Mid Summer WHAT?

Sometime I think the Kiwis have a strange sense of humour, we are experiencing the coldest winter in 25 years and our work place (NZMS) is holding a Mid Summer BBQ! Ha ha ha...

But Kiwis are sporting though, they came dressed for the occasion! A little fun won't hurt anyone :) and good time to catch up with each other, especially over plenty of bangers (sausages) and intoxicating beverages ;)

After operating the microfilming camera for untold hours, Heather find this ultra-blue sunglasses advantages to see in the dark!

The "X" Factor

After reading my "Photographer's Swan Song", Angela Rao from Stockholm commented:

"Hey CY! I have to agree with everything you've said here. Those pictures were outstanding....nothing like it in the papers now! Hope you pass on some of your "oomph" to the younger generation at the Star. The picture of the doll and the slippers were freaky!"

Thank you Angela and that bring me to a very often asked questions from GEIC, MD and Editors of newspapers that I worked: "Why can't you train your photogs to shoot better news pictures?" or "After two years as Picture Editor, why can't they shoot pictures LIKE YOU?" or better still, and this actually came from a top Editor of The Star in Malaysia, "Why can't they shoot like LIFE magazine's photographers?!!" DUH!!
 

Déjà vu 6 - A Day In Malacca

The last time I was working in KL I went to Malacca thrice in four years, none of those trips were specifically photography orientated... then I got a call from a Creative Exec of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the brief:

One day shoot in KL and Malacca, among the shots; they will select 5 from each location to be used in their Global Image series.

Would any photographer worth his salt... oh... lens, turn down an offer like that? :-)

So one fine Saturday morning I pack my gear and took a young photographer with me, who that person is; best remained unknown but I am happy to say that the young photog has learnt a thing or two from me.

For my choice of equipment I thought I will give my long idled workhorse, the Nikon F3P a workout. I took with me the 20/2.8, 50/1.4, 35-70/3.5, 80-200/4 and the ultra compact 300/4.5 IF-ED. The Canon EOS1n came along because I can use it for the 15 mm fish-eye. All shots were done on Kodak Ektapress 200 and 400 film.

Adios Kodachrome !

Kodak announced yesterday that it will no longer produce Kodachrome, the slide film which has captured some of the world's most iconic images for 74 years.

The company introduced the 35 mm colour slides film in 1935, and it gained a following among professional and amateur photographers alike.

The haunting green eyes of the “Afghan girl” who graced the cover of National Geographic in June of 1985 was captured on Kodachrome.

Some of the best-known colour photos of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley were snapped with Kodachrome transparencies!

Singer Paul Simon gave the film his endorsement with the hit song Kodachrome in 1973, lauding the film's “nice bright colours” while imploring, “Mama don't take my Kodachrome away.”

A Blast From The Past!

Just two days ago, my colleague Simon was lamenting to me about his dad and his BRONICA 120 camera.

Ahh.. the good old Bronica, sure bring back some fond memories! I still remember I read with sadness in 2004 when TAMRON announced that they are discontinuing the Bronica camera range.

But first let me tell you how I got bitten by the 120 bug.

I started mucking around with photography while I was in form 4, my classmates the Ooi Twins were photography nuts and they must be from a rich Alor Setar family because they were using an EXAKTA 2b 35 mm SLR!

That camera cost as much as a car!

Did you know that this queer camera's film wind is left handed and it have a build-in KNIFE that can slice your film for you?

EXTREME MAKEOVER!

No, no, no... not that kind of Extreme Makeover! No one going under the knives here :)

This is my WORST CASE SCENARIO

Arrrrhhhhh!!! A once in a life time wedding shot, under exposed by at least 4 stops, background is pitch black; some light came from "above" (no divine intervention here ;) but leave a bad illumination! How did it get to be like this? Can the photo be "saved"?

The Evergreen Nikon 50mm f/1.4

I had another lens in my jacket pocket when I was shooting our office bake-off two days ago.

I like to call this "old glass" my "evergreen prime lens", the lens is the Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AI, a manual focus gem.

This lens was very popular in the 70s, it came as the "standard lens" with some Nikon models.

I like it because it is very fast and really sharp images can be capture after f2.8!