{"id":61,"date":"2006-09-24T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2006-09-24T13:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/24\/progressive-flash-light-course\/"},"modified":"2007-12-17T16:39:37","modified_gmt":"2007-12-17T08:39:37","slug":"progressive-flash-light-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/24\/progressive-flash-light-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive Flash Light Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always struggled with flash photography.<\/p>\n

Too harsh, too strong. Bright faces, dark legs. You know how it is.<\/p>\n

So when Stanley Lim Color Centre<\/a> (SLCC) offered a Progressive Flash Light Course, I decided to sign up. $300 for five lessons over four weeks. It wasn’t cheap. I took a week to think about it before I actually committed to it.<\/p>\n

The class was to be conducted by the owner of SLCC, Stanley Lim.<\/p>\n

And so I turned up one Friday evening for my first lesson.<\/p>\n

I looked at the sign on the glass. Stanley Lim Color Centre – a touch of professional photography. I guess I was at the right place.<\/p>\n

Looking through the glass door I found a studio that doubled up as a classroom. When I looked in, there were some men and one woman – all barefooted – already at the desks. They looked at me as if I was an unwelcomed trespasser intruding upon their privacy.<\/p>\n

I was already feeling some desperation. It had been a while since I’ve taken off shoes at a shop.<\/p>\n

Still, the one and only lady – Joanne, whom I later discovered was Stanley’s wife – welcomed me in loudly.<\/p>\n

As I stepped onto the sticky linoleum, I heard this loud growl. And then another. And yet another.<\/p>\n

It was animalistic. But it wasn’t a growl of any animal. This is civilised Singapore and other than the Moscow Circus, there is no reason for any growler to be in city.<\/p>\n

I could not put my finger on it. And then it came again. Long and loud. Deep. Uncomfortably penetrating.<\/p>\n

Reminding myself that those who call themselves professional are rarely professional, Joanne told me I’d have to get used to that – Stanley’s burp, because “he’s like that one – very crude.”<\/p>\n

For all four weeks, lessons never started on time. Never ended on time. Indeed there was once I ran after the last bus at 11:45pm. Stanley drank beers at every lesson, burped again and again.<\/p>\n

By the third week, I was strangely comfortable with his burps. No more did I cringe. In fact, there were times I wondered how come he didn’t burp more on a particular lesson.<\/p>\n

Still, at the end of it, was this trainer who was generous, not calculative with time and very open.<\/p>\n

Stanley wasn’t selfish with his knowledge, sharing what he had. You could ask him anything, he’d answer the best he knew how. He’s really a down to earth guy.<\/p>\n

No wonder then that some of my classmates had attended many of his lessons. These people were very familiar with him. They were more friends than students.<\/p>\n

It was this familiarity that I intruded upon when I first stepped into SLCC. I wasn’t a trespasser. I just handn’t been initiated into the SLCC club.<\/p>\n

The initiation? Stanley’s burp. Get used to it, and you’re in.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the course was pretty good. I need to practice what I’ve learnt. Any volunteer models?<\/p>\n

Here are some of the photos I took on the course. Straight out of the camera. Just resized and watermarked.
\n\"2006-09-02_18-03-56_DSC_7976_web.jpg\"
\n\"2006-09-02_18-36-43_DSC_8006_web.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"2006-09-02_19-24-35_DSC_8029_web.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"2006-09-02_19-43-08_DSC_8051_web.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"2006-09-02_20-31-33_DSC_8090_web.jpg\"<\/p>\n

So what do you think? Worth the $300?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always struggled with flash photography. Too harsh, too strong. Bright faces, dark legs. You know how it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[177,176,36],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanneteo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}