Assignment 6: Photo Essay (version 1)

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

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

Blog Exercise 5 - Ethics

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

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

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

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.

Blog Exercise 2 - Surrealism

"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

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.

Assignment 3

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.

Assignment 2A: Aperture | Shutter | ISO

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.

Subject Elements (Final)

The final pictures for the first assignment:

Subject Elements

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)

Blog Exercise 1

Looking through the 3 sites, the picture that had the most impact on me would be this picture of an anorexic woman.

it's a simple composition with simple lighting, but it definitely has a very powerful impact on whoever is looking at this photo. it's not the anorexic body that the woman has that gives this photo the impact, but the contrast between the pre-anorexia and post-anorexia Marta. The pretty face and the tormented body.

definitely a great photo.