Saying a prayer

Brigitte and I revisited this cemetery in Cheras to take some pictures and also to visit some of her relatives buried there. While I had been to shoot here before, I decided to try again and this time bring back photos that are different from what I had taken before. I don't think I have the previous photos on this blog, but I think I succeeded in the challenge I set myself, as the previous shots were more landscape while this series has more detail shots. Anyway a bit of info about taking this photo -- in this shot, what you have to concentrate on is not how the subject looks, but how the background appears.

Let me explain -- it's really important in a shot like this to have the background as UN-distracting as possible and one way to do this is to make sure it's as out of focus as your camera aperture will allow while keeping the subject sharp. Another way is also to look through the viewfinder and try different angles so whatever is left in the background is largely uniform, with little or no distracting objects visible. So here, I applied these two principles, using an aperture that would keep the subject sharp but the background blur, and also making sure that there were no other gravestones in the background to distract your eye from the subject.

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

Little Angel too

Another shot of a similar little angel. Sometimes getting in close and removing all other elements from a shot can get you a more interesting shot. Here, I thought the angel was particularly interesting, with its dark eyes. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Crosses

One way of making a shot interesting is to have repeated detail or repeated patterns. This shot again, is of a pretty mundane subject, but it's interesting only because there's a cross repeated in the background. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Little corner of heaven

Framing is always critical in shots like this. As I take photos I'm always trying to get interesting angles on pretty common images. Here I placed the angel on the far left, and had a bit of the gravestone showing on the right. This image was slightly cropped to tighten the composition further. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Serenity

I've been to this cemetary in Cheras before, but with a different camera (the Fujifilm S2 Pro I believe) and as always when I revisit a place, I try to take some different shots from before.

This time, my personal challenge was to take the details rather than the entire landscape, resulting in the series of photos you see here. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Hint of colour

You know I realise that there are wideangle people and there are telephoto people -- that is, people who tend to prefer wideangle lenses or people who tend to prefer long telephoto lenses. I'm firmly in the wideangle category and I usually have more shots at wideangle and medium telephoto focal lengths than at the full 200mm end of my Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm.

However, occasionally, I actually do find a chance to take a shot at 200mm on my lens, and this is one of them. The two people standing there are actually way up at the roof of a building and I was on the ground. I noticed how striking the image was with the lady in red against an almost completely monochromatic background of metal sheeting. Of the two shots I took, this one seemed to me had the best composition. It would have been better I suppose if the two people were looking towards the camera instead of away, but I couldn't very well shout and ask them to look my way! :)

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

Dom Panorama

As the few readers of this photoblog must have noticed by now, I'm always enamoured with doing panoramas of the places I've visited. I guess it all dates back to an article I read, when I was a teen, in Practical Photography about a so-called Hockney Joiner. For those not in the know, David Hockney is a famous British artist who also took photographs and created what is called a "Joiner" -- the thing about Hockney's joiners is that they were simply brilliant -- they didn't join properly and in fact were shot from different positions and focal lengths then joined together into a collage. The brilliant part is that even though they were put together in a seemingly haphazard fashion, they actually made sense as a whole. Very interesting!

Anyway, it was because of Hockney Joiners that I started taking photos in school and joining them up like this, although unfortunately, none of that work still survives today since it was all on film and prints and is now lost somewhere. As a result of this, I've had an interest in making joiners ever since.

While my shot of the Kohln Dom in Germany is far from being a Hockney Joiner, I really like the weird perspective this particular one gives me. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6VR

Having a nap

I thought this picture was pretty cute -- the baby seems to be extremely well rested! Anyway this shot was taken at the Dom in Cologne -- the father obligingly allowed me to take this photo. D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Cologne Bierhaus

On the day of our arrival in Cologne, we stopped by at various pubs for food and beer. Now I don't normally drink, but the beer in Germany is so good I really had to make an exception. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Ledge of lenses

I'm pretty happy with this shot I took at Photokina in Cologne, Germany -- it's perfectly framed and exposure was good and the focus was very sharp. This isn't such a big deal normally, until you consider that the photo was a grab shot in dim lighting conditions and I only had a split second to shoot off two frames of this lady before she walked away. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's practically an ad for Canon lenses. :) Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Leafy Symmetry

Sorry for the lack of updates -- I recently switched my main monitor from a regular LCD monitor to a HDTV and am still colour calibrating it and tweaking it properly for Photoshop and critical work.

Anyway, here's a shot I took only a few days ago -- this photo is almost a straight conversion from an NEF of my Neem tree sapling which I'm trying to grow. The reason for this shot is that I was struck by how symmetrical the leaves of this sapling were. The standard set up here for shots of this type -- I had a wireless SB600 flash behind a translucent Ikea breakfast-in-bed table and used my favourite 60mm Micro-Nikkor for the shot. The thing about macro is that you really have to control framing, focus and depth-of-field carefully --this shot is actually as framed in the camera, without any cropping at all. As for focussing and aperture, I shot a number of images at different apertures till I could get all the leaves at least mostly in focus. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Hong Kong!

I recently went on a working trip to Hong Kong to test a new range of Panasonic Lumix cameras, one of which is the latest version of the high-end panorama style compact digital, the LX series. The latest model, the LX3, is a really nice camera that has been vastly improved in many ways from its predecessor. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Keeping it together

One of the things that's been improved is apparently the dynamic range of the LX3 -- in this situation the camera still hasn't blown out the highlights even though there's quite a range of bright and dark here. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Down by the sea

This shot was taken with the B+W mode of the LX3. As usual, a bit of foreground interest to lead you in to the photo is important in a shot like this. Panasonic Lumix LX3

They Live!

It's pretty amazing the amount of live seafood you can find in Hong Kong --- from Abalone, to geoducks, mussels and all kinds of weird things besides, you can find it here. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Hong Kong abstract

This shot was achieved by rotating the camera as the exposure was taken. I tried a number of different methods in an effort to take as many different shots of a common view at Hong Kong's Victoria Peak. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Train and city

I managed to capture this shot mostly on automatic for the LX3. The only adjustment here is to crop off a stray arm on the right that was encroaching into the frame. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Shopping Mall

This shot was taken with the wideangle adapter for the LX3. Strangely enough even though it was past midnight at Victoria's Peak in Hong Kong, the place was still bustling with open shops and people. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Coils

Incense coils at one of the temples I visited in Hong Kong. Panasonic Lumix LX3

Boat lady

This boat lady taking me to the restaurant has a lot of souveniers to peddle! Panasonic Lumix LX3

Casino Lisboa

Not to be confused with the Grand Lisboa below, the Casino Lisboa is yet another one of the many casinos in Macau. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Grand Lisboa entrance

The entrance of the Grand Lisboa casino and hotel in Macau. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Grand Lisboa 1

This is what the Grand Lisboa, one of the largest casinos in Macau, looks like from the front. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Grand Lisboa 2

This is a side view of one of the biggest casinos in Macau, the Grand Lisboa. The light was just perfect at this time of day -- at dusk with just a bit of light left in the sky. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200m f/3.5-5.6 VR

Poser

I just thought this group of people shooting photos of this cute scruffy dog was quite funny. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Checking out the display

No fancy title for this shot. Just a little girl checking out the display cabinet in the musuem near the St Paul's Cathedral facade. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Facade

The ruins of St Paul's Cathedral, the main tourist destination other than the casinos in Macau. The building was destroyed in a fire in 1835 so only the facade is left -- yes there is nothing behind the facade except the floor and a small musuem of religious relics. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Building a fort

My trip to Macau -- a quick stop at a beach and I found this kid playing on the black sand. Nikon D200. AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Orchids

My brother in Hong Kong has recently picked up my dad's hobby of keeping orchids. Anyway both my brother and I are a little competitive when it comes to our cameras so we challenged each other to shoot a good off-camera flash photo of his orchids. This is my entry. Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Ecstasy

Regular followers of this photoblog (yes, all 3 of you!) will probably have seen various versions of this shot. I actually like this kind of shot and I try to shoot one in every country I've been to. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Framing with fronds

Sometimes, having some foreground interest helps to frame a shot with a lot of sky. I think this shot works better than just a straight statue-against-the-sky shot. Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Streets of San Francisco 2

Again, shot while hanging off the side of the tram, this was taken with the camera at waist level. To get as close to the ground as possible, I didn't put the camera up to my eye (in any case, it was difficult to put it up to my eye since I was hanging on for dear life). Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR