#VALEDICTORY and Year 12 Formal

So a few days ago was the big day.

I say 'big day' because it was, essentially, the biggest project I've ever encountered in terms of photography. To sum it up in a few words, we had four photoshoots to complete in under 2 hours. Each.

It was, needless to say, difficult. But, in hindsight, it also went a lot better than we anticipated!

LQ and myself in the car, on the way!

The weather was difficult to work with.
It didn't rain, which was a plus, but the lighting was very, very harsh, which made both my partner in crime (LQ) and I cringe when we walked into Hyde Park.

But either way, it worked! Everything went well and I'd say it was successful!

Ironically, although the schedule was tight, LQ and I were actually late arriving at the destination. Thankfully, my poor math skills made up for it, because I had unintentionally made the first session 5 minutes longer than what we agreed upon, so it all worked out in the end!

A few people were a bit late, but we worked out way around it and still managed!

I still can't believe we got through that photoshoot alive and breathing. Time passed really quickly; I suppose it was because we were always thinking "Where to go next" and focusing on the lighting, composition, poses, aperture, ISO, etc., etc., all at once and under a very fixed time schedule.

To be honest, 25 minutes is a very short time frame for a photoshoot. Even just thinking about it now makes me ??? because I don't understand how I was able to get that many shots in that time.

I assure you, I went trigger happy. I left the venue with over 700 shots, I believe. Hopefully got some lovely candids though!

The first photoshoot I had was with JV and AC.
The photographers were unfortunately 5 minutes late (sorry), but thankfully we had allocated 5 minutes extra for this first photoshoot (albeit unintentional) and so that made up for it.

None-the-less, I was still grasping my hands on the ropes, so I probably struggled with this photoshoot more than the others.

Either way, it was still a success!!

Next up was LL and JB, which were fantastic.

They both were fantastic models and really easy to work with. JV and AC also decided to stay behind to help us film behind the scenes and generally assist me with the photoshoots, which was a very nice gesture and helped greatly!

I'm very satisfied with the photos from this shoot. I think by this time I was a lot more ready and 'got into the jive'.

Following afterwards was HL and ZG.

These two were fantastic for candids. They were laughing basically the entire time, and were really great to work with! I basically went trigger-happy (which I don't regret). Although I ended up with hundreds of photos, many of them turned out really great!

It was entertaining that so many people thought these two were newlyweds. I believe a grand-total of five people had approached them to say 'Congratulations!', not to mention the many people who took photos of the couple.

I'm not going to lie, having people make way for us and give the photographer (myself) special treatment was kind of sweet, although perhaps bordering on the white lie. /laughs.

Lastly was PD and SQ. Unfortunately, they were a little late, and so I didn't get the opportunity to take many photos. LQ later covered for me whilst I left to change, but I managed to get one or two shots.

(for more photos, check out our facebook page, Selective Photography.

At 4:35, my friend, JT, and I had to rush back to Novotel to retrieve my formal gear and essentially get ready in under an hour.

It was a rush, but we managed!! (My mother actually came out to assist and pass my make-up to me)

Next we hire an Uber car (a black one, too! I.e., arriving in styyyyyle) and arrive at the Starroom. We made it. Wow.

Anyway, formal itself was a blast. It was so great to see everyone's faces again! My flash proved to be excessively poor, and so my camera wasn't of much use at the formal. Sadly, not many photos. Meanwhile, LQ is slaving away in the sweatshop of his home, using lightroom to mass edit the thousands of photos at formal. His flash softbox worked wonders (I'm looking to get one myself), but I do hope he takes it easy with the editing.

Breaking the dance-floor ice.

Food was decent, too!

I can assure you, after 4.5 hours of straight editing last night, I was exhausted.

The reason why I had to edit so quickly is because I'm going away for the next few days, so I won't be able to edit then.

We also filmed a lot on the day, so we thought it would be good to make a behind the scenes sort of video, showing everyone what it's like behind the camera!

Here it is: