Thursday 18 October 2007

We have moved!

This blog has been migrated over to a new location.

Check out the new blog at http://www.MarkLeo.net/blog.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Two Videos to make you laugh

The Raya holidays are here and here are two videos to send you off with a huge smile on your face.

This one here is especially for you Bollywood fans out there. I am sure most of us have a little bit of Bollywood in ourselves don't we?


And this one is a little preview of what is to come with the local TV gameshows, human tetris. What will the Japanese think of next? Human jenga?


Have a great Raya holidays this weekend!

Thursday 4 October 2007

Basic Studio Lighting with Ted Adnan - Part 2

As mentioned in my last post, here are more photos I took during my workshop with Ted Adnan. I've gotten brutal criticism so far, but I am loving it as I can improve my shots and think deeper before just snapping away. I guess the perfectionist in me would want me to be able to take stunning photos and not mere sub standard quality ones.


Ok, well the shot above was just a shot of the participants trying to get certain angles and shots right and working with the pocket wizard.

Hair tossing in action? Man I need to get the lighting correct as well. Comments I have received is that the hair and background blended too well. Perhaps it would be better against a white background.

A smiling portrait for everyone.

This pose looked a little familiar but I just can't nail it on where have I seen it before. Comments received for this shot was that there was too much empty space above her head and at the sides which I totally agree.

Haven't received any comments for this picture yet though. Perhaps that is a good sign.

Of course, a nice group picture of us all who participated in the workshop including the model and Ted of course.

And finally, a picture together with the model as well. Please note that the camera I was holding was not my camera. Ted used my camera to take this shot.

More exciting things to come including a whole new blog as well as my online portfolio.

Stay tuned.

Monday 1 October 2007

Basic Studio Lighting with Ted Adnan

Over the weekend, I was one of the 6 participants in a workshop on studio lighting workshop held by Ted Adnan at his studio in Saujana Impian, Kajang. Traveling there was actually a worry for me as I was totally unfamiliar with Cheras and Kajang altogether so I practically Googled my way there. I definitely need to get a map of KL and Selangor.

The workshop started at about 11am and it started off with Ted teaching us about the basics of studio lighting by showing us slides of pictures he took and asking us questions on how many light sources are there in these pictures. His photos were awesome and it was amazing, especially the outdoor on location shots where we can't bring any studio lighting and had to rely on portable flashes.

Next, we were thought the basics of the lighting equipment and what each equipment does and how do we use the various filters and softboxes for studio lights. It was rather interesting and I definitely did learn a lot yesterday as I never had any prior experience shooting in a studio. Studio equipment is definitely expensive.

After many hours taking loads of shots and trying to get the perfect composition, the workshop came to an end with my being extremely tired as I had little sleep the night before but brimming with excitement and taking home more information about the whole field of photography.

The good thing about this workshop was that not only did I learn something but I also met other budding photographers and enthusiasts, both professional and hobbyists. The networking between the participants were great and we exchanged our name cards and gotten to know each other's photography background. Who knows, if one of them makes it big, I might be able to get some jobs from them.

Of course we didn't shoot any products but we had Hayda as our model of the day. She was extremely professional about it. I don't think that this picture is the best one I took but since I took most of my shots in RAW, I got plenty of post processing ahead of me tonight. I still owe Ted some of my best shots to see whether I made the cut to produce the best image during the workshop.

I definitely can't wait to learn more about shooting people and event as that is my goal in the area of photography. Wedding photography is never easy although some professional photographers feel that it is just photojournalism but to me, all of this is still a challenge.

More photos from the workshop to come!

Check out Ted Adnan's blog here.
Check out Ted Adnan's online portfolio here.