Happy New Year to all! Happy 2008!

Well it had been a great 2007 and a busy one udring the year end period. The last blog I posted was in November 2007. Whoa! so much to catch up and post up more blogs here. Well I'll try my utmost best to post more in this new year. I would like to thank all readers for yr support and patience in reading my blogs. I greatly appreciate. I hereby wish everyone a Happy New Year and may all yr dreams come true this year.

New posts coming soon! Cheers!

Kelong

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

My first roll of Fujichrome Velvia 50

Production of Velvia 50 was halted at the beginning of 2005 when vital raw materials used in the production of the emulsion became unavailable. The re-launch of Velvia 50 is a further illustration of Fujifilm's continued commitment to the production and promotion of professional film.

I read about the news in a photography magazine, in which Charlie Waite, one of the renowned British landscape photographers, reviewed and compared the new with the old. Here's his verdict:

My conclusion is that the new Velvia 50 is by a whisker slightly warmer, albeit aided and abetted by magenta. I made an image in a lit landscape setting (old Velvia) and intentionally in the same place with a 50% overcast setting (new Velvia) and was keen to note the changes. I concluded that I would be more than happy to live with either and it would be churlish to suggest a marked difference between the two. Resolution and definition is unchanged - still terrific.

Likes: Fine grain, punchy colors, terrific resolution and definition, extra warmth

Dislikes: None really, but I will be intrigued to see how new Velvia 50 performs with extreme backlit greens, which is about the only area where the old Velvia was weak.

So I bought myself a roll (120) to try out. The price is $8.50 per roll (120 format). I'll put up the images I made, soon. Do come back and keep a look out. If you'd like to know of my updated posts, do let me know so I can add you in my mailing list.

Vespa Scooter

Vespa Scooter

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

Came across this nice looking Vespa scooter in Aljunied Crescent, while I was on my way to Kampung Senang's 8th Anniversary Senor Citizen Day celebration. Initially I spotted its tail behind one of the HDB void deck pillars. Out of curiosity, I walked up to take a closer look. And there it is!

Overall the lighting was just nice and look at that front tyre - so clean, good as new. The varnish on the scooter body is clean and shiny too. This image was made on Kodak UltraMax 400 color negative in Nikon FM10 with 50mm f/1.8 lens. I converted it to B&W in Photoshop. The original body color on the scooter is coffee color.

Best of Friends

Best of Friends

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

I was volunteering at Kampung Senang's 8th Anniversary celebration, as a photographer doing event photography. This is one of the many images I took on 3 November 2007, Saturday. After a nutritious lunch (FYI they were having organic food for lunch), the old folks retired to their own lodgings. As I was mingling around the area, I stopped to view some of the images I took earlier. In that moment, I noticed these 3 persons coming in my direction. Without hestitation, I lifted up my camera, composed and took this shot. It happened so fast that I hardly have enough time to do the essential camera settings, not to mention composition. In a closer look, you'll notice that the friendly and cheerful Filipino was posing for the camera with a Peace hand-sign. Before she was putting them down, I snapped. Though the result is not desireable for me, but I still love this beautiful image.

This is what I called Friendship. I think the man behind her, is visually handicapped. Look at their facial expression. It was that precise moment that I was looking for in such event i.e. friendship, warmth, harmony and happiness.

This image was captured in a wide angle frame and was later cropped in Adobe Photoshop. B&W conversion with basic tweaking on Level and Curve. Basic burning on the fore & background, so as to minimize the messy scene and maximize the focus on the main subject. Captured with my D70s on Tamron 17-35mm @ f5.6, 1/180sec. 'A' mode.

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.

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.

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

Sleeping Dog

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

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.

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.