Behind the scenes of “Serenity”

This is a story of how I captured one of my nicest shots of 2022, taken at Cenang beach.

It was the month of October 2022. I finally got a chance to visit the famous Langkawi island, north of the Malaysian peninsula. It was an exciting trip, mainly because it would be amazing as a “photography trip” for me personally.

At midnight on 22 October, we started our long but slow journey to Kuala Kedah, to catch the ferry towards Kuah. I slept on and off, resting and enjoying the vibe of the late-night atmosphere, and the occasional speeding cars (including that maniac of a Ford Mustang speeding at an incomprehensible speed). I love fast cars- even more so when they are emphasizing the fast bit.

Anyways, I’ll skip through the car journey part. We arrived at Kuah after a noisy and obnoxious ferry ride. That experience is now a reminder for me to never go on those cramped floating coffins ever again.

The first day went nice and well with clear sunny weather and a perfect climate. It drove my spirits up as that is quite a nice condition for photographing. Plus I had all the gear that I needed for all the pictures I had planned to take beforehand. From the tripod to lens filters to references for colour grades, you name it- it was all there and prepared. After a simple dinner and a quiet stroll by the private beach, we all went to sleep, dreaming of all the next day’s adventures.

Come Monday morning, and it’s pouring down like cats and dogs. We kept on hoping the rain would cease, but it kept going at it until 11:30 in the morning. As the rain stopped, we ventured around the island to the hills and the waterfalls, also some of the beaches and took in all the scenery, before heading to Cenang beach for lunch.

Those who know me on a personal level, know that I eat at a fast pace. So I thought I had no business sitting at the table when I can walk along the beach and get some portrait shots. I turned on the camera on my phone, set the manual settings to how I wanted and captured away.

At one point I saw a married couple walking calmly, and I had the rather weird idea to follow them and take some pictures without being too obvious of course, it’d be unknown to them that I am taking pictures of them as the subject to the whole landscape (no it’s not illegal under those circumstances).

We get back to the hotel and I thought the shoot at Cenang beach was a flop so I just uploaded them to Google Drive for backup and forgot about them.

Cut to December, two months later. Amid a busy day, I noticed I haven’t posted any of the shots from Langkawi on my Instagram- so I sat down in my free time to go through Google Drive and see which image is good and can be posted on Instagram.

I looked back through the Cenang beach set, and one particular image of the couple caught my eye.

Two months prior, that picture was nothing to me and yet it felt so captivating when I revisited it in December. I immediately imported it into Lightroom and did some colour correction and editing and in no time, the image was live on my Instagram account.

It might drive someone’s mind to ponder upon why I suddenly became so enthusiastic about that particular image above. Why is it that the picture can so suddenly grab my attention?

The caption I put on Instagram speaks for the reason why. To me, it feels like the whole image speaks of serenity and peacefulness. The image shows waves coming in uncontrollably to humans. Shows other people minding their own business. It shows the deep orange sky lit by the setting Sun. It shows the vast ocean behind, yet the main subjects seem more intrigued about something in the sand. No one could ever guarantee that everything would go as it had. There was no guarantee that the strong waves would carry away a child enjoying themself in the ocean. There was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t get stung by a jellyfish and require medical assistance. There are so many things that can go wrong in our daily lives.

And yet the main subject is unbothered about the other, worldly issues that surround every single person living on this Earth, and yet these two seem to choose to ignore all those problems and live in the present- accompanied by each other. And to me, the picture depicts all that emotion.

Photography is no easy work. It is an art form that tells a story to the viewer. The eye must be trained to catch details in the framing and composition, to make the image come together so that it can relate to the backstory of the image and create a narrative. It’s now a good practice for me to always go back to pictures I’ve deemed as “not meaningful” because as far as I’m concerned, there might just be a little detail for it to mean something.

And just like that, one image first deemed as unattractive and a flop is now definitely one of the nicest shots I’ve captured in the whole year of 2022.

Happy new year everyone. Stay safe, and stay creative.