I finally had a proper vacation after months of slogging at work.

When I came back to Singapore, I got news that my dance project finally got published and featured on Profoto Lighting Blog. It is definitely an honor to be feature by the best lighting equipment company in the world.

Not too long back, I announced that I will be launching my own photography webstore. Things are going ahead as scheduled and I hope to officially live the website by the second half of the year.

Also, not only did I have the chance to try out a Leaf Aptus 54S with my 503CXi, I managed to land myself with a Mamiya RB 76 system complete with a couple of lenses. I may not be a big fan of the Mamiya RB system but I am always game to try it out just for fun.

Also, two photography books arrived at my house last week!

As soon as renowned wedding photographer Elizabeth Messina announced that her book ‘Luminous Portraits’ is available for pre-order, I made my purchase and eagerly waited for the book to arrive. As a wedding photographer who only shoots in film, Elizabeth book did not disappoint as she shared plenty of her secrets like composition rules, lighting approach and creative vision. Highly recommended read.

I was, however, more excited about the following book.

A compilation of video stills from Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 movie. Ever since I saw a copy of Video stills from In The Mood For Love, I have been trying my best to find a copy for myself online. Fortunately, I found it via Yes Asia. Wong Kar Wai’s films never fail to intrigue me and as a photographer and film user, there’s plenty to learn from how he chooses to portray his subjects using crazy-ass colors.

I still hope that one day I will be able to get a copy of In The Mood For Love as well as Happy Together. If you have contacts to these two video stills compilation, let me know!

A friend of mine wanted to sell off his V-mount Leaf Aptus 54S digital back.

Before he could do so, I managed to persuade him into lending me the digital back for the long weekend to try out on my 503CXi.

I have had a history of using digital backs, from the Hasselblad H-series (H3D-ii 39, H4d-31 and H4D-40) to Mamiya AFD (Valeo-11 and Aptus 22). However, if you discount the few times I managed to shoot with a CF-39 at Shriro, this was the first time I actually had a proper shoot-out using a digital back on a V-series camera.

The back was the Leaf Aptus 54S, which boasts a capture frame rate of 0.87 seconds. Back in 2006, this was quite a feat.

Six years later, the back remains one of the highly sought-after digital backs in the resale market.

CCD Size: 48×36 (1.1 crop factor)

Dynamic Range: 12 stops

Color Depth: 16 bits (65,536 levels per channels)

ISO: 25, 50, 100, 200, 400

It just so happens that I have a friend who was doing a pre-wedding shoot over the weekend. Therefore I decided to hijack his shoot and take a few snapshota of the couple.

What I did not anticipate, however, was the tremendous difficulty in getting my focus right. My friend previously warned me about the difficulty of shooting with a V-series. To make things worse, I was shooting on f/2.8 and the subject was moving around.

The frame lines provided by Leaf was not as good, in my opinion, as the Phase One frame lines, which was bold and obvious.

The only decent shot I got out of the whole session what this. The motion blur as well as the slight out-of-focus seemed to work well in enhancing the mood, not that it was an excuse for my bad focusing.

I’ll try to spend as much time as possible with the back before I have to return it, unless anyone of you is kind enough to sponsor $7,500 for me to keep it permanently.

Thanks to the peeps from Sony, who loaned me a set of the Sony Cybershot HX10V compact digital camera for my Phuket trip, my dad’s Nikon V1 will not be getting any love from me for this trip.

To be fair, however, whichever camera I am bringing to Phuket will not be getting much love from me either, as it will be subjected to extreme conditions.

The HX10V ticks many of my boxes at this point in time, particularly the 16x optical zoom. But we shall see.

Until then, here’s the specs of the camera, courtesy of Sony Singapore.

In other news, I am very happy with my purchase from the Army market – the $50 military field pack for my travels.

If I removed my tripod head, I can actually shove the entire Gitzo 3531S into the side pocket (image right). That, however, will not be necessary for this relaxing trip. I’ll consider doing so for my China trip.

Lastly, after a few rounds of cleaning and servicing, my Hasselblad 503CXi is now looking like new and the lens is thoroughly cleaned. Can’t wait to bring this camera out to shoot in Phuket.

Image courtesy of Steve Denton

Over the weekend, I went for the kill and got myself a Gitzo Systematic GT3531S tripod and GH 5380SQR ball head.

I quickly tested the GH5380 ball head and was so impressed that I decided to write a quick entry on the ball head.

Over the last two years, the Manfrotto 410 Junior Gear Head was my choice for a tripod head. It was strong enough to hold a medium format setup like the Hasselblad H4D-40 or the Mamiya 645 AFDII. The best part was that it allowed for micro-adjustments in order to achieve the best composition.

However the gear head has its cons. At 1.2kg, the 410 is a heavy tripod head. Also, with a maximum weight load of 5kg (horizontal), I risk toppling my camera when I am shooting on portrait orientation. To be fair, I did attach a H4D-40 on portrait orientation for a shoot and it worked fine. But the fact remains that it was a heavy tripod head and so I need to find a lighter yet equally strong tripod head.

The god of photography answered my prayers and I stumbled upon the GH 5380SQR.

Let’s take a quick at the specs before I go further:

The specs, by itself, was already a winner.

First of all, the GH 5380 holds a freaking 30kg of load. With my Hasselblad system, weight load is no longer an issue. Secondly, it only weights 720g, which is almost half the weight of the 410 gear head. Combine this with the Gitzo Systematic GT 3531S (1.7kg), the whole setup weighs only 2.4kg. Becasue the GH5380 is designed specifically for the Gitzo Systematic series, you can remove the Systematic base plate and fit the GH 5380 nicely into the tripod. See Photographer Steve Denton’s write up about this. This takes another 100g to 150g off the weight, making it only 2.3kg.

According to Gitzo, the GH5380S is the first ballhead to use a revolutionary hydraulic locking system placed inside the ball itself, which can create over 400kg of locking pressure. Crazy stuff.

With some help from my dad, I uploaded some demo videos on how the tripod head works.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The GH 5380 is not without it’s cons. DSLR shooters will go crazy over the fact that you cannot tilt the ball head to portrait orientation. The maximum tilt it can go is 28 degrees. It is the biggest drawback of this ball head and photographer Steve Denton shared his thoughts on this.

That said, I shoot primarily on a square format so the orientation issue means nothing to me, unless I want to point it upwards and shoot the sky. For sort of specialty purposes, I have the trusty 410 Gear head as back up.

Overall, the GH 5380 SQR compliments my shooting very well and paired with my Hasselblad setup it’s like gloves on a hand.

The best part? I got it with a big fat discount at the Shriro Warehouse Sale. I cannot state exactly how much I spent on it all I can reveal is that it was more than 30% discount compared to online retail prices.

But if you ask me will I recommend this tripod head to others, I won’t. The GH 5380 SQR is a very specialized tripod head meant for specialized shooting like nature shooting. It also happened to fit my style of shooting well. However, if portrait orientation plays a big part in your shooting, don’t even bother.

Oh and did I mention how much lighter this tripod setup is? With my trip to China in June, this system could not have come at a better time.

I’ve been photographing a lot in black and white lately so I decided to pop a roll of Ektar 100 into my Hasselblad instead.

Got to say that it remains my default choice of film when it comes to shooting landscape. Though not as vivid as slide film like the Fuji Velvia 50, the Ektar 100 is in a class of it’s own when it comes to color negative.

I spotted a mini-quarry of sorts at Punggol Promenade. It is not visible to the public because you have to walk into the barren area in order to spot it.

Once again, wordpress has failed me badly with poor reproduction of the colors in my photographs.

It was not easy to get this shot though. My feet sank 30cm into soft mud prior to this shot. Thanks to that my $60 Hush Puppies leather slippers were totally destroyed.

Last but not least, I am attempting to kickstart a new project, when I photograph the development of my new home, Punggol Ridges. The BTO is set to complete in 2015 and I am trying to photograph the location once every month.

There are many things that happen around you without you actually realizing it.

I’ve been exploring Punggol Waterway for the past few years. It was only last week that I realized the lights at Waterway go off after a certain time. The main area of the Waterway was in pitch darkness and was something I never encountered. Therefore, I decided to set up the camera for a long exposure.

I did not even bother measuring the exposure. Instead, I open up my aperture and set it to long exposure for about 15 minutes.

What I achieved out of it was a eerily quiet shot of Punggol Waterway with the moon as my only light source. It was something different and made a good addition to my collection of Punggol photos.

I should look for such opportunities more often.

Another interesting landmark of Punggol Waterway was this viewing deck, which gives you a good view of the Wayerway main area.

I visited this viewing deck many times but was unable to find an ideal composition. On this particular occasion, I decided to go with the shot above, making use of positive/negative space as my composition tool. Once again, the use of positive and negative space for composition was something i seldom do. It worked well for me this time.

This made me realized that choosing to photograph Punggol has challenged me in many ways as a Photographer. For one, it gets really boring because you visit the same place over and over again. The things that looked remotely interesting got photographed multiple times but many other photographers, including myself. Many would simply give Punggol Waterway a miss when they get bored but this forces me to look harder and find the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

When people start to get bored of a certain place, they move on to other unfamiliar places in search of new photo opportunities.

The fact that everything is unfamiliar to you makes it easy to take photographs. Take traveling for example. The reason why someone would take more pictures while traveling is because they are in an unfamiliar place. To mark the ‘occasion, there’s no better way to do it than to take a photograph.

When you start to see beyond the familiar surroundings, that is when you start to bring something different to the table.

I recently decided to re-visited the idea of photographing my family.

The fact that you spend your entire life with them makes it easy to overlook the fact that your family are the most important people in your life.

Family is not there forever. When it is time to say goodbye to them, it will be too late to pick up the camera anymore.

In twenty, thirty or even forty years’ time, you will regret the day you choose not to pick up your camera to photograph what it deemed ‘familiar’ to you.

I won’t let that happen to me though.

Some time late last year, I surrendered my Hasselblad 501 C/M to my girlfriend and i was left without my favourite camera for a long while.

I tried to get over it by flirting with the Mamiya 645 AFD II, doing some shoots with it and an Aptus 22. While the system delivered some really good results and earned me a few quick bucks, the truth is I never gave up on the blad.

Which is why I sold the Mamiya AFD and got myself a 503 CXi, alongside a winder and the legendary 50mm CFi. I had to fork out extra money for the setup but in the end, it was worth it.

I mean, who’s to say it is a waste of money when it made me really happy yeah?

I quickly brought it out for a night shoot at Punggol and it felt like first love all over again, reminding me the good times I had with this camera when I was up in the mountains of China waiting to nail that one good shot.

All of the shots are taken with the 50mm CFi and on Ilford FP 125.

Things to get for the future and I stress the FUTURE:

• 100mm f/3.5 CFi
• 150mm f/4 CFi
• Metered Prism

Heck, I might even consider getting a digital back to compliment the camera!

The first piece of news was the announcement from blogger Justin Lee that the Canon 5D Mark III will be made available on 17 March at a retail price of S$4,699 (Body) and S$5,999 (Kit).

Let me share with you a personal experience of mine back in late 2008.

I was a hardcore Canon loyalist and like many others, eager to get my hands on the 5D Mark II. When the first few pieces was made available in late 2008, I was one of the lucky few to get one.

I bought it for $4500. (I think…)

Naturally, I was a happy photographer, taking photographs whenever I could with the camera. Here’s the thing though, I compared the photos taken with the 5D Mark II and my 40D and there really wasn’t any significant improvements* at all. *Edit: I was referring to the quality of my work.

Did I make better portraits? No.

Did I make better landscape photos? No.

At the end of the day, I paid a premium for a camera that promises better ISO, resolution and good video capabilities. None of which, however, made me a better photographer.

It does not help that a year later, the 5D II craze withered and it’s retail price dropped to about $3,600. All in all, I made a huge loss when I decided to move on from Canon.

What’s the point of this story?

If the Canon EOS 5D Mark III does not immediately addresses your (commercial) photography needs, meaning it does give you a tangible return of investment through paid-work, I strongly suggest that you hold back on the Gear-Acquisition-Syndrome (BBB Virus).

Hold out for a few months and wait for the craze to die down. It is worthwhile to note that difference in price can buy you a decent Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 or a nice trip to neighboring countries for a photography trip.

You can also use this time to, put it simply, shoot more with your current camera. The truth is that a better camera need not necessary make you a better photographer nor make you any more professional.

To quote one of my favourite write and photographer Kirk Tuck, professionalism is not what’s hung on your shoulders/neck but how you perform your duties and respond to clients.

That brings me to my second piece of Facebook newsfeed I read.

Local street photographer Chia Aik Beng is set to release his book on Little India at night, documenting his countless nights spent there interacting and photographing the migrant workers.

Check out his Flickr gallery here.

The catch? He documented the entire project with his iPhone.

I believe many of you will find it hard to believe that a photographer can capture wonderful night images of Little India with an iPhone. It does not have good low light capabilities, not much bokeh, no fast auto-focusing nor zoom. Yet, with a good eye for details and the courage to walk up and interact with strangers, Aik Beng was able to capture intimate portraits of migrant workers that we would not be able to see.

I had the opportunity to go on a photowalk with him earlier this year and see for myself how he was able to get some really good shots with his phone.

At the end of the day, the buzz and craze about the launch of a new camera like the Canon EOS 5D III does nothing more than making camera retailers a decent profit from the sales mark up.

99% of you out there can afford to wait for the price to drop while going out to shoot more and improve your photography first.

This picture was taken about three years ago, when the National Stadium was still intact.

Fast forward three years to present day, what used to be an icon of Singapore National Days and home to intense football rivalry against Malaysia is now gone.

The Singapore landscape is changing very quickly. This is one of the main reason why I started the project of documenting the changing landscape of Punggol.

When I was invited by the team behind It’s My Turn to create a social initiative, the idea of creating a photo capsule popped into my mind.

This is partially inspired by the recent chatter about David Aryes‘ photo of Raffles Place in the 1960s.

Image courtesy of David Aryes

Please check out his Flickr account if you have time. Tons of Singapore photos from the 1960s.

His photos introduced a Singapore that I have never seen in my life. If anything, the photos gave me a glimpse into the Singapore that belonged to my parents. I grew up hearing stories from my parents about how Singapore was like. It was not until I saw these photos that I could finally connect with their stories.

Therefore, the social initiative that I created for It’s My Turn is creating your own photo capsule!

If you saw the photos of Singapore in the 1960s and have a strong feeling towards it, imagine how the future generation will react when they see the Singapore of your time!

Here are some photos that I will be putting into my photo time capsule.

If you have a camera or camera-phone with you where ever you go, why not create a photo time capsule like me?

Alternatively, if you have a social initiative that you would like to create, you can do so at It’s My Turn!

I first encountered VSCO (Visual Supply Company) through my friend Benjamin last year. I did not give it much thought about its capabilities back then, for some strange reason.

This afternoon, I revisited the website and wondered how is it that I managed to overlook such a cool product.

If you have been shooting digital and wondered just what you need to do to achieve the amazing colors of film like Kodak Portra 400 and Tri-X, then VSCO’s film emulation is the product for you.

The software has got some Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presents that will give your digital files the look of famous films like the above mentioned as well as the legendary Fuji Pro 400H.

Here are some examples:

Kodak Portra 160

Fuji Pro 400H

Kodak Tri-X

I honestly have mixed feelings towards this product. While it may be the best solution to photographers wanting to achieve looks exclusive to film photography, getting that color and look is only part of the big picture.

I shoot film because I thoroughly enjoy the thought process and crafting of my image. The fact that I get beautiful colors and grain is part of the journey.

I have still yet to make my purchase of the product. If I ever do, I suspect it may well be a for-fun-only purchase.

As for others… well… those who long want to copy Jose Villa, Jonathan Canlas and many other great film shooters’ look and feel will now have a chance to do so. Note that I use the term ‘copy’. You may get the look and feel of Jose Villa and Jonathan Canlas’ images, but you will never produce the same great images without a good vision like theirs.

More info about the product here: