portraiture (the journey)

yesterday evening was a boring one, till my brother suggested to take portraiture shots of him. sounded like a good idea for a past time, i picked my my camera and started shooting at a few angles while he posed on the sofa. portraiture has been my worst field so it took like a good 30mins for me to find an angle, which at least, looks ok to me. then i wanted to try something that bring up the theme, contradiction, a sleeping man with the "men's health", perhaps?

first photo was taken using a reading light as the only modeling light, no flash was fired because i wanted the lighting to be uni-directional. there is much more to desire for a better backdrop and attire but it was just a casual shot for a trial on portraiture so i am not too bothered about it.

second photo was taken with flash at -3fev and warm white light located on the ceiling, from the right side of my brother. it looks pretty alright to me, except the blue spots on the cheek and blown highlights due to oily face, maybe it's time to get sb800 with colour gel to balance the flash and the ambient colour temperature.

what to improve in the next portraiture shoot, some light make-up to remove the oily reflection, better attire, planned backdrop and a reflector will be very helpful. SB800 can wait, since my cash reserve is running low.

the whole photography session, took about 1 hour to complete. damn, i'm weak in portraiture.

portraiture (the moments)

food photography (the journey)

me and my wife prepared a candlelight dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary early in the month. i managed to snap a few photos of the food before it went down to our stomach and it was my first food photography experience. no flash was used and very nice lighting was provided by my warm white track light which runs on energy saving bulbs. colour was corrected slightly to remove the strong yellow cast but i decided to keep it a bit yellowish for a more "inviting" appearance.

my younger brother is a chef and he has requested me to photograph the dishes that he managed to come out with. another good reason to get him cooking some really nice western food for me to shoot, and to eat.

food photography (the moments)

perth, australia (the journey)

travel mates:

• raymond, lj, derrick & family, chua & family, rick, stephanie, shawn, brenda, garry, quece

date of travel:

• may 2007

duration:

• 5 days 4 nights

route:

• perth -> fremantle -> bunburry -> busselton -> dunsborough -> margaret river

accomodation (min 1*, max 5* based on my personal review):

• criterion hotel, 3* good location but interior of the hotel is a bit run-down and limited variety for breakfast
• yallingup forest resort, 3* nice and clean bedrooms/washroom but difficult to locate and nothing particularly interesting in the vicinity

~ perth city ~

• perth is yet another small, self-content and peaceful city. it has a lot of nice and unique buildings and offers some great shopping experience. managed to find surf wear at a bargain price in the city and also some really cheap apparels in harbour city, a plaza where most of the factory outlets are located. there is also a casino in perth if you wish to contribute to Australia's economy. there are free maps or travel guides to be picked up around the city and you can even request for a free booklet to be sent to you by mail from the publisher. details can be easily obtained from www.

~ fremantle ~

• fremantle is a habour town, famous for it's beautiful sunset, seaside restaurant and the fremantle market. there are a lot of restaurants for you to have a nice seafood meal, while watching sun setting in a nice harbour backdrop. a cozy place for those who need a peaceful gateaway. fremantle market is not too appealing for me, it's alright but the things are quite pricey and it lacks of a unique character of it's own.

~ busselton ~

• busselton jetty, a must go for everyone that travels to this picturesque town. the jetty is 2km in length, which basically takes maybe an hour to walk till the end, and to come back to the shore. there is a tram rail on the jetty, but not too sure if it is still in operation. sunset in the area is gorgeous.

~ margaret river ~

• margaret river, if it is not wine and cheese, what else can it be? after the cheesy wine session, if you only have time for one place, head to bunker bay. crystal clear water, white sandy beach, beautiful lighthouse on the cliff, i think that's all it takes to convince you to make the trip. we had a swim in a icy cold water (it was autumn), and it was really fun.

perth, australia (the moments)

quadtone vs. greyscale

~ preset-quadtone with black, pt541cvc, pt513cvc, pt5773cvc produces warmer photo than greyscale, great for photos for an old school feeling. highlight part is badly blown but nothing much can be done with the pns on hand ~

pulau babi besar, malaysia (the journey)

travel mates:

• raymond, hoon, alex, joyce, gary, ling

date of travel:

• October 2006

duration:

• 3 days 2 nights

route:

• mersing -> pulau babi besar

accomodation (min 1*, max 5* based on my personal review):

• nirwana beach resort, 3* clean cottage with western toilet & hot water, buffet meals were average and variety is limited

~ mersing ~

• mersing is reachable from many parts of malaysia (kl, jb, etc) and even from singapore. it is the gateway to many offshore islands and the most famous one being, pulau tioman.

~ pulau babi besar ~

• there are a few resorts (3?) located at different parts of the island. it is a lazy island and everything in sight looks so peaceful and calm. there is no late night partying, no huge scale resort operation and definitely no jet ski running all over the place. beach is nice and clean with crystal clear water but there were a lot of jelly fish when we were there. we were being told that the tide/monsoon has actually brought in those jelly fish. apart from that, days appeared to be gloomy due to haze from the neighboring country, indonesia. it was such a turn-off. i would want to visit the same place again but i will avoid the jelly fish crowd during october and also remember to check the weather forecast for the possible haze attack! one more general precaution, bring lots of insect repellent, the place is infested by lots and lots of sand flies and also mosquitoes.

pulau babi besar, malaysia (the moments)

chinatown lantern festival (the journey)

normally i prefer subject which is natural and am not so keen in architectural stuff. however, since my wife has strongly suggested that i should take the camera for a spin at chinatown, finally we went down during yesterday's chinatown lantern festival's launching event. it was a lazy saturday evening so i have decided not to bring my tripod but keep my iso at a constant 800. time to verify various reviewers' comment on how good is d40's high iso image.

i was quite disappointed with the event's "scale", a lot of spectactors, for a small parade with only a few huge electrical lanterns and lion/dragon dance. by the time i managed to find a good spot, the parade has just went passed me. damn, i missed my hometown! small place, yeah, but the parade is one of the most attractive i have been to.

i tweaked my system -0.7ev after reading-up ken's articles but later realized that all the photos were slightly underexposed and i have to use photoshop to bring up the brightness slightly. the discrepancy is most probably because ken plays his d40 like a pns camera in matrix metering mode but i am a spotter. i prefer to spot-meter a mid gray, tune my camera into manual exposure mode and start shooting. i shouldn't be tweaking any exposure compensation before hand, a lesson learned.

chinatown lantern festival (the moments)

darwin, australia (the journey)

travel mates:

• raymond, hoon, alex, joyce

date of travel:

• May 2006

duration:

• 7 days 6 nights

route:

• darwin city -> litchfield national park -> katherine gorge -> kakadu national park

accomodation (min 1*, max 5* based on my personal review):

• apollo campervan, 2* for failing to address our concern on the windscreen chip-off
• yha darwin, 3* value for money and good location

~ darwin city ~

• a peaceful small town with quite a number of shops run by asian. met a singaporean who owns a restaurant there, had a short conversation but left us with a "huge impression", right yeah? alex. we did not manage to spend much time in the city, was there only for the last night before we departs for singapore early the next morning. the mindil beach night market was wonderful and it is only opened on thursday and saturday for april to october only. you will be able to witness the spectacular copper-sunset at the beach while listening to some aboriginal music or shopping for some nice handicraft. i did not manage to capture the sunset since the tripod wasn't with me and till now, i still regret for not bringing it along to the market. by the way, i had the freshest seafood meal at the market and also tasted kangaroo "satay" for the first time. I am against any violence towards living creature so don't worry, the kangaroo meat actually came from car accident's casualties. we wouldn't want to pay someone to kill those lovely animal, peace!

~ litchfield national park~

• litchfield is famous for the nice waterfalls. there are plenty of it but make sure you don't go during or just after the wet season. what happen is wet season brings crocodiles into the upstream and it is not safe to swim. however, we managed to overcome the disappointment through one whole night of star gazing at the camp ground. we walked to the top of wangi fall the next morning and the view was lovely. it was a short 30mins walk.

~ katherine gorge ~

• there are a total of 5 gorges at katherine gorge, or was it 6? anyway, for 2 hours walk (one way) we only managed to make it to the 2nd gorge. if you want to go further, you will have to hike overnight. there is boat or helicopter tour if you wish to splurge on it, but as we are on a tight budget, our poor legs just have to do all the work. well, the end point is the same but the sense of satisfaction is enormous. there are some nice swim hole and waterfall around and since it is cascaded before flowing down to the gorge/river, it means there is unlikely to be a crocodile and yes! you can swim there.

~ kakadu national park ~

• kakadu national park is listed as one of the world heritage site and it is really huge. there are many interesting sites to be visited there, e.g. wetlands, waterfall, rivers, rock art site but we only made it to ubirr and the small jabiru town since time was running short and furthermore, most of the roads were not accessible due to flood. ubirr is a rock art site and the path leading from the parking area to the actual site itself is an interesting walk. jabiru is just like any other small towns in northern territory, with the exception of a huge "crocodile" hotel, holiday inn jabiru.

darwin, australia (the moments)

clark, philippines (the journey)

travel mates:

• ray couple, alex couple, gary couple and rex couple

date of travel:

• april 2006

duration:

• 4 days 3 nights

route:

• clark -> subic bay -> metro manila

accomodation (min 1*, max 5* based on my personal review):

• oasis (clark), 3* for an average hotel, nothing fancy but clean
• army bunk (subic bay), 3* for a new experience and good price
• dusit hotel nikko (metro manila), 3* for the poor attitude of the pool attendant, would get a better rating if they get rid of those guys

~ clark ~

• everyone knows clark for it's red light district, however, it has much more to offer particularly, duty free shopping, various tours to mount pinatubo and lots and lots of korean restaurants. you will be amazed by the number of korean restaurants available and we were being told that the korean population is quite high at clark and they are involved in agricultural activities, e.g. water melon plantation and export. re-enactment of crucifixion was something memorable when we were there during the good friday. do a search on the internet, that's clark's specialty!

~ mount pinatubo ~

• mount pinatubo is an active volcano and the last erruption in year 1991, couple with heavy rains, caused thick lahar to flow towards the nearby towns, burrying a very huge area surrounding the volcano. till today, the impact of1991's erruption can still be felt when you travel to these towns. houses, left only the roof with the rest burried deep underground is the common sight or you might even walk into a church and realized the main entrance was actually a window on the 2nd floor before the erruption. to reach mount pinatubo, the nearest airport is at clark and you have to take a pre-dawn 4WD ride to the foot of the mountain follows, by 2 hour's climb to the crater.

~ subic bay ~

• subic bay is where the previous US naval base is located. there are a lot of restaurants by the bay and we managed to spend a night at the army bunk, previously owned by US naval. nothing too spectacular but it was a nice experience. subic bay is also the place where alex and gary met their new friend, muimui, check out the photos.

~ metro manila ~

• first culture shock when we were there, metal detector is everywhere in the city. you will be expecting guards to search through your bags for gun and also walkthough a metal detector when you are entering the building. there is no big deal actually since it appears to be a norm for everyone. didn't travel far from our hotel in makati as advised by my secondary schoolmate who is residing there. there is a gloomy atmosphere in the city and nothing particularly memorable for me, except the nice and cheap juices everywhere.

clark, philippines (the moments)