Three, Two, One, Say Juri!

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...