GX GARNERINGS

Next time you do portraits for ladies, young and older alike, you may try the handy, no-learning-required postures no. 1 to 10 as demonstrated in the video (posture no. 9 is demonstrated at the end of it).  What fun!

Today let's admire a good photo by Hugo Poon from Hong Kong. By Hugo Poon : "who's winning, who's winning!" This man kept crying rather arrogantly. Yes, he "won" eventually, but a little inconsistent with his confident words were his voice that was tense and his move that's indecisive. On the contrary, the "loser" remained so calm and swift (you can see his left hand)... Something about myelf. I took up photography in April 2005 when I got a little photo machine, the Fuji F10; quite to my surprise, what started off as a leisure time hobby has evolved very soon into an important part of my life... Taking photos is so enjoyable when it succeeds in capturing the moments as my eyes see something and my heart feels it too. In such mood, I seldom feel interested in planned, arranged or manipulated photographs... Always learning, experimenting, seeking inspirations and having fun in sharing. And as always, your comments and advice would be highl...

Herb Behaviour is a powerful phenomenon. This morning when I climbed out of a subway, I was met by a large flock of people surrounding two middle-aged women in uniform against the railings. I was absolutely puzzled and curious about it. In a few seconds, I was pointing to the scene with my GX200 on the customised MY2 mode in which I set the camera at ISO 400 and snap focusing. Before I could realise what was going on, the throng flooded towards one of the middle-aged ladies. Some gossips were overheard, "Just one dollar. Cheap that is really." The comments turned some heads, including mine. "Coupons to be given? Cash bailouts like that in New York I saw on TV the other day?" A van had arrived without my knowledge. I was probably too engrossed in the in-camera auto-leveler to get the horizontal level right. What an idiotic perfectionist! Big piles of papers were unloaded from the van at this moment. People started grabbing them. "One each, one for each,...

(Middle-of-the-Roader: I am trying to be sarcastic with the title. Certainly, the man is doing anything but middle-of-the-road. He is very much in the harm's way and can be run over by vehicles whisking past him at any moment, which is exactly my message in this photo. I have walked past this road junction for a couple of times and seen jay-walkers like this man and impatient drivers competing for passage. I managed to take this photo with some luck because the passers-by in the foreground left a light trail to give a better spatial and time reference to the man. I handheld the GX200 and dragged the shutter to a slow speed without blurring the man, which I am going to explain why) Flash photography, to me, wanders a bit into a territory of its own. There are different needs and reasons for using a flash, usually when the environmental light is not enough and a high ISO setup is not desirable. It is something that takes practices to master. Let's focus on a dimly lit setting. T...

In case you haven't seen them, click here for the full-size official sample shots (ISO 100, unfortunately).

(Bless You: The two disoriented tourists were finding their way. I came across them, pre-focused and waited for this decisive moment to arise. The image in the poster seems to be blessing the lost men. And the baffled facial expression and his body language added a sense of contrast in the photo) Yesterday, I gave a tip on backing up data from your blog with Blogspot. Unless you believe in blessing or luck, it is advisable for Google users to back up their data with other Google's online applications. Here are some more tips: Using Gmail? Forward your important e-mail to another address. If you saved your documents in Google Docs, you may find Syncplicity useful for directing them to your vault. Some people rely on Google Calendar for reminding them of daily events. If you're one of them, try synchronising Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook Calendar . This is important for photographers if you store photos to Google's online Picasa Web Albums: back ...

(Without Precaution: An interesting thing about Hong Kong is that it is a target-oriented, modern city. Cities which are target-oriented, or economy-oriented to be exact, falling relatively behind in civil rights are common in this part of the world. So, there is seldom any question in, say, the Chinese provinces for an infrastructure project be steamrolled before an environmental impact assessment is completed. A modern city, in the contrary, runs under the guidance of laws. Want to build a Jackie Chan Museum? * Sorry, you have to go through the formalities and there is no jumping the steps. Hong Kong is an epitome of both. The law is upheld for big things whereas achieving the target is paramount for small things. A case in point is shown by the regular cleaning of the air-con components to protect people’s well-being which, sarcastically, was done by the cleaner freely without any precautionary measure like a safety belt around his waist) Probably no one feels that an accident cou...

(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work.  I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention.  The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200.  People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene.  To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene.  The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy.   Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth.  A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a facto...