Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Street photography in Wedding...

When a child picks up a camera and pushes the button that simple spontaneous image is a Street Photograph, it is, first of all, a raw reaction to the scene in front of it, a person, a car, a color. That primitive urge to react, to make a picture is at the heart of Street Photography beyond any other area of picture making, it comes before any other agenda.

.

Kenneth & Joycelyn Wedding Day

.

Some of the shots taken as my pure reactions toward things happens on wedding days. And they become my personal favorites :)
 Analox

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Just another quote...

This quote from Antoine d’Agata that keeps me thinking for a while
Well, I don’t believe in photography as an art or a job or anything. I think of photography as a language and I think a language should be used to speak, to say what you have to say. So, the only things I have to say about my life and what I know about the world, is the way I see it.
The full interview can be found here. Honestly, unable to understand many of his points but pretty much agree on this quote. Now are some unrelated photos that I took recently...

... when I walked in Botanical Garden

Light & Shadow
Orchid

Branches

... when I was at city center during lunchtime

Street
Lost

... when I got home early after work and saw the sunlight leading to the staircase

.

... when thinking about living and hell during Ghost Month (7th month of lunar year)

Ghost Month

Canon QL17 GIII 40mm f1.7 / Lucky Color 200 film
Analox

Friday, August 19, 2011

Medium Format - an irrational decision...

Here are the facts:
  •  A roll of medium format film (MF, 120) is more expensive than a roll of 35mm.
  •  You can only take 12 shots with medium format film (6x6 size), as compared to 36 exposures in 35mm.
  •  The cost of develop and scanning MF is also more expensive than the usual 35mm.
  •  People talk about the rich tonality (dynamic range), the smooth bokeh and great details offered by medium format... But honestly, it is a bit hard to "really" appreciate these in normal small prints and 16-base scan. I also don't think that the bokeh is significantly better, if not inferior to those using 35mm with fast lens 35mm f1.4 or 50m f1.2, etc...
Then why investing on medium format... ? I just love "too much" the square format (6x6) and the big viewfinder (56x56cm) of a MF camera. Plus the cool factor, especially when you hold a twin-lens reflex TLR (here for some examples). Clearly, it is not convincing, irrational, not economical at all.

My first roll of MF was taken on a TLR camera (Ricoh Diacord G) as my Valentine gift from my wife (:X). I often joke that shooting MF shows great respect of the photographer toward the subject. You always has to bow your head (example).

Admiré
I guess one application where MF should be useful is for photographing landscape. So on my 2nd roll, I tried to capture the light show (every night) at Marina Bay Sand (Singapore) that is only about 5-10 mins. The shot below was taken at 8s, f5.6 on a 50mm MF lens (equivalent to 28mm lens in 35mm format). Until now I start to appreciate the mirror lock-up mode, otherwise, the picture will be shaky due to the vibration when big mirror goes up in long exposure... (a bit technical...)

Marina Bay Sand - Lightshow
It's kinda funny that the logical reasons above just vanish when I hold the camera and then saw the pictures from the lab. Sometimes, irrational decision makes sense...
Analox

Friday, August 12, 2011

MacRitchie Treetop Walk, Singapore

Put here before I forget :D
Taken with OM1 + Zuiko 50mm f1.4 / Afga Vista 200

MacRitchie Treetop Walk
MacRitchie Treetop Walk
MacRitchie Treetop Walk
MacRitchie Treetop Walk
MacRitchie Treetop Walk
MacRitchie Treetop Walk

Analox