The Patience Of A Photographer!

Don't Monkey With Me

Runner Babe Run

Fly Past

The Patience Of A Photographer!

I originally wanted to call this blog Siam, which is a colloquial expression for "get lost" or "move away- I'm passing through". On second thought, I wanted to share the importance of patience for a photographer trying to get what he envisions. I've resorted to a humdrum title.

I'm sharing these three images to illustrate my thoughts and trigger memories.

Interesting thing about these three images is that they were all taken with different cameras.

There's a manual focus rangefinder, a full-frame mirrorless camera, and a medium format digital camera. However the key to being able to capture the image I envisaged lies in two factors: I have captured the image through my mind's eye and the patience to wait for the subject to move into the frame and rapid fire the shot.

Don't Monkey With Me: I was at Woodlands Waterfront (North region) in Singapore waiting to shoot the sunset. A few photographers were also there to shoot the sunset. I was sitting about 3 meters or 10 feet away from this photographer. My goal was to get a silhouette shot of him with the radiant sun in the background. I noticed a few monkeys playing around the railings (their habitat and usual playground) and I knew they would continue walking through it to get to the other side. After setting the camera up, I waited for the subject to move into the shot. Voila, it's captured.

Runner Babe Run: Another sunset at a different location. This shot was taken at Pandan Reservoir in Singapore's Western Region. There's a jogging path around the reservoir, and many people work out there. I chose a lower angle shot to make the subject stand out and eliminate distractions. However, I included that streak from the cloud which gives it an impression of motion. I took several pictures of joggers and this is the best one.

Fly Past: Location shoot at Pualu Ubin, an island northeast of Singapore. Having walked around the island all morning, I got to this spot around noon, and the lighting wasn't ideal for landscape photography. The high contrast of light from the high noon sun gave me the idea of shooting a surreal shot instead of a pictorial. There was this flock of birds resting on the platform, so when I thought about creating an image of the birds' flight. I waited, waited, and not long afterwards, the action took place and I got this shot. This image needed a bit of color in post-processing due to lighting conditions. To enhance the photo, I used several post-processing techniques. The first thing I did was adjust the exposure and contrast to make the high noon lighting stand out. After that, I added a touch of color grading to make the image look more surreal and appealing. A little sharpening and noise reduction finished up the image, ensuring its clarity and impact.

Captured photography is spontaneous and very alive, but lack of control can sometimes make the end result hard to deal with. In photography, patience allows the photographer to wait for the perfect moment, aligning elements within the frame harmoniously. Having patience allows photographers to capture spontaneous and genuine scenes that might otherwise go unnoticed. By using this technique, you can create images that are more compelling and emotive, showing off both the subject and the environment. Taking powerful, emotional photos that evoke memories and emotions takes patience. Happy shooting!