Hi, I am Scott, half of bobo and chichi and we specialize in hyperlapse photography. In the last three years, we have been traveling around Asia, talking about hyperlapse photography at conferences, as well as well of having the great luck to be featured on national tv.
But today I am here to tell you of a funny story of how we almost stopped doing hyperlapse photography while traveling after the first time doing it abroad.
We had just begun an 8 month trip through S.E. Asia. I know, how original. My hyperlapse skills were in their infancy and the first quiet, uncrowded place I felt confident trying it was in Don Det, Laos.
It was this beautiful little Island, with a cute little windy footpath and at the end of the path was this adorable row of homes on the other side of the water that I just loved. The goal was to make a 15-second Instagram video sharing that journey to also be a part of a compilation of these that would lead to me proposing to Megan.
Seemed fun right.
Little did we know it would be a hilarious nightmare. Here’s what happened.
When we began shooting the hyperlapse a group of cute little kids came out and started to watch us. Which to be honest we do look super weird because at this point we weren’t very fast at making these videos.
At the time Megan would stand still, I would aim and take a photo. Say “OK,” both Megan and I would take one step. Then I aim and take another photo. Say “OK” and repeat until we made it to the end. It took forever.
So naturally these kids are looking at us foreigners saying “Ok” taking a photo and a step. Of course, what do little kids do? Repeat us.
Ok, this was totally adorable. A bunch of little kids next to us just saying ok, ok, ok, ok, ok and giggling and running around. Totally fun.
At this point we are thinking, these kids are cute, they are having fun and they will really be cute in the video so let’s keep shooting, this will be awesome!
But the kids led by the little devil in the pink Minnie mouse shirt got more and more comfortable with us.
So, of course, the next step from repeating ok over and over again is to sneak up and slap a boob and then run away right.
That’s exactly what she did. Just look at that expression on the photo below.
So there is no way around it, this is hilarious in hindsight. Like what in the actual hell is going on. But we have just begun this shoot, and Megan is not sure what to do because she keeps getting her boobs slapped.
It happens so fast in the video that you can’t really see it. But we slowed it down into a gif to visualize the scene.
We literally just came from teaching English to little kids in Korea, so of course as the full grown adult I am, I know exactly what to do. I calmly make an x in the ground so I know where to begin from again. I raise my camera and tripod as high as I can. Then I start sprinting at the kids and yelling “AAAAAAAARGH.”
Pretty much the textbook scenario of what your supposed to do right?
It was definitely a sight to see. My intentions were just to scare them away so they would stop slapping Megan’s boobs. Not to actually do any real harm.
They ran off and we began shooting in peace. For just five minutes.
When they came back they stayed farther away so they couldn’t do any slapping so we thought ok cool. Whatever this is fine. They are just watching this is perfect.
Eventually, we realize they are throwing water buffalo shit at Megan!
So I make another x. Again raise the tripod and run after them yelling like a pirate. This time I run a bit further.
Finally some peace. This time it lasts for eight minutes.
A routine is born. Every time they would come back into the picture, I would make an x to remember my spot and chase them away. Megan would hold back laughter at the absurdity of it all, and we would continue shooting.
The kids eventually thought I was playing with and got over their fear of me as well. But they would run just for the sake of running. All in all, we repeated this process for about one-in-a-half hours until we got closer to where they lived and when they finally came back we were done with the shoot and it was time for a refreshing beer-lao.
The amount of effort that went into making that very first 15-second video made us hesitant about doing any more on our travels. So I started scheming other fun ideas for proposals. Luckily we kept trying, we got better, faster and eventually did finish the proposal video below.
If you liked this post please consider sharing. You can find Scott & Megan on their travel blog boboandchichi.com, see what their up to on instagram and youtube. Scott also has a site teaching hyperlapse photography.
