What's in my bag for 2012

This year, I made a conscious effort to bring along my camera everywhere I go. While I look nerdy shooting a big chunky DSLR in a shopping mall, it's all good. I get to take a ton more pictures of the kids and hell, some of them are even halfway decent.

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 50mm F1.2L USM | 1/50 sec, f/1.2, ISO 1000

Heading into 2012, this is my list of current gear and some of my thoughts about them…

A 4 day adventure in Singapore (15 - 19 Dec'11)

So for the year end holidays, we decided to bring the kids to Singapore. I go there almost monthly but the kids don't, so it's an adventure for them. To cover all possibilities, I brought along all the big bruisers in my lens line-up: Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L II, Canon EF 50mm f1.2 and the Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM. I didn't actually carry more than 2 of them out though since I also brought along my Canon Speedlite 580EX II.

We stayed in a hotel with a breathtaking view:

Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L II USM | 30 sec, f/13, ISO 100

A peaceful and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly...

53 Week Photography Projects Week 14: Smiles

I call this 'Kodak Moment'.

Rocking around the Christmas Tree...

A walk around Singapore (30 Nov - 2 Dec '11)

An almost monthly pilgrimage. This time I was armed with my new Canon EF 85mm f1.8 and the Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L. 95% of my shots was with the former, which I have to say, is very nice. It's fast to focus, light and cheap for the results you get. Many people say it's not very sharp at f1.8, but I think it's very acceptable.

The skies were mostly cloudy for this trip which means the lighting is pretty much perfect for photography.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

All I did was put my hand out straight in front for the camera to focus on, then remove it and shoot. Everything else is the lens.

The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011

I love these. Most of them don't follow the Rule of Thirds or whatever composition rules, but they are all powerful and most importantly, they tell a story.

A bit American-centric but what the hey... it's the pictures that matter. Most surprisingly though is that none of these are in black & white which tends to add instant gravitas to a photo.

Most inspiring stuff.

53 Week Photography Projects Week 13: Beyond Reach

My shot for this week's theme. I call it 'Contrail'.

 

Taken in 2008 with my trusty Canon PowerShot G9 in the clear spring skies of Leobersdorf, Austria.

Blooms

I admit it, I like taking pictures of flowers. I really like their colors and contrast. I don't have a macro lens (yet) though so these are done with normal non-macro ones. We begin with this:

More blooms as we go along.

53 Week Photography Projects Week 12: Gathering

My shot for this week's theme. I call it 'Yum!'.

This was from a family barbeque at my fourth brother's home. All home cooked goodness. Nothing beats charred meat I always say!

A walk around Austria and an adieu to the Canon G9

Yesterday I, at long last, managed to sell my Canon Powershot G9. I sold it to my friend at only a token amount. I then took a look at some of the photos I took with it since 2008. Among them is this collection which I finally decided to process and upload. I have to say that based on these shots, the Canon G9 is a very good camera indeed.

Full set of pictures here

My kids

Like any hobbyist who has kids, Matthew and Madelyn (Little PixelNewbie and Little Ms. PixelNewbie) are my primary models for my photos. For the last 2 weeks, I've been making the conscious effort to bring my camera whenever the family heads out. I only pack 2 prime lenses: the Canon 50mm f1.2L and the Sigma 30mm f1.4.

The 50mm f1.2 is relatively slow to focus which makes shooting a running subject a challenge. For the shot below, I had to get Matthew to run back and forth a few times to get a decently sharp image.

I think the following shot could have benefited from my Canon 70-200 f2.8 which will allow for a clearer separation of the subject and the background. If I didn't have a big belly getting in the way (or if Canon's LiveView wasn't such a POS), I would also have wanted more trees than steps by shooting from an even lower angle. Decent enough due to my kids' expressions though.

The 2 lenses I brought are actually more suitable for close-up portraits like so:

This one just begged to be in B&W. :)

53 Week Photography Projects Week 11: Music

Week 11's theme is 'Music'. I call mine 'Music critic'.

This was taken a few years back when I was still using the Sony A550. This was shot with the Sony 50mm f1.4 (which was basically my always mounted lens). My boy started stuffing his ears with tissue when one of the aunts in the family gathering started to Karaoke. Fun stuff.

53 Week Photography Projects Week 10: Wind

This is my entry for Week 10: Wind. Also taken during the Hokkaido trip in December 2010 like some of the previous photos.

There was a snow storm going on and I took this shot in the relative safety of the tour bus. I have to say that the lens (Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L) is very impressive: I took this standing inside the wobbly bus, shooting from behind a panel of glass, with the bus actually turning away from the subject and handheld.

I also have new found respect for dog owners. :D

53 Week Photography Projects Week 9: Texture

I missed out on Week 8's 'Memories' because I tried to take a new photo based on the week's theme. I gave up as I simply don't have the time to walk around with my camera to look for something decent to shoot. So I decided to join according to the spirit of the group: to contribute a photo each week based on the theme of the week.

This is my Week 9 entry: Texture.

Much like Week 7's entry, I took this when I was on a trip to Hokkaido, Japan in December 2010. This was from a shop that sold snacks and fruits.

Oh, BTW, the 'Texture' here is 'slimy' :D

Marketing trip to Carrefour

First time doing this. People were staring but who cares. The lighting was decent and I didn't zoom at all so I had the iPhone really close to the fruits. I even had my whole arm and phone inside the fridge for the shot of the ice cream. :D

These were exported to Lightroom for some simple tweaking: crop, adjusting the clarity, reducing noise and mild sharpening. Many praise the iPhone 4's camera but it only really works well in good lighting. I'll never replace it with even a decent point and shoot to be honest.

Full set of pictures here

Nikon 1... really?

By now, everyone has seen Nikon's entry into the mirrorless digital camera market, which is currently dominated by Olympus. I still don't understand Nikon's rationale of developing a sensor size that's between Olympus/Panasonic's 4/3 and compact cameras. While it's fast to focus, has interchangeable lenses and is pretty small (even though the V1 is really even bigger than the Olympus EP-3), you can't really fight against physics here. A small sensor just doesn't produce images as nice as the 4/3 or APS-C sensors. There's just no way.

Sure it's acceptable, but when is acceptable good enough? And why would a home user (which Nikon keeps emphasizing is their target market) choose the Nikon 1 over any of the 4/3 line of cameras when they are priced the same?

With Nikon's entry, Canon is now the only major manufacturer who hasn't jumped onto the mirrorless bandwagon. Some say they won't at all, some say it's a matter of time. Me, I'm looking to upgrade to a Full Frame sensor DSLR so while a more portable APS-C sensor camera that can take my EF/EF-S lens sounds incredibly cool, I think I'll hold out for the Canon 5DMkIII instead. :D

53 Week Photography Projects Week 7: On the shelf

Week 7! Straightforward enough. My picture comes from my collection from my family trip around Hokkaido in 2010. It was a display at a souvenir shop. Shot with my previous tele lens, the Canon EF 70-200 f2.8L, since replaced by the IS mk II. :)

53 Week Photography Projects Week 6: Neighbors

Week 6's theme was a stumper as to be perfectly honest, my neighbors just aren't that interesting. Well except for that big Malamute across the street. Anyway, I figure Singapore is my neighbor (of Indonesia) so that's that! :D

53 Week Photography Projects Week 5: Colors

Week 5's entry is 'Colors' so I decided to use one of my first Singapore walkaround photos. Bokeh balls!

A walk around Singapore (9-13 Oct '11)

Made another trip to Singapore and managed to see some sights I couldn't the last time. This time I only brought a Canon 50mm F1.2L (on long term loan) and Sigma AF 8-16mm F4.5-5.6 DC HSM. I have to say the Canon 50mm is a superb lens. While it isn't the fastest in focusing, the results from f1.2 is simply brilliant. It sucks in more light than a blackhole! Everything in the background also basically melts into a gooey blurry liquid. Bokehlicious!

I also brought my Joby Gorillapod Zoom but was quite disappointed with the performance. Anchored to a rail, it was barely able to handle my Canon 60D + Canon 50mm F1.2, even though it's rated for 5kg. Meh.

Anyway, I really liked how some of these photos turned out. With the help of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, I am able to clean up the noise and sharpen the images quite easily. It also helps in 'popping' the colors. It is now an indispensable tool for me.

Full set of pictures on Flickr

I've yet to find the guts to shoot much of people from in front of them so most of the pictures here are from the back. And some of the composition is still off, but I think I've made a bit of improvement which is always nice.

Playing with Lightroom

For a long while now, I've been using Adobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop as my photo management and photo editing system respectively. Bridge isn't perfect, but it has a very short learning curve and it has a superb KISS approach. I've been using Photoshop since version 3; I'm by no means an advanced user, but I'm very comfortable with how I use it.

Spending way to much time on the Internet however, I've learned that many photographers use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for managing and editing their photos instead. After playing around with it for about 2 days, I now understand why Lightroom (along with Apple's Aperture) is THE application for the photographer. It basically allows you to do 99% of what you need with a photo: manage, edit, beautify, crop, add filters, fix errors, reduce noise. All of them can be done in Lightroom.

This photo was part of my walkaround set from Singapore in September. I couldn't edit it properly in Photoshop then so I never did post process it.

With Lightroom, I cropped, converted to black & white with a preset, adjusted contrast and luminescence, added a vignette and even added a watermark. And it took less than 10 minutes to do it.

It won't be printable considering how much I cropped it, but it looks decent for the web :). And with that, I'm sold on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

53 Week Photography Projects: Tools

So my friend entered me into this Facebook group called '53 Weekly Photography Projects'. There's a weekly theme and we're supposed to post up our photos based on the theme. This week's theme (week 4) is 'Tools'. Here's my contribution.

I took this picture of the compressor's filter in 2008 in Austria while attending an inspection of compressors we were supplying to a customer. It was taken with a Canon G9 on automatic settings. Have to say it's a lucky shot heh.

OP/TECH USA Cam Strap - QD

One of the more annoying things about the Canon G9 and G11 is the lack of a hand strap. The strap that comes with the camera is a very retro-looking over the neck type which mounts on both sides of the camera. It's bulky and not very practical.

For the longest time I've used the Olympus Mju-800's wrist strap on my G cameras. It's simple and it works fine, if a tad on the small side. So for a few years now, I've been looking for a replacement wrist strap without much luck.

Until I stumbled on OP/TECH USA's Cam Strap - QD which is proving to be a lot more comfortable (due to the Neoprene) than the old Olympus strap. It also looks less pathetic than the old strap heh.

A walk around Singapore (22-24 Sep '11)

Made a short trip to Singapore and as I was planning to get a new bag, I lugged my camera, the Sigma 30mm f1.4, Canon 70-200mm f2.8L and a borrowed Canon 16-35mm f2.8L. The Singapore F1 Grand Prix was on so many of the usual sights were closed to the general public (fascists!) but I did a bit of late night walkaround other areas.

Full set of pictures on Flickr

This is the first time I've done Street and Black and White Photography. I like them enough to want to explore more. More thoughts on the trip and lenses soon.

Why I have 2 PowerShot Gs

Yes I have 2 PowerShot Gs but I swear, I only paid for 1 :D. Let me explain...

I bought the G9 when it came out to replace my Olympus Mju 800 because well... I've always wanted a G because of the superior results, the manual controls, the 'old school' look yadda yadda. So when the G9 appeared in the market, I was in line to get one pretty quickly. And I was very happy with the G9.

2 years later the G11 was released and I got it as a present :D. Yes life is good. But I never did get around to selling my G9. Perhaps I'll pass it to my boy when he's old enough. The G9 is still pretty decent quality-wise.

And that is why I have 2 PowerShot Gs.

Hello World!

This is my first post of a (fingers crossed) continuing blog about my foray into photography. Oh damn, look at the time, tomorrow's a working day. Meh.