When I got started with photography, I regarded Little India as my training ground of sorts to improve my craft.

Armed with a Yashica GSN (rangefinder for poor people like me), I walked around the streets to talk to people and ask for their permission to take a portrait of them. It was a very rewarding time for me back then as I had learn a lot in terms of approaching your subjects.

Fast forward four years later, I was having midnight coffee with a few friends on Chinese New Year day and we decided to hit the streets of Little India for a short photo walk.

Without hesitation, I went home, grab my Mamiya 645 AFD II and my only roll of Ilford Delta 3200.

Well after four years, Little India still is a great place to shoot. Will try to make more time to revisit the area soon.

Lina Goldberg of My Big Fat Face is a food blogger based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

In her most recent blog entry, she recalled how one annoying tourist (with a DSLR) treated a local lady trying to sell flowers. Instead of buying anything from the local, this unnamed tourist basically treated her like some exotic animal and took photos non-stop.

Kudos to Lina for intervening and giving this tourist a taste of her own medicine.

While such a behavior is rare in this part of the world, I did encounter this weirdo walking up to my girlfriend and taking photos of her without even saying anything and despite her feeling uncomfortable about it.

Being a guy-with-cameras (Yes I don’t regard these heartless people as photographers) does not give you the right to intrude someone’s personal space like that.

More importantly, approaching a subject like that sure as hell will not give you a great photograph.

Image above courtesy of Lina Goldberg.

The news of Kodak’s bankruptcy finally became a reality over the week.

And that’s a really terrible piece of news for film lovers like me and all those around the world. I remember the first film that I used when learning photography was the T-Max 400 back in 2004 together with a Nikon FG-20. So yes, Kodak film does has a special place in my photography journey and it’s sad to see how a big company like them fall apart.

That said, film photographer Jonathan Canlas recently tweeted me about the status of Kodak film. It appears that Kodak film is here to stay for a little while longer even after bankruptcy.

But for how long more?

Perhaps Fujifilm may want to consider acquiring Kodak film, which will make them the largest film produces of the world? Now that’s a sick thought but hey, it might just be the move needed to keep film alive for a longer while.

If you read my blog often enough, you will pretty much know what PSKiss is all about.

And in case you don’t, I wrote a review for some of their products like the Black & White filters and Contrast Farm/Viveda filters.

Just the other day, I stumbled upon this deal site Photowhoa (think Groupon for photography) and saw a deal on PSKiss’ Photographer’s Toolbox on sale.

I received a copy of the Photographer’s Toolbox for review late last year and in the limited amount of time I spent with the filters (I have no DSLR!), they have proved to be very effective and easy to use.

And now, they are going on for $59.

If you are looking for hassle-free Photoshop filters to improve your images, you may want to consider this deal.

Image courtesy of the folks from Razer.

I may not be an American citizen but let it be known that I am against SOPA and PIPA.

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Ever since Phase One acquired a major stake in Mamiya as well as buying over Leaf Imaging, it was just a matter of time before Mamiya and Leaf merged to become a brand of it’s own.

Following the announcement today, the Mamiya Leaf brand is official to the world.

It makes sense anyway, since Phase One has its own digital backs to go with the 645 DF under the Phase One branding.

Yours truly have always been a fan of the Mamiya AFD as well as Leaf digital backs since the days of the 11 megapixel Leaf Valeo backs. I’d go as far as to say that Leaf digital backs have the best skin tone reproduction over Phase One and Hasselblad backs.

The differences, however, are diminishing as time goes by.

No matter how, where MF 645 is concerned, I am still a fan of the Mamiya 645 + Leaf combo even though I do enjoy the occasional use of the Hasselblad H4d-40.

It is noteworthy to point out that the only competitor standing in the way of Phase One/Mamiya/Leaf dominance is Hasselblad and its H4D offering.

And because I love love love the legendary V-series cameras from Hasselblad, I do hope that they are here to stay for as long as possible and fight to the end with Phase One.

A Mamiya 645 DF with Leaf Aptus II-8 combo, together with a Hasselblad 503CW with CFV-50 combo in my dry cabinet will make me the happiest photographer in the world.

I stumbled upon this post on Petapixel, featuring John B. Mueller and his beautiful landscape photograph.

His statement was simple:

“So if you’re a magazine, website, corporation, sports team, or advertiser who wishes to use this photo, please don’t come and ask to use it for free, or in exchange for credit or “exposure”. You found my photo so obviously I have “exposure”. You have an advertising budget, and this is what it’s for. You obviously don’t expect your writers to work for free, or your secretary, or your boss. No one is going to publish it for free. Just because the picture is digital doesn’t mean it was free to make.”

That got me inspired to start this mini-campaign.

Have you ever had the unpleasant experience of being bullied by clients into submitting your photo for free and get ‘exposure’ out of it?

Have you ever encountered clients who dismisses photography as cheap, worthless and refuses to pay you the true value of your effort?

Have you ever had one of your photographs copied and published without your permission, or worse, without crediting you?

I know I did.

And if you encountered something similar, then perhaps it’s time to do something about it.

This is all you have to do:

• Publish a photo of yours on your own blog. It can be of any subject matter as long as it has some sort of value to you as a photographer.
• Put the title as “This image is not free’.
• State the cost involved in creating this image, including a breakdown of the costs.

• End the blog entry with this remark if your image is used without your permission: “If this image is used without my permission, this is how much I will bill you.”
• End the blog entry with this remark if you are asked to submit this for free in exchange for ‘exposure’: “This image cost $X to create and I will not submit it for free in exchange for ‘exposure’.
• End the blog entry with this remark if a client once dismissed photography as cheap and refused to pay for it: “This image cost $X and it s how much you will have to pay for if you want a similar photo”.

• There’s no way to track the responses of this campaign. If it is not too inconvenient, leave a comment with your URL on this post. Let’s see how this will turn out.

Here’s my own entry, with reference to the image above.

• Cost of overseas trip: $2,000
• Cost of camera setup: $2,000
• Cost of tripod: $750
• Cost of development, film and filters: $30
• Cost of scanner: $600
• Cost of computer used for digital enhancement: $2,400

Total cost: $7,780.

Like what Mueller said, while this image did not cost me $7,780, it is the amount required to create this image from scratch.

If this image is used without my permission, this is how much I will bill you.

Woke up to a lot of chatter about Olympus releasing a digital version of the OM SLR cameras.

My first encounter with the OM came was some time in 2009 when I was buying some film for my Nikon F2 Photomic. This dude beside me had the Olympus OM-1 attached with a 50m f/1.4. That thing was quite a beauty and reminded me of the Nikon FM2.

Fast forward three years later and we have news of the digital OM camera.

It all started with this yet-to-publish backpage of the Amateur Photographer magazine.

More information here.

It’s no secret that consumers are turning to retro-looking digital cameras as the must-haves of the season. Just look at how the Olympus EP series and Fujifilm X series are selling like hotcakes right now.

Interesting thought – what kind of sensor will Olympus put into the camera? I hate to think that they are going to put a micro-four-thirds sensor into an OM camera. I am not a micro-four-third hater but a legendary camera of that sort deserves a better sensor.

Looking at how the micro-four-thirds business is growing, it probably does not make any sense for Olympus to release a new sensor. But I hope I am wrong about that.

Also, prior to turning into a medium format freak that I am right now, I was a big fan of the Nikon F2 Photomic. Now that makes you wonder what’s stopping Nikon from producing a digital equivalent of the legendary F1/F2/F3/FM1/FM2/FM10 SLRs?

I’d totally buy the camera just to admire the beauty of the it.

Anyways, more information about the Olympus OM SLRs here.

When my mom asked me to help choose a camera (and chip in some funds as well) for my dad to bring for his upcoming holiday, I started looking around for options.

While cameras like the Canon S100 and Fujiflm X10 makes total sense, my dad dropped the bomb on me (and my wallet) saying that he would like an EVIL camera and a long lens instead of compact cameras.

He doesn’t even know what does EVIL stands for.

Therefore my research for suitable cameras extended into Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lenses cameras.

But before I list them out, there’s a need to understand the criteria here:

• My dad is a complete photography noob and only got interested in EVIL cameras because of the bombardment of advertisements on TV
• He wants a lens that can shoot everything. (Like everyone else in the universe)
• DSLRs are out of the picture because they are bulky and old people hate bulky items.
• Image quality is not a top consideration because the camera is what it is meant to be – a good snapshot camera. If I wanted to find a camera with good image quality I’d make my dad bring a Mamiya 645 AFD and Leaf Aptus digital back for his holiday.
• Yours truly can use it once in a while for the occasional snapshots when H&M (Hasselblad & Mamiya) is not in use.

And here’s what I got so far.

The Nikon 1 V1

Interestingly, the first camera that my dad was interested in was the Nikon 1 series, no reasons given.

My first reaction? A firm NO because the 2.7x sensor was a total letdown.

That said, I am taking back my words and slapping myself in the face. As soon as I picked up the camera I knew I had a winner (or at least a finalist) in my hands. Image quality aside, the camera built felt just about right and I loved the 1.4m-dot LCD electronic viewfinder.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Besides, two of my most respected photographers and bloggers Steve Huff and Kirk Tuck gave a pretty decent review of the camera.

Yes the sensor may be small compared to its competitors but again, image quality is not one of my priorities. The few cons I can think of so far is the poor lens choices and the fact that the small sensor will not be able to give as much bokeh as I would have liked. Oh and I am more of a Canon guy.

Likelihood-to-buy-for-my-dad meter: 9/10

The Sony Nex C3

I had the opportunity to use the Nex C3 for about 2 weeks last year and the results were fantastic.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The only problem that I had is, being a complete noob, my dad would struggle to manage/operate the user menu. For me, the biggest lure is the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 lens that would make it a 36mm f/1.8 on the C3. According to Steve Huff, the lens is not the sharpest ever made but it has character. Being a Zeiss user for the last year or so, I knew exactly what he means by ‘character’ but I shall not discuss further.

Likelihood-to-buy-for-my-dad meter: 8.5/10

Likelihood-to-buy-for-my-dad-plus-the-Zeiss-lens meter: 0/10

The Zeiss lens itself cost a whopping 1000 USD. Way out of my budget for now.

The Olympus EP-3

Being one of the pioneers of EVIL cameras, I had great interest in the EP series. I had the opportunity to test out the EP-1 and EP-2 when they were launch a few years back and they were nothing short of being a fun camera to play with.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did I mention the ultra-fast auto-focusing of the EP-3 is a pure joy? The combination of the fast auto-focusing, its wide selection of lenses and the uber awesome Black & White filer makes the camera a top contender… Until I saw the high ISO images that came out of the camera.

Don’t get me wrong. The high ISO images are definitely usable by my dad’s standards but spending money on a three-year old sensor? Hmmm.

Likelihood-to-buy-for-my-dad meter: 8/10

The Panasonic GF series

Sorry…

Conclusion

Well the conclusion is that I do not have a conclusion as of yet. I find it incredibly hard to choose from three amazing systems as each of them has its own pros and cons. For now, the Nikon V1 has my preferance but ultimately, I will need to consider my dad’s needs and not mine.

What do you think?

I’ll make no secret that I am quite the fan of Jose Villa and his approach to wedding photography, shooting exclusively on film and such. So when Lydia and Shuohan came knocking on my door to help them with their ROM shoot, I jumped at the opportunity. It got better when Lydia was willing to experiment with film for the shoot.

Cue Kodak Portra 400 and the Mamiya 645 AFD II.