Welcome back to Photography Happenings!!

I started a website and e-newsletter service called Photography Happenings back in 2000 when the internet was not what it is today. Electronic bulletin boards were popular, as well HTML websites with blinking text (it gives me a headache just thinking about them!). We were using modems with dial-up speeds of 28.8 kbps, and photography information were more readily available in printed magazine than on the web.

A new dawn? Perhaps!

The Internet has come a long way since then. Fancy flash animation, rapid propagation of discussion forums, RSS feed and blogging have completely changed the online landscape. Now in Web 2.0 where interactivity and social connectivity rule, everyone has instant access to information unlike 9 years ago. When I ran the Photography Happenings site, I had e-newsletters to about a thousand subscribers in a monthly digest format. With so much new releases every other day, a monthly format is no longer enough today. And people today are so well-connected digitally, virtually any news is old news in a couple of days.

Now that I’ve managed to squeeze out some time from my day job (yes, I’ve one), I’m restarting Photography Happenings as a blog. Sure you might have heard some of the news announced already in some other sites, but I’ll add my opinions and comments in addition to the announcements, which hopefully will make them more useful to you.

Welcome back to the new Photography Happenings blog at http://photographyhappenings.blogspot.com

Amazing wildlife photos and experience

National Geographic has always been synonymous with great travel and wildlife photography, and this short video about the adventures of a wildlife photographer with National Geographic encompasses everything romantic about the life of the contributing photographers!

"Adventures, excitement. A Jedi craves not these things." said Yoda. Obviously the National Geographic photographers are low in the Force quotient!

Retro never really went away - fashion revisits itself every 30 years.

Humans are funny… we try so hard to out-do ourselves and make things better. And with technological progress and the digital edge, everything seems so nice and perfect. And we start to bemoan “the loss of spirit” with digital audio CDs and digital cameras. Suddenly everything analogue becomes in vogue and cool again… vinyl records and film are “in” once more!

Of course, if you wanna be with the in-crowd, make sure you’re fashionable all the way. Having some half-xssed film camera from your dad’s drawer isn’t gonna cut it (seriously it only makes you look old-fashioned!). For true retro coolness, you gotta reach into your grandpa’s drawer for his ancient Leica rangefinder. But most probably you’d find something like this…

Say hello to my latest toy… it’s a Canon rangefinder. According to the records, this camera was made between 1955-1956. Japan surrendered in 1945, so this camera was made in the industrial era after World War II. For the uninitiated, the Japanese industrialization took off by imitating/copying the best products/practices from other countries. The Canon rangefinder cameras were virtual clones of the superlative Leica rangefinder cameras from Germany.

If you shoot with this camera, I assure you that you will be the king of coolness during the next photo outing. Sure you photos will probably not be as good as the Canon/Nikon full-frame digital whatever DSLR, but hey the chicks will dig Joe Cool's retro chunk of metal more than a nerd’s DSLR any day. If you don’t have a dog to walk or a baby to carry, a cool retro rangefinder like this is a great way to strike up a conversation with the nice girls you meet. Oh… here’s fashion tip… your clothes should come from the modern era… do not try to match 1950s clothing with the camera. That ain't so hot ya know?

It’s a great camera to play around with, and yes… it still works perfectly when you load film in. And guess what? It’s not that expensive… for the price of a nice digital compact you can own a piece of history for yourself. I guess there’s more to life than being really really really good-looking.

Here’s a website if you want to find out more about the Canon rangefinder cameras.

Car photography made easy!

If you are a proud car owner and you'd like to take some nice photos of your car, here're some tips on the basics of good car photography. These are really simple tips to follow, but they're guaranteed to make your photos much better. Check it out!

Photography articles revamped!

For the dear readers who have been reading the photography articles on my website, I've some good news for you. Since the good old days when I ran the online newsletter and website "Photography Happenings!!", the articles have not been updated often due to my hectic schedules. So I made a resolution to update and refresh the articles, and keep your fingers crossed that I'll have the time to add even more articles!

I've started off with a refresh of a handful of articles, updated with new photos and edited for easier reading. Click here to read the updated articles, and feel free to leave any comments...

Photo gallery: 7 days in Tibet

Sometime ago, I went on a short vacation to Tibet (strike one off from the "100 things to do before I die" list). While Brad Pitt spent "Seven Years in Tibet", I could only afford to spend seven days. Frankly if I can end up looking like Brad Pitt after seven years there, I would stay there!

While Brad may look slightly better than me (getting shameless here), I'm pretty sure my photos look better than his. So here they are...



Click on photo to enter gallery.

The charm of Leica rangefinder cameras

I love digital photography for the convenience and "cleaniness" of the photos. The images are always clean and sharp, which makes it easy for digital manipulation. And because I do not have to pay for the film, processing and printing, I do not feel the pinch of every time I shoot (after I forget the price of the DSLR).

But like the LP lovers who find a place for vinyl in the world of CDs, I find myself turning back to film ever once in a while. Film is therapeutic for some of us, when we load in a cartridge and pull the glossy brown film leader across the film gate. I still get anxious over the results, and I still get a thrill when I open the envelope of photos at the lab counter. Film is glorious in its own way.

Given that film photography is a return to the nostelgic world for me, my choice of camera must match the mood and manner as well. Which is why I love the Leica film-based rangefinder cameras. These are extremely sturdy and well-built cameras of Teutonic designs, which you will feel immediately in your hands. The heft of well-sculpted metal that sits right in your palm, with buttery smooth operations and clear bright rangefinder that opens up a window to the world. The feeling of winding to the next frame on a Leica M camera is heavenly.

Part of the charm of a Leica M film camera lies in the fact that every camera is handmade by craftsmen, who manually assemble and fine-tune each camera, just like a fine mechanical watch like a Lange or Patek. Vorsprung durch technique is definitely not the philosophy of this German company, since the technology in today's Leica film cameras is probably only equal to Japanese cameras of the 70s or 80s. But the built quality of Leica film cameras is unmatched, and here's a behind-the-scene look at how each Leica camera is built:

L-Camera TV #1 - Does Leica still make MP and M7? from Andreas Jürgensen on Vimeo.

I leave you with a funny quote I read about digital photography:

"Digital is like shaved legs on a man - very smooth and clean but there is something acutely disconcerting about it."
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Canon EOS 500D: Class-leading Performance!

I was at the Botanical Gardens a couple of weeks ago to try out the new Canon EOS 500D, and I must say the results are stunning. For a camera that costs slightly more than 1k, this camera deliver a lot of bang for the buck. For starters, it has a 15MP sensor and records Full HD videos, something which no other camera in its class can deliver. I also like the compactness and lightweight of the EOS 500D, which makes it the perfect camera for outings and travel.

Check out some of the photos I took at the Botanical Gardens with the EOS 500D and the kit lens...

My photos

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