Sandra

A very rare 1/2 Tawan and 1/2 Dutch model from Taiwan, nature and very attractive. I took this picture using Sinar eMotion 75 on Hy6, Rollei AFD 80/2.8, displaying the nature beauty of Sandra, young, a little uncertainty, which shows an extra bite of mystery.

Two

If taking portrait for one person is difficult, taking two makes it at least twice as difficult. This shot, taken with Phase One P45 on Contax 645, with Apo-Makro-Planar 120/4 for Erin and Anita for a beauty is good example.

Making 2 models pose intimately together and exhibit their beauty thru their inner spirit, yet somehow to convey the sense of believability, was and is a true challenge.

Water

Water is one of he most easiest yet at the same time difficult object to shoot. Water is water, it is simply just everyone's everyday experience, it can't be wrong. True. But at the same time, to capture the water in a way that is recognizable and dynamic and dramatic is difficult, especially in its set up.

I made this shot for CoverMark, it is in tended to use for counter front light box, as wide as 2 meters. Because it is in counter front, the resolution has to be very high to support the close up quality, so preparing the shot is a challenge, and require more calculation in work. In this shot, I was using Hasselblad H3D39 and HC 120/4 Makro lens. Even with the full resolution of the 39 million-pixels capture back, at the widest size it only supports to 7,216 pixels, divide by a moderate resolution of 180 dpi you get the size of picture width around 40 inches, or roughly 1 meter, which is 1/2 of what was needed, so multiple shot is needed, and for this final result, I did probably 30 separate shots on the water along and around 10 pictures with cosmetic case dropping into water, combine them together to arrive the final output, which gone well beyond 1 G in size.

When the requirement is high, easy thing can become very difficult. But well planning and careful production makes difficult things becomes easy.

Color temperature

One of the most powerful tool for digital capture is the control over color temperature. No longer we as a photographer needs to decide ahead of time which type of film to use for which capture, and this is not for the sake of convenience, it is for control.

This picture, taken with Hasselblad H3D39 with HC 50-110, ISO setting at 100, exposed for 1 second. The use of lighting was interesting.

In this shot, I want to produce a somewhat fantasy atmosphere, so I simply use the fluorescent light inside the band practicing room and leaves the door open to allow the nature outdoor light flood in to burn the edge of the body of this lovely Brazilian model, Layssa. I adjusted the color temperature for the indoor lighting that result the nature light to appear blue, without using any filter of gel, it was all available and using it with right setting of color temperature.

Night Sky

This shot taken with Contax TVS Digital, a compact 4-million pixels digital camera which remains one of my favorite. Not quite a pocket size compare to those most recent ones, but trump them in its elegance and design excellence, and beautiful Zeiss optics.

The shot was made in a late night, on the Grand Hyatt in Pudong, Shanghai, where I stayed for the night. The stylishly illuminated building forms a beautiful contrast with the night sky, exhibits the building's brilliance as well as the quiet of night.

Color of time

Our perception of time is color sensitive. This image, taken with a Hasselblad X-Pan with 45mm lens, exposed on a Fuji Velvia film at the Chiangsaeng Lake in northern Thailand.

I was a somewhat foggy morning, I walked around a small lake-side resort I stayed over the night, took this image.

The color temperature the film faithfully register gave an exact feel of a cool winter morning, quiet and peaceful.

Should this taken with digital, push the color temperature to make it looks like a hazed late afternoon shot, ma be still believable, but the total feel and intention of photography is lost.

Coffee Shop

This was an image took awhile ago, at a small town in northern Thailand, a famous tourist hub, Pai. It was a sunny afternoon, I walked into a small coffee shop, while sitting down waiting for my coffee to be served, I saw the shadow on the second floor cast by the setting sun, "what a picture" I told myself, and took it with my Canon G9.