::spent the entire day sorting out the LTC pics.. all 2285 of them, some needed cropping, contrast adjustments.. only about 3.8GB worth of pics made the cut.. out of the 6GB worth of cards we used.. went to buy some accessories with Mr Yee on the Wed before LTC.. got 2 Slingshot 200 bags, 4 1GB cards and 2 extra batts.. the bags were extremely useful, you can just sling the bag to the side and can change lenses, get extra cards, batts.. plus so much more space than our current bags..

Friday
met Kian Hwee outside the darkroom first to check if we have brought everything we needed.. rented the 10-22 and 70-200F4 lenses.. so each of us got wide-anlge to telephoto covered.. of course, we were early.. took some pics of them preparing their banners, briefing etc.. nothing special, you can take a look at the whole collection at the college website once I submit the pics..
the trip there was long to say the least.. lotsa winding roads to the campsite once we got off the expressway..
briefings again once we got off the buses.. they had some games first, the crossing game, the tire out of the pole etc.. headed for the kayak school, while Kian Hwee covered the belay school.. couldn't join them out in the sea cos only the next day for their expedition they'll have the powerboat.. so joined Kian Hwee to take some of the high elements.. didn't take much cos it rained quite heavily halfway..



made a light-painting after dinner with Kian Hwee writing.. again, only out of the dozen shots we took this was the nicest.. the rest some letters not proportional, the spacing not right.. the night activities were mostly leadership talks, so took a couple of shots then went to rest already..
woke up the next morning quite early, partly cos I needed to go to the toilet.. hahaa.. it was already 5plus in the morning.. the lights were all off and had take out my torchlight to find my way around.. on the way back, noticed something rarely seen in Singapore..



Stars..
we didn't have the cable release, so had to manually hold the shutter for 1.5mins for that exposure.. would loved to make a star trail attempt, but don't think its possible to hold for like 30min without a cable release..

Saturday
went for the sea expedition in the morning.. had lasi lemak for breakfast, then followed the group towards the kayak shed.. had to waddle through the water to get on the power-boat, so my shoes were wet..



the waters that day looked pretty calm and pleasant... with the morning sun just starting to light up the sky and with the reflections in the water, it looked pretty surreal.. things started to change in the later part of the morning.. sunny was the word to use here.. and it didn't help that I was gonna shoot into the sun, even the lens hood can't prevent the flare..



the 70-200 F4 L lens is amazingly sharp.. the DOF at wide open also quite shallow, too shallow sometimes that I can't get the whole kayak in focus.. only had a few water splashing shots.. have some other nice shots too, but too many to be shown here..
anyway, had a number of incidents along the way.. picked up a couple of extra "passengers".. we were heading towards a checkpoint when we spotted some nets, went back to inform the rest of the expedition, but got stuck in it ourselves.. hahaa..



had to cut through the net cos it was too tangled up to set it free.. the fishes would be happy that theres now a hole to swim though, but the fisherman won't.. hiaz, its this kinda things that are killing off the wildlife in Singapore.. who knows what innocent creatures were caught in this net unintendedly..
handed out some biscuits while they had their rest.. the journey back seemed longer, maybe because now its already the mid-noon sun is up.. most of the time we didn't really go full speed, a few short burst and more waiting... picked up another "passenger" when we were almost back, one of the few times we went at full speed..
had a slight flu when I came back.. slept for awhile, but ended up with a headache.. took some Panadol and by the evening it was gone..

Sunday
went for the high elements today.. took some shots the day before, but today from a totally different perpective.. from the top..






hard at work..
Kian Hwee got geared up and had to "modify" the cam abit.. shortened the camera strap so that it could be worn snuggly, and had to remove the battery grip to lessen the weight.. mounted on the 10-22 lens for that ultra-wide perpective.. also to exaggrate the height..



way up..
had to go off for a few hours cos my family taking a family portrait together.. had lunch first, Kian Hwee went off for the land expedition group, while I went off with my family.. they setted up a make-shift studio in the living room with all the studio strobe lights and reflectors.. after 3 days of taking shots of people, it was my turn to be taken.. irony issn't it..
went to have a nice warm shower and enjoyed the modern comforts of air-conditioning.. changed into a long sleeved shirt and black pants for the photo.. all my cousin were there already there and getting ready for the shoot.. when it came down to the actual shoot, every single detail was not spared.. every position not aligned, every hand not put properly.. quite tedious..
after that photo shoot, had my a photo shoot of my own too.. had to take the group photos for all the groups.. well not all, but 2/3 cos we did 1 subcamp yesteday.. wish I had those strobe lights too, but then that would cut down on my versatility.. had the groups to decide what and where they wanted.. created some pretty nice and creative photos.. each group had their own unique location and pose, so you could easily recognised which group is which..

Monday
the last day of the camp.. took some of the raft-building shots in the morning.. had to get my just dried pair of shoes muddy again.. so much for not packing an extra pair of shoes.. did a group photo for all the facillitators and teachers before we boarded the bus.. started to rain again as we boarded the bus..
anyway, wanna share 2 shots from the LTC thus far that I liked.. more of the teambuilding side..





Tribal..
met up with Kian Hwee once we got back to school.. Zhi Kai wanted to borrow the other 350D but we were kinda short on memory cards already.. I used my 2GB SD card with the adaptor, and still left with 183 shots left.. was planing to fill it with the finale night pics later on, but Zhi Kai wanted the adaptor.. had to make do with the rest of the spare cards we had lying in the darkroom..
had our dinner at the canteen.. then went to get the tripods before heading for LT4.. for Finale Night..



Finale Night..
the skits for finale night were hilarious.. parodied lotsa aspects of the LTC, lotsa cross-gender roles also.. haha.. though it as fun, but I think they learnt some important lessons through those skits.. though some slightly lame.. Ms Audrey was also kind enough to get for us the LTC shirts.. they had a mass tribal cheer at the parade square.. had to rush for the toilet first cos theres no intermission during the finale night.. hahaa..
got to the 3rd Storey to try to get some "aerial coverage" while Kian Hwee did the groundwork.. had a serious problem with the condensation, cos we brought the cams out of the LT too fast.. didn't have time to climatise.. went back to the LT to let it cool down again, then slowly brought it outside.. this time it worked.. tooked quite a number of group pics outside the LT.. outside LT4 theres a medium height ceiling, so could bounce the flash even for large groups.. the 10-22 sure helped alot in framing large groups.. had some request to use their compacts, had to stand way back in order to get everyone in.. don't think a certain brand's claim of 28mm wide lenses would help much here.. 16mm is much better.. hahaa..



the lousiest pic from the LTC..
in all, I think this LTC been a great experience for both of us.. though we weren't exactly participants.. sure, many people out there reading this would say "chey, take photo only.." which I find quite demeaning.. of course anyone who can see can take photos, just like anyone who has hands can paint.. but its not just pressing the shutter button, or just moving a paint brush.. there's lotsa hard work and planning behind which many people wouldn't see.. think this LTC has refined my sense of visualisation.. in the sense that leading up to this LTC, I had already some shots in mind.. that high angle shot from way up was one of them.. but some just came to me on the spot.. like the tribal one, wanted to portray the vibrant and aggressive nature of the tribal cheer..
the hard part of the LTC? it isn't just about kayaking, abseiling or trekking..

Labels: photog

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.:JeReMyChAn blogged on 11:51 pm:.
1 Comments:

Wow! I've read it. The entire post was gReat! It jus brings me on to read what's next. Cool. >.= Yea~ totally agree wif u that its not simply just taking of photos. Hope to see u post often. Bye! :))

By  Anonymous, at December 04, 2006 9:34 pm  

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