11-14.07.14 Bali Workshop cum Trip

Here's a throwback post when I attended a workshop organised by Adam Seow at Bali on the 11 till 14 July. It was really a fun trip and I learnt quite a lot of stuff. Hit the jump button to see what I've been doing in Bali. Its gonna be a post full of photos.

So I sat Malindo airline for my 1st time at KLIA 2. Reached the airport quite early as my dad was willing to fetch me directly to the airport. 

Taking off after waiting 30 minutes in the plane due to congestion at the airport

Nice that there's a usb port for me to charge my phone.

So after touch down I was immediately brought to meet the group of friends who attended the workshop too. Next we're off to the next shooting place after a short lunch. 1st location is Balangan and we're taking sunset shots. Didn't manage to get any nice sunset shots though.

This is considered nice by Adam as it has some textures and forms.

Here's the only sunset photo I have with my sifu looking out into the sea.

The next morning, we had to get up at 3am and get ready to depart to Tamblingan as it was 2 and a half hour journey from the hotel. I just slept all along the journey since I cant see anything as its pitch black outside of the vehicle. It was cold when we reached the place. Its as cold as the weather at night in Cameron Highlands. I missed the cold fresh air there now.

Testing the limits of my NEX 5N

Particularly like this one.

Been thought by Adam how to pull the shadow and highlights if captured correctly in camera. Many things can be pulled back since all the information is in the camera.

Then we took a canoe out into the lake to shoot more.

Can you see the mist moving?

Funny thing is when I was about to take out my A900 to test see the condition of it after just collecting it back from the centre a day before I came to this trip. I noticed I did not bring any memory card along for the trip. Luckily my fellow workshop mate, Mr Lee was kind enough to borrow me his 4GB of CF card.

After shooting sunrise, we went down the hill looking for some food for breakfast. We found a nice spot on the way and stop by Melasti to take some mountains picture.

Something caught my attention.

Aren't they a lovely couple? :D

After lunch we drove to Tanah Lot to have a beach side shoot. We were not gonna shoot the tourist attraction there. We dont want anyone interfering with our shoots and so below are some shots taken at that place.

No macro lens. So just had to make do with what I have. 

From here below is the shots taken on my A900 paired up with my 70200 G lens at this location.

Can you see the water flowing from above like waterfall? Wonder where the water came from.

Next is a furniture shot by the beach. The furniture was carried down from the top to the bottom just for us to shoot. We were suppose to learn how to shoot the shapes of the furniture, to bring out the shape so that if this photo is in a catalogue, the customer will know the actual shape of the furniture.

Lines on the sand

Workshop mates: Choy (left) and Lee (right). I just cant believe I climbed up and down those stairs when I've been standing and walking the whole morning and afternoon.

Another furniture shots. 

We were supposed to stay till evening for sunset at Tanah Lot but some of us was already too tired, so we just head back to the hotel to rest and freshen up before dinner. So 'lucky' of us that there was an electricity outage so I got the chance to chit chat with all the workshop mates and hear their old time stories. I'm the youngest in the group if all of you want to know. Haha. :P And thats how I became friends with them.

Handheld 5s exposure. Can see like ghostly image.

Fortunately our next morning schedule didn't require us to wake up so early so we slept till 10am only we depart to Kesumba. The air was not that hot and humid the night before, so I managed to sleep although the electricity came back at around 1am.

Big black piggy!!!

This is a shot using Broncolour lights. The surrounding was quite dark as the clouds were covering the sun. So we used extra lights (attached with an umbrella to give more wrap around lights) on the subject.

This is the sea salt that they were making.

They did this for a living. I didn't try the salt as I worried I might get sick as my body is weak.

Next we head to Klotok to shoot more rocks. We were suppose learned to shoot the different shades of blacks with the rock texture and the black sand.

Lines and patterns. I'm was taught to see lines and shapes to shoot as I was struggling to find anything interesting to shoot.

When we shot half way the rain came and we had to run into the vehicle and depart to the next location.

I was given a chance to shoot a cock fight scene at Klungkung. These roosters was reared by 1 of our driver's father.

Cock stare.

Many of my shots were out of focus as the camera's auto focus was not smart enough and focused on the background instead. I regretted not shooting a video scene of it. After the cock fight shooting, we were given time to rest and I went to Kuta beach with the others. Was hoping to see some bikini babes but when the time we reached there it was already too dark to see anything. :(

Sweep panaroma from my NEX 5N

Me staring into the sea.

Here's the Bali bombing memorial for those who had perished.

The next morning, we woke up at 5am and went to Sanur for our sun rise shoot and this is our final location before we depart back to Malaysia.

I really loved this piece. The calmness.

A colour version of the previous photo.

The sun is rising. I dont have an ND filter so I just shot whatever I could.

After shooting a while the rain came again and we had to find shelter.

After the sun rise shoot, I've got to pack my stuff and say goodbye to Bali. Below is a shot when I was in the van. There were many sculptures in Bali.

Overall I really enjoyed this whole trip as I've learned quite a lot during this workshop. This is actually my 1st time shooting so much landscape photos and its really an eye opener to me. I was able to learn the zone system by shooting landscape. Shooting portraiture is not that different from shooting landscape in terms of lighting. Its also considered a short getaway from my working routine and see the world. I'm sorry as I've not been able to bring my girl along for this trip. I promised that I'll bring her on the next 1.