Jay Han’s Shiznit Blog

Okay, as much as I do know that cars arent really a thing for a lot of you who are gonna view this pic; I just cant help it to shoot this souped up TOYOTA Supra. It belongs to this chap called Daniel Lai.

So I set up my make-shift studio to fit this monster to have a nice photo shoot. Since the color of the body of the Supra is dark navy blue with nice contrasting decals… I decided to use a dark background for the shoot. The "theme" I was looking for is something which is somewhat dark and mysterious… somehing not too revealing of the car. I had to control the lighting throughout the whole shooting. And this is what I ended up with at the end of the day.

Kinda happy with the results I obtained to be frank…

especially if…

and only if…

…

…

…

You really believe that this is a true car. Which of course its not. Its a model. A toy car.

Cheers!

I observed this nice looking field which was just mowed down and the hay being packed while I was on my way to office a couple of days ago. It came to me in an instant that it would make a good scene for a shoot. Thus, I went down on Friday… right after office to shoot this.  

The day was kinda dry (it still is!) and hot, so I didnt stay for as long as I intended to. Scorching sun was almost unbearable… luckily some of the shots taken in a haste turns out to be in my taste.

It was overall a quick shooting session with Daniel, since he brought along his camera as well. I guess I can start considering photography as some form of addiction now… so as with any kinda addiction… quickies are necessary! Wahaha!!

Cheers!

I love to shoot macro once in a while…especially when the subject is full of vibriant colors. Well… was shopping for some groceries a while ago, and ended buying some strawberries.

It just came to me in a flash when I was eating them in the bloody hot evening that I gotta try shooting the colors and textures of the fruit that’s goin into my mouth. I guess the determination came from some strawberry bits that was stuck between my teeth (eww you say?!).

Dashed up to my mini-studio… set up some props and wahhh-laahh! The shot was done by placing a sliced strawberry on some crumpled aluminium foil (which I normally use as a light reflector). Converted from RAW and adjusted the normal stuff like curves and levels in PhotoShop.

Well… gotta keep on biting ‘em now…

Went down to Snetterton Race Track today with Zamir… thanks to Daniel for the free tickets (Cheers! Hooray!). Well it was a good day out; a sun shinny day (which is why I am a couple of tone darker now - sigh!). As usual, I brought along my trustworthy camera to shoot some action photos of those exotic cars. Well in fact I was hoping that some Ferrari might crash out or something like that… It would be even more dramatic if I get to see some Porsche crashing into a DB9. We’ll see…

The race event is suppose to start by 9am. However, due to some late nights and both Zamir and I was sorta reluctant to watch those warm up session… we finally came to a point to start moving out by about 10.30am. The drive to Snetterton from Norwich took approximately 25 minutes or so.

Engine’s roar greeted us as we entered the race circuit. Drop the window and passed the tickets to the security fellas… I swear the feeling was somewhat familiar to that of what you see in The Fast & The Furious : when they start to roll into the race circuit entrance. Ok… crap aside… We found a place to park the car and within a matter of seconds we were already above some bumps to watch the race that was going on. While others were enjoying the sun, I was busy clicking away. Zamir was not left behind as he’s got my SONY W5 to play with and started shooting for some video clips as well.

We ventured around the area. It was well organized. Met some local LOTUS chaps who claim that this event is a much more "Civilized" ones cuz even visitors do get to go near the team garages… no one seem to violate and be a busy body around the mechanics. Cool…

Well the main attraction of the day is, of course, the British Grand Touring GP. Exotic cars of all kinds were there to compete. I saw a couple Ferraris, Porsches, Ascaris, Lotus’ and Corvettes. I might missed out some other real exotic cars’ names as well…

I dont really wanna go into the details of the race… cuz my brains were literally fried by the scorching hot sun while I was being trigger happy with my camera. In the end, one of the Ferrari won the race in the category it was in.

This photo was shot in Cromer, Northern Norfolk, just about a couple of days ago. Cromer has got this beach front which is accesible after going down a somewhat very steep 30′ sandy cliff.

I’m not too sure what these wooden blocks fencing are for… but they are there for a reason. There are only about 3 of them in the whole length of the coast (as far as I could see) of approximately 1km in length. No boats were tied to them, and the sea was rough with crashing waves everytime.

It bemused me to see the creation of man standing in a lengthy battle against the power of nature. The logs does show signs of wear, but it is obvious that the wood type is a very hard one, which could withstand salt water easily. So, its gonna take ages before they crumble and bow down to the power of the waves and the never-ending strength of nature.

White seems to be an inspirational color for some… at least it was for me, for a very short period of time. I had the idea of shooting something white with white colored background. Sounds complicated and hard to achieve, right? Well yes and no. Yes because if the lighting isnt controlled properly… all I am gonna get is just a splotch of whitish over-exposed image. Done properly and it could be pretty dramatic.

What I did in this shot, which I personally consider as a success, is just simply stuff a beer glass with some white color tissue paper (and some toilet rolls - lol) and put it on top of a clear and clean mirror. I had a clean white colored cardboard behind it as the backdrop. Next was lighting. I had to twist and turn my spotlights from so many angles, and it took me almost 30 mins and some shots before I found a way to minimize the shadows, glare etc to achieve this shot.

As usual, some photoshop editing was done with the basics like curves and levels. So… its white now… well maybe not purely entirely white… but heck, thats the theme. Pretty much wanted a high-key effect there… so it wasnt an over-expose glitch.

Cheers.

Red Scarlet… well I indeed left a scar in my garden’s face by plucking this poor flower out from its natural growing pot. However, I guess his brothers and sisters wont be missing him at all… I’ve got more of these flowers growing in my garden… so one down and maybe more to go… haha…

I guess I have to say that this small sacrifice is indeed needed for the greater cause of photography. In my sanity state of mind, under the influence of a craze for "Photo of The Day" quest - this sacrifice is a must!

Thus, I named this masterpiece "RED SCARLET".

Ok now out with the crap and down to some technical stuff. Photo was shot using my EOS 350D with a 18-55mm in RAW format. Converted into JPEG and tweaked slightly in PhotoShop CS2… with all the normal and standard procedure of levels and curves adjustments. So here it goes… feel free to rate my work.

Cheers!

Ok, from now on, I will start posting up selected photograph as my selection for "Photo of The Day", which I am taking from time to time. Comments and critiques are welcomed from the general public and list of friends who are viewing my blog. Then again, if there’s no one who is reading my blog… I guess the photos’ will just remain in my private collection.

Here’s one up for viewing.

I shot this photo a couple of months ago. Yes it was being edited in PhotoShop just in case anyone would ask. However, the editing are just basic ones, and in no way was the image being digitally manipulated to look totally different from the original one - which in other word being call : decieving images.

Title of photo : Delicate Bloom