Good day everyone, shortly after my first experience with outdoor figure shoot (it had been 3 days), I grew restless and could not wait to try it out with Juri Han of Super Street Fighter IV. This is a 1/7 scale figure released by Kotobukiya in April 2015, something I've eagerly waited since I ordered it back in December last year. 

Similarly as before, I wanted to make as much use of natural lighting as possible and armed with my iPhone 6 and water bottle, I set out to hunt for the 'it' spots. I was due to graduate that afternoon and did not want the day to be solely remembered for sitting through hundreds of awardees and sweating buckets under the grad gown while I brought my parents awkwardly around the school compounds...

Just a little background information, Juri Han is a South Korean Taekwondo (the first in the series) who was introduced to satisfy the dedicated Korean fans after countless pleas on their part. So after coming up with 400-500 concept designs, they've finally decided to make her this sadistic, sexy villain that you'll either love or hate on first sight. It's rather obvious what my opinion is so I shall not elaborate further.

Super Street Fighter IV is a fighting game produced by Capcom in 2010, and the title "Super" is to denote it as the upgraded version from Street Fighter IV. Personally I've tried the game on my friend's PS3 and abused Juri on countless matches; needless to say it's brilliant and absolutely addictive, well-deserving of the Golden Joystick Award for Fighting Game of the Year 2010.

Now, getting on to the actual shoot...

For this I've chosen Bishan Park again, but I headed over to Park 1 to try my luck, hopefully to find some hidden cool spots. Above was the very first picture I took by a moderately fast moving river. What I really liked is how the energetic water somehow complements with her belligerent personality and brought movement to the otherwise still photo.

For someone who solely fights for the thrills, it seems like even the rapid currents could feel the evil emanating off her and were retreating in terror. 

It was kinda awkward taking these photographs since I was standing/ squatting in the middle of this rocks-on-water path, and I had to scramble to protect my figure from falling into the currents whenever someone walked by.

Next up, I headed down a slope to get closer to this bio-swale and boy, the faraway temple could not have made the photo more perfect and fit to context. Thank you.

This is after shifting the depth of field from the landscape to Juri, which I depicted as a formiddable training ground for our sexy fighter (and a nice view of the temple). 

Just behind and that greenery and me is this dang and mossy 'tunnel' that I definitely could not miss out - we're talking Juri the vengeful spirit here (like evil - dark - unknown - women - dangerous...)

Switching up to a peaceful atmosphere, there's this giant pond that's the embodiment of zen and purity. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling so zen as the sky was suddenly overcast with passing clouds and the lighting was really bad. I even felt like the still pond was mocking me... But there's always the temple (peeking behind) to calm my mind~

See what I mean? It was a TIR - Total Internal Reflection, no photoshopping of the inverted scenery, but the exposure was just... I had to touch up on the shadows and stuff on my phone just to make her face slightly more visible.

After that pond incident there was not any hot spots left, and feeling dejected and disappointed, I snail out of the crowded park (I wonder what the day was - there were 2 secondary schools hosting cross countries at both parks & an army force training by the field...) ...And went back to Bishan Park 2 since it was still early and all. Then I saw this row of Loropetalum chinense, or very strikingly beautiful red leaves and had to stop and snap. This shrub was practically made to be Juri's backdrop!

Oh yea, for the last spot I overcame huge steps (see top left) and dropped next to yet another rocks-on-water path and got working. I liked how this photo has a little everything.

It was a pain to balance her on the grids of the gabion walls but alas, her talent in martial arts did not fail and I've got this satisfactory bottom-up angle. An interesting thing to note is the figure is actually meant to be viewed this way instead of eye level, since the choker would make her appear neck-less and hence slightly unflattering. Also, the illustration that resulted in this sculpture was drawn with a low angle, so I guess that's why it became like this.

While I was crouching and cracking my head for the best angles, I was also occasionally distracted by heads popping down from the top of the steps. From their expressions I could imagine they must be wondering what the hell was I doing alone by the drain with a toy.

Well, that's all for today, and I shall be posting soon when I got my next figure... And nope, my eBay order is still not here, it's been 4 weeks, 4 days and I'm losing hope........

For the complete set of HD photographs from this shoot, you can find them in my flickr account here.

Jyaa!

P.S.: Guys, you've got to watch Juri in animation to see how badass she is over here! 3njoy kekeke...

A great welcome to anyone who stumbled across this blog/post, as I'm delighted to share with you my first post of the year. This blog will be my otaku diary, mainly sharing photos of my figurines, anime conventions that I happened to attend and any other side hobbies either related or not related to the otaku lifestyle. I've had so much problems setting up this blog (as of now it's still a walking mess, I'm still trying to figure out the HTML location to change my navigation bar labels, update my profile image & introduction & find some way to get my flickr slideshow to work grrr...).

The last time I've actually blogged was 5 years ago, and when I went to visit my old blogs I couldn't stand to stay at the page any second longer than necessary (which means clicking X immediately.) If it comes to it, I might have to change this theme to something else (after searching & selecting & deciding for three hours but that's life huh)...

 I apologise for my ramblings, but let's get started with today's topic of interest - Outdoor Figure Photography. I've recently started collecting figures, and after seeing several amazing photographers capturing them in living landscapes, I've decided to join in the fun. Why not, right? We've paid so much just to leave them on the computer desk, the least I could think to do is to attach some fancy background to commemorate their awesomeness. That way it would no longer be just a 'toy' collecting dust, no; owning them is something to be celebrated over, something to be proud of! It is a piece of art to be admired and sought after, just like any other form of artworks.

I've read that the best time to do outdoor figure photography is during the spam of sunrise and sunset, and decided to go with the former. It was Tuesday (19/05), and I've set the alarm clock to do its thing at 7 in the morning. I hate waking up early with all my heart, but for the sake of my passion such sacrifice is excusable, and definitely worth it.

Above is the first location of the photoshoot for our first model, Jun Kazama from the fighting game Tekken Tag Tournament 2. For this outdoor shooting I've chosen Bishan Park, a public park that was recently given a breath of fresh air by a famous German urban design company, Atelier Dreiseitl. I've only ever cycled & jogged here (your typical park activities), so this was indeed an unique experience for me.

I'm no expert on scouting for the perfect spot, but when I saw this I knew this is it. It has a balance of four of the five elements - earth (the rocks), water, wood and metal (of the gabion walls), and the water reflection really adds on to the tranquility of this scenery.

Here's a closer look at her awesome physique and a sneak preview of our second model. Can you guess who's that?

I have never owned a camera in my life, and everything here are shot form my iPhone 6. So far I have no plans of investing in a camera, so I just have to work around the limits of that white little device.

This is the second venue, a moderately big Lily Pond tucked at the extreme end of the park. Just next to this holy spot were a huge congregation of middle-aged men and women flapping their arms to a radio audio instruction by the fitness corner. You can also see a lot of non-members of the exercise committee camping by the pathway following the member's cue, truly living the community spirit.

Jun watching over the pool of lilies.

A stroke of luck! Just as I shifted my butt off the boulder to try a new angle, the pile of cumulus that were shielding the sun moved! I was able to capture this sunset-like shot before the clouds quickly overtook the sky once again.

 Follow Jun as we moved deeper into the park to a bio-pond by the bridge. She doesn't look too happy here, could it be someone else was waiting for her?

Indeed, here we got a bottom up angle of our second lead of the day, Nina Williams from the same Tekken franchise.

Don't be fooled by her sweet smile - she's actually a cold-blooded assassin, drugged since young by an underground force to mold her into the perfect killer. And she's Irish, but slightly shoujo-fied to match the rest of the Tekken Bishoujo series. 

Also, she looked a lot younger (or for a matter of fact, 15 years younger) than she is. It isn't surprising since she was put to a cryogenic sleep as part of an experiment.

I was sitting on the bus on the way to collect my graduation gown when I saw this groove of weeping willow in the middle of the asphalt roads. I almost wanted to return to that blazing hot place just to borrow the trees for my photographs, but to my relief they have it here at Bishan Park.

This has to be my favourite shot of Nina, looking seductively into the camera as I snapped away in hopes that the leaves will stop swaying and blocking her face.

Oh and there's Jun again, all grace and soaking up the increasingly hotter sunlight.

I knew I have to get one with a tree in the centre, but I was having a hard time finding the right tree and I couldn't get the right scale (the sun was rapidly rising and I was running out of time). I had to shift the models around a couple of times while getting mildly distracted by an opera singer a few trees away (thankfully she was good) Well, this shall suffice for now.

Also, this clearly demonstrated one of the glaring problems of using a phone camera - handicapped exposure adjustment. To get the clouds I have to compromise on the exposure of the figures (hence the darker tones). Since this is not a close-up shot to showcase the figure's details, I could close one eye.

This gives me the feel of anticipation - we have Jun walking away after an inconclusive battle, her head slightly tilting back at a bellicose Nina, with an unspoken promise of another fight in the near future to settle things once and for all.

By the time I was done with the willow, it was 9:15AM, and I was dehydrated with aching muscles from staying in a crouching position for too long. Despite that, I was still brimming with energy and wanted to take more but it was too late. I was too late. This last shot had the worst over-exposure and my arms were on fire from the sun. However I really wanted to get this grassy background so I hurriedly shot this, bagged the figure and risked out of the park.

That concluded my first outdoor figure photography: Nature Edition. Overall it was a tiring and time-consuming experience (by the time you shot 5 satisfactory shots half an hour had passed) but a really fun one. You have to live with the wet grass and buzzing creatures since we're technically trampling on their territory. Apologise if necessary, they will understand. Also, don't be discouraged by the sun, it's actually a good opportunity to take in all those Vitamin Ds and detox, all while indulging in the joy of being a figure collector!

Hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did, and if you don't mind, share with me your thoughts on this below. For more HD shots from this shoot, check out my Flickr photo stream here.

Till the next post and have a great day ^^