Street Photo - Pongal Festival

Pongal Festival 2015

It's that time of the year for harvest and the local Indians are celebrating their Pongal Festival. Light decors were set up along the newly constructed Campbell Lane.

The rising hot sun shone its blazing light upon this street and I positioned myself where the green colored vase-shaped lamp blocked the sun, hence created such halo glow.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus • Flash Off • HDR Off • Post-processed in Snapseed.

Night Street Photo - Pre-Occupied

Pre-occupied

Today let's talk about night street photography. The above photograph was posted on my other night photography blog site and I thought it would be good to post it and many other night street photos here.

For night street photography, I walked and took photos just the way I do day time street photography but with many great challenges like low light ambience, focusing issue, etc. I've tried auto-focus and manual focus with different camera settings. There's no fixed settings for every street scenery. Just have to pre-adjust when the situation calls for.

Here's how I got the above night street photograph. I was taking some shots of the Clive Street coffee shop (in the background shown above) when this Indian gentleman came along and stood still right in front of me. He stood there for a few moments, looking at his cell phone and I took a few quick burst shots when suddenly he looked up, paused and turned to his left side. From the look of his eyes in this street photo, his mind seems to be pre-occupied. Soon after he walked away.

So I considered myself pretty lucky. Luck is quite important when doing street photography. This Indian gentleman didn't even bother whether I took his photos or not. I bet he didn't even notice me in the first place as the spot I was standing on was in low light condition and I was wearing black T-shirts. My camera was set to Manual Focus mode and I literally had hard time focusing on him. But in the end I managed to get it.

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/60sec. E.V. +5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Cropped and mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Street Photo - Locksmith at work

Locksmith at work

Last Saturday I decided to sign up for a new Home Fibre Broadband Plan as well as a Mobile Data Plan which I changed my Samsung S3 to Apple iPhone 6 Plus. The main reasons are that my former Home Bundle Broadband Plan has had long expired slightly over a year now and S3 has been giving me a lot of storage space problems. Certain apps are lagging due to lack of storage space because with every update on Android OS, Samsung embedded its own apps which are super duper lame and unnecessary and useless for my usage. Obviously I don't need those apps at all and they are taking up too much hard disk storage space which annoys me, even speaking about it. I couldn't even uninstall them selectively. Samsung should reconsider some flexibility to resolve such issue.

On the other hand, my new iPhone 6 Plus works great though it has its own pros and cons, but I wouldn't talk about it here because I'm not that kinda of tech gadget geeky guy. I'm just a simple street photographer blogging about my street photos. iPhone 6 Plus' camera and image resolution quality is awesome. With its new lens stabilizer feature, taking sharp images has never been easier. I truly impressed by it.

So during my lunch break today, I took the opportunity to take some street photos at the nearby hawker center. Well not many. Just one shot only.

I came across this locksmith stall and saw the locksmith was engrossed in his work. I switched my iP6+ to silence mode and activated the Camera and set to Noir mode, which I find this feature produces good contrasty tonalities. For post-process, my number one go-to app would be Snapseed which I have been using it since my Android days with Samsung S3. It's a free app downloadable for both Android and iOS Smartphones.

Another favorite go-to app would be Photoshop Touch which I had it on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet; pre-installed. After 3 years of usage, the tablet battery went bloated and it's way too expensive to repair which ridiculously cost more than SGD$600. Yes my Note 10.1 tablet died on me. So I was left without Photoshop Touch to post-process images. On iOS I have to purchase. I believe I will get it sooner or later, but meantime I want to try out some free photo editing apps first.

By far, I have downloaded and installed the following apps - Photoshop Express, SimplyB&W, Aviary Photo Editor and SimpleResize. For the above photo, I used Snapseed to enhance the contrast and ambience with some sharpening. No cropping as I composed it well on the spot.

Next I opened the photo in Aviary Photo Editor for watermark. Lastly, I down-sized the photo to 1200 pixels on the long side in SimpleResize and the photo resolution and quality are still good. Impressive.

By default, iPhone 6 & 6 Plus camera create a 3264 x 2448 pixels digital image with image size measured at 1151.47mm (W) x 863.6mm (H) resolution at 72 dpi (dots per inch). After resampled the image without altering the pixels size, the whole digital image is slightly smaller than a A4 size (297mm (W) x 210mm (H)) which is 276.35mm (W) x 207.26mm (H).

Basically sending the image to the photo lab to print on a 8R or Super 8R size (even slightly smaller than the resampled image) is not an issue at all. Now I am able to send my iPhone images to print postcard size photo paper on my Canon Selphy printer.

Apple iPhone 6 Plus on Noir mode. HDR mode off. Post in Snapseed. Watermarked in Aviary Photo Editor.

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 8 - Girl Amongst The Pigeons

Girl Amongst The Pigeons

This is the eighth and last street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

More pigeons are gathering outside Takashimaya Shopping Center. As children walk by, most playful ones would chase after the birds for pure innocence fun. Last year I had captured a shot that considered one of my best and favorite street photos, of a little happy girl chasing after a walking pigeon.

This year I managed to capture the above shot. Not the best nor favorite but just want to share this photo. And this marks the end of the Kodak Single Use Camera Series. I hope you have had enjoyed viewing and reading my photography blogs here. As we have ushered into 2015 and today is the first Sunday, I'd like to thank all my readers for your kind support and I eagerly looking forward to this new year with many more street photographs to be made as well as for my night photography. Likewise I wish you all the best in 2015 and remember - stay focused and keep shooting!

Next Sunday onward, I'll be showcasing my night street photographs I made in 2014. I hope you do come back here to view them from time to time. If you like my work and want to keep up with the latest updates, do subscribe to my blog site.

Happy 2015! Cheers!

GOODBYE 2014, HELLO 2015!

As we usher into the year 2015, let's make this new year a splashing colorful and exciting one to be remembered.

I hereby thank all my friend and blog readers for all your kind support. I wish you and your family in good health, peace and happiness in 2015. Cheers!

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 7 - Lovers

Lovers

This is the seventh street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

Well this is not the classic romantic kissing street shot, but I've always wanted to take it. And now I got it, time to move on. Of course by chance when I come across another one I would still shoot candidly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

That time of the year has arrived! I've designed this eCard and sincerely sending out to all my friends, blog readers, supporters and the people I know - wishing all a happy holidays and a great new year to come! Cheers!

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 6 - "I Am Pissed!"

I Am Pissed

This is the sixth street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

Eminent Plaza was announced for redevelopment and all tenants have had since moved out. Somehow graffiti artists were invited to create colorful artwork on the building's surrounding walls which I think it's a good deed for them to unleash their creativity.

For weeks I've seen the building and its graffiti, and finally on one weekend I visited the place with my Kodak single use camera. I came upon this graffito as shown in the photo above. I noticed the shop window glass reflection on the right, so I decided to wait for a few minutes for anyone who walks by.

A few people, young and old, both genders walked past but I found their facial expressions not right. I waited for another 10 minutes or so and my patience paid off well. I saw a person walking towards me from the camera right behind the window glasses. Because of the window reflections and low light condition behind it, I couldn't tell the person's gender. Well with much anticipation, I took squat position for a low angle shot, pointed the camera and framed the shot. When the person finally walked out from behind the window glasses, I released the shutter. Only then I discovered the person is a man. I smiled and noticed his facial expression. He was frowning but not upset about me taking his photo. Well I believe he didn't know or couldn't tell if I took his photo because of my position. He might thought I was just taking pictures of the graffiti behind him.

When I got back my negatives from the photo lab, I looked through the photos and saw this shot. I zoomed in to take a closer look at the man's facial expression, and BINGO!! I hit the jackpot! His expression does look like he was pissed. It goes so well with the graffito text on the wall. I consider this shot to be a lucky one and I am happy to be so lucky at the right place at the right time.

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 5 - Umbrella Lady

Umbrella Lady

This is the fifth street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

This is another attempt at capturing water reflection street shot. Something about this Indian lady with her beautiful warm yellow saree, long pitch black hair and red umbrella that caught my attention. I was right behind her at a distance and I picked up my pace quickly in order to catch up with her as she walked along the water puddle on the road side. Yes I wanted to capture her along with her water reflection. I stopped to compose the shot and just as she reached the spot I released the shutter.

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 4 - Youth Sikhs

Youth Sikhs

This is the fourth street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

Deepavali - Festival of Lights was just the around the corner. I was roaming along the streets of Little India on a typical late afternoon. When I came to the pedestrian crossing right opposite the famous Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, a group of young Sikhs were chatting and laughing away, enjoying themselves. Without hesitation, I took a quick snapshot. Just as I looked through the viewfinder, the young Sikh with the red colored turban turned and looked at me with a pleasant smile. That friendly smile seem to imply a welcome gesture, perhaps for more photo shoots. Instead of asking all of them for a group shot, I looked at that young Sikh and gave him back a big smile with a little nod as a gesture of appreciation or "Thank you!". Thereafter I walked away.

Hidden and Found

SURPASS P&S SC-911

About a week ago, I found this plastic point-&-shoot camera in my closet; hidden for a long time that I have no memory of owning this camera at all, and I was searching for other stuff when I found it.

It's scarce these days to find a plastic point-&-shoot film camera with a hot shoe on it. OK here's the little specification of this camera.

Lens: 35mm Wide Angle Optical Lens

Focus: 1.5 m to infinity

Shutter Mechanism: 1/125 second

Film Advance: Manual (Gentle)

Film Rewind: Manual

1 Push Rewind Button

2 Winding the Rewind Switch

Hot Shoe: For Indoor Photo

Flash-LightGuide No.:

• 40 for ASA 100

• 60 for ASA 200

I was quite excited about it and planning to load a film to shoot, but after some tests on its shutter mechanism, the leaf shutter clicks but doesn't open at all. Sad to find out it's out of order. Well, I'm sure it would be better to get a proper high quality point-&-shoot film camera e.g. Contax T3, Ricoh GR and many others.

I had never used this camera before and therefore I could not show you photographs taken with it. But recently I loaded a KODAK Portra 400 on my Vivitar PN2011. Well I guess it's all because of the recent use of KODAK Single Use Camera a.k.a. Disposable Camera, that I really really enjoy using point-&-shoot cameras. And I love the photo quality too.

Unfortunately for this SC-911, there's nothing I can do to revive it but to dump it.

Kodak Single Use Camera Series: Street Photo 3 - OH!

OH!

This is the third street photo from Kodak Single Use Camera series.

I was on the public bus heading towards the city area to do street photography. I deliberately chose this seating because of the inverted words "24 HOURS..." - a bus advert tagline for a local supermarket. I lifted up my camera and looked through the viewfinder, trying to compose my shot with the inverted letters 'H' and 'O' which form a "OH" into the frame.

Usually when I do street photography, I do not set out with a project or theme in mind, but there are times that I wanted to be creative. Hence I pre-visualized of a street character who would be making facial expression e.g. mouth wide opened suggesting a yawn or in astonishment. An unique street character that would fit into the frame in juxtaposition with the "OH" word.

Along the bus journey there wasn't one ideal character. Then it dawned on me that I was blinded by my own judgement and vision in wanting to achieve something that was beyond my controls. Street photography is about life that is unpredictable on the streets; unforeseen and unexpected events unfold itself, calling for spontaneous responses from the photographer with as much anticipation as possible. Now I truly understand that, the more I desire for the "perfect" and idealistic street photo, the slimmer or zero chance of attaining it.

It was just a couple of bus-stops away from my destination and I wasn't ready to give it all up yet. When the bus came to a halt at a traffic junction, I spotted a small group of 5 Indian monks waiting at the pedestrian crossing perhaps attempting to cross the road or to hail a taxi. After a few moments, the monks started to walk against the traffic towards my direction.

Upon seeing this, I already got my camera ready to make one decisive snapshot, and that was how I got this shot. The blob of light reflected on the glass window came from the camera built-in flash. Due to the last shot with flashlight, the capacitor had some leftover flash power stored and it fired in the next shutter release. Well I took it as a blessing in disguise. Lights and monks can be tied in relation to Buddhism concept of Enlightenment. Luck and chance are 2 important factors that are helpful in street photography. In the end I'm still happy with this snapshot.