1/4 Nanoha Takamachi Swimsuit Ver. PVC by Good smile company
I'll be honest, I don't really like the idea of buying reissues so whenever a figure I want completely sells out, usually the only other way to get a copy is to wait for one to show up on the second hand market. It has something to do with my mentality of getting the first one, that being said it really stinks up whenever I found out after searching how and low for something, I later find that the company has made a reissues, it totally invalidates all my previous effort and sort of cheapens the figure I spent so much trying to acquire.....
Journey to Cyprus (11th ~ 16th December 2011)
The flight to Cyprus was packed as expected. Here is after we landed at Dubai international airport. The only really I hate about is that we need to go through security checking again even though we are just transferring. What followed was another 3 hours wait until our flight to Cyprus.
I’ll be traveling to Cyprus.
I’ll be on my way to Cyprus by the time you read this. It’ll only be for a week since it’s for work related training. There are no projects pending until early next year anyway. Hopefully this training will help get some good projects for next year and none of the so-so stuff I worked on so far but with so many projects coming in and so few of us available, I may not have the choice of which project I get to work on since it’s up to the top brass to decide.
As a result, I’ll be missing this year’s Comic Fiesta in KL especially the fact that they’ll have Shimokawa Mikuni and Ceui there but those are the breaks since I need to earn money.
Once again, I’m not too sure about whether or not I’ll have Internet connection in the apartment where I’ll be staying and we can forget about the company Internet since they’ve practically locked out everything except CNN and Reuters. I’ll be bringing my iPad for this trip again but assume that I’ll be out of contact since wireless access is even more limited than wired access except for SMS.
As for photo gear, I’ll be bringing
1. Nikon F6/D700
2. Nikkor 17-35mm
3. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G AF-S
4. Nikkor 105mm f/1.8 AI-S (new toy to play with!)
6. Six rolls of film (2 neopan 400, 2 portra 400 and 2 rolls of Ektar)
I doubt I’ll have any chance of shooting anything interesting considering the short week but heck, it can’t hurt to be at least minimally prepared for something to shoot. After all, weird things have happened before. On the bright side, I’ll be traveling with a senior who is also going for the same training so the trip won’t be so boring.
Looking at the weather forecast, it seems I can expect something akin to winter like weather so I’ll be bringing my winter wear for this trip.
AFA 2011 Day 3 (Event + cosplay report)
Let’s go straight to the main points of today, Cosplay, Cosplay and MORE cosplay! Yesterday, I already attended all the events I wanted! So now today is just getting loot from the exhibits as well as focus on the cosplays!! And boy I was not disappointed!
AFA 2011 day 2 (event + cosplay report)
Today’s event was just as awesome except now all the exhibits were open as well as the main stage events! The crowd was even bigger than yesterday’s one. It would still be a while before the doors open so instead we went around checking out the cosplay scene and let me this is one of the best years’ yet
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AFA 2011 day 2 report will be delayed…..
I’m sorry but I won’t be able to upload the photos until I get back to KL next week because there is just way to many photos to process. My poor iPad can’t take the stress! So instead here I have a photo of the first of many loot! Hahahah managed to finally find it after missing it the last time!
AFA 2011 day 1 (event + cosplay report)
After getting myself settled in and my friend from Penang arrived fashionably late 
, we then made our way to suntec convention center.
Kodak portra 400 new version 2010
I finally had the opportunity to scan them in and work on them. I had a lot of initial problems scanning them in using the default canon scanner software even though Kodak claimed that this film was designed specifically for scanning instead of printing.
Magical girl lyrical Nanoha: Takamachi Nanoha school uniform by Alter
When I first saw this go up for preorder at play-Asia, I knew instantly I had to have her in my collection! No, I’m not a lolikon! Though this is rather different from the usual figures I have collected as it’s modest figure but that is what makes me want it even more!
1/7 Tosaka Rin “Unlimited Blade works” by Good Smile Company
I finally have time to do a proper review of this figure and I’m so glad I spent the whole day doing the photo shoot properly. For those wondering when did I get this figure, refer to here. This figure so far in my opinion is well worth the extra effort although I couldn’t find a good background to shoot with it.
A little background on how I came by this figure, when it was first announced for pre-order I gave it a pass because I knew the price would be well out of my range but then a Hobby Search offered a 20% discount for it and I leaped for it and the rest as they say is history! So how much did I really save? When compared to local price of RM400, after conversion to Ringgit from Yen, I got the figure at Rm350 inclusive of shipping! So yeah! I really am glad I did get this one!
Though I do find one thing odd, most PVC figures comes in the usual sizes of 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, and some even in 1/12 but 1/7? Whatever the reason, the important thing is GSC did the figure justice!
Format 135 or 35mm is the ORIGINAL FULL FRAME!
I almost went berserk a few weeks ago while I was with my Nikon F6 and I bump across some other people doing photography as well. I can’t seem to forget the incident in which they were curious as to why I wasn’t chimping (preview the shot right after taking it). They assumed I was some master of photography and asked if they could see some of my shot and offer some pointers to them
I offered some tips on how to control the adjustments and compose for certain effects but when they asked to see some of my shots, I told them I was shooting film so no preview possible. The next few questions consisted of asking why I was shooting with film when the advent availability of so many digital cameras. To which replied that I only use film camera if I plan to shoot at my pace. This advise no doubt was simply ignored by them and chucked up to me being old fashion.
They then looked through my viewfinder and found it incredible wide (I was shooting with 17-35mm at 17mm hence their surprise). Asked what size of sensor I was using, at that point I knew they didn’t understand what I had said about 35mm and so fourth. I said it was 35mm full-frame.
“No kidding?! Film has full frame just like digital cameras?!” one of them exclaimed. I mentally facepalmed, more people who don’t really understand the minimal basics but I’ve been down this road before myself so I wasn’t so critical. At least I wanted to learn about everything I came across, these people on the other hand were another matter.
I said, “35mm is the original full frame that only now digital cameras have successfully managed to replicate on a mass-production scale…” wouldn’t you know it? They didn’t believe me as they insisted that 35mm copied digital technology because they had seen film canisters at APS-C (Yes there are such things but they were not as common as 135 format). I explained that film comes in many shape and sizes but their mindset were affixed to film copying digital and that it was really not that good when compared to the wonders of digital.
I managed to brush off the conversation as I wanted to enjoy my time instead of wasting it with their endless digital worship (I’m not a technical luddite, I actually work with some of today’s most cutting technology and I do also have my own digital Full frame). Had I brought my own full frame, I think the conversation would have gone like this instead.
“OH FULL FRAME! MUST WORSHIP!”
“WEZ CAN TAKE BETER PICTURE IF ONLY WE WE HAVE’TH FULL FRAME!”
“WE POINT AND CLICK AND MASTERPIECE WOULD COME OUT WITH FULL FRAME CAMS!”
Or something to that effect. I use to think like that but I soon broke out of that thinking and really wanted to improve my skills and still am. I realized I needed to slow down and train myself to think before I shoot and not simply hold down the shutter button and hope for the best. But I digress, the light was not favorable anymore and I was on my way, while those people were still trying to shoot flowers and kept complaining that they didn’t look like they were taken on a beautiful clear blue sky spring day, it was dark and about to rain. Go figure with that type of mentality hoping their cameras can work wonders for them instead of them making wonders with their cameras.
Super GT 2011 Sepang
While this year’s Super GT has improved in certain areas when compared to previous years but sadly since 2009, the race queen palate leaves something to be desire. Ever since 2009, we have been seeing a decline in the number that are sent as well as the quality of the outfits that were tremendously toned-down to comply with Malaysia’s “moral laws” (more on that later). In years before 2009, we could always expect to find beautiful diamond every time but after that, we find an occasional polished diamond or so such as Noa or Yuuna. Now it seems we can’t even find a diamond. (more…)
Back from Super GT 2011!
More photos as soon as I'm down processing them~~
Autocity Super GT Roadshow 2011
So here are my shots! The whole was fun, tiring and hot (not just the ladies but I mean real hot! It was 35 celsius during the day and 30 at night!). To make it worse though, it rained but not long enough nor strong enough to really bring down the temperature, just enough to increase the humidity and make it twice as hot >_<;;
Autocity super gt roadshow 2011 preview
- Group shot curtesy of Calvin Ang
I’m back~! It was fun filled weekend even though if the weather was against us, along with the crowd and so many other factors. I’ll post up the photos in the next few days. I took over 2000 shots so there is going to be quite a bit of sorting out to do.
Managed to get some great shots and so on and score some autographs from the gt queens themselves~~~! ^_^
Also Ayami, remembers some of us although not all of the members from 2008 were there but it’s nice to be remembered.
More to come later!!!
Kodak Portra 160VC
I picked this up during a visit to Keat Cameras in Pudu a month ago for a bargain. It came in one of those 5 roll packs, it’s cheaper to buy them like that and it makes storage easier instead of individual boxes.
My test so far puts this film strictly as a portrait film although it can be used for landscape but you need to really know how to use lighting or else your shots are not going to turn out well. Portra is the other end of the spectrum when compared to Ektar it seems. Where shooting people using Ektar is a waste of a good landscape film, shooting landscape with Portra is an experiment like washing a car with a dishcloth, it can work but it sure as hell is not the best way to do it.
Trouble is, I thought with the moniker VC (vivid colors) this was something with higher saturations and hence suitable for landscape and tried to used it for landscape shooting. So my shots turned out weird….
Fujichrome Trebi 100c
I don’t know what to make of this film, it doesn’t seem like any of the other film though I have read reviews saying it’s like sensia 2 (I never tried that so I can’t comment on it). The colors so far are soft and not very strong, while the contrast is is above average. Sharpness is very good while grain is really fine! I’m not kidding when I say they are fine! But what I like about is that it’s slide and I always prefer slide over negative film any day!
Here are some of the shots I’ve been meaning to upload for a while now. (more…)
Ilford HP5 plus 400 some of Pudu prison
Here is my next installment for HP5 I recently had developed. I only get all my film developed after a while. Due to the hassle of bringing them to the shop and then picking them up follow by scanning and editing. How many of you do your own b&w film development at home?
I know I can probably do the same thing and it’s not hard but since I’m staying with family for now still I can find a better place, I’ve decided to hold off doing my own development till then.
Though what I really want to do is have my own dark room and hand print my own photos but it’s still too cost prohibitive for me. I could just get a printer but I’ve always wanted to do it the old fashion way since it seems a lot more fun and you appreciate the artwork you produced as well as the work of other people who similar hand printed their own photos.
Fujifilm Superia x-tra revisited
When I last used this film, I swore I would never used negative ever again until I came across Kodak Ektar 100. Which forced me to reevaluate whether or not color negative provide a cheaper and effective film solution aside from the more expensive and difficult to find slide film, I decided to look back again at the many roll I had cursed into the box of despair and see if all of the shots were shit. Most of the shots were actually good but the color and sharpness were completely shit, and I know it was not the gear or skill because at that very same shoot, I used slide and they turned out quite well. Hence my reluctance to use color negative ever since.
So I decided to rescan the same roll of film carefully this time and maximise all the details I could obtained from the film and some unsharp masking, see if I could wring out any usable shots at all. Sadly I could only wring out 2 “passable” shots. Though whether or not this will change my opinion about using Superia ever the jury is still out on that one. But at least I know my scanning skill has improved if I could wring out something this time when compared to my previous efforts.
Some of you may remember this is from my Leng Yein shoot so pardon me if this bores you.
Though I have admit, the colors are much nicer this time around.
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Fujifilm Neopan (Presto) 400
I started shooting b&w with this film since I bought a batch from my first trip to Japan back in 2007. In Japan, it’s called Neopan Presto 400 while it’s just Neopan 400 every where else. I don’t think it’s a different film as there doesn’t seem to be any difference at all. Anyway here are some of the latest shots using it.
Some of the shots I’ve posted previously as part of a composite photo so here are the non-composite version.
Kodak Ektar 100
First up, I finally had the opportunity to get some of this film which many have claimed to be the color negative answer to Fujifilm’s Slide velvia. So far though I not sure if this assertion is true or not as my test of this film have yet to yield nothing coming close to slide level though I’m not saying it’s rubbish at least until I can do some more test with this film. Though I will say one thing, the grain on this film is really good so far and the colors are actually very pleasing and avoids the one main problem I faced when using velvia and that is it’s use under artificial light. Ektar performance is much better so far from what I’ve seen.
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Medicom toy RAH Ayanami Rei (Evangelion 2.0) 1/6 scale.
For the pass few weeks, its been raining sometimes for the whole day which is why I haven’t done any outdoor photography for a long time now.
Though that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything at all. Instead I’m taking it as an opportunity to brush up and clear out the backlog of figure shoots that’s been slowly increasing. So I figured let’s try something different and shoot a posable figure this time.
Comic Fiesta 2010 (Cosplay report)
While Danny Choo was nowhere to be seen (except for his doppleganger Wisemen) we do have Mirai here.
Sadly, this will just be a cosplay report of this year’s Comic Fiesta 2010 at Berjaya Time Square (ballroom at the 14th floor) since I didn’t think of bringing a wide angle lens. Instead I just stuck with prime lenses.
A mistake I sorely regret since the event was surprisingly much better than I had anticipated when compared to other anime conventions I had been to around West Malaysia (hint, not low-keyed)
Alter Kos-Mos swimsuit version 1/6
I know this is long overdue but I had some time recently so I decided to finally do a short photoshoot for this figure. I also decided to try something new by using skylight bulbs for this shoot along with my flash. In retrospect I should have gone with the old light tent I usually use. But heck it was a good learning experience.
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