EYE FOR AN EYE (Updated)
by TV Smith
07/01/07

Visit Malaysia Year 2007 kicked off last night with a spinning wheel and smoke on the water. And in true Malaysian-style; it started late. I overheard one poor kid (who was soaked waiting in the drizzle) asked her funny father;

Little Girl: Papa, why so late never start?
Dad: I think The VIP overslept again.

So it did start eventually, and every non-tourist was evidently delighted with the colourful and extravagant fireworks display. The world's most expensive rented wheel (Eye On Malaysia) looked ironically pale in comparison. I'll cover the fireworks shooting techniques (yet again) in a post at Every Picture Tells A Story later.

I suspect we gonna see a million similar shots of The Wheel for the rest of the rental period. So let's try something a little different. Let's see if you can develop an eye for the unconventional...

Burst. Try a zoom in a long exposure. I started off framing tight, held it briefly at the beginning of the exposure and quickly zoomed out for the rest. To slow down your camera, choose the lowest ISO setting and a small aperture. A tripod is required. Olympus E-1, ISO 100, f 13, 1.6 sec

Blow: Turn the wheel into a giant fan or wind machine. Do a swish pan with a very long exposure. The stars in the sky are not stars but thermal noise of the over-heated sensor caused by the prolonged exposure. One should normally enable 'dark noise subtraction' mode for such shots but I didn't want to be straddled with the accompanying delay between exposures when activated. Olympus E-1, ISO 100, f 18, 10 sec

Mood: Who says you can't do a 'mood shot' in a crowded place? A loving couple in front of me unwittingly became the foreground visual counterpoint. Use leaves or trees to frame your picture and to block stray light. Hand-holding in parks is allowed again in VMY 2007, I hope. Olympus E-1, ISO 1600, f 3.5, 1/60 sec handheld

Update (YM conversation):

Patrick Teoh: I saw on TV the Hishamuddin fler riding in the same boat as the PM
TV Smith: Dunno, can't see from where I stood.
Patrick Teoh: Wonder if they shared the same gondola?
TV Smith: They ought to.
Patrick Teoh: Eh.. why lah?
TV Smith: In case the door jammed, they might need a keris to pry it open mah....

See also Patrick Teoh's Eye On Malaysia and Jeff Ooi's WMY2007 & The Late VIPs

All photographs, text by & copyright © TV SMITH.

© 2007 TV SMITH
Link to this article: http://www.tvsmith.net.my/duasen/070107_eye.html

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