The Magical Pixel

I’m imagining a new conceptual photographic work. Based on the title “Dreams” I want to create a sets of photo with heavy photoshop editing in it. My Photoshop is very rusty now, I have to attend classes to sharpen it back. But that will not make me stop. I’m going to have a photoshoot to create this dream land photo. So.. I need a model. I dont care how pretty or ugly or fat or skinny or pale skin or dark skin as long as you are willing to enjoy the photography session to the extreme.. then you can model for me.

If you are not too handsome, maybe I can make you my monster or Igor in the scene. That is a very important part, believe me. Nowadays, you can see from the TV commercial, no more pretty faces accept for the shampoo ad. Other than that you can be too skinny or too fat or too ugly it doesnt matters.. world has change.

Below is a few sample kind of photo that I want to produce..

So.. interested? If you do, please email to me at rejim3@gmail.com and dont forget to attach your picture with it.

Payment? no.. no money are involve with this.. everyone involved will get the picture. The model, stylist, make-up artist, photographer all will receive a copy of DVD of the photoshoot. You can do what ever you want with it.. most of the put the photo in their portfolio or send it to talent agency for casting. You might want to do the same

So.. email me ok.

Another kind of project that challenge my ability in photography this year is this Photo Essay project. It’s another project granted by Pahang State Museum to me. The photo will be put in the Tenun Pahang Diraja (Royal Hand Woven of Pahang) book which planned to be launched on September this year.

The Museum team lead by the author of the book Mr. Ahmad Farid who is also the Director of Pahang State Museum are now on heavy task force trying to complete the 400 pages book on schedule.

Myself as the contributor of image are also being dragged in this busyness. Of course busyness means business. So I took the challenge. They require me to produce a set images like Annie Leibovitz, the famous Rolling Stone Magazine photographer who now working with Vanity Fair Magazine. Her photo was amazing. I have to spend time researching her starting from her video interview, books, productions and her post production style and method just to make sure I can get the same result.

You can check out here some of Annie’s work.

Annie's work for Disney Dream Portrait

Annie's work for Disney Dream Portrait

Amazed? yess.. Me too. All of her picture for this Disney’s set are telling us a story. In a single image, we know what’s the story is about. That is Photo Essay and sometime, photo essay come in series of images. It’s like a HDMI quality of comic book. The power of Annie’s photo come from the actor inside the photo are real celebrities besides her angle and post processing.

So, what story did I get fro my photo essay? I have been given a scene by the director of the book Ms. Kassandra Kassim. The scene title is “Girl & her Dragon”… The girl in my photo will dress like a princess in Tenun Pahang Diraja dress and inside the same photo there will be a dragon. The girl is easy.. The background is easy.. The lighting is easy.. But the dragon is a pain in my ass.

Where the heck can I find a dragon? is it like an English dragon? or more like Chinese snakey dragon? So, I’m confused. I ask her and she just asked me to put in an Iguana as a replacement of the dragon.  I tried, but the Iguana looks very.. hmm “manja”.  Well, lets try..

So I called up my friends, Tom Ramzul for lighting, Kirin for Make-up artist and the model Fiza. I also managed to borrow a few Tenun dress from the Tenun Pahang Diraja Butique. We do a photoshoot around Kuantan area. and the result came out like this… oh.. the word “This” can also be scrambled into SHIT!

The Girl & Her Dragon 1st trial..shit!

I have placed this image on a few forum for critique.. and I get a lot. The lighting on the dragon head is not right, the model pose is awkward, the mood is not helping.. btw, I get the dragon from google images.

I’m frustrated. I again do some research on Annie Leibovitz post processing and I had a discovery. A discovery that will change my way of post processing. Maybe it’s not the same like Annie’s but I like it more and the client loved it.

For my 2nd trial, I have again gather my helpfull friends. This time is different, I called it “Punk Tribal” theme. I have again called Tom Ramzul the Lighting expert, Dyana Sofia – a model from Dyana Beauty Academy, Gezzeg – The owner of Gezzeg Photography Studio and two of my bodybuilder buddy Saufi & Zam. I aslo called Wan Ermie to borrow his guitar and amp for props.

This time I shoot 100% in the studio with a controlled lighting.  After the photoshoot (thanks to all my friends) I sat and keep fine tuning the post processing technique and finally… a new achievement for me in post processing.

Scene 1 - Punk Tribal

Scene 1 - Punk Tribal B&W

So, yesterday I show this images to the client and they loved it. So now.. I have to record all the editing steps since I did not follow any tutorial to achieve this. My recce date for location have been set. I’ll go to Aryani next week to look at the location before the actual photoshoot.

So.. it’s worth it. Really worth it. oh I forgot to mention the models name that I will shoot for the photo essay. I’m not sure if it’s confirmed or not but there will be 3 model to model the dress in my photoshoot. It’s Nini Ramlan, Devakhi Nathan and The legendary Iman Abdul Majid.. David Bowie’s wife.

Opening 2009 travelling story with a trip to Jogjakarta located in Central Java, Indonesia.  Its a photographer trip planned since July last year. This time I bring my beloved wife together. So, me and Jue (my wife) start the journey a bit early by planning to leave the kids at her mother. Hehe.. pitty Najma and her brothers. So we head to Purun and leave the kids there. The very same day we head to Kajang to get my new 80-200 f/2.8 nikkor which I already aggreed to buy from a guy grom FTZ a night before.

The meeting went ok, nice guy, very friendly and I got a lense with hood.  It makes mine a bit “longer” then other 80-200 that I met before hahahah. Compared to a new 70-200 VR with hood, I still like 80-200 with hood because of its “fatness” although 70-200VR will be longer.. well, for me, a bit short and fat has more satisfaction than long but thin.. errr why does this sounded like double meaning.. hahahahahaha.

So, that lens I bring to Jogja. My D70 was carried by Jue and I carry the D200 with all the lenses. at LCCT, as usual AirAsia is a bit late. flight took us almost 3 hour and we reach Adisucipto Airport 5:00 in the evening. On the Immigration line, we has been separated from other passanger.. Malaysians should make one line which has no counter in front of us and the rest of the passangers make three more line in front of three counter. Time goes by, we just have to see one by one passangers passing through the Immigration. I dont know why this happen, but I think they just treat us badly for a revenge. Maybe our Immigration are treating the Indonesian the same.. we dont know. As far as I know, our Immigration are polite and helpful even to illegal immigrant.

At last, we make a move. we just crash into the other 3 line by just ignoring the instruction. Outside of the airport, Mas Mukti has waited for us with our bus. Small bus like a mini bus but enough and confortable. Drivers are kind and informative.  We straight away go to our next destination “Mess Menjaskini” a bungalow house near Borobudur. On the way, we make a stop for our first welcoming meal.. a Bakso in a “I dont know why you come here” restaurant. hahahahaha.

I call the restaurant that way because the worker looks like blur, fuzzy and they dont preapred for such a crowd. Maybe that day is the first and only day where their restaurant occupied that much. A lot of order, everybody is tired and hungry. From making order to the waitress until up to “go take whatever you want yourself” level. We conquer the restaurant and that is the first time I found Marlboro “Kretek” version. Pehhh.. yuck!. I gave the box full of cigarete to the driver who seems enjoying the “kretek” very much.

We move in to our house later on. A nice house with 3 room. got air-cond.. no mosquito and there is where we meet Mas Peribadi, the house keeper. Very very nice person, soft spoken, stuttering when try to answer in indonesian language but very fluent in javanese. He fetch me my “Mie Ayam” that night.. ahhh thank you Pak Peribadi.. pengen sekali aku sama Mie Ayam and happen to be it was the best Mie Ayam I ever enjoyed ever in Indonesia.. Pehhh! Sorry guys, I have to eat it alone hahahaha because I think you all have a lot of Bakso and nasi before. It’s not because of hunger but because of I “rindu” mie ayam very much ahaks.

The next morning we have to wake-up early for the sunrise. At 4:00am we woke-up and I found that I’m the last person woke-up. why? because everybody sets their alarm using Malaysia time which is one hour earlier.. ahahahahaha. If it’s not every body, then it’s my wife hehe. she woke up at 3:00am. Then we all get into the bus and headed to the Tok Stubo hill. Dr. Jamal already told us that there will be a bit walking uphill. Yes, night before was raining, so the path was muddy and slippery.. my Crocs sandal doesnt do any good. You should not wear Beach Crocs on jungle tracking. Better use Asadi or Amporlo sandal like Dr.Ali.. hehe (Puas puas puasss la dia dapat ngutuk Crocs).

When  we arrive at the top of Tok Stobu Hill.. the view was magnificent. The mist, the view, the sound of panting Wanoridz.. all blend together. you can see from the photo. I quickly mount my new 80-200 and start shooting. 1st snap.. ok, 2nd snap… over-exposed, 3rd snap.. over exposed. I re-calibrate and 4th snap.. over exposed. I look at the LCD and see… ERR. Fuck! my D200 is doing it again. And the sad thing is my “kain pelikat” is at the house.. arghhhhh!

I try to wipe the lens CPU contact with my shirt, still not working and that is the time where my old faithfull D70 come to the rescue. the D200 owes the D70 a lot for rescuing her from been throw out from the top of the hill. If not, it will be in the history, the 1st D200 thrown from Tok Stobu Hill. So, be very carefull to all my future D700.. dont mess with me.. cheeewah!.

to be continued…

I have a huge problem.. one more week before I embark on a journey to central Java, indonesia.. My Nikon D200 start giving me trouble.  It’s started on last week. I found that a few picture that I shoot is over-exposed (too bright). Then there’s an error coming out on the aperture area on the LCD, telling me that something is wrong with the aperture control.

Ok, I still can shoot, but I have to switch it off and on again then it will recover. But then after I snap a pic, the problem returns. I try changing the lens, problem still there. I dont know what to do. I try calling 9 people and do you know what they told me? “you need to change the body.. it’s time for D700″.

D700 is RM9,000 including a 50mm f/1.4 and a battery grip. Of course it’s good to upgrade my system but I dont think it’s neccessary. I still can shoot with my D200.. or my D70. But going for FX is a huge step for my pocket. The main problem for me now is the trip to Dieng.. Where can I get a body to replace my D200 in 1 week? arghhh!

So, last night I decided to give seriuos damage to my D200 before I sent it to Nikon. I dont have any tools..  I again, try to rub the body lens cpu contact point but this time I use my “kain Pelikat” and I give a fast 24 stroke/sec rub on the contact point.. voila! no more error… kambing betul..

so I hope his healthiness will stay… at least for another month.. before I spend too much on something that I might not need now.

First time touching borrowed D700..