Black and White Photo Challenge

Day #1

Walking On By

I have been nominated by Jeff Foto to post a B&W photo for 5 days and to nominate a different person to do so for the next 5 days.

So on Day 1 I nominate Arron Teo to take up this photo challenge where he will post one B&W photo each day for the next 5 days. Over to you, Arron!

Photo info:
I was trying flashlight street photography in Little India. Well not really Bruce Gilden's shooting style which can be intrusive. OK I saw this old man with white beard walking on by. I couldn't resist to take photo of him but I took just one single shot with my Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm @ 35mm (52mm) with SC29 sync cable connected to a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight, fired at 1/4 power. Black and white conversion in Photoshop with those usual Dodge and Burn darkroom techniques to enhance the photo.

It was fun shooting flashlight in the street and perhaps some day I should really try shooting like Bruce Gilden but in a different way or approach.

Black and White Photo Challenge

This morning I received a nomination call from a friend on Facebook for a 5-day Black and White Photo Challenge i.e. I will take and post one black and white photo per day for 5 days consecutively. I also get to nominate a different person each day to this photo challenge. How interesting!

I'm taking up this challenge starting tomorrow and I will post the photos here and on Facebook. So do come back here to check out my photos. Cheers!

Photo Printing with Canon SELPHY!

Canon Selphy C910

Last week I went online shopping at Qoo10.sg for this portable printer Canon Selphy C910 bundled with 2 packs of 4' x 6' size (100mm x 148mm) photo paper, all for just under SGD$235. Good bargain right? Yes indeed it was. The retail price for the printer is SGD$179. Each pack of photo paper costs SGD$42.90, two packs cost SGD$85.80. Total cost is SGD$264.80. I saved about 30 bucks!

This afternoon I had a wonderful time printing some of my favorite street photos. Well, I did a few rounds of test printing where some slight adjustments on Photoshop for more contrast and brightness. Below are the black and white prints I made.

Photo printing is part of the creative process in photography. It's the final product which photographer is able to judge and evaluate how good their photography and/or Photoshop skills are. These prints do not have to be perfect in tonalities but truly serve as visual reference for editing and layout, in preparation for a photo book.

Talking about making a photo book, I am planning to do so for my street photographs as well as for my night photography. I believe both projects will take up lots of my time and require my full commitment and concentration. Photo editing is a skill which curating, editing and sequencing photographs to better communicate the photographer's project intentions and narratives, or as a mean to refine their personal photographic voices.

It's a skill that can be learnt but self-editing is a great challenge for me with which I have yet to learn and develop. With that said, I need a huge body of work in order to begin. Approximately a range of 30 - 50 photographs or even more. Only when editing work is completed, should I consider seeking the right vendor to print and make them into photo books. In turn, these photo books serve as my personal portfolio which I can present to book publishers or gallery curators. Well, I wouldn't take any huge steps for the time being, but small steps instead for steady progression.

Until then, I would carry on doing more street photography with this photo book project in mind. Thank you for reading. I hope you have your own photo book project too or may be considering doing one for yourself. It'd be great if you already have one or more to share with our readers here. Just leave your comments below with links to your work or website. Cheers!

Street Photo - Inversion

Inversion

Water reflections are pretty common in street photography and to take really good and interesting shots is a great challenge for most street photographers. It's all boiled down to the photographer's perspective, composition, and patience for the right subject to appear at the right time at the right spot. In addition, creativity plays an important part too. Instead of showing the upright image, inverting the photo can present a whole new perception with a little surrealism.

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Street Photo - Shadow Walker

Shadow Walker

Vivitar PN2011 on Kodak Portra 400. black and white conversion in Photoshop without crop.

Pano-Street Photo: I WAS HERE

Click on image to enlarge.

I WAS HERE. Or rather I was there at the Singapore Art Museum in 2006 when I took this panorama shot using a vintage Russian made swing-lens panorama camera, Horizon 202 - the predecessor to my modern Horizon Perfekt. I do not own the Horizon 202 which belongs to a friend who is kind enough to let me played with it.

Read more after the jump.

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Street Photo - Sidewalk

Sidewalk

I was taking shelter at this location when it was raining. After some time, it drizzled and many folks walked past along this sidewalk or pavement with umbrellas. I took many shots of them and after some editing, I find this particular shot more outstanding than the rest.

Look closely and carefully for the shape of the umbrella in comparison with the curved white painted arrow on the road. That's it! Just these two simple shapes that are not related but somehow, to me, makes this street photo a little more interesting than just merely a mundane shot. Yes it's subtle. That's how I tried to connect them together.

Photo info:

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Finding Vivian Maier At A Design Film Festival 2014

Last week I got the chance to watch the documentary film Finding Vivian Maier at the local A Design Film Festival 2014. ADFF was conceived in 2010 as a film festival dedicated to architecture, fashion, photography, street art, motion graphics, technology and the subcultures of design.

More after the jump.

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Street Photo - Undercover

Undercover

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - In-grown

In-grown

After all these months of posting my street photographs in black and white, this week a color street photo is featured.

I came across this in-grown plant that grows right out of a concrete wall covered with algae. It must have been there for many years as its leaves are richly green and part of its roots is growing outwards hanging by the wall. It shows the power of Mother Nature. Look at how tough this plant is and they are capable of growing out from any surface of the Earth.

I approached this plant with a fine-art style of shooting and by showing the plant and the so-called decayed wall and surface textures, and a small patch of grasses, I want to show the living condition that supports its growth as well as a sense of scale.

Street photography doesn't necessarily involves human subjects, architectural buildings a.k.a. concrete jungle, still found objects, etc etc. It involves landscape as well. As a usual practice, I converted this color image into black and white with added warm tone. In some sense, warm toned images have this 3-dimensional effect on them. It works well on this image too.

In-grown (warm toned)

Samsung S3 on default mode except WB set to Daylight. All post-production processed in Snapseed.

Before I made the above image, I visited this place at night a day before and made a few exposures with my Nikon D70s. Below is the edited one.

In-grown (at night)
Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm @ 24mm f/3.5 1/2 sec E.V. +5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Center-weigh Metering.

This shot was exposed for half a second handheld, hence it looks slightly blur which has this soft painting effect but flat without shadows. I would have mounted my camera on a tripod and do some light-paintings but it's best to make the shot under natural ambiance lighting. Personally I prefer the warm toned version shown above. However the main purpose of showing these images is to explore with different lighting condition at different time of the day and see which works well.

Street Photo - Wonderful Childhood

Wonderful Childhood

A mother and her child are seen here in this street photo, walking down the stairs. I first noticed the little kid's printed T-shirts followed by that robot toy he was holding. I don't see many kids these days holding their favorite toys while,they are outdoors, not to mention playing with them. I can say this was a rare scenery. Look at their hands. The mother was holding her child's hand so tightly as they walked down the steep stairs. I guess the kid is about 8 or 9 years old. Or even 10. I'm sure he can walk down the stairs all by himself, couldn't he? It goes to show and proves how much the child's mother loves her child and pampers him with toys.

I was standing right at the foot of the stairs when I saw them walking down. As my camera has had set accordingly and pre-focused, I quickly turned towards them and took the shot. By then they were quite close to me. One moment, one shot and I nailed it down. Lucky shot? Yes it was.

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.