Tutorial: Starting out photography on a budget.

Seems like everyone these days owns a camera in one form or the other. With the advent of technology packing different big things into little packages, you’ll soon be carrying a kitchen sink that’s built into your phone/PDA/camera/recorder/washing machine.

But at the same time, you can’t afford a proper DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera? (Or are you just spending your dollars into one of those phone/PDA/camera/recorder/washing machine thingies….) So where do you start if you want to explore photography yet not want, or can’t afford, to buy a camera?



I personally strongly believe that a better camera does not make a better photographer (but it does take a better photo). If you’re interested in photography but are just starting off or on a budget, here are some pointers to start you off on the right path. And require that you only have something to shoot with.

1. Understand composition
The most crucial aspect of a great photograph that all the best equipment in the world can’t give. Read up on the Rules of Thirds. Understand it. Apply it. Then learn when to break it.

2. Look at paintings
From the classic masterpieces to modern digital art. Why? Because the painter is a master of his domain, in that she controls not only what appears in the piece, but also the angle in which the viewer sees it.

A great painting has all the aspects that a photographer can only dream to control: composition, lighting, color, subject, background and angle. The sum of which totals to one thing, the evocation of emotions from the viewer. Which leads to….

3. Shoot with you heart
A great picture, like a great painting, evokes emotions from the viewer. If you shoot a baby (with a camera…), and get comments like “That’s a beautiful baby”, then congratulations, you’ve got a beautiful baby, but not a beautiful picture.

As important as subjects are, learning to shoot with your heart to further express a mood is more important than ‘just another super model’.

4. Pick up an image editing software, and…
If you only learn one thing from it, learn how to Crop an image.

This is a one of the most useful tools in your quest to better composition because it allows you to reframe your shots, so you’ll know not to make the same mistakes again when you’re taking a shot.

Here are some resources you can start off with:
Gimp The best free photo/image editing software out there. [Free]
FastStone Image Viewer Great image cataloging (ala Adobe Bridge) with minor image editing . [Free]
Picnik Online photo editor. Easy to pick up and use. [Free]
Adobe Elements 7 Easy to use, great features, low price [around US$139]
Adobe Lightroom 2 It's like Photoshop without the bloat, targeted solely for photographers [US$299]
Adobe Photoshop CS4 The ultimate in image manipulation, editing and creation. I use this for my graphic work, image manipulation, photography and digital art. [US$699]

Seriously, if you're just gonna do photography, get Adobe Lightroom 2 (if you're intending to go pro) or Adobe Elements (if you're gonna be a serious hobbist). There's no need to shell out for Photoshop (or you can use GIMP!)

5. Save cash!
By the time you’re halfway through improving the above, you should either
a) have lost interest in photography; or
b) find that the image quality (not the image itself, you should have improved) taken by your non-proper camera simply suck eggs. So it’s time to suck it, throw out the bad egg, and shell out for a proper DSLR. (How many egg puns can I squeeze into one sentence?)

I hope you find this helpful and answer some of the questions you may have. Do you have something you'd like to share? What about your own experiences when you first started photography?

Photography: Dreams, in the Land of the Dead

Dreams, in the Land of the Dead (2009)
(Street, People, Orton, B+W)

Only the young remember to dream, what the hell happened to us as we grew older?

We grow fat with complacency, get beaten into submission in the 'Rat Race', chasing the (insert country not threatened by war, famine, drought) Dream. We forget what it is like to live. We put things that could have gotten us nearer to our dreams till tomorrow... 'cause there's always tomorrow, ain't it?

Take a ride on the subway\metro of any major city during rush hour and you'll see dead people, standing, sitting, sleeping on trains with lifeless eyes. Shut in their own misery. Then you see this young boy, lookin' up, all glassy-eyed... Hey, fer all I know, he could be day dreaming of a super model or the lastest Xbox game. But I'd like to think there's more to his glassy-eyed look. I'd like to remember that there's more to just money to keep our world going. I'd like to remember that there's always hope, to whatever dreams we may have.

To all those still dreaming, those there are that much closer to their dreams, good fer you :D
To those already living their dreams, damn you!!! We'll join you soon. ;)

Photography: Hope (or Impending Doom)

Hope (2009)
(Landscape, Nature, People, Orton Effect)

Was wracking me noggin' fer a title to this piece. My wife took one look and said 'Hope', so 'Hope it is. Fitting title?
Then there's the 'Impending Doom' suggestion from Rogue...

Photography: The Water Dragon

A series of abstracts. These are macros of those water features that err... feature a huge ball that's rotating on water jets pumpin' from underneath.


The Water Dragon I (2009)
(Abstract, Macro, B+W)
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The Water Dragon II & III (2009)
(Abstract, Macro, B+W)

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Photography: TheQshop

Some highlights of a commissioned job for theQshop.
If you're into pool, billiards or snooker, this is the place to arm yourself with long sticks to poke huge balls into tight holes (enough innuendos?). If you're into that...


theQshop - Shopfront (2009)
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theQshop - Interior Pool Table (2009)
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theQshop - Interior wide (2009)
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theQshop - Cue Bags (2009)
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theQshop - Cues I (2009)
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theQshop - Cues II (2009)
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Greg, my bud and one of two owners of theQshop. Really nice guy, destroys all in pool (but then again, I suck). If you're lookin' fer a cue or even a table (and live in Singapore), theQshop is located at 261 Waterloo Street, #02-11, Singapore 180261 or call Greg at +65-90666091

Photography: Wicca Downunder

Wicca Downunder (2008)
(Animal, Acid)

Here's something random. An old favorite, my magical cat Wicca pretending to be a rat. Try to ignore the hairy legs if you value your lunch (err... you might not have noticed till you read this line? Sorry). Taken with my mobile phone.

Photography: Macabre Mannequin Madness

Macabre Mannequin Madness in Chinatown, Singapore (2009)
(Long exposure, night, street)

Gotta love the way they sell clothes using headless, armless and legless mannequins of little kids all hung up in a row. Ahhh... the festive season... Taken late at night, this scene was just downright creepy

Happy Lunar New Year! It's been crazy...

Photography: Chinatown by Night II

A view of a street running parallel to yesterday's post, again during some ungodly hour. The contrast between this and the busy hours is amazing. I'd take a few shots if I could set up my tripod during those hours, but you'll only see a mass of bodies jammed up like lemmings on their way to a free fall.


Chinatown by Night - Playful Serenity (2009)
(Long Exposure, Night, HDR, Street)
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Chinatown by Night - Quiet Serenity (2009)
(Long Exposure, Night, HDR, Street)

Photography: Chinatown by Night I

Anyone livin' in Singapore, or probably anywhere else in the world that has a Chinatown, will know the utter chaos that ensues during business hours come the Lunar New Year (that'll be 26th January 2006).

This is Singapore's Chinatown in the wee early hours before the chaos begins...


The Calm Before the Storm I (2009)
(Long Exposure, Night, HDR, Street)
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The Calm Before the Storm II (2009)
(Long Exposure, Night, HDR, Street)

Photography: Shanghai Photolog

For a majority of 2008, I've been in and out of Shanghai on a job, out of which I've spent about half a year in total there. In the most populated city (over 20 million) of the most populated country in the world (1.3 billion), I felt totally alone. Especially when I can't even read the menu to order food...


A Collision of Generations (2008)

The colors of the pictures convey my mood during my stay there; that and the fact that the Shanghai in my mind hails from the 1920s. In reality, the Shanghai of today is anything but. With its salad-tossed mix of structures and infrastructures from different eras (1800s to modern sky scrapers), she is an enigma suffering from an identity crisis, schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder.

She's part French, part British, part American and part Chinese. Having abandoned her traditional values for modern capitalistic beliefs, she's all dressed up in the sexiest trends but still clings on to her old-fashioned undergarments.

It all makes for a really exotic dame, full of excitement at every moment, the unknown at a turn of every street and alley... At least she isn't harboring a multitude of diseases (crime). ;)

Here she is in (not all) her glory. Save yourself the trouble of scrolling down by clicking on the link below to view it in a slideshow. Hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.
WARNING: Flickr slideshow displays images stretched to fit your screen. Should you find some of the images blurry or distorted, click on 'options' at the upper right corner of the slideshow and uncheck 'Embiggen small things to fit screen'.
Shanghai Slideshow

Or if you prefer to do some leg work, scroll on down. 22 pictures in all.


Left: A Collision of Generations II (2009)
Right: Streets of Shanghai - Wired III (2009)
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Left: The Pauper Piper (2009)
Right: Of Billboards and Golden Facades II (2009)
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Of Billboards and Golden Facades I (2009)
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The Man Who Sold the World (2009)
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Streets of Shanghai IX (2009)
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Left: Streets of Shanghai - Wired II (2009)
Right: Incoming (2008)
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Left: Alleyways of Shanghai IV (2009)
Right: Alleyways of Shanghai I (2008)
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Left: Alleyways of Shanghai III (2009)
Right: Streets of Shanghai - Wired I (2008)
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Alleyways of Shanghai II (2008)
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Backstreets of Shanghai I (2008)
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Backstreets of Shanghai II (2008)
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Backstreets of Shanghai III - The Bamboo Wars (2008)
Also known as They Save Jackie Chan
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Backstreets of Shanghai IV - Not Bird Watching (2009)
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Backstreets of Shanghai V - The View from Below (2009)
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Backstreets of Shanghai V - Twilight(2009)
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Backstreets of Shanghai VI - Rising Star (of consumerism) (2009)

If you're interested in my mindless commentary on these picture, just click on the image. The entire collection can be found on my Flickr Photoset here

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