Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

For me, 2013 has been a productive year for photography. Let's see what I have done...

In the beginning of 2013, I have finally bought my very first full frame DSLR - Canon 5D MkIII, and my Canon 7D was officially retired.

I use to share my photos on Facebook and Flickr. I always want a professional-looking website - so I got a Smugmug website and it's now the home to Kah-Wai Lin Photography. I started a photography blog too:)

Since I moved to USA, I don't shot much travel and church photography. Nevertheless, I have visited a few nature wonders of USA - Shenandoah National Park, VA; Grand Canyon National Park, AZ; Zion National Park (Mt. Carmel Highway), UT; Bryce Canyon National Park (edge of the park), UT; Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, UT; Dixie National Forest (Red Canyon), UT; Upper Antelope Canyon, Navajo Nation; Canyon X, Navajo Nation; Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT; Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, NJ.

This year, I was also active in writing photography articles - Photoblog.hk, Extraordinary Vision Magazine, Bokeh Magazine, Light & Landscape Magazine and a review for Machinery HDR.

I am looking forward for 2014 being another exciting year! Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!

"Exploring Canyon X" on Extraordinary Vision Magazine

My article "Exploring Canyon X" is just published on Extraordinary Vision Magazine, Issue 12. This is an article about my recent trip to Canyon X, a slot canyon in the Navajo Nation near Page, Arizona. The article is mainly focus on my experience of the trip as well as the photography tips and tricks inside the slot canyon.

Extraordinary Vision Magazine is an outdoor digital photography magazine in Apple's Newsstand. The magazine published each month and it is a completely free multimedia magazine designed exclusively for the iPad. I highly recommend to everyone who love photography and outdoor exploration. It's a great magazine!

If you like to see more of my Canyon X photos, please visit Canyon X gallery.

Church #6: Princeton University Chapel

Princeton University Chapel is located in the Princeton University main campus in Princeton, New Jersey. It was designed by Ralph Adams Cram in 1921, in his signature Collegiate Gothic style. The chapel was built between 1924 and 1928 to replaces an older chapel that burned down in 1920. It seats almost 2,000 people and it is the third largest university chapel in the world.

Most of the interior is limestone, but the aisles and the central area of the choir are Aquia Creek sandstone. The chapel's iconography consist of over 900 square meter of stained glass, as well as stonework and wood carvings. Today, the chapel is operated by the university Office of Religious Life, hosts ecumenical Christian services, Roman Catholic mass, and other special events, such as service of Remembrance, Baccalaureate, and concerts.

Machinery HDR Review

http://machineryhdr.com/

HDR photography is getting very popular over the last few years, with good reasons. First, HDR allow you to 'see' broader range of light and tone as we seen in the real world. Second, perhaps the most engaging reason for many people – it’s allows you to create the unique-looking, surreal and artistic effect. HDR can be subtle or extreme; it’s all depending on your personal taste.

Today, there are dozens of HDR software on the market. I have been a hardcore church shooter over the past few years. Often, the complex lighting condition is a big challenge - the church interior is dark and usually underexposed, while the windows are bright and usually overblown. It seems that HDR is one of the best solutions. However, many HDR software tend produce unnatural result, color shift, halo, loss of contrast, etc. The recent generations of HDR softwares are working hard to solve these problems. From my testing, the Machinery HDR really stood out. I am extremely impressed with the result. 

Figure 1. Interface of Machinery HDR, with all the tools on the right side.

My major concerns about HDR software are quality of image, functionality, and price. Surprisingly, Machinery HDR passed all my test, with distinction!! Machinery HDR is very easy to use. The processing is quite straight forward – just load to pictures and it’s ready to go! Once the tone-mapping is completed, you may enjoy the preset. Surprisingly, they are amazingly good, I use them every time. The tool box on the right is where you can do the fine control and adjustment – basically everything that you can imagine, e.g. tone-mapping of HDR, white balance, contrast, saturation, etc. (Figure 1). Best of all, the price is high competitive and attracting! It is very affordable and it doesn’t break your bank!

Figure 2. Original images to be loaded on Machinery HDR,7 photos from +4EV to -2EV.

For my first test case, I use the photos taken in the St Johannes Church (Stockholm, Sweden). My goal was to create an image that has better tone and light in highlight (the overblown winder) and shadow than I could do in a single picture. To capture the full range of light and tone, I took 7 photos, from +4EV to -2EV (Figure 2). Besides, I would like to see more detail, particularly the textures on the wall, bench, and floor, while still looking natural. This is difficult to achieve and has to be done in caution. In many situations, increase in detail will cause the resulting photos look unnatural. Nevertheless, Machinery HDR makes it an easy task. I am particularly in love with the preset “clarity” which did a great job in my church interior photography (Figure 3). Let’s see the result (Figure 4). Please note that I did not further processing the picture in Photoshop, since you are able to fine adjust many of the setting here. I am very happy with the result – with much better highlight/shadow, textures and detail are significantly enhanced, and best of all, it’s look very natural. 

Figure 3. The preset options on Machinery HDR.

By magnifying the picture to 100%, I was amazed with the image quality (Figure 5). It is very sharp, with a lot of detail in it, negligible noise level, and no color shifting. I have used some software in which the resulting image looks terrible in full resolution. Machinery HDR stood out in this aspect – with good resolution and no artifact. What else can I ask for more? 

Figure 4. Final result.

Figure 5. Original size at 100% zoom.

I love the Machinery HDR. I have tried several other HDR softwares and I just couldn't get something like I wanted. My experience with Machinery HDR is great. You can try the Machinery HDR yourself; the download is available from the Machinery HDR website (http://www.machineryhdr.com/). The trial version is fully functional except that you cannot save the full size photos or 48-bit TIFF and there is no plugin for Adobe Lightroom. I am sure you will love it after a few clicks! Stay tuned for the future posts, which I will show more examples on architectural interior and landscape photography using Machinery HDR.

Colorful Shenandoah

Dawn at Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park is best known for its spectacular mountain landscape. The ever-changing mountain landscape is attribute primarily to the changes of light throughout the day. The golden hour (before and after sunrise/sunset) is one of the best times to photograph the mountain landscape. Typically, dawn casts a cooler (blue) light and dusk casts a warm (red) light. The cool or warm light spread across the mountain is beautiful and the scene look fantastic.

Dusk at Shenandoah National Park

Sometimes, the light might be very different and complex due to the weather and atmospheric condition, e.g. cloud, fog, mist, and haze. Therefore, it might be warm at dawn and cool at dusk. These elements not only contribute to the changes of light and color, but also give a wonderfully moody feel to your picture. Moreover, the mixture of warm and cool light may occurred thanks to the interplay between the sunlight and cloud.

Dusk at Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park is an amazing place! This is the place with full of breathtaking beauty and wonderful landscape! I would love to return here to capture the light in different seasons.

Church #5: Hedvig Eleonora Church, Stockholm

Hedvig Eleonora Church is located in the center of Stockholm, Sweden. It was consecrated in 1737 and it is named after the Swedish Queen Hedvig Eleonora (1636-1715), wife of King Charles X. The church is octagonal in shape, although it is classified as round church - which is quite popular design for the early Scandinavian church. The altarpiece depicted Jesus on the Cross, which was painted by Georg Engelhard Schroder and inaugurated during the All Saints Day in 1747. The pulpit was designed by Jean Eric Rehn and it was inaugurated during the Christmas in 1784.

Today, Hedvig Eleonora Church is a popular church for various events. However, like many other churches in Stockholm, Hedvig Eleonora Church is believed to be a haunted place, which is attributed to several mysterious events happened in the church.

Casa Batllo, Barcelona

Casa Batllo is a masterpiece by Antoni Gaudi located at Passeig de Gracia, in the center of Barcelona, Spain. The building was a remodel of a previously built house and was redesigned in 1904 by Gaudi and has been refurbished several times after that. Casa Batllo evokes the creativity and playfulness of Gaudí’s work through the incrassate facades and creative floors. Its unique interior is just as extraordinary and it seems that the goal of Gaudi was to avoid straight lines completely.  

It was originally designed for a middle-class family. In 2002, it was opened to public as a museum as part of the celebration of the International Year of Gaudi. In 2005, Casa Batllo became a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Dusk at Lipan Point, Grand Canyon National Park

I have been scouting for the nice location for sunset shooting. Lipan point immediately caught my eye by its diverse and colorful landscape. It is located just a few miles west of Desert View. I think this is my favorite view point in the East Rim Drive.

On one side, it is the typical Grand Canyon view - big fissures of the Colorado Plateau. Despite the hazy condition, the light after sunset is amazing. In this case, I would treat the hazy atmosphere as a friend rather than a foe - its help to create the sense of depth.

On the other side, the Colorado River winding through the colorful landscape. The telephoto lens did a great job in capturing the scene. When I return from the trip, I was amazed that many of the good shots are the merit of telephoto lens, not the ultra wide-angle!

This is one of my favorite close-up shot, with definite placement of elements. Granite rocks and trees as foreground elements. The rusty red rocks as mid-ground elements. The layered Paleozoic rocks and Colorado River as background elements.

This is another view on the East site. The soft light after sunset create a peaceful atmosphere. I am so glad I was standing here, witnessing one of the natural wonders of the world.

Zion-Mount Carmel Highway

Our initial plan was to spend 2 days in Zion National Park. Unfortunately, the park was closed following government shutdown. Our plan B is to visit adjecent state parks and towns. On our way to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, we passed by Zion-Mount Carmel Highway which is a good opportunity to see the park during the shutdown. Zion National Park is famous for its unique and diverse geological formation and luckily, many of the famous Zion landmarks can be seen on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway.

The harsh lighting condition in the middle of the day is best suit for black-and-white conversion. This is one of my shots taken on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. Technically, I purposely place the primary element in the center - there is no rule-of-third here! The tree on the bottom left and the hillside on the bottom right serve as secondary elements which draw the visual attention away, thus creating a dynamic and harmonious composition.

This is the skill that I recently learnt from an ebook, Visual Flow by Ian Plant. This is a really great book about composition in landscape photography and I highly recommend to everyone who wish to improve their composition skill.

Kampong Kepayang: The Abandoned - Part 2

The authority wants to demolish the place for the road expansion but some of the owners of the shops cannot be found, and some owners were unhappy because the requested compensation has not been met. Therefore it was left uncared for years. The Timber, rood tiles, bricks, window frames of hard wood have been harvested for sale. Wild vegetation gradually took over the abandoned shop houses.

Few years ago, someone proposed the rebuilding of Kampong Kepayang for tourism – restore the building and realign the road. The scheme was shown at PHS Heritage Forum in 2010 but it wasn’t taken seriously by the authority.

The main street of Kampong Kepayang straddling the main highway from Ipoh to Gopeng. Extremely heavy traffic flies past the street all the time. A study from Badan Warisan Malaysia claimed that the traffic is the cause of “death” of Kampong Kepayang. The road is narrow and the stream of traffic is loud and incessant – simply unbearable!

Reference Websites:

Kg. Kepayang: A time capsule 

Demolition of pre-wars shops postponed

Kampong Kepayang: For the love of ruins

Kampong Kepayang: The Abandoned - Part 1

I have been passing by these old, abandoned shop houses a couple of times. This is an interesting place to explore and photograph – I love the place with a lot of history!

Kampong Kepayang, a former tin-mining town in the tin-rich Kinta Valley (Perak State, Malaysia). It’s consisting of two rows of pre-war shop houses, located just 13km south of Ipoh city. These shop houses exist since 1880s and it was once a live place – different shops and entertainment places, included prostitute house. It is now an almost abandoned place - a ghost town. Although there are still a few families living there and a few shops are still in operation.

Reference Websites:

Kg. Kepayang: A time capsule 

Demolition of pre-wars shops postponed

Kampong Kepayang: For the love of ruins

Shenandoah Mountain Landscape

What's the best to see in Shenandoah National Park? For me, perhaps everyone else who ever visited Shenandoah - mountain landscape, waterfall and black bear:)

The 105 miles long and narrow Skyline Drive that runs along the Blue Ridge mountains, offer you one of the most spectacular mountain landscape in the world. Many visitors travel with drive, as the highway itself is the park, and it is often associated with deer and black bear sighting along the way!

Unlike other US national parks, Shenandoah is a place where people lived for over one hundred year before the park was established. Big portion of Shenandoah consisted of farmland and second- or third-growth forests logged since 1700s. Today the forests slowly come back and all these activities are mostly disappeared.

Enjoy the best of Shenandoah National Park! I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Church #4: Adolf Fredrik Church, Stockholm

Adolf Fredrik Church is located in the center of Stockholm, Sweden. The church was named after King Adolf Fredrik. It was built between 1768-1774, replacing a wooden chapel from 1674 that was dedicated to Saint Olof.

 

The church is Neoclassicism in style, with elements of the rococo. The interior is in supported by the linked pilaster columns. The paintings in the central dome can be dated from 1899-1900, by Julius Kronberg. The two sculptures in the church was made by Johan Tobias Sergel at the time when the church was built. One is the Cartesius Monument, in which the Truth, symbolized by a globe, is liberated from the veil of Falsehood. Another sculpture is the altarpiece, which depicts Christ rising from the tomb on the Easter morning. The organ was made by organ builder Gronlund in 1966.

Today, Adolf Fredrik Church inherits its rich tradition in music, with many musical services and concerts held in the church every year. It's location in the center of Stockholm make it a tourist attraction as well.

Dusk at Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon National Park

After 6+ hours of flight and 3+ hours of driving, we finally arrived in Grand Canyon National Park. We were fortunate enough to catch up the golden hour at Yavapai Point, despite the exhausting journey. This is not a place for shooting sunburst but definitely a great place for sunset. As you can see from the picture, part of the canyon light up by the low-angled sun, casting an interesting pattern of highlight and shadow. What's a spectacular view!

Finally, we were here! Welcome to Arizona!

Church #3: Lidingo Church, Stockholm

Lidingo Church is located at the southern part of Lidingo, which is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago. The current building was completed in 1623. It is one of the oldest church in the region. The interior is beautiful. Now, let's read the church history from the picture:

- The current altar and altarpiece was added during the restoration in 1756, and it is Rococo style in design. The altarpiece is a painting depicting Jesus on the cross.

- The pulpit was made by a Swedish sculptor, Per Ljung in 1779, to replace the old pulpit from 1623. The current pulpit is Gustavian style in design.

- The Four Evangelist symbols on the chancel wall was added in 1913.

- The wall paintings are partly from 1600s, which was damaged and whitewashed, and later restored.

- The benches was replaced in 1870s and restored in 1952.

This is why I love photographing old church - seeing history in the picture...

Canyon X - Color or B&W?

This picture was taken in Canyon X, located in Navajo Nation near Page, Arizona. This is a typical slot canyon, where its smooth surface is lit up in amazing shades though the narrow slot from the top of canyon. Canyon X is a paradise for photographer, with unlimited photographic opportunities.

I create two versions for this shot. The color is astonishing, thanks to the interplay between the reflected light and smooth sandstone. Nevertheless, this is a good subject for black-and-white. Without the most distracting element - color, the interplay between contrast, shape and texture make the composition stand out.

I would like to share some really good articles about black-and-white photography: 

http://photofocus.com/2010/09/23/seven-elements-that-help-make-a-great-black-white-photograph/

http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/5-essential-tips-for-black-and-white-photography

Which one is your favorite - color or black-and-white? Tell me what you thought:)

Birding in Kinta Nature Park

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Kinta Nature Park is located at Batu Gajah of Perak, Malaysia. The bird life here is super rich, it was claimed that the park is home to more than 130 species of birds and has the largest heronry in the country on one of its islands. We visited the park during the breeding season, thousand of herons were spotted on one of the islands. The herons were collecting nesting materials and flying over from all direction. The sight is simply spectacular!

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)

It was a cloudy day, which is great for bird photography especially for the birds with white plumage. There are plenty of photography opportunities. This time I focus on simple composition - by photographing the single bird over the plain background, such as lake that reflected overcast sky. It's work out great!

Enjoy the pictures! Happy Saturday!

New Mosque, Istanbul

New Mosque (Yeni Cami) is an Ottoman Imperial mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the most popular tourist spot in Istanbul. The construction was first began in 1597 and completed in 1665. The interior of the mosque is spectacular. The central dome is supported by four large piers. On the corner of each pier are calligraphic plates with the names of the first four Khlifahs - you can see them all in this picture. This is quite common for Ottoman Imperial mosques. The wall is decorated with blue, green and white Iznik tiles, as you can see on the left side of this picture, although it is considered as inferior quality for the earlier imperial mosques.

There are plenty of opportunities to photograph beautiful mosque interior in Istanbul. However, the low light and high contrast scene render the shot difficult. What I use to do is to set the camera in higher ISO, bracketing (depend on the light, usually +/- 2 or 3 stops is sufficient), and fire using the high speed mode. 

This picture is resultant of manual blending of 2 pictures (0EV and -2EV) in Photoshop, and subsequent detail enhancement using Topaz Adjust. If you are really care about the noise caused by high ISO, take more shots and reduce the noise in Photoshop by using median blending (I will talk more about this in later post).

Enjoy the best of Istanbul!

Rose River Falls

Shenandoah National Park is home to many beautiful waterfalls. Rose River Loop is one of the most beautiful hikes for cascading waterfalls. The length of Rose River Loop is around 4 miles, but we just hiked for ~1.5 miles to the upper part of the Rose River, and return on the same path. It is a downhill hike, although not very steep, the return trip was a bit of pain. The sunny day made photographing waterfalls a challenge, luckily there are a few clouds flew over when I was ready to take some shots. I also use polarizing filter, which is a great tool to eliminate the reflection on rocks. By the way, there is no bear spotted:) I am not a fan of having intimate contact with bear in the wild:P

Palace of Catalan Music, Barcelona

Located in the center of Barcelona, Palace of Catalan Music is a magnificent concert hall designed by the Catalan architect Lluis Domenech I Montaner. It was built between 1905 and 1908. The concert seats about 2,200 people, and is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls consist of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and the ceiling is a stained glass designed by Antoni Rigalt whose centerpiece is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and sky.

It's one of my favorite shot from Barcelona, and I have it printed as postcard. If you want a free postcard, send me an email (linkahwai@hotmail.com) with your mailing address:)

Church #2: From the Lectern of St Johannes Church

St Johannes Church is located at the northern end of Norrmalm, Stockholm. The parish can be dated back to 1651 and the current building was inaugurated in 1890. The church is Gothic Revival in style, with graceful and spectacular design. I am particularly attracted by its ornate interior, which is absolutely breathtaking! 

Weekend morning can be good timing to visit the church. I have been visiting this church for many times, despite its excellent location and vicinity to the city center, I haven't seen big crowds in there. This picture was taken from the tall lectern next to the altar - which is a rare opportunity for such a spectacular church. Sometimes, get taller will give you a fresh set of eye in composing, particularly in architectural photography.

Other than good composition and light, the most important part about church interior photography is respect. Rule no. 1 - ask the permission to shot.

Enjoy the beauty of St Johannes Church! Happy Friday!

Abstract in the Forest

Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, NJ

Forest can be a great subject for abstract photography. One of the most popular techniques is vertical panning. The technique itself is simple - set your camera to long exposure, let's said 1/8 sec to 2 sec, press the shuttle, and pan vertically (or horizontally, rotation, whatever you want). You can swipe from top to bottom once, or vice verse, or back and forth. The key is to experiment, there is no rule to follow.

Duke Farms, NJ

I love this type of abstract shot, it's minimize the detail and leave only the major element to focus on - tree or grass. The interplay between the element and light is the important to make a good abstract. Autumn foliage render a colorful and painting-like abstract. Different time of the day render very different effects, e.g. heavy fog add the sense of depth to the scene; golden hour add the magical color to the scene.

Experiment is the key! Did I said that?

Church #1: Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Barcelona is a place full of surprises, especially for the photographer. It’s the most modern city in Spain, blessed with a mild Mediterranean weather and a colorful array of culture and nature. It has been breaking ground in art, architecture and style since the late 19th century. Sagrada Familia (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is one of the most visited sites in Barcelona. This is a masterpiece of Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, who pushes the Gothic style to the extreme. The construction started in 1882 and estimated a completion date in 2028.

I have a few handy tips for visiting and photographing interior of Sagrada Familia:

1. Get up early to avoid looooooooooong queue (Yes, it's loooooooooooong queue). Or get your entrance ticket online.

2. Looks up at the roof - this is the most stunning man made structure I have ever seen!

3. Look for detail - there are unlimited photography opportunities.

4. Tripod is not allowed, so use higher ISO. One can do is to use high speed mode and blend 3-5 identical pictures in Photoshop to lower the noise. I will talk more about this in the future post.

5. Bracketing exposures for high contrast scene particularly during sunny day, and use exposure blending to fix it.

Describing Sagrada Familia, art critic Rainer Zerbst said “it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art”.

Grand Texture at Grand Staircase

During my every trip, I use to be really busy in the midday - enjoying great meal in the restaurant, hiking, scouting for sunset location, visiting museum, filling up the gas tank, etc.

What's about photography? Most people might thought midday is not the time due to the harsh light. I think midday is great for many subject, e.g. black and white, intimate landscape, etc. Midday is also great for capturing detail - texture and pattern. Texture and pattern are found in most of the landscape photography but they are rarely a primary subject. They are often overlooked by photographer. Nevertheless, they can be pleasing and appealing. It's also a good training on how we "see" the smaller world through the lens.

I shot this picture when I was passing through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Highway 12) during the midday. I love the texture in the background and how the tree coordinate harmoniously with it and forming a nice scene. 

This is a good article for further reading: Nature Photographers Online Magazine: Texture and Pattern in Nature

Enjoy your midday!