Night/ event photography; KL Towers concert

Hey everyone,

This is the blog post for the KL Towers concert that I never got myself to write until now because today I finally have the time to sit in front of my laptop patiently to write this post. Actually, it is more of revising for Moral Education final exam while writing my blog posts and spending time on stumbleupon.com.

Last weekend, Saturday, on the 9 of April I went to the KL Towers concert under The Star BRATs to do a coverage. Went there with AIESECers but met up with my fellow BRATs as well. It was nice seeing them again after the last outing in December. Met Tristan for the first time and he is younger than me. I feel so old.

Alright, I found this picture while going through 3K of pictures that night. I have always played with the quick zoom twist effect but on random and never really thought of what kind of pictures I can produce with it. This shot gave me an idea on what kind of pictures I can take with this effect in the future.

So are you ready for the artist who gave a wonderful performance on that night? To be honest. Standing in front there taking pictures was nerve wrecking because I felt as though my heart was going to come out from my chest. I was standing directly next to the speakers and I could not hear my own heart beat. Anyway, I am liking night photography and concert event coverage. The colours to play with, the lighting to catch is exhilarating. It was an awesome shoot!

Like I said I have 3K worth of pictures from that night and I do not know what to do with them. It feels so wasted not to do anything with it. Anyway, that night was an awesome night. I love the concert lights and effects and what it does to my pictures.

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Street Photography; Photo Walk with The Star R.A.G.E

Hey everyone,

On Saturday, which was just yesterday I went for a photo walk organized by The Star R.A.G.E. I was not suppose to go actually because I felt awfully unwell but it was something I looked forward to the whole week. Not to mention my dad was so angry about my sense of direction the night before because I got lost on the way home and he lectured about me not going to be driving for a long time to come. So I will not be driving anytime soon, good for me, nobody ask me to be so blur that night.

Anyway this topic about me and my sense of direction shall be on my personal blog. Let me tell you about the photo walk. One word, it was; awesome! This photo walk was organized by The Star R.A.G.E which can be found in The Star newspaper every Wednesday. Our mentors on that day was Jason Lioh; http://jasonmumbles.com/, Jason Goh; http://www.smashpop.net/, Huey Yoong; http://hueyyoong.com/ and Robin Wong; http://robinwong.blogspot.com/. Ivy Soon and Sharmila Nair from R.A.G.E was there as well.

Everyone gathered at the Pudu LRT station at 9a.m. I was surprised to meet an AIESECer there! Well to be honest, I did not recognize her, she recognized me. It was Jamin and I am really embarrassed because only that night I was sitting in Old Town with her and yesterday morning I could not even recognize her. Maybe my head was really not functioning properly. Jamin was there and I also met Phyllis, my BRATs junior from Charlie's batch. She is a very nice person!

We were separated into three groups, my mentor was Jason Goh, the founder of smashpop.net. He has an amazing personality and super friendly. The weather was really generous to us that morning, it started to drizzle right when we were heading to the Pudu market. We started to fire our shutters away even before we reach the market.

However, do not take the road sign from such a distance that nobody is able to see what that road sign is about. Make it a macro shot and allow something to be read from the road sign.

Here is a funny thing about street photography, it is like a risk game you have to play along with. If you find someone sitting down at the road side just take a picture. If that person look harmless, take the picture and pretend nothing happened. If that person look like you are going to be beaten up by, take a picture and run. No wonder they asked us to wear comfortable shoes and all of use came in sport shoes. Now I understand. Anyway, this uncle was sitting at the road pavement.

We sat down one by one next to him pretending we were just sitting down next to him but we were taking pictures. We were laughing among ourselves and he was giving us the stare occasionally. He left, we left, no one ran. So we finally made our way to the Pudu market and the weather was being extra nice to us so it started to rain. Rain or sunshine, the photo walk is on so off we went to take more pictures. Rule number one, if you want to take picture at Pudu market, be careful because you will certainly have to run if you take pictures of the wrong people.

In my opinion, compact cameras also known as digital cameras are equipped with wonderful functions now a days. It can take pictures as good as any DSLR cameras. Trust me, I am not kidding. For example, a DSLR camera like my Nikon with basic lens kit cannot zoom as far as a compact camera unless I switch to a lens that can go up to 300mm. Point proven, do not argue. It is the skill that matter most. Believe in your own skills.

Alright this post is getting a bit too long. If you want to hear more about our photo walk with The Star R.A.G.E do look out for it in the newspaper on Wednesday. Pictures will be published. I am not sure if any of mine would be published though. First of all, I did not do really well that day. I was really disappointed with my performance. My shutter speed, aperture, focus point and ISO speed was all messed up.

Going through my pictures was painful this time compared to the KL Tower concert night which I have not blogged about yet. I will do that soon after this post. Anyway, I have a few pictures I will send in which I have not uploaded it here yet which I might if it does not appear on Wednesday. So for now, just a few more random pictures I took that day.

Okay, last picture.

So this the amazing photo walk I was looking forward to. It was awesome but could have been better if I could have just got myself together and take better pictures. Next photo walk anyone? I am planning to go to the Bird Park in Putrajaya one weekend. Who is up for that?

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Passion, not defined by your gears

Our passion is not defined by our gears. Which passion am I referring to? I am referring to my passion in photography. There are a lot of times whereby you will have that certain uneasy feeling when another person doubts you for your gear. I had that feeling quite often but I have realized now to just believe in your own capabilities and strive for the best.

Do not get me wrong. I am not saying my photography skills is beyond amazing which in fact, is not even close to good. I love photography. I love the feeling of going through pictures that were taken by myself. I love to smile when a story is being told through my pictures. The idea of going out for photo walks is mind blowing. 

That is what I call passion. In my opinion, passion is the key to motivation and determination. I will continue to improve on my photography skills. I believe we can never stop learning so I will definitely continue to learn everyday. Learn to be a better photographer. Learn to take better pictures. Learn to learn.

This is just a random post I felt like writing because I am truly inspired by a few amazing people. First off, Jason (http://jasonmumbles.com/)  made me realize that the camera we use does not define our photography. His words were motivating and I appreciate it very much. It is true that the camera we use do matter but not entirely the most important thing. What is important is passion.

A perfect example of someone I know who has a lot of passion in photography and does not let his gears set his limitations will be Andrian (http://andrian-tam-photography.blogspot.com/) Andrian promotes compact camera photography. The pictures he can take with a compact camera is better than some people who owns a DSLR camera for fun. 

I guess I have made my point. Everything is a learning process. We all make mistakes, we all fail at times. The important thing is to keep on learning and improving. 

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