This will be a post about all my thoughts and experiences about shooting specifically during the South America trip. I'll keep it in point form so that it's short and sweet, and probably easier to digest.
1) Even though I had learnt to shoot in Manual back here in Singapore, I had to quickly adapt to shooting in Auto (w/o Flash) in the first few days of the trip. In fact, I ended up shooting in this mode for most of the trip. Why? I couldn't have expected what was going to happen, and I had to be prepared because usually the moment would be lost if I didn't have the ability to one shot one kill. I did try to go around that by presetting my Manual mode to fit the ambient light using the metering available, but often things still didn't go my way. For example, I couldn't tell if the subject was going to be in the light or in the shadows, resulting in a lot of shots that were totally under/overexposed. Very quickly, I started to get over shooting in Auto and I don't think I've regretted it. The only times I shot in Manual were when I was confident that the shot wasn't going to go away, or when the metering was totally off e.g. the water threw the metering off so much at the Iguassu Falls I had to manually underexpose for it and a few other instances where I was using fill flash.
2) A DSLR may not actually be the best option for shooting at times. For me, I felt quite intrusive and didn't want all the attention I was getting whenever I took out my camera at times, especially when you're a tourist in a popular tourist destination trying to do his street photography. Very often, they would expect you to give them tips just for the shot, and there are many instances where giving them a tip can often backfire because you just won't be able to take any more shots in the area without breaking your wallet, and sort of spoils it for other people trying to get their shots too.
It gets worse when you're just walking around alone or in a small group in those lesser-visited parts of the city just to get a feel of how the not-so-touristy areas feel like, and you're probably the only one with a DSLR in a square mile radius at least, so it makes you feel really unsafe with that hanging around your neck.
So yes a compact would be able to do the job much better at the cost of a little image quality, which is an acceptable compromise for me actually. So I would actually try to get a good compact before my next trip if I can spare the funds for it. An iPhone is a surprisingly good replacement due to its ability to handle colours, but no plans to get one yet.
3) Bring enough memory cards. I can't stress this enough, even though I went there with 2 8GB cards I had to get ripped off at the Buenos Aires airport for a third one because I was running out already with less than half the trip gone. Of course, I didn't have a laptop or any other way to back up my photos every night, in which case you'd probably need less memory, but still I severely underestimated the amount of shots I was going to take. I could probably blame it on bad memory management too (like taking lots of stuff randomly), but I'd still rather travel with a excess of memory anyway. It's not that expensive if you get them during the IT fairs or some other sale, so you don't have to get ripped off like I did. (I paid 29 USD for that one memory card, and it's probably going to stick in my memory)
4) Note the sunrise and sunset timings of every city you visit, even if you don't actively hunt for the sunrises/sunsets to shoot, you'd still be surprised at how you manage to sneak shots while not compromising your travel itinerary. I only started to do that later on in the trip when I was shocked that Buenos Aires had a sunset time of around 8.15pm, and I was quite lucky to wake up or be travelling around in the coach during the sunrise/sunset timings for quite a few days without actually bending over backwards to meet those timings. And of course sunrises/sunsets always look more beautiful when you're overseas, although they are already a joy to shoot in the first place! (I regret noting that on the flight back I did not manage to capture a spectacular sunset in Barcelona - my camera was stowed in the overhead compartment as my bag was too huge to give me sufficient legroom, and I watched in awe for 10 minutes wishing I had my camera with me)
5) Make sure your setup covers all focal lengths you might need. Before I left, I checked the itinerary to see that I'd actually get a chance to shoot wildlife (namely birds) at the Isla Ballestas, so I got myself a second hand 55-200. In reality, I was shooting telephoto so much more than just that - I went for the tango and samba performances, got a lot of close-ups of statues and the like, and did some sniping as well. Boy was I glad to have my telephoto with me.
Of course, besides making sure that your setup covers all the focal lengths, you'd want to consider the cost of your setup too. I spent a long time deliberating the different setups, but I wasn't prepared to spend 1000 SGD on a 18-200 and leave my kit lens in the dry cabinet forever. Therefore, after much deliberation and help, I took the much cheaper alternative of running 2 lenses. I may have lost some time and shots in between switching lenses, but not a significant amount to warrant spending that extra 800 SGD, and can be managed by the next point.
6) Learning how to manage your gear so that everything's accessible. I went with the Vanguard Skyborne 45, a camera and daypack hybrid that I could carry everywhere I went, but that was really bulky. On hindsight, it was probably acceptable to just carry a normal backpack with a small camera bag inside, and leave the backpack on the coach and just carry the camera bag when I went to visit the various destinations. Or just get a sling pouch and sling the other lens with another strap, it really depends on how you like to handle your gear. Also important would be other things you may need such as a rain cover both for your bag and camera, and so on. Bottom line is that you feel comfortable using your setup, it is safe from snatch thefts and you get all your shots.
Looks like I ended up writing quite a fair bit there, but I hoped all these points help you in your travel photography so you don't have to learn these things the hard way like I did. (Well you'd probably still learn some things the hard way, just less hopefully!)
Have a Merry Christmas dear readers!
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Auntie's Pond Fishing
Ok so things have been going on with more regularity in my life! Or rather I have been having more unique experiences during this period of time and I'm just using the chance to shoot haha I'm so lazy it's ridiculous.
So I went fishing on Saturday thanks to a Specialist Mess event organised by Chevrons, so I only had to rent the rod when I went there. It was an entirely new experience for me - prawning doesn't even come close to this, but I'll let the pictures do the talking since that's why you guys are here for!
A not-so-good panorama of the fishing pond (one of the many, but this happened to be the one that I was fishing at together with my colleagues) The differences in lighting for the segments may have been due to the cloud cover shifting while I was too busy shooting to notice ):
The reel segment of the rod I rented. I took a few tries to get used to using the rod, including putting on the bait, reeling in the line and tossing the bait out into the pond. Fortunately for me, and people who were trying to teach me, I got the hang of it quite quickly after forgetting to release the line and flinging a prawn straight into the pond to its murky demise.
The weather got stormy towards the end and even rained for a good 45 minutes or so, but I liked how simple this shot looked against the dark clouds. The bokeh helps too! ^_^
Our bait for the day - different people swear by different methods of preparing these unsuspecting prawns. I was told by one guy to hook the prawn by the second last segment so that the prawn can continue to swim inside the water; another guy taught me to unshell the prawn and just hook a piece of prawn meat onto it. To each his own I guess haha either way I didn't catch any fish ): I did have a few nibbles though!
Sadly, most of the times we thought we had a bite, we ended up doing this - untangling our line from another unsuspecting angler's line ):
They use smaller fish to feed the bigger fish in the other pond that we were unable to access, I think the people fishing there paid much higher rates to catch larger fish. Here's an opportunistic fly trying to grab a bite before the fish gets tossed into the churning waters in the other pond.
Here's the dude who was standing there for like 1 hour at least feeding all the hungry fish in the other pond. Wonder if the fly got tossed in along with his meal, but it probably didn't happen.
A fish someone else caught and it was quite huge... They left the fish flapping there until it probably suffocated, not too sure whether they managed to transfer it into a smaller pond containing all the catches in time. Either way, I wasn't too optimistic about that fish's prospects.
While waiting for something, anything to bite, I walked around the fish farm and saw cute turtles/terrapins/tortoises (I honestly don't know how to tell the difference), and this was the biggest of them all!
All these photos were taken with the 50mm f/1.8, and I didn't manage to catch any fish over the 5 and a half hours I was there. ): Still, I got pretty nice pictures to show for the work and sunburn haha I'm not asking for too much right? =p
So I went fishing on Saturday thanks to a Specialist Mess event organised by Chevrons, so I only had to rent the rod when I went there. It was an entirely new experience for me - prawning doesn't even come close to this, but I'll let the pictures do the talking since that's why you guys are here for!
A not-so-good panorama of the fishing pond (one of the many, but this happened to be the one that I was fishing at together with my colleagues) The differences in lighting for the segments may have been due to the cloud cover shifting while I was too busy shooting to notice ):
The reel segment of the rod I rented. I took a few tries to get used to using the rod, including putting on the bait, reeling in the line and tossing the bait out into the pond. Fortunately for me, and people who were trying to teach me, I got the hang of it quite quickly after forgetting to release the line and flinging a prawn straight into the pond to its murky demise.
The weather got stormy towards the end and even rained for a good 45 minutes or so, but I liked how simple this shot looked against the dark clouds. The bokeh helps too! ^_^
Our bait for the day - different people swear by different methods of preparing these unsuspecting prawns. I was told by one guy to hook the prawn by the second last segment so that the prawn can continue to swim inside the water; another guy taught me to unshell the prawn and just hook a piece of prawn meat onto it. To each his own I guess haha either way I didn't catch any fish ): I did have a few nibbles though!
Sadly, most of the times we thought we had a bite, we ended up doing this - untangling our line from another unsuspecting angler's line ):
They use smaller fish to feed the bigger fish in the other pond that we were unable to access, I think the people fishing there paid much higher rates to catch larger fish. Here's an opportunistic fly trying to grab a bite before the fish gets tossed into the churning waters in the other pond.
Here's the dude who was standing there for like 1 hour at least feeding all the hungry fish in the other pond. Wonder if the fly got tossed in along with his meal, but it probably didn't happen.
A fish someone else caught and it was quite huge... They left the fish flapping there until it probably suffocated, not too sure whether they managed to transfer it into a smaller pond containing all the catches in time. Either way, I wasn't too optimistic about that fish's prospects.
While waiting for something, anything to bite, I walked around the fish farm and saw cute turtles/terrapins/tortoises (I honestly don't know how to tell the difference), and this was the biggest of them all!
All these photos were taken with the 50mm f/1.8, and I didn't manage to catch any fish over the 5 and a half hours I was there. ): Still, I got pretty nice pictures to show for the work and sunburn haha I'm not asking for too much right? =p
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Vanguard Skyborne 45
I've finally gotten round to taking some not-so-professional-looking snapshots of the Skyborne 45 to let you guys take a look at its major features if you're considering a camera backpack for travelling.
Before I begin, I must say that I am really a sucker for functionality; anything that looks good is just a bonus. Before I headed out of my house to the shops, I did some research online and looked at the reviews for different bags from Lowepro, Kata, Naneu and Tamrac, and made a checklist of the features I had to look out for when I checked out the physical items.
Firstly, it had to be a daypack. What I mean by daypack is that the bag has a section dedicated to storing your camera gear, and the other section is just an empty compartment to put your daily necessities such as a jacket, umbrella, food or other things you'd need on your travels. This necessarily eliminated a lot of bags that was dedicated entirely to professional camera gear of up to 2 bodies and a whole lot of lenses.
This is the compartment for your random stuff, and note that this compartment and the camera compartment is opened from the back. This is one of the safety features designed into the Skyborne 45 so that your belongings are safer because you can't really take out anything if you're actually wearing the Skyborne.
The camera compartment, which can fit maybe one body and a few lenses or even 2 bodies and 1 or 2 lenses? That'd have to depend on how you rearrange the velcro dividers I believe. But don't trust me on that I don't actually have two bodies to test that theory out, it's pretty roomy and it's best you try to bring your own bodies to test before you get it.
I also needed good cushioning and support so that the weight wouldn't feel so massive when you're carrying that for long periods of time, and you'd actually feel safer if you do happen to accidentally drop the bag along with the contents inside. The Skyborne does an excellent job at that - its elevated padding allows air to flow in between, supposedly allowing ventilation so that you sweat less when wearing it. This claim still needs to be verified as I haven't actually worn it for long periods yet, so this will have to wait till after my trip.
You can see the extensive amount of padding here, especially at the camera compartment. It even comes with a heavily padded waist strap reminscent of those huge rucksacks that backpackers use. You can also see the handphone pouch on the right strap, which is quite a nice bonus for those that cannot live without their smartphones or any portable gadget like a mp3 player.
Next, it had to be able to bear a tripod. No biggie here but you'll be surprised at the large number of bags that cannot hold tripods, and preferably mounted at the centre so that the weight would not be imbalanced if I decide to upgrade to a heavier and sturdier tripod later on. The centre-mounted property is just a personal preference as I injured my back in the army; many people could just do with a side mount. My tripod now is a free one that I got bundled with my D3100 when I bought it - it's really light, which is a good thing, but the legs slowly retract slowly when fully extended, so if I were to get serious about long exposures I'd probably need another one.
The tripod mount comes with a adjustable buckle - you can slide it up and down depending on how large your tripod is and where you want to secure the tripod. You cannot really see it here since the tripod is covering the buckle, so you can take a look at that when you actually test the bag out.
For all its portability and comfort, a camera bag won't be a camera bag without a quick release hatch. This allows you to quickly pull your camera out to capture those fleeting moments that you otherwise would not have caught if you had to slowly take off your bag and retrieve the camera. The Skyborne has a pretty good quick release hatch, but I still believe the best (in terms of convenience and time taken) quick release mechanism is that of the Vanguard Up-Rise series by far.
The Up-Rise quick release hatch as taken from the vanguardworld.com site, which features a twin zipper that unzips both sides after you unbuckle the clip.
Compare that to the one of the Skyborne below, which requires you to unzip one whole round around the flap. I guess I could eventually get used to that and do it really quickly, but I still expect myself to do it slower than if I were to get used to the Up-Rise.
The same camera compartment with the quick release hatch open. The hatch cover itself features two memory card slots, which look safe enough to keep the cards inside and not have them damaged, though you could always get a memory card wallet just to be extra safe. The last I checked, a Lowepro memory card wallet costs $12...
I needed a laptop compartment, and by this point it was clear that my expectations of camera bags were really pushing the limit of design and comfort. There were bags that fit all of my requirements but without the laptop slot, and since I decided that I was going to bring this overseas when I went to uni, I'd definitely need a laptop slot. At this point, the Skyborne was probably the only bag that I had found with all the features I needed and more, so the choice was pretty clear.
The laptop compartment together with some pen holders, all decked in the signature orange interior of Vanguard bags. When I first opened the laptop compartment, I discovered that Vanguard even bundled in a laptop bag that could be used independently from the Skyborne.
It can fit a 12inch device, which would be able to fit most tablets like an iPad or any ebook reader, and it even comes with a strap so you can just use it like a stylish sling bag for everyday purposes! It can't get any better than this, can it?
Of course, another requirement of mine was that it had to fit into the size of a hand-carry for airport regulations... I mean, what's the point of getting a backpack that you have to check in right? I didn't want the backpack to be too attention-attracting as well, and it this respect the matt grey finish does it just fine for me. Looking like any other ordinary backpack will definitely reduce the chances of you getting jumped in countries with poorer security. (Add that to the fact that robbers probably haven't heard of Vanguard as compared to Prada and Gucci, it really helps [no offense Vanguard I really love your bags!])
The Skyborne features some other nifty features such as a raincover to protect your belongings in case you got caught in the rain without an umbrella or anything else.
The raincover is accessible from the base of the bag, and you can see the rubber feet with air pockets inside to cushion the bag properly and allow it to stand if you just set it on the floor or other surfaces.
This is with the raincover on, and again, it is a dull matt black which is exactly what I was looking for. Kata has yellow raincovers which I didn't want, since it drew so much attention to itself I'd probably just want to dig a hole to hide myself together with the bag, or just never use the raincover, which totally defeats the purpose of having a raincover in the first place. Kata's reasoning is that it is easier for you to locate the bag if it's dark, but I really don't want half the world to locate my bag at the same time that I do...
There's also a side pocket for a water bottle or other random belongings that you need to access quickly, probably umbrellas and caps or even ponchos.
Coming to the end of this review, I'd like to say that the Skyborne really packs in a lot of security features, like these buckles you see below.
They prevent the compartments from being opened even when unzipped, and there are buckles almost everywhere. However, that becomes a problem when there really is a lot of buckles everywhere - at the waist strap, at the chest level in between the shoulder straps, buckles for the tripod, for the laptop compartment and also the rear-loaded daypack compartment. It does become a hassle if you were to buckle everything and you'd soon become an expect in strap management with the many loose ends that come with the buckles. However, I'd really consider that a small drawback for all the features it packs into the design and I hope this review helps you to make your decision.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other designs I were considering included:
- Lowepro Orion Trekker
- Lowepro Dryzone Rover (the reason I did not bother looking for this after testing another Dryzone was that the weather-sealed zip was really too troublesome to handle. I spent more than 5 minutes closing the zip completely and I definitely do not want that to happen everytime I needed to take out my gear/change lenses)
- Naneu Pro K3L
- Vanguard Up-Rise [forgot which number] (this is cheaper, but because both the daypack compartment and the camera compartment were accessed from the same zip I felt really unsafe that all my lenses and flash would drop out when I accessed my daypack compartment if I just happened to unzip a bit too much. You'd understand what I mean when you actually take a look at it (or you can look at the picture below taken from vanguardworld). Other than that, I was seriously considering this bag since it was cheaper and has almost all of the important features as well.)
Thanks for reading this really long post!
Before I begin, I must say that I am really a sucker for functionality; anything that looks good is just a bonus. Before I headed out of my house to the shops, I did some research online and looked at the reviews for different bags from Lowepro, Kata, Naneu and Tamrac, and made a checklist of the features I had to look out for when I checked out the physical items.
Firstly, it had to be a daypack. What I mean by daypack is that the bag has a section dedicated to storing your camera gear, and the other section is just an empty compartment to put your daily necessities such as a jacket, umbrella, food or other things you'd need on your travels. This necessarily eliminated a lot of bags that was dedicated entirely to professional camera gear of up to 2 bodies and a whole lot of lenses.
This is the compartment for your random stuff, and note that this compartment and the camera compartment is opened from the back. This is one of the safety features designed into the Skyborne 45 so that your belongings are safer because you can't really take out anything if you're actually wearing the Skyborne.
The camera compartment, which can fit maybe one body and a few lenses or even 2 bodies and 1 or 2 lenses? That'd have to depend on how you rearrange the velcro dividers I believe. But don't trust me on that I don't actually have two bodies to test that theory out, it's pretty roomy and it's best you try to bring your own bodies to test before you get it.
I also needed good cushioning and support so that the weight wouldn't feel so massive when you're carrying that for long periods of time, and you'd actually feel safer if you do happen to accidentally drop the bag along with the contents inside. The Skyborne does an excellent job at that - its elevated padding allows air to flow in between, supposedly allowing ventilation so that you sweat less when wearing it. This claim still needs to be verified as I haven't actually worn it for long periods yet, so this will have to wait till after my trip.
You can see the extensive amount of padding here, especially at the camera compartment. It even comes with a heavily padded waist strap reminscent of those huge rucksacks that backpackers use. You can also see the handphone pouch on the right strap, which is quite a nice bonus for those that cannot live without their smartphones or any portable gadget like a mp3 player.
Next, it had to be able to bear a tripod. No biggie here but you'll be surprised at the large number of bags that cannot hold tripods, and preferably mounted at the centre so that the weight would not be imbalanced if I decide to upgrade to a heavier and sturdier tripod later on. The centre-mounted property is just a personal preference as I injured my back in the army; many people could just do with a side mount. My tripod now is a free one that I got bundled with my D3100 when I bought it - it's really light, which is a good thing, but the legs slowly retract slowly when fully extended, so if I were to get serious about long exposures I'd probably need another one.
The tripod mount comes with a adjustable buckle - you can slide it up and down depending on how large your tripod is and where you want to secure the tripod. You cannot really see it here since the tripod is covering the buckle, so you can take a look at that when you actually test the bag out.
For all its portability and comfort, a camera bag won't be a camera bag without a quick release hatch. This allows you to quickly pull your camera out to capture those fleeting moments that you otherwise would not have caught if you had to slowly take off your bag and retrieve the camera. The Skyborne has a pretty good quick release hatch, but I still believe the best (in terms of convenience and time taken) quick release mechanism is that of the Vanguard Up-Rise series by far.
The Up-Rise quick release hatch as taken from the vanguardworld.com site, which features a twin zipper that unzips both sides after you unbuckle the clip.
Compare that to the one of the Skyborne below, which requires you to unzip one whole round around the flap. I guess I could eventually get used to that and do it really quickly, but I still expect myself to do it slower than if I were to get used to the Up-Rise.
The same camera compartment with the quick release hatch open. The hatch cover itself features two memory card slots, which look safe enough to keep the cards inside and not have them damaged, though you could always get a memory card wallet just to be extra safe. The last I checked, a Lowepro memory card wallet costs $12...
I needed a laptop compartment, and by this point it was clear that my expectations of camera bags were really pushing the limit of design and comfort. There were bags that fit all of my requirements but without the laptop slot, and since I decided that I was going to bring this overseas when I went to uni, I'd definitely need a laptop slot. At this point, the Skyborne was probably the only bag that I had found with all the features I needed and more, so the choice was pretty clear.
The laptop compartment together with some pen holders, all decked in the signature orange interior of Vanguard bags. When I first opened the laptop compartment, I discovered that Vanguard even bundled in a laptop bag that could be used independently from the Skyborne.
It can fit a 12inch device, which would be able to fit most tablets like an iPad or any ebook reader, and it even comes with a strap so you can just use it like a stylish sling bag for everyday purposes! It can't get any better than this, can it?
Of course, another requirement of mine was that it had to fit into the size of a hand-carry for airport regulations... I mean, what's the point of getting a backpack that you have to check in right? I didn't want the backpack to be too attention-attracting as well, and it this respect the matt grey finish does it just fine for me. Looking like any other ordinary backpack will definitely reduce the chances of you getting jumped in countries with poorer security. (Add that to the fact that robbers probably haven't heard of Vanguard as compared to Prada and Gucci, it really helps [no offense Vanguard I really love your bags!])
The Skyborne features some other nifty features such as a raincover to protect your belongings in case you got caught in the rain without an umbrella or anything else.
The raincover is accessible from the base of the bag, and you can see the rubber feet with air pockets inside to cushion the bag properly and allow it to stand if you just set it on the floor or other surfaces.
This is with the raincover on, and again, it is a dull matt black which is exactly what I was looking for. Kata has yellow raincovers which I didn't want, since it drew so much attention to itself I'd probably just want to dig a hole to hide myself together with the bag, or just never use the raincover, which totally defeats the purpose of having a raincover in the first place. Kata's reasoning is that it is easier for you to locate the bag if it's dark, but I really don't want half the world to locate my bag at the same time that I do...
There's also a side pocket for a water bottle or other random belongings that you need to access quickly, probably umbrellas and caps or even ponchos.
Coming to the end of this review, I'd like to say that the Skyborne really packs in a lot of security features, like these buckles you see below.
They prevent the compartments from being opened even when unzipped, and there are buckles almost everywhere. However, that becomes a problem when there really is a lot of buckles everywhere - at the waist strap, at the chest level in between the shoulder straps, buckles for the tripod, for the laptop compartment and also the rear-loaded daypack compartment. It does become a hassle if you were to buckle everything and you'd soon become an expect in strap management with the many loose ends that come with the buckles. However, I'd really consider that a small drawback for all the features it packs into the design and I hope this review helps you to make your decision.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other designs I were considering included:
- Lowepro Orion Trekker
- Lowepro Dryzone Rover (the reason I did not bother looking for this after testing another Dryzone was that the weather-sealed zip was really too troublesome to handle. I spent more than 5 minutes closing the zip completely and I definitely do not want that to happen everytime I needed to take out my gear/change lenses)
- Naneu Pro K3L
- Vanguard Up-Rise [forgot which number] (this is cheaper, but because both the daypack compartment and the camera compartment were accessed from the same zip I felt really unsafe that all my lenses and flash would drop out when I accessed my daypack compartment if I just happened to unzip a bit too much. You'd understand what I mean when you actually take a look at it (or you can look at the picture below taken from vanguardworld). Other than that, I was seriously considering this bag since it was cheaper and has almost all of the important features as well.)
Thanks for reading this really long post!
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Marina Bay Sands
Sorry for the unexpected delays, but finally, here are the promised photos! I admit they could have been done better even though I was rushing, but this is just for those who would like to take a look at the view from the Skypark without paying the 20 SGD entrance fee.
For visitors, note that the entry fee for the Skypark no longer includes access to the Infinity Pool!
------------------------
In other news, I just bought a Vanguard Skyborne 45 today for $211 from SLR Revolution to prepare for my upcoming trip to South America! This was after comparing many models from brands such as Lowepro, Naneu, Kata and Tamrac at the different shops around the Funan area, and I hope this review will help many who are looking for their first camera bag for long overseas trips!
This is from the Vanguard website but I will try to do a review of this backpack pre- and post-trip to let you guys take a look at it as well.
Till then, happy shooting! (:
For visitors, note that the entry fee for the Skypark no longer includes access to the Infinity Pool!
------------------------
In other news, I just bought a Vanguard Skyborne 45 today for $211 from SLR Revolution to prepare for my upcoming trip to South America! This was after comparing many models from brands such as Lowepro, Naneu, Kata and Tamrac at the different shops around the Funan area, and I hope this review will help many who are looking for their first camera bag for long overseas trips!
This is from the Vanguard website but I will try to do a review of this backpack pre- and post-trip to let you guys take a look at it as well.
Till then, happy shooting! (:
Monday, 24 October 2011
The Art of War
After a long time of not coming into contact with chess, I have decided to pick it up once again just for the heck of it, and because I now have quite a lot of free time to do so. It is still a regret that I dropped it in Sec 3 to do science projects - not that I didn't benefit a lot from science projects, but because I really wanted to see where I could go with my chess...
Having said that, I found this set which was a present from my long-time friend Abigail, and decided to shoot this while taking a short break.
The Calm Before The Storm
Ready To Roll
Remember Your Targets
Haha hope you enjoyed it; still converting the panoramas that I took from the Marina Bay Sands Skypark, will upload here once I touch up on them. (: Have a good week ahead!
Having said that, I found this set which was a present from my long-time friend Abigail, and decided to shoot this while taking a short break.
The Calm Before The Storm
Ready To Roll
Remember Your Targets
Haha hope you enjoyed it; still converting the panoramas that I took from the Marina Bay Sands Skypark, will upload here once I touch up on them. (: Have a good week ahead!
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Threesome!
Today I was really bored, so I went out to shoot with Wei Han just to follow him around. He's really interested in portraits and all that and he's been working on that a fair bit with his new 15 - 85 f/3.5 - 5.6 EFS lens on a Canon, so do check out his work if you're free =p
Anyway, after a really long while of walking around, I suddenly got inspired to take photos of everything that appeared in threes along Orchard Road, some spotted with the help of Wei Han. I even danced for 30 seconds with the Ben & Jerry's mascot just to get a small tub of free icecream YUMMY =D
Back to the topic! We all know that awesome stuff comes in threes (or I'd like you to believe so for the purposes of this post heehee), so without further ado:
And just for laughs, I present to you the final piece in 3some
Three Tree
Haha alright hope you enjoyed it! Some of the pictures may be framed rather tightly because they were all shot on the 50mm prime, but I'm still learning how to move around to make the most of this nifty lens. Till then!
Anyway, after a really long while of walking around, I suddenly got inspired to take photos of everything that appeared in threes along Orchard Road, some spotted with the help of Wei Han. I even danced for 30 seconds with the Ben & Jerry's mascot just to get a small tub of free icecream YUMMY =D
Back to the topic! We all know that awesome stuff comes in threes (or I'd like you to believe so for the purposes of this post heehee), so without further ado:
And just for laughs, I present to you the final piece in 3some
Haha alright hope you enjoyed it! Some of the pictures may be framed rather tightly because they were all shot on the 50mm prime, but I'm still learning how to move around to make the most of this nifty lens. Till then!
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Timelapse Attempt #1
This was done with Windows Movie Maker with each photo at 0.125 seconds and speed doubled, so take it as 16fps. 439 photos on the bridge and 128 at the junction, taken at 10 second intervals. That makes it a total of 567 photos taken over 5670 seconds, which makes it approximately 94.5 minutes.
This is actually an extremely short period of time for a timelapse, hence explaining the lack of footage even at a measly 16fps. I think I'd need at least 24fps like Ross Ching's so that it doesn't look that choppy; right now it looks more like stop-motion animation.
As you can see it is still very very raw both because I haven't yet learnt how to use superior video-editing software, and also because there is significant tripod shake with the lack of a remote cord. My tripod was a freebie and hence isn't very stable as well, the legs gradually give way very very slowly hence resulting in a bit of shifting also.
I was a bit ambitious in trying to do a timelapse of the sunset, didn't manage to capture the red hues of the sky since it was very cloudy, the sun was behind me and most of it was blocked off by clouds/buildings anyway, so the sunset is pretty dull. I did everything on manual mode including focus so that the images stay consistent (or they are supposed to anyway), and the exposure was metered from the start of the exposure, i.e. in bright daylight. Hence, the end part after the sunset was very underexposed. It created a sort of fading away effect but I wasn't too satisfied.
Perhaps next time if I were to expose for both before and after a sunset I'd have to overexpose by quite a bit at the start of the sequence.
I make stupid mistakes like not really thinking about the composition/checking that my tripod was entirely level/even checking the focus properly because I was too eager to get started AND rush home for dinner. I even bumped into the tripod accidentally in the middle of the exposures for the sequence of the road junction, so I'd have to work on that.
Otherwise, it's still a pretty interesting effect that I really wanted to see and the good news is that there is still lots of room for improvement! =D
New Side-Project! (hopefully)
I am totally excited about this new project to do time-lapse photography, it sounds pretty interesting and is a good break from trying to take the hectic day-to-day life which I haven't even mastered yet. Street photography requires lots of courage to ask permission and interact with complete strangers, something which I am not too good at yet.
Fortunately, everybody is getting a DSLR nowadays, and as people see it more and more they should get less camera shy (yea right, but haha I'm just hoping this will happen) so there are more opportunities for natural shots everywhere.
So yes! Time-lapse photography, maybe something I can do on my travels by myself at night or just something to do on weekends.
Things I am thinking I will need:
Remote - Still not too sure whether the MC36 for Nikon actually works with the D3100, and if the MCDC2 doesn't have a timer I will have to try to find a third-party one...
ND-filter - Not too sure about this too, as well as which stop to get even if I am getting one. Ross Ching used a ND10 filter which is probably a bit overkill for me, but yes I will KIV this.
I already have a tripod and a camera so maybe I just need to put in some effort, get the remote and go somewhere and camp for an entire day. Hope to get something out maybe by the end of this year :D
Here's Ross Ching's Making of Eclectic 2.0 which is really quite a good inspiration/place to start!
Haha apologies for not updating often, inspiration has been missing me more than Torres has been missing the goal, or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough D=
Fortunately, everybody is getting a DSLR nowadays, and as people see it more and more they should get less camera shy (yea right, but haha I'm just hoping this will happen) so there are more opportunities for natural shots everywhere.
So yes! Time-lapse photography, maybe something I can do on my travels by myself at night or just something to do on weekends.
Things I am thinking I will need:
Remote - Still not too sure whether the MC36 for Nikon actually works with the D3100, and if the MCDC2 doesn't have a timer I will have to try to find a third-party one...
ND-filter - Not too sure about this too, as well as which stop to get even if I am getting one. Ross Ching used a ND10 filter which is probably a bit overkill for me, but yes I will KIV this.
I already have a tripod and a camera so maybe I just need to put in some effort, get the remote and go somewhere and camp for an entire day. Hope to get something out maybe by the end of this year :D
Here's Ross Ching's Making of Eclectic 2.0 which is really quite a good inspiration/place to start!
Haha apologies for not updating often, inspiration has been missing me more than Torres has been missing the goal, or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough D=
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G
Just got this on 290811 for $300, have been pretty pleased with it's performance and bokeh so far, but still finding it hard to master the shallow field of focus when fully opened (f/1.8) or near wide-open, especially when i am using spot-focusing.
Take a look at this:
This diagonally stretched fern leaf (closest to me at the bottom left corner) was taken at f/2.8 with the focal point on the gash in the middle, and already you can see that the field of focus requires you to be rather precise especially when you are taking photos with many subjects or points of interest at different planes (or distances from your lens if you will)
The bokeh is extremely pleasing - with the shot taken against my badly-cluttered table, the medal still stands out sharply. All the objects in the foreground as well as the background fade out of focus nicely, with no jarring shapes and lines protruding, as can also be seen from the shot of the fern leaf where the buildings in the distance just fade off into barely-recognisable patches of colour.
Overall, this is a great lens to have for its price-to-value ratio, and would make an extremely awesome prime lens for beginners like me to play around with fast glass. I would also like to add that the focusing motor is spot on when I use it on auto to check the calibration of the lens, and fortunately, it is my lack of focusing skills that causes the blur when I shoot my friends. Perhaps that's also because I choose to shoot wide open. (my camera will automatically stop down to at least f/3.5 or thereabouts for me the few times I tried to use it on auto)
Will try to test this in low-light conditions in the future, so stay tuned and happy shooting! (:
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