May 2016 Archive

Single Shot #21

There are a number of tools that a photographer can use to process an image for a certain look. Most of my images undergo a light touch processing using Lightroom as I shoot in the raw format. Recently, Google offered their Nik collection of image processing tool for free and I was experimenting with some of them. The image below was processed using Analog Efex Pro which gave a classic camera feel to the image. Gone are the clinical sharp details and near perfect colour balance of a digital file.

The tool is quite easy to use. Still using the same image, I then used Silver Efex Pro to age the photograph. The tool is very easy to use and the one below is straight using of the built in presets.

This row of shophouses are found along Upper Cross street and is part of the Kreta Ayer Conservation area.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 16-35 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec @ f/6.3
ISO 100 (as if this have any bearing on the image)

Single Shot #20

Arnoldo Pomodoro is an Italian sculptor and one of his works is a bronze sculpture called Sphere within a sphere (Sfera con Sfera). Various pieces can be found around the world including the Vatican Museums, Trinity College in Dublin, Mt Sinai Hospital in New York, Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

The one pictured below can be found at the United Nations Plaza in New York City. The diameter of the sphere is 3.3m and was installed in 1991.

The description in Pomodoro’s archive says the following:

In my sculpture, the shape of today’s world contains, within itself, the form of the “ideal city”, as conceived by the artists of the Italian Renaissance. This, in turn, contains my hopes and dreams, and those of countless other citizens of the world.

As Sam Hunter wrote: “Pomodoro’s Sphere within a sphere seems almost uniquely destined for its site, since it reflects and accommodates the antithetical responses in the environment with its own complex mix of imagery that can be read, alternately, as organic and thereby human, or technology-oriented, by reason of complex interior forms that resemble gear teeth”.

 

This photo was taken on a cold winter’s afternoon in December 2007.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 40D, EFs 17-55 mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec @ f/10 ISO 200

Quote from : www.arnoldopomodoro.it (the page will open in a new tab)

Single Shot #19

[updated 5 May 2016 to correct typo]

This Olive-back Sunbird is a regular visitor to the bush in my garden. The chick in my earlier shot is the offspring of this bird.  Always shy and flighty, it is still quite difficult to capture a good shot of this visitor.  A tripod mounted camera was set up and a sequence of shot was taken. This was one of the best of the series which shows the sunbird tongue. The sunbird belongs to the family call Nectariniidae which harvest nectar through this long tubular tongue.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 70-300 mm, f/4-5.6, 1/250 sec @ f/7.1 ISO 800

Single Shot #18

The Volkswagen is a symbol of the hippie era of the 60’s and 70’s. Groups of hippies often travelled in a Volkswagen mini bus and the beetle. These cars were painted in vivid colours with motifs of flowers and peace.

The image below is a photo of a crystal Volkswagen beetle. The colour patterns were created by lighting the model car with 2 off-camera mounted flash with gel colour filters.It is pretty simple and this was an experimental shot to test the gel and remote flash  triggers.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec @ f/10 ISO 100
Lit by 2 off-camera gel filtered flashes.