ngjames772photography: Sunrise in Kong Kong

ngjames772photography: Sunrise in Kong Kong:  I took this shot on the morning of 13th October 2013 at around 6.30 am. I am always looking forward to sunrise shots due to the wonderful c...

Sunset in Purple

 Hi! I was grounded for two weeks without a single photos taken due to the rainy season at the place where I am staying. I never give up hopes and would  bring along my camera to work just in case the rain do stops and the conditions just right that I can at least get a few shots and hope to get a great one too. You can take 50 to 100 photos of the same place and subjects but in the end only a few stand out. For this shot here I was rewarded for my passion and desire to get a shot at the slightest of opportunity. I was drinking a cup of tea at my favourite coffee shop and the rain stopped at 6 pm and upon glancing up to the sky I knew I was going to get something great. Only this time I knew exactly where I would be going because the sun would set at around 6.30 pm and time was limited. Upon reaching the spot, I quickly set up my gears and took a few shots but somehow something was missing. Most of the shots felt empty. I used the 18-55mm kit lens because that's the only landscape lens I have and at focal length of 18mm, although wide enough for my normal landscape shoots something just didn't feel right in those shots I took earlier. The sky was so beautiful then I knew I could not afford to waste anymore time! After a few more framing and shootings, there......I got this shot and I knew what I should do to the rest of the shots. You know what? Instead of making most of the wide angle the lens can provide it's zooming in that did the trick here. The space in front of me was empty with no foreground objects to focus on, just the empty sea. All the other objects were quite a distance away. By zooming in I managed to fill up the empty space in the frame and add character to the shots. I tried swapping lens and used my 55-200mm. Every shot after that improved. What I learned here is that not all landscape compositions have to be made with wide angle lens but tele zoom lens could be more effective when your nearest objects is far away and your can't walk on water! to reach it. Here is a secret I would like to share with you regarding this picture above. In normal pictures shot around this angle and time you will normally gets sillhoute pictures and because I love that little floating shed so much, I did a 3 shots exposures to create an HDR image in order to highlight what's inside the shed for better effect and tonemapped to as natural as possible. Another secret........ the sky, no doubt it was already very beautiful at that time I just needed more colour so I put a gradient tint to it using the software that I have. And this is the result I was going after. Have patience and you can create something out of nothing. Happy shooting!

Floating Jetty- How much is too much?

 Hi! How do you find this image? What processes did I use? Do you find the image nice and comfortable to look at or hdr-ish to a point you can't accept it? To be frank, this image was processed in two HDR software to attained this result which I found quite pleasant and almost to the original image. Many people had asked me why didn't I just process all my pictures in normal photo editing softwares for all natural results? Well I did that in the earlier days when I first started photography. Some results were ok if there were people in the images but when it comes to landscape in daylight somethings just not right. There weren't any wow factor in the images and the subjects in those images just won't pop out. In-camera processing has its limits, so do certain basic picture editing softwares. So how much is too much in terms of images processing by todays standard? I truly cannot answer that. I have tried editing one particular image in five different softwares but still could not be satisfied with the results produced by each individual softwares . Then I started to learn pros and cons of each individual software and combined them in an effort to edit a single image. Some are very good at sharpening, some are very good at contrast, some good at giving very natural saturation and etc. It was the usage of this combination of softwares that I manage to produce some stunning images by my own standard of course. I will try to process it to as natural as possible to highlight what needed be highlighted and not overdoing it to a point where the image looks out of this world where it would look more like a painting than a photograph taken by a camera. Nothing is original these days, even a slight adjusment to the contrast or colour saturation is  considered image manipulation. You can even manipulate the images while the files are still in the camera itself. Some cameras of today can even make an HDR image in the in-camera software before you even download it to the computer or print it out directly via imaging kiosks.
So the question is, how much is too much? It all depends on you, how you want your images to look like, how you want to present your images for others to see from your own viewpoints. It is your pictures, your own work of art, it belongs to you, edit as much as you want to get the results you aimed for, it is digital, nothing is wasted in the process, make that image yours and share! Any critisism is good as it is the only way to improve and to master photography. Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder! Happy shooting everyone!

Sunset in Blue

 In the past post, I had mentioned that most sunrise shots will produce bluish tint and most sunset shots will produce reddish tint.  Well, in some cases you can change the colour tones by using certain filters and may effect the whole picture and changed the mood altogether. Lets take a look at this particular photo that I shot yesterday evening. If you have seen my past blog regarding sunset shots, you will noticed that the former sunset photo was reddish in colour and the water was fiery and rough. That shot was intended to be like that where you could feel the warmth and wind in that picture. Now what you see here in this particular picture is the reverse, cool and calm. How did I do it? The secret is the use of Neutral Density filters or ND filter in short form. The main purpose of an ND filter is to blocked out the harsh sunlight and to slows down the shutter speed or to lengthen exposure's time so that you get to tame the rough and moving water for the effect you are going after. ND filters are graded in stops, how much light it will block out depending on your suroundings and the kind of effect you are after. It starts from #1, #3, #6, #9 and #10. There is also an adjustable type in the market which is actually a 2 stacked together polariser lens whereby you turned it to get the shades/stops you want. The adjustable one has its limits and is mainly for light duty works. The higher the stops number the darker it gets, more light will be blocked with progressively longer shutter speed needed. Also please take note that the darker filters also effect the colour shift normally towards cooler temperature. If you shoots in RAW you can correct the colour temperature in the editing software but if you shoots in JPEG, then nothing much can be done. you can still alter the edited photos in Picasa but has its limits. Okay, let us talk about this picture. Since I had decided to smoothen the water with the use of an ND filter, lets think for a while. Would it be nice if the water becomes reddish in colour or the blue suits it more? I think you should know the answer right? Blue would be more suited for this kind of pictures and with the ND filter attached, you don't have to do anything, the water will turns out this way, believe me! Just make sure the sky is not to bright  or the sun directly blaring its sunlight to you camera because like I said, harsh sunlight is warm light so you will get yellowish tint instead. This kind of shots is best done on an overcast day where some clouds will block out the harsh sun ray and not to heavy a cloud where you cannot get colourful sky like this. What settings did I use? I will list it out below but it will largely depends on the amount of light, time of day and what stops ND filters you were using:
a) ND #6 mounted to 18-55mm kit lens. Turn off the VR. Mounted the camera to a sturdy tripod.
b) Set the ISO to 100 for minimum noise and maximum shutter speed.
c) Set to Aperture priority mode and set it to f22 for least light to extend exposures time.
d) Compose your shot and check the exposure timed to at least 30 seconds to smoothen the water out. If the time is too short you can stack another ND filter onto the first ND filter or you can add a polarising filter to lengthen exposure time.
e) Take a test shot, if you notice too much rippling of the water of the picture came out too bright, change the exposure compensation in your camera to -5EV if it allows. Extend your shutter speed to 45 seconds or 1 minute. From now on it is trial and error.
f) Make sure you use the self timer or a cable to reduce camera shake.
For the picture above, I had to take five shots of 30s to get one right by manipulating the f stops and exposure compensation from the camera. It is a bit tricky and you will need a bit of luck to get a shot like this but it is all worth it. You can take a few hundreds of photos a day but one photo like this will make my day!
Happy Shooting! I sincerely hope that to those of you who have never tried this kind of photography techniques can start trying, there will be alot of hit and misses but it is all worth it when you hit one and you will treasure every moment of it and shares it to your friends and family.

Sunrise in Kong Kong

 I took this shot on the morning of 13th October 2013 at around 6.30 am. I am always looking forward to sunrise shots due to the wonderful colours of the sky in early hours of the day that is bluish and cool. In order to take shots like this I will have to reach the designated spot half an hour before the first light appears. Once I reached there I will checked out the surroundings for potential shooting spots where the best of shots can be produce as the time is short this kind of shoots. The moment the sun appears, all the nice colours of the sky will be lost. Camera settings for shoots like this are as follows:
a) Mode: Aperture priority and set to f/8 or f/11 for maximum depth of field.
b) ISO: 100 for least noise and also to slow down the shutter speed to optimise misty water effect.
c) Shutter speed: Since you are in Aperture priority mode, the camera will decides for you.
d) Focal length: Widest as possible /18mm.
e) Sturdy tripod is a must for sharp images due to the long exposure time.
f) Filters: Polarising filter for good colour and water reproduction and a #4 ND filter+polarising filter once the sun appears.
g) Shutter cable: Better if you have it or use in-camera self timer to reduce camera shake.
Take one or two test shots to check the exposures of the images. If it is to dark or too bright(which is not acceptable in sunrise shots) change the exposure settings via the exposure compensation function in the camera for optimum exposures.
Of all kinds of photography, sunrise shooting is the one I like best because each and everytime the results will amaze me and my friends for the colours it produces is unmatched to shooting at any other time of the day.
If you have never tried sunrise shoots before, it is time to try it and I promise you that you won't regret it and will go back for more.........Happy Shooting!

Seascape in sunset

 Have you ever wonder how to take pictures like this? What are the techniques, settings and equipments? Actually it is not that hard. You must first study the weather and the sky for  the shooting day. Hazy and heavily clouded sky will not make the picture looks good. Some cloud is good to block out the harsh sun ray if you are shooting towards it which is what we wanted to do anyway. When you reach your destination, scout around the place for some interesting objects for your composition. The objects could be on the sandy beach or in the water as long as it could be included in the picture to make your composition more dramatic. It is not advisable to compose your picture with the object in the dead centre of the frame. It will not look nice. Bring it a little bit to the off centre to leave some open space for inclusion of extra things like the pillars you see in this picture.
For most shots, I do not like to place the sun in the center. I would prefer to place it either to the left or to the right side of the frame. The reason? Well, take a look at this picture. you will see two main colour to the sky. On the left it is blue which is not effected by the sun and on the right it is orange. It also gets reflected to the water so there is more colour to this composition. If you framed the sun in the centre, all you will get is one bright orange colour to the whole picture. How much of the beach to be included in the picture depends on your taste and the kind of compositions you have in mind.
Equipments? A tripod is a must have item. The sun is low, the amount of light is not enough to allow you to handheld the camera at slow shutter speed in order to produce correct exposures. In order to highlights the tree trunks and the pillars, HDR techniques are going to be needed here. In a normal single shot picture of this kind, you are most likely to produce a silhoutte photo. Most of your objects in the picture will becomes black in colour. In using HDR techniques, you can produce pictures like this as seen with your eyes there and then. You can feel like you are in this picture! This is the kind of pictures I like to take and I will share it with you. HDR may not need to look "painterly", you can edit to your liking, for me that would be as natural as possible.
When everything is set up and ready, take three to five shots of the same scene with different exposures of -5,-2,0, +2,+5. Make sure you don't move the camera. If your camera has the auto exposure bracketing function,  set it and let the camera do the work for you. As for me, my camera Nikon d3200 does not come with this function so will have to do it manually. Here is how I do it:
a) set the camera to manually mode. If your camera comes with auto ISO, turn it off and set the ISO to 100 for minimal noise reproduction.
b) set the Aperture to f8 or f11 if you have a mild ND filter which will help in producing misty water effects or set to f16 or f22  if no filters used. Also put on the polarising filter for better contrast to the sky and the water.
c) shoot in RAW if you can but jpeg will also get you the result don't worry.
d) now look into the view finder or live view if you like to compose using the LCD screen and the exposure
 metre will show its current exposure. Dial your shutter speed dial to underexposure to -2 or -5 depending on how many exposures you are going to take. Take care not to move the camera while doing this. Take the shot via cable or self timer because you don't want to move the camera. Then dial the shutter speed until the exposure metre indicates normal exposure(middle) if you intend to take three exposures and take the picture. Dial again for the next shot to +2 or +5 for overexposure and take the shot. I prefer doing it this way because it is easier then changing exposures compensation in the camera as it is more of a hassle and also when you load up your pictures in the computer it won't be able to detect the exposure values.
e) process your images with any photo softwares that can merge these photos for example easyHDR, Fusion HDR or the one I am using the Photomatrix Pro.
f) after merging the photos, edit as you like. You can edit in as many programmes as you like for the effects you are after.
Hope this will help in your future shots of these nature. If you like to know more in depth, please feel free to write to me. Happy Shooting!

Dream Butterfly

 This magnificent butterfly image remains as my favourite butterfly shots of all time. It was shot under the bright afternoon sunlight in front of my house while I went back home to fetch my daughter from school. Many people assumed that the afternoon sun is too harsh a light to produce good pictures but not this one. It actually adds to the dreamy and creamy effect to the whole shot. It was also the first time I used the newly bought 55-200mm VR Nikon lens at that time. I zoomed it to 200mm to try to get the butterfly to fit the frame and also for the nice bokeh in the background. Previously I was shooting butterflies with the 18-55mm VR kit lens. It just couldn't produce the results I wanted. The butterflies all seemed to blend into its surrounding due to the depth of field which could not blur out the background. The 55-200mm really started  producing incredible shots each time I used it and the VR helped tremendously as I was moving all over chasing butterflies. This image was shot at 1/200 seconds so not fast enough to freeze the wings motion but I am pretty satisfied with the overall picture. If you are planning on shooting butterflies and you know it's going to be there waiting, try to get some colour to the normally plain greenish background with some red clothings or just about anything you can find that is not green and place it somewhere near the surrounding to get some colour for greater effect. What you see in this picture, the red stripes are actually my neighbour's house gate! Happy shooting!

Sunrise vs Sunset

 Sunrise vs Sunset. These are the shots I love to take most. In Sunrise, I will have to wake up very early at least an hour before the first light of the sun appears. The journey to the planned locations normally took about half and hour to reach. All equipments to be used for the shots were prepaired before going to bed in order to minimize mistakes. Once I reached the location, setting up would roughly takes 10 minutes and you will only have about 20 to 30 minute left for the actually shoots because when the sun finally appears, it would be to strong a light to shoot anymore. Clouds in the morning hours are usually very thin and the sky will brightens up very quickly. The nice thing about sunrise shots is that there is no activity in the area surrounding your shots so framing and compositions will be much easier. Most people were still asleep, that includes my wife (no nagging). Sunrise shots tend to be cold in clour temperature so you will get these nice soft, sometimes deep blue depending on the amount of light available.
In Sunset, I normally goes to certain beaches in my area which faces the west so that I can include the sun in the pictures. Sunset shots is the easiest for not much planning were needed. I would just bring along my equipments to work and right after work just scoots to the location on my trusted scooter. I will have plenty of shots by the beach while waiting for the sun to set in roughly 2 hours. The problem with sunset shots were the amount of activities by the beach in the late evening where families with their children and fisherman will patronise beach for their own activities. Framing and composition becomes harder. Sunset shots tend to be on the warm side of the colour temperature so will get orange to red tint for most shots. So which kind of shots do you like, sunrise or sunset? As for me, I like both! By the way, this picture was shot at 6.30 am in tha morning at Kampung Pasir Putih, Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia.

Way of Life

 Ever since I picked up the camera and started shooting, things that I have never taken notice before, big or small, way of life of people in our surroundings, the small but beautiful insects, the big giant trees and etc. becomes connected to me and my views of everything this world has to offer. In macro shootings, I have come to appreciate those tiny little fellas and try not to harm them and respect them more for their contributions to the eco-system. The gigantic trees were just magnificent and would be a shames if they were to be chopped down to make way for developements. When I start to venture into remote villages, I can't help but notice how simple and humble the lives of this people compares to city folks where everyday is hectic, fast pace, work in frenzies, highly competitive and money is all that seems to matter to them, like the more the merrier. In this ever changing world and at the rate that is going on, I wonder what will become of us and our children in the near future where Life will eventually means Making Money or you won't survive. No time left for the family, no outdoor activities, no entertainments, no retirements and always worrying about the future. For these villagers, they may never make it big in life or become super rich, it seems they are quite content with what they have and what they do for a living. It's the kind of lives they want and they are happy with it and upon seeing their children happily playing on the beach without any worries makes me envy of them. Their children grows up like the way we were 40 years ago but not with our urban children. The children in the cities are so engage with all the modern gadgets and facilities that most have never seen a real cow or a goat in all their lives as a child to adulthood. The same goes to my children.Sometimes it makes me wonder where our world is heading to.........

Low Tides

 This image was shot yesterday on the 5th of October, 2013 at aproximately 6.30 pm. The sun was already low and so do the tides which exposed all these beautiful rocks eroded by the sea over the centuries. The place is located deep in a village at Tanjung Putri Golf Resort in Pasir Gudang City, Johor, Malaysia. As the sun was behind these rocks, heavy shadows cast onto these rocks facing back to the sun making these rock surfaces very dark with all details lost. In order to highlight the surface darkens by the shadows, 5 exposures of different degree from the darkest to the brightest were made and merged  in Photomatrix Pro. Contrast were added leaving some black points to the image to make it looks more natural. Minor touch up to the sky were made repair parts of it which were over exposed. I don't believe in over doing the HDR prosesses in order to preserve its natural looks. Lastly sharpening were done just enough to show details on the rocks. I want to produce an image where you can feel the presents of that place as if it were just right in front of you. Hope you enjoy this image as I do. If you have any questions, please feel free to write to me and I'll be glad to answer to your questions.

Dragonfly

 This is my favourite dragonfly image. Many people had asked me "how did you take this picture?" or "what settings did you use?". Well, I am going to answer those questions today and hopefully is of help to you in your quest of shooting dragonflies and butterflies which moves constantly and are quite hard to lock focus to. Before going to that, I have an issue in my mind about posting shots of dragonflies and butterflies to the specified communities. I know, rules are rules but sometimes it is just so hard to stick to the rules when you have shots like this. To begins with, the rules stated that in macro shots, the subject must be 5cm and smaller and must fit the frame of the picture. That means if I were to post this particular picture, the dragonfly which by itself is larger that 5 cm in overall length and width will have to be cropped/cut into half and filled into the frame. Imagine what's left of the dragonfly? What about the beautiful background accompanying this beautiful species? Cut and throw away....photography is about producing nice beautiful pictures and is also an art. One would rather hang onto their walls this full picture rather than the ones that's been chopped here and there with only half the body and a big head without the backgrounds intact don't you think? In that case I chose not to post in respect to the community rules and not to flout the rules and get banned. Okay, now back to the main subject "what settings to use"
I am no expert on this but with the settings that I am using for this kind of shots  never fails. So here it is.
1) Set the ISO to auto. That's because you will be chasing after these guys up and down, back and forth so the light meterings are never constant. 2) Choose shutter priority mode. Important when your are chasing a fast moving butterfly for instant. Minimun 1/250 to 1/500 when handheld. 3) Since you will be shooting butterflies and dragonflies, macro lenses are hard to use. take out your zoom lens 55-200mm for instant (that's what I prefer to use) and zoom it to maximun 200mm. That should give you the nice bokeh you see in this picture. Don't worry about the aperture, in shutter priority mode the camera will optimises it for you automatically. 4) Set your light metering to center weighted for more accurate exposure to the subject. 5) Set your camera focus point to dynamic or 3D if your camera has it because you are going to have a hard time chasing and focusing this subjects and lastly 6) Set your camera to continuous shooting mode where when you pressed the shooting button the camera will shoots continuously as long as the button remained pressed and only shoots when focus i locked onto the subject. Your chances of getting a good and sharp focus shots will be increased. There, that's about it. Hopefully this helps and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment in my blog. I will try my best to help and answer. Happy shooting and experimenting!

Boat Number 9

 This image of an old decommisioned boat was shot 2 days ago. A friend of mine who is a local knows all the interesting places around Pasir Gudang where I am currently staying and brought me to this wonderful location. It is accessible only via motorcycles so I rode there on my trusted Yamaha scooter. At the sight of the boat, I told myself I am gonna have a winner. I took several shots but this is the best. I even had it converted to monochrome which I will upload later.This images is an HDR photo. The thing is, for an old boat to look this good you will have to do something. Normal photography works won't be able to project it to such greatness. with the right approach and editing, I think I managed to do some justice to this old fellow which was retired and placed here to rot.  Photography in an art, so disregard whatever processes and editing works put onto an image, as long as it comes out good and appreciated by the majority, then it is a good picture.

New Village

 Since the advancements of digital cameras and softwares, pictures like this are possible even to the amateurs as long as they are willing to learn and experiment. Never before can we see details like what the eagles can see, one can even feels that he or she is in the picture. This is the power of newer and better software being produced that helps in making better pictures. It is not about the camera, it is you who makes the pictures, not your friends, not the public, the pictures belong to you and it is you who decides how it should look and presented. Opinions are plenty, mind you it is your pictures and it is your say. HDR, natural, no edit, heavily photoshop, who cares, as long as the picture comes out pretty, it's a good picture!

Sunrise in Oyster Village

 This picture was shot at 6.30 am in the morning with the sun still hidden from sight. The place is an oyster producing village in Kampung Pasir Putih, Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia. The people here lives on floating houses as they call it which they built themselves and are devoids of electricity and running tap water because these houses are consider illegal by the government but were not bothered by the municipal council. the livelihood of those villagers staying here are collecting oysters from the sea and processed before selling off to ready buyers. This place mesmerizes me the first time I step my foot here and I had made many return trips to the place just absorb the peace and serenity this place has to offer.

Passion and Desire

 Passion is what makes to do things with full commitment. Desire is when you want to do the things you have passions for. You just cannot leave one out. Due to my passion to produce quality photos and beautiful images, some sacrifices had to be made to achieve our true passion. Sleeps, travel of great length, some money, family time and so on. One just have to know how to balance it all for the benefit of everybody. For this picture, I have to wake up before everyone  else and made the cold long journey on my trusted scooter to this location before the sun rises. The sacrifice was all worth it. The deep blue sky of the morning light, the calm water, the lightings to the sheds and water all made this composition cool and desirable. Passion........you need one.....

Sunset Made in Heaven

 This shot was made 2 months ago and also my first foray into HDR photography. It was processed from only 2 bracketed exposures as I was only trying out for the first time. My first true HDR processed image remains as my best HDR image till today.

Sunset by the Lake.

This shot was taken on a very warm evening by the lakeside at the Muzeum Layang layang which is famous for its annually held International Kites Festival where participants all over the world comes here to show their craftmanships in kites making and flying it of course. Everyday in the late evening, hordes of people from all walks of life will come here with their families and children for all kinds of activities like kite flying, jogging, kids enjoying the playgrounds and people like me....photographing. This image is a 3 exposures HDR processed picture. Without this kind of process, the colour just won't pop due to the strong sun at the background. Yes, many still cannot accept HDR photography but why is that? We are just trying to bring out the best of an image seen through our eyes which the camera cannot produce. The camera's sensor can only see 2 stops of light while our eyes can see 5 stops. What I did was just merging 3 to 5 images together to produce the image with minimal touch ups in photoshop or GIMP. It is better than painting the pictures with all kinds of brushes and sprays in the photoshop isn't it? 

Village Exotica

 I was brought to this beautiful village by a friend, a local who lives nearby, who knows my passion for unique landscape photography. The moment I reached here, I know I have found the needle in the haystack! Just a single quick glance and a good composition was definately on the way 'cause no matter how you twist and turn, everything just seems to be in place for you to shoot! I have a colour version of this picture which is very nice by the way but I just thought why not make a black and white one too to see if it do more justice to this beautiful place and here it is. I feel more connected to this place via this black and white version better than the colour ones. The place is call Teluk Kabung (in Malay words) situated deep in a remote area at the Pasir Gudang City, Johor, Malaysia where I live.