This was my first commissioned shoot since my family and I moved here to the US. The client is PEI Group, whom I did a shoot in Singapore in the later days of my 10-year photography stint in Singapore. I informed them that I’d be moving to the US, and I would be available if they need photography done in Washington DC. A few weeks after our move, while riding through fairly light traffic on Interstate 495 in Virginia, I received an email asking if I was willing to fly to New York City for a shoot. I was like: “oh hell yeah”

Technically, this was not my first shoot in the US. Around 8 years ago, I was commissioned by Standard Chartered Bank to do a series of alumni portraits of their International Graduate Program from Singapore, to London, and finally to New York City. That was an experience I will never forget.

Now I got the chance to shoot in the Big Apple again. I took the Amtrak train from DC to New York City, lugging along equipment. Walking through the busy streets in Manhattan, people rushing past me on their way to work, I remember feeling nervous yet excited… anxious if the shoot would work out, but knowing this is exactly where I wanted to be.

I was tasked to photograph Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor, KKR’s co-heads of global private equity. I wanted to capture as much variations as possible within the limited time I had with these very busy gentlemen. I had 1 hour to recce, plan, setup, and do test shoots… then around 20 – 30 minutes for the actual shoot. I’m very thankful that the two gentlemen were down-to-earth and very cooperative. The shoot went well, and although I got a handful of selections for the client, I wish I had more time to pump out more options. But then again, that’s always the case for most of my shoots. You work with the time you have. All in all, it was a good shoot… and everyone involved had fun in the process :)

Huge thank you to Lee and Denise of PEI for having me again for the shoot, to Karl the editor for the awesome assist, and to Pete and Nate for being really good sport throughout the shoot, despite the stress of their schedules.