September 2010

Ahbing Teaches You How To Take Photo Like a Pro

by Daniel Wong

Yesterday my house area had no electricity for nearly 5 hours. I want to make good use of time, so I pulled out my LUMIX LX3 to practice. Can you actually “practice” with a camera? I don’t know. Usually people say “play”.

Well. I acquire some fresh knowledge not long ago, called “low key photography”, which I learned from Louis Pang’s InspirePlus+ Seminar. There’s no better time to practice.

My mum said “You chee sin wan arr… keep taking photos of candle! You have nothing better to do ahh? So zai!”

I showed her the candle photos.. her reply was “WAHHHHHH you took 100 images of same candle! CHEEEE SINNNN!! and your photos are so sian”

My mum is cute kan? More and more like ah poh already.

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Today, I went to a networking event for Young Professionals and Entrepreneur.. and local artist Jonathan Tse happens to sing a few of his hits.

This is the stage he performs at. Sitting behind a table of crowd, I couldn’t take a nice still photo of him. So I apply the low-key photo effect on the shots.

My photo turns on like this. Holy shit, damn nice right?! I did not do touch up on the photo, I just crop it.

Suddenly I feel so proud of my newly acquired photography skill. Hahaha!

And if you notice properly, the dark space on left and right are actually audience’s head. I changed the camera settings to manual mode and apply the best settings to achieve this effect.

To achieve another effect, I applied the film mode to “Dynamic Black & White”. A slight tweak can change the feeling of the photo THAT much. And best part is, you can normally find these functions in typical point and shoot camera. Seriously!

How to achieve this effect?

Metering Choice: Spot – This enables the light focus on only ONE spot. Focusing the exposure ONLY on that spot. That usually makes the lights around the spot becomes over-exposed or under-exposed.

Shutter Speed: 1/40 – I’m holding the camera, so I try to make it 1/30 above to avoid unnecessary shake.

Aperture: F2.8 - Don’t know la… I just simply play around with different aperture, this one turns out the best

Maybe you realised now… I am using manual mode it’s the best option if you know what you’re working on.

What to bring away from this blog entry?

Explore your camera, don’t always use Auto mode. Auto mode is for lazy people Hope you learn something from today’s blog entry.

“The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You” — Chase Jarvis

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New and Sexy Accessory For My Camera Panasonic LUMIX LX3

by Daniel Wong

I’ve been a Lumix LX3 user for many moons now. So far, I am happy with the result and photos. Probably 90% of the photos taken in this blog were taken by this handy camera since October 2009.

Here’s a review of LUMIX LX3 and sample photos.

Today, I want to add some accesories to this camera. Hell yeahhh New toys, I like!

You see, the lens cap that comes with the original bundle is very mafan. Every time I need to take photo, I have to remove the lens cap and the cap will swing ah… swing ah.. swing ah…. and people always get hypnotized (like in the movies).

I say, “Come, smile for me please”… they really smile. The swing lens works.

My hypnotization skill has improved drastically. However, it’s too mafan to remove it.. and put back.. and remove.. and put back. You get what I mean lah.

So I online and search for solution—seems like I am not only LX3 user who has this problem. And there’s a simple solution to this matter. Buy a retractable lens cap!

This lens cap is not made specially for LX3, but it fits the size perfectly. Hohohoho.

Now my LX3 is like a camera on steroid. Looks like Transformer more than a camera. Hahaha.

I have to give my camera a name liao.. the action of lens pushes out the lens cap is like little Alien popping out from human stomach—I want to name my camera like that. Is there a vocabulary that suits?

Lens popping out in slow motion. You follow the numbers 1,2,3,4. Then reverse 4,3,2,1… then 1,2,3,4, then 4,3,2,1… and repeat.

Can you feel it? can you? can you?

Ohhhhh yeah, that’s sexy right.

This is how my camera looks like after zooming all out. The lens cap is half way closed, looks can be deceiving. If you see my camera pointing at you like that, you better run, cause I am trying to take photos of your acne.

According to LX3 community, this lens cap will leave a vignette spot if you try to zoom the lens (the further you zoom, the more lens retracts). Which means, the photo is “blocked” by 3 pieces of the lens cap, like illustrated above, leaving 3 dark corners.

I was expecting to soft-mod the lens cap to solve the problem. Seems like everything is working fine so far, wooooo!

Here’s an example: A photo sample taken outside my room. No zoom.

Example: Fully zoomed, with not vignettes on corners. Which surprises me, wohooo! this is excellent.

You can find this Ricoh LC-1 lens at Yamiya.com and Shashinki.com. I bought mine at Yamiya.com because they can send next business day. Which arrives my door 36 hours later.

Uhm, I do not know how to end this post…. so… that’s it. Buhbye. haha.

On a side note: I am going Taiwan next month and I will bring this camera with me, without any doubt! Going to take photos with many many many many many many 台妹.

我愛台妹台妹愛我, sha lalalalaaa~ /sing

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Nightlife Lessons From My Parents

by Daniel Wong

I have been clubbing since 17. that’s when I was still underage.

How can I enter the premises when I was still underage? The answer is simple – my dad brought me

The first time he tried to sneak me in was when I was 14, when my first puberty signs were showing, a.k.a the bulu).

Then how? failed lah of course. We laughed together and went back home. “Your bulu is not thick enough hahaah” my dad said.

I still remember the first drink I had—Tequila Pop, followed by few glasses of beer. Confident rise to roof top and girls looks prettier. I walked like I have 50 inches chest and 6 packs. Confident gao-gao I tell you.

Not only that, my dad also taught me the 5 Commandments in drinking (or rather, night life). I remember every single commandments and practise them until today. I am sharing with you today.

Do not act like a jerk – You are in control of your emotion, not emotion control you.. If you did something wrong, do not use alcohol as excuses – blame yourself.
Do not pick fights – You don’t be a tai lin ngong and go start a fight, you’ll never know what card that guy has in hand (literally). If fights happened (related to your friend, or just a brawl fights) avoid at all cost. Run bitch! runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!
Only fight – If your woman was involved in fight (uiyoh, your woman very garang o lin si!), e.g. the guy slapped or punch the girl. You have to be act tough even if you’re balls is like shaking like a peanut. If the guy points a gun at you—you MUST NOT run (but don’t die la for the woman la… unless she’s your mum)
Calm – remain calm at all time, this shows men’s masculinity and confidence, don’t shout like a girl when shit happens (run away like a women too).
Drink slow – enjoy the process, this is not competition. You pay alcohol to make yourself miserable, what’s the purpose?

P/S Driving tip from uncle: You can drive fast, but only do it on familiar roads. But the best option is of course drive safe la..)

Me and Entet. Photo taken during 2004.

Now, let’s talk about my mum.

My mum also hang out with my dad all the time (only stopped at recent years, age finally caught up hahaaha). They used to be clubbing couple. My mum taught me a few tricks too, mainly on drinking ethics and what woman like in men (hehe). But the most valuable lesson I learn from her was How To Get Drunk—The cheap way. Here’s how:

Drink beer with straw
Sit under fan

Don’t play play, these two tips looks very simple. But I really saved a lot money with this method lo. This method really works.. hahaha. However, I only used this trick few times – real men drink beer with big gulps. Hell yeah