On stage at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai

I was flabbergasted when I told someone that I was going to Shanghai and was returned with the question, "What is Shanghai?" So, I figured I'll have to deal with my own standards & ideals and move on to explain about Shanghai.

The reason I went to Shanghai, really though is to lead a photography project within Refocus Imaging and Intel's CTO, Justin Rattner's keynote speech in the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. Justin, unfortunately was too sick to make it to the conference and had Vice President, Andrew Chien replace him.

The whole keynote was recorded with the actual slides in the IDF's website (Time: 36m50s to 46m:00s) but the part that we really care about is here below, in a YouTube video.



Conferences such as the IDF takes months in advanced of preparation for a 1-2 days event. My part in the photography within the keynote was a mere 1-2 minutes but took over one week in preparations. Preparations include project managing, such as hiring the models, makeup artists and wardrobe selections. Local photography lighting gear rentals have to be managed, as well as, photography work in Shanghai and surrounding city, in HangZhou (for the slideshow to showcase the technology). I also had to ensure multiple backups of workflow in case of failures, etc.

We had to hire assistants, compose several dry-runs, rehearsals, on-site problem solving photography issues (such as the issues of lighting in the impossibly difficult lighting conditions within the huge conference hall.

Whatever simplicity you see in the show was backed up by layers of complexity of preparation in the background.

We got extremely creative in the lighting department. For the studio photography enthutiasts out there, I was shooting at F4.0 & ISO 1600 with a Profoto D4 2400 at near max as the main!!!!!!! If that doesn't send fear up your spine, I don't know what will. Renting more lighting units will overdrive the budget of the client. Profoto, broncolor and high end lighting gears are 4X more expensive to rent in China than in the United States.

Incompatibility in voltage, weight of equipment through air travel, extension cords, all have to be placed into consideration. No, it was no walk in the park. I had to lug 4 large and heavy suitcases across the Pacific Ocean for a mere 2 minutes of airtime. And that's on top of renting 4 more suitcases of lighting gear.

Who says Commercial Photography is easy?

A few fun facts about Shanghai:

1. Shanghai is the most expensive China city to live in.
   
   
2. One of the world's tallest building resides in Shanghai.
   
   
3. The mass rapid transit here is very well connected. They have
   a whooping 17 lines. Taxis are in abundance. The starting price
   is 11RMB, which is about USD$1.50
   
   
4. The Shangri-la hotel employs a cute girl to knock on your door for morning calls instead of a phone call. I specifically asked for a phone call the 2nd day after running around in my underwear when a door knock came on my 1st day's call.
   
   
5. Shanghainese dialect are spoken alongside Mandarin in Shanghai.
   
   
6. You can custom tailor a full 2-3 piece business suit in China for
   US$50 and a wonderfully customed tailored shirt for US$15. Mind you,
   the material used is better than those I've seen in some high end stores
   at Nordstrom.

- Michael Soo