyway, pictures to come soon.

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Kicking Around

There is an attractive force that comes from an environment such a school. I remember that day when I stepped into Ngee Ann Secondary; the atmosphere felt different, the mood was different. Positive and hopeful. Youthful energy reverberated throughout the grounds. At least I thought so; the teachers, some had tired faces, and it is no doubt from all the paperwork they are charged with.

I remember being in school back then, a school not so dissimilar; running around after classes have ended, playing ball games, chasing each other around. Such is this capture. It brought back memories. And how appropriate and ironic, that I should remember my younger days in the company of an old friend.

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As I sit down and pen this entry, my eyes begin to water and close. It has been one heck of week. Mostly doing stuff to occupy my senses. Visual, tactile, aural.

I’ve been avoiding projects that bore me lately and opting to fill my time with things that do not necessary make more money for myself. That may not be good since I am a business owner and making money should be intrinsic in all I do. Perhaps what I do now will eventually make some but I cannot guarantee much. Anyway, I am happy though at the same burden by the things that I have avoided to do this week.

Let us see what we have done this week, shot for a friend at one of his workshops on Tuesday, Wednesday helped set up part of another friend’s solo exhibition debut, Thursday spend a couple of hours in the evening shooting for tattlermag.com at Oosh.

I shall have to make up for the lost time very quickly. Though, I know myself; the more someone tries to push me along in one way, the person will more often face resistance (albeit silent one) than not. So I pray that I have the strength and focus to finish what I need to do and get it over and done with. Anyway, I am thinking of abandoning the moodstats, it is not working out for me. It is somewhat tedious and not necessary an accurate gauge. Perhaps a photography daily, one starting on 1st August would be more appropriate for myself at this point.

On a side note, I bought my Pocket Wizards Mini and Flex TT, my sister will carry them for me. Hopefully.

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I was happy to help Stephie out today, shooting her new inventory for her blog shop. The morning started out pretty dreary and for the last few days I have been sick with flu. So wanted to sleep in some more today actually. But I am glad that we got this done today.

Stephie is this really warm person, and she co-authors a fashion blog. She started this whole fashion writing, shopping and trading from a passion and after quitting her job in the corporate finance sector. My wife adores her blog actually, along with an army of fans I’m sure. And I can see why. She does have this sense of style that is seen lacking locally. Something that my sister would also attest to with her own online magazine she started.

Back to the shoot. It was brief, compared to the other shoots I’ve got myself involved in the near past. Two hours tops. Stephie’s friend, modeling the clothes for her was good at taking instructions and somewhat spontaneous which made it a joy to work with her.

This time I had the opportunity to shoot with three 580exII. I need to get one more light stand and some RF triggers though. Otherwise, the ST-E2 is still good for indoor stuff like this. Having three light sources changes things a bit, and thankfully I have this shoot to experiment a little. Pretty happy with the outcome and I felt I walked away from this with something. At least I know what more I need and what more I need to look out for.

Looking forward to shooting more for Stephie.

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I had a good time last night at Zsofi Tapas Bar with my new found friends, my wife and Ellery. It comes to no surprise that I enjoy doing the whole social thing, it was something I’ve always wanted to do since there was IRC. Meeting new people and making new friends, keeping them, it is all intrinsic and integral to my being.

Twitter has become the new IRC. Amazing has quickly people get together over common interests. At first it was over beer and then it was over photography. So much interest was generated, that the media picked it up. There will be more, I promise. In fact, something is in the pipeline.

I had a brief moment to talk El last night; he sent me a worrying sms earlier that day with regards to Jay. He dropped the bombshell, and apparently they are in a bit of a spot. Details of which I shouldn’t share but all I can say is: what the hell went wrong? But honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised. Shocked, yes. Surprised, partly. Is it due to her age perhaps? She is just turning 23.

I hope that all will be well and that is just another bad dream.

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