Back to Mayenne

The last time you've seen or heard of Mayenne from my blog is probably in August, so I shall pick up where I left off. She's growing well, walking and running fine, toilet-trained. Still cannot communicate with words, but has a grasp of all the alphabets and numerals. She sometimes fusses for unknown reasons but responds well to routine games that brings a smile on her face and distracts her from crying moments. Let the photos speak for themselves.

Another contemplative moment.

Who's the boss?

She read Singapore's second Olympic medal.

Funny-face moment.

An "oh my" moment.

Doing business.

Her final days on the pacifier.

Joyous.

Elated.

Hip.

This shot was taken at night using the D700 at ISO 12800. She was at the kitchen in complete darkness except living room lights behind her. She was in complete shadow, yet the camera captures her face and her T-shirt details.

Her second Christmas outing.

Now she can pose on her own with the Christmas tree.

Glowing smile.

Trying to take control of the CD player.

Looking out.

Playing with shadow.

Brushing her own teeth.

Smitten by a boy during the zoo excursion.

Moments with daddy.

Moments on TV.

Who's copying whose hairdo?

Back to Music

I have not touched my piano keyboard for months, nor used my sound card to do audio recording. So when Zoe needed to practice her singing for her talent segment of "Miss Veet Standout Challenge 2008" competition. I found that there was something wrong with the audio playback. I eventually found that it's not caused by my expensive card but my 2-year old PC. I have yet to find the root of the problem, and I suspect some audio driver is corrupted and I probably should re-install my OS, a time-consuming process.

Meanwhile, I plugged my sound card to my backup PC, and it works without missing a beat. I'm rather impressed at how my 3-year old machine could still handle the Akoustik Piano sound samples. Thanks to my old trusty PC, the practice session went on smoothly. Zoe managed to grab the "Miss Veet Desirable" subsidiary award.

Here's a video footage of her actual performance.




You can listen to the demo recording we did during the practice session.

That's What Friends Are For
Zoe Raymond (vocals)
Chester Tan (piano)

You can visit my Facebook music page for more full-length music tracks, from my previous albums as well as unpublished tracks.

Wedding Moments - November

Tsui Ping attended Racheal's wedding and saw me doing her wedding photography, so she decided to ask me to help out in her dinner banquet. She already engaged Gabriel Mendes as her photographer, but needed another photographer for the banquet. There were 80 tables and the wedding couple did not intend to do table-to-table shots. So that's where I came in. I was tasked to do table photos for those tables that her parents wanted. And since table photos would not take place until after the 2nd march-in, I am free to take any shots that is required of me.

So I wore the "secondary photographer's" hat and fired away.











Another November wedding I did was for my friend of 11 years, my uni course mate, Eelin, We attended same tutorial classes in Year One but never spoke or said hi to each other. Until the last day of Year One exams, when the tutorial group decided to go clubbing to celebrate the end of exams, did we talked. And by the end of the night, we found out so much things in common that we wondered why we never hit it off during the course year.

Fast forward to 11 years later.















We were supposed to do bridal shots around the hotel after the lunch banquet, but the day proved to be too tiring for the newly-weds, so we put off the shoot till a possible later date.

Back to Studio

After many many months of absence, I'm back to shoot some studio photography. It's an area that I have not explored much, because basically, you need a studio and equipment to execute the shoot. Not like outdoor shoot where light is all around you.

Emilia has been reminding me to do her studio shots. She needed some for her portfolio and com card. On the day of the shoot, she brought her pal, Claire, who is just as towering as she is.

In this series, I executed the usual softbox beauty shot and tried some new low-key lighting technique. And also played with the hard-light style that casts shadows on the backdrop.








Studio photography is all about understanding, controlling and practicing lighting techniques. You can only get better if you spend time and money on it.

The Ethics of Photojournalism

Yesterday my dad asked me, "You haven't been updating your blog lately. Busy?" Of all people, it had to be a not-so-techy analogue person that asks for my digital diary to be updated.

I have been busy with work and taking a break from the digital realm, spending time with my daughter and on my new TV. I consciously choose what I want to achieve and trade-off some other things in life.

Meanwhile, I found this interesting e-book about photojournalism and the ethics of digital manipulation, and it's relevant in the photographic genre that I specialise, although it's nothing quite like it. That's because portraiture and photojournalism doesn't seem to gel with most clients, who prefer glamourisation rather than realism (photography to them is a portrayal of images that they cannot achieve in real life, a visual escapism). What they need to understand is that even journalistic portraiture still requires some form of directions during the shoot to capture the better perspectives. And that's what I do when I capture my images.

Click the image to download the e-book.

Rainmaker

The next time I needed rain, all I do is to send my car for a car wash.

After a week of cumulated dirt, tree sap, and bird shit, I decided to send my car for a wash today before lunch.

Actually, I was supposed to wash yesterday, but when I went past the car wash shop, there was a long queue, so I held off.

I was hoping for a rain to wash off the dirt, but it never came.

Today, after spotting quite a lot of dirt, I drove into the car wash and had it cleaned.

Now, 5pm, it was raining cats and dogs, enough to wash off any stubborn dirt or shit.

For $2.50, it was worth it, just to cool the planet.