Daniel Libeskind. March 2012

One day.

When I have a gazillion dollars in my bank account.

I'll ask him to design me a house by the beach.

TWILIGHT ON THE WATER

It's almost always great fun when we're shooting on the water.

I say almost, because while it's fairly comfortable when the vessel you're on is cruising, it's something else altogether when it's stationary and rocking wildly.

Especially when you're trying to frame a 30-tonne yacht that's coming at you at 25 knots through a camera viewfinder. Somehow the eye and middle ear conspire to trick the tummy into thinking it's been put in a bag and churned wildly.

Avomin, for the record, only seems to make things worse...

Fortunately, the challenge here wasn't so much the task of dealing with imminent sea-sickness. But the job of producing a shot, at twilight when all the lights in the Singapore skyline were on, along with setting off a bunch of strobes via radio. And trying to make sure the whole kit kaboodle came out sharp.

Fortunately a combination of high ISO, a camera platform that was a modified barge, and some daredevil runs by a certain almost-heroic Italian captain did the trick. In the end though, we put everything in the computer to even out the color grade and construction mess that speckled the waterline. So much for getting it all done in one go; but at least we tried...

I'd like to do this shot again with a larger yacht than the 63 footer here.

As soon as my stomach stops churning from the memory of the aforementioned experience.

DELHI - CITY OF DUST STORMS AND DISTANT DREAMS

There is a small but distinct possibility that I will eventually forget how to work this blog.

Practise, practise, practise!

Where has all the time gone.

DEFYING GRAVITY

Near perfect geometry.  Kudos to the builders. 

Another view of Reflections - from the exact opposite viewpoint. Twilight leading to dusk.

I can't quite decide which of the two views I prefer.

View from the marina breakwater. 

50 meters behind me, the Philippe Starck - designed 

'A' Yacht looked equally dazzling in the early morning light.

FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE WEALTHY?

Some years ago this brief landed on my lap. I was asked to shoot several musicians with their instruments of choice. The client was a bank. So I thought parallels were being drawn between music instruments and financial instruments. I think I read it too deeply. In the end, the campaign was to launch a premier banking service for high nett worth individuals. I guess the campaign must have worked, as the images ran for a long time. I was particularly proud of these because they were my first commission in B+W.

Frasers Chengdu

The days following a major photoshoot are usually a frenzy. Editing, can be a headache. Made more painful by the need to cull images that sometime number by the hundreds. While it's hard to cite a typical example, here are 4 contact sheets, out of a total of 8 from a project earlier this year. Me aching eyeballs.

NiteScapades

KALEIDOSCOPE

A and I spent a day at the museum - it was great fun. I wished I had time to do this on a regular basis. Just take a camera to all the tourist spots in Singapore and make like the tourists do.

It's amazing what subjects turn up around every corner. I might make a huge print of this. Only problem is figuring out where to put it. Wall space at the moment is almost at a premium.

PAUSE

A leaf from our Mulberry Treee.

The Serapong Course, Sentosa Island.

More plants from our garden.

FRASERS

I like working with clients who feel they have a role to play in the photography process - whether the role be that of creative director, stylist, or set decorator. The results are likely to be less contrived, more spontaneous and a lot more fun to produce. Photography, at least where subjects like the ones here are concerned, is a hugely collaborative effort. And anyone who shoots for a living that thinks otherwise is probably better off working for art, or self.

W RESIDENCES

W-Residences in Sentosa Cove. Another one of those to-die-for waterfront properties. What is it about human beings that draws us to water. Perhaps the fact that we are 70% made of that element has something to do with it. Or is it, as we move through one of the muggiest summers in recent memory, simply the heat.

LV - HIGH ISO TESTS

Frasers Suites

Cavallino

Exquisite.

Pershing builds some of the world's most splendid yachts. This one - the 80 -

has a hull capable of slicing water at 50 knots. 

It was only when she was hovering off the coastline of Sentosa in 15 fathoms of water, 

her twin 4000 horsepower MTUs barely audible above the gentle swells and light rain, 

that 

I fully understood the meaning of Desire.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply did not  have enough of it.

MYANMAR

If you can put aside the notion of accidentally treading on a Russell's viper (as some people I know have come perilously close to doing) there are parts of ancient Myanmar that you have to see while you still have your land legs.

I'd recommend a guide who knows the local remedy for snakebite though. Just in case... 

Above, the Governor's Residence, Yangon. You'll spend a night here, before catching a short flight to meet the famed river cruiser Road to Mandalay in Bagan.

7º56'37.10" N • 98º21'35.02" E

She threw some moves and you could see in an instant she was trained in classical dance.

Then she did a Crouching Tiger followed by a Hidden Dragon

and the transition from one form into another was seamless.

There are actors, and there are actors, and the good ones do not merely act.

They are.

TOMANA

Naval Architect Paolo Caliari designed this yacht in the mid 80s.

29 years on, we photographed her off the northern coast of Singapore,

alongside an island where I used to camp with my childhood buddies.

(Only back then, we arrived by sampan.)

British Airways & Qantas First Class Lounge

British Airways and Qantas' First Class Lounge at Changi International Airport.

We had a narrow window to photograph these images as transit passengers could not be disturbed in between flights. So that left us with around 5 straight hours, between the time the clock struck twelve midnight and five a.m. We shot 5 consecutive days (or rather nights).

Fortunately, the lounge had a good espresso machine.