Taking photographs of people was fun for a while. The journalistic images generated much traffic for my Flickr stream, and photographs depicting the diverse lives of souls have given me much pleasure. Event photography requires a totally different skillset, and I am happy to have the experience I had in the past two years doing that... but I appear to have neglected the reason why I started to begin with, which was to study composition. As I ran out of reasons to find and attend events that I appear to have no other purpose than to find materials in front of my lenses, I went back to my roots today and decided to explore light.
It started out as a reminder on the quality of light from a Strobist blog post, that, we can manipulate light with texture and other qualities. That light does not need to be what emits solely from the source, but be added subtle texture to add another dimension onto what would otherwise be another blank canvas. And so the journey started with an off-camera strobe, a few metal cylinders lying around (one being the capucinno frother, and the other being my ashtray)... I put on the Canon 580EX on my lightstand, put up my umbrella and started shooting as it passes the circular holes of the Ikea chair to create little spot lights on the subject.
It started with a predefined goal, but ended with something much for satisfying in the end. Here's a series of image which dates back before the sudden strike of inspiration, leading through different light sources and shadow to explore space using the quality of light:
SML Search
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM: Experience Report: Part 1
Bought a new lens this weekend: the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM. This is my first L lens priced over a thousand dollars, so for sure it is a fairly big buy for me. It also filled the gap in my lens line-up between 40 and 70 (which are currently served by either 17-40 and 70-200). Based on the results taken today around Brooklyn Bridge, it looks like that it has made its cut to become my new walk-around lens.
SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
Highlights from today:
SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
Highlights from today:
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Kiss
When the festivals are over and the city paces down to normal, I venture the night scenes in search of delicate moments of human expression.
Did you know that kissing is not just an act of affection, but has biological function? Apparently, it is a way to allow prospective mates to smell and taste each other's pheromones for biological compatibility. (Reference: Wikipedia: kiss)
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr: Kiss
+ SML Flickr: Black and White
Did you know that kissing is not just an act of affection, but has biological function? Apparently, it is a way to allow prospective mates to smell and taste each other's pheromones for biological compatibility. (Reference: Wikipedia: kiss)
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr: Kiss
+ SML Flickr: Black and White
Monday, June 30, 2008
Gay Pride New York 2008
It was pouring so hard that I missed the parade this year, but I did managed to photograph the other events during pride week. Because of the weather, I shot most of these at ISO 800. Although quite grainy when viewed at 1:1, the photographs were fine at screen resolution scaled down.
As in my previous experience, for shooting events with a lot of crowd, zooming all the way into the expression of folks far outweigh the necessity to show the costume and such.
Here are some highlights:
As in my previous experience, for shooting events with a lot of crowd, zooming all the way into the expression of folks far outweigh the necessity to show the costume and such.
Here are some highlights:
Labels:
Canon 17-40f4L,
Canon 580EX,
Canon 70-200 f4L,
Canon EOS 10D
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2008
Ever since I went to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2007 for the first time, I have been waiting for my second opportunity to photograph this event again. Here are some highlights from today's event.
Related Flickr Sets
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2008
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007
Related Flickr Sets
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2008
+ Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007
Labels:
Canon 17-40 f4L,
Canon 580EX,
Canon 70-200 f4L,
Canon EOS 10D,
nyc,
people
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Hong Kong Flower Show 2008 / SML
The end of my trip in Hong Kong coincided with the annual flower show so I decided to pay a visit, in particular to give my macro lens some use since I carried it half the planet over anyhow.
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon 10D
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 100 f/2.8 Macro USM
+ SML Flickr Set: Hong Kong
+ SML Flickr Set: Nature Photography
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon 10D
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 100 f/2.8 Macro USM
+ SML Flickr Set: Hong Kong
+ SML Flickr Set: Nature Photography
Labels:
2008,
Canon 100 Macro,
Canon EOS 10D,
Canon MT-24EX,
flowers,
Hong Kong,
nature
Hong Kong: Architecture / 2008 / SML
I went to Hong Kong in March, 2008. Here are some of the city's architecture captured during the visit.
View from the peak
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong Hang Seng Bank Headquarters
Four Seasons Hotel
Hong Kong Cultural Center
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Set: Architecture
+ SML Flickr Set: Hong Kong
View from the peak
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong Hang Seng Bank Headquarters
Four Seasons Hotel
Hong Kong Cultural Center
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Set: Architecture
+ SML Flickr Set: Hong Kong
Labels:
2008,
abstract,
architecture,
Canon 17-40 f4L,
Canon 70-200 f4L,
Canon EOS 10D,
Hong Kong,
SML
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Brooklyn Botanic Garden / 2007-09-09
I visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for the first time last year but never got to process the photographs. Here are some of the highlights from the day. Complete coverage can be browsed on SML Flickr Tags: Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Labels:
2007,
Brooklyn,
Canon 100 Macro,
Canon EOS 10D,
Canon SD850 IS,
nyc,
SML
Monday, March 24, 2008
Canon 50mm f/1.4 Tests
First series of images after plugging new Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens onto the camera. Very happy that under room light setting, I am able to shoot at ISO 100, 1/90 seconds at f/1.4.
Review of the lens
After spending most of my time shooting with L lenses, the lack of color vibration is fairly prominent to me. The sharpness difference is also fairly pronounced in detail, but not that you can see it on Flickr anyhow. (most people don't view large)
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Collection: SML Setup
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Review of the lens
After spending most of my time shooting with L lenses, the lack of color vibration is fairly prominent to me. The sharpness difference is also fairly pronounced in detail, but not that you can see it on Flickr anyhow. (most people don't view large)
Related SML Universe
+ SML Flickr Collection: SML Setup
+ SML Flickr Set: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
SML in Motion
Having more fun with multi-strobes today:
Here's the setup:
Strobist Info
+ Canon ST-E2 on camera for focusing + flash control
+ Canon 10D: Manual: ISO 100 70mm f/4.0 1/2 sec
+ Canon 580EX on light stand with umbrella set to 1/32 power 8 exposure at 10Hz
Related SML Flickr Tags
+ Experiment
+ Multi-strobe
Related SML Universe
+ SML Me
+ SML Photo Blog
© 2008 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / Network / Orkut / Twitter / Wiki)
Here's the setup:
Strobist Info
+ Canon ST-E2 on camera for focusing + flash control
+ Canon 10D: Manual: ISO 100 70mm f/4.0 1/2 sec
+ Canon 580EX on light stand with umbrella set to 1/32 power 8 exposure at 10Hz
Related SML Flickr Tags
+ Experiment
+ Multi-strobe
Related SML Universe
+ SML Me
+ SML Photo Blog
© 2008 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / Network / Orkut / Twitter / Wiki)
Labels:
2008,
Canon 580EX,
Canon 70-200 f4L,
Canon EOS 10D,
Canon ST-E2,
experiment,
Me,
multi-strobe,
SML Studio
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