12 of The Best from 2012

It's almost the end of the year and time to look back at some of the key events and best photographs captured during the year. It's always difficult to pick out a few photographs from the many hundreds (or possibly thousands) taken during 2012 but here is a selection of the 12 key images which inspired me.

Two To Tango

A tango evening in February was a great opportunity to try and capture this sensual dance. There were a number of professional tango dancers who had flown into KL for this Tango Festival and it was so inspiring to see this wonderful dance ... and of course the music was great too.

Bukit Nanas Heritage Mansions

My interest in old heritage buildings took me to the rundown row of old mansion houses on Jalan Tun Razak in KL. I used to look out over these buildings from an office many years ago and it's been in the back of my mind to capture these before they disappear for good. In their day these buildings probably represented the elite of down-town accommodation but sadly these buildings are now crumbling away and will probably disappear for good due to re-development.

Twin Towers

I have been in KL for over 20 years now and have seen the tremendous developments to the city. None more so than when the magnificent Petronas Twin Towers were built and the subsequent development of the central city area around this site. I wanted to capture a picture of the towers so early one Sunday morning in early April I headed to town and took a number of images using a tilt-shift lens which allowed me to merge multiple frames into a larger panorama without the usual sloping distortion you get when using a wide angle lens on a tall building.

Emperor Jade Pagoda

In May I was in Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam on business but managed to fit in a visit to the Emperor Jade Pagoda on the recommendation of Peter Stuckings a professional photographer who now lives in Ho Chi Minh. This pagoda is very traditional and if visiting when the light is right you can experience these wonderful rays of light coming in through the slatted wooden roof and creating long beams due to the incense smoke. I was luck to visit during a ceremony so there was also some atmospheric chanting and singing to augment the visual feast.

The Long and Winding Road to the Lakes

I usually return to UK once a year and this year took the opportunity to make a trip to the Lake District in Cumbria, North England. The scenery here is beautiful with rolling hills and many lakes providing were numerous photo opportunities in this region.

Bordeaux Châteaux

After the UK trip I had the opportunity to visit the Bordeaux area of south west France where there are many world acclaimed vineyards. This picture shows the famous Margaux vineyard. To be expected during a trip like this there was much eating and drinking to sample all the local delicacies.

Dinosaurs in Paris

No trip to France would be complete without a few days in the capital, Paris. I always enjoy this city with its magnificent architecture, museums and history as well of course as being able to eat some fantastic French food. This photo was taken inside the Museum of Natural History situated in the Jardin des Plantes.

Lost Legacy

My interest in heritage buildings came to fruition in September when I had the chance to display a set of photographs at the Guerrilla Photo Exhibition at Avenue K Shopping Centre in KL. My exhibition was titled "Lost Legacy" and highlighted the disappearance of many of the prime heritage buildings which exemplify the unique architectural style of Malaysia.

The Red Umbrella

An urbex outing in central KL uncovered this gem of an old house left abandoned right in the centre of the city. The old house was in ruins and inhabited by many bats and this old red umbrella left on the floor created a great shot - an HDR image converted to black and white then the colour restored to the red umbrella for effect.

Take Me To The River

This was a small project I did to focus on the two major rivers that flow through KL, the Klang River and the Gombak River. The two rivers are still polluted although somewhat better now than many years ago

Rice Bowl of Bali

In September we returned yet again to Bali, one of our favourite spots in S.E. Asia. We stayed in Ubud and took a nostalgic walk through the rice paddy fields which we had done 6 years before. There are always some great photo opportunities her and when I came across this old man working in the fields I couldn't resist a portrait highlighting his skinny but fit body against the wonderful rich colours of the rice fields in the background.

The Roof of Borneo

In October I finally achieved a long ambition to climb Mount Kinabalu in Sabah. It was a tough climb over two days but rewarded with some stunning photos. The above South Peak really stands out against the clouds in the background and in my view is a lot more impressive than Low's Peak which is the tallest peak.

Lost Legacy - A Photo Exhibition of Disappearing Malaysian Architecture

I will be exhibiting a themed set of photographs entitled "Lost Legacy" at the Guerrilla Photography Exhibition arranged by PhotoMalaysia and PhotoSafari http://www.facebook.com/events/369540713116873/ in Avenue K Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur from 8th September to 15th September. 

These photos highlight the disappearance of many prime heritage buildings which exemplify the unique Malaysian architectural style. 

If you are in the area please drop by the Ground Floor of Avenue K - it would be great to meet up with you and there are many other photographers exhibiting there also. If you time it correctly there are informal sponsored "teh tarik" sessions where you can have some drinks and snacks and meet many of the exhibiting photographers to discuss their work.

Best of 2011

For this final post of 2011 I have chosen the best 12 photographs from the year with a few words about each image.

The year got off to a great start when we hosted a "Red & Green" theme party. These are my two friends Loz and Huw dressed appropriately. Huw donned a Mexican sombrero and complete with red painted mustache was in charge making the  the "Red & Green" colored marguerites.

I made a first time visit to Sri Lanka in late January and took the opportunity of grabbing some images from the wonderful city of Colombo. It's always good to visit somewhere new and Colombo certainly delivered some great pictures with colorful painted houses and the brightly decorated auto rickshaws.

In February I made a visit to the Kuala Lumpur railway station which is a great example of moorish architecture adopting a mixture of Eastern and Western designs. It's funny that when things are right on your doorstep you tend to ignore them so I need to make more of an effort to try and capture some "local" scenes like this. 

An early morning visit to Putrajaya to see the annual balloon festival was in vain as I had the wrong date! But at least I had the opportunity to capture the stylish Seri Wawasan Bridge and Putra Mosque in the early morning light.

In March I re-visited the atmospheric Birch Road Christian Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur. I love the old, decayed headstones and the way the tropical undergrowth and jungle slowly envelopes everything in the graveyard.

My Dad sadly passed away in March and a month later we made a pilgrimage to his favorite part of north west Scotland to lay his ashes in a very personal spot in Wester Ross. The weather was wonderful offering some great photo opportunities. At last I managed to capture a clear shot of the famous Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich near Dornie.

In April I finally managed a visit to New York City which I have been wanting to do for many years. I was very impressed with the art deco style architecture and the Empire State building seen here still looks very grand.

On the return trip from New York and Scotland in April we stopped in Amsterdam which is a lovely, laid back city with beautiful canals like this one pictured here, Prinsengracht which is one of the main canals.

In September we visited Penang in Malaysia, a place we had not been to for 10 years or more. The main town Georgetown has a wonderful array of heritage buildings which have been renovated and one of the more interesting ones is the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, or Blue Mansion.

Langkawi is another island in Malaysia we had not been to for many years so a return visit in November was arranged. This is a view over the Andaman Sea taken from the Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa.

I once again attended the One Asia Photo Festival in Singapore in early December and this time had the opportunity to meet with Steve McCurry who was one of the key speakers along with Michael Yamashita and Michael Freeman.

A visit to Phuket in late December to attend a friend's birthday party closed out the travels for the year. We visited the Blue Elephant Restaurant in Phuket town which is located in a wonderful old heritage building with this surprising modern blue bar which somehow fits well with the older decor.

This is the last post for 2011 and brings to a close a personal project of mine to post a daily photograph with some brief text on the blog. Sometimes this was tough to do with time constraints and other priorities but I achieved this and certainly think it gave my blog some exposure. It is now time to reflect on 2011 and start to make plans for 2012. I think next year I will be taking a different approach to my photographic work as well as my blog with tentative plans to redesign the site as well as focusing on more detailed photo projects. So quality rather than quantity going forward. So bear with me as I make this transition during the first part of 2012 and I hope that a redesigned and more focused site will raise the bar a little in terms of professionalism and quality. I have a large number of projects I would like to do during 2012 as long as other work does not get in the way so hopefully will be able to bring a number of these to fruition next year.

I will take this opportunity to thank everyone who follows this blog or even those who stumbled upon it by accident. It has been reassuring to see the hit rate statistics on the site improving during the year and it has been great to receieve all the comments from people all over the planet.

Happy New Year To All.

Best of 2010

Another year almost gone. Time just seems to go faster. Looking back over the year I have selected 12 special images highlighting some key events over 2010.

Realising that the infamous Pudu Jail in KL was about to be demolished for a new property development I took the opportunity to make a last visit before the bulldozers arrived and shot images of all the walls with painted murals and of course the intimidating front entrance.

The Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery sits in a prime plot of land in central KL on a hill overlooking the city and offers some wonderful picture opportunities.

In February Joe McNally blew into town and conducted a lighting workshop and seminar. The Shangri-La Hotel ballroom was full on the one day seminar with hundreds of photographers who came to hear from the guru. They were not disappointed with a humorous and informative talk and a great opportunity to meet and talk with a world famous photographer.

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers from Scotland gave a blistering performance at the Hilton Sentral Hotel with a successful blend of traditional bagpipes and more modern guitars and drums in a new music genre termed bagrock.

I had the opportunity to visit Chiang Rai in northern Thailand staying at the Meridien Hotel on the banks of the Mae Kok River. This wonderful sunset was seen as I supped on a cocktail at the outside bar.

On the outskirts of Chiang Rai you can visit a village where you can see a number of different hill tribe people living including the famous Karen tribe with the elongated necks caused by wearing neck rings. This lady was from the Yao tribe and had such a wonderful warm smile.

The Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan, or Federal Territory Mosque, is a magnificent building and this image shows it with the background of the KL city skyline.

The Birch Road cemetery is an old Christian graveyard in the heart of downtown KL. It's rundown and overgrown which provides some atmospheric photo opportunities.

The medieval town of Brugge in Belgium with its canals and old buildings like the cottage above is a great getaway for a few days. The local food and beer are also excellent.

The interior of the luxurious Metropole Hotel in Brussels, Belgium is magnificent and I had the chance to stay there for two nights during a visit to belgium. Built in 1895 this is the only 19th century proper still open for business.

Patrick Low conducted a flash photography workshop in November and the lovely local model Evon Tan provided a very pleasing subject to capture.

Bangsar Shopping Centre in KL has gone through a very successful renovation with a number of new outlets including WIP restaurant/bar where I will be this evening to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. Happy 2011 to all!

Got Noise?

Even using a high end SLR with a large sensor digital noise can occur at high ISO settings causing pinkish, pixelated speckles which can detract from an image. 

There are a number of sources of noise:

• Heat generated might free electrons from the image sensor itself, thus contaminating the "true" photoelectrons. These "thermal electrons" give rise to a form of noise called thermal noise or dark current.
• Another type of noise is more akin to the 'grain' obtained by using a high ISO film. When we use a higher ISO, we are amplifying the signal we receive from the light photons. Unfortunately, as we amplify the signal, we also amplify the background electrical noise that is present in any electrical system.
• In low light, there is not enough light for a proper exposure and the longer we allow the image sensor to collect the weak signal, the more background electrical noise it also collects. In this case the background electrical noise may be higher than the signal.

So why is using a larger image sensor better? Each photosite on the sensor itself generates electrical noise that can contaminate its neighbor. In a larger image sensor, the photosites can be physically further apart and thus be less affected by that contamination. A larger image sensor also means that the photosite can be larger, thus have a larger light gathering capacity. It is therefore able to generate a larger signal to noise ratio. That is why a digital camera with 6 million pixels crammed into a 1/1.8 in. image sensor has more noise (especially at high ISOs) than a 6MP digital camera using the much larger half-frame (APS-sized) image sensor.

Let's look at an example. The photo below was taken in a very dark internal room of the Preah Khan temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia where I came across a lovely old lady praying. Using only available natural light I shot this image at ISO 3200.

Although the image is still good, especially given the poor lighting conditions, there is visible noise in the image which is more obvious when zoomed in as shown in the image below. You can see the pixelation particularly around the background pink coloured jos sticks just to the left of the lady's face as well as in certain areas of the lady's face.

Noise Ninja is a very effective and productive solution for removing noise and grain from digital photographs and scanned film images. It is a must-have tool for anyone shooting in low-light or fast-action situations -- including news, sports, wedding, and event coverage -- where high ISO photography is required and the resulting noise compromises the image.

Noise Ninja often yields a two-stop improvement in effective image quality, while preserving important image detail. In addition, it can produce cleaner, smoother enlargements from low-ISO images.

Noise Ninja can be used as a plug-in to Aperture or as a standalone application. Using simple slider controls as shown above you can adjust the luminescence strength and the colour (chroma) strength plus carry out sharpening whilst visualising the results of these adjustments on-screen. The picture below shows the original photo above and the noise reduced image below.

The final noise reduced full size image can be seen below.

HDR

What is HDR?

In image processing, computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range (HDR) or high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDR is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows. High Dynamic Range Imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the early 1940s.

Tone Mapping

The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993, and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995. In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec. This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures. With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy-to-use desktop software, the term "HDR" is now popularly used to refer to this process. This composite technique is different from (and may be of lesser or greater quality than) the production of an image from a single exposure of a sensor that has a native high dynamic range. Tone mapping is also used to display HDR images on devices with a low native dynamic range, such as a computer screen.

Bracketing

The technique of taking HDR photos means taking bracketed shots at different exposures; one at the correct exposure and others which are underexposed and overexposed to create a number of images covering a range of exposures, e.g. -2EV, -1EV, 0EV, +1EV and +2EV. This technique is particularly useful when taking a high contrast scene - I’m sure we have all experienced those difficult shots with deep shadows and bright sky where you either have no detail in the shadows or blow out the sky completely.

Single RAW HDR

However rather than taking a number of bracketed shots when shooting in RAW format you have the opportunity to make a pseudo HDR image from just one image. As a RAW image has a higher dynamic range compared to a normal jpeg image you can produce a number of jpgs or tiffs from one RAW image at different exposures. You can produce 3 images at -2EV, 0EV, and +2EV or if you use 5 images, -3EV, -1.5EV, 0EV, +1.5EV and +3.0EV then use these images at different exposures to create a pseudo HDR image.

There are a number of HDR processing applications but I use Photomatix which has a number of tools to assist you in this process.

Example

Now let's take this image of Ta Phrom temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia and see how we can do a pseudo HDR technique. Here is the photo taken at 0EV exposure and as you can see we have some very dark shadow areas and a very bright sky overhead resulting in an average exposure which does not bring out any detail in these two areas.

So taking the original RAW image in Aperture we can adjust the exposure setting to a number of settings such as here, -3EV, -1.5EV, +1.5EV and +3EV to produce four more jpg images.

-3EV

-1.5EV

+1.5EV

+3EV

We then import all the five jpg images into Photomatix where we can run through a tone mapping process which blends these 5 images into a single image. Here is the final HDR image which you can see clearly has well defined exposure of the sky and the dark shadow areas.

Flamenco

A recent visit to Spain culminated in a visit to Barcelona where I had the opportunity to see the famous flamenco dance show held at the traditional Tablao Flamenco Cordobes on La Rambla.

The venue was small and very dark with limited stage lights so posed a difficult photo shoot under such low light conditions. This required shooting at various ISO values, from 200 up to 1250, depending on the available light.

In conjunction with my photos I recorded live audio using a Roland Edirol R-09 digital recorder and used this audio to prepare a slideshow of the event.

The final slideshow can be seen below:

Flamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia and a term that refers both to a musical genre, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance genre characterized by its audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear. The word Flamenco, which applies to the song, the dance and the guitar, did not come into use until the 19th century.

Flamenco embodies a complex musical and cultural tradition. Although considered part of the culture of Spain, flamenco actually originates from one of Spain's regions: Andalusia. However, other areas, mainly Extremadura and Murcia, have contributed to the development of several flamenco musical forms, and a great number of renowned flamenco artists have been born in other territories of the country.

It is generally acknowledged that flamenco grew out of the unique interplay of native Arabic, Andalusian, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures that existed in Andalusia prior to and after the Reconquest. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also been important in shaping the rumba flamenco form. Flamenco is the music of the gypsies and played in their social community.