First Photo Assignment

I've dabbled around with photography for a bit on my free time for a while now. Last weekend I had my first real assignment. Well there was this one time when I shot some promo material for a company a long time ago but that doesn't count. With my new camera in hand I set out to take the first real pictures with it and have a go at wedding photography while I was at it.

The wedding was a good friend of him from mine named Ivan. His wedding was very much a Stockholm summer wedding inspired by the region and their personalities.

My shots depict the wedding preparations and despite I made a lot of mistakes, used a lot of less than perfect settings some pictures turned out OK none the less. For a first session with the camera I'd giving myself the big stamp of approval. After all I only had about 20 minutes to get to know the camera.

Naturally the starting settings as ISO, aperture and some program specifics were way off for the couple of first shot. It was quite interesting to see the chronological changes for the first 20 shots where I adjusted the settings after every picture.

Something that was vary nice for this event was that I was shooting with my dad. As we could purposely choose differing lenses we could build a much more complete and varied visualisation of oru surroundings then one photographer working alone.

The result was quite nice. In fact it was good enough for my dad to suggest we start a photo business together. Coming from my dad, that's a very nice compliment. Probably the best one I've ever had =D

Photo vs Video

The camera or the camera? I know it's not a dilemma most people face but I do. I often struggle with the choice of camera. Mostly weather to take pictures or to film. They both have their benefits and definitivily appeal to somewhat different sides of me.

The downside of using the video camera is that is usually takes a lot of time and footage to make something decent and even more time and planning to make something great. At least with a normal camera (in my case a Nikon D700) one can usually just pay attention and wait for those good moments to pop up.

I'd really like to get better at both Photography and Film but it just takes to much time to do both at the same time. Well at least without taking pictures and filming being the main focus. After all for me the primary thing is usually doing something else and just having the opportunity to snap a few shots. Now if those shots happen to be good that's totally a nice bonus.

Come to think of it, I've only ever been on a pure photographic mission. It was the Jungles of Sumatra and we where trying to get a few good clicks on some orangutans. Other than that there's been a few times I've been out purely to grab a few shots but not really as a real mission so to say.

This weekend was the last sailing trip with the long-ship Helgaholm and I figured I'd give just snapping a few frames the primary seat. I did bring a video camera but only pickled it up once. Not wanting to bring a lot of lenses due to my weight and size limiting mind set for adventure I went with a zoom lens. Something I think is fine these days. Yeah sure fixed lenses do get better Images, but not that much better warranting hauling around a lot of extra weight and the time changing lenses and/or cameras.

It was a short two day trip. But two days was enough to give me a cold. Coming back from the tropics less than 24h before departure, rain, wind, jet-lagged and sleep deprivation KOed my immune system. Still if was a real nice trip with a mix of all kinds of weather. Sun, Rain, Wind, in other words a typical Swedish summer. The crayfish where amazing and it was a good thing everyone brought lots and lots of extras as I did not have time to go procure food after arrival. In fact "bosö båtklubb" (or Bosö Boat Club) had gotten a whole lot of extra craw fish making the crawdads more than plentiful. Me likey very much =D

Suns

It's not the size of the boat it's the motion of the ocean. In photography it's using the right boat at the right time. Sometimes it's big and sometimes it's small. We recently did some sunset and sunrise shots at Indonesia's most western tip, Pulau Weh.

Shooting the sun ins inherently quite hard. Despite it's large size it's so far away from earth that even with what is shout to be a clean shot one might miss. After all there are subspace anomalies, solar winds, orbiting bodies and the bending nature of light to consider. However taking a picture of it as it has in fact already long ago passed the tangent of earths horizon and our actual vision, timing it with a delay that coincides with it's light reaching us is not as hard. It's still a bit of a pickle though.

Sunset at Pulau Weh, Indonesia. Photo: Filip Marzuki

As the sun is quite the light source it naturally put us in a bit of a color and contrast problem shooting it. One way of combat this is using long exposure pictures. This is however a tad difficult with all the light. So bring those filters of yours. Also as it's fairly divided into a light upper part and a dark lower part, using a gradient filter helps too.

There are some differences between sunrises and sunsets. One is the color that one gets. As sunsets generally goes from a natural to a orangey color the sunrises goes from a orangey towards a bluish tint before flooding everything with massive light. Both phenomenons have a short window of time when it comes to getting those wanted shots.

Sunrise at Pulau Weh. Photo: Filip Marzuki

I wind the process of taking these pictures quite entertaining. For me it's more about what happens around and the human and natures interaction at these moments that amuses me more. Observing tourists going to and from the looking point to see or miss the sunset and sometimes even take some pictures of it. Even more interesting are the creatures reveling themselves during these hours. This time around I almost crashed into wild pigs twice and a bore once. The monkeys aren't so bad as they have the intellect to kindly step out of the way and not run in the direction of your bike, sometimes deciding to abruptly cross the rode while frightened. Other creatures one might crash into here on Pulau Weh are cows. Specially the ones that decide that the road is a good place to live and want to make sure you know it will defend it. It's all good and fine as long as you are in a big truck but on a scooter the cow could just as well a brick wall for all practical purposes of serious injury. Goats, birds, snakes, small children, and old ladies should also be added as random obstacles on the road. Naturally the accompanied hazard of various poo should also be included in this flora of animal dangers(and human too).

I Almost Forgot

Sometimes I forget. A lot of things in fact. I also remember, sometimes. Though it's usually the quirkier things like what a plate is called in french due to a obscure side note in a move 15 years ago or the likes of that. My junior high school teacher and supervisor ones told me that I would forget my pants one day for sure. He also said my provocative mouth and fists where too fast for my own good. So far my pants are still on.. I think. Although my dad sometimes walks around in his undies a little too much for my liking. If you've seen the series fringe, that's how I feel sometimes with my dad. Brilliance and folly all in one little package. Well not as much of course but still. The fists are tucked away along with the early teens, after all boys being boys..
Only troublesome thing being my tendency to real life troll, sometimes. (For those who did not get it, it has to do with sharp and manipulative comments). Almost forgot what I was supposed to write.
Sometimes I forget the progress this country (Malaysia) has made over the last 30 years. I tend to comment on the little things that I feel are strange and illogical but when you put it into perspective Malaysia has really come a long way in not such a long time. in the 80s they where sending over as much of their population as possible to Indonesia to get educated and now they have a far stronger economy and more importantly a far better infrastructure. What I should be feeling is the amazement of how we can sit and dine in clean safe places and enjoy the grandeur of which is Kuala Lumpur. After all it is a damn fun city with fairly working public transportation and what nots. We where even able to get around town fairly easily hunting some daylight shots today. I have to say that these shots are the ones I like the least. they are just not as fun as when the light gives that special feeling to it all. Also, the hot and humid weather makes walking around all day fairly sticky.

The Blue Hour, A swift beast

A mist the hordes of tourist, why not try something different.

Here we are shooting the reflection of the twin towers.

Today we where hunting the "Blue Hour". An event that takes place unusually late in Kuala Lumpur. in fact it took place between 20:30 and 20:50 or so. Not so much of an hour but still, it's the name for it. It got it's name from when the sky get that unnatural blue color on pictures that seem too good to be true. In fact this is kind of the case. I'll try to explain. Right after sunset there is still enough light in the sky but not too much. This is due to the blue wavelengths penetrating further in the atmosphere than other light (also in water but I'll leave under water photography to another time). During this hour, or minutes one might get a very colorful blue sky with longer exposure shots. This is in fact what you where observing in the previous post. My daa and I trying to time the perfect light at the petronas towers, Malaysia. Here is one example of the blue sky.

The reason this phenomenon takes place so late in Kuala Lumpur can be blamed on Singapore. Yes just like most things this too can be blamed on Singapore. After all they are most certainly yo blame for the much lesser success of Malay economy, Islamic degradation and hay why not world hunger to boot. Well actually they do pack a little guild in their golden vault for this one. Due to or at least party because of Singaporean business hours Malaysia has adopted their and Jakarta's time zone despite clearly being way ahead. This means that not only does the sun set really late here but ones could get a head ache trying to figure out daylight savings our when traveling around in the region if not aware. Either way, aim for sunset and right after if you wanna give it a go.

Optical Howitzer: A father son experience

Displayed here is an Optical Howitzer.

Maneuvered by none other than my dad.

This machine will effectively use the fact

that light flows, yes just like really thick

water. Thus shooting in extremely high

parables one can get those otherwise

impossible "from space" shots by aiming

really really high. Or at least if one

mounted a "TwoFlower" on it.

And so it begins. That thing most people do, bond. I haven't really tried it too much in a while but it seems time and place decided for me.

I have a dad, like most people. And like most people there are similarities between father and son. For the last few months my dad has been traveling the world, taking pictures. For the last few months I've been traveling the world, taking not so many pictures. Today we met in Kuala Lumpur and so, it begins. 10 days of joint travel with my dad. about 15 years ago after our last road trip to somewhere I swore never to to that again. I must say I've been, not too bad at keeping my oaths. But I don't come unprepared. This time I have earplugs to combat snoring and a bag full of patience. After all, I'm going to Bali after this for continued ordinary days of awesomeness, which is my life. Narcissistic, no way! :p

We do share a few hobbies me and the old guy. One of those being Photography. Hes way more into it with a capital W, A and Y and I'm looking forward to getting a few good shots and a bunch of pointers. After all it would be a waste if I let this nicely compiled pack knowledge go to waste when it's so readily available.

Over the next week and a half there will most certainly be waiting, walking and changing of more lenses, filters, batteries and random trinkets than I will be able to count. Yes it's officially a photo trip and I have the honorary designation of Awesomest photographer #2 or pack mule as some refined scholar refer to, when wanting to be precise. It will be fun though. and who knows maybe I'll get some funny shots of my dad, Mowhahaha (evil laugh) to be posted on Facebook. A series of post touching photography will be following during the next few days. So stay tuned or stay away, depending on your interest in photography. Also if someone told you that you really need some pointers, stay tuned anyway. It's for your own good. I promise, no offence.

And a little night shot to start the photo posts