ELLE Spring/Summer Fashion Photography Experiential Workshop

Once again, it is Spring/Summer season and ION Orchard has done it again with many promotions and events during Mar and Apr.

ELLE Singapore has teamed up with ION Orchard again to bring you the Spring/Summer’17 Fashion From The Front Row this April.

It's my 3rd year joining in the IONxELLE events and still as excited as ever, cos ION Orchard would also be celebrating their 8th year anniversary this year!

First up, you can tell from our happy faces I was elated to join the OOTD workshop held by ELLE. This year, they invited the renowned fashion stylist Furqan Saini, and Mediacorp's in-house photographer Kelvin Chia to share with us top tips for nailing great fashion shots.

If u think OOTDs are just about looking pretty, think again. It's time we all level up and take care of lighting, composition, pose, and even lenses! If you missed this session... wait for the one next year then!

The complimentary drinks and cupcakes we got.

It was my first time trying the cupcakes from Plain Vanilla and omg it was soo good!

Anyway, after their presentation, we were split into 2 groups and my group headed down to level 3 for a light graffiti shot. 

Due to time constraints, we could only take a group shot. It took quite a while at the light graffiti studio as the photographer has to teach u how to control the light stick, and after that pose for the photo.

This was our shot. ahem as u can see, the light stick drawers didn't position correctly and the word overlapped with the heart shape. But it's ok, I'll still be going back for another shot when I have the time!

Afterwards, we headed down to the ION fashion garden at level 1 to put our skills learnt to good use.

Unedited photos:

And this one I had to tweak the warmth on my phone cos it was a weird colour at first, but didn't realise it was too blue until I saw it on my computer. (forgot to turn off the blue light filter on my Samsung!)

I'll need to go back again as the backdrop lights up at night! Think pretty fairy lights and garden all in one! Just look at the hashtag #ss17xIONxELLE on Instagram to see what the rest posted too!

There will be a series of fashion workshops this April - the Spring/Summer’17 Roving Fashion Masterclass, where we join the fashion stylist in visiting two fashion and one skincare/cosmetic boutiques at ION Orchard.

Thank u for having me, ELLE Singapore!

Till then, will update on that again!

It's Time for Taiwan! Days 7-8

Day 7: Cingjing - Jiufen

Morning of day 7. We wokeup early for breakfast and waited for our bus to go down the mountain at 9+. It was really foggy then. And unlucky us, it started to rain as we were waiting for the bus. And the route down was foggy and rainy. Damn LL was so worried there would be landslides due to the earthquake days before. hhaaha but nth happened!

We reached the Taizhong Station ahead of time, so we changed the high speed rail timing and had to topup to the usual price. There was an early bird discount when I bought it online. But time was of essence so we forgoed the discount lor...

Back to the familiar Taipei station, we we bought this salmon sushi cos it was so cheap! Quite fresh too. Its less than SGD 6 for 8 pieces!

Some 葱油饼 and bubble tea as we ran out of money and walked some distance away to the Citibank to withdraw money. The rate was actually better than us exchanging the money here in sg.

Ok anw after that, we bought train tickets to go to Ruifang, and then to Jiufen. 

I already knew what I wanted to eat when I reached there. The fishballs: 

Peanut with icecream (which was totally awesome): 

Grilled mushrooms:

And this time, we tried tea appreciation as the Jiufen Teahouse!

Cant really rmb the price, but it was around SGD 20 for each person, for the type of tea leaves we chose.

It could be more ex depending on what else you choose.

  

So the person taught us to 泡茶

The cup was uniquely designed by the teahouse owner: 

The big bowl is for throwing away unwanted tea leaves or any other trash.

Well I almost forgot the steps. But here is what I rmb.

First put some amount of tea leaves into the bigger white cup, and pour in the hot water.

Let it brew for goodness-I-forgot-how-long

Then pour the tea out into this white cup without any lids 

And then you can pour the tea into your tiny tea cups. 

And after that, the tea leaves can be reused, and brewed, and reused, up to 7 times I think. Each soaking session longer and longer by I-forgot-how-many seconds.

On a side note, don't I look very Japanese tourist in my day 7 OOTD? hehe

After the tea session, we just have to take this little clay thing to the counter for payment. 

After that, I went in search of the famous Ah Gan taro balls. U need to go up a flight of stairs to see it. Ask the ppl around if cant find. I don't think nobody there doesn't know where it is. 

We got the hot one, cos in those colder weather, I just don't feel like eating a cold dessert.

It was sooooo good. Awesomely good. The texture was just perfect, and you could really taste the natural taste of the ingredient as u bite into them. But too bad I couldn't buy it back into SG cos they don't have any vacuum packed product or whatsoever. The guy said the only thing I can do is to freeze it then bring it back. But of cos its impossible so I guess I have to go back next time to have it!

Picturesque view of this place. So postcard-worthy rite?

Just like to walk around this Jiufen Old Street

Only pity was that it was raining the whole day. 

After that, we cabbed back to the train station and went to Shida University Night Market. 

Its the first time I am going there. And I must say. Really nth much.

Had beef noodles but it ain't very awesome.

Had this waffle like thingy which was ok.. 

After that we went back to Taipei Station and walked around the underground mall hoping that I would be able to buy some last min stuffs. But only found some. Walked for damn long and legs were damn tired.

But that concludes day 7.

Day 8: Taipei - SG

Nothing much today. We woke up quite late. Shopped around the malls and went to this place for brunch.

Luved my egg benedict. It was around SGD 13. Great price as compared to those in SG.

Some last min shopping, and we took the bus back to airport for our flight back to SG.

And thats all! Another satisfied TW trip!