Chinese spectacle for students on Chinese New Year Day

Students of Winthrop Primary School were treated to a colour lion dance performance this morning. The performance was held at an assembly and was organised as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations welcoming the Year of the Rat. Some pre-primary students donned the traditional chinese costume called qipao added to the festive mood.

The students marvelled at the acrobatic performance presented by the Chow Kwoon Yarn Yee Tong lion-dancing troupe.
The two lions even did a few laps around the assembly hall with students trying to touch them for "good luck" and picking up scraps of lettuces from the floor after the lions 'Picked the Green'.


The green here referred to the lettuces which were tied to a piece of string which also had a red packet attached. The string was hung on the wall some 2 to 3 meters high, and the lions 'ate' both leaves and red packet. Lying on the floor the leaves were 'chewed' by the lions while the ensemble played to a dramatic rolling crescendo. The lull was broken as the lion exploded back into activity while spitting out the lettuce leaves. This symbolic act of blessing by the lions, with the spitting out of the leaves, signified that there will be an abundance of blessings in the new year.

Perth Skyshow 2008

The Skyworks is a fireworks show that is held over the Swan River in Perth city in Western Australia. It is held every Australia Day on the 26th of January. This year, I went to the Jeff Joseph Reserve with my family and shot some photos of the skyshow from there.

It had been quite an experience shooting the skyshow. It was difficult enough trying to setup my camera in the dark, and having to frame my shot at the start of the firework and in the process got some people annoyed apparently because I was blocking their view. It was good thing that I got it done relatively quickly was able to shoot most of the time using a remote shutter release button.

I shot approximately 40 over shots and here are some of the pictures I took:

Project Dullsville Update - East Perth Powerstation

I went to the old East Perth Power Station to take some photos with a group of photography friends from Flickr. The photowalking was great. The weather was a little warmer than I would have liked but nevertheless, the exploring and the adventure of getting into the power station compound made up for any discomfort. It was an interesting photowalk.

Here's a bit of the history of the power station:
"The East Perth Power Station consists of two buildings containing three power stations each of which retain their equipment and fittings. The buildings themselves are large, economical and stylistically of their time, the second building still embellished with its ‘art deco’ stylistic features. The three power stations, ‘A’ ‘B’ and then ‘C’ stations, were established over a 40 year period from World War One to the mid 1950s so they represent an extraordinarily complete sequence of technological development and provide the opportunity to tell the story of the provision of power to Perth through most of the 20th century. This remarkable heritage will be severely compromised unless arrangements are made for adaptive re-use of the complex that requires the retention and conservation of the machinery and associated fittings within the building. The power station complex represents the pioneering phase of the Western Australian electicity system, and dates from the era when the industry world-wide was in a formative stage. It has historic value for its role in the development of WA and the metropolitan area in particular, for its influence on the standard of living enjoyed by the community throughout the greater part of this centry as the only public power station supplying the metropolitan area from1916-1951, its role as part of the interconnected south-west electricity system. Vacant since 1981, current proposals would ‘gut’ the main power station building, removing plant and equipment, thereby reducing the heritage significance of the plant, and destroying the opportunity to interpret the whole site. Despite the expenditure of over $ 500,000, there has been an alarming lack of public consultation by the East Perth Redevelopment Authority and the site remains unoccupied, its fabric and contents deteriorating, and its future uncertain. The delay by the government in developing solutions for this significant place is inexcusable and has led to its continued decay through exposure to the elements and to vandalism."
Ref: heritage WA, East Perth Powerstation.

Free images?

Two days ago, I received a message in Flickr from someone who requested to use my image for free. He would like to use it for his website and unfortunately he "does not have any money to spend on it". Well, my standard response to him was that he is free to use my image from my Flickr stream as long as he links the image back to my flickr page and credits me for the shot. Very typical and standard stuff. I thought he would be happy with that.

Today he responded to my email by asking for a higher res (I had the photo scaled down to 800x600) and he wanted a 800x250 banner crop to go into a small slide show. He continued to explain that he was not trying to freeload but he had no money to spend on the image.

Now this really strikes me. There have been many requests asking to me for permission to use my images from my photostream for free. On one hand, I am happy that some people like my photos to want to use them, and yet, I am uncertain if I should be more apprehensive than happy.

First of all, I would love to recover some cost that I've put into my equipment. Photography is not a cheap hobby. It is always nice if I can derive some passive income to cover even a small portion of my cost. Secondly, we have to take the photography community into account. With the advancement of digital cameras, photography has become a fairly affordable hobby and for some people and start up career for others. There are many people who rely on the income generated from photography. Hobbyists, therefore, must share the responsibility maintaining the photography "market". Giving away high quality images to someone for free is just about destroying the income professional photographers dearly depend on.

As a freelance photographer who has the aspiration of one day setting up a photography business, I do understand how money can also be a tight issue and careful budgeting is a constant struggle for start up businesses. I can also understand hobbyist website designers building their own website requiring high res images can often contribute to this situation whereby they would ask hobbyist photographers for free images and in return offer to give the photographers credits.

Well, this is sure a dilemma for me. I am struggling to come to a stand on this issue. I appreciate all comments and suggestions. Let me know what you think.

Should we always follow the "Rules of Thirds"?

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting. Its application is also essential to the field of design. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.
-- from Wikipedia.

It is often suggested that the rule ensures that better photographic composition can be achieved if followed. True, I am not going to dispute this at all. However, after shooting thousands of shots of people while applying this rule, I find that my photos are starting to look very similar. I can't really fault anything with this rules except that sticking with this rule rigidly mean that we might end up with shots that are technically correct but not necessary that interesting.

Of course, often people would suggest that breaking this rule is ok. For me, I think that sometimes rules are meant to be broken, but it is necessary to grasp the understanding of the rules before one should venture to break them. As for the Rules of Thirds, yes, they help photographers in capturing balanced, easy-on-the-eye pictures, but they often lead to uninterested, and often identical images.

Fundamentally, I think certain things should almost always remain at the thirds, however, some things should never ever need to be at the thirds. Then again, photography is form of art and all arts are subjective isn't it?

A year of blogging and photography

How time flies. It has been slightly over a year since I decided to blog and to start posting some of my photography works here. It had been an interesting ride I should say.

Looking back, I am glad that I have kept up with my photography. A friend once thought that photography would just be a hobby that would last for, but just a short while. To him, photography was a fad or the latest "toy". Incredibly, not only have I pursued my interest in photography (especially in landscape photography), I am starting to evolve what was originally a hobby into a part time work.

In 2007, I have shot 4 weddings, 2 fashion shows, a couple of portraits for couples, etc. Wow, I've never thought I would be so "into" this. Admittably, I have always had interests in photography, but I wouldn't think about it everyday. I would only really get into the "zone" whenever I travelled overseas or having holidays. However, I am finding myself that there isn't one single day that I would not think about photography or related subjects such as image post processing or about the photography gears.

Hmm, talking about being passionate about something that nearly borderlines obsession. Yea, photography may become an obsession for me if I am not careful.

Pictobrowser - a new slidshow to display your Flickr photos

This new tool is really cool for displaying your photos on your blog or website.
I simply love it!

Project Dullsville

Perth has been labeled by some local and inter states journalists as dull or boring. After having stayed here for 18 years and being a migrant from the ever busy city state of Singapore, I have to disagree with these kind of labellings. Perth may not have huge number of spots for night lives, but it sure has its share of interesting events and entertainments both in the inner city and in popular hang out areas like Northbridge and Fremantle.

In view of supporting the promoting of Perth city, I have decided to do a project on capturing images of the Perth city and the metropolitan area. I hope to showcase a little bit more of Perth through photography. I've named this personal quest as "Project Dullsville". I welcome anyone who is interested in joining me in show casing our great and most livable city we call home.

I will start the project by showing some famous Perth landmarks and will move on to showcasing events that happen in the Perth area and people in the city.

Matilda Bay Boatshed:



Matilda Bay Boatshed at dusk:


Closeup of the Boatshed's door sign:

"Sell the Sizzle and Not the Steak"

I did my first presentation in many years today to my work colleagues. I was asked to present a project I am currently working on as a solution architect. I was supposed to sell a rosy picture about the project - I was to sell the sizzles.

Without going into details about the project, let me share a bit about my experience about doing the presentation (or public speaking). You see, I have never thought myself as a fluent public speaker. I can still remember the many fumbles I made everytime I was asked to do a speech. I still remember my very first presentation to a group of university lecturers and fellow students during my Honours year at University of Western Australia. I recalled being so nerve-wrecked and fumbled along the way throughout the presentation.

Fast-Forward the time-line to today. I did a presentation to my work colleagues and a couple of IT architects about the project I am currently working on. Surprisingly, the outcome is somewhat different from my previous experience. I am much more confident (or maybe just - could be self delusional I think). I used a lot more hand gestures as part of my communication. I ensured that I had eye contacts with my audience and I wasn't murmuring to myself. At least I did what I could to present my material to my audience in the clearest and the most interesting way I could possibly muster at that point in time. Well one down, I have one more presentation of the very same to go tomorrow.

Fourth Wedding shoot for the year

Just came back from a wedding shoot and thought I'll quickly drop a few lines about my experience today.

I believe this will be my last wedding for the year (well, we are already in December and I don't have any more appointments or engagements for the rest of the year). It had been very much a high tempo shoot, a tiring but ultimately enjoyable shoot. My arms and my back ache like crazy right now. This came from shooting with 2 bodies (my trusty Nikon D200 with a 70-200 mm lens and a borrowed D70s with my lovely 17-55mm lens). Carrying both cameras for a few hours was indeed an interesting experience. For the first time, I had the set up I have always wanted for doing wedding shoots. No only I found that I had the range I needed, I had an absolute great fun in trying out different things because of the range in comparison to my previous wedding shoots.

Ah, there was one repeated mistake that I have made again. I have never used a D70S before, and trying to figure out how to set certain functions of a rather "strange" camera on the day of an actual shoot was a big big big mistake. Not only I had to constantly "guess" how to change the functions of the camera quickly during the shoot, I wasn't quite sure how to use a less sophisticated camera then my very own even though both cameras are from Nikon and supposedly to be similar. Well, you see, on a D200, I had the luxury of the 11 points focusing feature. Whereas on a D70s, there are only 3 I think. I wasn't game enough to try and shift the focus point. I had it left dead centre and it dramatically slowed down the speed in which I was able to get a focus lock quickly compared to my D200.

I did, however, learn from many of my other past mistakes from my previous wedding shoots. I felt that this was my best shoot for this year. Well, I can only hope I will keep improving.

A few more tips before I end this post:

1. It is so important to have a second body. There is absolutely no time for lens swapping during high tempo event photo shoots,


2. Remember to have sufficient memory cards and batteries,


3. one last thing.... remember to bring some water. Shooting a wedding is like doing a low impact exercise. The water you bring with you will come very handy

[edited: I've corrected my very bad grammar - caused by fatigue... or whatever bad excuses I can come up with... note to self.... I must proof read my own writings before I post anything up in the future.]