Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

It’s a lonely place up here…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Near & Far

Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge

Lights merging into the darkness

 

 

 

Leaked Official Apple iPhone 5 Promo Video

Incredible!

 

The Stories Behind The Most Stunning Olympic Images

Found this on a website and decided to share. I salute these photographers.

Alex Soh Photography

I had the great pleasure to be in the same room as an amazing professional photographer, Alex Soh, last night. I attended a talk of which Alex was the speaker. He shared about his journey in life; his journey as a photographer and most importantly, his relationship with Jesus.

You can check our his beautiful works here http://www.alexsohphotography.com

What I found amazing was, here is this guy who has tons of amazingly beautiful landscape pictures which he made from around the world, and he gives all the glory back to God. In his own words, he said that he did not create the images, God did and he just capture them on his camera. He was at the right place at the right time and God put him there. At one time, he even “pre-ordered” the view he wants with God. Alex wanted to photograph a rainbow in the midst of a forest and lake and he got it!

His life is a testimony of God’s goodness to him. Born with dyslexic which was not found out till he was 30, he did not fare well academically as no one knew he had learning abilities different from the crowd. He is a very hands on person who learned English through listening. The more he listens, the more he picks up and like what he said, no one would have known if the host of the talk did not mention his condition. Because of his condition, he has difficulty in writing which hampers him from writing his experiences. But frankly, as the say goes, a picture paints a thousand words, looking at Alex’s images, no word is really needed. He draws you into his world with his images, he unselfishly gives you a glimpse of his world through his eyes.

I couldn’t help but be inspired by Alex last night, it was as if I was listening to a sermon on a Sunday. Not just because he quoted Psalm 23, but because I saw Jesus’ love for this man throughout his sharing. His favourite verse in this Psalm was verse 6, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” And because goodness and love follow him, you can’t help but get a taste of them through listening to him; you can’t help but have goodness and love rubbed off him when you are in his presence.

I am inspired.

Add ons to Children Photography Tips – Part 1 – Get Down Low

Hi there! I found some images which I took recently that will illustrate the point about getting down low when photographing children, or in the case of these images, pets. In some ways, they are similar. Well, they are short; they are unpredictable; they don’t care how your camera looks like, etc.

So anyway, the following images were taken of stray cats in an estate near where I live. Instead of making these images standing up, I decided to bring my camera to their eye level. I did that by either sitting down on the ground, or placing my camera right in front of them, and I do get real close to them.

I will say this is an okay image. It’s something we will see daily and this is the angle from which we will see the cat. Nothing fantastic about it. But take a look at the next few images.

However, this is a much better image as the cat’s gaze is at your eye level. It’s fresh because that’s not how we see a cat in our lives. Not many of us has the opportunity to look at a cat straight into its eyes. Interesting also because the cat is walking inside a drain. By bringing the camera down, we the viewer has just been transported into Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels! That’s a fresh perspective, and that makes an interesting image!

The same theory goes to making images of children – capture them at their eye level. If they are on their belly, get down on your belly and snap from there. Of course this is not the only way of making images of children, there are more. But just this one tip if you’ve not done before see how different your images turn out. And yes, it works the same with your pets!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

Here’s my submission to the theme of the week: Wrong. Which wrong should I put up? I chose this. It just seems like the wrong attire for downtown London. And this was not taken during the Olympic season, it was taken in 2010.

 

Children Photography Tips – Part 1 – Get Down Low

I enjoy making photographs of children. I really do. They are unpredictable; they are temperamental; they are unrestrained; they are wild; they are difficult to capture. Then why do I still enjoy photographing them? Well, that’s the challenge I love. Especially children who are highly active and their attention span is about as long counting from 1 to 2. “Ready? 1, 2… Hey I’m not done yet!”

With children, we adapt. We conform to them. We flow with them, or some of the times, run after them. But that’s when the fun begins and we go treasure hunting for the perfect shot. We need to be ready for that moment. Asking them to do the thing they just did so that we can have on film… uhm… more likely memory card, will not work. If we have to stage a moment, THE moment has been lost. How many times have we regretted not having a camera with us? “If only i have my camera here!” How many times have we lamented that our camera is not fast enough (aka blur pictures)? “Can you run a little slower?”

I’ve been making images of children for a while now and I’ve thinking about sharing some of the lessons I’ve learnt in my engagements as a photographer. So today, I start on a series of tips for the parent who wants to capture moments of their children. Whether you’re using a camera phone, a point-and-shoot camera or a DSLR, you’ll be fine if you follow these tips.

First tip to get the shutter going – Get Down Low.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but children are generally short. I mean really short. So you will want to get down to their level and see eye to eye with them. If they are laying down on the floor on their tummy, do likewise. If they are sitting on the floor or even just standing, get down to their level. By doing this, you’ll begin to see the world through the perspective of your children.

If you have images you have taken of your children at their eye level, do feel free to share them in the comments section!

Smugmug

As I was thinking about growing my business, one of the main things I wanted to do was to spruce up my website. WIth not a big budget to have someone custom design it, I looked around and came across Smugmug about one year back. It’s basically a paid digital photo sharing website. It has 3 tiers of membership – Standard Member (US$40/year), Power Member (US$60/year) and Pro Member (US$150/year).

Smugmug allows you to choose from various themes to build your own website, it has ready templates for people like me who have no idea what CSS codes, HTML codes, etc are. So that helps a lot. For those who want to customize their website, you are allowed to go deeper into customizing by writing your own codes. This is something I’ve managed to dabble into after watching a 90min tutorial by Ryan Oakley – Free Course: Create a Gorgeous Photography Website with SmugMug in 90 Minutes. I must say he makes it really easy and I managed to pick up his instructions and customize certain things myself! It’s a must watch for any newbie into setting up a Smugmug account.

There is also the Dgrin forum page where Smugmug users contribute ideas and ask questions about customizing their websites. Do check that out too, it’s definitely worth the trip.

You may want to have a look at my website. It took me about 1 day to make it look that much more professional, thanks to Ryan’s tutorials!