Matcha, Matcha, and More Matcha

Azukiiiii

Before I start, disclaimer: I don't do food photography so this is just me playing around. A collaboration with my dad if you might, he helped me with the light (just my iPhone 7) while I shot. No idea on how to edit either, so I went with my usual style of editing just with a different preset. For some reason, the photos turned out darker and moodier than I'd imagined, but hey, makes the food look a little more dramatic eh?

I am no food critique so I'm not gonna tell you how the cream bun explodes in your mouth with unicorn sprinkles and gives you a roller coaster ride of flavours from sweet to bitter. I'm just here to tell you that there's this shop at Tanjong Pagar Centre (above the MRT) that sells these cream buns.

Really like their packaging though, it's so lovely

Really wanted to try the custard flavour but they were sold out on that, so we went with one Azuki and three different matcha flavours. Matcha cream bun (original), matcha rich, and matcha melon. Rich like the word already says mean it's not poor. No, I'm kidding. Unless you have a love for matcha, don't get this one. It's way too thick, and kills the whole taste for me. Matcha melon does not contain any melon, much to your disappointment. The melon actually stands for the crust (?) of the bread being rocky like a rock melon (probably). You can take a look at it below. My favourite was probably the normal match cream bun, for it had the right balance of matcha. And also because that melon crust ain't my thing. 

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Well, the food isn't the main point. The lighting is. I was actually receiving a simple lesson on lighting up subjects from my dad. My house doesn't have the best lighting when it gets dark, with orange light and whatnot. I don't have a speed light either, so my iPhone's torch is all I got. I'm not very familiar with using lighting like this, so I shone it straight onto the bun. That's when my dad came in, telling me to try shining it from the side. I did, and instantly the photo looked better. So he explained to me about the shadows creating depth for the photo rather than shining it straight making it look flat. From there, he took over the light and showed me various ways of lighting up a bun while I took some photos. And I think that last photo of the matcha melon bun was the one with the best lighting. We shone the top / back of the bun, casting the shadows forward.

I'm probably gonna take what I learnt today and apply it on portraits in the near future. Lights make a huge difference like I saw today. 

Matcha rich as you can see, exploding with matcha

The matcha melon that has no taste of melon

On the other side of the lens

Captured by my sister; Edited by yours truly

They say that a good photographer should be able to model too. That way, the photographer understands what the model is going through when she steps in front of the camera. The photographer who is able to do the poses him/herself is then able to demonstrate for the model in case the model can't grasp what he/she is trying to say. 

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Growing up, I was never really a fan of being in front of the camera. My dad himself was a photography enthusiast too in his younger days. So as a kid, he placed me in front of the camera a lot. I would make funny faces on purpose, and now that I think about it, I really wasted a lot of his film. Sorry dad, I regret it now. I always preferred to hold the camera, as a kid and as an adult. Not much has changed since I was a kid if you ask me.

I've never really been confident of my looks, hence further contributing to me refusing to be in front of the camera. 

That changed when I went for instawalks. My friend/teacher, Ivan, would get me to model for him. You can probably imagine how awkward I was, since I'm rarely in front of the camera. No clue on what to do with my hands, should I smile or not? It was harder than taking photos, that was for sure. 

Captured by my friend, Ivan; Edited by yours truly

Captured by my friend, Ivan; Edited by yours truly

With each shoot that I did afterwards, I began to try doing the poses myself before getting the models to do it. I don't know why either, but it helped me to visualise the shot better. I would face the mirror to practise my own expressions at home. And it helped. It was easier to show models what kind of pose you want as compared to describing it (if you don't have a photo). I don't always save photos of the poses I want my models to do, so showing them myself is much easier.

And as such, I thought of putting myself in front of the lens more often. Don't get me wrong, I have no intentions of becoming a model and abandoning my hobby of holding a camera. Instead, I just wish to be more open to standing in front of this camera I hold so often. I realised I could do some whacky expressions with my face so that's something I'm experimenting with. In fact, I got my sister to take some photos of me when we were at Hawpar Villa just the other day. Sadly, apart from the cover photo of this post, I won't be showing you the other photos from that shoot. Let's just say I look too unglam. 

In order to take more glamorous photos, I decided to bring it indoors and did a self portrait shoot. Switched on the aircon, controlled how much sunlight entered the room, set up my tripod, and snapped away. I was really just fumbling around since I didn't know what to do. I found myself going for something simpler as I went, focusing on the light more. Once I found the perfect spot in the room to shoot at, found the perfect settings I tried taking with different clothes on. I probably looked like a joke doing everything alone, from wardrobe to taking of the photos.

As you can probably see from the photos below, I really like this hat of mine. Other hats just don't do as much justice to me. I used the hat in all my photos because my hair looks horrendous. I have a lot of acne as well, so this shoot was a good opportunity for me to practise healing on Lightroom. 

Casual / Natural enough for you?

Just pretending to smile at some passer by when I'm really just looking at the window

Happened to buy a turtleneck from Uniqlo so here's me being artsy fartsy

Overall, I actually really enjoyed the self portrait shoot but I probably won't do another one any time soon. It's just way too tiring, I'd rather have someone hold the camera instead. 

In case anyone was wondering, I used a 35mm f/1.8 for the self portraits and the Hawpar Villa shoot. It was too tight in the room for a 50mm so the 35mm came in pretty handy. Whereas for Hawpar, I forgot to bring my 50mm out so I had to settle for 35mm. 

Playing with Lego | Stuck at Home Photography Idea

What do you do if it's raining cats and dogs or it's really hazy outdoors, or you're just too lazy to go outside but you still want to take photos? You can either brave the weather (like what we did in the Swaggerpuff's adventure) or get creative indoors with whatever you can find, like your toys!

I was stuck at home for a long period of time because of the haze hitting the unhealthy range and I got really bored. But with boredom, comes creativity. I remembered a video I watched on DigitalRev about stuck at home photography ideas and the Lego set that the government gave to every single youth in Singapore for youth day, so I decided to do a little something with it. With the instructions manual under my knee, and a whole bunch of Lego pieces in front of me, I started building what seemed to be Changi Airport. It took me about 30 - 45 minutes to get the whole thing built because the instructions weren't exactly the clearest. I was so focused with getting the structure built that I forgot to take some photos of the process. Well, lesson learnt. If I'm ever doing this again, I'll make sure to take some photos.

I tried to take portraits of the Lego guy as creatively as I could, by putting him on top of a lens, at the top of my Changi Airport Lego structure and on my window ledge. I don't have a macro lens, so I used my dad's Vivitar 28-70mm f/3.5 - f/4.5 manual focus only lens. At 70mm, it gives a very decent bokeh and is more close up as compared to my usual kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5 - f/5.6). I could have used my Tamron 70 - 300mm lens which has a macro function, but the lens was too huge to use handheld (for me at least) and I didn't have enough space in my room to go till 300mm.

I only took a few shots with my Lego set since it was nearing dusk and the sunlight was diminishing fast, especially with the thick haze that was going on.

A failed attempt at trying to make my Lego guy look like he's doing parkour.

For those of you who wish to try doing this the next time you're stuck at home, here's a few tips!

1. Use a lens that can focus at very near distances; if you're trying to make your Lego character look bigger than it actually is, then a lens that can focus at very near distances would be apt. It'd be best if you have a macro/micro lens, but not everybody has that. I wouldn't recommend a telephoto lens since you would need to use a tripod and you'll find yourself running back and forth between your set and your camera since you'll need a certain distance in between.

2. Have a large space to play with; This is important if you're trying to make an entire city out of your Lego set, or you like minimalist photos. I was working with a tight space since I used my bay window to take the photos. Use your dining table for a start, you should have lots of space to play with.

3. Get creative; This is something I only thought of while I was writing this post, hence I didn't get to use it. But if you have a tripod, you can try using all the nooks and crannies in your house for your shots. Maybe the toilet, or even in your kitchen. Even the most unconventional places might work out and make your photos more interesting. Why do you need a tripod? For longer exposures / slower shutter speeds in areas with low light. Using a flash can be unflattering, hence a longer exposure is a better option. Of course, you don't necessarily have to use Lego sets either, you can take any small toy that you have and play around with it!

Here's the video from DigitalRev in case you were wondering!