VAGABONDING : December 2012

2 days ago I assisted my a friend of my dad's, who's also become a friend of mine with a photoshoot. I went on a roadtrip with him a few months back (about 700 miles going all the way down to Davao from Manila along the coast) and it was awesome and adventurous and perhaps best saved for another time (I have actually been meaning to write a complete essay type situation on the trip but that ideas has completely atrophied due to my laziness and inability to get anything done which is depressing and I should do it but I don't know).

Anyways, I woke up and 8, promptly went to the kitchen and unboxed my new Koala Krunch cereal and cracked open a fresh brick of hemp milk (my first time experiencing the lavish hemp derived milk, quite decent I must say) and mixed the two ingredients into a heterogeneous, nutritious and delicious breakfast meal. My friend's name is Andy and he has been a professional photographer for about 12 years. Quite an interesting character, Andy originated from Germany and has traveled the world the same age as me, accidentally climbed part of mount everest, battled and defeated testicular cancer, became a pseudo celebrity in the Philippines for modeling and being a TV host and has since become a jolly, beer loving, father of 3.

I checked my email the night before and he said he'd be picking me up at 9:30 and I should meet him in the downstairs lobby. In between breakfast and his arrival, I engaged in my usual internet browsing and I don't remember much except for trying to find an mp3 of R Kelly's "I'm a flirt" after no success the night before only being able to download a rather average "trap" remix by Cyril Hahn, and a terrible but amusing broken social scene x r kelly mash up which I thought was too rare to pass up on adding to my musical library.

I left at 9:29, locking the door and taking the elevator 10 floors down to the lobby where I saw him outside the door making his way in. We got in his car and his wife was there serving as the designed driver at the moment. A rather clean and standard sedan, we quickly made our way to the location of the photoshoot. After introducing myself to his wife, I swiped through my iPhone (which I have been dropping more frequently lately and am definitely grateful that it is still intact, maybe I should thank the makers of the bape case because it's deceptively durable) and decided on listening to my new R Kelly tracks. After giggling in my head to R Kelly's greatness in combining spot on vocals with humor and realness, we arrived at the destination. St. Luke's hospital was the name and I would be spending the next 9 hours there. Andy popped the trunk and inside was a big black bag with all sorts of metal leg devices sticking out. I estimated it's weight to be about 35lbs or so. In it were several tripods, monopods, lamps and one small and large umbrella lined with reflective aluminum on the inner portion to bounce light off for certain sorts of photos that required it.

We waited around the entrance, as the security guard and his a white Labrador retriever sniffed the contents of his bags, for drugs and bombs and other paraphernalia which I guess is standard procedure. We made small talk for a few minutes, waiting for someone to come and receive us and bring us inside. I noticed that the labrador sniffing dog must have not quite new to it's job because it was humping the leg of the security guard inspected our bags. The dog also looked really bored and was jumping to engage with another sniffing dog that was within the near vicinity.Someone soon came with a dolly type device as we set our bags upon it and on it's 4 rotating wheels entered the medical sanctuary. There was a concierge service desk in the lobby which made me conclude that this hospital had s some elements of a hotel and that must have been an element that the designers wanted to include in the hospitals make up. Andy indicated towards a man whom I was informed to be an owner of many go go bars in a particular and unknown area of Manila who was traversing through the lobby elevator area.

As we squeezed the dolly, myself, and andy into the elevator, we were designed toarrive on the 12^th floor, which in itself is somewhat of a prolonged ordeal. The elevator would stop at every other floor or so for nurses and patients laterally navigating the hospital. However we finally ended up on the 12^th floor and after weaving through a few corners and hallways we ended up a room at the corner of the building, with a nice view of the bustling city below. Greeting us there was several members of the Hospital's marketing team and I'm guessing senior ranking folk of some sort. Andy quickly went to work identifying what was to be one that day, going over a schedule chart that was printed on standard 6x8 printer paper. We had about 10 panels that the hospital used to illustrate various procedures and services that they wanted to advertise through photos. These panels were around 10x12 inches and we were given mocks which had stock photos that the art direction team had selected to be an aesthetic guideline for us. Andy pointed out that in some panels that the variety of light needed was only available during the day so informed the marketing team that some of the scheduled panels might have to be rearranged according to what the daylight was like.

The first panel was of a diabetes patient in bed receiving good new from 2 doctors about his health and well being. Andy went through the process of doing a test shot to arrange all the lights and elements in order to match closely with the sample panel we were given. We arranged a few flowers to be in the background of the hospital room, and closed a couple of shades so that they were all closed at an equal length. The lighting in the room was not sufficient and needed to be warmer, so from the large black bag he withdrew an extendable monopod that he attached his flash to at the top. He instructed me to hold, which I made up my mind looked like some futuristic battle staff, as close to the ceiling as possible so that the flash pointed towards the hospital bed where the diabetes patient would be laying in receiving the fantastic news. Holding up a staff with a flash unit at the end of it isn't any simple task either, it requires focus and strength (luckily of which I have an abundance of #sarcasm). I also think my long limbs aided in the task because it has to be as high to the ceiling as possible and out of the frame of the shot so I was perhaps, perfect for the task.

I was surprised how good Andy was at his job, quite efficient and very aware of what needed to be done under what time constraints. Also he is quite good with people and seems to be beloved almost everywhere we go, which I attribute to his good sense of humor and his jolly physique (he has one of the most impressive and respectable beer bellys I've ever seen). He set up his 17 inch macbook pro on a nearby desk and made some new folders labeled “diabetes test shoot” and within that folder “jpegs” and “raws” for the 2 different file formats his camera saves the photos in. He was not without his blunders though often forgetting to eject his memory card from his laptop and only finding that out when he tried to shoot the camera. But all in all you could tell that he's been doing this for 12 years and that he has fun doing so.

After we figured out the correct lighting needed and arranged everything properly we were ready for the models to come and complete the photo. The patient would be played I assumed was a doctor that worked at the hospital, and he nestled himself into the bed to play the receiver of good news diabetes patient. There was one female doctor and a rather primate-ish looking male doctor who recognized Andy and was surprised to see him, saying that he knew him as a drinker jokingly after Andy told him “this was his day job”. The photoshoot went underway as I held the light stick above the head of the patient lying in bed as make up guys passed me every few shots to adjust the hair of the woman doctor who was touching the patient's shoulder in a reassuring and pleasant manner. I often wondered in my head how tragic it would be if the flash fell off or I dropped the stick onto the doctor's face who was lying in bed and what the repercussions might be but I focused and made it through the pain and everything went fine. The shoot concluded with a few hand shakes and thank you's as the doctors exited as me and Andy looked at the shots on the computer and remarked about how well we did. Most of the photos were to be edited in photoshop anyways to make the lighting perfect and to make up for some of the things that could not be accomplished at the scene (ie: the light wasn't bright enough on the male doctor's face with the first flash arrangement so we had to take a second shot where I had to reposition the flash so that it properly illuminated his face. The two photos would then be cut together to create one perfect, well lit photograph.)

Our second job was a woman sitting all bye her lonesome on a hospital bed in a rather dreary state of affairs pondering her fate because she was to undergo some sort of surgery which I cannot remember the specific name of. We used the same room and bed for this shoot and we went through it with some ease. The model who was used seemed rather excited by the whole thing and I think that's a rather peculiar part of Philipino culture. They seem to have a particular fondness towards beauty and stardom and modeling and often joke and discuss it. Almost everything on TV is (extremely) dramatic soap operas involving love triangles and affairs and all the talk shows involve dancing and singing girls etc. It's really interesting to watch what transpires when you put a lens in front of someone.

This shoot required a new accessory, a Styrofoam board that Andy had his wife deliver around an hour after she dropped us off because he probably forgot it. The board was effective for reflecting so that it dampens and expands the area of where the light off the flash hits. After finishing that panel we made our way to another area of the hospital a few floors down where we were to take a photo of an old man before surgery on a rather large and expensive looking machine/bed situation. We had to enter the area with a set of robes and some sort of plastic sock type device which was too big to place over my entire shoe so I had to take it off and wear a pair of grey croc resembling shoes which I admit is the first time I have worn any of such footwear.

The premise of this panel was quite similar to the prior one (I think) in that he had was faced with some sort of embalyss and his fate was unsure, but in the same panel a text explains what the hospital could do in terms of treatment and that all would be well (I think). Again rather dreary and dark. We were introduced to our model, who was an actual patient who was rather perfect for the role. His face was already solemn looking, dark and leathery and eyes that drew you in to his (alleged pain and) unsureness. Hospitals are also a good place to take photos as there are whole lots of moving light devices that are used in surgery rooms that Andy rescourcefully maneuvered to serve as lighting fixtures for that panel.

After that I think we had lunch, which was rather forgettable like a lot of the meals I've had in the philipines, but I'm not one to be ungrateful for free food and I did get a banana and a iced tea. The next episode of our shoot was at something that described as the “Wellness Lounge” and upon arriving it reminded me of those VIP seating areas at airports. It had a desk in front (where I presume you show some sort of valid identification confirming that you have paid for access into the wellness lounge) and it led to a spacious area which immediately struck me as far too air conditioned for anybody's liking and I'm not sure how anyone could function in such a warmth deprived enviornment and it just made the whole point of wellness lounge ironic because I thought that half the people that were in the wellness lounge looked as if they would fall victim to pneumonia (mostly old folk) but it was lined with spacious couches and chairs and on the wall was a television playing something I can't distinctly remember. There was a table where you could pick up a number of different snacks, some cookies, and blueberry muffins were the ones that caught my eye. I asked one of the employees who worked for marketing who was assisting if I could take one and he said yes so I got up and placed a blueberry muffin in my had and consumed it. Dense and moist it was okay, not too many blueberries just some swirls of the berry on top.

Andy and I had to set up both of the umbrellas in the lounge and we looked like complete idiots moving large reflective umbrellas around and re arranging interior decorations and centerpieces. This photo was to display a patient (which hapenned to be the same patient from the gloomy pre surgery panel) now casually and happily discussing his newfound good condition with 4 of his doctors in the lounge. When the doctors arrived a few of them seemed like they had to be somewhere else as one kept looing as his watch but we got a few shots of them on the couch engaged in fake discussion as I held the umbrella to direct the light on them. This took about 20 minutes and then we decided to do a shot of them in discussion but standing up which took about 3 minutes and that was one we decided on being the final shot, which was funny to me because it took about 30 minutes to set up and arrange for the shot of them sitting down on the couches but it only took a simple flash for the one which would actually be used, but I guess it's always better to have a wide variety to choose from which I think can be applied to a lot of other things.

We were getting through the panels pretty well, and our next one was a shot of some surgeons in front their robotic surgery device. We navigated through the now apparent enormous hospital, which seemed maze like and into an area where we had to don special sanitary garbs again. This time it was a set of green pants (that were way too big for me) and a shirt, a face mask and one of those things that cover your head so the hair doesn't fall everywhere and infect the entire hospital and then everyone dies. After arming ourselves with the finest in medical armor we entered the robotics area where we came across a cavernous room with several expensive looking devices with screens and other mechanical apparatus. Here are some photos.

The worlds most expensive strobe lights

This thing that looks straight out of spiderman 2 where the doctor octopus get his robotic arms is not far from that. It is a robot that can perform a wide variety of surgeries and is controlled by a surgeon. The benefits of this device I am not too sure, but I hear it an function as 4 different arms and can perform thing much more precisely than a human surgeon and allows for things impossible to do with the human touch. This is fascinating to me and I'm really glad that humans have been smart enough over the last several decades to come up with modern devices like these and the cool thing it only gets better from here because technology builds upon itself and exponentially progresses.

We shot the doctors in front of their machines, a lot of them were having a blast taking the pictures which was funny to watch some of more stiff doctors learn to relax and have a little bit of fun (but not too much fun Andy told me). Overall a fascinating and good experience in many different aspects.

2 more panels remained as we went full circle and ended up back on the 12th floor as daylight was slowly fading. It was about 4:30 and as it took us a around an hour and a half to complete the remaining panels. I looked outside the window, and even behind Manila's terribly polluted skyline it was rather beautiful with hues of blue and orange shaded by the clouds. I observed all the people wandering about below, and the heavily trafficked lanes congested with cars and motorbikes all moving. Witnessing a city in motion from afar is quite interesting and I would imagine most would agree.

Anyways, as we wrapped up I thanked the members of the hospital who had aided us throughout the day and wished Andy a safe flight because he was going back to Bangkok for another photoshoot for Bounty (the detergent company). As Andy got into his car and drove away I waited for a free shuttle that I was informed would take me near a Nike store I was planning on going to anyways and it was only about 10 minutes away. I was looking for flyknits but the store didn't sell them in half sizes (I'm an 11.5) so I just went home.

The end.