Dark clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light ~Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Don't you guys hate it when someone doesn't reply your pm-s on clubsnap??

Geez, i hate it to the max when someone does exactly so. 

Someone wanted to trade lens and while going through negotiations, they just disappear like that. They stop replying, even after i 'nudged them' with another message! 

Anyway, the below lens is still up for trade! 

I was just pondering about life this morning - whether one could really have two hobbies that they really love. 

Can one juggle hobby X and hobby Y at the same time while giving the best efforts for both ?

Can i actually do body conditioning (i detest the word body building) and photography at the same time? Perhaps, maybe. Some say it all boils down to your time management, goals etc. 

What if i want to excel in both ? 

Geez, its a hard decision to make afterall. 

Anyway, i'm still on the search for a telephoto as well. All the canon/tamron/sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 are all damn ex in the market. Even a canon would cost me a 4xx SGD! Best part, after buying a telephoto for wildlife shots, i still need to find a way to recoup/earn the money lost. 

Some many say that all you need is a KIT LENS - they shoot pretty well. 

Before being engulfed in flames with haters equipped with flamethrowers by their side, i would like to say that KIT LENS - cannot do wildlife shots. 

A good argument would be - the focal length of a kit lens doesnt reach far enough e.g canon's 2nd kit for aps-c cameras are 18-135 

Next up, the wish lens! Wait, am i supposed to call this a wishlist instead?

The Tokina UWA 11-16 f 2.8

Again, for those who's gonna flame me again, at least here my explanation as a beginner.

Possibly because of the locations that i want to take a landscape picture, i'm always pretty tight up. i,e can't move alot and yet i want to capture alot more of the landscape. So my Tamron 17-50 f 2.8 would probably have some trouble capturing what i want to capture!

If i need to capture more, then i should get the Sigma 8-16 isn't it? I saw the sigma, i believe its a fish eye lens. Best part? - no filter. I'm a filter person because i believe and strongly believe in accidents happening to your lens. In the event you drop the sigma lens in the lens down position, not only will your heart sink, you'll probably observe nasty cracks on the screen.

Besides, the sigma is f/4.5-5.6 while the Tokina has a constant aperture of f 2.8. Talk about low light, and flexibility!

I believe a 2nd hand Tokina 11-16 f 2.8 and a sigma f4-5.6 canon mounts would at least be 6xx SGD for a 2nd hand one!

Well well, so if i'm gonna get a canon/sigma/tamron 70-300 together with a tokina 11-16, that would amount to 1k SGD wohoooooooooo.

Okay, possibily the most important question ever to end the post - anybody wants to sponsor me this 1k?? I will be willing to shoot for you for free to trade off for these equipments! hahaha.

Or. maybe i'll convince my friend to let me use his Carl Zeiss for a trade first!

So CARL ZEISS 35MM F2 trade for Canon 70-300 + Tokina 11-16 ! =D
(hope my friend doesn't mind if i borrow some cash first hahahah)

One of the best place i've ever visited, was a place where i would imagine Heaven to be like. 

People were smiling, having fun, and there were practically no one with sad faces! Okay, probably the paying parties (parents, husbands, boyfriends etc) would have sulked at the ticketing counter but all of them were probably happy once they got inside!

I'm not going to go into details but i'm just here to share a picture with you.

With this picture i have a quote to share as well. 

If you can dream it, you can do it -Walt Disney

With this in mind, for those chasing your dreams to be a better photographer, photoshopper, or any other dream jobs, keep it going!

image was edited in lightroom. Possibly the first virgin edited-image in Light Room.

SIGMA 70-300mm

So, i was going through some photos online and i realised that wildlife photography could be quite awesome as well!

Well, maybe i'll catch an eagle soaring over Singapore's sunny island someday!

I'm actually looking at the Canon 70 - 300 IS USM f4-5.6, but i guess its way too expensive.

Even the cheapest 2nd hand one i found was 430 SGD! And nobody sells the tamron at Clubsnap anymore..

So i've decided to turn to the SIGMA 70-300 APO DG Macro instead. I'm not saying that i am settling with a lousier brand, because i couldn't find a tamron/canon.. But after reading reviews of the Sigma today, i'm happy to say that the Sigma might even out-perform the Tamron at the same range of 70-300!

Anyway, i hope i can find one of these SIGMA's soon so i can bring it out and snap some really cool wild animals! Might even consider going to the zoo just to take pictures to try the lens out!

And my friend's Carl Zeiss at f2, 35mm, he wanted to trade it to Canon gear because he's changing camera system! This lens is retailing at 1.3k odd and he has intentions to sell it at 1k!

Anyone reading this post would like to switch systems to Nikon can trade your canon gears with him! You can mail him through me at - shadezfotog@gmail.com!

And then he will contact you directly!

Well, will post a new picture soon! ;)

the very first Black N White foto

caption: man and traffic (f 2.0, 35mm, iso 200) 

Not exactly a very good picture but i think the contrast is still displayed pretty well! 

Well, many more pictures to come! (hopefully!)

Why this website is created.

EDIT: I realized the first blog entry was really poor and I decided to rewrite it.

This blog is created on 8^th Nov 2013 and i do have the habit of starting my very first blog post indicating the date. Well, its not a bad habit I guess! In the event that I ever look back at this very first post several years later, I’ll still remember when it all started.

One of the main reasons on the creation of this blog was because I ‘accidentally’ reignited my passion towards photography. Possibly because I have a new lens to play with now – Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35. But then again, the Tamron 17-50 f 2.8 didn’t ignite any of the same feelings as this CZ lens did though. Weird huh!

Well, many of my facebook friends that know me personally would criticize and say that I’m too noob to use such a lens. But I’m sorry folks, im using this lens not because I’m rich/going to act pro etc but I happen to be able to borrow it from a friend.

Sometimes, I just hate it when friends that you have on facebook criticize on your photos. I mean, they look absolutely brilliant in my eyes as the photographer but they just have to use nasty comments on you when you upload them to facebook. They know they’re ‘professional’ (they make quite abit of kaching by offering various photography services) in that area but they just had to do criticize you openly with nasty (sometimes) words.

Anyway, this blog will serve as a page when I can openly share my works. The pictures I choose to upload may not have the best colors, best exposures, best compositions or best framing etc, but they are still what I deem best, especially before I choose to upload them. Most of the photos will be ‘watermarked’ in the near future, not because I think they’re of superb quality but these photos will still be considered as my work.

If there are shots where you think that they will make an excellent background and would love to have the picture without the watermark, I’ll be more willing to send it to you.

Look, heres the deal. I’m totally fine with sharing, but you can’t steal. So drop me an e-mail at shadezfotog@gmail.com if there are photos that you really like and would want to have the full resolution ones sent to you.

Next up, I would like to declare that the blog’s main purpose is not for advertising services. Again, I would like to emphasize and reinstate my main purpose -blog is for me to share my love for photography and my monochrome images (some in full color probably).

By now you should already know that I am a beginner photographer. Yes, I do know how to operate in AV and TV mode, but then again it doesn’t mean I am professional enough to cover full fledge events.

However, if you appreciate my works posted here and believe that I can be of an asset to your company, you may wish to engage me in your company. Just send me an e-mail to shadezfotog@gmail.com

I do not have a rate yet, because I am not of professional standards yet while I do know of a lot of photographers who start charging – for taking photographs once they own their very first dslr.

I believe I have taken over 20k images but I still find myself with a lot to learn (maybe I don’t have a talent after all)

On the overall, I do not believe in charging ‘clients’ anything, unless I can promise you beautiful shots at your event.

Some photographer told me before, “Precious moments only happen once and if you miss it, they will not happen again”

This is the reason why I am not advertising any form of services!