Photography

Life is short, shoot more

May 13, 2020 by Jenxi Seow

Why waste time taking photos of things that aren’t meaningful?

I see photographers who take photos of insects, birds or others things. It is their prerogative what they chose to photograph. They make use of shallow depth of field to isolate the subjects. These photos might be meaningful to them. Perhaps it replicated a photo they have seen before. Or it freezes a memory in their lives.

However, I consider these photos lacking meaning to me, hence I rarely take such photos. I take photos of people because that’s what matters, especially people who matter.

Take more photos

When you see a good scene, take more photos. Having a family event? Out on a date? Or just chilling at home with the dog? Any time is a good time to take more photos to capture the moment.

Edit old photos

It pays to revisit old photos. Photos that you edited out previously might actually be good photos that you overlooked, or discarded due to your thoughts, emotions and bias at that moment.

When you edited the photos, you might not have appreciated it then, but your growth as a photographer teaches you how to better appreciate photos and lets you see your old photos in a new light.

Avoid distractions

Don’t read gear news, rumours or reviews. Focus on making the most out of your current gear. Spend your time creating photos.

Avoid analysing too much

Paralysis by analysis is all too common. You spend so much time studying photography that you have little or no time to shoot. Go forth and shoot. It is only through taking photos that you can actually gain experience that will help you grow as a photographer.

Go out of your comfort zone

Shoot outside your comfort zone. If you stay within your comfort zone you will only get the same types of photos that you got previously. Push yourself to do something challenging or difficult. What is challenging or difficult? Easy. What makes you feel uncomfortable. Discomfort is your mind’s way of telling you that it is doing something that it isn’t used to.

Remember, life is short. Just do it.

Photography Habits

February 24, 2019 by Jenxi Seow

Photography is a never ending journey of learning and growth. I picked up and dropped many habits along the way.

Once in a while, I get asked about how I shoot, so I’m sharing some of the habits that I find essential and have stuck with me since adopting them. By the way, it is better to ask people how to shoot instead of what camera they’re using. It means you are interested in the art of photography rather than the gear.

Always be ready to shoot

My camera is always on standby mode, held in my hand. On the rare instances it isn’t, it is usually hanging off my wrist loop. This means that I’m always ready to shoot once I tap softly on the shutter release to wake the camera.

I started photography using neck straps. I still use them on my DSLRs and SLRs, but that’s simply because the weight of those cameras mean I might injure my wrist if I were to hang them off my wrist. However, when I’m using those cameras, the neck straps are wrapped around my wrist.

The best camera is the one that you have with you.
—Chase Jarvis

Hanging the camera around my neck makes me lazy. I will become comfortable with it hanging there and end up doing other things, so when the time comes my hands are occupied instead of being ready to snap a photo.

I can’t hang my Leica on the wrist strap for too long without my wrist starting to feel sore. The strap digging into my wrist is a great reminder that I have rested enough and should hold the camera in my hand.

The only time when the camera is in my bag is when I need to protect it from the weather, or when I’m commuting and decided to take a break from shooting.

Of course, this means my camera is always with me. There are two things I always bring out when I head out, my camera and my phone.

Shoot first, shoot more

I used to take one picture of each moment I capture, believing that is how the photography masters snap their iconic photos. I learnt later on that they actually shoot a series of each moment and pick the best.

This has resulted in me leaving my Leica in continuous drive mode. I shoot a burst of several photos. Where possible, I move and angle to get the best framing with each shot.

Beware of thinking you should spray and pray. I’ve seen photographers shooting in continuous drive mode and hold down the shutter release until they fill the buffer. This won’t improve the quality of your shots. You just end up with a lot more photos to edit, and most likely ditch.

It is about developing the gut feeling of getting good shots, the instinct to anticipate the decisive moment.

Revisit good spots

Some places are just a treasure mine for good photos. In street photography, these are usually places with great backgrounds, beautiful light, and a steady traffic of people.

When you discover such a spot, remember it and come back regularly. Return to this special place at different times of the day to see how the light looks at each time. This way, you’ll know when is the best time to visit the spot.

Edit later

While some argue that you should select your photos as soon as you can to avoid procrastination, I prefer to wait before editing my photos.

The earliest I look at my photos is two weeks from taking them, though the average length I let my photos sit is about at least a month and a half. Let your photos marinate so you detach yourself from them emotionally.

Let your photos marinate.

Looking at photos too soon stirs up feeling you had when you took the photo. This often clouds your judgement and make you pick photos out of sentimentality.

Simplify processing

Many photographers spend more time processing photos than shooting them. If your photos are good, you just need minimal processing to get the final look you want.

My processing workflow is as simple as it gets. I apply my standard presets, I have one for colour and one for monochrome, and then tweak exposure and crop where necessary. In the rare occasions I would dodge and burn but I try to avoid those.

The simple process frees up my time to shoot and edit. Edit as in selecting the photos. This removes the pressure and headache that comes with doing a lot of post-processing.

Instead of processing your photos, invest the time in editing your photos.

Editing isn’t processing. Editing means selecting the good photos. This is far more important than deciding how much you should tweak contrast, tone or saturation.

I prefer to spend my time editing and sequencing my photos. Post-processing is just a minor step that I prefer to get out of the way as painlessly as possible.

What are your habits?

So there you go, these are my photography habits.

I would love to read about your photography habits. I enjoy looking at how others organise their workflow because I often discover new ways to improve mine.

Shooting with a 24 mm lens

July 15, 2018 by Jenxi Seow

I shoot street photography with a 24 mm lens. One of the first things Charlie Kirk suggested I do to improve my street photos was to pick up a 24 mm lens. I was very hesitant because it meant I had to get very close to my subjects, something I wasn’t comfortable with.

Shooting with other focal lengths

I started off shooting street photography with my DSLR equipment. I had a Nikon D700 with a 50 mm and a 70-200 mm lens. These were used for street portraits of strangers, a project inspired by Danny Santos. However, they blurred out the background to isolate the subject. While the photos look good with the bokeh making the subjects pop out, the isolation also meant that the subjects felt disconnected from their surroundings.

While useful in portraiture photography where I wanted to isolate the subjects, telephoto and large aperture do not give the desired results in street photography.

I begun experimenting with wider lenses to try to incorporate more of the scene. I had a Nikon AF-D 35 mm lens and my Fujifilm X100 also had an effective focal length of 35 mm. I also had a Ricoh GR Digital III. Its 28 mm focal length was perfect for getting more of the scene in the frame, but I had to get much closer to my subjects.

My current setup is a Voigtlander 21 mm Color-Skopar f/4 SC lens on my Leica M8. This gives it an effective focal length of 24 mm. Such a wide angle does take some getting used to. But once you start getting good photos out of it, you’ll learn to appreciate how liberating this lens is.

Zone focusing

It can be hit and miss shooting street photography with a manual focus camera. However, using the 24 mm lens meant that I could easily shoot using zone focusing.

By shooting between f/8 and f/16, I could focus to the hyperfocal distance point to have the subject and background in focus. It doesn’t take long to get used to the distances. For my lens, the closest it can focus is 50 centimetres. That is roughly an arm length away. So I know how close I can get without my subjects going out of focus.

Flashes of brilliance

The Leica M8 as an old CCD sensor that is awful in low light wide open. At f/8 or f/16 in the day, it might still not be bright enough. So I have a flash permanently in my hot shoe. I was using my DSLR speedlight but at the recommendation of my buddy Daniel Ho, I’m now sporting a compact and lighter Viltrox Speedlite JY610II. Packs a punch. Small enough not to affect the balance like the larger flash lights would.

Using flash is a whole new topic that I won’t cover today. It is a whole school of lessons on its own. I’ll just point out what using flash can create three-dimensional effects through the use of shadows, or even flatten parts of the scene into two dimensions with blown out or absolute dark areas.

Going closer

Most of the street photographers I admired shot with wide angle lenses that allowed them to capture more of the scene and forced them to go close to the subjects.

It wasn’t easy getting used to the 24 mm lens. I realised I have to be in the thick of the action to get photos with my subjects filling the frame. But that is exactly why photos shot as this focal length smells of the street or the scene you’re at.

It immerses the viewer in the action because it was taken in the action.

Noticing clutter

Aside from getting out of my comfort zone and move closer to the people I want to shoot, I had be very conscious of what the frame includes. It is very easy for the lens to pick up distracting clutter in the scene.

Once you start to get the hang of using the focal length, you’ll notice that it is not hard to get rid of clutter. You just need to angle it right.

Angle it right

Put on a wide angle lens and give it a try. While maintaining the same height, twist your camera up and down to see how that affects your shots of the same subject. Next, try moving your hands up and down while doing that. Finally, bend and straighten your hands while you move your hands. Isn’t that amazing?

Now keep that lens on your camera and shoot it for a week or a month.

Sherie on the jetty

April 24, 2015 by Jenxi Seow

We wrapped up the photo shoot with Sherie at the jetty in the Woodlands Waterfront Park. This jetty was formerly known as the Royal Malaysian Navy Jetty. You can see the previous sets in white, denim and fashion style.

The jetty is one of the prominent feature of the park. You get a view of the Johor-Singapore causeway and the Johor Bahru city skyline across the Straits of Johor.

This series was shot on the Nikon D700 with an AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G lens.

Shooting in the park gave us some respite from the blazing sun under the shade of the trees. We had nowhere to hide on the jetty. A few middle-aged men were fishing on the jetty and without much to do while waiting for the fish to bite, their attention inevitably was drawn to us.

This reminded me of another shoot I did with Sherie a couple of years back. A tour bus pulled up near where we were shooting. Among the tour group was a typical tourist with a DSLR hanging from his neck. He interrupted us to get a few snaps of Sherie. This time round, we only attracted a few curious stares but they did not stray far from their fishing rods.

With this, we wrap up the last set of images from the session with Sherie. It was a rather productive session in view of the time constraints. If you are interested in a photo shoot, feel free to contact me. I’ll be glad to work out a collaboration.

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Sherie fashion style

April 17, 2015 by Jenxi Seow

During the photo shoot with Sherie, we came across a nice spot for fashion style photos in the Woodlands Waterfront Park. Sherie wore white and denim in the first two sets. We took a break after those outfits and Sherie changed into a black lace top that she really liked.

The harsh light was not ideal for portraits. I prefer soft, diffuse light when I shoot people. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experiment to use the late morning sunlight as a replacement for flash light in a fashion style series. I think I managed to pull of the look I wanted.

I would usually bring at least one flash along, but I packed minimal gear for this shoot and left out the flash lights. I only had one camera body and two prime lenses. The fun fisheye lens stayed at home as well.

I can see how having a flash could improve the results. I believe a more diffuse lighting would have made the background pop less. The only way to find out is to return to this spot for another shoot. Anyone game?

After this, we made our way to the jetty in the park for the final shots before we headed for lunch in the comfort of air-conditioning. Check back soon for more photos!

This series was shot on the Nikon D700 with an AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G lens.

If you want to stay updated with my photographic adventures, and my views and thoughts on various issues, subscribe and be notified when new articles are published.

Sherie in denim

March 20, 2015 by Jenxi Seow

During the photo shoot in the Woodlands Waterfront Park, we did a set with Sherie in denim. I like this outfit and we definitely need to do another session of it. As mentioned in the previous entry, we were rushing to finish the shoot before the sun reached its zenith, so we did not get as many photos for this set as I would have liked.

Kudos to her for being such a sport to lie on the ground. It was a sunny morning and the grass patch had soaked up a fair bit of heat.

Despite the weather, I was surprised to see children having fun in the playground. I hope they had sunblock on. I wish I had some shots of them being unhindered by the blazing sun.

This reminds me that I should have taken some photos of the surroundings, especially since this was my first visit to the park. However, I was too preoccupied with the shoot and gave me full attention to Sherie. It would be a better series of photos if I had a couple of photos to set the scene, or perhaps some environmental portraits to showcase the location as well. This is something I need to keep in mind in the future.

We took a short break after we finished with this set, before we brave the late morning sun and ventured out onto the jetty where there was no shade to hide in. Check back soon for more photos!

This series was shot on the Nikon D700 with an AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G lens.

If you want to stay updated with my photographic adventures, and my views and thoughts on various issues, subscribe and be notified when new articles are published.