My Affair With P&S (Point & Shoot)

My Affair With P&S
by Xing Quan

I have never been rich, or should I say I am financially average. I don't live in a private estate or been to exotic places like Japan ; I live in a 4 room flat and the furthest point on earth I have been to is Bangkok. Certainly, you would not expect me to own the latest cameras or gadgets.


Sadly, I have been poison by a disease called
Photography. Photography is a disease which will
induce the BBB virus aka the Buy Buy Buy virus.
It cause the malnutrition of the wallet and turn the victim into a slave for the Photography industry. Victims of the disease are normally unaware of their conditions until their visit to the Bank. But by then, it will normally be too late. People with wallet below the BMI of 10 are known to have a level of immunity against it. Reports have also shown that a strong will against the virus does helps too.

I belong to the group of people with a malnutrition wallet and also a strong will. I have slight immunity against the disease but I plead guilty to drooling over them sometimes.


My first Camera!

My first camera was a free gift. A free gift from Nestle(It comes with the Honey Star). It is a film point and shoot. It has manual winding(to work those little fingers every time you shoot), focus free lens(to prevent out-of-focus) and fully mechanical body(Batteries not included). To me then, its just a camera. I don't know anything about aperture or shuttle speed. But the photos I shot are the ones that I would treasure forever. Pictures of my family and friends.

Then I joined MJC photography. The first camera that I used is the Minolta DiMAGE A1. It is also a point & shoot but with a higher degree of control. It is also commonly known as a prosumer- a more "pro" consumer camera. My first few assignments are shot with it. From soccer finals to choir concert at the Victoria Concert Hall, I work those tiny sensors to capture the images. You will be amazed at how well this little camera can work. It was also the camera which my passion for photography grew for. Working around the shortcomings of the A1 made me feel the importance of correct techniques. The importance of holding the camera right as the treshold for camera shake on a P&S is very small. You can't just boost the ISO higher or use a larger aperture; the higher ISOs has very undesirable noise level and the largest aparture it can go is f2.8.

My Beautiful "Wife"

Finally, its time for me to own my first digital camera. I had ponder it over for a long time. Frequent browsing of the dpreview and clubsnap commerce. Finally, I decided on Canon S3 IS.
To me, a camera will only take picture if I use it, if I buy a top of the ranged cam but shoot no pictures, I might as well save the cash. Actually, I was also trying to save cash. What important to me at the point in time is to fuel my passion of photography.

S3 became my "wife". We traveled on long random journeys together. We could be roughing it out in the wildness together or shopping down orchard "hand-in-hand" or romantically watching the sunset in each others "arms". I just could not leave her at home when I go out. The more I use her, the more I feel emotionally attached. I began to overlook her shortcomings and find out how beautiful she is. Slow EVF, no problem, I learn to pre-focus & anticipated things before it happen. Undesirable noise level at high ISO, no problem, I shoot B&W.


A beautiful sunset that I watch with her.

There was once she threw tantrum at me cause I was ogling at other cameras during a outing. She began to reset her settings without my consent. It kills my mood for shooting for the entire day. When I got home , we began a cold war for a week. But somehow, I felt very bad cause it is not her fault to be jealous of me ogling at the other cameras. After a week, I gave up. I took her out for a long walk. After a week of cold war, I realized that I knew her better. The absence of her in my life made me appreciate her even more. I realized ways to shoot with her that I never had. The one week break from photography also made my perception of things different. I guess the quarrel and time away from each other was beneficial for the both of us.

Now, she is like a part of me capturing the life around us. She shoots without making any sound.( although the shutter sound of a Nikon DSLR is like music to my ears.) This allows me to shoot without people realizing I am taking a shot. She is also a accomplished gymnast. I can twist and turn her LCD screen to shoot in many different angles which is not possible in many cameras.


A shot made possible by her amazing flexibility.

I love my S3 IS, a camera, a friend and my "wife". Although, I am planing to get a DSLR in the near future, she will always be my first "wife". No other cameras can replace the experience I have been through with her.

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The above post serve to remind us that each camera is special and unique. They holds special memories for those who have used it. It also aims to show that we do not need a top-of-the-range camera to truly appreciate Photography. Working around the short comings of your cameras truly make you appreciate Photography.

Check this guy out:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844

He is a award wining Photojournalist and he shoots with a P&S:)


Finally a picture of me and my "Wife".

Ellie

AWARE Beauty Redefined Photo Competition

Submit photos of a person/people that you consider beautiful. Creative, new interpretations of beauty are encouraged. Each entry should include a 100-word statement on why the photographer considers the subject beautiful.

Deadline: 30 Sep 2008
At least 300 dpi (8 megapixels); 35 mm also excepted
Email your name, contact number, photograph and statement to redefined@aware.org.sg or mail to: AWARE Centre at Blk 5 Dover Crescent #01-22 S(130005)

Canon PhotoMarathon 2008

EOS School Challenge
When: 18th October 2008
Where: Suntec City Convention Hall 401
GRAND PRIZE (Individual): Photo Clinic Trip to South Island, New Zealand along with Professional Photographer Triston Yeo

Every participant that finishes all three assignments will be awarded 10 points and finishing in the top 3 of any of the assignments will earn the school additional points:
1st prize - 100 points
2nd prize - 60 points
3rd prize - 30 points

EOS School Challenge winning school will be awarded a special Canon PhotoMarathon EOS School Challenge plaque

Simply indicate Meridian JC when you register online. Need more than 10 participants to qualify for this challenge
Register here

Ms Koh

Spooky- the queen of the household!

I know this post has got nothing to do with photography... but if life is always about photography, will be a bit boring hor. So now let me do a photo-blog about my pet Spooky! I hope likewise the rest of you will do the same to intro to the rest about your pets (in your free time)... Hahaha... Hey Milo, Buttons, West and Claire, Spooky says Hi!

Spooky is better at English than Lolspeak.


I ish akchually donch kare, but Eunice inseests. ok Hi hoomins.

I have had Spooky since I was 12. My sis and I always wanted a pet, but my parents didn't like keeping one. My sister tried guppies, but they died soon after and they served to become garden fertilizers. Then one day, my sis walked past the void deck at one of the blocks at the 800 plus area, and there! a meowing little helpless kitten. But FIERCE.

My sis, la di da, picked it up, stuffed it in her bag, and brought her home. My parents protested against the thought of having a kitten at home, and so for a week or so Spooky slept outside the front door in a picnic basket lined with a thick towel. We would feed it everyday with Whiskers, but this little kitten doesn't like the kitten formula we bought her (not made in China, luckily) the least bit.

In the first two days, Spooky didn't have her own litter box. She needed to go urgently, so she peed and shat in the corner outside my front door, and used one of my sister's slippers to "cover" it up! When I left the house, I thought how come the slipper was at an odd position, where the other was still on the steps of my door... then did we realised she used the slipper to cover up her litter!

We knew we picked up a smart kitty.

She would meow us to pick up the phone, meow us when the soup was boiling out of the pot, some of the normal stuff house pets would usually do... but then I also realised this princess of ours... meowed over something else as well...


I am the QUEEN! Bow down to my presence.

After she visits her litter pan, she would accidentally kick sand out of the box door. When she was a kitten, the floor around the litter box was scattered with sand. She would then meow and meow and wouldn't stop meowing until I cleaned her litter box and swept all the scattered sand around it.

Aiyoo.


What have I done now??

She has an array of games that she plays with us, like Catching, Hide and Seek, Goalkeeper, Box and Catch-the-hand-scratching-the-sofa. She likes to go out and guard her territory, but she has a high tolerance level for my neighbour's cat, Chico.


Woman, you realise I'm bathing right?

This cat Chico, is a samseng. He likes to eat goreng chicken, and he loves to come over for dinner in the form of finishing Spooky's dinner. Spooky would always give way to him.


Exkuse me, I is stardying!

Spooky reads too. She would often read the newspapers by sitting squarely in the middle when you try to read them, and her dinner never without fail, served with a section from the newspaper. MY cat knows more currant affairs than you do. She reads my textbooks too, and some of my sister's story books like The Little Prince and Di Xia Tie (地下铁). When she gets tired of reading, she falls asleep on the books.

Other than reading, Spooky enjoys listening to classical music. Before leaving house, my father would programme half an hour's worth of 92.4 for her to listen. She has listened to more orchestral music than I had in my entire life. Junsen, Spooky shares the same taste as you do!

What people say about cats sleeping 2/3 of their lives is true. (If hoomins sleep 8 hours a day, we sleep 1/3 of our lives too!) They sleep through the day, and because they follow human nature, they sleep part of the night too. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, we'd find a dead cockroach or a dead lizard, half its body in the living room and the other half in the kitchen or something.


The lion sleeps tonight.


At around 6pm everyday, she would meow to have her dinner served. In the event that all of us were going out that evening and have our dinner at around 5 plus, she would walk into the kitchen demanding that her dinner was served, too.


Yoo sed DINNER? Icanhascheezburger?

Don't be silly. Cats don't eat cheese burgers.


HMPH. How would YOU know?


Hey, if you have nothing better to do, why not... hm, FEED ME? I'd love some abalone and scallops.

Yes, Spooky likes abalone, scallops and Lin Zhi Yuan ba gua. Our pampered little kitty~

P.S. All above photos are taken with the club's trusted D100. Nice, hor? (oh yeah, I took these photos when I was a J1...)

And here's a pic relating to photoshop-

more animals

Beauty Re-defined

I remember once Jenson, my ex-classmate from 06S201 showed me a paragraph he wrote on the topic of beauty, one afternoon we were just chilling out in the library waiting for our models to arrive.

He was a literature student, and he wrote many good stuff that I as a science student didn't quite understand; but one thing I did understand from that paragraph he wrote was the breadth, the width, the depths of the term "beauty". I can't remember the exact words in his paragraph, but that one paragraph really covered what "beauty" really is.

Living in a world that are full of superficial people, sometimes we really find it hard to delve into what we really find beautiful.

To some people, it could be that hot butt.
That full plump lips.
That pair of gorgeous eyes.
That pretty smile.
That carefree, creaseless face.
That freckled face.

A pretty face, a pretty smile.

I have a belief.

I truly believe what I see through my viewfinder, is truly beautiful. Good photographers capture the best of a thing, the best of a person, the best of humanity. Allow me to let the photographs do the talking.

Her life is written all over her face

A small beautiful yet fragile life

No doubt the photos express depression, we celebrate to see there is still an ounce of humanity amidst this rubbish dump of a world worth of inhumane acts. That, in its simplest form- is beautiful.

A boy mourns over his brother's death, another casualty of the tsunami

A man mourns after a bombing.

An American soldier in an embankment.


In a society with a preconception of beauty, our subjects will often ask us to DI this and DI that... but us as photographers, remember what is beautiful to you and be faithful to it. Because it is what that really matters.













When did you last shoot something beautiful?

Photo credits: World Press Photos 2008, Flickr.com (J.Fields, inkyblack)

On Animals and Exams

A Not-So-Lengthy Post. Disclaimer: no animals were harmed.
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On Animals And Exams
and the need for rescue
Written by Maxaevi

Since the latest entries now are all about animals, it is time now for another JS-Please-Shut-The-Hell-Up post!

Ever heard of Geekification? It's the process of taking whatever topic that is underway, and with nifty skill, convert it somehow into something geeky. Like photography.

Take the following conversation, for example:

E: Hey, seen the adorable penguins at the zoo yet?
A: Yea! So cute!
E: Ya!
A: Just like that otter video!
E: Oh yes I saw that one too!
A: Cute right?
E: Ya!
JS: I like the videography.
E: Yes, there's that too.
A: Ya.
JS: Yea, and the thing about animal photography is that you only need a DSLR, a wide aperture prime and a lot of patience! It's just like studio photography, you know? Oh, I missed out something, some off-camera flashes would be good. I heard the new Elinchrome strobes just came out.

And with that the conversation continues to photography in this process known as Geekification. It's a very powerful skill and thankfully I'm a master at it. It's a skill I learnt from my deprived childhood. Whenever someone talks about something I'm mildly interested in, geekification occurs. Topics like soccer (which I don't follow), homework (which I can't stand), relationships between boys and girls (which I don't understand), dumb action movies (which I dislike) and Chee Howe's slack army life (which makes me murderous). Geekification is my saviour.

But on the topic of animals, I can't do that. Animals, me likes too.

Ooh kitty.

The other day, I hiked around the City Hall area taking street photos on just about anything. It was a very hot day, but the light was good so I just went around the place shooting away. But, you know how heat is like in Singapore, it keeps people off the streets. So much for good lighting.

So I just walked around the place blindly with my Nikon, trying to act cool and attract members of the opposite sex with my uber-geekiness.

Thank goodness I encountered these cats. I think they were strays, but I can never tell. How do you differentiate a domesticated cat from a stray anyway? They just sleep all over the place until someone shows them attention, of which their response is to approach you and rub fleas and disease all over your jeans.

Anyway, I got carried away shooting these cats and their presence saved the day, otherwise I'd have to head home empty handed.

Mister, I need royalties for that photo.

And if you hadn't realized, cats are animals. Like otters and penguins, so woohoo I'm on the same page as the previous two posts.

I love animals. Not because they are cute; not because the chicks dig them; but because my love for them stems from a very humane problem the world faces today. At risk of turning this post into a PETA announcement, humans may be the paragon of animals but we're also their greatest threat.

In UK alone, more than 2 million animals have undergone lab experimentation, and more than 50% of it is due to "curiosity-driven research". Curiosity didn't kill the cat. It killed everything else. White lab mice, rabbits, chimpanzees, even dogs. The world complains about how many people are born into poverty. What about being born into captivity and torture?

Every where else in the world, there are factories set-up to industrialize killing. Poultry farms for example. Ever watched the movie "Chicken Run"? Conveyor belts that hold animals down and transport them to a mincemeat grinder or something disgusts me.

It's a sad, sad fate for animals. Remember Quentin's SPCA video? There is a very powerful message somewhere in there.

But, I'm not asking people to become vegetarian or something, but at least treat them with a little bit more respect befitting of a person.

Mister, what kind of pain are you giving me today?

By now, you would have realized that studying for examinations can be torturous too.

I remember when I was still a student in Meridian JC before the A-levels, I spent all my time at home, notes in hand and coffee in the other, brainlessly mugging away. I had to memorize useless physics definitions and slog my heart out practicing the use of the R-formulae and statistics, which should come in handy when I do journalism next time. There were notes strewn all over my room and the Health and Safety Department had to come over and place a 'Flammable' sign on my door. The amount of caffeine I bibulated could kill the population of a small African country, and my physical body devolved due to the lack of exercise.

I think that period was the shittiest part of my life. Tied in extent to the other time before the O-levels. I believe it is possible to die from too much studying.

I know Ms Ann and PPC reads this, so to them I say, pity the animals but pity the students too! We poor things need rescuing too!

And so ends this tribute to animals and students all over the world.

----

Meet Milo, Friend of JS.
He tells me he can't wait to see those peeps coming over to my place next Sunday.

Otters ^^

This has got nothing to do w photography but since Eunice talked about otters, it reminded me of this video on youtube ^^ v v cute.

Penguins

I have something cute to share with you all, and it involves the irresistibly adorable penguins!

Recently the Emperor penguins in the Singapore zoo mated and had some offspring. My sis and her photog went to cover the event at the zoo. They were allowed to go enter the penguins' enclosure, and there was one particular penguin named Pinky who followed them around.

The photog was taking pictures, shooting shooting whereby she slowly realised after every shot, Pinky keeps following behind her and keeps trying to peek over her shoulder.

So, the photog turned and ask Pinky, "why you keep following us leh?"

And my sis replied that maybe she wants to see the photos.
So the photog went okok come show you the photos and Pinky really looked at the camera LCD screen! After being satisfied at looking at the photos, Pinky walked and stand in front of the camera! Ahah!

The photog went okay okay i take your photo la. Come pose!
And Pinky really posed! She put her both hands, er I mean wings/flippers, in front of her, and slanted her body to the left, then to the right like a chiu hei mui!

After her photos were taken, she was so happy that she kept shuddering in a corner of the enclosure... (well when penguins are happy, they shake their bodies as opposed to cats purring and dogs wagging their tails)

The other penguins also wanted to have their photos taken. They would waddle over to the photog and TIOK (you know sort of like a half pinch and half peck) her knee to have their photos taken...

In the end, the photog got the most attention. Hahahaha.

Does did actually entice you to become a photo journ? Kekeke... come join NTU WKWSCI where you can specialise in that. *looks at Junsen*
(Oi I touched an otter before lor! Mai siao siao!)

Photo Homage to the Stillborn

I have always been very curious person. My sister, who is a journalist, sees much more media material than I have. She tells me about the worse kind of photography... are taking pictures of stillborns. "Your heart will just crack upon seeing the little foot," my sister says.

Today, out of curiosity, I googled "Stillborns" and clicked on the first link that came through.

Originally, I wanted to blog about photography of life. However, I thought I might wanna share this article with all of you today.

Read the article here.

Don't worry, there aren't any pictures in that page unless you click into the individual links.

Once upon a time....

Once upon a time, there was a Man from the fabled Planet of Nikkor. The planet was filled with concave and convex glasses. Subsisting on the glasses were a shitload of pretty butterflies begging to be photographed.

However, underlying this deceptive screen of tranquility was an impending invasion by the evil empire Canor and the Man had to abandon his quaint little job of photographing the shitloads of pretty butterflies.

So off he went, grabbing his uber ever so fantastically beautiful and powerful soul capturing device (called the Deary300), he CAPTURED AWAY!

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To be continued at Photog Forums. Log in to contribute your bit of the story!

The Gods has decended...

Talk about fast lenses and paper thin Depth Of Field!

Leica just released a 50mm f/0.95.... -.-.....

along with 3 more equally crazy lenses with equally crazy prices...

M Noctilux 50 f/0.95, 8000 euros (US$11,000)
M Summilux 21/1.4, 5000 euros (US$7,000)
M Summilux 24/1.4, 5000 euros (US$7,000)
M Elmar 24 f/3.8, 1800 euros (US$3,000)

But then again, German sensors still can't beat the Japanese counterparts when it comes to crazy ISO noise control...lols...

Guys.. if there is one thing to learn from this post, is that a $11,000 lens won't help you take a great group shot in a concert hall.

=/

*hang head low low... look v embarassed... look left look right make sure no one listening... whisper*

i... v malu today...

one girl (i don't know her) came up to me... let's call her..hm... Lucy

lucy: Ms Koh, can i ask you a question?
me: *wa! math's question ah?? lai lai lai =D* ya?
lucy: it's about camera... if my lens stuck how to make it go back ha?
me: oh... (ha! this one i know! i kena before!!)? Nikon or Canon? (just to be sure)
lucy: er... it's just a normal camera... small small one...
me: oh..? point and shoot ah?
lucy: huh??? what's that?
me: your camera got manual focus? (cos lens stuck king taught me switch back to manual focus lens can go back de ma... -.-)
lucy: huh??? what's that? i zoom the lens go out then cannot go back in...
me: i don't know nei... *sweat*
lucy: u mean u only know how to use big big camera ah? -.-
me: =/ what brand?
lucy: olympus
me: u bring la i see who can help you. ask my colleagues... (such as Mr Tee)
lucy: er... it's ok la i ask someone else...

-.- so malu

*emo in one corner...*

Activities

Elliot and Quent (and others),

Pls check the the activities that they are correct. Any amendments/addition, sms me know by end of today, thanks.

SN CG STUDENT NAME ACTIVITY
1 08S417 GOH KUAN YEE Singapore Young Photographer Award
2 08S411 LEOW XIAO XIAN Singapore Young Photographer Award
3 08S401 LIM HON HUI BENJAMIN Singapore Young Photographer Award
4 08S113 MUMTAZ D/O MOHAMED YUSOFF Singapore Young Photographer Award
5 08S302 NURUL HUMAIRAH BTE ABU BAKAR Singapore Young Photographer Award
6 08S412 TO ZHI WEI NUS Annual Montage Photo Competition
7 08S112 XIE XINYI PHOEBE Light of Life Photography Competition
8 07S308 KOK JUN YI Exposé
9 07S308 KOK JUN YI Inter-JC Photo Exhibition
10 07S402 CHEN XIUQI Light of Life Photography Competition
11 07S402 CHEN XIUQI NUS Annual Montage Photo Competition
12 07A301 CHUE WEI YEN MELISSA NUS Annual Montage Photo Competition
13 07S402 CHEN XIUQI Singapore Young Photographer Award
14 07A301 CHUE WEI YEN MELISSA Singapore Young Photographer Award
15 07S308 KOK JUN YI Singapore Young Photographer Award

and... only benji took part in expose?? i don't believe...

F/8 And Be There

It's another long post. No disclaimers necessary here, except watch out for language. And when I say 'f***', I really do mean 'fool'. For example, f*** around is the same as fool around.

Believe it.

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F/8.0 And Be There
The real way to learn photography

So the other day I was hanging around with some of my mates from my platoon, ya know, like fighting a war and stuff. One of them, let's call him John, decided to bring up the topic of cameras, and how he'd like to get a DSLR after seeing some of the pictures I took with my Nikon and comparing them with some of the pictures others took with their point-and-shit cameras.

"Hey, JS, I wanna get a DSLR camera too," said John, "What do you recommend?"
"Nikon."
"Why?"
"Everything else kinda sucks."
"Okay."

When we all got out of camp that weekend, off he went to Peninsula Plaza to procure for himself a Nikon D80 and, under my recommendation, a Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G VR super-zoom lens. In addition to a plethora of other necessities such as camera bags, memory cards, tripods, lens filters, extra batteries and a dry box.

The Nikkor 18-200mm VR: Zooming in with this lens explains erection.

The next week, John approached me again to report back on his new acquisition.

"JS! How the f*** (fool, remember?) do you use this crap? I don't understand a thing!"
"Did you read the manual?"
"Yes, but what the f*** is shutter speed? And what's all these numbers on the lens?"

So for the next few weeks, I proceeded to instruct John on the magical mechanisms of a camera. How shutter speed, aperture size and sensitivity work in tandem to control the exposure. How focal length and aperture can affect depth of field and the perceived depth of perspective. What each dial and button on the camera does. Et cetera.

Soon, John began to understand the inner workings of the world of Photography under my tutelage.

And so, I realized something.

If you were to liken photography to the educational system, photography would not be a subject, but a university instead. And within the Hogwarts School of Art and Photography are the various Faculties of Studio Photography, Creative Photography and Reportage Photography. Further down the educational hierarchy would be the individual subjects of Technical Skill and Aesthetics.

Instead of swishing a wand and mumbling Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo (please do not look this up.), using a camera is inherently more difficult because there are buttons on it. And it doesn't have voice activation. Yet.

This has a camera and voice activation inside

And the breadth of knowledge, technical and aesthetic, that is current in photography is too wide, too detailed and too expansive for any normal person. It's good enough to understand the basics, like how to control your exposure level from a technical standpoint, and also how to control it from an aesthetic perspective. But then again, there always comes a point of time when you'll begin to wonder if there's something out there you don't know, but knowing it would indelibly improve your photography.

So you start going to Wikipedia and Britannica. You visit specialty sites like dpReview or The Luminous Landscape. You answer online polls that asks you what ratio does the F-stop number represent. Or if you're a technodunno like some people I know, you go to the library and get books on photography. If you're rich enough, you could buy such books from Kinokuniya and Borders, or, for convenience sake, just download it off the net. Er, legally, of course.

Then, you start reading.

Eventually, you become so saturated with information, you find yourself spending more time reading and learning rather than getting some real experience taking actual photos. In fact, the more you read, the more you fear taking photos because you compare the new photos that you took after all the intensive self-improvement programmes with the old ones taken when you barely knew a thing, and find no change at all to your level of photography.

These are actually related to photography.

Or, you could also become well-equipped with the knowledge you gained, and become able to mould it to your advantage. When you take photos of landscape, you consider advanced techniques like hyperfocal distance and bracketing in order to maximize depth-of-field and dynamic range. When you photograph a wedding, you consider your vantage, the lighting, the mood. You decide to wield off-camera flashguns triggered by optical slave, with flashgun 1 oriented towards the stage at 1/2, number 2 towards the podium at full and number 3 on-camera as flash commander.

Even when you go home to review your pictures, you are able to use your newfound abilities in Photoshop to enhance potentially good photos.

Here, my photographs all received a cyan/magenta duotoning.

The thing to note here is that people have differing styles. To achieve the final photograph, people swear by different means.

Some prefer the Path of the Fearless Warrior; to head out bravely, using whatever little they know to get that elusive shot. He only bears the basic weapons of Photography: a simple camera, fundamental knowledge of exposure control and what not to do. If the photo doesn't work, he takes another one. And again another one, until he is satisfied with the result. With only simple tools but a quiet determination he captures a masterpiece.

Some prefer the Path of the Powerful Mage. He casts magic on the computer, making a photo look impossibly beautiful. He takes the photograph on the field as proper as he knows, but his magic works best in front of the screen. The mouse is his weapon, and his saving grace. With the digital darkroom he conjures a masterpiece.

Then, there is the Path of the Masterful Architect. He builds an image in his mind, he imagines the scene. Subject, he places it. Light, he controls it. Composition, he arranges it. From nothingness, he spawns an impactful scene, and the resulting photographs holds his true intentions, his desired message. His weapon is his creativity. With his brain he constructs a masterpiece.

Still others go the Path of the Wise Scholar. He is filled with information and knowledge; of the minutest details; of the vaguest technicalities. He is the potentate of data and the savant of facts. When he sees a good photographic opportunity, he doesn't start shooting straightaway. He analyzes first, plans his move, contemplates the shot, then moves in with his camera. He constantly seeks to improve his equipment and opportunity limitations. One shot, one kill. With his knowledge he creates a masterpiece.

Photography, therefore, is a multi-faceted art that can be done with multi-directional approaches.

Photog: The Role-Playing Game

And this leads me to my main point.

Even if you don't know a thing, it doesn't mean you're not a photographer. You don't even need to own a DSLR to be a photographer.

All you need is a passion for photography; a perdurable desire to take good photos coupled with the sempiternal quest for it.

So in the Hogwarts School of Art and Photography, also known as the MJC Photography Club and Alumni, we help you achieve that goal. We are only a supporting force, a guida di luce, but the true learning comes only from yourself.

And I thought of this when John approached me to ask about Photography. I fear that maybe I've taught him wrongly, that explanation of the basics is necessary, but everything else should be done at his own pace, at his own time. Because it is up to himself to decide what are the knowledge he needs to equip himself with, and not be burdened by a wealth of information that he probably doesn't need to know.

True education emanates from oneself. It's the same for every kind of learning, whether it be Maths or Geography; or Basketball and Tennis. The purpose of textbooks, sport coaches and, in our case, the Club and Alumni is to act as transports to fast-track your learning process. You can learn from these provided transports, or go source out new ones on your own. Self-learning is the most effective educational tool, and can only be spurred on by the passion for it.

Derivatively, passion is a consequence of your want for taking great photos.

Learn photography through practice.

So, I believe that every lesson in Photography should end when the basics are learned. The joy of Photography is in experimentation, so the rest of the lessons is up to you really. You can choose to enhance your photography with new knowledge and skills, but don't think for one moment that you can't achieve what the so-called Masters in Photography can with what you already know.

With only the basics, you are fully equipped. But you are not fully trained, and that part comes from going out and taking more photos. Whether you are the Warrior, the Mage, the Architect, the Scholar or something else altogether, it doesn't matter, really.

There's a famous phrase in photography that goes like this.

"F/8.0 and be there."

It's a photo-journalistic saying which means that the scene is more important than the technicalities. Just set your aperture to F/8 and be there when the opportunity arises. You can choose not to care about the fine nuances of techniques, whether you should be using the telephoto lens or the prime lens. You can choose to be content setting the camera to Program mode and let the camera decide for itself what settings to use. You can even choose to use a point-and-shit camera instead of those large DSLR bodies and lenses that cost as much as a HDTV or a Gucci.

Just make sure you are there; that through the viewfinder, you see the scene.

And that pretty much sums up this whole essay actually.

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That's me trying to be cool.

Some updates

Some updates...

1. Trip is off cause response is not good.

2. Prom nite is on... tables are taken up.

3. Check out MyPaper (12/9) on this 20 yr fashion photographer, Zhang Jingna.
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=342480
http://zemotion.net/

We're Human First, Photographer Second

Click here to read JoHo's article titled "From a Photographer's Heart".

I read this article some time back already, but this got me thinking too.

The most satisfying form of photography doesn't just stop at just taking a good image. I've been shooting for more than 2 years now, but I have hardly thought about why I have such a great passion for photography.

Fortunately for myself, I found the reason recently. After returning from my cousin's wedding in the suburbs of KL, I started the tedious work of post processing. After sieving out the photos from my blasted D40, I imported everything into LR and started editing. Because my desktop PC is down, I couldn't proceed with the scanning of the photos that I took on my FM2. Despite the poor technical quality of the photos produced from my D40, there was much pleasure in the post processing.

There is almost something magical in a good photo. Looking at it in Photoshop/ Lightroom doesn't make me sleepy at all the wee bit even late into the night. So there I go, editing the photos from the wedding in LR, and I exported the set from my D40 onto my Facebook account. My cousin, who was all the way in Malaysia, sent her compliments (through Facebook) on my photos and she found it impressive.

Although I thought the photos were so-so only, but the most important part was about it making a difference in others. It truly reflect MJC Photog's club motto "Your Moments, Our Calling". MY calling, in this case, as I produced a set of photos that were truly memorable for both myself and my cousin.

Then it hit me why I have this certain liking for taking portraits. I often ask people I know to stand at certain places so that I can get a good shot of them, not only to capture the moment in time, but really the beauty of the person, enhanced by the surrounding elements. It gives me immense satisfaction to take a good photo of family and friends whom I love and treasure, making their moments mine.

It is only when you're human to relate to the situation of the event, the mood, the ambience to take good photos which will make an impact on the subject him/herself, and in the future, even your clients.

This is where I truly agree with JoHo's statement- "We're humans first, photographers second."



At least, I know someone's happy looking at this picture.


Though it doesn't look like it, I had to take a long time to get her in the correct place for me.


What a million dollar shot.


Our darling Vicky wanted to hang herself when I asked her to stand in the middle of a busy walkway. I'm glad it was worth it.


All I want to do is to find a way back into love.


Smoking is bad for health and it gives you dirty heads.


I dunno dunno dunno dunno

P.S. Eh sorry King I can't find that old photo of you! Hahaha!