A pictorial showcase of Leica SL paired with VARIO-ELMARIT-SL 24–90 f/2.8–4 ASPH.
Leica SL Ambassador, Adam Tan has an impressive portfolio to start with, he is the winner of one of the most prestigious photography award from National Geographic Magazine, conferred First Place in “Places” category in its 2013 International Contest, almost the highest honour. His works cover a wide range of themes and categories. Besides journalism photography, he is equally adept in other areas. His winning entry, “The Visitor”, Black & White Magazine’s Spotlight Award, showcases his superlative skill in photographic abstract art. Perhaps to better express it, in his ability to discern the special, the significance out of the ordinary with his unique sight and capture it through his masterful skill and narrative.
Adam establishes photography classes, workshop and sharing fellowship and leads travel trips with the single-minded devotion to teach this art to his others. He shares his philosophy openly and his techniques unreservedly. He compressed his perception and interpretation, his invention and creative skill into a series of courses to allow quick comprehension of theory and easy mastery of techniques to those who learn from him. When asked about his love of photography, he said, ”The art of photography has to be arise from the heart and touched the feeling and emotion, it arouses senses and recognizes beauty. We must come to grip that we are artists, with high passion for art, a love in creating and a zeal to elevate our artistic level with inventive ideas and vivid imagination”.
“This is probably my wildest dream came true”, said Adam, when he learned that his work has been selected as the winner in the National Geographic Photography Contest 2013 Places Category. When asked about his Leica experience, he said “I always wish to link with Leica because Leica was used by my photographic icon Henri Cartier-Bresson. So when I was approached by Leica Camera Malaysia and eventually turned into Leica SL Ambassador Malaysia I have to say it was really another wild dream comes true after winning the first place in National Geographic Photo Competition
in 2013.”
He added that as soon as he obtained his Leica SL, he was extremely excited and made several attempts in different category of photography, ranging from the landscape, the photojournalism, the portrait, the low light and most of all his favourite long exposure photography.
“Of course the very first impression is the solid built of the Leica SL and the signature lens quality and image character. But what I wish to stress here is my experimenting in long exposure and the way the camera deals with the “moire noise”, a problem that long exposure photographers used to face in many occasions especially when it comes
to editing.
”According to Adam, “the 30 minutes exposure setting without using bulk mode is another big discovery and it really provides a lot of benefits to me with shooting long exposure, unlike any other cameras, the length of exposure setting is usually only up to 30 seconds only.”
When he turned into low light photography, he realised that the high-speed autofocus is extremely fast, and accurate too. The image that appears in the viewfinder under low light is unbelievably clear and this will be a great advantage that makes journalism photography full of joy. Adam encourages those who are interested in Leica SL’s features to experience it personally as words just could not describe the thrill within.
Explore Adam’s work at www.adamtanphotography.com
Interview: Adam Tan, Eyes of LEICA SL
