• I will be out of action for a week starting today, 19 July. If you are new here, kindly browse my previous entries. You can check out some of the tips I have written or just browse to enjoy the photographs.
• I am working on some interesting personal photography projects and I can’t wait to share the outcome with you here. So, please keep coming back.
• Want to see some latest photos from my children and family photography? Check them out here: www.masakecil.com

And by the way, if you like this website and have a moment to spare, kindly write to share with your friends. I would appreciate that very much.

Thank you everyone for coming here and I’ll see you here next week. Take care.

You can see the heart shape which is the symbol of love as we all know in the picture above. But what was the subject I used to shoot this? Read on to find out.

You can find many items at home to shoot if you are bored and with a bit of creative thinking (Note: I don’t claim that I am a creative person though), you can have lovely photos to grace the wall in your house. The ones I have here were shot using a macro lens with ambient lighting in my living room. No studio lighting at all, so you all can do this easily. The light came from the overhead fluorescent bulbs in my living room. And the subject is a book. Yes, a book.

First, open the book and divide it into two with each side having about the same number of pages. Use two pages from the left and right sides and bring them together by curling them toward the center to form a heart shape, like this:

I then placed the book on a sheepskin rug which I got from a friend of mine, but you can  use anything really, like a chair covered with white cloth, a table, a sofa, etc. I then placed a white styrofoam board as the background. My 100mm macro lens was set to shoot at its maximum aperture of f/2.8 and the ISO was 1000. The choice of ISO 1000 was necessary to give me fast enough shutter speed as I was shooting handheld. I could have used my tripod, but not this time. Even with ISO 1000, the shutter speed was only 1/60 sec. The f/2.8 aperture and the close shooting distance blurred everything except the part where I focused on and that’s the beauty of shooting macro. You can bring out something unusual and interesting out of something ordinary. I then played with the compositions to get the following two photos:

Now … how about the top photo? The one that gives you only the bright shape of the heart? As you can probably guess now, that one was shot by focusing on the far end of the book hence everything else including the book itself became out of focus. I actually looked for the focus point through that paper hole and on the fur of the sheepskin rug on the other end. Got what I mean? The bokeh (the out of focus portion of the photo) is now in front of the main subject, if I can say it that way. Play around with the compositions and the angle of your camera and shoot away and have fun. It may not be for everyone, but for those who like this kind of photo, go experiment with it. Have fun and share what you shoot in your blog and let me know too so I can have a look at them.

Here is another one:

To all the winners of other categories, Congratulations and I wish you all great success. Keep blogging.

And of course, thank you to all the sponsors for the prizes too. Unfortunately, I have to miss the Hong Kong trip prize and have to give this to the second place winner, as I have a prior commitment to shoot my friend’s wedding on the 24th of July. I wish all the winners an enjoyable and safe trip. Please shoot for me and share the photos when you are back. 

After the award ceremony, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Tan Swie Hian, an accomplished and famous Singapore’s Cultural Medallion artist. He designed this beautiful trophy for the winners. It’s made of bronze and what a beautiful piece of art! I love it. Mr. Tan shared that in this new age of internet media, one should not forget the basic supporting values we all have to adhere to. And that’s what the three different shapes of legs of the trophy means.

To those who have asked about the trophy, here it is. You must hold it to appreciate it even more. Solid and nicely balanced.

And here is a photo of me with Mr. Tan Swie Hian after the award ceremony.

And oh, before I forget, to all the kind souls who took photos of me during the award ceremony, I would appreciate it if you could send me some of the photos. I would love to keep them. Thank You. 

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father! ~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836

For more collections of my children and family photography, please visit www.masakecil.com if you have a moment to spare. Thank You.

Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. ~ Henry Beecher (1813-1887)

All photos here were shot hand held and wide open at f/2.8 using my macro lens with image stabilizer and natural light coming in from the window. All were taken in a high key mode and f/2.8 was used as I wanted to only emphasize certain part of the flower. Have a great week ahead everyone.

Today, 30 June 2010 is the last day for the public voting for Singapore Blog Awards 2010. I would like to thank everyone who have voted for me for the Best Photography Blog category. A BIG THANK YOU to you all. I know some of you have also voted for me EVERYDAY and some of you have made the extra effort to rally for me, which I am extremely grateful for. Some of you were and are still total strangers to me, but your effort to go the extra mile to rally and vote for me is very heartwarming. To those who have been coming back to read my blog and/or to leave your comments, I thank you too as you have given me stronger motivation to shoot, to blog and to share more.

So, you have one more day to vote.

Now, on the photo above. It was taken inside the Angkor Wat compound in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A Buddhist monk was praying during their evening prayers. The sun has set for about half an hour and there were still some light outside, but there was no light at all inside the hall where they offered their prayers and I saw the silhouette of the monk and quickly moved closer to the door so I could get a better framing. Here are two more photos of the monk taken from the other side of hall.

Again, thank you everyone. I hope you all will keep coming back to read this blog and to view the photos that I will share here. Keep shooting.

Have you voted today? Have you heard about Singapore Blog Awards 2010? I am one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Photography Blog category. If you like this blog and you have a moment to spare, I would appreciate if you could vote for me. Voting is open until 30 June 2010.

• Voting is open to everybody. For International voters, just use your passport no or ID no during the registration. They need your ID no for verification in case you win the prize for voters.
• Please go here to vote: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ .
• Click the Best Photography Blog category and click Vote for my blog.
• You can vote everyday even for the same blog. One vote per day per category. So, keep voting please if you can. Thank You! 
• They have prepared some prizes for the voters too : http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/about/prize.html.

Many of us take photographs for granted especially in this digital photography age. Unlike the old days when you have to print the photos in order to see them and you get to keep the negatives too. The negatives sound like the backup of your photographs, don’t they? Do you belong to the group of people who just keep the photos taken inside your memory card in the camera and continue to leave them there for many months before you download them to your computer? Do you back up your hard disk on a regular basis? Do you print your photos?

So, if you are like me who treasure photographs as one of the most valuable family possessions, here are the things, in no particular order, you can do to preserve your family memories:

1. Scan your old family photos
   We live in a very humid part of the world. If you don’t store your old family photos properly, the humidity may damage them over the years. The use of the slip-in album may also cause damage to the photos after many years, as the photos may stick to the plastic sleeves. Flatbed scanner is quite affordable nowadays and can produce a decent quality digital file. Get one and start scanning your old family photos, including those from your grandparents and parents. If you have large collection of negatives or slide films, you can opt to purchase the scanner that is capable of scanning films too. There are good options from both Canon and Epson and they are more affordable nowadays.
2. Print your photos
   OK, I am not suggesting to print ALL your photos, even though you are free to do so, but we all have some photos that we really like. Print these photos that you really like. Frame them and hang them to grace your home or office. Print them in different sizes too and you can keep some in a photo album. You can also print a collage that tell a story.
   You can opt to send your digital files to a photo lab for printing of you can get one of those affordable home photo printers. I would recommend to get one of these that is capable of printing up to A4 size as it is very convenient when you want to print your photos at any time. Get the all-in-one machine if you want, so you can have the same unit for printing, scanning and copying. You can still opt to print at a photo lab especially when the volume is big.
   I had a chat with one of my photography mentors last week and he shared with me his painful experience when he lost some of his important photos when his hard disk crashed but was comforted a little bit because he had already printed them before.
3. Avoid direct sunlight
   Hang your framed photos on the wall that does not have direct sunlight. The sun’s UV rays can fade the photos over the years. If you want, you can also opt to have glass or acrylic with UV protection for your frame. They are more expensive, but if your photos are very valuable, you may want to opt for this.
4. Download your photos to your computer after each photo shoot
   Make it a habit to download your photos taken using your digital camera to your computer after each photo shoot. Do not keep them inside the memory card in your camera for a long time. This will ensure you have the photos safely stored on your hard disk at home.
5. Back up your hard disk
   The price of hard disk has fallen a lot and will continue to fall as the technology progresses. They become more affordable. For the same amount of money you spend two years ago, you may be able to get a hard disk with double capacity storage. Once you have downloaded the photos to your computer, make it a habit to back them up too to your other / external hard disk.  Do not back up to the other partition within the same hard disk, but always back up to another physical hard disk. Run another back up process every time you have finished processing your photos. You can also run a scheduled back-up process. The frequency of it depends on your need and how often you make changes.
6. Create a photo album / book
   Many photo labs now offer the service to create a photo album or photo book for you. Consider this option if you do not want to have those traditional prints. You can design your album / book yourself by arranging the photos nicely, adding text and other elements you like. You can now personalize your album / book yourself.
7. Get a dry cabinet for storage
   The advantage of using a dry cabinet is that it has the electronic control for humidity and temperature and it’s also becoming more affordable these days. Get one to store your albums, photos, CD, DVD and also your camera and lenses. You can get one from your camera shop or CarreFour.

Hope these are useful everyone.

5 more days to go !! Have you voted today? Have you heard about Singapore Blog Awards 2010? I am one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Photography Blog category. If you like this blog and you have a moment to spare, I would appreciate if you could vote for me. Voting is open until 30 June 2010.

• Voting is open to everybody. For International voters, just use your passport no or ID no during the registration. They need your ID no for verification in case you win the prize for voters.
• Please go here to vote: http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/category/ .
• Click the Best Photography Blog category and click Vote for my blog.
• You can vote everyday even for the same blog. One vote per day per category. So, keep voting please if you can. Thank You! 
• They have prepared some prizes for the voters too : http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/about/prize.html.