Field Trip

So we went on a field trip to SIPF , the theme being human. It was a welcome break from the usual classroom activities and we heading to 2902 gallery in Old School ( how cool is that ) for the exhibition.

The basement floor exhibits were kinda boring to be honest, the only interesting exhibit was the graveyard one where there was a series of fading photographs of tombstones. It nearly inspired me to do a conceptual series on "death in Singapore" where I would take photos of all death related stuff in Singapore like caskets/tombstones/funerals but it was too morbid and i'm a happy kind of guy.

The good stuff was all at the second floor. There was a series of photographs with japanese men wearing all white and doing kooky stuff. I guess the unconventional-ism of the photos attracted me, it made me think of what the scenario was rather than just staring at the photo, then at the mini brief, then back and going "Orh..." . For instance, there was one photo where the japanese dude dressed as a fly and sat inside the urinal of a toilet. I immediately got the message so I turned to Carol and asked whether she knew what was going on. After getting a bewildered look, I explained to her that certain toilets have a fly image stuck on the bottom of the urinal, sort of an aiming target for guys to concentrate on while they pee. In all fairness, Carol probably wouldnt have known this fact unless there's more than meets the eye, but I guess I prefer pictures that are weird and wacky.

Another series that caught my eye was the one on ancient indian martial arts. From afar, I noticed a picture depicting this VERY black dude with another picture of many black dudes congregating in a small room. First impression was slaves, but upon closer inspection, it was an ancient form of martial arts where the fighters smear themselves with mud and wrestle. The entire atmosphere and the intensity in their eyes, I can relate to that since I have learnt judo and taekwondo during my earlier years. Sports photography always interests me because there is constant motion and you can feel the intensity , the love for the sport that is buring forth from all the players. Truely a snapshot of emotions.

Concept

While I was rummaging through my drawer, I discovered a stack of notes hidden away at one corner. It consisted of currency I had collected during my travels so far, ranging from USD to HKD and VND. So I got me thinking about all the great times I spent abroad. Even the fortune teller once told me I am a man who will live far away from my home ( which doesnt make much sense because where i live is my home -.- ) but I guess he was trying to say I will migrate or something. In any case, I have a love for traveling and these currencies are small keepsakes that I bring back from my travels. I dont buy a lot of souvenirs or take much photos compared to others so seeing the money really jogged my memory of the past. So I would like to dedicate this assignment to the power of money, counting my blessings that I am able to travel in the first place and the show the beauty of money.

I wanted to make it low key because as some say "Money is the root of all evil" but upon review, decided to portray it in high key because I like the quote "Lack of money is the root of all evil" better :D

The Moment

This picture was taken near some Geylang shophouses in the early morning. I was observing this bunch of cats lazing around when one of them decided to give a good stretch. The way the body simply extended was amazing but I missed the first stretch. So I waited around for a while and true enough, another good stretch was coming and thats it.

Smile

Up to some monkey business :D So there I was at MacRitchie reservoir trying to get some nice shits and I spotted monkeys running around. I heard they are usually very aggressive but this troop was kind of just chilling and doing their own thing. There was this guy feeding peanuts ( YES ITS WRONG!!! ) and a baby monkey was roaming around him. Camera on alert, wait a while, boom, its 2 monkeys on a date ><

Appropriation part 2

Behold, Atlas! I got this picture online, its the statue of Atlas holding up the world outside Rockefeller Building in NYC. My initial concept was man being burdened with the nonsense of today, such as poverty/AIDS/war etc. The image of Atlas was quite appropriate, since he's carrying the entire world on his shoulders for crying out loud. Then I decided to change it to a grenade, to show the danger of such issues and I added in all the pressing issues of the modern world as red words on the grenade.

The main critique was the words are hard to see. I agree, however I had already merged all the layers together ( noob photoshop-er spotted ) so I couldnt enhance the words to make them really stand out. Tweaked the contrast and added a flaming sky to give it an dark epic feeling.

In Class Exercise ( Bathtub )

We got the word Bathtub and we had to come up with some images to provoke feelings ... The more provocative the better, shock and awe is the key! So we grouped into teams and everybody had a go at bringing their point across, very unproductive because each person had their own creative idea and it was hard to come to a consensus ... So we just appointed 2 people with good photoshop skills and let them take over :D

Erm knives sticking out of the bathtub, the concept is a bathtub is a place of comfort, so we're showing the reverse of pain, suffering, get mutilated while taking a bath. Boiling water to boot, but the steam is hard to create in 5 mins so it kinda looks like snow :D I would have added a few bloodstains here and there in lieu with the slasher flicks that always do their murdering in the bathtub lol

Concept of a bathtub uses so much water to satisfy the owner that it becomes very eco-unfriendly, so theres a drought around it while the bathtub inside is all sunshine and good times. Concept wise it is realistic and feasible, but not very provocative in the end. Not enough sex/blood/violence ><

In Class Exercise ( Lighting )

Couple of in class photos of lighting that we are suppose to explore around with. Lighting to the back/sides/top , playing around with white balance and reflectors, everybody clamoring around to take photos of the 1 aspiring model of our class :D

Appropriation??

So theres this assignment where we're suppose to ripoff other people's work and edit it to suit our own taste ... This reminded me of a previous assignment I did before and I did not submit it for my final portfolio because of copyright issues ... Perfect chance to blow off the dust!

I'm a serious World Of Warcraft junkie ( meaning when Cataclysm comes I'll wet my pants ) so I embarked on a mini project to make a poster for WoW ...

Made entirely from actual game screenshots, which explains the horrible cropping lol ... It's a bit outdated since this is expansion 2 and we're already near the tail end of expansion 3 but Burning Crusade was where I spiraled into the realm of WoW addiction so this kind of pays homage to it :D

This design had been stuck in my brain for quite some time, finally I got the time to mess around with it. "Save Azeroth" has the familiar in-game font that's horrible to read on your mail. Huge Horde logo on the right to show my faction of choice. Middle is the Dark Portal, which is central to the storyline plus it looks kickass. I wanted to give it an invasion look , so I got many different characters in a nice semi circle shape at the bottom , all eyes on the poor nightelf in the centre. Nightelf = Alliance = Not Horde = In Trouble.

It's a bit bottom heavy given the mashup of colourful characters but I think I achieved the "greatness of numbers" look. You know, when you watch Lord of the Rings and see 1000000000 soldiers on screen and go "OMFG..." ? Smaller scale here but same effect. The colour is pretty contrasting , overall colour combination came out well. Could use a bigger border though ...

For the Horde!

Low Key

Its a demon coming at you! Actually its just Charizard , remember Pokemon? The original toy figure is looking up to the sky ( most probably to breath fire ) so I stuck the figure on a box and slanted it towards my camera ... My bro held torchlights around it to create lighting.

Not really sure what I was trying to do here, I guess I just wanted to take a nice dark photo using a Gundam model ... I love the look of the weapon though :D I think I was trying to get the feel of a frontal portrait with half of the Gundam in the darkness but the shadows casted by the weapon was a hindrance, so I shifted to the side.

High Key

Bought this pair of unique and eye catching ear studs from USA not long ago, brought me quite a lot of luck when gambling with my fellow Work And Travel mates so I figured it would make a nice high key subject ... Not sure why the one behind turned out yellowish because its suppose to be out of focus

Zoom shot

So the story goes, I was taking the MTR in Hong Kong and trying out some zoom shots at random objects and my pair of Sanuks was the best object around to hone my technique ... Lo' and behold, a passenger suddenly stood right in front of me, his back turned ... Opportunity knocks but once ...

FREAKING COOL LA!

Close Up

Different perspectives of my favourite item in the house ... the dumbbell! Tried to find an obscure angle to mask its identity, but the 2 plates of weights are so freaking obvious that I gave up lol

Motion Blur

Speeding trams you find in Hong Kong, I didnt have a tripod with me at that time so the background is slightly blur but the lights give it a nice speeding effect ( even though they were moving at normal pace )

Deep Depth o Field

Got a lot of things to upload, so ill take it step by step ... First off, assignment 2 Deep Depth of Field.

Both taken when I went to Hong Kong during the recess week, scenery of The Peak ... Subject is freaking far away, so I think it qualifies as deep depth of field :D

Reminders

So to remind myself, I still have deep DOF, close up and zoom shot to finish up . Plus the concept photo ugh ...

Assignment 2 : The Journey

Here's a cool story to share. Before venturing out, I took a few test shots at my house garden and all of the shots came out underexposed. It was weird, because I tested all the possible combinations of aperture/shutter speed/ISO but still it was super dark even though the sun was beating down like mad. After fiddling around for a while, I was ready to give up but then I had an epiphany ... I took off my transition lenses and the world was bright again. Damn it.

2 night shots. Taken at a basketball court, foreground and background photos for shallow depth of field. Used a fixed 35mm lens so I was lying down everywhere on the court trying to get a decent field of vision. I'm pretty sure I was a public nuisance because a bunch of kids were waiting for me to get the hell off the court lol ... Foreground basketball, background basketball hoop, the word RESPECT is what the game is all about.

Standard issue shots of sky + flowers. Everybody seems to start off by taking shots of flowers haha ... My grandma was pestering me to take shots of this yellow flower that just bloomed so I obliged.

The sky doesnt look that spectacular in this shot, but theres a stone lion near the flower that seems to be pointing to the sky ... wtf?

After this I took a long walk into the unknown. Okay actually I was walking to buy bubble tea, but I took the opportunity to hone my photography skills. The next shot is the perspective shot I believe, the underground tunnel that links Serangoon Garden to Ang Mo Kio ( goes below expressway ). Took 2 shots from different distances to get a change of brightness, dont ask me how.

Along the way, I practiced my panning skills on the cars crawling by. Man were they slow, so the effect was not as good as I wanted. But I got the gist of the technique, just need faster objects now ... On a side note, the taxis were out in full force that time ...

I dropped by Cheng San Community Centre and to my relief a bunch of secondary school kids were playing basketball. Sec school = young = energy, so I expected to get some nice freeze shots. Definitely the most fun part of my day, trying to capture that split moment when someone makes a spectacular move ( even if they dont score ). Of course having solo players made it all that easier cause you know they wont pass :D

LAYUP! Nice posture, but he flubbed it ...

For the next series of photos, we focus on A ( guy in grey ) and his arch nemesis B ( guy in blue ). A drives to his right, closely guarded by B who is hidden behind teammate yellow dude. Its a double team, he has no-where to go, so he stops his dribble and ...... attempts a contested shot. When the double team comes, somebody is open, so pass the rock man!

A with the layup, tightly contested but he still takes it on. Meanwhile teammate shirtless dude is taking a stroll down the park, open for the easy layup. Good defense btw.

A cuts into the teeth of the defense with a fancy up and under move, only that nobody is really guarding him ... Nice looking layup though ...

Finally someone makes a pass!

Extension for the rebound by B and he secures it with both hands! I have no idea what the dude in white trousers is screaming at, maybe he was having a cramp.

The battle for the rebound B vs A . I was on the lookout for a good tussle for the rebound and this was the closest I could get. A few more bodies crashing in would be nicer.

Man I feel like playing basketball now ...

After this I waited for the MRT to come by and tried to do a few motion shots. Sadly, I could not get the optimum exposure and every photo was overexposed. The best I could do was 1/10 for shutter speed and f22 for aperture which resulted in the picture below. Any slower shutter speed made it over exposed which was confounding. Have to do more research on that ...

With that, my day of photography came to an end. This didnt turn out to be my day in the end, because the Q for bubble tea was freaking long and I had to settle for MoS Burger milk tea instead -.- ... Damn it!