Amazing Asia I – The Lion City, Singapore.

Wow, it’s only been two posts so far and I’ve received so many views. Thank you so much guys

Currently 3rd year Pharmacy has just started, and I just can’t seem to find time to blog. I guess ranting does have it’s downsides too

So anyway, lets continue on a new photography journey – THE photography journey – a semi-tour of the amazing continent called Asia. After months of planning, overtime working, hardcore exam study, 4 guys thought it would smart to spend our hard-earned pocket money to go to Malaysia-Singapore-Hong Kong.

We couldn’t be any smarter

We departed on the 3rd of December 2007. Took a midnight flight to Singapore via Tiger Airways (yes it was an unforgettable flight for so many wrong reasons), touched downaround 3am…and guess what I was doing already…

Haha that’s right! It was around 4am once we cleared customs, ate McDonalds for breakfast (does $2SGD sausage & egg McMuffin brekky qualify at 4-ish am?), so now we’re waiting for the Changi Terminal 2 Train Station to open its gates at 5am. So I decided to check out what Changi Terminal 2 had to offer.

This shot (right) is a rare Capture of the ‘usually-very-busy’ Terminal 2 train station travelators and escalators at approximately 5am.

The only thing I didn’t see in the photo was that surveillance camera glaring right in front of my face…oh dear…

So once we got onto the train, we dismounted at Boon Lay Station to wait for our next train to the Harbourside. My tripod was fully extended, attached to my EOS 350D, I look like an animal who’s sleep-deprived and here I am snapping away illegally at the Boon Lay Train Station in Singapore. I think taking photographs at public/government buildings is not a smart idea…especially in Singapore.

This snap was taken on a busy working weekday 4th December 2007 at around 5am. Mind you I was half asleep taking this photo.

Illegal or not, a few security cameras were around to see me at my glory anyway. Looks like I won’t be going to Singapore for some time…

All in all,  beautiful city, beautiful people (+ girls) and a beautiful adventure for us all. So to cut our story short, here are a few shots I took here-and-there of Singapore at its finest.Taken at the Merlion Park, Singapore City, Singapore. I believe it was under the causeway. Here are the technicalities:

Camera: Canon EOS 350D + crappy tripod.
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm EX HSM DC
Exposure time: 2 seconds
F-stop:f/5.6 (should’ve been 11, I was a noob back then)
ISO: 1600
Time of Capture: 10:52pm and 04 seconds, 16th December 2007.

The beautiful Clarke Quay. This is where we stayed. In a way, I’m glad we did

Camera: Canon EOS 350D + crappy tripod.

Lens: Sigma 10-20mm EX HSM DC
Exposure time: 4 seconds, a 6 picture merge to form a panorama.
F-stop:f/11
ISO: 800
Time of Capture: 9:13pm and 19 seconds, 18th December 2007.

NEXT!

Beautiful Orchard Road in pre-Christmas decorations. Someone from my Photography websharing site Redbubble noted that the blue lights looked like the lines from the Matrix. Haha how corny.

Camera: Canon EOS 350D + crappy tripod.

Lens: Sigma 10-20mm EX HSM DC
Exposure time: 6 seconds
F-stop:f/22 (needed the long 6 seconds)
ISO: 400
Time of Capture: 9:41pm and 39 seconds, 18th December 2007.

AND FINALLY… My most favourited shot of the entire Singapore trip, the Lion City (right):

Camera: Canon EOS 350D + crappy tripod.

Lens: Sigma 10-20mm EX HSM DC
Exposure time: n/a (was HDR, EXIF info. was lost)
F-stop:n/a
ISO: n/a
Time of Capture: around 10:50pm, 16th December 2007.

So there you have it. I hope you guys enjoyed a brief walkthrough Singapore from my point of view. I wish to visit this beautiful city again. I just hope I won’t be approached by the SG police anytime soon.

For a more detailed summary of our Asia trip, visit our blog here http://ultimateholiday.blogspot.com

Take care,

Keegan

Albany’s Scenic Views Part II

So let me carry on.

Day 3 of Albany. Still overcast, cloudy, rainy Imma-gonna-chuck-a-huge-dump-on-you clouds. Perfect. It was one of those days where you just had to take your camera and start shooting non-stop, provided your batteries allowed.

This was a nice scene I just had to take of Albany. Those turbines are HUUUGE. I just cannot stress how BIGGG they are. MASSIVEEE! And if you know me well enough, I’m ALL FOR CLEAN ENERGY. Clean energy for the win. Unfortunately, alot of Photoshop work had to be done because the clouds/lighting were very odd and I was very nooby at my dSLR at that time. Bumped up the highlights, contrast, brightness and level the horizon.

Anyway, we went to get takeaway KFC for lunch and ate-slash-visit The Gap – one of the most beautiful rock cliff formations in the world. So beautiful to date that I lost a dear friend of mine here this year at the rocks – March 2008 – because of this.

“It’s funny how alot of photographers out there shoot without even realising the dangers surrounding their point-locations. You get so immersed in what you do up to a point where you don’t care what’s gonna happen.

Dumb, you’d probably say. True. As much as a photographer’s IQ is equal to one of that who watches Australia’s Big Brother? No. It’s because we try to catch a shot no one else can. Unique is a key in this business. If you can’t, you won’t last. I, myself, can be very forgetful with the dangers that lie when I go too far for a unique shot. Case in point? Well you’ll just have to read my further posts then “

Anyway, when I say The Gap is beautiful, I really mean it. Don’t believe? Have a peek:

Magnificient grey skies coupled with awesome lighting made this shot the perfect “Path Ahead”.

There were a few people in this photo that was Photoshopped out, so I admit this wasn’t the exact scene which I managed to capture.

The second shot, “Beyond Boundaries” (right) shows you how far down you will need to fall, presumably a 5 second drop, should you ever want to terminate your life early. I wouldn’t recommend it, not here at least.

Beyond Boundaries was a mixture of three layers in Photoshop – the sky, the rocks, and the sea. All with their own colour emphasis called Channel Mixer I manage to produce my shot to what it is now. I think this would look great on a wall if it was on an elongated portrait-style canvas. I certainly wouldn’t mind it on my wall =)

Then we came across this weedlands some place close to  so I yanked out my dSLR, zoomed to the highest zoom possible (around 3x optical – 55mm in technical terms) and started snapping. Photoshop filter was placed and highlights were emphasised. In other words, it was photo-processed…and I calleth thy shot “Shades of Gold and White”. I told you I’m lame.

Day 4 of our trip. It was the last day. Dad went to check out how the locals fish at Emu Point beach. It was around 5.30pm. They were catching squids at the bank. I couldn’t care less. I was too engrossed with the SKY. The sky was amazing. This had to be one of the most beautiful evenings I’ve spent outdoors, haha! All I did for this photo was horizontally align it so that the horizon was straight, brightness and contrast and a tool call Burn Tool to emphasise those soft Violet-purple skies. Amazing.

Day 5. So it was time to leave. I was sad for once. I promised myself I’ll be back, Schwarzy-style. We left the place only to find ourselves stopping at this wheatfield an hour and a half’s drive from Albany. It was pee-pee time for us guys. One hand for pee, the other on my dSLR. Okay, just joking…bad joke I know. Anyway, similar to the last picture, I bumped up the brightness and contrast, and added some Burn Tool again, and also straightened the horizon. I know this shot is quite simple, but simplicity is gold. and Gold is winning. and I love to win =)

So there you have it! Albany in from a photographer’s eye. In case you didn’t get the point from my faulty English, I just want to say one thing – Albany is scenic. I’d encourage ANYONE to go there, just to steal some of those Albany-ians from their fresh, clean air.

But if there’s a Capture which I want to dedicate to, it is this shot I took of The Gap in Albany.

Salvation by Keegan Wong – one of my most popular Capture in my portfolio. I’ve got around 1500 views of this shot on deviantART and over 2000 clicks on Redbubble. But this is for you Ali, a tribute from a photographer to another.

Love,

Keegan

Albany’s Scenic Views Part I

Every Capture has its story. This was no exception to the shots I took in Albany 2005.

When I first set my foot down in Albany, I was amazed at how fresh the air was. I swore every breath I took added more time to my life. To be honest, it’s probably where I’ll retire in…well..40 years time.

With my brand-spanking-new Canon EOS 350D in my hand, I knew I had to capture Albany’s beauty using my 18-55mm kit and nothing else. Simple enough, but I didn’t know what you’d use an f-stop for at that time. So it was pretty much on AUTO mode all the way…

One of the first few shots I’ve taken was an award winning one (The Sunday Times 2008 – The World is your Canvas competition),  at Albany’s Middleton Beach and the famous wooden jetty of Albany. It was our 2nd day at Albany when we drove down to Middleton Beach. Max temp was 21C, cloudy and forecasted to rain, my parents and brothers explored the vicinity of Middleton Beach while I scrambled onto the jetty to take a few shots portrait and landscape style:

Jetty #1. This is one of my favourite shots in my portfolio.

Shot settings:
Canon EOS 350D digital
1/400″
5.6 f/stop
ISO 100

I saw the shot Jetty#1 for the first time in widescreen on my laptop 2 days later and saw a huge potential for it in landscape mode. SO I went to work with ALOT of post-processing work – darkening clouds, increasing contrast, adding a blue filter to the water, isolating the bridge and added a sepia filter, curves and brightness adjustment. Turned out good? Well you decide.

The only regret I have now is that I should’ve stopped down the shutter to f/11 and decreased the shutter speed. That’ll enable me to get a sharper all round shot of the bridge as well as the background. Oh well you learn from your experiences…

Anyway, coming back to my trip, we furthered our journey up the hills to explore how beautiful Albany was from the top:

Jetty #2. Also a favourite.

Shot settings:
Canon EOS 350D digital
1/500″
14 f/stop
ISO 400

14 f/stop, good, but ISO 400?? I think Auto mode doesn’t like me. Nonetheless, I have to say Jetty#2 was an excellent shot! I loved the mood the skies gave, the darkness of the clouds, the shadow, the waves breaking at the shore. After trial and error, I’ve decided to place a permanent overall emerald filter throughout the photo, increase brightness and contrast, curves and cropped to fit the jetty coming out nicely from the bottom left hand corner. Perfect.

More Albany shots to come. Watch out for Part 2, where I’ll discuss the other aspects of Albany’s beautiful rocks – The Gap.

Take care,
Keegan

The World Through My Eyes…

Welcome to my Photography web-blog : The world through my eyes. (I must be the corniest tagliner there is out there haha)

I’ve been asked, by demand, to put up a personal Photography webspace, so here it is guys…no more nagging and hagging about spamming Facebook notifications! It’s been ages since I’ve done any blogging or writing of some sort, please bear with me =)

In this blog of mine, I will be publishing every Photography journey I’ve taken or will take from when I started Photography in late 2005 till now, July 2008, onwards. These shots are shared on my photosharing account in websites such as Redbubble or DeviantART or Flickr.  I will also discuss the different viewing angles, shot settings, preparation, and the triumphs and tribulations that I experience capturing the image which I call Captures.

Because life is too short to notice, our world is such a beautiful place. We just need to realise it and capture the essence of its beauty, all around us. I hope my blog will give you an insight into my Photography, my eyes, my soul.

With love,

Keegan