SEOUL | Camera Friendly City

Been traveling to quite a number of places with my camera gears, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia just to name a few, but one of the most camera friendly city that I came across is Seoul, Korea.

What make I said that, "camera friendly city", you might asked, well some of the factors that need to be considered are: You can take photo of almost anything easily without getting those strangely looks from other people, especially the locals, (as long as you are within the photographers' ethics); You can take, lugged around your camera gears without being afraid of it being "taken away", (as long as you don't wander off the off-beaten tracks), You won't feel awkward shooting photo with your huge SLR, as most of the people are using one! There are many camera shops around, new and used, compact and SLRs, digital and film; There are so many photo opportunities, even just by seating in one corner! + many other factors.O


One of the photographers, viewing the day's shot from his professional Canon EOS 1D body.


Just look at the photographers, having a classic film SLR for each of them.


A yuppie sharing the pros and cons of his Nikon DSLR.


There are even loads of woman photographers around, shooting with their DSLR, I guess woman prefer huge DSLR rather than those smaller compact point and shoot camera, or is just a hype nowadays?


Just look at those huge, long lens, see, I told you, one will not feel awkward tagging along their huge SLR for a walkabout in Seoul, but do know your limit and ethics. :)

Siem Reap | Entering the Angkor Thom

As mentioned in the previous post, it is quite hard to capture photos without any people in it, unless you barricade the area then it is a different story, thou it is not advisable nor plausible.


Tourist trying to capture the site, capturing the same thing, the same view, so I just captured this moment.


The weather was quite hot, despite wearing a cool hat, visitors still prefer to stand under the shade, and looking this as a good opportunity, with the flare of the sun, I captured the moment in photo.

Yeap, flares, most photography magazines or tutorials will advise you use lens hood to avoid capturing those flares, and you will also encounters some tips to lower your ISO to reduce noises, but hei, so what about flares and noises?

What is so bad about them? Bend the rules, incorporate them into your photos, if flares and noises are problems why do they add them for filters in Photoshop and other photo editting softwares???


As it was hot and dry, and looking at the dusty area, changing one lens is a "nightmare", you can either have a less superior all in one zoom lens, or good prime lens or zoom lens, and risk of trapping dust in your sensors, or otherwise miss a good photo angle by reluctantly not to change lens, despite all those money spent and thousand of miles traveled to come here! It is your call!!


The many heads "guarding" the gate.


"Look at that interesting head! Seems so real! And Smiling even!"


Well it is interesting indeed, if this is what they meant. Not so solid rock head. A beautiful head amongst the hard rock heads.


More details of the hard rock head.


A photo opps not to be missed.


After the photoshoot, taking a rest amongst the ubiquitous tuk-tuk

SEOUL | Hello Photographers

Sometimes, we would be very cautious with bringing our camera gear while traveling to foreign country, the feeling of whether it is ok or not to photograph street photos and such, also the worries of carrying those bulky camera gears.

But whilst in Seoul, I feel "in" blending with the local, because many of the locals are carrying huge SLR with them almost everywhere, well, many touristy area actually, hence there were less guilt in capturing the street scene.


Checking the captured image from the tiny LCD viewer on his high-end CANON.


A bunch of friend having an outing together to capture the street scene.


There are even quite a number of women photographers, I guess they wanna play around with huge DSLR nowadays rather than those sleek slim compact, or perhaps just wanna make it a reason so that they can buy a new handbag which can fit their bulky camera!


A classic film SLR user.

SEOUL | Street Downtown + Travel Photo Tips

Street Photography is quite different from other type of photography, such as Nature Photography or Landscape Photography.

Many factors have to be considered in doing Street Photography, such as types of lens to be used, what sort of gears to be brought/used, weather condition, available time, and human/vehicle traffic etc.

Depending on the situation, it is advisable to carry as little and as light as possible, but if want to carry all your lenses and all your "heavy-weight" camera bodies, then it is up to, as long as you can withstand to carry all the load on your shoulder, than it is fine by me.

Blend in with the community as much as possible, don't be a tourist! (Although it helps at times to be a tourist.)

Sometimes, it is "impossible" to stand still to capture the scene, as the people are moving in all different direction, so you will be "shoved" here and there, hence be prepared for that.

It is nice to be artsy-partsy with your photo some times, (shallow depth of field, or in the ordinary lingo some blurred some focus), but most of the time it is safe to have a greater depth of field (i.e. everything in focus), the rational is that, the background is important to tell you where you are, and sometimes it is the background where the action usually occurs.



Bunch of friend, in the midst of playing boardgame on the street of Seoul.

This is just a sample photo of which I need the background to be focused as well, so that this single photo can tell that it is taken in a foreign place or for those who knows to read the character it shows it was taken in Seoul.



You can spend some more time, chit-chatting with the locals, come closer and do an artsy shot like this, BUT, in doing travel photography, if you are going to do this kind of shot, you cannot go far, unless you have all the time in your life, then go ahead do it as much as you want.

But in my case, I have only a very limited time in hand, and many places to be covered, so I could not afford to do much art shot, so a real street photo is what I need.

It is interesting to have a shallow DoF (Depth of Field) in your photo, but as mentioned earlier, u need everything to be in focus so that a single photo can say a story of where you are.




But in the contrary of what I have mentioned about doing art shot in your travel photo, it will also depends on what is the subject of your photo.

I can get away with this shot because, the subject itself can tell you where it was taken, although some will argue that anybody can just stick that sticker anywhere, well, it is up to you to decide, you can either follow the rules of photography, or you can just break the rule and make your own rule and see where it fits.

Happy "Photoing".

NOTE: I wanted to post about the Tokyo Trip, unfortunately I have a problem in converting my RAW to JPG, for those who are well verse, I have just downloaded the latest Canon DPP 3.4.1 and installed it, but everytime I wanted to Batch Process, it says "An Error Occured", tried re-installing it and restarting the machine etc, but to no avail. I have no such problem from all the previous updates, tried to search the net, found the same problem but from a french site! Tried to contact Canon but still no answer. So anyone of you, who knows how to rectify this problem, do please let me know, the previous version is not available on the net either, so can't turned back!

SEOUL | INSA DONG 1

After a few years absence from Insa Dong (as if I'm here every year), oh well, the last trip was actually in 2006, now I'm back again.

Insa Dong is one of the most visited street in Seoul i.e. must visit street when one is in Seoul.

The street itself, is still the same as few years back, still as vibrant, lots of people, and now I noticed that, large number of people are lugging around their huge DSLRs, so I was quite alright.


One of the signboards which one can not miss when entering the street.


Upon arriving at the area, there was a street show performing Korea's traditional culture, unfortunately, the show finishes less than 5 minutes after that, they might have started much earlier.


Hence, I was not able to capture load of stuff, and only manage to get these.


So why Insa Dong, what is there so special about it, you might ask.

Well, there are many interesting stuff that you can find here, from tiny little antiques, to the typical Korea souvenir and what interest me most is the many interesting type of people that you can see here.



Language might be a barrier for most of us, but numeral or numbers are still the same, so when you are traveling to a foreign area, remember to bring a compact calculator, so that it is easier for you to communicate.

FYI, USD1 = 1,000WON

More to come, with more insights and perhaps some travel tips and photo tips.

ABSTRACT | The One with the Circle Thingy

Most of the times, before pressing the shutter, one can already visual the photo that one wanted to compose.

The challenge is how to capture it and share it with the others to have the same feel.



One of the most important aspects in photography is the composition, how you place the subject within the frame.

The easiest, by which all amateur should know is the Rule of Third, of which, you imagine the photo as a tic tac toe, and you place the subject at any one of the intersections of the lines.

But obviously, most people doesn't like to stick with the rule, as what they said, rules are meant to be broken, are they?

Anyway, as one, are more proficient in photography, you can deviate from the rule, bend the rule if you will, or otherwise, make your own rule. :)

REVIEW | Leica R8 + Summicron 50mm f/2

This is just a quick simple review of how this machine performs at low light/ night time.

An earlier photo sample from this machine can be found here



The above photo is the actual photo from the Leica R8, where the film negative was developed then scanned digitally directly from the photo-lab, so from my side, there is no additional post-processing or 'watsoever', and it is a full-frame, real 50mm view.

This was taken some time ago during a night discussions.

As you can see from the photo, it is easier to focus as it is using a full manual focus system plus the large clear split-image view i.e. "parallax error system" , it performs brilliantly under a low-light situation, where some dSLR with AF find it difficult to focus perfectly.

As you might already know, the Leica R8 is a film SLR (thou you can buy the add-on digital back, so it can be used as a digital SLR, but with a hefty sum of about $9K!), anyway, the film used in this photo was the one with the ISO400, (can't find any higher one).

In short, this is a very nice camera if you are want to do a photography in a "relaxing" in-your-own-sweet-time photography, as it is a full manual camera, hence everything need to set accordingly before you can actually capture those moment.

Note: Not recommended for Wedding, unless if the subject has so much time in hand.

RANDOM | ENRST LEITZ | LEICA IIIB (Leica F) - 1939

.. this is a rangefinder.... manufactured in 1933-1939 by Leica ....

... in order to look thru the viewfinder... one needs to really squint to see properly ... it is quite tiny ...... there's actually two viewfinder .. one to "see" what you are capturing .. another for focusing purposes...... thou there's an external accessories for it ....

.. built like a tank .... ( what do you expect if it was built during the World War) ... u can drop this on your foot .. if u want a bump on your foot that is ....

... the lens could be extended accordingly ....


...loads of dial ... and obviously ... everything is manual ... setting the aperture ..... the shutter speed....focusing.......and such ... hence the know how of manual photography is crucial here... in order to have a well exposed photo ....

... one interesting aspect of one of the many dials is...... for setting the shutter speed ... if u need to set the shutter to .. say 1/20s .. then u turn the knob to the 20 mark ... and the knob will rotate for 1/20s ... and if u want it to be at 1/200s.. then set it to the 200 mark ... and the knob will then move 1/200s ... i.e. the length of the opening of the shutter ....

... holding this classic ... ( won't say antique ) ... in your hand ... is like holding a piece of history ... or being a part of the history ... hmmm.... I suppose so .... oh well...

SINGAPORE | Arab Street ...

.... what comes to mind when the word "Singapore" is mentioned? ..... for most people .... it will going to be ..... Orchard Road .... Shopping .... i.e. ... shopping@Orchard .... or shopping thereabout ....

... well... i would suggest this time around.... for those enthusiast photographer ... I'd suggest ... dished out Orchard Road ... get away from it ... go somewhere else.... "get-lost" ..... go out ... ride the MRT ... follow the "circle route" ... and hop out to any destination which might interest you ....


.... Arab Street in Singapore ... famous for its textiles and fabrics etc ....

... ~ .. jalan-jalan ke negeri arab ... pakai baju berderab-derab ...~

..." ... waaal fadang fasir wul .... tumpuk-tumpuk ............. "

GF TIPS FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
1. .. some people have asked ... which equipment/gear/lens to bring ... well.. just follow your heart .... bring all the equipments that you can afford to bring/carry ... kit lens .... tele-zoom .... prime lens .... ultra-wide zoom lens ..... and bring along your tripod if you will .... because you never know you might need a particular lens... and you might blame yourself for not tugging it along with you ...

2. Do I have to bring all the equipments everywhere I go at the destination?
... no u just leave it in your hotel room! .. Dooh! ... why u wanna leave it in your hotel room? .. Might as well not to bring all the gears at the first place! ... well.. the actual answer is ... yes of course.. u need to bring all or some of the gears .. make sure u have a proper camera bag ... be it a shoulder bag, slingbag .. or a bag pack( thou the most comfortable but backpack is quite troublesome to get the gears in and out of the bag)

3. So if I am to carry the camera bag, how can I carry all my shopping bags?
.... hmmmm... on top of your head or you can bring an assistant with u!... oh well.. if you are asking me such question, you are like asking, can I eat while I drive? .. or can I play Tuba and dance at the same time? .... well u can ... but it is going to be ultimately difficult ...
.... if u wanna go shopping, don't bring your camera equipments then ... shopping and photography doesn't work well with each other ... unless you are shopping for camera equipments .. or photographing people shopping.. then .. that is a different story ...

4.How about Batteries & Memory Cards?
... bring as much batteries as u could.. so much that they can power a third world country ...eeermm... not! ... just bring what u can, but for batteries, remember to bring your charger, and check if the socket is compatible with the place of destination.... where as for Memory Cards, if you are shooting RAW, then 1GB for sure is not enough, unless you wanna take ONLY ONE photo for each day... if you don't have loads of Memory Cards, bring your laptop, or external hard disk, or get those online storage thingy ... otherwise... use the smallest jpeg setting on your camera... for sure 1GB can get you about 1000 photos ....

5.Wear a comfortable footwear .... I'd recommend ... get a CROCS! ... tried & tested ... might looked ugly to some ... but hey ... it is extremely comfortable ... and of course... because the "cheerful" colour and funky designs of the CROCS ... you must be confident enough to wear it in public .... must not be shy shy one meh ... hmmm.. and if you think you are those shy type... well.. forget about bringing those bulky SLR with you then......as you might be just to shy to use the D/SLR in public too ...

NOTE: .. more tips in upcoming posts ...