About Time.

I’ve started The Perpendiculum as an easy-to-reach, archive of my passion towards watch photography, an outlet where people with the same interest can view my work outside the confines of social media. Since the day I bought the domain to this website, I have never thought of sharing too much about myself or how I approach this very unique art of watch photography, but recent episodes of failing memories and the nagging feeling that I am on the verge of losing this passion made me consider otherwise. So here you have it, alongside my ad-hoc watch photography and experimentation projects, I am now embarking on a blogging journey where my goal is to share my passion, the laborious process behind my work, and the results, in an unfettered, unrestrained manner. I hope you, having landed on this page by chance (or by design!), will find meaning behind the walls of text I intend to build over the foundation that is watch photography.

But first, a little bit about myself. My name is Edgar Koh, a watch photography hobbyist from Singapore who is a little allergic to the term “professional photographer” (please do not call me this!), perhaps due to the fact that I have (1) received no professional training in photography, and (2) do not have the desire to, at least for the time being, make a living off photography. I have been blessed with great friends who have given me incredible opportunities to shoot their watches - ranging from passion homebrew projects to some of the most illustrious watches in history, and everything else in between. With the exception of a very small segment of watches (due to the ill intent behind them), I do not discriminate watches based on their brand or their origin, and absolutely detest the practice. I own a watch brand together with a close friend, and interestingly enough - the reason why I got into watch photography is because we couldn’t afford the services of a photographer in the early days of the brand. So you could say that my journey as a watch photography hobbyist started sometime in 2017 - from the very moment I turned the dial from “Auto” to “M” on my Nikon D7200 and pointed the camera towards a watch.

Over my past 9 years of experimentation in watch photography, I’ve come to realize that much time (and shutter actuations!) have been wasted in trying to get the shot without first understanding what I want the shot to look like in the first place. The “eye” or “vision” is without a shadow of doubt, the most important skill you need to develop in this field, and you should spend considerable time ideating and coming to terms on the end image - even before picking up your camera! In the world of watch photography where the subject is still and the scene is entirely up to your design, there is simply no excuse not to be able to get the shot you envision - so don’t be too hasty in picking up the camera and snapping random photos of your watches without direction. Spend some time looking at your watches and imagining the compositions you can achieve with them. Let your creative juices flow, and kick your worries about the technical aspects down the road (which hopefully I’ll cover in subsequent blog posts). Store your ideas in drawings or writings, and continue to run this repository of composition ideas in your head. And when the time is right, take them out and experiment to your heart’s desire - I promise it will be a fun and fulfilling process!

Cheers!