How Instagram has reinvigorated my photography

The main reason why most blogs die off is the lack of an audience. By that count, it's a wonder I've kept this blog going for so long... (albeit with rather infrequent updates)

Fortunately, I love photography enough to keep going!

Of course, even the deepest well will run dry some day, so I recently sought to find better ways of sharing my photography. I first tried porting this entire blog over to Tumblr because it has social network functionality built-in, and then discovered to my disappointment its lack of SEO. This blog completely trumps it, and I suspect Google's ownership of Blogger has to do with it too.

I considered making better use of Flickr, where I already have an account, but even with the recent upgraded interface and 1TB of storage, I feel reluctant to put too much energy into a platform that doesn't seem to be drawing in new users. It didn't help that their app isn't available in my region for my iPod Touch 5, my main media sharing and consumption device. (I use a Blackberry Z10 as my main communications device)

Then came Instagram. I was actually asked by my wife to set up an account so I can follow and "like" her photos on the service. I dutifully did so and ignored the platform for a while, until the start of July.

I can't remember why I started taking an interest in the first place, but since then I've been a very active member of the community. Initially, I didn't have any specific goal for the platform. I thought of it as an extension of my current photo sharing on Facebook, Blogger and Tumblr.

Actually, this isn't my first posting on Instagram. The real original has been cleared out because it was a random shot that doesn't quite merit the real estate!

But after I started exploring the platform further, I started to see its potential as my main platform for sharing photos. Firstly, it doesn't require me to write much. While I do enjoy writing, it is time-consuming and takes time away from the main purpose of my blog -- photography. Secondly, there is an active community on the platform who are engaged and always exploring new content. Thirdly, you do get a lot of feedback in the form of 'likes' and comments, though people are unlikely to give any criticism.

Labrador Park

I visit parks less often than I would like to, but some time last month, I decided to brave the heat and humidity for the first time in a while to get away from the usual mall crawling.

This time, I chose to go to Labrador Park, which is now easily accessible via its very own MRT station on the Circle Line. I had gone for a little gathering at a colleague’s place just a stone’s throw away a couple of weeks before, so somehow it was the natural choice for this outing.

The weather was quite hot that evening, but at least there was a slight breeze to moderate the heat. Not many people were at the park even though it was the weekend, thankfully, which made the walk quite a pleasant one.

I’M GONNA GET YOU: An angler casting his line into the sea as the sun sets. (Admittedly, the sunset colours don’t quite come out in black and white photography.)

Photos taken with the Nikon F6 and Kodak T-max 400 film, using the Nikkor AIS 24mm f2 and Carl Zeiss 100mm f2 ZF lenses.

Sendai Tanabata (2): Outdoor shows

While the highlight of the Tanabata is definitely the long, flowing Fukinagashi streamers around town that I mentioned here, the festival has in recent times expanded to include outdoor events as well.

There are free musical and cultural performances by groups from Sendai and other parts of Japan, as well as the usual food and games stalls lining the sidewalks, turning the city into one big carnival.

At Kotodai Park, the main venue, you can catch live performances by local music artistes and school groups. There was also a segment where they showcased the Suzume-odori (すずめ踊り, meaning “Sparrow dance”), a part of the annual Aoba Matsuri (青葉まつり), a spring festival. The festival was not held this year because of the March 11 disasters.

A bunch of friendly youngsters at Kotodai Park (勾当台公園), the main venue for the outdoor performances during the Tanabata.

All photos taken with the Nikon F6, with the AFS 24mm f1.4 or AIS 35mm f1.4. I used Kodak Portra 800 and Fujifilm Superia  Premium 400 films.

Aomori Nebuta 2011 (3): I’ll be back!

Although staying four nights in Hirosaki seemed like a long time for a small city, it turned out to be too short a stay. We’d spent one evening at the Hirosaki Neputa, two at the Aomori Nebuta, and one at the Goshogawara fireworks festival.

While the fireworks were dazzling and the Neputa an interesting variation of a float parade, the Nebuta had arguably the most to offer, and regrettably we missed the grand finale, on August 7.

Besides the evening parades from August 2 to 6, the last day of the matsuri is quite different – there is a parade featuring the floats in the day, and in the evening, the floats will parade on the waters of Aomori Bay, against the backdrop of a fireworks display. I was gutted that I couldn’t be there. (By then, we had to be in Sendai, our final stop)

And as a prelude to the Nebuta, there is also a fireworks event at Asamushi Onsen (浅虫温泉), a hot springs town just about 30-45 minutes away from Aomori City. Just imagine soaking in an outdoor onsen while viewing fireworks!

Anyway here are some more pictures taken at the Nebuta. Once again, all on Kodak Portra 800 film, Nikon F6 with the AIS 35mm f1.4 lens and SB900 flash.

“We’re going to the matsuri!”

Double exposure fun

I first read about how to use lighting with double exposures in Joe McNally's excellent book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, and had been wanting to try something out ever since. Unfortunately, my D40X doesn't have the function -- only models D90 and above have it.

Fortunately, Joan has a D90, and one day in August, we decided to just try the function. Here's a test shot.

Ok don't puke, it was just for fun. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

So a couple of weeks ago, when Joan had some good friends over for a sushi dinner, we thought it might be fun to try it out with everyone. Here are a couple of the pictures we managed to take, using just one SB800 as lighting.

Love rectangle. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.


Give me the money... © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

When Joan's friend Daniel suggested doing a "family portrait", I realised my folly of not bringing my SB900. But well, we always do our best and the end result wasn't too bad! But I had to cheat here -- as I wasn't behind the camera, it wasn't possible to do a double exposure and prevent any overlapping. So two exposures were taken and layered in GIMP. (I can't afford Photoshop)

We had 12 guests and two hosts at the party. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Anyway I think GIMP is quite feature-packed, though it would take quite a bit of getting used to for the Photoshop user. Took me a while to figure out how to do masking, which was needed to black out some parts of the picture. But it works and it's free, and I'm really quite impressed. Just wondering why they don't have a "hand" function like PS tho... It's not that comfortable moving around the image using the scroll wheel...

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Note: There is however, a very useful Image Overlay function in the D40X, which is found in all recent Nikon consumer DSLR models. It is a sort of built-in HDR function that lets you put two images over each other. It is how, for example, I created this following image a few weeks ago, when I was in Beijing:

Tiananmen at night. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Those of you who have taken pictures of a scene with a moon will know that the moon is very bright -- on a camera sensor, at least -- so when you expose such a scene, the moon will always be blown out. Hence the workaround, and it works fabulously for me!

Skate-Scooting Strobist

I had been wanting to take part in the Strobist.com Boot Camp II, but the themes to the first three assignments weren't easy for me to do. So when the last assignment (ie. my last chance) came and the theme was declared to be transportation, boy was I excited! I mean, I can possibly come up with something...

So while stoning during one of my recent remedial training (RT) sessions, I decided to actually think about what to shoot (instead of what to buy) for once, and came up with a couple of rough ideas. A phone conversation with Joan that night yielded the final idea.

Location: concrete tubes found near her home.
Photographer: Joan.
Lighting man: Me.
Model: Me???

And the transportation? A skate-scooter! I'd always wanted to try riding on one when they were all the rage many years ago, but never did. Here's my chance! (Ok, the truth is, we don't have a car, truck, bike, or any other mode of transport between us. Heck, even the skate-scooter was borrowed from a primary school student learning the piano from Joan)

Pondering over how to pose for the shoot... © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Anyway the day of the shoot-- Sep 20 -- finally came. It was fortunate that RT was cancelled on this day, due to the Hari Raya holidays. And when night fell, we moved out from our HQ (Joan's place) to the location.

The tubes, which were lying on a grass patch next to a canal for reasons unknown, made for a superb location, esp. with the right lighting. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

We have two lights between us: an SB900 and an SB800. Since the SB800 is more powerful, I used it as the light in the distant set at full power (manual). This serves to create a sense of depth in the photo. The SB900, mounted on my Gorillapod on a metal beam that ran across the opening of the tube, behind the camera, bounced off the ceiling of the tube with the built-in bounce card up to illuminate the model (me). I used TTL for convenience.

Setting up the light. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

We used Joan's D90, and originally planned to use the Tokina 12-24 f4. However, turned out that it wasn't wide enough, and thank goodness I'd brought the 10.5mm fisheye along! The shot was taken from a very low angle. And we used a very high ISO (3200 to 6400) so as to make the distant light brighter.

The first variation, with the SB800 closer to me. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.


The final shot from the second variation, with the SB800 further away. I submitted this to the Strobist pool. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

As you can see I had a lot of fun with the shoot. Haha! And I am quite happy with the final product too.

Don't think I stand a good chance of winning, but I guess I can always hope for an honourary mention on the strobist blog...

Edit: Just an extra note, this was another instance when the fisheye saved the day... It's seldom used (maybe once in a month at best) but there are situations when nothing else can do the job, simply because it's so darn wide.

I think I will never think of selling it again to fund my impending camera body upgrade!

Boy in Deyang

I was in Deyang city, Sichuan Province to report on a school expansion project partially sponsored by Nanyang Technological University's alumni network in China about a week back. After the ceremony at the school (pictures to come), my group went to a streetside market to buy fruits back as souvenirs.

As the professors were busy stimulating the local economy, I spotted a cute little boy at one of the many fruit stalls lining the street.

My gosh! Such a cute little boy. He was apparently with his father, who was also busy buying fruits. And he didn't seem to mind the camera at all! So I continued taking a few shots of him.

That's him hugging his father's leg.

What's fascinating him to his right?

But my favourite shot was my last, after his father peeled an orange and gave it to him. Actually, it is my favourite shot for the entire trip, I think!

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

That was the last part of my trip. Soon after, we left on our minibus for the airport, where I filed my story for the day and took the flight home after a long trip. More to come...

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 4

April 25, was off to Maastricht, the oldest town in the Netherlands. Was planning to go to Bruges but according to weather reports it was raining that day, so change of plans. It was a very cloudy day in Maastricht, but at least it didn't rain.

Took this in the middle of a busy street, of Rita and her friend Vicky:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

I didn't have my ND filters with me, but I did bring along my GND so that's all I could use. Closed the aperture to f/22 and pushed down the ISO to 100 to get the slowest aperture possible for a proper exposure.

Always wanted to take a shot like this back in Waseda University, where there is a street that is often jammed with students during the intervals between lessons. Which was why I bought my ND filters in the first place! But I never got down to it though. And this time, when I had an occasion to use them, I didn't have them. Oh well.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 3

April 24, woke up very late. Still struggling with jetlag. Rita was gone soon after I woke up, and I took my time with breakfast before heading out to Amsterdam for a walk.

Not really a photo-taking day and my best perhaps was taken at my temporary residence. Rita's landlord is an Indian national who is working in the Netherlands as a researcher. He lives with his family of three, and this is his adorable (but slightly overactive) baby son Guru:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

I usually prefer my pictures tack-sharp, but I quite like the softness of this one.