Ranan Samanya Photography
fashion runways, portraits & personal branding, environment, and documentary photography
Fruiting lichens
OK, these are actually more to spores as lichens don’t bear fruits. And this wet afternoon I was lucky to witness the spores (the complex fruiting bodies –ascocarps– will be more appropriate) of a batch of crustose lichens here in a small forest north of Bintan.
The rain has just stopped, the forest is wet, and I was not in there to take pictures. But when my eyes saw the spores, I went back to my house (5 minutes away) to grab my camera and took a series of pictures.
My LX-3 lens frame was literally sitting on the spores (and left a mark seen in the second picture) to get the minimum distance possible (1cm) with the macro mode (dangerous move, indeed, risking those spores to get into my lens). I also used the manual focusing mode (can’t seem to get a good focus with spot mode).
Follow the light
Tropical rainforest. Hot, humid, and less available light due to the dense canopy. My strategy (apart from using bigger aperture, very low shutter speed, higher ISO, or a combination of them all) has been to wait for moments when light is able to strike through the leaves. And depending the forest location, it will either be morning or late afternoon. Search for good spots where the sun lit the area, and use that to our advantage.
Here I used the broad leaves of Hibiscus tiliaceus (local: waru) against the afternoon sun to get the transparent vivid green colour showing the veins of the leaves.
the joy of angklung
A quick note from angklung performance by Tunas Bangsa Kindergarten last month. His face attracted me in particular because the way he played the musical instrument: such an energy, such a joy!
Angklung is a traditional musical instrument made entirely from bamboo, it originates from West Java, Indonesia. Each piece will produce different tone; as such angklung is played in a team, not individually.
Make Oops – brc’s Kartinis
A quick note from a Kartini day celebration yesterday. Still wondering why should activities focus on women’s make ups and the likes, when all Kartini asked was being equal with men, make-ups or not.
That issue aside, here are three out of I don’t know how many teams on a make-up competition. Err…, the third team was represented more by their hands, LOL.
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus
This is the perfect time to revisit the classic St. Andrew’s Cathedral Singapore. Here are five frames from the interior of the 147 years old Anglican Cathedral as promised last month. I really like the contrast of the deep blue ceiling and the white pillars. The altar stood in front of nicely decorated tall stained glass windows. I was lucky to arrive when the sun was shining through them. The benches are still that of old rattan and wood. The shelves are full of bibles and hymn praises in different languages (I saw Mandarin and German beside English), neatly stacked. The sides of the benches, as well as the front walls, are full of memories of loved ones.
The three sepia frames in the middle were made using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 plugin for Aperture, which I thought gives a deeper and sharper sepia that Aperture’s built-in preset.
This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24). Hope you all have a happy and meaningful Easter.
Backdrop of “Heroines and Heroes” frames
Remember this group of energetic teachers of Tunas Bangsa Primary? The frames from previous post were not taken in a studio. They were taken in the corridor of the school, using seamed backdrop created for the school’s first drama performance a few years back.
The use of flash has tremendously enhanced the setting, removing the semi-transparent black textile, giving a vibrant colour, and the bounced flash also soften the skin tone. Invest in a dedicated flash, rather than using the built-in one on the camera. It’s guaranteed a good investment.
Oh, and don’t try to click on the frame below, it’s not sharp!
The setting, taken without a flash to show the original lighting condition. Needed to use ISO3200!
Heroines and Heroes of Tunas Bangsa Primary Bintan
Today we Indonesians celebrate Kartini Day. Kartini is an Indonesian heroine who led the struggle for women’s equality during the colonial time. As in other areas, Tunas Bangsa primary school also celebrates the Day with quite a number of creative activities. I love the activities created, and also the decoration that was put by the teachers. So here are the wonderfully cheerful teachers and administrative staff who made this young school advanced to its present state; consider this a thank you gesture. <grin>
Above picture, from left to right, say Hi to: Susy, Yuli, Gestin, Dina (principal), Gita. In the front row: Gugun, Yanne, and Aditya. Not present is Santy, who has to be in her home town for Easter preparation.
I used Program mode in Portrait Picture style. Still using my 20 years old battered speedlite 430EX flash in Manual mode, 60 degrees bounced, flash output set to 1/8 power.
And as I’m getting acquainted with Mac’s Aperture 3, the workflow is pretty fast. I no longer take out my CF card from the camera; instead I plugged in the USB cable, which fired up Aperture, imported the images into a new project, selected these two frames, did a little adjustment using the preset and a few manual ones, then batch exported them using my custom template (which include file resizing and renaming) with BorderFX plugin. All within 10 minutes time!
Something for the babies
How do you get attention when you want your subjects to look at the camera? I stumbled upon one site showing (and actually selling) a great way to get the babies (maybe even the toddlers) to look at our cameras when we shoot them: LensPet
Take a look, do you think it will be easy to do it ourselves with available toys around the house? The creative ones will be busy making the toys by now! Don’t forget to let me know if you have created the toys. Hmmm…, now where did I put all the old toys of Mara…?
Ranan Samanya Photography 
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