The weather had taken an about turn in JB and became terribly hot. I wasn’t sure why the sudden change but then, I welcomed it with open arms. Since September, it had been raining day in and day out without even having a chance to catch a glimpse of the sun hence, a decrease in my running activity as well as photography. With a sudden change in weather, I took the opportunity to venture out to whet my appetite for photography and with such a clear weather, there is nothing much that I would like to ask for more. I packed all of my lenses (I don’t have much anyway) just in case I needed them and made sure that my Sigma 24-70 f2.8 was cleaned thoroughly.
Upon reaching the photography point, it dawned on me that there was absolutely too much light going around where everywhere was so bright. The skies were devoid of any clouds and made the situation a very tough one in terms of exposure latitude where hard shadows and bright highlights existed within very tight confines. In my mind I was already thinking of how to expose for such exposure latitude and after scanning around the environment, my only option is to post process it later using extensive layering process. In my term, such extensive layering process would usually involve more than 3 shots with different exposure of the same scene while the usual fanfare would be to process the photo using HDR, instead I would stack these layers upon one another and slowly pick the sections with the best exposure while revealing it on the uppermost layer. It is the most painful way of post processing but then, it is the best where ‘lights and shadows’ are naturally retained without those hideous HDR appearances. It’s not that I hated HDR but the appearance of a HDR photo is too unnatural and the exposure latitude is severely limited / retarded by the software. My philosophy towards light is that, ‘If there is bright highlights, then there must be hard shadows in a photo’. Sorry guys, but seriously if you were to search my photo database, I don’t process my photos using HDR’s (disclaimer: who knows what’ll happen in the future?).
My first sets consist of photos to ‘test’ my light meter whether it would be confused by the light bouncing around the barrel and indeed, it severely underexposed my photos because there is simply too much light going around. Then out came my tripod, where it is the most essential piece of equipment for such multiple exposure shots and as usual I go about doing my business. Oh yes, there is also my trusty Lee Graduated ND 0.75 Filter where you cannot leave home without it and it helped me in this situation.
There is no shortage of photographers coming to this place, where most of them would carry a DSLR and busy clicking like there is no tomorrow. As for me, I would have been considered as an old timer in this place hence, my relaxed attitude whenever I am photographing it. While photographing, there was this guy whom was so busy getting all the shots, he ventured far out to the sea (it was low tide) to get his shots and while observing his antics, I did find that he is cute. However, as for me, it is not the quantity that counts but the quality that you can produce from your photos. There were several unthinkable areas that I had ventured to which I think, captured the attention of this photographer hence, he occupy the photographed area immediately after I had completed my work there. That’s what I mean by slowing down and you’d get more photos out from your trip because you can ‘see’ better.
It was 2 hours after I had reached this place where the sun is dipping into the horizon. I packed up my gears while there were some others whom are busy snapping into the horizon I decided to stop so that I can enjoy the sight of the beautiful sun setting. I just took my gears with me, headed towards the wooden jetty and sat there with my legs stretched out. While enjoying the warm breeze and looking into the warm amber coloured horizon I was thinking, when is my next chance of looking at such fabulous sunset?