Warning, more images to come :)

As a continuation from my previous blog post, after a heavy buffet lunch at Shangri-La (believe me, the food there was so good that it was so difficult not to want to try everything!), we all proceeded with our own individual assignments. Individual means that we split up into various groups and each group consisted of 4 team members. Each team would have a model assigned to them and we had to split our time to photograph the model.

Both Shen and Hafiz were in my group and I was the 3rd person to have a go. Part of our assignment was that we were able to borrow any of the equipment available there. From the image below, you would know that we took an Ezybox softbox with an SB-900 and an external battery pack together with another SB-900. We also made used of our own equipment as well. Since we only had an hour, we had to decide on our location as soon as we could. We had the beautiful Melissa first.

Here was Shen attempting his shot with us helping out by carrying the C-Stand

This was my attempt within 10 minutes. Wished I had more time to get the lighting set up a little bit more elaborately ;)

After the hour was up, we moved back into the workshop room where we were assigned another model to work with and we again had the usual 15 minutes. Our next model was Shirlyn who was a professional dancer (you can guess that Joe really likes dancers especially if you have read through both "The Moment it Clicks" and "The Hot Shoe Diaries").

My first attempt to begin with one light first before adding in additional lights. The first idea that came into my mind was to try out a multiple exposure shot but with movement but after consulting Joe, that setup would have taken me more than 15 minutes of my allotted time. I then decided that I would stick with the simple double exposure and the results are shown below.

Double exposure, courtesy of a Nikon technology ;)

Since I managed to set things up pretty quickly, we then experimented with a few other shots with a simple two lighting system. Again still sticking to small flashes.

After the assignments were over, we gathered downstairs for Joe to show us a little bit more of his concept and his ideas and how he actually came up with the shot.

Joe took out the big gun for this, the 200mm f/2 lens which is a huge lens and cost a bomb!



After the workshop ended and Joe had to rush over to Business.FM for a radio interview, we quickly had our books signed as well as took photos with Joe.

Not forgetting Drew as well :)

Ok, I definitely need to lose lots of weight. Totally put on too much recently.

After the workshop, I had to stay back a while for a secret performance practice which was due to be showcased the day after at Joe's Seminar. This portion was for Louis' talk on guerrilla lighting. Whilst waiting for Joe to get back from his interview, Ian was toying around playing with his Alien Bees and while he was still setting up his lights, I took this shot of Melissa using available light.

After a brief and expensive juice at the cafe, practice started and I somehow managed to spy this guy in the ballroom taking shots of the practice using an unmarked camera. Some say that it could be a Sony Alpha but others might say that its actually a new Canon. I don't think it was a Nikon because of shape of it but before I start to speculate, we can't really really tell what camera is that.

An unknown person with a Sony Alpha 5D Mk2

And of course Johan was assisting out the whole day that after almost 16 hours of carrying light stands and small flashes, it seems that he has really gone bonkers ;)

This was how I spent my birthday this year with those crazy photographers as well as the honour and pleasure of meeting Joe and Drew as well as learning from him. I must practice what I learned so do drop me an email if you are interested in having your personal portraiture done.

I spent my birthday which was on the 5th of February at Joe McNally's workshop here in KL a couple of weeks back. This is of course thanks to Louis from Wedshooter as well as the Wedshooter team who made it all happen. The workshop was a hands-on as well as a full day course which grouped 15 photographers on a Friday in Shangri-La in KL to learn about lighting and get to know Joe a little better.

In case you do not know who Joe McNally is, Joe is the most amazing photographer I have met and you might have probably seen most of his work on the cover of the National Geographic magazine. He is also the author of two amazing books, "The Moment it Clicks" and the more recent "The Hot Shoe Diaries".

When I got wind that Joe was coming to KL, I was quite excited but a little hesitant as well as I thought that the workshops were going to cost a bomb. Frankly, it was a big sum for me but it was an investment for me. The best part was that I managed to schedule the workshop on the same day as my birthday! (Joe had five 1-day workshops here spanning from the 1st of Feb till the 5th of Feb).

Here is Louis introducing himself as well as Wedshooter.TV before introducing the man of the day.

Joe started off the session with some quick introduction about himself as well as his assistance, Drew Gurian. He then went on to get to know each of us and asked us what are our expectations for this workshop. This was good start I felt as I managed to see who the other participants were. There were of course familiar faces in the group as well.



Friends in the photography industry such as Ian, Shen, Edwin, Hafiz and Gabriel were also attendees of the workshop. Funnily, Joe mentioned that our group was the only all guy group. I can see the testosterone levels shooting up, I guess the mix and the environment was a lot more different compared to this workshop. Look at all the female participants there!

Louis, listening intently to the participants as they introduced themselves

That's Drew over there!

After the rounds of introduction, Joe shared with us some of his videos as well as showed some of his latest work which was absolutely incredible and amazing. What made me smile was that he also had a couple of photos in his portfolio which was shot using available light which was what I normally do. Joe then mentioned that he himself also continued to learn by attending workshops such as the recent one where he attended Jay Maisel's workshop in NY.



At every workshop which Joe teaches, he carries with him lots of gears. And when I mean lots, I really mean lots! Frankly I didn't take the rest as there are way too many equipment about to capture it all. But what he had prepared for us included around 16 flashes for us to use, an array of Justin clamps and battery packs, Lastolite softboxes and many many more.

I spy the Twin Towers in the LCD screen of Joe's Nikon D3s

The workshop began with Joe showing us the various equipment that were about in the workshop and then teaching us on how to use them and what the effects of using these equipment would do to an image. After trying out several shots indoor using both a white and black background, we proceeded outdoors to learn more about light shaping tools there.

We also had a journalist in our midst, Jan Shim, hailing from Brunei who was covering the workshop

Then we moved indoors for another shoot again. This time it was in a service corridor where Joe showed us how to use our surroundings to create an amazing shot. Of course Ian had to pose for the shot as he would normally do.

Then we headed out again. Here we have Joe's camera setup to tether on his MacBook Pro which was very helpful for us participants.

We even had fantastic props to use as backdrops and for our models to pose with. I wish!

After an intense session of learning how to use various light shaping tools as well as understand various light placements, the group adjourned for lunch.

More photos from the workshop as well as our own personal shoots coming soon!

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year for this upcoming year of the Tiger. May the year of the Tiger be a roaring year ahead for you and your loved ones.

For those who are traveling, I bid you all a safe journey to your hometowns. Its times like this where caution is the utmost importance.

I am here in Malacca as usual celebrating the Chinese New Year so if you all are about the Malacca area, do let me know and we can catch up :D

Lunch was good, although I had to run some last minute errands about but what surprised me was when this bit of news was published and what surprised me even more was that I sort of expected it. This is of course thanks to NikonRumors.com who kept on publishing posts about the validity of these lenses and now that it is announced, I said to myself, "hey, its finally out".

So let's look at each lens one by one. I think I shall start with the zoom lens first and perhaps save the best for last.

AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR



When Nikon discontinued the older 17-35mm f/2.8 lens, I thought that they sort of made a mistake or perhaps was thinking of a replacement lens that is within the 17-35mm focal length. Nikon already at that time had the 14-24mm lens so that was one of the ways moving forward I guess but since Canon had the cheaper 17-40mm f/4 lens which is the younger brother of the more expensive 16-35mm f/2.8 lens, then I guess this must be Nikon's answer to that as well.

The specs does look impressive, but the biggest surprise to me was the inclusion of VR in the lens. Yes, this lens has VR (Vibration Reduction) which is the same VR system used in the newer 70-200mm VRII lens. This system allows you to shoot at 4 stops below what you might normally shoot without VR. I ask myself, "why would anyone place VR for such a short focal length lens?". But hey, after 20 seconds of thinking, VR rocks!

On top of that, it has AF-S meaning it uses Nikon's Silent Wave Motor which sums up to "super duper focusing speeds with vibration reduction". The lens is coated with Nikon's Nano treatment and it has a minimum focal distance of 0.29m which is 0.01m more than the 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. Who gives a damn about this kind of shit?

Anyway, what is interesting to me is the focal length. If I were to shoot with two FX bodies (full frame DSLR cameras), this lens would definitely be extremely useful. One of my shooting styles is to shoot with either a 50mm/85mm prime on my FX body and the 14-24mm on my DX body so that I get a slightly different range so that when I do take group shots, the group isn't too distorted. Now if I were to shoot with two FX bodies, this style would be quite tough because the 14-24mm might be too wide on a FX body and I have to get real close to my subjects hence the 16-35mm definitely comes in very very handy.

Price for this camera is currently set at USD$1259.95 which translates to about RM4330.35.

Expected release date for this lens is end February 2010, maybe later for us here in Malaysia.

AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED



Now I am very fond of prime lenses and I definitely love shooting with them and keeping them wide open to enjoy nice crisp images as well as feel the extensive bokeh out of them due to its ability to photograph things at very very shallow depth of fields. After releasing the DX 35mm f/1.8G lens and the 50mm FX f/1.4G lens, it seems that Nikon is on a roll here with the 24mm f/1.4G lens. Note, the G means that these are the digital versions of these lenses where there is no aperture ring control on them.

The big difference with these lenses is with the AF-S motor on the lens allowing the lower end models such as the D40, D60, D5000 and others to be able to enjoy autofocusing using these prime lenses. The lens is coated with the same nano treatment and it has a minimum focusing distance of 0.25m.

Frankly, I definitely see myself using this lens for my portraiture and wedding work but I am still a little sceptical on whether I really need one. You see, I have been having an epiphany lately especially when it comes to purchasing more photography equipment. The ever lasting battle of "needs" versus "wants" still prevail in my thoughts and of course the price tag is helping me decide whether I should get it or not.

Price for this lens is currently set at USD$2199.95 which translates to about RM7561.23.

This is an insane amount and I think I would rather replace my older 80-200mm lens with the newer 70-200mm f/2.8 lens first before considering getting this prime. Although I know it would definitely make a lot of difference in my work, I am still learning how to use more of my wide angle lenses. At 24mm, I already have my 14-24mm as well as 24-70mm lenses but I don't get to enjoy anything less than f/2.8 at those ranges. Perhaps I might need to try it out first, so if anyone of you are rushing to get one, do let me try playing with it :D

So aside from being an extreme gear head and avoid all forms of temptation, as how energy cannot be destroyed but only converted, I shall now convert my extreme temptations into a blog post so that I can tempt my readers out there instead.

Have a great day ahead, stop drooling over those lenses ;)

The iPad was announced by Apple a week ago and with every new product that Apple announces and produces, there will be a plethora of blog posts and newspaper columns which creates a lot of buzz in the industry. First one I read was when Scott Kelby wrote about the iPad being launched and where he would like to get one for himself and for his wife. This sparked quite a fair bit of debate in his comments section (yes that guy gets loads of comments in his blog! I wonder why no one writes any comments here on my blog :P). Take a slow read at the comments and you would find that there will always be 3 camps. One which is pro-apple, one that is anti-apple and one that is the neutral camp.

Of course, after the heated comment debate, Scott wrote a post to reply all of the questions that have been posted up in his comments section which was rather lengthy and also yet entertaining to read. Then this morning I was greeted with a post by another guy saying that why the iPad is not for him as well.

So being ever so curious, I went about asking questions to some of my colleagues and clients as well as some of my friends about what they thought about the iPad. Of course I got the usual cracks about it being named after a sanitary pad but after the jokes and laughs, most of them decided that they are not going to get it now or when it launches. A lot more of them would prefer to get it when the 2nd generation model is out. I guess this was one of the responses from previous experience when the iPhone was launched (the 1st model wasn't available in Malaysia and only the 3G version was launched much later).

Anyway, I do see myself getting one but of course there are a lot of functionality that most Malaysians can't get with iTunes such as the ability to purchase music, videos and movies online via the iTunes store and with the iBook store going to be limited to the US only, that would just mean that this product is gonna be a large iPod touch.

But I do see myself buying it in the sometime future depending on some of my assumptions below.

1) As a photographer

I can definitely see the usefulness of the iPad as a photographer. This means that when meeting potential clients, we can display our portfolio on a much larger screen as well as show them previously made slideshows which are definitely very useful. The iPad also means that we don't have to carry a large laptop (I am getting tired of the weight of my 15" MacbookPro) out for quick catch-ups and meetings.

2) As a consultant

I love the fact that iWorks is going to be available on the iPad as well as it's ability to read MS Office documents and PDF files. Great to bring into meetings (aside from lugging around a laptop or if you work in an organization that requires you to work on a desktop) without the need to print out documents for reference. This equates to you saving the environment, well sort of, because you are not printing any unwanted documents.

I can also see it being used as I present presentations, that is if there is a way for the iPad to transmit via Wi-Fi to the project, that would be an even bigger advantage.

3) When I am travelling

No doubt that I constantly watch movies on my iPod video and when the battery does run out, I switch over to my iPhone (has not enough memory space!), whenever I travel. The life span of my iPod is about to reach it's end as it has now been relegated to staying in my car, so the iPad would prove to be a good traveling companion. I can easily transfer all of the movies I already converted for my iPod video for the iPad via iTunes.

All in all, these decisions are just some of the factors for me deciding to get one but I guess the biggest factor of all would be the price of the iPad. Hopefully the conversion rate doesn't kill us over here and perhaps be within the range where I can claim the iPad via tax.

Only time can tell.

I finally gotten around to compile some of the portrait photos I have taken recently, and by recently I mean quite a while back. Anyway it was one of the requirements which Grace gave me and asked me to do which was due in January last month. Well, all I can say that it is always better to be late than never! :D

The slideshow contains some of the portraiture sessions which I shot whether it may be a couple portraiture, to a personal profile image as well as behind the scenes shoot.

p.s. Make sure that the video has fully loaded before playing it to enjoy the full experience

[xr_video id="9a4477ccb327442f8e5cea0e5f5952cd" size="md"]

Do let me know what you think of the slideshow in the comments section, thanks!