Sunday, August 14, 2011

Urban Exploration: The Old Capitol Theater

The old Capitol Theater. Year and date unknown.

Two years ago I posted this old postcard image in which I talked about collecting postcard. Our topic today is solely on the old Capitol Theater. The 79-year-old building which screened its last movie in 1998, is undergoing redevelopment along with its adjoining buildings - Stamford House, Capitol Building and Capitol Center.

An underground pedestrian walkway will link City Hall MRT Station to the future development at the Capitol Theater site, on the other side of North Bridge Road. From the Capitol Theater site, pedestrians will be able to use the existing network of covered walkways to reach other buildings in the area.

How long does it take to complete this redevelopment project? I do not know. One thing I do know is the opportunity has arrived for me to explore the building interiors. Make the jump to find out more.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Old Style Kopi Tiam Gone Forever

Men in the Mirror
© 2009 Martin Liew Photography

Hi everybody! I'm back. Yes three month since the last photography blog I wrote. I was busy with my digital portraiture projects; doing mainly fashion photography and in between I was doing some light-painting jobs. Yesterday I took time off from work and went out in the morning to do some street shootings on impromptu. Well sort of.

Some of you might have seen the picture (shown above) before on this blog or on my website. There are many changes happened around this old style coffee shop area. Make the jump for new updates.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Candy Girl Beauty Shots + 1 More


Hi everyone! First of all, I have to apologize for being absent for almost 2 months since my last blog. I felt bad about it as I was too caught up with some personal strobist projects on fashion shoots and yes, beauty shots as seen on the image above. Which so to speak, I'm gonna talk about it today.

Make the leap and discover the beauty shots inside.



Monday, February 21, 2011

A Great Lighting Reference + Lotsa Guessing Work


I bought this book at a local photography bookstore today. When I saw this book I told myself that this guide book saves me lotsa time by trying to visualize what lighting setups I should use for my portrat shoots. The book can do alot more than that. More after the jump.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

CROSSTOWN - Street Photography in Retrospective


It's Sunday today and I got a little laid back though. I just recovered from a cold and have been staying at home for the entire day yesterday. So I forced myself out of the bed and stepped out of house to have some freash air. I went to the library and came across this book, titled Crosstown by one of the twentieth century's most important photographers, Helen Levitt.

More details here after.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Goodbye 2010! Hello 2011!


Dragon Fountain
Finally 2010 had ended and a great welcome to 2011 with open arms! Yes I've delayed for 3 days to write this blog. Well let me update my fellow readers to whom I would like to thank you all for your kind support. I'm greatly appreciate for your precious time to read my blogs even though I'm not a really good writer but I assure you that all these words are written from the bottom of my heart and from my own experience. I will work hard to continue writing this photography blog.

In this brand new year - the Year of Rabbit/Hare, I'm posting this monochrome image of a Dragon. Yes I know, Year of Dragon will be in 2012 but Dragon has always been a sign of prosperity, good luck and good health. So I hereby wish all my readers a Happy New Year with great prosperity, good luck and good health. May you attain all your new goals with great success.

Photo info:
Horizon Perfekt | Ilford XP-2 rated @ 200 | 1/250 sec. f/8 Infinity | Adjustments in Brightness & Contrast and Burning & Dodging in Photoshop | Location: Whampoa

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Update: One Final Glimpse of National Stadium


The blog title for today speaks for itself. Last Sunday I went back to the old National Stadium demolition site. I wanted to see for myself the progress since my last visit in October. It's been 2 months now and the demolition pace accelerated. Make the jump to view the video I made.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Deconstruction of National Stadium

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

A day ago i.e. 29 Ocotber 2010, Friday, I was out of office to collect something in town. I was on a cab which drove pass the National Stadium deconstruction site. I was in awe to see one of the four light towers was gone. The whole stadium looks similar to Rome's colosseum. I was thrilled and decided to go back for some photographs.

More images after the jump.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Headshots of Zach Tan (Peter Hurley-style)

Zach Tan
© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

In early October, Zach Tan contacted me via Model Mayhem, expressing interest to work with me to expand his portfolio. It's been a month since my last outdoor portraiture session with my singer & song writer friend, Don Derrick Ng. So it came as a nice surprise and I replied to Zach and we arranged for the dates and time.

More stories after the jump.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Trip to Pulau Ubin

Pekan Quarry, Pulau Ubin
© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

This morning I took a trip to Pulau Ubin where I joined a friend for location recce as he's planning for an outing in the coming months. In fact I was helping him to find the best location spot for sunrise photography. Well to our little disappointment, it didn't turn out as we have expected. Well what the heck. We have had a great fun exploring the island. It's been many years since my friend's last visit. As for me, it's almost 3 years.

Make the jump for more Ubin adventures and photos.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Portraiture session: Don Derrick Ng

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

Don Derrick Ng is a local talented singer/song writer who has been playing music for many years and recently he takes part in NEA Eco Music Challenge 2010, a song writing contest. He wrote this song titled, A Little Dose of Happiness. You can check out his DIY music videos here. If you like his lyrics and music, please vote him here.

More inside after the jump.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Photo Clinic: Office Lady


In my last blog, I shared about the lighting set-up on one of the photograph sessions I took during my job assignment. I got a few feedbacks on "Office Lady" and I decided to do a follow-up; a photo clinic in which I would talk about how to improve on the framing and lighting, etc.

More inside after the jump.

Monday, July 19, 2010

On Assignment: Office Lady

Recently I was assigned to make photographs for a local motor company for use on their new website. The motor company was founded in the 1960s and they started out helping taxi owners and drivers with their insurance claims against their insurance companies or against third parties.

Through the years they have evolved into one-stop repair workshop and service center as well as accident reporting center. They have gained trust and confidence of both their clients and numerous insurance companies. As such, they have been named Authorised and Quality Workshop for various insurance companies.

Drive over the hump ahead into the workshop as I'll elaborate on the photography session.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

The Good The Bad And The Weird? Um.. No! (A Self Portrait)

OK this is going to be tough for me to write in this blog. As the blog title suggests, you might wondered what this is all about.  Nothing's bad nor weird at all  and mind you I'm not self obssessed. Just sharing on what and how I did my own self portrait shoot. .OK I'm going one step at a time so load your gun and make that leap forward if you dare.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Phottix Atlas Instruction Manual


Phottix has officially released their new product, a wireless flash remote trigger system, Phottix Atlas. There are reviews and test runs done, which I will not be doing the same here. However, the product does not come with an instruction manual. Hence I've improvised the manual based on the original copy, with added images of the product, in PDF file format.

If you own one or more Atlas or just bought it, and want the manual, please send me an email and I would be happy to send you the PDF file.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

A New B&W Photography Project

Today's weather is awesome! A great day for some outdoor photorgaphy at Woodlands Waterfront this morning. Here's a prelude foto to a new B&W series which I have thought of for some time now. This project series is titled, Chiaroscuro. (Check its pronunciation here and its history) Basically it's a series of B&W fotos with stark contrast in tonality; the distribution of light and shade in a photograph or the sketch in light and shade.

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography


This photograph was taken with my Sony Ericsson Vivaz in 6-megapixels B&W mode. Cropped and retouched in Photoshop. No adjustments in Levels and Curve. Will post more as I go along with this series. Thanks for reading and viewing.

Eye e City 2009 Photogaphy Exhibition

My fotos for Eye e City 2009 are selected for exhibition along with many other participants' photographs.

Held over two locations consecutively, the exhibition will present the collection of photographs taken on the last day of 2009, as selected by a panel of veterans earlier this year.


Participants, Fans and Friends of Eye e City can bring their family and friends to The Substation Gallery or Jurong Regional Library from 1 August 2010, Sunday to 10 August 2010, Tuesday to recount what 2009 was like for them.
 
Admission is free to both locations.
 
Do mark your calendar and come down to support Eye e City, me and my work. Thank you very much.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

People Really Do These Things For A Living?!

Today I went to the local library and came across an interesting photography book titled, Odd Jobs: Portraits of Unusual Occupations by Nancy Rica Schiff.


In 65 intimate portraits, photo essayist Nancy Rica Schiff captures the personalities and occupations of these oddball professionals, providing a short profile of each. A 20-year photography veteran, Schiff has spent the better half of that time discovering the behind-the-scenes people who do what others can’t (or won’t) do. No one can say that America isn’t the home of the free, the brave, and the quirky, who will do almost anything to make an honest buck.

A second book followed by, three years after the first volume - Odder Jobs: More Portraits of Unusual Occupations. It came by after the first volume success which became an odd sort of career primer, intriguing guidance counselors and being used in classrooms to stimulate discussions of career choices. Odd Jobs "inspires creativity" and that, alone sent Nancy to crisscross the country again on a second adventure that eventually led her to the second book.


Well, I couldn't find this second volume in the library but I'm certainly want to read it. I really like the environmental portraits Nancy did for these projects, especially in black and white.

Nancy's photography work, not only inspires me, but teaches me to be observant and think creatively by asking myself, "Is this subject potential enough to develop into a photography project?" Through reserach, discoveries and reflections, it stirs up my curiosity for wanting to find out more about my subjects.

On the other hand, Odd Jobs allows readers, whether young or old, to become aware of a vast array of jobs that are inventive and alternative. Fun and fascinating as it seems, both books are done with a sense of humor and eye-opening at the same time.

So give a thought if you think or still find there's nothing to take photographs of in Singapore besides those cliche shots of cityscapes, still life objects in the streets, etc. Slow down your pace and obeserve your surroundings. Who knows? You might discover something interesting to start on a photography project.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Seascape @ Punggol End

Punggol End.

It's almost 2 years now since I last visited the location. Even longer than I estimated I think. Anyway I woke up real early at 5:00 AM, grab my camera bag and tripod and moved out. Two of my friends have joined me in this organized outing. We rreached there on time before the sun starts to rise. After we found our own vantage spot, tripods were set up, cameras were mounted and everyone was ready for the golden hour to arrive...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Verticals - upright panorama 2

Here's Part 2 of Verticals - upright panorama photography using Horizon Perfekt swing-lens camera.

Finally I've managed to get some panorama negatives scanned last night from the first roll. This is just the beginning of many more negatives to be scanned, post-processed and many more to show.

Click to read on my blog.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

First Photography Outing in 2010

It's been a long time since I last joined an organized photography outing. This morning marked my first such outing for 2010. Though I have always doing street photorgraphy alone most of the time, it's another kind of experience doing in a group. It's great to know new friends, too.

Location? It's none other than Serangoon Road, Little India. The turn-out was good. There were 10 of us. We met up at Farrer Park MRT Station and started walking towards Kerbau Road area. It was a leisure and fun photo-walk outing where we walked, talked, laughed, ate, drank and of cuz took street pictures along the way.

I wanted to travel light hence I armed myself with Nikon D70s fixed with 18-70 mm kit lens without lens hood. In my usual street photography, I shoot film with either a film SLR or rangefinder camera, and lately with a TLR*.

(*Photos from my TLR street photography will be uploaded soon, along with many other streets photographs. If you want to get the updated blog, you can subscribe via RSS, or email. If you like my blogs, you can join as a follower.)

OK make the jump to view the selected street photographs I took from this outing. Hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Eye e City 2009 Judging Day


I attended Eye e City 2009 Judging Session today. It was a great pleasure viewing every participant's photographs. Though 2 of my single fotos are not selected, I did learn a few things out of it. I might had missed the mark on which my images did not speak to the Judges and other viewers. And upon seeing through all the participants' images, there are many things I have had overlooked or did not know about. But I learnt better at how and what to look out for, not only for Eye event but for my progress in social and documentary photography. It's a great learning experience.

Here are the 2 rejected fotos:



On the other hand, I've realised...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Men in the Mirror

I have fell in love with this place located in Little India - a "Kopi Tiam" a.k.a. coffee-shop in Chinese Hokkien dialect. I just love the environment and surrounding area, and of cuz the coffee and toasted bread with Kaya spread and butter. While I was enjoying my food, I noticed something interesting...

Monday, January 4, 2010

Photo of the Day - Dog and its Master


Dog and its Master

One morning in November 2009, after having my breakfast at the coffee shop, I made my way to the bus-stop. Just as I was waiting at the traffic light, I saw this cute little dog resting its fore legs on the low wall as seen in the photograph above.

Without hesitation, I took out my mobile phone and make one shot. Just as I was about to snap another shot, an old lady walked out from nowhere, right in-between the dog and its master. Well, my camera phone is slow in focusing. Howsoever, I love the second shot because of its triangular composition formed by the three subjects.

Taking a closer look at the man, his elbows are resting on the low wall behind him, which also form a triangle shape. Well, in contrast with the three pillars on the background, this image is just perfect to me!

Guess I was at the right place, at the right time.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

TLR Street Photography



© Vivian Maier Photography

In a previous blog I talked about street photographer, Vivian Maier's work and how much I got inspired. Well, for the first time since I have had been doing street photography with 35mm rangefinder camera and film SLR, I took my newly repaired Seagull-4A out to the streets today.

I have had this undescribable sensation and it adrenalized me to do more street fotos. I guess I did. Well I did not shoot as many as 10 rolls of medium format film, but just 2 rolls. Previously I got 2 rolls of Ilford FP4+ left and thought I could just use them.

From the experience I got today, I discovered that there are advantages and disadvantages in using a TLR for street photography, which pose challenges. Let me list them out here as you make the jump: