Some Qualities of a Good Photojournalist
A short presentation on some qualities that I think a photojournalist should possess.
* Best viewed with someone explaining (some stuff are vague by just looking)
* All photos are taken by me except "Behind the Gare St. Lazare" by the famous Henri Cartier-Bresson.
* Done for Media Club in Xin Min Secondary:)
15 Jul 2010
2 Jun 2010
Moulding the Future
Moulding the shape in pottery is a very delicate art, just like nuturing the next generation.
Quoting from Naruto, "Our teachers have entrusted many things on us. Now is the time for us to become the ones who entrust."
Hope that one day, all those who I am mentoring (in SPH or NUS) will take on the legacy that I leave behind~
23 May 2010
Life is like a piece of paper
Many times, people tell you that you should do something in your life and not to waste it away. If not, your life will just be like a blank piece of paper. That's why there is a saying "不要把生命留白".
Well... I feel that these people also need to know something else too. If you want to do too many things in your life, your life will be like a piece of paper too. A piece of paper with lots of paint strokes.. So much so that they paper is all too wet, crumbled and torn..
Live your life in moderation. Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are.
5 Apr 2010
23 Mar 2010
Qiang Mai Portraits Part 2: The City Hall Page
Well, for the 2nd and last stop of our Qiang Mai Portrait shoot, we go to another place bustling with the urban presence, City Hall! For this shoot, I have to say that some people are best shot naturally in a fashion as candid as possible and well, here I have one such model.
When you get models that gets very conscious over every command you give, then the best thing is to go with the flow and stop commanding and start waiting for the right moment. Since you can't generate the mood through commanding, it's up to the environment to do the job. For the cover photo, with dimmy yellow lights and lots of passerbys walking past and trying to see what's happening, the model naturally gets into a 看设么看?!state and you have to seize the moment. It's such a short-lived moment that even I wonder if i captured it when i clicked the shutter~
The shot is another shot of patience and waiting as well. Now not for the model, but for the background. Waiting for the stunt cyclists to be in the "clutches" of my model was not easy and often the model has to be always ready when I shouts "Get ready" as the backgound gets into position~
Funky places give funky portraits i guess?
Another shot that requires the background (in this case the foreground) to be in place~
Hope you guys like these portraits~ I definitely enjoyed shooting them~:)
12 Mar 2010
Qiang Mai Portraits Part 1: The Raffles Place Chapter~
Hey all! As promised, here is the Qiang Mai Potriats! The theme for this year's shoot is "urban/city" so naturally, our first stop would be right in the heart of the CBD at Raffles Place!
For these environmental portriats, you have to take care a lot of things, out of which, I find location to be the most important. I particularly liked the location for the first shot in the lift. It took quite some time, mainly geting the background right~ The floor we are on changes the height above ground and affect the background and also it took some time to get the "moving" metal column at the position we wanted it! (we took the lift maybe 20 times up and down?)It was really lucky that no one else was using the lift~
Trying to find good locations depends on how familiar with the place as well. To me, I have been to Raffles Place quite often so it is still not that bad. I had wanted to shoot at these tunnels near VCH for quite some time but circumstance always do not allow me to do that until the shoot day! Combining the vanishing effect of the tunnel with a well-placed light, I liked this photo a lot~ And this photo took some time as we have to wait for the tunnel to be "cleared" of people before we can even take a shot~
As usual, I like to play around with lighting~ For the shot above, the flash was "screaming" at me throughout the shoot because I kept on firing it at full power~ The light bounced off a thin strip of "ceiling" to my right and gave this really soft shadow which I like a lot~ Good job, flash!
Lastly, I would say that for such shoots, it's good to have a lot of assistants around~ Be it as mobile human lightstands or even as part of the background=P
8 Mar 2010
Preview Post! Qiang Mai Portrait Shoot!
Hey folks! It has been 3 weeks since I last had a blog post! Sorry because I have mid terms and piling school work. But I have been still shooting! Here is a sneak preview! So who is Pei Xuan doing makeup on? :P
Who is Pei Xuan videoing? Hmmm.... Stay tuned to find out~ Answer will be revealed in a few days time!
Note: For people who are not in SPH, Qiang Mai is an internal singing competition within the SPH student correspondent club which I am active in~ As part of their publicity, they will be taking nice portraits~ SO stay tuned!
15 Feb 2010
26 Jan 2010
15 Jan 2010
Simple Portrait
I loved simple portraits~ Shot with a simple background, using the simple yet good old sunlight~ Cracking some jokes to make them feel at ease and then ask them to put on a simple smile~ These four people then naturally fell in place and after shifting abit... Tata, done~
Sometimes, it's just good to do things in a fashion as simple as possible~
Less is more.


