Photojournalism

From the BBC's webpage titled "Week in pictures", we examine this picture with the following caption: "Coffins of Kurdish victims of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime during the 1980s stand at the airport in Irbil, after their repatriation from a site near the southern city of Najaf."

So what does this picture say then? My impression is that its about the coffins more than anything else (obviously). since coffins are symbollic of death, it fittingly reflects the purpose of the photo, which was taken in such a way that it would in some essence give an idea just how many people died as a result of Saddam's regime. While the number of coffin's shown probably isn't all that there are supposed to be, the fact remains that this approach to the shot (with few people in it and the seemingly neverending rows of coffins all the way into the horizon) sought to bring out the most of its intended message despite the simplicity of the shot.

The repatriation of the coffins (and the deceased in them) is symbollic also in the sense that it metaphorically and literally illustrates that the past (and its atrocities) are being buried and laid to rest, and as such provide a form of resolution to the suffering of the people both deceased and alive.

Mmmm-Masterwork

Ok. So i was supposed to comment on a surrealist masterwork. and not knowing many surrealists, i (very obviously) chose to do something based on Dali's piece " La persistencia de la memoria" (aka The Persistence of Memory, Melting Clocks, Soft Watches and Droopy Watches ). Perhaps because surrealism by nature makes people go "huh?", there was a need to put an almost-literal title to the pieces to immediately give people the idea of what the painter is trying to portray.

So what's this painting of his about then? Appears to me that from the title (and the nature of the watches illustrated in the painting, that Dali gives a literal spin to the idea that time is indeed "fluid", perhaps somewhat in reference to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. When you think about it, time in its way does "flow" in a sense. The "melted" and fluid feeling of time thus also indicates that while it is flexible, there is still a relatively fixed amount to it (like how liquids take on various shapes of their containers and yet have a fixed volume). This flexibility of time reminds me of a quote from a book i read called "Thief of Time" by Terry Pratchett. In it Pratchett speaks of the guardians of time (referred to as the History Monks) and how people have been manipulating time:

People have been messing around with time ever since they were people. Wasting it, killing it, sparing it, making it up. And they do it. People's heads were made to play with time. You watch the Procrastinators even on a quiet day. Moving time, stretching it here, compressing it there. Its a big job.

With the composition of the piture being rather empty on every side except the left (where the clocks are), it naturally brings the viewer's attention to what Dali has so strategically placed there (which obviously is the point of this painting). Having the watches / clocks set against a dark background (of what appears to be the ground), they stand out even more in the picture. And thus ends the commentary on a masterwork.

The Many Sid3s of Chris Ong

Conceptual Portraiture isn't exactly the easiest of things to do. But honestly, it gets easier once an idea is in place.

“The Many Sid3s (sides) of Chris Ong” is a series of conceptual photographs that explores and illustrates the identity of the model.

Using the word “sides” in both a literal sense (through the various profile shots) as well as the figurative (since each of us has many different sides to our personalities), it seeks to provide an insight to the model’s own self-perception as well as how he is perceived by others.

“3l3m3ntal Id3ntity” (Elemental Identity) is a piece on the various “elements” that are most recognisable about the model.

“A Qu3stion of B3li3f” (A question of Belief) is a double-meaninged piece on the model’s faith (through the sense of questioning / challenging belief, as well as in the sense of whether you believe).

“G33k Lit” (Geek Lit or “Literature”) is a piece that illustrates the reading material that the model is most associated with in terms of his technological orientation.

“Mak3 Som3 Nois3” is a piece about the model’s interest in drumming, and portrays a drumset that is both there and not there (due to its incompleteness).

“Fair Gam3” (Fair Game) reflects how much gaming is part of the model’s life, as does “Wir3d Up” (Wired Up) in symbollising his attachment to technology.

The last piece in the series, “All that you can’t l3av3 B3hind” (All that you can’t leave behind) is borrowed from a title of a song, and shows the model’s attachment to a past relationship (represented by the pig which was a gift returned), and that while he has turned his back on it, it is still a reminder to him of things gone by.

On to the pictures then:

"3l3m3ntal Id3ntity"

"A Qu3stion of B3li3f"

"G33k Lit"

"Mak3 Som3 Nois3"

"Fair Gam3"

"Wir3d Up"

"All That You Can't L3av3 B3hind"

Getting into the Mood

"No people, no animals, no mannequins". How do you portray moods then? Apparently its possible, cos you can do it like THIS:



Who / What: Where have all the flowers gone (Solitary)

Where: My house

How: Canon 1000D, ISO 200, F 5.6, 1/100s, 53mm

Why: focusing on the single white flower that stands out among the grass brings the viewer's attention specifically to it.



Who / What: Paper Chase (Activity)

Who / What: Paper Chase (Activity)

Where: My house

How: Canon 1000D, ISO 800, F 5.6, 1/20s, 55mm

Why: The close up of the papers taped to the wall and seemingly looking like they have been disturbed would give the impression that they have in some way or other been moved or disturbed to result in their current condition and position.



Who / What: Table Tangles (Chaos)

Where: My house

How: Canon 1000D, ISO 800, F 5.6, 1/20s, 55mm

Why: “Table Tangles” is an attempt at portraying the feeling of “mess”, and is illustrated through how the wires are all disorganised and tangled up together.

Now that's Surreal (well, sort of)

Question: so what happens when you have a piece that looks about 80% there BUT you can seem to add anything to make it look better (and anything you think of adding makes it look worse)?

Ans: Go for consultation and come up with *another* prototype.

So here we have prototype 2 (duh).

Now That's Surreal... or maybe not.

Gargh. For our next trick, we're going to learn about the various digital image manipulation techniques. First up: Photomontages and manipulation.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to do a surrealist photo montage / manipulation on the theme of "Urban Fantasy" / "Urban Phenomenon" (Me: Surrealism? NOOOOOO.. i don't wanna! Anything but that!!! GARGH!!! Ed: you've got no choice kiddo. *sounds of a quarrel and scuffling*). Hang on tight... cos awaaaaaaay we go...

Chosen Technique: Photo Montage

Prototype 1:



Prototype 1A:



Tricks involved (READ: How i got the desired effect):

Both shots are (believe it or not) only essentially made up of 2 photographs. 1 of city scape (the flats) and a perspective shot of money plants (which turned into the red and green bits).

So what did i do? Well... basically if you notice, the flats in the picture are sort of warped and symetrical. So i started off with taking 1 picture and cut it in half down the middle. Got rid of the right side. Then i warped the remaining part of the pic, followed by duplicating the left and flipped horizontal (i'm a big fan of duplication and flipping). So voila, symmetrical image!

So... take that with the money plants, rinse and repeat (no warping this time though. Except that i did a little scaling instead). For that green "bear / lion" head looking thing, that was from a symmetrical duplication of the money plants (yes believe it or not). So it got scaled up to look more like a head (cool, no?).

To make things a little more interesting (and not to mention surreal), i threw on a few adjustment filters to screw around with hue and saturation. And to make all things blend well together i had vector masks utilising gradients to do blending. At that point, it was still a little too "bright" for my liking, so i thought, "hey let's throw on some rendered clouds". For 1A i decided that just for kicks i'd try a liquify effect using clockwise swirls on the flats, to give warping kind of feel. dunno if that worked well though.

aaaaannnd... that's about it really.

Focus people... FOCUS....

So right. This next assignment is supposed to be about focal length, image sensors and the like (READ: Technical aspects of photography and cameras).

So... your mission if you choose to accept it.. is to take photos to show good understanding of focal length techniques and sensor latitudes. So sit tight and hold on, because awaaaaaay we go....

Perspective



Who / What: Goodie Bags

Where: Central Forum

How: Canon 1000D; 23mm; F/5.0; 1/100 sec

Why: Shows an "almost" never-ending row of goodie bags at the central forum

Zoom Shot



Who / What: Stained Glass

Where: My House

How: Canon 1000D; 55mm; ISO 200; F/32; 1.0 sec

Why: Shows the zooming in towards the butterfly. With the focus on the butterfly giving it a sort of awe-inspiring feel.

Close Up


Who / What: Flower from Cannonball Tree

Where: Tanglin Road

How: Canon 1000D; ISO 400, F 5.6, 1/250s, 208mm

Why: The shot was taken with a 55-250 zoom lens (doesn't look like it right?) which surprisingly allowed this shot to pass off as a macro. So why is it close up? well obviously the details in the flower are visible.


High Key



Who / What: Canon EOS 350

Where: My House

How:Canon 1000D; 50mm Prime; ISO 400; f1.8; 1/4 sec

Why: A very literal and over-exposed photo which shows obvious high-key traits, while still giving the impression that the camera is being viewed through fog.

Low Key


Who / What: Cranes in Wood

Where: My House

How: Canon 1000D, ISO 800, F 1.8, 1/20s, 50mm

Why: Wooden Cranes against a "nighttime" type of backdrop of plants takes a double-play meaning on the title and images presented.


Symbollic of the Sun



Who / What: Shades

Where: My House

How: Canon 1000D; 50mm Prime; F/1.8; 1/15 sec;

Why: Sunglasses are what people usually wear to protect themselves from the sun. a destroyed and worn out pair of sungalsses also would in some sense illustrate the damaging effects of the sun.

From Landscape to Portrait

Welcome.... to the art of shooting people (in the photographic sense of course) - Portrait shots. Now... there's 2 kinds of portrait shots - those set-up shots that you rig (the kind where you go "hey pose for me can?") as opposed to what i'd like to call the "sneaky sniper of candid moments" (the kind where your subjects go "eh why you take my picture sia? ARGH ARGH ARGH")

So... your mission if you choose to accept it, is to sneakily snipe shots of a NM class in action. and if it's good enough, you'll get it used in the department's publicity collaterals. so hang tight... cos awaaaaaaaaay we go...

Ok. So apparently the fact that there're 5 photographers shooting the class doesn't stop us from capturing candid shots of people in action



Who / What: Dr Ingrid Hoofd

Where: NM4212 Media & Representation Seminar Class

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 800; F/10; 1/30 sec

Why: Shows Dr Hoofd in action observing one of the group discussions in class



Who / What: Soh Junhao (Below) and Chris Chang (top)

Where: NM4212 Media & Representation Seminar

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 200; F/1.8; 1/50 sec

Why: Its an interesting shots of photographers in action (besides, someone needs to take photos of what we do for NM3223).

Exposed!

Ok. So we're moving on now to the next level - playing around with Apeture and Shutter Speed.

Since Apeture determines Depth of Field, this most probably means we're working on the different depths of field. *ding ding ding give that man a prize!* And since shutter speed determines how fast / slow the shutter opens / closes, it determines how fast we can capture something without looking blur (and not to mention without cheating using a flash). so with that out of the way.... hang tight cos awaaaaaay we go...

Shallow Depth of Field


Who / What: Dining Chair

Where: my house

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/1.8; 1/25 sec

Why: Its the only object in focus, when compared to all the other chairs in the background which are totally blurred out.

Deep Depth of Field



Who / What: Fire Hydrant

Where: outside my house

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/22; 1/8 sec

Why: Pretty much the entire picture is in focus, but the focus of the picture (no pun intended) is the fire hydrant. Part of that is due to the colour, because it most definitely stands out amidst everything else.

Freeze Motion



Who / What: Hot & Cold

Where: YIH & Chinese Library

How: Canon 1000D ISO 250, F 4.0, 1/400s, 28mm

Why: This is one of those fans from the air cons, which as most people know, constantly is in motion. So by right what you'd usually get is like a white circle, but since there's freeze motion, you can *almost* distinctly see the blades.

Motion Blur



Who / What: Chasing Cars

Where: bus stop at Orchard Boulevard, opposite Orchard MRT

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/22; 1/5

Why: The bus stop is just a little after the traffic light, so the cars will definitely be moving very fast because of the acceleration. The slow shutter speed manages to catch one car entering and another exiting.

The 5 Elements

Ok so its not quite Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Metal. More like Line, Shape, Form, Colour and Texture (this IS photography after all).

So... your mission if you choose to accept it, involves taking pictures of the above-mentioned 5 elements (the photography ones that is). Restriction is that it has to be within NUS campus. Sounds simple enough? Right then. and awaaaaaay we go...

Line



Who / What: Wiring from laptops and extension cable

Where: AS6 Walkway

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/2.0; 1/20 sec

Why: Shows organic lines (not straight and rigid)

Shape



Who / What: Laptop keyboard

Where: AS6 Walkway

How: Canon 1000D 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/2.0; 1/20 sec

Why: a very squarish / rectangular photo featuring a lot of similar shapes (right down from the laptop to the individual keys)

Form



Who / What: One of those takeaway coffee cups from the Arts Canteen

Where: AS6 Walkway

How: Canon 1000D; 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/2.5; 1/125 sec

Why: Its cylindrical, its big, it definitely looks 3D (which is what form items are supposed to look like right?)

Colour



Who / What: Frog Soft Toy

Where: AS6 Walkway

How: Canon 1000D; 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/1.8; 1/20 sec

Why: in a world of very dull and dark colours (like brown and black), a bright green soft toy most definitely stands out.

Texture



Who / What: One of those benches along AS6 Walkway

Where: AS6 Walkway

How: Canon 1000D; 50mm Prime; ISO 400; F/1.8; 1/60 sec

Why: Its an uneven, scratchy and dare i say paint-peeling surface. Surely that's a texture with age and CHARACTER?