First Post of 2016

I've just finished watching the life lesson youtube video from Stamford MBA lecture. One of the lesson is :"Don't stop renewing yourself".

Here is remembering some good moments of New York in 2015:

New York, Bryant Park in July 2015 

Random shot of a stranger at Central Station.

Playing with water cooler at the Line.

Wall Street Bull.

Empire State Building.

The Liberty Park

 

Sixth Avenue.

The Liberty torch.

Rockefeller Plaza 

St. Thomas Church altar (or St. Patrick's Cathedral). I'm pretty sure it's St. Thomas'.

Photo of the week - Kamakura

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-south-west of Tokyo. Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the Kamakura Period.

As of June 1, 2012, the modern city has an estimated population of 174,412 and a population density of 4,400 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,000 /sq mi). The total area is 39.60 square kilometres (15.29 sq mi). I visited Kamakura on a short sidetrip late Summer 2011 from Tokyo thru NEX. I took a late flight into Tokyo, stayed in a tiny hotel near Kita-Narita and then took the first NEX at 6am to Kamakura.

Kamakura is known for its Buddhist temples (unlike the Shintoism which is followed in majority of Japan) and has a number of "big" Zen temples. The famous sites are Kotoku-in and its Great Buddha, Kencho-ji, and Engaku-ji. The Zen temples and their serenity really touched my heart and soul.

Olympic Sculpture Park at Seattle

Promontory meet up and MBS

Marina bay sands Photo outing.

For this clubSnap outing, I went to have my first Tripod. The guys at TK Photo Funan Mall are very friendly and knowledgable. They patiently explained the feature of 4 sections, ball head, the tripod setup, the long- and short- section, the low-ground setup, etc. I ended up purchasing Sirui K-1204 and G10x head from them, as a set for $349 as well as Kinko Pro-1 58mm lens filter and a lens hood from them. Here is a review from Clubsnap forum on the tripod and head combi. I will most probably write my own review then.

I signed up SmugMug

Smugmug i discovered is the preferred choice of site to host your photos, if you are an aspiring pro photographer, smugmug site is a must. So I did it, i created my (trial) smugmug site.

http://starelle.smugmug.com

And my first gallery

Enjooy!

Posting Profile Photo

I went to networking website and event rather for first time. Vainly trying to find a nice profile photo. Became interested in Photoshops.

So I have been following two videos on youtube on:
1. How to smoothen face:

1. Use Spot Healing Tool
2. Filter/Blur/Surface Blur
3. Duplicate layer with black fill. Pass those thru with White brush.
4. Filter/Sharpen/Smart Sharpen. Then do step 3.
5. Lights - duplicate with Quick Layer Edit (bottom left corner).
6. Duplicate layer and set "Normal" to Saturation -> Duplicate Layer (Ctrl-J) set to Soft Light and Overlay. Play with Opacity. 

2. Another method

1. Copy Red Channel over. Set RGB channel back to liven up.

Holiday morning

This is long weekend in Singapore. Traditionally here we always have the next Monday off if the public holiday falls on a Sunday. It is also a Mother's day. After lazy Sunday morning, we promised instead to wake up today at 530am for morning walk/run and see the sunrise with Mom. So after painful wake up, we were ready, out of the door at 610 with the bike, full running gears, and sleepy eyes.

We walked out... and suddenly it started drizzling merely 3 minutes out! Gosh. What a waste of our morning efforts. So we turned back (I ran to check out if Yakun at Far East Sq was open, it wasn't). Our family promptly went back to bed, with our new comforters :)

I am accompanied by Robert Timm's instant latte, editting my photos now.

Let me recommend a good little app that I am using this morning: FastStone Photo Resizer.

Museum Shots

Some of my favorite practice shots:

Rattan wickets and baskets at the History Gallery, NMS. 

Semi-auto mode 1/8 3.5f @ISO3200 Evaluative Metering, 21mm.

 Lo-Ho objects from recent past. 

The petromak lights (the version in museum were sadly lighted by electric bulbs), water pumps, kompor ijuk (stove stoked by the straws and gasoline), and the stone grinder.

Semi-auto with flash off. 1/25 3.5f ISO3200 18mm.

 "Food" exhibition. I liked this exhibition the most. 

This item is the ice-crusher that I used to see from my childhood days.

1/20 3.5f ISO3200 18mm

Saturday's adventure

Today I went out with mom for some adventure in Orchard. Actually it's because she wanted to check out some "designer bag sale" at *SCAPE, and I needed to collect my race kit for Nike 5KM Goddess run next Saturday.

The designer sale turned out to be dissappointing. It's at 5th level of Scape, but with sparely populated collections (of past seasons, many of the bags look familiar from my few years' ago trip to US Outlets...) and pretty expensive compared to US vs the value of the collection. The Coach bags pricing ranges from $250+ to $400. There are some Kate Spade's, Gucci, and Prada - each less than 15 bags for sure.

Anyway, so Orchard Central was a lovely place for photo shooting.

Here's some result playing with shutter speed:

 Manual, 1/320 4.5f ISO400, Evaluative metering 20mm

Angkor Wat Apr 20

Sunrise waking up @5am to catch Angkor Wat.

AE mode: 1/1600 3.5f ISO 400 18mm @7am.

AE mode: 1/100 3.5f ISO 400 18mm @ 6.47am.

Many people were already there!

Ta Phrom Apr 19

Flash off mode: 1/100 6.3f 21mm ISO100.

Ta Prohm has a feel of the forgotten temple. It was one of most interesting jungle temple in the Angkor Archeological Park. Here is the temple made famous by Tomb Rider movie. And the twisted roots of Banyan and Kapok trees made a bizarre combination with the relic of carved walls and ancient Khmer arts.

AE mode 1/100 3.5f ISO400 20mm

And something for human touch - this little girl swinging at tree branches just outside of Ta Phrom complex.

Read more about Ta Phrom at Wikipedia article.

Angkor Thom Apr 19

Fiery guards at South Gate of the great Angkor Thom complex

Contemplative Buddhist monk quietly at Bayon

The robed Buddha statue and incenses lighted by reverent Buddhist followers

@ Bayon at the Centre of Angkor Thom Complex

KL Chinatown

After numerous visit, here is the view of KL Chinatown (nearest RapidKL : Pasar Seni) captured:

The famous soya bean

Roasted Chestnut. Notice the fake LV bags on display :)

Petaling Street @ afternoon

Neighbourhood

Today, I am wandering around my neighbourhood looking for nice shots. Anything to shoot at.

Here are some results:

Nearby at Hong Lim Complex, a fruits stall next to Barcook Bakery was selling the "King of Fruits" and "Queen of Fruits". Both fruits are thought to be originated from Indonesia.

Durian, is a famous fruit in Southeast Asia region with its infamous foul yet loved smell and creamy centre. It is called the King of Fruit by locals here. It's kind of acquired smell, I have encountered people who loved it lots, or hated it a lot. Very extreme reactions. I for one love it. Especially those with sweet yellow creamy texture, and just chilled out of refrigerator.

Next is Mangosteen or "Manggis" in local language. I always thought it's word association with Mango is funny. Mangosteen, Mango. "Manggis" and "Mangga" for the two corresponding words in Bahasa Indonesia/Malay. Mangosteen is considered the "Queen of fruits" here. In fact there is a pub in Vivo called "The Queen and Mangosteen Gourmet Pub". Mangosteen has shiny dark purplish husk, with 4-5 digits of leaves at the head of the fruit. The flesh is beautiful white soft center, with a large seed. You kind of suck the juicy rather than eating the flesh. It has no smell, which makes a quiet comparison to the smelly Durian.

So a fruit stall with the King and Queen, ladies and gentlemen. It is also thought that it may be poisonous to eat both of these fruits at the same time. I don't know exact scientific reason why, but it may be good to just follow the local advice, afterall, both originated from same place. And the local must have developed local custom after some trial and error, right.

My Practice Shoot

Today I was so excited after getting my SLR.

Here is the first try.

Going straight from Chinatown Point, I went along exploring the South Bridge Road before heading to Maxwell for Rojak.

On my way, I passes Masjid Jamae - that is Jamae Mosque.

I passed by the gated - and took two quick snaps.

First image here on the left: has closer depth of field vs the picture at the bottom where the AF auto focus produces different effect.

However, both images are indicated from my Canon tool has having same ISO, aperture, and shutter speed... 1/10 4.0 ISO3200 Evaluative metering. Focal length 28mm. Why the different in focus?

Random shoot - bday rose:

AE mode: 1/15 5.0 ISO800 35mm.

Buying my First SLR

The Search of my First SLR Camera

Finally... I have decided on my first-ever SLR. Canon EOS 600D. With kit 18-55IS II. Bought screen protector etc at this 4th floor shop at Funan.

Camera is charging and I can't wait to start the adventure.

Top 3 reasons why photography is perfect hobby for me:

1. I am forgetful. Photography is perfect to capture that fleeting moment.

2. Even now, I found that I pay more attention to little things happening in life.

3. For my artistic and sense of creation that I've been craving for a while.

A picture afterall is worth a thousand words.

Resources:

Read review here:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_600D.html

Excellent review from DPreview:

600D vs 60D...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos600d/

And the lens IS that comes with the kit http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_18-55_3p5-5p6_is_c16

600D - Announced in Feb 2011.

And Canon pages - http://www.canon.com.sg/personal/products/dslrs/eos/eos-600dkit-efs-18-55-is-ii