A Change in Focus

It's been awhile since I've photographed...well....anything besides human beings really.



Will comment when I can get more pictures up. All of these were RAWs except for the first one....

Play the Sport

I find it pretty hard to photograph any sport. I've done ball sports and athletics. Done a bit of cheerleading few years ago (if you can even call it a sport to begin with). So far, the hardest for me to do has been football mainly because I can't get any good angles on it and the sportsman in it don't really do anything interesting worth photographing.

I did the Swimming Gala a few days ago and due to "restrictions" I didn't actually photograph and sports. I had very wimpy pathetic pictures from the whole thing and I ended up deleting half the stock. Anyways, I did manage to salvage a few with a "little" bit of editing.



Okay....not the most flattering photo because I framed it a little to close to the face. If you notice, part of the chin at the bottom is not in frame which makes the photo a little odd in terms of framing. However, while editing, I decided to place the focus of the photo onto its colour. Great contrast between the left half and the right half of the photo. I was hoping to be able to isolate the face further by increasing the warmth of the colours but that only played down the cold colours on the left, turning it into an odd shade of grey/purple. I was hoping to have some catchlight but the subject wasn't facing the right way -_-". Quite a waste really....



What I like about the girl I was photographing was her prominent jaw. Very strong and well-structured. It sorta makes for a more dramatic photo I suppose. For this photo, I turned it into a mono just because the colours around it were kind of a mash of odd tones. I also used a soft focus to bring attention to the subject. Yes, I know soft focus is a very noob thing to do butI had to work with what I had and Picasa doesn't do much for you. Time to get P/S.



This one's got pretty odd framing but that's how I wanted it. Instead of throwing an elongated frame in the front of the subject, I moved it to the back. This is a trial for me because I only came up with the idea on the spot. Would have been better if I framed in more of the subject's shoulders. In terms of editing, I added noise and threw a colour filter over the photograph to give it a slightly worn out effect. Could have done with more noise. And yes, I know adding noise to the photo counts as cheats but you have to admit: it does have an effect. =P



This one's another nightmare to edit. The original was pretty lame. The angle was awkward and colours were really dull. Again, like the first one, I decided to place emphasis on colour rather than anything else. You can just imagine how shitty this would look like in mono -_-". Anyways, it's a good thing the girl on the left had a lighter hair shade. It, at least, ceated some contrast with the cold colours. The girl on the right seems to serve just as a mean of balancing the photo out. There is one confusing bit in here though. At the far left of the photo, you can see the hair of another girl next to the girl on the left. Sort of an unnecessary and confusing addition to the photo. Can't crop it out cause' than the photo would be thrown off balance.



Probably one of the better photos of the day. A typical candid photo but I made it more dramatic by sharpening the picture and turning it mono. Sorta has a timeless effect on the photo. Too bad for the pole at the bottom right of the photo. It cuts the photo off a little. Wish my camera had a higher aperture range. Introducing some bokeh into the background would have given the picture a much better tone and texture plus it would have isolated the subject further. Currently I'm using a standard lens. Not expecting any miracles from it.

A Little Bit on the Slow Side

Brilliant. After an hour, I only managed to upload one photo. At 2.4MB it shouldn't have taken that long. Bloody internet connection =S.

So anyways, here's a photo I took during the Swimming Gala. A moment of distraction maybe. Despite the great colour and what not, the position of the tree is a little to central making this photo a little too organised. Not exactly how I wanted it to turn out.


I will upload my photos from the Gala when there's actually an internet connection worthy of any usage. This year, I wasnt able to get any photos of people actually swimming. Was in a VERY bad position. Couldn't see a damn thing from where I was. But I did get pretty mediocre pictures from the crowd around me. Perhaps something worth the time uploading....

Here We Go Again

Exams are over....

...and once again I'm back to taking photos again. Will be covering another event later today: Swimming Gala =S. I don't really like sports photography because of the good judgement timing needed. I can barely get myself to events on time let alone do sports photography. I'm a complete and absolute noob.


Anyways, nothing new yet. Got a couple of oldies from December last year. Pictures taken under the rain. Thank god my lenses haven't gone mouldy(though if it did, it'd be an incentive to get a new set of lenses =P).

Not the best of pictures. The flare coming from the light which everyone's holding burnt the picture. Attention has been drawn away from the main subjects due to the distracting light at the bottom. Plus, the half of the face of the person on the right is completely dark. Barely a dramatic effect. A dramatic DEfect is more like it -_-"


Another goner. The photo would have been pretty okay if it weren't for the light at the bottom right-hand corner. I guess I could have cropped it out but that would have left the subject right at the edge of the frame which would make the photo slightly unbalanced. The face at the top-right corner is also kinda disruptive.


A much more recent photo. VERY dry on colours. I just thought the subject with the floral hat was pretty interesting. I would have increased the contrast to darken the colours a bit but trying to do that would only cause the photo to lose some of the details in the darker bits.

I'm pretty happy with this one. Not great but a thousand times better than the others. I especially like the image of the laughing woman in the backgound. Sorta lends a slightly less serious air to the photo in general.

This one's a little burnt. Tones are harsh and The subject is standing in a really awkward position. I had to turn this one into a sepia mainly cause' of the lighting they had that day. Bright red - a little too dramatic for just a small event.

Working it off till the End

My camera-lugging days are pretty much over now. Bogged down with exams and really bad internet connection. Hence, the lack of updates. I've been feeling rather nostalgic recently, maybe because everything is almost to coming to an end.

I certainly haven't taken my camera out in weeks...nothing new in particular to upload. Just a couple of so here and there which I thought were somewhat pretty interesting...


I guess you could call this a "self-indulgent" photo despite the fact you can't actually see me in it. Quite dry on colours really but the bokeh in the background makes for something interesting I suppose.

Another random addition...well, it's pretty blur and it was taken at a very high ISO (ISO 1600 maybe?) so the quality has degraded quite significantly. It would have been a pretty nice picture if I had it put more into the frame but I stupidly had to cut off the bottom bit so the cup looks like this glowing piece of rubbish floating in mid-air.

I kinda like this photo. Could've cropped a bit more of the left bit away but it's okay like this anyway. The only thing that really frustrated me about this pic was the lighting. Very harsh arificial white lighting at the back really contrasted with the reds which makes the colours look a little misplaced in a way. The bad lighting wasn't part of the stage lighting. In fact it came from the camera flash of a Nikon camera. Such bad timing -_-"

This is a pretty old photo taken almost a year ago during a basketball match. One of the players had taken a good hit on the head and was being atttended to by friends and a teacher. A photo with great meaning if a photo essay came along with it -_-". On it's own, it's pretty much worthless trash. I oversaturated the colours too...and the background is too busy. Very frustrating. If only my lens had a wider aperture....