Time-Lapse Photography of Sunrise Over Mount Kinabalu

Structures materializing from nothingness, a flower unfolding its petals through the night, a butterfly’s metamorphosis from pupa to adult stage, the sky changing its hues while the sun rises and sets… where it is not feasible to run a video camera for a long period of time to capture these defining moments, there’s time-lapse photography.

I’ve always found this photographic technique fascinating for the photo-video it produces but have never found the motivation to try it until a stay at the beautiful Gaya Island Resort. Located on Pulau Gaya, the largest of 5 islets sitting off the northwestern coast of Kota Kinabalu City, the resort’s hillside villas offer a jaw-dropping view overlooking the South China Sea with the horizon rimmed by Kinabalu’s mountainous range. This awe-inspiring setting was the perfect muse to coax my first attempt at time-lapse photography because I wanted my first time to be special!

In this post, I’ll share my experience and tips on time-lapsing a sunrise in the hope that the information will be useful for anyone attempting this technique for the first time.

Equipment and Necessities :

- DSLR camera (ensure that your battery is fully charged)

- Tripod

- Cable release or remote control

- Torch light, drinking water, towel and insect repellent (if photographing close to nature)

Time-lapse photography involves 2 steps… The first step is acquiring the images and the second step is combining the photos to form a video clip.

Step 1 : Acquiring the Images

Before embarking on a time-lapse photography session, always find out what time is sunrise at the locale you are shooting and be there an hour early to recce, set up equipment and frame the shot. In Singapore, I am used to daybreak happening at around 6.15am but at Kota Kinabalu, the sky starts brightening from 5.30am!

4:30am. It’s pitch black during the wee hours so a torchlight is essential for knowing you are putting all the parts in the right places.

As it was very dark, it was hard to frame the scene and get the horizon straight. I used the city lights in the distance to gauge and frame my shot.

Camera Settings :

- Switch the camera’s lens focus to Manual and set it to infinity

- Use Aperture (‘A’) mode for the shoot and set F-number to 16 (F16)

- Set ISO to the minimal (the lowest for my DSLR is 200)

- Turn on remote control shooting mode (if you use a cable release to control your shutter, this step is not necessary)

- Switch on your patience if your DSLR doesn’t come with a built-in interval timer like Nikon D7000 (I’m using Nikon D90 so I stood by my camera the whole time to click the remote control to shoot)

My time-lapse photos were taken from Gaya Island Resort’s Kinabalu Villa number 852 from 5:00am to 7:00am.

5:41am. Witnessing the arrival of dawn is truly magical. The highest peak in the distance is Mount Kinabalu. Awesome!

Pano view of the scene in front of me at daybreak.

Timing the Time-Lapse Intervals

Math and I are eternal enemies so my mind went into screensaver mode the instant I tried understanding how to calculate my number of shots. Basically, you have to first determine how long you want your time-lapse video to be and decide on how many shots you want per second of your video.

For example, if I want a 10-second video with 24 photos per second, I’ll have to shoot 240 images. Shooting from 5 – 7am (7,200 seconds), the interval between my shots would be 30 seconds. Which means I’ll take 1 photo and 30 seconds later, take another. The shots continue until I reach 240 shots.

That’s a lot of calculating to do!

So I simplify. I just made it a point to take a shot every 15 seconds from 5-7am. It didn’t matter how many photos I got, I just combined them all into the time-lapse video. I wasn’t concerned with how long the video lasted either. I ended up with about 365 shots and a sunrise segment that lasted 38 seconds on the video at the end of this post.

6:17am. The fiery disc popped out from the mountainous horizon.

I had it easy with this time-lapse shoot as the location was at the balcony of our villa. During the 2-hour shooting process, a Macaque Monkey came to visit and 2 Oriental Piped Hornbills flew by while countless birds serenaded the dawn. The entire experience was pure magic!

Such a sense of accomplishment for not sleeping in and miss the rare opportunity to time-lapse this incredibly scenic sunrise.

Step 2 : Creating a Time-Lapse Video

After capturing all the images, the next challenge is to combine them all into a video. There are quite a few options with Lightroom providing a pain-free way to do the job, but since I don’t have that program, I went with Photoshop to batch process the photos for a lower resolution and Windows Movie Maker to string the shots into a video.

It is necessary to batch process the photos first to shrink their file sizes before importing them into Windows Movie Maker to cut down on processing time. In Windows Movie Maker, I set the animation duration between photos to 0.07 seconds, add in a title, music, ending message and voila! I have my first time-lapse video! Hope you’ll enjoy it…

Editing Tricks to Enhance Mobile Phone Photos

Since stopping my one-photo-a-day project titled FUNicating 2012 with the conclusion of the year, I continue to shoot almost on a daily basis and posting the shots on my Facebook (darrenn9) through Instagram (darrenn9).  The shots are nothing spectacular but I’ve been receiving quite some emails asking about how I achieved certain effects. I am thankful for the positive feedbacks on the photos and thought I’d share in this post how they were created with free phone apps to answer the most frequently asked questions.

What camera are you using?

For Instagram posts, all the photos were taken with my Android mobile phone. I’m not stating which phone I use because I believe most current mobile devices (phones and touchpads) have pretty decent imaging capabilities. However, I would still use my Casio Exilim ZR1000 and DSLR if I want more flexibility, faster response and achieve higher quality pictures.

Mobile phone snaps are lossy on details and high pixellations (especially during low light situations or night shoots) may manifest even for online usage so I still can’t live without better photographic gadgets at the moment.

What image editing software do you use for your photos?

The good news is, I’m using FREE photo editing apps that anybody can download! The apps I use are for Android but I believe they are available for IOS too. Here’s the list of photo apps I currently have on my phone which I regularly engage :

- Pixlr-o-matic (they have an online photo editor here)

- LINE Camera

- PicsArt

- Instagram

Of the lot, Instagram is the least flexible in image manipulation but its filters make for fast ‘pop-arting’ of shots for online postings.

How did you achieve ‘this effect’ or ‘that look’ for your photo?

Frankly, it’s all about experimentation. After taking a shot, I would usually activate the apps to apply the different filters and effects on a photo to see what enhances my subject matter and looks good to me :)

Here’s an example :

BEFORE : Original photo taken with my handphone of a coloured-glass butterfly fridge magnet on my work desk. No editing done.

AFTER : Image editing done entirely on phone with LINE Camera, Pixlr-o-matic and Instagram.

Here are the processes I went through :

Step 1 : Snap photo with phone’s Camera (I find that taking photos directly from the Instagram app isn’t sharp enough).

Step 2 : Activate Instagram app to crop the photo to a square. ‘Share’ the photo from Instagram to Pixlr-o-matic.

Step 3 : In Pixlr-o-matic, I applied the ‘Morning’ filter. Then I ‘Share’ the resulting image to LINE Camera.

Step 4 : In LINE Camera, I applied the ‘Grunge’ filter and used the Text function to key in the all-inspiring message (haha…). Then I ‘Share’ the resulting image back to Instagram.

Step 5 : In Instagram, I applied the ‘Rise’ filter to brighten up the centre portion of the photo further before posting on the app and Facebook.

The apps are so powerful nowadays that they allow all of us to become not just photographers, but instant graphic designers! The prescribed filters and effects from the various phone imaging apps definintely added a new dimension to creating images to tell stories beyond the realm of traditional photography.

Here are some more BEFORE and AFTER photos. Most of the staged pics were shot on my light beige work desk. A clean background removes distractions and allows more dramatic effects from the apps to manifest.

If your work desk is not of a uniform colour like mine, place a clean A4 sheet beneath the subject before shooting…

勉强是没有幸福的。Created this firey background with the ‘Wave’ filter in Pixlr-o-matic.

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” – Mark 11:24. Applied these retro lines in Pixlr-o-matic. The filter didn’t come with the basic app and must be downloaded. Downloading is easy. Just scroll through to the last filter on the list and tap on the ‘+’ icon. It’ll load more filter collections which can be downloaded. Most of the apps have additional downloable filters and they are mostly free!

Tea time is a crunch back into health. LINE Camera comes with facial parts (eyes, eyebrows, nose, etc) and accesories (glasses, hats, tattoos, etc) that can be applied onto a subject.

Fruity bunny says eating more bananas will keep your most important organ alert and perky. That organ is the brain.

Rapbit says it’s time to mumbo jumbo and boogie!

We grow into the twists and turns of life.

I hope this post provided useful info on artifying mobile phone photos with imagaing apps. For more photos, please visit my Instagram gallery.

Have fun!

Day 342 : Casio Exilim EX-ZR1000 Review

‘C’ is also for ‘Celebrate’… and I have good reasons to coz the kind people at Casio Exilim Singapore gave me their latest compact camera, the EX-ZR1000 to test drive. I get to keep the camera after reviewing so it’s like an early Christmas present from them. Thanks!

The camera is definitely worth getting nuts over with its many ground-cracking functions and features. I foresee a beary good time with it!

The camera comes in white, black and red. I chose rad because it’s so boomz! An innovative feature of the camera is the twist-ring circling the lens that can be programed to control zoom, focus, ISO setting, etc. Although the feature allows for quick access to vital shooting configurations, I’ve yet to find meaningful use of it.

The Ferrari of Compact Cameras

Casio has always been forerunning with their digital watches and calculators but it seems that the maverick of  personal electronic gadgets is carving out a substantial share of the compact camera market with its recent line up of impressive shooters.

Initially, I had my doubts about Casio as a worthy contender of the big boys but having used the EX-ZR100 and EX-ZR200, I was impressed by the photos quality, cam features, ease of use and speed. About 80% of photos taken in my FUNicating 2012 daily shots were the work of either camera.

With Casio EX-ZR1000, the company has brought their compact cameras to another level. This camera is not an enhancement of EX-ZR200 but in a different class because it comes with a flip-up screen, twistable front ring, RAW imaging, and a bevy of features that had me wondering how can so many functions be packed into such a small camera?

To satisfy my curiosity, I went on a shoot of this year’s Christmas decor and lights along Orchard Road to see if the cam is naughty or nice. It was a very brief shoot so I didn’t explore every function or covered all the malls but I think the photos give a pretty good glimpse into what the camera can do and the festive colours electrifying downtown this yuletide…

Shot with ART (HDR Art) Mode. This mode is one of my favourites. It was available in both the EX-ZR100 and 200 models too but ZR1000 took it up a notch with 5 levels of ‘artifying’ your shots. This was taken with level 3 of the HDR Art setting,

The photo on the left is taken under normal auto mode while the one on the right is taken with HDR Art (Ex 1) setting. Compared to the level 3 setting used in the photo above, Ex 1 produces more natural colourations. When shooting in HDR or HDR Art modes, the camera takes 2 photos at once so that you have the option to use the normal auto version or the HDR version.

Lovers under the mistletoe at Mandarin Gallery shot with Casio EX-ZR1000′s P Mode. The photos in this post (except the first 2 shots taken with Instagram) have not been Photoshopped except to resize for quicker uploading.

One of the shooting modes new to Casio compact cams is Light Tone filter that adds a soft glow at the photo edges for a dreamy effect that draws focus to the subject. The filter comes in 3 colours – Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta. This is shot in Cyan.

Shot in ART (HDR Art) mode at level Ex 2. Compared to Ex 1, 2 looks even more natural while hyperising the colours.

More HDR Art mode (Ex 2). Simply love it!

Another in-built camera filter also found in the ART mode is Toy Camera. Again, there are 3 colour modes to choose from and what it does is that it changes the tone and temperature of the shot. This is taken in chrome colour.

Another shot taken in Toy Camera mode. It seems that the filter will turn out different effects depending on the light metering. Compared to the above photo, this shot looks more muted in colour. This is taken with a blue coloured filter.

Also taken in Toy Camera (Green) mode. This colour kinda turned the whole Christmas mood around to Halloween!

The Casio EX-ZR1000 comes with a Manual and Shutter Priority shooting modes that are really useful for long exposure photography.

Tunnel of light at Orchard Central. Experimented with long exposure (2 secs) while riding up the escalator in this shot. God knows how many times I got on and off the escalator to get this shot! To shoot this, I placed the cam on a mini Gorillapod and set it on the escalator. With a conventional compact cam, I would not be able to frame my shot but with EX-ZR1000′s flip screen, I could see what I am shooting. It gives me the flexibility to shoot from weird angles!

Another photo made possible by the flip screen which allowed me to frame myself. I placed the camera on the escalator, set it on Manual and self-timer, and posed as we rode the moving stairs down the tunnel of light. There are so many ways to have fun with the camera!

Wave goodbye to bad self-portraits. Casio Exilim ZR1000 comes with a revoluntionary motion sensing technology for self and group shots. This photo was taken by placing the camera on a platform, framing the scene, walking into it and adjust my position by looking at the flip-up screen till I’m satisfied. Then I simply waved at the camera for the shot to be taken. So cool!

Orchard Central’s wintry forest decor won this year’s Best Dressed Building along Orchard Road for Christmas 2012. I wish the white reindeer was facing the camera though.

When the surrounding is too messy, use the EX-ZR1000′s ART (Miniature) mode to blur out the distracting elements while keeping a sharp focus on the subject.

There are a few positions to select where the focus can be placed in horizontal or vertical framing. The above photo was taken with the in-focus strip placed to cam right and this was taken with the strip placed in the middle.

Get dizzy this Christmas with a kaleidoscope of you! This pop-up photo booth added a touch of crystal magic outside Wisma Atria. shot in P Mode.

A starry, starry night. This is a shot inside the gigantic walk-in Christmas tree at ION Orchard. For this shot, I set the camera to self-timer mode, placed it on the floor and framed the photo with the flip-up screen. No longer do I have to approximate my framing when placing my cam on the ground for such wide angle shots. Nice!

As I mentioned, this test-drive session was very short but I’m very satisfied with the results, especially since the photos were taken at night. Night photography is one of the best way to test how good a compact camera is because many struggle to capture well-exposed pictures without the graininess of high ISO settings. From the photos here, you can see that they are blemish-free.

On top of the impressive store of in-camera shooting modes, what makes the Casio EX-ZR1000 truly outstanding is its speed. It is built with dual-core processors which translates to amazing speed. The camera has a very fast sleep-to-shoot startup time and its incredible ability to take sharp images under any condition is the result of its high speed capabilities. Casio EX-ZR1000 is definitely the Ferrari of compact cams and it pretty affordable at only S$599!

Will be taking the camera out for more photography escapades so do check back for more shots taken with it on this blog. :)

Day 286 : Click Away

My DSLR is discharged today ahead of schedule after checking it in for repairs about 2 weeks ago. Glad that the camera came back just in time for my upcoming Sydney trip. Hope the S$207 paid for the replacement of parts will be worth it.

Day 269 : To the Camera Hospital

Bought my Nikon D90 in Dec 2008 and it has been my heavy eye that remembers many precious moments for me. Recently, it got sick. Brought it on my Taiwan trip last month and the colours were totally off. It’s like getting the Lomo / Holga effect all the time. It was kinda nice and interesting at first and I thought the problem was with my White Balance and colour settings but after checking everything time and again, the colours I got from my old pal was too nostalgia (read : saturated) for my liking.

So I brought it to the Nikon Service Centre at Fuji Xerox building (#10-01/02) to have it looked at and was told that the aperture mechanism was faulty. Fixing it up cost me S$207. Eye surgery even for a camera is so expensive.

I was served by this really great staff, Michelle Soh, who was very pleasant and helped got a technician to run a pre-diagnostic test before confirming that there was indeed a problem with the cam body. And so I bidded my buddy farewell after almost 4 years and entrusted it to the service centre for a 3-week repair work.

I hope the surgery will make it good as new. Provided that the technician don’t faint from the stench of my camera strap.

Day 165 : Samsung Galaxy S3

Barely five weeks of owning the HTC One X, it got snatched in Kuala Lumpur on 2 June 2012 and I had to get a replacement phone with no re-contract price discounts. I paid S$318 for the HTC One X when I recontracted with Singtel in April 2012. I called Singtel to ask if they could extend the same price as a goodwill in view of the circumstance that I was made to lose my phone and the fact that I’ve been a loyal customer for a long time.

Well, business is business for them and all they could give me was S$100 off my phone bill deducted over two months. How very shrewd. No wonder they are Singapore’s biggest telco company. S$100 off the bill is something, but it’s not going to help much when a new HTC One X costs S$898 without recontracting discounts.

HTC One X Vs. Samsung Galaxy S3

So I went on a hunt to look for mobile phone retail shops that offer the lowest prices. I didn’t have much time to do my research and relied mostly on my friend’s help. Our search brought me to Hi Tech Mobile who advertised on its website that the HTC One X is going for S$720. That’s the cheapest of all the other retail shops. However, when my friend called to confirm the price, she was told that the HTC One X actually costs S$750. That’s the same price offered by other competitor shops!

My friend called another shop in Far East Plaza (can’t remember the name) to check the price of HTC One X but when she got down to the shop on the same day, the price had increased by S$30. In other words, be careful with these shops who practice false advertising to get you to their shop so that you will relent to a higher price since you’ve taken the trouble to go there.

Anyhoo, we decided on WhyMobile at Far East Plaza since it seemed to be consistent with its pricing although I was told by my friend’s friend who works at a fashion boutique there that the boss is kinda snooty and service’s bad. But when I was purchasing my phone, I thought the service wasn’t a nightmare and the guy serving me patiently redid my screen protector several times to get rid of trapped air bubbles.

HTC One X Vs. Samsung Galaxy S3

I had wanted to get back the same phone, HTC One X at S$750. But with all the hype about Samsung Galaxy S3, I was swayed even though it cost S$880, S$130 more. The screen protector cost S$8 so my total pain was S$888 (heart-ache-ache-ache). Having used both the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3, I can’t help but feel that I should’ve stuck with One X. Here are three reasons why :

1. One X was plug-and play on my home PC. When I plugged in S3 to my PC, I was told the device wasn’t recognised. Apparently, I have to install a program called Kies for it to work. Kies is kinda like Apple’s iTunes, which I find a hassle because I have to install it to port files. My office laptop does not allow us to install anything without administrator rights. However, when I plugged my S3 into my office laptop, I could transfer files without any problem.

2. S3 doesn’t come preloaded with social media apps and photo editor. With One X, Facebook and some other social media apps come pre-installed and the camera comes with a bevy of shooting modes and editing tools. For S3, I had to download them myself which kinda showed that the device isn’t in tune with the times and user’s needs. Downloading the apps required expenditure on my data allocation. With Singtel’s new 2GB data cap, extra downloads mean hitting the ceiling sooner and potentially having to pay for data usage although the apps weren’t huge files. But in these times where Singtel cutting my plan’s 12GB data allowance to 2GB, every KB counts.

3. S3′s smart speller is rather dumb. I’ve used Samsung phones before and had always taken issue with its smart speller. It doesn’t pick out the right word and when I put in ‘…’ at the end of a sentence which I’m very fond of doing, S3 stops at just one ‘.’ so I had to delete the empty spaces and key ‘…’ twice. I didn’t face this problem with One X.

I am a tech idiot and a rather unsophisticated mobile phone user so my appreciation of a device is how easily it lets me do what I want to. Up to this point, I don’t feel that paying more for S3 is justified. The speed and response of both phones which use quad-core processors are negligible and all other specs are pretty similar. The only difference I feel is that S3 is 4G enabled. But I won’t be using 4G unless I upgrade my plan (which means more $$$).

Cool Apps to Have

Since I’ve gotten the S3, I’ll have to make the best use of it. Two features I like about S3 is that it comes with a Data Usage app that charts how much you’ve used with a warning line drawn across the 2GB mark and it also allows for unused apps to be kept into a folder to de-clutter the screen or hide the apps from pesky friends who like to help themselves to your phone (I find that extremely rude).

Here are some apps I find pretty amazing and you can download them free on iPhone or Android by searching for the names listed here…

Airdroid – This app allows me to sync my mobile phone to my PC with the need of USB cables or installation of any programs. Search for ‘Airdroid’ on Google Play store. I’m currently using this to transfer photos and music files between my phone and PC without having to download and install Kies.

Line Camera – A photo app that lets you add cutesy graphic elements as such diamonds, hearts, text, cartoons, etc on your photo. I tried it and it’s kinda fun.

Pixlr-O-Matic – Very cool app that lets you add lighting effects and photographic treatments that turns any photo into a work of art. Love it!

Good ‘ol Instagram getting high with Absolut satisfaction and immediate photographic gratification.

Line Camera giving this lemon coloured doggy cake lots of hearts, stars and sparkles.

The artistic and cool preset lighting filters on Pixlr-O-Matic adds many dimensions of colouration to photos that give them an artictic, avant-garde quality.

Day 155 : KL Butterfly Park

After the snatch-theft yesterday that left me phoneless, my mojo to explore and enjoy Kuala Lumpur got scared into a state of impotence. But I did come on this trip with the sole purpose of visiting the KL Butterfly Park.

So in the hope that communing with these gentle creatures of nature could uplift the spirit, we visited anyway and let the butterflies of Malaysia be my last pleasant memory of Kuala Lumpur. For I doubt I’ll come back again.

This is just a glimpse of the beauties I encountered and will post more photos and details about the park soon in my travel blog, Explore Life Lah!.

A gathering of delicate colourful sails as the butterflies extract moisture from the wet ground.

The park has lots of butterflies from a wide parentage of species. I’m seeing this emerald speckled butterfly for the first time. No idea what’s its name although I tried searching the park for write-ups on it.

Not many dragonflies in the park but caught sight of this one and a few others of the same genus perched on stems. Have to look closely amongst the bushes to see them.

Baby Bull Frogs. Other than free-flying butterflies, there are amphibians and other live insects on display in glassed-up tanks.

I have a feeling I’m walking around in a seafood restaurant with tanks after tanks of fish, crabs, turtles and frogs.

I’m glad I didn’t get thwarted from coming here. Although the park looked in much need of a manicure to its vegetation, the abundance of these jewelled kites from a wide selection of species made a visit here rather rewarding. Only grouse is that the park practise preferential pricing for its entrance fees. Foreigners are charged RM20 while Malaysians pay RM10 (I think).

Related Post : Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park – Paintings in the Wind

Day 124 : Photo Spamming

I’ve finally joined Instagram today. Been seeing the definitive squarish photos posted by friends on Facebook and had wondered what’s it all about for a long time. Being the slow adopter of technology that I am, I usually catch on to tech fads after they are no longer cool.

But I changed my mobile handset recently and its 8-megapixel camera keep seducing me to play with it and spray our cumshots from the fun sessions all over my Facebook wall. I’m loving it! It’s so fun to just shoot and show even if nobody cares

This is the dawn of my photo spamming… muahahahahaha… My Instagram nick is Darrenn9. Add me up! Thanks

Instagramed – HDB flats at Towner Road.

Instagramed – Park lamp in my neighbourhood.

Instagramed – Overhead bridge linking Towner Road estate and Whampoa Drive estate.

Day 106 : MacRitchie Reservoir with Casio EX-ZR200

I posted in Day 054 that the generous folks at Casio Singapore had given a set of their latest innovation in digital compact camera, the Casio Exilim ZR200 (EX-ZR200) to use and keep. Since then, I’ve been taking photos on and off with it because I’m still using the Casio Exilim ZR100 won from a blogging contest.

Right up till now, almost all the photos in the FUNicating daily shot series have been taken with either EX-ZR100 or EX-ZR200. The cameras have become my handy companions and I seldom leave home without either one of them. Although I’ve been using the EX-ZR200 for some time, abett sparingly, I haven’t actually test-driven the camera and put it to use for different shooting situations.

I had wanted to take the camera for a good shoot-out but work had been crazy busy and the weather went cranky rainy of late. So today, blessed with good weather and a release from work, I took EX-ZR200 to MacRitchie Reservoir to see how well it performs for an outdoor cum sunset shoot. And here are the photos…

MacRitchie Reservoir was completed in 1868 and was originally known as the Impounding Reservoir of Thomson Reservoir. It was renamed in 1922 when it underwent expansion works by an engineer, James MacRitchie. Shot with EX-ZR200 P Mode.

When I was younger, I used to come to MacRitchie Reservoir for jogging. The reservoir and its surrounding park looks so much better now. Shot in P Mode.

The scenic reservoir attracts many joggers as well as photographers and families. Shot in HDR Mode.

Donut chains. Testing how the place looks in black and white. Shot in P Mode.

Shot in HDR Mode and converted to black and white in Photoshop.

Shot in Best Shot (BS) Scenery Mode.

Shot in High Speed Mode.

Shot in BS Scenery Mode.

After some scenic shots, I tested the camera on floral and fauna with the Macro Mode and I must say the camera does a really great job at capturing details.

Shot in BS Macro Mode.

Under the fronds of a BIrd's Nest Fern. Shot in BS Macro Mode.

A man and his accordion filled the air with a sort of county fair flavour. Shot in P Mode.

Though his tune was light, the uncle didn't seem happy. There was no joy in his melody. Maybe he's playing the favourite tune of his wife or loved one who has passed on. Shot in P Mode.

The iconic pavilion and a zig-zag bridge of MacRitchie Reservoir. Shot in P Mode.

Shot in BS Scenery Mode.

Like my nail polish? When I came to MacRitchie Reservoir, I said a prayer for good shots and I found this little fella on my T-shirt while crossing the zig-zag bridge. Thank God for sending me this beautiful subject! Shot in BS Super Macro Mode.

This Jumping Spider is so cute! Shot in BS Super Macro Mode.

What an unforgettable encounter. After some shots, I placed it amongst some bushes even though I was so tempted to bring it home. But that would be betraying the trust the spider had on me. Shot in BS Macro Mode.

Shot in HDR Mode.

Shot in P Mode.

Shot in BS Blurred Background Mode. One of the awesome settings EX-ZR200 comes with is the Blurred Background Mode when you can achieve DSLR quality photo of a sharp subject (be it a person or item) in the foreground and blurring out the background. Absolutely luuurrrvvvveeee this feature in the camera!

Reflection of sunset. Shot in HDR Mode.

Shot in BS Sunset Mode.

Shot in BS Sunset Mode.

Shot in BS Sunset Mode.

Shot in HDR Mode.

Shot in HDR Mode.

Shot in HDR-ART Mode.

As you can see from the modes I’ve been using, P Mode and HDR Mode turn up tops (if you are unfamiliar with HDR imaging, click here to find out what it is). The camera is so intelligent, it automatically selects the mode and settings to get a great shot regardless of the shooting requirement. That’s one of the improvement EX-ZR200 have over EX-ZR100. The former activates the HDR Mode automatically so long as it detects a need for it when shooting in P Mode. With EX-ZR100, I had to turn on the HDR Mode manually.

The other feature I really like is the Blurred Background Mode. It’s really amazing to get DSLR quality effect with just a small compact camera. However, the Blurred Background Mode needs a certain technique in capturing images to get the effect. There were some photos I took in that mode but the camera wasn’t able to process it.

Apart from those features, what I also like about the EX-ZR200 is its start-up time when turning on the camera. It’s super fast!

Overall, I think the EX-ZR200 is an easy-to-use digital compact camera with good imaging capabilities and useful shooting modes pre-programmed for all kinds of photographic situations.

All photos in this post has gone through minor Photoshop post-processing such as Shadow/Highlight adjustments, Brightness and Contrast, Colour Saturation, and Sharpness. I do these to all my photos regardless of what camera I used. I consider that as make-up for the photos… just like how pretty girls can enhance their beauty further with some mascara, powder and rouge.

If you’re thinking about getting a compact camera, consider Casio Exilim ZR200. It’s a really smart gadget that idiot proofs idiot-proof cameras!

Day 054 : Casio Exilim ZR200

Thanks to the good folks at Casio Singapore, I was given a set of its latest innovation in digital compact camera - Casio Exilim EX-ZR200. The EX-ZR200 is an upgrade from the EX-ZR100 which I’ve been using all this while (in fact, all my FUNicating 2012 daily shots have been taken with it except Day 036 of the peacock) and I must say it’s a really nifty camera that packs a lot of features such as HDR, HDR-ART, High Speed Shooting, Multi-Frame SR Zoom, etc.

I’m not a technical expert in cameras, all I care about is image outcome and the EX-ZR100 gave me great results in a lot of situations and it’s simple to use. And now, in my hands, is the next evolution! I’ve yet to take it out for test shots but two of the most significant enhancements are :

1) Much Higher Speed. If EX-ZR100 is fast, ZR200 is faster still. As I turned on ZR200, I observed that the start-up time is much faster and the camera shoots at a 0.27 sec interval between shots. It also features a high speed HD Movie Mode which can record at a whooping 1,000 frames per second (fps)! Generally, our television which uses the PAL or NTSC systems only record and playback at a frame rate of 24 – 30 fps. What this means is with EX-ZR200 capturing more frames than the playback system, we can effectively slow down our video without loss of resolution. This is great for slow-mo playback of sports or action videos.

2) DSLR Quality Portraits. I think this function is going to set this compact apart from the competition. Casio has developed a original technique of blurring the background in portraits shots to achieve bokeh effect similar to photos taken by Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. Once I find a nice model, I’ll test out this function and post up pics.

I’m really excited with this new tool to experiment and play around with. Will take it out for some clicks soon!

Day 037 : Fruits of Hard Work

Collected my prizes for winning Casio’s Maximum Creativity with Exilim blog contest this afternoon. I won Best Blogger Award and Best Themed Photo Award (Spilt-Second Memories) so got 2 cams – EX-ZR100 and EX-TR100. Once again, thanks for all your votes!

Remove the Distance with EX-ZR100 Multi SR Zoom

Did you know that the first zoom lens on photographic cameras was developed in 1902? Since then, it has evolved from the optical format of getting subjects closer to digital magnification, to the revolutionary multi-frame zoom pioneered by Casio Exilim.

Optical zoom, digital zoom, and now, multi-frame zoom… what the firetruck are they? Being the king of tech idiots, I lost count of the times my hair turned blonde trying to figure them out. But I’ve finally understood the difference between them.

Optical Vs. Digital Zoom : Optical zoom is the magnification of a subject by the physical lens much like using a magnifying glass while digital zoom is using a program to enlarge the pixels on a digital image like zooming in to a photo on a computer. Optical zoom is HARDWARE zoom, digital zoom is SOFTWARE zoom. Optical zoom takes photo of far away subjects without losing quality while digital zoom will sacrifice image resolution. Compact cameras usually suffer from lower quality images due to zooming

The solution for better quality zoom images from compact cameras? Casio Exilim ZR100′s Multi SR Zoom.

What this function does is that it takes a rapid series of 5 shots in optical zoom mode with 1 press of the shutter button and combines the 5 shots into 1 photo. It uses a proprietary imaging technology that maintains high fidelity to image textures.

So much for the technical explanations. My hands are sore from constantly dyeing my hair back to black. Let’s look at photos taken with the Multi SR Zoom mode and see the results…

An environmental shot of the area in front of Asian Civilisation Museum, Singapore. See any Asian influences in this scene other than the Chinese gentleman? No? Let's Multi SR Zoom in...

Can you identify where these 3 heads of deities are located in the above environmental shot? I took this photo right where I was standing when taking the above pic in the Multi SR Zoom mode.

I also tried out the Multi SR Zoom mode in shooting a pic in portrait orientation. This was taken in an outdoor garden at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Can you see where this ornament was placed in the scene above? Again, I zoomed in and took this photo right where I was standing when shooting the establishing shot.

I must say, I was pretty amazed at the image quality of zoomed in objects taken at such a far distance as illustrated in the photos above. Having used this mode to shoot a variety of situations, my conclusion is that it works well in outdoor, bright daylight situations. Photos still turn out blur at indoor lowlight situations as with all other compact cameras when attempting to take a zoomed in image.

Also, the outlines of subject and colours may appear a little artificial at maximum zoom range in Multi SR Zoom mode. And it’s very, very hard to focus and frame a subject at maximum zoom because the viewfinder becomes hyper-sensitive to any micro movement of the hands. Setting the camera on a tripod to shoot in this mode might help although I’ve not tried.

So my tip is to NOT zoom in to the max, but magnify just enough to get a sharp photo and crop later in an imaging software to bring the subject closer. Having said that, all the photos here have gone through ZERO IMAGE POST-PROCESSING except to resize. A couple of photos have been cropped no more than 15% of the original image size.

Here are more shots to illustrate the power and image quality outcome of using the Multi SR Zoom on architecture and nature…

Wide shot of the historic Teochew Temple in Penang with EX-ZR100 Premium Auto mode. There is something very rare and special about the roof of this clan temple.

Shot with the camera's normal optical zoom. On the roof facing the entrance to the temple features 3 carps swimming upwards towards a gate.

Shot with Multi SR Zoom mode. On the reverse side of the rooftop carp sculpture is that of a big-bellied laughing Maitriya Buddha.

Super wayang (dramatic) roof decoration on the Khoo Kongsi clan temple in Penang. Khoo Kongsi represents the height of Jian Nian (剪粘) artistry, a form of Chinese architectural decoration that uses broken shards of glass. Jian Nian means cut and paste. I'm amazed by the complexity and level of refinement in the roof design of this cultural treasure.

From the richly articulate roof of Khoo Kongsi, here's a closer look at a temple roof of another style. Can you guess which country this belongs to? It is in Bangkok. I was rather surprised to see this nude coloured roof because the apex of Thai temples are famously opulent.

Catching shadows with Multi SR Zoom mode. Colours and outlines appear sharp when the zoom is mid-range. However, if the zoom is extended to the max, subjects then to be blurred or have this outline around them.

After all the roof study of heritage and religious buildings, here's catching a modern structure with Multi SR Zoom. I saw this reflection across a road and took 2 shots - first with Multi SR Zoom mode, second with normal zoom. The Multi SR Zoom shot (this pic) was lighter in colour compared to the normal zoom pic..

From architecture, here's capturing nature in Multi SR Zoom. Took this at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai. I was standing about 15 meters away and steadied my hands on a parapet when I snapped this pic of the majestic animal.

From the king on land to the king of the sky, I got upclose and personal with the Mountain Hawk-Eagle at Mae Sa Snake Farm. The huge bird was enclosed in a cage and although I wasn't far way, the cage's wire-mesh got in the way of my shot. So I used Multi SR Zoom to zoom in and blur out the cage meshing. The result looks as if there was no barrier between us. Awesome!

Alrighty, that’s all for my experience with the Multi SR Zoom mode. I’ve yet to see a very pronounced advantage in using this function over normal optical zoom but maybe I haven’t experiemented with it enough.

All photos in this post has NOT BEEN PHOTOSHOP POST-PROCESSED. For more photos taken with the camera, please visit my album A Month with Casio Exilim ZR100.

The Moments Between Seconds with EX-ZR100

“Everyone told me to pass on Speed because it was a ‘bus movie’” – Sandra Bullock

Thankfully, she didn’t miss starring in that movie and it seemed, the bus took her career places. A successful photograph shares much similarity with Miss Bullock’s success as a filmstar. It has to do with Speed.

Apart from controlling light, speed is the second most important factor that affects the outcome of a photo. When it comes to cameras and lenses, size doesn’t matter. Speed does. And faster is always better. Faster DSLR lenses generally cost more than slower ones while in the compact camera arena, the handy shooters are increasingly breaking the speed barrier with faster processors.

However, at this point in time, none of the camera makers has yet caught up with Casio Exilim ZR100′s impressive 0.37 second processing duration in-between shots. Lightning speed is the soul of this camera. 

In fact, High Speed is such a lauded feature of EX-ZR100 that the function comes with a special button on the camera’s body to activate this mode of shooting. 

Getting motion sickness looking at this photo? Blur is common when taking moving subjects onboard another moving vehicle. This shot of the undersea tunnel across Hong Kong's harbour was shot with EX-ZR100 Normal mode.

When taking photos with a compact camera, I subconsciously avoid action shots because it’s so hard to get sharp photos. Shots with movements, especially taken under indoor conditions, usually end up like the photo above. So I decided to give EX-ZR100 High Speed mode a try. And the result turned out as follows…

Yes, I got the Mercedes' car plate number in focus. Time to buy 4D! The High Speed mode captures a burst of shots and I can choose the best one of an action sequence. I call this a double motion-whammy shot because the cars were speeding and I was at the back of a moving bus when taking this. I felt rather Sandra Bullock.

What happens when I turn on the camera’s High Speed function is this… it activates the unique dual-core processors to record a rapid series of shots with just one press of the shutter button. It can take as many as 40 frames per second! What I ended up with was a series of shots with every split-second movement captured. I caught all the moments in-between the seconds and simply choose the best ones to keep later.

With the High Speed mode, no action escapes the camera. Such as this daredevil snake handler who kissed a majorly pissed venomous King Cobra at Mae Sa Snake Farm during my trip to Chiang Mai…

King Cobra : "I don't mind that you kiss me, but that breath! S..ss...s...ssheeesh!"

To create this ‘moving portrait’, all I had to do was select 4 shots from 30 shots that the High Speed mode took in a second. With such a dangerous snake, the handler had to be very deft with his display of affection. The cobra wasn’t defanged or depoisoned because after the show, he milked the snake of its poison in front of my face! 

My favourite photo from the series of shots taken in High Speed mode. The snake's aggressiveness was soften by the handler's adoration and awe of it.

I would like to show more photos taken with the High Speed mode but I don’t find myself in environments with hyper activities. The rush of a busy mind disregarded.

So here are photos of the 2 beings that let my heart feel a lot of high-speed movements other than the people I love…

Rainbow doing her daily yoga stretch. It's always a challenge to get a still shot of this hyper rascal. She just claws my affection every time she does this cute pose.

Get an eye work-out with Joy! Each time she blinks, you blink too. One of the fun things to create is an animated GIF like this from the photos taken in High Speed mode. Joy is blinking at 5 seconds interval. That's 12 times a minute. It keeps the eyes lubricated and dry eyes out. On average, a human adult blinks at an interval of 2 - 6 seconds (30 - 10 times per minute). When reading or using the computer, blinking is reduced to 4 times a minute which results in dry eyes. Over or under blinking could signify stroke, nervous system disorders or Parkinson

I had quite a fun experience with the Casio Exilim ZR100 High Speed mode and I can foresee many more situations to use it other than to capture action and pets that can hardly stay still.

High Speed mode works with many other modes on the camera (eg. Auto, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Manual mode) while it doesn’t function with the Premium Auto and Best Shot modes. That’s because these modes already come with automatic presets to activate (or not of) the camera’s High Speed image capture ability.

My only grouse is that it captures many shots with just one press of a button and I had to later go through the tens of shots to choose one that I like. Then again, that’s the wonderful thing about this mode. It captures all the action so that the best parts are not missed.

Just like Sandra Bullock who didn’t miss the bus.

情书中的自由

几天前，工作得无聊便想翻翻书，吃蛇一下。于是便从随身袋里取出了由 Gordon Livingston 医生所著的 Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart – Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now 翻阅。

Livingston 是一名心理科医生。这本书记载了他多年行医，从病人身上所累积下来的生活真理，写成三十则医疗典故与读者分享。这三十则典故例出了许多人在生活里所遇上的普遍问题和摆脱它们的正面思想，以达快乐。

这本书是一位赏心人送我的。礼书情意重。这人可真是有心。看完了第一则典故后，我想把这本书拍摄下来。我希望能够把它拍得较有象征性来代表我对书，与看书的思牵。

想了一阵子，灵机一动，决定把书篇折起来成个心形。然后再把一端面向工作桌上香薰炉里的蜡烛，代表爱情能照亮心坊，而读书能生慧；智慧能使人亮悟谜沼。

爱情与智慧是生活的解放，自由人生的指引光！

Love frees the heart, knowledge frees the mind. There is light at the end of the tunnel of love and wisdom! Shot with Casio Exilim ZR100 HDR-ART mode.

拍完这张照片后，我把它上载到 Casio Exilim Singapore Facebook Fanpage 参加摄影比赛。你也可以参加哦！参赛者有机会赢取一架在自拍领域称霸的 Casio Exilim TR100！参赛方法如下 ：

别等啦，现在就点击 Casio Exilim Singapore Facebook Fanpage，上载代表 “新加坡创意面相” 或 “自由无限量” 的照片赢取相机！照片上载截止日期 ：12月 11日 2011年。

赶快行动，祝你好运！

Living Colours with Exilim ZR100 HDR-ART

A photograph is a time machine. It brings us back to the moment we first greeted the world, our important events, milestones, holidays and helps us remember the people in our lives. But more than a memory bank, a photo is also a medium of communicating beauty that has the ability to alter the mood of a viewer.

To me, I think the best photographs are those that seamlessly blend the 2 functions together where the adventures in our lives are captured beautifully. And it need not be difficult. Nor does one need a big camera to do it. A powerful compact camera such as the Casio Exilim ZR100 can do the job more than adequately.

I’ve been using the camera for about 2 weeks now and I must say I’m really impressed at what I could do with it, the ease of use and the quality of images. I’ve shared in my previous post about the HDR mode and how it’s so easy to acquire High Dynamic Range (HDR) shots with just one click. In this post, I’ll go a step further and share with you my experiments with the Casio Exilim ZR100 HDR-ART mode.

What’s the difference between HDR and HDR-ART mode you may ask? Instead of describing it to you in words, I’ll let the photos taken in the HDR-ART mode do the talking. All photos in this post have NOT been post-processed with Photoshop. There’s really no need to with HDR-ART mode anyway.

This photo was taken with the Casio Exilim ZR100 (EX-ZR100 in short) in Auto Mode. The sun was shining at the top right hand corner and I wanted to show the x-ray effect on the leaf caused by the bright light. However, the area of the light source in the photo was burnt-out.

I switched to HDR-ART mode and immediately, the veins of the leaf became more pronounced and the burnt-out spot was eliminated.

As you can see in the above example, the HDR-ART mode saturates the colours in a scene to produce photos that not only reap the benefit of HDR’s ability to balance exposure, but adds an artistic quality to the final image.

What is art is often subjective and open to personal preference, but I think it’s pretty cool that I have a camera that has the potential to artify anything if I choose to without external imaging softwares. This post will share with you the different lighting conditions and subject matters that have been shot in HDR-ART mode and their outcomes. You will see photos taken in that mode during dull skies, a rainy day, sunny day, outdoors, indoors, daily objects, and scenes with strong lighting components.

Visited the Gardens by the Bay during its preview but the sun was on vacation that day. I tried to take a photo of this branchy structure that is one of the icons of the development but it turned out so depressive.

Shot in HDR-ART mode, the colours of the organic tower came to life!

View from my window during a rainy, misty day shot in Auto mode.

Same view shot in HDR-ART mode. The evening sun and dispersing clouds came into focus while streaks of rainfall are visible against the darker green canopies of the trees.

Still on dull grey skies that dominates our November / December weather here in Singapore, this aerial shot of Centrepoint in HDR mode (left) and HDR-ART mode (right) shows the whimsical cartooning effect of the latter mode. HDR-ART mode works well with subjects or scenes with lots of lights. But it can also be an overkill so experiment and determine if the result is to your liking.

Dramatic Photos with Just a Touch

Okay, enough of grey-skied photos. Here’s a collection of shots showing what happens when the situations had been HDR-ARTed!

The sky makes for a great subject to use the HDR-ART mode on especially when there's a sharp contrast. In this photo, the sky seem to form a paw imprint over the Bangkok General Post Office and it reminded me of my 2 lovely dogs at home.

HDR-ART captured the gloriousness of a sunny day at Merlion Park spined by the Singapore CBD skyline. Personally, I find that the HDR-ART is not suitable for scenes with a lot of elements as they fight for attention. This scene somehow worked but there were many that were deleted because they were too busy for the eyes in HDR-ART mode.

Visage of Bangkok's CentralWorld office wing. This was taken with HDR-ART mode's Level 1 strength in colour saturation and I thought the photo looks very natural as the ART mode can make things look rather artificial at times.

From the exterior of buildings, I tested HDR-ART on the interior of buildings such as this photo of the Suvarnabhumi Airport. I love how the colours looks so natural at Level 1 saturation in HDR-ART mode.

Another interior architectural shot. This time of in-building decorations such as the cyclical art installation at the foyer of Novena Square. the cyclical installation at the foyer of Novena Square.

Fly Awaves. Initially, I couldn't decide if this pic was taken in the HDR-ART mode because the colours looked so natural. Then I consulted other photos I took of this scene in other modes (Auto and HDR) and I confirmed this is HDR-ART because the colours were more vivid compared to the others.

Exterior of my office. I wanted to see how HDR-ART performs in a scene like this with strong and muted colours. The earthy hues remained sombre but the pinkish highlights of the floral motifs were given a flourescent fushia upgrade!

Having looked at how HDR-ART bring out the colours of scenic and architectural subjects, the following photos will demonstrate how this mode performs with daily life objects and when used during the night.

Strong primary colours get wildly accented in the HDR-ART mode. Here's an example of how the pink flowers of a dwarf frangipani (kalachuchi) was made louder in this mode!

Asian profusion of sleeping beauty or Ai Li in Wonderland?

My newly acquired radio bag from Jatuchak Market. Love how the HDR-ART mode made it look so retrolicious and funky-cool!

Shot taken below my flat. My family and neighbourhood is my circle of life.

Here’s a tip you should know. The HDR-ART mode offers the flexibility of controlling the level of colour saturation. The preceding photos were taken with varying strengths of colouration but I couldn’t recall what I used in most of them. So I decided to chart the differences between the various levels in the following photos. In the HDR-ART mode, you can decide between a level of 1 to 3 for how artified you want your photos to look.

As a general observation, I realise that focusing improves with the higher saturation level (that is, Level 3) as more of the subject is in focus. Level 1 is good for having just an element closest to the camera sharp while the rest of the subject gets blurred. Look at the clarity of the green glass piece in the above photos to get what I mean. Level 1 has more of the lantern out-of-focus while keeping green section relatively clear. Overall sharpness is achieved with Level 3.

However, this is used indoors on a single object. I think Level 1 is great for taking HDR-ART shots of landscape and buildings to give them stronger colours yet looking natural. Looking at all the photos on this post again, can you identify which were shot with Level 1, 2 or 3?

HDR-ART mode loves the light. No better time to use it than this Christmas! I call this shot, the Infinity of Creativity with HDR-ART!

With Casio Exilim ZR100 HDR-ART mode, colours go on steriods to create photos that are not just a mere record of things happened and seen, but opens up an artistic realm. Sorta like Andy Warhol’s famous pop-art treatment to a can of Campbell Soup and Marilyn Monroe. Oh, I didn’t put up photos of people taken in the HDR-ART mode because I felt they look rather weird. Maybe it’s the model (me) and not the camera’s fault. LOL.

HDR-ART mode is highly addictive as anything can be photographed with unexpected colour results. I love taking a photo in this mode and then waiting for the image to be processed in the camera. The wait is like unwrapping a present because I don’t know what to expect of the outcome. And because I cannot predict what a photo will look like, it spurs me to try shooting everything and be spontaneous.

To me, that’s what photography should be and all about… spontaneity, having fun and breaking free from photographic traditions. With HDR-ART, we could just very well be the next Andy Warhol!

For more photos taken with the camera, please visit my album A Month with Casio Exilim ZR100.