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

[wonglp]

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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I still have the 90mm hehe. Even longer on the format that I used. collecting dust these days

 

[ahblack]

I still have the 90mm hehe. Even longer on the format that I used. collecting dust these days

Hahaha you're an UWA guy, hardly see you shoot anything longer than 50mm. Lately see you jumping this ship and that ship, itchy d huh?? LOL

 

[ahblack]

Last Sunday was an adventurous one! Together with some friends, we went on a photography walkathon (seriously, we walked like 5km for the whole morning), visiting the Old Bukit Timah Railway Station and a hidden junk yard along Turf Club Road. Main highlight of the day, Jesmen my man lent me his Leica Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH for the day! A truly gorgeous lens (he owns the chrome version!!!), combined with the Voigtlander VM-FE helicoid, the weight is quite something. I guess I've been spoilt by my small Sonnar 50mm XD

As you might have already figured it out, the lens is INSANE! Insanely sharp at the center even it's wide open (purple fringe is there, but only around strong highlight places), insanely pop (that micro-contrast yoooo), insanely nice handling (size and weight are good, just that I accidentally turned the aperture ring couple of times when I was focusing because I couldn't get used to the focusing tab), and also INSANELY EXPENSIVE! You all know what the red dot does to your bank account. But when it comes down to rendering, I would still go for my Sonnar 50mm. It's just personal taste :think:

week 30



Curiosity by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH

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[wonglp]

Hahaha you're an UWA guy, hardly see you shoot anything longer than 50mm. Lately see you jumping this ship and that ship, itchy d huh?? LOL

Didn't jump ship lah, just going for some boat trip and see different views hahaha. I do shoot 150mm (Olympus 75mm/1.8) quite a bit , just didn't post much 😊

 

[pinholecam]

Keep up the good work.
Many nice captures.

 

[ahblack]

Didn't jump ship lah, just going for some boat trip and see different views hahaha. I do shoot 150mm (Olympus 75mm/1.8) quite a bit , just didn't post much ��

Ah I see... LOL boat trip huh?? Nicely said hahahaha

 

[ahblack]

Keep up the good work.
Many nice captures.

Thank you bro!

Actually I'm really inspired by your thread, that's why I add a little bit of lens review plus my own weekly nonsense LOL

 

[ahblack]

Well this is going to be another year not being around Singapore during its National Day. Of course, not that it really matters as I'm not a Singaporean. I hope you guys don't take this offensive. Despite people telling/predicting me not to go back to Penang (you all know what's the current status of Malaysia...), my heart just doesn't belong here. Singapore is a great country, it just simply better than Malaysia in many ways. Take 1 thing as example, safety. I can just sling my camera bag with my tripod, going around on foot from day to night without worrying much about getting mobbed in the middle of the street by some "professional" robbers on motorcycle. With NDP is getting nearer, I see people starting to decorate their houses and cars, streets filled with Singapore flags and such. The more I see it, the more I miss my home...

Again, I'm pushing myself to use the 90mm more just to see how far I can go with such limited focal length. Using it for some cityscape is actually quite fun! One good thing about using tele lens for landscape, is that you can flatten/compress the whole scene and create a very different look from the usual "gotta catch'em all" ultra wide angle lens. This lens has only tiny hint of pincushion distortion, barely visible when I was edit the following shot. Expect sharpness rivaling today's modern lenses, but only slightly slower (f2 vs f2.8). While corners sharpness isn't the most important factor when it comes to a fast 90mm, this one performs amazing at that department, which makes it kinda nice for some tele landscape!

Now that I've tested the lens on a lil bit of sport and cityscape, perhaps next gonna be street in Penang!


week 31



Forthcoming by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

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[ahblack]

Spent my last weekend back at my hometown. It was a hell trip on bus this time because I couldn't sleep! On the trip from SG to Penang, the air from the aircon was warm! At one point it just stopped working... Luckily we changed bus at KL Sentral and it was a smooth ride all the way to Penang. I was pretty exhausted when I reached Penang, all I wanted was just rest and rest and rest, no mood to go out shoot at all zzz It was even worse when I was on my way back to SG from Penang. The bus driver was acting very strange, as if he was on high, moving up and down on his seat, singing and whistling. At one point he even opened his door out of no reason and slammed it hard! I basically looked like a zombie when I got off the bus...

Ever since I got the Ultron, I keep picking it over others when I need a 50mm. Well the Sonnar 50zm is still my favorite, and probably that's why I left it with my friend while I keep on exploring the Ultron. Having the sonnar around me will just make me ignore every other 50mm I have. So about the Ultron... One main disadvantage of old lens, is that it really suffers when there's strong light around you and you can't find a way to get around it. You lose contrast, sometimes even flare all over your frame. Contrast is easy to fix, you just have to bump it up in post, but flare... Well if you're optimistic, you can just say it's the characteristic of the lens. I don't really like to stop down aperture unless I really have no choice, and that's one of the reason why I like this Ultron so much. It's just so sharp and has so much classic rendering to it when it's wide open. The lens is not that rare at all, in fact you can find quite some copies in eBay (I got mine together with the body). However, it's quite hard to find one in good condition at a good price. And ya... the adapter is expensive...


week 32



盼 by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Voigtlander Prominent Ultron 50mm f2

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[ahblack]

Badminton, a sport I enjoy the most (I'm super suck at soccer and basketball...) and last week I brought my camera along with me (again) and took some shots for my friends. As you all have known, it's a very fast paced sport, especially doubles where you can expects lots of fast smashes and pushes from both sides to out-maneuver each other in every single rally. Shooting the game with manual focus is hard enough, and to do it with a 90mm at f2.8, that's even harder... Reasons being it's an indoor sport, and despite with all the lights around, it's still not as bright as you thought, and you need high shutter speed to freeze moments. I was on 1/500 and f2.8, I had to up the ISO to 3200 and I still get blur shots occasionally. But of course, my setting is not quite the standard which pros use in tournaments. With fast and accurate tracking AF of DSLR, coupled with good working distance and long lenses, it helps quite a lot. Well I'm just a guy who happens to like badminton and photography, so I can still make do with what I have.

With some understanding of the game, it helps nailing some action shots based on prediction. With f2.8 on 90mm, you can figure out the thin DOF and it doesn't leave much space for you to zone focus. But if you know where most of the actions happen on the court, it isn't that hard at all. However, shooting with 90mm in a small hall packed with 6 courts, it does limit the working distance. To get full body shots, you will have to stand beside the net (center of the court) and wait for your subject to play at the rear court, or you shoot through the net which is highly not recommend (impossible to blur out the net entirely with the working distance), unless you know what you are to include the net in your shot. Perhaps something like this...

But I was after a different kind of shot. Using a 90mm in such tight space means you are left with doing closeup shot, which emphasize on expressions of the players, or you can say "intimate" shot. For that 2 hours session, I only managed to get 1, which I'm quite satisfied with. DOF gets even thinner when you shoot not much longer than the MFD, so to me it was 90% luck :sweat: Of course, there's much to improve on the framing (chopped fingers), timing was a little bit off (blocked by another player) but the expression is there. Let's see if I can nail more of this during the next few badminton sessions.


week 33



Reach by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

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[ahblack]

Last Saturday was fun! It's always great time hanging out with old friend but sadly, it was a farewell for him as he will soon goes back to Penang permanently, something I wish for myself in near future. Family is still the most important aspect in our life. Even if you hear no complain from parents about you being away from home for years, you know they are wishing you to be by their side every minute of their life. They are not getting younger, and with my younger brothers are studying/working at different part of the world, it worries me even more as they are both alone at home. Luckily they are healthy and well, often hang out and travel with their friends. But still, I wish I can spend more time with them.

You all know about Trinity lenses, and they are not limited by zoom only. My trinity lenses are consisted of 1 x UWA, 1 x Wide (28mm), and of course my favorite short tele (50mm). But of course, you don't have to bring all 3 lenses with you all the time. Last Saturday, I expected to shoot some interior (cafe/bar/restaurant), some food porn and perhaps some portrait. Me being me, I chose the Contax G 28mm/2.8 over FE28mmF2, and with it there was my trusty Prominent Ultron 50mm F2. The 28mm was the highlight of the day, and I'm going to talk about it more.

Contax Zeiss Biogon T* 28mm f2.8 AF G, made for the uniquely amazing Contax G system. 28mm is all about frame:content, as you get more into your frame compared to 35mm, and DOF is good when you wish to do some closeup food porn. As you all might have known, the wider the lens, the more DOF you get once you stop down your aperture. When it comes to closeup shot, every millimeter of DOF counts, as you want to get the cake in focus instead of just the cherry on top when you shoot a cherry sponge cake (you get what I mean...). This is where the focus plane comes in play.

A picture says a thousand words, pic from www.anstendig.org

By utilizing the focus plane not just by X and Y but Z axis too, you can control the focus plane when the environment is low light, and you can't stop down too much because you will end up with slow shutter speed which results a blurry shot. This works on shooting wide open too. For example, in portrait you wish to get the face of model in focus yet maintaining the subject isolation, you can work with pose and angle of your shot to achieve fully in focus face instead of just 1 eye or 2 eyes and blurred out the nose and ears. If you can find a way around it, shooting wide open or stop down will always work for you

week 34



Grilled BBQ Pork Vermicalli & Spring Roll by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Contax Zeiss Biogon T* 28mm f2.8 AF G

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[ahblack]

Well well well... Who would have thought that someone would swap his M9 for my A7ii for couple of days. M9 for A7ii... Leica M9 FOR A7ii!!! It's a win win situation for both of us anyway LOL I get to play with the M9, all thanks to Valence my man! Maybe I should just runaway with it :devil:...

Rangefinder, a digital one to be more specific. The M9 presents a whole new set of challenges for me, all due to how "pure" the experience shooting with it. Pure as what Leica said... The main challenge for me is no live preview, which I got spoiled badly by the A7ii. What I see is not what I get. I never had enough experience with OVF even with DSLR. There's the parallax error of the rangefinder, due to the off-centered ovf. Combined with no exposure preview (only with the > 0 < indicator), that's one big pain in the a$$ for me... But of course, shoot with it long enough you will definitely learn how and get used to compensate the parallax error. Or... you can just correct it in post DANG!

The whole experience got me thinking about my passion for photography. Once people have gotten far enough with photography, they usually find themselves more challenges to fuel their passion. A question to myself (or to you who are reading this), how much "difficulty" you are willing to put yourself through to experience the essence of photography, and yet not to be bothered about missing shots, one after another? There are so so many "convenient" choices of camera nowadays, or even handphone which can take you through the day for photo taking. Live preview, auto (tracking) focus, stabilizer, weather resistant, mega pixel, high ISO performance, memory card, etc... So why would one pay more to pick up a camera that makes your shooting much more difficult? There's a balance between enjoying taking photo and actually getting the photo you want. Me? I don't see myself spending thousands of dollar to making my shooting (or my marriage life...) that difficult. Leica M has its charm, but for me it's not worth. Maybe it's just me, for I have yet to appreciate the M9 for what it is. I can always go back to my Voigtlander Prominent if I need difficulties LOL In the end, I care about the photo more (just a little bit) than the experience. Manual lens with modern advance digital body, best of both world for me! YMMV...


week 35



In its wing by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Leica M9 + Kobalux Super Wide 21mm f2.8
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[Nikonzen]

I follow stop & stare thread guess I missed this one. I am on board now. Good to see your thinking on photography which is detailed here. Great stuff sir!

I am all about the glass nowadays. Expensive or cheap does not matter. How it can see things and then using that to make something logical, illogical, artful, whatever...I think that is a big part of what trips my trigger.

 

[ahblack]

I follow stop & stare thread guess I missed this one. I am on board now. Good to see your thinking on photography which is detailed here. Great stuff sir!

I am all about the glass nowadays. Expensive or cheap does not matter. How it can see things and then using that to make something logical, illogical, artful, whatever...I think that is a big part of what trips my trigger.

You are too flattering Nikonzen! These are just my weekly nonsense haha... Thanks for your support!

Well I do wish I can be as happy trigger as you... Although I love photography, but I think it's better for me to have more control on the spending. I happens to have many kind friends who don't mind lending me their expensive gears. It cures my "hunger" LOL

Like you said, it's all about reasoning, but good and cheap glasses don't appear often. Gotta do what you "need" to do hehe...

 

[ahblack]

Last week, my 50mm Sonnar came back to me! Just in time to pair it up with the M9. As some of you might have known about the issue of focus shift, the Sonnar has its problem (depend on which aperture the lens is optimized) when you change the aperture AFTER you set your focus. What I'm about to get into is not the issue itself, but the mindset behind the so called "issue".

There's always way to compensate these issues, just like how people shoot with a rangefinder. You can never get whatever you see from that viewfinder, you can only guesstimate your composition. It only becomes a problem when you don't work around it, hence why rangefinder is not for everyone. It requires a degree of familiarity with the system in order to get the shot you really want. You have bring it out and shoot with it long enough, to gain that muscle memory so that you can nail shot after shot. I often frustrated with my shots not being perfectly straight and sharp, or even properly framed. That's the side effect of moving from EVF to OVF (rangefinder in this case). I've been shoot at manual mode with A7ii and never bothered by those issues due to the convenience of live view (exposure preview). Using the M9 really put me in many difficult situations, but somehow I feel more personal toward making a good photo. You messed up your exposure because you didn't pay attention to the change of light around you. Something got cropped off because you didn't pay attention to the frame line. You miss focus because you changed your distance and forgot to refocus. Everything is on you. But when I look at the photos I made, with my own effort, I can't help to love them more even they are not perfect. Photography was never about being perfect anyway, it's more about the meaning behind your frame.


week 36



Behind the scene by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Leica M9 + Zeiss C Sonnar T* 1,5/50mm ZM
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[ahblack]

What a long weekend! Work on Saturday, badminton and photo walk on Sunday, and woke up at 8am for poison session on Monday. And I thought I get to sleep till noon on the weekend... Another long weekend is coming (for me only hehe), as I will be HEADING BACK TO PENANG this weekend!!! Friends are getting married on the weekends, gonna be busy from morning to night... It feels like I'm much busier on holidays than my work day LOL

During the last photo walk, I managed to push myself for a bit by using the M9 to shoot cityscape. 1 main disadvantage of the M9 is the lack of EVF (M240 has it of course). Again, the parallel error is always there to mess with you. No leveler no live view no nothing, only you and the frame lines inside the OVF. I wanna take this chance to thank my friend Alvin for lending me his Kobalux 21mm. Using a wide angle lens with M9 for cityscape is not easy at all. Because I had no leveler with me at that time, and the external OVF (M9 doesn't have 21mm frame line) doesn't really help as the parallel error is still there. I ended up relied on the 1 sec preview, slowly adjust my framing by looking at the shot preview until I get my desired framing.

After weeks of using the M9, I will do a little conclusion on my user experience as it's going back to its owner tomorrow sadly :cry: So here it goes... It's not a camera for everyone, especially for people who just got into photography. It requires a degree of understanding about photography and mental toughness to wield it (okay I might a bit over on this one LOL). It's fully manual. You are on your own when it comes to focusing and exposure. You need to slip your mind into many parts to take care of the many aspects of taking photo. You have to use the inaccurate frame lines to compose your shots (compensate by adjusting your angle along the way), you have to align the tiny patch to focus on your subject (my left eye went blur many times as I squint very hard), you have to rely on the > 0 < and adjust your shutter speed or aperture or ISO to get the exposure (strong backlight will screws you bad). Auto white balance... Sometimes you can really call it "Random IG Filter" that auto applies on every photo of yours. ISO performance is so so, ISO1250 is the furthest I'm willing to go but do know that M9 is quite an old camera (2009). What else? Your rear LCD is basically useless when you wanna make sure if your shot is indeed in focus or not, you can use it to check your composition though... Is the M9 really that bad?? Well to me, it's the price that made it bad but the camera itself is a fantastic tool to use. It slows you down so much, to the point that you have more time to put thought into your shots. It challenges you to think, how can you approach a shot, based on the available light and your surrounding. Your focus won't be very reliable when you shoot with your lens at wide open, so stop down and make use of the DOF. But to stop down, you need more light so what are you gonna do about it? Push ISO and embrace the noise? This is the kind of hardship that makes you grow in photography. I felt a bit sad and happy at the same time when my friends told me that I shoot better with the M9 hahaha... So my final verdict goes like this...


"If you have the money and will to take up challenges in order to learn and improve your photography, by all means go get a Leica M but know that it doesn't transform you into professional photographer who takes amazing photo at every instant.
OR
you can just get a basic DSLR/mirrorless camera plus couple of lenses (ya you can shoot full manual with them too), use the rest of the money to go on a nice trip with your family/lover/friends and record your sweet memory with it."



week 37



Lotus by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Leica M9 + Kobalux Super Wide 21mm f2.8
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[ahblack]

September seems to be a hot month for wedding! I even had 2 of my best friends got married on the same day! That was the main reason I had a short trip back to Penang for the weekend. I got the chance to shoot wedding day (just 1 morning though...) for the first time! I must admit, I wasn't well prepared but luckily my friend likes the shots. I will take the chance here and wish them happily ever after!

Even though I'm not their official photographer, it was still pretty intense to me, as I wasn't sure what I was should do. I only had 1 thought, that was to do a simple documentary about his preparation for the wedding day. It started off with him getting ready, simple portrait of himself and some traditional "rituals" like parents helping him to wear the coat. Everything was simple and easy, posing and such. But... it started to get hectic when we reached the bride's house and they start playing games! I was shooting with manual focus lenses, and indoor light wasn't that great to use the zone-focusing method. I should have used the flash but I was concern about getting in the photographer's way. Later he thought I was just a cameo yet act like master LOL

It was a great experience for me, a rare opportunity as not many willing to trust a newbie like me to handle one's wedding day LOL Another friend is getting married on January, and he asked me to cover his wedding day after seeing me in action on that day (he is one of the brothers). So it means I have less than 4 months to improve myself :sweat: Hopefully I will do better by that time!


week 38



Brothers and sisters by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Kobalux Super Wide 21mm f2.8
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[ahblack]

Another lazy weekend... My eagerness to go out and shoot has been lessen ever since I return the M9. Is that a sign? That I'm poisoned deep deep by the M9?! This is bad... My wallet are definitely not ready for that jump, hopefully the feeling won't last long...

Despite people saying gear doesn't matter, it's the person behind the camera that matters. Well I can't say it's entirely wrong, but it's not entirely right as well. I don't wanna talk about specs of gears this time, instead I will focus on what gears that makes a person "happy". It's the same feeling of owning any sort of thing in the world. If you like it, you will tend to use it more often. For example, I like mirrorless camera due to many conveniences of the system. If I were to own a DSLR and a mirrorless camera, the mirrorless camera will obviously get more use and DSLR will only be out of the dry cabinet when I need to do some serious works. It's in human nature that we always chase for the latest things, camera gears are no exception. If one has certain liking to a camera brand and uses for it, well it's the greatest thing for that one person as he/she already found his/her personal best/favorite camera, way better than those who constantly changing camera/brand/system based on trend :sticktong So pick your poison carefully...


week 39



Red Bean with Milk Snow Ice by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


Sony A7ii + Sony FE 28mm f2
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[ahblack]

Guess what? After weeks of slacking, I've finally picked up my ass and went out for sunrise at Kallang River + photowalk at Rochor Centre! For sunrise, I usually have only Saturday morning to do it, as I play badminton on Sunday morning and work on weekdays (duh...). And it's very hard for me to wake up so early on Saturday because of another reason, I stay up late on Friday and usually sleep around 1am... So to make it to sunrise (6.30am), I have to wake up around 4.45am for shower, then a quick breakfast and take the first train (5.37am) from Yew Tee. Last Saturday I picked Kallang River, so that's around 1 hour train ride to Nicoll Highway and quick walk to the side of the river to find a nice view. Luckily the light was great, although the cloud wasn't at its best, I managed to get a decent sunrise shot. My friend said I have zero luck on sunrise and sunset, so I'm very easy to satisfy when it comes to sunrise or sunset LOL After that it was a walk to Lavender MRT (passed by the Waterways Watch Society, quite an interesting place!) for a train ride to Bugis (Rochor Centre).

Well it was my 2nd visit to the Rochor Centre, so instead of shooting like usual (50mm), I brought my Samyang 12mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS Fish-eye and tried to get different views of the place. The fish-eye is truly a fun lens to shoot with. The usual angle won't work, so you have to move high and low, tilt and turn your camera to get some funky shots. The ultra wide angle of view further enchanted the scene and creates much dramatic leading line, guiding one's eyes in the strange and twisted frame. Of course, not all scene can be "fish-eyed" which is why it rarely comes out from dry cabinet. It's not as compact (it's a DSLR lens afterall) as those Voigtlander UWA lenses, so you are not going to bring it around an unfamiliar scene and anyhow whack during a photowalk. Only when you have envisioned the scene, where a fish-eye effect can be applied to it, then it's worth the effort to bring it out with you. I still have couples of scene in Singapore where I think the fish-eye will works, so till then! My Taiwan trip is coming soon too, can't wait to use it for star shooting and others during the trip!


week 40



Rochor Centre by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

Only 1 shot for last week when I was at Bugis shopping with wife. Upcoming Taiwan trip has gotten me so hyped up and I basically wanna save all my "bullets" for the trip. I got lucky last saturday, took that 1 shot and I like it. Although it's not a technically good shot, but the contents in the frame are good enough to have a story.

So let's talk about a good shot. What makes of it? Many who gotten into photography long enough will say that a good shot is not necessary a technically perfect shot. I don't think that's hard to understand, as a shot is only as good as what's inside of it. The story or message, that's what makes a photo good. Of course, this doesn't apply to all genre, as you still need techniques for shots like landscape, architecture, wedding, etc... Come to think of it, that only applies to street/documentary LOL Another thing is that don't overly force a story into your shot. I saw many people do this, trying to make a meaningless shot into a meaningful one. I mean... A caption is fine to describe your shot, but make up too much story behind the shot is a no no. For example, you take a shot of people sleeping on street, and start to write up something that isn't related to the subject like what time you woke up and how you wondered into that street and saw your subject and assumed he is a drunk homeless piece of **** who got kicked out by his family/wife for losing all money on gambling yada yada... Well I will admit that I did that sort of thing before (not as serious as my example of course...) and now that I look back at those shots, I feel disappointed with myself for making something beautiful into something horrid... So unless you find out the true story of your shot by yourself, a caption for the obvious or with a tiny wee bit of your own imagination is good enough. So for all the new and old birds, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR WHEREVER YOU ARE GOING TO BE!!!


week 41



Keep you company by Lee Wooi Chun, on Flickr


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

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