Me and Craig

a couple months ago, I've received an email from Leica Store Singapore saying that I've won a book from Craig Semetko, I was so over the moon  that I was able to win a small photocontest held by Leica Store Singapore.

So they told me to come to SG 1 day before the ceremony, I was running like crazy to book my tickets and manage to find flights to make it in time.

FYI, I've lived around 400km outside Jakarta, and to find all the transportation that I need in one day was not that easy.

Anyhow, God gave me lots of helps and I was a bit 30 minutes late to the ceremonial party.....

I was ecstatic to have a chance to win that prize......
I hope this is the beginning of a lifelong journey....

Thank you Craig!!
Thank you Leica Store Singapore

Me and Craig

The Winning Picture

Flare in photography

LIGHTS, FLARE, ACTION.......

It's been a while that I haven't had a chance to write something in my blog....
Well.... not that I was not aware or just a simple laziness
But for the last couple of years, I've been busy fulfilling my GAS of photography....
I've been acquired so many cameras and lenses just to fulfill my curiosity of results....
And for sure, one of the result was my wife were so mad at me that I've spent so much fortune for those gears... LOL

Well.... not a big deal at all..... so in early 2014 let's start with some interesting topics...
Also I hope that I;m able to continue write something in my experience as a lifetime amateur shooter....

Photography needs lights.... either it might come from the flash, sun, room light or any available lights...
Some lights can become flare.... flare can become friend or foe depends on the angle you are taking....

From WIKIPEDIA: A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications. Flares may be ground pyrotechnics, projectile pyrotechnics, or parachute-suspended to provide maximum illumination time over a large area. Projectile pyrotechnics may be dropped from aircraft, fired from rocket or artillery, or deployed by flare guns or handheld percussive tubes.

In my amateur experience, I've learned a lot about lights in photography....
And from time to time I've become aware how lights can transform your shot into a masterpiece or just a "ready to delete junk"

Here are some examples of my shots using different cameras and also lenses....
Those shots were not made by masters but a truly passionate photographer (if I may say that... LOL)

Long Shot Using Olympus EM-5 and 25mm Summilux

Long Shot Using Olympus EM-5 and 25mm Summilux

Happy New Year everyone..... This one I've used Fuji X-E2 and 23mm f/1.4

Leica M9 with 50mm Noctilux V4 F1... The lights comes from his iPad

Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron

Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron and External Flash

Leica M9 with 50mm Summicron Rigid

Leica M9 with 50mm Summicron Rigid

Leica M9 with 50mm Summicron Rigid

Myself ;) Olympus OMD EM-5 with 25mm Summilux

My wife and kid..... OMD with 25mm Summilux

Chinese funeral rituals.... Olympus OMD EM-5 with Oly 75mm F/1.8

Olympus OMD EM-5 with Oly 75mm F/1.8

Chinese funeral rituals.... Olympus OMD EM-5 with Oly 75mm F/1.8

Chinese funeral rituals.... Olympus OMD EM-5 with Oly 75mm F/1.8

Olympus OMD EM-5 with 25mm Summilux and external flash

Any comments would be highly appreciated.... as I'm still on learning process and the passion of taking pictures are really burn inside me......

Up, close and macro with my Leica M8.. a new journey begins

Well... it's been 2 fascinating days playing around with my M8... been browsing a lot of sources about M8, best tips and tricks to deal with tricky rangefinder, all the pros and cons about this little beauty....

So I think I should grab a couple of pics of my M8. This time I'm using my Canon 7D + 100mm F/2.8 L Lens

The boop dragon... nice shutter caps

nice color

the logo that storm the world....

at the moment I'm happy with the Nokton's performance

looks solid

nice tiny lens

And a shot with my M8 today

sharp bw

Experiencing Leica M8 on Hand

Year after years... my goal was to be able to have a Leica in my hand. So after a long and painful saving process, I managed my self a used Leica M8 which still cost me around $3,000 for the body, and for the lens I chose Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F/1.4 the cheapest lens for M Series (around $600) while dreaming that someday I might get my self a Cron or even a Lux... *fingers cross.....

So there will be no un-boxing photos here as this is not a new thing....
To tell the truth, this is the first time I've ever shot with a range finder, so I'm still getting used to it....

After fiddling around with the menu, settings, charging the battery, I can get few shots. But too bad the CD that comes with the package can not be installed to my Mac, probably because I've got the latest iMac which is 64 bit. But still OK, I can download the picture using Lightroom.

So here are the first couple shots that I can take with my new used M8.. :-)

Very good color saturation

Amazing bokeh

a bit misfocus here :-p but still a good color saturation + nice bokeh

sharp....

nice DOF

soft....

self potrait