Sea Bajau Village

 

A Sea Bajau village on an island off the coast Of Semporna.

Grey Matters

Do you know why, when it comes to photography, there is this melancholy quality of Black & White that makes just about anyone, peers at the photo, much closer and longer, than the same scene in colors.
Black & White is simple. Whether you are a genius or not, simplicity makes the brain processes information better, without the distraction of colors. Without this distraction, it is much easier to see what it is really about the photo.

Technically it is not really black & white but shades of grey between the black and white. Probably it would be more accurate to say Grey Photography. A lot like some people think that B+W stands for Black + White instead of Biermann and Weber, the german company which manufactured those filters in the 40s.

A photo is invariably, means different things to different people. Especially if the photo was taken at a time when life was simpler, easier and funnier. Say when we were kids. This photo was taken for a school yearbook when the subjects were going into puberty. Most of the boys were starting to notice that girls were actually better to look at or to be with. Beside smelling nice and fresh, unlike boys whom were either sweaty or rough. The girls then, were starting to feel they ought to wear something inside, beside their shirts and pinafores and getting used to the idea of that week when just about anything didn't make them feel better or ok. This was the time of teasing boys and laughing girls. Fast forward 28 years later, while one or two are becoming grandparents, most of them have a daughter or a son, into puberty.

Sometimes, when certain things happened in your life, it makes you want to dig up those dusty shoeboxes to find a little bit of melancholic comfort, in seeing those old dog eared photos of yesterdays.

Photojournalizing Wedding

Wedding is a lot liked Action/Sport Photography. Everyone's moving and you just have to play it by ears. Switch your camera to continuous mode and go for either Av or Tv Priority. Select Av Priority when you want to control Depth Of Field like in this photo when the bride is still or go for Tv when you want to freeze those special moments. And please use the fastest lens you have in your gadget bag. If you don't have one, get one. You definitely need that wide aperture (F/2.8) to get the shutter speed to freeze those motions. Either from your fidgetty subjects or your own hands. Remember, the ambience inside wedding hall and churches are romantic. They are not brightly lit.

And as you don't have time to switch lens, get a zoom with a wide (18mm) to a medium zoom (125mm). I especially like the Canon EF 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 L IS lens but I probably have to trade one of my arms for it. Even though it is not a "Fast Lens" but the IS (Image Stabilizer) works wonders in dim lighting especially inside the wedding hall or inside churches.

And you also need a flash that can fire as fast as your camera. As you would be shooting continuous sometimes, you need a flash that can fire just as fast. And go easy on the exposure. It is always wise to underexpose your flash by 1/3. We all know, a little darkness helps in setting the appropriate mood don't we. Too bright and it wouldn't be as good.

If you are shooting Rebel, set it to Parameter 2. This has "more" colors but not as "bright" as Parameter 1, but suitable for print works. Most wedding couples would prefer to see your work in print. By the way, Parameter 2 in the Rebel is equivalent to Canon 10D's default Parameter.

And the last tip, have fun. Not everyone gets to move around as much as a wedding photographer. Even if you are pretending to be one :)

Backpacking Natively

There are still many places in Sabah, or most countries in the Third World, people walking barefooted and carrying produces in a rattan tube like backpack.

This Kadazandusun lady was backpacking what the locals called the "sumpit", while gingerly walking across the suspension/cable bridge, on her way to a tamu. A tamu is a lot like a Sunday Fair, where natives with cash crops would gather. The gathering place is usually a wide open space.

Tamu is a weekly thing and is the most colorful day of the week, in Sabah.

Kiulu 4M Challenge

Kiulu 4M Challenge is a one day adventure race conducted yearly in May, in Kiulu. It has 4 disciplines;
1. Manangkus or running
2. Mamangkar or white water rafting
3. Manampatau or floating downriver with a bamboo pole
4. Mamarampanau or bamboo stilt walking.

In the photo, a veteran is rowing his raft with a bamboo paddle. As the Kiulu River is a white water rapid with Grade 2-3 depending on the weather, the paddle is generally use more for steering than rowing.

For shooting this water sport, shoot low and as close as you can to the action. Find a bank along the body of water which gives you the low profile angle you need,and close to the action. As action speed is variable, select the highest ISO your camera can go but with an acceptable amount of noise. You need a fast shutter speed that can accomodate or freeze just about any athletes.

Furthermore, as you are shooting with a zoom lens and probably panning too to track the athlete, the shutter speed ought to be faster than 1/ focal length of your lens, to freeze anything which is moving.

Kadazandusun Babygirl

A Kadazandusun baby, decked with the trappings of her ethnic decoration, fitting for the younger version of Unduk Ngadau or beauty contest, in a village called Kampong Natai, 16km inland from Telipok.

Kampong Natai, every year for the last 6 years celebrates her Harvest Festival, on the weekend of the 1st week of June.

Outdoor Assignment

To some local professional/commercial photographers in Sabah, we are the disdain and disgust to them for being so spartan and cheap with our photographic gears. But with the kind of outdoor assignments we usually get, being cheap is the least of our mindful attention.


For outdoor assignments, NG recommended something lighter but almost as good as our studio driven brethrens. Unlike those local rarefied members,who shoot with superbrands on them and on superbranded touristy locations, we don't have the luxury of clean bedsheet to comfort our cramped muscles nor spitshine bathroom to answer our calls. Outdoor is outside in the woods or mountain ranges and creature comfort is practically nonexistence. Heck we sometimes slept with leeches on our bodies, drank water from rockpool, ate stale rice with Maggi Mee garnishing. And you don't see anyone for days. In fact there was one time when we were so tearfully happy to suddenly came across a buffalo shit after 3 days and 2 nights, wrestling through Dagobah like rainforest.

Once a few years ago while covering an adventure race in the east, a blue blooded senior member of a local photographic society made a thorough decadening highlights on what a cheap photographer I was. He was giving a guided tour to why I was cheap then and even took the liberty to verbally juxtapose me to a friend of his, whom had spent a fortune on his setup. His audiences, 40 over adventure race athletes whom had earlier finished the race and wanted to see the photos I took of them. Then came along this blue blood, with his Malenglish snubs.
"Hey hello...what camera ah you?"
"Canon."
"Oh...see. " He came closer and fondled the EOS 300D. "Wah...so light ah. Plastic oh?"
"Your lens leh?..." Peering closer at the marking on the lens.
"Tamron XR L..." didn't give me any chance at all.
"Also plastic ah. Wah! All your things are plastic ah. Cheap oh?" with disdain creeping on his sweaty face .
"Yes. It's cheap but..." my lame attempt.
"You know...my friend ah...a member in my photo society... bought his camera ah, about 40,000 over ringgit oh!" rolled again his lemon & peppery tongue on my haemorrhaging lacerated ego. By this moment, other bystanders started to crowd around.
"Yours eh?...how much oh?" sprinking some more salts than anything else.
" ...about 4000 ringgit."
" ...wah...so cheap ah. Hey...your camera got film or not oh?!"
"Its digital."
"Good meh this digital!?"glancing around his audience, with a tang of a mocking bird.

I didn't say anything further, or giving him any attention. Keeping quiet,I just smiled to myself at him, seeing how much a colorful creep he was. He had this funny aura about him, as if he was a walking advertising billboard looking for attention. He donned a Buff headband, an Oakley reflective sunglass and Nike branded clothings. All that sporting ads on a skinny palid anorexic figure of a man going past middle age.
Reminds me never ever to register as a member of this glorified society.