Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Photog Gathering Details: Part Deux!
1. Event name - Check!
2. Date & time - Check!
3. Facebook invitations and all sorts of publicity stuffs - Check!
4. Administrative details - Check!
5. Alot of photog people attending - hmmm...
The Photog Gathering is ON! & It would become a success only if YOU support us.
Your help is needed to keep this tradition alive! As much as possible, we (the alumni) would try to organise a get-together at the end of each year (In this case lets assume jan 2010 is still dec 2009). Hence, please try your very best to make it for the gathering!
I ain't got the time to churn out a top ten list of why you should attend this gathering (as compared to ops ubin) because i have alot of work to do plus it's late and i need to rest and i'm very tired. NEVERTHELESS! I promise it will be fun, or at least i'll try my best to make it even at the expense of my reputation.
No, i'm kidding. Reputation first, fun second.
Please do not Fly airplane. I will KILL you. I swear. But then again you know i'm kidding right? try your best lah okay! The price will be at $10 per pax. I have already absorbed some of the costs. If more people are attending = Lower cost price per entry ($8). Therefore do indicate your interest via google docs or the facebook event thingy. You can also drop me an email/sms !
Will update you guys/gals on the meeting place as the day draws closer
Details:
ECP BBQ PIT 20 (area C)
9th Jan, Sat
1700 - 2300 hours
Special guest PPC!
Happy holidays & remember to do your homework.
Q Out!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
I <3 Japan
The following are some tips i keep in mind when taking travel shots:
1. Go on free and easy trips because tour groups are usually very rushed, crowded and bring you to the place at the worst time of the day (when the sun is in the wrong direction -.-). It's common to hear the tour guide say, "you have 15 mins here!" 15 mins???? shoot what??
2. Look through posters, travel brochures and postcards for "inspiration" and try to reproduce the same effect/composition etc.
3. Don't be afraid of people getting in your photos, include the human element.. This can add life to your place of visit.
4. Shoot details. When everyone is shooting the temple building, walk around and shoot the details.
5. Make sacrifices. If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain. Want to shoot sunrise = wake up early.
6. Be careful not to risk your life when trying to get that shot. Climb, crawl whatever but don't fall off the cliff or into the river. You die is one thing, your camera will peechiah and photos will be all gone LOL
7. Bring a tripod everywhere. It's like an umbrella. When you need it, you have it. Great for couple/group shots (it's funny when people wonder why i don't have live view or try to zoom my 50 mm -.-) and low light surroundings. Acts as walking stick too on treacherous terrains...
8. Grab the shower cap from hotels... It acts as a raincoat for your camera in case it drizzles.
9. For typical "I was there" shots, do not place the person in the centre but rather, at the side (we all know this right?) unless you're trying something different.
10. Most important of all, enjoy yourselves =) When you're happy, your photos show it too ^^
My favourite place in Japan is Kyoto 京都. For this trip, we stayed at a ryokan (traditional inn, sleep on tatami kind) facing Biwako 琵琶湖 (Lake Biwa). From our room, I saw sunrise!! =D ("I" because the husband slept through it LOL)
I also went back to my favourite castle, the most beautiful castle in Japan, Himeji Castle 姫路城(I was there 5 years ago), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you have time to visit only one castle, visit this one. The granddaughter of Ieyasu Tokugawa was married to the Toyotomi family at age 7 and lived there. What's special about this castle is that it's in it's original form because it has never been involved in the evils of war =)
After Kyoto and Osaka (Osaka is for shopping and food LOL), we based ourselves in Nagoya and visited neighbouring sites.
Ise Shrine 伊勢神宮 and Meoto-iwa 夫婦岩
hehehe... in the following picture, the kawaii Japanese girls were posing for their friend's camera so i quickly stole a shot =P
Takayama 高山. I ate snow in Takayama hehehe... tasted like plain ice kachang. Did yo know that a snowflake is a fractal, a Mathematical model in which the pattern repeats itself when you magnify it? A fern leaf is another example of a fractal that occurs in nature. Coolz!
UNESCO World Heritage Site Shirakawa-go 白川郷 was covered in snow too! =D
We built our very first snowman ^^
Thursday, December 24, 2009
JINGLE BELL jingle bell rock...
Tis the season to be jolly ......... fa la la la la la la la la ........... wishing you a
"VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAVE A BLESSED YEAR AHEAD!!!" ^^
Here is a short 2-minute clip of zee dancing tree by meeeeeeeee =p ......... ha ha ....... i wanted to share this with all of you ......
SamSim (:
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Merry Christmas
Enjoy :)
Merry Christmas ! Photog !
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A photo a day
I wonder whatever happened to the "a photo a day section"? Haha... Nevermind... Here's mine for today.
By the way I just opened a photo blog. It's at http://eunicechan-photo.tumblr.com/.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Photog Gathering - Updates!
Friday, December 11, 2009
My thoughts for 2009 Promo Nite Photo Shoot
As usual, we end the night (rather morning) with a celebratory supper (or breakfast). This time round, Elliot, Zhenghui, Angeline and Chin Chye (08/09 exco + the auxiliary member) joined us too. When Gillian announced the approximate revenue (it was approximate as 3 rounds of counting yielded 3 different amounts) to us. Some from the 09/10 exco joyfully proclaimed that they broke the record and were somewhat more successful. Of course all these were said in good nature. :-) And at that point, I made it a point to share with the 09/10 exco that the ones who were successful was really the 08/09 exco.
It really wasn't meant to be lip service.
It not for what the previous exco had achieved, would we (the next batch) have knew what was possible?
And this is where I must thank the 08/09 exco for they have in their own ways made the path easier for the juniors to walk in... the improved printing manual, the 2008 prom nite proposal, coming back for the few days prior to the prom nite to advise the junior...
However there will come a day when the bar might not raise any further... it could be due to a plethora of reasons... 20 people, 1 buy, 19 scanned etc... But does that really matter? I guess not.
I remembered that the takings was going rather slow before the dinner commenced, slower than the previous year and I was a bit worried. Not so much about the amount that we will eventually raised but whether would the 09/10 exco feel discouraged. Hmmm... but being a believer of the theology of 'the process is more important than the results', why should I even be feeling this way? Maybe my conviction is not that strong after all..
But something that I saw that night encouraged me and reminded me that what ever I do as a teacher, what really matter are the students... what are the deep lessons that they have learnt... how their lives are impacted (for the better of course).
So want to hazard a guess what I saw that night???
It was seeing the 08/09 exco + Chin Chye sitting together at the same table...
Maybe I am interpolating beyond what is reasonable... but to me it was a beautiful sight.
This exco has gotten quite a bit of stick from me for their seemingly lack of technical competency (as compared to the seniors) and they were grossly unappreciated for the strengths. Till now, they will remember me for my scoldings and Elliot has a recent nightmare which involved me.
But they stuck to each other and covered for one another.
At this point I must also give special mention to Chin Chye. Though Chin Chye was not an exco member but he threw in his lot with the exco. He was there with them in all their major projects, playing an important role with his technical expertise.
Therefore to see them seated at the same table really gave me a sense of joy.
Ha... maybe its because I am a relational person. But what's the point of gaining the whole world and have no one else to share the world with.
So to the 09/10 exco, do cherish the last 4-5 months of your office... It will be gone in a twinkling of an eye. It will be tough but I believe deep friendships will be forged during this time. Don't believe, look at the 08/09 exco.... If still don't believe, look at the upcoming Photog Cohesion organised by Quentin and Cherish.
PPC
Case of the MISSING doggie at prom!
Prom was a BLASTTTT! I was really excited even though it wasn't my prom night. T.T I can't imagine next year lehhh! I probably wouldn't be able to sleeeppp; freaking out with hair-do. dress.... shoes..... OMGG.
I was the FINANCIAL CONTROLLOR.... heehee... actually CASHIER. :/ and Gillian was the DISTRIBUTION OFFICER (distribute photos). Both of us love making things nice and pretty. So...so gil brought ribbons, flowers and soft toys. ^^ Our table was definitely the prettiest!! *high five gil.
My facial emotions for the evening were as follows:
6.30-7.15 ----- :( [no business]
We kept asking members of exco 08/09 "IS THIS NORMAL??? ARE YOU SUREEEE" You should have seen our worried faces.
7.15-8 --- :1 [business picked up but was pretty slow]
9.oo - 10.00 --- :) [$$$]
10.00 - 12 plus ---- :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD [$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$]
Khushboo also commented to me "Very happy arh sam. Keep smiling and smiling.."
HA HA ...... couldn't help it!!
OKAY. But this is the most HILARIOUS "event" for the evening......
2 JC2 boys (B) came to our table...
B: "Eh. Can you sell us that flower? (we placed a pot of flowers at the front of our table)
Me: Look at gil. Then said "No" -_____-
B: Can lah!
Me: "No"
So they gave up. BUT! came back again..
B: Can lah. Sell us the flower.
Me: Okay. $2000 CASH. We will then sell to you.
So yeah. They didn't have the money. DUH! =.=
We then hid the flower under the table.. but guess what??
They took our soft toy dog that was placed on the table and scooted away!
Gil and I looked at each other. Both our jaws just DROPPED.
So i went to look for them. When I confronted them...
They went "What dog? We never take...we put back already" so contradictory. -___-
So our last resort was to ask PPC. So PPC to the rescueeeee.
He made me walk to every single table to look for the 2 boys. So "paiseh!" :/
Later I spotted one of them near the studio. So I quickly called PPC.
The guy saw me and mumbled under his breath "shit"
So PPC " blah blah blah blah blah......." to the 2 chaps
And we got the toy back. (:
Thanks mr cheng!
MORALE OF THE STORY - i "guarded" the money with my life but hmmm. It didn't occur to me that the plush toy was more attractive. So! never forget the little things!! ^^
Bye bye for now.
I will be back with moreee..... ^^
SamSim (:
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Prom 2009
Viva La (Un)Glam 2009
so anyway, PPC and i reached college at 12pm and we doodeedoodeedoo... where is everybody??? so we decided to wait in the club room. PPC surveyed the stuff on the ground to check that they have packed everything...
erfie was the first to arrive followed by the rest so we loaded the stuff into PPC's fit and my new beetle. the weather was so hot and i was sweating like a cow in my dress and boots... PPC spotted a "sweat mark" on my dress
PPC: is that sweat or...?
me: AAHHH!!! so unglam!!!
PPC: leave it to the kids la...
so i stayed in the car with the air con on full blast... =D we went down to Marriott with shruthi and soon hao in my car... soon hao ZZZZZ all the way while shruthi and i jujujujujuju chatted.
we were about to arrive so shruthi called kenny...
S: hey we're reaching... go to the carpark...
K: which car park?
S: erm... basement carpark or something...
K: there are all sorts of car parks here neh...
S: *to me* kenny say there are all sorts of car parks there so we'll let him know when we reach...
so we finally reached and unloaded everything. Marriott's lift is v stupid one. we parked on level 4, ballroom at level 3 but we had to go to level 1 then switch lift to level 3 -.-
then i went to do my hair (so someone pls fill in the blanks here... hehehe)
i came back with apple and mango strudel for the kids and teriyaki chicken sandwich for PPC...
then chin yee / erfie decided to test print something and somehow, one of the printers seemed to be sleeping. while the other printer was chki chki chki printing, this printer was zzz.... not doing work... PPC was called and he lifted up the cover... still zzz... message on macbook read "install print head" or something...
PPC: ???!!!
open other printer cover and check..
PPC: how come that printer is not moving and no lights???
chin yee: ??? *sweat*
PPC: where's the manual???
erfie passed him the manual...
PPC: where's the print head???
the kids: ???!!!
someone: is it the thing in the aluminium packet??
someone else: it's in club room...
PPC: !!!!!!! *breathe out fire... control* =D ms koh, i need a favour...
me: what?
PPC: can you go back to college??
me: ???!!!! now??? is it still open?
PPC: yes yes...
me: wa but now go and come back with jam can make it meh?? buy from funan? someone's there buying paper right?
PPC: >.< cannot buy print head one la!
me: oh... ok...
PPC: chin yee! you go w ms koh!
so we chiong out of hotel... before i left...
me: LEAVE ONE MANGO STRUDEL for me ha!!!
so i took chin yee and fly car down to college... in the hotel lift...
chin yee: *phew* i thought Mr Cheng is gonna shouted at me... but he didn't =P
me: =D he control... =D
i zhiooped here zhiiooped there and finally reached college.... chin yee jumped out of the car and zhioooped up club room while i tried to perch my car behind Mrs Pang's car but was too kancheong i stepped accelerator instead of brakes >.<||| heng ah, during driving lesson there was a component in which you have to step on the brakes during emergency. it's called E brake... so i applied E brake and avoided langah-ing her car... *pats chest*
went back to hotel...
shruthi: =D sorry... ms koh... we forgot...
erfie: =DDD
me: ya lor... u all ha... never check properly... thank goodness college is still open er!
shruthi: i mean... the... mango... strudel...
me: what?
shruthi: we didn't know it was mango... so we ate everything... then mr cheng said it's mango and we were like oh no!
me: =(( you ate my mango strudel!!!
shruthi: =DDD sorry... you look really good today!!! =DDDD
me: -.-
install print head... everything worked fine so we opened shop!
business was slow in the beginning perhaps because some people thought once we "click" we'd charge them money... so the kids had to explain to them how it worked and tried to pull in business...
wa, then at donno what time, business started picking up and for some funny reason, this year we didn't have many couples so PPC n i didn't get a chance to do our taiwanese wedding photo thingy hehehe... the groups were so large everytime they told us their sizes we'd -____-|||
me: how many people?
them: 20!
me: how many people?
them: 22!
PPC: maximum 20!
them: can la!
kk try... wa can...
me: how many people?
them: 24!!
me: ha???!!!!
PPC: cannot cannot!
them: can la
kk.... ngeh ngeh-ly squeeeeeeeeeezeeee arggh argggh ah ah... wa, can man... record 24!
so because there were so many large groups, with the movement of chairs and people (in stilettos -.-) our backdrop became like giam chye (salted veg...)
robert: hehehe... our paper look more like cloth! =D
there were tears, holes etc.... we tried folding the paper under then after a while we hack la! cut la...! think that was the first time we ever cut backdrop DURING prom shoot... LOL
after that everyone looked v v tired and unglam... i sent two of the non-excos home first while PPC went w exco to newton (eat supper is v bad... grow fat =P) then i think after that the kids decided to wait it out at the airport O.O with soon hao wearing pink head band and eating donno what... to take the first bus back to college...
phew! everyone worked hard and everyone was exhausted... well done, kids! ^^
oh, elliot looked v cool, chin chye looked like forbes' entrepreneur of the year, zheng hui looked smart, vicky looked elegant, shirleen looked like chun li, vanessa looked sexy and angeline... wow, v sweet pretty ^^ phoebe looked like a princess, sharon looked like she came from harajuku and kwan yee looked... shy hahaha... woot!
Post Airport/ Prom
Night @ The Airport
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
My Confession
Since I am done with my exams and have less on mind, I have a confession to make.(I know you people are already salivating at the sound of a juicy gossip.)
I have got myself a mistress and she is beautiful. End of story.
I would very much like to end the post here but my "Wife" interrogate me further for fear that she would be replaced. I assured her of her place in my heart and here are the details:
Firstly, she is beautiful. A classic beauty I got to say. She is also vintage.(An alternative for calling a lady old in which I might be kicked in the groin.) She look like those who had stood the test of time but still emerged looking great. But best of all, she makes me think.
Whenever I was with her, she induced my brain which was seldom used, to think. She makes me think of stuffs like photons, trigonometry and second derivative test for finding curvatures. She is unlike those in Hollywood whose heads we can make percussion music out of. Then after all the work, she rewards with a feast for my eyes. Sadly, they are only for the eyes.
Some say she is rare and delicate enough to be put in museums for all to admire. Others say its a miracle itself that she is still going strong after all this years. But all I know she is called Konica S2.
Yes, she is a camera. A Rangefinder cam to be exact. It uses a system that is very different from the SLR system that many of you are used to. For those who are clueless on what I am talking about, I will now attempt to educate you on it.
A Rangefinder is actually a device which is used to measure the distance of the subject via triangulation. Here's when trigonometry comes into play. Assume that we have a semi-transparent mirror M1 and a reflecting mirror M2. The user will see a rectangle patch of yellow with two images on it. One from the reflecting mirror M2 and the other from the semi-transparent one M2. When the lens is being focused, M1 is rotated such that the angle L will change. The image will be focused when the two images coincident with each other and angle A will be a right angle. At that point in time, the focal range can be calculated using simple trigonometry,
D = B cot L,
where D is the focal range & B is the distance between the 2 mirrors
A is a right angle; L = convergence angle at target T.">
This simple mechanism when well designed in a camera is far more superior in accuracy than the manual focusing in a camera. In an SLR, we relie on our eyes to distinguish sharp from unsharp, the Rangefinder is more "Binary". Its either in or its out, there is no grey area.
However, her real beauty is not its technical superiority. In fact, she would be pwned by many in terms of specs. What I really like about her is that she is a fixed focal length, fixed lens film simple camera and these really makes her deep which is what excites me.
With a fixed focal length, the only zooms are your legs, and they are the best zooms in fact. Framing shots requires you to move around after which you might find better shots. Getting close also allow you to connect to your subject better and this could be another long post on its own which I don't intend to write now. Even Robert Capa, a war photographer once said:"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."
Using a film camera, you have no LCD screen to look at after each shot. You will only know the results when you developed them and if you miss it, then try again next time. Every frame is money and the developing of the films will cost you too, unless you develop yourself. (You can ask Eunice or Kingston about it, they have been shooting film for sometime.) You got to make every shot count.Therefore, you got to think before you squeeze the shutter. (not abt the cost of the shot though -,-)
Am I using the correct aperture ? Are there better angles to shoot from ? Is that the right moment to trigger off the shutter ? Does that frame really show what I want to show ? You should be asking these questions whenever you want to take a shot. If you do not give your shots some thoughts before you shoot it, you are going to end up with tons of pics but you are not improving. Thats because you would not learn anything and will continue shooting like the way you would which makes your level of photography very stagnant. Hence, in every good pictures, its the thoughts thats really counts.
Since all of you are having your breaks now, I pose to you a challenge. Take any camera, go out and shoot and limit yourself to only 36 frames. But every time after you take a shot, turn off the LCD screen. Only review them back home on your com. Then criticize your own shots and see what could be done better. After which,go back and shoot bearing in mind all the things you have thought of. I am sure after sometime, you will improve on your shots and develop a style of your own.
Well for now, I leave you to have fun with the challenge if you are up to it. I will go and savor the time spent with my "wife" and my "mistress".
& in case u wonder, they both get along very well ;) and I still love digital !
Oh and remember to come for the cohesion and where's my club T-shirt Elliot !
Monday, December 7, 2009
On an unrelated note...
SINGAPORE : For $25, a 17-year-old boy told an unemployed man that he would find the man a prostitute.
But after getting the money, Raguvaren Bala told the man that the prostitute did not want to provide any service.
Feeling cheated, 37-year-old Sng Meng Teck called the police and Raguvaren was arrested.
Raguvaren pleaded guilty in court on Monday to cheating Sng of the $25 by lying to him.
Raguvaren will next appear in court on December 28. He is expected to be sentenced then. - TODAY
LOL.