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:

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Unchanged Melody series 4 - Master Hong Hanlin, Artisanal Shoemaker 洪汉林 - 手工制鞋匠


Hong Hanlin 洪汉林, 80-year-old is making shoes when I arrived at his tiny shoe shop at Bencoolen Street Food Center. He is one of Singapore's few remaining artisanal shoemakers. His father passed away when he was a child, and his family was poverty-stricken. At the age of 15, he went into shoemaking, and endured a very hard period as an apprentice.

Make the jump to listen to what Master Hong said about his life as a shoemaker.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!!!

Another new year has begun, another chapter of our life just started. Eye é City 2009 just ended and every participant has submitted their photos today. Preliminary fotos selection will be held next week on 9 & 10 January 2010, Saturday & Sunday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at Beach Center, Beach Road. I'll be there as one of their facilitators in helping out the participants with their fotos selections. Looking forward to see their work.

It was my 5th year that I took part in this annual event. It was great to meet friends during the Registration night on 30 Dec 2009. On the actual day, weather was awesome; hot, sunny and occasionally windy day. A great day for street photography.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Verticals - upright panorama



Since I purchased my new panorama camera, Horizon Perfekt in October, I have eventually made a few rolls of panorama fotos. As usual, I shoot exclusively on black-n-white film with this new camera. Well, OK I did a couple rolls of Agfa Vista 400. I don't really like the colors produced from these color negatives as they are flat and lacked of contrast. Maybe it was due to the scanning from the foto lab.

What are the great challenges posed when making vertical panorama photographs?

Make the jump to find out more.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Street Photography with a TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) Camera

Recently I came across an article written by Chicago photographer John Maloof, in Flickr's HCSP (Hardcore Street Photography) Discussion column. In the article John said that he had purchased a giant lot of negatives (about 40,000) from a small auction house in Chicago. He discovered the work of French born street photographer, Vivian Maier. who passed away in April 2009. Vivian's body of work mainly featuring daily street scenes from the 1950s - 70s. John is gradually going through all the negatives and publishes Vivian's work in his blog site.

Vivian Maier, self portrait


Saturday, October 10, 2009

My Affinity For Panorama

Recently I got hooked on panoramic photography again. I was searching my stuff on a bookshelf and found a photography book on panorama, and it just struck me that I once did a roll of panorama photos back in 2006. Back then, I got the chance to borrow a classic HORIZONT panoramic camera from a friend of mine. It was certainly fun taking photos with it but one main problem with this old Russian-made camera is light leakage, otherwise mechanically it functions well.

So here's one best shot and my favorite shot, out of that roll of FujiFilm Superia 200 I took. I had posted the color version before.

Old and New Laughing Buddha

Sunday, June 28, 2009

On Reading...Update

I got back my Eye e City 2008 negatives yesterday afternoon. As I have worked as a volunteer and a facilitator for the Committee, as well as participating in the meaningful event, I was privileged and entitled to get 3 copies of Eye e City 2008. Yes, it came as a pleasant surprise to me.

As I went through my negatives and digital photos on CD, I recalled I did take a shot of a Malay man reading a newspaper under a shed, as shown below...

It was located at the Malay Heritage Center. Without saying, this shot is added to the On Reading project. I will keep looking and shooting for this project and add to the collection. When the time comes to select and edit the best 100 photographs, I will tidy up the gallery on my website.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The End of KODACHROME

Eastman Kodak Company announced on June 22, 2009 that it will discontinue sales of KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Check out their news here.

Personally I have never tried this transparency film before and would love to try out one roll. it's a pity it's coming to tis end and the price per roll is not cheap. I can still get couple of rolls from eBay, Adorama, or B&H. Alternatively, I can use Ektachrome E100VS which produces similar results but not as rich and vivid as Kodachrome.

Monday, June 15, 2009

My Exhibited Work @ Eye e City 2008 Photography Exhibition

Last Saturday I went down to Bras Basah Complex to check out my work @ Eye e City 2008 Photography Exhibition. I took up the Retrospective Challenge for the second time as it came naturally to be the ideal subject when I was really honored and delighted to join Eye e City committee in taking part to document the official closing down of New 7th Storey Hotel on 30 & 31 October 2008. In June 2008, news broke out that one of our oldest budget hotels is going to be demolished and make way for the new Bugis MRT line, Downtown Line One.

Here's the slideshow of the photographs I made. For better viewing, press F11 key for maximum screen display. Eleven out of those photographs are selected for the exhibition. The last shot was taken on the actual day of Eye e City 2008 event as the event terms stated. Therefore I do not have it as I have yet to collect my negatives back from the committee on 27 & 28 June 2009.

On these 2 days, Eye e City 2008 Book will be launched and participants can collect the book and their negatives and/or digital photos.



Friday, May 29, 2009

城市的眼睛 Eye é City 2008 Photography Exhibition

The book launch will be announced and released on another date. Below is the official e-poster from Eye e City Committee.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Postcards of Old Singapore

The old Capitol Theater. Year and date unknown.

In my earlier post, I posted on the event sessions organised and presented by National Museum of Singapore, on picture postcards and Chinese photo studios of the 20th century.

I want to talk more about the picture postcards in this blog. It comes to mind about whether people in this 21st century modern age, do collect postcards. Not only new ones but especially the old ones, particularly of our motherland, Singapore. Our country has came a long way since our independence in 1965 and it has changed so fast in its society, be it educational level, infrastructures, urban land development, etc. How many people do know abt this country's old past, way back when it was found or even further back in history. I doubt so even for myself.

At least at a certain point or level, we can get to know more about our country's past history through these old picture postcards, in which we and our younger generation are able to see how old Singapore once looked like.

I happened to have a few old picture postcards on a CDR that I kept in my database. I recalled that I had them scanned as digital files for "archival" purpose for an old ex-colleague. I thought I should show them here for all readers to see. It really occurred to me that upon seeing these postcards, no doubt there's nostalgia about them, but they make me feel like I have travelled back in time and realized that our country has certainly changed so rapidly that we are starting to loose our own self.

Let me know what you feel upon seeing these picture postcards.

I'll be starting to collect some of these old picture postcards and feature them here in my blog from time to time. So do come back and if you like my blog, you can subscribe via email or RSS.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a pleasant viewing.

Sultan Mosque @ North Bridge Road. Year and date unknown.


Cinema in Great World. Year and date unknown.

Chinatown area. Year and date unknown.

Picture Postcards of Singapore and Malaya

Following the highly successful series on Introduction to Singapore History in 2008, this new series of curatorial lectures highlights the latest research on the interpretation of cultural artefacts. Each week, the curators and guest speakers will use the Museum’s collections as a springboard to discuss ways of reading and interpreting these artefacts as well as understanding their contemporary relevance. In doing so, the lectures seek to provide an understanding of the role of history as a dynamic force in shaping museum's perspectives of artefacts and collections in the past and present.

Presented by National Museum of Singapore, below is the schedule for 2 out of 4programmes:

Saturday 2 May 2009
Picture Postcards of Singapore and Malaya

Speakers:
Iskander Mydin, Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at National Museum of Singapore.

Dr. Koh Keng We, Curator at Documentation and Research Centre, Centre for International Collections at Alden Library, Ohio University.

Picture postcards emerged in the 19th century in Europe and soon became a world-wide phenomenon with the increasing popularity of photography as well. The picture postcard became a mass-produced commodity catering to the general population. In time, picture postcards also became collectible items. Picture postcards of Singapore and Malaya provided an easily accessible means of viewing the “exotic” landscape, people, and other areas of interest to a foreign audience. This lecture will feature ways of such visual representation of Singapore and Malaya in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as collecting perspectives. It will be based on the Museum’s collection of picture postcards.

Iskander Mydin is currently Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at the National Museum of Singapore. His more recent works include the early colonial and World War II periods in the National Museum’s Singapore History Gallery. His research interests include the social history of the Malay community in Singapore, cultural history of Singapore and colonial art history with reference to historical paintings of the colonial period in Singapore.

Dr. Koh Keng We is currently a curator with the Documentation and Research Centre, Centre for International Collections at Alden Library, Ohio University. Dr. Koh holds a PHD in Southeast Asian History from the University of Hawaii. He has a wealth of experience in sourcing and collecting picture postcards.


Saturday 23 May 2009
Ephemeral Memories: Collecting Photographs by Early 20th Century Chinese Photo Studios in Singapore

Speakers:
Jason Toh, Curator at National Museum of Singapore.
Kelvin Lee, Private Collector.

This lecture will begin with a brief introduction into the history of Chinese photographic studios operating in Singapore during the early 20th century. Through works collected by the Museum, Curator Jason Toh will examine the rationale and collecting practices of public institutions. This will be followed by a presentation from a young private collector, Kelvin Lee. Through these two presentations, the participants will not just get a chance to see many visually interesting historical photographs but also learn about the similarities and differences between public and private photographic collections.

Jason Toh has been a curator at the National Museum of Singapore since 2004. He has curated Singapore themed exhibitions such as Port City (Singapore History Gallery), Photography Gallery (Singapore Living Galleries) and more recently, Weapons of Mass Desire, and written articles on Singapore photography. His upcoming projects include an exhibition on Singapore landscapes and a book on 19th century photographs of Singapore.

Kelvin Lee is the great-grandson of Lee Shui Loon (alias Lee Yin Fun), one the early leading Chinese photographers in Singapore from the 1890s to his death in 1935. He collects the works of the various studios associated with the Lee clan, which includes Koon Sun, Yong Fong, Tien Seng, Lee Brothers, Eastern Studio and others both in Singapore and the region.

For programme enquiries, please call (65)6332 3584 / 6332 4557.

Ticketing Information:
$15 for a single session
Concession rate is available to the National Museum members.

Counter SalesStamford Visitor Services Counter: 10am - 7.30pm
For enquiries, please call +65 6332 3659 / +65 6332 5642.

Thought you readers might be interested to attend these sessions. At least they sound interesting to me that I can find out and know more about the past history of Singapore.

Thank you for reading.