iPhoneography (or is it Smartphoneogaphy?)
As a change of pace, today’s blogpost is actually an audio interview. Hong Kong entrepreneur, Casey Lau hosted an event tonight for Social Media Week, looking at the rise of mobile and social photography. Since I can’t be there, I took the opportunity to interview tonight’s panelists, Rita S. (@mochachocolata), Tyson Wheatley (@Twheat), Lester Lim, [...]
iPhoneography 101
Two years ago I expressed my love for taking photos with the iPhone or, as it has come to be known, iPhoneography. Since then things have exploded. Taking photos on the iPhone (and other smartphones), developing them with in-phone apps and sharing them instantly via email or social media platforms have become a daily habit [...]
Telling A Story – Choosing A Story
Last week I was in Penang, photographing the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. I was also joining a workshop run by Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough. One of my goals in attending the workshop was to become better at telling visual stories, or to put it another way, creating visual essays. The Assignment We were given [...]
Notes From The Road – Penang
This morning I’m packing up and getting ready to fly back to Singapore. It’s been a long and tiring week and I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a photographer this week. Photographing Thaipusam was hard work. On Monday I was up before 5.30am and didn’t get to bed till after 2am the next [...]
Observing Thaipusam
It’s been a long day. Yesterday I was up at 5.30am and didn’t finish the day until 2am. Today I was out shooting just after 10am and didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly 10pm. Almost all of that time has been spent with the same group of people, from a small Hindu temple, [...]
Notes From The Road – Thaipusam
I’m in Penang, photographing the Thaipusam festival with some fellow photographers. This morning I was up before 5.30am watching the procession of a Hindu idol and observing devotees in various acts of devotion and thanksgiving. The image above shows men cracking coconuts on the road before the bullock-drawn silver chariot that carried the statue of [...]
Flying Tomorrow
Visited the surgeon this morning and he gave me the all-clear to fly out to Penang, where I will be joining Matt Brandon, Gavin Gough and a few other photographers. It’s a trip I’ve been looking forward to for some time. The last 48 hours haven’t been great as I contemplated whether to cancel the [...]
February Wallpaper
January came to a sudden and unexpected end, so I’m a little behind on updating this site. Anyway, this is your free computer desktop wallpaper for February. I took this image in Adelaide, well over an hour after sunset. There is something magical about watching the sun set into the ocean. You can download the
Notes From The Road – Summer In Adelaide
I’m in the middle of a short break in Adelaide. Being Chinese New Year, I decided to head away from the oppressive heat of Singapore to enjoy the oppressive heat of Adelaide. And, boy oh boy has it been warm. Yesterday it was over 35 degrees celsius, which felt even hotter sitting in the glorious [...]
Slow Down
I’d like to share with you one of my all-time favourite movie scenes – from the somewhat overlooked 1995 film, Smoke. In this film, Harvey Keitel plays Auggie, the owner of a tobacco shop. Auggie’s pet project is to photograph his tobacco shop. Every day he goes across the street and takes, what is basically [...]
Polaroid Z340 Review
Santa* brought me a really cool present this year – a Polaroid Z340 instant camera. First Impressions The camera is very black and reassuringly heavy. It is plastic, but it doesn’t feel unpleasant to touch. If anything, it is surprisingly bulky, which along with the classic wedge shape helps gives the Z340 a solidly retro [...]
Generation Slash Revisited
Chase Jarvis recently posted a copy of his interview with Juxtapoz magazine. It’s a great read if you are into photography, fine art of just the whole big creative thing. A few lines really stood out for me, “And for what it’s worth, I’ve been told my whole career that being a hyphen, that not [...]
Dalí, Subversive Humour And Learning To Be An Artist
My favourite film of 2011 was Midnight in Paris. Among the many memorable scenes there is a wonderful moment when Owen Wilson’s lead character meets Salvador Dalí, played by Adrien Brody. Of course, the real life Dalí was every bit as over the top and amusing to behold as Brody’s portrayal suggests. Yesterday I stumbled [...]
January Wallpaper
This month’s wallpaper is the last image I took in 2011. It was a seriously wet end to the year here in Singapore. Apparently, in three hours on the 23rd, we had more rain than the average monthly rainfall for a typical December. It was a very damp Christmas. But, the days around the New [...]
Best Films Of 2011
I love watching films, writing about films and doing the whole geeky/nerdy thing of putting films in lists and trying to rank them. But, I always struggle writing a best films of the year post. Partly it’s because I don’t see anywhere as many films as I used to, or as many as you really [...]
Photographically Speaking
For the last few weeks I’ve been reading David duChemin’s new book Photographically Speaking. Like the other books David has released, it is a solid read, with lots to inspire and challenge photographers of all levels. That said, I’m probably the last person you want to turn to for an “objective” review. Over the last [...]
12 For 2012
Around this time last year I wrote two lists; of things I wanted more and less of in my life. Last year’s lists were an exercise in setting goals, articulating hopes and ending frustrations. Yesterday I went through those lists and made some comments. Although it has felt like a frustrating year, it’s good to [...]
December Wallpaper
This image was created recently in Oaxaca. Earlier in the day, David duChemin had made the comment that there didn’t seem to be a lot of photographers shooting still life images these days. That got me thinking, what other classic styles of photography were perhaps being under-experlored today? My mind quickly wandered to surrealism. Now, [...]
7 Kinds Of People You Need In Your Creative Universe
Sustaining yourself in a creative endeavour, be it photography, music, design, writing or any other art, requires relationships. You can’t do it alone. People won’t just “discover” your work and you’ll struggle to bounce back from the inevitable setbacks and disappointments. Moreover you’ll need folks that can help you stay true to your goals, focussed [...]
The Rule Of Halves
A lot of photographic conversations seem stuck at the rule of thirds, perhaps forgetting that although it’s a powerful grid system, it’s not the only option out there.
Stealth Photography And Other Urban Problems
“Do you think I can’t see you, crouched over there, with your giant camera and massive lens? Do you think I don’t know that you’ve been taking pictures of my daughter and I while we sit and talk about her school day? I came here for a few moments of quiet conversation and a cup [...]
Lightroom Preset Fun
As a rule, I don’t like to use software presets, either for photography or music. But, like, every rule, there are exceptions. It wasn’t till I read David duChemin’s excellent book on Lightroom, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter), that I realised that, by default, Lightroom adds a [...]
Plans For The End Of The World
2010 was a great year for me, loaded with fulfilment, adventure and a surprising degree of success. By contrast, 2011 has been a grind. It hasn’t been a bad year; though at times life and work have been hard to manage. Of course, that’s partly self-inflicted; changing country while taking on a lot of work [...]
A Few Recent Lessons From The Road
My recent trip to Mexico was something of a long-haul ordeal – thirteen hours from Singapore to London, layover of six hours in Heathrow, twelve hours flying London to Mexico City, overnight stay, then a six and a half hour bus ride to Oaxaca. On the way back things were slightly worse, six hours by [...]
Fernando Gros is a musician, photographer & writer based in Singapore. Born in Santiago de Chile, Fernando grew up in Sydney and has also lived in London, Delhi and Hong Kong.