Art Photograph Gallery

For over 30 years, ever since I snapped some pictures of orchids at a flower show using my brother's camera, I have been interested in creating art photographs – not just beautiful pictures, but I particularly wanted to produce unusual, exotic photographs that present a somewhat different point of view. Over time, I also sought to capture photographic images that tell a story, convey a mood, provoke thought, or stir the emotions.

Perhaps it's because I am poor at drawing or painting. When I was a child in primary school, I used to cry during art classes. Photography in adulthood has thus become a way for the artist in me to express my creativity – as I am sure it has for many other photographers.

However, I never seriously pursued my interest in photography. In fact, I had stopped taking photographs for over 10 years and only picked up the camera again in 2003.

I am a writer by profession and I also learnt web design some years back. In 2005, I started to learn how to build effective websites that will draw traffic and generate income, following the guidelines of Site Built It (SBI).

This is an excellent web building / web marketing program and if you are thinking about creating your own website, I would strongly encourage you to check it out.

My original intention was to build a website on natural health, as this is my major area of interest and expertise. However, my keyword research initially told me that such a website was not a good idea as there are already far too many sites on the same subject.

Discouraged and disheartened, I typed "art photograph" and ran the keyword research - and got some pretty good numbers. I decided to combine my talents in writing, web design and photography to create Art Photograph Gallery.

That decision has had a major impact on my photography. I decided to pursue the art a lot more seriously, I started going out more regularly to take pictures, either by myself or with some photography buddies. More significantly, I started to call myself a "photographic artist".

Another milestone came in November 2007 when I finally went digital with the purchase of a Fuji S5 Pro DSLR.

Previously, I was a die-hard user of film, especially slides. But the cost was gettting to me. Each image was costing me about S$1 for the film, processing and "high resolution" scanning which merely produced a 6.3 megapixels file.

Going digital was a liberation for me in more ways than one. Now that I did not have to worry about the cost of images, I began shooting a lot more than ever before. In the 10 months since I bought my Fuji S5 Pro (I am writing this in September 2008), I have shot close to 9,000 images already.

I now shoot at least once a week, whereas in the recent past it was once or twice a month and, before that, it was just once or twice a year! As a result, I feel the quality of my art photographs has improved considerably.

The unexpected bonus is that, with the Fuji S5 Pro offering high sensitivity of up to ISO 3200, I began to take a lot of night photographs. These days, I quite routinely carry my camera with me when I go out at night. The range of my art photographs has also increased.

Welcome, then, to view and enjoy a wide range of photographs at art photograph gallery.

Pictures are accompanied by extended captions – the stories behind them, such as how each photograph came to be taken, what drew my attention, what my feelings were at that time, and so on. I hope these stories will not only add interest, but also provide ideas, inspiration and encouragement for budding photographic artists.

My older art photographs were most taken on slides – the older pictures on Kodakchrome and Etkachrome, newer photographs on various Fuji slides including Velvia 50, Astia 100 and Provia 100 and 400.

The originals usually look much better. In some cases, however – because the original slides were dirty or damaged, the scans were not well done, the photograph was less than perfect or I wanted to create certain special effects – I have used Adobe Photoshop to manipulate the digital images after scanning.

Where the original and final images are significantly different, I will exhibit both. This will showcase the power and the possibilities of Photoshop and, I hope, encourage those not yet using this amazing software to check it out.

Prints of these art photographs are for sale at affordable prices through Red Bubble, a community of artists and photographers. But I have not uploaded all my images there, so if there is somethat that you would like to purchase but it is not available at Red Bubble, please email me. Then I will either upload it to make a print for you.

If you like, you may also create inspirational posters – with your own messages – using some of these photographs. As this is done on a project basis, the costing is flexible. Email me to discuss further.

Lastly, I ask that you respect copyright and not "lift" any images from this website without payment or permission.

Once again, I bid you a warm welcome to Art Photograph Gallery. I hope you enjoy your visit.

New articles and photographs will be added periodically, so do drop by every now and then. Enjoy!