Naperville Family Photographer | Singapore Superhero Family
December and January I refocused my photographer on the soul behind it. My family. That meant fewer clients and more time to explore. More time to explore the light, the emotions, and capture the wee details of my little kids before they slipped away.
We spent the holiday season at our home away from home in Singapore, desperately missing our family and traditions at home in Naperville, Illinois. With only a few more months left with our time in Singapore we're in a tangle of emotions. Grasping on to the friends and aspects we love in Singapore but yearning for the comforts and routine of our own permanent home. A lot of my recent posts have been and will be of our lives here. Celebrating our swan song in Singapore.
My own kids go through a range of emotions when it comes to having their pictures taken by me (if it's another photographer they are in love with the idea). With some fresh superhero costumes from Christmas however, it didn't take much convincing to get the kids into our ominous carpark for some serious superhero family photos. There was some argument over the costume choices, but with our masks in hand and a homemade Optimus Prime costume on my husband we banded together, pushed the shutter button and our superhero family photo was immortalized in time. It may have taken more than just one shutter push, run, pose, repeat sequence, but the result is fun and reminiscent of our adventures during this time of the kids lives. Exactly my goal each time I take my camera out.
I'm sure there will be plenty more family selfies before we leave Singapore. We are certainly looking forward to restarting the chapter of our lives back in the Naperville, Chicago area and bringing Carrie Cheng Photography back to life there.
Watch out Naperville, we're coming.
Naperville Family Photographer | Where the end is the beginning
This is where is all began for me. Photography. I had the time, but I was running out of it. My beloved, my dog, my Sigmund was getting older. I guess I didn't realize how old he was getting as in the end it truly went too quickly. But this is where is began for me, in the end.
Sigmund was my best friend. A replacement for a boyfriend that went off to college. Sigmund followed me to college, then to North Carolina, and then to Chicago. He was there to meet my husband Brian back in College Station, Texas. They bonded over peeing in the backyard together, but then fought over me for the next few years. It wasn't until Chicago that we all truly came together. Sigmund walked with us on Starbucks runs, Sigmund came along for food order pick-ups. As he started to get older and his hind end failed him a bit, we took apart the bed and we all slept on the mattress, on the floor. Sigmund still jumped up on it, not quite understanding he didn't need to anymore.
Brian and I got engaged. We talked of having a small pretend marriage ceremony in our condo courtyard so that Sigmund could be a part of it. But the winter was coming. The days got colder. Sigmund got older and then he got sick. He wasn't getting better and then he wasn't eating. A trip to his local vet sent us to the specialist clinic when a flawed test showed some internal bleeding. We packed his bed in the back of the Volkswagen Golf and headed to north to the specialist. They wouldn't let us stay with him during the tests and said it would be a while. Having not eaten a bite all day, we went off in search for dinner convincing ourselves he was okay. He wasn't.
The doctor started out with the good news, the other vet had made a mistake. Sigmund had cancer. His liver had grown the size off almost his entire abdomen. With blood transfusions, poking, and prodding we could buy him a small amount of time. There would be suffering and I had seen him suffer. I was there where he fell down the stairs because he was too weak to make all five of them. I was there when he cowered behind me during the cold gust of wind because it was too cold for him. I was there when all the playing he could do with the neighbor puppy was to stand there and stare.
Suddenly, it was all there before me. I couldn't let him hurt anymore. I couldn't let him struggle anymore. On his bed the three of us held each other as the doctor administered the drugs. And all too quickly it was over. Embraced in my affection, suddenly he was gone. The last breath of air released from his lungs as his spirit moved on.
I don't remember how long we stayed there. It may have been minutes, it may have been forever. I just remember the crying, the loss, the aged bottle of Balgownie we had been saving for a special occasion. All night we cried until sleep finally overtook us. When the sun came in the next morning, instantly the pain of the night before flooded back in, more crying, more tears.
I was taking photography classes at the Chicago Photography Center. I had an assignment due that week. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to go to class. I didn't want to cry or feel. But I did it. I did it of my fiancé. We embraced the cold day and made our first walk alone down to the park where we would take Sigmund. With his empty collar and tattered leash in hand we went there to remember him.
Those were some of the first photos I took and still some of the most powerful. I've since been told and critiqued of their flaws, but they mean so much to me. The pain, the sadness, the emptiness, it's all something I want to remember. It means I once held on to something important and dear. It means I had a great loss. I want to remember that. As much as I didn't want to hurt, I wanted to remember it with every ounce of my being. It means he was never truly or completely lost. This is photography.
This is where is started for me. Capturing raw emotion, coupled it in the right setting, the right light, and the effect it has on me is profound. Capturing a moment, an era, and helping someone remember. This is why I am a photographer.
the Singapore project | Taxi Line
If you live in Singapore you've probably stood in your share of taxi lines. The short, the long, the waiting game of chance as you wondering which taxi your luck will bring you. This taxi image is at one of the more glamorous taxi lines at the Marina Bay Sands. I love the blue light cast on the scene and the rare line of green taxi signs.
the Singapore project | the Road Not Taken
For some reason as I stare at this photograph taken just off the beaten path of Singapore's Marina Bay, I am reminded of Robert Frost's poem, the Road Not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
the Singapore project | the Hottest Job in Singapore
One of the things I most identify with Singapore is the work force. Not the business workers, the tough and dirty hard workers you see throughout the streets of the perpetual construction of Singapore. I'm still in awe on how buildings are constructed using bamboo scaffolding tied together with rope. During my latest photography walk at the Marina Bay I came across this group working the late hours of the evening to erect a stage. Such an inspiring site of their strength. I love the way their hot strobe lights gives the perfect back and rim lighting to accentuate their physique.
