[/caption]We participated in the Photo Fair organised by Objectif. It was a fun event where we learned and experienced how to communicate the appreciation of arthropods to prospective art collectors. At the start, when we had finished laying out the photographs, I showed my kids how to cut the first deal, find a good reasons so that the purchase was difficult to reject. I requested from the first patron to purchase our photocard for a dollar each to bless our stall and he politely obliged. He had done a good deed and we had a good start. The dollar went into our transparent money vase. The kids were so inspired and thrilled to see the money growing that they went on to create a total of 122 photo cards sale.
Of course the followed up sales were not done for the same reasons. They had put in considerable effort to understand my work and promote them with zeal and ingenuity. In fact the night before I had run through the philosophy of my work, recognising the peculiarity of the insects and spiders, the significant of each piece of work and the pricing of my work. It was easy for my elder son as he was interested in insects and spiders and had went to many trips with me. My wife who had not taken much interest in my work was so taken by the preparation that she started to memorise the imagery of the different insects and spiders.
I knew that it was against common trend, generally people have difficulty appreciating insects and spiders. Most people grew up with the view that insects are pests, except, of course, butterflies and dragonflies. Not forgetting, the sweet ladybird is an exception too. I was filled with a mission to first bring to their attention that indeed insects, as part of nature, similar to the like of lions and whales, we should learn how to appreciate their nature, form, colour and texture. I was less a sale man than a insects and spiders appreciation evangelist. I derived much satisfaction explaining my cause of pursuing the "Portraiture of Arthropod" and how to appreciate them in the photographs I had taken. I believed that only after one had learned to appreciate them otherwise there is no perceivable value in my art pieces.
Busy Busy - the Stingless Bee
The attractiveness of this piece is the intense red colour which occupied most of the canvass, with a diagonal composition of an unconventional view of the Stingless Bee. The Stingless Bee is a common insects found in the garden. Its signature motion is hoovering in flight scanning flowers before it lands to collect pollens. Here we see the pollens are collected and attached to his hind legs. This also brings attention to his translucent reddish brown behinds which has dark strips and minute glittering bristles.
This was sold to a lady, Louella. I was so glad that she love it so much. Her comments during the show is a tremendous encouragement.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Her empire glitters"]
[/caption]Her empire glitters
This shot mesmerised many people because of the dream like effect of the rain droplets. The wrap around spider web in a "C" shape gives a comforting feeling of home. The lights penetrating through the spider turns it into a goddess crystals.
This was sold to Poh Fatt and selected by his wife. He had been a long time childhood friend and an ardent watch collector. We are appreciative of his support for my work. Thanks.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Dragonfly in Flight"]
[/caption]Dragonfly in Flight
Dragonfly flipping the wings is a beauty to watched. Some how it reminds one of the exalted feeling of carefree spirit. It gives a sense of peace and serenity to the observer. A piece which can be appreciated by all.
This was sold to Wai Meng. After considering the arrangement in his living room he ordered another piece to compliment this. He had followed my initial trips into the bushes to snape images of insects in obscure Kranji Road and had track the progress of my work over span of more than 3 years.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Love Dance"]
[/caption]Love Dance
This is one of the pieces which shows the flies courting scene. In a way it reminisces, the courting scene of youth and human being. Reminding us of the urge to kiss for a prolong period and the enjoyment of the act especially during early teenage. Reaffirming the kissing cliché which imagery was immortalised in photographs and movies. It recalls the impressionist painting style of early modern art.
This is viewed best in 1m x 1m print. It had not been sold.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Courting Marathon"]
[/caption]Courting Marathon
This is one of my favourite. The drama of courtship is well captured here. Significantly is the raised wings of the cricket in the foreground, the tensed posture of the legs and the long feelers crossing each other in clear sharpness, the elongated shadows balanced with the punctuation of the cut out in the leaf on the left. The active cricket in the foreground is focus, bringing its detail in full view, contrasting with the passive cricket in a blurry background. It tells a story of intense action and courtship immortalised in black and white with a slight dash of colours on the wings and the legs, a certain remains of colour hue differentiating it from traditional film capture.
Herriot had put an order for a 12" x 12" print. Well he is still deciding. He had been so intrigued by my work that we noticed he kept retaining to our booth and scrutinising the print intensely.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="Pollinating"]
[/caption]Pollinating
Another piece which is attractive to most people, for its soothing yellow imbue with cultural significant, however there is a twist to this image. The perceived bee emphasized the quality of hard work and bright future in saturated yellow. With hard work comes the reward of sweetness. The twist is that this is a fly and not a bee which most people would associate with. Fly is a symbol of disgust and vector for transmission of fatal disease. It points to the misconception that only bees and wasp help pollination and we had excluded a lot of friendly flies which do the same. A reflection of our prejudice against fly and our ignorance.
This was sold to Wai Meng.
We were grateful to all the friends and visitors to our photography sale, especially Flickr friends who are so supportive of my work. We will participate again on the next photo fair and hopefully by than my book would be completed.
For international friends who cannot make it to my sale, my work is available on the different site listed below. My sets of photo cards are on sale in QOOP, they have the bargain price. For larger prints, there are many choices to buy from, check it below.
There are many more pieces and they can be assessed at http://up.flickr.com/photos/choomengfoo/sets/72157608081987160/
[caption id="attachment_32" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Family"]
[/caption]My work is available at
Also available at
My continued work are posted in
Get your lesson here
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The image called polating looks much better in big!
ReplyDeleteAmazing work and amazing details!
Outstanding compound eye!
I guess it is. Wai Meng bought the yellow one for his living room. I am arranging to delivery to him. It is always satisfying having people appreciating my work. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAlso iDani. it would be good to fill in the URL for your site so that we can share your work too.
My Flickr friend asked me:
ReplyDelete"Thank you for the link,
I am going to check your blog out and of course I will put in some comments!
So you also sell your pictures!
How many did you already sell?", 450DoDa
I had sold 8 photographs of 5x7 to 12 x 12inches in total since I started 3 years ago in 2005. I had also license 12 images to a firm for their corporate use. I had also sold a one time publishing rights to Asian Geography and was featured in 10 pages article on my insect hunting.
I hope to sell more this year and I am seriously starting the blog to raise the appreciation of insects and spiders and eventually promote the photographs as a work of art. I hope you could give me feedback and comments so I can make the blog better. Thanks.
Your website is amazing! I like your website a lot. I personally have a Tamron 90mm macro lens but I had a hard time hunting insects. I guess it really takes a lot of patience to capture beautiful shots like yours!
ReplyDeleteThanks Han Cheng, for the encouragement. You hit the important aspect of any form of endeavor, it is patience and perseverance. In many ways, a believe brought to the extreme, becomes a religious vigour, a singularity, that may shed light on the subject matters when dig deep enough into the core or root of it. A single lens, whether 90mm or 100mm, could create a whole dimension of pictorial landscape, however small the insect world is, we could see their world if the photographer first see it and record that feeling he had on film, whether digital or negative. His unique vision will show through if he does it long enough and share it with all those who read into his picture.
ReplyDeleteHere are some things I did when I could not find insects:
It wasn't that I could not find insect, it was my expectation of finding a great insect to photograph. Glass hopper, butterfly and dragonfly are every where. I forgo that expectation, and let what may come to me when I walked among the bushes or at the edges of the pond. I shot and practiced with them, learn their habits, their movement, their nature, their live and their cycle. I read about them, both by observing and reading information on the internet. I began to take interest in their being. In the process, I invisibly became intimately involved with them. I became their soul mate knowing every move they would make. Sometime I could let them walk on my finger, however strange it may sound. All this is a subconscious becoming, I do not search or force it to myself to become in this state of being, it comes into me as I spent more time with them. Yes, therevare always favoritism, we favour some insects or spider over others. We are equipped with this faculty when we are presented with a variety of options to choose one over the other.
For the simplest or common insects that came to me. I would watch them and observe them intensely. I would not shoot more than 4 different insects, most of the days, I concentrate on a single insect for weeks, take my recent shots on the crab spider, it was shot over a period of 2 weeks. Also, I usually only bring a single lens and camera out to shoot. Fluidity and lightness were the 2 important believes that stayed with me for the last few years. For the longest time, I prefer prime lens or fixed focal length lenses.
You already have the equipment, next is practice and practice. Something will come once you do it long enough. May be 10,000 hours spent shooting them is what you need to perfect your craft and find a certain way of seeing.