To learn more about the workshop, please visit the Studio Photography Workshop page.

STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP is a post from: blog by eulee

Visitors to the display will be greeted by fencers and taekwondo exponents at the entrance. The raw images from the fencing and taekwondo shoots are below.

Fencers in mid-action

Taekwondo exponents

For both sports, there was absolutely no way to pose them as we needed the action sequence. So we let them do the thing, and let the camera and lights rip! Now here’s the catch, we needed the highest resolution we can get from a DSLR as the images will be life-size, hence the 5D Mk2. But we also needed the speed of the 1D Mk2. Also, we couldn’t use too much strobe power as we needed the fast recycling time. So all the while I was timing my shots, using all the experience I can muster to anticipate action and pray! Why did we need strobes? Well for obvious reasons, light levels were way too low to freeze motion indoors. But the important things was, we wanted it to feel like a studio shot, with good lighting. It’s not enough to have grainy, blurry and flat pics. Of course continuous lights would be great and I used modeling lights on some of the sports but fences and taekwondo need a lot of space to move hence a lot of lighting power. And I don’t have 600W hotlights at my disposal at that time.

So in the end, what would visitors to the exhibition see?

Entrance to the YOG Exhibition

Entrance to the YOG Exhibition

And to show it’s a full size image…

Me and the display

Unfortunately the public will not be able to see the display at the Olympic Village but do watch out for the one in Suntec and let me know what you think of the images! For more images of the exhibit at the Village, click here.

YOG: STORY BEHIND THE IMAGES is a post from: blog by eulee

I wasn’t too sure about the light in the evening since Sean did his shoot in the morning. But we drove around till we found the perfect spot. And we couldn’t have asked for more! A big open field that gave us space to move the car and a great clean background! I was all prepared to setup my speedlites but thank goodness, the lighting was just amazing!

We started the shoot with Alex and Delia with the car. I wanted a more lifestyle approach to the shoot and I drove my car next to theirs to get the shot from high. Now you know why I loved the location. Plenty of space to move two cars around. This shoot definitely made my day. Until England lost to Germany. But that’s another story.

Here’re a few of the pics:

And a few production pics taken by Lydia.

Getting the height for the first shot

Looks like the paint is going to coat the lens. But carefully positioned car made sure the winds prevented that

The last shot for the day. Alex and Delia with their handiwork

A COUPLE, SPRAY PAINT AND A CAR is a post from: blog by eulee

The place was beautiful, so I wanted to bring out the character and the intrinsic designs so thoughtfully incorporated here. We were shooting a series of portraits of four employees for an advertisement. So in this place, the employee would pose with the different chemicals that are mixed for each customer. Pretty neat stuff considering it’s open for everyone to see and admire. In this shot, I used one key light to camera right, with a softbox, and one highlight to camera right also but behind the subject. Of course it didn’t work out. In the final shot, the highlight was left outside the room shooting through the glass. The final shot really worked.

We had a few rooms to shoot the portraits and one of them was a room designed to serve the guests tea. Liz was of course the lighting model of the day and here’s the test shot. One key light in a softbox and one highlight behind shooting through and umbrella, and making sure the vertical strips of wood had enough light to differentiate it from the back while throwing a bit of light on her. The final image was from a slightly different angle but an even stronger image.

What’s that blurry thing in front? This is what it looks like under the same lighting, taken by Liz

Image taken by Liz

Will post the images after the ad is released.

UNHAPPY PHOTOGRAPHER is a post from: blog by eulee

The idea was to get a series of shots to superimpose them onto a life-sized panel. I don’t know how that will turn out. We’ll have to wait and see when the YOG exhibition opens.

IN ACTION is a post from: blog by eulee

That was the Sunday evening. On Monday the plan was to hit the Botanic Gardens early in the morning to catch that sunrise and the beautiful light streaming in the little ravine. And after that it was up the Penang Hill to David Brown’s restaurant. If you ever make the trip to Penang, don’t miss this. A late afternoon tea with scones in the cool weather is the way to go. It rained when we were there, minus the mist we had when I shot Chris and Zinee there. The original plan was to have a go at the beach but the balmy, overcast weather would make potentially eye-popping images dull. So we decided to postpone the shoot and head to town to see what we could get.

I’ve never seen the streets of Penang so quiet before. Then again by the time we were there, it was late evening on a workday. Mental note: good time to shoot next time. So we had plenty of fun, running down the streets, got them to swing each other. Plenty of fun.

So next day we had the appointment at Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion or commonly referred to as the Blue Mansion in Glen Goei’s movie. It’s not a very big space but plenty of corners and angles to get the shots. The sun was strong then and reflecting all over the place so we worked it to our advantage. We really maximized the different light we got throughout the shoot.

And finally the beach! It was awesome! Blue sky, sunny and windy. Made it very pleasant to be out in the beach. We were all glad we postponed the shoot coz this was the best we can ever hope for. Celia was in this striking red dress which looked stunning against the blue sky. Towards the end of the shoot, we made sure we expended all our energy and that explains the energy pumping images. There’s something about the beach in the evening, you just feel like running non-stop. It was jellyfish season and we didn’t dare touch the water. We saw at least 5 nasty ones following the tide in. A nasty experience in a photoshoot if we ever got stung.

This trip I finally nailed the Botanic Gardens location for both my DIY shoot and Allen and Celia’s. I’ve been eyeing that place for awhile. We didn’t get the chance to ride the tram up Penang Hill because of a 1-year service interruption but we took the jeep up and that gave us a lot of time to shoot elsewhere. The empty streets in Georgetown in the evening allowed us to have our own fun. I make trips there frequently so if you’re interested to do your shoot there, or if you know someone else who might be, let me know.

ALLEN AND CELIA PENANG SHOOT is a post from: blog by eulee

Before sunrise....boring

The variety if images we had were a bit limited coz it took time to setup each shot, instead of moving freely and working with the light. But we’re happy with what we got.

Visitors to Penang may remember the famous seafood place call End of the World. It was an old rickety coffee shop in a fishing village. The site is now a forestry reserve office and the EOW has since been relocated to the roundabout near the ex-Mutiara Beach Resort. I don’t know what happened to this 5-star hotel but it’s abandoned now.

Anyway, at the place where EOW was located is an old fishing jetty where I shot a project many years back on fishing so we revisited the place to see what it’s like now. The jetty was still around so we set up the camera on the tripod and fired away.

So that concludes our little project. Many thanks to our camera crew below who made all this happen:

Read about the first day’s shoot here.

* For those unacquainted with my project, we’re doing our own pre-wedding shoot in Penang.

DIY* DAY 2 is a post from: blog by eulee

The light changes really fast after sunset and that explains the 20 min shoot. Interestingly, the lights from the makan place served as a giant light source and I was happily using it. The Penang Bridge is in the background but barely visible due to the large aperture I was using. f1.4 to f1.8 most of the time. But I wanted just the lights visible only so that worked out quite well.

Here are a few pics from today’s shoot:

Stay tuned for more pics from tomorrow. I think it’ll be a fruitful day!

* For those unacquainted with my project, we’re doing our own pre-wedding shoot in Penang.

DIY* DAY 1 is a post from: blog by eulee

As photographers, we’re a fan of our work. I mean, it’ll be a slight problem if we’re not. So it seemed to make perfect sense that we shoot it the way we always do. For that groom, he did the shoot in Australia and got a friend to press the shutter. He was like the creative director, setting the camera up on a tripod, select the focal range, aperture and the friend then had to capture the moment. Thank goodness we’re in the digital age. I can’t bear firing rolls of film to do this.

So for Lydia and I, she came up with this idea to get my Dad to fire the camera away. My Dad had been largely responsible for my fascination with photography some twenty years ago. So he was the perfect candidate. Plus it’ll be great fun for the family.

I don’t know how this will turn out but hey since it’s a DIY project, we won’t have much to lose if it doesn’t work out the way we want it to. On the other hand, we could get some very interesting shots. Will update you in the next few days when we do the shoot in Penang.

DIY is a post from: blog by eulee

At the moment I do all my shoots on location, instead of in my studio. I’m enjoying doing this because:
1. Images can have different settings. You can have a choice of environment eg, at home with a lifestyle twist, against a black backdrop for a more arty feel or outdoors for the fun. There’re so many options available.
2. For kids, a change in environment may make them apprehensive. Having it at home or outdoors will bring out the best from them.
3. Unlimited change of attire. As I’ve mentioned, you can wear anything and everything. The only limit is a 2-hour timeframe coz even if you’re not exhausted from all that changing, the photographer is from shooting.
4. You have toys to attract your kid’s attention. Put on Sesame Street, Thomas or Bob, and we have a smiley kid. And that looks great on the pictures.
5. If your kid is tired, take a short break, have a kit-kat, and he’ll be bouncing all over from the sugar fix. And we’ll have another go at this.
6. I feel great after a shoot with great images. And I’m sure you will too.

Call (97616405) or email (eulee@photographybyeulee.com) me to find out more details. Spread the word! Thank you much!

FAMILY AND KIDS PHOTOGRAPHY is a post from: blog by eulee

This is how you do it

So what's next?

Nope, not right

The girls' version of Charlie's Angels

The whole family

The whole family, not so serious after all

More of family photography images can be found in the Family Photography category of this blog.

SHARM’S FAMILY SHOOT is a post from: blog by eulee

Paris. City of Romance. Maybe cliched, but nevertheless a most beautiful place for your pre-wedding images.

After an amazing time there last year, we’re planning another trip there in September 2010. September should be a great time, not as crowded as summer, cooler weather and lighting should be great. Exact dates are still on the drawing board but we have kicked started our planning. So if you are considering this, let me know and lets discuss further. Places are limited so sound me out as soon as you can.

PARIS 2010 is a post from: blog by eulee

The space was a huge relief. No problems with power points, positioning lights, camera and notebook. Wouldn’t it be nice if the remaining shoots were like that….

Setting up the camera and notebook. Image from my iPhone.

Test Shot

YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES SHOOT 2 – WEIGHTLIFTING is a post from: blog by eulee

It was playtime towards the end and as the whole family gathered in the playroom, I pulled over one of my lights and started firing away. Totally unplanned but I learned to expect the unexpected when dealing with kids at Darius’ and Desiree’s age. Makes the whole shoot so enjoyable by keeping the photographer on his toes

The first time for Darius. Well done!

Desiree and her 'Bear-siree'

The Family

Little Darius

Darius and Mum

Private family time. Desiree unexpectedly starting feeding Darius

The family in playroom

Techie info. I used both of my Elinchrom lights. One was fitted with the 80X80cm softbox, and the other with an umbrella. No reason for this combination. Except maybe the softbox will not be large enough for a full body standing portrait but for this purpose, the smaller softbox will do just fine. So softbox on camera right and umbrella on camera left, just to fill the shadows.

Lighting Diagram

More of such images can be found in the Family Photography category.

DARIUS AND FAMILY is a post from: blog by eulee

For myself, this blog was started as a kind of social experiment and i must say I am hooked on it. I started in May 2009, after many years of deliberation and fears that I will not get pass my first post. I eventually discovered a love for writing. I can’t say I’m very good at it but at last I don’t dread it. So my first post was on packing for an overseas shoot in a reply to curious questions on what I always bring on my shoot. At that point of time I was already overseas and that was the perfect moment to talk about it. From then my blogging went on to discuss techniques, equipment, workshops, current work, book reviews and now with my new iPhone, a bit on apps and its camera. After the first post, ideas start popping up and since then, I’ve logged 140 posts! I try to go for higher value content and not just one-liners so I think I’ve done decently looking at my workload.

Work-wise in 2009. My core business is still wedding photography. I love this business and being a part of someone’s wedding. My corporate/commercial work, comprising events, product and advertising has been consistently providing the variety I look for. I am also moving into family photography in a bigger way as compared to the previous years. While I’ve been shooting families regularly, it’s only in 2009 when this area has picked up.

2009 is also the year my business moved on from a sole-proprietorship to a Limited Liability Partnership. My business partner is my fiancee Lydia and she’s been great in providing emotional support and a listening ear for me to bounce ideas off. 2010 will be the year that she’ll officially become my life-partner .

Lydia and I at Pont Neuf, Paris

I love to share. I am always excited about helping others discover things about photography and their camera. It was with this intention that I started officially my photography workshop in 2009. I fashioned it after my short stint in the tv series on Channel News Asia called Scene City. In it, guest photographers were brought to different places in Singapore to handle different photographic challenges. So to spice things up, my workshops are completely hands-on and located in different areas in Singapore.

So what’s the most popular post so far? Surprisingly, the highest statistic is about me…hmmm….followed by my post on my workshop. And then about my short article on Canon G11, which was posted immediately after the news was released.

So what’s in store for this blog in 2010? I hope my blog will be a useful resource for anyone interested in photography. I know I should not generalize that much and look for a more niche audience but I hope there’s something here for everyone. I’ll try to write more about techniques, tips and reviews in the hope that you can glean more useful information. I will still post current work to inspire and to sharing something new. Of course I can’t post everything due to some confidentiality issues.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog, dropping a note, commenting, and I sincerely hope that you’ve learned something all this while. That said, please feel free to give me ideas on what to write about too.

Have a great 2010 ahead!

A YEAR IN RETROSPECT is a post from: blog by eulee