Playing with fire

These children were a little camera-shy but after a couple of shots, they kinda warmed up to me and allowed me to shoot a few pictures. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Caught in the light

With a shot like this, it's really important to have some interesting foreground detail to balance out the large expanse of plain foreground. Again, I set my camera up on a tripod and waited for somebody to step into just the right area and took a shot. I did several of these but this one seems to be the best. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4DX

Cave entrance

I wanted to take a shot with some interesting movement in front of the statue in the centre so I set up the tripod and took a number of shots at a slow shutter speed (about 1.5secs if I am not wrong) and waited for people to pass by to create this blur effect. The important thing about taking intentionally blur shots is that you need to counteract it with something absolutely sharp in the shot, otherwise if everything were blur in the shot, it would just look like you had shaky hands! Too bad about the donation box in front -- I could remove it in Photoshop, but I thought I'd leave it there for authenticity's sake. Nikon D200 AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4DX

THREEE DEEE!

What you see above is a 3D image taken with my camera a while back. This shot is actually a combination of two shots I took, one slight moved to one side of the other. Merged in Photoshop with some adjustments and you get this.
NB: To see it in 3D you need a pair of red/blue 3D glasses (some comics and 3D DVDs comes with one -- Spy Kids 3D comes to mind)-- make sure the red filter is over your left eye and blue filter over your right (some 3D glasses reverse this) and enjoy!

I did this a while back and I often forget how to do it again in Photoshop, so here is the text of an article I wrote a few years back so I can easily find it again on this blog when I need it:

1. First, open both images in Photoshop, taking note which one is your left image and which one is the right.
2. Start with image that you want to be on the left and then, in the Layers menu floating on the right of your screen, click on the Channels tab.
3. In the Channels tab, you’ll see four different channels, RGB, Red, Green and Blue. Click on the Red channel to select it.
4. Next, right-click and choose “Duplicate channel” — a pop-up menu will open when you do this.
5. In the pop-up menu, under Destination/Document, click on the drop down menu and choose New. When you do this, a new drop down menu option will become available for you to name the new file. Name it anything you want, say “3DPix.”
6. Now go to the second picture, the image which should be on the right and again click on the Channels tab.
7. This time, however, select the Green channel, right-click on it and then select Duplicate Channel again. This time, in the Destination/ Document drop-down menu, choose the document you just created for the left image — in this case, the destination should be “3DPix.”
8. Do this again, but this time right-click on the Blue channel, with the destination document again going to “3DPix.” Now click on the newly created 3DPix. It should still look like it’s in Black and White.
9. To turn it back into colour, click on the Image menu at the top of the screen and go to Mode/RGB Colour and your picture should now be in colour with all the correct red and blue information.
10. If you’ve done things correctly, then all you need is to save it and view it with the glasses.
11. If however, your red and blue images are too far apart in the final image, you can use the Move tool and nudge the Red channel using the arrow keys so that the red and blue images are not spaced too far apart from each other.
12. Also, when taking pictures, try not to have any large red or blue areas in the picture, otherwise they will look funny when you convert them.
13. In fact, if you want the best effect, you might want to turn the picture into black and white images first.
14. To do this, click on Image/Adjustments/Desaturate — this turns the images into black and white images (but with the colour information still intact) and then work on the images like before.

White hot

Day two of shooting habanero chillies -- I was fooling around with different-coloured backgrounds to contrast with the habaneros when I hit upon the idea of converting the colourful picture into a black-and-white one instead. The reason the habaneros here look much whiter than the background is because I applied the equivalent of a red filter in the conversion process. Traditional B+W photographers will be familiar with the use of blue, orange and red filters -- originally used to darken skies in relation to the rest of the scene (red generally filters out the blue in the sky, making it darker compared with the foreground) I used it here to lighten the red chillies and make the (originally) blue plate dark for a more striking image. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Chilli red

You don't have to go on photo excursions to shoot something interesting -- when I have nothing in particular to shoot, I whip out the old macro lens and challenge myself by looking for stuff around the house. You may think these are bright red capsicums, but actually these are habenero chillies which are only about the size of a marble. Habaneros are the third hottest chillies in the world, coming in at between 100,000 - 350,000 Scoville units and MUCH hotter than anything we have in Malaysia or Thailand. If you cut and then handle them with your bare hands, the heat from these chillies can burn for a few days! I shot quite a few of these chillies using wireless flash, carefully framing them each time so that I got a balance and enough depth-of-field (this was shot with an aperture of F/32!). I put the chillies in their natural setting -- at the bottom of my granite pestle and mortar! :) Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Looking up

When shooting photos of dogs, it's always important to focus on the eyes -- which isn't as easy as it sounds, since the camera's autofocus point is usually centrally-located and will most likely focus on the dog's nose in the centre of the frame. Modern cameras usually have multiple focus points which allow you to select an off-centre autofocus point, but even if you don't you can use the focus-lock feature. Focus lock is a feature on all cameras (whether digital or film compact cameras, SLR or DSLR) -- first, frame your shot so that the focussing point is over the dog's eye, then lightly press the shutter halfway to focus (all cameras have a so-called half-press for focussing and metering) and WITHOUT letting go of the half-press, recompose your shot and fully depress the shutter button to snap the picture. While my camera has 11 autofocus points, I generally only use the centre one and utilise focus lock then recompose and shoot. Yes, I'm very old school in this respect, since I come from the old days of manual focus and split prism focussing screens (here's a modern example). Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Ready to eat

Another shot of BB. She usually looks really cute with her ears back but it's quite difficult to get her to do it when you're pointing a camera at her. The only way is to just keep pointing the camera at her till she gets bored then shoot. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Fluffy snout

Another shot of BB. I think the secret of taking pictures of pets is to really get down to their level to shoot. It makes the whole portrait more intimate and engaging, I think, than a top-down look. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Greedy boy

This is DD, the son of BB, the result of an unplanned pregnancy one Chinese New Year. DD was born two years ago on April 1, which I suppose makes him an April's fool! haha. Strangely enough, DD was the only puppy to be born -- normally dogs tend to give birth to a litter of 3-5 puppies. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

The Curse of Fu Manchu

Some people who know me have commented that they don't see enough of my dogs on this photoblog, so here goes -- this week will entirely be devoted to photos of my two dogs, BB and DD (yes they have silly names). This is BB, who is some kind of terrier mix -- she appeared at my doorstep one day three years ago on a rainy day and has stayed here ever since. Shot using bounce flash with the SB-600 flashgun. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Eyes to the sky

Well nothing to say about this shot really, except that I had to wait for a while before there wasn't anyone in the shot, which isn't easy when you consider that there were hundreds of people at this temple during Wesak Day celebrations. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Objects at rest

This cute white dog was happily sleeping, oblivious to the noise and bustle going on at the Thai Buddhist temple on Wesak Day. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Tiger umbrella

SC pointed this little girl and her father out to me and I only just had time to bring up the camera to my eye and take two shots before they walked away and into the crowd. I just thought this umbrella was incredibly cute. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Shoes

Though I go to the same Thai Buddhist temple every year to eat and take photos of the Wesak Day celebrations, I always try to set myself a challenge not to shoot the same shots. So I try to focus on other things I hadn't shot before the previous years. Revisiting the temple year after year is also a great exercise in trying to see things from a different perspective -- the temple and the setting is almost the same every year, but if you look carefully, you can shoot something different. Watch out for next year's shots! Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Mind if I smoke?

They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Well, this is just what I did -- there was a major blackout in my area last night, plunging the neighborhood into near-total darkness. So taking my camera, a few candles and some torchlights, I proceeded to shoot this cute incense burner. Illumination is from the candles and the LED torchlights only, and no flashes were used. By the way the title is from a comedy I saw years back (could be the Muppet Show or Airplane) -- a lady walks into a bar and asks a gentlemen, "Mind if I smoke?" after which she proceeds to exude smoke from her entire body. LOL! I always thought that was hilarious and that's what this incense burner reminds me of. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

NB: Ah yes, thanks to my boss, the movie was The Addams Family (1991)

Smoke

Sometimes a seemingly difficult shot is actually pretty easy to do with the most basic of tools. These smoke photos were actually shot with my camera set on automatic and locked onto a tripod, and the lighting was provided by two LED torches placed strategically to illuminate the smoke. That's all there was to it. It's of course a hit-and-miss affair shooting smoke -- I shot 20 or 30 shots before I got two that I really liked. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Subway rush

Amazingly I never actually experienced the major subway rush like I see in some documentaries of Japan, even when I had to take the train at an unearthly hour before sunrise on a working day in Tokyo. This particular one was only really crowded at the escalators. I really liked the movement here and it was my intention to have a whole bunch of people streaming into a single blur. However, what would have made the shot better is if the people at the bottom of the escalator were in sharp focus -- however, this wasn't an option for me, since I was also on the escalator going down. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Ueno blossoms

Ueno Park in Tokyo is probably where you wanna go at the end of March and beginning of April if you're looking for the Sakura blossom experience -- at this time, the trees are almost completely covered in flowers and looks pretty impressive. I took a lot of photos at Ueno, but the problem is that I'm rather short and there were a LOT of people there, so try as I might I just couldn't get the shot I really wanted -- a photo of the people walking with the flowers as a backdrop. Most photos came out with people blocking my view of the flowers. :-( Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

More sakura

Taken near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo towards the evening and another attempt at trying to capture the sakura blossoms. Nothing special about this shot really. haha. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Un-Magic Kingdom, Tokyo

Okay, every time I end up in a Disneyland in some country (so far Hong Kong and now Japan) I end up disappointed -- Hong Kong Disneyland was woefully small and Tokyo Disneyland was big enough but the crowds were terrible. Lines were so long that you'd be lucky if you get two rides if you hung around the place the entire day. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Tulips

Since getting a nice big widescreen LCD monitor (the Dell 2407WFP) I sometimes shoot photos with the intention of turning them into widescreen wallpapers. These tulips were in a garden near the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Mirror

A photo of girls looking at a photo of themselves! This was shot at Tokyo Disneyland -- by the way DON'T go to Tokyo Disneyland during the Japanese school holidays -- the lines are so long people often had to wait for 3 hours for a 3minute ride, or 1 hour for a sandwich! Me, I took one look at the lines and didn't bother -- I just sat around enjoying the weather and shooting pictures of people! Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Balloon lady

I saw this balloon lady in Tokyo Disneyland and immediately realised the photographic potential. I whipped out my 12-24mm wideangle and quickly shot off a couple of frames and this was the result. Shootng from a low angle upwards made the whole shot more dramatic. Possibly the best photo that I took on my Japan trip. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Ferris Wheel

This is a photo of the Ferris Wheel near the Tokyo Dome where I stayed. Shot handheld, this required me to bump up the ISO on my camera (ISO 800 I believe) and be as steady holding the camera as possible -- normally, I'd try to prop the camera on something or brace myself against a wall, but this time there was nothing like that.


Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Falling chutes

Right behind the Tokyo Dome Hotel where I stayed, there was a pretty interesting theme park, and one night I came out to shoot this ride -- a free-falling parachute thingie where you get hoisted up high then let go. Shooting this was quite challenging as I had no tripod at the time and had to prop myself on a convenient rubbish bin and rely on a high ISO setting of 640 to get reasonably sharp results. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Bird in a tree

The cherry blossoms were really in full bloom at Asakusa temple and I tried in several photos to take a picture of that but somehow they all weren't interesting enough. This is the best I could come up with. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Bizarre bazaar

This colorful entrance to this street bazaar in Ueno really caught my eye and I did a quick snapshot of it. The one problem with shots like this is to make sure that the horizon is straight -- it's often difficult even for seasoned photographers to always keep the horizon level. I used to look at the overlay grid pattern in my Nikon D200, but find that not always to be reliable, so now I just use the Force and listen for Obi-Wan's voice. :D Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Bells

I'm not sure what these are, but to me, they look like a stack of bells. Taken at the entrance of Asakusa Temple. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Crossing the bridge

I know, I know - yes I do shoot using the so-called "dutch angle" technique a lot, but believe me, I tried shooting this bridge from quite a few angles and this framing somehow still worked the best. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Waiting for lunch

A similar idea to "Taking a break" below, but this time utilising the full frame of my camera, with no cropping. These people were waiting outside this quaint traditional style restaurant a stone's throw away from Ueno Park in Tokyo. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mmG

Knocking on heaven's door

I loved the pattern and glow from this ancient doorway into Asakusa Temple in Tokyo, and I had an idea in my head at the time at how I wanted to shoot this. I waited for quite a while for a variety of people to pass by, and shot, hoping for something interesting to happen. Just as my hands were starting to shake from the sheer length of time holding up the camera, this boy passed by and tested the knocker on the door. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Taking a break

This is in fact a fake panorama -- I just chopped off the top half of this image to make it, as opposed to joining a number of shots together. However, I had intended to do this when I took the picture -- when I framed this in-camera, I realised that it had potential as a nice panorama shot but the 3:2 aspect ratio of my camera means that I would get too much sky and top, which would have spoiled the framing. In light of this, I just took the picture, making sure that it was as level as possible, then cropped off the top half that I didn't want. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G

Blowing smoke

This is (obviously) a giant incense holder near the entrance of Asakusa Temple in Tokyo. People who pass by attempt to purify themselves by fanning incense smoke their way. This shot was taken with the camera held above my head -- this was the first shot I took and the most succesful I think. At first I was pretty irritated by the boy in front with the camera, but in the end I think it adds a certain something to the shot! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm

Japanorama

The Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) are nearly in full bloom at the end of March and beginning of April in Tokyo, Japan. Some interesting facts: there are 305 different varieties of ornamental sakura trees in Japan and they are different from the fruit-bearing cherry trees. This white variety is called Somei Yoshino and is the most popular variety in Japan. This shot is a joiner made up of about 3 images I shot specifically to turn into this panorama. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

NB: Changed the title of this post as suggested by Chris Chong

Counting crows

This stark image of two crows just fascinated me and I spent quite a number of frames shooting them at Asakusa Temple in Tokyo. After a number of shots, this was my favourite, though I think there still might be something I could have done to have a picture with more impact. This image is only slightly cropped top and right to make the framing tighter. Otherwise the colours are as they appeared. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G