Who doesn’t like a party? Especially with hot models and free flow drinks/food. MAXIM’s Hot 100 Party was held this past Wednesday at Powerhouse Nightclub in the newly converted St James Power Station. About 1,400 people attended which was a 40% increase from last year’s MAXIM Anniversary Party.

This years event was organized by SPH Magazines to celebrate the inaugural MAXIM Hot 100 supplement that comes free with the July issue of MAXIM magazine, the party brought to life the list which names the 100 most popular women in the world, as voted by over 60,000 MAXIM readers in Singapore. Among the guests were models and celebrities such as Maggie Tan, Jaymee Ong, Debbie Wong, Rebecca Tan, Cynthia Koh and Zhang Yaodong.

The program for the night included a lingerie fashion show, silhouette dance, lucky draws, Q&A session with the celebrities and even fire acrobatics performances plus performances from Powerhouse’s in-house band.

The highlight of the night was the presentation of MAXIM Hot 100 Best Awards given out to girls who had appeared in MAXIM. Among the winners were Cynthia Koh for Best Body, Evangeline Tay for Best Legs, Debbie Wong for Most Photogenic and Kanny Theng for STOMP MAXIMum Babe 2007.

List of Winners

1. Best Body 2007 – Cynthia Koh
2. Best Legs 2007 – Evangeline Tay
3. Best Newcomer 2007 – Chong Sue Ann
4. STOMP MAXIMum Babe 2007 – Kanny Theng
5. Cover Of The Year 2007 – Jamyee Ong
6. Best-Selling Cover 2007 – Nira
7. Most Photogenic 2007 – Debbie Wong
8. Next Big Thing 2007 – Maggie Tan

More photos are in the Photo Gallery.

Freelancing has its good days especially when you get a press pass for a hot party and get to walk around a top nightlife venue with a dSLR on a flash bracket without being thrown out by an over-sized bouncer with a ponytail.

Carnival Ibiza’07 held last Saturday night was an event to mark the opening of the infamous Ibiza Summer parties and also Attica’s third anniversary. This year’s theme was a fusion of Cirque du Soleil with Moulin Rouge. Patrons were dressed to impress and party the night away.

Entertainment included the Mystifying Circus Acts, The Red Army Rifle Girl Brigade Squad, upbeat Brazilian Capoeira performance and many others.

Each area of the large Attica complex was setup with an individual music concept and theme – Soulful/Funky Disco, Percussion Beats, Hip Hop and full-on House. There were entertaining performances by Red Army Rifle Girl Brigade Squad, upbeat Brazilian Capoeira, DJ Jonathan Ulysses (In Bed with Space, Ibiza 2006) and Attica Shanghai’s resident Hip Hop DJ.

Check out the Ibiza’07 Photo Gallery.

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Nightlife assignments are always the most fun and a party last Saturday night at Le Baroque (Chijmes) was no exception. While billed as a birthday bash for Celeste Chen, the party also celebrated birthdays of Ben Loh, Amy Van Onselen, and Jisoo Kim.

Le Baroque* is billed as “an elemental mix of part bohemian, part sophisticate and, full-on exuberance”. Opened since early 2006, Le Baroque occupies the former premises of the legendary China Jump. The beautifully refurbished dance club plays host to the high-octane performances of Douglas Oliviero and Satellite.

An eclectic crowd of revelers on Saturday included friends, international school students, and club patrons. A great time was had by all. Check out the photos in my gallery.

Or, see my post on Nightclub Photography.

*30 Victoria B1-07 Fountain Court CHIJMES Singapore 187996

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Wow! Two years in row that Robert got invited to MAXIM Singapore’s anniversary parties. This year’s event was held from 7-10 pm last Friday night at Dragonfly in the newly converted St. James Power Station. The club is very impressive – valet parking, VIP entrance, fabulous interior design, and bouncers in suits talking into their lapels. When not hosting private parties, Dragonfly provides Mandarin pop entertainment.

The MAXIM party, opened to members and loyal subscribers only, was a mix of contests, entertainment, and awards. The dress code/theme was black and red. Devilicious girls (checkout their tails) were on hand for taking photos with guests. Resident band Puzzle with vocalist Skye performed several sets followed by Bosco the Magician’s impressive repertoire of tricks including fire-eating. Yikes! Last on the list was an erotic/suggestive dance by a group of female dancers from the Attitude Dance Studio. The entire show was MCed by comedian Irene Ang (MediaCorp) who kept everyone laughing with her one-liners.

The event ended promptly at 10pm. Upon leaving, I notice a huge queue of non-member guests waiting to enter the club. Yet another successful new club in Singapore!

Photos from the event are here.

Thanks to MAXIM Singapore, Dragonfly, and Hotspots for granting me press access.

About the Power Station: St. James Power Station was Singapore’s first coal-fired power station built in 1927. It has been converted into the new ‘ must-go’ destination for those in search of a new, stylish entertainment complex. Nine distinctive outlets of live entertainment and music styles are opening in this 60,000 sq ft complex. It is situated in the HarbourFront precinct next to VivoCity, the largest retail and lifestyle complex in Singapore, which just opened this month.

Photos were taken with a Canon EOS 30D and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 lens with a Canon Speedlite 580EX flash. Camera, lens, and flash were mounted on a Canon SB-E1 bracket to provide even lighting in both the vertical and horizontal positions.

Robert covered a ‘by invitation only’ party last night at Gotham Penthouse (Clarke Quay). Jeffrey Chung Models graduated a new batch of models (14 female models and 1 male model). Highlights of the event included a World Cup Dance Show, a Christina Aguilera Impersonation Show, Fashion show, and Awards Ceremony. Most of the Jeffrey Chung regulars were there including Donna, Kanny, Manju, Iris, Angel, etc. The party also served as a ‘dress rehersal’ for an upcoming event in Hong Kong.

I used a Canon EOS 30D dSLR with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens. The camera, lens, and a Canon Speedlite 580EX were mounted on a Canon SB-E1 flash bracket. A Canon Compact Battery Pack CP-E2 was used to provide additional power to the flash. I shot at ISO 400 in the manual mode with a shutter speed of 1/250 sec at f/3.2.

The AI Focus mode was used to track the models while they were walking. An example is shown in the above photo. Images were saved in Canon Raw Format then converted to 16-bit tiffs using Bibble Pro v4.7 raw conversion software prior to editing in Adobe Photoshop CS2. A disco smoke machine sitting on the right hand side of the stage ruined many of the photos. I still managed to get a few ‘keepers’.

Click on the thumbnail or here to see photos from this event.

Thanks to Hotspots Afterdark, Gotham Penthouse, and Jeffrey Chung Models for access to the event.

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I was out and about on Club Street last night in paparazzi mode. I ran into the Chen sisters (Nicole and Celeste) and grabbed this shot (clickable) with my new Canon EOS 30D. Nicole is a student and successful freelance model at the tender age of twenty. She appeared on MediaCorp’s ‘A Light Affair‘ recently which airs on Channel 5, Wednesdays at 10pm. Nicole is also known for her highly rated YouTube videos. Nicole pics are in my blog gallery here.

Soon to be sixteen, Celeste has taken blogging by storm with her creative and very popular website CelesteChen.com. The blog background is super nice!

I used a Canon 17-40mmL f/4 lens and a Speedlite 580EX flash mounted on a Canon SB-E1 bracket. The Speedlite was powered by a new set of Sanyo 2700 NiMH batteries. I shot in the manual mode (Iso 400) letting E-TTL2 do all the metering. I am still waiting for a decent raw converter though. Bibble Labs – please hurry!

Here’s of one their homemade videos:

See more Nicole’s YouTube videos.

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Robert had a media pass for the Xbox 360 Launch Party held last night in Singapore at the Red Dot Design Museum. About 400 PC gamers showed up for the RSVP event. Singaporeans are the first in Southeast Asia to get the Xbox 360. Some 140 persons who had pre-ordered queued to pick up their sets. Another five gamers managed to win one for themselves through a celebrity gaming competition.

The Xbox 360 was already shown at the IT Show last week and there are demo consoles in some of the shopping malls. Therefore, the event was billed as the ‘Launch Party’ rather than the ‘Launch’. The museum was all decked out in gamer theme with green lights and disco smoke. There were plenty of new consoles to try out. The party was hosted by MTV VJs Denise Keller and Colby Miller. The entertainment started with ninja gals dropping from the scaffolding joined by a slender model dressed as Joanna Dark. Denise hosted the celebrity gaming competition where contestants battled it out with Colby, Denise, and a surprise visitor – Melody Chen.

This event was the first real test for my new Canon EOS 30D. And, I must say that it performed flawlessly. I used a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 lens and a Speedlite 580EX flash mounted on a SB-E1 bracket. The Speedlite was powered by a new set of Sanyo 2700 NiMH batteries. Mostly, I shot in the manual mode (ISO 400) letting E-TTL2 do all the metering.

Note: There are additional photos from this event on the new hotspotters.com (beta) site.

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I covered a Lingerie Fashion Show last night at DXO – Colors by the Bay. The event was organized by three students (Lora Lim, Eric Poh, and Sara Shantelle Lim) ages 18-21 each is from different schools in Singapore. The sponsors were KAI (club clothing), L’ Oreal (make-up), Bio-Beauty (prizes), and Romance d`Amour (lingerie).

Ten models showed their stuff on that catwalk sporting the latest club wear and lingerie. Several games and contests gave everyone a chance to win prizes. Especially funny was the Hair Styling Competition where the models styled the hair of ten guys chosen from the crowd. The top three contestants with the best styled hair walked away with L’ Oreal prizes. Once the show was over, DJ-Illusion provided music until 4am.

Note: There are additional photos from this event on the new hotspotters.com (beta) site.

Taking good photos in poorly lite, noisy nightclubs present a formidable challenge even with a dSLR. The first time I tried it, I came home with a compactflash card full of dark and out-of-focus shots. Robert learned fast! After shooting in many of the top clubs in Singapore, I now get a high yield of good (and sometimes great) photos. Don’t expect fine art but it’s a lot of fun!

Currently, my favorite lens for nightclub photography is the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 lens. It’s light in weight, L-series, wide-angle, sharp at f/4, and has an unobtrusive petal-shaped hood. Using the lens at wide end (17mm) with a Canon EOS 20D or Canon EOS 30D, you can easily photograph groups of up to 10 persons in limited space.

Here are some do’s and don’ts:

Do

• Use the manual mode with a shutter speed of 1/250 sec at about f/4
• Use an external flash on a bracket (either a Stroboframe or Canon’s Speedlite bracket SB-E1)
• Use a STO-FEN Omni-Bounce or equivalent
• Tilt the flash head up at about a 45° angle
• Set the flash exposure compensation to about +1.5 stops
• Use ‘all focusing points’
• Shoot 2-3 frames in case of eye blink
• Avoid ‘disc smoke’ – it messes up the autofocus

Don’t

• Don’t use the Program, Av, or Tv modes
• Mount the flash on the camera’s hotshoe
• Use a single focusing point
• Block the Speedlite’s IR beam with your hand
• Take anyone’s photo without asking their permission

Remember, with these parameters (1/250 sec at about f/4 in manual mode), all the metering is handled by the E-TTL circuitry. Be careful not to block the Speedlite’s IR beam. In low light, there is only the IR beam for the AF to lock onto.

You can shoot at ISO 400. High ISO is unnecessary as the flash provides adequate light.

One important point: Make sure that you have permission to shoot with a dSLR in the club. It’s not generally allowed in most nightclubs and security staff (some huge guy with a ponytail) will bounce you out in no time. I never take photos in a club without a media pass or security clearance.

Also, aways ask before taking anyone’s photo. If the club is noisy, get your subject’s attention and point to the camera. If they shake their head no, just walk away.

If you post the photos online, you might consider handing out cards with the gallery URL. It’s an easy way to increase traffic to your site.

Examples of nightclub photography are in my gallery.

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Robert covered Lianhe Zaobao zbNOW’s Glamour Quest 2006 semi-finals held last night at Club Momo (Central Mall). Glamour Quest is Zaobao’s effort to promote the local modeling industry in Singapore. As ZaoBao’s VP Mr. Lim Huan Chiang puts it, “The annual event is set to exult Glamour Quest to the next level and put our tiny red dot on the modeling map.” Twenty male and twenty female contestants vied to make it to the finals which will be held February 24th at Plaza Singapura.

I was impressed… having attended the event in previous years, I can definitely say the Glamour Quest 2006 was the best ever. I have never before seen so many great looking gals and dudes in one place this side of the date line.

The photo above was taken with a Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 17-40mmL f/4 lens, and Canon Speedlite 580EX flash mounted on a SB-E1 bracket.

Note: More photos from the Glamour Quest 2006 Semi-Finals are here.

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