Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Dear Colleagues,
Happy new year to all of you and your family! May the New Year bring lots of happiness, prosperity and good health to everyone!

This white bellied sea eagle picture is my gift to all of you for the coming New Year. It has been predicted that there will be dark clouds in year 2009 but let all of us soar high above the dark clouds, just like the eagle in this picture! I believed with strong determination and preseverance, we will be able to glide through the uncertainties ahead of us!

Camera: Canon EOS40D
Lens: Canon 100-400f5.6L
ISO: 100
Aperture: f5.6
Software: Photoshop CS2

Toy Photography

These are the 1st few pictures taken for my diecast blog. It weren't very good, but it gave me some ideas for my progress later.

The pictures have too shallow in the depth or feel, to counter that, I will need to take with tripod.

I'm still looking for one, fellow colleagues, any recommendations?

Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL, F5.6, 1/25 Sec, ISO400, 85mm

Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL, F5.6, 1/30 Sec, ISO400, 81mm

Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL, F2.8, 1/100 Sec, ISO400, 50mm

Canon 870 IS







Few day ago, my uncle asked me to help him to buy a DSC. Budget is around US$500, Compact size. With my limited experience, I only have two brand in my mind CANON and NIKON. Thanks to Wing / Stephen/Jason when I shared to them, they gave me some advises and it help me a lot to make a quick decision. So this afternoon, I'll go to retail shop (help the economy ^_^) to purchase CANON 870. So dear all, if you are planning to buy electric toys i.e. DSC, share in here and I think most of our fellow member would like to give you a good / useful advise like our GfK report and staff... ha ha.

Happy New Year

Friday, December 26, 2008

Malaysia X'mas Shoot 2008

This year decoration in Mid Valley is much simple compared to last year. I put up the pictures here for many of colleagues have not visited before.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Canon EOS 400D, F/5.6, 1/60 Sec, ISO400, 17mm

Canon EOS 400D, F/4, 1/100 Sec, ISO1600, 17mm

Canon EOS 400D, F/4, 1/50 Sec, ISO800, 20mm

Canon EOS 400D, F/4, 1/40 Sec, ISO800, 17mm

Canon EOS 400D, F/5.6, 1/40 Sec, ISO800, 85mm

Wedding

Recently attend a friend wedding and took this photo

Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-200mm
200mm, f5.6, 1/30sec, flash, ASA200

Thursday, December 25, 2008

X'mas Shoot 2008

Went with Chris for the X'Mas Shoot...

Nikon D90 with Tokina 10-17mm
10mm, f8, 5sec, ASA200

Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-200mm
50mm, f8, 5sec, ASA200

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas

In Singapore, we do not have a winter wonderland but we have Orchard Road Christmas lights up. The whole stretch of Orchard Road is lighted up with lots of different kind of lightings and Christmas decorations so it is a good time to bring out the camera to take some pictures. The streets are packed with people so it is quite a challenge to find a place to setup your tripod and to prevent someone accidentally kicking it! Everyone is doing the last minute Christmas shopping or just strolling along with their love ones to soak in the Christmas atmosphere and enjoying the lights up. Off course, there are many who are there to take pictures too.

Here are some pictures taken with my Nikon D700 with either a 24-70mm or a 16mm full frame fisheye lens. I have used ISO200, 1600 and even 3200 for some of the shots. Some of the pictures are taken with fast shutter speeds to freeze actions and others are shot with slow shutter speeds to create a sense of motion. Zooming techniques are also included to add some effect to an otherwise dull looking scene. In one of the pictures I deliberately include a bright street lamp in the composition to create a fake North Star!

The last few shots are taken with the 16mm full frame fisheye. The very last picture is shot with my camera mount on my tripod and sticking it into the center of the Christmas tree and trigger with a long remote cord to create a kaleidoscope effect. I set the lens to manual focus and set the focusing distance on infinity. Then use a small f-stop to increase the depth-of-field so I could get everything in focus.

Even though I spent about three to four hours on Orchard Road, I only managed to cover a super small portion of the whole lights up because the crowd is really overwhelming. I hope you enjoy the pictures and if possible kindly share with all of us how you spend Christmas in your country. Merry Christmas!










Thursday, December 18, 2008

1st Photo Competition - The winner

Thanks again for the members / non-members who join our 1st photo competition. Your positive feedback is our motivation to run the photo club.

Based on the submitted photos, Wing & I had several discussions & reviews before we decide the winner of the photo competition. It is not a easy job for us. Finally, we mutually agree the winning picture (as below) and the winner is HELENA SZE!

Congratulation to Helena! Keep on your good work!




Besides Helena, we also find that another photo club member, Mancy Cheng, improve her photo skill a lot. Therefore, we decide to give her award as well. We look forward to seeing her great pictures soon.

Last but not least, we will try to organise the 2nd photo club events and competition in Jan/Feb08. Hope you can join us as well!
***Prize sponsered by William Chan

This is Hong Kong (B&W)

Taking landscape photo with B&W film is a interesting topic. I never do that before but love it so much after my first trail.
Taking B&W photo is easier than colour photo. It is because you need not to focus on colour using, but please aware on variation of light, the contrast between the object the background.
You have to remember one thing when you taking B&W photo, what you see through your eyes will become black, grey and white. You should be careful on the colour tone. Once the colour tone is very similar between object and background. The object will be mixed with background. Then it is not a good B&W photo.












Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sample Image: Canon 1Ds MKIII + 200f2L IS

One of my friends is using Canon EOS1Ds MKIII (the current top model in Canon). Recently, he is trying a new lens in Canon showroom -- EF200f2L IS -- a professional lens with largest aperture among 200mm lenses with 5 stops image stablizers. Attached is the picture using 1/10 sec using this lens (just handheld, without tripod) and the image is still sharp and clear!!!

The price:
Canon 1Ds MKIII around US$6,900
EF200f2L IS around US$6,400
The total amount can buy a quite good used car....








Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Malacca Pictures

When I visit Malaysia earlier, I have a chance to visit Malacca (a historical state). My last visit to Malacca was around 10 years ago. The place is becoming more structure compared with my last visit. If you visit Malaysia next time, you can consider to visit this historical place.

For this trip, I only carry a old prosumer "Canon Powershot Pro1" to take some snapshots.

More photos can be found in my album:
http://www.fotop.net/williamc/Malacca2008





Sunday, December 7, 2008

International Kart GP

At the end of November, I went to Macau for the Kart Racing. The Kart Racing is an International Competition and the Karts & drivers' dressing look colorful.

The Kart is moving faster than I expect. We can use a high shutter speed to freeze the motion. Another choice is using panning skill -- Since the Kart is small in size, we need to use a slower shutter speed to show its motion (e.g. 1/125 or slower). During the panning, it is better to focus in the driver (e.g. Helmet). Due to the track & driver skill, the Kart is moving fast and flexible which increase the difficult to produce the sharp images in panning shots. As a result, it is another challenge for sport photographers.

Personally, I quite like this photo series. The photos are in my album:
http://www.fotop.net/williamc/Kart2008

Please feel free to give me your comment. Thanks.
P.S. Unfortunately, Kart Racing is without Racing Queens, so don't ask me about the Racing Queens pictures : )








Thursday, December 4, 2008

YingYing to school


My daughter 1st day school during her enrollment day. She seen enjoying the school life, but this yet the official start day.

She will start her school from 5th Jan next year, until then I will also consider schooling. You know, parents can't get away from this. ☺YeoCP//

Setting: K810i, f/2.8, 1/50sec, ISO250, 0 Step, Spot Metering.

1st Photo Club Event in HK: Christmas Lighting

The first event in HK, Christmas Lighting. The response is good. Most of them show their creativity.
This is the group photo of that night.

I have confidence to get a good response from different countries in the coming event.

From left to right, First is me, Howard, Danny, William, Helena, Stephen, Jason, Mancy, Elvi and Francis. There are Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fujifilm and even Ricoh user on that night. Elvi just using EOS5D from William.


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Malaysia Community Service

From left to right, Jeniffer, Cindy and Lihua.

Today on behalf of GfK Malaysia along with a few other colleagues, we've paid a visit to Agathians Shelters in conjunction to our recent charity event which helps collected some donation to contribute to this orphanage.

The shelter home house about 40 children with only 6 rooms to share between them all. The surrounding seems clean but looking around at these children, it reminded me just how fortunate we are to have grown up in a warm and safe family.

According to the guardian, the shelter needs considerable fund each month in order to support these children. To date, they need more financial support to enable these children to a proper education.

If you would like to do your part as well in helping these children please contact any of our GfK committee members or call Mr Sivabalan at 012-2968014 or 03-79541680.

Setting: Canon PowerShot S3 IS, ISO200, F/4, 1/160 Sec, 0 Step, 6 mm

Story: Cindy, Picture: Alan Kwan, and Editor: Sabrina.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Badminton Photos

On last week, I am lucky to watch a badminton competition in HK. This competition attract many great badminton players to HK such as Lin Dan (Beijing Olympic Winner).

As for the photography, the lighting condition is okay. (e.g. using ISO1600, aperture f2.8 and can have 1/400 sec shutter speed). This is first time for me to take the badminton sports. I mainly use the prime lenses - 50mm, 85mm, 135mm & 200mm. Try to have a higher shutter speed and keep the subject more outstanding from the background with a larger aperture. Since the ground is green color, it may make the color of players' face become a bit green - a challenge on white balance setting.

The players are moving fast (left/right or up/down) and it is quite difficult to capture the right moment.

Hope you like this photo series and please kindly give me your comment. Thanks : )

More photos can be found in my ablum:

http://www.fotop.net/williamc/Badminton2008









Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Foods


Taken during last month WSIA

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200mm, ASA800, 70mm, f/5.6, 1/10sec

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200mm, ASA800, 50mm, f/4.8, 1/15sec

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200mm, ASA800, 75mm, f/5.6, 1/6sec

Singapore Skyline

Late night @ Singapore River looking at the Skyline of Singapore Business District. The Singapore River you looking at is now our man made fresh water reservoir. It will take a few year before it become fresh water. You can read more from this link

Last building on the right hand side of this picture is GfK Singapore Office located @ 22 floor.

Nikon D90, Tokina 10-17mm, ASA 200, 13mm , f/9, 25sec.

Another photo taken at the Singapore River.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200mm, ASA 200, 200mm , f/10, 10sec.