Sometimes I ask myself, whats the difference between me and other photographers. The difference between professionals and amateurs. Is it because people who takes good photograph know how to make their photos more appealing to the mass or just because the were plain gifted. If you can compare my work from the day I began taking photograph until today, why the leap? some people are born with it, some have to earn it. I think in my opinion, the key to take good photograph is to read and see lots and lots of references, I admit I do try to copy other people ( yess, I know you’re smirking right about now haha ) no matter how much you try to copy, name it from techniques to processing it wont be exactly 100% the same, from that experience being the copycat you’ll refine it yourself your own way, its always going to be your style. If people start copying what you do, that’s a good sign you’re doing good. Getting used to seeing good images will eventually propel you forward and a step closer to achieve it. Sadly, that’s the problem with our local ( including me ) photographers, taking good photographs doesn’t ensure you to make a living out of it unfortunately.
The problem doesn’t only exist in Malaysia, same goes to every country around the world. How to make a living out of photography. How do you charge something that might not cost as much money, but some might cost a whole lot of money?. How are you going to avoid from falling too short, or going too far?. The million dollar question, a question I’ve searching from the day I started thinking I’m going to take this seriously. One of my lecturer who was a fresh grad from SEGi College, recognize my work and told me ” kau dah pandai tangkap gambar, asal tak terus kerja je? ” I told him “I dont expect much learning photography from the course either the reason why I went to college because I at least have a solid network after I graduate.” People that matters, then he told me his story when he first graduated and went looking for jobs, he had gone everywhere even with his papers no one would take him. Now he’s doing part-time lecturing, while working in a retail store in OU. Why is that? Portfolio, our portfolio is the most important thing when you’re venturing this industry, having a good social network helps a lot too thats why first impressions and a good attitude also contributes your chances of getting jobs. Selling pictures are like selling sand in the middle of the dessert, you have to convince them in any way possible. It’s sad to see, most of my juniors doesn’t even have a clue what gonna hit them when they finish their studies. They’re not passionate, not even worried about what lies ahead. There is no such thing as easy money.
Longing for an update, I’ll show you what’s been causing my twitching eyes restless for 2 days straight. This 17 seconds clip is a sneak peak of my assignment 3 Videography class. The confusion relived when I started to use Adobe After Effects, and I thought Photoshop was difficult :P. We had to come up with a 2 minutes trailer for a movie that didnt even exist. So Eizat, our Director & Scriptwriter & Actor ( whey so short of people mah, plus its a non-profitable trailer :P) came up with the cheesiest Malay love drama ever.
The people who are involved with the production are ;
Director & Script Writer – Eizat Producer – Saufi Nadzri Art Director – Zeke Roland Director of Photography – Edinor Yaziz & Mdon Roslan
Another session with Bibo again, this time I didnt know where the location until I got up to M’s house, PUTRAJAYA!. Mmkay, well maybe I got to add a little bit of finess into it, PUTRAJAYAAAAA! ¯\(°_o)/¯ more like it :P. I dont mind much because Im running on freeeeee petrol! :D Thanks much to M, for filling it up full tank after taking us around KL the other day, you’re so awesome :D. I got to meet Raja too and he sure bring lots of toys to keep me occupied throughout the whole shoot. While Bibo was busy doing his thanggggg, Me ( most likely to annoy ) was like WEHEHH M SINI AKU NAK SHOOT :D and was like WEHH SAUFI SINIII and stuffs :P I carrying around Raja’s cute softbox back and forth sini sana OMG this thing is awesome! definitely gonna be in my to-shop list :D We goof-off A LOT so I think I better post the behind-teh-scene’ish pictahz now.
Owh! Me and M are gonna do a fuckin’ awesome aerial helicopter shoot this Tuesday! Hope it wont get delayed like last time due to bad weather forecast :(
DUDEEE, Im so getting this, but the only thing that kept me from buying this piece is that its friggin’ 300USD! Well, that never have kept me from getting any expensive professional photography media before, If I could find 1300USD worth of photoshop actions, why I cant find this one :P Its only a matter of time. Like seriously, this dude is so awesome and inspiring at the same time just because he’s the same age with me, yes friggin 19 years old.
after watching the short preview. see! Im learning already :P
Also, Im getting some brain food too! gonna visit KLCC bookstore, konikuniya? konujansjdknadjsfFF-ACCK! whatever to get me some of this! Best Business Practice for Photographers. The second edition just out, double the thickness from the previous with a few minor updates from the changing landscape business of photography. Ef those lighting and post production workshop shenanigans, what photographers really need is to improve its business ethics, professionally (y). Now the only problem is getting that much money to support meh equipments HUEHUEHUE.
p/s IM GETTING MAH D90 AT THE END OF THIS YEAR! WOOTS! :D
I think I aughtta start a how-to on this blog so I could give back my blog that spark, and get more traffic :P HUEHUHEUE. Okay, I learned this from my Large Format Photography class and im gonna share how to take cool professional looking booze shots like ME! ( nak jugak cakap :P ). Okay first of you need;
Two days ago I received an IM from Farez that he’d like me to meet a clothing designer at one of the clubs in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. He said the designer is currently looking for a photographer, so I nose dived right into action the next day just to meet her. Thank god M and Zeke was with me the whole time, the clubbing scene isnt the place im comfortable with and HEY FREE COKE! :d Anyways, DANGERDISKO was spinnin’ that night. They were awesome as ever until… Farez accidentally pressed the inject button HAHAHAHA!. I met the designer later, It was tough enough to think thoroughly with the loud musics and I cant understand a thing she said, awkward enough it was only an introduction. She said “give me the price and I’ll give you the date” and there it began, my search.
Aurora Borealis, hmmm perty.
I sat at home tonight searching for a better concept to propose, and finally I thought of doing the Aurora Borealis incorporated with the shoot, a video and photo of the concept I snatched below from Baldomero Fernandez. Now my only goal is to persuade the designer to go with the concept, if all goes well it might be the biggest job ever and a ticket for me having a brand new camera body :). I have got to dream big!
I’ve been always fascinated by cars, especially those exotics cars. Having to watch them on top gear with those tip-notch cinematography never gets tiring. I wish someday I could’ve just stop doing portrait and start doing automobiles instead, who knows. I have plans to start my automobiles portfolio soon, the only problem is I dont have acess to these exotics so the only alternative I have is by photograhing scaled cars, 1:18 to be exact. Yet to find some willing owners to hand me their high detailed scaled car for me to work with. Anyways, I know I left this blog to rot so why not just update this with some editing I just did. The top picture is the Pagani Zonda Cinque, I had this idea of incorporating the feature into my silver Perodua Viva, and here it is!
I am so regretting myself from venturing photomalaysia.com :( I am desperately screaming for an upgrade from my Nikon D70s. First of all, its old. 6 Megapixels ( yes 6MP thats half than of a current standard compact camera ) I couldnt crop, I cant do large prints, and the worst of all if I kept doing my precious work its all going down the drain why? I could barely do exceptional quality large prints. Second, this is gonna save me some big bucks from buying all those effin 500w head strobe heads why? D70s doesnt support Auto FP Sync which allows up to 1/4000th of a second with a portable flash, without it I have to get a freakin powerful strobe to fight off the sun and those strobe heads aint that cheap, when I said it aint cheap it fuckin’ aint :(.
I couldnt stand no more. Its old and its dying, I bought it off second hand when I began it already did 16,000 shutter counts, I havent tried reading the latest exif files to know the current shutter. I bet its gonna be more than 60,000 :/ maybe. The built in flash count fire properly, out of sync, sometimes it wont fire at all, thus Nikon Creative Lighting doesnt work. Next, it crash and corrupts some images at random. Low ISO performance, I cant snap dark scenery unless im using my 50mm f/1.8 at ISO 800 :(. Last, the LCD is a friggin tiny 2 inch so I have to zoom in and check everything then zooms out again, I cant even tell if I focused right unless I zoom in again to check -___-”.
Now im considering to sell off two of my Nikon SB-600 to get this and its still aint enough :(. Its hard to earn this stuff all on my own, I envy those people who could just beg their parents to buy whatever they want :( considering im taking photography as my major. I could only afford an effing second hand D70s and a effin second hand 50mm 1.8, FML.
guns down, big ass truck and a cool motorbike to go
I was bored at home today, so I’d figure I had to do something for my Videography assignment. I didnt have any proper video camera for the test so I grabbed my Nokia 5300 ( yes the old slider express music shiz ) and record the samples in 3GP format ( yes the one thats widely use for Malay porn, a fact there :P ). We have to replicate a scene from the movie Dark Knight, where the truck flippin’ scene ITS GONNA BE AWESHUME! I was planning to use Final Cut Pro for the effects part, but it seems like working it in windows is so much faster and easier for me so I used Adobe Premiere instead. I had to do the gun flare effects when the Joker shoots randomly at Batman, I got my video flare and sound effects samples from the net and viola :D EFFIN HELL I LAUGHED LIKE SHIT, but hey at least it works. :P
Yes! I’ve been working on another ring flash :P This time its made out from cardboards, lots and lots of celotapes, aluminum foils and a tracing paper. Budget wise for this thing, a huge cardboard RM2.00, celotapes RM2.90, aluminum foil is around RM6.00 and the tracing paper is RM0.50. Total damages done *calculating* around RM12*kaching!*, still many leftovers materials to make another one or two, so its wise to build them with friends :).
The idea came from one of my History Photography class, when my lecturer showed how fashion photography started and one of the photographers used a ringflash off-camera in broad day light. It gives out a a very distintive light quality, very diffused light and very directional ( depending on the relation the size of the light to the subject ). I’ve always wanted to use a Beauty Dish which is near impossible to find which can be fitted onto a portable flash unit. I’d figure the Beauty Dish and the Ringflash design looks the same ( the only main difference is that the Beauty Dish was used off-camera ) I took the time to build this one which can be fitted onto my SB-600 or my SB-28 Nikon speedlights and use it off-camera, e.g mount it on a tripod or lightstand. Here’s the result from the DIY off-camera ring flash / beauty dish whatever! :P
