Martin Liew PhotoBlog

Friday, October 26, 2007

Mamam Beach II

This is another photograph I made at Mamam Beach. It was a challenging scenery to work on. Again I took many bracket shots and using the same treatment as I did for the first photograph in Photoshop.

The sky was the most tricky part to handle. As this was a test shot, using my HOYA ND-400, I intended to play around the images in Photoshop, with as minimum as possible in manipulations. If I'd shoot film, I'd apply more filters at the time of exposing, especially the most indispensable ND Grad filter. It helps to cut down lotsa light from the sky, so as to bring out more clouds details and balance out the brightness and contrast.

Of course I still have to apply the darkroom technique i.e. burning & dodging, thereafter. Well I'll definitely go back there for another attempt. Hopefully I'll make it more successful in both digital and film.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mamam Beach @ Pulau Ubin

I paid a visit to this beach in Pulau Ubin last week. It's one of the popular campsites on the island, located in the northeast area. I brought along my HOYA ND-400 filter lens to try and make a few images.

The weather was good. It was overcast through out the whole day, with minor dark clouds passing by. Well, fortunately without any drizzle or rain. It was the perfect condition for the kind of photography I wanted to make. Note that the sea water is blur due to the wave motion and long exposure timing. At the time of exposing, there was sea breeze which resulted to the motion blur of the palm tree leaves on the top frame.

For this scenery, I made many bracket shots with my D70s on Tamron 17-35mm wide angle lens, mounted on tripod at waist level. Focal length at 17mm. I combined 2 of the best exposed brackets in layered format (*.psd). Converted to black & white in Adobe Photoshop CS2, with standard burning technique on the foreground sand and sky, to bring out more clouds details.

As it was a test shot, I shot in JPEG Large format. In my future attempts, I'll be shooting in RAW format. More images coming soon.

Manfrotto moves

Manfrotto has redesigned one of its best selling professional tripods by making some adjustments in its operation. The Manfrotto 055XPROB now features a center column that can be moved to its horizontal position without having to be dissembled. By simply extending the column, it can be released and swung into its horizontal position quickly and easily.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Chinese Tea Master

The Chinese Tea Master is at work. I made this small series of photographs about a week ago at Geylang East Home For The Aged. They were celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in the neighborhood of Aljunied. This is an annual event and it was my first time taking part in voluntary work for the organiser, Mr. Walter Lee who is the person in charge of all the event set-up and co-ordinations. Briefly speaking, I got to know Mr Lee during my first particpation of Eye The City 2005 in Bencoolen Street. Last year I was asked to help but unfortunately due to the serious hazy period, I fell ill and unwell. I couldn't make it as I had promised Mr Lee. Well in a word, I felt bad about it so this year I made a point to come back to help him taking photographs. Of cuz for the cause of good deeds.

As everyone was preparing and setting up for the evening program, I wandered around taking photographs. They have games for the kids on the opposite side of the main stage, which is about 50 meters away. I'll post up some of those fun photographs soon.

In between these 2 areas, there's a short passage where they have had stalls on Art & Craft and Gardening. I will also post up some of the photographs here. Well I don't think I would want to put up any of the main stage photographs as they aren't as interesting as the photographs I took of the others.

Coming back to these 5 photographs, I consider them to be my favorites and best pictures for that day. It was a pity I didn't get to know more about the Tea Master, but I'm sure one day I'll do a short interview with him and more better portraitures of him as well.

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography.
Nikon FM10 on Ilford XP2 Super • Tamron 17-35mm

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sleeping Dog

It was an early Sunday morning when I came across this sleeping dog lying confortably by the backdoor. Sleeping very soundly. Zzz...

Monday, September 17, 2007

River Cleanliness

I was walking around the Esplanade Garden and saw this boat anchored at the Signapore River. The man was using the sea water to clean up his boat. It's unlike those tourist boat, which in fact its purpose is to pick up trashes found on the river. Somehow there are always rubbish dumped into the river and eveyrwhere, of cuz by inconsiderate people, be it locals or foreigners.

It's really good to live in a healthy and clean environment, but it's so often been taken for granted by every single being living in this small country. Sad but true.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

F*#K BUSH!

I came across this shop along Bali Lane. It was a Sunday so the shop is closed. As I looked into the shop window, I saw this written note pinned on the wall behind the cashier counter, that says, "If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad." - Malcolm X. I guess this message is going against the US President George Bush for his decision to go to war in Iraq. Recently Bush has decided to withdraw all his troops there. Well that's politics.