Penang Hill (25th October 2007)
I got a call late night on the 24th from Andytan that they were having an early morning shoot at Penang hill around 6:15am. He asked he I wanted to join. I said yes as I was bored out of my mind that day.
That day was very hazy as usual since the rainy season seemed to have passed and so the haze came back. I don’t know which is worse, non-stop raining or endless haze.
The picture you see here was taken at the top, and I had used only a nikkor 50mm f/1.8. Tip here, while I don’t like the haze but I decided to use it to my advantage by making it look like it was morning mist (Funny I don’t remember mist smelling like cinder ash) and I position myself still there was 3 layer of hills and I purposely included the trees though I don’t think it helped much but still I like how this one turned out.
Nintendo DS (Crimson black)
Photography ethics
Whenever you take a photo especially of the homeless or those down on their luck, do you feel guilty?
Sometimes I do but most of the time I restraint from taking pictures down on their luck. I once did and got a shock when the guy who pretended to be a cripple leaped up and ran away thinking I was some sort of enforcement officer. Talk about getting better.
In any event, if I cannot resist taking photos of beggars, I would then give them about RM5 for the photo and walk away.
I took this one when I was in Japan waiting outside of Yodobashi at Akihabara waiting for my film to be delivered.
I wanted to get a good picture where everyone was moving except him but I guess I didn’t open the shutter long enough. I took this photo “blind shot” meaning I just point my lens with the focal length which I think would have captured what I wanted (Luckily I got it right) without looking through the viewfinder hence I won’t know what I took until after I’ve taken the shot.
I only took 2 shots, the first one was too blurry while this one was tacked sharp but the shutter wasn’t long enough. When I saw this guy I instantly knew I had to get a black and white shot of it along with what mood I wanted to convey.
When I think about it, I don’t know why I felt bad back then when I took the shots. I still don’t know why, I didn’t break any laws or rules. I didn’t exploit the homeless or the unfortunate.
In any event, lesson I learned here is that I should have opened the shutter long enough to blurred the surrounding environment.
So until then pleasant dreams!
Day 5: Kyoto
14th October 2007
The morning was cold and windy, I would be taking the early morning Shinkasen (Hikari) to Kyoto.
Canoscan 8800F
- Since I decided to get serious with film every since I developed those fortia in Japan, I knew I needed a good scanner to scan them in.
- I had a lot of spare cash to burn on my final day in Japan and this was cheap and GOOD!
I could have gotten the Nikon scanner Coolscan V ED but the voltage was fixed to 100~120V while the canoscan 8800f has a power brick that can be swapped out for another power brick that is compatible with the voltage here (if I can find it so for now I just use a step-down adapter as Malaysian voltage is 220~240V)
Setup was somewhat painless as I had to get all the English drivers and programs (I’m still missing the english version of the scangear driver and that photo editing program which I only have in Japanese but still works as language does not hamper function except when trying to understand it is doing) but once I had it setup, usage was simple.
When you want to scan film,
- First simply mount either the mounted film or strips or film onto the provided film mount.
- Take of the white surface thing on the lid of the scanner.
- Place the mounted film on the scanner glass while making sure it lines up with the provided guide lines.
- Select the scanning option
- Then Scan
- Save the scan images and Viola! your pics are ready!
It’s a bit bulky but I don’t give a rat’s ass! The price is also VERY good about Rm900++ while here in Malaysia it sold for Rm2600++ and that is if you can find it!!!
So far most of the new film pics you see in my flickr account are scanned in using this new baby of mine, while I wouldn’t say the scanner does the slides justice but it’s good enough for my needs.
With that concludes my gear review so until then pleasant dreams~~
Izuna, Legend of the unemployed ninja
I have been playing this game since my Brother and Sister bought me a nintendo DS lite (Crimson black version).
I love this game! It’s a dungeon crawler and a very hard one at that, it reminds me of PS2′s Crimson Tears which sadly I didn’t finished as the DVD I bought can’t be read anymore by my PS2. I had played that game so long collecting up all the weapons, fine-tuning my fighting style that I didn’t care if I never progressed in the story as I could spend my whole time in one dungeon looking for things to fight just to level up like mad!
Anyway back to my take on the game, this is almost the same thing though instead of cell shade graphics we are presented with anime style graphics. The story focuses on a female ninja by the name of Izuna and her recently pinked slip family of ninja who are now looking for a new place to live. Upon finding such a place in a very far away village they accidentally broke an ancient agreement between the villagers and the Gods who presided over the village thus incurring their wrath as they curse the villagers by inflicting many types of curse as well as our traveling group of out of work ninjas except for Izuna.
So being the little darling busty heroine of the game, she sets off to set things right and to appease the Gods (by bashing in their skulls!) and that is the story.
The game has been criticized that the game is not really that innovative and that its insanely hard because if were to die in one of the dungeons, you would lose all the items, money you have accumulated along with any items you had brought with you into the dungeon (you get to keep the experience you gained as well as the level which is the only important thing to me) and be brought back to the village stark naked (which is to say, no weapons or anything except for the clothes on your back).
There are ways to exit the dungeon without getting killed and losing all those fabulous equipments which is to either defeat the boss or use an item that teleports you back to the village. Here I use the same strategy I used back in Crimson tears, go into the dungeon with nothing, no weapons except for the item that teleports me back then fight my way as far as possible with nothing except with what I find in the dungeons (which surprisingly have a lot of items you can use laying about) and if I’m about to die, teleport back. Sounds cheap but I like it, though most of the time I never bring that teleport item and instead go in there with the intention of losing all the items I find and just there to gain the experience points.
The benefit of this is that I have no incentive to keep the items that I find in there and will use said items to meet any of my needs, I will use all the super items instead of saving them up. That way I will learn what is the best technique and weapon to use (I will use them till they break).
There are about 5 bosses and sadly I’ve already killed 4 of them. I wish there were more. In any event that is all I have for my review of this game! until then, pleasant dreams ~~~~
To all those marching for our freedom….
I salute you all ! People in the yellow t-shirt! regardless of race or
religion! THANK YOU ALL for you bravery!
I love Fujifilm Fortia SP!
Every since I started to use film I have tried a lot of the fujifilm stuff (no Kodak yet) so far Fortia ranks as my favorite film to use as the colors way cool!
1.Fujifilm Fortia SP
2.Fujifilm Velvia 100
3.Fujifilm Velvia 100F
But that’s for landscape only, for people I prefer Fujifilm Provia 100F. I think I’ll try out Kodak next, here are some shots from Fortia!
Deepavali
So will I go tomorrow? Fight the crowd? Use every ounce of strength I have just to get that elusive Pulitzer prize winning shot?! Hell no!
I seriously do not want to fight the crowd as well as the parking problem since Penang public transportation sucks and heat will murder people.
I’ll just stay at home or go out to QBM (Queensbay mall) and go be an elitist bastard since everyone will probably be all going to the Indian temples thus leaving other places empty.
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