One of my favorite photography lighting books is Joe McNally‘s Hot Shoe Diaries. Joe can really write and its a great book with lots of inspiration and stories behind how each picture is made. Sometimes, you do want a book that’s specific to your camera system and covers the nitty-gritty details in configuring your small flash units. There are many books on lighting and flash but only a couple are really good. If you want a good flash and lighting book that is Canon specific, there’s only one good book and it’s this one. The Speedliter’s Handbook by Syl Arena. Joe McNally started me on multiple flash units and others like Louis and Syl has gotten me to journey down the e-TTL multiple speedlite path. As you start to wander down this road, it’s indispensable to have a book like this.

What I love about this book is that it’s big but not too big. You need space to have nice readable type and space for diagrams, before and after shots as well as some in-between shots for various settings or configurations. The pages are printed on quality paper and it feels good in my hands. There’s technical information and jargon along with clear concise explanations that beat the crap out of those boring Canon manuals. In case you need to shoot penguins, the infamous Canon flash penguin makes a cameo appearance! The best part about the handbook to me is the shoot sections where Syl’s goes through various setups with various flash configurations. The section starts with a single flash and moves on until it gets fun, scary and crazy… like with his gang-light. There’s detailed explanation on each shoot and setup so that you will understand what goes on, why the photographer is doing so and why each piece of equipment is used. Nothing could be clearer or simpler than that — you just need to duplicate the setup and you’ll be able to get the similar effect.

And for those readers who love getting new gear, there’s also plenty of that in the book along with photos showing the effect of each. I know getting new stuff won’t necessarily help you become a better photographer, but sometimes, new, shiny stuff will at least encourage you to get off your butt and shoot more. It’s not a really cheap book but it’s packed full of information. The amount of knowledge gained more than outweighs the investment — yes, it’s really an investment because you can start with one camera, one lens and one flash along with this book and grow your way up!

If you are a beginner, the book is clear and concise enough that you can understand it. If you’re in the middle of working out how to use your flash, this book will help you. Even if you’re a professional, I think this book still has something to teach you. I love the way the information is laid out as there’s plenty of basic to advance information provided for you. Syl starts with the basics and moves all the way down so this really IS the handbook to own if you intend to use small flash in any way (yes, including parking it on top your camera).

My opinion is that this is the book Canon should give you when you buy a flash unit from them! If you have one flash and am looking to improve your lighting, buy this book before you buy that second flash unit. If there’s anything this book doesn’t have is that there’s no rebate coupon for a 580EX II… or a lighting how-to DVD but then again I do wonder when Syl’s going to have a workshop down in Malaysia. Joe’s been here so come on down!

Buy this book from Amazon today!

Creative Asia was a real eye-opener for me and I believe, also, many other from Malaysia and around the region. I’ve attended many conferences and workshops by now… not all of them relate or are about photography but yet, they are generally well attended. Most of the time, you do come out of them pretty much inspired to do things or with new ideas in your head.

This is no different with Creative Asia 2011. With plenty of international capable speakers and inspiring imagery, words and action, it’s almost impossible to not come out of the conference pumped out somehow. The conference schedule was as follows:

19 Jan (Wednesday)
815am Registration
9am-5pm Print Judging
7pm-730pm Opening Ceremony
730pm-9pm Opening Keynote by Joe McNally

20 Jan (Thursday)
8am-10am Visual Story Telling by Mike Langford
1030am-1230pm A Colourful World by Manny Librodo
2pm-4pm King of Wedding Filmmaking by Jason Magbanua
430pm-630pm Photoshop for show & Photoshop for dough by Daniel Capobianco
730pm-9pm The Showdown by various speakers

21 Jan (Friday)
8am-10am Standing out from the crowd by Dane Sanders
1030am-1230pm Reinventing group photography by Michael Greenberg
2pm-4pm Fast & Furious by Louis Pang
730pm-9pm Awards & Closing Ceremony

As you can see, it was a packed and more than a full day every day! I must give the Louis Pang Studio team a big hand (or several more hands) in organizing and delivering a world class conference right here in Malaysia.

The judging was the part I learned the most as it gives you tremendous insight into how world-class competitions are judged. It’s not cheating when you’re know what the judges are looking at but it will make you pay attention to details like placement or inclusion of elements (why are they there? If it’s included, it must have purpose) or things like color and flash.

Of all the other speakers, as usual, my favorite always will be Joe McNally. He never ceases to be able to capture my attention and I don’t think any other speaker will be able to do that for me. I also enjoyed the show-down as it really shows us how different styles and approaches can work for different types of photography and what kind of results it produced. The live demos were always welcome.

Finally, nothing is perfect and I do think that there are some improvements that can be made to the conference. One thing for sure is that at least the provision of coffee and tea at the registration/reception area in the morning. Almost every conference has that and I think it was a bit of a letdown. The creative participants of course rose to the challenge and you started seeing Starbucks cups everywhere — maybe Starbucks could be roped in to sponsor some free coffee! The conference hall was a bit large for the number of participants but perhaps the CA Crew were expecting more people. Content-wise, additional shoot-and-show kind of presentation would be nice.

To conclude, I met plenty of fun people and many familiar faces and CA 2012 will be on my calendar next year! I do hope to see more speakers and workshops (Syl Arena for us Canon users and speedliting!) and perhaps some sessions could have multiple tracks (i.e. a photoshop track, a fashion track, etc).

See you in 2012!

After all the turkeys (3) during Christmas, we had roast chicken instead and other lovely Malaysian hawker food during New Year’s eve. For sweet endings, we had bread and butter pudding!

Nothing much to see or write but hope everyone has had a fantastic 2010. I know I did and I’m looking forward to 2011. It may be a great year or it may be a challenging year, but with my darling with me, it’ll turn out fine.

2010 – the year that was, through whatever lens or camera I happen to have at that time.

A year filled with blessings that overflow, with experiences that push me forward and upwards, with family and friends that remind me how rich and blessed I am with them around me.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December