Merry Christmas eveyone!

Hey readers!

Firstly, Merry Christmas everyone! The year is almost ending, and I earnestly hope next year will be as good or better than 2011!

So recently, my colleague from my work got a white Olympus E-PM1. In case you don't know how it looks like because you honestly don't know, or you're the type that says "they keep coming out so fast, I've lost track", here's a picture.



And well... She says we can share lenses! Which is fine with me, since she lives quite close to me hahaha. Anyway, we exchanged lens, my 17mm for her 14-42mm IIR. I have to say, I love the new R lens, super fast even on my older E-P1 and quiet with pretty good quality! I don't mind getting one but I'm still likely to wait for my fast zoom rather than really get the 14-42 unless I have to, but at least I have something to look forward to! Besides... I'm still building up my Nikon system so I can wait. Here's a picture of the new zoom lens with my E-P1!




Honestly, it ain't half bad in looks either! Also... I just found a 17mm lens for her so she need not change lens with me anymore, though I have a feeling that she will change with other lenses should I every get others which I most probably will. Though our shooting pattern differ by a lot!

Recently, my packages from USA came! I got my Manfrotto Justin Clamp and books!

Huge box


175F-1, Spring clamp with hot shoe


Open up, I personally think the box is a tad big for the product


First trial with the clamp, FL-36R with radio trigger on manual, hanging upside down!


My subject for the spring clamp is also something else I got second hand!

Thinktank Speed Changer and R U Thirsty!


Out of their bags


My books in the picture below, especially the "Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It" by Scott Kelby, the cover is a little torn, but no biggie! It's just aesthetics.



That's pretty much all for now. Will link my review of the Leica V-Lux 3 in my next post and probably have some other things to share!

Good night world!

Been a while...

Hey guys!

So yea... Its been a while and I apologize! I've been busy at work doing this or that, not having enough time for myself in fact! I still have to finish a video soon. Its paid and I've accepted the money so I've gotta finish it by hook or by crook.

Recently I've played the new Batman game! Batman Arkham City is awesome! Its so much better than Arkham Asylum which was pretty good on its own. But Arkham city was somewhat harder the first time I played it. But after having played it on normal, the easy mode is really easy!

I recently got a Western Digital 1TB 64mb cache 3.5" hard drive for $180, it's quite expensive by today's standard though from what I've purchased, its pretty acceptable.



I've cloned my hard drive and replaced it in my computer. So what I have in my computer now is:
1. Western Digital 1TB - Main hard drive
2. Samsung 500GB - 1st Storage hard drive storing my computer programs, music and a lot of videos, its almost full
3. Hitachi 500G - It took over the Maxtor 250GB and now is about half full, containing mainly videos
4. Hitachi 250GB - Its my games hard disk where all my fame files are currently on.
5. Seagate Constellation 1TB - Its my RAW files hard drive where all my photos are store, its gonna take a while to fill up at the rate I'm using =S

So yea! A brief summary! I recently attended talks at Fotofest Asia!




So yea,there were 4 speakers and well, I quite like one of the speakers named Hanson Fong. Awesome teacher, awesome photographer, funny too! What else... Oh! My brother started his own business! Good for him. My to do list for 2011 is almost done, but I've added more to 2012's list. Gonna be a busy year with many goals to accomplished. I'm quite excited to update my portfolio too!

Recently, quite a number of stuff came, I don't really remember all and I didn't have time to shoot them. I do remember getting a pen for my brother, it uses a real bullet case, available from Vat19. And also a bracelet for another good friend of mine! Some stuff from Photojojo for the interns in my office. I also got my PTC 15m USB repeater! Now my cable for tether shooting is super long! And it works! Approx 25m I guess. I also got my velcro cable ties which is a huge life saver!

I also found an old friend of mine! But seems that she's not really active on Facebook, and since she's currently living in America, due to time difference, even if she has MSN, it'd be quite difficult to talk to her... Sadly...

Anyway! I'm currently doing a camera review which I'll post up soon. And my Nikon F5 review! Still not done shooting with it! I'll get it up as soon as I've finished that last few frames! That's all for now!

Good day everyone!

My own belated thanksgiving and resolutions for the new year

Hey guys!

I know thanksgiving is over and we don't really celebrate it here (not that I know of anyway) but well, there are a number of things I'm really thankful for this year.

None of them are more important than the other and in no order. I'm thankful for my brother who is always full of nonsense, my friends in ITE for the months we had this year, in particular Rizal who has been a great friend all these while.

Also to my family for all the rubbish we had this year. The friends I made while in NS. I'm also thankful to my mentor Clifford for all the encouragements this year.

I'm thankful for the company I was working at during my attachment. Having great colleagues like my noona Azi, and boss for giving me so many opportunities.

I'm also thankful to God for all the great things that happened this year, my posting into SCDF, my current unit. The great deals I have in transaction this year and the photographic jobs I had this year.

My resolution for the new year is pretty simple. First of all, survive the year and being closer to my ORD date. Get my driver's license and get through at least half of my bike lessons.

Get a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens and hopefully Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 to go kit. Also to have my website up and running and have a Flickr pro account. Do up my portfolio in studio for portraits. And probably save up a little more money for my studies. Many things but I'm determined to do it! Have a good day everyone!

Some updates

Hey guys!

So yea... Currently in the office right now, some update. Nothing much has been going on lately though. Recently Queensway turned 50! A happy belated birthday to my secondary school! And I was there for the 50th anniversary gala dinner at the Pines Club! Its pretty cool seeing so many people there. Many whom I know, and many more whom I do not know =S

Its quite sad that many people who I sort of grew up with didn't go =( But well... I guess that's life. And for the first time! I got a ticket! YAY! But I didn't win anything... T_T





So yea, that's the design of the ticket, pretty neat. And other stuff, there was a goodie bag!





What was inside was some magazine, some oil thing for aromatherapy thingy, a 50th anniversary coin and some vouchers which my mother took, hence it isn't in the picture =.=




The coin in its case


The Queensway badge


The Queensway alumni logo



The day after the anniversary, I rented an instant printer for the first time! Its a Fujifilm ASK 2000. It was one kind of heavy! Seriously! So anyway, I also rented the Elinchrom D-Lite-it 4 to go kit to use in my setup. It's pretty good and portable. 2 softboxes, 2 monoblocs, 2 stands, all in 2 bags. I'm considering buying it though the bad thing is the modelling lights cannot be fine tuned. Its just 3 modes, dim, full or off. Not a huge deal breaker since I don't recall a time I actually fine tune the modelling lights. Just turn it on, adjust, shoot. I've also come to realized that my 15ft USB cable is long but may not be long enough. Shooting tethered, some students tripped over the cable despite it being white against a dark floor! So I'm getting the USB repeater making it a total of approximately 60 feet if I'm not wrong. Whatever excess I'm not using, I'll just tie it with cable tie and shoot!

On Tuesday, I returned both the lights and the printers and went to collect a Western Digital 7200RPM Scopio black hard drive. I got a good deal hence I bought it, due to expensive price, I quickly went for it!

After cloning the hard drive and before installing it into my laptop.


So yea... So far so good, its been less than a day and the Scropio sped up my ASUS laptop a little bit faster! Can't beat and SSD or even the Velociraptor at the least, but it will do. Now waiting for prices to drop before I get a Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB for my desktop =/

The year is coming to an end and well, my shopping also has gotta stop. Decided to add the D lite from Elinchrom to my gear list, but not sure when I'll get it. I asked Cathay Photo just now (they're the official distributor locally) and well, its 1200 for the kit and an extra head will cost probably like 600? Rounded off. The problem is the 2 softboxes in the set are exactly the same, else could probably get 2 sets instead of 1. But the Manfrotto stand can support 10kg and well... The d lite heads are pretty light so I though why not get slightly different light modifiers? Also... Gotta do my D.I.Y skylight as well... Hmmm.... Being a photography ain't cheap nor easy... Anyway, that's all for now! Good day everyone!

Muscles aching...

Hey guys!!!

So yea... My muscles are aching... And well! The week has been pretty busy. But I don't really have much to talk to this week. I've assembled 2 computers this week and I also got my 2 2TB Seagate Cosntellation drive, dual bay RAID drive and a USB 3.0 portable hard disk drive enclosure. Oh! My USB 3.0 Desktop adapter for my Seagate external hard drive as well! All works pretty well! So yea... Pictures!


The goods


Dual 2TB hard drives


Closeup


The dual bay RAID enclosure


How it is inside


Hard drives loaded up!


The picture on the box looks big, but in actual fact, not a lot bigger than the original case


Transferring the hard drive of my trusty old Seagate 120GB portable drive


Loaded into the new enclosure!


What can I say? I spent a lot of moolah! I feel so sad... But at least these stuff will last me for quite a while! USB 3.0 is super fast! Except for some reason, when I use on mine, during the last 5 secs, it will load for awhile before ending, unlike USB 2.0. Which is weird but acceptable since overall process is still faster than USB 2.0.

I've thought long and hard and decided, its not time to buy SSDs yet. For the amount of storage and price, I personally find that SSDs are just not economical despite the performance it gives, patience is a virtue. I'll wait for SSDs to have bigger storage at a lower cost. Hybrid drives are not stable at the moment, a lot of complaints about the Seagate Momentus XT so I'm sticking to the good ole sturdy magnetic hard disk drives! So yea! Hoping the price will drop soon!

Next year in January, will be the final time I'm buying stuff from USA, things that I want, unless its absolutely necessary like shirt, pants, whatever. The last thing I'm buying will be a pair of boots by Bates. Why? I'm saving money for my driver's license, Nikkor 70-200mm and to take up courses in 2013 as well as for my private diploma in IT at Kaplan. I can't wait to finish serving my national service! Oh! I'm buying lightstands as well since my fellow NSf is going to the states next year =D

That's all for now, good night world!

P.S: I'm going to invest in a Flickr pro account next year for 2 years, anyone wanna get that for my christmas present? I'll be extremely happy! =D

1 Gbps! Sort of

Hey guys!!!

So like FINALLY! My stuff are here from US! They tried to deliver in the morning but apparently no one was home and I had to arrange for a delivery in the evening. And they came not long after I came home, talk about good timing! So without ado, pictures!

3 packages, stupid thing is the biggest box, contains very small stuff


My 15ft USB cable, 25ft ethernet cat6 cable, 2 rolls of film and Nikon body cap


So yea! The USB cable works! I can now move around and shoot with my camera tethered to the laptop! Only now is to get the active repeater so I can go further! The ethernet cable is currently plugged into my desktop. Downloading now don't see much difference, but loading does seem a little bit faster. Speedtest.net test time!

Wireless


Wired


If assuming the test is accurate, the ping and upload time is about the same but the download speed is faster! However, the test is based on Singapore server, so really hard to say. But I expect better internet performance when I change to 50mbps fiber optic next year!

Bates is kinda pissing me off without really answering my questions directly. I asked about shipping to Singapore and return policy and what's the protective toe thing. They answer no to shipping to Singapore, protective toe explanation and give me the closest dealer, which is located in Hong Kong. So I had to reply asking about return policy, and they replied that different countries have different policies and to ask the closest country's dealer. So I had to ask about USA's return and exchange policy if I buy from USA. Its seriously making my blood boil =.=

So anyway, I shipped my 2 2TB Seagate constellation to Singapore, kinda sad that I have to pay tax in the states and when it arrives here, I think I'll have to pay GST again. Sucks. But I've decided to buy the Western Digital Scorpio black adn Caviar black (when the Caviar price drops) in Singapore for the warranty. But I'm still buying the Corsair Force GT from USA. Hopefully there won't be issues though... Like failures etc

Anyway, that's all for now. Off to bed! Good night world!

Some updates

Hey guys!!!

So yea... Been slightly over a week and basically didn't do much other than working in NS. Just assembled another computer yesterday with a cloned hard disk based off my laptop. First time cloning and good to know it works despite it taking like what? 5 hours? To clone a 500GB hard drive.

What else... I just read the 1 star review off Amazon regarding the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB and sadly, it seems that it hangs and even slows down after a while, far from what Seagate vision of the Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD). Reading all those problems has cause my loyalty to Seagate to falter. But thinking back... Despite many of the things people say that has problems, when I use, most of the things like... 99% hardly have the problem they describe. So I guess I may be just extremely lucky.

Eitherway, I'm gonna wait for the 2nd generation of SSHD from Seagate or any other company and have decided to get a Western Digital Scropio for my laptop and using the built in 500GB which I changed last year or this year to an external hard drive with USB 3.0 as well as a Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black to replace the current 250GB Seagate hard drive in my desktop. Which will move to the NAS and have RAID 1 stripping applied to it. Giving my NAS a total of 750GB space to store videos that I'm sure I'll just watch but can't afford to lose. With my luck, I'd probably never have to replace it anyway.

Which brings me to my D3, thinking of what will happen if it breaks down and I've not turned pro and earned enough to actually buy a D3 replacement, but again, with my luck, it'd probably be still working despite years of usage. Look at my E-1! Its second hand and under my care, despite being what? 8 year model? Its still going strong!

Speaking of my E-1, here are 2 images from today! Considering we had extremely beautiful weather today!

Late afternoon sunlight shining through the window


The sun sets, setting the sky on fire, somewhat


Really thankful to God for the awesome weather today. Reminds me how beautiful life really is. Today, I sort of just browsed through Youtube and found Elizabeth Gilles, who plays Jade West on Victorious on Nickelodeon! And these are some songs she covered. Just sharing, cause I feel they're worth listening to. If they're only slightly processed to give a cleaner sound for recording, its amazing!


Fast Car



You & I



Wild Horses



Jealous Guy


And also, I recently chanced upon this song by Jon Foreman titled "Just Rob Me" which has a country tune to it. And its a pretty fun and amusing song. Enjoy it!


My films,USB cable and ethernet cable have been in Singapore since Sunday, but they can only deliver on Tuesday. And I paid for express shipping which will arrive within 2-4 days. How stupid is it? Seriously... I seem to be purchasing a lot of hard drives but well! At least they'll last me for a while.

Recently, I saw something which I can't say and it reminded me how comfortable my combat boots were except that it wasn't easy to put them on. So I went on Amazon to search for zip up boots and apparently, a brand named Bates which provides boots to the US military and police came sort of highly recommended. I've written to them about exchange or returns and whether the tip of the boots are hard to protect the toes like my combat boots. In fact, this particular pair, Bates Delta 6 Gore TEX side zip boots caught my attention. It looks solid, is all weather, slip proof sole, and if I understand what it means by composite toes, it should mean it protects the toes like steel tip. Its a zip up and doesn't really look like combat boots. But I'd probably get a higher one as well. Hope they're comfortable!

So yea... I also can't wait to get my photography site up and shoot portraits for my portfolio! The one day spent in a studio won't be exactly fun but it will be fun because I'm shooting! Which reminds me... I gotta find more models, find PVC pipes and rip stop nylon for my DIY skylight. It will be an interesting experience to shoot the Queensway Prom Night as it will be the first time I'm doing a shoot with instant print and I've never been to prom night before. Owing to the fact not many people during my year was interested =/



That's roughly how its going to be. Shooting tethered to my laptop, with an external screen for accurate colours (calibrated of course, my laptop screen has issues). With the instant printer hooked up to the laptop. Action in photoshop. Elinchrome strobes. Interestingly, this is the first time in my life as a photographer where I will be pushing a trolly owing to the amount of equipment that is cannot be carried by hand alongside the number of equipment I have to carry.

That's all for now! Will update when I get my package tomorrow! Hope the cable works without any issue, will have to try tether with my D3 with the cable, and I got to set a note to take out my monitor next week. Good night world!

I don't know what to write here hahahha

Hey guys!

Nothing much happened really... I met my secondary school friend Vivian for dinner on Friday night. So nice of her to treat me eat since my pay is pathetic =)

What else... So yea! I went out today and I got a USB 3.0 4-port PCI Express Card which is cheap in comparison to USA (those with 4 ports) when including shipping and such. So yea... But I have yet to install in my comp because its been on since Friday night or morning and hence too hot to install anything inside though my cooling system is pretty effective, its still an environment I wouldn't want to stick my hands into =S

The packaging


What's in the box


The main product


Although its not a well known brand and its a weird brand, Lapara, its built seems pretty solid and from what I understand, no complaints yet so fingers crossed! Today, I tried focus stacking! The subject is the USB 3.0 PCIE card!


Before (cropped)


After (cropped)


Final (with some sharpening)


So yea... Not bad for a first attempt huh? Anyway, I was bored and since I'm aiming to do a review on the Nikon F5, I took a short of the night scene of Lengkok Bahru. I also shot in digital just to test the scene before I shot on film. And out of boredom, I shot the sky as there were many stars. Many were faint, but if you look hard enough, you can see them. Reminds me of my recruit days, in the night or morning, the stars will be pretty visible.



I coloured it green for ease of viewing


The night scene



So yea.. Nothing special. Was looking around for studio lights in the event I shoot more portraits or require more power and less movement, I can always use studio lights. Or like what I have to do at prom night. I looked at Profoto, Elinchrom, Alien Bee and they were all too expensive, except Alien Bee which was affordable but isn't digital. Then apparently, in Singapore, a company sells digital touch screen strobes which are powerful enough for my usage and affordable with mounts to use Elinchrom light modifiers, which is awesome! I tried looking for review and only found the following 2 link written by the same guy


Menik strobe review part 1

Menik Strobe review part 2

The other day I was planning my new computer and well, it was filled with pretty good parts available today with many many hard disk. Apparently I'm a digital hoarder hahaha. But yea, its practical actually. And I'm pretty happy with the specs of my "new" computer if I were to build it now. But because of that, I'm so tempted to change my CPU heatsink to this. Its cool cause it looks like an engine! And the cooler should be pretty good. And my casing to probably this. But too bad... Not practical to change now. Anyway, that's all for now. Good night world!

I wonder why...

Hey guys!

So yea, the past few days have been pretty tiring, assembling a new PC, was at some course thing, innofest. Its nuts I tells ya! And I met my ITE classmate Naaz at Innofest! As well as some guys I know during my recruit days. It was interesting though innofest.

So yea... I got my stuff already! Its kinda screwed up when tracking, one moment its in Hong Kong, then its in Singapore, a few minutes later its in Hong Kong again! Seriously stupid! But no choice, to avoid paying tax, that's the thing I have to do, but at least they came early and on time.


The first package



Unboxing



So excited!



Nicely wrapped!



Nikon F5


Nikon F5 closeup


Yup! That's a Nikon F5 film camera! No kidding when they said its built like a tank. Its as solid as the D3 and the E-3! Its missing a body cap which I've just placed an order on Amazon. An original Nikon, kinda stupid but well, you'll never know if I'm selling it though I doubt so. The reason why I chose the F5 is because of the price and the number of accessories I can use with my D3, exception being the SB900 and SB700 though I can use the Metz on the F5 =)

In my previous shipment before the camera, I had ordered 8 Eneloop batteries for my flash which I've now used to power the F5 and will be getting another 8 for my flashes. The F5 works pretty well but it wasn't the cleanest nor mint condition. Its quite worn but in relatively good condition but requires cleaning and sticking of gaffer tape to prevent the rubber from coming off resulting below.




Not as well done as my E-1 but it will do, and the gaffer tape isn't really sticky, not trusting this brand again. Gonna trust and get the same brand as the one used on my E-1. I will send the F5 for a CLA early next year. I forced open the slit on one of my old Fujifilm Provia 100f which was previously put into a camera and rolled in accidentally. It looks like crap now but the film will expose properly. As said in reviews, the F5 feels more or less exactly like the D3 though they've failed to mentioned that the F5's vertical grip is kinda just 1 straight line down -.-" So I'll do my own review of the Nikon F5 which again won't be technical, once I'm done with the first roll.

So the second package was pretty thin in comparison to most of my other shipments.

The packaging


The contents


Yup! That's my shiny new black Sony MP3! Sadly MP3 players seem to be dying off and it would seem that I will have to depend on my phone more and more, as well as my trusty portable battery pack! And finally! My photo book is here and its correct! It isn't bad, pretty good really though some of the photos when printed on that paper, I'm not too pleased, but its generally pretty good if done right.

What else... Oh ya! I just bought some stuff on Amazon (again), I think 2 or 3 rolls of film, one 25 feet cat 6 ethernet cable and 1 15 feet USB male type A to type b male. Its meant to aid me in tether shooting. I recently did a shoot that sort of required tethered shooting. Thinking about it, when I go back to work, will be shooting tether more and more often. However, Queensway Secondary School called me to ask for help for prom night and I've agreed to do the "door gift" shoot. Basically I will be setting up somewhere with an rented instant printer and rented strobes, my D3 hooked up to my laptop (tethered shooting) which is also hooked to the printer for printing. I just hope that the strobes are powerful enough... Then again, its 4 by 6 prints, I can shoot at ISO 6400 for the fun of it! But I'm more concerned over the coverage...


I've also finished doing a 3D design of my own 2 meter by 1 meter diffuser though its pretty much the same as the one done by lastolite. Simply because if I designed it according to what I had in mind originally, I'm most probably the only person who can assemble it by looking at it. So yea... Gonna use clamps and stands to have it up above the air or standing straight up, in addition to using a boom arm as well. Gotta look for materials for it, toughest part will be the diffuser part which should be ripstop nylon and cutting it to size and attaching velcro to it.


So yea! Will be buying a repeated USB cable to extend the range when I shoot, total the USB cable and repeated should give me about 15 meters of tethered goodness! Should be sufficient. It will help a lot when I'm rebuilding my portrait portfolio for my site. What else... I'm storing so much video on my stuff I have to most likely change my setup to suit it. I'm currently looking at this Mediasonic PRORAID 4 Bay Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA with some Seagate enterprise hard drives to run concurrently with my desktop. Also looking at the Mediasonic Smart Drive SuperSpeed 2.5" SATA HDD External Enclosure - USB 3.0 to replace my Seagate external hard drive's case which gives me quite a bit of problem sometimes with loose connection as well as having to take 2 USB ports! I'm also getting a Transcend USB 3.0 Adapter PCIE for Desktop PC to expand my computer to have 2 more USB ports which are USB 3.0.

Recently I see some people who are seemingly suffering from depression, or mild ones rather. And some, the reasons are really stupid, and some, are quite legit, similar to mine, however, the person, who is a girl in this case, isn't bad looking is young. I'm sure she has many suitors but apparently she just can't let go, kinda irritating to see her wish for this or that, I can't even wish for anything. Probably stupid of me but well, I'm happy now and I wish for better friends who are loyal =D

Also, a final shout-out to those taking O's and A's, good luck for them! Speaking of which, my secondary school junior, who also happens to by my primary school junior, who is 6 years my junior, asked me what I wanted the other day. Saying she wants to get something for people when she started working. A really sweet gesture but as much as the materialistic things I want, there's nothing I want from a friend, materialistically speaking.

Sadly... I seem to spend more in NS than less but I do save now! And I am mighty proud of that! =D That's all for now, will post up my Nikon F5 review when I'm done with the roll of film and scanning them in. Which reminds me, I've gotta finish the roll in my Olympus OM2n =/ Good night world!