Saturday, December 18, 2010

FRAMES

While exploring, I found a purple picture frame. It struck me to incorporate it into shots.. more specifically street shots. This forces a perspective quite strongly into the viewers eye and I think it's simple interesting to the photographer and to the photographed. Heres some shots taken from one day and night experimentation.















Thursday, December 16, 2010

Life after Death..

Now this is Bizarre!, Literally Life after Death!

Dead man in mortuary impregnates woman


Like Seriously?? Thats crazy.. maybe the guy was just playing dead.. or he was a dead playa...

I'm just sayiiinnn.....

Nobody beats the DRUM!

Not sure if you seen this but this was stored in my youtube favourites for quite sometime... and I found it extremely entertaining.

A year of Hougang

A year of Hougang

In the above link, I've posted a series of photographs from a year (2010) of photos taken in Hougang. I've stayed here for about 3 years now and it definitely has its quirks and loons.. I'm one of them.. but it is home.



Took this photo this morning. It was definitely a sight to see for yourself and it was a great sight indeed.

Exit through the Gift Shop

Richard Hawley - Tonight The Streets Are Ours



Tonight I watched a film directed by Banksy, a graffiti artist. The name of the show was Exit through the Gift shop.

You can see the trailer here,


Well, what can I say about the film?

Alot actually.

I think it's a great and entertaining show and definitely worth the 90 or so mins that it lasts for.

The amateur video camera man, Thierry is definitely a character as he shows his passion for capturing everything in his life in his hand held video camera.

His chance of the lifetime comes when he gets to meet banksy a mysterious persona of the graff world and starts documenting his works.. After some time through a series of events Thierry becomes a street artist himself and the rest has to be watched really..

After finishing this film one has to wonder.. is banksy a freaking smart motherf@cker or what... I think it's all a hoax and a really well done one that gives the general public and art world a big middle finger. But seriously.. it makes me wonder sometimes how some pieces of art gets sold for the big numbers.

Anyway do catch this movie as I highly recommend it!

Peace out!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Jon a rising star in Basketball

This boy is named Jon, and he likes playing basketball.. well actually he likes rolling the basketball around on the floor so maybe he will be a professional bowler one day!






Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Kazanjian Red

An interesting read about a red diamond.

Curious

Stay Curious, Your world would be more interesting then.



When everything fascinates you, the chances of being bored to death are slim.

Stay Curious my friend.

(Photo geekology: The bokeh (out of focus effect) was added in using Alienskin Bokeh, a photoshop plugin. I could not naturally get it with my 50mm f1.8 prime lens so a little help was necessary.)

BMX video

deepBMX/JYKK JAPAN TOUR 2010

deepBMX/JYKK JAPAN TOUR 2010: from STYLE43 on Vimeo.


These guys are great! Good riding and well filmed.

And in other bmx news, I saw this when I woke up.

Ingenius design for a headset spacer.



Amazing Technology

Wow, a 5200mm Canon Super telephoto EF FD

Thats just insane.. but very cool at the same time..



From youtube video description:
READ!! Canon 5200mm F14 Prime Lens. The world's largest dedicated SLR Super Telephoto lens.
Extremely rare. Made in Japan.

Most probably a government ordered cold war spy tool - it certainly wasn't designed to look at the stairs with the use of it's ND filters...

It uses a mirror & lens combination. The front lens is massive.

Rear drop-in filters can be used.

•Focal Length: 5150mm
•Exposure Control: Light quantity is controlled with the use of built-in ND filters, corresponding to f/14, f/16, f/22, f/32
•Minimum Object Distance: 120 meters (Approx 393 feet!)
•Size: 500mm(wide) x 600mm(high) x 1890mm(deep) [20x24x75.6]
•Weight: 100kg (220 lbs) without stand.

From a Canon Flyer:
"This is the only ultra-telephoto lens in the world capable of taking photographs of objects 18 to 32 miles away (30km to 52kms away). Having a focal length of 5200mm, Canon Mirror Lens 5200mm can obtain one hundred times as large an object image as that of a 50mm lens."
"For focusing this mounted or fixed lens on an extremely distant object, two aiming telescopes are set on the side of the lens barrel, and the entire lens is placed on a rigid stand which rotates smoothly. Minimizing the overall length had been a big problem in designing this lens. However, the Catadioptric system that is applied to the other two Canon mirror lenses (Canon 800mm f3.8 & 2000mm f11) has succeeded in reducing it down to one third of the nominal focal length. In general focal length and optical aberration increase with each other, however, our long and persistent research and development have succeeded in solving this problem. Canon mirror lens 5200mm composed of spherical main and secondary mirrors and a correction lens would assure you of clear images."

The magnification of this lens is truly staggering.
If mounted to a Canon XL HD series video camera for example, a reach of 1000x optical (at least) would be possible (approx 37,500mm).

If it was mounted on a DSLR with a crop factor the magnification would be larger still.

The video is a series of stills I took of the lens when I inspected it last year. I have also included video of the simulated magnification (35mm simulation) - all a bit of fun. In fact the maximum video telephoto simulation still just falls short of 3700mm in 35mm terms. So the 5200mm would be much closer & far sharper & distortion free. The video was shot with a Sony PDW 510 16x9 2/3 SD XDCAM disk camcorder with a TV video lens (18x1) using up to 3 optical (x2) extenders. If the 5200mm was hooked up to a video camera we'd be seeing a close up on an eye...

To make it clear - the video is simulated - not shot with the actual 5200mm lens - since it's a "Prime" - how could it be zooming anyhow??!! lol And of course there would be no CA.

Home coming

I know most photographers always have the dilemma of figuring out where to go to shoot. I am severely guilty of this as for the past 2 years traveled extensively around Singapore, exploring places to shoot.

But you don't have to go far. More often than not, you already have 10 photographic opportunities waiting for you at the very place you're at. With that thinking, we can come to a great eureka that.. Perhaps there is great places to shoot around where we live!

With the help of certain devices.. such as Google Earth, you can find out interesting locations just by browsing around.






The above shot was found while cycling around my neighbourhood one day. Although it took me climbing into a dirty canal filled with green slime to find this scene, it is a great capture at something abnormal in a normal neighbourhood context.

So my advice to you is, start exploring! Get yourself a bicycle and just ride around. It'll do you good in the fitness and tummy trimming and you can get some fresh air that you so desperately need after hours on the computer.

I should say that, great locations can be sought out from just going high enough to see everything. I normally scout out tall buildings for this purpose to see where the sun sets and rises. This naturally points me in the direction of new places to shoot.

Hope this little post helps you in finding places to shoot instead of the week in week out "Merlion Park Sunrise" routine.

Marina Bay Sands

I am in love with this place. I await eagerly for it's completion. I am sure it'll look infinitely more perfect without the cranes and construction and what not.

For everyone not in tune with what I'm talking about, I am talking about Singapores latest iconic structure named, Marina Bay Sands, designed by Moshe Safdie who took inspiration from a deck of cards.

Why a deck of cards? One of the facilities in Marina Bay Sands is the integrated Resort. A casino which has a $100 entrance fee for locals and free to all tourists. It's doing well with claiming alot of wins from fortune seeking gamblers. Losses are in the millions of dollars but these guys can handle it.




just look at the architecture! It's splendid and so elegantly designed. I am proud to have this work of art in our nation.

More images of Marina Bay Sands can be found in my deviant art portfolio!

Welcome To Landescapism

Good Day, if you're here, you've most likely landed here from my portfolio, random googling or because you have an interest in my photographic works.

so.. What is Landescapism?

Yes it's not a real word but more rather it's an imaginary word I've made up and come to love to describe the photos I take that deal with landscape photography.

It means a lot to me and adds insight into how I view the world. You may be able to feel, smell or even hear the things I went through just from looking at the photos because I've put in my soul to making a piece of memory.

So why land-escapism? We're not trying to get away from anything. My concept is actually quite the opposite.. I want you to dive deeper into it. Seeing things differently. Perhaps on a more larger scale, I want to change your perceptions of landscape photography.

I'll post up stuff from time to time detailing great photos. Perhaps some adventure stories, and photoshop tutorials and what not but stay tuned.. I think this is going to be great..!




So step out now, look at the world differently. Beauty is everywhere and it's about time you open your eyes and start seeing.

More to come.