[ahblack] APAW 2016 ~ maintaining pace... CONSISTENCY!

[ahblack]

Well this is probably the first time I post photo of myself (2nd times for photo of my wife) in Clubsnap. Gonna make the exemption this time as last week, I celebrated my wife's birthday (5th Mar) as well as mine (9th Mar) together! I gotta say, we saved lots of money by celebrating our birthday together for so many years LOL Ok jokes aside, the dinner was at a lovely place called Arteastiq! The food is nice, the ambiance is good, too bad we missed the afternoon tea time and end up having our dinner there, but still everything was wonderful!

Sometimes, when we talk about gears, we tend to lose ourselves in it, to the point we forget about what's the important thing in photography. Capture the moment, is the fundamental of photography. It doesn't really matter what gear we used at that moment, what matters is you did capture it and the way you captured it in order to interpret that moment. It can be simple and straight forward, or abstract and evocative. The use of gears is just a simple mean to use a tool to achieve what you want. The technology nowadays is so advance that the camera of a mobile phone can easily let you capture any moment of your life. I can't say gear doesn't affect the final outcome, It does and it will probably influence your chance of success on capturing the moment. But like many said, it's the person behind the camera that matters, so don't let gear limits you. Just choose what you like and work on it, be it a rangefinder or camera of a mobile phone. One thing is for sure, is that when you look at the photos in the future, they won't remind you of what gear you used, but instead what you felt and saw at that moment.

week 10



Happy birthday my love by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

A7ii + Sony SEL28F2 / Samsung Galaxy Note 5

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[ahblack]

Flying back and forward to Kuala Lumpur in a day is no joke, it was my first time doing so and damn it was tiring... But on the bright side, I got to shoot in 2 airports in 1 day! When it comes to photography, some of people might find that airport is a great place for photo shooting! Be it human subjects or architecture. I didn't have my A7ii with me, because it was a short work trip and I thought I would be too tired to shoot anyway. And there I was, with my Note 5, and one of my snaps that topped all my Flickr shots for view count and faved in less than a week. Now it's sitting at 2.4k views with 23 faved. To be honest, it's nothing compared to many other shots out there or to some people it's just peanut, but to me it is my first most popular shot of all time! Most of my shots barely hit 1k views, or even 5 faved hahaha... It's a small sense of achievement for me hehehe... Of course photography is not about like and view, but it does make me look back at my old shots and think about my journey in this so called photography.

Easily, you can see and hear many people say "camera is not important, what important is the person behind it", but how many people actually get it and live by that "philosophy"? Sure it's always be exciting and fun to own some fancy gears, but when it comes to a point where gear is what everyone talks about and no one is out there to shoot, now that's something wrong. Often people will choose the easier path to achieve something, and in photography some people actually think getting the latest and best gears can land you many great shots. A seasoned photographer would know that there's no easy way to get great shots, and one has to be willing to listen, watch and actually go out and shoot in order to master just a fraction of the great art. In the end, it's down to the person on how far he/she wants to take it. No need to take everything so serious, and for me, I'm just more than happy to snap away and get to know there are people who appreciate and like my stuffs (this may be the nature of a graphic designer, so YMMV).

So my Note 5 beats the **** out of my A7ii with real lenses LOL only this time!

week 11



X by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

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[ahblack]

When I look a photo, street shot in particular, I always like to let me imagination runs free and fill the frame with story. So to me, a great photo is one that narrative while leaving much for your imagination. It makes people curious and stimulates their imagination. But like always, it's easier to say than be done, and to produce such photo, one has to be observative and creative. I'm in the process of learning and trying, and to improve I guess I have to go out and shoot more with an objective in mind!

Last week, one shouted at another for pointing a camera at him. The photographer showed him a sorry gesture for a distance and walked away. The photographer did capture his subject from another angle, when his subject was looking at the other way. He thought his subject was a calm person chilling on his trishaw so he thought he can take a front shot and get away with it. He was wrong, and he didn't press the shutter at the last moment, even when he can right after the shout and before he puts down the camera. Maybe he was in shock and froze at that moment, or maybe that was his way to say sorry to the uncle. But when he was on his way back home, he looked at the shot and started to think, why the uncle reacted strongly against him? Was it because he anxious and fretful as he was waiting for customer? Was it his pride as he didn't want to be photographed the way he was? Or was it shame?


week 12



The trishaw uncle by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Zeiss C Sonnar T* 1,5/50mm ZM

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[wonglp]

Flying back and forward to Kuala Lumpur in a day is no joke, it was my first time doing so and damn it was tiring... But on the bright side, I got to shoot in 2 airports in 1 day! When it comes to photography, some of people might find that airport is a great place for photo shooting! Be it human subjects or architecture. I didn't have my A7ii with me, because it was a short work trip and I thought I would be too tired to shoot anyway. And there I was, with my Note 5, and one of my snaps that topped all my Flickr shots for view count and faved in less than a week. Now it's sitting at 2.4k views with 23 faved. To be honest, it's nothing compared to many other shots out there or to some people it's just peanut, but to me it is my first most popular shot of all time! Most of my shots barely hit 1k views, or even 5 faved hahaha... It's a small sense of achievement for me hehehe... Of course photography is not about like and view, but it does make me look back at my old shots and think about my journey in this so called photography.

Easily, you can see and hear many people say "camera is not important, what important is the person behind it", but how many people actually get it and live by that "philosophy"? Sure it's always be exciting and fun to own some fancy gears, but when it comes to a point where gear is what everyone talks about and no one is out there to shoot, now that's something wrong. Often people will choose the easier path to achieve something, and in photography some people actually think getting the latest and best gears can land you many great shots. A seasoned photographer would know that there's no easy way to get great shots, and one has to be willing to listen, watch and actually go out and shoot in order to master just a fraction of the great art. In the end, it's down to the person on how far he/she wants to take it. No need to take everything so serious, and for me, I'm just more than happy to snap away and get to know there are people who appreciate and like my stuffs (this may be the nature of a graphic designer, so YMMV).

So my Note 5 beats the **** out of my A7ii with real lenses LOL only this time!

week 11



X by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

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I like this shot, and who cares what camera it's taken with?

 

[ahblack]

I like this shot, and who cares what camera it's taken with?

Thank you bro!

Some might download the photo and check out the EXIF LOL

 

[ahblack]

It was Good Friday! A long awaited long weekend! Me and my wife had a short getaway to Batam, and for this trip I didn't bring my camera. I DIDN'T BRING MY CAMERA! What was I thinking?! To be honest, I was kicked hard by regret from the moment I left my house and on the way to jetty. I only had my Note 5 and some lens attachments (those macro fisheye thingy, christmas gift from colleague LOL). I made the decision because I thought we were gonna spend most of our time at spa and hotel, so probably nothing to shoot. And I kinda forgot about my APAW hahaha...

It was a wonderful experience, going out on trip without my camera. Of course that was a short trip and there wasn't much things to shoot, but to be care free and simply enjoy the trip was good. It makes me think back about my previous trip when I had my camera with me. I was constantly stopping and shooting, and I ended up enjoying the trip AFTER the trip when I look back at the photos, not the MOMENT I was there. I can't say I didn't enjoy the trip entirely, but to some extend, I could have enjoyed the trip instead of putting myself behind the camera most of the time.

I guess we all just have to find the balance.


week 13



People mountain people sea by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

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[ahblack]

Do you notice how hot it was for the pass few days?! Fan is useless as the air is hot as it is... It got me thinking, about whether this is our karma for mistreating our mother nature... Things got a little bit better when it started to rain yesterday! It does help a little bit, but not much as the night was hot... So hot that this cute little guy decided to drop by my place and get cosy in my bath towel! Or maybe it sensed that I didn't go out for shooting for the whole week and I have no photo for my APAW. To the rescue! It decided to drop by and let me have a few shots so that I have something to post at here LOL

Lens of the day, Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC S 135mm f3.5 M42! It's a Sonnar design, and when we talk about Sonnar, you know what to expect. Beautiful bokeh, good sharpness and a nice little pop! With its focal length, the subject separation is amazing! I have yet to try it for portrait (no model T.T), but from the sample photos on various sites, it performs amazingly.

M42 mount is probably the easiest mount to adapt on any camera system, but of course the longer flange focal distance means bigger adapter, which might be a deal breaker for someone who looking for a compact 135mm. There are of course many other 135mm lenses and some of them are much smaller and even faster than this Sonnar. Again, it comes down to price (what to do... poor people here...) and you can easily get this less than 200 bucks. Slap a helicoid or extension tubes on it, focus down to half of its MFD (1 meter) and you get yourself fixed with a nice close-up (not really qualified as macro...) lens!

Here's the cute little guy!


week 14



NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA... BATMAN! by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC S 135mm f3.5 M42

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[ahblack]

Last week I had the chance to visit Singapore Indoor Stadium (again) for site recce. I've never had the chance to go there and shoot for myself (Been there twice for work). Because it was the 2nd site recce and I pretty much covered everything on the 1st, so I sneaked out and shoot for a little bit, with my company's camera.

Sony A77 with kit lens SAL1650. To be frank, it has been a while since I last used it, mainly because I usually use my own camera for work. I've never like the size and weight of a DSLR (SLT in this case) and I prefer to shoot with fast prime lenses as I don't have to bump up my ISO for too much. IQ wise, my camera can definitely do better.

I do miss the convenient of a zoom lens, but probably not enough to move me from fast primes ;p


week 15



Edge by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A77 + SAL1650

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[ahblack]

The most expensive table in Singapore they said, well at least on last Saturday it was!

As you can see, it was LUGS outing again! This time we did it at Tiong Bahru area, and it was another great day with new friends and poison! With Valence as our tour guide, we slowly explored the area all the way to Chinatown. We even met a guy from Hong Kong who was shooting around the area and got him joining us for the walk! It was a perfect day, great weather, great sunlight, great people and great location!

Throughout the walk, I had only used 1 lens, the sonnar 50mm. One reason being that's my only tie with LUGS (M mount lens LOL), the other being it's the most comfortable focal length for me. My friend told me to explore more on other focal length, and to be honest I'm a bit reluctant, simply because I think I have yet to understand 50mm. Despite shooting with 50mm for 90% of the time, I still feel something is missing. The working distance is great for a shy person like me (ya it's like 2-5 steps difference between the subjects if shooting with 28mm or 35mm, but it's too close for me haha...), subject separation is great (not too much not too little), and usually legacy lenses are "tastier" in 50mm flavor haha... But somehow, I can't get a grip on the focal length, my shots are mostly lost with nothing to anchor on. Hopefully I can find out what I'm missing someday. In the meanwhile, I'll just shoot with it over and over again, keep on digging until I find something.


week 16



On the way by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Zeiss C Sonnar T* 1,5/50mm ZM

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[ahblack]

I've always like Singapore as a country for the way it "ultilize" its space. Yeah Singapore is small, and not much bigger than a red dot on google map, but the infrastructure is just amazing. You have beautiful parks around the country, where it really provides people great greenery outdoor and relaxing spots (unlike my country...). So there I was, Bishan Park last Saturday morning for sunrise. I screwed up though... supposedly me and my friend, David were to shoot the Enclosure of A Swing but I didn't check the exact location of the sculpture and we ended up wondering around looking for it and missed the blue hour zzz It was a healthy Saturday for me, as I walked all the way from Bishan Park 2 to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park with my gears and tripod... It felt like I went there for a jog LOL Nonetheless, we managed to find it in the end and David was very forgiving, he is the best!

I would like to take this chance to thank many of my friends who are so kind and trusty for lending me lenses, accessories and even freebies without many questions asked. Salman, Keith, Jesmen, Terry, WK, HL and Deon, thank you all for being such a great friend! For this photo, it was Jesmen my man, who lent me the best UWA zoom for Sony system, the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS.

Hell this is a very delicious lens! Nothing come close to it in terms of IQ (well I never had the chance to try WATE, so...) and the flexibility of the zoom (16mm-35mm) suits landscape photography very well! You can argue F4 is kinda slow, but unless you shoot stars or milky way, F4 is fine and you will probably use F8 and above to get everything in focus anyway. Of course, the size and weight isn't that desirable, but it's something you have to sacrifice for what it can offers you in return.

I did a few shots from different angle of the sculpture, and decided on this as the one I like the most as I have yet to see people doing it (maybe because it's not a good way to shoot it haha...). One thing about landscape photography, is that certain place tends to get overshot and shots from everyone are pretty much the same, to the point when you google it and you get full screen of pretty much the same angle of the place. So the best way is to go there, forget all the photos from other photographers you saw, and explore it with your own eyes. I hope you like what I saw.

week 17



Enclosure of a swing by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS

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[ahblack]

Long weekend usually means going back home! Yes I flew back to Penang for the weekend and IT WAS HOT AS HELL! Seriously, it was way hotter than Singapore when I was back there. Tap water was HOT! Not warm but HOT! Woke up in the morning and almost burned my face because I forgot about the hot water LOL But my holiday was great nonetheless, spent some quality times with family, catch up with some old friends and 1st May happens to be my Aunt's birthday and we went back to Kampar to celebrate with her. It was all good other than the killer weather...

Penang, some call it Pearl of the Orient. I've always been proud with my state, telling everyone I know that's where I'm from. Penang kia they called me hahaha... The state has gotten more and more famous due to the multi cultural, political standpoint, a whole town literally listed under UNESCO and THE FOOD! Georgetown has getting more and more popular place for tourist at global scale, all thanks to THE FOOD and not to mention the mural painting (by Ernest Zacharevic) that started it all. Bunch of people in long queues, taking turns to take a selfie/wefie with the paintings. The scene was truly amazing.

Lens in the spotlight, Contax Zeiss Planar T* 2/45 AF G. For those who doesn't know much about the lens, the lens itself has no focusing ring. The focusing mechanism was built on the Contax G body and to use the lens on modern digital mirrorless camera, you will need an adapter with built-in helicoid. However, I'm a very lucky man. The lens belongs to a friend of mine, Terry and with it comes the Techart AF adapter! Terry was super generous for lending me the combo and I gotta say, it works wonder! Although the AF is not perfect, it's totally workable! 45mm is actually much comfortable to use than I've expected! I was never great with 35mm, and although there's not much different between 45mm & 50mm, it actually makes me have the urge to shoot wider than I usually do! Being a Planar, it speaks much about its IQ and the Contax G lenses are famous for their stellar performance. F2 is great for nice bokeh while maintaining amazing sharpness on your subject (the Planar signature) and you won't find much glow or even bits of CA when you shoot it with wide open aperture. It's a truly pleasant lens to shoot with!

week 18



The Famous Lil Brother & Big Sister on Bike by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Planar T* 2/45mm AF G

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[ahblack]

What supposed to be a nice sunrise outing turned into fly kite session when the organizer (me...) overslept for a solid hour... Sorry guys...

Usually, I will go only bring along my camera on every Friday to work, and I will usually shoot when I'm on way to office and back home. Why only Friday? Well I have this lovely bag, ONA The Bowery which I carry it with me only when I dress casually (Friday is casual wear day!), and it's office wear on other weekdays except Monday which is uniform day... Call me picky, but the Bowery doesn't really match office wear (for me at least...) and my work bag is just a thin sling bag which obviously my camera can't fit. So here's the question, how often do you bring your camera with you and actually shoot with it?

Of course, you have to factor in what kind of camera one uses and what genre one's into. There are quite a lot of pocket-able and very capable cameras out there and there are not-so-pocket-able and super capable cameras. I only have 1 camera (really can't afford 2 and I'm still hoping for a fixed 50mm camera!) and it's not pocket-able, which makes it hard for me to bring it with me everyday. There's of course a simple solution, to get a bigger camera bag for daily use. But remember? I'm picky LOL I have yet to find a bag I like at the size that I want. I was never into Billingham, ONA is nice but expensive, and the rest are mostly look too "camera bag". I might have to design my own camera bag soon LOL

Luckily last Friday is kinda fruitful as I managed to snap some scene around MRT station. I think I need to go out and shoot more to really maintain my APAW hahaha...


week 19



Picking up my ride by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Planar T* 2/45mm AF G

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[ahblack]

How sexy is that?! The beautiful champagne gold body that houses some of the best optic in history! These are the Contax G lenses! Of course, I gotta give a big shout-out to my friend Salman for making my following weeks busy with these amazing lenses! There's the Sonnar 2.8/90mm mounted on A7ii with Techart adapter (Yup... AF ENABLED!), the longer one at the top is Planar 2/45mm which I've been shooting with it for quite some weeks, the shorter one being Biogon 2.8/28mm!

So first thing first, the Biogon 2.8/28mm! Recently 28mm has been hot, and to some might said, it's the new "35mm". GR has been around for long time, and there was Leica Q, and then Fujifilm X70, and some that I might have missed. I'm not a fan of 28mm that's for sure. Last week I went to visit Annie Leibovitz's exhibition at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station with couple of friends, it was a great chance to try out the lenses! I brought along the Biogon 28mm to kinda push myself out of my comfort zone and to shoot with something other than 50mm. To be honest, it was not easy... To shoot with 28mm on street, you really need to constantly looking out things to fill the frame! And you need to get CLOSE! Well I didn't do well in those aspects, but luckily I ended up with 1 shot that I really like at the end of the day.

During the shootout, I noticed some magenta cast at the corners of the frame. Well this is a well known issue for A7 series with it comes to the use of some old legacy lenses. The old Biogon is one of the problematic optic design that doesn't really work well with modern day digital sensor. The magenta corners might be hard to correct if you're without any lens profile to work with or you just simply edit photos on mobile phone. I don't wanna bore you guys with some scientific reasons why it occurs, but do check it out at the forum if you're interested to know more.


week 20



Half gone by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Biogon T* 2.8/28mm AF G

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[ahblack]

Well Happy Vesak day! I got an off day for Monday, so that's why I didn't update my APAW until now... Last weekend was pretty simple, went out shopping with wife (preparation for my US trip!) , watched the new X-Men movie, and anyhow shoot in JEM...

"Go out and shoot", that's what everyone has been shouting at each other when it comes to talks about photography. It's dead simple, you won't get anything out of your camera if you tend to sit in front of your computer, looking at gears and others' photos. You can learn every single technical stuffs about photography, and yet you learn nothing about photography if you don't go out and shoot. Talking about gear seems to be easier to bring around many people, I mean who doesn't? It seems easier to "master" the knowledge of gear when you compare to the actual shooting. Of course there's nothing wrong to learn new things every now and then, but to some extend, a balance is much needed. Sometimes I think those who bought the best gears in the world and shoot crap with it, are still better than those who only talk and never go out and shoot.

So how was my last simple weekend? Far from ideal... But hei! At least I went out and shoot! :sticktong

week 21



In his own world by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Planar T* 2.8/28mm AF G

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[ahblack]

Last week, I finally got something I really wanted for many years. Well it comes to no surprise for those who know me, it's a lens. It's one of few lenses that are at the top of my wishing list, and I managed to snipe it from eBay at a very nice price! Waiting for it is no fun at all, but when it arrived... damn... the condition of the lens and body are just better than I thought! For the price I paid for it, you can say it's a small steal, but it meant greatly to me for owning this dream lens of mine.

Beautiful right?


This is the Voigtlander Prominent with the less famed (compared to the Nokton 50mm f1.5) but much underrated Ultron 50mm f2!!!

I will spare you from the background history of the body and lens. You just need to know that during those days, Voigtlander DID NOT HOLD BACK on making the system, but it was short-lived due to the better systems made by the existing competitors. The lenses are great, but the body was too hard to use due to the way it operates. Some might wondered, why is this seems-to-be normal lens doing on my wish list? It's not really fast considering it's a 50mm. It's not exactly has a killer look (It looks badass with the adapter LOL). It just seems... normal eh? Well when it comes to legacy lens, it's only down to 1 thing, RENDERING. Sharpness which rivaling some of today's top lenses, organic color (well this is just a personal feeling, but the lesser coating seems to be the main reason of the color rendition), beautiful bokeh (15 blades! Fifteen, ONE FIVE!), but like all lesser coated lenses, contrast drops significantly when shooting against strong light (heck some called this CHARACTER LOL)

I only got to use it on last Saturday, when I was out with friends to shoot sunrise at Merlion Park. I brought 2 lenses, the Ultron and the FE1635. FE1635 went straight into the bag once I'm done with the sunrise. It was Ultron for the rest of the day, and damn... It didn't disappoint me, not even a bit! Here one taken on that day, which I think is best to show you, how amazing is the Ultron.


week 22



Oh honey by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Voigtlander Prominent Ultron 50mm f2

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[ahblack]

Hmm... For some who wondered about me being MIA (thanks for caring!), the past few weeks were crazy for me and having no time to go out and shoot was the least of my concern due to massive work load... I even wished there was 36 hours a day for me to finish up my work! Well luckily I made it, and went on a working trip to USA!

YUPE!!! U. S. A.

A place where I never thought I have the chance to visit in this life. Like last year, I tagged along my company as photographer for the trip! It was exhausting (basically 3-5 hours of sleep everyday...) and lot of walking and running (with my gears...) but it was a great experience. I got to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world, Grand Canyon! I got to visit the much famed city that never sleeps, Las Vegas! San Francisco, Golden Gate, Lombard Street, Los Angeles, Hollywood, etc... Damn I missed the states already...

One of my regrets was I never had much time to shoot for myself. Not a single sunrise at any of the beautiful cities I've visited zzz I had around 200+ shots throughout the trip and the workable ones are probably less than half of the number, which is kinda sad considering I went there for 9D6N and that's all I got. Well... It was a working trip after all hahaha...

I will be slow on updating my Flickr, but if you wanna see more photos of my trip, do drop by and check it out!


week 23
nil... a total miss...


week 24 missed



Golden Gate by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS


week 25



Guano Point by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Sonnar T* 2.8/90mm AF G
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[ahblack]

Last Sunday I managed to sneak out and joined a simple outing with couples of friends. And there I was, with my Voigtlander Prominent, SHOOTING FILM! It's been so long, too long since I last shoot film. I was young and clueless, my dad passed me his Cosina SLR and no one was there to guide me. I screwed up couple of rolls, and gave up entirely (wasn't really that into photography yet). Yesterday was different, I have my friends around me, and a phone installed with light meter apps LOL I even brought along my A7ii to meter! But anyway, it was fun and I didn't finish the roll. I think there's still 7 shots left which I'll probably finish them within next week, or not...

And oh, I managed to scratch the coating of my glasses off BECAUSE I FORGOT TO TAPE UP THE CRAZY SHARP METAL VIEWFINDER!!! Geez...


week 26



Carrier by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Sony A7ii + Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS
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[ahblack]

Last week was pretty crappy... My prominent somehow "malfunctioned" when I was out shooting last week and while i was checking the camera, I accidentally opened the hinged back and exposed my film ;( Didn't fired a single shot with my a7ii because I was concentrating on using the Prominent... The grip of my badminton racquets were full of mold after leaving my bag in storeroom for 1 month, and I only found out after played a 2-hours game (luckily the racquet I used on that day has no mold...)

Talk about Monday blue huh...

Well luckily, I had this one shot I really like on last Monday of another person having his Monday blue on train. Sometimes, the shot just comes to you. Everything is so spontaneous and that's what made street such a fun thing to shoot. I think photography kinda open my eyes to pay more attention to my surrounding, in a way it also helps me to appreciate life a bit more than I used to be. There are many interesting and beautiful things around us, but sadly more and more people are looking down at their mobile phone instead of looking at the world they're living in. To be honest, I do that too, when I'm on a train or idle. It's just too easy you know? Just flip out your phone and there's a whole new world you can peep into, isolating yourself from the boring reality. I still remember when I first arrived at Singapore 4 years ago, without a smart phone nor the ability to earn one. I was looking at those people and I was envy of them. Now that I'm one of them, I kinda wish for a different life.


week 27



Monday blue by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

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[ahblack]

It turned out my roll of film isn't that screwed afterall! Currently it's at the good hand of a friend, waiting to be scanned and I can't wait to see the final outcome (well it was supposed to be a total disaster, so I'm gonna keep my hope low)!

Last week I bought something AGAIN... Well it wasn't really an impulse buying, as I already have planned to get a UWA for my next trip to Taichung. This came and I thought, it's wide, fast, and many good reviews backing it up! One thing though... It's a fish-eye! Well I didn't plan this, so I went up to look for info and photos taken with the fish-eye. Gladly, I found lots of awesome and creative shots so I took the plunge. The f2.8 is great for some star shooting too! Gonna be handy when I'm at Qingjing.

Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye. A full frame 12mm (wideeeeeeeee), a fast aperture f2.8 (stary stary night!), and comes with it the fish-eye distortion. Boy oh boy, it's sharp! It's full of CA, even when you stop down all the way to f8 (still visible), but of course it can be easily corrected. What I really like about this lens is that it's sharp even when you shoot wide open at f2.8! The distortion does take quite a while to get a hang of it but once you're on it, it's fun all day long! It opens up creative ways to frame a scene, totally different from your rectilinear UWA (I WANNA TRY THE NEW VOIGTLANDER HYPER-WIDE 10MM!!!). However, I can't say I like the lens 100%... It's HUGE and it's designed for DSLR, and I hope someday they will redesign one for the mirrorless and make it smaller (SAME SPECS PLS!)


week 28



Icons of Marina Bay by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye

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[ahblack]

The film shots are all great! 22 out of 36 shots! Not to shabby considering I stupidly opened the clutch back before rewind my film and the last time I shot film was like more than 10 years ago LOL I'm not gonna post them here as the shots were from last month, and this thread is all about my personal best of the week. Maybe I will start a new thread for my crappy film shots ;p

I'm very very very blessed to say that I have not enough time for every of my lenses (Well my wife thinks I have lots of lenses, but to others might be just peanut...). I'm not trying to show off or anything, but I'm about to go into a topic where most of the people see and feel by themselves.

Multiple gears, as in more than 1 camera body 1 lens (be it multiple/different brand or FL). Again, I'm very lucky to have friends who willing to borrow and let me play with their lenses for weeks and months. It comes to a point where I have no time to stick to 1 lens and learn about it. I mean it's different when you go out travel or work and you will bring more gears with you, but I'm talking about your "exploration" time in photography. I usually refer this to the time when I go out shooting (be it alone or with friends) with 1 camera body with 1 lens (I will bring more lenses if I know what to expect for the day, for example: Landscape + street or etc...). It's hard to choose only 1 as you have so many to pick, especially when you have a favorite focal length (50mm for me!) or a favorite lens (it's like you already have a wife but still thinking about having an affair :sweat

Contax Zeiss Sonnar T* 90mm f2.8 AF G... that's a tough nut to crack. The view is tight and it requires some working distance between you and your subject. MFD is kinda long (near 1m, well about the same as other legacy 90mm anyway...) and with extension tube the DOF becomes extremely thin (for keep things in focus = smaller aperture = low shutter speed = shoot on tripod = yadayada you know how this rolls...).

For street, it's difficult due to the working distance between you and your subjects, mainly the people/things inbetween. But... it does street unlike your typical wide angle lenses. You get a more "intimate" moment, with close-up of your subject's expression. I brought it with my to my badminton session on Sunday, hoping to capture that kind of shots but I was too busy playing the sport... But after the game, when I was sitting at the bench, I managed to capture a few shots of a kid in training. To me, badminton is quite an easy sport to shoot, as there's only a few spots where the action happens if you know the sport well enough. Shot with wide open aperture (in order to get fast shutter speed), the subject separation is OKAY considering I was sitting across the court, and the result is quite satisfying. I will definitely try this again with my own group.


week 29



The little one with heart of a lion by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Sonnar T* 90mm f2.8 AF G

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