Photograph Waterfall and Moving Water.

While I'm not a huge fan of camping or long,day hiking trips, I do love visiting waterfalls. There's something about the rush of water that's both exciting and beautiful. It's one of my favorite photographic subjects. Taken with a slow shutter speed, water blurs into a deceptively tranquil image that effectively conveys the impression of motion in a still photograph.Very soon we are in School Holiday long break and some of you may have plan a trip or trip close to nature. let's take a look at how to capture some exciting and attractive photos of water in motion, so you're all set to go when the time comes to grab your camera and hiking shoes.

Semban Village Waterfall in Sarawak.

 The most important rule for shooting waterfalls (and all sorts of moving water): Use a slow shutter speed. How slow? Anywhere from about a half second to 2 seconds will do nicely. If you use a very fast shutter speed, you will freeze the motion of the water .The longer the shutter stays open, the blurrier things get. Here's what you can expect with about a second. As you can see, the longer the exposure, the blurrier and more abstract your scene becomes.

Waterfall in Semban Village in Sarawak.

 

 We all need something to lean on, especially our cameras. Particularly when we’re going to be using long shutter speeds, tripods are essential. Waterfalls don’t lend themselves to being located by nice areas of flat ground, in fact, the majority that I’ve been to are surrounded by slippery wet rocks, so you’ll need to find yourself a very sturdy and strong tripod.Since you need to shoot with a slow shutter speed, you should set your camera to its Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority mode and dial in an appropriate shutter setting. Be sure that your camera is set to the lowest possible ISO, since a higher ISO setting will make the camera more sensitive to light, and therefore shoot with relatively faster shutter speeds

Waterfall in Semban Village in Sarawak.

We want the moving water to blur, but for the rest of the shot to be sharp and focussed, so you can afford to set the f-number quite high, maybe f/16 or f/22 to achieve the correct depth of field and set the ISO quite low, at something around 100 or 200, as you’ll be using the shutter speed to ensure you’re letting in enough light. Practice with your faucet or even people walking down the street.

Moving water from waterfall in Semban Village in Sarawak.

Once your on location, you’ve got your tripod in place, you know your shutter speeds, and you’ve got your polarizing filter set, all you have to do is take the shot right?! Well, not quite. There’s still the small issue of composition to think about and regardless of how well you are set up, if you don’t compose your shot effectively, it will be lacking that drama and excitement that you’re looking for.
Think carefully about the angle at which you approach the falls. Do you want to shoot head on, from the side, from below looking up towards the point of descent? Do you want to simply feature the waterfall, tightly cropped and focusing the rushing water, or do you want to put the falls into context, with more of the surrounding landscape? Waiting for the right light is also essential, shooting in the middle of the day will be difficult as the light will be very bright and reflect off the water, where as shooting in the early morning or late evening will offer a much warmer light.

Close to Nature  Semban Village in Sarawak.

 The best way to learn composition and timing is to analyze other people’s photographs. Find photos that you like and take away some inspiration from them .I think of photography like music. All the best musicians started out imitating their favorite bands. Then they took the influences of those favorites and melded them together forming their own style and sound. Don’t be afraid to imitate, especially if you’re just starting out. No two photos will ever be exactly the same anyway.

Photographing The Moon.

Photographing the moon can be tricky. Last year I had a go at it and it was a complete disaster with the moon looking like a big bright blurry mass in the sky. After a bit of trial and error. Many times the result is a blurry image or a bright speck on the film. However, getting great moon pictures is simple once you know a few tricks to the subject. Many photographers already have the equipment to successfully take great moon photos. To reliably get good moon photographs you will need: a camera that lets you control shutter speed and aperture, and a zoom capability to about 300mm (this is 10x zoom on some point and shoot type cameras). That’s it, no tripods, no RM5000 lenses, no super-human powers.

Olympus E-620 + 70-300mm Zuiko Lens.

 The first thing you need is a  zoom lens. The moon may look big in the night sky but when your camera takes a photo of it, the moon will only fill a tiny portion of the photo. On a 50mm lens the moon with be nothing more than a dot in your picture. The lens I used in the photo above were taken on a Zuiko 70-300mm lens which was a lot better but to be honest an even longer zoom would have been better.The main problem most people have with moon photography is that they think of the moon as a “night subject”. Because of this they turn their cameras to the night preset or automatically start at a slow shutter speed to increase light. The moon, however, is so bright that the opposite is true. It is basically like taking a photo of an illuminated light bulb in a dark room.
The next thing you 100% need is a tripod(if you wanted to) Keeping the camera still is essential for getting a sharp image, and if your using a long zoom lens camera shake will be an issue as it's the longer the zoom the more camera shake affects the image. The tripod will hold the lens still and allow you to take a sharp image. Also you will need to use either the cameras timer function or a shutter release cable to trigger the camera shutter... otherwise you can jolt the camera while taking the photo and get blurred results.

What f-number/aperture should you use? The first thing that comes to mind is a low f-number i.e. f4.0 or lower to take in more light. This is where I went wrong - the moon is actually very bright in the sky and using a low f-number can completely blow out the moon and make it look more like the sun. The ideal f-number would be somewhere between f11 and f16.
The moon moves. Because the moon rotates around the Earth as the Earth itself is moving, slow shutter speeds will cause blur on your moon photographs. Use the highest possible shutter speed with a relatively small F-Stop to get a good exposure (in this case slightly underexposed) image. With the desired slight underexposure, you should be able to get a fast enough shutter speed to hand-hold your camera. With a 300mm zoom you will need a shutter speed of at least 1/350 for a clear image.Once you have your perfect shot load it onto your computer. Even on a 300mm lens the moon can still take up a relatively small area of your photo. If you got your settings spot on and managed to get a very sharp photo of the moon then you can crop your image and even zoom in a little bit so the moon itself fits better in the finished framing of your photo.

• Use a long zoom lens.
• Always use a tripod and shutter release or timer cable.
• Don't use a low f-number.
• Don't use a slow shutter speed.

When photographing the moon, be sure to record not only the length of time that you exposed your film, but also general weather conditions and what phase the moon was in. This will help you to produce better photos in the future.
 

The decisive moment in Sports Photography.

In sports photography there is a moment that captures the atmosphere and time in a split second that no human eye can see.
That moment is often called the key moment or the decisive moment as famous sport photographer Walter Iooss calls it.

It is normally a split second before the actual action of a movement by an athlete like a moment just before a cricketer, baseball player or tennis player is hitting a ball or the javelin thrower doing a cross- over just before releasing the javelin.

Cuprix in Kuching.

It is most of the time just impossible to anticipate this so called decisive moment.  Sometimes not even a ten frames per second digital monster can catch this specific moment. There is a saying in sports photography that if you have seen the moment through the lens you have missed it… In other words, at that exact moment the mirror of your digital camera will be up, the shutter open and for your eyes it will just be  a black- out at that time…

Water Sport in Kuching.

Sports photographers are always seeking this moment and sometimes it could take years to get an image that recalls this specific moment. Walter Iooss wrote in his book “Athlete by Walter Iooss” that it took him 20 years to capture such an image. It was an image of kids playing baseball in the streets of Havana and the moment was a split second before the player hit the ball. At that time all the surrounding kids eyes were locked on the ball. Even a dog nearby was looking at the ball in mid air.

Watersport in Kuching

For those who thought you get a few decisive moments with every game that you are you are shooting…Read more by log on to this website PHOTO TALK

Watersport in Kuching.

Happy Photographing ,,People :).

Kitten Photography.

Some people feel the same way about their pets as they do about their kids. When the kids are gone the focus turns to pets, and if you have a brand-new kitten, the photo opportunities are practically endless. As an hobbyist photographer, I may take lots of pictures of my family pet, but unless I learn to take better kitten picture.

Camera Shy......

Hunter..

I read a  few tips to help you take better kitten pictures.
INCREASE YOUR SHUTTER SPEED.
Kitties move at the speed of light. Unless you pump up your cameras shutter speed, you’ll end up with more blurs than photos that you can keep. One way to increase shutter speed is to increase the amount of light in the shot. This could happen by moving the subject, your kitten, to a better and more lighted location.
It could also mean increasing your ISO setting to a higher number. Moving the ISO higher than keeping the aperture the same will increase shutter speed. Try to avoid using the flash, because it usually causes artificial looking colors.

I'm not wild ...

 CHANGE YOUR ANGEL.

Snapshots of pets are usually quite boring and dull simply because they all look the same. The photographer is standing or squatting above the pet. If you get down on the same level as your kitten, you will immensely increase the interest of your shot. This may mean having your camera right down on the floor, but if you try it, you will be happy you did.

Black & White Cat.

 All the above photos snap from my Olympus E-620 & lens 70-300mm.

Colourful Spices That Make Great Photos.

An explosion of colour can make a great opportunity for a photograph and, as any traveler will probably know, a table full of spices in a shop or souk can provide that opportunity. Here are a few photographs that demonstrate the fun of finding a table full of photographic opportunities.
Location of shoot India Street in Kuching,Sarawak.

Photographing Air Shows.

Going to an air show? Learn how to get great air show photos! We all love air shows and nobody can resist shooting. With so many air show photographers, how do you get photos that are unique and interesting?

This picture is not from the airshow..AirAsia 

Start off by photographing close-up shots of the airplanes. Although the above photo are so common and boring, it’s important to have a few in your collection. Photographing these types of photos is easy, just zoom in and shoot. Leave some room around the airplane so that you can crop the photo afterwards.Photo snap from my Lumix LX3.

Fireflys Airline in Kuching.

If you are using a DSLR, make sure that your focus is set to one of the AI or automatic modes so that it tracks the airplanes and keep it in focus. You also want to ensure that your aperture is small enough to capture all the details.For point and shoot, compact, or other types of digital cameras with a small sensor, you can get away with using a larger aperture. The smaller your sensor, the more depth of field you will get. This means that you won’t have to worry about the airplane not being in focus.

KLIA.

Finally, don’t forget to enjoy the show. In events such as an air show, many photographers are so focused at photographing the airshow that they forget to enjoy the show for themselves. Once you’ve got your photo, look away from your camera and watch the show.
Malaysia Celebrates 100 YEARS of Aviation:

http://www.mavfest.com/

Since GP Fuller's first introduction of flight with the landing in Kuala Lumpur in 1911, Malaysia has come a long way in the aviation industry. This year, MALAYSIA CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF AVIATION. To pave the way for this celebration, the Department of Civil Aviation along with the industry's finest would like to announce MALAYSIA AIR FESTIVAL 2011.
Expected at this first ever show of its kind are a variety of aircraft from local and regional players. Experienced aerobatics pilots including some of the world's best residing in Malaysia are expected to make the event interesting and superbly exciting. To add flavour to the event, 100 classic cars related closely to the aviation industry will be involved together with the aviators in this event.
The event is scheduled to be held from the 26th to 27th of November 2011 which will be launched by the Honorable Prime Minister of Malaysia on the 17th of October 2011.
This event will also see new life brought into Subang International Airport as it will be an annual affair starting this year. It will be a great time for the whole family to take part during this event and be amongst the passionate aviators and enthusiasts of exciting sports.
To Malaysians ……………… WELCOME TO THE OSHKOSH OF SOUTH EAST ASIA
and to Aviators ………………... Let's show the world, MALAYSIA HAS WINGS !
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!
For more Info just log on to this website : MALAYSIA AIR FESTIVAL

Photographing Subjects in the Rain.

Is the following statement true or false? Rain + Photography = Not a Great Combination. The answer is false.
Rain-Adds That Special Feel to Pictures.

Most people believe that for an ideal photo shoot, a clear day and nice bright light is a definite requirement. When the weather gets crazy people very easily lose their photography interest. Of all weather conditions, rain provides some of the best conditions for exploring your creative side of photography.

Rain brings out a completely different set of behaviour patterns in people. Therefore, photographing people in the rain makes for an excellent and interesting photo opportunity. Some hate it when it rains and other go crazy, so you've got a very lively bunch of subjects to shoot. Watching people through a camera in rain can bring out some of most interesting portraits that you've ever made!

All above images from my Olympus E-620 with Zuiko lens 70-300mm.

Most photographers do not feel comfortable in taking photographs in bad weather. Yet bad weather sometimes presents the perfect opportunity to get most out of our skills.
Read more about taking photograph in the rain HERE