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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!

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