Star Search 2010

On September 14th, while surfing the Internet, I saw an article inviting photographers to submit their portfolio for selection to the Star Search 2010 photography session. The last time I took part in the Star Search photo shoot was back in 1988 where winners include Zoe Tay, Aileen Tan and Jazreel Low. Since that was a long time ago, I thought why not just submit my photo webpages for fun and see if I'm lucky enough to be selected for the Star Search 2010 photography session.

I did not place much hope of being selected as there are many good photographers in Singapore and only a handful of photographers (around 40) will be selected for the photography session. Each selected photographers will be given an hour to take photos for 5 pairs of contestants. Meaning there is only 10 minutes per pair. It is quite a rush for a portrait session, before the photographer and the subject could warm up, it will be time to move on!

On September 29th, I was surprised to find an email from Promo 8 when I open up my mailbox. The email stated that I was selected for the Star Search 2010 photography session!
"Congratulations!
You have been selected to take part in our “Star Search Photography Contest”! Your portfolio is truly amazing and we are
honoured to have you in our contest. We are happy to have you make beautiful pictures of our contestants."

For others, being selected for a photo session may not be something significant but for me, I'm happy to be selected because it goes to show that my photographs are being enjoyed by others.

The photography session was held last Sunday, 3rd October 2010. I was allocated the 10 a.m slot to photograph 5 pairs of Star Search Contestants. They are Jerry and Kristy, Jeffrey and Sora, Jeff and Mika, Lucas and Yilynn and finally Romeo and Peggy. All the contestants were very friendly and I had a wonderful time taking photos for them. Here are some photographs from the photography session. If you wish to see more pictures, please visit my photo-website http://ctsm88.zenfolio.com/p752636125.

Samsung NX100 Camera

Last Wednesday I was given the opportunity to try out Samsung NX100 camera. I would like to thanks Ms. Lim Mui Kim of Samsung for giving me this opportunity.

When I took the camera out of the box, my first impression was the camera is very light-weight and compact, even when it was fitted with the Samsung 20-50mmf3.5~5.6 lens. The Samsung NX100 is only the size of my Micro Four Third (MFT) Olympus E-P2, but it has a bigger APS-C image sensor and higher resolution (14.60 Megapixels). It also comes with a very clear and sharp 3-inch Amoled screen.

The buttons on the camera are well laid-out and easy to maneuver. There is also an “I”-function button on the lens that activates the Aperture control (when the camera is to Aperture priority mode), Shutter Speed control (when the camera is to Shutter priority mode), Exposure Value (EV) control and White Balance (WB) control. This button is very useful for quick access to the various controls during photo taking.

There is a dial on top of the camera for selecting Aperture priority mode (A), Shutter Priority mode (S), Manual mode (M), Movie mode, “Smart” mode, “I” mode and Scene mode. Personally, I prefer rotating the dial then scroll through menu. Finally, I find the pictures from the NX100 turn out pretty well up to ISO800 and the lens could take pretty close-up photos with any attachment.

Beside all the good points stated above, I wished the camera has come with a built-in flash. The built-in flash will come in handy when taking pictures at darker place or for fill-in. I also wished that the lens has comes with a 52mm filter thread instead of 40.5mm, simply because there is more choice of filters in 52mm then 40.5mm. The Samsung NX100 has all the feature of an DSLR minus the bulk.

Please note that I’m not a professional camera tester, the abovementioned is strictly my personal opinion as a amateur user. To get a better and moe technical review, you could visit DPreview.com.

Following are some pictures taken with the Samsung NX100 over the weekend. If you would like to see more pictures from the Samsung NX100 please visit my picture website at http://ctsm88.zenfolio.com/p427188415

Lim Chu Kang Jetty

Last Friday was a public holiday (Hari Raya Pausa) and it started raining around 11 am in morning so I just lazed around the house doing some readings and surfing the Internet. Around 4pm I received a call from a colleague asking me if I'm keen to go out to take photos and off course I replied: "Yes!”

I packed my gears and went down to meet him and we headed to Dairy Farm in Bukit Timah but we couldn't find the entrance to the park so we headed to Kranji Park to take some micro photography of insects. There were lots of insects and lots of mosquitoes too! After a short while, we couldn't stand bitten by the mossies so I suggested going to take photo of an old jetty at the coastal area of Lim Chu Kang Road.

The old jetty has been there for a long time, I went there during my Pre-University years back in the eighties and the jetty is still there today. Surprisingly, it is still as busy as it was years ago. Small bum boat fetches passengers to and from the off-shore kelongs. Fish mongers also use the jetty to load their trucks with fishes from the kelong and suppliers use the jetty to send fish food to the kelongs. Of course, there are the occasion fishing enthusiasts using the jetty to get to their favourite fish spots! To us photographers, it is a good opportunity to capture people going about their business.

So here are some photos I took at the old jetty.