Posts from — May 2008

ha… Nikon Singapore contributed to the Great Singapore Sale (GSS) by having some promotions. Let me focus on D300 as I am considering one for myself. One first look this seem to be of a good price as S$2999 has always been the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) and now we actually get a 50mmf1.8 lens frees! Of course there are some other freebies like the 4GB memory card.

Well, all I can say is that if you usually buy from the big departmental stores like COURTS, BEST DENKI, then this is a good buy. Else call those smaller photo shops and ask them for how much would a D300 body and a 50mmf1.8 lens cost if purchase separately.

Question : Why didn’t you take photographs recently?
Typical Answer : Nothing to shoot.

Is this true? I would say this is common among us photographers who has been shooting for quite a few years.?When we first started on our hobby, we shoot almost anything and anywhere.? After a few years, we have the “been there, done that” feeling. Then the?camera and?lens started to gather dust at home. ?

How to fix this? A few suggestions :

• Look in the papers for new events. The world is always changing. There is always different reasons to hold different events. Go shoot such events.
• Go at different time to the same old location. Different timing in the day or night gives you different level of light.
• Go with a different lens. Different lens give you different perspective. How about just shooting using ONLY 200mm focal length at the landscape or street scene. Challenge yourself.
• Try a different kind of camera. eg Rangefinder, Holga
• Go travelling
• Go to a different park to shoot your landscape or nature shots.

GIve me any other suggestions.

What is travel photography?

To some, it means signing for a generic tour and taking photos along the way during the trip. To others, it means signing up for a tour organized by a photo club or school and go along to wherever the group where. There may be local models arranged for stage shoots. (Think of photos of monks praying in candlelight in a Thai temple). One photo school even have a tagline that say something like good photos are guaranteed.

Some folks may like to go to such trips because they only have limited days of leave and could not afford to spend time researching the places they go to. Or maybe they only want to take photos and not want to learn more about the places they go to. Well all these are valid reasons.

To me, travel photography is to travel first and take photographs later. Before I go on a trip, I usually spend time reading about the place I will be going. This can be done by reading a guide book or reading up on the Internet. Next on locations, I will take my own time to roam around. If I need to wait for good light, I will stay on and wait. I?prefer nonposed setting even for human shots and I am more than willing to engage them in a good conversation.

While the country is trying to recover from the impact of cyclone Nargis, let us remember the resilience of the people of Myanmar aka Burma. Donations can be made via the Singapore Red Cross. Details at http://www.redcross.org.sg/

Myanmar School Kids

A Myanmar craftsman enjoying his smoke.

A Child Worker resting

A novice monk

Well there is now a call for submission for the first Singapore International Photography Festival.

Extracted from their website at http://sipf.com.sg

Scheduled to take place from 8 to 31 October 2008, the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) is the first event of its kind in Southeast Asia. This biennial festival strives to provide a platform for Southeast Asian artists to showcase their works alongside their international peers in various venues such as National Museum of Singapore, The Arts House, 2902 Photo Gallery and more.

3 central components of the SIPF are the official exhibitions, workshops and portfolio review. The festival kick starts with exhibition openings and 2 days of portfolio review sessions for up to 50 Southeast Asian photographers, followed by a series of workshops facilitated by curators and senior photographers for up to 45 Southeast Asian photographers. Selection for workshops/portfolio reviews is based on project submissions.

Open to public are a series of evening presentation by invited curators, artists and festival directors. Over the weekends are series of public lectures and forum to share thoughts, ideas, issues and current trends in photography.

Along with the official exhibitions and programme, is SIPF Fringe which counts on the participation of arts galleries, arts spaces and education institutions to promote photography across Singapore. Individual and organisation that are planning to have photography related activities in October are welcomed to ride on the extensive festival publicity.

The SIPF committee is made up of volunteers and relies on the good will and support from various institutions, corporate organisation and the public to make this festival a reality. Members of the public could contribute to this festival by signing up as volunteers or by purchasing the festival publication.
For more information, please email your enquiries to info@sipf.com.sg

Many photography newbies who just started photography seems to be confused by these 3 settings (Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO). They tend to ask what settings was used when they see a photo they like. I used to do that too. It wasn’t too helpful as I realized there are simply too many photos around and there is no way I can remember all the settings.

Feeling helpless, I turned to the camera for help instead and used the P mode (program mode). I ended up just pressing the shutter button and nothing else. Well while usually the photographs turned out fine, there are times you feel that the camera is controlling you instead.

Just remember that the shutter speed, aperture and ISO are interlinked. Adjusting anyone of them will affect the others.

I like to think of Aperture as a “door” and shutter speed is how long you open the door. If you have open the door wide (using a big aperture like f2.8), then you only need to open the door for a short while to have enough light. So how big should we open the door? Well normally in a normal outdoor daylight, I would use f5 or f8. It works 80% of the time!

Okie til my next mini - lesson where I will talk about the other 20% of the time!