Tuesday, August 24, 2010
at
11:35 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
And so the biggest photography project that I've done has now come to a close (short of processing the photos that I took). It was an epic whole day event that just demanded every ounce of creative energy out of me. Frankly speaking, I don't think I am cut out for the impromptu stresses and pressures of doing the actual wedding day. It is so so soooo hard just to get the moment down, let alone make it look nice. And for some reason, the facial expression that happened to be engraved in my SD card were all not particularly nice. Although I have to say that I'm exercising the flash unit I bought from my former housemate. I think the thought of regret for selling the flash to me has crossed his mind because I used it so rarely. It's been good that I'm kinda practicing some of the techniques that I've learned from a professional wedding photographer that I've been following for quite awhile now.
But enough about the crappy photographer talk. The venue was nice and the chapel was even nicer. Though it was small, it was very cosy once filled up with people all waiting to celebrate the union of the two people they've known and love. I've never been the best man or anyone who would see through the entire wedding procedures, so being the (secondary) photographer gives me a whole new appreciation for the many things that go on leading up to the actual ceremony itself. It's hard not to have fun, I tell you. There are times where I just wanted to put down my camera and just join in. Then I remembered, I have a job to do. I think it is also doubly fun that I've known the bride and groom waaaay even before they were an item and how they each behave. They were certainly a fun couple and I think that makes a lot of difference for something as big as a wedding. Really really fun day but it's super tiring. How can anyone be moving at the end of the day, especially the bride and groom who by then would have been awake since the crack of dawn? And how is it possible that there's this expectation that the newly wedded couple would have *ahem* done stuff that same night? I remember some of us were joking about this at another friend's wedding a few years back and someone said "Later when they will sleep together, I mean they will literally sleep on the same bed". And not some other connotation.
On a separate note, I've seen how God work just to bring some encouragement into one's life at a seemingly random time. After class one day I went to some grocery shopping. There I saw someone who I recognize but have no idea of the name. She on other hand did. So we started talking at the checkout and ended up chatting outside the checkout for about an hour. We then moved to my place since it's just across the road and talked for the next 3 hours. We talked a great deal of things but mainly intellectual stuff. Any normal person who have died in that room for the sheer amount of brainy talk and analyzing many things. Turns out that's what she needed at that time, good intellectual talk. So she left with this refreshed mind to face the world. And that was it. It just seemed so random that I will be talking to this person and so happened to give what she needed. I don't think that was mere coincidence. Just so that you people don't get the wrong idea (yes, I'm looking at you Sie Ming. Especially you.) nothing else happened after that.
Digitizing our cars may not be such a good idea after all.
If this is true, to be comedic is human. As in a sinful human. Maybe that's pushing it a bit.
I've yet to read this in its entirety (because it's 10 freaking pages long), but I do believe I'm in this category. Only thing missing is to move back in with my parents.
Like I've always treated blogging, it's like a diary. Micro-blogging on the other hand seems to be very transient.
I've always thought about what would it be like to be a father. Yet at every time, the conclusion that I will arrive at would be that I will be terrible at it. Seems like according to this, I won't know the real answer until I actually become one.
Moral of this story: Don't let your child watch Iron Man.
Isaac Azimov was correct in predicting our future lives that is today. Have we lost the meaning of friendship in our semi-futuristic today?
Fluidic motion of a glass juggler. And I love that song. That song is here. Too bad that song is not available on iTunes Australia. Rats.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
at
2:28 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
A great deal of stuff has happened lately but I'm not exactly sure of the potential of things to come. So many new opportunities has been popping up like mushrooms which seems to detract me from what I wanted to do originally. Whether it is a good thing or not is yet to be determined. At times, it is very exciting and can't wait for me to jump into it but at the same time scared because of the whole long list of Asian tradition and conservatism that goes against some of the things that I want to do. Plus everything that I've studied up till this point might have been all gone to "waste". So hard to think of what to do.
Last Saturday was one of the craziest days I've come across in a long time. Quite random actually but at least we had a good laugh at it in the end. At least for me. It started off with a bad sleeping start Friday night/Saturday morning when I couldn't sleep until around 6:30. Woke up two hours later to go for a friend's graduation. It's been a long time since I've caught up with this friend of mine so it was a good chat plus photo taking. I thought my graduation had a bad turnout (Ok, to be fair, I kept it to a low profile), but her's was less than mine. But I'm sure it doesn't really matter as long as there are friends and family on this occasion. Went back and tried to start on my work when a rather desperate request for help from a friend who is involved in doing an event here in Melbourne. Basically, we had to transport drinks and instant noodles from point A to point B. Sound simple enough until I saw 51 cartons of packet drinks and about 20+ cartons of instant noodles. That was no joke. On top of that, because we couldn't find a vehicle from friends big enough to transport all of this stuff in one shot, so we had to rent a car. Not the most spacious of cars but it will have to do. In the end, we had to make two trips because the drinks alone put so much weight on the car that the back tires were starting to touch the underside. Fierce man. Each trip takes half an hour one way. It is a good thing that I had my friend company/keep me awake when driving. 2 hours of sleep plus warm late afternoon sunlight facing you are prime factors for putting me to sleep while driving. Not something you'd mess around with. Thank God we managed to get everything together in one piece. Along the way I met some pretty cool people involved in the event which is always good.
Had dinner outside the city since we had the car for the day and ended up going on a random drive around. We were pretty much turning at a whim until someone noticed that I was really driving to my friend's workplace despite never driven there at all. Quite fail but still fun. Came back home at around 10 something and just as I entered my apartment, another call came for hanging out. Since I've been out like literally the whole day, I might as well make the most of it. Hanged out while some friends have food before I still decided to be crazy enough to go and perform my church cleaning duties. At this point I'm like super tired and when I entered church, there's rubbish everywhere and bins were filled to the brim. Great. Finished cleaning before I realized that it's another 4-5 hours before I have to come to church for music practice. So tempted to sleep in church but I didn't.
And there you have it...the craziest day so far. I hope not to break that level. Ever.
The other good thing is that I'm looking forward to my friend's wedding next week. I guess it is because that I've poured in effort in doing my part for their day (or the days leading up to this day) that it is natural to just look forward to it. I think it is also the accumulated expectations from various things that contribute to how it is all going to be. It is also the first time that I will be taking the photographs for one side of the wedding party. Plenty of things to get excited about but like all things related to my photography, I'm just going to be scared shitless. This is THE big day, miss something and you won't be able to recreate it. While the last two weddings that I've shot, I was merely the ninja shooter where there's not much of that kind of pressure going on, now I will be going into the nitty gritty things of the photographers that do this for a living. Not something I'm comfortable with first time round. Also not helping in the self-confidence issue (I've always not have any but it can still make it worse). Will see how it goes.
And now the piled up news on my ApiMusang browser... Awesome photos of New Orleans post-Katrina
Judge Judy earns more than David Letterman? Seriously?
Why is there a research like this, I have no idea. That means I should be getting a lot of it. That's clearly and obviously far from the case.
So it seems that the American education system, in some sense, is no different from our "lowly" Malaysian/Singaporean system. Ultimately, we still suffer the same thing. The funny thing is that my mom keeps praising the States or Australia for having a much better system than the crappy system back home. Reality is that we are pretty much on a level playing field. Ish.
I'd never noticed the rather dark themes of Mary Poppins even though I've only watched it just this year. Interesting. And I should have a look at the musical here. Hope it's not like Wicked, I loved the music but never got to see the actual show.
Why are people so stupid? Just because there's a lot of people on Facebook doesn't mean that you can hide behind the numbers.
So wrong on so many levels. And this is seriously not the way to do it man. What is wrong with you?
I've always been on the side that photos have to taken with deliberate intent to convey a story. Lighting, facial expression, framing etc all taken into account by the photographer to produce one photo that tells more on the image than words can do. This however makes me rethink that strict policy. It's not enough to abandon my core beliefs of how I approach photography but rather be more open to the idea that the deliberateness of intent of the photo is not so much in the photo but what surrounds it, before and after the shot. And that may be enough reason and consideration to take a photo of a potted plant.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
at
2:31 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
There's been some talk lately on relationships, in particular about what is your criteria/non-negotiables for the person you are interested in. Ask that question to any other person and they would give some sort of a list (long or short) and it would be a rather varied bunch of answers with some overlap. Ask this question to any Christian however, you will get a rather set list of criteria. A person who loves God, loves other people and loves me. That's more or less the answer you are going to get. While I'm glad that an answer like this comes out, I'm actually not sure whether this is a list that they would actually keep at the back of their pocket to pull out in instances like this or truly seek these qualities in a person. Upon further prying (much prying I might add), will they only release any practical hints/criteria of a person. Some might not release it at all and just simply try and dodge it. Is it really that difficult to voice out a criteria? I mean everyone has their own preferences and there is no way that one does not have some form of negotiable criteria (as Christians, the non-negotiables are mentioned above, everything else can be changed. Somewhat). I wonder the responses I get are the person's way of saying "Mind your own business, this is between me, myself and God". Either that or I'm just very curious. Almost kay-poh. Whatever the reason, it is rather frustrating to not know how a Christian friend ticks especially in the area of relationships.
What about mine you may ask? Besides the above, I seem to have a liking for very intellectual, rational, collected, sharp, humourous (relative to me) people. Looks? For some reason, they are just right. They know how to dress nicely without breaking much of a sweat (or wallet). Which most of the time, they are the opposite of me. Especially dress sense because I am self-proclaiming myself as a middle-class hobo =P Of all the people that I've liked (secretly or was publicly known) I have deduced two things about my chances. One, is that they are waaaaay out of my league and two, I know there's another person nearby who would better match them. So far, I'm right. But do I care about it? I think as the years are passing by ever so quickly, I'm beginning to not care. Which is probably a good thing. But that doesn't mean that I will never suffer secret crushes like everyone else does because everybody wants to settle with someone, including myself. Even more so that the little number of friends I have are getting married. For now, .cpp and .h files are my loves *twitch*.
And to detract you all from thinking too much about relationships, the news: So interesting how important it is to help the war veterans to not try and kill themselves.
Generally true. I suck at planning to go to places.
My dysfunctional group of friends are good for me.
Music has a much bigger effect on the brain than we thought. But we're not talking about stuff like the Mozart effect. Apparently that's rubbish.
Anchors are good. This anchor on the other hand just screws with your brain.
Some people way too much time with math. And I bet these people are lonely too.
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