Vagabond’s Caravan

Feb 24

Chinese New Year 2008 : 初九 - Open House @ CheaXin’s Place

Posted in: 50mm f/1.8, Candid Photography, Event Photography, Gathering with Friends, People/Portrait Photography

I’ll let the photos do all the talking, I am getting lazier and lazier… (haven’t wrote any proper blog post since I got my D40, lol…)

P.S: The photos you’re going to see are not consistent due to the various lighting condition of various places of CheaXin’s house, and different photographers. =) Most are taken by me and Kelvin tho, and since the camera not with me 100% of the time, I can’t really keep track of the settings and etc, so yea, mind the fluctuation of colour and etc. =) My white balancing skill still sucks, blehz.

And this is by far the biggest set I had ever shoot (since I got my D40), 71 keepers (uploaded but not all are posted here). =) Took me quite some time to sort ‘em out and get them up here so I hope you people will like it. =)

Candid Portraitures:

yihuey_laughing_candid_by_kel Continue Reading…

Feb 11

Chinese New Year 2008 : 初三 - Gathering @ Derick’s Place

Posted in: 50mm f/1.8, Candid Photography, Event Photography, Gathering with Friends, People/Portrait Photography

^ Taken by Kelvin, when he was trying out MF (manual focusing) on the 50mm.

Once again, I am overwhelmed by ChiHo’s 50mm f/1.8, and is really tempted to get myself one although it won’t AF (auto focus) on my D40. I really, really love this small and cheap glass (it’s about B$150) which delivers superb optical quality despite the fact that my MF (manual focusing) technique is still fairly amateur. The only drawback is that I can let others handle the lens because you need to practice before you can MF accurately, so yea, no photo of me to be taken with it, LoL.

Anyway, let’s get back to the gathering. Well, I reached there at around 11am, thinking that lots of people must had already been there, but no, I was the second to arrive, poor YiHuey were alone (excluding the owner, Derick) there for almost an hour, until I came, lol. I wouldn’t go into the details of what we did that day, overall, it was a very fun and enjoyable gathering, thanks Derick. =) Continue Reading…

Feb 05

Desmond Farewell BBQ Party @ My House : Bounced Flash Shots

Posted in: Cameras, Candid Photography, Gathering with Friends, People/Portrait Photography

Again, thanks to ChiHo, I was able to get some really nice photos taken with bounced flash. As I explained here in the previous post, bounced flash (the big, external flash pro use?) are much better (more powerful and natural) compared to direct flash (the built-in flash on most camera). It allows flash to be fired at an angle, usually towards the ceiling, so that lights are diffused by the ceiling and fall evenly on the subject. It creates much better and smoother skin tones as compared to direct flash (where you often get washed out + oily faces and red eyes). Since this is the first time I handle ChiHo’s flash, and the auto setting didn’t turn out that well, so I was firing the flash manually most of the time. Quite a number of the photos taken are not well exposed and hence need to be corrected in Photoshop, still, it rawks! Thanks buddy (ChiHo)! Will do strobing with ya when I get SB-600, hehe.

Here you go, I hope it illustrated the advantages of a bounced flash. =)

For more about bounced flash, read this.

^ Love this! This is well exposed in the very beginning, very little adjustment were done in Photoshop. =) Continue Reading…

Feb 01

I Love 50mm f/1.8

Posted in: Cameras, Candid Photography, Gathering with Friends, People/Portrait Photography

I Love 50mm f/1.8, originally uploaded by IngSiang (Vagabond).

Really appreciate ChiHo for bringing his 50mm f/1.8 (and Vivitar flash), which I tested before, but didn’t quite like it because MF (manual focus) is very difficult. Anyhow, MF is not terribly difficult actually, I was using a wrong method last time and when I get the method right this time, it’s actually pretty fun and very rewarding when you get THE low-light shot (without flash). =)

I am still practicing and learning, and was pretty slow when taking photos with it, and were just doing some trial & error shots (out of 5 shots taken, only 1-3 are in focus, haha, blame my eyes) last night during the party.

ChiHo lend it to me for a week or so, ‘poison’ (temptation) ah! Luckily it’s not very expensive, hehe, I might consider it, see first. =)

Before I got my D40 kit, I love to shoot candid! I shoot lots of candid, and always zoom to the long end and snap ‘head shots’. When I get my D40 kit, due to the limitation of the aperture size at the long end, I started to shoot wide (so I get the biggest aperture, hence faster, thus no blur) most of the time. This super fast f/1.8 50mm brings back my candid passion! =D (but MF while your subjects move is not easy) f/1.8 is very fast, although it’s not very sharp (need to stop down), and 50mm is already very long for candid. =)

Terms/Notes: Long end of a lens means the ‘further’ side, ie. when taking photo of something far ~~apart~~ away. Wide end means the ‘closest’ mode, ie. when you take group photo, you zoom to the wide end. My D40 kit lens has variable aperture, and the biggest aperture is available at it’s widest focal length while the smallest one is at it’s telephoto/longest end. The bigger the aperture, the more the light which enter the camera/lens, and hence faster shutter speed, ie. less chance of having a blurred shot in low light condition.

Jan 14

Never Leave Your Camera At Home…

Posted in: Abstract Photography, Cameras, Candid Photography, Event Photography, Maktab Duli, People/Portrait Photography

… you would never know when would you need it!

That’s the lesson learned these days, as I missed two opportunities in a row: first I missed the quite, calm evening of Maktab Duli after prefect meeting on Saturday, then I went The Mall on Sunday just to know that I made the worst mistake - standing in the crowd of thousands of people, and a couple dozen of photographers, and some celebrities who I don’t really care but wouldn’t mind shooting! It’s very depressing you know? Standing there and think how you would had compose your shots, set the exposure and etc, haha.

But hey, today I brought my camera with me all the time, and guessed what? (initially, I bring it to test out Kelvin’s new lens) I were shooting at the back stage (and there’s a shot which I like quite a lot) and talked about dSLR with ChungSun, and in the afternoon, I went to high tea with mom and saw this guy! Yes, 小马, the funny guy who are special guest in comedy programs like 忍者电力公司 and I think he’s here in Brunei to film for his show, 世界第一等 (from what I heard). Me and mom were so surprise as we thought he looks very familiar (before we saw his crews), and were trying so hard to recall which friend/co-worker of mom is him, LoL. =D

We greet him (I think they already finished recording, and would leave soon) and took photo with him. =) Wow, I still think it’s cool and such a coincidence!