Singapore Sightings: LomoAmigo Ashok Kumar Shoots with the Neptune Art Lenses

Finding gear that you want to shoot with is probably one of the best feelings out there, especially for a photographer. The excitement, the anticipation, the experience — all of these and more combine to make any photographer look forward to getting the right gear for the job. And to say that we share that feeling with everyone is no joke because we get all sorts of excited whenever we have something new for our Lomography Community. You can quote us on that. The same thing happens when we hear from members of the Community how much they liked shooting with the gear we develop and create.

LomoAmigo Ashok Kumar isn't a stranger to using Lomography cameras and lenses. Actually, he knows the gear and the Community all too well so you can only imagine how ecstatic we were when he said that he liked the most recent Lomography optics he tried. Ashok took the Neptune Art Lens System and the Naiad 15 mm Art Lens out for a spin around his hometown in Singapore and we just loved the photos he took.

From portraits to street shots and architecture to daily life, Ashok was able to capture exactly what we envisioned when we developed the Neptune Art Lens System — beauty in diversity. His photos show just how versatile the Neptune Art Lenses are along with its remarkable image quality. Here's what Ashok had to say when asked about his experience with the Neptune Art Lenses:

“Way before I actually managed to get my hands on the lens, I did research on it as I wanted to be prepared. All I kept seeing was fellow photographers saying that it's one of the best lenses that they've ever used especially for portraits. And I couldn't agree more. I had an amazing experience using it for both taking portraits and street photography. The different focal lengths that I had the opportunity to play around with was my most favorite thing about it. Different lens brought different strengths into it and I loved it a lot. Yes the manual focus does take a little time but once you nail the settings, everything is a breeze.”

He loved taking portraits of friends and family and he couldn't get enough of it. The excitement about shooting with the lens shows in his images — everything looked natural and easy.

Well, Ashok is a talented photographer so it's not a surprise that he makes it all look easy. It was nice to see him enjoying the lens that much. Ashok didn't stop at just portraits. He also meandered and took home some really nice vignettes of life in and around Singapore.

A lot of his shots featured buildings and structures and as he said earlier, the Neptune Art Lens System helped him capture the essence of the city through his photographs. The street-adept Thalassa Art Lens was extra useful in this part with its 35 mm focal length — making the Architecture shots look crisp and clean while street photographs are complete with lively detail thanks to its closest focusing distance of 0.25 m. We asked Ashok about his tips for anyone who would like to try the Neptune Art Lenses and this is what he had to say:

“Just be patient with it. Take all the time you need to shoot as I feel its a lens that once attention is given, you will find the true capability of the lenses. It's quite easy to do some street photography once I got the settings right but I truly enjoyed taking portraits with it. It's not something that I always do but it brought some love into my work.”

The time and effort he poured into familiarizing himself with the lens are more than admirable. It took a little bit of practice but he managed to get some great images in the end. having gear that works with you is already good but working with gear that helps you improve as a photographer, now that is an even better deal.

We would like to thank Ashok for letting us feature his images in the Magazine. Follow him on Instagram to see more of his work.

written by cheeo on 2019-08-03 #gear #culture #people #singapore #lomoamigo #naiad #ashok-kumar #nepture-art-lens #apac