Padang Padang Beach, Bali: A Wild Sunset Photoshoot

What does a Bali beach feel like? Ask a hundred people and you’ll probably get a hundred answers.

I can only give you mine: open and wild. This set of photos is my way of showing that feeling.

Padang Padang Beach: a different kind of Bali sunset

We shot at Padang Padang Beach in the south of Bali. Most of the people there were tourists from Europe and America. I hardly saw any Asian faces on the beach, and no Asian photographers at all. Maybe that’s why so many people stopped to watch me work.

The sunset here is different from what you get at Jimbaran or Kuta. Those beaches are long and open, so the evening light falls in clean, even lines across the sand. Padang Padang is full of large rocks and reef. When the sun goes down, the light doesn’t fall in straight lines. It breaks around the rocks and scatters in every direction, bright in one spot and shadowed in the next.

It felt a lot like the people on the beach around us: free, a little crazy, and impossible to predict.

Letting the models set the mood

The two models understood that feeling straight away. I didn’t need to give them much direction. They let the wind catch the long printed kimono, turned their faces to the low sun, closed their eyes and just enjoyed it.

That’s the kind of emotion you can’t fake: a moment of being completely free under a Bali sunset. It’s the reason people fall in love with this place and don’t want to leave.

Shooting in scattered sunset light

If you’re planning photos at a rocky beach like Padang Padang, a few things help:

• Use the rocks as part of the frame. The reef and rocks give texture and depth, especially when the tide is low and the green seaweed shows.
• Work with the uneven light. Instead of fighting the patches of light and shadow, place the person where the light hits them and let the rest fall darker.
• Shoot towards the sun for a glow. Backlight makes hair and loose fabric light up, and gives the whole photo a warm haze.
• Let movement happen. Wind, flowing fabric, a turn of the head. Wild light suits free movement much more than stiff poses. (More on that in how to pose for photos when you feel awkward.)

Every place has its own feeling

Every place has a feeling of its own. Padang Padang’s is wild and free; Fort Canning Park in Singapore is quiet and calm. Part of my job is to find that feeling and let it show in the photos.

Book a photoshoot in Singapore

• S$200 for 2 hours, with as many spots as we can fit in
• 50% deposit to book, balance paid after the shoot, and photos sent to you on the spot

See how a Singapore photoshoot works, or send me a message and tell me what feeling you’d like your photos to have.