Photography tips 101: It's all about catching the moment! Hashtag Sony a7s is quick!!

Just a quick note, the Sony A7S is quite quick/fast! To those who worries about AF performance, for travel/street i think it is quite capable.

One tip i've read about photography is to capture the moments....especially candid moments! Ones that can never be replicated back! Because those moments will never be back and if you able to capture those precious moments, it's like winning the jackpot, you know what i mean! and it also make a great photo.

I was walking and pushing the baby stroller in hand when i saw my subject approach towards me, i was quite impressed with my Sony A7S for able to focus quickly and capture the photo. Its not a super sharp photo as i was walking while taking the picture, didn't have time to stand still, also i want to be stealthy as well, its a combination of tricks and skills bahahaha.... anyway, what i like about this photo is i was able to capture that lady's face pure smirk of awesomeness, and that guy creeping up that cleavage and that kid's craving for milk "I want milk now", kid said bahahahaha

Anyway my subject was a 7-11 sign board. 😂😂😂

Photography tips 101: Shooting people (Please try to avoid this habit)

I've been spending a lot on photography magazines back in the day before internet was glorious, this been going on for years, and i dont just stick to one company's mag, there were a few, imagine how much money spent, i could have used it to buy more cameras?? hahaha... but i be honest, reading them magazines do taught me a lot, theres a lot of tips and tricks but still if only internet was there back then at least i can use them money to satisfy my GAS hahaha.

So yeah, reading them magazines there's a tip that i always stumble upon, when shooting people, try not to shoot that have lampposts, trees or flagpoles sticking out of the top people's heads. Once you noticed em its kind of distracting and for me it kinda ruined the shot. Believe me even the pros are fell into this habit. Let me screenshot what i got from Techradar since they said it nicely. 

taken from/credits to Techradar

That is a good tip. Believe me it is distracting when you have a subject with something sticking out of their head. Just take a look that pic above. Sheeeessshhh.....

So when i shoot i try to keep in mind and use this tip but sometimes i do still have photos of people with something sticking out of their head. grrrr....i guess i aint paying attention to details. But i have reasons/excuses, hahaha, im handholding a baby on one hand and the camera on the other and i wanted to be quick. but nevertheless still came back with this ruined shot hahaha. so the lesssons we can get from here is you can use Sony A7S one handed with the 35mm 2.8 lens. 😜😏

here's mine, just recently....

To the untrained eyes, it looks fine but after you read this tip, its a fu***n distracting! If only i moved a bit to the right or left. its worst when its at the center, narrow straight line sticking out of the head.
(Hello, i have a lamppost out of my head)
(Hi, I'm a lamppost stand)
(Hi, i'm a ............... OK OK WE GET IT!!!)

But yes thats your tip of the day!!

A Picture A Day: Mountain

I wasn't really sure to upload this pic on 500px but this is the picture that get the most likes...about 30 likes...sad i know but there are actually people who likes it so thats not a bad thing either..... i think for me personally this is a shit picture but people do like it....that means i shit gold!! hahah but no.....that just shows we are different in everything we are, we have different taste, we lived different lives, different perspective.... we are just humans.... subject to our own opinions...

This was shot with my Sony A6000. Such a little gem. When i have my A6000 i really didn't blog that much... so i'm gonna change that....maybe.... and the one i uploaded on 500px is a little bit underexposed....just a noob editing pictures skills with laptop monitor full maximise brightness....wtf!

And i also start using Google's free Nik collection specifically the dfine noise reduction... i noticed even with the lowest ISO theres an amount of noise in the blue skies, which is kind of annoying...lowest ISO = noise?? maybe its the digital sensor characteristic but yeah...its annoying...

So this photo was taken late last year when i was in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, famous for its mountain. I love spending the night here at the chalets, no aircondition, just natural breeze, peaceful, quiet, just insects noise, away from the city, and frikking one minute hot water shower n the rest is ice cold water....nasty. Nature at its best. 

Hi, My Name is Dark Moody

I'm beginning to dig the look of my 'Andy Lee' wannabe look. It has the sort of surreal feel, painted look and really dark mood feeling about it, as if its about to rain in a few minutes. I dont really shoot a lot of landscapes lately or ever but now that i have that 'dark mood look' recipe, i wanna try it on all of my landscapes pictures but first i need to shoot more landscapes. I've been digging my library and see if i can find more landscapes pictures but alas there's only a few. Shucks! I need to get my ass off this couch and start taking photos!

I found a few photos from my last year's trip to Kota Kinabalu Sabah. I'm diggin the look. I'm calling this my "Dark Moody" set.

All shots taken with Fuji X-M1.
Awesome little camera!

My 'Andy Lee' Wannabe photo

I was reading dpreview when i stumbled upon an article featuring Andy Lee with his Iceland in Infrared landscapes photos. I'm not so much into landscapes, i love it but its always been done to death. "Hey, look at that, a mountain!" ..(setup tripod, set long exposure, shoot). I'm not saying that its not beautiful, it is beautiful when done right...to my eyes. What i'm trying to say is, our eyes are the best camera of all time. No camera can replicate what our eyes can see. So when you shot landscapes, sometimes you'll say to yourself, "It's nicer to see and experienced it with your own eyes than looking at photographs" or maybe i just sucked at photography. I guess its the latter. It's like my first time looking at the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes, i'm just in awe and it was breathtaking. I didn't have that same feeling when i look at a poster of Eiffel Tower. So when you look at pictures of landscapes and it was breathtaking, it makes you wanna go there and experience it yourself but to find out later, that place was just normal looking, it is beautiful, dont get me wrong but the pictures look nicer, then you got yourself a 'landscape photographer' genius. Andy Lee is one of them. When i look at Andy's pictures, i'm just inspired. It is my cup of tea. Bravo, bravo, that is nicely done. It's how he post-process his pictures, i bet if its OOC, its just normal looking landscapes but then he laid down his personal touch and OOoommpphh.... breathless!

For me, its all in the post processing, composition and light. Chasing light. I dont have neither. I'm still looking for post processing recipes and light? Me chasing light? Maybe the light chases me and if lucky i got a camera in my hand. and then came composition..... i'd be damn lucky if i got it right.

Here's my wannabe 'Andy Lee' look .... its not anywhere close....

So to Andy, Good Job, Bravo and i salute you...

Monday Blues.... Oh wait...It's Thursday

Maybe the weekend is coming, i'm just on hibernation mode. I wish i could stay in bed and look at the ceiling but we all gotta work. Now i'm just figuring my next move. Should i bid the Leica M8 just for GAS's sake? Or i should just ignore GAS? As history shows, GAS always won. I'm a slave to my desire. Not good at all, not good at all. Something about a Leica, i just wanted to have it, owned it. Its something i always wanted to do or have. Owned and shoot a Leica. It is just like owning a Harley Davidson, now that i own it, i'm not looking at other bikes. I hope i'm like that with Leica, because i'm actually tired of GASing for cameras. I should just concentrate on taking pictures or get another hobby or back to playing music. My Fujis are the best in the business, i have the cameras, i dont need no other cameras, i just need to shoot shoot shoot. but that's the thing, these gears, these cameras are just like toys to me. I mean we men never grow up. We still buy toys except that it is more expensive. You know we jumped for joy like a little boy when we get our so called "toys". I hate GAS. i totally am but i need it to feel alive LOL. Wait till my bank account goes zeros then lets see if i still feel alive!

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, desaturated, contrasty, painted look, orthodox, all mix into one or not. I guess i'm bored. or i want to find/do/look something different. I'm not gonna print these over-processed pictures, just for web, just for fun. It's funny when i visited photography or camera forums, people or trolls get too critique, or attacking/bashing each other, especially fanboys who got really defensive and start swearing, attacking, arguing, fighting, and then there's the ego maniacs, and so on... i wont go into details but you know what i mean, you stumbled across this once in a while if you surf a lot on the internet. Why fight, why argue in the first place? Are we in the Olympics? Is there a gold medal to win for? When people start giving harsh critiques to someone else's photos, didn't they ever think that he/she wanted it to look like that? It's their taste, their cup of tea, who gives a sh!t what critiques have to say but of course being human, we were born with anger in one of our DNA and of course we got defensive and start arguing. i mean it's just a waste of time, arguing over the internet with no real winner of the debate competition which is not even taking place..... Oh boy i got too deep + emotional here... must be the monday blues eh wait, its thursday...weekend blues it is...... Its just sad to see our human civilisation is not even civilised...Sorry i just had to rant...You know how rants are...just got way off topic..........................

I believe taking photos are for the passion, pleasure, for fun, be it snapshot, documentary, reportage, art, manipulator, and the list goes on... but the root of it must be the passion, for the love of it.

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, hey... didn't i already said this?

Lets put some random pictures, enough of this ramblings. Because a picture speaks a thousand words.

Some over-processed pictures goodies.

 Dark skies, moody landscape. Just like how i'm feeling today

There are times when i like to see things differently. Different colours. Like you're in a movie, the colours were never 'normal'. 

To photo nerds, this is taken with my Fuji X-M1 + kit lens. This is in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Kundasang, Malaysia, at Mount Kinabalu, ...far away from the city...... Thank god they have KFC here.

I'm a sucker for presets.

I'm a sucker for Lightroom/Photoshop presets. Period. I'm just too lazy. One-click-boom. Thats why i love VSCO presets. They are so worth it. Recreate film looks, polaroid looks.... ya know, those vintage looks. But at the moment, i'm done with film looks, i got a bit tired of it. But thats today, maybe tomorrow i'm back into it. Right now, i'm into those contrasty but desaturated colors. I was actually looking for a tutorial on recreating that look when i stumbled upon free presets for Lightroom. See, i'm not that lazy, i want to learn on how to recreate those looks but instead i found presets thus diverted me from learning to just using the presets. Lazy over learning. Nice.

While browsing the internet, i found presets and tutorials but mostly free preset on creating gritty, grungy look, which is the look im into right now, some are really nice which made me search for more free presets all over the net. Who doesnt like free stuffs right?

While on the topic of grunge look, I also stumbled across a bloke named Dave Hill. Though his pictures are nice but not really my type, i mean i really like it but i'm not gonna use it all the time. and then there's the DRAGAN effect too. Based on my findings these free presets that tried to recreate the grunge, dave hill and dragan effect look are mostly pushing the sliders in lightroom to the max!

Highlights pushed to 100
Shadows pushed to 100
Blacks bring down to balance the look
Clarity pushed to, yes you guess it right, to 100. I love pushed clarity. Gave that painted look
Vibrance pushed to 100
Saturation pull to taste, -50, depends on how unsaturated look you're looking for.
Exposure to taste.

Some presets pushed the sharpness too hard, like 80, but for my taste i pulled a bit and just play around with it.

Let's use a sample image i've downloaded from Robin Wong EM10. I hope he don't mind. This are not my photo. It's Robin's.

Original File 

This is my Bleach Bypass look, i've edited from Lightroom's own bleach bypass preset 

 Not too forget, the "300" look, i found this lightroom preset on google

I called this my Wannabe Dave Hill look although i adjusted to my liking. I dont remember which preset i based this on. but i adjusted it to make it less painted effect.

*I based this on the Grunge preset i found on google*

Some may dig the look, some may not. Its for fun, sometimes i just want to push the files to never before land lols.

Hello Kuala Lumpur

Went to Kuala Lumpur last week over the weekend for a family trip, i thought i would take a lot of photos and man i was wrong. When you got your hands on the kids stroller all the time, you don't have a chance to take your camera out of your bag. Even if i did, we were quite rushing going places and there's no quality time with my X-pro1. I guess thats why i'd still prefer my iphone as a camera, its easy just slip in my pocket, cant do that with any of my Fujis. Looking to see if i can fit the new Sony Rx100 iii into my pocket, then it'll be my new toy!! C'mon Fuji, announce your new cameras!

7 adults and 7 kids and i'm being kind of the tour guide as i'm bringing first timers. there's no stopping, just walk, eat, shop and go! I don't want to bore or make them wait for me to take photos. 3 days are not enough for first timers going to Kuala Lumpur, too many places to visit, so it was like rushing/amazing race all the time. It was fun actually, my only gripe was the bullshit driver of ours who seems to be much more in a rush than us. All in all it was a great trip, too bad i didn't take a lot of photos as i liked to.

Silhoutte 

Above the clouds 

Lost balloons 

Busking N Robbins 

Not bad, not bad at all

Sunway

Night Market

To photogs nerds, these are all shot with an X-Pro1 + 18-55mm lens, edited in Lightroom with VSCO film presets. 

I'm also trying a different perspective, unconventional, quirky, unorthodox, screw-rule-of-thirds, out of the box ways of taking a photos+compositions. Just trying to be different than what i'm used to. Pretty or not, improve or not, as long as it captures the moments, the story, its fine with me.