Some Fun Shoots over the weekend...

Nikon 50mm F1.4 AF-D. What more is there to say? Haha!

Here is another fun shot of her just being wacky! Constipation causes people to do crazy things, I presume? Hahaha!

Pretty In Pink

This is another shot using side window lighting of the same lady in the same location, but with the excellent Nikon 50mm F1.4 AF-D instead. I manually set the White Balance, not wanting to rely on the D700 Auto WB. Isn't she looking Pretty In Pink? Cheers!

Nikon 35mm F2 backlit shot

A moderately wide angle lens like the Nikon 35mm F2 is seldom used for portraiture unless its to show a bit of the environment the subject is in, hence we would need to be careful of distractions in the foreground or background. Again its flare resistance proved invaluable in this backlit shot, using nothing but available window light and the natural reflector effect of the white sheets under the subject. Care has to be taken to avoid putting the subject too close to the edge to prevent barrel distortion from showing up on the subject, which can prove unattractive. I took a Manual White Balance reading from the white sheets for this shot, using what I can in that location. Cheers!

Kranji War Memorial

My first visit to the Kranji War Memorial. Its quite a tranquil and deserted place, and also beautiful in a serene and dignified manner. I went there in a hurry as the weather was scorching hot and I had to get to another place in awhile. Here are some of the snapshots I took.

I was surprised this was also the resting place of Singapore's 2nd President, Benjamin Henry Sheares, as can be seen from the picture below.

D700 Picture Control D2XMode1

After figuring out that the main reason for the weird skin tones I tend to get was due to the inaccurate Auto White Balance, I decided to do a shoot based purely on manual White Balance settings where I keyed in manually the colour temperature in Kelvins. Auto White Balance seems to be rather inaccurate quite frequently and darker skin asians tend to have too much of a reddish hue, not so much a problem with fairer skin though. I took some trial pictures in Picture Control D2X Mode 1 with my Nikon 85mm F1.8 AF-D as usual, to see how skin tones fair. I would say that it does look less reddish indeed. Whether that is desirable would be up to individuals but to me the pictures do look more neutral in my humble opinion.

A Snapshot with my Nikon 35mm F2

I know a lot of people saying that there is not much nice scenery to take in Singapore, and to a certain extent I seem to agree with the general consensus. Therefore those living in this island city state will have to make do with what we have got and play around with different focal lengths to get the effect we want. Shown here is a rather interesting and also expressive snapshot taken in an outdoor natural setting! Taken at F2.8 aperture, the gem of the lens exhibited great flare control and allowed me to use a fast shuttle speed to freeze the subject in motion, in this backlit green patch of the beach. Moderately wide, the 35mm F2 would make a nice environmental portrait lens. The D700 Auto White Balance worked surprisingly fine in this case, though I have to say not always in cases like very warm evening sunshine or in shaded forrested areas. It would help a lot, but no reflectors were used in this shot, though the sand helps throw back some reflected light onto the subject. Its a snapshot anyway!

Just added another recent snapshot update: Too lazy to create a new post. Took this picture while strolling along Arab Street on Labour Day. Hat's off to the 35mm F2! Cheers!

Another Natural Light Portrait with the Nikon 50mm F1.4 AF-D

What do I like about the D700 and the Nikon 50mm F1.4 AF-D combo? They make up a very useful natural low light combination that is great for on location portraits, maintaining some sense of the surroundings. It also provides closer interaction with the subject for better communication and feedback with the photographer. Many people think that the 50mm focal length is a boring lens, but for me, I feel it closest replicates the eye and hence is the most honest of the lens without distorting reality for dramatic effects. A very general purpose lens that can give stunning results under the right hands. Lens are tools to be used like the brushes of the artist on a canvas anyway.

Backlit Portraits with the Lovely Nikon 85mm F1.8 AF-D

Here are samples of two backlit portraits with the Nikon 85mm F1.8 AF-D and Nikon D700, with nothing but available light. No lens hood was used and this picture was taken at aperture F2.8 for a nice balance of Depth of Field and Bokeh. Surprisingly the lens did not seem to flare in this sample at such a big aperture setting. Full frame is the way to go for 85mm focal length in my opinion, giving good subject and photographer interaction, and lessening the distance for portraits, hence producing shallower DOF while maintaing a decent level of sharpness at F2.8 as these examples show.

Raychell... Up Close and Personal.

Introducing the bubbly and frisky Raychell, up close and personal in these headshot portraits with my trusty Nikon 50mm F1.4D prime! Under natural light conditions of course! Pardon my inconsistant post processing as I did them in a hurry, even though its basically only some minor contrast and curve adjustments, followed by resizing! Raychell has been great to shoot with because she is very comfortable in front of the camera as can be seen in these pictures. The camera using the 50mm lens was quite close to her but she remains very natural. Furthermore not many people I know can pull it off looking good doing closeup headshots portraits, but I think she managed great!

A late afternoon stroll in the Hort Park

Armed with my Sigma 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 APO and Nikon D700, I took a stroll with my cousin Ben who was so kind as to give me a lift in his car to the Hort Park. He himself is armed with his recently aquired Nikon D90 and the tack sharp Nikon 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens, his first foray into DSLR photography. This was our first time in the park, and as he soon found out, nature photography does require some patience and luck. We were being exposed to the elements like the recent scorching sun and windy condition that seems to plague much of Singapore this coming "Spring" and Chinese New Year. Macro photography needed precise focussing due to the shallow depth of field and not only stable hands but also windless conditions to prevent blurry pictures, unless that is what you want to achieve. You can always say you were trying to achieve some arty fartsy picture should it turn blur! Jokes aside, I really dig the beauty of the natural outdoors, and of course appreciate the tranquility and serenity the park provides, away from the pressures of work and information overload. I have always had a softspot for nature.

2009 Chinatown Walkabout with Nikon 24-85mm F3.5-4.5

I took a short walk around Chinatown with my friends KK and Rachel. Rachel had just rented a lens(Nikon 17-55mm F2.8 DX) around that area for a wedding shoot she was going to help a friend do the next day. I brought along a simple Nikon 24-85mm F3.5-4.5 lens for the short walkaround. The pictures taken here are from 2 different days but of the same lens. Its a nice basic kit lens to have on a full-frame body.

These Shoes are Made for Walking


Along the main road of Chinatown


Waxed Chinese Sausages and Ducks on the Wall














Eye in the Sky


KK over seeing from the Sky: Does he look like a Prison Wardon or a Detainee? LOL!


Mechanical Cranes in the Sky
Desolate windows of a HDB residence from a bygone era.

Gloom is the order of the day...

Having heard the retrenchments and restructuring of my company, with the replacement of the company's top management, things doesn't seem all rosy for the year 2008. Overtime has been cut to zero, and paycuts are expected from whatever measily amount that I am getting. The upside is that this has given me more precious time to reflect on what are the important things in life, such as family and friends, and what I want to do with my life, rather than mindlessly follow the daily routine of work that eats up into so much of our recreation and social life. If I do get retrenched, maybe I should take this opportunity to do all the things I want to do but did not have the time recently, like reading and photography, and maybe get another education to upgrade myself and learn new skills. In this economic downturn, strangely I have started collecting coins from the Singapore Mint! It's another hobby that I had been interested to try but have not started untill now. I would be showing some of the coins here when I have the time. Chinese New Year is coming soon, and its the Year of the Ox come 2009. Let's hope for a Bullish trend out of this recession and full economy recovery, and an Ox-picious(Auspicious) Year soon!

Hello 2009, Goodbye 2008!

Once again, its me wishing all of you people a Happy New Year for 2009! Lets hope that this would be a better year as compared to 2008, which has been the year that has quite a few events, both local and abroad. There were some positives like the first F1 Night Race in Singapore but unfortunately mostly negative financial and health crisis and also man made and natural disasters from what I can recall. Lets hope for the winds of change to provide us with a better year this 2009!