No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away

It is the latest album from one of my favourite bands, Mew. It is also somewhat fitting as I love to tell stories on this blog but I just don’t have a story today. Instead I have just a few images from my past weeks of work. Possibly not a bad trade, this is a photography blog after all.

What have I been up to? Well, I am saving all the images and stories for my new upcoming website. I am adding image files in the hundreds to my new site and typing in metadata till my fingers bleed. I am also processing all shots from the past 6 months of travel, including previously developed images from Thailand and Laos as I was unhappy with the stuff I developed on the road. Working 7-10 hours every day in Lightroom and Photoshop is a nice way to hone one’s post-processing skill. I have been toying with many new techniques and managed everything from awesome to plain weird results. Here’s a few images from Thailand and Laos, re-developed and different from my normal wide open spaces:

Thailand - Cosy Streetlife - copy - blog 

Laos Studying - web copy - blog

The street scenes in Thailand has awful colours from wildly different light sources at night. But once converted to duotone I felt the atmosphere come alive again. It is a great experience to eat at the street kitchens in the suburbs. Second image is from Laos, where I now have developed a lot more of the hmong children portraits. I re-discovered these images having not looked at them for long and am now loving them. Soft light blending of layers and high pass filtering with a healthy does of luminosity layers are Photoshop techniques that really shine on these sort of images I find.

That is all we have in the story book today. Much much more to come….launch approaching!

10 Comments on “No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away”

  1. Nice mood in these images; the duotone does simify the busyiness in the street scene. The shot of the kids has a wonderful universal aspect that could be of children across the planet. It's always great to see the world through your eyes!

  2. That street shot could have been one taken in anywhere in SEA (language on signs not withstanding). I remember scenes like that in Singapore where I grew up. It brings back a lot of memories, and the thought that if there were scenes like that left, it wouldn't be so bad to go back. I'll find out at the end of the year. One week in KL and another in the motherland!

    The post processing in your portrait of a schoolboy is perfect. Simple, true to life and punchy. I could see how you would create this in Lightroom but I have to admit, I haven't touched Photoshop in so long that

    "Soft light blending of layers and high pass filtering with a healthy does of luminosity layers are Photoshop techniques that really shine"

    means just about nothing to me! Haha. Time to get cracking with CS Suite programs again I think. I've been resting on my Lightroom laurels for far too long!

    1. You're right Charlene, any SEA suburb could produce an image like this. I wish the image could convey sounds and smells as well, unless one has experienced this it is hard to describe it. The smell of spices, food, tropical heat and people and a distinct smell of sewerage. The sound of food frying, Thai chattering, scooters zooming by, TVs playing Thai soap operas and boom boxes booming out music.

      Lightroom is amazing but I found for the Laos portraits that I really needed Photoshop a lot as I was blending a lot of layers with masks. Different layers for face, boy, girl, background etc. Over the past two months my PS skills have been quite improved 🙂 Lightroom Laurels, good word 🙂

    1. Thanks! I doubt there is a proper spelling of the suburb as it seems one can spell Thai names in English whichever way one likes, but I'll try without the p !

      EDIT: You're totally right, seems English spelling is normally without the P, I shall use that from now on.

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