Last month, I made a short trip to Pantai Puteri with Evelyn for a trial shoot. It was good for me as I had chance to explore and scout for more locations for future shoots. 
The preparation for this shoot was rather short and everything was in some sort of rush. We were even caught in the traffic, as we set off to the beach near 5pm. We even lost 3 of our helium balloons, as they slipped off from our grasps. >.<
We did a trial shoot that day. 
I didn’t have many shots that day. There wasn’t much time for us to work on, as we only reached the beach around 6:30pm. Before we knew it, the sun was setting in the horizon, and we lost all the lighting. I still made most with the short time we had, and here are a few shots from that day.
Sunset at Pantai Puteri
Reflection
Evelyn + magic wand + beautiful balloons.
Evelyn + Balloons
Evelyn + Sand
Silhouette
Before I end this post, there’s one note on the last image, the Silhouette. It would have been much nicer if I could get a cleaner spot in the sky as the background, so that the model’s figure/silhouette is clearer. This image here has got distraction in the clouds as well as the darker section on the lower part of the pic. The sky was getting darker that time, we were losing a lot of light already. I had to shoot this with high ISO, which resulted a lot of noises in the image.
The sky is now clear since haze attacked few days ago. And, I thought it’s a good chance for me to attempt something crazy. So, I went off with my gears packed, and hoping for a good sunset in the evening. Since reading Louis Pang’s entry on “Creating Time Lapse Movie with your DSLR” in his Wedshooter.tv blog.
How can I not resist taking some shots for HDR pieces? As usual, these HDR shots are generated from Photomatix Pro.
HDR made of 3 exposures: 0ev, -2.0ev and +2.0ev
HDR made of 3 exposures: 0ev, -2.0ev and +2.0ev
I brought all my gears, as usual, but all I really need in this project was my camera, a wide angle lens (I only have 18-50mm in this case, with 18mm being my widest choice), wireless remote trigger (or you can also use one with chord.) and of course a sturdy tripod. Louis did a very good job explaining how the filming was done, and I merely just followed through his steps.
Louis was using a D3 in his shots, and he has this automatic interval shot function in his camera, but I don’t have that in my EOS 50D. So, I will have to resort to a manual trigger. Again, I followed his tips, triggering a frame every 10 seconds. I started my shooting approximately at 5:50 p.m., and I shot the last frame at about 7:15p.m. The whole stretch took me about 1 hour and 25 minutes. I used Av mode to shoot, with my aperture set at f/7.1. I have to tone down the exposure over the time, as the sky or the scene loses light over the time. Honestly, throughout the shoot, I had doubts at certain point, I was wondering if this would work. Well, the result says other wise. All photos used here have not be enhanced. I dumped all the photos straight out from camera to process the image sequences. I had 512 images recorded from 5:50 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. But, of course, I did messed up with the timing in between, for example, 2 frames captured within 10 seconds, or maybe missed out on 1 or 2 frame between intervals. I’m human after all, no?
I had to use Quicktime Pro to generate the image sequence, I wish I have a better video editing software, which later I applied finishing touches with iMovie on my Macbook. As for the frame rate, I used 30 frames per second for the time lapse image sequences. Who knows, I might look into video market in future. It’s fun!
It was crazy but the result was quite rewarding. I reckon doing a time lapse just before rain falls would be quite interesting as well. So who says, photography is just about clicking the shutter?
Here’s the video:
Please view in Hight Quality.
Red Salted Yolk in the Sky
I snapped the ‘red egg yolk’ hanging in the sky today. The sun in recent evening hasn’t been pleasant one. I feel sick looking at this kind of sunset. 
As how Evelyn would call it – Angry Red Yolk. Yuck.
I took three exposures for this photos: 0ev, +1ev and -1ev, then merged it with Photomatix Pro.
I drove to the beach at Damai for a short, but much needed escapade. A friend invited me over to join him and the family for a night stay, but I respectfully decline, due to some reasons of my own.
I needed shutter therapy, and Michelle wanted to someone to go to the beach with. So, I picked her, along with her sister and their cute nephew Ethan, and we set off to the beach. I did not snap many frames yesterday, and here are three of the few from yesterday.
EOS 50D + EF 90-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM @ iso 200
EOS 50D + EF 90-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM @ iso 200
EOS 50D + EF 90-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM @ iso 100
I like how the flash filled in from an off-camera position in the last picure. However, the only draw back was, since I only have ONE speedlite, there is always a strong cast of shadow on the other side of subject. If I fire the flash on my right, the shadow cast will be harsh and strong on the left side.
It’s long weekend here in Sarawak, happy holiday everyone!
Apparently not.
But the sky was nice, sun sure sets fast. It’s gone even before you know it. I am pushing myself to completion of all the tasks in my hand. I’m truly sorry if any request is not attended with the quickest response, but I guarantee you that all these will change once things are all resolved at my end.
