Family Shoot with Tomato Photo

The boys are growing up fast and next year this time, Xavier will be in Primary One!

Lilian thought it would be a good time to do a family shoot. Actually we have been discussing about doing a shoot for the longest time. We contact Hart from Tomato Photo again sometime beginning last year and only did the shoot end of last year when we were both on leave. Thanks to Hart for his patience, great work and good weather on actual day, here is the album layout.

My favourite photo would be the one I'm using for the blog banner right on top.

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 4: The Photos

It took us quite a while to select the photos, too long in fact. We never seem to be able to find time to choose the photos together. Plus the fact that Tomato Photo had all the shots in both colour and black & white to choose from, as you can see from Part 3.

In the end, I shortlisted the photos I like and Lilian does likewise on different days. We then choose those photos where both of us shortlisted. Here are the ones we chosen.

My favourite is the black & white shot of Xavier kissing Lucas. I have updated that as my blog header. What's your favourite?

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 3: The Selection

Tomato Photo has finished the newborn photos and now is time for us to choose. I have attached the Maternity photos in part 1. Here are the photos from the newborn shoot. Which are the must-haves??

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 2: Newborn Shoot

We did the Newborn Shoot today and it was pretty relaxed and enjoyable. Well up till both boys became cracky and sleepy. Below is a collage of Hart at work.

These images are from our own camera. Hart's final pictures will definitely be better. :P

Lucas showed Hart how an angry baby cries and Xavier could stop moving as he tries to get the attention of everyone. But once Lucas sleeps, Hart worked his magic and came up with the lovely positions.

I can't wait for to see the final pictures from Hart. If you wish to find out more about Tomato Photo, click on the link.

Tomato Photo Shoot - Part 1: Maternity Shoot

We signed up for a Maternity & Newborn photo shoot with Tomato Photo as Lilian like to keep some nice memories of her curves (since we both want to stop at 2). The first part of the shoot is more on Lilian and her glorious bump and the second part will be when the boy is born.

We chose Tomato as our previous session with him was very enjoyable. Xavier was totally under his spell and we had some very good shots. This time was no different. Although Xavier is a lot more active and cheeky now, somehow Hart is still able to "control" him even better than we could. That's a priceless skill and it made our session so relax and enjoyable.

Below are most of the shots from the shoot. Its in contact sheet format so probably you guys need to click on it to enlarge it for better viewing.

Once again, thanks Hart for the wonderful shots. So looking forward to the newborn shoot.

Smile! :-D

Time seems to fly by this year and before I know it, one quarter has passed. I recently bought a new AIO (All In One) printer and was excitedly looking through my photos to print some out and test the print quality.

I then realise that I didn't take a single photo using my Canon 50D and S95 for the whole of March. In fact when I took out my 50D last weekend to take some photos of Xavier's first self-assembled Lego robot, it took me a few minutes to familiarise with the camera again.

Anyway two photos below are one of the few that I really really like. The few that I go "Wow" and couldn't believe I actually took them. Enjoy.

Richard Franiec S95 Grip

 The S95 grip I ordered from Richard Franiec's Camera Accessories just arrived. It looks like a shark's fin on first look. Made from aircraft-grade aluminium, you will feel the weight and the quality of this product once you have it in your hands.

Essentially what the grip does is it allows you to hold and operate the S95 using a single hand. There are two common methods people use to hold the S95. The Pincer Style using both thumbs to support the base of the camera and gripping the top using the index fingers or adding the middle fingers against the front of the camera body for added support.

The grip allows the right middle finger to warp around the camera body natually and grip the camera in an assuring way. Now one hand operation is possible and the grip makes two hands operation more comfortable and less tiring. People with a DSLR and using this as a second alternative camera will definitely welcome this grip with open arms.

Crumpler The Grub

Front of The Grub (L)

I wanted to have a look at Crumpler's Thirsty Al (M) as a possible pouch for my Canon S95 but they were sold out. My eyes however caught a red hot sleeve with an orange imprint of a retro camera on the outside, The Grub (L).

Tried it and it fits well on the S95. It wraps the S95 like a glove and there is also sufficient space for the Richard Franiec's grip which I have ordered pending delivery. This would be the new home of my S95.

Back of The Grub (L)

Front with S95 inside

Top with S95 inside

According to the staff, this sleeve is a new arrival to the store, so new that I could not find any information about it on their website or Google.

Canon Powershot S95 - The Mighty Mouse

I haven't been able to shoot as much as I would like to on my Canon 50D. The thought of bringing out the heavy DSLR sometimes (or most of the time) puts me off, especially when going out with Xavier (he has become very needy, wanting us to carry him most of the time). Hence I've been on a lookout for a small compact camera that has full manual functions like those DSLR. I was very tempted by Canon PowerShot S90 so when Canon launched the S95, I took the bait.

An upgrade from S90, it added HD (720p) video recording capability to its host of powerful functions. This is a very welcoming feature for me as it doubles as my video cam. I can now capture more videos of Xavier (like his dancing moves) in HD clarity going forward. It also has a Control Ring surrounding the lens which you can use to control various functions depending on the shooting mode you are in. This is one of the main selling point of S90 & S95 and it really is a wonderful feature. Controls and settings could be easily adjusted with a small turn of the ring.

At the back there is also a rotating  wheel that enables fast setting of parameters and scrolling through photos in review mode. This is very similar to the wheel on 50D and I absolutely love the wheel.

It has a very fast F2.0 lens at 28mm. Paired with a high sensitivity sensor which keeps noise at bay, it enables low light shooting that was previously very noisy on our old IXUS 800IS. And at a price of SGD531.00 after trading in the super old IXUS V2 (under the Canon Privilege Purchase Program), it looked like a steal.

I manage to get this camera in time for my Bali trip and it comes in very handy. Most of the time I just took the S95 out to shoot during the trip, leaving the 50D in the resort room. I haven't been able to review the photos yet as Adobe Lightroom 3 does not support the S95 raw file as of now. But it should be by version 3.3. I'll probably make do with the Canon DPP program for now.

This camera is so feature packed yet in such a small body that I nicknamed it Mighty Mouse. You can google its specifications online easily. My only complain is that it doesn't come with a hardcopy manual and trying to read the PDF format on the tiny iPhone screen while on holiday is !@#%$#^%^&! Hopefully I can master most of the functions before the end of my long leave.

Sumo-Baby with Sean Lau Photography

"Please God - If you can't make me thin, make my friends fat!"

That was the quote that came to my mind when I saw this photo. I seen it on a "Michellin baby" poster, I have also seen it on a fat cat poster.


Xavier was about 7 months when we decided to get some nice studio photos taken for him. My photo skills are not there yet so we began to scout around. Both of us liked the "magazine" like style of Sean Lau Baby Photography and as they were having a promotion at the Singapore Motherhood forum, we decided to sign Xavier up for a shoot. I'm so glad we did a shoot then, because that was the time he was at his most "michellin", most sumo-baby stage. He had a sick spell after and had since shed quite abit of his "tyres".

Below are the rest of the photos we chose from the photo shoot.







While I was glad we did the shoot at that time, we were not pleased with the whole experience. Xavier was not in the mood for it on the actual shoot day and the whole experience was very tiring, as both Lilian and I acted like clowns trying to get Xavier to smile for the camera. I guess this part depends on the baby's mood.

But Sean's administration would need improvement, maybe someone to help his wife with it. We had the shoot in September and only choose the photos in November and took the copies yesterday. Both time Lilian had to email them to find out what's going on.

You might recall I did a session on kid's photography with Hart from Tomato Photo. Both of them have different style; Sean is more on studio like shots with props and such to create the shot while Hart is the more on capturing the natural moments of the subject. If you ask me how I find Sean's session compared to Hart's, I would say Hart is more experience in engaging Xavier. Xavier clicked with Hart almost instantly and he was able to bring out Xavier's natural smile.

To Flash or not to Flash?

Met up with my NPCB friends yesterday at Werner's Oven yesterday for Debra's gathering (before her wedding next week). Found the food strongly flavoured (read salty) to my liking so not gonna talk about food.

Instead, gonna touch on abit on shooting indoors at night. Now I'm no expert myself so if you would like to share and contribute your ideas and knowledge, feel free to do so in the comments box. Yesterday's set up is similar to shooting during wedding dinners as well.

Above are two photos of Xavier with our beautiful bride to be. The first photo is shot with the on camera flash (the pop up flash on your DSLR or the flash on the point and shoot cameras) and the second is shot with flash.

Which photo would you prefer to keep? It definitely the second photo for me as it looks more natural. The on camera flash has made the first photo too harsh and flat. Which is why I always try to shoot without flash.

So point 1, try to shoot without flash. How do you do that? If you are shooting from a compact with no manual controls, sorry there is nothing much you can do unless you have one of those powerful compacts (like the Canon S90 which has a F2.0 aperture and better ISO noise control). If you have one of those cameras with manual control, try to use higher ISOs (800 and above, depending on your tolerance for ISO noise), open up your aperture to the max (the smallest F-stop number your lens can open up to), and a reasonable shutter speed (the slowest shutter speed your hands can hold steady and still capture the subject).

Most DSLRs can control the ISO noise pretty well so should be a problem. For me, its better to get a slightly grainy shot without on camera flash then a clear shot with with on camera flash. As for fast lens, you do not have to break your piggy bank to get one (although fast lenses are generally more expensive than their slower peers). You could get a fast prime lens (like the Canon 5000 F1.8) and still enjoy low light photography. As for shutter speed, I try to get at least a speed of 1/25secs with shooting people indoor. Anything lesser than that its a hit or miss for me (a fair number of shots would be blur, blame it on my shaky hands).

With the above, you should be able to get pretty cool indoor night shots. But this setting cannot handle all situation, especially group shots, because the large aperture has a shallow depth of field which will cause some people in the group shots to be blurry.

Point 2) Group shots. This is why you always see wedding photographers using those big flash heads. These flash are needed to provide enough flash power to reach and lit everyone. But the idea is to compliment the surrounding lightand not to overpower it (like my shot above). This is what they call a fill-in flash. Anyway its a big topic by itself so if you wish to learn more about it, check out Stobist. I am still very green to strobes and still learning...

What a Wonderful Wedding...

I was invited to Ker Jent and I-May's wedding yesterday evening at Fullerton Hotel and I darn say it was one of the best wedding I have been to. I knew I-May from my Citibank days and Ker Jent was coincidentally my secondary school classmate from SJI. So the wedding was like a big gathering of my friends from my old workplace and my old school.

The setting was nothing short of fantastic and the food ranked one of the best I have eaten at weddings. I mean I haven't been to any other weddings that have foie gras in lotus leaf rice. The guys from "Let There Be Light" had also captured very story telling photos of the actual day morning event. I love their photography style.

The wedding table gifts were also one of the most unique I have seen. One is a mini musical box and the other is a heart shaped glass paperweight. This is one wedding I truely enjoyed myself. My only regret is not bringing my camera along to take photos of the beautiful couple.

Here is wishing Ker Jent and I-May a very blissful marriage!

Singapore Import Night 2009

I went to Singapore Import Night 2009 (SIN2009) with Keith and but dunno why, wasn't in the right mood that day. Maybe it's because I had "Tuesday Blues" since its back to work the next day after a long weekend (Monday was a holiday).

And it reflected in my photos. In fact I was so frustrated with them that I deleted almost all in a rage. What's left were only 7 photos of the drifting event happened outside the exhibition hall.

I attempted panning technique, where you deliberately slow down the shutter speed and pan your shot, following the object that is moving. What this achieves is a relatively sharp object (that you focus on) with streaks of blur background, implying motion and at the same time, causing your sharp object to "pop out" of the sea of blur.

I had a certain image in mind that I wanted to capture (like what I seen on the Initial D animation) but somehow I didn't catch it due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the course they were taking and I was not at the correct area. Below are four better shots of the event. Enjoy.




The last two shots are of the two cars doing donuts around the guy holding a cone over his head.

Gundam Fiesta Singapore 2009

Gundam celebrates its 30th Anniversary in style in Japan with a 1/1 scale life size model. There is also another video about the construction of the model. I so wish I can in Japan to witness the Gundam model.

Here in Singapore, the celebration was of a smaller scale. Compass Point hosted the Gundam Fiesta Singapore 2009 at its atrium and it attract a large amount of interest.

There were heaps of kids and adults all crowding to drool at the 30 years worth of Gundam models on display. Almost everyone were taking photos of the models, either with their camera phones or compacts. There were also a number of people using SLRs and I actually saw this guy with a huge SLR (battery grip included) and a long lens standing a distance from the models while he take photos of them. Maybe a professional.

It wasn't that easy taking photos of these models as they were enclosed in acrylic casing and flaring was an issue. I like taking from the angle where the models are looking and given that the robots are much taller in real life, the models are usually positioned looking down. So sometimes that angle which I like to take turn out to be the angle which the reflection or flare would appear.

Anyway below are some of my favourite shots. You can view more at my Flickr. Enjoy.

This angel-wing version is my favourite.