Friday 12 March 2010

I will survive

Picture was taken during a boat trip along Belait river in 2008.

The coconut tree defies convention, fought against nature's gravity and looked like it has won.  We can learn from nature.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Modern Day 'Padian'

Padian are traditional icon of Brunei's Kampong Ayer (the renowned water village), they are lady vendors in small boats or sampan, selling mainly fishes and vegetable from house to house.

Padian is non-existence today, I haven't seen one myself ever, but please visit my friend's HRS Malek take on Padian which is more accurate depiction of Padian.

Monday 8 March 2010

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Asah Mata

Salam All

It has been a while this blog hasn't been updated. When you have to juggle more balls than you can handle, some will have to be put down. For me the blog, FB and even my camera were the balls I had to put down - no pun intended :)

As a result, the photography interests waned until recently, when a friend invited me to join the ASAH MATA Photography workshop. Asah Mata is Malay for 'Sharpening Eyes'

The workshop was organised by Candidsyndrome, the professional photographers for HM The Sultan daughter's wedding in 2007 and the speakers were Ahim Rani and Saiful Nang, Principal Photographers from Candidsyndrome Brunei and Candidsyndrome Malaysia respectively. The workshop was for 2 days from 27 Feb.

Cutting long story short, we spent the first day understanding the wedding photographer's pricing guide  (not for me... yet), photo essay, the art of seeing (perspective shots, lines, point of interest etc) and a preview of PhotoCamp. The second day was for all participants to go out in groups of at least 3 for a particular assignment, of which for us in Group 3 was 'Brunei is Beautiful - Bandar Seri Begawan'. The idea is to pick the best 12 photos from the Group to be made into a photo essay. Our 12 best are in my FB, which you can see HERE. The photo essays were then reviewed in front the 60 participants and criticised in the open.

Personally it was a challenge, the 'Art of Seeing' really pushed my limits, on how to see things differently and capture the final photo as work of art.... below are my ART... after I sharpen my eyes from the blue hour of the morning until the sun pierced my candidsyndrome t-shirt at 10. I shot a total of 450 photos, of which 40 were worthy to be kept, and drilled down to 13 to be selected and asked my FB friends to help choose (see HERE). At the end the following 4 ended up in he Group 3 photo essay.

So, what's next for me? I don't know how long I will put down the balls again, but looks like I need to continue sharpen my eyes, so as not to waste such good learnings from Saiful and Ahim. Thanks Guys for the lessons. Special thanks to Mrs G and G-kids for putting up with Babah's absence during the long weekend. Enjoy the photos!

Art of seeing: Lines
Temple in the capital - view from top

Art of Seeing: Borders and Subject
Masjid Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddin

Art of Seeing: Moments
A man in Brunei traditional dress helping an elderly
at the Yayasan boat landing

Art of seeing: Movements
Hustle and Bustle in the capital..... NOT