FIR @ Taiwan - Celebrating Faye's Birthday

I was assigned to cover FIR's promo concert showcase in Taipei, Taiwan sometime in 2006 (or was 2005, I can't exactly remember). I went there together with 8 other media reps from our local magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations. I was the official photographer and my duty was to supply the concert's pics to the 8 media reps for promo publication back here in Malaysia.

The concert venue was very far away from our hotel in Taipei and the journey took about an hour or so, literally arriving at another town. It was by the sea, something like an esplanade or so. I don't know the name of the place (they were all in Mandarin anyway) but it was very windy with the sea breeze gushing in (very sticky face after that).

The concert was great with good sound and awesome lighting effects. We were late for the show, though the concert has not started but the crowd was already at its peak when we got there. So, the Taiwanese rep from Warner Music ushered us to the main control (sound & lights) console area and I was instructed to shoot from there! It was like some 150 feet away from the stage!

For the benefit of readers who are into photography, I mainly used my 80-200 lens most of the time with an occassional 17-55 for wider shots of the stage and crowd. On my D2X, I can set the crop size to "High Speed Crop" giving it a 2X magnification factor instead of the usual 1.5X on DSLR. So, on my 80-200, I got a maximum of 400mm! Luckily I brought my monopod.

Well, after the concert, we were invited to join the FIR team to a restaurant to celebrate Faye's birthday! It was a cool opportunity to get up-close and personal with them. Guess what...Faye and Real are faithful Christians who love Jesus! Hallelujah! Here are some pics...

The main control area for sound and lights. They basically use the same equipement as we do here in Malaysia. I was standing just infront of them.

This is the closest shot I can get at 400mm f 2.8, no flash (won't reach, anyway).

The sea breeze was so strong that even the spraks from the pyrotechnics were blown to one side.

You seldom get to see Ian (in white) play the guitar! He is always on the keyboards.

And you also seldom get to see Real (the guitarist) sing and play on a piano!

Video crews from local Taiwan TV stations are "wild". They go all out to get the footages and there are many of these video crew everywhere. These guys here are all set and ready, awaiting for FIR to arrive at the restaurant. This is another team of video crew, totally different from the ones at the concert venue. So, these guys arrived way before we did!

FIR...just got out of their van (the white one directly behind them).

They were immediately interviewed by local medias and TV stations. You can see the amount of stations represented there by counting the microphones!

Faye's chocolate fudge birthday cake. Not sure how old she was.

Both guys, Ian and Real, gave her a pair of earings for her birthday.

Trying their best to put it on for her.

Here is a toast from FIR to all the crew members at the restaurant!

A huge birthday card from the crew members!

Faye says, "Hey, that's Babyboss's signature!". LOL

A private interview session with the Malaysian media group. My job was just to snap, snap and snap!