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| Mr. Mohan R. |
27 May 2007 Sunday. Sunny weather and cloudy.
I went to the National Stadium to do more photography. Out of my expectations, I was told by the security guard that there'll be an event held in the stadium and no photography is allowed today. To my great disappointment (I woke up early as I wanted to capture the first light at the stadium) I walked towards the East Entrance area outside the stadium, where strong sunlight is shining.
About an hour later,the sun was hidden behind dense clouds, so I waited for it to clear. Suddenly a man stopped right beside me. He's an old Indian man, on a bicycle, wearing LTA (Land Transport Authority) safety vest and helmet. He seems friendly to me. I said "Hi!" to him. He asked me a few questions about my profession and photography. He even wanted to pay me to take photographs of him. I told him that I'm doing it for leisure and hobby.I've always wanted to do environmental portraitures and so I took the rare opportunity and advantage to take a few portraitures of the old man.
Thought it was my lousy day but it turned out to be a lucky one. Overall I took about 8 shots of the old man. I asked for the old man's name and contact number. He's known as Mr. Mohan R. Mid-60s, married with 2 children whom both are working in Australia. He wanted to send his kids pictures of him as family memorablilia and that was the reason why he approached me.
Mr Mohan has been working at LTA as a site inspector for 5 years. Currently he's stationed at the construction site next to the National Stadium, for the new MRT station. He was doing his round when he bummed into me. Fortunately I took 2 cameras with me - a Holga 120GN and a Seagull-4A TLR. With street photography in mind, I wanna use Holga, but instead I used it on Mr Mohan. I got no regrets and I have confidence using a Holga for good portraitures with great results, even I do say so myself.
All photographs were taken with a Holga 120GN on Kodak Ektachrome E100VS slide film. A manual external flashlight is used even under strong sunlight. The 2 main purposes are to freeze the subject in motion and to create catchlights on the subject's eyes.
