Image above: Bee-eater Ballet by Chris van Rooyen [Source: www.guardian.co.uk, © 2008 Chris van Rooyen]
It’s been a weird past week where I feel that I’ve gone into a bit of a time warp. Somehow the week has gone by but I’ve kinda totally zoned out of it completely.
However, last Friday I organised a group of friends, all with an interest in photography, for dinner at the Prince Regent gastropub which had remarkably good food and is definitely worth a revisit. And it was great getting new connections going between different groups of friends.
After dinner was the main purpose of the evening – seeing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the amazing Natural History Museum. Each year the show continually wows me with both the technical achievements of the selected photos as well as the stories behind both the wildlife and what the photographer had to do to capture that moment in time.
And, as a bonus, there’s an ice rink outside the NHM too though we didn’t go and make complete fools of ourselves that particular evening. Maybe another evening. :)
So, now kinda getting back on track once again, on Sunday I did a personal photo project trying to capture a working commercial kitchen at the Bugis Street Restaurant where I did a food assignment for them a few weeks before.
Spent five hours with the kitchen staff following what they did, chatting with them during their down time, eating dinner with them on-the-go, trying to keep cool in all the heat, avoid getting oil on my lens (and myself), and generally trying not to get in their way throughout the night. :)
Image above: The list of outstanding orders waiting to be cooked by the chefs.
It was just so much fun. I just wish that I could speak proper Cantonese and talk with them properly. They had great camaraderie and after the initial hesitation of having me just there it wasn’t that long until they pretty much got used to me pointing my massive camera at them close up!
All in all, I think that I got the basic shots right but I’m not sure if I really got that shot I was looking for. Still have to go through all the images to see for sure so holding judgement until then. Will post when they’re online for y’all to see.
That’s so funny that you ended up taking pics at that particular restaurant – it’s just around the corner from the building where my university’s London program is based! I walked by that place a million times (tho’ I never ate there – too broke that semester! London is expensive!). Now I’ll get to see what goes on inside – awesome!
Really? LOL … another reminder of how small the world is.
I never knew it was there until I was asked to do the food assignment and discovered that the food is actually pretty good there. Had delicious Hainannese chicken rice last time!
Finally you managed to shoot the pics in Bugis Street. This is a memorable place for me and been there donkey times, I feel so excited and hope to see the restaurant and food from a different angle.
Thanks Sean. Yeah, it was good to get access to the kitchen and see the guys at work. Will post up the selection of photos from that later on. :)