Trigger Happy

Ultimate Winter League Week 5

2008-12-30T14:15:00.002+08:00

another weekend of ultimate action in a hot sunday afternoon. same as last week, the sunlight was great for the action shots. i have to get my own 70-200mm soon, im getting addicted to using it.

rest of the set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157611809644596/

Ultimate Winter League Week 4

2008-12-23T17:55:00.002+08:00

my club's organizing the winter league (i know i know, there's no winter, but it's for the name's sake) for singapore ultimate and i see a lot of potential action shots to be taken during these 13 weeks of ultimate games. brought my camera out for a run with a 70-200mm f4 and it was a great day to shoot with great light from the sun less a few moments of overcast.

rest of the set can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157611446591063/

Schlumberger Christmas Dinner

2008-12-17T02:10:00.009+08:00

got a freelance assignment for a christmas dinner for Schlumberger Business Consulting last week and it was a pretty eventful assignment.

the dinner was at saint pierre's @ magazine road. it was a very nice place and the food looked pretty good too.

Saint Pierre's:

People:

Food (yes, excluding the christmas tree):

rest of the set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157611212852546/

Faceless

2008-12-08T15:34:00.003+08:00

was thinking about one of my previous shots on the conceptual photo essay and i came up with an idea for my retake for our photo exhibition in february.

the concept of the shoot would be "Faceless":

in a society where people are slaves to their job and stuck with mundane routines in life, some people lose themselves and their identity at that. these people try to stand out and get recognized in everyday life. they try to outdo themselves in order to obtain recognition. but will it work?

the idea is to use a white jabbawockeez mask to depict the loss of identity of the subjects in the series of photos picturing them in crowds and attempting to stand out.

i've got this idea of making the whole concept into an art installation but it's really just a crazy idea as of now. need to get the photos out first before i can do anything. time to start experimenting with using light reflectors outdoors to get better pictures.

Assignment 6: Photo Essay (version 1)

2008-11-11T23:35:00.004+08:00

assignment 6 required us to do a conceptual photo essay. so i was thinking that in our everyday lives, there are certain actions that we do in one situation might mean another thing in another situation.

my concept here is the spread eagle. we often find ourselves in this position but rarely notice that we're actually doing it.

so here's what you'll do with in a spread eagle position:

chin ups

jumping for joy

doing a handstand

trying to stop yourself from falling off stairs

getting mugged by another person

and finally... being dead drunk

comments were that the pictures didn't really significantly show the spread eagle positions. looks like it's back to the drawing board and think of more obvious positions :)

Assignment 5: Abandoned, Solitary, Disorder, Desolated

2008-11-11T17:18:00.004+08:00

assignment 5 requires us to express certain adjectives without invoking "human expressions". took some photos over the weekend thought some of these photos were appropriate for the following adjectives:

Abandoned, Solitary, Disorder and Desolated.

abandoned

solitary

mess & desolated

Hong Kong - The Urban Jungle

2008-11-01T13:23:00.002+08:00

haven't been posting for a while, been really busy with work and all. didn't help that i was away in Hong Kong for a competition last week.

caught some shots in Hong Kong while walking around in the shopping areas. Hong Kong is truly an urban jungle.

Blog Exercise 5 - Ethics

2008-10-30T14:48:00.002+08:00

what the people believe, in this digital act is pretty much controlled by the media and press. people only believe what they see and unfortunately, most of things that people see are from the media and the press who manipulate photos and images to fit their stories. although the degree of manipulation might be different, sometimes even the smallest alteration of an image can change the meaning of the image.

today, it's very hard for readers to differentiate an original from a manipulated photos as people in the industry has become so good at it. the only way that i can think of is to have people know what is going on first before judging whatever they see on the image, be rational and decide for themselves whether the image is really what it seems to be.

as a reader representative, i would tell the reader that it's our job to report things as they are, intact. explain to them about the ethical implications that entail the job of reporting news.

Blog Exercise 4 - Singapore Biennale

2008-10-13T14:35:00.002+08:00

Visited the Singapore Biennale 2008 over the weekend and i must say that im pretty impressed by the scale and quality of the artwork that were hosted this year. Although i must say that there were a bit too many artwork that were based on videos (and video stills), maybe they're just not my cup of tea, to each his own i guess.

One of the artwork that i loved most was "Swing 2007", it was a swing made out of neon tubes, swinging in a big empty space alone. the moment i saw it, i was just standing there and watching it swing back and forth. it definitely intrigued me and evoked an uncanny feeling in the space, which was the feeling that the artist was trying to achieve from the artwork.

one artwork then i didn't really get was "The Breathing Room", it was a room with walls made out of PVC screens that will expand and contract, looking like it's "breathing". Maybe it's a bit too profound for me to understand.

an artwork can be made from any space that is given to the artist, or rather, sometimes the artist has no choice but to work with the space given. it is not always neccessary to have a large space to make an elaborate artwork, sometimes less is more and what is more important is that the artwork can make an impact on people.

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy 1

2008-10-07T06:08:00.003+08:00

for assignment 4, we're required to do a photo montage on the theme of "Urban Fantasy". it was pretty tough to conceptualize something like that and the fact that we had to base it on surrealism didn't help much.

concept that i came up with:

"Singapore is a place where buildings get built as fast as they're being teared down and sometimes it seems like buildings appear or disappear all of a sudden. it's almost like whatever we're seeing in reality is like a clipboard in another space/dimension where buildings get moved around like paper on a clipboard."

below are the pictures of the first draft that i came up with and the different components that i took in a day walking around city hall.

urban fantasy

singapore flyer

random bus on the road

bridge opposite esplanade

construction

underpass

critic that i got was that the piece was too logical and not surreal enough. some suggestions were to make it more obvious that it's a clipboard by adding a background of an actual clipboard and have pins on it. there was also another suggestion to make the picture look like it's been torn. time to look for ways to make all those happen.

Blog Exercise 3 - Reading Images

2008-10-02T14:27:00.002+08:00

I've been following the Obama election campaign very closely and i try to get whatever i can on information of the Obama campaign. This photo is taken from the Chicago Tribune.

Those have been following the campaign would know that his campaign is focusing on bringing to the US and a light to the new era. This photo just exudes the confidence that he has in bringing change to the country and the light at the light behind him just looks like the light at the end of a very dark era under George W.Bush.

2 + 1 = 21, Ngiam's 21st

2008-09-30T16:19:00.002+08:00

went for a friend's 21st birthday at Billard Bar @ The Legends and i brought my camera to help her document her 21st birthday. the place was fantastic, cosy, nice ambient lighting and all but from a photographer point of view, it was quite a difficult place to shoot (cosy = cramp spaces, ambient lighting = dark and irregular lighting).

was on my 24-70mm for the whole event and it was pretty much perfect for the event as there were a lot of interaction within the small compound and i had to use flash as usual for the whole event.

below are some of the photos:

rest of the set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157607521630757/

Notes Taken From Flashing

2008-09-24T15:33:00.003+08:00

no, im not talking about flashing people, but using an external flash on a DSLR, it IS a photoblog anyway.

anyway, i've been taking quite a bit of pictures using flash and being new to using a flash, i hit quite a few road blocks along the way. Examples like shooting at night in open air, trying to bounce off the flash off a very high ceiling, using flash when shooting in close proximity and flashing in odd lightings.

the first obstacles that i hit was when i was doing a photoshoot for my hall's paegant and i didn't really know what to expect from it. first shots were done in the communal hall which had like a inverted "V" ceiling which at the highest point was more than 3 metres high (think a pyramid and im shooting right in the middle).

i tried to bounce my flash off the ceiling but realised that it was too high and the shots came out really bad. tried to bounce it off the sides but the walls were too far away from me and tilting the flash 45 degrees would be a little too harsh on the face and out of desperation, i decided to use one of my cards with a white background as a bounce card and it actually worked. it wasn't the perfect shot, but it came out good enough for me to process it.

the little bounce card trick worked for me when i was shooting at a friend's bbq where it was outdoors. started out pointing the flash 45 degrees but realized that only half the body would catch the light but with the bounce card it pretty much lit up the whole frame.

i think it's rather important when using the flash to have the beam hit upwards to the ceiling and at the same time bounce off some of the light directly (correct me if im wrong) to the subject so that it has a soft feel to it.

now the problem with getting an actual bounce card or diffuser is that it's pretty expensive and when i saw the actual build and quality, i decided that it wasn't worth paying $50 - 60 for a bounce card or diffuser.

did a little search on the web and found a video that actually teach you how to make a bounce card from scratch. it's pretty interesting, im trying it out and i'll post it here if it's successful. estimated cost of the bounce card is like $3.

here's the video anyway:

Temasek Hall Dinner and Dance Red Carpet

2008-09-18T21:50:00.003+08:00

had my hall's dinner and dance last week and it was a blast! and of course, i wasn't going to let my camera miss this big event especially when i made a photographers' backdrop and arranged the lightings for the event (was doing publicity for the comm, so i could pretty much do whatever i thought was good. sue me. haha).

was kinda crippled during the event because i had to return the flash i was using all along to raynor cos he was there too, so i could only take photos at the red carpet where there's proper lighting. was using my 24-70mm f/2.8 on shutter priority and my ISO was pumped up all the way to 3200. good thing the photos didn't come out too grainy. time to get my own flash when i head to hong kong at the end of Oct!

here are some of the photos:

rest of the set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157607347284399/

Blog Exercise 2 - Surrealism

2008-09-18T14:09:00.002+08:00

"The Persistence of Memory" intrigued me the most as i looked through the surrealistic paintings. it gives me the feeling that it's in a distorted time-space continuum and that this is how the world would look like if time was distorted.

in actual fact, as the title suggests, the melted watches represents memories. Memories that get soften over time. it kind of makes sense after reading the explanation, how much and how well can we remember about our lives as we grow older before the memories become a vague image at the back of our heads?

Assignment 2B: People

2008-09-17T20:15:00.004+08:00

pictures are taken at a NM2208 tutorial. lighting wasn't the best as it was quite dim and the fact that i chose not to use the flash as it would distract the class didn't really help. ended up lowering the shutter speed and turned on the IS (Image Stabilizer) on the 70-200mm F/4L (one of my favourite lens) to compensate the shake and it turned out pretty well i guess.

here are the photos that passed the selection process:

rest of the set can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157607341063433/

it's good to have IS in a dimly lit area, it allows me to go on a low shutter speed and still avoid shake in the pictures. but if all else fails and i can't an IS lens, there's always the monopod.

Pageant Photoshoot

2008-09-11T22:03:00.005+08:00

did a photoshoot for the pageant contestants of my hall's dinner and dance. first time doing an actual photoshoot for print and i must say that it's a pretty good experience. all photos are taken with 17-55mm IS f/2.8.

Theme for the photoshoot is "glamorous mismatches":

view rest of the set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/egomy/sets/72157607232071574/

Assignment 3

2008-09-11T03:46:00.002+08:00

been a long busy week in school and in hall but still managed to take time out for a road trip with the rest of my group members for a photoshoot at the abandoned railway tracks at Sunset Way and Haji Lane for assignment 3:

perspective of the abandoned railway track

close up (macro) shot of a bunch of flowers and a bee

zoom shot of the railway and perspective shot of Haji Lane

symbol of the sun

these are the photos that actually made the cut in my camera, the rest are in the other cameras that were mounted with the other lenses. more updates once i get the rest of the photos

ps: i hope i have more time next week to process more photos. been taking so many photos recently that it's overflowing. hah.

New Feature!

2008-09-07T14:56:00.001+08:00

hey people, i've just added "Tag By Lenses" on the navigation sidebar on the right.
you can now choose to read the posts with photos taken by various lenses.
enjoy! :)

Assignment 2A: Aperture | Shutter | ISO

2008-09-04T15:56:00.003+08:00

this week's assignment requires us to take photos in different apertures, shutter speeds and ISO sensitivities. the subjects that i've chosen are all everyday objects so that we can all relate to it easily.

below are the photos i've contributed to the group:

Aperture:

100mm Macro, f/2.8

100mm Macro, f/11

as seen in the 2 pictures, f/2.8 had the focus mainly on one line and everything else had a nice bokeh (blur) to it. whereas in the second picture, the focus was on the whole page and the cardholder that was placed there.

Shutter Speed:

70-200mm, 1/3200

70-200mm, 1/25

at shutter speed 1/3200, the flow of the water was frozen in its tracks and you can actually see the shape of the stream of water. in the second picture, shot at 1/25, the stream of water seems silky although it is actually a motion blur due to the slow shutter speed. this is one of the ways that slow shutter speeds can be used to achieve effects.

ISO:

50mm, ISO 100

50mm, ISO 1600

this 2 photos were shot in a relatively dark room as can be seen in the first picture, which was shot in ISO 100. after adjusting the ISO to 1600, the picture got evidently brighter and more visible. the only drawback of adjusting the ISO is that the picture will seem grainy upon closer inspection.

that's my contribution for this week's assignment.

Singapore Open 2008

2008-09-02T12:09:00.005+08:00

Singapore Open 2008, the annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Singapore that attracts around 24 team from the region, happened last weekend at Farrer Park.

managed to get my hands on a 70-200mm f/4 IS for the weekend and i was excited about taking pictures with it even though i was going to play over the weekend. ended up taking limited pictures cos i had to play quite a few games over the 2 days.

here are the pictures anyway. most shots are taken with AI Servo and f/4 so that i could get the bokeh on the background although trying to do this when im on the lens for the first time took me some time to get used to but all was still good:

rest of the set can be found here:

Singapore Open 2008 Day 1
Singapore Open 2008 Day 2

or you could just click on the links to the right of the screen.

Subject Elements (Final)

2008-08-28T22:16:00.004+08:00

The final pictures for the first assignment:

Subject Elements

2008-08-28T02:03:00.005+08:00

First assignment for NM3223 (part of the reason why this photoblog is up). Topic is "Subject Elements - Line, Shape, Form, Texture and Color".

Photos shot as part of my contribution to the assignment:

Form (100mm f/2.8 Macro)

Shape (100mm f/2.8 Macro)

Texture (24-70mm f/2.8)

Colour (24-70mm f/2.8)

Colour(24-70mm f/2.8)

Lines and Shape (24-70mm f/2.8)

Inter-Block Basketball

2008-08-26T12:52:00.008+08:00

my hall had inter-block basketball the other time, decided to whip out my camera after my block lost (sucks) and attempt to shoot in low light again.

lens: 24-70mm f/2.8
ISO: 3200

there's seriously something wrong with my front focus for my 24-70mm. hopefully my new board will come from japan soon. can't take all these soft focused/blurred pictures anymore.

Buddy

2008-08-23T00:08:00.001+08:00

went to a friend's birthday part the other week and i brought along a 50mm f/1.8, which i like to call a "fun lens", cos it's small enough to not scare people but still able to take really sharp pictures. was chilling out at the poolside when i saw my friend's golden retriever and i just had to take pictures of it.

ISO was pumped up to 3200 cos of the low light at night and i decided against using flash cos i didn't want to startle this handsome golden retriever.

here are 2 of my favorite shots in high res: