Emelind at Orchard Central

I arranged for a test shoot with Emelind at the new Orchard Central shopping mall on a Thursday afternoon (after taking time off to run some personal errands). Shooting inside the shopping mall is generally prohibited by security, unless you are carrying a compact digicam and taking tourist-looking snapshots. So I had to shoot outside the mall, and one of the iconic things to shoot must be the outdoor escalator that stretches 3 storeys long.

Originally I wanted to shoot the escalator stretching from Level 1-3 because it was closer to ground and I could see more of the Orchard Road in the background. But it appears to be too close to human traffic and will probably attract too much attention. Eventually, I decided to use the escalator from Level 4-7, which is a better choice because it's longer and so gave me more time to shoot.

So we went up the one-way escalator, took the shots, then kept my intimidating DSLR, took the internal escalator down to Level 4, and started again, for almost 10 rounds. I was lucky I didn't attract any attention from the security. I had to use on-camera flash and no fancy off-flash settings, relying on the sun behind the model to give me the desired backlight.



Coincidentally, Level 7 has an open balcony overlooking Orchard Road. We grabbed a few shots, taken with available light without flash. I reckon this area will be occupied by some al fresco dining establishments in no time.




Emelind has been modelling for 8 years. Her first modelling foray was when she was 1 year old. In recent years, she has appeared in commercial print ads for Clarke Quay and DBS. Now she wants to expand her portfolio into fashion and creative looks.