DIY grid snoot project

I've endeavored to complete this DIY project and it took me about a day. Let's see what's this about, with pictures.

These are the two I've completed. One is 6cm long, the other is 8cm long. The straws inside are 3cm and 5cm long respectively.

Lets see what these do.

#1.This is a bare shot without grid.

#2 This is a shot with the 5cm grid snoot.

#3 This is a shot with the 8cm grid snoot. Notice the area of the circle?

#4. This is how it looks like on the flash itself.

These are going to be very well utilized. Have fun with this!

I intend to do an even longer one. Probably a 10-12cm.

School's a busy-bee

Hi guys! Blog is NOT dead. Repeat. Blog is NOT dead!

I've always had the mind to blog, except school work is piling. Spending more time going out to look for things to photograph rather than being on my computer, especially when I am now doing a photographic elective with NIE. I hope to share this soon, except one stumbling block is the slow upload speed cause I'm staying in hall.

Anyway here's one photo over the weekend:

F1 Practice 3, Qualifiers (Saturday Night) - Ferrari, F. Massa

It was basically a night of panning shots. It's one area of photography that is touch and go for me. Sports photography need very good frames-per-second (fps), which we should be looking at the upper-pro-bodies. Mine's a 550D - fps is not that fantastic, but doable. You might want decent fps for shooting running children as well! One thing that I learnt (or relearned rather), is that being close to the fence and keeping the aperture low can throw the fence off-focus a greater extent, hence making the fence "disappear". This, is, on hindsight. I was sitting at the back rows of the padang grandstand, it is thus, very unfortunate about the fences.

Nevermind. Knowledge is power, it cannot be taken away from you.

Holland Village Outing

You., originally uploaded by du3z.

Just joined a Beginner's Outing on the 7th of August to Holland Village as a guide.

Weather: Cloudy, Raining, Dull - Overcast Skys.
Lighting: Dim, Diffused
Mood: Not there

I was a little late, and the rain didnt' help. I'm glad to have met new friends though, and to share whatever little knowledge I have.

Just sharing this photo.
EXIF:
1/60 @ f/5.6, ISO 800.
S-Curves, Black level, slight sharpening and noise reduction - Sepia-ish tone applied.

Windsurf 2010

Just back from Japan after a 12 day (albeit challenging) trip! 4000+ photos and 2 movies! That will have to wait.

Right now, I went to see Jude at his windsurfing race on the 31th. Apparently, the race's final day is on 1st of August. Couldn't make it.

Anyhow, here are the pictures!

Flag colours of the Day. What do they mean?

Caution. Serious Sport Ahead

Guys from Malaysia testing water #1

Guys from Malaysia testing water #2

Jude from Singapore - Hard @ work

The most important man of the sea - Safety Boat!

The big boys, and girls equipment #1

The big boys, and girls equipment #2

The sun, the beach, the sky, the sails, and the rock.

Jude and his fellow (chao ta)hunks.

NTU peeps! Woohoo! And no I can't join windsurfing for nuts :) cool sport though!

The blue dudes from Malaysia. All the best!

Sam? on the right thinking really hard.

And off they go. And so did we.

Photographic notes:

Armed with my Ultra Wide Angle 10-22 mm, I decided to cover the event exclusively in a unique perspective to sports events. Of course, I'm limited only to the pre-action on shore, if any. But that's okay - I had my friend Zhi Wei with his 200mm end to shoot any action.

The sky was so so blue, I decided to bring it out in my photos. Aside from the polarizer aiding in bringing out the blue and contrast in the sky, I also exposed for the sky , bringing my subjects up to exposure with flash (the later parts). Of course, I'm still learning on the best way. Preferbly, I would be using a big softbox for this purpose. Haven't gotten my hands on one.

We didn't stay on much longer after 2pm when the race 'started'. Uninitiated, we thought all the waiting was silly. Of course, the bigger reason was our tummies - totally famished. Note to self : keep energy bars in my StreetWalker. No energy, no shoots (we got lazy and started sitting down, we missed the NTU and NUS guys heading out).

Great day though! Had fun!

Again, my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31221849@N06/sets/72157624633091496/with/4851776706/

Photos All Rights Reserved.

Jonathan

National Day CR-4 Coverage - 3 Jul 2010

It's been awhile - mainly found myself caught in with 912 photos after last saturday's NDP rehearsal.

It was a day of mixed blessings, as the tickets for a rather premium seat came just two days before. On the day itself, the sky looked bleak and threatening - to the dismay of most photographers. It didn't lend itself any favour of good photo shots, due to poor, undirectional lighting, as you can see in the photos as the day progressed. Anyhow here are some of the photos I decided to upload to flickr:


Some shots before gaining entry to the seats - They were incidentally my favourite shots of the day:


#1. The Lamp-post

#2 The Victorian Gate

#3 The stairway

Some shots during the event:

#3 Overall View of the Padang V3

#5 The Kallang wave w/ Ponchos
#6 The Infantry Contingent?

#7 The Men With Saws

#7 was my favourite of the mobile shots! I felt it caught the spirit or moment of what these men are trying to portray, even if they put it up as a show. All in, many shots were done in 3200 ISO, even some of the firework shots. It was disappointing, but nonetheless a very challenging event to cover. Hopefully, more opportunities like that to come, with a better weather to boot.

Rest of the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31221849@N06/sets/72157624432998878/with/4771696866/

Please do leave comments if any do catch your eye!

Oh with the internet security coming up as an issue, please note that all photos, as with flickr, are all rights reserved. That means you cannot use it for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without my permission, the photographer and copyright owner.

Gears for comfort

Made a couple of purchases today!

Firstly related to the previous post, I have found my match. The winner is the Think Tank StreetWalker Pro!

Here are some pics:

Full View:

Top Flip:

All my gear stuffed in!

And the other purchases:

Neck Strap to replace the default one:

550D Battery Grip (BG-E8)

So why the grip?

• It enhances grip as the 550D is rather small for a normal guy's hands.
• It allows convenient portrait shoot as there is a 2nd shutter release button
• It adds weight to the relatively light 550D body.
• Heavy lens (in the future) makes the body imbalanced.
• With my 580EX II, it is already top heavy.
• Lastly, increase battery lifetime (strangely enough, the least of the priorities, despite the name, battery grip).

The Hunt For The Perfect Bag

After shooting for about 3 months or so, one of the things that really slow me down would be the shoulder sling bag given by canon.

It gets in the way when I shoot, and I always have to get my darling assistant carry it. It otherwise impairs creativity with a bag sliding across my shoulder ever so often, especially if I shoot solo. Not to mention the strain it has on my back and shoulders trying to balance a one sided weight while shooting.

After the poisonous 550D meet-up, I've decided I should invest in a decent backpack (not slings, please!) to walk around comfortably, independently. After all in the coming Japan trip, I would really dread having to walk about balancing my silly shoulder bag for hours on end.

All said and done. I'm looking at the Kata 3n1 20/22, or some Think Tank Product. It must support tripod carrying, it must be comfortable to the shoulders. Weight distribution must be excellent - thus a sternum + waist support system is a must. It must have a quick-draw compartment and it must not be too difficult to access. Size-wise, medium. Some personal space//interchangeable with expandability to accommodate new lenses (Most likely a 100mm Macro). Budget should be about 150~200+...since I'm buying to last, a little more should be okay. Having said that, I doubt there is a single bag that fits my needs.

Wish me luck in my hunt!

Photography For You and Me

Mr Odyssey Boy, originally uploaded by du3z.

Well, it seems wise to have the company of the like-minded is it not?

As for photography, that allows you to explore people. Their technicalities, quirks, and specialities. On top of the knowledge they can offer on photography itself, they can provide insight into photographic equipment, even letting you try hands on! Just becareful because what you touch, see, or hear, might poison you (Forum Slang ~ Makes you want to buy whatever they poisoned you with.)

It doesn't even have to be a meet-up face to face. Photographic forums are plenty. Learning and Teaching goes hand in hand. When you teach, you learn too. So what are you waiting for? Go join a local photographic forum or whatever your interest lies in today!

This is, by the way, my 2nd outing with ClubSnap members. Cool bunch I must say. Either very rich, or very poor. Hahaha!

Here's the link for more of the photos for that day!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31221849@N06/sets/72157624361915502/

Exposure 101

Lines, originally uploaded by du3z.

The first thing I ever did read on photography, even before I bought my first DSLR, was about exposure, and rightly so. After all, photo-graphy is the "drawing" or the "art" of light.

I'm sure most of us have handled some form of digital camera before...even PnS (Point-and-Shoot), and have come across the term "ISO". High ISO shots look dotted (noisy) and Low ISO shots look clean - that much we figured.

Let me introduce the Exposure Triangle. Namely, ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. One of the best analogies I've read was from Digital-Photography-School. Picture this:

A window on a deserted building. Sun rays are piercing through the window and you're standing in the room looking out.

The size of the window is the aperture - the bigger the aperture or the size of the window, the more light shines through - right?

Suppose the window shutters were the shutter blades in the camera. If the window shutter was closed, no light shines through (assuming it is opaque). If i open the shutter, light shines through...and then I close it. The faster I close it, the less light gets to shine through. Conversely, the slower I close it, the more light shines through.

Of course, slower shutter speed and "longer" shutter exposure is interchangeable in terminology to me at least.

The photo had a shutter speed of 22 seconds. This is normally not achievable in bright day light as 22 seconds will allow too much light, overexposing your photos into pure white. But in the night, this is possible and the effect of the car trails is shown for such a slow shutter. If you like that, try it!

Lastly, the ISO setting is the sensitivity of your eye, or camera, in essence. Low ISO = less sensitive. High ISO = more sensitive. It's just like a sunglass over your eye. If it's too dark, take it off (increase the ISO). If it's too bright, decrease the ISO!

Now all these 3 play a part in determining what exposure you get. So with this knowledge, I went out to shoot. Then bags the question...when to use what?

I believe each of these deserves a mention of their own...so till then, stay tuned!

Model - Esther

Model - Esther, originally uploaded by du3z.

Well, I’ve decided to start a photo blog for various reasons. One of them is to track my photographic journey over time. That includes technical “lessons” that I have learnt over the years. Tips & Tricks, so to speak.

Of course, this journey is not possible without my dearest, and her support, contribution, and being my very very able assistant!

Well to begin with…here’s my personal flickr website in which resides all the photos included in this blog and more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31221849@N06/

My journey started in March 2010 when I bought my first DSLR. The next few posts will be playing catching up.

Have fun. Enjoy. Learn. Enjoy. See. Enjoy.