Studio Photoshoot with Gador

Tabi basa and greetings everyone! How’s your day? I hope it has been a good day for you and your family. These days, with COVID-19 threat still lurking around, there is no way for us to lower down our guard. The best thing to do is to keep ourselves informed on the latest news from Ministry of Health and keep ourselves protected by ensuring utmost hygiene in our daily lives. Don’t forget your mask wherever you go.

Tukang Rantek

Starting last month I have started to formally use the title Tukang Rantek in my Facebook page. Why?

Tukang Rantek’s Story
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Tabi basa and greetings! I’m Claudius, your Tukang Rantek (photographer in Bidayuh), who is also passionate in music, which I will post here to entertain all of you. I’m using Leica M manual rangefinder camera for all of my photography jobs, and recently starting my videography journey. I understand that I came from a poor family, where I hardly find any of my pictures growing up. It is because family resources are allocated into the things that really matter, including food and education. While for some has abundance of growing up photos, mine was only picture on rare occassions, when my aunties rent a film kamera to capture our sweet family photos.
That’s why I am passionate in capturing my family photographs beautifully, especially my niece and nephew, because family is precious, thus in a way returning the favour. We can earn back money, but not the time we lost. Honing my skills by practicing with them, I slowly make my way to where I am now all thanks to requests from family, friends and ultimately to the person that I haven’t met, just communicating via soc-med or Whatsapp. Your trust in my photographic touch makes me want to deliver my best to capture your best family moments. Behind the lens, I’m a photographer, but given a microphone, I’m an entertainer. I’m am forward to work with all of you! Stay safe and take care!
(Dalam Bahasa Malaysia)
Tabi basa dan selamat sejahtera! Nama saya Claudius, Tukang Rantek anda, yang membawa maksud jurugambar di dalam bahasa Bidayuh, dan juga merupakan insan yang meminati muzik dan akan memuatnaik video muzik saya untuk menghiburkan anda semua. Saya menggunakan kamera Leica M manual “rangefinder” di dalam semua kerja kerja fotografi saya dan baru-baru ini saya memulakan kerja videografi saya seandainya ada permintaan khas. Saya memahami saya datang daripada keluarga yang tidak berkemampuan dan tiada gambar semasa saya membesar bersama keluarga tersayang kerana duit hanya digunakan untuk perkara yang penting sahaja, contohnya makanan dan pendidikan.
Gambar-gambar hanya diambil pada masa yang tertentu sahaja oleh makcik-makcik saya menggunakan kamera yang disewa dari kedai. Oleh sebab itu, saya mempunyai minat yang mendalam untuk mengabadikan setiap kenangan bersama keluarga di dalam bentuk gambar, terutama sekali anak buah saya yang baru sahaja mengenal dunia, lantas membalas kembali jasa baik mereka. Ini juga adalah kerana masa bersama keluarga adalah tidak ternilai. Tiada jumlah wang di dunia yang boleh mengembalikan masa-masa yang sudah hilang.
Syukur kepada kepercayaan dan amanah yang diberikan oleh anda semua, saya mampu berada dimana saya berada sekarang, yang mana saya bermula hanya sebagai tukang rantek keluarga, kemudiannya buat kawan-kawan dan seterusnya orang yang saya cuma jumpa di alam maya/Whatsapp untuk berurusan berkenaan sesi fotografi. Dengan kebolehan saya ini, saya harap agar saya dapat mengabadikan kenangan keluarga anda, saat-saat indah anda di dalam bentuk gambar, yang boleh dikongsikan bersama. Dibelakang kamera, saya adalah tukang rantek/jurugambar; namun apabila diberikan mikrofon, saya menjadi seorang penghibur. Saya menanti saat untuk berkerja bersama anda. Jaga diri anda sekalian baik-baik.
(Duwah Sanda Bidayuh Serian)
Tabi bada ndug bala kende. Ganan aku Claudius, aku mah tukang rantek kende. Aku ti pan minat muzik lagih, dangan ku ra post video bilagu aku ati tinan pirimpu bala kende, ngancak kende kai bidenge. Aku puan aku mandug masu mambu de sasi, gamar wang ami bahas pan kai ne ahi. He mada aku ti mene2 ira ngundah gamar ahi2 tinan kenangan, ngancak bala anak sungkuh de ira mandug tebek gambar bala babuk tayung ne paguh2, labih-labih lagi bala anak buah aku de pajin makat bahas tebek dunya.
Minan pimandai aku ti, ku ira ngundah gambar de paguh. Ganan Tukang Rantek iti pan odog tinan ngin ira ngakat sanda bala adep kita de bateh bala rayat dunya, ngakat ganan Bidayuh. Kan jogon kamera, aku Tukang Rantek. Pak kan jogon microphone, aku pirimpu bala kende.
July 26th, 2020 – Post at Facebook.

I think it is important for me to embrace who I want to be, instead of striving to fill people’s expectation of me, which gaves an unnecessary mental load. Art should be created sincerely. If your drive to create art is just to impress others, I don’t think you will last longer versus the people who genuinely wants to create art.

Photography, being another branch of art, is no different. When you are a photographer, if you learn just enough knowledge of a specific genre, you can make money out of it. Even if you are only good in one branch of photography, say studio photography, you can make money by helping others to create their passport photos. Their setup is simple, two light sources, an suitable background (either white or light blue) and a good camera (doesn’t matter if it’s crop sensor or full frame). All the customer wants is a printed image that meets their need at that time.

As for studio photographer, there is various techniques to be used, depending on the requirement of the clients. You can employ one, or two, or even five different lighting setup, with one ultimate goal in mind, which is to make your client looks good. During the initial stage of Movement Control Order that starts in 18 March 2020, I think most of the business is brought into a standstill. Photography is no exception, most of its branch, because it requires you to have a client that comes to your studio, or outdoor studio. Having a RMCO (recovery MCO) is like a breath of fresh air because finally photography business can run again as usual with some limitations, that is understandably to control the spread of COVID-19.

Then I managed to work with many peoples again in Miri, and even involved in mobile videoshooting at various locations. That is a good experience for me, since there is always a room for improvement.

The Art of Studio Photography with an M

Ever since I am involved with photography in serious manner back in 2017, I have always been intrigued by studio photography. Not only because it is quite challenging, but it forces me to be more creative with curent limitation that I have. You would have known me for using manual rangefinder camera from Leica, but that camera with its nature built for street and candid photography, to go into studio is breaking its own comfort zone. But like any challenge, it is fun.

Your lens does not have any leaf shutter, so it is entirely dependent on your manual shutter from the rangefinder. Due to camera limitation, I am using it up to 1/180 shutter speed only. Any faster than that, I would not be able to capture the light evenly. That alone makes me want to play with the other three elements as well – aperture and ISO. It is rule of thumb to use its base ISO of 100 to get the best image from the camera. I am using M10-P, which is already old, since camera technology advances quite fast. Now camera giants are racing to make a sensor bigger than 40MP. For my needs, 24MP is good enough. What I need to do now is to outgrow my camera. So long as I don’t outgrow it, I have no technical reason(s) to upgrade.

Studio Session with Gador

As for today’s post, it would be about the recent photoshoot that I have done with Gador, a friend of mine. All this while, my photoshoot session is always done with women. Thanks to Priscilla, who always been supportive with her talents, I learned about studio photography with women as my subjects. However, with men, I need to learn more because, it is not easy as it seems.

The first challenge is to make your subject felt at ease and let them open up to you. Otherwise, it would be another robotic session like when you capture your passport pictures. Studio photography supposed to be fun and entertaining. That allows a person’s to show their best, unless you want to create a moody picture. That is another requirement.

We started off with colour studio photography, to capture the energy that his circle of friends know about him. He is a cheerful and happy-go-lucky guy that like spontaneous activity.

Then, once the colour photoshoot is done, I switched to black and white mood, because I think it is a good way to capture the often unseen side of man. Not to mention that it is timeless.

The direct light is good to emphasis his masculine energy and depart from his usual carefree style. This monochrome style lis one of my favourite, especially for couples.

Passion for Monochrome

When I started with my photography journey, I started off with monochrome, using Leica’s M9 Monochrome, a camera that can only see in black and white. It sounds weird, but as weird as it is, it has its own niche. The quality of black and white image that it creates are different from just converting your image to black and white in post processing. You can see your monochrome image being created on-the-fly as you shoot.

Even outdoor portrait is also can be done in monochrome. It is no doubt that in the golden age of photography, monochrome was done because they don’t have a choice. However, soon it develops its own market, even in the world of colourful pixels. Having images done in monochrome is also another reason that a lot of war-time gens dream in monochrome.

For me, due to the demand, I ventured into colour photography because it is how it is, and Leica colour is beautiful, especially the old CCD sensor in M9 camera that M10 is trying to imitate. M9 is severely handicapped by its sensor, but in a good light, M9 is a beast. Coupled with a Noctilux, it can handle any lighting situation.

I can only speak on behalf of Leica rangefinders because that is the camera that I use to create images. I do acknowledge that there are more and more amazing mirrorless cameras coming into market, but being a diehard M fan, I will be using my camera for a long time. I am also so used to it.

Epilogue

With that, I hope you will find your passion, and stick with it. Don’t hop into every single trend that you saw, because you will have to invest into it a lot of time and energy. Otherwise, you better off stick into something until you achieved mastery. Even if you have all of the money in the world, you can’t buy this cute little thing called “fulfilment”. It is a feeling that comes from accomplishing something deemed impossible.

All the best to you!

Tukang Rantek,
Claudius

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