Portfolio

Designing + printing of the portfolio has just sucked monday to thursday of recess week out of me! :/

besides printing the photos itself, there was also the printing of the backings for the portfolio!

i opted for a simple design and maybe some famous photography quotes to go with it: here are a few examples:

cover pages for each assignment and how it looks like for the photos..

and for the final project individual photos…

the pages for photos had a white spacing so that when i pasted the photo on it, there’ll be a white border over it.

no photos of the photos themselves. i printed S8r, matt from the photo shop i usually go and develop my photos in bedok. have been using that shop since my jc days really good quality prints. love it!

so on tues, i met yingqi, cheryl, yeening and yongshen to go over to sunshine plaza to print the “backings”. it was more of a test print for me.

on wed, me yingqi and cheryl went to print the photos.

on thurs we went back to sunshine plaza for the rest of the printing, and to sch to finalise the portfolio.. AND HAND IN!!!!

(LOVE THIS PHOTO SHE TOOK)

cheryl and her portfolio!

sadly the flower photo came out a little too yellow!

and we made appearances in each other’s photos!

cheryl in mine..

and me and yingqi in cheryl’s

and us all YAY HAPPY PEOPLE!!!

and my cute owl! XD

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On a more serious note, i have double posts for some assignments as i reselected photos! Use Categories or Tags for easier navigation!

I also wanna thank all the friends who took this mod with me:

Cheryl & Ying Qi: for EVERYTHING. the bidding, to the entire journey. going everywhere to shoot. law sch, pasir ris park… idk.. and hearing all the complains. printing of the folio..

Lionel: for sharing and helping me every week with stuff – like how to go about doing the work, the editing. and thanks for the diffuser!!!!

Yong Shen: for the company throughout the module + telling me “DONT DO CENTRE ALIGNMENT” thanks loads!!!

Yee Ning, Yee Chuan, Luo Lan, Nan Nan – for the various group discussions/critique sessions!

Sufina, Vanessa, Ridza – the people who are forever active on Twitter with me.. where i asked loads of questions at times, thanks for answering them!

and also the rest of the people that have spoke to me or asked me stuff – hope you guys had fun in the module and continue taking nice photos!

EDIT: i forgot to mention. MANY THANKS TO THE NUSPS PEEPS TOO!!! Hanny, Charles, Kenneth, Deming + the 42nd MC…  cos i’m always there to irritate you guys.. and the botanic outing (esp to ying wei and eric for planning) was such an awesome chance for more photo taking! (i wouldnt have gone alone)

Final Project: 11:11 | Tweets

my final project went through quite a bit of changes from its initial ideas right down to the final idea.

initially it was just colours of the weeks, with each day being one different colour. and i wanted to personalise it to my life.. (like from random blends 2009. 2009′s works left a deeper impression than 2010′s!)

then i thought, why not use this chance to show the craziness of students’ life in uni too? hence after throwing out many ideas like time i sleep each day etc, it boiled down to the wishes i always make at 11:11 of each day. sadly, its always related to school work, because that is what i’m buried in! its school school school projects assignments reports and the same things all over again. and 11:11 is know to be a magical timing if you see it coincidentally. (sometimes i do cheat and wait for it. sometimes i missed it by 1 min! so i really do believe in the power of the minute when i really see it coincidentally) to allow the wish to come true, one must also verbalise it, or say it in passing etc. hence i usually tweet it (twitter addict! :/) and oh, its like a similar version of Straits Time’s series of photos taken at 7:01 or 6:59 each day. just that mine is 11:11. and oh, tweets are all under 140characters!

the title of my FP is “11:11 | Tweets”

modified some real life tweets and here’s a summary of the tweets that i’ll portray in the final project.

decided to “work” with the countdown of week13, as it’s the last week of the sem and everything needs to be done! (as seen in the tweets)

initially i wanted to do it outdoors, but it was hard + there was uneven shadows…. so i settled for indoors + controlled lighting. easier to take the entire series with the lighting looking similar.

so here’s the set up – “tripod” with a single external flash with diffuser, bounced onto the ceiling.

this is how the shooting area looks like w/o any humans. pretty even spreading of light. (thanks lionel for giving me a diffuser!!!)

and to make the series flow, there is a use of the clock (tweety bird.. like tweets from twitter) and a calendar to show the days. (and it also means NO REDOING AFTER I STRIKE OFF THE DATE!!!)

and here’s the final 7 photos of the series!

f/7.1, 1/60s, ISO400, 22mm

6 Nov – 11:11 Sat morning and I’m conducting my first DPP Post Processing course for @NUSPS. Hope everyone learns something new, and is enjoying it!

(sadly hard to show ppl enjoying it?)

 

f/6.3, 1/60s, ISO400, 22mm

7nov – 11:11 Back at NUS on a SUNDAY for #nm3219 project! Very final lap for the entire mod! Presentation tmr, need to repaint my nails tonight!!!

f/6.3, 1/60s, ISO400, 22mm

8 Nov – 11:11 #nm3219 final presentation today followed my #tr2201 meeting over night. Pray we can survive till tmr without any sleep. Coffee please?

f/7.1, 1/80s, ISO400, 22mm

9 Nov – 11:11 Slept from 7–10am ONLY. Need to complete these readings! Though reading harry potter would be much appreciated. Movie’s opening next wk!

f/7.1, 1/80s, ISO400, 22mm

10 Nov – 11:11 There’s an owl on the tree outside now! Gonna try to get a Moment shot! Wish I have a REAL telephoto lens!  50mm’s my max!

f/7.1, 1/80s, ISO400, 22mm

11 Nov – 11:11 of 11/11 Last day of sem! Pls let our #tr2201 “business pitch” be a success! Could make do with a good massage after all the typing!

(i swear the fingers are freaky too!)

f/7.1, 1/80s, ISO400, 22mm

12 Nov – 11:11 (not awake; still catching up on the lack of sleep from previous days)

i tried to make the “wishes” that can be tangible shown + out of focus (cos its sth i want, but cant get).. but not every photo has something tangible..

it was VERY hard to shoot for this FP has i not only had to compose/take the photo, but also model it! people say its easier cos i prob know what i want (like dont need to communicate with the model), but i really cant act! it was so hard for me to even show the feeling i want to achieve in the photos. kudos to all models/actors/actresses man. really challenging to be both the person behind the camera and in front of the camera. in fact thats my main challenge. didnt have much problems with the lighting. editing was simple too – just some tweeking of brightness/contrast… but i am pretty thankful i had such a chance to try such a thing. could have taken an easy way out and just shoot objects/observations….

Updated/finalised photos

Assignment 1:

Line

f/3.2, 1/60s, ISO400, 50mm

Shape

f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO200, 50mm

Form

f/4.5, 1/320s, ISO100, 40mm

Texture

f/4.5, 1/100s, ISO200, 22mm (cropped)

Colour

f7.1, 1/200s, ISO200, 50mm

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Assignment 2:

Shallow DoF (front)

f/5.6, 1/640s, ISO100, 70mm (the print turned out a little too yellow!)

Shallow DoF (back)

f/5.6, 1/100s, ISO100, 50mm (reshot at home!)

Deep DoF

f/11, 1/60s, ISO100, 10mm (i chose one with more foreground to show that its deep dof)

Freeze Action

f/2.8, 1/2000s, ISO400, 55mm (chose this one over the 2 because it seem to have a stronger feel/focus on the water)

Motion Blur

f/11, 1/6s, ISO100, 34mm (handheld)

Panning

f/8, 1.30s, ISO100, 17mm

Assignment 3:

Perspective

f/8, 1/125s, ISO100, 10mm (i love taking perspective photos, esp at 10mm. have tonnes of them, but i like this cos of the NUS feel to it… )

Close Up

f/4.5, 1/80s, ISO100, 38mm

Zoom Shot

f/6.3, 1/40s, ISO100, 70mm to 24mm (besides zooming out, i turned the camera a little, so the lines are curvy)

SMILE

f/2.8, 1/250s, ISO100, 24mm

Assignment 4:

High Key

f/5.6, 1/200s, IS)800, 130mm (accidental snipping shot of my kitty)

Low Key

f/4.5, 1/60s, ISO200, 22mm (i up-ed the contrast for the photo)

Yeaps, so here are my updated finalised photos!

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Assignment 6 – The Moment

this assignment is done together with the sony contest!

i did try playing with the alpha 55, but seriously, it wasnt that impressive. me and cheryl shared the camera, and yet… the photos kinda turn out too grainy and it was like laggy at times. (slow processing time for the multiple bursts). and somehow (maybe cos it’s the kit lens), the images are not very sharp too? :/

anyhows, me and cheryl planned this moment shot for the sony contest during a friend’s birthday. she was seriously shocked!!!

Aperture: f5.6

Shuttle Speed: 1/20s

Focal Length: 45m

ISO: 1500

Out of the sony thing, i decided to do a proper moments shoot. an owl recently decided to make its temporary home at the branch outside my house! it is a super rare owl – the brown oriental scoops owl. and owls, though nocturnal, can be pretty awake too in the day!!!! they are super sensitive to noise and would like react to human activity from the house.

hence, i called over a bird watcher photographer friend, and borrowed his 300mm lens with a 1.4x converter, to hope to catch some movement/moment from the owl! (most people have never seen owls, nor seen their activities)

it was totally hard to shoot the owl. besides it being tiny in size (about 12cm in height?), it kept hiding behind the leaves… and the moments it gives are so spontaneous. you just gotta stay by the viewfinder and wait! bird watching is seriously not easy.

hence i had an entire series of photos. and here i present my one of my fav – the owl giving a yawn! yes it was that sleepy, but yet i kept disturbing it…

Aperture: f5.0

Shuttle Speed: 1/100s

Focal Length: 420mm

ISO: 800

and here are my other favourites! (8 more in the set). love the staring from the owl. they are super clear (as compared to the yawning one) but it didnt really feel like a MOMENT. just starring (luckily there’s no parangs/choppers involved in the staring incident with the owl). there is also one with its claws up, but one eye is blocked!

view the moments slideshow here:

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Moment (failed attempt)

i tried playing with my kitty to get some moment shots.. but i ended up with a high key photo instead!

So here’s just the slideshow of my failed kitty moment shots.. (btw, thanks to ying qi for her 75-300mm lens! was playing with it too)

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