For the final part of our long Sunday, we said goodbye to Edwin and hit the private swimming pool of a condo somewhere in town. Peggy took over photographic duties and the couple jumped in fully clothed. Maggie wore one of the dresses we made.

Peggy prepares to go under.

It’s important to know what you’re doing underwater
because it’s going to be hard to communicate!

I stayed out of the pool, so this was what I saw most of the time.

Checking to see how the photos turned out.

The second casualty of the ruffly dress. Given it was such a
hack job, we expected more damage.

Beached whale Alan voted this the hardest shoot they had
to do due to them having to pose underwater fully dressed.

See the rest of the photos here.

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Trash It - Waterworks

In the last post, we shot in a little known picnic spot just a stone throw away from a main road. After that, we moved on to Permai Rainforest Resort to see if we could find some more backdrops.

On the way in, Peggy collected some fallen flowers to put into Maggie’s hair. She also did that in our last locale, using some those purple jungle flowers we found growing near the roadside.

Fortunately, Permai wasn’t too busy so we got to shoot at the main plank walk leading in from the entrance.

 We moved on to the obstacle course.

 When Edwin is at work, Pegs and I don’t really have much to do. We made good use of that time monkeying around on the side.

Maggie and I joked about selling this photo to a gay site.

Maybe this one too.

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Trash It - Chasing Sunlight II

Edwin’s posted the second part of our ‘Trash It’ shoot. This part is more of an experiment with location and impromptu resources than anything. I’m not gonna say very much here. Be sure to take a look at the album above first, then some of these behind-the-scenes photos will make sense. :-D

Next set of BTS will follow soon.

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Trash It - Chasing Sunlight

I’ve always loved Trash The Dress and Offbeat Bride. Since I’m in no danger of getting married, I’ve been looking out for someone else to inflict Ideas upon. Lo and behold, my pal Maggie and her fiance Alan liked the idea of a completely non-conventional pre-wedding photo shoot.

Previously, I’ve bounced this idea off my photographer friend Edwin. He shoots a lot of weddings and was keen to try something new. When it was confirmed that we’re doing this, Edwin brought Shen along to help with the shoot. Two photographers? Yay! Get wet, muddy and go swimming in your wedding dress? More yays!

What’s left is to worry about is the dress. Edwin’s done some research and found that there’s is no fucking way any bridal shop in town will let one of their several thousand ringgit gowns be in the same sentence as a word which means “we might destroy the dress in the process”. Maggie and I agreed that the best option is to make the dress ourselves.

I happen to know someone who just bought a sewing machine and has the same project temperament as us (meaning once we get excited about getting something done, we become unstoppable forces). Peggy joins the team, and immediately starts sketching stuff down right at the table where we popped her the question.

Our shooting schedule was divided into two Sundays, and we had exactly one week to come up with a dress. There were a lot of late nights but we came up with two.

The cat is not impressed by our puny efforts.

None of us have any experience with making actual clothes. Peggy refused to call this “dress making” and insisted on calling it “crafting”. We eventually settled for the term “dress hack” because we’re essentially taking old clothes and turning it into something else. Our main source of material? Old curtains we rescued from a thrift store and a few items of clothing Maggie don’t plan on using anymore.

Bearing in mind that the dresses may not survive the photo shoot, we only focused on details that will show up on the photo and didn’t bother with things nobody will be able to see. The ruffles above were secured with two or three fast stitches.

Both Peggy and Maggie are a lot handier with the seamstress-y work than I am. I played the role of spare pair of hands, caterer, cheerleader, driver and over-glorified thread picker. I also found a pattern to make roses out of felt and made a bouquet with Peggy.

When the first Sunday came, Alan drove us all down to Pasir Pandak to meet Edwin and Shen. The crack team of dress hackers found that their work didn’t end the night before when we finished the outfits. Peggy especially had plenty of on-the-spot adjustments to make to the dresses, as well as make-up and hair.

Making sure the dress sits properly over the ruffle (left), and cutting off the
corners of the train because we couldn’t decide until ground zero (right).

The whole week’s work is about to be put to the test. And boy, they did. Maggie and Alan are willing to try just about anything.

 After all that punishment Maggie plied on the ruffly dress, the only casualty was this:

Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.

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Trash It - Made to be trashed

When Maggie and Alan said they are willing to try crazy things for their pre-wedding photo album, I (dubbed “the brain of this whole project”) gathered together an equally crazy team to make it happen. This post consolidates all the blog entries made about the project, which was a very interesting experience for all involved.

• Made to be Trashed - an introduction and overview of the project.
• First photos from Pasir Pandak - Edwin and Shen
• Underwater shoot by Peggy
• Making of Dresshack : Wedding by Peggy
• Second set by Edwin **NEW!**
• Chasing Sunlight and Chasing Sunlight II - behind-the-scenes at second shoot **NEW!**
• Waterworks - behind-the-scenes at the underwater shoot **NEW!**
• Check back for updates!

See the original entry at:

Trash It