Since the previous entry, I've tried to work harder at seting up my shots.
It's not been as easy as I hoped;
Fig 1
I am apparently too habituated to stealth
Fig 2
Which doesn't mean that I can't get interesting shots, especially if I'm willing to crop
Fig 3
or take multiple shots, waiting for the right moment.
Fig 4
Fig 5
(the 150mm is clearly helpful here, but I am beginning to find myself in situations where I wish I had a lens faster than F 5.6 at that reach)
When I do get the chance to composite and setup, the outcome is pleasing.
Fig 6
Fig 7
Fig 8
I just don't get it often enough and maybe I am, honestly, rushing the shots.
But I had a breakthrough of sorts yesterday, when I realised that setting up the shot does not always require setting up the person within the shot (or, sometimes, finding any person at all.)
See, it doesn't matter where you are or what you're photographing. If you're photographing something, it's because you think there might-- maybe, just maybe- be something there worth capturing in image.
And you can set it up, not necessarily with your subject in mind, but turning the entire world into a frame in which you aim to box your subject in.
Fig 9
It helps if, as above, the subject is moving through a cyclic sequence; you visualise the image on the first pass, and capture it on the second.
But sometimes, that's not even necessary.
See, at the celebration I photographed, I happened to be placed behind a potted plant (nobody's fault; I was one of the last teachers to sit down, having shunted a bunch of students into closer packing to make space), which, I realised kind of late, would make an interesting frame.
And then the parade commander came onto the grounds, and...
Bam.
Fig 10
I realise, belatedly, that this is the same thing that led me to be so fond of this image here:
Fig 11
It's the interaction, in field, of disparate elements that are brought together in the image, stacking layers and depth in the manner that I'm always seeking.
Of course, that's just another aspect of the art. Maybe that's why photography engages me so much- there is so much to learn. There's the gear, which I'm not that heavily fussed about. There's the skills of balancing light and colour and salvaging the failures in photoshop. There's the selection of said gear for the best isolating of the subject and aesthetic balance in the image. And there's the compositing, which Im finally beginning to learn.
But all of that, to me, is still not a wonderful as finding the right place and time, and capturing that.
Maybe I should have gone with Kodak.
Fig 12
fig 13
Fig 1: Family of plane watchers at Changi Airport
Fig 2: Charmaine Cheng, Min Lauren and Shevon L. Wang Yao as Alice, Anna, and... er, dunno
Fig 3: NUSHS National Cadet Corps, freestyle drill performance, with one student doing Au Batido
Fig 4 and 5: Khymichi as Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier). I caught her while she was doing a video performance for another cameraman
Fig 6: Caffeine (Rain Nighte) as Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy)
Fig 7: Benji X Jijin as Dracule Mihawk. (One Piece)
Fig 8: Li Yan as Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)
Fig 9: Youth Flying club, UAV performance
Fig 10: National Cadet Corps parade commander marching in.
Fig 11: Quek Qing Heartsren. Not sure of the series and so forth, but she likes the picture and wants to use it, so I class it as a win.
Fig 12 and 13: Xueling as Elsa (Frozen), sans wig.
Albums: National day celebration with NUSH (full album here)
EOY festival day 2 (full album here)
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