18/9/2011 Black and White at Batu Ferringhi

Woke up at 5:30 AM this morning for just one purpose, Sunrise photography. Destination - Batu Ferringhi.

After 30 minutes drive from my home to Batu Ferringhi, the sky was still dark when I reached my destination, so I just sit in the car, listen to radio and waiting for the right time. After 20 minutes, the sky started to turn bright, so I went to the beach and setup my gear to prepare for some photo shooting with my new bought B+W 10 stops ND filter.

Unfortunately, the Sunrise today seems not as I expecting as well, so Black and White photos was in my mind. After chosen the spot and did some exposure metering, I set the camera to Manual focus and screw in the ND filter.

Below are 2 of the results of 30 seconds exposure.

16/9/2011 Imperfect Sunrise

I have been woke up early today for one purpose, to capture the moment the Sun rises. I have not went out for Sunrise photo shooting for quite sometimes already, since it's holiday today, so I decided to take this time for Sunrise photo shooting.

I woke up at 6:20 AM, after brush up and packed my gears, I departed and drove to Jelutong Expressway. I revisit the place I visited before. By the time I reached my destination, the Sun begin to rises, after setting up all my gears and tested a few shots, I wait for the golden moment. Unfortunately, the Sunrise today seems imperfect, the color of the sky is not as what I expect. Anyway, I still taken a few shots, and converted it to black and white in PS.

By the way, this is my first time, using a black card for the photos, which use to make the exposure between the sky and the foreground more balance.

30/8/2011 Butterfly Farm, Penang

It has been long time since I posted my last post for the blog, partly due to my workload is heavier this year, but mostly is due to I have been laid back from photography for quite some times. So I have decided to pick up my gears and reignite my passion for photography again.

Yesterday was the beginning of the 3 days of public holidays, so I decided to revisit the Butterfly farm located in Teluk Bahang, Penang for some macro photos shooting. Due to it's long holiday, there're many visitors from other states visiting the Butterfly farm as well, that makes photo shooting a bit tough, so I guess I will not make another visit next time during long holidays. Anyway, after spending 3 hours there, my effort was not wasted, below is the result of my works.

24/7/2010 Food Photography

Recently, I rarely go out for photo shooting, due to busying with jobs and also lack of ideas on what to snap, so I decided to shoot some food photos while preparing my dinner yesterday.

I just used two main objects for my photos, tomatoes and broccoli.

28/8/2009 Smoke Trail vs Light Trail

It has been raining since last week, raining, raining and guess what? RAINING!

Though I like the cool atmosphere after the rain, yet I was unable to go out for photo shooting as my camera is not environmental seal nor it is waterproof.

So I decided to play with smoke and light at home. While this is my second time for smoke trail photography, this is also my first time for light trail photography.









Now, some light trail photos.







I have a good time for shooting these stuff, but after the fun, I now suffering the smell of the smoke again.

14/7/2009 Sigma AF17-70mm DC Macro

My Sony 17-80mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens was malfunctioned, so I just send it to repair. After 3 months of using my kit lens, I would say, overall, it's a decent lens, not so bad nor good. So, after some consideration, I decided to get a new lens to replace my kit lens, while waiting for my kit lens to be repair.

After did some researches on the Web, I have chosen 4 lenses to be included in my wish list, as shown below:

1) Sigma AF17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro
2) Sigma AF18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC

After work, I just went to the shop that I go often and ask for the price of the 4 lenses.

After talked to the promoter, I found that Sigma AF17-70mm is more interesting; first of all, the maximum aperture is f/2.8. Secondly, it can be use as a "macro" lens (though it's call macro lens, but it's not 1:1 magnification, so it doesn't consider as a real macro lens), which allows the distance between the subject and the camera to be as close as 20cm, that's far better than my kit lens.

So, I just showing my new lens here, and hope that I will have nice photos with this new lens in the future ;).


Chosen Sigma, because it's made in Japan, it's cheaper than Sony lens and it's a decent lens.


Ta da! Wait.... that's just the cover.


The lens reviewed, and... it comes with PEDAL HOOD, HOORAY~!!!!!!!!!


Testing


Testing 2, trying to get to the flash's pouch as close as possible.


Testing 3, trying to get close to the gel.


Last testing

20/5/2009 Smoke Trail Photography

Saw the smoke trail photos in a magazine recently and decided to try it myself.

What have I used for the smoke trail photography?

1) Incense stick (aka joss stick)
2) Black paper as background
3) Camera (of course -_-)
4) Lighting (I use Sony F58AM External Flash with Wireless function)
5) Tripod
6) Photo Editing Software (I use Photoscape which is free ;D )


After setting up the background and my external flash, with my A200 mounted on the tripod, I started to ignite the incense stick. At first, a few shots are not successfully, as I failed to make the smoke to be thick enough for shooting. Later on, I realize that by shaking my incense stick, the smoke will become thicker, so I just keep shaking the incense stick to produce thicker smoke. By putting the flash lower and pointing up, i started to get clearer pictures of the smoke trail.

So after completed the shooting and transferred the photos to my PC, I used Photoscape to edit the photos. Since the background is in black color and the smoke trail is in white, so I just use the INVERT function and turn the black to white and white to black. After that I just change the Hue of the photo to give the smoke trail some colors. After that, I just enhance the smoke trail by increasing the contrast and also deepen the colors.

The result:












Previous Photo with Reflection

PS: Please do not do it in your room, as I have done it in my room, and my room was filled with "poisonous" smoke for an hour plus XD.

15/05/2009 Star Filter

Just bought my 55mm Hoya Star 6 filter last Thursday, it provides interesting effect.


Shot from my balcony, that's Butterworth


The light in my room


Shot from my friend's new house's balcony