Perspectives of Life

Moved

2011-01-03T00:15:00.001+08:00

Uh huh. Back from the dead and blogging again:

http://pandawithacamera.wordpress.com/

See you there! (;

This blog is

2010-04-20T01:34:00.002+08:00

DEAD

...for now.

No time and too many awesome commitments in my real life to actually update it (:

Or maybe I'll just hibernate it till I'm free or bored to blog again.

Till then,

See ya!

Zexun

One Month Later... (Update for 28th & 29th Jan)

2010-02-16T11:52:00.002+08:00

SAJC ORIENTATION 2010: MOSAIC!

Ok so the first day wasn't fun, at all. AT ALL. My official OG for the first 2 days wasn't enthu at all so I decided to just shoot around. Got to know Jonathan Tan, an old senior (the one who shot the "First At Woodsville" photos outside the LT1). Shot around and got ok pics for the day. Didn't really meet anyone new.

Second day was fun, though. Shooting wet games was really fun, and being soaked from the rain was also quite fun. Photos were good on the day because the people became more enthu!

The end was epic, with the 5 kingdoms gathered on the artificial turf, 3 on 2, and a big battle of water bombs raged. I managed to dodge all direct hits :D

...then this happened.

Camera was ok! Hahahaha~

It was planned and shot by Daniel Teh. Remember him!

Next up... 1D MARK 4 during 2 days of shooting!

One Month Later... (Update for 26th Jan - Tripod)

2010-02-16T11:47:00.002+08:00

So after having my second last day of headstart program (with lots of awesome people!) I scooted down to Cathay Photo with Ho Sung. We were supposed to meet Ben See but in the end we went there late so... nevermind!

What I got was... awesome!

I upgraded my Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod to a 190CX3. The 190XPROB served me well but it was heavy. The 190CX3 is... wow! Really really light! Cost me S$300 (i'm selling my 190xprob for S$180) but it came with real good accessories like a tripod carrying strap, rain covers for camera setup, and a akarui digital cleaning kit which I won't use.

Next up... Orientation Days 1 & 2!

One Month Later... (Update for 24th Jan, CHS 30th Aniv)

2010-02-16T11:30:00.002+08:00

So the night before shooting Rugby, Pastor Michael Teh from Chapel of the Holy Spirit pm'ed me on facebook and requested me to shoot for their 30th Anniversary Dinner. I accepted the assignment on the night after shooting Rugby.

So I got ready for the assignment with my usual kit, but this time I went with just one camera, 3 lenses, 1 flash and a bottle on my belt.

Celebrity guest was Moses Lim, the actor and food connoisseur / critic. Funny guy, and lovely to listen to.

Click the pic to go to the set:

Got a pic of him:

and I got a pic with him :D

Next stop: New Tripod!

One Month Later... (Update for 23rd Jan, Rugby)

2010-02-16T10:59:00.004+08:00

...and I think I've really changed quite a lot. But anyway, lemme update the blog chronologically...

23rd Jan - Rugby Shooting

I had a good time shooting the Curtain Raiser Under14 match for the Jim Wier Cup (if that's how it's spelt). Didn't like how some wide-ies shot on the day, blocking the rest of the... 15 plus photographers. But I've since forgiven them. It's not crucial shots for me anyway.

Went for band right after that.

24th Jan update coming next!

First week

2010-01-17T23:43:00.002+08:00

Aight the first week went past quickly enough. Retainees have this "Headstart Programme" which is basically J1 work. It's going quite ok I guess - the teachers we have are way better now compared to... yeahh you get the point.

Open house came on wednesday, and I had a meeting with Ms. K in the morning to recee the hostel groundbreaking construction site. Ended up not going for GP lesson and my teacher apparently saw me "drinking at the cafe" - not that he scolded me - but he saw wrongly because I never went to the cafe. Lol. Performances were blasty, but quite fun la. Hanged around photog and band room and finally tried shooting video for a short mentor's performance. I like video! But I hate to keep bracing for each shot for like.. few minutes. Crazy stuff. The final mass dance was cool and I got to photograph it. Woohoo! Go tiger mascot! Go glow!

The next day was lessons as per normal, and then the Saint Andrew's Hall groundbreaking ceremony. One hour of prepping, forty-five minutes of talking & praying, FIVE minutes of groundbreaking, forty-five minutes of shooting people eat. In short: The most boring three hours of my photographic event coverage.

Thursday and Friday were normal, except that Dion had officially left the college. We'll miss you, bro ;)

Sat was band in the morning, then lunch, then I went back home and felt super tired. Rested and couldn't attend church again =( Woke up at 10pm for dinner + Star Wars movie on channel 5 and watched TV till like 2am. Went to sleep at 4.30am...

...and woke up before noon this morning. HUH?!?! My body's crazy. Anyway I packed up my entire room & study today! So proud! Haha! And my house is getting lessy messy all around now, with the hall being almost totally free of "moving-house boxes". Yes, we're THAT slow.

School tomorrow, gotta go!

School Year 2010

2010-01-11T22:04:00.002+08:00

It has begun. NOOOOOOOOO.

Oh well, I survived the first day. Sure will survive the whole year, right?? =(

Btw congrats to all O levelers for jumping another hurdle in life. Doesn't matter if you get good or not so good results - just gotta keep on keeping on ;)

Hectic days!

2010-01-09T18:39:00.004+08:00

Bleahhh, just came back from Tune In and i'm totally drained, not from the playing or the photography, but mainly the moving-around-between-stations for games. NEED TO SLEEP! T'was fun, though. Very sadistic fun. Photos on facebook soon ;)

Anyway, I googled "zexun star wars" just because someone commented that I was a star wars fan, and then I found this:

LINK TO FORUM POST

Yes, some star wars fan apparently loves me so much that he created a chracter on a fanfictiony web forum. I have no connection to him, but apparently the personality and skills are strangely... very, VERY similar:

Name: Zexun

Species: Zalbrak

Age: 21
...
...

Personality: Zexun is a bit stubborn, but can appear harsh at times becuase of his unbending ideas, as to how things should be.

...

Skills/Abilities: He loves toying with computers, it's what he does when not lightsaber practiving with his double bladed lightsaber so that he can fully master it, the counsil looks down at this, and say that he should spend more time practicing keeping the peace then trying to learn how to defeat one's enemies faster. The students will sometimes challenge him to a lightsaber match, always some young gun trying to beat him, but other students make it a goal to be able to match Zexun in combat.

Oh my...

Btw yes I missed church today. Ugh.

2009 in review - 2010 outlook - Gear

2010-01-01T01:56:00.004+08:00

Well, this year's been a decent year for me gear wise. I initially was craving for many many things but then once I decided on the bare needs, I didn't splurge more from then on.

This year, I sold:

Gitai Tripod - S$80
EF 50mm 1.8II - S$100
EF 85mm 1.8 USM - S$490
Lowepro Primus AW - S$185
Lowepro Toploader 75AW - S$76
Lowepro Stealth Reporter D200AW - S$90
Lowepro 60AW Pouch - S$20
Lowepro Lens Case 1W - S$20
Think Tank Streetwalker Hard Drive - S$200

and I bought:

EOS 1D Mark II N - S$1.8k
EF 50mm 1.4 USM - S$580
Blackrapid Rstrap RS4 - S$70+
Cotton Carrier - S$236
Manfrotto 680B + 234RC - S$157
Manfrotto 190xprob tripod - S$180ish
Kirk BH-3 ballhead - S$270
Markins PG-50 plate - S$80
Think Tank Airport Takeoff - S$419
Think Tank Steroid Speed Belt, Lens Changer 25, Whip It Out, Lightning Fast - S$220
Yong Nuo Radio Remote - S$45
Tagotech 60x60cm softbox - S$83 with delivery
Macbook 13" Unibody non pro - S$2200
Sandisk Ultra 8GB 30mb/s CF - S$53
Sandisk All-in-One Card Reader - S$55
Set of flash triggers - S$115
Crumpler 7MDH

Sold: S$1261
Bought: S$4469
Approx Nett Input for gear: S$3208

Work pay: S$320 (wedding) + S$12 (tips) + S$660 (MusicGear Accessories) = S$992

Thankfully not as bad as last year, where the amount went up to about S$5k.

2010 Outlook for Photographic Gear

Wishlist:

Kenko 1.4x TC - S$147

Spyder3pro Display Calibrator- S$255

Gitzo GT2541 or GT3531S - S$940

Kirk Monopod Head - US$96 + shipping

RRS L plate 1D2N - Used US$79 + shipping

EOS 5D Classic - Used S$1800
or
EF 400mm 5.6L - New S$1800

2009-12-31T03:32:00.001+08:00

Photo: Jeremy Chan

Photo shows yours truly in action shooting a pile of oboe reeds in their cases, with a 1DmkIIn and 100macro nonL and tubes.

Strobe setup for all white background images are as follows:

Key light is an Elinchrom Quadra with a 44cm Beauty Dish while a flagged SB800 and 580EXII lit the background. Shot with 2 sheets of white mahjong paper and a very large (and heavy) transparent acrylic board.

Props to J-Chan for shooting with me, and to Snapperholic for loaning the macro lens and tubes.

Rest of (some of) the images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/headshotzx/sets/72157623102465868/

Photography Wishlist!

2009-12-26T01:48:00.003+08:00

Photography wishlist for 2010:

- Get to shoot with a new 1D mark IV (no $$ to buy!)

- Earn S$2k from paid shoots during weekends and holidays

Buy:

Spyder3pro Display Calibrator (S$245 on offer)

Kenko 1.4x Teleconverter (S$147 on offer)

ReallyRightStuff L plate for 1D Mark II N (US$183 + shipping)

Kirk Modified Manfrotto Monopod Head (US$96 + shipping)

Gitzo GT2541 or GT3531S tripod (S$940 new for both)

EF 400mm f/5.6L lens (S$1.4k used, S$1.8k new) for birding & sports

EF 100mm f/2.8 macro non L/IS lens (S$700 used, S$850 new) for macro

Marreh Kwismus to all!

2009-12-25T01:54:00.002+08:00

Wonderful day today! Woke up in the late morning, had lunch at a local food center and went to pass Ziteng some camera stuff at Punggol. Went back to the supermart near the food court and got some snacks for presents! Then proceeded back home, slept for awhile and then started frantically wrapping presents AND THEN I realised that I didn't have enough wrappers. Onoz! Fortunately not everyone was there today during service, so I didn't give out everything.

But anyway, my parents came to service today. I know year by year, a heart is getting softened ;) ANYWAY! The drama production this year was really really good! Acting was jawsum, and the *spoiler* reference to the Heineken beer ad as well as the I Gotta Feeling dance was unexpected! And they had a real baby for baby Jesus! Wow! Mad grats to a great production!

Didn't go for overnight PM cos my family wanted to go eat satay. And we did! Headed off to Lau Pa Sat!

Was supposed to go shoot the esplanade and all that tonight, but only the tops of the esplanade were lit up, so I asked my dad to not bother, and head back home.

At least I used my tripod for a (personally) great shot above ;)

Once again, I'd like to wish you all a very very Merry Christmas!! But remember! Jesus is the reason for the season!!

God bless,
Zexun

MORE SHOPPING!

2009-12-24T01:42:00.003+08:00

So anyway, yesterday was a good day for me! I went to windworks' office to meet Sean for a product photoshoot discussion and I was met with very accommodating people there who helped me with stuff.

Right after that I went to Tampines Lot One, albeit a little too early for my parents hadn't ended work yet. Roamed around, got some snacks, talked a little over the phone with some people just to kill time, then my parents came. We went to G2000 to try out some stuff but they all didn't suit me, so we went nearby to Recoil and wooo, I got one long sleeved shirt, one shirt and a striped polo! Tis the season to spend money... falala lalaaa lala laaa laaaaaa...

Which held true today as well. Woke up late at around 11.30 and surfed the net awhile. LRT'ed with Olivia to Sengkang where I left the train to meet Jeremy (chan). Thought of eating subway but thennnn he told me to go to Quiznos at Orchard Central. I shouldn't have followed him. I AM SPOILT FOR LIFE. I WILL NOT SEE SUBWAY EQUALLY AGAIN. Ugh!

Anyway we talked stupid stuff while we went around, and then ended up at TK Foto where I tried out a Gitzo GT2541 and GT3531S. WOW, the 3 series is so much more stable! might be overkill for me, but hey they are the same price! S$940. Gotta save up to that! Left with a Markins PG-50 camera arca-swiss compatible quick release plate for S$80 and headed over to Cathay Photo.

Met Nicholas Yeo and his dad there and they went off with some video accessories for their 5D2. Jeremy got himself a reflector adapter anddddd a beauty dish, also called the silver wok. Sheesh, it's BIG. And awesome. And pricey! At least he got a deflector with it (included in the price).

We talked on the way back, and I decided to head into Pastamania for a quick evening pre-dinner pasta meal. T'was alright I guess. Not really that worth the money though, but it was nice! Chatted about the upcoming musical instruments product photoshoot (he's collaborating with me on that one) and I headed home. Met Huiting, Magdelyn and Candice on the MRT platform area and I almost didn't make it through into the train in time cos Candice was like "whoa why are you here! where did you go! Go out with your gf is it?" SORRY! NO GF YET! HAHA xD

Crazy day, and very fun.

It's XMAS eve now! Ho ho ho!

Photo Update

2009-12-22T02:03:00.003+08:00

Stephen & Sandra's AD Wedding, my first wedding shoot as a main/only photographer:

Enjoy!

Update!

2009-12-17T12:38:00.002+08:00

It's been a fun few days haha!

My bday was spent with SAJC Band and other bands at Band Fiesta 09 @ Botanic Gardens. Everything went pretty smoothly (to me) with no hitches, and it was a fun time together! The flash of red from our santa hats were, quote my mom, "Amazing" especially against the backdrop of white x'mas lights hanging from the trees. Went back to band room tired and got an awesome gift from my section (Thanks everyone!! :DD) and a taupok from the guys. Hao Ming's belly cushioned me! HAHAHA. Oh and there was that unglam doublechin photo with Jo*ahem*anne. Pics up soon on FB and my blog!

Monday was a rest day for me, so I woke up at 1.30++, msn'ed awhile and... then I saw crows fighting with the neighbourhood's oriole. Too bad I didn't get a shot of them fighting, but I rushed down with my gear to shoot the birds. First time I'm shooting BIF's with my 1D2N and it handled great!

Found a new species in the neighbourhood (I think). Black naped oriole:

Tuesday was lol. Woke up and the weather sucked. How to go sentosa to suntan?! Then the weather cleared up but I was still at home when Chee Yang, Dion and John were already at vivo. Whoops! Rushed down, had a blast, got rad (red) and headed home with Chee. Only when I was about to bathe did the redness in the skin really start to hurt a lil. Now i'm just pink, but man, looking like a two-toned lobster (red in front, fair behind, cos I didn't tan my back much) is just WEIRD and PAIN. Haha! Pics (camwhore / non-unglam) will be up on FB soon!

Wednesday... went to band at 8.30 aaaaaaand got greeted by a bday cake... with a Mojojojo picture on it -.- THANKS SO MUCH HOR, SECTION. HAHAHA. But the cake was awesome and whoever picked it was awesome. Aiya nvm, you girls are all awesome la. And i'm YD. LOL. Pract was weird cos I wasn't in a right state of mind, couldn't concentrate and whoop, made so many mistakes during sightreading. Ah well. Went back home after that (instead of having a meeting with Sean Tan @ Windworks for a product photoshoot) and rested. Went to AMK hub thereafter for a band get-together and ate Fish&Co. SUPER UNGLAM I TELL YOU. The standard stand-on-the-chair-with-sparkler-'cos-its-your-birthday thing. Bleh. AA a bit and started to dance lol. After that we spent almost 1.5 hours hanging around at one spot being amused by Darren's sister. SO CUTE! HAHA. Pics many many, upload to facebook soon.

Right now, I'm just moving houses: ~700GB of photos. 36 hours. Ugh.

Have a good day! :D

TA DADA TAAAA!!

2009-12-13T00:47:00.002+08:00

SEVENTEEN :D

I am blessed, really!

Wedding shoot was great!
Prom night shoot worked ok!
Camera performed flawlessly in the 2 shoots
I purchased a Sandisk all-in-1 card reader and 8GB Ultra CF card with my own shoot money
I purchased a Crumpler 7MDH with my own shoot money @ S$100 for a really new one, saving me S$77!

Looks awesome, eh?

Thanks for all the Bday wishes so far, and upcoming ones!

Cheers,
Zexun

The Eagle Has Landed

2009-12-04T21:07:00.000+08:00

Harrowing Week

2009-11-28T17:35:00.002+08:00

Being sick totally sucks.

Being sick and still having 2 shoots and band practice is even suckier.

Thankfully I'm getting better by the day since Sunday, and well, I hope that my sickness doesn't drag into band camp.

Hope that band camp is good.

And my camera's shipped after an irritating week of getting money to the seller via paypal in the US. Good thing too, because I have a wedding shoot next Sunday.

Gonna go meet the wedding client with Mervin later.

Cya!

Boomz baby!

2009-11-22T12:00:00.003+08:00

Going to be mine.

148k shutter, condition 8/10.

Reserved from POTNer over in US, Orange County, Califonia.

Price? USD$1115 without shipping, USD$1200 with shipping at max.

Converted to SGD, it's S$1800 at max.

Price in Singapore? S$2300 minimum, S$2400 average.

Woohoo!

First time buying from online too! Got a paypal linked to my dad and stuff. Money coming in soon, hopefully gonna get it before a wedding assignment in Dec.

Tripod Awesomeness Comes At A Price

2009-11-15T02:21:00.001+08:00

And that price is S$270.

Yes, S$270 for something that costs S$420 when bought new + shipping.

I am happy. No, I am elated. No, I am hopelessly joyful.

Got this used from a local seller at S$270, a complete steal compared to the new online price + shipping, about S$420! It's a great ballhead, really smooth when I want it to be, tense when I want it (friction knob). Panning base is silky smooth as well, so I'll use this for my simple horizontal video panning needs (friction adjustability). Upgraded from a Manfrotto 486RC2. My Dec bday presents will probably be a whole lot of aluminum (Tripod plates).

It.Is.FINISHED

2009-11-12T17:03:00.002+08:00

Thus saith Project Work: It. Is. FINISHED. And so he gaveth his last breath and went on into eternity.

Project Work Oral Presentation was completely improvised to be honest, more so for my part more than any other group members. I hope the improvisation (spawned from me messing up my cue-card-script) allowed me to show better audience participation and awareness in the assessors' views. The slide syncs were good, the video brought smiles to the assessors, the video game was timed almost correctly (sigh! haha) and the last skit was fun to do. Dance was meh, but oh well. Q&A was a mixed bunch to me. On one hand, many people said that what I said was impressive, and that I talked so much. Gajen secretly put up the "time is up" notice paper when I was talking... that idiot, haha. Yet on the other hand, it seemed like a talked a bit too much crap, for the lack of a better term, but I am sure that I answered the question in the format that the assessors would've expected and wanted. Too bad they didn't ask me about my own slides.

Chalet was great! Met up with the guys at night and we talked, we cooked, we talked, we cooked, we fed 7 stray cats with food, we cooked some more, I had some more practice in card games which I am hopeless at, aaaandd... Then 6 of us guys crammed together onto one queen sized bed and tried to sleep one atop another. I was like, dozing off really well after every 15min; in a semi-conscious state, then stupid chee yang had to keep coughing. MY HEAD WAS ON HIS TUMMY AREA. Jolted back up every time. Then Sean's head was on my tummy. Super fail. Sean and Chee Yang left the room and then we tried to sleep in lines, which worked a little I guess. That was at like 4am. At 5am, Justin turned into Joshua. Then at 6am, Gajen turned into Justin, and vice versa at 7am. Weirdddos. I won't even start talking about the gayness that was going on man. Sheesh, Sean.

Breakfast'ed at Changi Village with some early birds this morning, then went back to the chalet to shower and sleep. Hanged around for awhile, listened to some people try playing Allan's Er Hu, and then we went up to the place (for the sake of indemnity) and Sean humji'ed out with Jethro. Haha. Got chased down by circumstances when an unexpected car came into the place. Oh well.

Bus'ed with the guys to Tampines Int, then took 3 home - a really really long ride home.

Bathed, surfed, and here I am.

NEED.TO.SLEEP.

Yes, I will sleep, but here's a material update for myself!

- Reserved a Kirk BH-3 Professional Ballhead from a seller @ S$270, viewing later
- Going to sell my Manfrotto 486RC2 head for S$100 BNP. PM/SMS me
- Going to purchase a Sandisk All-in-One usb card reader & 1TB hard drive @ SITEX
- Going to purchase a Think Tank Photo Speed Demon soon

Sleep

PW SA061 - Battle Of The Bulge - Videos

2009-11-08T23:43:00.001+08:00

Fin! Complete! Done!

2009-11-06T11:43:00.003+08:00

I'm partial towards a 5D2 + 35L + 85 1.8 / 135L setup instead of a 1D4 setup now. The full frame aspect is insanely awesome, and the 5D2 wasn't TOO slow for me during the two days I borrowed it.

Some shots while on the Punggol LRT, with gorgeous skies and editing:

And I love to shoot cats (on my 400D):

So anyway, like I said, I borrowed a 5D2 from Andy's cousin (Selwyn) and it worked our really well for me!

PW Production Filming is done after 1 week of conceptualisation and filming! Had a great day on wed! After school, Nurul Ry-ain SeaCrest, JoshyBomBom, Fahmz & Raphael Angelo came to my place, had PIZZA HUT lunch (+30 laps of swimming now =/ ) and then filmed the whole day from like 3pm to 7pm. I love our video! Too bad I can't post it up. Bloopers video will be up on facebook later today!

I also think that Mr Lim is really really either biased towards certain people in our group, or really gullible. He gave me a 17/18 for our last OP dry run, and I was still using a script. The only thing I did differently was fold the a4 paper into two, have the paper down when he wasn't looking, stare at two seats on my left and right for two seconds when he was looking, and when his head went down to his paper, script came up and I memorised the next few lines. Wahahahaa.

Anyway, photo links:

Andre's Bday Surprise:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122586

Andre's Bday BBQ:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123929

Granduncle's 80th Bday:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123923

PW Filming Day:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123745

Cheers!

Update! Woohoo!

2009-11-03T01:18:00.002+08:00

So, it's been a fun few days!

Friday, the school had a Thanksgiving Chapel with Holy Communion. First time I've seen it done in school, and the entire event was good to shoot. Of course, I partook of the elements as well. Had more PW after that, and since Joy and Jebi couldn't turn up for sectionals, I cancelled it. Sorry Li Ying! Haha. Went home, bathed, ate, put my head on the pillow. Woke up at 9pm. Whoa haha, missed cell group. Doh!

Sat was normal as usual. Band in the morning, early dismissal - a little ball fun; a little tcss, lunch with bandits, home to rest, too tired for church, slept in, woke up from my nap to a freaky storm. It was raaaiingg so heavily haha. Watched simpsons Halloween marathon, and Shutter (horror movie involving a photographer) and slept.

Sun was gluttony. Gluttony is sin. Woke at 10.30am, 10 course teo chew restaurant lunch to celebrate my granduncle's 80th bday @ 12noon, Andre's Bday Surprise BBQ @ 4pm, Katong Laksa @ 9pm. Haha, my stomach was full, man. Bumped into Nick at around the laksa place when he was going back home.

Nothing much happened today.

But tonight, woohoo... I managed to borrow a 5D2 from my friend's cousin. Thanks Selwyn and Andy! Full frame is love. I'm gonna film some PW shots tmr with it.

Have a great week ahead!

Project Work Videography

2009-10-28T11:53:00.000+08:00

From conceptualisation to pre-production in a single day! I'm happy! :D

My Life Is Awesome

2009-10-26T23:56:00.000+08:00

Updates!

2009-10-26T00:58:00.003+08:00

SMU - Colors Of Symphonia

Strobist Outing with Benjamin & Ryan:

After our first outing today, my parents picked me up to go to Northpoint for dinner. They had to exchange some clothes at Hang Ten, so I got myself a green polo tee and a long sleeved tee there. Went to converse and got some more socks for myself. Then as I was walking around, I passed by Punk Star and saw that they had this 'panda rocker' kind of a tee, so I got that as well for S$25.

Came home, went to edit the heck out of Joy's PW WR because the format was crap on my comp, and printed. Bathed, edited photos, uploaded, and here I am.

And I've decided... Instead of all S$150 of my savings going into photography, I'm gonna have like, S$50 go into clothes and S$100 into photography any month. Spend any time. Haha.

PW week tmr!

Oh, all the best to all the O levelers our there!

'Bye!

Perspectives of Life

2009-10-24T23:28:00.002+08:00

Jesus says: "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

- John 4:14

Once we understand our eternal need, we shall never really want again.

For eternity,

I do not want more camera equipment.
I do not want more computers.
I do not want more money.
I do not want good food.
I do not want a bigger house.
I do not want any materialistic things.

I want the love of God to be with me
I want the Holy Spirit to lead me
I want my life to be a difference to others
I want to have a purpose in life to exalt His name
I want to be the Light to that which is Darkness
I want to have good personal relationships with God
I want to have good personal relationships with Man

I want to have a changed father
one who is socially aware and spiritually sound
one who makes the family more united
one who makes home seem like a happy place
one who isn't pessimistic about life in general
one who is less materialistic at the core
one who abides by the law
one who cares about eternity rather than the present
one who doesn't think of condominiums and cars
one who doesn't think of the above while in debt
one who Believes
one who will cast out a physical idol sitting on my piano

I want to have a changed father
one who is.

I stay believing.
I stay faithful.
I stay believing.
I stay hopeful.
I stay believing.
I stay expectant.

What else would I want for eternity?

---

If this post is any indication at all, there's been a thing between my father and I all my life since I've been able to think. Unlike a bad person you so often get to meet, I can't cast my father aside like we blacklist a bad person's name in our minds. No, his bold name will always be with the title "parent", or "father".

Yes, I will always love him.
Yes, I will always appreciate him.
Yes, I will always appreciate his deeds.

But he has never been a role model in my life.
But he has never garnered parental respect from me.

I do not want a 1D mark 4
I do not want a 5D mark 2
I do not want 24L 35L 85L 135L 24-70L
I do not want the new iMac
I do not want any Korea trip

I just want, what is best
Not for the present, but for the future
Not for the present, but for eternity

Signing off, a humbled believer.

Zexun

Zee Question

2009-10-20T17:56:00.001+08:00

The question is:

4k in 2009

or

7k in 2010

5D mark 2 or 1D Mark 4

Big Update

2009-10-16T12:47:00.002+08:00

Confirmed: EOS 7D at end of year + Rode VideoMic or Zoom H4n

Likely: Band performance on my bday -.- , Vacation to South Korea, repeat JC1, good PW results (heh...)

Busted: Band Tour to Brisbane, any hope to go to JC2 (but hey, at least I'm prepared to get a stronger J1 foundation)

What the world thinks is a failure, God might uphold as a success

Success is moving from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm

Think Tank Photo Airport TakeOff

2009-10-05T01:12:00.002+08:00

The price of awesomeness is now S$419

I'm so happy that my shoulders are finally free from the 10-12kg of gear I lug around to shoots. I also love the fact that you can put other things on te bag and still roll it, such as a daypack or plastic bags filled with stuff.

Everything is integrated so well. It fits all my gear, plus more. Replaceable parts mean that this bag can last a long time, and a lifetime warranty guarantees that it does.

I'm extremely happy with this bag, and I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for a roller.

SAJC Inter-House Games 2009

2009-10-01T20:41:00.002+08:00

1Dmark2, 40D, 17-40L, 70-200 2.8L IS, Cotton Carrier.

Most fun: Tchoukball, shooting from behind the net/goal thing.
Least fun: Prize presentation. Guess it was okay when the teach gave me a free ice cream voucher as well. Haha!

Enjoy the pics!

Zx

0. Boomz.

2009-09-30T01:20:00.002+08:00

Alright. Promos over. Whatever.

Went out with Ryan today 'cause he had to work at newton and I had to buy something from city hall anyway. Met Ziteng first at PP mrt and he passed me his 40D and crumpler 6mdh. Thanks guy! Ryan came by in a cab and mrt'ed with me. Well, FIRST he showed me and let me have his 1D2 (mounted on my 70-200 which I got back from Guo Hao, who got it from Ziteng, who got it from me about three weeks back). Walked into the MRT, and everyone stared at the setup. Haha, expected eh?

We went to eat at Subway @ Funan first, then walked around a whole lot. Checked out... err... some bags, some benro tripods/monopods (that couldn't even stay tightened and extended, wth?) and lenses like the sigma 300 2.8 and canon TS-E 24L. Went to get my flash transmitter replaced (mine burnt up) from ruby photo. Walked by The Camera Workshop, then one uncle inside called ryan and I in. Talked awhile and he urged us to try the 300 2.8L on sale. SHARRRP. But expensive =( S$4.2k. Augh. Nice guy, though.

Walked back to MRT and MRT'ed to dhouby with ryan, and MRT'ed back to Punggol. Shot some street photography stuff (a kid, punggol landscape) and alighted. On the way home, I shot a few birds near my block. The 1D2 was awesome. Fast and furious, 8.5fps. Win!

Back home, before I settled down, Ryan called me. Turns out there was a blackout where he worked and he got sent home 5 mins later. HAHA. Fail-tastic day for him I guess.

Oh, mom came home with the package in the mail. Think Tank Photo sent me a Pixel Pocket memory card wallet worth S$23. Awesome!

1D2 + 70-200. One of the best ways for me to get arm fatigue for the next week.

Anyways, here are some photos:

Gear

Tilt shift:

300 2.8L non IS:

Street:

Birds:

Tired.

1

2009-09-28T12:15:00.002+08:00

Car CRASH!
Train WRECK!
Plane ASSPLODE!
Math Paper go BOOMZ!

Boomz boomz boomz!

I see rad.

2

2009-09-26T03:05:00.003+08:00

Most awesome student ever! Read the joke:

There was a student in a large class in a lecture hall at a university and they were all taking their final exam. He arrived a little late but got started. The professor had already indicated that no exams could be turned in late, and once the time was up, that was all the time they had.

The class finally ended and one by one the students began placing their exams on the professor's desk. The student who arrived late was still working on his exam and the professor sat patiently, eagerly awaiting the student to come forward so he could tell him that he failed.

10 minutes went by and the student finished up his exam, and was bringing it up to the professor when he said in a booming voice "You sir have failed! If you had bothered to come to class on time, you would know that I am not accepting late papers."

Unfazed, the student asked the professor "Do you know who I am?"

Puzzled the professor replied "Why no, I do not. But it doesn't matter if you are the son of the Dean, I'm still going to fail you."

The student just smiled back, lifted the stack of exams, put his in and placed the rest back on the top, straightening them out, and walked out the door.

3

2009-09-24T11:20:00.001+08:00

First I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live
with promos by my side
But then I spent my Thusday noon
Thinking how I screwed econs
And I grew strong
And I learnt to study on

So now I'm back
with just three left
na na nana la la lala
I'm still freaking sad
I should have studied more
I should have studied hard
If I had known just for a second
That Econs would be this screwed

On why i bring my camera everywhere, why I shoot, and the dearly departed.

2009-09-14T23:21:00.003+08:00

Me, a sixteen year old, toting a camera around everywhere. In my hands, in the bag, on the table - it's usually around me all the time.

Some people tell me: Are you nuts? It's so heavy! Some comment: You're setting yourself up for easy theft! And my classmates (and sometimes, teachers) go: Camera man! Stop bringing your camera around and go study!

The classic question: Why do you bring your camera with you everywhere you go?

This is why.

On the 13th of May 2008, I brought my camera to (secondary) school as always. Just a simple 'newbie' setup. A gripped 400D, and a 50 1.8II. Classes chugged along on and on. Then it was our Chinese lesson, the most dreaded lesson to us.

Oh how us Chinese "B syllabus" / "failures" hated the lesson - one hour of Chinese. We were the ones with "no hope" for Mandarin. Yet our teacher tried to ease our burdens, knowing that we disliked the language and had practically no grasp over it. He would translate each sentence into English for us, hoping that we would gain just a little bit of knowledge out of that hour. He would give us short breaks during the lesson and sought to know each one of us a little better.

I got bored and shot some photos of him without him realising (and if he did, he didn't acknowledge). And then, after an excruciating fifteen minutes, the bell rang and off we went to our next class.

I went home that day, downloaded the photographs to my computer, and didn't bother about them any more.

Seven months later, I graduated with a Merit (the highest grade) in my Chinese 'B' Language. My teacher congratulated me while grinning ear to ear. "See! I knew you could do it!" he said in Mandarin. I laughed, thanked him, and left the school compound.

That was the last time we really talked.

Earlier today, I got news from my mom who works at a boarding house associated with my old school, that my chinese 'b' teacher, Mr Koh, had passed away on Saturday after having a stroke and slipping into a coma.

This was the photograph, the last one of him I ever got to shoot:

It's not a particularly great photograph. It's technically and artistically flawed in various ways. It was underexposed and slightly out of focus. The subjects were standing awkwardly. The lighting was florescent and horrible. It needed lots of post production just now when I reopened it.

Yet, it is the one photograph that I will always remember Mr Koh by. And now with technology helping me, so will many other ex-students who can relate to the scene in the photograph.

His grand nephew is one of my secondary school batch mates, and we are currently collaborating on a large print of this photograph, with signatures and messages at the back of the frame from as many as students as possible.

Yes, that is why I bring my camera everywhere. To let other people see the world as I see it. And often, to let other people see the good in other people, past and present, living and gone.

Thank you, Lord, for having me be at the right time, at the right place, in the right class. To be able to depress the shutter when You wanted me to. To immortalise the dearly departed in a photograph, forever, so that he may be remembered for who he was, what he did, and the lives he changed.

Rest In Peace, Mr Koh. You will always have a place in this little heart of mine.

To any reading photographer, you never know what photograph might be the last one you'd ever shoot of a loved one. Treasure every moment, every photograph. Bad photos or not, it's not only about the art we create.

God bless,
Zexun

We have...

2009-09-13T00:11:00.000+08:00

10 days left till the start of promos

Teachers' Day 2009

2009-09-04T20:42:00.003+08:00

Click above photograph to view the entire gallery.

Lol @ Mr Adi dancing. Twice. Hehe.

9 days later

2009-09-04T00:21:00.003+08:00

Alright, time for another update...

Thing have been chugging along okay-ish.

Monday was a good day- the only bad part was that I was late for school, but who cares, right? It was teachers' day, and I shot ACES and the celebrations in the CC from 7.45 all the way to 11am in full setup:

Photos by Daniel Teh

The setup worked awesome. Got a little hot after awhile so I took it off for 5 mins every hour or so. I won't have that luxury when shooting real paid assignments, though.

Celebrations were awesome. Fun, funny, heartwarming. I think everyone had fun. It was especially fun to shoot because teachers were being called up to the stage one by one with a spotlight trailing them, and we paparazzi turned on our strobes and flashed in high speed. Great photos. Especially happy with the dance shots.

Went over to the junior school after that and hanged our with Mrs D, Mrs Thomas and Ms Poon and all the people who decided to go back to visit. Dragged on for a looooong time, and then some of us finally decided to go have lunch. After splitting up here and there along the way, Ronald, Raymond, BenLan, Man Yau (Pri school) and I decided to eat at Yoshinoya @ Junction 8. Jasper and Isaac joined us to chill out after their own PRIVATE lunch. Haha. Right after that, most of them went to window shop. I took the circle line back to serangoon with BenLan and then went back home.

Tuesday was a normal day at home.

Wednesday, however, was awesome. Learning Journey with photog soc and Art Club was reaaaaaaly fun. Lots of stupid camwhoring and being high at the back of the bus to and fro. We went to the NUS Baba House, and the history lesson was really enriching. The architecture was great, and the detail in the artworks was jaw-dropping. No photography allowed inside, however. We got a group shot right outside the place, though.

Today, thursday... Ponned PE and Civics to sleep and study in the photog room. Went for the 'chem test' which was a quiz (not counted) and then for Math tutorial (learnt nothing, gotta ask my tutor...), went for a lunch break, Physics tutorial (40% for MSA3, shitty grade, but it's still improving steadily and too slowly, if I want to actually get a grade for promos). Ponned CLB because I was tired and I had that stupid sorethroat thingy (that strepsils cleared, whoo!).

But anyway, I think the older generation have no idea what correct online research is. Jut an hour ago, my mom asked me as I got out of the shower: "Can you help me print a few articles on 'masks' for my boarding house?".

Yes, you heard / read right.

Search. Filter. Select. Copy. Edit. Print. Repeat x "a few articles".

AT FREAKING ELEVEN FORTY FIVE PM?!

The internet isn't a small book where you open it up and you find all the simple info you want, and photocopy it. No, it's an entire library of the world. Few hundred thousand, maybe million, times larger than the library of congress.

21.2 million hits for "masks" on google.

and so I said, "No, I won't help you, and please do not bring back work from your boarding house and expect us to help you when you ask..."

and she flares up.

I DID SO MUCH WORK FOR YOU. THIS IS MY RICEBOWL. THIS IS SPARRRTAA (no, kidding, duhhh) etc etc etc

Freaking technoilleterate. Please understand that you cannot possible churn out a nice presentable article with the snap of your fingers. THERE IS A WORKFLOW TO IT. and I'm freaking not going to help you or ANYONE, even MYSELF, do it at 11.45pm at night for something 'due tomorrow'. You go figure it out yourself.

And that is the reason why I will not be presenting a 'parent letter' to the CL'B teacher for skipping lessons today, because I stupidly did not print out and let my mom sign an acknowledgement letter-of-absence before she went into her pissy mood.

Women mothers. You'll never understand them.

S$236.30 worth of Awesomeness

2009-08-26T17:50:00.001+08:00

www.cottoncarrier.com

Christian Mission Week 2009 @ SAJC

2009-08-20T19:21:00.002+08:00

Well, Matthew Tjow contacted me late last night to help shoot the J2 Chapel CMW period, and I agreed. Packed everything, contacted Daniel to loan his 50D, slept and went to school with my gear. It was alright I guess, great showcases by musicians, poets and dancers.

Here are the photos:

Anyway for MSA, I failed my physics even after 3 days of studying. Gotta rethink my strategy already haha. Surprised with Math, really. I initially got 13.5 / 25, a D grade. Then I spotted an unmarked question, and it was raised to 15/25, a C grade. Then I asked for marks because I took a different approach to answering the question, so I got another half mark. B grade! woohoo. First pass in a few months for math.

Beautiful One. Merciful Son.

2009-08-17T22:24:00.001+08:00

Repost after an edit. Shot two nights after getting my DSLR back in Dec 2007 and I'm still in love with this. Processed it better this time around.

Dec 07 Edit: www.flickr.com/photos/headshotzx/2123837825/

Like a rose
trampled on the ground
You took the fall
and thought of me
Above All

"Above All" performed by Micheal W smith
Written by Paul Baloche and Lenny Leblanc

Like a beautiful flower cut away from its stem, Jesus paid the ultimate price; performed the ultimate act of sacrifice, He died on the cross and his blood washed our sins away.

Beautiful One, Merciful Son; He died so that we can live, and whatever we do can never match up to his perfect sacrifice, yet we try to be good people and strive to be our best in every area of our lives. And even when we fail, He will forgive us because He sacrificed His life for mine. Whatever wrong we do will never cause Him to love us any less.

That is why He is my sure foundation in life.

- Sent in for Christian Mission Week @ SAJC

50 Through 50

2009-08-16T21:32:00.000+08:00

Click to view set: www.flickr.com/photos/headshotzx/sets/72157621928184265/

A set of select 45 images shot through two 50mm lenses from December 2007 to August 2009.

The other 5 haven't been uploaded here, but instead have been uploaded to imageshack and posted on ClubSNAP. Apologies for that.

This set tracks my growth as a photographer using the one focal length that was with me throughout my DSLR usage.

Top to bottom: Earliest to latest

NDP 2009

2009-08-10T12:09:00.004+08:00

Had an good time at a family & friends gathering at my aunt's @ a high level Serangoon HDB flat yesterday during NDP 09. Shot fireworks from there! There was a visiting business-friend lady and her son from China who's staying/working/living in Singapore, and my mandarin was really rusty haha.

National Day Celebrations @ SAJC

2009-08-07T19:37:00.002+08:00

Here are the photos.

Human train started off well at the end but failed miserably when everyone wanted to be a part of it. Criss crossing human lines with traffic jams! Haha.

Had lunch with the section today, and Li Ying sipped her pepsi... for half an hour straight without finishing it. THANKS FOR WASTING TIME LA Hahahaaa. Had sectionals after that which was... eh, normal? I dunno. Feels so mundane lor.

Rushed to Dhouby Gaut right after sectionals to meet the tripod seller. Great price, great guy, great tripod/bag. Except that he brought it to the beach a few weeks ago and didn't clean it -.- So I spent the last 2 hours trying my best to brush/wash/tissue off the sand, salt and some water in introduced by washing. Took apart 7 of the 4 of the 6 fliplocks easily to clean them. Can't open up the last 2 cos the nut's too tight. Oh well.

The tripod setup works very well. Awesome!

Another Day

2009-08-03T19:48:00.002+08:00

Another day in school.
GP
Study for chem + JC1 Class Photoshoot
Chem test (butchered 2 question parts, sighh)
Physics (didn't understand cos i missed like 3 lessons, gonna have consultation this wed!)
CL'B (25min lunch @ cafe, 50min of some chinese cartoon, and 20min of lessons

MRT to hougang, met up with buyer for my Mennon 77mm White Balance Cap (sold @ S$10! thanks!)
MRT home

MSN. ClubSNAP/POTN. Facebook. Bathe. Dinner.

And here I am.

Oh, Punggol Plaza now has "PEPPER LUNCH EXPRESS" !! Woohooo!

Sell Sell Sell!

2009-08-02T12:00:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was great. I had the idea of selling my Lowepro Toploader 75 AW holster for a Lowepro Flipside 300 backpack, and put it up for sale on ClubSNAP. Half an hour or so later, I get an SMS from a buyer, and I reserved it for him. Turns out he lives at Bishan, and my mom had to go to Junction 8 to do stuff. Went to meet him at J8, and came back S$70 richer.

Guess what? I bought it at S$76 exactly 8 months ago! S$6 rental over 8 months! Sweet.

When I came back, I was talking to some other photographers who all advised me to bring a bigger bag for my Band Brisbane trip to put other stuff like jackets and clothes. So I decided not to spend on a Flipside 300.

I then had the idea of selling my Lowepro Stealth Reporter D200AW, Lens Case 1W and 60AW pouch. Asked Daniel about it, and he said he might be interested in the SR D200AW and the lens case 1W. Asked Ziteng about it, and he said he was interested in the Lens case and pouch.

So if the sale goes, I'll get S$90 for the SR D200AW, S$20 for the Lens Case 1W and S$20 for the 60AW. Added to the Toploader I sold, I'll have S$200.

And if I save S$100 to S$150 a month till November, I will have S$600 to S$800 to plonk down on a tripod system that I've always wanted.

Markins Q3T Ball Head - S$450

Markins P-52U Quick Release Plate for 5D mark 2 - S$85

Markins PG-50 Quick Release Plate for 400D with Grip - S$85

Markins PL-55 Quick Release Plate for 70-200 2.8L IS - S$85

Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod - S$180

Cool.

When Bored, Self Portrait

2009-08-01T00:01:00.000+08:00

580EXII into softbox camera left 1/2 power, Sunpak Full Power flash gelled green from behind.

To-Buy before November Band Trip 2009

2009-07-31T17:58:00.002+08:00

Here's a to-buy list before my november / december band trip:

Canon 5D Mark 2 (S$3700)

It'll give me great 21 megapixel images and great video in a solid full-frame camera.

Zoom H4n Handy Recorder (S$450)

It'll give me great audio (which needs to sync up with the 5D2 video), not just for video, but also for the band. Included stereo mics are great. It can also double up as a metronome and chromatic tuner for band use!

Manfrotto 482LCD Hotshoe Ballhead (S$70)

For mounting the Zoom H4n atop my 5D2 when doing videos on the go.

Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod (S$185)

Instead of a travel tripod, I'll just get a cheaper, heavier, bulkier and steadier tripod like the 190xprob. I don't travel often, so why get a travel tripod?

Manfrotto 701HDV video fluid head (S$185 - 200)

Will be buying this puppy to do awesome video shoots, as well as for photo work.

2 x Sandisk 8GB Extreme III cards (S$75 x 2)

Can't be left without memory on a holiday, right? 28GB of memory cards should last me at least two days with a 5D2. I'll have my macbook with me for transfers.

Total cost: S$4740

Gosh.

But wait, I'll be BRINGING more than that!

Canon 17-40L: S$1100
Canon 50 1.4: S$590
Canon 70-200 2.8LIS: S$2580
Canon 580EXII: S$710
Lots of AA batts: S$100 worth
Macbook 13": S$2100
Lowepro SR D200AW shoulder bag: S$125

So I'll have AT LEAST S$12k worth of stuff on me, and at least 10k worth of stuff on me ALL THE TIME.

This is getting out of hand O.o

Sick

2009-07-30T13:37:00.003+08:00

Yeah. Sick since Wednesday last week, which effectively makes me sick for 8 days already.

Had band practice yesterday, and we tried out Phantom of the Opera and some other running-note-many-many piece that I forgot. Really proud of my section cos they sorta survived the sight reading. Sigh, yeah, I couldn't play. We are going to play Phantom Of The Opera!

Joy's dad dropped me off opposite Macs (thanks!), and I met up with John from ShutterCentral, who sold me the 5m roll of gaffer tape and a knock-off ES-71II hood for my 50 1.4! Now all my lenses are hooded (:

Went to a doc after that, and the doc gave me 2 days of MC and instructions to not go out till Monday. Sian.. will skip 2 days of school, and both FOP and CHC's anniversary..

Oh well, gtg eat lunch now. Ta!

09S05 Service Learning & SAJC Band Dinner 2009 Photos!

2009-07-28T18:48:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone! Here are the long overdue photos! Hope you like them!

Band Dinner 2009 Video

2009-07-26T19:14:00.001+08:00

My pride and joy! 3 hours of filming and 6-8 hours of editing over two rushed days! First video production! Woohoo (:

Shot on Darren's Sony Handycam, edited in iMovie '09

Hope you guys like it!

2009-07-25T17:51:00.002+08:00

This week was crazy. And it was all for band dinner!

Started off on Monday when our section went out to PS to get materials for our band dinner present for our seniors. We spent like 3 hours getting the presents while I was so hungry haha. Jebi left early for tuition, leaving the two joys and I to have dinner at BK, where small joy learnt new words again. Haha! Oh, I also met like three to four groups of friends that I haven't met in quite some time so that was cool.

Tuesday was service learning day! I went again as a photographer and ugh, it's definitely not easy shadowing teams around the entire island. Different teams were supposed to sell merchandise for aLife, a NPO. Shadowed the door-to-door teams selling at shunfu (aLife hq area) and I helped sell S$15 worth of merchandise (a file, a card and a teddy bear) to my grandpa and my two aunts at their house! Went down to toa payoh, where I shadowed another team selling at Toa Payoh hub and doing telemarketing. Went back to HQ, debriefed, selected and burnt the pics onto two CDs for aLife on the spot, and went for dinner with some girls and sean @ prata house.

And I think that dinner made me have a sore throat and cough -.-

So over the next few days, I stayed back in school almost every day with the section to do up the scrapbook present... aaaaaand then small joy got an LOA on Wednesday because she was one of the first contacts with a H1N1 girl in our school. Ugh, yeah, she missed band dinner. Sians.

On Wednesday evening, I was doing the section project with joy and jebi when like 15 band members walked past me and Darren asked me to follow them. I was like 'ehh? whats going on?'

It turned out that they were all going to do videos for the band dinner production. And I was to be the videographer! I pangseh'ed joy and jebi (sorry!) and went to produce two skits. After that, some of us went to Macs for dinner and I downloaded the videos onto my Macbook. Went home that night to edit on iMovie and wow, it surely saved my skin AND created a great video. Slept at 3am that night.

Same thing on Thursday, except that I stayed back (along with lots of other band ppl) till 10pm in school for final band dinner prep. Went through the last band dinner skit (titanic much?) and ate chicken rice with some ppl, then came back home to do the entire video edit. Again, I slept at 3am that night.

Friday was the big day I guess. Chionged home after school, bathed, printed even more photos, changed and went to band dinner. Arrived just in time to set up everything, and then band dinner started. I didn't enjoy the food at all because I was constantly coughing, had a bit of leftover sore throat and my wisdom tooth was coming out, and so pinched the gums when I ate food (gums between tooth and food -.- ). I was going around shooting which, while it was supposed to be fun, wasn't at all while I was sick... but at least I'm glad the band dinner video was really really funny to everyone, including the teachers and Mr Glosz. No one was caught not laughing, so I succeeded! Came home, bathed, decided not to go for band and church and just floped onto the bed at 1.30am.

Got up at 5pm today. Yes, about 14hours of sleep. Still don't feel that good because of my cough and slight headache. Gonna go see doc.

All in all, in the week I:

Shot and printed Service Learning photos
Shot and printed Racial Harmony Project - "Shoot your neighbour" photos
Edited and printed section photos
Shot, edited and compiled the entire band dinner video
Shot band dinner photos
...all the time, being really sick AND sleeping at 3am for two nights.

Last time I'm gonna do stuff like this while being sick. ugh!

Ciaos

p.s. Check my flickr, facebook and youtube for band dinner photos (600 of them) and the band dinner 2009 video (split into two).

Hmph.

2009-07-18T00:36:00.002+08:00

Four Us stare at me. P-C-M-e

I'm not afraid. Bring it on. You might win now, but I'll be back.

Shot portraits of my J2 section for band dinner. I like Chen Lin's and Jas' ones the best.

Had a fun-ish day after school today, going around Plaza Sing to get / prepare stuff for band dinner gifts for seniors. I hope they appreciate the final product! We spent lots of time on it today haha.

Shopping with a heavy bag with macbook & camera+lens+flash, monopod in hand, and packed softbox in the other hand ≠ cool.

Gotta go sleep now! Hope to have a great day tomorrow (or rather, later).

'night!

Wednesday

2009-07-16T00:07:00.004+08:00

Photograph by Daniel Teh.

The day started off with Chem pract with an stand-in teacher, Mr Andrew Tan that some people say is related to me but I assure you, there is NO relation at all! Hmph!

Normal lessons after that till 12.30 break, and I mucked around with photography. Brought my softbox to school to try out to shoot portraits of my flute seniors, and Daniel used it to get the above photograph of me. Shot Yenna's portrait after that at around 1.15pm.

CL'B after that. Released at 2.30pm + and went to hang out at the photog room and to shoot Samuel's portrait. Went for band, and everything else was normal.

Oh. Big mouth ulcers suck, especially when you school.

Diarrhea + mouth ulcer + fatigue + crappy lessons = skip school with parents letter. 'night all.

Hehe.

2009-07-15T00:24:00.002+08:00

Sorry Dion! ;]

In other news... Dad just signed himself and me up for Sunsurf 7.2 Max Mobile surfing! Internet 24/7 plus the ability to bluetooth (slow) internet to my macbook wherever I am! How cool is that?!

God is great.

God is good, even more!

2009-07-13T17:42:00.004+08:00

No, seriously, wow.

Yesterday, I bought a Nokia E63
Yesterday, my dad bought a Nokia E75
Yesterday, my mom bought a Samsung Preston

...and we only paid S$113 for everything (: (: (: (:

E63 and Preston was paid for by S$100 vouchers. E75 with Ultimate plan contract, with S$100 voucher and with S$25 worth of M1 points = S$113!!!

God.Is.So.Awesome.

And I really hope God can make me more awesome not only in my material possessions but with my studies which I have to buck up an awesome lot for me to even be able to do awesome.

So anyway, on Saturday, there was band pract as usual from 9 to 11, where we were told to change up for some games. I was the photographer, yet again. Sigh, I should've played, but oh well, I'm fine over here ^^ Got some nice shots of the captains ball and whacko games.

Click here to view the Captains Ball photographs on Facebook.

Changed up, rushed to Macs with Sean, Joy, Jebi and tagalong li ying for a quick ~~dinner~~ lunch*, and was fetched to Novena Church by Joy's dad (thanks!).

We were helping aLife sell flowers for CIP, and I was a photographer yet again! Haha, it's awesome to shoot for CIP points, really. Got some nice photographs, and I'll just post all the 17 select photos here.

4.45pm, dad picked me and sean up to go to church @ expo. Awesome service by Dr A.R. Bernard about the distinction between action, cause, consequence and effect of Sin and the motives. Wow, even though he rushed at the end, it was a real good service.

Didn't follow my CG to airport (to get H1N1, lol) and chose instead to go home and rest. 9am to 9pm day. Really tiring but quite fulfilling.

Anyway, here are the photos:

Cheers!

God is good

2009-07-07T18:50:00.002+08:00

Two days after I first served in the photography ministry in church as a one-time event, I get news that my mom's medical claims for the traffic accident in '04 has gotten through with quite a substantial amount of money.

Hoping for 1D Mark 3 on my part, but even if we settle for a 1D2N, who cares, right? Omgosh, i just wanna thank God for His blessings! :D

Updaaaate

2009-07-05T16:11:00.003+08:00

Alright, lotsa things happened since the time I blogged.

Anyway, failconomics? Might be failconomics after all. I wrote the best I could. If I fail, oh well.

Friday and Saturday... Li Ying was talking about Sherman Lee during band practices -.- About how she and he were veddy veddy close in kindergarten yadayada... FREAKY haha. She can remember K1 stuff.

Saturday afternoon was greaaaaaat for me. Dad picked me up after lunch with band ppl and we went to TK Foto Technic @ Shaw Towers to purchase my think tank gear. Great service, really nice guy called Richard, and great think tank prices. Ups for them!

I purchased a steroid speed belt instead of a pro speed belt. The steroid belt was way thicker and gave more comfort. Also, it allowed one pouches to be rotated easily because of a separate rail attachment that's sewn outside. I also purchased a whip-it-out instead of a lens case 75 pop down because it way faster for me to do lens changes that way. I didn't purchase the harness, though, because they were out of stock and apparently a new design update is going to come. Steroid Speed belt + Lens Changer 25 + Whip It Out + Lightning Fast cost me S$212 altogether. I paid about S$100+ while dad paid the rest (he wanted me to purchase the 'better' stuff).

So I shot in church today for the first time with my modular belt system. Also, YZ lent me his 1D3, so i actually didn't need to borrow Ziteng's 40D. Thanks YZ! Sorry Ziteng :p

EVERYTHING checked out well today. The belt system worked perfect (i rotated the belt 180* so the buckle was at the back allowing me extra maneuverability of my pouches. 1D3 + 17-40L + 70-200L was a perfect setup. The 17-55IS hood on the 17-40L can be used with a 1D3! I was pleasantly surprised. Shooting in church feels different than shooting elsewhere. I can't put my finger to it, but it's easier. *shrug* Hope the pictures were good! (I haven't seen them yet, pics got transferred to ZY's SD card instead of CF card because I didn't set up the camera properly, so he took the SD with him).

So here I am, feeling fresh even though I shot for 1.5 hours just now. Everything worked, and I just wanna thank God for that. Woohoo!

Photos of myself in the belt and the church service will be up soon.

Inflation much?

2009-07-03T11:44:00.003+08:00

Sigma 500mm ƒ/4.5 EX HSM DG - S$4600 in 2005, S$7000 in 2009.

Hopes dashed. Long lens for 2010 = Canon 400mm ƒ/5.6L + 1.4x TC (S$1780 + S$200 to 450)

Failconomics later. Studying now. Study = Fail (derived formula).

Economics (Financial Evaluation)

2009-07-02T22:06:00.002+08:00

Hokay. Nohope4chem, Somehope4physics, Nohope4fail-thematics, guess what's for economics? nohope.

But I'm still going to study more, anyway.

Since we're on the topic of economics, lets look back at what happened over the past six months with my finances.

Link to Financial Resolutions 2009

Lets look at what went accord to plan.

Financial Resolutions for 2009:

No fast-food (or at best, once per month)
- Gone, long time, I REALLY wished I had kept to this, though.

No drinks to go along with meals, own water is best
- S$1 bandung for canteen meals, anyone?

One meal should not cost more than S$3 unless I skipped meals or packed food for another meal on the day itself
- Due to circumstances (JC food price), that could not have ever happened.

Pack recess / break food or don't eat - Hey, those fats gotta go
- I did do that from time to time, so half-half.

No spending of my money on ANY camera / photography related equipment
- Gone, here's what I purchased:

Radio Shutter Remote (S$45)
Think Tank Photo Streetwalker Hard-Drive backpack (after selling Lowepro Primus backpack: S$50 net cost)
50mm 1.4 (after selling 85mm 1.8: S$80 net cost)
680B + 234RC monopod setup (after selling Gitai Tripod: S$88 net cost)
Macbook (Dad took most of my savings to pay some other stuff, so I effectively contributed S$600 to it, seriously, wth right? Oh well, i'm cool)

Total cost: S$263 saved in 2009, S$300 savings from '08, S$300 savings in '09 for 70-200 + MB

No spending of my money on ANY video game
- Yup!

If I earn money from certain jobs, they go into the savings fund - No indulging no matter what.
- Haven't earned money yet. All I got was thank-yous and "nice photos"! Best was a Canon 5DmarkII thumbdrive (Thanks Ian!)

No going to the cinema for movies
- I *think* I didn't go, but I might be wrong.

No LAN
- Still going strong (:

No arcade
- Oh yeah, no way i'm going arcade

Aie. So anyway, the good thing is that I don't have to pay to purchase the end of year's Camera (1D mark 2N: approx S$2k+). This weekend I'm going to purchase a belt system (half / two thirds my money) and at the end of year before the trip, I'm going to get a travel tripod setup for myself for about S$400++ on my own savings. S$400 / 7 months left = S$60 per month just for the tripod. Not too bad.

Anyway, counting money ends here, back to studying money (:

Math

2009-07-02T15:26:00.001+08:00

Fail

Compromises, and a near-future goal

2009-07-01T22:16:00.003+08:00

Life's about compromising I guess.

I sacrificed my other subjects and concentrated on math during the hols. Paid the price for chem (total failure) and physics (ok paper yet I didn't think I did good at all). Don't even talk about econs.

As for cameras, yeah, its recently come to my knowledge that the end-year band trip to Australia will not be canceled after all. It'll merely be shifted if the area is affected by h1n1. That means that I can't depend on my parent's bonuses for the camera, thus the only camera they can afford will be a 1D mark 2 or 2N. Still good, way better than my camera, and I'm sure I'll use it well.

Also, for the EOY 2010, I've been looking at the Sigma 500mm ƒ/4.5 EX HSM DG lens. Costs S$4600+ new from Cathay Photo (where they'll have to order it in, hopefully no focus issues). 40% the cost of the Canon 500L. I'll have to get a very decent tripod setup for it, so probably add S$500-700 for a setup. I'll go shoot,work and save up for this. At least 20%.

Here is a link to POTN's lens sample page for it. I think it's really almost as good as the Canon 500L at ƒ/5.6L. Definitely for 40% of the price.

POTN Sigma 500mm ƒ/4.5 EX HSM DG Lens Samples Thread

Bathe. Study. Sleep. Wake. Bathe. Study. Math CT.

Like a repeat of O level prelims

2009-06-30T15:38:00.003+08:00

Old pic from last year

Only studied math during the June holidays, which is why my chem today was 'nohope'.

Plus, it's physics tomorrow.

Die.

Worse comes to worst, pick up my camera, and be a photographer as a main job.

-.-

Say buh'bye to holidays, say hello to life.

2009-06-29T13:09:00.003+08:00

I'm itching to get back to school, not for exams, but for classes lol. Holidays can be a bore.

Anyway, 4 days of exams! All the best everyone! I hope my H2 subjects can make it. Not much hope this time for h1 economics.

As for camera gear, I've decided to purchase everything the week after exams. Going to buy Think Tank:

Pro Speed Belt (M)
Pixel Racing Harness (for support)
Lens Case 25 (for 50 1.4 or 17-40L)
Lens Case 75 Pop Down (for 70-200 2.8L IS)
Lighting Fast (for 580EXII or CP-E3)

Total cost: S$232
Personal cost: S$152 after reimbursement by parents for month of June

Life's good (:

Tis The Season To Be Stressed

2009-06-28T16:24:00.001+08:00

Old Pic. Still holds true.

July Wishlist

2009-06-26T03:01:00.004+08:00

Gonna be reimbursed by my dad for June's camera service fees - S$50.

To buy:

Sandisk ImageMate All-in-One USB 2.0 Card Reader - S$55

Think Tank Photo Pro Speed Belt - S$50

*lens not included =(

Think Tank Photo Lens Changer 75 Pop Down - S$50

Belt system used with: Lowepro: Lens Case 1W, 60 AW pouch, Water Bottle Bag

Net Cost: S$100, leaving S$200 for other things.

Ooo yeah.

EDIT:

OR, I could just ask my dad for an extra S$100, and shell out for the complete Think Tank modular set:

Set Includes:
Large Lens Drop In:
For quick access to lens.
Lens Changer 35:
For zoom lens with hood attached.
Lens Changer 50:
For wide angle lens with hood attached.
LC 75 Pop Down:
For telephoto lens with hood attached.
Lightning Fast:
For SLR flash unit.
Speed Changer:
Utility bag for CF cards, batteries, etc.

Hmmm.

Updates!

2009-06-23T17:00:00.002+08:00

Norihiko Hibino, composer of the Metal Gear Solid series of video games, performs his composition "Snake Eater" and his rendition of City Harvest's "Elevate Your Name" on his saxophone during CHC's Fathers' Day service. He performed "Snake Eater" recently at Video Games Live at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and stayed in Singapore for the weekend to attend / perform at CHC's services.

Anyway, before this, I got my R strap from RedDotPhoto last week! It's expensive (S$79) but at least it was cheaper than Cathay Photo's S$89 price. Its really really good and comfortable, and keeps my hands free and allows me to not worry about my camera when I'm just chilling out, y'know?

But there was a problem...

This was what they showed on their site:

But this was what I got:

Notice the smaller hole? That small hole made it really difficult to get the connector fastened, and at specific angles, the connector would jam and scrape against the fastener hole, creating this problem:

Yes, that was after 5 minutes of "jammed connection" usage.

So I sent a message to RedDotPhoto and Black Rapid, and surprisingly, Black Rapid replied first! Less than 24hours after I sent the message, this was the reply:

Hello Zexun,

I appreciate you providing pictures to help illustrate your problem, it makes things way easier for us. Your fastener is definitely different, and we'd like to send you a replacement part. Give us an address we can ship to and I can send a CR-1 and a FR-1 to immediately.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Bryan Holmes
Black Rapid

That's what I call really good after sales service (:

So anyway, MOH has announced that schools will open as scheduled, so yeah, I'm gonna go study now.

Tata~

Decision made

2009-06-21T17:35:00.001+08:00

It will be a 1D mark 3 at the end of the year, like so (not mine, but will be soon):

Google Search

2009-06-15T14:17:00.002+08:00

Haha, so out of the first 50 results from searching "Tan Zexun" I find 36 of them are relevant to me.

72% !!!

Coool (:

City Harvest Celebrity Weekend!

2009-06-14T01:09:00.002+08:00

Great church 'service' today! Was able to shoot Niu Nai (Milk) at a private Sub-Zone event after service. Click on the above photograph to view the entire gallery.

Zoo Photographs

2009-06-13T02:39:00.003+08:00

Well, here they are.

Daniel got a shot of me holding Guo Hao's rented 100-400L and Daniel's (my ex) tripod:

As always, click on the following group photograph to view the entire gallery:

Mentionable photographs (out of the 41 selected) Click to view flickr page:

I'm half pleased with the photographs shot at the zoo. I definitely got lots of better photos compared to my first trip there late last year, but not as many as I had hoped for. The animals were pretty lifeless then. No big animal action, only the small ones which were difficult to photograph. Oh well.

The next time I go, I'll have my 1D2N and 400mm ƒ/5.6L ready. Yes, that's how long I don't want to step into the zoo again.

Cheers,
Zexun

What's next for gear?

2009-06-12T13:00:00.003+08:00

Heh, I'm convinced with what to purchase next for my gear. I shall contribute a significant sum to each purchase.

By Nov before band trip to Brisbane:

Canon EOS 1D mark II N (S$2.6k now, hopefully 2k by end year)
Light tripod + Manfrotto 488RC2 BH (S$400 budget)

By March '10:

Canon EF 400mm ƒ/5.6L + Canon 1.4x TC (S$1.8k new + S$450 new, but will try to buy used)

By 2011 / 2012 (NS time / just after NS):

Consider selling 400mm ƒ/5.6L
Canon EF 300mm ƒ/2.8L IS + 2x TC (S$7.5k new + S$450)

Yes, I am convinced by the 300mm ƒ/2.8L IS photos I see on the internet, even with the 2x TC. What I shoot falls in the 300mm range on crop, and what I like to shoot falls in the 400 - 600mm range on crop ie birds and animals.

The above is assuming I don't have to pay for my higher education...

O-le!

2009-06-12T10:40:00.003+08:00

My new study room chair got delivered yesterday. I tested it, no problem, signed the delivery document, and was happy.

Only at night did I find out that there was a clicking sound at the bottom whenever I got up and down from the chair. Dad called V.hive, and they said the hydraulics had issues. Seems like they experience it often. They said they'll deliver a new one next Monday.

Sighh. First the monopod, then the chair...

Hectic

2009-06-09T23:22:00.007+08:00

0900 to 1830 - Photoshoot @ Zoo, covering almost every exhibit
1830 to 2000 - Head into dad's car, fetch Guo Hao home and Daniel to MRT, fetch mom home from MRT
2000 to 2100 - Transfer photos 4gig card with cam, pack - forgetting to pack Ziteng's strap in, shower, chiong all the way to thompson plaza
2100 to 2115 - Wait for mom to purchase 2 reserved children's bible DVDs, pass gear to Ziteng at his house
2115 to 2230 - Have a suck dinner @ Adam Road food center, drive back
2230 to 2330 - Wait for photos to be transferred on a very slow USB 1.1 reader and then find out that they transferred back to card (com is dumb)
2330 to now - redo what the card was meant to do, start blogpost

Lessons learned:

Never ever ever ever do a 9 hour long shoot without getting paid and having probably only 1.5 hour worth of sitting down / rest time.
Never ever ever ever put in secondary agendas for my family - we'll have to chiong to get it done because we can't ever agree on what to do next...
Always confirm what to pass to a photographer friend by text / msn. Sorry Ziteng!
Never ever ever ever eat Roti Prata @ Adam Road

Things to do next:

Collect back my gear from Canon Service Center tomorrow
Head back to John3:16 to have them give a 1-to-1 exchange due to my monopod's first leg flip lock giving me a snapping sound.
Purchase Sandisk USB 2.0 CF card reader tomorrow (or at IT Show 2009, tbd)
Purchase Sandisk 8gb Extreme III CF card tomorrow (or at IT Show 2009)

Rawr. Photos tomorrow.

Buy Buy Buy!

2009-06-08T21:24:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! Got new stuff today.

First, I went to meet Wan Feng at Punggol mrt to sell my 50mm 1.8 for S$100. Taking the MRT down to City Hall to buy some stuff.

I went to Cathay Photo first to check if they were selling the R strap. They didn't. Dang.

For my monopod, I initially wanted to purchase a Benro MP-98 monopod. Since CP was nearer to the mrt, I went to CP tripod department and tested their 680B + 234RC monopod setup. I felt it was very sturdy and definitely very good for what I'd do. It's been tried and tested too, with lots of positive comments on POTN, CS and other forums and reviews online.

Next I went to Benphoto. I tested the MP-98 and was taken aback by the low quality of manufacturing. The legs were difficult to take out, and the twist locks took too long to unlock. The spongy foam material for gripping also felt too soft for my liking. At S$115, it was S$10 more expensive compared to the Manfrotto. I decided not to get the benro. The good thing was that Jack (Jack006 from CS) allowed me to test the weight of a 1Dmark2N on the monopod. I was more interested in the grip of the 1D2N. I now know that it's the one for me (:

So I decided to get the Manfrotto. I went to John3:16 photo supplies intending to purchase everything there, but they only had the monopod. I got it at S$100 compared to a normal of S$105, and headed to Cathay Photo to purchase the 234RC head. On my way there, I decided that I really needed a dedicated lens pouch for my 17-40L, so I went into their main store and purchased a Lowepro Sliplock 1W lens pouch for S$24. Following that, I purchased the 234RC tilt head for S$57 and extra QR plate for S$21 for the head.

S$100 + S$57 + S$21 + 24 = S$202

S$202 - S$100 (50mm, wan feng) - S$85 (tripod, daniel) = S$17 net cost.

I'm a happy man :D

Pics next time.

Anyway, didn't feel good the entire day cos I was on my bed at 2 this morning, but couldn't sleep for a very very long time. Kept drifting in and out of sleep, so I probably slept a total of 3 hours? Yeah, didn't feel well, so I canceled tuition for the day, and well...

I was supposed to do work, but I had to prepare for tmr's zoo photography outing with 3 of my friends.

I'll get my work all done on wed and thursday.

Photo Update

2009-06-05T23:48:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday, I went to shoot for Saint Andrew's Boarding House where my mom worked - pro bono - when they went on an excursion to Mount Faber. Many thanks to Daniel who lent me his 50D and Tokina 11-16. The day started off with a drizzle, and it looked as if it was going to go on for quite a while. We left when it was still drizzling, and I shot under the drizzle. No, I didn't short anything, haha.

The kids went by MRT to habourfront, where they had their brunch at Vivo. Then after that, we headed to the cable car station, and went to Mount Faber. The view was spectacular along the way and at Mount Faber. The boys enjoyed the view, and very much enjoyed feeding the koi at Mount Faber. I shot only a little because of memory constraints, but I got good photographs.

Here they are:

Click on the following group photograph to view the gallery with selected 52 shots:

And when we were about to leave... this monkey came within 4m of us. Pretty scary, eh?

"Oo! Oo! Ah! AH!" - Translation: "I have big teeth!"

Took the cable car back, and that ended my day with them. Since I was at Habourfront, I decided to send in my camera stuff for repair. My 400D, grip and 580EXII flash are in for servicing.

I got an sms from Tim Tay about some Yamaha Harmony Director workshop taking place in SASMB band room, and he invited me to shoot. So since I still had Daniel's 50D and had a tripod, I decided to shoot.

The conductor / teacher was Mr Ozawa-san from Japan, and the showcase band was SASMB so yeah.. Here are the photos:

Once again, click the group photograph to view the entire gallery of 34 selected photographs:

And that concludes my photo update.

On a separate note, I've sold my tripod to Daniel after lots of negotiations. Will probably be picking up a monopod setup this Monday for a Tuesday photoshoot at the zoo.

June, here we go!

2009-06-01T21:36:00.003+08:00

*plays "Hallelujah" song*

Alright, the holidays are here! At least, that's what they're calling it now. It should be called a mug-gathon or something.

Anyway, had a pretty standard week before the hols. Nothing happened much. Our band got invited to Presentation Night, and we declined it. Thank God for a little extra time to study! I'd rather concentrate on performing in school or on our own rather than Pres Night, even though it might sound glorious.

Anyway, I stayed back on Tuesday to edit photos with Daniel, and I found out that the school's IOTA publication used our photos without any credit. Told Mdm Ng, who called an IOTA teacher, who then called another IOTA teacher to see us. We clarified, I told them about professional courtesy, and yeah hopefully the next edition of the IOTA publication in the third quarter will have our names.

Matthew (mentor) met us and I gave him a very quick guide to shooting strobist with one flash, and he fetched Daniel to the MRT, and fetched me back to punggol, along with another mentor and rachel (sfc) along the way.

After school on Wed, I hanged around the photog room to get some exhibition done up with my photos. Went for lunch in school, and Ms K called Daniel and I to the CC. Surprise! They were having a celebration for the drama production. We each got a slice of a greaaaat greaaat chocolate/banana/oat/cream cake. Went back to the cafe, ate our food, did some more photog work in the "Dark Room" (why'd they call it a dark room?! It's not even dark! And "reading" room? Suuure. Nice names, SAJC).

Thurs was CL'B. I'm hoping to pass.

Friday was GP (which was surprisingly good) and band. We decided not to perform at Pres Night then. Had section pract with Chen Lin (thanks for staying, bro!) and I left for Church-Wide Bible Study @ Expo. B.S. (lol) was great! I'm looking forward to the next one this Friday.

Sat, we had band pract. We are starting to sound better as a band, but we've got lots more potential for a lot more. Wish our section can really put in 100% all the way! We sounded better on Sat than ever before. Haha, too bad Jebi wasn't there. Whoops! =X

Service was alright, and so was fellowship.

So yesterday (Sunday) I was supposed to wake up early for badminton (i almost typed it as bandminton, sheesh) or a swim, but I slept in. I really hoped that my dad would wake me up, but he didn't -.- oh well. Woke up, packed the house. Ate lunch. Packed the house... aaaaaaaaand..

My dad and I went on a shopping spreeee! Haha, okay, not really a spree, but it's the first time I got everything I wanted (and more) within a half hour (or so) of browsing. Bought a really small .. to me, at least - yes I own big bags, I'm aware of that, stop calling me a Ninja Turtle lol, I digress: a really small Eastpak backpack that can fit my macbook, books and necessities. Only the necessities (: Followed by a thinner Neckermann wallet, a Camelbak 750ml waterbottle, Converse socks and a Converse jacket. Wanted to buy a Converse shoe that I liked, but they didn't have a size, and dad said he could bring me to the dude at Beach Road that gets "last season's" stuff from the factory and get 'em cheaper.

Total damage : S$200 sharp.

I'm a happy man (:

Oh kay, so today I woke at 8 plus. Packed my study... and packed too long. I missed math lecture. "Okay, nevermind, I'll go for econs lecture" ... but then I bathed too long, and yeah well, I missed that too. Ate cereal for lunch (LUNCH!!) and went to school for physics lecture. Learnt a bit, got dismissed, laughed at the H1 Mother Tongue people who still had classes for awhile (hehe) and headed to Macs to find Andre.

Yes. He is teaching me Math. Haha! Anyway, got a meal, and headed back home. I went to bathe, we settled down to work, we did, and we ended. I'm at least hopeful that my math will be guided. I'm sorry, Miss _ _ lly _ _ i, you just don't instill confidence in me.

Well, I'm off to bathe, do a quick 10min revision of the math lesson just now, and head to bed.

Cheers to the next four weeks!

Dum Dee Daa Dum

2009-05-23T23:45:00.002+08:00

So after school and the security seminar thing yesterday, my family went to celebrate mom's birthday @ swensens thompson plaza - because Aston Prime @ Joo Jiat was booked out for private event and it was 8pm, too late for Nihon Mura.

Saturday.. I woke up and didn't feel right. Guess I ate too much yesterday night. Anyway, had band from 9 to 1.30++. Felt that it was a really productive pract because everyone seemed to be a lot more alert.

Went to church after that, and Mike Connell was the guest preacher today. It was a great time because he prayed for different people he selected for about 20min, had a short sermon, and after that he prayed for even more people. He got one young girl to pray for other people after she herself was prayed for by Rev Mike. Surprisingly, everyone she touched and prayed for (about what, 6, 7 people?) all fell. Whoa!

So I came back after church and whaddaya know-- SAJC Concert Band has got into the SYF Presentation Night! It'll be on the 8th of July yeah. Looking forward to it, but really not looking forward to the band practs that will eat into common test preparation and test week. Ugh.

Anyway, I feel good now. Tired, but good. Im gonna get some instant noodle supper and head to bed. Hopefully I'll be able to buy my bag and bottle tomorrow.

Girls' Hockey - SAJC vs VJC finals

2009-05-21T22:27:00.001+08:00

SAJC : VJC - 0 : 2

View photos by clicking on the following photograph:

SAJC vs MJC - Boys' Soccer Semi Finals

2009-05-19T23:33:00.003+08:00

Shots from today. Mostly used 70-200 on daniel's 50D. 15mp really has good cropability.

View entire gallery by clicking on the above photograph.

*DINGDINGDING*

*END DINGDINGDING*

The shot that could've gained us a point. Shot by daniel:

We lost 0-2.

But on a less serious note..

This.. Is.. CUTEEEEEE.

The Love Of Three Oranges

2009-05-17T17:12:00.003+08:00

Click the above group photograph to view the entire gallery.
View : This Wiki Page for info on the play.

Mentionable photographs:

Good production. Dynamic actors and actresses = awesome photographs captured.

Yet another weekly update

2009-05-16T00:36:00.004+08:00

Alright, so here's an update (: But before that...

On the wedding day, Ian (cousin, bridegroom) gave me a 5D mark 2 thumbdrive.. It's VERY VERY VERY detailed.. and I don't mean only by painting - everything's edged in by hand, because some lines aren't THAT straight, which makes the 'handmade' part more believable.

Oh, and here's my table during the wedding (:

Monday - Dad got the softbox from the post office for me, but I didn't have my lighting gear. Stayed at home and did some work, I think.

Tuesday - Chem test in school.. Made some stupid mistakes, but oh well, at least I understand half of it.

Wednesday - PE! I actually went for PE! Heh yeah, first time taking PE after bout a month of having my ear / muscle problems (which i still have, and require help =/). Didn't bring running shoes for 2.4, so I was told to go straight to the games. Played Captains Ball, Guys V Girls. Guys score one point per ball, girls score five. So in the end the girls won by about 4 points and 13 points or so after a few rounds. Played with Thelma and Joana, the German students. Went for econs consultation and my predictions were right: she's waaaaaaay better 1to1 versus teaching the whole class. I'll ask for more consultation sessions soon.

Anyway, Muslim store auntie baked an awesome chocolate cake for us BANDits! I ate so many haha. It was really really really really good. I don't think you'd say it's homemade once you've tasted it with your eyes closed.

After that was band, and yeah we've selected 4 pieces for us to learn. Cool.

Thursday - Econs test. How many ways can you say "epicfail"? I obviously can't digest about 2 weeks' worth of Econs lessons in 3 hours of learning / reading / consultation. I'll do something about it some way some how asap. Came back home, and since I got my lighting gear back most on wed and the last piece on thurs, I went to test the softbox.

It.Is.Awesome.

Ignore the messy floor/table. The softbox diffuses the light so evenly and softly that I can bring the softbox 30cm from the subject and I still get broad directional light. Very good. The control of light spread is so much easier compared to umbrellas.

Friday - normal school. Cabbed down to Funan to borrow 40D + 4gig card + flash triggers from Sam Wu (thanks bud!), went to Ruby Photo to buy the lightstand (daniel paid me beforehand) and my receiver (i'm keeping it, yo!). Then cabbed to Arts House for the rehearsal shoot of "The Love Of Three Oranges" - An SAJC Drama production.

It was a good shoot. Some hiccups here and there, and I felt rather lost with 1 camera and 3 lenses in an ever changing environment- NEED 2 CAMS!. Exposure control was especially difficult, because Av mode can't be trusted, and M mode is a little daunting especially when I have to use ISO400 for one second, and ISO3200 for the next.. I won't post up the photos yet so as not to spoil the play, but will do so Sunday night. Also, I left my 8gig card in Sam's 40D, so I'll be getting it from him after church tmr.

Anyways, I've got band in a few hour's time.. Gotta sleep! See ya!

Ian & Norhidayat's Wedding Day

2009-05-10T19:15:00.003+08:00

Well, it's been 2+2 days since I have touched my homework, and 2 days since I've touched my flute. While it's not really 'good' for me in the long term, I'm glad that I can have this break to just chill out and rest at home.

-----

Yesterday was my cousin's wedding day. Ian & Norhidayat's big day. I wanted to increase my portfolio for the wedding genre, so I asked for permission to shoot a few months ago, and borrowed gear for the shoot (as a guest). Thanks to Sam Wu for his gripped 40D and Daniel Teh for his 11-16mm.

To view the entire photo gallery, please click on the following photograph:

So it started with the Tea Ceremony, where I only brought the 40D. Bad idea, because I know I can't shoot without two cameras for fast events. I woke at 9, and reached my aunt's place at 10.30am, and shot a few frames of the people gathered for the joyous occasion.

Bride and bridegroom came at about 10.40am, cars honking and all. From the 6th floor, I shot the arriving couple and company with the 17-40L to catch the whole scene, then switched to my 70-200 for a zoomed shot of the couple when they looked up.

Back to 17-40L when they came up from the elevator.

11-16 for when they were posing for the hired photog on their new bed.

Swapped the 11-16 about with the 17-40L and 50 1.4 for the tea ceremony (and giving of gifts). Dad shot the third photo.

Finished off with group shots of everyone (and a lot of em, by the way!), buffet catered lunch (which was totally awesome!) and we left for home (where I had a charging frenzy).

For the wedding dinner, it was the usual stuff. We reached late at 7.45, dinner started at around 8.15 to 8.30.. and the usual events went on. It was a standard contemporary Chinese wedding, not much of the much wanted "happening" stuff like mini stage games, champagne sprays and foaming, but I guess it was alright. Their plans, we're just guests (:

I'll just put some photos here in chronological order:

Came back, edited, and yeah, slept at 4 just because I could. It was a good day, and it added much to my portfolio. Congrats to Ian & Norhidayat!

- ZX

What a week..

2009-05-08T20:57:00.003+08:00

Well, I just had a looooong weekend / week.

Last Thursday, I shot some product shots of Matthew's (SAJC Mentor) friend's Formica samples for her company pro bono. Had a good shoot with alright results because I only spent 30 mins shooting, and most of it was dedicated to thinking about the setup.

Yeah, so after that I went to see the ENT specialist at Glen Eagles to check my ear. He said I had very sensitive ears and have very good / sensitive hearing. Yes, I went into the pressurised sound chamber thingy for a ear test haha. Claustrophobic much? So the doc said I don't have a problem with my ears. But once he left for surgery, the same muscle tearing problem recurred again. I just found out today (8 days later) that he also deals with these sorts of problems with the muscles, and I can go back to him again next time. But darn, it's so ex. S$300 last time.. Ugh.
And it's weird, because I didn't have THAT much tearing (maybe once in three days, compared to three times a day ) this week compared to the last week.

So Saturday, I went for band (rehearsal @ Republic Poly), then for church. Met up with the cell again heh. We've got two new-comers who transferred from Children's church haha. I forgot their names, but I'll make an effort to remember them!

So anyway, nothing much happened on Sunday or monday (other than us having yet another rehearsal at Republic Poly). Tuesday was E-learning day! But band ate up all my time, and yes, I practically didn't study the whole of this week. Wed was a stayover band camp for SYF. So we practised at SAS band room till 8.30 and went to bathe / change-up / get ready to sleep. Lights out was supposed to be at 9.30, but only at 10.30 did Ms Ho really tell us to sleep. And I couldn't sleep till 12.30.. I went out of the band room to have a quick snack of my energy bar and went back in to sleep at 12.30..

We woke at 4am, washed up, and had practice at 4.45am.. And it was the same situation as SYF 07 for SASMB. All the mistakes happened on the morning of SYF itself... So we practised and practised and then broke for breakfast at 7. Practised again at 7.30 to 8.45 where we left for SYF @ Republic Poly. I (and Eugene and someone else that I can't remember) shot a few group photos which can be seen on my facebook. We went into the dance studio, warmed up, tuned and prepared for our best performance.

The performance was good. The chord was good, the music was good. There were rhythmic and intonation mistakes, as well as imbalance brass vs woodwinds, but it was good. One of the better performances of El Camino Real and Overture 2 that we've ever played. Everyone went out feeling happy and optimistic. But I knew we shouldn't get our hopes up and expect anything.

Results came out.. Serangoon JC.. Silver.. Band Number 13.. Saint Andrew's Junior College.. Gold. *silence* *anticipation for the word "with honors"*.. But that didn't happen. Band number 14...

So yeah, everyone stunned and many started crying. And I just can't justify why so many people cried, when earlier on, everyone was thinking that it was good, and they enjoyed it. The equal sign man... who cares about that! Thank God for the gold, and be content!

Went back to the college, packed up, listen to our recording, camwhore'd, and yeah everyone was dismissed. Flute section (sans Chen Lin) went to Nihon Mura @ The Cathay for Linner (lunch dinner) and maaaaaaaaann.. Lets just say that 18 plates of Salmon Sashimi isn't exactly a good sized serving for 7 people -.- Photos on my facebook, btw.

Camwhored, paid, and I went to John3:16 to pick up Sam Wu's 40D + grip and flash triggers for today's and tomorrow's shoot. Hanged around, and MRT'ed back. Came home, packed my cameras, and slept.

Ponned school. Woke at 11.30 this morning, had my lunch, did my final touchups for PW: PI, and headed to school (with all my camera gear incl reflector and lightstand). Frantically went to edit some format stuff, printed, and went to set up for the YA Photoshoot.

I'll write what I feel. I didn't enjoy the photoshoot. Not the result of the photoshoot, of course. That was ok. But I didn't like the process of it at all. Never does a photographer who's shooting pro bono, ever, and I stress it again, EVER want to be told that he only has 5 mins to set up something that has never been done at the location (with no plan in the first place) and only 5 mins left to shoot formal portraits of 5 people that have to go off to "support a match". If you want my services, and you're not giving anything on your part other than your time, don't screw around with the photoshoot process or set time limits. I might sound selfish here, but I think it's justified. Sure, I'll have my name next to the photos on the CCA board / website, and have alright photos (that won't ever grace my portfolio), at the cost of running around frantically and being pressured to be quick? No thanks.

Packed up, went with Daniel to Macs to have dinner and transfer the photos to his hard drive. Met some band people there and I joined them once Daniel left. They were all trying to do the "darren glare" thing haha. Got some good photos, also on Facebook.

So I came back, transferred photos, charged batts for tomorrow, and here I am.

I'm gonna sleep now for a wedding tomorrow. It's my cousin's, and I'm going to shoot a bit as a guest to gain some portfolio.

Tata!

Updates!

2009-04-29T10:26:00.002+08:00

Alright, so I haven't been updating my blog that often. That's probably because there isn't much to update haha.

Anyways, I didn't go to school on Friday because my ears continued to hurt. I guess I missed quite a lot - Math class test, Econs lesson on a new chapter, and GP lesson where assignments were given. Ugh, gotta catch up! Parents and I went to see our CT during parents-meet-teachers on Friday, and it went well- not once did someone have a bad remark on me, other than "not being good enough yet". I'll work on that.

I didn't go for band and church on Saturday because I didn't want to hurt my ear any more with loud music. Spent the entire day resting, and watched a few movies on TV, including Les Choristes, the awesome French movie about a boarding house children's choir. Did PW as well.

I was contemplating to sell my 85mm ƒ/1.8 for a 50mm ƒ/1.4 on Saturday. I already own a 70-200 2.8IS I asked around, and put up a thread.

Come Sunday, nothing much as usual. I got a hair cut (: Three offers came in for my lens, and I accepted one. But on Monday morning, the buyer backed out when he found a cheaper deal without warranty. I reserved the lens for the second bidder and met him that night after band. Decent no-problems trade, and I got S$490. I went to do my work after that. Did till 1, bathed, dried my hair and slept at 3plus.

So yesterday, I obviously woke up very late and almost was late. Then I made a wrong decision to drink green tea during my breakfast break. The caffeine went into me and I became nauseous. Went to the sick bay and stayed there from 10 plus to 12.30-- missed physics, the math test make-up (VR mark for me) and CL'B. Went for math lect after that, and headed to John3:16 photo store / CP with Daniel.

We spent 2 hours testing lenses haha. So finally at 5, I got the 50mm ƒ/1.4 and Daniel got the Tokina 11-16mm ƒ/2.8.. New lenses always rules!

Yes, my copy of the lens is tack sharp, even at ƒ/1.4-- I really wasn't expecting that much from it, but this is my sharpest lens from ƒ/2 onwards. Sweet!

Yes, it is sharp.

Okay, back to work -- in the SAJC library now haha.

Presentation of Photos

2009-04-23T16:32:00.002+08:00

Well, the school selected me to provide photographs as a gift to VIPs for an environmental-themed event. I sent in my photos of the Oriole, Pacific Swallow, and that 100% crop Sparrow.

They printed, I signed, they framed. And I turned up this morning only to find that they really were VIPs with high posts.

Photograph by Desmond, SAJC Photographic Society.

Here I am, presenting my photograph of the pacific swallow as a gift to Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Singapore, at an Environmental-Awareness event held in SAJC.

I also presented two different framed photographs of the Oriole to a Mr Tan from NEA and Francis Cheong, Nokia’s Environment Manager for the Asia-Pacific region.

Had a great chat with someone from a the booth of an SG recycling firm, and he urged me to keep striving on with my hobby. Met the table of VIPs including the three principals of SAV and the three VIPs stated above. They seemed genuinely impressed with my photographs, and I feel happy about that.

After the event, I had Chem practical which went pretty okayish. I'm catching up slowly, that's all I can say. My ears however, gave me yet another recurring problem today. First my right side had the pain. Then it went over to my left side and you could really hear stuff tearing inside. Once both ears were affected, I decided to just head back to rest. Went to the SAJS Boarding House to get taxi money from my mom, and came home.

Yup. Eventful day.

Oh, by the way

2009-04-20T00:45:00.000+08:00

Russell's birthday (:

I just had a 6 hour nap before dinner.. I wonder how I can sleep again.

Photoshoot, Birthday, Photoshoot, Band Camp

2009-04-19T13:59:00.004+08:00

Whew. It's been two weeks since my last blogpost. Lots of things happened in the last two weeks, so I'll just dive into it!

So, thursday 9th april.. SAJC Sports Day 09! It was quite fun to shoot because I had all the gear with me, and cos it's a mixed gender school, interesting photo opportunities appear everywhere!

Borrowed Ziteng's 40D (again), and had the 70-200 2.8IS on that. Second camera was my 400D and 17-40L that spent most of the shoot on a tripod at weird and totally awesome angles, being triggered remotely. 18gigs weren't enough to cover everything.. imagine that!

To view the entire gallery, click the following picture:

Also:

And a shot of my remote camera, courtesy of Daniel Teh.

Then it was Good Friday! I invited Small Joy, Big Joy and Jebi to my church's service. Drama production was top-notch as always, and the message was great. After that, we left to celebrate Big Joy's birthday at Fish & Co dhouby gaut. Anyway, Big Joy didn't know what Fish&Co would normally do with bday boys / girls, and she got humiliated in front of us! Haha! Oh, not humiliated la.. she just kinda had to stand up on the chair, hold a sparkler, and blow the lighted candle on her cake while standing. Woohoo! I'll facebook the pics later tonight.

On Wed, it was the 32nd Student Council Commendation @ St Andrew's Cathedral. Lessons after 9 were cancelled. But I was excused to cover the event all the way from the prep stage.

Shot a random impromptu group shot:

Boarded the bus with Daniel, Chris, AV team and SAJC Chorale, and headed to SAC. Spent the next hour and a half finding angles to set up the remote camera. Then the event started.

It was a boring event. No doubt about that. Commendations are generally very boring, and I was prepared for that. There were 3 official photographers, 2 unofficial-bring-a-camera-and-shoot photographers (total 7 cameras), and 3 Videographers from the AV team.

Borrowed Ziteng's 40D (YET AGAIN! Heh, last time, really) with a mounted 70-200 2.8IS and 430EXII (borrowed). Second camera was my 400D + 17-40L + 580EXII (mounted DIY acrylic bounce card). Daniel went with a 450D and 24-70 and I think he used a bit of my 85mm? I'm not sure. Remote camera at the back was a 400D (Daniel borrowed it) with 17-55 2.8IS on my tripod, with my remote, triggered by Daniel.

You may view the gallery (my photos only) by clicking on the following photo:

The people in charge really don't know how to slot 5 minutes in to have a photoshoot with my mobile studio gear at the end. They were supposed to wait for 3 minutes for me and Daniel to set up, and they whizzed off to the hotel to have their lunch with the VIPs.

Boring event, not bad photos. I'm not complaining, other than the complete lack of integration between the various CCAs. AV videographers and us photographers made a good team, though. I'm sure the media coverage wasn't too bad.

So come Friday, it was band camp. We left at 11 to have our lunch, and headed to Republic Poly at 1pm. We got to set up at 2, and we played our first note at 2.30+... and it resonated for TWO SECONDS. We were constantly clashing with the flatter tones of our echos. Bad place to play in, seriously.

Band camp was pretty much standard I guess. Chiong practice, food, chiong pract, bathe, slack, sleep. Repeat for Saturday.

We're getting there..

Alright, I'm super tired now. I started typing this at 2pm!! It's 2.35 now! Gosh.

*heads to nap*

tata~

Updates, and Life Concert 2009!

2009-04-05T00:43:00.004+08:00

Haha I haven't been updating this blog for a long time now. Been too busy and / or lazy to do so I guess.

Anyway, for the week's updates.. I just wanna say that the macbook is really one of the best purchases I've ever made (or had my dad make), right next to my dslr camera. The convenience of mobile computing is just awesome. I get to bring a photo editor, word processor, slide-show creator and instant messaging device everywhere I want, excessing gmail in offline mode (Mail app syncs with gmail for downloading emails!) kind of device.

It's helped a lot in PW and it certainly helped my photography in that I could bring the laptop to a client (in the last week, a teacher) for discussions about editing.

So.. The next big update would be.. LIFE CONCERT 2009!

Wow, where do I start? Well, as usual I was one of the photographers. Told Mdm Ng jut an hour before it started that I was going to shoot (informed the leader mentor on thursday, though). Anyway, Life Con was awesome! Waaaaaay better than the Saints Aflame 08 that I shot last year in SASS. Could totally feel the presence in the place, so much so that I stopped shooting and joined in for awhile. The praise and worship was very very good. The testimonies didn't have much impact though.. and no one responded to the alter call. However, it was still a very fulfilling (heh!) experience for me to get to shoot.

Firstly, shoots like these are one of the toughest conditions to shoot in. The lights are always changing. I can shoot at ISO 400 at one second, and the next second I'm forced to move to ISO3200 and still underexpose. Also, the place was overall very dark-- ISO1600 f/2.8 gave an average exposure of 1/100 on stage, clearly not enough for the dancers (switched to 85 1.8 then, and got 1/320, thank god for fast primes).

Secondly, I thoroughly enjoy shoots like this. Emotions are displayed freely probably because of the Christian environment, and that allows for many many great shots. The Life Con team really put in a lot of effort on the lighting and sound, and it was great to shoot with all the different colored stage lights. Finally, the ending 'party' singing was just pure awesomeness and everyone at the front and mid was really high. Many went onto the stage, so I followed suit and shot (with Daniel shooting on stage as well). The normal attendees were asked to move down the stage due to a weight limit, though, but I still stayed on.

Oh right, you wanted photographs. Here they are! Edited only in cropping and exposure / color.

The entire event was assumed to end at 8.30, but it ended up ending at 9.45 instead! Really shows that these people are on fire for God! And I stayed behind to shoot the official group photograph:

If you know anyone who was served in the Life Concert as a crew / band / singer / dance member, please link them to my blog to view the photos. Alternatively, you may head to http://www.flickr.com/photos/headshotzx/sets/72157616334946110/ to view the entire gallery of 47 shots.

Saturday!
I woke up still feeling very very tired. I guess carrying heavy cameras and standing / crouching for 4 hours straight isn't something to enjoy if it weren't for the purpose of serving. Had band from 9 to 4.30.. Anyway, I brought my notebook thinking that I would use it in church, and I'm glad I did. I contacted Matthew from COR, and he told me to have lunch with some church/sfc people over at the diocesan building. I went there and showed them the photos, and was treated to some KFC haha. Thanks guys!

After that, we had normal band practice. It was combined sectionals, and I think that our sound is improving, but isn't there yet. Oh well. Dad was supposed to fetch me by 4.45pm to go to church, but then I called and he said he was at home and overslept. I waited, and called at 5.15 and he said he's coming down to fetch me after he went to the toilet cos of a stomachache. So yeahh, picked me up at 5.25.. missed church again cos he definitely couldn't make it within half hour. Oh well.

Came home, showered, did some photo work and had dinner, went to find reviews for laptop cases / sleeves, and here I am now!

Oh oh, I'm going to buy a laptop case tomorrow. Unfortunately, for those that I talked to, the Civilian Lab Radiator case (the cool looking black one with an X at the front) isn't sold in Singapore, even though it was on the Macshop's website. I'll be getting a Higher Ground - Shuttle bag/case instead. Serves the same purposes with more space for my charger, hopefully.

Right, it's 1.30am and I'm very very tired. I should go sleep now. Gnight all!

It's a good day to be environmentally friendly!

2009-03-28T21:28:00.002+08:00

Howdy everyone! It's currently 2129hours as I start to type this. Just ONE more minute to the end of Earth Hour for Singapore!

What's earth hour? Go google it. I just contributed my part by switching off my lights for 1 hour from 8.30 to 9.30pm.

So, how am I typing this if my monitor isn't plugged into the grid? Hm.

Well that's because I...

GOT THE MACBOOK 2.0ghz ALUMINUM!!

Woohoo! I'm a fresh apple mac convert! Haha. And it's awesome to have portable computing while relaxing on the couch with itunes radio (: And guess what? It's supposedly more environmentally friendly too! Heh!

Went to Epicentre @ Suntec. Paid S$2088 for the macbook. They said they were giving a S$200 accessories voucher which ended, guess what? Today! I'm extremely blessed! Haha.

So I got a 320gb Freeagent Portable Harddrive, Apple Remote, Apple Mini-display to VGA adapter, a wrist/palm sheet protector so as not to get my mac dirty. Dad paid only S$62 for all those accessories haha.

I am very pleased with this new mac. Everything's as fast or faster than my desktop, and I love the portability. 13" is just the right size for me. I'm gonna install more software and get my photos and documents transferred over. Then I'll probably leave my desktop in the dust or something, unless I play games of course-- but how often will I have the time or energy to do that now in JC? Not often, I'd say..

Anyway, it's 9.44pm now. Eating by battery powered florescent tubes and a macbook with itunes radio was a great experience haha.

+1 vote to Earth, take that, global warming (:

Signing off,

Zexun

Random Update!

2009-03-27T10:11:00.002+08:00

Heh, i'm in the SAJC comp lab now for GP lesson. Nothing better to do. My impromptu GP group is like doing touch typing speed tests. Haha, I get 88 words per min with 2 wrong words. Sucks to be honest =/ Super not used to the keyboards in school. But who cars right?

Anyway, my MSA results suck. No, seriously. Get this:

GP P C M E
C U U B S

Heh. Gotta work way harder now. At least I think I really understand what the tutor's teaching. Chemistry too. GP's alright, Math and Econs are uber-fail. I don't like the number pattern progession stuff in Math, and the Econs teach is still confusing. Oh well, I'll get through in the end.

Band later 4 to 6.30pm... Definitely won't end at 6.30-- probably 7. Can't go Men's Meeting like that I guess.

Even Moar Birds..and a Kat!

2009-03-20T19:14:00.002+08:00

Mmm well I started off with band today, 9am to about 2.30pm, headed to potong pasir mrt to pass Ziteng the Gorillapod from Jeremy (chan), and MRT'ed to Kovan to change my old specs' nose guard rubber thingies. Had lunch, and shot some sunbirds (and another species of bird that I don't know) on the trees around Heartland Mall.

Came back to Punggol, was about to step onto the LRT when I spotted a whole lot of Egrets just next to the MRT station. So I decided to tap out and shoot.

LRT'ed back, and dropped off at my lrt station. Shot some street / candid child photographs at the Pasar Malam & Badminton Court:

Proud to say that I was undetected by any of the adult subjects even though I was so close! (:

Went below my block, and saw a stray cat posed with just the right backlighting. Grabbed a quick shot (#1) before it scurried off (#2):

Good day. Good photographs. Good life.

And I just heard that my macbook white is confirmed by my dad for an end-of-month purchase. Hooah!.

I'm Addicted To Shooting Birds.

2009-03-17T21:57:00.003+08:00

I have got to get myself a 400mm lens soon.

T'was raining in the morning. Decided to pon my 1 hour of class in school, even though I knew I could also get some nice birds along the kallang river. So I waited for the clouds to part, and opened my window. The sounds made by all kinds of chirping birds tempted me to go down and shoot.

and I also saw this olive backed sunbird perched on my ledge. I shot it just as it was about to take flight (one foot off the ledge already):

Once the area was sunny again, I headed down.

Even before I started looking for a bird, the common yellow bird I've always been shooting (with a short 85mm last time) came into view with its partner. It was a Black-naped Oriole. Unfortunately I could only track one because they were all moving to different trees and I just gave up chasing both.

After tracking and shooting the above Oriole for a good half hour or so, I decided to head back up to my house. That's when I heard a couple of Olive-Backed sunbirds to my left (hm, perhaps that was what was perched on the window ledge in the image above). They were less than about 4m away!

Tracked them for another 5 mins and decided I had enough, and came up to review and post my shots.

Yup, then I came home, sorted out, edited and posted them online. From then till now, I didn't really do anything concrete. Watched TV (Jamie Oliver's cooking shows for the win!), ate two meals, ate lots of chocolate, bathed and played some CS.

I'm going to sleep early today! Gonna end activities by 10.30pm, quiet time till 11 and sleep! Haha.

Band tomorrow, 9 to 7. And I thought 9-to-5-ers were bad.

Conflict

2009-03-17T01:08:00.003+08:00

When there are two perspectives to a situation, and both perspectives are correct to certain extents, does that make one perspective more 'correct' than the other?

If it does, who then, will be the mediator to balance the perspectives and judge which is better?

If it does not, why then, do groups, families, societies and organisations always try to have their perspectives be above others?

Do elders seriously have to make young-lings conform totally to their perspective, just because "they have experienced life" themselves? Note that both perspectives are correct for the great good, but conflicting from individual points of view.

So why is it that the young must always learn morals from the old?

Let it be said, that the old have lots to learn from the young.

'appy birthday, dad!

2009-03-17T00:03:00.001+08:00

Lai lai. Lets tempt you some!

Dad's birthday dinner @ Aston Prime, located at joo jiat road, Singapore.

Aston Prime's Long-Fed Tenderloin Steak-- asked for medium well, but they gave me medium-rare-ish, still tastes totally awesome, though.

Family photo:

Cheers!

Bird Photography

2009-03-16T14:09:00.007+08:00

Brought a 70-200 to school today, and I had lots of time to come home after the 1hour lecture, since it's a holiday. Managed to shoot lots of great birds today. Thanks much to Nurul who spotted the Pacific Swallows near the SAJC side gate.

EDIT: Need I say this? Hm. I'm contemplating about my 1Dmark2 purchase. Maybe I can hold that off and get myself a nice 400mm f/5.6L..

Also, while walking to Mac, we spotted this cat taking a.. well, a cat nap at the street soccer court. Lazy Mondays indeed.

Here are photos of me doing.. the stuff I do best. Shoot stuff. Stuff. Yea. Thanks Nurul.

*Found from nurul's blog, credit given*

On a side note, I'm really thankful that I taped some cloth tape to my 70-200 hood yesterday when I was bored. I knocked my hood onto my house gate as I walked in. The cloth tape showed the knock marks ;) Thank God for protection xD

Talking about cat naps.. I'm gonna get a quick nap and study some chem when I wake ;) Cyas!

Oh

Flickr Pro!

2009-03-15T15:23:00.001+08:00

Hey! Guess what? I got myself (well actually my dad's gonna pay) a Flickr pro account!

Found a seller with a gift-card (possibly complimentary by flickr? No idea) on clubsnap, and got a great deal at S$35 for 2 years subscription.

Hoo-ah!