02 April 2011
Dhaka, Bangladesh
and yes, we went there once again...... when we last went there, we thought that was the last time we would go there... but as it turned out, it wasn't the last attempt after all..... full credit goes to Zaim for organising this yet again.... its a privilege to be able to use that private property time and time again to come up with some unique stuff....
this time, it was the biggest event we've organised there so far.... and it also was the biggest event of TTL Koba Squad by some margin!!..... it was the biggest, despite the absence of a lotta others who promised to turn up... because of the size of the company, we decided to split up the overall group into two teams..... one team was to explore the top floor with graffiti (floor#1) and the other team was to discover the virtually empty floor below that (floor#2)..... as I had been there twice before, I thought it would be a nice enough experience shooting in floor#2.... and it was a great experience all around!!
I was accompanied on my floor by some really dedicated young guys who produced the most outstanding ideas and put them to practice..... it was a tough job implementing the not-so-easy ideas, but the ultimate outcomes justified all that pain.... and hae to say, we had a lotta fun!!.... I was really lucky to have Rizwan and Nasif with me, who were joined by Nasif's very young student, Aymaan.... we were also joined by others during the shoot..... Ronie, Ripon Bhai, MMZ, NiH, and others joined us for some brief periods.....
I had some big ideas with some unique stuff..... and we dragged quite a bit of equipment up there to implement such ideas.... but ultimately we were pegged back by some empty promises.... some of our most important people didn't arrive.... so, had to switch to plan B...
we started off with some fairly simple ideas..... wanted to take a wide shot (20mm) of the empty space with the windows featuring in the background..... Nasif volunteered to be the first subject.... used an Elinchrom Ranger with a softbox to illuminate Nasif... but as it turned out, there were substantial light spill on the ceiling from the softbox, which forced us to use a grid-spot and forget the softbox idea for the day..... the grid-spot worked wonders.... it made the light really directional and there was no spill.... to separate Nasif from the background darkness, I put Rizwan behind a pillar with an SB-900 flash in his hand.... the SB-900 was in optical trigger (SU-4) mode and picked up light from the Elinchrom....
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| From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011 |
then were was the turn of Nasif.... we planned to create sort of a Forest Gump with Ronie.... a lone chair and a lonely desolate place with left-over materials.... and Ronie was just looking for some divine help to get out of this mess... a simple, but effective picture that I really wanted to shoot.... but this time, Nasif took the credit for that lovely image.... I played the role of a VAL (voice-activated lightstand) with one SB-900 in my hand....
then came the turn of the more complex stuff.... I was thinking of some funky images with a subject, who represented the new generation.... Nasif brought his young student Aymaan, who I have to say played a great role in front of the lens, which he probably didn't think of before..... he was patient with our constant fiddling with lights and stuff.... and although Nasif's first shot was done in half-an-hour, this shoot continued for a full one hour!!....
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| From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011 |
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| From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011 |
we used the Elinchrom Ranger unit to produce a red backdrop with a red gel and barn doors.... the first shot was just with that backdrop, which didn't really impress anyone.... then we made it a bit more complex by switching to 85mm from the 70-210mm and shooting wide open @f2.0 to put the background out of focus..... that produced another dilemma.... a window was putting in too much light inside and we had to block it to control light..... we used some readily available dirty stuff to accomplish that (not without some toil, though).... then the empty ceiling came up in the frame... and I though it would be a nice idea to put some contrasting colour on the ceiling..... out came an SB-900 with a blue gel on it and left in in the hands of Ripon Bhai..... now we had a night-club-like backdrop.... the main light was in the hands of Nasif, who held an SB-900 in one hand and a Simpex softbox in the other.... Nasif also wanted to be featured, but his profile didn't even come close to Aymaan's..... Aymaan's was a winner!!
the next one was the ultimate execution of our big ideas.... and it took an hour and 20 minutes to complete the whole thing!!.... I had managed Shudipto the night before to bring in some "dhuup", which would help us to create some smoke-filled environ.... this was an alternative to fog machine, which required AC power.... and we gave up that idea since it would've been virtually impossible to carry a fog machine and a generator up to the 12th floor!!.... Nasif received the dhuup from Shudipto the evening before, only to discover at the dead of the night that he lacked a pot for that.... well, that was managed at the last moment.... and now, the challenge came to light it up..... all on a sudden, Rizwan jumped in and said that he knows how to do this!!..... and we got our shot!!
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| From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011 |
well, the actual shot wasn't as easy..... we had to create the whole scene before we could light up the dhuup, as the dhuup would run out of smoke if we spend too much time creating the scene..... the idea was instigated by Nasif.... he thought it would be a nice idea to put a light inside a ghost mask that he brought..... he wanted the light to burst through the eyes of it..... but that mask alone was not gonna be the trick.... we had to have a subject.... suddenly it came to my mind that I had the 4'x4' diffusion panel in my bag..... now Nasif turned into a voodoo magician of sorts..... the mask remained pretty much in the dark, lacking details.... so, we put Aymaan there with a small flash at very low power..... we were short of grid spots, so, Aymaan put his hands around the flash to limit the spill of light..... now there was light coming out of the mask, and yet, it kept all the details..... the mask with the light inside was placed on a light-stand.... Nasif's white "gown" was not featuring much in the scene, so, we hired a YN-560 flash from upstairs and put it in the hands of Rizwan.... now, this was the hard part..... we had to balance the radio triggers with optical slave.... so, eventually, Rizwan was holding an SB-900 and Aymaan was holding a YN-560.... Rizwan's flash had a CTO on it and a DIY grid-spot to focus the light on Nasif's hand, which was like "controlling" the spooky mask!!..... the light also illuminated Nasif's "gown"!!..... the last part of the frame was the background, which was fixed first.... we used the same Elinchrom Ranger setting from the previous shoot with red gel on it.... and we had the set ready.... after 20 minutes' effort Rizwan and Nasif were able to create that smoke and we were in action..... this "lighting-up smoke and shoot" procedure continued for around 10 more minutes before we finally called it a day!!..... it was a remarkable show of perseverance from Nasi, Rizwan and Aymaan.... they all were tired at the end of it..... but we were all delighted by the output we got!!
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| From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011 |
the last part of the day was a big disappointing, as our radio triggers kept malfunctioning..... it was probably because of lack of proper battery charge.... the Skyports were not triggering the lights regularly and event though they were firing, they weren't syncing..... it was frustrating to end the day with such disappointment.... yet, Nasif was able to create some more funky shots of Aymaan with the Yongnuo radio triggers.....
it was real festival on the top floor, as there were more people clamouring for space.... there were the graffitis and most had not seen those.... for them, it was another discovery..... we watched them create their last image before we moved out..... that last shot was awesome and really showed some creativity and effort.... the dedication in the shot could be seen in the output..... we were all exhausted at the end of the day.... we started in the morning hours and it was late afternoon when we all finished up...... there was no electricity in the building, as before.... and the top floor was almost suffocating..... we had a bit better time on the floor below, where the weather was much more gentle on us......
it was an effort well worth!!..... and cheers for Zaim once again!! :)
