The Globe Wanderer

One of a few Pantala flavescens hanging around the same spot waiting for prey. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

This angle was chosen because there wasn’t any water reflection in the background here, and also I had wanted to show the dragonfly peering from behind the reed.

The Little Defender

A Landrover Defender lookalike in a northwestern suburb. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

This was apparently a modified Suzuki Jimny that was made to look like a little Defender. The camera was held level with the grille and tilted for some dramatic effect. Zoom blur was then added in post.

Lionlike Tulips

Tulipa ‘Leo’ painting the field red in the conservatory. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

Lone Rider

Working out at dusk in a local park. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

The Sigma DP2 Merrill might not be your usual camera for sports/action photography today but I enjoy using that for the genre as it forces me to re-visit old school techniques. In the film era when we did not have the benefit of 10 frames-per-second burst speed and great high ISO performance, panning and zone-focusing were the usual routine for the serious sports photographer.

This lone rider working out in a local park at dusk provided the opportunity to put the DP2M through its paces. I had just enough time to pre-focus before the rider was right in front of me. Panning at 1/13 second as he zipped past, I barely managed to get the image I wanted and a little post processing did the rest.

Meeting In The Air

Skyscrapers huddling together to talk about their day. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

This was taken with the diminutive Panasonic GX1 paired with a manual focus 8mm lens. Exposure was biased 1-2/3 stops darker to preserve sky details. In post, the sky was then darkened and, cyans and blues were intensified to bring out the blues in the sky.

Traditional Healing

A sick looking orangutan in the local zoo trying out traditional medicine. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

Twilight Zone

Tanjungpinang coast at twilight. Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

This was captured with a 1/2-inch sensor bridge camera, a convenient all-in-one kit that we had found very useful for that particular trip. Exposure was inadvertently biased 2-2/3 stops darker. In post, we had need to brighten up a bit. The sky and shore were lifted separately, earning expectedly a noise penalty that had to be fixed. Sharpening was also done separately for sky and shore with the latter receiving more.