WHAT a great day I had today at the National Geographic + Canon workshop with Bob Madden. Needless to say, if there were more workshops like this and I actually had to pay, I would. Thanks to Canon and National Geographic for the invitation and for Bob Madden for his guidance and inspirational words of wisdom. Hope I get to see you again in Singapore.

Watch out for a more complete post on the experience.  To be updated…

-UPDATE-

Introduction

MORE than 25+ years ago, I took a photography class that included darkroom work in secondary school. I continued to have an interest in photography for those 25+ years but at varying degrees competing with teenage hormones, the emergence of personal computers, and more. Most of the time I was carrying a Canon SLR while others a compact 35mm. I remembered most of what I learned - f-stop, DoF, shutter speed, lighting, etcetera. That is all well and good but somethings need practice and time to hone, something I didn’t really do.

Bob – He’s the Lava Guy

This is where Bob Madden (Bob) comes in. He has an eye that can process a scene and quickly realise the money shot. I believe during his early days of SLR film camera shooting he had to learn this fast because he didn’t have the luxury of shooting hundreds of shots just to get that one good shot. These days with digital camera photography, I believe this ability has been lost.

The workshop itself was simple. Listen to Bob’s great stories, anecdotes and find out more about all his varied assignments. Luckily, I was seated at his table for lunch. The workshop assignment was to go out to the Singapore River vicinity and shoot, with an emphasis on people photography. We had to understand that photographing strangers isn’t easy but Bob shared with us a variety of tips.

We started out in three groups of 5 to 7 and there was a little worry that everyone would eventually end up shooting the same subject matter over and over again. It turns out that there was very little overlap in the photographs presented at the critique session.

Subject Shooting

!Note: No cropping, colour balancing or photo editing of any kind has been applied to these photos with the exception of resizing and arranging.

Here’s a series of my first few shots as we were dropped by the shuttle bus at South Bridge Road, literally at a bridge over the Singaproe River (Seen in a shot later at the end).

 

 

Nothing to be excited about, still trying to get into the groove. While surveying the area which is just next to the Singapore River and elderly couple came along and sat down. I believe they were a bit tired. I asked them if I could photograph them and they obliged. I had thought to get a shot of there faces but because I approached them from behind I had already sort of envisioned my shot. You can see from my sequence of shots that it gradually developed into an interesting shot.

 

 

A police man was doing his rounds and it looked like a interesting shot but in landscape it didn’t have any punch. I took aa portrait shot and that made the high security wall contrast the short police man and his long walk ahead.

 

 

Walked around a bit to the back of the old Supreme Court and the Padang. Took some shots. Bob commented on a number of the building shots that were shown during the critique session and noted that on gray overcast days buildings will lack depth and look really flat. Not sure why I shot the bowling green.

 

 

Back over to the Arts House and we’ve got gates of steel and something more comforting and soft…ice cream! I was waiting to see the happy smiling face of the kid but it didn’t happen. I have in the past taken an ice cream kid photo.

 

 

Move on over to the underpass and across the river from the Fullerton Hotel. I missed a great shot of the foreign workers raking the leaves and maintaining the grounds.

 

 

This is a young lady that was intent on texting (sms) a friend.

 

 

Living and working on the Singaproe River and the boats that ply the river water.

 

 

Tying up along the river’s edge. A lone yellow shirted man makes sure the rope does not have any knots.

 

 

Some idea shots of which doesn’t really show off with the exception of the lone bicyclist.

 

 

Back at Handy Road, the Luxe Museum for the critique session.

 

 

At the end of the shooting by the Singapore River all the participants were required to choose 3 photographs they felt were their best.

Can you guess which 3 photos that I chose to be presented and critiqued?

Bob’s critique was good and his comments will help me in future shots with careful attention to the composition. By composing your photograph well you won’t be burdened by the need to crop to obtain the best shot. The beauty of getting this correct is less need to use photoshop which may compromise the quality of the photo.