Photography 101: Nothing new, just a Flickr.

It has been some time since I last wrote an entry in English, which the English entries were mainly about photography. I did a Flickr account some time ago, but somehow I slipped the ID and the password from my mind (getting old already, but Dr Tuah Iskandar al-Haj would be mad if we blame ageing for forgetfulness, if you read his books) therefore I couldn't accessed my own Flickr account.

So I did another account and I thought, okay, it's new year, 1432H and 2011 and this could be a rebranding step for my photography activities. I can look between my photos and pick the best and get rid of the tak jadi ones, as if there is anybody that cares to look at my Flickr, hahe. So I would like you to visit my new Flickr account by clicking here, however there are only a few photos there because I still need to arrange my photos in the disks. So do visit here whenever you are free ya. Thanks!

Photography 101: Macro Photography Tips Using compact cameras!

Now let us continue our venture in photography. =) We know the term 'macro photography', we love to look at the images of macro shots. But we were dissapointed that we could not achieve the same results of images as we do not own any DSLR camera with macro lenses. Worry no more as I will show you how you can create 'macro' feeling using your compact cameras only. But I want to stress here that the actual 'macro photography' means to capture the images of your subject (a bug etc.) at life size or bigger at 1:1 ratio. However, by using compact digital cameras only (with their small sensors and no macro lenses) we can only create 'close-up' photography which has the same 'macro' feeling, like this one.

This image above were taken using a compact camera only. So how can we achieve such image?

1. Select the correct mode - You must first select the Macro mode. Most people using the compact cameras never play with the modes on their cameras. Generally the macro mode is symbolise with a 'little flower' on cameras.
2. Aperture - Most of the compact cameras do not allow you to switch the aperture, however if your camera allow this, select the desired aperture that suits you. Bigger aperture (marks with the smaller number such as 2.8) for shallow depth of field, which allows only your subject will be crystal clear and sharp, while your background will be blurred. If you compact cameras do not allow you to play with the aperture, just cool and stick to the macro mode. =P
3. Use a tripod - Yep, use a tripod to get best results even tough you are using a compact camera only. This can help you minimise camera shakes that will ruin your image. Or if you do not own a tripod, you can just put your camera on a table or anything sturdy.
4. Composing - Remember Rule of Thirds. Arrange your image so that it has a point of interest. If you are using an animal as your subject for close up, make sure its eyes are sharp.
5. Flash - Use flash because macro photography needs a decent light to avoid the images from being dull. But if you are using you compact camera flash, try to diffuse the flash by placing a tissue or something to avoid harsh light. Or use a reflector instead to help you light your subject.
6. Self-timer - Use your camera self timer to avoid camera shakes. =)

Don't forget to try this tips if you are interested in trying macro (read close-up) photography with your compact cameras. Let me know if you have anything to ask. =)

Counting Days.

I am only one month away from completing my study! My research is complete and I am enjoying the remaining days with my friends. Alhamdulillah. I cannot wait to start teaching and working and having my own salary. I will save up as many as I can to buy the things that I have in my wish list, hehe.

The Mercedes Masterpiece - AMG edition!

The Canon 550D!

The 27 inches iMac!

You may think that all of the things that I crave for are extremely expensive for a regular teacher, but I will prove you wrong! Haha. Insha Allah I will try to fulfil the wish list slowly but surely. Because if I buy all these things at the same time, then I will never get married-lah! =P

I don't know which I will get first, but I maybe want to have the car first, hehe.

Please pray for my success as I pray for all my friends', including YOU! (I may buy a nikon D3100 or a 7D depending on the current situation when the day come!)

Photography 101: Missions! Get better using themes!

One tip that I learned to train yourself to be a good photographer is to do missions. Equip yourselves with a specific task - capturing images that has limitations. Limit your images to certain themes or concepts such as 'Cats', 'Green' or 'Light'; and let you and your lenses explore the concepts using your creative juice. For example, now I am on a mission to capture images of 'Still Life with Skies' and here are some of the images. Explore new themes as you move on. And most importantly, enjoy! (>o<)///

Dave Hill's Effect and Story Behind an Image

I've been trying a few methods to gain a Dave Hill's effect on my portraits, and this one by far is my favourite method that I found. However, the photo that I used above to be applied with such effect was not good enough because of the absence of appropriate depth. I will try to apply the effect on better photo that has greater depth next time, insha ALLAH.




This photo above was not applied with the Dave Hill's effect. But I was fascinated with this image as (I thought) I managed to create a story or a situation that is related to the tittle that I gave to the image.

p.s: the portrait was me and my sister during the Idulfitri recently.

Thank You Vicki! It's Remembrance of al-Quds Day. (Hari al-Quds Sedunia)

These are the screenshots of my Facebook account where I posted a video entitled AVATAR On Earth. This video showed how the Avatar story is really happening in this world, in Palestine. But I am touched that a friend of mine, Vicki Wilson , a person that I do not know physically thousand of miles away, showed the love for humanity. Her comments and her act of sharing the video showed that there is still love between races and religions. I do not know if she read this, but I still want to say; 'Thank you Vicki.'

This is an unscripted video. Nothing but the truth.

Hari al-Quds sedunia adalah pada 21 Ogos saban tahun. Apakah yang kita sebagai ummah lakukan?

Jumaat Terakhir Ramadhan.

Hari Orang Tertindas Bangkit Melawan.

3 September 2010.

Seusai Solat Jumaat.

Hadapan bangunan kedutaan 'Setan Besar'.

Tonton video di atas & nyatakan anda tidak turut serta Jumaat ini?

Been busy! But still got time to snap photos??

It's been quite a while since I last updated my blog, so this post is merely an act to clean the dusty blog of mine. :) Up here you can see my tabung, empty one! Anyone care to fill it up? And below is also the same tabung but in a light-painting mode. Not a good light-painting as it was just a trial. I will come up with better light painting photos and video later.





Yeah I've been busy at school with my internship and my research, but I managed to find some time to do some shooting and I will post them up soon.
Well see you guys later!

Glorious

Rose-tinted view

And satellites that

Compromise the truth

But I wanted more

With the cuts and the bruises

Touch my face

A hopeless embrace

Faith

It drives me away

But it turns me on

Like a stranger's love

It rockets through the universe

It fuels the lies and feeds the curse

Believes we could be glorious

I need to believe

But I still want more

With the cuts and the bruises

Don't close the door

On what you adore

And faith

It drives me away

But it turns me on

Like a stranger's love

It rockets through the universe

It fuels the lies and feeds the curse

Believes we could be glorious

Photography 101: How to Hold a Digital Camera? Really?

The most common problem (enemy!) with digital camera users is camera shake that will produce blurry images due to the camera not being held still enough. So to overcome this problem, the most basic thing that you need to know is how to hold YOUR digital camera during the process of taking a photo. Unwanted blurry images are more common when photographing in low light condition as the shutter speed is slower, as I explained before in my previous photography 101 on Shutter. Holding your digital camera still enough will help you to reduce camera shake hence avoiding unwanted blur. However, there is actually NO exact correct way to hold your digital camera, as digital cameras differ from each other, be it a DSLR, digital compact, digital ultrazoom, micro four thirds and so on. BUT, this is a method that is widely used and proven to reduce camera shake to the minimum level AND make you look like a Pro too! :)

• Ok, first of all, of course your right hand should grip the right-end of the camera. Put your index finger (forefinger) lightly on the shutter release (button on top to snap a picture). Put your thumb at the back of the camera, and your three other fingers around the front of the camera. You should put a strong grip on the camera, but not TOO strong that will result the camera to shake even more.

• Then your left hand should be positioned according to the type of digital camera that YOU are using, but the basic job for this left hand is to support the whole weight of the camera. So the left hand should be underneath the camera, or under/around the lens of your camera (if your camera has lens).

• Now if you compose your shot using a viewfinder, keep doing this as this method adds an extra stability to your camera as the camera is positioned close to your body. However, if your are using an LCD screen, make sure that you do not hold your camera too far away from you. You should tuck your elbows on your sides and hold the camera not further than 30 cm from your face. But if your camera has a viewfinder, I recommend you to use it if it is not a problem for you to look into it.

• For extra stability, you can always lean on sturdy walls or trees while taking photos. You can also practice this method of breathing. Compose your shot, take a deep breath, hold it, release the shutter, and exhale after that. I use this a lot, especially when taking macro photos. And one more thing, when you are taking photos, squeeze firmly on the shutter release, do not jab on it!

Keep practising and I believe your camera shake issue will be solved. However, you must bear in mind that there are other factors that lead to blurry images such as 'not knowing how to manipulate the shutter speed where you should be'. As for that, make sure what kind of shot that you want and set the shutter speed right. And invest on a tripod if your are serious. :)

Leave me a comment or any question that you want me to answer in the comment section below. Shown picture is taken from Nikonian Academy.

Photography 101: Shutter!

Ok guys, this is a new column that I looooooove to talk about. Under this entry label, I will talk to you all about camera, from types of camera, photography techniques, photography tips and tricks, anything A to Z about photography. Maybe I will do the same on videography and photomanipulation later (under different labels), so keep on reading in the future. :)

So for the first post under this photography 101 label, I will introduce you to certain terminologies used in photography. I will only explain these terms briefly as I will go deep into each of the terms in the future. So for the first term of the day, shutter. Shutter is a mechanical device on a camera that opens and closes to control the time of a photographic exposure on the films (as on film cameras) or image sensor (as on digital cameras). Confuse? Whenever you push the shutter button on a camera, the shutter is opened to let enough light to come inside and then the shutter is closed. The shutter looks a little bit like this in a camera.

Some cameras allow you to control the speed of the shutter to let you get creative with your images. The speed of a shutter is usually recorded in seconds but sometimes it can goes on for hours depending on your camera. As for my camera, it can go for as fast as 1/2000 seconds (that is one second divided into 2000 parts) and it can be as long as 60 seconds before the shutter shut itself. Faster shutter speed freezes the motion in an image, enable you to get sharp photos of a moving car or a water droplet in a glass; while slower shutter speed will produce milky images like this.

Oh yes, slower shutter speed will enables more light to come inside into the camera, which will help a lot in photographing in the dark or low light condition, however shakes while taking the photos are intolerable as this will results shaky (blurry) images. Got anything to ask? Just drop a comment below, I will answer them for you. :)

Time Lapse: First Attempt

Guys, here is my first attempt on time lapse. Thanks to the useful action script and automate in the Photoshop that allows me to resize 289 photos easily (but in a painstakingly long period). My bad as the tripod keep moving when it is suppose to be static. I know, the view is not good and panoramic, but this is only an attempt to get the technical aspect of doing a time lapse photography, hehe.



Urm, 289 photos (and hours of manual clicking) to get less than 20 seconds video? Satisfying!

Extra Extra!

Want to earn some extra cash while surfing the internet? As cliche as it may sounds, but believe me, its real. :) Its really easy to earn if you love to interact with other people and share your opinions with them. I found this website in a book and I think it is not wrong to give it a go. So why don't you go to this website and register. It is call myLot. All you have to do after that is answer any questions that you like, or even ask any question that you have, or upload your photos to get paid. It is that easy. :) Just spend a little time in front of your lappy each day to answer some questions and you can see your earnings stacking little by little (you are not going to be like a millionaire, ok? But its real cash for sure.) :)

Go ahead, give it a try. Click here to go to the site.

For The Rest of My Life-Maher Zain

I made this video because I have tooooooo much spare time :).
Excuse me for the unreal mini me because I do not own a studio lighting set and cannot afford one at the moment. The song is For The Rest of My Life by Maher Zain (not me obviously) and Awaken Records own its right on this song. I just love the lyrics of this song and if you want to listen more of his songs, just download them legally or you can just listen to them at the singer's Facebook fan-page. Or you can ask them from me. :P
Click here for the first vlog.
myLot User Profile

2nd update for the day! And don't forget to watch the vlog below!

Now it's English entry pulak. Pening kejap English kejap Bahasa Melayu. :)

Ok, I shot both of these photographs in different places, different days (of course lah) and I only get the chance to post them now. The dragonfly photo was captured I think last month and the banana leaf was last week. The dragonfly one was at the Darulaman Lake while the banana leaf... just in front of my house. :)

I am trying all sort of photographing technique but the one that my camera can afford me best I think is macro. Even though the photos were not so macro lah! Because the d.o.f that it can provide in my shots is not as good as an SLR and the zooming is not like you are using a telephoto. But I am thankful for what I have and I am learning to manipulate the variables when composing shots to show the beauty of Allah's creations. Thank you. Wahhhh!!!!

The Puncak Janing Waterfall

It has been quite a busy month for me, this is why I failed to update my blog even though I have quite a number of entries and photographs queuing to be posted here. However, in the middle of the busyness, I managed to steal some time and join my fellow friends to the Puncak Janing waterfall which is a very relaxing place to unwind weary minds of us. Here are some snaps of it.

Inside A Rain

Fear no more
as the water goes
down the streets
and disappear for
your fear will do so.

the cloud cried it tears onto the leaves...

Got balls like we did?

Since the first week we set our feet to the school, we were unofficially selected to train the school's football team and we were really excited to do so. There were lots of friendly matches going on in these three weeks and I could say that we have made a few improvements especially the goalies, they now know how to cover the angles during critical times in the game. And what made me happy is that we defeated my friend's school, which team was trained by him, 5 nil. :) sori anep, banyak tu...

Point and Shhhhh..

Yay, I just bought a bridge camera (it's just a bridge cam, so what?) and I'm on my way to get indulge into the passionate world of photography, hahaha. Well, a bridge camera (or some may called it an ultrazoom) is decent enough for me right now to learn and practice to compose and shoot before I move on to the seriousness of a DSLR. :)

The Murder Case of Dato Jinab Cabana (Memories of Killing Someone Called A Friend)

Actually no one was murdered during this photo shoot. I just happened to come across these pictures during our group presentation in an English class. I also made a poster for that purpose and (this project) sure did left me precious memories that I will hold for the rest of my life. :)