Gloomy Makes me Happy

Okay, so this time i experimented with lighting.

All shots were backlight with a table lamp and a tissue paper as a diffuser (*gasp* lol)

Here goes!

Camera Shy...

Gloomy is camera shy, coz as his name suggests,

gloomy people are gloomy, they dun take pictures =P

If your life was made into a movie, would it be interesting?

Gloomy needs Happy Food to stay less gloomy.

Same happy food source as the owner.=P

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Glad i have photography as my interest...

At least it keeps me pre-occupied during off-shift days =D

I'm Lovin this toy...Its really stretching my creativity

and letting me experiment with several angles, lightings and non-verbal gestures

to bring out the message in my photos!

U complete Me

[NC16] The Story of Gloomy: The Naughty Grizzly

Meet Gloomy Bear.

He was created by a Japanese artist called Mori Chack as the antithesis to Disney and Hello Kitty.

Gloomy is an abandoned little bear rescued by Pitty (the little boy).

At first, he is cute and cuddly, but becomes more wild as he grows up.

Since bears do not become attached to people like dogs by nature,

Gloomy attacks Pitty even though he is the owner.

So Gloomy has blood on him from biting and/or scratching Pitty.

OK, so here is my own version

With special appearance by Domo-kun

Gloomy used to be a studious...erm student. He would spent hours reading

Comics and children's novels.

One fine day, he chanced upon a book that describes in great detail about Murders.

'Very interesting indeed' , he thought...

He wanted to like one of those murderers written in the book.

He trained hard and hone his skills by slashing repeatedly on jelly beans.

His claws soon got stained, by the red dyes from the jelly beans.

He wonders what the stain will look like, if it was blood.

After months of training, Gloomy felt it was time.

He searches for his first prey.

He searches every alleys and lanes.

And he saw it - That big gushy piece of brown meat.

'You're the one' , he thought.

He approached Domo, and knew with his short legs he couldn't escape fast enough.

He flashed his Candy-stained claws, and hailed

'You're next!'

To commemorate his first victim, Gloomy decides to take a portrait of Domo.

'WTF!', exclaimed Domo.

Months of training for that 10 minutes of kill.

Gloomy moved in for the kill, and leaps in mid-air - Matrix style.

As his claws sank into Domo, regret filled in.

'What have i done?' He thought.

His claws were now stained, with blood.

But soon, the adrenaline he felt earlier was too delectable.

He longs to relinquish that feeling.

As he looks into the sky and recalls his kill, he plans his next move, and next victim.

Catch how it all began here

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Okay probably too violent. Thought this toy was pretty cool.

Bought it at a flea market for 32 bucks.

Knew its multi joints would come in handy for photoshoots!

This won't be the end of it!

Expect more to come in the near future!

Nokia to fix my Trigger Addiction temporarily

Used my handphone to curb the temptation temporarily.

Wasn't accessible to my NEX nor Nikon.

I was playing with some of my friends handphone camera, and tried their macro function.

True enough, the aperture is large enough to blur the background too.

see pics below!

Refer to this post on my experiment done :)

My nokia has a minimum aperture of F2.8, but i guess the sensor is limiting its capabilities.

The First Keeper

Took this long ago.

Remembered taking this shot during the first week of getting the Nikon D90.

Prior to this shot, i spent almost 3 hours wandering PR Park

taking snapshots with this big gun.

Turns out, the last shot of the day was the only keeper !

My First Keeper for D90!

This was taken at a multi-storey carpark on my way back..

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Hopefully i have improved over the months~!

And here is my very first light painting taken long ago!

I remember naming this shot~ MUSIC MAYHEM ~

Not perfect but still~ my first light paint =D

Souveniers from her!

Finally back from the states !! =D

Told her not to get anything for me, and just concentrate on

getting the things she want with the little time she has for shopping.

Still, she bought me souveniers...

Jelly Beans and Gummy Bears!

Fresh from USA. I have a soft spot for these candies.

Blame it on the sweet tooth.

Chex Mix!

Not available in Singapore!

Last had it during USA Work and Travel.

Don't have the heart to open it =P

Calvin Klein wallet!

Is it Christmas already?! =P

Loving them!

She bought 3 shirts for me too...

Didn't manage to take them as they are tumbling in the washing machine!

Happy Anniversary

'I Loved You Yesterday, I Love You Still.

I Always Have...I Always Will. '

45 months. =D

Happy Anniversary!

Chronicles of the Night Shift

My first time doing night shift. Mixed Feelings.

Its hard to conquer the Z-Monster, but its great to have

great comrades by your side battling it :)

Carpark was very empty.

But i love how the road lamps illuminate the path, spotlighting little areas around the car park.

It was told that at the 5th floor resides a mother and a daughter all the way at the end of the corridoor.

Said to be spotted by patrolling security.

Needless to say night shift just got a little more exciting.

Having little colorful magnets decorated on my board,

pinning my lessons for the day.

Alongside with a rear mirror at my desk just in case the mother/daughter living at the

5th floor decides to drop in a visit behind me. Shucks~

First phase of Project Awakening.

Two presses of Teh Tarik.

Estimated Time: 3 hours.

Plan B, aka Final resort - Red Bull.

Temptation at its peak around 4am.

When the Z-monster is about to win, occasionally i surrender...but not without a tough fight!

So far so good. Learning as much as possible during night shift.

Pretty dreadful that the entire floor, only my dept and another one has its area lit-ed up.

Probably things will be much smoother/better when more people starts doing night shift.

Pretty thankful i have such a great team!

When it is dark enough...

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Night shift is tough. Mentally.

Probably needs more seasoning to get through this.

Hang in there!!

How do i 'Blur' the background using a PnS or Hphone?

This was taken using my compact PnS (Panasonic Lumix)

A friend of mine asked was interested in getting a new compact, and asked me which camera to recommend.

I told her i did not know what are the cameras in the market now,

hence the next question -

"What are you looking for in your camera?"

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"I want to have that blur background effect."or something along that line

She appears to be misled that semi-pro cameras or DSLR can make such effects.

I will show you how to 'blur' your background even with a lousy PnS.

I will be using my Nokia C6 and Panasonic Lumix (bought in 2006) to illustrate.

The main idea is the depth of focus.

you can read more here.

The following shots are taken under the Macro mode setting(the one with the flower logo) which

can be found in almost every camera and phones.

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The Nokia C6.

As you can see, even a camera phone can make such effect.

Granted this phone has a 5megapixel capability but its not the megapixel that

is creating this 'blurred effect'

Simply tune to Macro Mode,

focus closely (as in near) on the subject,

Autofocus...

and there you have it.
Simple.

Now, my Old Panasonic Lumix.

Typical Point-And-Shoot.

Same logic here. You may have noticed that the Lumix appears to create this effect more

significantly. This has got to do with its slightly larger sensor. Read the post attached above to learn more!

p.s: Nowadays cameras (PnS and Camera phone) have ISO settings.

Tune it to the lowest (provided u have sufficient lighting).

This will reduce the noise of your photo. (pixelation and stuff)

Also, play ard with ur exposure (the +/- logo) if the image u see in ur liveview is too dark/bright.

Hope this helps!

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On a side note, i was exploring the pictures i took in the Lumix,

and saw this picture i took at one of the restaurant in KL.

Like the feeling of the picture =D

Taken with the Lumix FX01

Fav. Portraits

A fellow enthusiast once commented, that taking photo of others is simple.

As long as your photo got their face and its sharp enough, it would suffice.

The usual folks will not go down to scrutinize the lighting, angle and composition.

His words struck a chord.

Then i started to think about it...

Thing is, its not easy to take a nice portrait.

I tried to find portraits that i took and like...hmm apparently not a lot.

Liked this shot because of the freckles. =)

Liked because of his smile.

Not the perfect smile with the perfect teeth,

But these just makes it perfect.

Because its heartfelt and genuine.

I just loved it when she daze aimlessly with her big eyes.

Interesting read on taking portraitures here

Quote from link: "Why are people always so damn serious when they are being taken photos of? Does nobody understand the art of portraiture anymore?"

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On a side note, there is going to be a reality show on channel 5 called the "Big Shot"

THE BIG SHOT of Singapore is ality tv series is about stories of seven aspiring photographers and their quests to take the BIG SHOT of Singapore. Each week, the seven aspiring photographers will do their best to stay in the competition by overcoming the different challenges that await them in each episodic challenge. Be it night photography, commercial photography, portraits, architecture, journalism, nature, wedding photography - how will each of them handle their subject matter? How will he or she make it come alive for the beholder's eyes?

Can't wait to watch =)

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Saw a website that was linked in one of my friend's facebook.

He wrote: "There's also another important thing I would like to highlight.

"The differences between a GWC, Cameraman , Photographer and a professional photographer"

*GWC stands for Guy with camera

First is Guy/Gal With Camera(GWC).

It literally means a guy with a camera regardless if the person knows how to use it or not.

The moment you buy a camera, you're a GWC.

A cameraman is similar to the GWC.

However, they might not be even familiar with the device they're using and more often than not are unable to take any good pictures. It doesn't matter if you're holding a cheap 3 megapixels handphone camera, or a 1D mark 4. If your pictures sucks like shit, than you're only a GWC.

Second is photographer. They're the enthusiast who we see often.

Yes there are many classes here as well. There's the pixel peeper, measurebators, equipment collectors, hobbyist, etc etc. But generally a photographer would mean someone who takes a good photo regardless of the equipment they're using............"

Thought it was pretty interesting how he did his comparison.

To each his own.

I have friends who own DSLRs, compacts or even film.

We find similarity through our passion for photography, and our desire to improve our shots.

But i wonder what category I'm in...=P