The sky is the photographer’s friend. Most of us love blue blue skies and it certainly helps in making a photo ‘prettier’. Grey nimbus clouds can ruin a scene of blue skies and fluffy white cumulus clouds. Predicting the look of the sky is essential if you want to make the best use of it.

1) Under normal circumstances, the sky will look best in February or October. However, with the rainy season being unpredictable lately, this may not be true.
2) Normally if there is hot sun after a few days of rain, the skies will be pristine.
3) If it’s a grey muggy day, I normally like to shoot in B&W where the colour of the sky won’t matter so much
4) Magic hour (the hour right after sunset) is known as such because the sky is always a nice tone of violet and blue and is an excellent backdrop for landscape or architectural photography.

Learn the cloud formations and they will serve you well…

Cloud formation information at Wiki

Anyway here are some samples of how the sky can be the main subject.

And a couple of shots I took yesterday evening (it was such a glorious sky)…

With a CPL (circular polarizer), you can get deep blue skies and if you use the B&W conversion technique I mentioned earlier, and turn on the Red filter in the Channel Mixer to 100%, you will turn these blue skies into a deep shade of grey or black. Should there be white clouds in the sky at that time, they will really stand out.

However, you may want to use this effect with some moderation.

With the National Day just round the corner (about 3 weeks from today), I would like to share with you a shot from easily one of the most photogenic sites in Malaysia i.e. Putrajaya.

This one from the MOF/National Treasury…

Like KLCC, Putrajaya has been shot to death… so the challenge is for photographers to find new angles.

Upon observing repeating patterns in the subjects, you may find them pleasing to shoot. Of course, some things are not so readily apparent. Anyhow, if you’re on a photographic walkabout, watch out for repeating patterns.

Note that these patterns also exist in organic subjects (sometimes arranged by Mother Nature herself)…

Once you’ve mastered this, go one step further to introduce an element that breaks the repeating pattern. Finding this element is of course a whole new challenge but will allow your photograph something for the audience’s eyes to latch on to.

Nikon FM2 F8 5″ ASA100 (Kodak Gold)

It’s that Kek Lok Si temple at night. Had to hike a 10 minutes journey up a mosquito infested hill just for this angle. Don’t quite remember the actual settings for this, but I think it should be an F8 5″ (or was it 3″ ? aisehman…) on that same roll of ASA100 Kodak Gold film as that temple picture taken at Raja Uda…

Bangkok holds a special place in my heart as it was the place that got me going on my photographic journey 7 years ago. Anyway, this post is not about Bangkok but about the wonderfully photogenic Wat Chetawan in Section 5 Petaling Jaya. Recently spruced up, it is a wonderful place to look for Buddhist details to photograph.