creativ-photo

Assignment 6: Conceptual Portraiture

2008-11-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

Theme: Look into the Ordinary

My concept is to use this opportunity to introduce my close friends in NUS who happened to be all bikers.

My title for this assignment is "Introducing my biker friends".

Using photography and digital manipulation, I wish to portray the biker's distinct personality.
All 6 bikers have different personalities and they are displayed through the combination of their gestures, background and the signs.

The photos below are the orginal photos that i used to photoshop. First, I have problems finding a plain white background to take my friends so that it will save me the trouble from 'erasing' off the background. Next, bikes are not allowed at west coast park and on the beach. Therefore by placing the bikers on places where 'bikes' are restricted from, it offers another type of challenge for me to do the final pieces.

Ethics

2008-11-02T08:55:00.001-08:00

Last thursday (17th Nov), something terrible happened at the Zoo in Sg. A zoo cleaner was killed by 3 white tigers and it was claimed that the man was behaving 'erratically' a few hours before he was killed and he even said things like "Goodbye, you won't see me again." (from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/389571/1/.html)

•What are the ways readers can judge the credibility of an image even in this era of digital manipulation?

I guess its mostly based on one's perception and mindset to judge an image be it an original or manipulated photo. One have to look at the context , setting, characters involved and think for himself/herself whether does it spell the truth or not. For instance, this news was popular for days and my friends were talking about it and some even went youtube to check if there's any videos regarding the white tiger attack. It was stated on Newpaper that some students and tourists actually caught the 4 minutes of horrid on their cameras.

A couple (witness) were interviewed and they were reluctant to provide information of what they saw as they felt shock and distressed. (from http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,183664,00.html)

Thus out of curiosity, I decided to go youtube to check it out.
I found this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PdOp6Uyzr8 and the name of the video was 'Attack By White Tiger In Singapore Zoo'.

Well, I felt uncomfortable watching the first few seconds of the clip, and i realized that its not the actual video. And then, I heaved a sigh of relief because if its the real clip, I will have insomia for one whole week.

In Ms Jing's lecture she said that a good journalist will have to record what has happened on the spot and whether to publish or not, its up to the journalist. In this incident, the authorities have chosen not to let the actual video be published to the public as it will cause psychological harm to many including the family members of the victim.

Its a good move done by them, and it spared many from having insomia or some fright if the actual video is being leaked out onto youtube. Well done!

•Imagine yourself as a reader representative for a newspaper. What would you tell a reader who complained to you about a picture of a car wreck that was particularly upsetting?

Well, I guess the situation of a car wreck and the white tiger attack incident are two different issues to start with. I rode my bike on the road daily and I have seen quite a lot of accidents on the road for the past 2 years. Blood stains on the road, cars on fire and truck exploding are just to name a few. If there is a serious car wreck, I think its fine to publish the story out as it will allow the rest (the non road user and road user) to know what is going on and to allow people to think twice before doing anything silly. (e.g drink driving or reckless driving)

I would tell the reader that it will be more beneficial to allow the larger public to learn something out of a story about an accident. It may be a good thing to prevent such tragedy to happen again. Moreover, a picture tells a thousand word. Readers are constantly searching for the 'truth' and by presenting images alongside with words in the newspaper, it will allows reader to judge the 'truthfulness' of the news themselves.

Its tough to balance between ethics and professionalism and in order to handle a certain sticky situation, it comes with experiences and lots of exposure as well.

Assignment 5

2008-10-19T06:48:00.003-07:00

"The Wilt"

"Kitchen Nightmare"

"The Empty Cup"

Guess which picture shows sadness, loneliness and mess.

Easy right? =)

Singapore Biennale 2008

2008-10-19T06:48:00.001-07:00

Wow! the Singapore Biennale 2008 is amazing.

There are so many fantastic art works and installations to look at.

Many works caught my eyes as they are created using digital technology.

One of them is the 'Infinite Islands' by Ryuro Fukada.

I would say that it is one of the successful works around as the artist intelligently use digital art to produce his works.

From the Series Altitude of 10,000m Ryuro Fukuda

The content of Fukada's work is basically simple yet intriguing. His works are presented with just manipulated pictures mounted on a frame.

They are pictures at an altitudes of 10,000metres and using digital art, balloons are placed in the pics that is not possible for a real hot air balloon to be flying at that altitude in reality.

His use of space is clearly shown as the size of the hot air balloon is relatively small compared to its surroundings. This is to depict the view from the sky. Therefore negative space is important.

Next, I find the work 'Maggots, 2004' disturbing.

The work is placed on the 2nd level walkway to one of the rooms. Although it made me feel grossed up for a few minutes successfully, I do not think that it is successful in getting my appreciation for the art. I guess my favorite type of works got to be mysterious, subjective, asethically pleasant to look at.

Anyway, the presentation method used is installation and MANY maggots are placed along the red carpet and i guess visitors MUST walk past it in order to get to the 2nd floor.

hmmm, yes I know it is successful in shocking the viewers in great disgust, but I still dislike the work and critiqued it as unsuccessful - in my own terms. =)

Theme: Analyzing a Picture ( Photojournalism )

2008-10-09T20:56:00.001-07:00

10 Oct 2008US shares plunged to fresh five-year lows on Thursday selloff as jitters intensified over the global financial crunch. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 678.91 points (7.33%) to end at 8,579.19. - AP
adapter from: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/gallery/index.htm

Light quality
The light quality in this picture comes from the computer screen in the background. The lighting is harsh as this picture is trying to depicts the seriousness of the whole situation unlike the use of soft and diffused lightings. The direction of the light is pointing at the man and its bright. I don’t think there’s use of flash as the lighting from the computer screen is intense enough.

Texture
There’s no use of close up textures as the main focus of the picture is the man and his actions – hand grabbing his head.
As I would say, this is a picture depicting emotions from the man’s gestures rather than details of the objects. However, the background is important in telling the audience why the man is behaving in this manner. The computer screen is actually graphs of the plunging market shares of a company in U.S. Therefore, it clearly tells the audiences that the content on the screens cause a great impact in the man’s emotions.

Focus
The photographer uses a narrow depth of field, capturing only the man in in sharp focus and leaving the background blur. As mentioned, I think the photographer is putting the main focus and attention onto the man, leaving the audiences to imagine what has caused the man to react in this way with reference to the blur background.

Angle of View
The camera angle is at the eye level. I guess this photo is trying to let the audience have a feel of what it’s like to be in the position of the man or be in this situation of a bad market crash.

Framing / composition
The photographer decides to put the attention on to the man rather than the background as the latter is already bright enough to attract people’s eye to it.
Actually, I feel that the composition in this picture is not effective enough as there may be limitations while taking this picture such as timing and opportunity.
The man is not really in the middle of the picture and there is a lack of light balance in this photo. It seems a little over exposed on the top right hand side of the photo.
However I feel that the photographer is successfully in capturing only the important objects such as the man and the 2 computer screens. That is sufficient for me to realize that there are graphs and indications on the screens and a man is looking at it.

Colours
The colour is intense and it seems like the photo is in its original state without any manipulation of the colours and effects.
As the word journalism spells, I think the photographer wants to let audiences to get a feel of the seriousness of the situation by choosing to retain its original settings. By altering the effects of the photo, audiences may feel that the news is just to create attention and not to disseminate accurate and reliable news to the viewers.

Rationale behind my analysis
This photo is taken from channelnewsasia.com and it’s a website where its audiences come from around the world and they are in need of real and reliable information. Thus photos uploaded in this website, in the news and reports must not be so ‘artistic’, ‘fanciful’ and ‘artificial’ that people may think that its only for entertainment purposes.
Photojournalism favors towards realism rather than formalism and expressionism.
Thus the objective of the photo is to capture more realistic elements than conceptual and subjective elements.

The followings are photos that support my analysis for photojournalism.Basically they depicts realism in the photos for audiences.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

adapted from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/381689/1/.html

Zimbabwean schoolchildren queue for food in Harare

adapted from: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/381571/1/.html

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy (surrealism)

2008-09-26T01:22:00.001-07:00

I am sorry but blogger doesnt seem to register the colours from my Final Piece as shown below. hmph. I tried to scale down the file size and it doesnt help. -.-'' Anyway the final piece is in my portfolio, as I guess only Ms Jing and me has the chance to see it.

"LOST CHILDHOOD"

I took the pics at Genting Highlands over the last weekend.
The theme park is an incredible place for me to explore surrealism and photography.

As the title of my work "Lost Childhood" explains, I want to capture the feeling of a lost childhood, memories that have been forgotten in this real urban society.

Thats the urban fantasy that i imagined.

In this assignment, I manipulated the pictures using technique like photo montage, meaning cropping different parts of the photo and placing all of them together.

They arent placed randomly, i actually try to portion the pictures to make it look 'balanced'.

For the draft work below, I actually use effects like fading and grayscale to show memories and the past.

And for the final piece, I added in a background and enhanced the work a bit to make it more 'surreal'. I chose to blend the pictures rather then to make it look montaged because I want to show the 'spinning' effects like a time machine that brings you and me back into the past to unravel childhood memories.

Critic of

The Temptation of St. Anthony, c.1946

by Salvador Dali

This picture depicts the feeling of lust and temptation towards the lady on top of the horses.
The long legs of the horses suggest to me that its a terrible feeling to be watching the ladies on the ground as its something that one should not imagine or even think about. There's also use of christianity - the cross held by Anthony. He's using his faith in his religion to counter the feeling of lust.

Assignment 3: Focal length, sensor latitude

2008-09-24T10:34:00.001-07:00

1.High key

f2.8 1/25 +1.7 step 50mm

ISO400

Ice cubes from the cup of Long John silver.

After some photoshop to brush up the flaws of the photo, tarrdarr.. its brighter and looks more like a high key photo. =)

Low Key

1/125 f5.6 -1 ISO400

Vintage looking fan at this place near baghdad street.

Anyway I though it was a low key picture, but apparently after searching for examples on google images, i realized it isnt.

I am using this as my low key picture, its a photo of my bike's headlight and signal lights.
I took this at night at the carpark, switching on only the headlight.
Another low key photo taken in my room when the sun was setting around 6pm. I was amazed by the sun rays that was shining through my windows and curtains.

3.Zoom shots
With the help of tripod stand. A nice view at 15th storey.
1"6 Ev : -1 ISO: 400

taken at the same place as the 1st picture.

2" F11 ISO 400

Ev: -1.333
(Chosen Piece)
I chose this simple piece of zoom shot because I find it kinda surreal looking; the HDB lights and the car lights in the middle of the picture. I like the composition of this photo more than the rest and thus I chose this! =)

Without tripod stand, using only the ledge of my corridor.
2" F16 ISO 400 Ev: -1.66

Another photo of zoom key. The shutterspeed was around 5 secs and i moved the camera around (which was mounted on the tripod) and zooming it at the same time. So this was what I got.

I tried zoom shot in the day light. Its harder than shooting in night time as the picture tends to overexposure easily.

Close up of my tiny handphone. Its very small and slim. But with the help of the macro lens(100mm), the buttons come to life!

ISO400 f2.8 1/60
I would have chosen this as my close up piece, but I couldnt find the original format. =(

I chose this close up picture of doggy instead.

F5.6, 1/400/ISO 400, 55mm

5.Perspective - "a longer journey ahead"

Taken at Arab street.
1/1600 F4 ISO400 EV: 0 18mm

I have a hard time taking the picture of the tall building below. I must consider the framing and positioning of the building when I was holding the camera pointing upwards.
But didnt really like this picture compared to the rest of the perspective photos.

1/4000 F4.5 Iso400
18mm

Finally, this is the piece that I chose for Perspective!
F5.6 1/640sec ISO 400 Focal 17mm
Taken at Sentosa

Symbolic of the SUN

1/3200 Ev:-2/3

F4.5
ISO 400

The DHL balloon is round, big and bright in colour.
Just like the sun rise and sun set, it grabs attention and its a beautiful sight to catch.

With the contrast of the blue skies at the back, the balloon grabs the whole attention away.

Assignment 2B: CNM action shots

2008-09-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

1/50 F5.6 ISO800

1/25 F5.6 ISO800

f5.6 1/30 ISO800 +0.3 step
(out of focus, thus not using this photo)

1/25 F5.6 ISO800

1/50 F5.6 ISO800

It was hard to take portraits of people as I must wait for the right opportunity and shoot without shaking the camera. Furthermore, the class had presentation for the first half of the lesson. There wasnt many activities going on. Considering the limited time and resources, our group had to fight against time to shoot 'quality' pictures as many as possible.

Anyway, I chose the 5 pictures without the 3rd one as it is out of focus.

Assignment 2A :Exposure triangle

2008-09-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

1. Freeze motion

TV mode

F6.3 1/250 ISO400

I chose the below photo as I love the composition of it. Its taken at the Science Centre.

2. Motion blur

F32 1/8 sec ISO400
Comments given for this photo is that the alignment and composition is slightly off.

To improve on the composition, I took another picture of the same subject and crop it to make it looks 'balanced'.
Deep Depth of field - wide F32

1/60 sec ISO800

Shallow Depth of field - narrow F5.6
1/2500 ISO 800 50mm

Another two pictures of deep and shallow DOF. Taken at munchie monkey at YIH.

On a sidenote, I do not own a camera and thus have to borrow from school and friends.
Hence, I have the opportunity of using different cameras ; Canon 400 D, 350D, 450 D, and nikon 40D.
In a nutshell, I prefer to use Canon 400 D. hmm, it focuses faster and its user friendly!

Assignment 1: Subject elements

2008-08-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

1. Shape

taken beside arts canteen

2)Form
Chosen one: Stool in arts canteen.

3. Colour

Taken out of school

Vending machine at central forum. This is the chosen one for colour.

4) Texture

Textures, taken beside arts canteen
5) Lines:

Taken at the stairs beside arts canteen

Chosen one: Taken at SRC carpark

Comments on
World Press Photo

Assasination of Benozir Bhutto,Rawalpindi, Pakistan , 27 December

The very first moment when I see this picture, I felt shocked and distressed.
Probably I know that it is not a manipulated photo; this is a real journalist photo.

I admire the journalist's courage for taking this photo as the suicide bomb went out near by and he didnt run away. He took his camera out and shot photos of the surroundings.

This is a very beautiful picture of a low key photo. The caption of the photo says: Mui, a homeless woman with HIV and her son bathe in the Red River, Hanoi, Vietnam

The journalist was touched that the woman and her son went to bathe almost daily at th Red river and he decided to take this picture. This picture gives a very sensual and emotional touch due to the close up view and the monotonous colour. The hands of the kid and the woman also grabs the attention of the picture.

I would say that its a very captivating photo.