The monochrome

Hi,

It is been awhile after the last post in Putrajaya. Today, I challenge to shoot some so called "old type" or "black and white" photos, we called it Monochrome. As I remember, I did mentioned about I like black and white photos than colour photos. 

It is also difficult to shoot in Monochrome because there is only two colours, you need to be careful or you will not get the "distance" of the subject and the background. 

And Monochrome photos are very difficult in movement because the result might just blur and you do not feel any "speed" on it. Our eye just cannot judge it while we already used to colourful photos.

The same case appear while the ball is spinning. I would say if you really insist in capture a moving subject in Monochrome, I suggest you find a subject which is dark in colour such as black, dark blue, dark red and etc. Sorry I am not good in the name of colour :P Well, as you can see, the spinning ball is actually in yellow colour and you can slightly see it is spinning because the ball has a number in black colour. Therefore you see some reflection and "see" it is spinning :)

It is better to remain "still" subjects and maximize the Aperture by lower the f-number. Guess what, you can see the distance of the subjects now. :)

If that cannot satisfy you, you can try to capture the nearest background of the subjects. As you can see, the photo below was included the border of the table, it gave more "distance" and you can feel the photo "live".

There is another way to capture the "distance" if you find maximizing the Aperture does not work. The reason you lower your f-number does not work might because your f-number not small enough, or cannot be smaller. Well,  all you need to do is zoom in to the subjects, and of course using the smallest f-number as well.

Also, in case you got enough exposure (some shops have not enough lighting), you need to use a higher ISO to get your desire exposure. But beware, higher ISO might capture noises and spoil your photo.

Choosing a correct angle is important, well, I cannot teach you on that because I am still working on it as well LOL.

Sometimes, you just need to shoot in different angle in order to gain more "intuition" (I do not use "experience" because I think photography is more on "imagination" instead of just "experience) so you will know how to shoot in different subjects in different angle next time.

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PutraJaya

Hi there,

I believed many people had visited PutraJaya, Malaysia. Most of my friends visited and they tell me PutraJaya is a very beautiful place because the government spend a lot of money to build it. The streets, highway, buildings, garden and even the street lamps are imported from ... ...somewhere, I can't recall. hehe.

But guess what, I never been to PutraJaya before. It just like if you going to a vacation or tour, you will try to discover that specific place because you might not coming back or visit the same place again. But, if you live there, or near that specific place, you will not discover until you become your friends or family tour guide. :P

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the tour guide today because you probably lost in PutraJaya since the signboards in Malaysia bring you to nowhere. You better start learning in using Landmark or get a GPS before you visit Malaysia. No offence.

It was not a sunny day and we arrived there around 5pm. Too bad, the weather was not very good, I can't get a clear blue sky or twilight photo. Oh well, perhaps my "pet" should at least be my model today.

Actually, we were just simply walk around the pool side, garden and the administration buildings (outside of course).  I felt like I'm in some other country because the design were totally different compare with Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya.

I heard most of my friends say the night scene is very beautiful, maybe we should wait until the night comes. There are still a lot of skills I need to improve, especially in night shooting and landscape. My friend told me there is no difficult in Landscape because as long as the colour looks vivid, the photos will look nice. And it can be edited in photoshop.

Ya right, maybe... ...the problem is I do not know how to use photoshop LOL. Actually, the shooting angle is more important to me. Why? It is because I like black and white photo.

And back lighting photo as well.

Maybe I should try another angle.

You know what, the mother nature is beautiful. Plant and insect, they are just adorable. :)

This little dragonfly just keep flying around me and back to the same leaf, and it caught my attention. Let me get closer and zoom in, as near as I can. Closer......closer...... *snap*

It is just difficult to wait until the dark comes. And there is no room for me to have my dinner because our Malay friends need to "buka puasa" as all the fast food restaurants were reserved. Hehe. Never mind, I'm glad I have chance to experience different culture :)

By the way, where is the chinese restaurant?

I do strongly recommend YOU to visit PutraJaya because the night is beautiful here, for shooting only :P. Why? It is because PutraJaya is a place for administration buildings. If you are here to enjoy the crowded night, beers and food, you should visit Kuala Lumpur.

The night of PutraJaya is not crowded, I should say it is a good place for you to enjoy the time with your bf or gf.

Oh, I almost forgot, the lunar was in orange colour. Too bad, 18-135mm lens is not enough to capture the moon. Hrm... slow down the Shutter Speed, turn off the flash, and get a NIKE before leaving PutraJaya.

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Finally...I'm Back!!!

Hi everyone,

Some people might think or doubt, where did I go this 3 weeks? Why there is no new post this 3 weeks?

The reason I'm disappear for 3 weeks is because MY LAPTOP SENT BACK FOR WARRANTY. My laptop just cannot boot ( not even Bios). Well, I do not have a backup computer and my data and all photos are in my laptop.

I must say I am quite disappointed in the service of F****SU. They actually wasting my time and I heard some very very stupid questions and answers.

Me: "what happened to my laptop?"

Staff: "I am not sure, I guess is the motherboard problem."

Me: "Motherboard? Why? It just crash out of a sudden?"

Staff: "I am not sure. By the way, did you turn on in a very long time? I think it is because of "overheat". "

Me: "Long time? How long consider "long"? 8 hours per day?"

Staff: "Well, maybe I just send your laptop back the main center, they have engineer to fix it. It will takes around 2 weeks to send back and probably another 2 weeks to return to our service center."

Me: "what...??? Ok... ..."

Staff: "It will charge you RM120 labour fee because the warranty only Full cover for the first year, the second year will only cover parts."

Haha, I think this is quite stupid because we are talking about service in 2011, not 1991. Dell has the fastest service (as I know in Malaysia), and F****SU takes a month? Guess what, I got more stupid answers when I got my laptop.

Me: "So, what happened to my laptop? Did your engineer find out?"

Staff: "Sorry sir, the whole batch motherboards have the same problem. But I think this new motherboard will be Okay."

Me: "You mean F****SU received the same complain from other customers as well?"

Staff: "Yes..."

Me: "In this case, F****SU was/is selling defect items. Will F****SU extend my warranty for compensation (since F****SU admit there are defects)?"

Staff: "No, sir..."(Of course, I ask a stupid question purposely)

Me: "Should I pay the RM120 labour fee? I feel like cheating (by F****SU)."

Staff: "Yes...you still need to pay, this is still under policy" (Wow, sounds like everything under "Policy" are legal.)

Actually, policy of the company and disclaimer are just tricks to cheat the customers. You cannot create your own rules and regulation and says "If you want to use or buy my products, you follow my rules". Oh yeah, which mean you can put a sign board "touch me and I will kill you" to legalize killing someone. Legal? Do we still need LAW?

This world is getting seriously crazy. Not only F****SU, we can see those so called "black hearted" products all over the world. They are selling defects items and products, or even food which they already knew it contains poison, plastic, toxic or whatever very bad for health. 

However, more posts will release, and I am glad I got my laptop back. :)

The Protection Colour

What a cloudy day, I did not even notice it already 9 am in the morning. I should prepare quickly or I will be late. :) Just before I am done with my breakfast, I saw, no, I heard some "birds" at the backyard. Where are the little birds?

As I always say, nature is amazing. You just can't trust your eyes because you can't see all the facts of the world with your eyes, but they do exist.

So, how many birds in this photo? I can't get any closer or zoom in because I am using 18-135mm lens. Arrggg, I am going to get a big lens for sure.

My friend said it was nothing but mud and grasses, ROFL!! Are you sure?

I would say we are too rely on machine or tools. Sometimes we just can't imagine how useless human being are. Without machine and technologies, we are doom.

As I remember, these photos are captured in "shade", therefore the grass looks more vivid green compare to AWB. However, trust me, if I post a photo shot in AWB, the colour of the photos will be grey instead of yellowish and green, the birds are almost invisible and you probably hate me after this LOL. 

Well, here comes our little bird. Say hello to everyone. :)

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Desa Park City

I found a nice place to shoot recently, its called Desa Park City. It is a place near Kepong. If you coming from the direction of Sungai Buloh, just go under the flyover and turn right, then you will see a junction on the left. You  will see some big words DESA PARK CITY instead of HOLLYWOOD. Haha :P

Many photographers come to this place every evening, or maybe after work. I would say this place still under very good maintenance, so far. But I bet it would/must maintain well because this location is very valuable right now.  

There are a lot of fish in the lake, but swimming and fishing are definitely not allowed. I bet most visitors come because of this lake, and wait for the sunset, it just beautiful. Also, visitors like to bring along their dogs, I guess they are enthusiastic in dogs and you can hear something like "you have a beautiful dog", "your dogs are so cute", "she (the dog of course) is so lovely"... ...No offence ^^

Too bad, there isn't any colourful flower around, just trees and vivid green grass. Still, they got the smell of nature. :) Just look at this little grass, it is strong and grow on the rock. Life is really amazing, you can't imagine how tough a grass can be. The background is too sharp, lets try a smaller f-number to make the little grass become the main actor.

Now, you can see the background become blurred and you will probably focus on the little grass instead of the background. 

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Beehive

"A professional photographer will always keep his/her eyes bright and never miss out anything."

My friend told me something like this when he gave me some tutorial in photography. I do agree with this. But, what I think is not only a professional photographer needs to keep his/her eyes bright all the time. As my ex-boss said, an engineer must always keep his/her eyes bright because you will injure if you make mistake, and the worst case is you will get yourselves killed if you make a big mistake. 

Wow, that's sounds serious to me but I know it is serious! :P Well, I do keep myself alert or keep my eyes bright, and I found a beehive on a tree! 

Bee, I guess they just won't attack me if I walk close to them, No Disturb of course.

I found it is a bit difficult to get some photos because I'm using 18-135mm lens. I can't really zoom into them so I decided to get Closer.

There are tree branches and leaf around the beehive. Well, bee is just as smart as we know. They built the beehive in a safe place which others "animal" difficult to reach. And those tree branches, I just afraid to touch them because I do not know what if the bee thought I am going to ambush them or attack them. :P

Closer, closer,closer... ...

Careful, careful, careful... ...

This is the closest I can get, I can hear the "Bee" sound and I guess I should stay away before they found me. :)


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Shutter Speed Project 2

I remember there was a fountain in front of a shopping mall, I can't really recall it so I drove to most shopping mall to search it in the morning. Well, this sounds stupid because there are waterfall and fountain everywhere, even KLCC park has one. But, the one I am looking for is a smaller fountain, and it doesn't not "dance" like the one in KLCC park. 

It just another shutter speed project. Hope you like them. Lets see shutter speed 1/2000 sec.

As I always say, fast shutter speed will make the photo darker than actual scene because the light your camera capture is lesser and you will find details missing, in some case. 

This photo is captured in shutter speed 1/1000 sec. As you can see, the photo is slightly brighter and yes, more details and you can see the fountain was freeze in the air. 

Actually, I think 1/500 sec is enough to freeze and the result is better, in this scene. Of course, the weather is one of the factor, I was shooting under the rain, again! I wonder why whenever I shoot outdoor photo, it rain. :P

I just realise one thing, I like to say "see, this photo looks like those from a compact camera". No offence, hehe. Well, you can freeze motion by compact camera, if you know how to do it or in a correct way. But, in most AI mode or Auto mode of compact camera, you will get something like this. :)

For 1 sec shutter speed, the fountain become smooth and soft. If you compare this photo with 1/500 sec shutter speed, you will see the different especially brightness and details of the photo. Of course, due to the slow shutter speed, the people at the background are blurred. 

This photo was shot in 2 sec shutter speed, the result is almost the same as 1 sec shutter speed. 

I do not recommend you use shutter speed slower than 2 sec because the photo will overexpose, unless the environment really dark and everything are moving very slow. By the way, as I remember, there was a blue t-shirt man walk across between the fountain and my camera while the shutter speed still remain open. But, the image ( or shadow) did not capture by the camera. But, as you can see, the people behind the fountain were captured and yes, blurred.Where is the blue t-shirt man? Why he did not capture by my camera? 

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Night Shooting

The most difficult in photography, for me, is night shooting. While the environment is dark, you can use Portrait Mode to make the subject sharp and clear, which we discussed few weeks ago. Portrait Mode will make the subject skin tone looks softer and the background will be blurred in order to make the subject stand out more. But what if you want to capture the background as well?

This photo captured in Auto Mode because I got a blur background in Portrait Mode. The reason I used Auto Mode is because I helped a tourist to take a photo in the same background, and guess what, the tourist selected Auto Mode before he passed his camera to me. I remember it was Canon 550D and the result was really nice, both subject and background are bright and clear. 

I tried to shoot in Auto Mode and the same angle as well but the result is different. As you can see, the subject is quite dark and the background does not look sharp. I wonder there is any different between 550D and 50D in Auto Mode?

I tried to take a few more photos in the same angle in different Mode but I did not get the best result, too bad. Well, I guess I should not "occupy" the place too long because there are many tourists and even Malaysian like to walk and take photos around the Twin Tower :)

Sometimes I feel a 18-135mm is not enough for photography, but a photographer told me that I should "master" this Lens before I move further in photography. He believed it is very happy to own another or more Lenses, but Lenses are not cheap. As a beginner like me should work hard in photography tutorials instead of work hard to own more Lenses. 

He is just a strict teacher, but I guess I should listen his advise ^^

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