Work from Home

Mention "work from home" to anyone and their faces will immediately beam with envy. Is it really that privileged? Here are my views after my company offered a trial.

1. Assumed loafing unless proven innocent. When you are at office, you are assumed to be working at all times. But when you are at home, you are assumed not to be working, so you need to put in additional effort to show that you are. For instance, send more emails, make phone calls.

2. Disturbances. When you are at office, you might get disturbed by colleagues, human traffic and noises, especially if you are one that gets easily distracted - I am. But when you are at home, you might still get disturbed by your family members, unless no one is at home.

3. Communication. When you are at office, you can have face-to-face meetings. But when you are at home, you rely on teleconference, which is very tiring and requires greater concentration to listen. However, I find that I tend to get better responses via email when people work from home, because that is the only interface by the home-worker to the office, unlike working in office, when the worker might be doing other work away from the computer.

4. Working hours. When working from home, the working hours become blurred. You are capable of working as long as you are communicable - within reasonable hours, that is.

What then would be the best arrangement? I would say... WORK FROM ANYWHERE! With that, I would have a choice to either work from home, or office, or cafe, or library, etc. Depending on the nature of work that I would need to accomplish for the period, I would choose where to work, as long as I get my job done.

Morning Ivy

Apart from wedding day shoot, this session is my earliest hour portraiture photoshoot I've ever done. Ivy reached the shoot location at 7.30am and I appeared shortly after. The location is just a grass field in the midst of the HDB estate, rather uninspiring I would say. But well, you won't be able to tell from the photos anyway. It's all about framing.

Shooting in the morning allows me to get the sun and flares in the photos without feeling too hot. Due to sleep needs (photographers and models alike), most of the casual outdoor photoshoots tend to happen after 9am. By then, the sun would be too high up, too strong and too hot.

I am fortunate to have Ivy waking up extra early and traveling a long distance from her house to the location. She was one of the models who expressed her interest to collaborate a shoot with me months back, but most importantly, responded to my replies promptly when I told her of my morning shoot idea.

For this shoot, I aim to achieve that hazy look typical of what happened when light hits the lenses. Again, inspired by lomography. It's very challenging to shoot against the sunlight. I wasn't able to keep looking at the viewfinder all the time, and the camera is unable to focus properly.

 

After the session, we reviewed the photos at the void deck of the HDB flat. And then it started to get breezy and Ivy's hair was flying around. I liked what I saw and told her to keep it that way while I took a few shots, which turned out to be my absolute favourites for the session.

For more images, visit http://facebook.com/chesterphoto or http://www.flickr.com/photos/chestertan/sets/72157623508675487/

Dance Photos: Movement. Libre.

8th March is International Women's Day. So I dedicate this post to celebrate the beauty of women, by capturing them in dance.

There was a recent newspaper article about the gaining popularity of Lomographers in Singapore. Lomographers are basically photographers using lomo-effect cameras. Lomo cameras are known to create images that are unpredictably exposed due to the quality (lack of, that is) of the lenses and the casings.

This idea of creating the opposite of what digital photography has been trying to achieve all these years - sharp, grain-free, perfectly exposed images - is what inspired me to create the following sets of images, shot in a single day during the dance classes.

Slow shutter photography is nothing new, but my endeavour to dedicate an entire session shooting something unpredictable and unsharp is. It's literally light painting: moving the camera intentionally while the exposure is taken to create the effect. These are not panning-shots-gone-wrong. These are blurred images shot intentionally to depict movement.

In many ways, these images are easily replicated by skilled photoshoppers using clinically sharp images. From an end-viewer, these images probably aren't eye-opening. But I am wowed by the result. It's probably the same feelings lomographers get when they shoot with their Lomos. Best part is: I don't have to be concerned about sharpness.

Having said that, there has to be some technical considerations behind the shots in order to achieve a higher hit rate. All the framing composition rules apply. Select a shutter speed that is just right to blur the subject yet allows the object to be visibly clear. Too fast, and you can't get it blurred enough. Too slow and everything turns unrecognisable.

To add to the visual impact, the objects should have some contrasting elements. Understand the environment and what you want to blur and what you want NOT to blur. The rest, then, is left to chance.

Unlike Lomographers, digital medium lets you fire away without burning holes in your pocket, see the results instantly, make adjustments, and shoot more.

Here's to women, and their physical sacrifices to bring us form and beauty through dance.

Visit http://facebook.com/chesterphoto or http://www.flickr.com/photos/chestertan/sets/72157623569162486/ for more liberating photos.