RESULTS!!!

Hey guys!!!

So just wanna share some good news with you first!



Saw it? I got my ITE results! My grades are all As! Cumulative GPA is 3.316! Who'd knew? When I just left poly with that crappy 0.314 GPA I'd arrive at 3.316 instead now. Tomorrow poly results will be out... 2pm! WISH ME LUCK!

So today... I went to work. Went to Woodlands, then to Newton then to Geylang and back to the office. After that, I was brought to the new office! It was really really BARREN! But that's to be expected actually. Can't wait to move into the new office! That's pretty much all for today... Gotta go back to the office tomorrow as well as go back to Queensway tomorrow. So good night world! XD

Here there everywhere... Not really :D

Hey guys!

Wow! Its Wednesday already! I didn't do much today. This morning the plasma TV came. For those wondering, my family didn't buy it, my uncle gave it to us, not cause he's nice mind you but its a nice piece of errmmm.. Furniture? Nice piece of item to be in the house, best thing is, I can connect my Macbook to it!

I'm gonna use my sister's laptop to use it as a media player to play HD movies etc on it! Also... I went down to Challenger at Tiong Bahru to buy a splitter to connect the composite audio to the 3.5mm stereo cable which is connected to the laptop!

I came home and worked a little on the video before going back to Queensway for rehearsal! Apparently it was canceled though... So I went about looking for teachers, chatting with them and checking some stuff with them before finally running to the library to chat with some photography club girls. Lovely kids... That sounded wrong... ANYWAY! I traveled down to Funan Center to go to Challenger to get 2 Class 6 Extreme 3 memory card for my boss and colleague as well as getting my scanner!

The memory cards


Epson V330 Photo!


The picture on the box!


Not sure if this is impressive technically... But I don't give a hoot! As long as the scans are good!


The contents!


Nice!


Looks funny inside though, but still awesome stuff!


I went to meet my mother. I fell asleep on the bus and when we arrived at the interchange, the bus driver knocked really hard on my box or the chair (I couldn't remember) which was really rude though its my fault for falling asleep, but a gentle tap or shaking me would suffice. Honestly, I don't think anyone would enjoy being woken up with someone pounding something beside them, say... Falling asleep on the table to have someone pounding on the table, right?

So yea... After I met my mother, we went home and I continued with the video which at the moment of writing, is done! I have a feeling tomorrow I'll have to change some parts before rending the final copy :S I've gotta sleep now. Tomorrow have to be at Woodlands at 8:30am! Good night world!

Nothing much yet again

Hey guys!

So yea... Nothing much happened. I spent most of the time counting the coins to change with my secondary school bookshop auntie as well planning the IT part for the donation drive, clearing some of my to do list. I finally made a excel backup of my contacts and am currently redoing my book list so that its cleaner with more colours!

Also! I went down to Queensway Shopping center to get another dry fit shirt which costs $50! Cheaper than when I first bought mine for Clubsnap.

Its meant to be a black shirt, no idea why it turns out blueish here :/


However... Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to search on Amazon and woah! I got a lot more selection of design! And its cheaper even with shipping. Decided next month gonna buy 1 from online to see if it matches the ones I have. If it does, I'm gonna get a few more! Seriously... Dry fit shirts are probably the best shirts I've ever worn! Especially from Russell as compared to my Olympus one. The Russell shirts are thinner and bigger than my Olympus one. It keeps me cooler and I hardly perspire!

Anyway... That's all for today. I got work in the morning so good night world!

Nothing much again

Hey guys!

So yea... Nothing much happened today, mainly was at Orchard Road most of the day for the fund raising fund. So this will be an extremely short post which more or less ends about here since there are some things on my mind that are probably best kept to myself :S Good night world!

Nothing much

Hey Guys!

Today... Oh ya! Whoops, slipped my mind hahahaha. I went back to Queensway this afternoon. I woke up pretty early and couldn't sleep. I saw that the sky today was EXTREMELY CLEAR! A rare sight to date this year so again, I shot this 2 images with full CPL and least CPL effect!




From the images, its pretty clear which one is full and which one is least. Amazing stuff. So what else... Oh ya! I've decided to reconsider getting Mark Wallace Studio Lighting Essential! :D I went back to Queensway to talk to some teachers as well as get more info on events and turns out I'm gonna be shooting a few more images for school magazine :/ Not a big deal really.

Lets see... Went down to Orchard to recee the place again before we went down to the studio to discuss and test. Really intensive! Tomorrow we'll be working hard at Orchard Road collecting donations for Japan! Do come down to support if you're in the area! We'll be at Far East Plaza and Pacific Plaza! I gotta sleep now so that I can be there early to set up. Good night world!

Almost end of the week

Hey guys!

Well... Nothing much to say, just that suddenly I've got quite a bit of work at the office to the point I'm considering going back to work more often, but probably if I can't secure a place as a photography instructor at Queensway Secondary School. Anyway! I'm going back there for breakfast tomorrow! Can't wait to go back! I miss my secondary school days :/

Anyway, just wanna share probably one of the gayest videos (Sorry Nick) but pretty cool video by Nick Pitera on Youtube


Hope you enjoy it as much as I did listening to it, I couldn't take the video seriously watching it but it was pretty good when listening. So what else... Oh! Tomorrow gonna recee another place opposite Far East Plaza. Hopefully this Saturday and Sunday will go well! I'm off to bed! Got a long day tomorrow. Good night world!

So fast its Wednesday!

Hey guys!

So yea... Tuesday was my first official day as a part timer at work but I was hardly in the office as I went out to shoot then came back before going out to collect the computer and then coming back. Apparently... The RAMs had issues with them. In addition, for the RAMs to be run at 12GB, the speed has to be reduced. Kinda lame if you ask me BUT I'm not the manufacturer so who am I to decide anything.

So lets see... What else... Today I sold my trusty old Epson Perfection 2450, and I've more or less decided to get the Epson Perfection V330. I borrowed 2 books as well. Kinda regretted boring one of them as its quite useless to me though quite nice for people who like to DIY stuff. Its not a DIY gear book but a DIY decoration book kind of book.

So yea... That's pretty much it for today. Got quite a bit of stuff to do over the next few weeks. And I'm still hoping I can win an Xbox 360! :D I just saw some old film scans I did and man... I do miss shooting film, I'm still considering getting a couple of Ilford black and white films... I'm a sucker for black and white photos, especially high contrast ones. Well... Enjoy! They're only found on my Facebook but now they're here as well! :D Good night world!

I shot this in Hong Kong in Decemeber, can't remember the film, but shot with Olympus OM2n and 50mm


Shot at the kite festival, a little too serious about flying a kite if you ask me, but hey, its probably his passion, can't blame a man for it :)


Some tiger kite, quite interesting to see all the kites at the kite festival though :)

Finally up and working!

Hey guys!

So yea... I didn't blog for the past few days is cause Friday night, when I came home from work, I started backing up and working on updating my computer to 64 bit OS. Which I did till like 3 before I went to sleep because I couldn't get the RAM to be up to 4GB instead of the "4GB (3.25GB Usable)" which I found out later after I Google a little that its because I set something in the configuration. I set it back and hey presto! Its back up to 4GB! I thought something went wrong with the installation so I reformatted another time before I was done hahahha.

On Saturday I woke up pretty early sleeping only like 6 hours? Possibly less? I had my breakfast and continued working on getting my desktop back up and working before going down to the city to get the Hercules 67mm P adapter ring for my Cokin holder and RAM for my desktop (since its 64 bit, why not take advantage?). I also updated my Mototola Milestone to Android OS 2.2, not sure if its really Froyo but it should, new features, slightly slower performance apparently despite being advertised as faster :/

First I went down to Excelsior Shopping Center to go to one of the mass seller's shop to get my adapter ring. Feels pretty solid actually despite being only 10 bucks. Apparently its made of metal :/ Oh well, as long as its durable and gets the job done!

Hercules 67mm P adapter ring


Next I went down to Funan to get my RAM from the usual shop I patronize. The auntie recommended me to get this brand called Strontium. Never heard of it before, but I trust that the auntie knows what she's doing. After all, she may look a little bit like your typical Singaporean auntie, but she's more knowledgeable in IT than I am D: Hahahah. I gotta say... I was worried since the RAMs in my computer were Kingston and that it might not work with the Strontium but the auntie assured me that it will, so I got 2 pieces of 4GB RAM, since it isn't very expensive as compared to the past though it more or less broke me though I have some cash in my bank just waiting for Adorama to deduct it for The Language Of Light DVD. After that, I bought KFC for my sister and went home. The bus was pretty slow for some reason.

Strontium


So I came home, shut down my desktop and ate my lunch despite it being dinner time. Giving my computer time to cool down before I open it up :S After eating, I opened up and installed my new RAM modules and BAM! It starts up and gave me blue screen, no matter what combination of RAM I did and no matter what I did to the BIOS, it just didn't work! So end up, I gave up and removed the Kingston RAMs leaving the Strontium inside, leaving with me 8GB worth or RAM to use. I went to sleep after tinkering with my desktop abit and installing my programs after doing a system restore which went bonkers.

Sunday I woke up and was installing and I couldn't install some programs due to some error which I've not faced before. So I decided that reformatting is the only way since I'm too lazy and can't be bothered to go in-depth of troubleshooting the issues. Then I was looking at something which I can't remember and apparently... Updating the BIOS might help solve some issues. So I had a look at my motherboard's site, for those of you who don't know or don't remember, my mother board is Gigabyte EP45T-UD3LR. Apparently, they had BIOS update to F10 (Apparently Gigabyte's term for something like version 10). I restarted my desktop and checked the POST (Power On Self Test) and mine was F5! Looking at the updates, F7 caught my attention. The update was "Enhanced Memory Compatibility".

So I went and installed some software that came with my motherboard to update the BIOS and proceeded to reading the instructions on how to update. Its my first time updating so I was a little nervous. When updating, my computer turned on and off and some weird noises and messages came out. I was prepared to get a new motherboard when it says on the POST that is F7! I jumped for joy! Then later, it updated the backup BIOS which was surprising. Apparently motherboards with dual BIOS will have the backup automatically updated when the main BIOS is updated successfully. When I finally boot into Windows sucessfully. I turned off my computer, took out and installed the Kingston RAMs and booted up, SUCCESS!

After using it for a while in full 12GB RAM, I left it on and went for a meeting with my fellow moderators. To help Japan in their time of need. We met at Burger King at Orchard Central. Its a new place to me, never been there before but it looked boring. After some discussion, we walked over to Far East Plaza to check the place out. Oh! I also learnt that my Facebook now has places and that I can check in! My first check in was at Orchard Central hahahha. I went home from Far East Plaza and well, turns out my desktop had not had a blue screen nor has it restarted. The 12GB RAM is stable.



So basically my desktop had a 200%? 300% increase in RAM. Updated some softwares to take advantage of it as well. I am quite pleased with the upgrades :D. I spent the remaining of the time reformatting to solve the issues and then went to sleep after done with just formatting.

So today! I woke up and installed the programs and had breakfast before I left for Eastgear to return the Olympus E-PL2. I came home, changed into shorts and went down to have my hair cut! It feels cooler and I look neater now! :D. After cutting my hair, I took a shower and went on installing the last of the programs and till now,its stable, and more or less finished. The only thing I have left is to update the keywords in Adobe Lightroom of my images and create a catalog for it.

I also took some time to test out my filters! Apparently the 1 stop GND isn't easy to use so I may just sell it off in favor of a 2 stop GND or I may not use any GND at all.

*At this point, I'm unable to upload images due to some problem with Blogger =.= So I'm doing some manual editing, copying and pasting


The scene of my "test", shot with Olympus E-1, manual mode, manual focus, without any filters other than UV of course, all images shot in manual mode, ESP metering



Before attaching Circular Polarizing Filter (CPL)



After attaching CPL



Before sliding in Graduated Neutral Density (GND)



After sliding in GND


Well, it was hard to tell on my tiny E-1 screen, but on computer, the differences can be seen in the paint, windows and sky for the CPL. For the GND, it was tough to see the difference in the viewfinder so as said, I might just sell it in favor of a 2 stop GND.

I'm finally getting rid of my trusty old Epson Perfection 2450 to get something more "mordern". Eyeing on the Epson Perfection V330 as the Epson V600 and V700 are too expensive for me. I would be more sad if I still used 120 film ,but since I got rid of my Mamiya m645j. I'd take my 120 film to the shop to scan if needed. Since I still prefer and mainly shoot in 35mm format.

* I just realize that the browser for uploading images in Blogger is opened =.= So that wasn't any issue with Blogger afterall hahaha

That's all for tonight! Tomorrow will by my first day as an official part timer at Oxygen Studio. Can't wait to get my Language Of Light DVD, my Switchfoot DVDs and books. Scanner as well! Hopefully I can be a vendor for my secondary school! Then can earn money from photography. Good night world!

Hello Hurricane Acoustic

Hey guys!

In the office now and thought about sharing this. And at the same time "archive" for my own pleasure :D Enjoy!

Second last day of official internship

Hey guys!

So yea... Nothing much today actually. Its the second last day of my official internship and then after that, I'm doing part time! My book orders have been placed and I can't wait for them to reach the US address!

What else... Oh ya! I can't wait to use the beauty box for portraiture, just tried it on my gundam. Not the best light to light a gundam... Neither is this the best picture :/

SD Freedom Gundam


I was bored ok? So yea... I'm getting another 100 bucks tomorrow. Should be returning the E-PL2 tomorrow or else would be Saturday. Still planning what to get in April, its gonna be a troublesome month this month with my pay since I end my internship like halfway through the month :S

Seems like though I said that I won't get camera lenses or anything this year and I'd just get filters, seems like I spend more on accessories to help light better. For example, the beauty box, midi bouncer, transceivers and Quantum battery pack. I just changed my dry cabinet and it looks like its almost full -.-" But anyway... Most of the things are quite spaced out and some things need not be inside are inside so yea... I'm done with most of my to do list, especially the dreaded "In case Olympus gives up on making mirrored cameras and their flagship PENs aren't good for me" list. That's all for today actually, nothing much.

Hopefully I have something more interesting tomorrow otherwise probably I won't be blogging tomorrow. And my dear "sis" Jia Zhen finally updated her Tumblr! Good job sissy! I can't remember what I have to do this Saturday though... Ah well... Before I sleep, here's a video to share! Switchfoot playing Mess Of Me acoustic! Awesome stuff! Excited for my Switchfoot stuff to arrive and their concert!Good night world!

My New Softbox!

Hey guys!

Wow! Today is Wednesday, officially its Thursday though... I forgot what I did on Tuesday but yea... Nothing much happened that's why I don't remember much hahahah.

So yea... Today work was pretty boring. I met up with Peng Eik, uncle Benjamin and Francis to discuss how can we help Japan. It's really sad that such things happened, but that's just how things are. Before that, I got myself a Aurora Firefly Beauty Box. Its acts like a softbox, really nice lighting. Feels pretty solid too the construction! But its EXPENSIVE! SGD$180. But it sure beats me buying from USA and shipping over :/

So yea, I shot my E-P1 and wow! Really soft lighting! I can't wait to use this for portraiture! So yea... I just order Switchfoot DVDs and Hello Hurricane Collector's thingy, comes with the album, extra CD with alternate versions and something which I've forgot. Poster and photobook. I can't wait till they're back in Singapore! Seriously, most, AWESOME band I've ever had the chance to listen to! I can't wait for their latest album "Vice Verses"! Its gonna be AWESOME! I also ordered a few more books. Can't wait for The Language Of Light DVD! But I gotta save now man, feel so broke... :(

So anyway... I'm going to sleep soon, here are some pictures of the beauty box and the picture taken using the beauty box.

In the box


Everything in a small convenient bag!


Whats in the bag?


Its pretty big actually, front part look!


Back part!


Back with my Cactus v5 and Olympus FL-50R


Shot of my E-P1 shot with E-PL2 M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm MKII and the beauty box

Official End Of ITE Life!

Hey guys!!!

Its been almost a week since I last blogged. Been swamped by work since I have to rush work to show the school that I did things during my attachment. I've been working at home over the weekend and OT last Thursday and Friday.

Saturday I met my 2 students Lijuan and Zheng Yan and taught them a little bit more as well as doing night shoot. We shot at Queensway area which was a little pathetic since nothing much there. It's quite scary actually, especially at block 6C since everything is closed, its not as scary as a condemned building though, but still scary on its own. Queenstown is undergoing quite a big change, its already different from when I was there as a kid during my kindergarden days. I've seen it change quite a bit from my secondary school days. I can only imagine how it might look like when I'm in my 30s.

Some day last week, my tripod fell on my toe. It hurts like hell! But apparently no physical bruises can be seen. It doesn't hurt when I walk, but it hurts when I squeeze it.

Sunday was pretty quiet with me basically doing my work and settling some stuff on my to do list. Today I went back to school to submit my log book and well, its finally the end of my ITE life with only graduation left. I sure hope I can get into SP. 18 more days to release of results.

So yea... What else... I just found out the other day that Swtichfoot is coming back to Singapore for a one night only show on the 28th of April! Cool! I bought my tickets yesterday and collected it at Tiong Bahru's authorized agent of SISTIC.



I'm going with Melanie! Not many people I know knows about Switchfoot let alone like them. So thanks Melanie for going with me! Apparently my aunt is going as well hahahah. That's all for today, will be going back to the office tomorrow. Left 4 days of working everyday, after which next week onwards, I'll only have to go back 2 days a week, 8 times a month. Going back to Queensway to settle some photography club and photography stuff as well. I can't wait! Good night world!

Nothing much again

Hey guys!

So yea... Nothing much happened over the past few days, been updating my to do list recently. Been emailing a few different companies recently with regard to possible changing to Nikon system. Nikon replied to me today, and honestly speaking... I gotta say "thanks" a lot... Apparently their grips don't have slots for hand grips like Canon and Olympus cameras, instead relying on a base plate.

Which is fine to me so long as the grip is long enough to have my hand in :S. However! I know many people who read my blog do not know me, but I use handle mount flash. You know those old school flashes? Those beside the camera? Those huge ones? Yea... That type, aka hammerhead flash. So yea... Having a hand strap with a base plate takes up the tripod socket meaning I can't put my flash bracket onto my camera. Even OP Tech doesn't have the solution, their hand strap is ugly and looks thick.

The solution? The solution lies here. Really cool, nice guy that Jim. Replied me pretty quickly and innovative! Looks like it could fit my original Olympus hand strap, or any other third party strap. I don't like those that wrap around the wrist. Seriously... Don't people change lenses when one uses DSLR? I mean... Yea you can get a all in one kind of lens, but if that's the case, why not a fixed lens DSLR? Why go all out to make interchangeable? I digress. Anyway! So yea... Apparently, its a hand strap base plate and a tripod adapter! Meaning I can just snap my freaking camera to my tripod without using the head! Plus point? Its designed not to block the battery door.

Which is all nice except that the freaking Nikon D700 battery door is blocked by the grip if I used one which I will actually... So most likely I won't leave a battery inside the camera but just use the battery in the grip and change when needed. So the design of not blocking the battery door isn't really important to me. Get this... Apparently in the gallery section... There's a hole, which doesn't look like a tripod socket BUT IT IS! Which means I can use my flash! PHEW! But too bad it seems a little short. I wish it was longer...

So yea... Still planning my Nikon system which I honestly hope I never ever have to change to. So yea... 43 Rumors posted this the other day which got me a little bit more troubled over the pro pen. I honestly wonder how would it be like and would it be comfortable to use. Also... Will people take photographers who use the pro PEN seriously? Like... Honestly, would you want a guy, who uses a camera that looks like an OM camera in a world of huge cameras like the Canon 1D and 5D, Nikon D3 and D700? Heck! Even Canon 7D and Nikon D300s! It'll be pretty hard right?

I mean... Yea... Portfolio is important, but imagine going to the event and taking out and people go... "Ermm... Seriously? You're shooting the event with that?" Just a thought though. I wonder if Olympus will run both micro four thirds and four thirds side by side, four thirds just running the E-30 range and E-5 range, basically the level below flagship and flagship. I can only hope.

In any case! I hope to be done with my Nikon list soon. I'm gonna hit the hay now as I've got to shoot tomorrow at Punggol. Good night world!

Almost End Of ITE Life

Hey guys!

So nothing much... Just a few things before I hit the hay. Nothing much happened this week though. Left with 2 weeks of my attachment then I'm officially done with ITE and only left with graduation. Gonna miss my ITE life but at the same time looking forward to poly life. Not so much so about NS life though from what I heard, it will be memorable. I'm sure it will, just whether I like it or not.

The other day, there was this article about Singapore men. Apparently, I'm not one of the guys in that category but apparently I belong to the invisible category. Kinda sucks actually, but then again, it would be sort of "mankind will never be satisfied" though not entirely true. I digress.



So yesterday I went out to shoot video with the Olympus E-PL2, not the best video nor the most interesting nor the sharpest as it was tough focusing in bright light without and cover or electronic viewfinder. Shot with the art filters, combined without any post processing other than transitions and uploaded on youtube in HD. Not too bad, it has manual mode which came in handy when I shot the mynah, extremes of exposure, trees and bird is dark, sky is bright, needed to expose for the mynah.

Shot with various lenses using MMF1 adapter to mount my four third lenses on it. At the end shows how fast and quiet the MSC lenses work

A note on the art filters, when you use art filters to shoot still, and say you choose type II with soft focus, and you go video mode and choose art filter, it will use the art filter that was set in art filter mode, using pop art and soft focus slowed the video down a lot, I didn't do it but it can be done.

Pop art was ok, soft focus, grainy film, pin hole and dramatic tone were pretty slow but the worse being the diorama art filter, I had to wait for quite some time just for a 10 sec clip, play back at normal speed results in a very fast stop motion feel. I choose to shoot from high angle specifically because of diorama, so as to see its effect

It kinda lagged on my computer using windows media player but played fine on VLC player, go figure.



After shooting, I went to Pasir Ris to meet a Clubsnap member to collect my Cactus v5 radio triggers! I was so excited to get them. It's really cool, the 3 images were shot on the Olympus E-PL2, M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm MKII, FL-36R and the V5s!

In the box


Opened


Contents


Also, the name card holder my aunt bought for me is finally here! The circuit-board business card holder from thinkgeek. They sell loads of cool geeky stuff. I'm not into the geeky stuff but some are really cool!



As nice as it is, it could only hold 9 of my business card... Oh well! Not like I've many people to give to so probably 9 is good per trip. What else... OH! I finally got my to do list done, which I've been wanting to get done all week long. What else... Got to work tomorrow and hopefully go through photographic invoice and model release form. I'm honestly a little excited to get ice skating with Hilwah but also very nervous about skating. That's all for now. Good night world!