i-see-lines

Fresh beginnings, no?

2009-03-06T17:49:00.002+08:00

Cant believe how it's almost a friggin YEAR since i last updated the blog.
The past months were akin to some chaotic whirlwind that just swept my life around. But it was good, whatever did not kill me will make me stronger, yes? hehx..

I'm guessing around september 2008 my web hosting server was hacked into and i *couldnt* even access my mail, much less my ftp. Back then i didnt even have the breathing space to do anything about it... Till recently.

About the middle of Jan 09 I shifted my hosting TWICE and built my site up TWICE from scratch, first due to the fact that currently for me being based in singapore, a US hosting is a no-no cuz of breakage in the undersea cable, and next, a web designer friend commented that my second site totally phails. So version 2 was up for like 3 hrs before i took it down, threw it away, and started coding again.

It wasnt easy man. I had less knowledge of dreamweaver than my pillow and socks. But after 4 weeks of intensive crash learning from the net, my totally rusted brain gave some results. =)

My next overseas stint will probably be in Belize, in mid April. Nothing's confirmed yet tho, cuz the stuff in singapore is still overloading me. But i really hope i can make it for this one, cuz it's like a once in a lifetime opportunity to shoot for REAL LIFE MAYANS! YES!

ok my 5min break is over. back to work. ugh.

update on architectural gallery

2008-05-08T02:49:00.006+08:00

architectural gallery updated. =)

click me!

Laos Galleries

2008-05-07T01:00:00.002+08:00

i've just had a bit of time so i managed to get the laos pictures up.
this is a new kinda gallery i'm trying out so lemme know what you guys think of it k?

thanks~~~

Laos gallery 1: life in luang prabang
Laos gallery 2: the songkran festival

Back from Bali

2008-04-26T23:46:00.002+08:00

cuz i had to conduct photography classes during a certain corporation's R&R vacation there.
they booked the whole four seasons resort in bali for that! that's sooo crazy man.

me and josh stayed at a villa nearby the resort. it was the first time in my friggin life that i stay in a place with a private pool and outdoor jacuzzi. gawd.
but the sad thing is that we only spent about 6 hours everyday there sleeping cuz the workload was just too crazy. we're out on location from 8am till about 2am everyday. u know the feeling of having something great but you cant enjoy it? yea.

summary of bali assignment: beer is cheap, taxi is quite expensive, weather is friggin hot cuz there's no wind, a grand total of 2 mosquito bites, messed up breakfasts, and a very very burnt exterior.

and i still havent got a chance to clear my backlogged pics. ugh.

pics are coming i promise.. lemme go grab a beer first. i'm feeling totally spaced out right now.

Back from Laos

2008-04-15T23:44:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Laos PDR. good thing jeremy got me to go there just in time for the Lao new year, which is something similar to the thailand songkran festival.

i'll post pics up later. super burnt and super tired plus loads of laundry to clear.

Enci / Cell BBQ

2008-04-05T23:45:00.003+08:00

smashing great time we had yes?
we need to do this more often!
i really missed hanging out with you guys.

image clickable for download.

New Zealand Trip epilogue

2008-03-29T01:59:00.002+08:00

it was a good trip. i thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was a good chance for me to spend some time with my sister, which i had not been doing much as i should have when she's in sg.

visited my relatives who are my mother's father's brother's son's son's son's family i think. so technically he's my cousin but i'll actually prefer to call him uncle as his eldest son is only 5 years younger than me. but because of their warm reception despite their busy schedule, i've been able to enjoy this trip much more than i initially expected, and also discovered that family bonds can be such a wonderously precious thing to have.

visited my 3 younger cousins in melbourne, which i said for the longest time i will but havent found a chance to do so till now, tho for a few hours, was great.

for you guys' convenience i've linked the past days' blogs here for easy access.

day 1
day 2
day 3
day 4
day 5
day 6
day 7
day 8
day 9
day 10

New Zealand Trip Day 10

2008-03-26T23:36:00.001+08:00

26th march - auckland to melbourne to singapore

took the last airbus to the auckland international airport at 840pm and stayed overnight in the terminal cuz my flight is like 6am so there's no way i could get here by 4am if i stayed in the city. cabs are horrendously expensive. so this is me slacking away at the airport. i didnt take this shot myself. i dont know how it came about...
the flight to melbourne was rather smooth and i cleared customs to go to melbourne city to meet with 3 other cousins who're studying here. too bad i couldnt stay for a few days cuz their house was really crowded at this time and i had an important meeting the next day. so i'll be coming back hopefully in september for a longer stay.

after getting off the skybus, i wandered around the southern cross terminal while waiting for them. it's like this place is so filled with quirky architecture that i cant stop being amused at every other turn. i just took a few random snapshots of the place. not much, cuz i know i'll be here again with better preperation for more serious interviews with the architectures here.

nice lil bike. wish i had one of these.

underground toilet at degraves. i heard from them that sometimes u can find people doing drugs down there. oooooooo...

the mandatory shot of flinder's street station.

this is where my cousins stay. a renovated fire station. which still retained most of the rustic feel and fittings, including the pole which firemen slide down on. unfortunately a huge cylindrical plastic barrier prevents people with crazy tendencies (like me) from doing anything with it.

siewping recently wrote in her blog that her toilet is haunted. i havent used it yet but i guess i'll get my chance soon... hehx

after viewing their apartment, we went to a nearby 'little italy' street for some of the best ice cream i've had, before we took a tram back to the southern cross station where we parted and i took the shuttle back to the airport for my flight back to singapore.

New Zealand Trip Day 9

2008-03-25T23:20:00.000+08:00

25th march - auckland domain

brought my sister to the wintergardens and the auckland museum in the auckland domain.

this was a friggin cool setup they have in the volcanos section of the museum. it's this enclosed room where they simulate how it's like if u're caught in the situation when a volcano erupts near you. the lights dim and the floor shakes and jerks as u're watching the show. it's damn cool lor.

in the war memorial section of the museum.

banana notes

central hall of the war memorial

after my sister left for the airport to return to her training camp, nat drove me up to mt eden to have a view of auckland city.

apparently mt eden, and a few other high points around the city were actually volcanoes. this is actually the crater of the volcano like millions of years ago before it died.

same here. this is another high point called one tree hill

sheep. cant get close to them, cant out run them. their landmines are all over the place.

after this i said thanks and goodbye to anthony and family and took the 840pm bus ride to the airport.

New Zealand Trip Day 8

2008-03-24T22:04:00.000+08:00

24th march - bumming around auckland city

so we left the crazy hostel and came to this cleaner one right in the middle of auckland's red light district. so brilliant rite? haha it's not so bad. this place is very clean and they have quite good security.

as i was taking this picture i noticed 2 guys making out in one of those rooms in the opposite building..
my sister got herself a new laptop to replaces her 4 year old one which is almost dead. dont mind the hair pls.
had dinner at Nandos, some portugese chilli chicken joint. quite good. it could work in singapore.

basically today was for relaxing. so we walked around town and i did my mandatory interviews of the various interesting architectures that litter the city.

this is the red light district. called K road for short. i cant remember the long version of the name.

our hostel with magnetic keylock access and other high security shits like laser equipped robots and guided missles for the persistant hooker.

New Zealand Trip Day 7

2008-03-23T23:25:00.000+08:00

23rd march - church, cockle picking, and a crazy hostel

cousin Anthony and Catherine decided to bring me and my sister around auckland and further up north for some sight seeing and fun cuz it's easter sunday and everyone's not working.

went to church with Anthony and family. they have a really nice way of doing sunday service, or maybe it's cuz it's easter sunday. the sermon was really good and straight to the point. i had a great time there.

after service we went to an asian foodcourt and had our asian lunch. i had a funky chicken rice prepared by sri lankan blokes manning a halal chicken rice stall. NZD8.50 for a plate of chicken rice. ugh. it wasnt anything like the stuff back home but it's the closest thing there is in auckland.

after lunch we started going up north past the bridge linking auckland city to the northern islands.
stopped by at a bee farm to grab some honey for folks back home.

they have this amazing display right at the end of the shop showing the insides of a hive with live bees and we could even see the queen doing her thing around the hive.

nat and naomi in the car

arrive at whangeteau beach for cockle picking
if u go over the limit, they'll search you, arrest you and confiscate your shellfish and your car.

anthony showing us how to eat a pipi live.

these fellas are nasty surprises when u're using ur bare hands to dig for cockles.

erm... took it cuz it looks nice.

some rock formation at goat's island

nat lazing on the tree seemingly made for him to laze on.

one of the coolest houses i've seen around the area.

end of the day. seperating oysters from cockles and pipi.

here's the crazy hostel we stayed at for the night. this place is super ultra sleazy. i feel like i'm a dope pusher when i walk around the place. in the toilet i was literally brushing my teeth beside blokes with dreadlocks and crazy body art and there're folks in the corridor who're walking around high on whatever they've been smoking. somebody actually broke in and slept on the bed while we were out for dinner though nothing was stolen. but i was kinda worried for my sister so we decided to move to another location the next day.

i totally like the lift here. it feels sooo steampunkish.

i was really thankful cuz anthony and catherine were really great hosts and we really enjoyed this day a lot.

New Zealand Trip Day 6

2008-03-22T23:52:00.002+08:00

22nd march - motueka to nelson to auckland

nothing much done today 'cept for getting a bus ride back to nelson from motueka and catching a domestic flight to auckland.

some sheeps. new zealand has a gazillion sheeps, a trazillion cows, and 4 million human beings. plus a hole in the sky due to the cows.

some itchy finger shots from nelson airport.

blah.

oh we had an interesting lunch at auckland at this joint run by taiwanese called QQrice. it's some jap riceball thingie which you can customise the fillings. not bad. wish they have it back home.

update: THEY DO!!! bwahahahahahahaha.......

New Zealand Trip Day 5

2008-03-21T23:23:00.001+08:00

21st march - anchorage bay, cleopatra's pool and back to motueka.

i tried getting up at 530 to get the sunrise but luck was not with me. thick clouds were everywhere.

breakfast with the rest of the backpackers. we had all sorts of jam, cereal, milk, and some leftover from last night's bbq. i think there was a bottle of beer somewhere on that table too.

having departed from the boathouse at around 9am, we sat on the beach waiting for the sun to appear so we can get warm and dry enough start the trek. staying in the boathouse was a really wet experience. everything became soggy in the morning cuz of the mist and dew and stuffs. after an hour we got bored and started up the trail anyway. the sun came thru the clouds at about 11am.

more happy mushrooms.

met a photographer at this clearing as we were walking towards cleopatra's pool. turns out that he's a malaysian software engineer working in nz. quite a nice guy overall but..... oh well.

cleopatra's pool. the water is friggin cold.

but there were still people adventurous enough to try to swim in it, like this girl in bikini. =D

view of anchorage bay from the vantage point before we started the decend.

took the 4pm sea shuttle back to kaiteriteri and waited for the bus back to motueka.

some interesting texture formed on the sand at kaiteriteri

i found this almost perfect exoskeleton of a small crab while we were waiting for the sea shuttle back at anchorage bay. my sister liked it so much that she actually tried taking pictures of it with my macro lens. but we didnt have any means to carry it back with us without squashing it so we left it at the beach. oh well. it could have been a cool conversational piece back home.

New Zealand Trip Day 4

2008-03-20T22:13:00.000+08:00

20th march - motueka to kaiteriteri to abel tasman national park.
woke up at 6am for a very high carbo breakfast consisting of bread and canned pasta with sausages. left some of our stuffs in the lockers at the hostel before getting on the bus which came at 8am.

sunrise.
reached the beach at kaiteriteri and waited a bit for everyone to arrive so we can set off to the national park.

so here's the map. our plan was to take the boat all the way up to totaranui, and on the return trip, drop at tonga bay beach. where we would trek downwards towards anchorage where we would rendevous with a boathouse to spend the night, then continue to trek around the anchorage vicinity the next day before returning to kaiteriteri and back to the white elephant in motueka.
our boat had this cool appendage that extends forward so that we wont get our pampered feet wet while trying to board it.

tis' the famous split apple rock. apparently split by natural forces. i dunno man, i suppose a drunk man driving a speedboat could count as natural forces too. hehx

the beach at totaranui

the camping grounds at totaranui. as we left, dark clouds were forming from inland and the temperature dropped to about 24-ish degrees, which after humidity and windchill factor calculation, ended up to be about 20 degrees on the boat. not a very nice condition to start an outdoor hike..
but luckily, the clouds remained at the totaranui area and tonga bay was all sunshine. =)
this was taken from one of the highest points on the trail. you can actually see the mountains of new zealand's north island thru the mist.

somewhere along the track. i call them happy plants. cuz i feel happy whenever i look at this picture. i'm feeling happy now as i type. absinthe so happens to be green too. maybe there's some link.
another of the numerous beautiful landscapes that are literally scattered in all directions along the trail. i think this is called mosquito bay. nope, no mosquitoes there. only sandflies. ugh.

if i remember correctly, this should be called a fly agaric mushroom. it can be dried and smoked to achieve a certain degree of psychedelic hallucination. these little fellas are all over the place in this season.
a bridge. obviously. nothing special about it tho.
view from the bridge.
one of the private waterfront houses just before torrent bay.
at torrent bay, where my shoe got stuck in some seriously sticky black mud. one golden rule i live by is to never ever dirty the inside of your shoe. once shit goes in, you can almost never get it out. so i took off my dirty (and wet cuz i washed it in the stream) and walked on.

after arriving at anchorage bay and bumming around making guesses at which boat we're supposed to wave to, we finally managed to get onto the correct one.

this is the sleeping quarters. my bed is the lower one in the far end in the corner. nice and cosy. there was about 20cm between my face and where the bed above begins. i had a grand total of 4 bumps before i left the boat.

dinner was served by the boat staff. there was raisin rice, fresh coleslaw, some kinda pasta with beans in them and BBQed beef and sausages. and beer.

view from the top deck at night.

New Zealand Trip Day 3

2008-03-19T22:04:00.000+08:00

19th march - trip to motueka.
had breakfast at the local macdonalds. prices about 2x that of home. and no free tea/coffee refills. sheesh.

she's doing the NZ army's officer course here under SAF. so no questions or comments on the hair pls.
funky lookin McCafe car outside macdonalds. talk about advertising.
for singaporeans only. i'm not gonna explain why we spent like 10secs just gawking at this then laughing like mad later.
one of the many outdoor equipment stores they have in tiny nelson town. this' where my sis got herself a new 65ltr backpack cuz the one she was carrying before was like cmi. it aint as cheap as home but the service is awesome.
waiting for the bus outside the i-Site establishment. this shows that NZ is really friggin serious about the backpackers/tourist business.
after a hour's busride, we arrived at the motueka town's i-Site.

Next step was to make our way to the White Elephant backpacker's hostel. the only thing we have is this map right here.

the main street of motueka town is called high street. the i-Site was a little more to the right of that map after the info center. from the i-site to the the Whakarewa street junction was about 300m. so we thought according to the (horribly off) scale of the map, the hostel should be just right around the corner.

we reached this signpost and thought oh we're here. man were we wrong.from the junction, the hostel was a friggin 0.5km down the street. it was like house number 55 down that road. but we're masochists so the walk felt good. LOL.
btw, 'Wh' is pronounced with an 'F' so example 'whish' = 'fish'. so this street name inevitably fell victim to the singaporean's inborn ability turn an already odd word to something even odder. lalalalalala....

some quirky stuffs around the hostel. man i loved that place.

the hostel from the entrance to the compound.

our accomodation for the first night. this super cool cottage thingie. the whole inside smells and looks totally like it's bought wholesale from IKEA. upon further inspection, it is. lol.
after dropping our packs, we went for a walk around the town center. motueka is about a tenth the size of nelson but is still packed with outdoor stores and almost everyone we see on the streets are backpackers. it's like imagine everyone u see walking on the streets are carrying HUMONGOUS backpacks and looks like they totally dont belong here but on the other hand you feel strangely comfortable with that discovery. backpacking rulez. =D
buying food and supplies at the local supermarket. this pie here was emitting this perculiar evil aura.
back at the cottage, this furry fella wandered in and made a beeline for my bed. o_O""

during dinner time, we met an english and a japanese who were doing long term backpacking all over NZ and they're here in motueka working as apple pickers. the english dude (who is somehow allergic to cats) just arrive a few days ago but the jap guy has been here for about 4 months. hmmm.. he must really like this place. hehx.

tomorrow, Abel Tasman national Park.

New Zealand Trip Day 2

2008-03-18T22:01:00.001+08:00

18th march - had a bit of time in the morning before my flight to nelson so Catherine suggest that i take a short walk to a nearby park called the Auckland Domain. apparently there're some really nice pictures to be had there.

a dead tree near the entrance of the park. i think the gardeners intended to keep it this way as the area around it was covered in wood chips for some reasons i do not know. but this thing is really huge. like the whole thing could serve as a kids playground or somethin like that.

a very nice greenhouse section of the domain called 'wintergardens'. obviously very well cared for and meticulously maintained. it was very theraputic to shoot within its compound.

one of the 2 greenhouse, this one is called the 'warm house'. a small pond sits right in the center of the structure, directly in front of the entrance, surrounded by hanging instances of various species of pitcher plants.
view from within one greenhouse towards the other.

a random shot of a car which i think had pretty funky decals, with a background showing the rest of the auckland domain and the auckland museum / war memorial.

took the 12pm flight to nelson in the south island and met up with my little sister. met a very friendly lady from london. apparently she works in an art gallery back in london and we had a very enriching conversation throughout the 1hr flight. she told me that nelson is perhaps the artists' enclave of new zealand and that i as a photographer should spend more time visiting the galleries and artists there. but alas that would have to come at a later date as my plans were fixed. one day i will return to do my visitations.

after checking in to our hostel (i feel totally stupid when i discovered i forgot to take a picture of the hostel), we went for a walk around town to have lunch and then i tried to give my sister a crash course in photography. i even brought another dslr for her to practice on. turns out that she still prefers to draw and paint rather than to be a lightsmith. ugh.

the cathedral in the middle of nelson town.

south new zealand is totally into the backpacking tourist thing. virtually 60% of everyone we see walking around on the streets are backpackers. and they have this super duper useful setups at every major town called i-Sites, which are filled with brochures and maps and stuffs to do and info and every info a backpacker needs. and you can do bookings for almost anything under the new zealand sun at their counters. we looked around and decided that we'll head to the nearest national park for some coastal hikes, so we booked a bus bound for a nearby town Motueka and a night's stay at a quirky place called the white elephant for the next day.

we spent about an hour trying to find macdonalds and failed altho we can see macdonalds paperbags and cups strewn around as we walked.

after dinner at burgerking, we saw this crazy hippy minibus parked just outside the joint.
i think imma gonna make one of these tshirts. XD
then when we were just about to reach the hostel, my sis spotted the big yellow 'M' just down the street about 50m from where we were staying. brilliant.

New Zealand Trip Day 1

2008-03-17T14:21:00.001+08:00

17th march 2008- finally arrived in Auckland at 4pm-ish after a transit at brisbane airport which was filled with japanese students on their graduation tour. man it really made the whole place feel like an amusment park. hehx.

was really glad that my cousin's wife came to the airport to fetch me. saved me a lot of trouble getting myself orientated to try to find my way into the city in the middle of the weekend rush hour hell.

got shown around town by Nat, my nephew. he dropped me off at the AUT campus right beside the city central from where i went trotting around for a warm up shoot to get a feel of the place.

AUT's library block.

A random roof walkway which i found interesting.

some random abstracts of new zealand architecture.

interior of another library block.

Apparently the auckland city graveyard lies right smack in between the campus and my cousin's place, beside grafton bridge. i've always loved the cool serenity of graveyards, dont ask me why. there's that certain feel of calm, which is refreshingly pleasent in contrast to the humdrum of city like.

After dinner at a korean joint, Tabitha pointed out that there's a certain clock tower that is quite photogenic. and so we went, and so it is. but there wasnt sufficient time to look for a suitable vantage point for a proper architectural shot, plus the fact that i left my huge tripod with my backpack back at my cousin's place, i did what i could with my current situation.
the backyard/backdoor of my cousin's place. it's super quirky and cozy. i so like it. hehxx.
they have those lop-eared rabbits somewhere in the clearing in the foreground but i didnt manage to take pics of them.

so that's it for day 1. new zealand's pace of life is quite a bit slower than australia's, which is much much slower than the crazy madness we have here in sg.

MORE LINESSSSSsssss.....

2008-02-20T00:51:00.006+08:00

just the other day a client called to inquire about my architectural photography. it made me realize that i havent updated my portfolio for ages already.

sheesh

anyways here's a new one i've put together for you guys' viewing pleasure.

(Pic opens to separate gallery window)
enjoy~ =)

ART!

2008-02-14T01:57:00.000+08:00

what is art?

omg this is totally brilliant!

this made my day. grinz*

Singapore Flyer First Flight

2008-02-12T04:30:00.000+08:00

Had an assignment shooting at the inauguration of the Singapore Flyer.
here are some of the less restricted pics for public view pleasure. =)

(Pic opens to separate gallery window)

As expected, the view was awesome. Singapore is a very cramped place, and this humongous ferris wheel provided a much needed fresh view of our skyline. =)

Have another similar assignment tomorrow, hope to show more pics.

CNY post

2008-02-10T02:05:00.000+08:00

It's CNY! finally had some time to do some long overdue updates after the past few extremely crazy weeks.
thing i've been doing during my disappearence (in a logically random order):

* discovering i'm in some ways allergic to garlic
* printing
* setting up new art galleries
* catching up with cousins
* printing
* getting angry at stupid people
* developing 4x5 negs
* learning the hard way to tell when a developer has expired
* throwing away 12 4x5 negs that didnt survive the expired developer
* wondering where did all my money go to
* shooting (duh)
* printing
* procrastinating
* reading (yea i read)
* getting angry at myself

techinically speaking i've had a very fulfilling january. i havent really hit my targeted income this month so the mood's not very good. but i guess i'll have to put in twice as much work this month to make up for all the time lost in jan.

ugh.

Giclee printing

2008-01-06T02:59:00.000+08:00

it aint easy but it's really friggin rewarding.

i used to have the (stupid) mentality that nowadays, digital photographs are supposed to just remain in the computer or the personal web gallery, to be shown to people from a laptop or desktop screen somewhere. for years i have carried on in my photography with this mindset and until now, i didnt realize how much i have missed.

the PRINT is an essential step, an intrinsically crucial part of photography. it's the final piece that brings completion to photography. when we take pictures, it's ultimately to get it printed. there's no famous photographer in the world who doesnt print his images. there's no self respecting photographer in the world who doesnt print his images. the PRINT is the reason why we photograph.

more than once i've been told by mentors that when taking a photograph, releasing the shutter only accounts for (using artistic aga-ration,) 25% of the work done. the rest of the 75% is getting that picture onto the print medium the way your vision dictates it to be.

some time last year, it seems, that i was finally ready to walk the path of producing the print. of course i dabbled in photo printing in the past, which i will mention later, but this was different. having experiences plentiful in both areas of photography and advance digital imaging, i felt that i was finally prepared. this was the real deal. things and events slowly and miraculously started falling together and now i'm the printmaker of a fineart production outfit called Vue prints, completely dedicated to producing the finest giclees on the finest paper and mediums for photographers and artists alike.

but things doesnt stop here. instead, it's just the beginning. >8D

taken some time back when the printer just arrived:

an epson stylus pro 11880 ultrachrome k3 large format printer!!!!!! - the finest fineart printer in the world!!! and it's the ONLY ONE operating outside epson offices in the entire South East Asia! w00t!

but that being said, it aint easy to use. i still remember the countless hours spent at epson center, tinkering, experimenting with profiles and exploring the characteristics of this new monster machine.

it's funny when i recall the days that me and triston and bunch spent on the old epson4800 that kept rejecting sheet after sheet of german etching paper, and the frustration of trying to get the correct profile either for the driver or a RIP just to get the printout we desired for our exhibition. it's been almost 3 years already... o_O"

but that's all in the past now. luckily for me the 11880 is much more reliable in terms of paper handling and print output consistancy.

currently we're carrying and supporting the hahnemuehle range of fineart digital media. it's not cheap. actually honestly it's friggin expensive to a normal layperson. but it's the best i've tested, and we're committed to offerering the best to people who're passionate about their work and art, so yea.

soon we'll have a gallery up too! bwaahahahahahaha i'm so excited. hehx.

warm stout

2008-01-01T03:13:00.000+08:00

1st beverage in 2008.

warm stout.

is like a wonderful can of warm soya sauce with a lot of gas.

the marvelous sensation of the totally gassed up frothy WARM soya sauce flowing past the lips thru the mouth and down the throat is so amazingly out of this world.

and i'm suddenly reminded why i havent had stout for so long.

i'm so proud of myself.

now where's my bag of peanuts?

Last sunrise of 2007

2007-12-31T07:20:00.000+08:00

didnt think that i'd stay up till morning doing paperwork but i did.

then i saw this. it was beautiful.

it lasted only 3 mins.

but it was good enough to set my mood for the start of the last day of the year. =)

Lessons of life #647 and #648

2007-12-30T04:40:00.000+08:00

#647: just like smoke gets in your eyes, muesli bars gets in your teeth.

#648: fast way to cook legs - place mackbook pro on lap and do photo editing.

Leaf Aptus 22 on Sinar F2

2007-12-23T23:30:00.000+08:00

after 3 days of fuddling around with the leaf aptus 22 digital back, and lotsa help from the distributor sales rep cum tech support cum wallet killer, i finally got it to work, tho not fully according to my expectations.

turned out that it needed the macbook pro to have a battery level of at least 80% for it to even start functioning(?!). i discovered it the hard way after lugging the 30+kg bag of equipment around for days to shooting locations and NOT being able to power up the thing.

so after solving the problem this morning, i proceeded to attempt a test shoot right in my own home. bad choice. my house is the worst photographic test area i could ever get.
luckily the location of my home provided a nice vantage point overlooking the dover MRT station.

thus i ended up with this.

the first few shots were bad due to the diffraction caused by small apertures, and the image quality wasnt fantastic even when the sensor came with microlenses.

so i compensated a bit to f/11 and got the pic at 1/60s at iso100.

not fantastic but it's a start. i gotta do more experiments on this thing.

this month is totally crazy

2007-12-18T22:49:00.000+08:00

methinks this photoblog is gonna end up with more words than pics even if 1 x picture = 1000 x words.

gawd this month is crazy.

my day goes like: wake up at 1pm, eat, run errands, reach studio around 6ish, edit pics / print stuffs, eat fish burger, go to office, edit pics till 6am, reach home at 7am, do admin stuff (like bathe and stuffs) till 9am, sleep, repeat.

craaaapppp.

i hope i'll have a normal christmas.

small updates

2007-12-09T23:18:00.000+08:00

the week came and went just like that.
some updates about what went on last week:

* a leaf aptus 22 digital miraculously appeared on my (borrowed) large format sinar.
* the bloody live view dongle for the digital back costs 2.8k
* i havent touched the thing since that day
* the aeroplane at the back of the studio has (more or less) become my bed
* been getting more in touch with the artists of singapore and learning loads about working with canvas

i've got some pics of the digital large format camera but everytime i wanna upload it, it's either i dont have the memory card with me or i dont have a card reader with me but more often than not it's both.

crab.

2007-12-02T04:33:00.000+08:00

8pm at raffles city:

1 shanghainese hairy crab
1 bowl
2 plates
4 chopsticks
1 funny spatula/fork/scraper thingie to get the meat out of the crab
500 tissue papers

4:45am at home:

i still cant get the smell of the crab out of my fingers.

number crunched

2007-11-27T04:46:00.000+08:00

after spending a total of 9-ish days working on excel spreadsheets, it's finally done.
making spreadsheets from scratch really screws with the mind esp when there's super long formulaes and cross-references all over the shop. i would have DIED if i didnt have 2 widescreens to work on.

2 nights ago on msn with jon:

(4:46 AM) eJ - AMPA!!!!!!: u still working or wat?
(4:46 AM) Clown: yar.. still doing the spreadsheet
(4:47 AM) eJ - AMPA!!!!!!: ur excel skill cmi one anot?
(4:47 AM) Clown: now getting better, at least now the thing starts to look like a spreadshit
(4:47 AM) Clown: yea. spreadshit.

yup. mindfucked by numbers.

and according to close friends who noticed, i've a new crop of white hair somewhere on the upper left forward hemisphere of my head.

reflections of an empty day.

2007-11-25T02:03:00.000+08:00

bummed the whole damn day away today.. which is kinda rare given the amount of stress i was under the past few weeks.
thus i had time to reflect about 'things'. which then again may or may not be good.

starting to learn photography all over again with a large format camera got me thinking more than i normally do. i couldn't fire away like i used to when i'm on digital cuz every exposure costs like 10 bux for film and developing. each and every shot has to be planned and patiently executed. the experience of the whole process is simply magical. much like crafting an art piece, though in this case it might well turn out to be very ugly art pieces cuz i'm still trying to get into the feel of things. every meter reading, light, flag, focus, locking knob had to be checked and rechecked before i ease the film holder into the spring loaded catch behind the ground glass and triggered the shutter to expose the film. beautiful experience.

it's the mistakes that i make in film photography that teaches me most. because it takes time to craft that shot, the process is ingrained into my mind. because it costs so much more for a single exposure, the desire to get the perfect shot with the least amount of resource drives and pushes me and sharpens my sensibilities. nobody wants a badly taken 4x5 exposure.

last night during supper i shared with jon and eric the quote that i can never forget - "i want to be able, at the end of my life, to say that i have made every mistake that can be made. because therein lies the truth about learning."

and lastly i'm very grateful to the one who lays my path out before me and guides me every so gently because as humans, we're totally blind as to what our destiny holds for us.

OMG time flies and procrastination is the world #1 killer

2007-11-24T00:29:00.000+08:00

UGH! i totally didnt notice the days going by. it's been friggin 18 days since i last blogged.
thus i can assume one of these are true:
1) i enjoy life too much
2) i procrastinate too much
3) i'm so damn busy that i cant blog
4) i procrastinate too much
5) my internet is too slow
6) i procrastinate too much
7) i dont go office often enough cuz all my pics and stuffs are there and i have less distractions there
8) i procrastinate too much
9) i have a new girlfriend (i wish)
10) i procrastinate too much

actually the real reason is that i've always wanted to create a great big post filled with pics and stuffs about my days but when i had time to blog, one of those stupid reasons above becomes true.

this blog came about cuz i'm now at a friend's place and it's wonderfully non distracting cuz my friend is distracted from some other shits as well. thus the sun and the moon and the stars are aligned in favour of me blogging.

here's a few samples of what i'll be trying to focus in the near future. i feel my product lighting skills are getting rusty. sigh.

these are pictures taken in late 2006. been almost a year since i sat down and tinkered with precision product lighting. i hope to do it soon again. hehz.

many thanks to my dear friend who helped me with the watches. *grinz*

MPA aftermath

2007-11-06T00:01:00.000+08:00

sometimes i ask myself am i on a regressive track? cuz it seems like the more i learn, the less i feel i know, and eventually i'll get overwhelmed by the sheer realization that there's so much more to learn. i feel so small...

today marks the end of my MPA accreditations and i'm so fortunate to be awarded a double promotion to become an Associate of the Master Photographer Association in the category of architectural photography.

the whole MPA concept and lifestyle feels so.. i dunno.. new? i was never a part of an association, much less a professional one. and these few weeks past, during the preparations for the exams really opened my eye to so many more aspects of photography that i somehow had been blind to all these years.

as of this moment i'm deeply intrigued by the complexities and the principles that lies behind the print, an area i have very much neglected in my photography before. somehow things just start happening in a way that it all just fits together to allow me the opportunity to explore the art of creating the print..

i'm very very grateful to everyone who made it possible. thank you. you know who you are. =)

MPA Print Competition

2007-11-05T23:40:00.000+08:00

As it turned out i won in 2 categories - Industrial/Architecture and Travel / Landscapes

i know altho the whole selection process was really quite kelong, the learning process i went thru when i was preparing the images was honestly very enriching. it helped me gain an understanding of composition and the interactions of the highlights and shadows within the picture to generate a complete image.

honestly i did not know what the hell i was doing or thinking when i took these pictures, or 99% of the pictures i've taken in the past. most of the framing and decision was subconscious. but i feel as i grow in the art, it becomes necessary to understand the mechanics that's hidden the psyche to be able to craft pictures and scenes that mere subconscious instincts cannot.

i thank you Ryan and William Ng for your kind mentorship and assistance. without which, i would still be wallowing somewhere in the mud.. =)

Winning picture in the Industrial / Architecture category. Taken in Prague, Czech Republic.
Winning picture in the Travel / Landscape Category. Taken in Cana, Israel.

Hokay, finally i can have a breather.

2007-11-04T21:05:00.000+08:00

Finally i can blog with some peace of mind.
all you guys out there, please dont kill me...

here're more peeks from perth. more specifically the peeper shots.
lines will have to waits a bits cuz i'm still reeling from post MPA exam trauma.

getting a bit laid back at lancelin..

Dovile too.. the weather was just too good. hehxx

not really lines, but close.
huihui at lancelin beach. my first (ok, correction. second) attempt at actual human photography.

i thought i was sooo gonna die.. lolx

jon. mushroom. not very happy.

group shot of the whole gang at frementle beach..

erm. yea.

yea.... random shts.

more to come.. more to come..

bleah

2007-10-30T23:36:00.000+08:00

one super major problem i have is that i tend to be biased against small itsy bitsy blog posts.
that is why i havent been updating the blog.
cuz everytime i wanna blog, i somehow feel the NEED to post pictures as well, but the pictures that i need always happens to be on the OTHER computer, which is like 20km away in my current location. fug.
hang on guys, dont kill me.. pics are cominggggg....... soon i hope.

1st batch of snaps from not-so-down under.

2007-10-18T05:57:00.000+08:00

finally had time to post the first bunch o pics taken in perth during our maniac excursion there.

at devil's elbow beach.

devil's elbow beach.

cottersloe.

Freemantle

Freemantle.

more coming up!

workshop results

2007-10-16T08:18:00.000+08:00

Some time ago, theres a certain idiot (me) who simply refuse to shoot anything but inanimate objects (which means things that are do not move on their own).
until...... his friends decided that it was not good for his own good. really.
so a 4 day freakishly intensive crash course on taking pictures of humans was heaped onto his puny little brain.

result:

not so bad rite?

1st post!

2007-10-15T15:04:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm......here we go again! bwahahahahahaha...
got caught in the blogging fever by jon, william and ukay.
havent blogged for about 4(?) years?
maybe it's time to do some housekeeping and start all over again.
hehx.

p.s. the previous blog lasted 3 days.