Merry Christmas!!!

Ho Ho Ho...
Merry Christmas to my family and also all my friends around the world!!!

This is my very first time to produce a slideshow without any knowledge on the software. My friend recommended me to get the Ulead software for this purpose. I explored for quite a few hours until i found the way to make this simple slideshow with background music. So poor of me right?

Thanks god i don't have to host any event for this year's Christmas or for the countdown. I am sick. having sore throat and also light flu =(
So, i am going to "celebrate" my holiday alone, at home, or go out with friends for simple meal and talk.

I hope the world will remain peaceful and everyone will be healthy and safe.
If this can become true, i wont expect any xmas gift for the rest of my life!!!!

I hope you all love the slideshow i made.
Merry Christmas!!!

My New Toy And Glasses

Yea, i know that normally guys won't collect this. But it's just too cute for me to leave it in that shop. I went to do window shopping with a friend from Ipoh who came to see me. I noticed that there were 3 color of this cute monkey. I love the blue and yellow ones. I didn't buy it that day, but i felt so guilty to leave it there, hence i went to Sunway Carnival Mall to get it yesterday, though it was raining heavily.





It's darn cute, until i can just laugh out happily when looking at him. I like his pity and curiousy look, with his beautiful cap. It can be flipped up to make him look like a hip hop naughty boy!!!




Btw, i bought myself a new glasses too. I went to "A Look" to buy it. I got it back after one hour, how convenient!!!
There were slight improvements for my visual:)
My old glasses is still fine, just that i want to have one which is lighter, more trandy in the design, and suitable for casual and formal events that i host. At first, i wanted to get a white frame. Many guys look smart when wearing a white frame glasses. The shape of the frames in white didn't suit the shape of my face,then i had to forget about the white frame and stick back to the conservative black. But i love this one so much.





With some expressions








Last but not least...Me and my new toy, i call it Dear



Dear is a car decoration toy, but i think i wont hang it in my car, the sun will just be the disaster for the color of this little monkey. I think i will keep it properly, and hug it while sleeping one day, like what young girls do:)

Smoke Image

It has been quite a long time i didn't play with smoke image since the first try early this year. I remember that time i didn't know how to use my SB-800 speedlight to lighten the smoke, but i used a small light source,i.e. a small torch light for the lighting purpose.
Haha, i was stupid enough to use the autofocus to capture the smoke. And the settings were just weird.It ended up that i almost wanted to delete them all, but luckily finally i flipped and alligned them with care, creating a serie of interesting smoke images!

This time, i used my newly bought 16-85mm VR for this attempt, setting my aperture to considerably smaller, at f/8, and then the shutter speed of flash sync, 1/250s, my iso to the lowest 200, the white balance to daylight, and then the SB-800 to the power of 1/16th ,and finally, triggering my SB-800 with the built in flash as the master commander.

The difficulty was still there for the focus, but nowadays i started to realise that i should have used the continuous focusing mode for moving subjects!!!Another thing is, i used manual focusing.
I remember the October issue of " Practical Photography" magazine does show us the way to shoot smoke images, so i grabbed my magazine and flipped over it for 5 minutes and then i started to take this serie.
Well, they are much more better than my previous attemp, though they might not be real good this time, but i am contented with the result so far.
The improvement include the lower noise, more obvious smoke shape, better composition, better application of photoshop, especially the rainbow colors for the very first time:), the focusing and so on...
Passion and the patience were so important, until i had been bitten by those annoying mosquitoes but i still continue shooting!!!
Here are some more from the serie:



The Magic Dog





Fly Me To The Moon





Showing You Something





Simply Red





A Sleeping Woman





The Man In Half Face


I like them all, and i will definately play with it in the future!

New Toy: Nikkor 16-85mm VR

After considering for months, i finally decided to traded in my existing 18-135mm D80 kit lens and 50mm f/1.8, and get myself a brand new and better lens, 16-85mm VR.

Well, i had been struggling for months before i have come to this important decision, as 18-135mm has accompanying me for the past 1 year, for almost every shooting sessions. I did complain that it's not a fast enough lens for indoor shots, but hey, why should i care much? As we will need the speedlight to brighten the scene up, and wedding shooting sessions always involve the group photos, where f/2.8 is not a useful aperture for this purpose! I find myself always at least need f/5.6 for better sharpness and DOF for it.

For the past 2 major wedding projects which i have involved in, i found that i am pretty happy with all the picture taken by my 18-135mm, it allows wide enough shots, and allows extra reach at the tele end.The image quality is ok enough for the clients and viewers.Only the pixel peepers will complain about the sharpness of the images, and also the so called " nice bokeh" from a fast lens argument.
While the technology grows rapidaly, until we can almost do everything a pro lens can do through the post processing by using softwares, i found that we should always keep in mind that, better lenses will not make our images outstanding, and no one will know how much the hesitation and suffer you will need to cope with when you have to spend extra pennys on this, when the economy becomes worse and worse each day currently, and your life becomes tougher and tougher. The most important thing to do for the wedding shooting, is to capture the moments, the very meaningful and "never- repeat" moment of the day, to successfully convey message to the viewer what was happening that day. A meaningless shot, will not lead the viewer to ask you which lens are you using; a meaningful shot, doesnt really matter which lens are you using either. So, why should we always go for the more expensive stuffs to convey one meaningful message?

Of course, i am not saying that there is no difference at all if you compare normal lenses and pro lenses side by side. There are obvious differences to be honest. But, it's not the sad things to worry about in photography world, not at all.
The kit lens which comes with the camera( normally entry levels dslrs) is good enough as a starting point to learn the controls and also basic exposures and in camera settings. The ranges are always just right for all type of shots. Pro lens cost more, providing the best image quality and pro in build, but watch our wallets for such an expensive stuffs, just to please our clients or viewer, or to be specific, ourselves.
There is another better alternative, if compare to the plasticky, cheaper and lighter kit lens, which is a semi pro lens,i.e. those not too expensive lenses with metal mount, and better sharpness and better in built quality.
Thanks god for such an attractive choice other than spending too much money on this as a hobby or as a side income career.
I remember what my idol, a Malaysian wedding photographer, Mr. Louis Pang wrote in his earlier post in his blog, that, always buy equipments base on our ability, but make sure we get the best of the money we've spent.

I really mind the distortion produced by my 18-135mm, the built quality itself is plasticky, and i know my handholding is weak, the sharpness of the lens is a bit weak, i always need to sharpen a lot in post processing, until the final image looks weird.The contrast and the color of the lens is ok, just that with a D300, i cant see the potential of my D300 to show better 3D-like images as taken by other D300 users. My 18-135mm images also look dark, and the minimum focal distance is just too far for my liking. And most importantly, it doesnt have VR to cover my bad handhold shootings!
So, after surveying for months, i finally decided to get myself a better lens, but within my ability financially, and better in build for the lens and has VR. The 16-85mm VR became my only choice with that price ranges. Of course people will ask me, why not trying Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, which is cheaper than this lens, and has better sharpness?
Well, indoor shots, speedlight is needed. If i wan to create artistic bokeh images, or sharper artworks, i can always shoot with my 50mm f/1.4, or get the 85mm f/1.8 or even Tamron 90mm f/2.8, where they have been many photographers' favourite for all time, and they are much more cheaper than we expect! At this range, i think Nikkor 16-85mm VR is fast enough in focusing, and the only mid zoom lens which has VR, also better build and everything is just few grades better than my previous 18-135mm.
It's not too expensive, and i traded in my 2 lenses to compensate for RM700 cheaper for my 16-85mm.

After testing the lens, i have shooted a few pictures in front of my house, in the evening, before the sunset, i found that this lens is amazing. The VRII works very well and allowed me to shoot below 1/20s with sharp result. The images are brighter when viewing it on the LCD of the camera, also on my big LCD monitor. The built quality is superb and i just love the way it co operates with my D300. The images are very sharp, until don't have to sharpen the images in PS too much, sometimes even i don have to sharpen them at all. I just love this lens, and i know i should have got this lens earlier, and not to aim for the expensive pro lenses because i know i cant afford to get it. And most importantly, it's still a hobby, and i am not getting enough clients now to urge me get the best that i can afford:)

So, as a conclusion, i love this lens so much. I will highly reccomend this lens to my friends who is doing photography and using Nikon, of course:)
I will snap more with this lens soon!

Traditional Chinese Puppet Show

I still remember the days when i was small, every year around November, the temper nearby my place will organise interesting stage performances to celebrate the God's birthday.
The show begins with this traditional Chinese puppet show, and then followed by singers' performances and a lot of praying ceremonies, and it will take about at least 1 week for the celebration! Pity me that time, as i emphasise a lot on study, and the performances was very very noisy:(

Well, it's been all over for years now, and this time, i planned to snap the puppet show alone. As not many people will watch the show. You know why?
Because the show is performed for the God, not human.



I brought my camera, with my reliable 50mm f/1.4 for the shooting. Well, It's not a proper lens to cover event or spontaneuos shots, but i insisted to bring it as it's my fastest lens in the drybox, and it's sharp like a knife! I wanted to push my ability to snap things with a prime lens, where i have to move my body to find the angle i wanted to do the job.Furthermore, it's not a charged work, i enjoyed the shooting so much, not to capture the movement or the "acting" of the puppet, but the puppet controller. I was sort of quite respect this aunty, as she gotta control the puppet with both hands, while singing the Chinese operatic songs, and reading the scripts and she acted livelier than the puppets!!!!





There was another girl who controlled the puppet at another corner. She is very young, and i guess she is that aunty's daughter. This young girl was a bit shy, as when she discovered that i was snapping her, she quickly turned her head to another directions, or tried not to look at my camera. This makes me feel that i really need a stronger zoom lens in the future:)

Well, nowadays many things happened, everything changes...I temporarily stop updating this site for quite a long time. But i am back now. With my passion into photography, to paint this site with my color through the viewfinder.
I found that i am getting all the settings in my D300 right, and i now understand this lil stranger already!

Posts

I was watching 2008 Beijing Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremony at home this evening. Suddenly when i tried to move my head due to long time watching LCD screen of my computer, i saw my neighbour's house post outside. There was the light of evening on the posts. It was really beautiful..I quickly took out the camera to try to shoot,but when i manage to get all my photographic equipments, the light was gone!!!!
What to do....i jus played with my camera for a while.
The result was not really what i wan, but what to do..

Looking at Louis Pang's pre wedding shots on his blog, I felt wanted to cry, because it's so touching lah!!!!
I love his imgages!
check out more about his blog on my blog's sidebar!

Kelice & Zac's Wedding

It's a very good experience for both of us, Cathy and me, to shoot our very first Chinese wedding invitation. Though we charge the couple for the price of frienship, I personally felt so nervous to handle their big day ever in their lives!
Not to say I am not confident on myself, but I think the responsibility is big enough to record down their very moment.



This shooting session has made me realise about purpose of photographying for client. We are the photographer, we should decide how will all our images look like at the end of the editing process. But not to fully follow what clients are asking for. We are the person who decide the image, as long as it's not too bias from client's request. I strongly appreciate this statement, as to me, no one know how much money and hardwrok we spend for this job:(

Btw, i am quite happy with all the images i took this time. In addition, i have tried using the extreme adjustment to bring out the subject in my shots. For this time, i purposely boost up the brightness and contrast of my images, so that the skin of the bride looks more elegant and has better skin soft bright tone. I have to admit that, i love sharp and colorful images. Personally i prefer black and white shots. I dont really like hanging in the middle of every exposure, but i like going for extreme. Vivid color is a must for my images!!!





Oh no...wasn't it our client's biggest day in her life?
I questioned myself for the way to post processing the images i took. And i know i am going to make this bride, friend of mine, to look more elegant and feel like a high fashion's model. Hence, i boost up the brightness a lot.





The bride loves Hello Kitty a lot! Just before the shooting, she asked us to snap more of the car, as it was designed specially for her. We didn't know how special was it until the groom was horning from far to her house!





Isn't it cool???I love these toys!!!





The event went quite smooth, but the weather was hot. We were too busy until we didn't really have time to have some water:(
But during the session, I snap a lot of children! Here is my favourite.



Just before we went back, the bride asked us to snap another corner of her room----



I can tell, she is really in love with these kitty. No doubt that they look cute, but it's a bit too cute.

We finished the first session around 3pm due to her gang of the relatives for the tea ceremony. The we went home to take a shower and rushed back to BM for the dinner shots. We reached quite early ,then we went into the restaurant and took some so called "artistic" images.



I love the color produced by this image!

And the cake statue...it looks nice right?





But i must say i am so addicted to children photography!They look so cute and cute!











They look so amazing ,right?



Well, i love shooting Raw now!!!