Sea life

This shot was taken on a recent squid jigging trip SC and I took in the state of Terengganu. The squid weren't biting much, so I took the opportunity to concentrate on photography instead. Since I was on a fishing trip, I didn't bother to take my bulky Nikon D200 with me -- instead I had a Panasonic Lumix FS-5 compact digicam to shoot with. The camera actually turned in pretty good results, although I was quite limited when it came to night shots and such. Anyway, for this shot, I held the camera down on part of the boat and shot a few till I was sure I got a sharp enough shot. Panasonic Lumix FS-5

Corsage

Chris' wedding again -- this time early in the morning as the family's preparing for the event. I took several shots like this with this effect in mind -- achieved by desaturating the background then removing the desaturated effect selectively. Since this isn't a posed shot at all, I had to work quickly to frame, and even then I had to crop slightly to the left of the frame to get what I wanted. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6

Father and daughter

Even at weddings, I'm always on the lookout for an interesting photo with some real human interest. I spotted this father and his baby at Chris' wedding and I knew I had something, IF only I could get a sharp shot, which was not as easy as it sounds, because of the dim lighting and the constantly moving child. Out of the 4 or 5 shots, this was the most successful -- I cropped it a little and converted it to B+W to remove the distracting colour in the background. Nikon D200, AF-S VR Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6.

Walking the line

Kids always have the most fun, no matter what the occasion or where it is. :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Burning Money

Like Wesak Day at the Thai temple, Cheng Beng at the cemetary in Sepang seems to be one of my regular annual photo excursions. This year, this caught my eye -- it's a life size effigy of a Honda motorcycle! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Big man, small helmet

I think the title says it all. I found this Japanese tourist in Langkawi quite amusing -- he's wearing a loaner helmet that seems to be two sizes too small. Shot at 200mm out of the window of a bus. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Umbrella girl

This was taken on a recent trip to Langkawi Island while on assignment to test a couple of Panasonic cameras. This shot is a pretty classic type of framing, though perhaps I should have framed the woman a little more to the left. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Deck chairs

A shot of deck chairs at the Andaman Resort on Langkawi Island. This was taken with the help of the wonderful Gorillapod tripod, with its legs wrapped around a railing. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Waterworld!

Yes, during an 8-hour stopover in Los Angeles, I had time to visit Universal Studios, and boy was it a lot of fun -- I didn't have time to see everything but I got to watch the Terminator 2: 3D, Shrek 4D and Backdraft shows as well as the Jurassic Park and the Mummy rides as well as this one, the Waterworld show, which only happens twice a day. As you'll see from the next few photos, this show is one of the most interesting live-action shows I've ever seen. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Waterworld denizen

This guy at the Waterworld show in Universal Studio LA is quite funny -- his job, before the show begins, is to douse the audience with buckets of water. No joke! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Making a turn

You know, I was really sitting pretty far away from the action but thanks to the 18-200mm VR I had, I managed to really fill the frame with all the action. This panned shot is not super-sharp, but it's actually not too bad considering that it's darned far away and the action was so fast. Sometimes, I spend so much time concentrating on the shot I actually don't get to watch the show much! hahaha. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Flying high

This is not a well-framed shot in my book but I just had to post this because it's absolutely the highlight of the Waterworld show in Universal Studios LA. What you're looking at is a full-sized model of a plane that's being LAUNCHED off a ramp and free-flying towards the audience! Amazingly the plane will land in the water just about 15feet short of the audience. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Jumping the gun

Some of the stunts at the Waterworld show in Universal Studios LA are pretty amazing -- just check out the water scooter jump and how it's narrowly missing the stuntman on the right! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6VR

The end of Waterworld

The whole Wateworld show at Universal Studios LA ends with a bang, and lots of pyrotechnics. Just a note here about shooting these kinds of photos -- I know some people believe you can only shoot action by using a super-high burst mode but let me tell you, I've never used the continuous shooting mode on my camera. Instead I rely on being able to anticipate when the "moment" is going to be. Contrary to popular belief, I find this method actually produces more keepers than if I used the 5frames-per-second my camera is capable of. BTW click on the photo to see the larger version to fully appreciate the beauty of the fireworks! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Not Venice

This isn't Venice of course but The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Nikon D200. AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Go to the light!

A shot of the interior of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Life (Wall), flashing before my eyes

I don't usually post work related photos here, but this one I took at CES2008 was nice enough to post here. Yes I was recently in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show and what you're looking at here is Panasonic's phenomenal Life Wall display, which is a HUGE (you're only looking at perhaps 1/5th of the wall here) interactive wall-to-wall display that not only changes your wallpaper, but allows you to interact with the display with gestures and make video calls, surf the Net, etc. The Life Wall is actually just a study in modern electronics, and you're not likely to see it in your home anytime soon. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Lovers in the fire

Every hotel in Las Vegas seems to have some kind of show or other. This one is in front of the Mirage Hotel and it's a volcano that erupts every hour or so. However, in taking this photo, (again with the help of the gorillapod) I realised that the flames coming out just happened to look like two lovers looking at each other. And guess what -- there's a Beatles Love poster in the back! Sometimes luck is on my side. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Fire in the hold!

Amazingly, this scene happens every few hours in front of the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas. The show starts of with two pirate ships -- one full of women and the other full of men -- meeting and then having a battle, with cannons and all. There's lots of singing and pyrotechnics and in about 20mins it's over and then starts again in a few hours (I believe at 7pm then 10pm). This shot was only possible with the help of the wonderful gorillapod, a tripod with bendy legs which I had wrapped around a railing! Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Fire in the hold II

This is what the ship looks like without the fire. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Ghosts of Mars

Obviously not the best photo I've ever taken, but I was just fascinated by the interplay of light on the canopy of this huge tent in Las Vegas -- not sure about the location, but this place has a whole bunch of factory outlet shops. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Beijing!

I recently visited Beijing on assignment covering China's preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It was a short trip and I only had one day off to visit the Forbidden City. This is one of the few shots of Beijing I have which is not of the Forbidden City -- captured while traveling on a bus. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Self-portrait

A reflection of me in one of the modern barriers in the Forbidden City. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Ross in the jungle

This is the editor of a tech magazine in Singapore, shot against the interesting mural at our hotel in Beijing, China. I just thought it looked pretty cool. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Seeing red

Apt title, don't you think? I'm always on the lookout for shots with contrasting colours when I walk around anywhere -- this was near the entrance to the Forbidden City. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

All along the watchtower

Apparently, this hill with the three pagodas was where Kublai Khan's palace once stood. The palace was demolished on orders from the Emperor after the Mongols were finally driven out of the Kingdom. These pagodas were built on top and overlooks the Forbidden City from the South. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Wall detail

Nothing much to say about this shot, except that I was incredibly anal about getting it properly centred in the shot. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3,5-5.6 VR

Roof guardians

A closeup of the ornamentation the roof of one of the many buildings in the Forbidden City in China. Apparently, the more guardians there are on the roof, the more important the building is. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Forbidden City Gates

This photo turned out very well, I thought -- I could have joined these shots together without the major distortion, but I think it looks more balanced this way -- architectural accuracy be damned! The major challenge with this shot is taking the series as fast as possible to avoid having duplicate humans here and there as they move from shot to shot. Amazingly, the new Adobe Photoshop CS3 photomerge is incredible at avoiding cutting humans up even in a complicated scene like this. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR

Red doors

Not the best shot ever taken by me, but again, this was an attempt to shoot the famous main doors of the Forbidden City in a different way from the conventional shots you see. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Forbidden City Panorama

Yes, what series of shots from me would be complete without a few panorama shots. This is the main courtyard for the Forbidden City and covers about a 180-degree field of view made up of about 4 shots. Like all my panoramas these days, the shots are just simply shot handheld -- the only thing to remember when shooting photos for panoramas is to meter the scene and then lock down the shutter and aperture to the same settings for each shot. Failing to do this will cause one or two shots to be brighter or darker than the others. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm VR

Pair of knockers

Yes, haha I am aware of the naughty connotations to the title. Most of the shots I have of the Forbidden City are closeup shots because there were just too many people in the way to take a nice wide shot, and again, I was consciously trying to shoot something a little different. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Stealing a yawn

Sometimes being able to recognise photographic potential in a situation is everything -- while this might seem like a grab shot, it actually wasn't -- I saw this lady standing framed like this and decided to wait for her to do something interesting and then take a shot. The trick is not to bring the camera up to your eye to shoot until you anticipate that something interesting is going to happen, otherwise the spontaneity of the shot is lost if the subject notices you. I actually waited and took 3-4 shots surreptitiously for quite a few minutes until I got this one. :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Chained lions

The challenge in a place like the Forbidden City in Beijing is always to shoot something different from the usual tourist snapshots. These lionheads are actually brass handles that adorn huge urns that are within the City's grounds. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Peering in

Another shot of the giant brass urns in the Forbidden City. I thought it was pretty interesting that this guy was absorbed in his telephone conversation yet found the time to satisfy his curiosity to peer into the mouth of the urn! :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Perhentian Panorama

The photos for this panoramic was shot years ago, but it wasn't until tonight that I decided to revisit some of my old shots and recreate this.

These shots were taken when I was still a greenhorn at creating panoramas, and due to the slight exposure differences and the major distortion from shot to shot, I was unable to make a satisfying panorama from the shots.

However, a few years on, I decided to retry again with Adobe Photoshop CS3's new automate panorama feature and amazingly it came out nearly perfect on the first try. I did tweak it slightly after that but this is almost exactly how it came out in Photoshop CS3. There's still a bit of exposure difference near the joints of the shots, but it's actually not bad at all.

This panorama is about a 180-degree field of view. Do click on it to really appreciate the shot in larger size. Nikon D70, AF Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6