Who's your daddy?

I just traded in my Nissin 622 for a brand new Yongnuo 560, thanks to the kind auntie at TheCameraWorkshop. Bought a new light stand and umbrella holder too. I was eager to start shooting portrait but I didn't have a model. So using myself and a rig of some RF-602 triggers, I took a few shots of myself.

I am not good at posing and lighting is difficult to control with 2 lights and 1 camera and being the model myself. So I ended up with 1 photograph that didn't look too egotistic or lame. (:

Bare lights 7omm zoom each. 1 on my face from camera's top left and 1 behind me to create some separation rim light. Burned the background a little further in photoshop cause' my room is too small to get a proper black.

Street photography(and a little bit of me)

I just bought a 18-55mm IS kit lens 2nd hand. Decided to test out the supposedly good flare resistance of the lens with this shot. Both lens and Hoya HMC did a marvelous job and suppressing flare. (: Was very satisfied with the nifty cheap lens.

Random snap shot opposite Bugis Junction. Tan Quee Lan St I believe... as random as it gets. I was testing out the 18mm of the lens. Whoohoo. I miss my 24mm on full frame. This is about as wide as I'm (my wallet is) willing to get with my 40D.

Cakes for my friend's birthday ^^. Sorry for the off white balance. I wasn't in a good shooting mood that day.

Tada! a bunch of my close Scouts and Guides friends I've known for years. The photographer is never in the good group photos. Alright... time to bring out a stupid tripod someday. I'm surprised at the rather pleasant skin colour, especially considering the various type of ambient lighting around, plus my ceiling bounced flash. (fine.. it tend towards purple. Its a snap shot okay?) Hmm. Sometimes, the camera does matter.

Just this make this blog a little more personal... to give this blog a face... that's me in black. Acting chillax. Hehe

I was inspired to post this after seeing my sister's best friend's photos on Flickr. It made me realise what drew me to photography initially - street photography.

I like how photographers can bring attention to the little details in life that we often overlook. A rusty lock here, a colour mismatched group of watering cans, a dinky stairwell. It really makes one stop, take a look, and appreciate the world and its complexities from the ground up.

All the fashion and portraiture and strobist style of shooting I have been learning for the past month have their place. But the spontaneity of photojournalistic, street photography conveys messages on a different level. It really speaks to people.

Hai. All this realisation after spending a bombload on more strobist equipment. Hmm... got to incorporate it into street photography somehow. Maybe learn from one of the well known photography masters... a weirdo who quite literally slams the camera in your face complete with flash and zaps a photo out of you. Or be a street stalker, plant my camera at a hidden corner and use my yongnuo rf trigger to trigger my camera. ^^

Haha, till next time I'm not lazy to post.

lol (:

Seems like my next lens purchase won't be the 24-70mm... but more likely the 70-200mm f2.8. (provided i manage to save THAT much money.)

Pentax Asahi 35mm F2 Super Takumar

HDR and St James

Original shot: Canon 40D 50mm f1.4
Settings:
Aperture F1.8
Shutter 1/60
ISO 800

HDR done in photoshop from 1 RAW file

St James' DJ. Illuminated by Nissin 622 as fill

again without fill. Ambient light silhouette

Random girl walking out of the club

Caperture SMU Run Team shoot

I love this shot. The cinematic feel and the pure abundance of coke cans. Now who says we can't chop off foreheads in a good photograph. More comments when I'm free. I'm dying for a shower.

Party @ Butterfactory

For this series I didn't place so much emphasis on taking good photos. Rather, I was testing the limits of the Canon 50mm f1.4 and the 40D body. I'm pleasantly surprised and some of the photos, I'd say turned out pretty good. The DOF etc might not be the most accurate etc etc but that's the limit of the 40D 3200 ISO. Besides, I bought a fast lens to use it wide, especially in dark places like a club. (: Enjoy, and please comment.

The lens body combo couldn't AF in some of the areas and MF is obviously out of the question. A lighter and voila, we have AF. The amusing green flare is no the fault of the lens. It's caused by a slightly dirty and cheap UV filter.

Lighted purely by the candlelight on the cake. Our corner was exceptionally dark.

ditto

AF helped by the spotlight and high contrast by the girl wearing white.

Pure coincidence the revolving purple effects lighting hit the glasses when I tried to AF on them.

Thanks for coming. (:

Still photography (lesson)

Some random shots I took while having the still photography lesson. Its late I'll update again.

SMU Water Polo shoot

Hmm. I helped out for the shoot and these are the random shots I took while I was skiving (:

This series is adjusted for contrast and saturation, and one photo is cropped. I'm not used to the 40D yet.

Starting the ball rolling... we have The Ball

Reflection shot. Obviously not taken by me cause' I'm a guy (:

Trying the capabilities of my 50mm F1.4. Face is a little off focus I think. Accidentally set focus to centre of the frame

Again but the face is now in focus

That is a real photographer with a real camera. Hasselblad no less (: What he holds in his hand... beats the resale value of your car. The lights, probably more than the sum of all your photographic gear.

We kept making this guy jump into the water to make a big splash. Splash wasn't spectacular from my angle so I sent him flying instead.

Noticed this interesting lighting from the gold reflector one of the helper was using to shield the Hasselblad from the splash.

Random shot. The only cropped shot in this series.

I was thinking of making an Arena advertisement.

Ahh... we photographer work from day to night. Some OOF from my 50mm 1.4 of the street.

That's all. Hope I didn't bore you out. (: Do come again and leave some comments on the tagboard. Thanks

p.s. - to view all my photos, click on the tag Martin Ywain below.