Portrait

This is a portrait made for Gabi, a lovely Polish model and remains one of my favorite. The shot was made after a session of spa pictures shot in Changburi Resort & Spa, and while Gabi was removing her make-up, and taking a shower - OK, one of the privilege of being a photographer, especially the better ones, is to continue to watch the model even when they are taking showers....

The relationship between photographer and model is trust, and the result s creativity, and that's why there is no distance between the model and photographer, because distance reduces creativity, it is a compromise, no model wants compromise, nor the photographer. 

Back to this picture, I shot it with Phase One P45 on Contax, Carl Zeiss Planar 80/2, lit by a bron-color ring flash powered by a mobile pack. This is a small crop of the original picture, which reveal more of her beautiful body, but was not the subject of this write.

The size of sky

To almost all mankind, sky is an experience. We don't really need to learn to feel, to know how big our sky is, although most don't even care.

Yet, the sensation of grandness is not usually felt in our everyday life, although perfectly we are always looking at the same sky, we just feel it differently.

The picture was captured while traveling in Tibet, during a long drive between Chengdu and Lhasa, with driving, the traveling is made in a more slow path that allows the traveller able to appreciate the scenery. Shot with a 39 million pixels Hasselblad H3D39 mounted with HC 120/4 makro lens. The particular use of makro lens is a choice of getting the right crop. My subject is the sky, and to express its grandness I include a beautiful mountain range as a contrast. I could have also use a more winder lens, but I preferred the viewer to have a chance to look at the mountain in a closer view, which gives a stronger sensation of distance, and a sky that matches its scale.

The Lightroom

This shot is taken nearby the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet. It was a quiet morning in June, some workers or pilgrims preparing the oil lamps and candles inside this small room, half floor underground. I walked around the temple, peek thru a small window, with a Leica M8 on my hand, mounted with Summilux-M 35/1.4 ASPH, captured this image.

Infinity limited

This is a shot made for KOI Restaurant in Bangkok, a well known spot for nice Japanese cuisine and a bar typically filled of visiting international models who come to Bangkok, and of course, those who chase after models.

I use a Canon 1Ds III mounted with TS-E 24/3.5L for the shot, composed of 3 captures, for the final picture. Most of the lighting were in fact the candle lights, and the stitched wide angle shot gives a visual effect that the interior is a lot longer and bigger, the refection on those shelves from the candle light provides the distance and dimension of a space.

Night, light, reflection

A recent shot made while I travel to Hong Kong, walking around in the central at mid evening, with a Sigma DP-1 in my hand, I snap this picture.

Night photography is not as difficult nor as easy as one may think, especially city like Hong Kong. The recent introduction of camera such as Nikon D3 and D700 with extreme capability in capturing image with high ISO setting will certainly proof shots such as this one a lot easier, but not with a small digital cam likely to associate with more noise.

Noise is one thing, color, is another. Even I can time expose the image, the different time each of the color exposed will also contribute to different result on the picture that may become less appealing, at least to my own taste, so yes, with one option I can time the camera to optimize its performance with lower ISO setting and the length of exposure but at the same time not overly do so to jeopardize the color reproduction, even camera such as DP-1 using the X3 Foveon sensor. But may be this one I got lucky.

Green

This is a picture made at Mandarin Oriental, shot in the would-be legendary Dahra Dhevi, Mandarin Oriental Chiangmai, Thailand.

I shot this picture right in front of the villa I stayed inside the hotel, thanks to the kind owner Mr. Suchet, a mini garden by the door step. Hotel is home away from home, for a development such as Mandarin Oriental, the level of comfortable and luxury is beyond doubt, true for all the established hotels and resort, even for many less known ones, the quality development in modern days for most serious hotel and resort operators has all reached the similar level that each of which needs unique definition for itself.

Using with a Canon 1Ds II and TS-E 90/2.8, I want to convey the quietness, relax, homey to the travelers who come here, rather than static presentation of room decoration, hotel facility, quality of fitting, those are all basics, often easily forgettable.

Of man and landscape

Since the development of written science, the common intelligence categorize what in front our eyes into live and everything else, as if only live matters..... I have to disagree.

Life is a part of universe and a universe within ourselves. We found the meaning of live, whatever it is, base on the very fact of our own existence in the world, which now we all know, a tiny part of greater world, the world we can see, and much beyond.

I do lots of location works, it is my preference, simply because I see landscape as creature no different from us, except, landscape evolve in a path that our common definition of lifetime has difficult to comprehend, or for many, careless to understand. But do I consider man-made landscape a landscape, of course it is. Because once it is built, it starts to age, its existence is just like life, it is not going to last forever, and eventually it will all become a part of the universe, break and decompose into simpler matters, and thru the cycles of evolution, everything becomes indifferent again.

This is made at Changburi Resort and Spa, a lovely luxury resort in Ko Chang, the largest island of Thailand. The day I took this picture, with a Polish model, Magda, was not considered a perfect day, it does not have the common blue sky and emerald see, but just because of this, the nature beauty does not overwhelm the model and the picture resulted in a more harmonized look, at least it is to me. Shot with Phase One P45 on Contax 645, Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 45-90/4.5.

Sunset

I shot this picture in Phuket, Thailand, using Contax N Digital, a much waited, talked about and ill fated camera that comes too early and of course left too early. Lens in use was the famous and much sought after Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 17-35/2.8.

Not all the sunset is same, quite luckily, I was in the right spot, right time with my camera to make this picture.

Christmas Tree

It was late winter, in New York, when I walked on Manhattan street to a lunch, I spotted this beautiful image. Outside an apartment of a common Manhattan brown stone townhouses, a used white Christmas tree was placed on the balcony, sending a message to all the passer-by that the winter is over, or telling people that spring is coming soon?

Holding an Olympus E-1 on my hand, mounted with Zuiko 14-54/2.8-3.5 ED, setting to ISO 200 to allow me to shoot handheld, I snapped this image, one of my favorite travel images.