Skip to main content

Creating a photojournal - An Experiment

I have examined the photographs that I took during the Chinatown outing and I notice that I missed out the people part of it. I have few photos showing them either buying, price haggling, smiling or tourists being curious about this festival. With this learning, I want to prepare for the upcoming Chinese New Year, where I will be going home to Subang Jaya in Malaysia.

What will be the atmosphere be like before, during and after Chinese New Year? What are the key descriptions of the events? What will show that it is Chinese New Year versus a normal day?

Based upon these few guiding questions, I will see the following:

* My mother and mother in law smiling on seeing their children coming home to celebrate the new year with them. Portraits of them smiling both in color and monochrome could bring out this emotion. The pancake can do the trick or the zoom of 80-200mm; using the 80mm to create the bokeh.
* Children are happy receiving ang-pows (red packets) and the act of the out-stretched hands receiving it without showing the real folks should be good. Using the pancake at f2.8 may provide enough bokeh.
* The CNY decoration with the kids in new clothes could be another indicator.
* Night scene of fire-crackers - will require tripod or monopod at about 2 seconds may do the trick. Digital filter (starbust) could do likewise.
* Eating goodies but with the food in the background would be another.
* Photographs of food spread could be another.

Will continue to update this blog to capture my ideas.

CNY used to be an event to look forward to. It was a time where we had new clothes, got to drink Sinalco, Greenspot aerated water, which today is an everyday event. We had delicacy only during CNY. Today, you can go anywhere and have them. The significance has changed, and CNY is just another day, unless we bring back some of its tradition, such as the reunion dinner, the respect paid to our parents and relatives and firecrackers (which is still banned!). To me, the atmosphere is very muted, and hence as a photographer, I need to capture special moments that differ from the ordinary.

Wait and see what I can share after CNY.

Happy Lunar New Year of the Tiger, 2010!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Saddest Day

Today must have been the saddest day of my life. It is too difficult for me to express the pain of a father. It is nevertheless a learning moment and a moment to sit still and behold the passing of time. I leave this writing as a memory for me to return one day.

Keeping Fit and Sleeping Good

A couple of HP alumni mentioned about folding bikes, exercise, and alumni meet up to me. It did not take me long to decide that the idea was good and aligned to my life goals. I did some research on folding bikes and to my surprise; this is an exploding industry, as more people become more environmentally friendly. It was reported that the OCBC Cycle 2101 (March) in Singapore this year drew 9500 versus 5000 cyclists last year. The Taipei Cycle exhibition is one where bike enthusiasts will be happy to attend. The magazine, Spin Asia is a must read to have a better appreciation of this industry (http://www.motorculture.com.sg/page27.html). I decided to purchase the Birdy Touring (http://www.birdy.com.au/) which has 24 gears (3 x 8) to allow me to have more flexibility to build up my stamina. I like the idea of the monocoque frame and the discounted pricing by DigiNexx helps to come to the decision. Since April 9, I have been using the Upper Thomson, Venus and Old Upper Thomson Road. I tr

The World is Flat - or is it?

Thomas Friedman wrote the book, "The World is Flat" and being a famous journalist and writer, he gets attention. He may get a few critiques, but mostly he gets praise. After all, would a book with more criticism than praise make money for the publisher? I think the world is round. I tell you why. What goes around comes around. The saying that "every dog has its days" is as true as when it was originated. The only issue is that we will not know when. Usually it is a very long time, and most of us will not be around to see it happened. Think about manufacturing. The industrial revolution started in England and factories were built. Now where is the manufacturing capital of the world? China. Before that, it was the United States of America with all the big factories after England. Then these were exported to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and so on. Now, many of them are going to China. Is that the end? If the world is flat, it will have an end point. There is no end po