An Evening With Sporty Spice

"Mel C will be walking through this path at 9.15pm", Big ben told me. I responded:" Huh?" and looked at my watch, it's already 9.25pm. He added:" She'll be here any moment." I stammered:" Hmmz, ok.." Big Ben is a burly but friendly marshall in DXO. I was told to report at DXO at 9.30pm. I saw in the papers that Mel C will be performing at 10.30pm and being an international star, i was expecting her to be late by another 1.5hrs hence i was caught by surprise that she's coming any moment.

Big Ben: "You wanna go up to her VIP room later?"

Me: "Hmmz, sure, but how?"

Big Ben led me to a secret door and pointed up.

Big Ben:" Up the stairs, straight ahead, turn to your left and that's her VIP room"

With a word of thanks, i advanced through the secret passage to the VIP room.I was kindof nervous and excited. After 20 minutes, Mel C really went through the door which i came from and walked to her room. I took a couple of shots along the way but it didn't turn out good. Standing outside her room, another marshall that i've met before asked me if i wanted to go in and take a few more shots. I can't believe it, of course i want! After few rounds of negotiations with her agents(Chad & Angel), i was told i will only be permitted in after she had done her rehearsal and make-up. I obliged obediently to the masters of the territory.

Another 30mins went past, Chad signalled me to Mel's room. I was nervous, don't know if she'll be a difficult person to handle. She's a nice girl, in fact she apologised for having me to wait outside. Despite her friendliness, the aura from an international celebrity still kept me back and made me a little uneasy. In retrospect, there are few things that i regret from this shoot:

1) I didn't take enough pictures of her when i was in her room
2) I didn't pose her though it's highly likely that she'll pose for me.

As a photographer, what i should have done the moment i stepped into the room is to make my presence felt yet made her comfortable in front of the camera. In the kind of scenario that was presented to me, i could have all the control i want for the next two minutes or so. I could have brighten the light, which i didn't, i could have posed her, which i failed to do as well.

Instead, after our initial greetings, i merely told her to be natural and i'll take a few individual shots of her unposed and a few with her guitarists. All in all, i took around 10 shots and they arent good shots at all. Some were over-exposed, some were underposed, blah blah blah..I totally forgot how to tilt my flash head so that i can bounce the light off the ceiling to create more ambience light. What a waste!

What makes me feel even worse at the of the day is, i was the only photographer that was allowed into her room that evening, even the media photographers could only wait for her downstairs. I failed to make full use of such an opportunity. The reason that attributed to such faults was, i didn't know i'll be facing her at such close proximity. I've learnt my lesson from this episode though.

Next time should i be put in the same situation, i'll be prepared to handle it much better. Slowly but surely, i'm learning the ropes of professional photography.

After her performance, i ran into Mel C again as she was heading back to the hotel. She cheerfully waved goodbye to me which i responded with a wide grin and rapid waving of my hand in the air. So long Melanie, next time you come back to Singapore, let's go for coffee together ok? ...In my dreams..

The followings are the pics i had taken during her performance.