I am no aficionado of photography. Rather, I am more used to being in front of a camera. However, occasions call for me to whip out my camera and take great shots to keep up an Instagram feed and for my own keepsake. Plus, I love to experiment and learn some photography from friends. I carry around the Canon M100 to dinners, events and gatherings. Let me share with you what I have captured.
Portraits
Liang Seah Street has so much to offer at night – steamboat, skewers, traditional desserts, snow ice etc. I stuck to the conventional rule of the thirds as I took this candid shot at Liang Seah Street while my friend was making a call after supper. I set the camera to Aperture Priority and adjusted it to a low F3.5 in order to get a little bokeh effect from the neon signs. Could this shot be better? Of course. The highlights were a little too bright. A lower ISO would have done better if I adjusted the presets manually.
I asked a videographer friend who does photography on the side to teach me a few tricks. It was past midnight and the downpour slowed to a drizzle. Night shots are a little tough as pictures may turn out grainy but the Canon M100 took sharp pictures at low light to my surprise. Since the rain left puddles along the street, he taught me how to take a reflection shot. I used a LED panel, lowered the camera till it is almost touching the ground, flipped up the live view (so I do not have to lie down on the wet and cold ground), and focused on the reflection. If the puddle was larger, it would have looked better with his whole figure reflected. The camera is set to Shutter Priority. I set the shutter speed slow to let more light in so the picture will not be underexposed. That comes at a trade-off where I had to keep my hand very stable, elbow locked in by my side, in order to not shake for a clear picture.
Food
Burst mode not needed! The waitress at Fujisoba started pouring the sesame sauce on the Japanese-Chinese fusion louhei before I prepared the camera. I switched to Auto mode and let the camera do its magic. Even though the sesame sauce was not in focus, it drew attention to the mountain of vegetables in the middle which was in focus, and also captured the way that the sauce flowed down. I discovered that the Canon M100’s Auto mode would suffice for simple pictures. Sometimes, I do not have time to painstakingly do presets in manual mode. If not, I would have missed moments like this!
The humongous bowl and scoop would have made the soba look measly if I took it from a further distance. I was thinking, how do I make a small portion of soba and the two oysters stand out? I hovered the Canon M100 above the edge of one side of the bowl and centred the soba. The print of the bowl helps to create the circular geometry too.
