Best Friend

We all have this one person in our lives we call our best friend. That one person whom we turn to in times of need, whom we confide our deepest and darkest secrets to, and the person we can be weird and completely honest with. Some times, this person is closer to us than our family. You might even spend so much time together that your significant other gets jealous. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They don't hold back on the insults and the burns. But you don't get affected by it, because you'll be throwing something stronger back at them. There won't be any hard feelings at the end of it. Such is the meaning of a best friend. 

For me, this man in the photo here is my best friend. We were classmates in polytechnic. And to be very honest, we hardly spoke to each other for the first one and a half years of school (apart from group projects). Strange enough, we were grouped together for almost every single group project. The funny thing was that all the groupings were assigned by luck, with our teacher drawing lots in front of us. Some call it fate, I suppose. Till today, I still don't know how we started talking and became friends. But halfway through our final semester, I chose to call him and talk to him about my (then) relationship problems. Out of nowhere. Back then, all we talked about were projects and school related stuffs. After that dinner and talk, our friendship somehow bloomed. The perfect partners in crime. I guess the funniest part of this friendship is that I never liked him when we were in year one, at 17. The reason is embarrassing so I shan't say it. So yes, things turned out the way it did, and we started sharing more heart to heart talks and playing children card games. 

The guy's always in black. Always.

I don't think you'll find much people with a fully black wardrobe these days, but his clothes are 99% black. Amazing, isn't it? I remember thinking if he had yet to get out of the teenage-emo phase when I first met him. Hard not to think this way when his fringe covered half his face and he was decked in black. Plus, his earpiece which was screaming metal music didn't help either. He'd disappear during lunch time to eat on his own, and would magically teleport out of the classroom without anyone knowing when classes were over. He wouldn't say much, even when lecturers asked him to answer questions. All in all, he was a guy surrounded by mystery. And without a doubt, he attracted most of the girls' attention in class.

He's probably the complete opposite of me. I like colored clothing, and I listen to K-pop like there's no tomorrow. Anybody who sees the two of us would most likely assume we wouldn't click. Perhaps it was that one lunch we had with another friend of ours after class. I'd skipped lessons in the morning as I was feeling wrecked on the inside, and these two thought that it'd be appropriate to talk to me. We discovered our common interests of card games that we played in our childhood that very day, the three of us. We talked, and laughed. It felt good to finally find people who played those games as I did. 

Stares to the left

Stares to the right.

I have never found it easy to tell anyone about my problems, not even my family. But I'm glad I found a friend that I can feel comfortable in confiding in. So friends, if you ever find someone whom you can actually tell everything to, cherish that friend of yours. You might never get another chance to meet someone like that again. 

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I should probably provide some background information about the photos as well. The photos were taken quite awhile back, so my memory is a little fuzzy.

We went out that day specifically to take photos, because I'd recently gotten a 35 mm lens and I was dying to try it for portraits. I brought both the 50 mm and the 35 mm, and we headed out to Sentosa. I bet you thought it was some forest like Coney Island, but sorry to disappoint you, it's only Sentosa. To be honest, I had nowhere in mind to take the photos so we just wandered around like lost tourists. We found a nice log in the middle of nowhere with plenty of foliage so we thought, why not just shoot here? It seems apt for a shoot after all. But because Randell was pretty stiff and awkward around the camera, and I wasn't used to directing, so it was pretty tough at first. As we went on with the session, it got more comfortable and I'd gotten a grasp on how best to capture his portraits. I figured that it was most natural for him to stare into space instead of the camera. Which is why most of the photos are of him staring left or right. I tried to sneak in a couple of shots when he laughed as well. My street photography skills have been applied well.