Slides

Fujichrome, otherwise known as slides. Or this roll, otherwise known as Fuji RVP 100, or Velvia.



I cannot begin to describe my love for slides. For Velvia, the ultimate of slides. Till I try Fortia perhaps (: Shooting slides is a whole different obsession from shooting B&W. A different way of looking through the lens is needed. The imagination of colour, or monotone. The knowledge that B&W can be dodged and burned effectively, while slides are a one-hit wonder.

Okay I think I'm ranting. The above and below are shot at Punggol.



I love how the railings are blue, with the torn parts white. The blue skies with puffy white clouds seems a reflection almost.

An old red scooter at the end of the path



I have a fascination with how people love to leave their mark on plants. Although plants don't have feelings, its just plain sad ):



The handsome boy (:



Lalang



I love this shot (: The photographer came to Marina Barrage toting this huge tripod and his gear, and it was pouring!! The clouds were already crazy dark and gloomy. Had to lift my camera up and kinda over the railing to get this shot. It was fun (:



Before it rained and I was chased to the shelter...

I try to study for my paper later, but memories just keep flooding back.

I always remembered playing with her using the long toilet roll. How she would attack it like a crazy nut and bite and bite and bite. She'd rush up the roll, and start chewing the edges when she reached the top. She would always bite and spit all the toilet roll cardboard bits on me. And how I would put her down and she'd climb back up and do the exact same thing. How I would poke her nose and get amused at her not being deterred and still biting. She lived to bite on things.

And her last days, she was just wobbling. Always trying to run, but failing, falling to one side, struggling to get up. Trying to escape. She wouldn't even bite the random objects given to her.

Why her? Why did she have to suffer? She was the baby of the lot. She was the youngest. She was the most energetic baby, always jumping up and down while cow waited by the door and cappu slept. WHY DID SHE HAVE TO LEAVE US

*edit*

because it was her time to go to a better place

I still can't believe she's gone

Fatter Lumpuru's in Hamster Heaven

Rest in peace, dear fatter. My sister cried for you which means that she finally loved, although she lost too. But we're glad you're free from suffering though you've been taken from us so suddenly. We miss you a lot already. We hope you didn't suffer much.

There are some things I noted today... There's a photo which parallels the Fatter Mommy RIP photo below... I'm wearing the same shirt I wore to Ah Gong's funeral... It was raining when we buried Fatter... There are many what-ifs I kept thinking that would have kept Fatter alive, but I've finally woken up to my senses instead of being in denial and checking the Internet furiously for proof she was alive. I even thought of hibernation, for her body was limp. But I guess my brain kept ticking out the fact that Singapore is too warm for hibernation. I still wonder if we buried her alive. I guess I'll get over that soon. I'd also like to note that when I cried out to my mother, why did fatter die, she's the youngest, my mother just walked away. She was also smiling as she tried to take a photo of my sister crying at the burial. Sometimes I wonder if we're blood-tied. Or if when I died she would cry, like how I accused her of not crying at Ah Gong's death.

But anyway, enough about my ranting. Although I should be studying, here's a bunch of photos to remember Fatter by. I didn't take many, and you seem to be suffering at the hands of the chubby, but oh well.











This photo above, scarily, has some parallels with the one I uploaded when Fatter Mommy had gone missing.























goodbye fatter, we miss you...

):

Things are not looking good...

Fatter is losing her balance more often, and Cappu seizured twice today. His second came with lots of screeching and he was much too tired and kept sleeping on my hand before eventually going back to his cage.

I hope they get better, otherwise I'll stay back and look after them before going for the exam tomorrow, instead of the plan to study with Miak from the morning.

*pray they get better*

Get Well

Soon Fatter Baby.

May your tumour shrink and you be walking strong and healthy again!

things to do:

find my lost forms / fill in again
photocopy everything
statement
proof of grad
degree audit

do jap paper

mount all photos, journal

finish 402 ppts

Singapore Botanic Gardens in B&W (Part 2)

Here's a continuation to the first part here.

It was at the Ginger Path where I ended, and ran to a nearby bench to put in new film before running back to my previous spot where I was kneeling on the grass timing my photo just before a family walked past.

This here's a pretty ginger flower alongside the path.





Then I walked on and spotted this lonesome looking bench against a plain backdrop of leaves. I was happily fiddling with my camera, when this girl came along. She saw me aiming at the bench, and saw that there were other benches, but she sat down on my bench of choice! WHAT LUCK. First I have an angmoh family parking themselves in my photos, making me wait forever for them to leave before taking a photo, and now I have a girl blatantly sitting there. Ah well, life throws you boulders sometimes.



Then off I went in search for a cool drink, being parched from the heat. I found an ice cold Snapple, and a pretty tree with leaves settled on its trunk.



Next stop was the Cactus area.



I cannot emphasise what suffering one goes through, juggling a monster camera, a huge spotmeter, a swinging sling bag, and a bottle of Snapple. Imagine what happens when you need to change the lens. AAAAAHHH. What a fun experience it was (:



Someone told me I could sell postcards upon seeing this photo (: he made my day!



It was a tiny white flower, and behind it was a bench. Where two banglas were sitting. And as it was low on the ground. So I had to figure out how to slant my camera really low on a tripod, bend my body like rainbow and peer at the screen, without letting the banglas catch a glimpse of my leggings-clad butt. Ah well at least it ended up nice enough!

Some random cactuses...



Vandalised ):



And we end with a lonesome bench! (:



Till the next post (:

Don't Be Cruel

I wanted to upload a favourite Elvis song of mine, but radioblogclub pretty much sucks now.

So here's YouTube! Elvis the Pelvis live with Don't Be Cruel (:

Storm Clouds

Click HERE to view large (:

Still need to figure out how to get a certain size uploaded for my shots ):

Anyway! This landscape was taken in Jasper National Park (if my memory doesn't fail me), Canada. It was a very beautiful place; I was on a bridge over this fast-moving icy river. The gorgeous blue-green colour of the water is due to glacier silt. Just a short distance away, there was a huge black bear ambling on the road, and I was rather apprehensive of getting out of the car to take this shot. He soon disappeared into the woods though (: Beautiful beautiful place. If only the weather was better during my trip.

Goodbye

Got an SMS today telling me that my Nikon AIS 85mm f/1.4 lens has been sold.

I don't know if I should be joyous or in mourning.

Always wanted it, had such a hard time finding it. But didn't use it, or have much chances to. And so with so little time spent with it, perhaps two or three occasions at most, its left my hands, never to return again.

Hope the new owner treats it much better than I did.

Duckie says Hello (:

I think I had a connection with this lil duckling in Sapa, Vietnam, who loved being photographed (: Don't you think he's tilting his head and smiling at me? And strangely, I wandered off to shoot ducklings on a rice terrace while everyone else was fascinated by and photographing adorable children of ethnic minorities. I might just prefer cute yellow fluff balls to children.

PS, I actually considered stopping eating duck after I saw this cuties. Still thinking if that would affect my already non-mammal diet.

Perfect

I don't want half hearted love affairs
I need someone who really cares.
Life is too short to play silly games
I've promised myself I won't do that again.

It's got to be perfect
It's got to be worth it
Too many people take second best
But I won't take anything less
It's got to be
perfect.

Young hearts are foolish
they make such mistakes
They're much too eager to give their love away.
Well, I have been foolish too many times
Now I'm determined I'm gonna get it right.

It's got to be perfect
It's got to be worth it
yeah.
Too many people take second best
But I won't take anything less
It's got to be
perfect.

Today I was in the darkroom from 10am till 8pm. That's about 10 hours on my feet, excluding a short escape to the sandwich machine for some quick chomping before resuming on the dodging and burning (: And I really enjoyed my time in the darkroom, to say the least. I'm gonna miss it real bad next sem!

Need a Break

I long to sit back and relax under the shadow of a large tree in autumn with a loved one, a good book in hand.

But that seems hard to imagine with less than two weeks to the exams.

On a lighter note, I went running today and got all dizzy so I slowed down, and surprisingly shaved 2 minutes off my 5k (: Haha. Must have been running too fast earlier. And I think I flashed many people my hot pink sports bra as my white shirt wasn't all that opaque o_o

No Matter What

No matter what they tell us
No matter what they do
No matter what they teach us
What we believe is true

No matter what they call us
However they attack
No matter where they take us
We'll find our own way back

I can't deny what I believe
I can't be what I'm not
I know I love forever
I know no matter what

If only tears were laughter
If only night was day
If only prayers were answered
Then we would hear God say

No matter what they tell you
No matter what they do
No matter what they teach you
What you believe is true

And I will keep you safe and strong
And sheltered from the storm
No matter where it's barren
Our dream is being born

No matter who they follow
No matter where they lead
No matter how they judge us
I'll be everyone you need

No matter if the sun don't shine
Or if the skies are blue
No matter what the ending
My life began with you

I can't deny what I believe
I can't be what I'm not
I know this love's forever
That's all that matter's now
No matter what

I know no matter what,
Thats all that matters to me

This song brings back good memories. Memories of being in Primary 6. Memories of my favourite camp, when we were made to sing on the journey back to Singapore, and Gabriel sang this tonelessly. Memories of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over my sister's idol Stephen Gately, who is now unfortunately, no longer on this earth.

RIP, Stephen Gately.

New Blogskin

Decided I wanted to go for something simple, so as not to distract from photos or text or anything.

Click on Prose and Pictures above to navigate (:

Thanks!

Singapore Botanic Gardens in B&W

Last Sunday, the old man dropped me off at SBG, at the Bukit Timah exit.

I was to walk to the Nassim exit while he sang karaoke (haha, our old family tradition of weekend karaoke) and then he'd pick me up when I was done shooting.

Sweet! It was the perfect excuse to carry my monster of a TLR, the Mamiya C330, two lenses - 80mm f/2.8 and 55mm f/4.5, tripod, shutter release, and lots of 120mm film.

If you saw a person struggling with and dragging along a weird old school huge camera on a tripod with legs extended and poking everywhere, holding a huge spotmeter in the other hand, that's me!

Anyway, let's cut to the chase.

It was a pain in the ass to shoot flowers in B&W (cos flowers to me are colours) as well as do macro using a very-susceptible-to-parallax-error Twin Lens Reflex camera. But hey, I'm a masochist!

OKAY, moving on. Here's the first shot I did, at the entrance to the carpark.



Needless to say, many cars had to try and avoid an ass sticking up in the air at the roundabout, with a head stuck to the waist level finder of the camera, oblivious to cars. I'd love to upload this really LARGE so you can see how sharp and detailed it is (oh the beauty of using a tripod) but the blog layout is too small unfortunately. This might imply a change is coming. OKAY moving on...



I LOVE this plant. Crazy plant that resembles fireworks. I'd love to shoot it top down to get a circular formulation, but I have no idea how to attempt that with a crazy heavy monster TLR (:



The sense of satisfaction, seeing your huge negatives, so perfectly focused and sharp. I LOVE THE TRIPOD!! Even if it takes me more than 10 minutes just to take a shot sometimes. Okay, most of the time.

Cute little orchid wannabes:



This here's a cute ginger plant that I didn't fancy doing a macro on.



And this is the ONLY shot I didn't like from all three rolls I shot:



I suppose I should have used a narrower DOF to throw the background out of focus... ah well, at least I got the water smooth and silky.



Did I mention how much fun it is to dodge and burn in B&W too? I LOVE the darkroom. But when it is not at hand, digital darkroom's fine too (: Burning the highlights for the photo above sucked though, for the scanner was unable to capture enough details. Will shall have to see what the real darkroom produces (:







Ahh, flare, reminiscent of fungus on a lens ):

And this is the last shot from my first roll, Ilford FP4, at SBG, from the Ginger Path.



Its a prelude to things to come! (:

Till part 2 of SBG.

Going, Gone

So much for never wanting to sell off anything.

My Leica went in the first half of the year, and now my 85mm f1.4 is to be sold as well.

I'm even thinking of selling off everything and going solely film. Perhaps a Hasselblad system? Who knows.

I'll think about it.

Meanwhile, I had a very enjoyable day at the Botanic Gardens.

Just me and my Mamiya C330, getting to know each other better (:

I LOVE shooting. Alone (: