Tag Archives: Workshop

Getting back on track (3) – An afternoon with Nicole

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Sometimes I wondered why I signed up for a workshop which was something I most probably knew everything that was going to be thought. Really, the very first 30-40minutes I was just flabbergastered because I really knew what the trainers were teaching to the rest of the students.

Then it hit me, absolute pride. I began to think again, where was my meekness especially the time when I was down? What happened to that? Just because I took a few “good” photos (note the quotes, “”, at good) doesn’t mean that I am the best? Not really, I am totally far from being called a “good photographer” and ever lightyears away from being called “the best”.

Anyway, the workshop with the trainers (Andrew and Mohd Haidar) over at the Nikonian Academy brought a new light to me. There are far more people with so much more experience that I can learn and absorb from. I need to be a sponge and absorb all of it. There were plenty of tips I picked up along the way and definitely shooting under such bright sunlight was a pain (I realised so many hotspots or overexposed areas on my shots!).

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Part of my homework is to choose the best three but frankly, I haven’t found them yet. I took two which I liked and posted them here but I haven’t found my favourite 3 yet. I need to go back home, sit down in front of my PC and start post processing them.

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Lastly I would like to take the time to thank the trainers, Andrew and Haidar for teaching us the fundamentals of shooting outdoor portaits as well as Nicole who was our model for the day. Thanks so much, an afternoon with you guys made me realise that I have got a lot more to learn.

Getting back on track – An afternoon with Nadia

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Getting back on track? A question I was asking myself previously in regards to the whole area of photography. Sometime in January, I assisted another wedding photographer to shoot a wedding and after a long and tiring day, I noticed that my photos didn’t turn out as well as I would hoped for. Then it really hit me that I have plenty more to learn and it really got me down.

It was a tough time for me as I was rather demoralised and instead of just sitting there and sulking, I decided to get back to basics, start afresh and re-discover my style. With that in mind, I signed up for 4 workshops simultaneously with the hope of learning as much as I can and gaining more experience.

Last week, I attended my first workshop and here are the results from it. The workshop was conducted by Jayhan and it was a strobist style workshop where one would work with portable flash whilst shooting outdoors. There were only two participants that day, me and Saiful a.k.a Xandman, travelled to Bukit Jalil on a hot Sunday afternoon.

We started off by shooting in a hut using Jay’s portable flashes but in the end we had to resolve to our Nikon’s CLS system and two SB-800s because the triggers were not working. Although we did manage to use Jay’s more powerfull portable strobe light for the outdoor shoots.

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Jayhan teaching Saiful and Nadia who was our model for the day

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Saiful shooting with his 70-200mm f/2.8. Now that is one lens I would love to have!

And here are some of the results from the “indoor” shots.
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Frankly I didn’t have the time to post process the other shots I took in the hut as I feel that the whole strobist style which I wanted to learn was more of that taken outdoors. When I have the time, I will definitely post them up here.

The next bit of course would be for us to go outside. And this time, I had more fun shooting, not with my 50mm portrait lens but with my 10-20mm wide angle lens.

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Jay call’s himself the human lightstand

And here are my results from that session.
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Ok, this shot was taken using natural light though

At the end of the workshop, or shoot I would say, I felt that perhaps I have improved a little or perhaps I am still a little lost looking for that style of mine. Prior to this, I had a chat with Shaolintiger and he gave me some very good advice and I still keep it in my head everytime I go for a shoot.

Patience is the key and I will definitely think a lot more before firing away at my shutter. With that in mind, I would also like to thank Louis Pang who has been a great inspiration to me and for helping me with my queries.

I got another workshop lined up this weekend with the Nikonians Academy and an outdoor shoot with the guys over at Lowyat.net on Sunday.  Looking forward to a productive weekend and putting what I learned into real practice.

I took the plunge

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From my last post, you would have guessed that I attended another workshop. This time the workshop was free. But to be completely honest, it wasn’t a workshop. It was a talk by Zung of The Photoz. When I say it was a talk, I could be wrong in some areas whereby there were some sharing but mainly most of the time, he showed his collection of his work.

Some comments I have heard about Zung from some of my friends was that his work was good but not extraordinary. Other comments were favourable on the other hand, with people complementing his style and his artistic talents.

Well back to the workshop cum talk cum slideshow viewing session. The event started late because everyone was stuck in the huge traffic jam from KL thanks to heavy rain. I had a tough time travelling straight from work, the Elite highway was pretty congested as well.

It was pretty pleasant to sit in front (being a little kiasu that night) as compared to the other workshop with Ulf Recher and I couldn’t even see much at the front. Zung, came in a little late but he recognized me as I met him and introduced myself during David’s wedding in Penang a couple weeks back.

Anyhow, how this relates to the title was that in the course of the workshop cum talk cum slideshow viewing session, there was a workshop being offered. A proper proper workshop which costs a bomb and it lasts for 6 weeks and includes two on-site photoshoots. I knew that if I did take it up it will definitely be a large investment for me but I guess that I would rather spend the money on the workshop than get myself a lens.

What made me take the plunge was that I saw some of his previous student’s work and they were quite good and interesting.

Check them out here.

All of these photos belong to one of Zung’s student. You can check out his website here.

In preparation for a wedding I got to shoot on the 14th-16th of December, lets see how much I can motivate and hone my skills in time for that shoot.

Another workshop again?

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In about 2 hours time I will be attending a talk by Zung from The Photoz in Damansara Utama. More information about the talk can be found here.

veil 04web Another workshop again?

I will blog about this event pretty soon. Currently am extremely busy with work and after last night’s or rather, this morning’s 1am teleconference with folks over in Houston, I am just extremely tired and worn out.

Masterclass Workshop with Urs Recher

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As mentioned in my other post, I attended a workshop last weekend thinking that this would be another session whereby the participants would have a chance to shoot models and practice their portrait shots using studio lighting equipment and have the guidance from a world reknowned “si-fu”. Unfornately that was not the case and the event turned out that there were over a hundred participants.

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Urs Recher standing on the right

Crammed into a small seminar room at the PJ Hilton in State, having a workshop like this is fine in a workshop but when it comes to the actual setup of lights, I really pity half of the crowd sitting behind because everyone at the front were standing up and busy taking photos of the setup. Although there were two models there, not many of us got a chance to take any shots.

To be frank, this was rather refreshing because this was the first time I actually met a reknowned photographer from Europe and it is obvious on their styles of shooting and setup. Urs’ work was very tedious and yet he was patient throughout the setup and he can easily spend half the day setting up several studio lighting until he gets the right lighting he wants.

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Group photo of the participants

Honestly, after watching him in action, I sort of wished that I participated in his other session instead which focused on product photography. Definitely that would have been more worthwhile unless I start bringing studio lighting to some on-location wedding shoots.

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