MENTORGRAPHY

Sumo is a Japanese style of wrestling & Japan's National Sport. Sumo is more than 1500 years old and the rules are simple : the wrestler who first exits the ring or touches the ground with any part of his body besides the soles of his feet loses. There are no weight restrictions & matches take place on an elevated ring aka dohyo. Overall view of Sumo Arena Image captured with iPhone Xr I have been a huge fan of

PACU JAWI i.e. "Bull Race" is held yearly at the Tanah Datar Regency in West Sumatra. This race originated as a post rice harvest entertainment & celebration for the villagers & had been taking place for centuries. Now it is a very popular tourist event and takes place multiple times a year. Extremely popular with photographers from all over the world , this was my 3rd visit to photography PACU JAWI. The first in 2013 , second in 2015 and this latest was on 10th Aug 2019. Two

Ever since I saw the image of the "Dancing Trees" which are actually mangrove trees at Walakiri Beach (located in West Sumba island , Indonesia) while googling the web , I was determined to photograph this location when I had the chance. ISO800 f10.0 30 seconds RAW Purplish tones in this image tweaked during post production. This image was the most popular of all the images captured from this trip , hitting very close to 18,000 views o

I hope you read my last blog on Night time Cherry Blossom photography , this blog will now focus on Day time photography of the Cherry Blossom scenes at the various locations that I visited. Do bear in mind that this is the 1st time I was photographing Cherry Blossoms AND also the very 1st time I had visited these cherry blossom locations without any pre-exploration of potential POVs. So here are my Strategies & Tips of how using Longer Focal Lengths can help increase the va

I had been to Japan numerous times (more then 15+ occassions but mostly for business) yet I have not had the opportunity to witness the cherry blossoms aka Sakura Season. Sakura season is also synonymous with the practice of "Hanami" which is the centuries-old practice of drinking under a blooming Sakura tree. I decided that it was time for me to finally witness Sakura and decide for myself if it was really such a spectacle. For this hastily decided trip , my main priority w

The Lineated Barbet nesting at Toh Yi Drive had enthralled so many Bird Photographers recently and I was one of those photographers. There were many reasons why I wanted to capture the Barbets , the main reasons were: 1. that the Barbets are incredibly beautiful birds 2. the nest location was "perfect" especially the height which was roughly at eye level 3. the opportunity to test the Nikon Z 6 + Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR combo Tip: Barbet composite showing the emergence s

I am going to share the images I captured of the Foxes at ZAO Fox Village which is like a zoo of sorts that is located at Shiroishi , Miyagi Prefecture , Japan. I was there on 21st Feb 2019. This sanctuary for foxes has been opened since 30th July 1990 so thats like close to 29 years now. It's not difficult to get to this place. I took a Shinkansen (9830 Yen per pax, no reservations) from Tokyo Station to Shiroishi-zao station. The comfortable ride was close to 2 hours , the

The Nikon Z 6 had surprised me with how well it had performed in the tough genre of wildlife photography (given my early reservations mentioned in Part 1) and how robust it was in the winter conditions. Ergonomics & Hardware Commentary The mirrorless Z 6 body though small was comfortable enough for me to hold even when the FTZ adaptor + Nikkor TC-14E III + Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR were mounted. The knobs , button & dials were large enough & well positioned for me to oper

I had been anxious & waiting for the opportunity to use the new Nikon mirrorless to photograph wildlife in North Eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Nikon had NOT marketed the Z 6 as an action / wildlife camera. I had used both the Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 to photograph various subjects but I had not really photographed really fast & unpredictable subjects like eagles in extreme environments. From my previous experiences , the new Nikon mirrorless cameras were extremely capable but lacked a l

I have captured at least 4 editions of iLight Singapore. This year's iLight is the Bicentennial Edition and the largest edition to date with 33 light installations. The 33 installations are not only located around Marina Bay but also in Clark Quay & Fort Canning Park. To me , this is the BEST iLight so far and the following images are my favourite installations from the perspective of appeal & photography. The images shared are for a client so I do not have the flexibility to

I have been photographing the 33 Installations that will be on display in the iLight Singapore 2019 - Bicentennial Edition : Bridges of Time. The best part was that I discovered that the Z 6 mirrorless was more then capable of generating high quality images of the installations hand-held. This gave me so much more flexibility AND the much needed speed to do my photography. Amongst the 33 installations there are a couple that are super tough to photograph given the installatio

I am sure many Nikon DSLR users out there are really wondering just how the Nikon Z 6 would perform in AF tracking of really fast moving subjects with unpredictable motion especially when using the existing Nikkor f-mount telephoto range lenses with the FTZ adaptor. I was really keen to know myself , so off I went to the Jurong Bird Park to find out ..... Read On ! SETUP Nikon Z 6 Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR with VR OFF FTZ Adaptor 12 fps setup Shutter Speed : 1/1600s JPEG

This is my first blog covering the FOCUS SHIFT capability of the Nikon Z 6. This capability is of course available in the Z 7 and in Nikon's DSLR world only the mighty D850 has this very cool & useful capability. I will be blogging about this capability in future blogs so for this very 1st blog I just wanted to show the MOST important reason why I would use Focus Shift in Product / Commercial / Food / Table-Top Photography. WHAT IS Focus Shift ? Focus Shift is actually a cap

I was actually anxious to test the Nikon Z6's capability in photographing a fast paced sport like Speed Skating. The opportunity came on the 5th & 6th of January 2019 when the 4th SEA Open Short Track Trophy was held at the The Rink @JCube. So just how fast is a speed skater ? So just to give you an idea , Lucas Ng Singapore's top Speed Skater who won the 500m event did it with an average speed of 39kph. The top olympic speed skaters reach top speeds of over 48kph !! Singapor

HAPPY 2019 Everyone !! My first photography adventure was of course photographing the New Year Countdown fireworks performance at Singapore's iconic Marina Bay vicinity. This year's countdown was especially special as the more then 1 hour fireworks display also known as the STAR ISLAND Singapore Countdown Edition was produced by the Japanese which are renowned for spectacular "Hanabi" performances. This special countdown also marks the international debut of this Japanese pro

Hi everyone, this blog will focus a little more on the Z6's dynamic range performance at high to higher ISOs. This time the main subject was Singapore's cityscape during blue hour which is between 7:30pm to about 7:45pm (of course weather dependent) SETUP DETAILS Nikkor Z 24-70mm F4.0/S AUTO ISO RAW Hand-Held f8.0 1/160s Image INTENTIONALLY captured with approx. a 3 stops underexposure ISO3600 Image with exposure recovered from 3 stops underexposure NO noise reduction NO shar

All recent cameras (whether DSLR or Mirrorless , whether Crop or Full Frame sensors) promises excellent image quality at ISOs that were previously unheard of. The new Nikon Z6 , Nikon's latest 24MP mirrorless camera is no different and has an extremely high native ISO range that reaches ISO51,200 (which is higher than that of the 45MP Z7). Impressive paper specifications are one thing but are these extreme high ISOs even usable ? Well, I took the Z6 for a spin at the Singapor