Baku-Bigshooter

MOVED : TO bakubigshooter.wordpress.com

2007-05-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all, have moved to the above address due to compatibility problems between blogger and the macintosh OS. Can currently only post from windows PCs like this one at my buddy's place.

Keep reading there!

Joan at Parliament Hall

2007-05-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

*NOTE dated 12/5/07. If you guys are wondering why I haven't been posting it's because some issue with blogger is not allowing me to enter new posts. I cant even open the page to post and can only edit old ones. I'm trying to solve the issue or hopefully the issue will resolve itself, but as I'm off the whole of next wk, I shall port over to another blog address if this latest annoying issue doesn't get resolved. Blogger really has too much downtime, too much even for a free service. I'll try to find something more reliable. Any recommendations?*

Met up with Joan(finally!) for her shoot and produced quite a decent result. As long as there's one she likes then that'll be good enough heh. Having met previously and failing to get the shoot done because I hadn't done enough recce work to find the location, I picked a location that would not only fit my requirements, I also made sure I knew exactly where it was. The location I settled on eventually was Parliament Hall, which is an extremely popular place for wedding photography.

I had originally planned to include large segments of the frontage of parliament hall as backdrops for the images, but the inclement weather made me decide to go for a lot more close-ups instead. I opted against the fashion style I had originally planned for and went for a lot more close-up, classic portrait work. It turned out ok in the end so I'm not complaining!

Ok here are the shots!

*Title Shot*

This one's one of my favourites

And she looks crazy fierce when she doesn't smile. Experimenting with High Key work here.

And saving my favourite for the last. It's also Joan's favourite.

Randomness

2007-04-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

OK for those of you that still don't know I've been posted to navy and am loving it. You don't get treated like dogs here in the navy and the food standard has gone up several notches. I currently haven't started my course and so we're doing some wicked PT to whip all the obese people into shape so they wont sink the ship once they get on it hurhur. I'm currently in line for best PT seeing as how almost everyone else failed their IPPT while i'm looking at a Gold award. Thankfully, I didn't take the IPPT in Tekong due to a myriad of various circumstances and they conveniently regarded me as a 'fail', so I got posted to where I am now. I'm sure I would be chiong suaing in the jungle with all those other unfortunate sods otherwise, phew. I'm really looking forward to the start of the course since I'm really loving navy life; I can't wait to get on board a ship during the JTQT course and live out at sea(yeah that will be great)! I'm really thinking about signing on if I can get posted on board a sub, cos that's like wow wee golly gee something I'd really love to do! Another really queer thing is one of my Enciks is actually my Clubsnap Junior, since I'm a lau jiao on Clubsnap, haha. I actually picked up a lens from him earlier this year and we joked that he might be training me. Guess what, he is. Talk about it being a small world. Problem is he keeps referring to me as Stoned(my CS nick), oh well.

Anyway, outside of army, I've been trying to get more landscapes done to keep my skills fresh, but mostly, the weather hasn't really been helping( why does it always rain in the evening? ) and whenever I bring out my tripod, something usually crops up and I never get round to doing it. I hope I can get it done next week though, since I'm really itching to shoot this location near Ben Sheares bridge.

I helped Joce again today, and really did some good catching up plus I got invited to have dinner with her family; that was pretty weird but it went well in the end. Thankfully she has such a nice family! It helps that I know Joan and Jane too but the rest of the family was really friendly too so I didn't feel so awkward at the table. In making the tons of shots of stuff she wanted, I happened to take some I found interesting as well; they had an eclectic sort of mood to them, which made them weirdly funny and interesting at the same time. I also shot some regular abstracts which made use of the vignetting associated with wide angles and FF cameras.

Time to share!

Here are those of Joce, where I happened to use her to create perspective; to a quirkily pleasant result (to me at least)

And here are some regular abstracts, which feature the rather interesting form of the incense spirals.

Joce's Smoke

2007-03-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

In helping out with Joce's art project, I also get to exercise shooting and to produce some interesting shots too, so it's really quite enjoyable for me as well. Aside from the staircase I shot last post, I produced the photos below with 3 PAs today helping to set up the make-shift studio in a storeroom(credit goes to Steph, Han Solo and Joce) for setting up the scene in lieu of proper equipment. I'm not used to machine gunning a scene but that was necessary today as the smoke output is often random and getting something interesting is normally a matter of luck really. I took a multitude of photos but as many of them are repeats I'd rather not post them. It's mainly for Joce to sketch after all.

Ok here are two interesting ones.

My favourite's first as usual

And I really love the horizontal movement of this one, plus I think it resembles a dragon of sorts, doesn't it? I've got another jellyfish too that's quite cute if you wanna see it.

Sky Screw

2007-03-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

My take on the Bugis Spiral Staircase, which I finally got to shoot since I followed Joce down to Bugis today to shoot some images of incense at a temple, which unfortunately could not be carried out as no photography was allowed at the temple. At least came back with this one. Heh. Check back soon, I have a good feeling about Cho's shoot tmr.

Sentosa with the Yaggers

2007-03-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Went to Sentosa with some Yaggers today heh, after a retarded taxi joy ride where the bugger didn't know the way, so it cost me a whopping 20 bucks. Damn, I really need my own transport. The goon ended up dropping me off at Palawan beach instead of Siloso like I wanted but eventually I got to Siloso by taking a short walk. It was actually a good thing because I managed to get an ice cold drink to ward off the blooming heat at the Palawan 7-11.

I wound up using a Nikon D40 kit today, the cheapest DSLR set up available on the market today, which I highly recommend since it only costs $900 for the body AND lens; definitely cheap by DSLR standards since some of my lenses cost more than that second-hand. I borrowed the cam from my uncle, since my 5d took a trip to Laos with my parents. I could have rented, since it's so cheap nowadays, but I wanted to get the D40 out for a field test, since I've heard so much about it. The functions is has is actually incredible and Nikon's policy of not crippling their budget equipment held true all the way. Things like spot metering that Canon conveniently leaves out on their cheaper bodies were a welcome sight, as was the full +- 3 stops of exposure and flash exposure compensation, which doesn't even exist on my $4k+ 5d. The large LCD was a joy to view the photos with and using the camera was in all, a very positive experience. The D40's AWB and exposure isn't quite spot on though, and I had to make quite a number of corrections in the later stages. However, the output from the camera met my stringent standards, which some more costly set-ups don't even do, so kudos to Nikon for this release. The kit lens only costs a paltry $100, but the quality it produces is real solid stuff. Naturally it's not as good as the lenses I use for my Canon body, but in most cases there I paid more than 10 times what the Nikon kit lens costs, but they certainly aren't 10 times as good. If you're thinking of getting a prosumer, run out and get the Nikon d40 now! It makes great photos, nuff said.

You can actually see Nikon's colour difference from Canon, but I still prefer the Canon colours since Nikon tends to render skin tones a bit greenish(Canon renders theirs more yellow), which you may pick out from some of the images here where I failed to correct the colour bias(it's not always possible to do so). I used the same technique to achieve the blue sky here as I used for the POP post 2 posts down, however, this was all done with the 90% smaller onboard flash the D40 had, so I wasn't able to make the sky as dramatic as in the POP post. However, some may prefer the more "natural" result due to the lower flash output.

Ok nuff tech stuff said. Photos from here on out.

Pick of the Day: A Light moment with Nicky, just after he got buried in sand to the neck. We gave him an artificial body with abs and boobs too(Joshua made sure they were D-cups, well now we know what gets him going)!

By the time I got there, they had started to go on rides at the Sentosa Luge. I managed to catch them on their second round in the waiting area. Here's Ian with Esther in the background.

And here's Esther again, being herself.

We later trooped down to the beach to cool ourselves off in the water; the guys did anyway. Here's some shots of the gang at the beach, sans me as usual.

Back Row From Left ( Joshua, Hubert, Deb, Esther, Sarah) Middle (Ian) Front (Nicky)

Back Row From Left (Joshua, Hubert, Ian, Nicky) Front Row (Deb, Esther, Sarah)

I guess you know who they are by now.

The guys then proceeded to bury Nicky, and Deb later came to help out

Hubert goes "huh?" when I distract him from his work

Deb comes over to lend a hand, or just to laugh at Nicky.

Here's Nicky as he rises from his imprisonment to hit the water with us to cool off.

Riding Joshua, and accidentally squashing an all important part

Ian assaulting Hubert

Ian, who can't get enough of the sand

Deb and Hubie pose.

And more of Ian's antics, as Joshua watches on.

Joshua and Ian chilling out

We then went into a photo spree, where we kept taking random shots; lots of fun though.

Four

Airborne

This is random beyond random.

*Great photos are not made by great equipment, they are made by great subjects! Thanks guys for the wonderful time, really enjoyed myself =)*

Punggol Shoot, Stone Soup

2007-03-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Went on my first AG outing with the photonx ppl, and man was it a great experience to finally use my new gear in the field, although I only used the 16-35. Hurhur. I'm a UWA lover, what can I say? Anyway, shots were great, and it feels good to be shooting again, although my dad has now hijacked the 5d for 5 days and I'm without a camera... Boo.. Ok so it's my fault I sold the back-up. Fine. Hmph.

Ok anyway, here are the shots.

This is my pick of the lot, and here it is first, as I usually present my images from a shoot.
As Night Swallows Day

City Lights

Stone Soup

Wind

Shore

Log

And a black and white...

Storm

POP lo...

2007-03-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ok finally got down to writing this post! And also sharing with you all some photos of my section/platoon mates, whom I actually quite miss now that BMT is over. Although Tekong life kinda sucked, I admit I will miss the extremely pretty sunsets and sunrises, where the colours are out of this world. It isn't uncommon to see purple, turquoise, red, yellow and blue hues all coming together to form a sky that looks like a panel out of a kaleidoscope.

Life as a private doesn't seem all too different really, but the anticipation of where I'm going next is killing me! My IPPT has been considered a fail due to various unfortunate circumstances, where I was absent for all 3 re-IPPT tests, due to air force medical, sickness, or just plain bad luck. I probably will become a man though, haha, which is actually what I was hoping for if I didn't get the pilot thing. During the air force medical though, I found out that I have a number of issues, one being suspected glaucoma; I may become blind, lol, and the other being blood in the urine. I've scheduled an appointment with a urologist to get it checked out but I'm quite apprehensive because they have to stick a probe up your pecker and that sounds like a world of hurt. That's just 4 days after I get my ear lump cut off, so I'm gonna be in a hell lot of pain once I go into the new unit. I hope I get a good posting! The blood in the urine can be used to down pes also, according to the polyclinic doctor, so might give it a shot if the posting sucks hurhur. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME A STAY-OUT VOCATION!

I think I'm finally beginning to get used to army life, where I really don't care what happens, what they do to you, or what they say anymore. Everything just whizzes by you, and you can do a 1000 push-ups and still be laughing. It's insane really. Well anyway, here are the random pictures from my POP. There are some pictures here courtesy of my dad(those with me inside), who did ok when given the right settings for the camera.

Rodney airbone

My Platoon

Rodney flying, again

My section

My wifey Zhi Huang. Hurhur. I can't remember the last time I carried someone like that. It's been long. Long. Very long.

Section 4, with Daniel

Section 4

Some of Section 4

Section4 with Daniel again

Section 4

Marcus airborne

Bed buddies Rodney and Reagan

OWLFC Outreach Project

2007-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

Ok I know I left halfway, and didn't quite document the whole thing, but I snapped enough images to roughly document the whole event. I attached myself to Joshua's team, so most of the photos you'll be seeing feature either Joshua or Daryl, because that's the entire team. Having done Sharity Gift Box in the past with the BB, this door-to-door giving spree wasn't really all that new of a thing to me. I don't think we succeeded very well as after clearing our planned area, we had only given out about 20-30% of our hampers; problematic. I think everyone did their best though, so kudos for the effort. I picked some images to give a rough idea of what we did, although I must say first that the packs were, umm quite a bit less than the giant sharity gift box ones I used to give out.

Passing out the gift packs in a human chain

En route to the site

Packs at the site. These are bundles of 10 by the way, individually, it's just a 1kg bag of rice and a 5-pack of maggi mee.

Joshua the happy trooper

Quite a number of the houses were empty, which I didn't expect, but it later made sense that people so strapped for cash would be still slaving away on a lazy saturday afternoon. Anyhow, although we didn't give out much, those residents that accepted our gifts did so quite cheerfully and willingly. I avoided photographing the residents out of courtesy for their privacy, which is why you will see none of their faces here. They were mostly suspicious that we were trying to sell things, but once they heard that the goodie bags were free, they quickly brightened up.

SUCCESS! After knocking on countless doors without receiving any response. Happy new year auntie!

Joshua examining the new year decor of a unit while waiting for a response from any would-be occupants.

Me entertaining myself while waiting for business

As I viewed the place though, I couldn't help being reminded of a prison, due to the design of the doors and the sheer feeling of claustrophobia that the drab, cramp corridors gave. Here's roughly what I felt; dark, dank, miserable. It's quite a sad existence that we often overlook. The apartments seemed more like cells than homes.

More XP work

2007-02-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

Had my camera with me today and chanced upon this scene which I thought would look interesting when cross processed. This is a digital cross process, like the previous post, where the results are warmer and stronger.

Random stuff over CNY

2007-02-19T22:17:00.001-08:00

OK and so I'm down to the last day of the new year break, darn, counting down the hours to booking in again. Double darn. Anyway, have just gotten round to processing the photos from the fishing trip, which were terrible(that's what 3 days of no sleep does to you) and also have processed some test shots from my newly acquired 135L, which has a 11-year old vintage but still produces fantastic results. My L disease will not be sated for the moment until I acquire a 28-70L to fill up a small gap in my equipment at the moment(which technically is covered by the 50/1.4, but oh well, more is still more eh?). I've got plans to acquire the full L prime trinity(35/1.4, 85/1.2 and 135/2) by the end of army too, which should be quite a reasonable goal since I'm already a third there, although it is the cheapest of the trio. I'm also missing my 1dII's operation quite a bit, ever since having given it up for the 5d. Why can't the 1dsII be cheaper? Hurhur. Probably will pick up an old 1d or 1ds for those occasions that demand that operational capability, heh, but I'll leave that for the future. Priority for spending after the 28-70 gets into my dry box is bike lessons and subsequently a bike. Yea! Finally can get my own transport.

Anyhow, the fishing trip was a real bummer, with almost no one coming, despite the strong interest expressed back in camp. We basically got 2 bites in 8 hours anyway, totally pathetic. We did catch a few crabs though, but unfortunately they were about the size of our palm at best and probably weren't really worth eating. We threw them back, fortunately for them, mainly because we were too tired to deal with the hassle of bringing them back home.

Here are some very poorly taken images, with my brain off. Oh well.

Reagan with our best catch. Which was more fun to play with than to catch. Hurhur

The three surviving musketeers.

Crabby's hilarious pose.

And our CNY catch. Don't laugh, please...

Ok and here are the 135L test results, shot at Han's CNY party. I think I should have used it when we were playing Taboo, but it only occured to me later. Damn you, lack of sleep! The IQ is really impeccable, but it kinda looks like the output from my magic drainpipe and I wonder if I should have bought it. At least it's f2! Heh. The output's great at f2 and the DOF is razor thin, demanding careful and judicious usage. Beautiful resolution and bokeh, as can be seen from these wide open images(ok you can't really see since the images are so small, but go buy it, you won't be dissapointed).

Cho, looking gay. Glorious bokeh

A rare shot of the han brothers together. shallow DOF rendered meatloaf han OOF, though just barely at this distance.

Enjoying the CNY break

2007-02-18T01:30:00.000-08:00

Ok so I'm really really enjoying the absence of sandflies, tekkaning, camo cream and such over this 4 days and 4 nights. What a great book out! Strangely enough, I sleep on average about 3 hours a day but my body automatically wakes up at 8 or so at the very latest. I felt dead tired this morning and thought I would seriously need to sleep in the afternoon but as the day progressed, the tiredness seemed to slip away. I hope I'll still be fresh while fishing tonight to get some great photos of my section mates and the fishing trip. Hurhur. Back to feeding the mosquitoes, but at least it's on our own terms now and we'll have fun doing it! Damn, I can't wait to ORD; funny considering I haven't even POPed! Anyhow, decided not to sign on with the navy because they told me flat out my photography would have to take a back seat, so um ya, it's down to air force or no command school at all right now, since I really dont relish army life at all, nor do I see any joy in becoming an officer commissioned by Nathan. I don't think it makes you a better person, just a more busy one. Anyhow, given the joy my new toys(the 16-35L, 80-200L and incoming 28-70 and 135L) have been giving me will probably make me want to go shooting again and again! I'm infected with the L-virus, sigh.

I probably won't be putting up any long blog posts for quite a while more, and most will definitely be short ones like these, since I'd rather do a multitude of other things rather than writing about myself; like photograph for example. If you still need any lovely photo advice, I'd be happy to provide specific tips to solve any imaging problem you can throw at me, but I probably will not be continuing with the PIME articles, since they take about 2 hours each to write. You all know how to get me, so do so, 24 hour hotline guaranteed, except when I'm in camp. Hurhur. Please leave 1 week for information turn around if you email.

Was just fiddling with cross processing this morning, and cross processed the picture of Joce I took the other day, so now the pic has more mojo. Digital cross processing attempts to emulate what I did with my slides for the lomo project, process them in c41 as opposed to E6, giving you highly saturated off-colour images, which may add to, or destroy the photo. Here's the result. You can actually get actions for this online if you have photoshop, making the process much more simple. Of course, the most pretty results are achieved manually, but normally I just use a do-it-all action. Mail me if you wanna know more.

Selected images from the SSS V Day Fashion show

2007-02-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

Ok so I wasn't slated to cover the show, nor was I intending to, but since I had my camera with me, I decided it was a good time to field test the 100/2, so yup popped off a few shots. Forgot that I haven't processed these yet, so pushing them up before I go out.

Gavin and his toys

Who would've thought you'd ever see Cherlyn being photographed on a runway? You can barely get her to take a photo on her birthday.

A random event in the show. For posterity.

Joan, who looks great in a wedding gown. I am so gonna photograph her wedding.

Claire

Now retired YAG alumni Aunty Suit Chee, throwing caution to the wind.

Ok that's it, didn't shoot much so not much to share. Ciao, I'm off.

OK, so I don't work well in crowds

2007-02-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

With little space to maneuver and get great angles, had a really tough time producing anything decent from the Chinatown trip where I was hoping to test my magic drainpipe properly by helping Joce with her art project. Unfortunately, we couldn't locate any drunkards for the new year; they were probably scared off by the insane crowd. Wasn't really happy with anything I shot except for an accidental picture of kumquats, which I strangely like, and a picture of Joce in glasses. Pretty much everything else I shot was trash, but for the sake of a blog post, which I struggle to put up these days, here are some images. Hopefully, the fishing trip on Sun will yield better results.

In no particular order, and since I'm rushing to go out for new year shopping, and since I only slept 2 hours last night and don't feel like writing much, here are the images, randomly posted.

This guy can talk continuously without breathing. He should do Kar Mun's mono.

Random festivities

One of my favourite sausage places in Singapore, Wurstelstand. The other one I really love is in Plaza Sing basement, but I can't remember what it's called. Go on weekdays, he'll serve you with a smile.

The photo of Joce, so cute! Hurhurhur.

And the odd photo of kumquats I liked.

Here's an interesting stall with pretty good satay, although the sign says not satay. The meat is pretty soft and succulent, with good flavour. They even have their own jingle and the dude in red sings it too. Worth taking a look at when you're next in chinatown.

A random image of a street vendor.

I think basically the problem is, I'm out of practice.

Ivan's 21st

2007-02-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

My blog has been dry for a long long long time now because of frigging NS, where I have totally no time to shoot and it sucks hard. I recently acquired some great glass about several weeks back but really had no time to use it at all in a good field test. Ivan's 21st seemed like the perfect opportunity to use the 16-35 and the 80-200 that I bought, but after some deliberation, I decided against bringing the both the lenses and only brought the 16-35 as I felt I would probably get to test it more and a wide would be more useful than a tele for the party. I had some misgivings about the 16-35, since there were a lot of rumours about the quality issues for pre-2005 models, but I must say that the results did not let me down. The lighting was difficult, but the 16-35 still produced pretty good colour, contrast, and sharpness wide open. Could I have gotten it sharper and more contrasty? Yes, stopped down maybe one or two, but I was also testing the lens' capabilities so I kept it wide open all the way. I also tested the famous low noise capability of the new 5d I've acquired, and it's magnificent to say the least. The IQ that comes of the camera is very high, which shows up nicely on the gargantuan 2.5" LCD, a welcome change from the 1.8" one i used to have on my mark II and certainly much better than the 1.5" puny one on my 350d. Could I have made the shots better with a flash? Yes yes, of course! The flash would have been a highly suitable tool for the event that would have dramatically improved several images. Did I have my flash in the bag? Yes, but I was also field testing the 5d, so I pushed it to it's limits by shooting at the expanded ISO 3200. The verdict is it looks great, but I'm still unused to the 5d interface and I often missed quite a number of shots. The AF tracking of the 5d is also nowhere near as fast and accurate as the 1dII I'm used to; the af was unable to get a lock on a number of occasions. However, I constantly reminded myself that I switched in order to do more landscapes and less events, and so yep, I've been spoiled by the MKII's interface, and so now I'm going to learn how to do more with less. I've still made a resolution to get another 1-series when I start working proper jobs again though, I think it seriously makes a difference. Hurhur.

Anyway, enough crap, here are the images! Not that great I know, but hey, it's my first outing with my new buddy, plus I've not been shooting for quite some time so I'm a little out of touch =). The party had fantastic Indian food, please introduce me to the caterer. The prata was to die for, I'm going to look for that "The Prata Place" outlet. Ok everyone got dunked, except me, cos I was really really against going in and fought for my life. Jamie's phone proved itself to be waterproof to some extent. Lol.

One of my favourite images of the party, CBCHO after getting dunked. damn I love the 16mm perspective.

Ivan dunking CBcho.

The guys, JC was there too! Joshua, Ian, JC, Jamie(from left)

Jamie and Deb, where my lens managed to resolve the pores. Hurrah! Jamie ruined this nice photo of course. Don't worry, I'll do another set for the both of you sometime.

Jamie and Ivan, the birthday boy.

Ian and Nicky, both very wet from getting dunked.

A group photo of all of the guys in the pool. I pity the owner

Ian, Slain

Joshua, about to be slain. Panning technique was off, but oh well.

One of Ivan's friends from perth, getting raped.

And the photo I loved most, although it's an abstract of sorts. Reminds me of lomo rubbish I like to take. Hurhur.

Ok am off to church now. Tata.

Eri in Monochrome

2007-01-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

I'm currently on Attend C, or MC in army terms for two days hehe. Shiok. I finally have the time to shoot some images of my new dog Eri to share with you guys. I apologise that I won't be updating the blog much due to the fact that I can't shoot much under the stupid army schedule. Anyhow, I will try to shoot and post as often as I can! Hopefully I will have time to keep shooting, cos I really miss it a lot. Darned army. Please please please let me get downgraded! Or send me to some slack unit after BMT so I can get some shooting done!

Anyhow here are some photos of eri heh

Cute isn't she? Smart too =)

Japan Journal, Finally

2006-12-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

I finally had time to put this up due to my 5 day book out. YEA! Hooray hooray, boo yah! Ok anyway, less talk more photos right? Ok here's the Japan journal.

Hello everyone, have just come back from my Japan trip and have just about started processing the shots. Due to the sheer amount of shots from 2 weeks worth and the write-ups I will be doing to accompany the shots, I will only post as I process. I will likely be posting in batches from each city, so do be patient! Thanks!

Fukuoka City

Fukuoka city, like many cities away from the Central Tokyo-Osaka area, has a very laid back atmosphere to it and you hardly see people rushing madly around. Even during rush hour, people remain polite and will always apologise even when they're not in the wrong or if they even get in your way to the slightest degree. The streets, like in many Japanese cities are impeccably clean and you can often find many Japanese commuting by bicycle on the sidewalks.

Commuting by Bicycle

A rather nice place to visit on a sunny day will be the Ohori Park, or Ohori Koen, where there is a peaceful little lake with park benches facing the water front. Locals can often be found here reading, painting, or simply enjoying the fresh air and scenic view. During spring, this park is an ideal place for viewing cherry blossoms.

[U]Ohori Koen[/U]

The lake itself is filled with Koi and gulls, adding to the peaceful atmosphere. You can actually cross the lake to get to a little islet via a long bridge that extends over the water.

Ohori Koen

Like many Japanese cities, where Shinto is a popular religion, there are quite a number of temples dotting the city map. If you can get hold of the local festival schedule, do visit a temple that is running a festival. You will see shrine attendants walking freely about and the place will be bustling with visitors. Additional decorations and banners that are not normally present make the place seem more lively. Furthermore, during such a festival, you can talk to the shrine priests, take photos of them and visit places inside the temples or shrines that are not normally open to the public. I managed to come across such a festival during my short stay in Fukuoka and took the opportunity to do a quick tour of the place and to learn more about shinto with my limited Japanese ability.

Festival Lanterns

Festival Banners

Japanese visitors to the temple purchase little strips of white paper upon which they write their wishes, in the hope that these wishes will be answered.

[U]Prayer Slips[/U]

They also ring a large bell by pulling on a rope before praying at the temple.

[U]Prayer Area[/U]
Nearby this particular temple, I also popped by Canal City Hakata, a popular tourist attraction which is in essence a super mall. If you want to do some shopping, this is a great place to do it.

[U]Canal City Hakata[/U]

For more shopping at night, you can proceed down to Marinoa city at the edge of Fukuoka. This extremely large shopping area is situated next to a wharf. Unfortunately, it is a little tough to get there as there is no subway station right next to it. Your best bet would be to get off at the Meinohama Station and take a 100 yen shuttle bus to Marinoa city. From Marinoa city's information counter, you can get a 50 yen discount coupon for the ride back and for subsequent rides to Marinoa city. The sea breeze can get really chilly at night so do bring adequate warm clothing.

[U]Marinoa City[/U]

The place is commonly photographed with both of it's giant ferris wheels that allow you to get a panoramic view of Fukuoka city. It seems rather grand the first time you see it, but you will quickly come to realise that other cities also have similar ferris wheels. One interesting thing i noted was that no one seemed to be operating the ferris wheels, even though both were spinning.

[U]Marinoa City[/U]

Marinoa city has tons of food joints and has a factory outlet mall for you to do some more shopping. I recommend the Muji outlet for rock bottom prices but high quality clothing. Unfortunately, the food here is nothing much to shout about and you'd be better off seeking a meal elsewhere. Marinoa city seems like a popular place for couples as well, with many strolling along the wharf or within the shopping area. With such a pretty night light up, it's not hard to imagine why.

If you are in search of food at night, do try heading down to the Tenjin（天神） and Nakasu Kawabata　（中州川端） area for some street food at the Ya Tai street hawker stalls. There are about 180 Ya Tai stalls located in 4 different groups around the Tenjin and Nakasu Kawabata areas. They serve mostly ramen, but if you look around you will also be able to find other Japanese food such as Oden and Yakitori. They operate in both rain or shine and open at around 5pm. The covers you see on the stall below are removed in dry weather.

[U]Oden Ya Tai stall in wet weather[/U]

[U]A Customer[/U]

If you look around the city, there will be no shortage of good food for you to eat. Most stalls have plastic food displays that look delicious, and these are also useful for you to point at to order if you don't speak Japanese.

[U]Plastic food displays[/U]

Do drop by the Supermarket in the Tenjin area to try out the bento or box sets in little plastic boxes. These make a cheap meal and if you go in the morning, the food is fresh and highly delicious. Although many supermarkets do sell such bento sets in Japan, the sets from this supermarket were my favourite amongst those from various supermarkets.

[U]Bento Sets[/U]

As you stay in Japan, most hotels and hostels offer either Japanese or Western rooms. A Japanese room typically looks like this and I would recommend staying in them because your house is likely a Western room. I find the mats highly comfortable, but my Dad thought otherwise, so your mileage may differ.

[U]Japanese-style room[/U]

[B]Beppu 別府[/B]
Beppu is a quaint little seaside town that is well known for being a "night-town", according to our host at the Beppu Guest house. A main street runs through the city center and connects all the main malls, or mall, with smaller stalls and shopping arcades. During the day time, there isn't much to do or see in the city center, but you may visit one of the many onsen, or hot springs, for a traditional Japanese bath. As there wasn't much to do or see, I opted instead to check out the view at the beach, which really wasn't all that great because of the horrendous barricade at the sea front, which kinda spoils the whole thing IMO.

[U]Beppu Seaside[/U]

At night, this is when the city comes alive. Lights suddenly pop up everywhere and activity starts to bustle in the back lanes. As a photographer, you will want to make ample use of your blue hour so you might want to spend the day scouting around for compositions to use later.

[U]Lanterns[/U]

Exploring the back lanes of Beppu will bring you to the Beppu Red Light district, which is primarily why it is called a night town. Most of the good food and activity centers around this location. There are "pimps" of sorts outside each establishment, but they do not forcefully solicit business from passers-by and hence the area is safe to travel at night. As I moved through the area making images, I was approached several times by the "pimps", but they were always polite, even when their offers were declined. If you explain to them that you are a tourist, they will not object to you taking photos of them or the establishments. All the establishments open till about 2-3am should you be interested.

[U]Beppu Red Light Area[/U]

Deep in the heart of the red light area lies the famous Tasegawa Onsen, where a bath will only cost you a mere 100 yen. As with all public baths, be mindful not to step on their tatami mats with your shoes. Change to the slippers provided. Lockers are also available for you to store your belongings. If it is not common sense to you, photography is not allowed inside the baths as clothing is not optional.

[U]Tasegawa Hot Springs[/U]

A fantastic place with reasonable pricing to eat in Beppu is a restaurant on the main road called Bilikan. It has an odd looking statue of bald Bilikan in the front and doesn't look very impressive, but once you go inside, lighting is warm and the food is great. I'm horrible at food photography, but I tried to shoot some pictures of the food here and there to show you guys.

[U]Interior of Bilikan[/U]

[U]Fresh zushi, at only 600 yen.[/U]

Another great place to eat in Beppu itself is a Yakitori shop just off the main street. It is next to a sushi shop called Shin Zushi that is also recommended. The shop looks something like this.

[U]Yakitori Shop[/U]

The waitresses speak Chinese, English and Japanese, so I doubt you'd have a problem ordering. The boss doesn't really like photography so I couldn't make any images of the food, but I highly recommend the pig intestine soup and the scallop and eel yakitori. If you do not know what to order, you can ask the boss to come up with a set for you, which includes staples like pork belly and chicken. It is all delicious so don't be afraid of ordering anything. I have literally tried everything on the menu, at the cost of about 5400 yen. I'm usually not greedy but it was just too good.

[B]Oita 大分[/B]

This is an industrialised rural city of sorts where you would be more likely to be working in rather than touring. Stuff to see in the city isn't all that exciting, with tourist attractions being mostly shrines and temples. I'd recommend not more than a day here.

[U]Kosaiji Temple[/U]

The Kosaiji Temple is near the train station and is a modern Shinto temple, as opposed to the traditional Shinto temple I presented earlier. The buildings look modern, but it is clearly a temple. Most of the grounds is occupied by a car park. As I was there in winter, the sakura trees were all not in bloom. In spring, this would probably be a nice place to view cherry blossoms as many sakura trees dot the grounds.

[U]Hofu Inari Shrine[/U]

This is probably the most pretty shrine in the area, even if it is a little small. In autumn, the place would probably be spectacular due to the kind of trees planted at the shrine. The shrine is off the main road, like many of the shrines and temples in Oita and can be a little difficult to find. It is just off Nishiki-Machi, should you wish to take a look.

[U]Inari Shrine Treescape[/U]

If you wish to do some landscapes, the best place to get this done would be the Oita riverside, where there are vast expanses of long grass and bridges at various points. I didn't find it very inspiring, so I didn't bother to stay till sunset. Here's roughly what the place looks like in the day.

[U]Stormclouds over Oita riverside [/U]

[B]Yufuin湯布院[/B]
[U]Yufuin Station[/U]

This was one of my favourite stops on the entire journey, where there was an abundance of colour and great scenery. I only had time to spend about half a day there, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Yufuin is best known for its hot springs and many of these hot springs dot the mountain side. They have the regular bathing variety and they also have another variety where you can play in the water and is great for kids. They rent out swim suits at 200 yen should you need one. Swim suits are required for the other variety and are not allowed for the traditional variety.

[U]Green House[/U]

You can choose to either grab a taxi to tour the city or rent a bike at 200 yen an hour to cycle around the country side. For photographers, I'd highly recommend the bike option because it's cheaper and it allows you to stop whenever you want to make images.

[U]Taxi Stand[/U]

[U]Bike[/U]

After you leave the city centre, you can get unobstructed views of the main mountain in the area. Undoubtedly, the mountain will feature in many of your images. To my knowledge, there is no tourist path up the mountain.

[U]Two Rivers[/U]

Given the great light I had when I visited Yufuin, I roamed around the countryside on my bike searching for a great subject to make use of the light. I was inspired by a bunch of persimmon trees that had shed their leaves but had not been harvested.

Persimmon Trees

After I came back from the countryside, I realised that like Ayers Rock, the mountain also seems to turn red at sunset. I immediately regretted returning the bike but as I considered renting it again, I realised that I wouldn't be able to make it to a nice place in time to make use of the light. Learn from my mistake if you're going there!

[U]Yufuin evening[/U]

There are 3 types of trains in Japan, the Local trains, Limited express trains and the Shinkansen super express trains(Nozomi, Hikari and Kawada). The Local trains are the cheapest and slowest. If you have a JR pass, do make use of the limited express trains whenever possible because they save time. In Kyushu, the Shinkansen routes are limited and you will be using local and limited express trains most of the time.
[U]Local train at Yufuin station[/U]

[B]Kagoshima-Chuo, or Kagoshima Central[/B]

After a rough day of travelling, I arrived in Kagoshima just before dark. By the time I got out of my hotel, I had totally missed any light. As I had my camera with me, I decided to do a street series after dinner.

A street series I shot in Kagoshima-Chuo. Mostly F1.4, shot from the hip.

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Along Bell St, near the station, you will find lots of yummy food. I recommend the restaurant closest to the station. Somehow, I neglected to take a picture of the frontage of the restaurant, but the interior looks like this.

The restaurant is very popular with locals and is packed around 6-7pm. They do not allow waiting and will politely refuse you entry if the restaurant is full. Come back later, it's worth it. Their speciality is Higashi beef Shabu Shabu, or Japanese hot pot. This tastes great, but you should also try their raw Higashi beef marinated in ginger and black vinegar, which tastes even better.

[U]Higashi Beef[/U]

During the day, you can catch the Sakurajima?? ferry from the SakuraJima port, which will bring you to Sakurajima island, home of the active volcano (surprise!) Sakurajima.

[U]Sakurajima ferry[/U]

The island is pretty scenic, but as it is around 2/3 the size of Singapore,do be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time here. I only set aside 2 hours, about enough time to get to the visitor's centre(substantially far away from the ferry terminal) and back. I was able to squeeze in a quick walk of the blue lava trail to bring back some photos. The main item of interest here is of course the volcanic rock from past eruptions, but if you're a bird shooter, you may want to bring a lens to shoot the raptors here, which fly extremely low. I estimate that you will be able to get a full body shot of a bird in flight with a 200mm lens. There are many here so I doubt you'd be wasting your time.

[U]Sakurajima Volcano(in the background)[/U]

[U]Visitor's centre[/U]

[U]Shrine on a hill[/U]

As the volcano is active, lava rocks from past eruptions dot the landscape and make great subjects. At the visitor's centre, you will also see live CCTV images of the volcano, as part of Sakurajima's early warning system.
[U]Lava Rock[/U]

[B]Ibusuki[/B]

Ibusuki is a town primarily famous for its onsen and Sanamushi, or sand baths. Booking a seaside hotel will allow you to soak in the onsen while watching the sunset as they typically have onsen with glass windows that face the sea. Sanamushi requires you to go down to the beach where you have to pay 1000 yen to get buried in the volcanic sand, which supposedly has health benefits. At 1000 yen, I didn't try it, so I wouldn't know if that's true. For landscape shooters, Ibusuki has really quite a number of unique imaging opportunities due to the interesting nature of the black volcanic sand(hey how often do you see a black beach?). I had quite a ball shooting pictures of the area, so much so that I completely missed out on the Onsen baths. I'd was wary of the cold, having made some images at Beppu's seaside and suffered frostbite, but Ibusuki, apparently the 2nd warmest Japanese city after Okinawa, caused me no such problems, even though I was only in a simple pullover. Due to the weather, people normally walk around in their Yukatas, which the hotel provides. These are comfy, but I thought it would be a bit odd to lug around my tripod and gear while wearing it, so I only used it for sleeping. Their primary use is for onsen bathing though.

[U]Before Sunset[/U]

[U]Sunset[/U]
Tian Ya filters flare like crazy :(

[U]After Sunset[/U]
This is also my hotel

[U]Blue Hour[/U]

[B]Kumamoto熊本[/B]
I arrived in Kumamoto to face the first of 3 sodden days of bad weather. The rain was extremely heavy, so I didn't do much shooting and took cover in the Kumamoto Museum of Crafts.

[U]Kumamoto Museum of Crafts[/U]
There's a wide range of hand-made crafts here that you can actually purchase, unfortunately the prices are horrendously high.

After some time, I decided to make photos despite the weather. I started out shooting with an umbrella, but I wound up fumbling with the equipment too much and not making any images, so I happily discarded the umbrella the moment the rain got slightly lighter. Nevertheless, I had to wipe down the equipment continually to keep it relatively dry. I also got some "special" effects from the wet weather.

[U]Kumamoto Castle exterior from under an umbrella[/U]

[U]Condensation on the tram[/U]

[U]Shimotori Arcade, with Raindrops[/U]
ShimotoriShoppingArcade.jpg">

[U]Night light up outside Shimotori Arcade[/U]

In search of food, I located this popular restaurant called Za Watami in Kumamoto. It was packed with locals as the food was good and prices were low by Japanese standards. Sides start from 210 yen. I later discovered that Za Watami is a chain that has branches in almost every city, unfortunately the quality doesn't remain constant between cities. The one in Kumamoto is a definite must-try.

[U]Za Watami Frontage[/U]

[U]Za Watami Interior[/U]

Interesting items on the menu are horse meat sashimi, which tastes really good IMO, and oyster shabu shabu, which also tastes really good. They have almost every type of Japanese food you can imagine, so if you want to try a wide range of Japanese food, this is the place to go.

[U]Oyster Shabu Shabu[/U]

[U]Horse Meat Sashimi[/U]

Do also drop by the Ramen shop at the Kumamoto train station. Their Ramen is really really delicious, with nice springy noodles and delicious broth.

[U]Tonkatsu Ramen[/U]

[B]Nagasaki[/B]
As I think most of you would know, Nagasaki was hit with an atomic bomb in the year 1945, where there was a massive casualty rate of about 200,000 on impact and about a million people suffered the aftereffects of radiation mutation years later. Today the city is safe and you will not grow any additional limbs if you visit the area. The vegetation surrounding the the point of impact, or the Hypocenter, since the bomb did not actually hit the ground but exploded 500m above the ground, is now growing but you will observe that it doesn't seem as healthy as you would expect. Scientists have not completely found a way to eradicate all of the effects of the raditiation even after 60 years, and hence Nagasaki is a continuing reminder for the need for peace and the destructive capability of nuclear weapons.

The hypocenter is the theoretical point directly below where the bomb exploded, calculated by scientists, since everyone within a 3 kilometre radius was instantly killed and the ground was levelled within a 1 km radius. Today, people place colourful ribbons at the hypocenter and various memorial shrines around the hypocenter to remember those killed.
Atomic Bomb Hypocenter

Many artists, inspired by the sheer grief of the tragedy, have also come together to produce various sculptures that lie scattered around the Peace Park. These serve to constantly remind us about the beauty of peace, and also the horror of the tragedy, as some sculptures depicted.

Peace Sculpture

The Nagasaki Harbour is located next to the Seaside park, where you can take a evening stroll amidst the beautiful setting. Unfortunately, you cannot photograph the sunset at the Seaside park because it is surrounded by trees, which will block your sunset. I do recommend heading down to Nagasaki harbour because it is also very beautiful at sunset, although the photo probably doesn't do it much justice, but I was rushing to catch the light at this point, so well, it's a record at least.

Nagasaki Harbour

From there, you can walk to Shinchi Chinatown, which isn't really all that great, because IMO, nothing about it is distinctively Chinese. The people there are polite and the streets are clean and it seems too Japanese to be authentically Chinese. Nevertheless, it is a tourist attraction, popular with the locals, who probably get a very wrong idea of the actual China from there. The place looks something like this:

Shinchi Chinatown

Shinchi Chinatown Gate

I had actually intended to shoot this image at blue hour, but I couldn't make it in time. I was intrigued by the crossing of the railway tracks in the afternoon, so I decided to come back and shoot it at night.

Nagasaki Eki Mae

The Dutch slope is so named because Nagasaki was once a Dutch colony and this is where most of the Dutch architecture still remains. There's nothing much really to see at this area so you can give it a miss if you wish.

Dutch Slope

[B]Hiroshima[/B]

I stopped at Hiroshima on transit, so I was there for a total of about half a day. Having heard about Miyajima Island, where the Torii gate, the No. 3 most photo-graphed attraction in Japan, is located, my family decided to visit Miyajima. Unfortunately, with the sodden weather, making a good picture of the Torii gate proved elusive. I also tried not to repeat the compositions I had seen earlier, but a good picture did not result. Oh well. Tips to shoot the Torii gate include going at a good time, not the afternoon as I did, and also waiting for low tide for interesting foreground.

[U]Rainy Weather at Miyajima [/U]

The place has quite a number of deer hanging around the premises. The deer are not aggressive but are by no means harmless. If you have food hanging around, stay away from the deer. They will jump to pluck food right out of your hand if you're not careful. They are quite curious and with a little luck you may be able to produce some interesting photographs. This deer was about 4cm from my Zenitar FE.
[U]Curious Deer[/U]

There's also a pretty large temple here at Miyajima, if you're sick of seeing temples by now, you should at least photograph the outside. Frankly speaking, I think the temple is more cool than the Torii gate, but that's just my personal view.

[U]Temple on Water, Miyajima[/U]

Here's the famous Torii gate in the background. By my Mum's request, I also shot the standard travel brochure composition, but I hate it, so it's just vegetating on my HD.
[U]Torii Gate[/U]

The greatest thing about Miyajima though is the food street, where you can find various delicious items for sale. Must trys include the fish cake, which comes with various items mixed in the paste, such as Tako(Octopus) or Ebi(Prawn), Grilled Oysters with beer sauce, and the cream puffs, which are to die for.
[U]Miyajima Food Street[/U]

[U]CreamPuffs[/U]

[U]Grilled Oysters[/U]

I arrived in Hiroshima city rather late as I only returned there to catch my train, but a visit to Hiroshima wouldn't be complete without at least checking out the A Bomb Dome, so here it is, although I didn't quite make it at blue hour.
[U]A-Bomb dome[/U]

[B]Kobe[/B]

[U]Mt. Maya[/U]
You can grab a cable car ride up Mt. Maya at Shin-kobe instead of walking for about 800 yen per head. For 1000 yen you also gain access to the Nundaki Herb Garden, which is highly recommended if you intend to walk down. The pass allows you access to the Glass house, which is a pretty piece of architecture and also a green house. The cable car ride is really scenic, allowing you to check out the city at the same time from an aerial perspective.

View from the Cable Car

Nundaki Herb Garden

The Glass House

Cable Car Station

Kobe city itself is massively crowded on weekends. This scene was photographed at the Motomachi shopping district, where police were forced to close roads and form human barriers in order to regulate the massive crowd, which numbered tens of thousands. This crowd was going to Harbour land by the way, which is supposed to be really pretty, but I didn't think it warranted a 4 hour queue, so don't ask me how it's like.

Kobe Crowd Control

Police use loudhailers to direct the traffic, it's really quite a sight and shouldn't be missed.
Throughfare

[B]Kyoto[/B]

[U]Kyoto Imperial Palace[/U]

The Kyoto Imperial palace was the former residence of the Japanese emperor, but the royal family has since moved to the current palace since the 1800s, the site has nevertheless been marked off as a cultural relic and tours are conducted hourly. The grounds were very pretty due to the Autumn colours, but I wasn't inspired to shoot many photos of the actual palace itself, because of the sodden weather. Gray skies are just, flat.

[B]Osaka[/B]

You can visit America-Mura in Osaka if you wish to do some shopping. There's a lot of trendy clothing here at really affordable prices. If you want to do some street shooting at night, this is a wonderful place to do so as well, with colourful light ups and funky music. The place smells of teen spirit and is worth checking out. It looks quite boring in the day, so do go at night.

[U]America-Mura[/U]

Another Big attraction in Osaka is the Kuromon Ichiba market, where Fugu, or pufferfish, seems to be sold everywhere here. There's also a massive range of very alive seafood, from crabs to massive cockles, as well as a large range of cooked food that stretches from Tempura to Oden. I shot a street series from two markets, the other being Kyoto's Nishiki market, which is equally impressive but focuses more on cooked food, and collated them below.

A Fish Monger's Portrait

A Customer

Quick Calculations

Stock Taking

Price Check

Cleaning Fish

Final Japan Log! I'll be back on the 13th(wed night?)

2006-12-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Will be leaving Japan soon, argh! I've really been overloading on Japnanese cuisine these past few days and have literally gotten sick from eating it, not of it, heh. Ate way too much tempura today and have a bit of a stomach upset. All the raw food has been fine so far, including raw beef and horse meat(this really rocks btw, although yes it is gross and cruel to kill the cute horse). Somehow the oil really got to my whole family today after having tempura for breakfast lunch and dinner. Maybe I simply overate as well because I had like 24 takopachi in about 1 hour. I tried the takopachi from a random store in Den den town and I wasn't satisfied because it's supposed to be an Osaka specialty, so I tried it later again at a Takopachi speciality store, and it was fantastic! On my must eat list I have yet to clear Okonomiyaki, other Osaka specialty and genuine Japanese Unagi, or grilled conger eel.

I'm actually looking forward to get back to Singapore and seeing you guys, Japan has been great but two weeks with my parents have been taxing, really need some fresh air. Am super tired because my parents insist on waking me up extra early everyday and later they wind up complaining that they're tired.　All this is on the pretext that we need to maximise holiday time. I'd rather get enough rest so I don't feel grumpy the whole day thank you.

Anyhow, have gotten food stuff for you guys and a new pair of shoes and a tactical Smith and Wesson blade for myself; yay I finally have a quality knife! I also picked up a G(eek)-Shock watch since my parents insisted that I have a tough, rugged, tactical watch for army. It looks quite embarassing. Ugh. I also picked up a Dir En Grey Single, based on the Cockroach King's recommendation. It looks damn weird la lol, it's so weird it even creeps Jap youths out, had a tough time finding it. Anyhow, I only bought a single at 1000 yen(gay) instead of the album at 4000 yen (damn gay) cos it looked damn weird and I wasn't about to blow 54 SGD on a band I had never listened to before. IF I like it, I'll download. I paid a bit ok! Got Clara's Kose make-up today as well, and it seems quite affordable for quite an upmarket brand in Singapore. Shiseido here is like sold at a Watson's equivalent.damn cool. Japanese brand make-up here is all super worthwhile, do purchase it. Camera stuff is about 15-20% cheaper than Singapore for the high-end stuff and about 5-10% cheaper for the lower end stuff(dont bother, savings aren't substantial). I blew all my spare yen today and polished it off with some food and a beer from opposite the hotel. Have been loading up on warm sake since my dad only drinks that and a ice cold Asahi was quite welcome. I was thinking of purchasing a Kenko Digital MC Slim CP-L here for only about 60SGD(about 40% of the price back home) but unfortunately, I'm all out of yen. I had to change my SGD with yen with my mum for the prevailing exchange rate to buy stuff here, yes I don't get free shopping money, such is the mantra of my family.

My dad is also having a fit because I keep telling him his pictures suck, despite the fact that he's using the 6k camera, while I'm using the 1k one. He also got into another fit because he got lost as he can't read the signs in Japan and he said I gave him bad directions. It's quite funny really if it wasn't so childish, cos guess what he said after that? He said he would sell all the equipment that he paid for when he got back, so I was like fine, but you don't really have much you know. He nearly had a heart attack. This was all over him getting lost btw(the whole group was waiting at another area while he was standing for half an hour by himself) By the whole group, I mean myself, my mum, and my parents friends, 3 of them. Hopeless really. I dunno if he's gotten over it today, but I really think my dad can be a baby sometimes. Anyhow, if he does move off his portion of the equipment, I will probablt move to Nikon and downsize my lens collection. I currently have too much excess stuff for Canon anyway.

Anyway, will be back on Wed night to see all of you! Or maybe just some, as will probably be the case. Do come back to take a look at the photos, I'm pretty pleased with some of them and I guarantee you won't be dissapointed heh. I'll try to rush them out asap when i get back, hopefully by 2 am wed night, so check on thurs morn.

The last thing of note is the Japanese people haha. I saw the prettiest girl I have ever seen on a Japanese variety show today on tv. I was so enamoured i took a photo of the image on the small little tv in my room. There's like tons of static and snow and stuff, being a budget hotel, but I'll post it here for illustration later.
I have come to the conclusion that the Japanese are a much better looking race than the Chinese, with a greater proportion of good looking people. Their best looking people kinda look somewhat better than great looking Chinese too. I think it all comes down to the nose, for they have much sharper noses, but sometimes, the nose gets too long and it starts to curve downwards, this is when they turn into quite ugly. Hence I conclude the Japanese race is quite polarised in terms of looks, they either look really great or rather ugly. So-so looking people are not that common. They're substantially taller than chinese too, even though I'm short for a guy, there aren't tons of Chinese girls taller than me. In Japan there are tons of Japanese girls taller than me. The guys are monsters. No la, but they're a good looking race.

Their fashion is very forward too; I have never seen an entire city where almost everyone is well colour-coordinated and puts so much effort into their appearance. The Japanese are obviously a people that take great pride in everything they do, from hair to clothes to work and service. The ladies are also all often seen with make-up, no matter whether they are front line workers or cleaners, which possibly explains why Shiseido and Kose are available at Watson's equivalents. Perhaps this is why they look better as well? I don't know, but they look great, period.　Maybe I should date a Jap girl! Hah! If only I could! have gotta learn Jap first, one step at a time yea? hehehe. Anyway, off to get another beer. Bye!

Japan Log Pt 2

2006-12-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

Kombanwa! Am currently at Ibusuki in Japan where I just had a wonderful wonderful Hontoni Subarashi 20-course Japanese meal. Am so so so full now haha. It`s getting pretty hot as we move South now, but Ibusuki is as far South as we go. As I`m typing this I`m currently wearing a simple polo heh, as opposed to the scarf, beanie and sweater-jacket combo that I usually wear at other cities. As I contemplate the variety of Japanese sashimi floating in my tummy, I can`t help but feel that I really really love Japan, so much so that even before my current trip is halfway through, I`m already planning to come back here immediately after I`m done with NS. Will probably assemble a little group of 4, which is the idea number for travel in Japan, to make use of hostel dorms and such. I hope my future wifey will be keen to come here for a honeymoon as well! Heh.

Anyhow, I plan to master Japanese, or attain a reasonable level at least within the next two years when I`m in army, so that the next time I come I will be able to communicate effectively with the locals. My Japananese apparently isn`t tremendously bad, considering I`m hundred percent self-taught, or should I say anime-taught. Hurhur. I can get around quite easily in Japan as well as purchase stuff and talk simply with the locals. Today I was complimented twice for my Japanese because I held up my end of the conversation with an old obasan and a taxi driver. Thankfully they didn`t progress into anything complicated and I was able to understand them 100%.

The scenery here isn`t by any means tremendously fantastic, and I`m having to use all the photographic tricks at my disposal just to produce pretty photos. Frankly,China is much more scenic, but what makes Japan really really enjoyable is the beautiful culture here. People here are tremendously polite and super nice! Just this morning, the old obasan walked my family to the local market, because we were lost. It was a good 1 km at least and I was like hontoni hontoni arigatou! I truly love the people here, and the culture even more. The food is fantastic too, even though I`ve been eating mainly bento sets from the supermarket. Those thrash Singapore Jap restaurant food by the way and the presentation of the food is super nice too! Gosh, I love it. Unfortunately, I`m breaking out terribly from the dry weather as I always do. I look terrible =`( but it`s ok cos I still love Japan!

The only thing that mars this trip is my parents I guess. It`s really tough travelling with them cos we argue about almost everything. They tend to rush everything too so we spend more time on the train travelling to as many places as possible without actually seeing the places. I complained about it yesterday and got scolded, so I decided to make the best of whatever time I`ve got. I`ve taken to touring the cities on my own because my parents tend to waste a lot of time, rendering sightseeing impossible. I typically meet them at a appointed time after I`m done. The winter days make this problem worse too; it currently gets dark at 530pm heh, so since we typically reach a new city at about 3-4 pm, that kinda sucks for sightseeing. I`ll definitely be looking forward to coming back here with company I really enjoy in future, who will prefer to sightsee rather than to travel on trains.

Anyhow, have bought some tasty sweets from Japan for the lot of you, hope it`s enough. My suitcase currently has no more space so that`s as much as I can get. Hontoni Kome.

Clara, is Kose ok? Heard it`s a good brand. Mail me k? I`ll be in Osaka to buy the stuff soon. Looking forward to pool when i get back =)

Xu, get ready to makan at Parkview! Yea! Btw,want to chiong Jap with me anot? Am counting on you as a Kaki for the Japan trip after NS.

I`m typing all this in a hotel lobby so I gotta go, have been standing here for about an hour between CS and this, so yea, quite paiseh to hog the com. Ja-ne.

Hello from Japan!

2006-12-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Minasan, konichiwa! Genki desuka? Anyhow I realised at some length that I get internet access almost everywhere i stay in Japan and instead of just mugging around on CS i`d might as well update the blog. It`s pretty cold here at the moment but it`s not really that bad, cos I brought enough warm clothing. I`m currently typing this from a youth hostel at Beppu, where the internet is supposedly "bery bery slow", but guess what, it`s faster than my home internet! The first 4 days have been great and I have gotten lost 2 times while taking photos, or my family got lost rather. I found them both times. Have produced some pretty nice photos but can`t post till i get back, so hang tight! I`ve gotta run now, cos I`ve gotta catch a train in about half an hour. Oh do get the JR pass if you come here,　super super worth it! ok bye bye!

An Evening at Changi

2006-11-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

After an initial party of 4 ppl, I wound up going to Changi to explore the boardwalk alone as Joan and Joce had to visit their Granny and Han had some last minute dinner. I nearly didn't go, but as I looked out the window, the light looked promising for the first time in quite awhile, so I made my way down. I'm glad I did as I was rewarded with pretty nice light. Not the best I've seen, but nice all the same, and definitely enough for some great photo-production.

My take on the famous Changi rock, which everyone shoots when they go there.

A Tough Existence

More Rocks

After Sunset - Magic Blue moment for night shots

After Sunset - 30s after that, see how fast the light changes! I had to compensate somewhat as the light died on me. You can see light leaks from the bottom right!

And some other images.

Me and Big Bro

Sea meets shore

Reaching

PIME 12: Making Great Nightshots

2006-11-24T04:11:00.000-08:00

I have tons of time on my hands now and I decided to churn out more photography tutorials before I go into NS, where there probably will be very few, if any. I'll be learning to read/write/speak Japanese next year in addition to giving photo classes on weekends, so depending on my vocation, I may not be able to provide written tutorials anymore.

People often have problems making good nightshots, even with expensive digital SLRs. In the following tutorial, I will cover the basics of night photography and how to improve your night shots.

In essence, to achieve a correct exposure, you must collect enough light. Imagine this, I need to fill a bucket of water. During the day, the sun is like a huge hose that sprays out tons of water, so I may only need to turn the hose on for a very short amount of time. As the sun sets, the flow of water dwindles to a small trickle, and I will thus a need a much longer time to fill the same bucket. There are several approaches to night photography, and each is more suitable for different purposes.

The most common method is using a Tripod, where you allow the light to collect slowly but surely. The reason why you cannot handhold nightshots is often because the shutter speed is too slow. As long as the shutter stays open, the sensor is collecting light, and any movement(including handshake) will be captured on the sensor. Naturally, handshake causes blur photos. A tripod does not shake, and hence will not introduce blurring into a photo. This allows for exposures that can even go up to several hours and still result in a sharp shot devoid of blurring. This method is most favoured by landscape photographers as a large depth of field(area in focus) is often required for landscape imaging and hence much longer shutter speeds are required. As landscape photographers often want to minimise noise on their images, they tend to keep ISO settings as low as possible, which of course demands a longer exposure.

The best time to make landscape photographs at night is often not at night, but rather in the evening as day turns into night. This is commonly known as "blue hour" amongst photographers and is the time when most landscape photographers make their night shots. The rationale behind this is that at blue hour, you still get detail in the sky and there is also enough light to illuminate your main subject. You must bear in mind that the camera can only expose at ONE setting and hence you cannot expose for both the sky and the ground in a single frame. You may shoot two seperate frames and merge them in photoshop, but that is another matter altogether. What happens at blue hour is that the light from the sky exactly balances the light on your foreground subject, resulting in an even exposure all across the frame. If there is more light coming from the foreground subject(a lit building), you will need to expose the image earlier as there is more light earlier in the evening. A black sky is rather boring, so always make sure you have enough light to get detail in the sky.

Another method of approaching night photographs is to use large aperture lenses, such as f1.4 lenses or even f1.0 or f0.75 lenses. These lenses collect light more rapidly and hence fills up the bucket faster. It is equivalent to using a larger pipe, in some sense. These lenses allow for faster shutter speeds and are hence best suited for night street photography. They are unsuitable for landscape photography as you have to stop down your lens to achieve more depth of field, which defeats the purpose of having such a large aperture lens. The problem is that these lenses are highly expensive and are thus regarded chiefly as specialist equipment.

You can approach night photographs using flash as well. Flash adds light to a scene and is like adding a bottle of mineral water to the bucket instead of just filling it from the tap. As I've covered flash photography before I shan't expand on this paragraph. The basics of a single exposure setting still remain the same though, so what you want to do in essence is to balance the exposure between the background and foreground. The amount of light emanating from the background is always fixed, since you cannot add light to such a large area in a natural setting. The power output of your flash, which controls how much light is falling on the foreground, is however variable. Hence, in order to get an even exposure, just make sure your flash output matches the ambient light in the background. Easy as pie.

Happy shooting!

Little India: Revisited

2006-11-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

In preparation for my trip I decided to revisit little India after about 2 years to "train". I did these images and the write-up as if I was a mock tourist. How often do Singaporeans visit our tourist destinations anyway, I probably know less about the place than some tourists. Heh.

[B][U]Little India[/U][/B]

Little India was a quaint little location where colours abound and life bustles. The most notable thing about the area's shops is that they seem chiefly to be made up of flower-garland shops, grocers and jewellery shops. The odd periodical or Hindi music shop can be found here and there but a good 80-90% of the shops seem to be made up of these three types of businesses. As I jostled past the crowd in the narrow five-foot walkways, which were mostly blocked by various paraphernalia such as the grocers' baskets and upturned flower bins and only allowed throughfare for a single person at once, I noticed the proprietor of one of the garland shops giving me a curious look as I was photographing one of the garlands.

[B]Garlands[/B]

She asked if I was on a school project, so I explained to her that I was on a personal enjoyment project instead. I took the opportunity to satisfy my curiousity about the purpose of the garlands as I watched her man her stall. The garlands are apparently used for just about any Hindu ceremony and are hence an important part of Indian culture. She keeps the garlands out of the sun to make sure they don't dry out and splash water on them every 5 minutes to keep them looking fresh and appealing.

[B]Watering the Garlands[/B]

After saying farewell, I passed numerous jewellery and textile stores. The proprietors all seemed to be in nice afternoon conversations so I left them alone and concentrated on making photos of their wares.

[B]Cloth[/B]

[B]Textile Shop[/B]

[B]Jewellery shop[/B]

What I noticed as well was that there seemed to be a fairly large Indian muslim community in Little India. I could see them almost everywhere, shopping for groceries

[B]Two Indian Muslim ladies purchasing Tomatoes[/B]

As I roamed around, I stumbled into a backlane where I saw a small cloud of pigeons nesting on one of the shophouses. I promptly snapped a photo.

[B]Taking Flight[/B]

I also saw some, well, mops hanging out to dry. They were lit beautifully in the light and I couldn't resist.

[B]Mops[/B]

I then crossed the road to Tekka Market, one of the oldest and most famous markets in Singapore. As I made my way across the junction, I was surprised by a sudden convoy of Japanese tourists on trishaws. I noticed these two adorable old ladies on a really funky trishaw, much to my delight.

[B]Japanese Tourists[/B]

[B]Tekka Market[/B]

Stepping into Tekka Market, it was easy to see why it is one of the most famous markets in Singapore. The range of seafood available at this market was much wider than what I'd ever seen elsewhere. There was seafood here that I could not even identify. The smell of fresh seafood hung in the air as I passed trays after trays of iced and live produce.

[B]Big Head Prawn[/B]

The proprietors of the stalls were also friendly in general, obviously curious about the camera toting person that had entered their domain. A mutton seller who was on a break promptly grabbed his friends and insisted I take their photo, I happily obliged.

[B]Mutton Sellers[/B]

Unfortunately, I left out another of his friends, but that was soon rectified. His friend was more rheumy-eyed from a tad too many cigarettes, but was cheerful nonetheless.

[B]Mutton Seller, again[/B]

Around the market, I also found a lady shucking cockles, or "hum". It seemed like child's play in her hands, but having tried it myself before, I knew how terribly difficult it was. Hey, why else would people buy it shucked?!

[B]Shucking Cockles[/B]

Before I left Tekka Market, I also passed by a live crab stall, where the proprietor was conducting a roaring trade. He good naturedly asked me not to photograph his customers, so I photographed him instead.

[B]Crab Stall[/B]

Had a lot of fun down there. Would recommend you to go down to the Little India area to take a good look at it, there's much to see!

Other Random images

The Arts lane

A quaint cafe where the charge $1.50 for a puny cup of sugar cane. Avoid.

Bangles

Alleyway

Another Alleyway

Decorations

After Little India, I went down to orchard to meet Joan for makan at Pepper Lunch, I still love the place. As Ken Rockwell says, whereever you are at blue hour, make photos, so I did.

Wisma Atria

I also noticed the light-up was pretty nice, but having missed blue hour, I got a pretty shitty photo, but you can see what it looks like at least.

Anime Review: Gantz + SpeedGrapher

2006-11-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

I've decided to adjust the format of my anime reviews and just write a short paragraph on each of the shows I've watched because I decided that providing ratings are quite subjective. If you wish to take a look at ratings, you may check out the shows on Animenewsnetwork.com. Go to the links bar on the left and click on the anime encyclopedia.

Gantz - Studio Gonzo

This is probably one of my favourite anime because it's a really powerful portrait of human society today; selfish, screwed-up and quite twisted really. This particular anime and the manga that gave rise to it was famous for being extremely twisted, ultra-violent stuff. Having just studied Ted Hughes' poetry I think that I very much appreciate the fact that things are presented as it is, rather than disguising twistedness with beautiful language and poetic verse. There is a certain honesty in the brutal rawness of the anime that I really love and appreciate.

The story revolves around Kei Kurono, a selfish high-school student with perverse thoughts filling his brain most of the time. He stops by a bookstore weekly to purchase pornographic magazines and has constant problems with erections in class, which his female classmates are quick to notice and point out. One day, after buying his usual magazine, he heads home via the subway and notices that a drunk homeless bum has fallen on to the tracks. The thought process of Kurono and the entire subway patronage is fantanstic in showing what society is like in this scene and it remains one of my favourite scenes to date. None of the crowd at the subway wants to help the man, but Kurono suddenly notices a tall high school student jump down onto the tracks to help the man. The tall high school student appears to be none other than his childhood friend Kato, who unbeknownst to Kurono, idolised him when he was young because of his courage and mental strength, which he has since lost to "growing up". Kato looks around for help and suddenly notices Kurono, and instantly calls him over. Kurono curses in his mind but as the crowd of commuters stares at him, he is forced to go over to help Kato. As Kurono gets onto the tracks, they find that they are still unable to lift the homeless man onto the high platform and as the train's approach suddenly becomes imminent they realise that they're in a fix. Kurono's first thought is to escape and leave Kato and the homeless man behind but Kato persuades him to stay. With a final push they get the homeless man onto the platform with seconds to spare. Kato reasons that if they run to the point where the front of the train stops they will be fine. However, as they run, a twist of fate occurs and they hear the announcement blare over the intercomm that this train will be an express train and will not stop at this station. They are both killed instantly as the train smashes into them and as their vision darkens they suddenly find themselves in a room with a group of people and a bizzare, non-descript, black ball. Having vivid memories of dying, all the people in the room think that they're in heaven. However, Tokyo tower can be seen out the window and it seems that something strange is going on. To complicate matters, a nude girl suddenly appears in the room as well. Kurono reacts as expected and some yakuza in the room try to rape her but Kato steps in, saving her and knocking out the yakuza. As if in response to the tension, the black ball suddenly opens and a post-war radio exercise song plays. As they gather round the ball words start to appear on the surface of the ball: "Your lives have ended. What you decide to do with your new lives is up to you" As they examine the ball, they realise that the ball also offers them strange rubber suits and also oddly fashioned guns. The ball also flashes a picture of what seems to be an alien with the word "target". As they examine the weaponry, they are suddenly teleported out into the streets of Tokyo. What will happen next?

The art in this Gonzo series is highly detailed and is reminiscient of Clamp animations. It, together with the soundtrack is gritty and a highly suitable complement to this masterpiece of a series. The only let down is the ending, which is somewhat wishy washy and doesn't really provide a conclusive, satisfactory ending. This is, in general, a feature of Gonzo series, which may possibly be a marketing ploy on Gonzo's part, but it is irritating nonetheless. However, in light of one heart-pumping mission after another, you will quickly forgive the ending. Highly recommended

SpeedGrapher - Gonzo/Tap

What you will notice straight away if you like Gonzo productions is how much the art differs in this animation. There is very little attention to detail and hair often seems like just a sheet of fabric. This, of course, may be the influence of Tap studio, but nonetheless, the story is engaging and very enjoyable. The series, though not as strong as Gantz, also provides another insight into Gonzo's scriptwriters' view of the world today, where money rules the world.

The story revolves around Saiga Tatsumi, a famous war photographer whose images are haunting and emotional. He lives to take photographs but has a morbid fascination with shooting death; he gets turned on by doing so. Nearly dying during a war, he is recalled by his editor, much to his irritation. With a dearth of any "interesting" to photograph, he starts to investigate a secret club which he hears indulges the deepest and darkest fantasies of it's members, for a price. He manages to infiltrate the club by ambushing one of it's members and stealing that member's club pass. What he stumbles upon is a twisted world where mass orgies go on in an underground club. Every fantasy plays itself out in different rooms of the club, pandering to its members desires. Saiga has a field day photographing all of this but he suddenly stumbles upon a ceremony of sorts where a beautiful, ethereal, female descends from the sky to "bless" a recipient with the ability to live his wildest fantasy. Saiga is enthralled by her beauty and cannot resist taking a photo, which instantly draws the attention of the guards. In an abrupt twist of fate, he receives the blessing of the "goddess", Kagura, instead, but is nearly killed by the guards as they attack him with machetes. As he lies there dying, the goddess' blessing suddenly takes effect and he finds himself a being known as an Euphoria, and he has the power to cause "death by photo". Go figure =). He takes Kagura and escapes, as she begs him to. Kagura is however very important to the club because of her powers and the club will stop at nothing to get her back. As Saiga and Kagura go on the run, he investigates the club and turns up horrifying truths, including the fact that the entire government body and almost all the important heads of every corporation in the country are involved in the depraved club. Behind the club is a man known as Suitengu, who was in the same war with Saiga and had apparently nearly been killed in the same incident that wounded Saiga. More than a way to make money, the club's creation was designed for Suitengu to exact his ultimate purposes. As Saiga attempts to uncover the mystery behind Suitengu and the mysterious club, he meets even more Euphorias, all of which are after his life. As a consequence of his power, Saiga's eyes blur gradually and he faces the prospect of becoming blind. To make matters worse, Kagura only has a limited amount of time to live as her power has caused a tumour to grow in the centre of her brain, where it cannot be removed. Saiga must race against time to solve the mystery behind Suitengu, the massive Tennouzu corporation and the club in order to grant Kagura freedom to live out her last days.

As a photographer, I tend to appreciate little intricacies about this series, like when a fellow Euphoria blasts Saiga's cameras with a shock of lightning and thinks they won't work anymore and Saiga smirks saying "Real pros don't use electronic cameras, they use manual ones". The ending is also pretty good, which is unusual for a Gonzo animation. Thank you Tap!

PIME 11: What's in the background?

2006-11-20T04:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent photo which I forgot to post. Noticed this little plume of smoke coming out from Changi Prison, the cookhouse must be having a BBQ or something.

PIME 11: What's In the Background

One of the things about great photos is that everything that's in the frame is meant to be there. Nothing is in there for fun or by accident. When a good photographer makes a picture, he/she will take into account everything within the four walls of the photo and make a snap decision on whether to include that element or not. If you've done photoshoots with me, you'll realise that I'm about to take a photo when I suddenly stop, walk forward, and remove a piece of tissue on the grass. Why? The piece of tissue is very small, but does it contribute to the photo? Of course not! The trick is to let your eye roam around the image in the viewfinder or on your lcd before making the shot. Sometimes you don't realise me doing it because as you get proficient at it, it's so fast that it takes less than a second to do so. This is the reason why I can find little details quickly in a scene by looking at it. I notice minute details, because I've trained myself to do so. This isn't an innate capability, it can be learnt.

With compact cameras, one of the limitations is that you always have an incredible amount of depth of field(ie. the area in focus) due to the puny lenses that are mounted on a compact camera. Essentially, the smaller your camera's sensor, the shorter the focal length of your lens(this is the mm value on the lens) and the smaller the aperture(the larger the fx.x value on your lens, the smaller your maximum aperture), the more depth of field you're going to get. The problem with this is that your background will typically be in focus and hence you have to pay lots of attention to what you're putting in it. With digital SLRs, or compact film cameras, the lenses used are typically around 18-200 mm, whereas on a compact, you'd typically get lenses that range from 5-17mm. Hence, with digital SLRs and compact film cameras, it's much easier to blur out the background with low DOF and it's not extremely important what's in it, as long as there are no distracting colours or light sources. However, with a large DOF, you will often find people lurking in the background of your group photo if you're not careful.

So you have a small digicam and can't blur out the background. You're sunk. Wrong! You just have to wait till the background is clear or you have to find a suitable background which is relatively clean. Street photographers often use small apertures to photograph because they want a large DOF in order to place their subjects in their environment, but they control their backgrounds just as superbly. The trick is always looking out for it. If you look out for it, you won't miss it.

The background is essentially an integral part of a photo, and should be used well. Sometimes, you don't want to use the background, but the following are examples where the background is extremely useful and contributes greatly to the picture.

Here, Yvonne is the main subject, but Deb and the other SSS climbers also play a great role in showing the fun everyone is having. They are equally important. Without them, this photo of Yvonne would be dead boring.

This is a simple shot of a 100m race on sports day in VJC. However, choosing a spot where I could get the house banners in the background made this shot come alive, because I now have the context under which this photo was shot. It's not just a shot of the runners of a 100m race, but a 100m race at VJC sports day, a competion between houses.

Without the background these pictures would be worthless trash; that's how important the background is. Learn to use it, and use it well, for this is essential to making great images.

PIME 10: Digital Black and White

2006-11-17T04:19:00.000-08:00

If you guys monitor my work, you'd know that I use the BnW medium quite frequently. I don't use the BnW medium because it's novel or cool but because the BnW medium is simply more useful in strengthening certain images or bringing out what I desire from the images to it's full extent. Colour images are always about colour, but what makes a good BnW image then, since there is no colour. The answer is tones, or shades of grey, as some like to call it, and texture. In the absence of colour, the human brain will always focus on the tones and the textures inherent in the image. In a colour image, vibrant colours create drama, but in a BnW image, the tones do this. Hence, having a wide range of tones in a BnW image is highly desirable.

Traditionally, when BnW film is used, the film doesn't record any colour at all like our digital sensors do today, it simply records tones. The problem is that our brain sees everything in terms of colour, but the great thing is that your brain also sees tones, but you have to recognise it. Look at an object you look at everyday, take a lamp or torch and shine it on that object, does it seem brighter? That's because the object is now reflecting more photons and has a lighter tone. When you look around, you'll realise that some objects have a lighter tone than others(for example someone's face has a lighter tone than their hair, assuming they're asian). It's useful to think of it this way, light green has a lighter tone than dark green and will register on BnW film as a light grey while a dark green object will register as dark grey. Traditionally, photographers use coloured filters such as Red, Yellow, Green, Blue to lighten a particular colour's tone and to darken others. For instance, a deep red filter will make skin tones(which are primarily red) much lighter and will turn a vibrant blue sky into a deep grey. Coloured filters allow light that corresponds to their colour through while filtering out light that is a contrasting colour. Red filters out green and blue, green filters out blue and red and blue filters out red and green. The reason why BnW photographers go through this trouble is that most scenes, if shot without manipulation, turn out very differently from the way the photographer would want them to turn out and will often result in an image with a poor tonal range. Furthermore, certain objects, such as greenery, will always turn up a boring neutral green in a BnW image shot without filters. A deep-red filter (25A) will turn it a more interesting black.

Given modern digital technology and Photoshop, many BnW shooters have converted to making BnW images digitally through the use of software. By shooting a colour image, they can apply an infinite variation of filter factors and even apply different filters to different sections of the image, which transcends the boundaries of traditional BnW imaging. This is done by applying these coloured filters digitally in Photoshop. If you have photoshop, there are 3 ways of doing this.

- Straight Desaturation. This can be done using the Desaturate command (Ctrl+U on a PC or Apple+U on a Mac) and sliding the saturation slider to -100. This is by far the worse way of doing desaturation and should be avoided at all costs for it is equivalent to shooting without any coloured filters at all and will almost always result in a boring BnW image with poor tonal range.

- The best way of doing desaturation is to create a new channel mixer adjustment layer. Using the 'constant' slider will enable you to increase the contrast of your BnW Image. I recommend setting it to -25 for a rather flat scene. The tricky bit is now with the Red, Green and Blue Channel sliders. These simulate the use of coloured filters in traditional BnW photography. Naturally, you can increase the sliders one by one to 100% or more, depending on how much it takes to achieve the original exposure(but remember to set the other sliders to 0% when doing this), to see how each filter affects the image. With experience and keeping the fact that red filters out green and blue, green filters out blue and red and blue filters out red and green in mind, you can even mix the sliders to give you the effect of using a combination of coloured filters at once! This offers the most control but is the hardest way of converting a digital image to BnW. Don't forget to check the monochrome box at the bottom of the Channel Mixer tab.

- A compromise also exists in the form of the Calculations function. There are several preset filter settings which do offer a pretty good end result without much fuss. However, this method reduces the dynamic range of your image substantially, clipping a good amount of shadow details and highlights. It does work wonderfully for flat images though. Try experimenting with this mode, it's pretty fun.

Ultimately, in a BnW image, what you want to achieve is a full range of tones, from pure black to pure white, with a full range of greys in between. Naturally, shooting a scene which has a full range of tones is also vital. As a tip, high contrast scenes work particularly well in BnW. Below is a BnW image I shot some time back. Notice how the tones range from a rich black to pure white? That is a good tonal range.

As you get more proficient in BnW imaging, you may want to digitally tone your images. In the past, toning was used by printers(yes printing was formally done in the darkroom and is what you see in the movies when they show shots of a darkroom with red lights. Developing of film is done in total darkness and cannot be filmed) to give prints of a BnW image a particular look. For instance, selenium toned prints had a bluish-purple tinge whereas sepia toned prints were more brownish. The common reddish sepia that you see today is a digital sepia, printers never toned prints that colour. This old picture is a true sepia toned image. This is currently my favourite tone, a rich brown. If you like it, this is a preset tone available for Photoshop CS/CS2 users and can be found under the Mode->Duotone->Quadtone->Pantone. It is the last one in the selection of 4. There is also an excellent selenium tone available under the same folder. These tones were created by a master printer Adobe hired, so make use of them!

Rom Coms

2006-11-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

I've probably never told anyone this, but frequently after I turn in for the night, I often stay conscious for about an hour thinking about stuff. After finishing off School Rumble last night I thought about rom coms and why I liked it so much. If you think about it, the reason why people like rom coms is kinda sad; it makes up for the lack of something similar in their life. Don't we all wish that we could have wonderful swept-off-your-feet relationships like those you see in the movies? Or in television series? In reality, it doesn't quite happen that way and the story never quite ends with getting together does it? Then comes the headache of having extra responsibility, extra financial burdens and all the trade-offs that come with companionship, whether good or not. Marriage is in fact less than rosy with all the various tumultuous problems that arise from living together and I guess that's the reason why divorce rates are on the rise, as people start to break away from tradition and go on to seek the best possible welfare for themselves.

The problem therein is people have the wrong idea of love, because movies are so prevalent in our lives today that we tend to mistake it for reality. During the honeymoon period, it's quite common for people to only see what they want to see; the best bits of their partner and when their partner starts squeezing the toothpaste from the top or leaving the toilet seat up after marriage, they get divorced.

Reality is a bummer, isn't it? Don't we all wish that we could have super powers when we watch something like Superman? It would be really great to save people and make a difference to someone's life or rather, many many lives. It would be fantastic to hear people say, hey, that person's really cool. Gosh, I wanna be like him. Then again, it can't be simply making a difference in the lives of others, who wants to be Mahatma Ghandi or Mother Theresa? They were both heroes in their own right, who stepped up to champion a great cause, but in truth, they weren't really idolised for what they did. What do people seek then? It must be that we seek recognition for our deeds. I thought about the reason I photograph as well last night. I've always thought that I photographed only for myself, but I realised when I do so, I strive to make beautiful photographs because I want other people to attach that beauty to me. I feel great when total strangers appreciate my photographs, because it feels like i've achieved something of worth; that my life has impacted even a small corner of the world. It's the same reason why I like dressing well, why I do nice things sometimes. I was reminded of a particular episode of Bleach, where one of the main characters was sucked into an alternate dimension and all memories of her was erased amongst her friends. If I left the world today, would it truly make a difference to the way the world operated? Would it make a difference to the lives of my friends? Consider this, if I got knocked down by a car today and died, you would be sad right? The crux is this, would you still remember me in 1-2 years time, after my number has been deleted from your phone and my name has been shifted into long-term memory? The point is this, if I didn't exist, the world would still be spinning and going on as per normal, with nothing having changed. There would be someone else teaching the S1 boys in church and there would be someone else being your friend, or maybe one less friend wouldn't be much of a difference, if any difference at all.

It's the same thing for love and relationships isn't it? We always wish that it could be as funny, madcap and as totally impossible as we see it in rom coms. It's really a form of escapism isn't it, where we can hide from how pathetic our own love lives are by living vicariously through the characters. You find yourself thinking "Go Hugh Grant!" or for fans of school rumble, "Baka! Stop deliberating and confess already!" When they finally get hitched, we smile and feel happy for them. It's silly isn't it? The biggest problem with that is what goes on in there is simply fantasy, it doesn't actually exist! All the characters and relationships were figments of somebody's imagination. Why are we rooting for them? The stuff I watch does often make me think about it's content though and I just want to share a rather interesting insight from school rumble, which is the most recent thing I've watched. My MSN nick translated means "The sky is always blue, but always looking at it has no use". In the context of the show, the characters are always struggling to confess to the person of their dreams. In the context of life, I think it's pretty much the same. We're always comfortable with just sitting under the tree and looking at the beautiful sky. We don't want to get sunburnt or pull a muscle by reaching for it, and thus we'll never quite get there. I don't know about you, but my own relational life has been nothing but crap. When you have feelings for someone, you either get rejected or you never get round to telling them and everything totally passes you by. When someone has feelings for you, they never tell you. Either that or like me you're too dumb to notice the overly subtle hints. I'm a person that tends to need to process things a lot, and I think on several occasions, I've missed out on opportunities because of the lack of spontaneity. Basically, I will find it tough to deal with a situation that happens suddenly, though I'm trying to correct that at present because it seems meeting lovely people happens to work like that. It's pretty often that I go home and after thinking about it, I conclude I'm an idiot. Unfortunately, that also means you're probably never going to get chance 2. Then sometimes, I don't know what the hell I'm thinking and I go and do something on impulse, which I regret immensely later. Such is the story of my idiocy. Frankly speaking, I'm rather realistic(or disillusioned), I'm just looking for someone who's slightly cute(at least), down to earth, and basically whom I can get along with. Unfortunately, I'm not popular material and so there isn't much in the way of choice. Conceivably, I think that if someone slightly cute were to ask me out, I probably would be honoured enough to accept. I think the biggest wish of guys is that girls in Singapore would be slightly more forward, the ultimate would probably be to the extent you get in movies or in media that you watch. I, for one, would be overjoyed if someone made me a bento(box meal), or whatever equivalent exists locally. It seems that in Singapore, guys wind up doing alot of the dog work in pushing for something and girls are mostly relaxing in the background. I don't remember a time when someone of the opposite gender actually did something I really appreciated outside of a relationship. Perhaps the popular guys might beg to differ. Well, at least there's always anime to take refuge in. Do genuine happy relationships still exist in the world today? Or do relationships simply last out of habit, out of responsibility, out of religious beliefs, out of fear of change?

I thought about life and religion as well and for a long time I've been mulling over this. I don't know how many of you remember my theory on Murphy's Law, but essentially I theorised that the reason why Murphy's Law worked was that we only notice when it happens. When you want it, it isn't there. When you don't want it, it's there in abundance. We often forget about the times that it's there when we want it. Murphy's Law is in essence, part of chance and is constructed by humans to explain why things don't go their way. I know this might be a rather blasphemous comparison, but I've thought about it nonetheless. Does answered prayer work the same way as Murphy's Law? Does it seem to always exist because we choose to only see the times when prayer is answered and gloss over the times when it's not? Consider this as well, what is the point of prayer if God only answers prayer that is according to his will? If we do not pray, will his will not still be done? After the 40 DOP session, I remember most vividly that we were created for God's pleasure. If you think about the whole purpose of life, we simply strive and fight to live in order to keep fighting to live, what are we living for? Are we simply some interactive soap opera for God? Isn't everything we do kind of like part of the God edition of the Sims? It's kind of like you taking pleasure in watching rom coms, which I'm sure exist somewhere around the world. If you were God, watching the world would be better than having 500 channels of cable. You'd have violence in Somalia, you'd have drama in Broadway. You could desire to watch anything and it would all be available somewhere around the world. Was the reason God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply to increase his cable channels? Are we indeed created for God's entertainment? I can think of no other purpose for existence. Alternatively, it could be a test from God to filter out who he doesn't want in Heaven. If it's a test, that would explain how horrible life is.

It's a chore to be alive isn't it? Doing your best so you can continue to do your best. Helping others so that you can feel like you've accomplished something and made your mark in someone's life. Wouldn't it have been better if the human race simply ended at Adam and Eve, should God have said, "Adam, you lousy wretch, I shall now destroy you and your wife Eve." After watching Gantz, which is a splendid portrait of human society today, I decided beyond a doubt that society is rather self-serving. Why does one serve the Lord, so one can gain recognition from the Lord(storing up treasures in heaven, better status in heaven maybe) and maybe from fellow church members. Why does one make sacrifices? So one can fulfill their hero complex. Agape love(or unconditional love) DOES NOT EXIST in this world. God might possibly be the only one capable of giving it, for humans are always self-serving, whether conscious or not. Why do Christians love the world, so they can bring the world to Christ, so they can be obedient to Christ. WHY WHY? So the Lord will say, "Good and faithful servant, you shall be entrusted with more". Are we not serving ourselves?

At the same time, I can't help thinking there must be some good thing in life, that I will miss when I pass on, that I will remember in old age(should I reach there), that I want God to delay the 2nd coming for. I remember when Mian Yi was getting married, we were talking about the 2nd coming and he said he hoped God would delay the 2nd coming until after his marriage. So at that time I concluded that what must be the best thing in life would be love. All my life, I don't remember there ever being a time when I've been truly happy. There's probably not a single person on this earth that knows the true me. I have a split personality, in some sense. All of you have met the wacky Tim that you know and love. The other Tim thinks too much and writes these blog entries. If you befriended the other Tim you would be absorbing a lot of depressive energy, which is why you will always see the wacky Tim. Maybe I've just never been content. Maybe I'm just looking for somebody that will accept Schizo Tim and not just wacky Tim who couldn't give a shit about responsibility. I've had all my physical needs met, which conceivably should make me more content that a hungry African child, but that just leaves me room to think about the more important needs in life. I even tried looking for happiness in Christ, for some time, but that resulted in an increase in my usefulness via service and increased my sense of belonging to a family unit. It made my life mean something, but it didn't make me happier. I dated this year, to try and fill the gap, but that wasn't really what I was looking for either. Maybe it was just the wrong person, but then you know in looking for the right person you wind up hurting others. That's kinda stupid, my depressiveness shouldn't transfer, it should be contained. If you're not happy, the important thing is to not let it make others unhappy, that's the only responsible thing to do. For instance, if you've got an infectious disease but want to mix with others, you'd need to put a bubble around yourself to prevent others from being infected. Alternatively, you don't mix with them at all.

Secretly, everyone probably carries their own inner demons, would we ever be able to conquer it? I for one, am curious to find out if there's anything present in life that would make it worth living for. Is there anything in this world(or out of it) that can provide happiness, true happiness? Bible verses are cool, but they're more useful for teaching others rather than comforting others. Personally, I've never really been comforted by the Word at an emotional level. It's more of an intellectual level, where you say "Hey, here's what God says. Hmm maybe I've been approaching it the wrong way. Maybe I've been thinking about it the wrong way." Then you try changing your thought patterns, habit patterns, and you still find out all roads lead to Rome. Fundamentally, it doesn't solve anything. Am I bitter? I honestly can't say, but I'm quite tired of seeking out the good in life when I'm not sure any exists in the first place(but i've only been searching 19 years, still it's a quarter of a life time and I've not made much progress. I need to go somewhere else other than Rome, it's not the destination I'm looking for). I'm afraid i'm probably just going to find how to make life more livable until death, this is 'Rome' btw. Death, the blissful state of nothingness, would I regret having been alive? I haven't been dead before, so I can't say if it's better. The problem is if you die and you find out life is better, you can't change your mind can you?

Possibly, you might find happiness in heaven, but that's outside of life.

Marc Adamus

2006-11-08T04:35:00.000-08:00

If you love photography, do take a look at Marc's Gallery here. It's the most brilliant shit I've seen in quite a long time. We should all aim to be this good =). Hopefully I might reach there in another 15 years or so.

Mind-blowing collection, aint it?

Classes for next year.

2006-11-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

Ok classes for photography are tentatively confirmed for next year and will begin as soon as I get out of BMT and army life stabilises(Approximately Feb). The classes will be conducted once a week, likely on Sunday afternoons. I currently have 2 students at the moment and still have space for 2 more. If you've ever wanted to take up photography properly this is the time. I will not be conducting such classes formally again, well not for free anyway, so do take advantage of this offer. A Digital SLR is recommended for the course, but a digital compact with FULL manual control is also acceptable. However, if you're using a digital compact, you may not benefit from some lessons, as I'll be covering features that are native to a more complex camera.

Random Katong Shoot + Chong Pang Makan photos

2006-11-04T23:48:00.000-08:00

Was supposed to meet Xu at Katong today but he was late by an hour. Thankfully, I had brought my camera along to shoot some pictures that night at the makan so I walked around the backlanes of the katong shophouses shooting random street abstracts.

Shards

Tilt

Towels

Warped

Tiles

Mats

Safety

Shirts

Poles

Junk

Hanging

Ash

Fence

In the evening the both of us headed down to Marina South to meet the rest of our cell for dinner at chong pang. I consumed a definitely unhealthy amount of carbon(I have a terribly sore throat now) but had fun. Here's some random shots from the night. As you can see, much harsh lighting from the flash. The pull-out bounce card didn't do much and I still haven't gotten round to getting my Lightsphere. It's not paid work anyway, hehehe, so didn't quite bother to bring my ultra bounce card that I've been using so far(those who went to prom last year would remember this).

My cell. I couldn't have Aaron inside cos the shot Abs took was kinda blurry due to handshake.

CB Cho, plus horns

CB cho again

Esther and Ian + Aaron + Deb

Myself, Ian and Xu

Shirley, Abs, Esther and Deb

Cho, Jamie and Meatloaf Han

Same trio

*BTW, you can click on the pictures for a slightly larger image. Should be enough for your viewing pleasure on your com.

Joshua

2006-10-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

Today I actually brought along my 350d portable casual set-up to shoot some photos of my cell. However, I realised the church actually installed some event photographers so there was no need to shoot seperate photos of my cell, I can probably just get them direct from the photographers themselves. I wound up potting about one or two but I only liked this particular one of Joshua. The rest were quite boring. I also made errors shooting the super simple anyhow pose shots, as I always do for some reason. DOF errors, handshake, ya da ya da. On hindsight I should have brought a flash unit, but I was lazy, oh well.

Anime Review: Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid

2006-10-27T01:04:00.000-07:00

With this review, I conclude the 3rd and (final?) season of the FMP series. The ending was left rather open-ended and there are definite distinct possibilities that this is the final season after a long 3 season run, based on the Gonzo press release. The next anime I shall be reviewing is an anime more suited for the ladies, but fun nonetheless to watch; Ouran High School Host Club by Studio BONES.

Title: Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid

Studio: Gonzo Animation

Episodes: 13 + 1 Special (The Captain's Day off), 21 minute run time, except for the special, which is about 40 minutes

Category: Action Comedy, With romantic elements. Mecha-based.

Synopsis: In TSR we see a return to the roots of FMP, the battlefield and the story continues on from where Season 1 left off. There is some slight overlap in the explanation of the experimental Lambda Driver, the ambivalent piece of weaponry that relies on human emotions to work. The Lambda Driver enhances attacks as well as acts as a shield by amplifying human emotions and translating them into energy. However, extremely strong human emotions are required and it is thought to be impossible to control emotions in such a manner. For this reason, Sgt. Sagara struggles to come to terms with the Arbalest, the experimental Arm Slave he has been assigned to pilot due to his incredible piloting ability. To him, a weapon that isn't consistent cannot be relied on. The irony is that until he learns to trust the Lambda Driver, it can never work for him. Sagara still juggles his missions with school work and as graduation year draws near, he has to study with increasing fervor even while on missions. In a bizarre twist, Sagara is suddenly recalled from his mission to protect Chidori, a Whispered and this brings him to a realisation of his feelings for her as well as his need for her. In the meantime, following Gaul's death, a new brutal terrorist emerges with a small contigent of special Venom-type arm slaves, which are also equipped with the Lambda Driver. Amidst the hole created in his spirit from having to leave Chidori, Sgt. Sagara must discover how these terrorist pilots are operating the Lambda Driver and he must face his toughest challenge yet in defeating them.

First Impressions: I was expecting a lot from the final season of FMP, given how much I enjoyed the first two seasons. It delivered instantly. No surprises.

Art: Remains similar, scroll down to take a look at the previous seasons
4/5

Characters: By far, the characters in this season receive the best treatment. With a good deal of exploration and also the filling in of several previously ignored loopholes in the previous season. The characters are now as complete as can be.
5/5

Storyline: TSR has the most plot twists in it amongst the 3 seasons. It keeps you on your toes and is extremely welcome. Nothing of spectacular brilliance though.
4/5

Ending: Though rather expected, the ending was emotively charged and provided a good climatic tie-up to the whole story. It was a tad rushed though, probably due to the fact that it was only 13 episodes.
4/5

Overall Impressions: The relationships are very well balanced with the Mecha aspect in TSR, as opposed to the first season, where Mecha fared a little too strongly and in Fumoffu, where there was far too little Mecha. The scriptwriters at Gonzo probably finally got it right after the first two seasons swung too strongly to either extreme. There are quite a number of repeated information bits, especially about Black Technology and the Arbalest, but this is understandable or viewers who just watch TSR straight will have no clue about what's going on. It is highly possible to watch TSR on it's own without having watched the previous two seasons and still enjoy it greatly. Though short, the plot and character development is quite self-contained. Very good. The only problem was that it was too short and it just whizzed by like the wind.

Additional Notes: The violence is still there, but it isn't overly much. As a point of interest, the opening theme(Minami Kaze[South Wind] by Mikuni Shimokawa) is highly enjoyable.

This series rocks! Go watch it!
*All the anime series I review here I have on hand. Feel free to contact me if you wish to borrow it. Unfortunately, for admin. purposes, I have to limit this offer to people whom I know on a personal level.*

Photographic Lessons/Workshop

2006-10-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Based on some requests, I'm thinking of conducting some photographic workshops for people thinking of taking up photography or seeking to improve their skill level. Off hand, these workshops will all be focusing on photographic techniques(you have to input the creative bit yourself) and will cater to each individual's needs. My purpose for this post is to check out the response for such workshops. Please indicate your interest by dropping me a mail at stimphoto@yahoo.com.sg, or to my personal mail if you prefer. If I'm able to get at least 3 students, I'll go ahead with the production of course work and a proper programme and schedule, based on my availibility due to NS commitments.

There are no prerequisites at the moment other than a genuine desire to learn and also the possession of a camera with full manual control. I don't care if it's film/digital, professional SLR, point and shoot, but the camera must have full manual control over exposure settings.

Lomo adventure

2006-10-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Borrowed Wellington's Action Sampler and ran a roll of provia through it and x-processed it to give the wonky colours you see here. Heh, to be frank, I was a little dissapointed at the results, but considering the exposure is fixed(it doesn't vary no matter the light!), such a catch is pretty good heh. I realise now though how expensive lomography can be because every shot is a hit and miss, but it's great in that you never really know what you're gonna get, what shots are gonna succeed and what are not for purely technical reasons. Splendid! I had so much fun and excitement shooting the roll that I probably will get myself a lomo too, though I'm looking at a lomo Frogeye(underwater version) or Horizon perfekt(panoramic model). I apologise first of all to those whom I promised your photos would be here and they're not. It simply means your photo was either overexposed or underexposed. I kept everything that could be seen. Unfortunately for some, the lens wasn't as wide as I thought, which is why my face features in all too many pictures. It could even be a self-portrait series. Interestingly enough, none of my pictures with JC screwed up, even though I took the most with him. It's a miracle in itself haha! Honestly though, I unrealistically thought that I would get images of everyone, even though they were blurry, I forgot completely about the lack of any bells and whistles on this thing and the fact that auto exposure(or even manual exposure adjustment) didn't exist on the camera! Complete basic stuff, so ya, I apologise if your photo didn't quite come out. I was using slides as well so there isn't any room for exposure error. I might try using negs the next time and X-processing it using software, but that wouldn't quite be as fun would it? Though it would be 1/3rd the price. Heh. Anyhow, here it is. Might look like a collection of shit to some of you, but hey, I like it! Oh well, definitely not for serious work!

Click on the image to view, I couldn't get blogger to put up the full size here.

Anime Review: Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu(Season 2)

2006-10-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Since I recently reviewed the first season of Full Metal Panic!, I thought I'd might as well review the whole 3 seasons consecutively for a better perspective. With regards to the blog design, I'll be borrowing an Action Sampler from Wellington tomorrow. It'll take me some time to shoot the slides and get them cross-processed so the left column should be up some time next week. I'm excited to see how my first lomo-shot and cross-processed film will turn out so that ought to be an interesting exercise for me as well. What is cross-processing, it involves deliberately processing slide film with the wrong chemical(C-41) instead of the proper (E-6) chemical. This gives you out-of-this-world wonky colours and crazy contrast, which is an effect I'd like to achieve traditionally, rather than through software, for once.

Title: Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu

Studio: Gonzo Animation

Episodes: 12(there are actually 16 episodes, but some are two 10 min episodes fused together), 21 minute run time

Category: Action Comedy, with romantic elements

Synopsis: In guarding Chidori at Jindai High, Sagara is forced to go undercover as a high school student. Unable to adapt to regular civilian life and plagued by constant military over-cautiousness, he creates tons of mad-cap adventures for Chidori and the other students, developing the bitter-sweet romance between them that he remains constantly clueless about. Matters are complicated as Tessa, a 16 year old captain at Mithril, a mercenary organisation that Sagara is part of, and also Sagara's commanding officer, continues her unabashed romantic pursuit of Sagara. Hilarity ensues as Sagara struggles to fit in and to balance his duty with school.

First Impressions: The first minute in itself blows you away, literally. Solid first impression.

Art: The art is the same as the first season. No change.
4/5

Characters: The characters remain the same, but don't come out that well in this season unless you've watched the first season. As I'm rating single seasons and not the entire 3 seasons, I can only give fumoffu middle marks. You won't get the characters completely if you don't watch the first season, not very good. Minor characters are also sidelined completely.
3/5

Storyline: Extremely funny, but there doesn't seem to be any real progression or theme. Episodes just seem to be one mad-cap adventure after the other and inter-relation is poor. Fumoffu could well be a collection of OVAs, if you were to look at it that way. The bonta-kun storyline seems to be just playing for laughs as well, as enjoyable to watch as it is.
3/5

Ending: Gonzo probably couldn't find a good way to end this and the scriptwriters probably got bored of random funny events, which is probably why fumoffu only runs for 12 episodes. There isn't a real ending to fumoffu, which is quite expected considering the story wasn't quite going anywhere.
3/5

Overall Impressions: The storyline does not continue from where season 1 left off, but rather it focuses more on the school life at Jindai High School. The relationships between the key characters, especially between Sagara and Chidori, receive a much greater importance in this season as compared to the previous season. Other smaller characters like Kurz Weber and Melissa Mao are limited to small cameo appearances in this season. The storyline is rather irrelevant and not very deep, but of the three seasons, fumoffu is probably the most mad-cap and insane of the lot, and consequently also the funniest. It's totally over the top physical humour, which you may or may not enjoy, but is also somewhat heart warming in parts, though not as much as the first season due to the notable absence of seriousness and drama in this episode. The Whispered storyline is not mentioned here, and the Arm Slaves make cameo apperances at best, which makes fumoffu somewhat of a standalone season in itself. I suspect the creators of FMP at Gonzo just wanted to have a ball with the characters on this one; good for us anyway! You may, however, be slightly lost if you watch season 2 without knowing a bit about the backstory from Season 1 and some things might not make sense as the backstory isn't explained again. Insider jokes might also be lost on you if you do not watch the first season first. If you're not one of those keen plot types that take the story seriously, this is definitely a must watch.
3.5/5

Additional Notes: Contains some level of violence and gore, as is typical of gonzo animation. However, this is not excessive and is sparingly used in this series.

PIME 7: The art behind photography part 2.

2006-10-15T02:03:00.000-07:00

This is of course still a photoblog and I will continue to provide photographic tips that I think will be helpful to all of you. This is a continuation of PIME 7 from the 12framejourney blog and will cover a) Making great shots in boring locations and b) Planning your shots. As a side note, you might notice that the left side of this blog is still a little empty, mainly because I don't really have anything to put in there right now. I thought about it and realised I don't have anything suitable, or rather that I find fits into the overall design of the blog. I was initially thinking of making the design 100% anime related, but I feel that I should put in some elements related to photography as well(ie. some of my images, thanks Xu for the reminder). After thinking for a bit, I decided that I should shoot a series solely for the purpose of creating a sidebar for this blog's design and after some thought, I got the creative juices going and I know exactly what I want to do now. Generally, I will be procuring a Lomo Supersampler and having some fun with all of you; my friends! Heh. I'll probably have to get it done after my exams, maybe? Yes, no, I don't know hehe. The sooner the better? Maybe before, hmmm. Think 36 cross processed fun rubbish shots. Sweet. Well anyway, on to PIME 7.

3. Making great shots in boring locations
Typically, what I like to do is to make great shots in "boring" Singapore, because anyone can make a gorgeous photo of Mount Fuji, but can you make an equally powerful image of East Coast Park, for instance? The obvious answer is you can, but it is not as easy as making the gorgeous photo of mount Fuji. The problem with shooting images of tourist attractions(think Esplanade) is that EVERYONE has the same photo, because undeniably, it looks great at certain angles. In making my personal image of the Esplanade, I spent 4 months searching for a fresh approach before I finally found it. No one did it before, but consequently I also spent much more time looking for such an angle.

Picking a more mundane subject like a random beach or park forces you to think creatively and to find ways to bring out the beauty of the subject. As I said before, every subject has an element of beauty in it, and it's up to the photographer to "see" it. Nevertheless, do not force yourself to see, for only inspired photos can be truly great. If a trash can is simply a trash can to you, do not try to make great art out of it, it won't happen. However, as a disciplined photographic exercise, try this; Lock yourself in the bathroom for 1 hour and using that time, produce an image every minute. Every image must have a different subject or approach a subject from a different angle. This will help you to develop your "seeing" eye for photography. Under no circumstances can you give up during this exercise, or the whole experiment will be rendered void. Force yourself to churn out the images. The late Henri Cartier-Bresson used to shoot 1 roll of film a day, but left many of them unprocessed. The whole point is to sharpen your photographic eye through practice, such that you "see" much, but you only photograph what is great.

Fundamentally, there are 4 things that are usually present in all great photographs in some combination or other. Most of the time, there are at least 2 out of these 4 things that are present in them. 99.9% of the time, there is at least 1.

The first thing is Colour, or in the case of black and white images, contrasting tones. Contrasting colours/tones help to create vibrancy in images and this is what first jumps out at someone when they look at an image. It creates initial impact. A flat image, simply put, is boring and does not grab your attention in the slightest. What good is brilliant composition if the person will just gloss over it before looking at it in detail. This is generally what creates the wow factor. Contrast aids in creating "drama" in an image, simply because the image looks more 3d.

The second thing is also related to drama, and that is perspective. Great images often offer a unique perspective, that people normally overlook. This also aids in grabbing attention and creating impact. To have great perspective, this is often limited by your personal creativity, for this will determine how far your personal perspective deviates from the norm. For instance, a high perspective can make your subject look vulnerable, or curious, while a low one can make your subject look imposing. A photographer must thus decide what perspective would bring out his/her intentions best and use that perspective. There are dozens and dozens of different perspectives that can be used, which is why sometimes photographers buy a particular lens for a specialised perspective that the lens gives. I'm a great fan of the diagonal fisheye perspective, which exaggerates distance between objects, but others swear by a compressed telephoto perspective, which compresses subjects and makes them look more flat. Personal likings will develop, but ultimately, there will be occasions where I feel that another perspective works better. You can therefore never be constrained by a single perspective and knowing the right one can often turn a drab photo into a stunning one.

The third thing is shape. Often, shapes are present everywhere in our world. For instance, the roof of a house may be a triangle, or windows may be squares or rectangles. Shapes often can be used to great effect, but this largely depends on the photographer's ability to see these shapes in the first place. Consider the image below, can you spot the triangles therein?

Circles?

The last and final thing is patterns. Patterns occur everywhere in our world as well and, like shape, it is up to the photographer to locate them. Patterns, like shapes, are often good subjects of interest or complement a drab main subject well, bring out the contrast between the drab and the dynamism of the pattern. The image above also contains a pattern in the background if you look carefully. This helps to bring out the dull white flowers of the plant well via contrast.

4. Planning your shots.

There is definitely room for dynamism in images and often, this is what photography is all about; reacting to situations to capture the "decisive moment" or "moment la decisif", as coined by street shooting master Cartier-Bresson. However, great shots can often be planned as well and this often results in the "perfect" image; presenting the subject at it's best and showing clearly what you, as the photographer, wanted to bring out of the subject.

For those of you that have accompanied me on "sunset" shoots, you would know that I arrive at the location 1 hour early, find the best composition and park myself there until the right time when the light is best. I then snap several images as the light changes and usually go home with a grand total of 1 image. This is planned shooting. I decided on the subject, and sometimes composition, beforehand and went to the area specifically to shoot a single image when the light was the best. Such planning enables you to achieve more focus with your images. However, you must have a clear vision of what you want. There is no "see what can shoot then shoot lor" in photography. This makes mediocre images. Great ones are usually planned for or captured by quick reaction brought about as the camera becomes an extension of the eye.

Even for street shooting, the great masters often pick a background and wait for exactly the right circumstance to happen before they release the shutter. Walking around is actually a bad photographic habit, but many photographers, including myself, are often guilty of it because we lack the patience to stay at a particular spot for hours on end, not knowing when, or if, the right circumstance will happen. I have only just begun to wait for the right moment in my street shooting, but that is why I am still very much an amateur. Singaporeans are especially guilty of this, because of our hectic lifestyles, our photography is hectic as well. It can't be rushed. This is fundamentally a limitation of photography, unlike oil on canvas artists, we cannot create from scratch, but rather can only modify an existing scene at best. Though we can modify it greatly, we cannot create what doesn't exist at some level in the first place. Thus, we must wait for what we want to happen to happen in reality before we can capture it. Patience and vision is therefore the key to great imaging.

I hope all this helps, keep shooting!

Anime Review: Full Metal Panic!

2006-10-13T05:58:00.000-07:00

This will kick off the first of the Anime reviews, and all following reviews will be in this format. Just skip the post if you're not interested in Anime, there is also photo stuff on this blog.

Title: Full Metal Panic!

Studio: Gonzo Animation

Episodes: 24, 21 minute run-time

Category: Action-Comedy, with romantic elements. Mecha-based.

Synopsis: There exists a special breed of humans known as the Whispered, who have new bits of information pertaining to undiscovered technology in their minds. Every Whispered has a different bit of information; some have more, some have less. This information, called Black Technology, is being aftered by everyone from terrorists to this secret mercenary organisation called Mithril. Mithril has thus far maintained control over new Black Technology, and hence they possess equipment that is advanced by about 10 years or so as compared to current world military armaments. Mithril seems to be like a UN of sorts, maintaining order and peace, and also protecting their own interests. Enter Sagara Sousuke, a 17-year old Sergeant in Mithril. He was raised on the battlefield, having grown up as a child rebel fighter in Kazakhstan, but he must now learn to live a life of a high school student as he goes undercover to protect Chidori, a Whispered, from getting into the wrong hands. A military expert, he is adept at all sorts of weaponry, especially piloting the powerful Arm Slaves, but struggles to come to terms with a regular civilian life.

First Impressions: The action starts out pretty quickly with FMP! and doesn't leave you deciding whether to watch the next episode or not, it impels you to. We jump straight into the lives of the characters and also the scene is set for the rest of the series; Sgt. Sagara receives his assignment to protect Chidori Kaname, a Whispered. Solid first impression.

Art: I'm a fan of Gonzo art, so this get's top marks. Characters are well detailed and emotions are well reflected. Frequent use of traditional Japanese anime emotions like the famous drop of sweat. [-_-"]
4/5. Very Good

Voice Acting: Well done, convincing at all times, but by no means incredibly powerful. Suitable for the light-hearted nature of this series.
4/5. Very Good

Characters: Well developed 3d characters. Interactions between the characters are also kept real, though the medium of exaggeration can be overused at points. You tend to fall in love with the characters after awhile, especially as they develop. Some minor characters could be better developed, but that's why they're minor characters I guess.
4/5. Very Good

Storyline: Compelling stuff, with hardly a dull moment. Characters are well-developed and explained.
4/5. Very Good

Ending: The first season ends well, but leaves loose ends, as most anime series do. Some of them are tied up later in FMP:The Second Raid. Probably simple marketing.
4/5

Overall impressions: I really loved watching this anime, although I started with the second season, FMP: fumoffu, which focuses more on high school life and is exceedingly funny. This one, though still humourous, deals with less fluffy issues and can be quite poignant at points. There is certainly much more drama and a stronger story-line. This is a must watch to discover the back story of Sagara and also to track the development of Sagara and Chidori's rollercoaster relationship. Compelling. There are some cliches at points but nothing out of the ordinary for Japanese animation of this genre. Highly recommended top-notch stuff.
4/5

Additional Notes: Contains some level of violence and gore, as is typical of gonzo animation. However, this is not excessive and is sparingly used in this series.

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2006-10-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

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