It is always exciting when a client comes directly to me with a creative concept for a shoot.  In this case it was Megan Williamson, owner of Bistecca Tuscan Steakhouse in Singapore, who approached me with a unique idea for a fashion-inspired photographic series she wanted me to create.

As a broad concept, Megan wanted me to integrate wild European animals and beautiful, fashionable women into each of five photographs to be used as advertisements to promote Bistecca and as art to hang on the walls of her restaurant.

Admittedly, it was a rather uncommon brief, but I was attracted to the challenge of creating and capturing these fantastical scenes.  Megan was very flexible about which animals I could use, and she gave me the creative licence to conceptualize and art direct the five images myself. Megan's only stipulation was that each photograph needed to be set and created inside the restaurant itself.

My producers, Annette Fausboll and Maureen Audetto of Ugly Duckling Projects, brought together a team of Singapore's most creative and experienced fashion, hair and make-up stylists, and we all met late last year to conceptualize the shoot and brainstorm creative ideas.

The five executions we agreed to shoot were: "Mouflon", a woman going head-to-head into battle with an angry ram; "Pheasant", a localized interpretation of "American Gothic", the famous painting by Grant Wood; "Cows", an homage to the iconic Richard Avedon photograph, "Dovima with the Elephants", substituting giant 7-foot Chianina cows; "Boar", a wry take on a wealthy woman walking her toy poodle on a leash; and "Deer", inspired by the 19th century John Collier "Lady Godiva" painting.

Of course, once we determined and agreed on our concepts, the next puzzle that needed to be solved was how we would bring these animals -- some giant, others ferocious -- to life inside Bistecca.  It was crucial to me that every wild animal look completely lifelike.  I therefore quickly determined that compositing existing stock photographs of these animals into the scenes would not yield the faithful outcome I was seeking.  Additionally, bringing the animals to Bistecca and shooting giant Tuscan bulls or a raging wild boar inside the restaurant was clearly going to be impossible.

I reached out to Procolor, Singapore's preeminent digital imaging studio, to help me tackle the challenge.  We agreed collectively that the best course of action was to shoot the models alone and then, in post-production, photo-

realistically illustrate these animals and composite them into the frames.

Annette, Maureen and I then began searching for a concept artist who could could manage a job of this complexity.  We settled on Calvin Chua, a young graduate of Nanyang Technological University, who joined the team and worked alongside me on the shoot to layout each scene with enough consideration for the life-sized animals he would illustrate and Procolor would composite into the frame.

It took more than six long weeks of illustration and digital post-production, but this past Monday we finally completed the job.  It was the most challenging creative assignment I have ever undertaken; hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and (quite literally) tears were shed by the illustrator, digital imaging team and my entire production staff -- a true labour of love, resulting in finished artwork of which we are all very proud.

Explore "Orphan", another fantasy-styled collaborative fashion series I recently completed here.  And see more of my fashion and portrait photography on my website.

Credits

Client: Bistecca Tuscan Steakhouse

Production: Ugly Duckling Projects

Styling: Furqan Saini

Hair & Make-up: Andrea Claire

Hair & Make-up Assistant: Mag Yang

Photographer's Assistants: Zam, Simin & Jun Yang

Models: Nataliya Zapolina & Fabiana Cassol / Phantom

Illustration: Calvin Chua & Dave Phung / Procolor

Digital Imaging: Dave Phung / Procolor

In September and November of last year, Mike Rogers, Meghan Shea and I spent nearly two weeks at Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School in Siem Reap creating documentary photography and film about the positive work the organization is doing for Cambodia's disadvantaged youth.

As outlined in one of my previous posts, for nearly ten years now Sala Bai has been offering tuition-free hospitality training to 100 impoverished young people annually.  Sala Bai's mission is to provide their students with the capabilities and experience necessary -- in one of four disciplines: restaurant service, cooking, front office and housekeeping -- to secure gainful employment in one of Siem Reap's numerous luxury hotels, guesthouses or restaurants.  These skills, and the resulting economic independence, not only improves the students' quality of life, but those of their families as well.

Like many NGO's, Sala Bai relies heavily on the generosity and support of private donations and corporate benefactors to fund it's operating expenses and help meet it's financial obligations.  In the spirit of this, the Southeast Asian edition of Travel + Leisure magazine has donated six full-page advertisements to Sala Bai over the course of 2012. The first advertisement -- featuring a portrait I made of Sala Bai student Srey Mao -- appears in the January 2012 issue of Travel+Leisure.  The ad reads as follows:

Village to Vocation.

A Victory Against Human Trafficking.

Meet Srey Mao from Kra Yatbong.  Her family lives on less that $25 per month.  In July, she will graduate earning more than three times that amount.

A good reason  to smile.

In 9 years, the non-profit Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School in Siem Reap, Cambodia has graduated 803 young men and women from our yearlong vocational training program.  Without fail, each has been employed within three months of graduation.  To learn more about how you can help, please email us at info@salabai.com or visit us at www.salabai.com or www.facebook.com/SalaBaiSchool.

If you would like to make a donation to Sala Bai, please click here.

One of my proudest professional achievements is the partnership I have been fortunate enough to cultivate with Nikon Singapore over the past seven years.

In 2004, I made the leap from film to digital photography when I purchased a Nikon D70, my first-ever DSLR camera. Around this time, I met with a marketing executive from Nikon Singapore and learned about Focus magazine, a publication produced by Nikon for owners of their photographic equipment.  Shortly thereafter, I was profiled -- along with a selection of my photography -- in an issue of Focus; this marked the beginning of my relationship with Nikon.

Since then, my photography business has grown significantly, due in large part to Nikon Singapore's ongoing support.  A few years ago, Nikon Asia-Pacific honoured me as “One of Asia’s Finest Photographers” and, shortly thereafter, Nikon Singapore named me -- along with five other Singapore-based photographers: Stefen Chow, C.S. Ling, Alex Soh, Alan Lim and Imrah Ahmad -- as a Nikon Professional Photographer and ambassador for the Nikon brand in Singapore.

Nikon provides me with both photographic equipment and technical support; they have sponsored many of my photography exhibitions and a documentary

film I collaborated on with my friend and creative partner, Mike Rogers.  In return, it is my pleasure to support Nikon whenever possible.  I have spoken at seminars and workshops on behalf of the brand, provided photographs for Nikon camera advertisements and appeared as a guest judge on the past two seasons of the Nikon-sponsored reality television series, The Big Shot.

Our latest collaboration is a wall mural that appears in the lobby of the Nikon office in Singapore.  Featuring a single photograph from each of the Nikon Professional Photographers, the mural showcases both the talent and the breadth of the ambassadors' photographic styles. I am proud that my image, "Closing Time" -- which I made in Dili, Timor-Leste last year -- shares space on the wall of the Nikon office in Singapore.

In May, I was commissioned by J. Walter Thompson (JWT) advertising agency to photograph a series of print ads for their client, the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore.

The EDB is the Singapore governmental agency tasked with planning and executing "economic strategies that enhance Singapore's position as a global hub for business, investment and talent".

The ads I was hired to shoot are part of the EDB's ongoing Future Ready marketing campaign, which is aimed at promoting the city-state, both regionally and internationally, in an effort to attract talent, investors and businesses here to Singapore.

In this specific case, the advertisements I photographed are part of a targeted campaign aimed at German executives through business-to-business (B2B) print media in Germany.  The work was a creative collaboration between the JWT Singapore and JWT Hamburg offices.  It involved me photographing three prominent German CEOs who have relocated themselves and their families to Singapore to lead the Asia-Pacific offices of their respective German organizations.

The goal of the campaign is to show that "nothing much has changed" for the CEOs since moving from Germany to Singapore.

Marc Lohoff of Conergy still has his business lunches, only here they are slightly more colourful; Dr. Jens Hardenacke of DMG still enjoys sailing his yacht, only here he can do it throughout the year; and Dr. Markus Waechter of TUM can still enjoy nature, only here it's located just minutes from the city centre.

Additionally, director Tai Heng of Moviola also created a series of online videos of Mr. Lohoff, Dr. Hardenacke and Dr. Waechter as part of this same EDB advertising campaign.  Although I did not collaborate with Tai Heng on these shorts, they were filmed in the same locations and at the same time as my still photography.  They are well produced and showcase JWT's EDB communications campaign in its entirety.

See more of my advertising photography portfolio here.

Many years ago, when I first began taking photographs professionally, I shot a lot of family portraiture.  My style was to make candid, natural photography that showed the real-life relationships between mothers and fathers and their children.  I sought spontaneity and honesty in my imagery, never having the subjects look at my lens, but instead encouraging the family to simply be together while I documented their interactions.

It was a great little business for me, providing me with a steady revenue stream, a chance to meet loads of new people and a fantastic opportunity to practice my photography skills and experiment with different techniques on real, live (paying) subjects.  But most importantly, shooting this type of imagery helped me develop a personal style for photographing people, as well as a large portfolio of family photos.

This style and portfolio has served me well over the years, and has been instrumental in my being awarded a number of family- and baby-centric advertising jobs around Asia. From Johnson & Johnson to Unilever to my most recent work for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) here, I am grateful for all those early mornings I spent photographing families in the backyards, playgrounds and parks of Singapore.

For this GSK campaign, I worked together with the TBWA/Tequila advertising agency in Singapore to produce 40 photographs that, rather simply, illustrated "Love".  I sought to capture the intimate times shared between mother and child, trying to make photographs that were honest and inquisitive.

And even though I had to shoot this campaign in a studio using only artificial light -- and I collaborated with hair and make-up stylists, wardrobe stylists, art directors, account service personnel and clients -- I still approached the two day session in much the same manner as I would have if it were just me and the family alone: I tried to stay out of their way and be observational, letting the magical moments between mother and child unfold naturally.

These are a handful of the GSK advertisements that were recently released in markets across North and Southeast Asia.

See more of my advertising photography portfolio here.

As anyone who's shot with me already knows, Lightroom is easily the most important piece of software in my digital photography workflow.

So, as I have written before, it was a great privilege when last year I was approached by Adobe, the makers of Lightroom, with opportunities for creative partnership and collaboration.

It started with an interest from Adobe in licencing the rights to use a selection of my photography on their Photoshop.com website, and it then progressed into working with Adobe's digital marketing agency, to be profiled in the "Spotlight" section of Photoshop.com.

I am extremely proud of my association with Adobe, which is why I am so pleased to share "Believe". Alongside talented and accomplished photographers Kelly Castro and Emily Ibarra (both of whom have also been profiled on Photoshop.com here and here respectively), "Believe" is an electronic direct marketing initiative by Adobe to promote Lightroom 3 and demonstrate how photographers like Kelly, Emily and I use it in professional photography environments.

Download Lightroom presets: "1970's Nostalgia" by me; "Polar Cream" by Kelly; and "Contrast & Vignette" by Emily.

In June of last year, I shot an advertising campaign in Shanghai for Bonsey Design Partnership and their client Karma Life Yoga.

The campaign's launch advertisements were introduced last September as part of the yoga education and fitness centre's sixth anniversary.  Since then, Karma Life Yoga has rolled out more visuals, two of which are shown here.

The idea for the campaign was "Your sanctuary in the heart of frenetic Shanghai", while the visual execution of the concept was inspired by the "Wonderland" mixed media series that I produced in 2009 in collaboration with young Singaporean visual artist, Allison Low.

All the yoga models were Karma Life Yoga instructors, which I photographed in a studio over one day.

I then made the outdoor street images over two more days at a variety of iconic locations around Shanghai.

Karma Life's talented in-house designer and art director, Trasson Doon, then brought the two collections of photographs together into the campaign you see here.

See more of my advertising photography portfolio here.

Toward the end of last year, I photographed nearly a dozen portraits for Meritus Hotels & Resorts, a hotel chain with six properties spread across Singapore, Malaysia and China.

The portraits, shot in my studio, were of the Meritus Ambassadors wearing their iconic red cheongsams.  The photography brief was to capture "Asian grace, warmth and hospitality" for a series of advertising initiatives by Meritus in the year ahead.

The first of these initiatives rolled-out a couple of weeks ago with the printing and distribution of the Meritus Hotels & Resorts 2011 calendar.  My copy of the calendar arrived this week; here are a few of it's pages.

See more of my advertising photography portfolio here.

Happy New Year from Adobe and me.

Here's to a happy, healthy and photo-filled 2011, indeed.

Via Photoshop.com.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been partnering with Adobe in the U.S. over the past couple of months. They were initially interested in licencing some of my photographs for use on their Photoshop.com website, which I was more than happy to agree to.

Then, while we were finalizing the details and licencing agreements, I had an opportunity to speak a few times with an employee in Adobe's Digital Imaging group.  One day we talked at length about Adobe's suite of imaging software and how, specifically, Lightroom is such an integral part of my digital workflow.

A short time later, Adobe asked if I'd be interested in being a profiled photographer on the "Spotlight" section of Photoshop.com.  I had a few telephone calls with Adobe's PR agency in San Francisco so they could learn more about me and my business, the type of photography I make, and how I integrate Lightroom into both my editorial and commercial photography workflow.  The agency then drafted a profile and I prepared a small portfolio of work to be uploaded online.

The result is the "Choosing a New Adventure" spotlight that went live on Photoshop.com this morning. I am extremely proud of this association with Adobe, and look forward to sharing more of my work as it appears on Photoshop.com in the future.

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Adobe in California.  They had seen some of my photography in the Luerzer's Archive "200 Best Advertising Photographer" anthology.  After visiting my website to review my portfolio of work, they were interested in licencing some of my photographs to use on Photoshop.com.

As an advocate of Adobe's imaging software products -- Lightroom in particular, which is the single most important piece of software in my digital workflow -- I was (and am) extremely flattered to be asked to provide some of my photography to Adobe.

Adobe licenced three photographs from me.  This portrait, which I made in Singapore a number of years ago, is of family friend, Charlie, and her horse; it is the first to appear on Photoshop.com as a carousel advertisement for Adobe's Photoshop Elements software.

There is more to come on Photoshop.com, and I look forward to sharing it as it rolls-out in the months ahead.

In June, I traveled to China to photograph an advertising campaign for Karma Life Yoga, a yoga education and fitness centre in Shanghai.

The idea for Karma Life's ad campaign -- "Your sanctuary in the heart of frenetic Shanghai" -- was conceived by Bonsey Design Partnership in Singapore, and the photographic execution of the concept was inspired by the mixed media Wonderland series that I produced with Allison Low.

It was a great brief to shoot, as I was able to photograph the yoga models (all instructors at Karma Life) in a studio, while the outdoor images were captured at iconic landmarks across Shanghai, which was an amazing way to experience this fantastic city.

The campaign rolled-out in Shanghai a week ago, and coincided with the relaunch of the Karma Life brand on the yoga centre's sixth anniversary.

Here are six launch ads, but there will certainly be other ads to follow as Karma Life rolls out more work in the month ahead.

One afternoon last October, my Producer Annette Fausboll, called me with some very exciting news: I had been selected by the prestigious Luerzer's Archive as one of the "200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide" (2010/11).  I was shocked.  Sure, (what I thought was) my best work of the past couple of years was submitted to Luerzer's for consideration, but I never thought I'd be selected; it was more of a it's-just-nice-to-be-nominated/what-do-I-have-to-lose type entry.

As quick background, the 200 Best is an international photography competition.  Art directors at ad agencies around the world nominate their most talented photographers and invite them to submit their best work from the past two years.  A jury of prominent publishing and advertising professionals then select the final images for inclusion in Luerzer's biennial compendium, which has become one of the indispensible art-buying tools for agencies around the world.  6,539 submissions were submitted from 48 countries for consideration in 2010/11.

I've kept this award mostly to myself for now, sharing it only with friends and family, as well as some of the art buying and creative people I work with (or aspire to work with).

But this week the honour became official when my copy of the "200 Best" arrived at my studio and three of my images, captured in Bhutan for Persistent Productions, appeared inside.

I am still astounded to have been selected for this honour, and I am humbled to have my work grace the same pages as the immensely creative, talented and influential photographers inside Luerzer's Archive.

See more of the photography I made in Bhutan here.