Clicking Munster

TNT Kickboxing

2010-08-05T23:17:00.000+08:00

I've recently been bitten by the fitness bug and have started taking my runs seriously as well as regularly going for my kickboxing sessions at TNT. The owner and senior instructor, Master Khoo recently asked if I was keen to help do a photoshoot for a few of the students. Here's a sneak peek to this afternoon's shoot. Will be editing more photos once I'm back from Singapore!

One of the models at the shoot; Lorna - a senior student at TNT Kickboxing. Don't be fooled by those pretty blue eyes, she's one tough cookie. Look out for more pics soon at TNT Kickboxing's website or come back to the blog!

KL Walkabout

2010-08-05T14:02:00.000+08:00

If you're able to withstand the KL weather, breathe the dusty air, and occasionally avoid the crazy driver on the streets, you'll be surprised that there's actually quite a bit of KL to photograph. Dorsett International is in the midst of revamping their blog, and wanted me to help snap some photos of the area surrounding their hotel. There's more to KL than Bukit Bintang, Twin Towers, and the megamalls. If you're looking for something different, here are some of the photos taken off the beaten track.

The Coliseum Theater is one of the oldest pre-war theaters left standing in Malaysia. Built in 1920, the still running theater was built by the Chua family, houses 900 seats and mostly plays Hindi movies. (source: Wiki)

More pics after the jump.

Jalan Melayu (Malay Road) is always buzzing with activities with stalls lining the side of the streets selling everything under the sun. A great place to really have a taste of local flavours.

Yummy local cuisine cooked and entirely ran by a Malay family.

Right next to Jalan Melayu is this old building built in 1915, it's one of the few heritage buildings still standing in KL. It currently houses goldsmiths, pawn shops and tiny grocery stores.

Just slightly further down the street is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building which was designed by AC Norman, and built between 1894 - 1897. Named after the reigning Sultan of Selangor during the period when it was built. The building used to house several important government department during the British Administration. (source: Wiki)

Nearby is Jalan Masjid India (Indian Mosque Road) filled with colours, smells and sights that will satiate your 7 senses. Look out for this Indian Uncle who has the biggest array of sweets & nuts I've ever seen.

If you would like to escape the KL heat for abit, there are smaller malls in the area with shops that you would not have in the bigger malls along Bukit Bintang.

Wondering if the streets are safe to walk, fret not, a HUGE police station is just around the corner. You will definitely not miss this!

And here's the view from one of the rooms at Maytower Hotel. Amazing view of KL from the 23rd floor. Lookout for the photos on the Dorsett International Blog here.

3, 2, 1, Action!

2010-07-27T02:47:00.001+08:00

Had a little time before dinner this evening, and Mark was making sure that I go home with as much knowledge that he can part with before my next trip down to Singapore again. This time around, along with Jonathan, we headed down to East Coast Park to test out Mark's Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Lights and played around with exposing the nearly setting sun, and filling in with the really portable and handy lights. We each took turns to hold the lights and modeled, making sure that we exposed the sky correctly, then fill it in with the lights. This was the shot that I took of Jonathan doing his Flying Kick in mid air.

More of our crazies at the beach after the jump.

We were losing light really quickly, and before you know it, the sun dropped passed the horizon and left us with nothing but the street lamps behind us, and the quadras in our hands. What else could three guys do at a beach with an excavator parked right there. THIS! :)

The Furious Five's greatest foes. The Terrible Three.

Armed with only one tripod, we had to mount Mark's 5D2 on it, and took turns holding the light while one of us jumps in front of the camera. Exposed long enough to light the excavator, and then blasted the light onto the subject just before the end of the exposure. Below is the three images before blending them together.

Un, dos tres...

By using the mask layer, I masked out the best exposure of the three when put together. Notice that in the shot that I was in, the Quadra lights were visible! :P Check out Mark's site for a cool animated photo that he did.

Canon 7D and it's Wireless Flash Trigger

2010-07-26T03:16:00.003+08:00

This recent trip to Singapore has been more than just a simple work trip for me. The past seven days have been like an introduction to my internship with Mark Teo Photography / Afterdark Facility, with on job training as Mark will get me to do the whole “Wax on, Wax off” stuff. The best way to learn is to be doing the task itself! As the saying goes, “Knowledge is Power” and with photography (and basically everything else in life), knowing is winning half the battle. A key lesson that I’ve learned on this trip is lighting and it has opened my chinky eyes to the fact that I could have done so much more with my previous shoots if I was equipped with the knowledge I have now.

If you are a new (up and coming) photographer like I am, and you are saving up to get more gears to add to your collection, you would really appreciate how useful and versatile the speedlites (external flash) are to light up your shoot. And one of the best methods to ensure that you have a fruss free shoot is by using Pocketwizards. The radio transmitter and transceivers will ensure that your speedlights will fire everytime you click on the trigger. Now unfortunately, the Pocketwizards are kinda costly, and it will definitely set you back a few hundred bucks.

As a temporary solution, the built in wireless flash trigger featured in the Canon EOS 7D will save you that few hundred bucks as now, you wont need the Pocketwizards to trigger your speedlites, cause your 7D will do the job for you. Apart from triggering, you are able to remotely control the strength of the speedlights directly from the body of the 7D. No more running to and from the speedlites to adjust the power as you shoot.

In the 7D menu itself, you are able to individually control the separate speedlites that you are using.

The only slight drawback that we experienced was a shorter range compared to the Pocketwizards, and you have to constantly be aware of the line of sight. Here are the gears that we used for our test shots:

2 Canon EOS 7D, 2x 430EXII Speedlite, 1x 580EXII Speedlite, Canon 28 – 70mm F2.8, Canon 70 – 200mm F2.8

As we only had one light stand at the time of the tests, we had to resort to placing the speedlites on any surface we could find around our subject. One was placed on a bin behind the bike to separate it from the shadows. One was held by Mark and myself to bring out our model, Ying Quan’s face, and one was on the light stand to light up his bike.

Here are some of the shots that I took during the tests.

The really handsome looking scrambler

The really handsome looking scrambler with it's owner

This was the setup for the shot. One speedlite on the left to seperate the bike and Ying Quan from the shadows, one speedlite on the light stand to light the right side of the bike, and Mark's holding one to bring Ying Quan's face back up.

Click here to read more about the test that we did from Mark's point of view on Afterdark Facility.

Credits to shoeless Mark for the other photos in the post and for his willingness to part with his knowledge.

Making the first move

2010-07-22T02:04:00.000+08:00

Nope, not writing about how to woo the girl of your dreams but rather more in relation to photography. Took a morning off to do some light shooting with Mark and Jonathan at Little India, and instead of just really taking random photos, Mark suggested that we each have at least 5 shots that we are happy with, and one of them has to be a head shot. There's where the blog title comes in. Making the first move to ask a random stranger on the street: "Hello Uncle, can I take your photo ah?" will eventually pay off when you have that really up close and personal shot of that weather worn, gritty greasy, creased uncle that was sitting by the road side, enjoying his last puff on his morning cigarette.

Mark & Jonathan pondering on their next shot.

I then realised that it wasnt as difficult as I first imagined it would be. I don't know if the older folks in Singapore are more receptive to having people randomly taking their photos, or just the fact that there are people out there who are just ready to be shot...by a camera. This has fanned a burning interest in me to try this back home. Petaling Street anyone?

A flock of tourist on their tour of Little India

Initially Little India wasn't as busy as we hoped it to be as there were no hustling and bustling of uncles and aunties. But as we had breakfast and roamed the streets abit more, we found little gems hidden along the way.

That's my Teh Tarik buster!

The Noodle Man with endless supply of freshly made noodles!

With Mark encouraging us to go up to people and shoot, we were slowly getting the hang of it, and managed to capture really interesting characters around Little India. See more of the pics after the jump.

The Sifu working his magic on Mani the Parakeet's handler.

Trishaw Uncle waiting for his next customer

Patience pays off

Can you feel that intense stare?

Click here to view more photos from that morning's little adventure.

Tethered Shooting

2010-07-21T12:52:00.002+08:00

If "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder", then make up is definitely "The Apple of the Eye". I Was recently in Singapore to assist Mark from Mark Teo Photography at a beauty DIY shoot for Beautymap; a Singapore fashion magazine. Fashion & beauty shoots can be a bit different as you would have the editor and/or stylists from the magazines to oversee the shoot. For every shot that you take, they would like to view it up close to see if we've managed to capture the money shots.

Mark's 5DMKII tethered to the Macbook for a carefree shoot.

It would be too troublesome for them to view the image on the photographer's camera screen, so instead, we tethered the camera up to my Macbook, for easy viewing. Not only is it easier to view the images taken, it is also easier for us to filter through the many shots taken throughout the whole shoot, and mark down the editor's favourites along the way. That saves us time when we have to send a batch of favourites for them to choose from.

Images taken by Mark pops up immediately on the Macbook.

Tethering the camera to the Macbook also enables the editors a live view of the shooting area when we were shooting products. Propped up with a bird's eye view of the table, it was difficult for the stylist to place the products the way they want it without looking into the viewfinder of the camera. But with the live view on the Macbook, it was much easier for them to place the products.

Clients/editors/stylists can view the shots up close and mark down their favourites along the way.
Behind the scenes credits to: Jonathan Tan

Digital Photo Professional, comes bundled with Canon DSLRs.

Using the software called Digital Photo Professional that comes bundled with the Canon DSLRs that you purchase, you are able to almost fully control your camera from the computer that you sync up to. All except focal length, the software enables you to control, shutter speed, aperture, file size and even white balance. A handy software to have on your laptop for shoots such as this.

Nike Cup Grand Finals

2010-07-17T15:37:00.000+08:00

Held all over Kuala Lumpur in search of football talents amongst today's youth, the Nike Cup Kuala Lumpur Challenge finally came to an end with the Grand Finals held at the Dataran Merdeka, and 5 lucky teenagers won the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train at the prestigious Granja Comary, the Brazilian national team’s home.

After the deserving winners were crowned, the 15,000 strong crowd continued to be entertained by a artists such as Bunkface, Forty Winks, One Buck Short as well as Indonesian power house, Nidji till the sun sets. More pictures of the bands after the jump...

Bunkface

Forty Winks

Popshuvit

One Buck Short

Nidji

Click here to view more of the pictures of the concert.