[ahblack] APWP 2018 ~ The Road to Recovery

Almost half into a year, and it's been too long since I last updated my last APAW 2017 thread (1+ year to be precise...). I'm gonna start off with a bit of explanation (excuse LOL) about the reason I went MIA. I took a nasty fall during a badminton match and screwed up my ankle badly on May 2017. Since then, walking had been a real problem for me (was on crutches -> foot brace -> ankle guard for couple of months). Luckily no fractured bone, so my recovery till date is ok (according to my family & friends, it's still too slow... and they banned me from going back to badminton T.T). So here I am now, still on the road to recovery of my foot, as well as my photography. For this year, I don't dare to make any promise, so will just do APWP LOL Starting with some backlogs, then continue into the year!

P.S. Wong burnt me on FB, that's my main reason for my return HAHAHAHAHA


#1 | 19.01.2018



Star Flyer by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Sony FE 28mm F2

​

One thing about doing backlog (throwback...) is that you got to go to the back of your brain and dig out those dusty old files of your memory. It's good if you have good memory and you can write while relive the moment. Unfortunately, not for me (I can barely remember what I ate last week)... But flashes of memory keep coming back as I started to write.

The following shot was taken during a family trip at Khao Yai. I had my eyes on this location since I first started looking into the place. I was very determined to visit the temple for sunset shot to the point that I keep changing the itinerary just so that I can fit it on the afternoon. It was all good, until I had eye infection on the day itself zzz... It didn't stop me though, and we were glad that we sticked to the plan because the place is gorgeous! The huge area consists of beautiful gardens, flowers, ponds and an artificial lake with bridge connected to the main building, Wat Luang Phor Toh. My family probably noticed my determination, and they've waited for more than 1 hour without any complain just so that I can get the sunset. Although it was again proven that my luck with sunset is just as bad as it can be, it was a warming moment to spend the time with my family.


#2 | 15.02.2018



Wat Luang Phor Toh by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Cosina Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical III VM

​

This one right here, is easy to be remembered. It was my birthday after all LOL I've always wanted to visit iLight since the day I found out about the event (back at 2015) but only then I finally visited the event (2018). Some of my friends were saying the iLight was getting worse and worse by each year, about the interaction with the installations and the meaning behind them. For this year, I think they were doing okay. There were some good and some okay and some beyond your understanding in life LOL Compared to the photos I saw from last few years, I think they were getting more interactive! However some of the installations were not working when I got there. On my next visit, they were all working so maybe It was due to the fact that it was 1st day of the event...

Octopoda, probably the one most loved by kids. The interaction was to hit the drum and it will send colorful lights from the tentacles to it's brain. Those kids just wouldn't stop hitting the drums! But from their faces, I can see they were definitely enjoying it and the parents were having a good laugh and probably took tons of photos of their kids LOL It was a happy moment for everyone!


#3 | 09.03.2018



Octopoda by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Samyang 12mm F2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye

​

Well another visit to the iLight! In total I've visited the iLight 2018 3 times, but I will leave the last visit to the next post...

Main reason with this 2nd visit was to cover some of the missed shot during 1st visit (only had the fish-eye and the sky was already dark when I reached this installation...), although I still missed the blue hour again because of work =.= Out of all installations, this is probably my favourite. It's not just the installation itself that got my attention, but the backdrop and surrounding as well. It was fun exploring how to frame the installation, with water or with crowd, with the iconic buildings of CBD or the famous "Durian" Esplanade Theatre as backdrop. So this is my preferred composition, skipping the crowd to keep the installation as "flawless" as possible, but sadly I could neither blurred out the water entirely (to freeze the leaves of the installation) nor get the reflection on the water (ripples...). I could have blended the shots, but t would be "cheating" (just my personal principle) hahaha... But the shot could have been way better IF MY BOSS DIDN'T DUMP CRAP TON OF WORK TO ME AT LAST MINUTE AND I WOULD HAVE ARRIVED EVEN BEFORE BLUE HOUR!!! Haiz... Got to live with this regret for the rest of my life...


#4 | 16.03.2018



FLAWLESS by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Cosina Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical III VM

​

And they say, "third time's a charm"...

This visit was prompted by Deon Tan, a good bro I met through photography. We got clicked since the day when I was still with Fujifilm, along with many other friends. When I first arrived at SG, I only had my then girlfriend now wife. Slowly, there were colleagues from work, members from badminton group, and then friends from photography. I'm blessed to have met many kind souls (yeah you, I'm talking about you) in this foreign land, and I will take the chance to express my gratitude and thank you all for the friendship we shared.

It's been a long while since I looking at the street through a camera and to be honest I got pretty "rusty" at shooting strangers. I was challenged by Deon to not shoot ultra wide during this visit, and so I thought it was a good chance for me to get into street photography again. Shooting landscape is less pressured as it's only me and the scenery, but it's so unpredictable in so many ways when it comes to street. Things just pass by without you even noticing, let alone you get the time to lift the camera to your eye. Through the time I've spent on street photography (not that it' very long...), I think letting go is also a part of the art. What's passed is past, you shouldn't let it hold you back. You just got to keep looking forward for the next moment! And this, was the best moment I've captured on that day.


#5 | 23.03.2018



Blissful by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

​

Looking back all the photos I took over the years, I can't help to wonder if I have any improvement (my friends said my gear had improved a lot LOL). However, this question can't be answer simply by myself. I think I see some technical improvement (in terms of framing and post process), but not so much on creativity. I get less interested in things that I shot (probably due to the lack of exploration in recent months), and slowly things get repetitive. Hopefully a few more photowalk can refresh my mind and get the old flame started again.

The first time I took this scene was way back when I was still with Fujifilm. When I compared the first shot and the 2nd shot, that's when I realised how I've improved over the years. From composition (I prefer 1st shot as the reflection isn't blocked by the rock (2nd shot) during the shot, but couldn't get on the rock like the 1st time as there were other photographers taking the same scene when I was there for the 2nd time...), timing (i realised this only recently, and starting to appreciate the color of sky and cloud as well as the lighting on buildings), and post process (I always aim to post process the photo as close as eyes see, so only slight HDR and no overly saturated). Of course, there are still space for improvement and hopefully I will slowly get better as I continue shooting.


#6 | 13.04.2018



Sunset @ Gardens By The Bay by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr




Garden By The Bay by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical III VM
​

First of all, I'm not a local but you all probably knew about it as I might have mentioned this before. I'm a Malaysian, and Penang A.K.A. THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD is my hometown (yes I'm very proud about that). You may ask, what's it gotta do with this post? Well... I get to travel back to my hometown occasionally and so airport is a good photo hunting spot for me!

Airport is such an unique place with mixture of emotions. People come and go, with different kind of emotion on their faces. There are people who going home to see their beloved ones and people who came back for them. There are people who leaving on a new adventure and people who came back from one. And lastly, people who work there haha... When I travel alone, I will try my best to reach the airport earlier than required just to have some extra time to go around the place. Changi T4 is still quite new to me (this is the 2nd time), and it has different vibes from other terminal due to the automated check-in/check-out processes, hence lesser human to human interaction. Good thing is that the place is not overly huge, so you have enough time to get around before boarding! Till next time, off to Penang!


#7 | 28.04.2018



In Transit by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical III VM

​

Penang, my hometown a.k.a. the best place in the world, we have great foods and great culture and great living lifestyle. But it pains me to say this, it's actually not a safe place to live in, with robbers on motorcycle who will yank your handbag (ladies, be careful...) when passing by or even drop down from ceiling and give your house a nice "clean up" in the middle of the night. My first-hand experience was a robber (very young, probably just a kid) opened the front passenger side door and tried to yank my wife's bag when I parked my car IN my house (I didn't close the auto gate when I unlock the car doors so he sneaked in). He didn't managed to get the bag because my wife screamed (I never knew she can scream that loud LOL) and scared him off. He had another partner (on motorcycle, a smaller kid...) outside and he jumped onto the bike and left. It was a angry and scary moment for me and my wife. Since then, my wife constantly reminds me to close the auto gate first before unlock my car doors.

The safety issue occurred to me again when I tell my parents that I was going out for a sunrise shooting nearby my house (5 mins walking distance, but the place is very dark and very "quiet", only bikes and small cars passing by occasionally. Iin short, perfect place to get robbed...) as they were worried. I took my chances and went ahead anyway. It was very hard to shoot under pressure and fear of getting robbed haha... Everything has to be quick, as I need to check my surrounding constantly for any suspicious movement. The sun was up and there were more and more bikes and cars passing by, then I slowly feeling safer and concentrate more on the shooting. There was an Indian uncle on bike who stopped by and had a chat with me. I'm sorry that I suspected you who turned out to be a nice guys to talk with... he spent couple of minutes there and watched the sunrise, then he rode off to work. Then, there was another Malay guy on bike stopped by for a short cigarette break. And then, there were a few more riders who stopped by for the sunrise and smiled/nodded at me before riding off. In the end, I didn't get robbed (thank you Guan Yin Ma...) and managed to spend some quality time there enjoying some companies and the sunrise. To take the experience and compared to what I had in Singapore, it's just too much of a difference. Singapore is so safe that I can be so carefree sometimes. Singaporean, I envy you for this aspect of your life, but we have better foods though (looking for cover...). I know this post is kind of long, so I hope the following photo is good enough to make up for the time you spent reading my whining. Cheers!


#7 | 02.05.2018



Human footprint on Mother Nature by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical III VM

​

I did it... I broke my own record of not spending more than S$1000 for a lens (I paid 1k for my 50mm Sonnar...), with the BBB of a lens I've longed for quite a while. But to be honest, I got it simply because I really don't like the Sony FE28F2 and there's no other choice out there. Why didn't I go for the legacy lenses? Well I just want a more convenient (auto focus) lens for this focal length. You know? Sometimes you just need help of a stranger to take a photo of you? Ya that's right!

Somehow, the photo I took with my new lens ended up in Explore on Flickr LOL Although being in Explore doesn't really mean much but it's first time for me, so yeah I'm proud of it LOL It's not one of my favourite shot as there are many things that could be better, but it's still one of my favourite scene in Singapore despite it being shot to death since long time ago. Sometimes, I really wonder how this scene was formed/planned and now that it seems so perfect at so many angles. Come to think of it, I should revisit one of my earliest shot of the scene when the weather get better in any time soon. That's all for this post (really got nothing to talk about haha...)!


#8 | 28.05.2018



CBD at blue hour by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Zeiss Batis 25mm f2

​

It's KINDA blessing to be able to tag along the incentive trip with my company's distributors and travel around the world even though I'm just a puny Graphic Designer, and it's all thanks to me being capable of taking some decent photos LOL The nature of the trip is that I'm required to take photos of distributors enjoying the trip and some scenery for publication uses. So far, I've been to Xi'an (China), California (USA), Cruise (Royal Caribbean), Seoul (Korea), and recently Osaka (Japan). Although these were all work trip, but I did get a little bit of free time for a few quick snaps along the trip but never enough for exploration. The perk is of course, I get to "check in" to a lot of places where I might not ever visit in my life hehe...

Japan has a special place in my heart as the country I wanted to visit the most. It was my first time visiting the country (ya..I wished it was my personal trip though...) and the country is just way better than what I've expected. You all probably have heard a lot about the country being very travel-friendly, but you have to be there yourself to truly understand it. It's clean, safe and locals are polite and friendly. I guess Japan will be my first ever solo trip! Now back to earn money and start saving...


#8 | 07.06.2018



Kiyomizu-dera by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

​