Finally got my own hosting and domain.

This blog will gradually shut down and be moved to a more permanent location:

http://www.davidleetong.com

The reviews will be separated from the personal posts and I’ll be hosting my future portfolio in there.

Thanks for your continued support See you there!

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II was officially announced this week. You can check out the wonderful specs and features of this cam from dpreview.com.

First Canon SLR to ever sport a video function as well. High-def too!

I’m not here to talk about the camera, though. I’m here to talk about the naysayers and the self-proclaimed “purists” in today’s digital photography era.

Currently, the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II are the only two digital single-lens reflex (dSLR) cameras that offer video recording. It’s a great add-on to have for consumer cameras in my opinion, yet day in and day out, you read comments in forums on different parts of the world saying the same thing – “It’s just a gimmick!”, “Video should not be in serious photographic equipment”, “If I want video, I’ll get a video cam!”.

I have to say something then, IF YOU DON’T WANT IT, DON’T GET IT! Even if you do buy either of these two cameras and hate the video function, then DON’T USE THE VIDEO! It’s so simple yet they love to make a big deal out of it.

The funniest part would be the claim that “video isn’t for photographers”. Since when did being a photographer rob you from the right to shoot videos? Aren’t most video cameras from the 90s capable of capturing stills as well? Aren’t most digital point-and-shoot cameras capable of doing both as well? Since when did electronics have to follow the stigma of being “pure”?

It’s true that you won’t use it much, but do you use your camera in your cellphone often? Do you use your ABS from your car’s brakes often? The whole idea is “it’s there when you need it”.

Neither the D90 nor the 5D Mark II are “professional” line of cameras, they’re aimed for serious hobbyists that shoot most when they travel. People with DSLRs buy a second point-and-shoot for travel so that they can have both video and still images. Prosumer hybrid point-and-shoots like the Canon SxIS series, Panasonic FZ series, etc. sell like hotcakes even if their prices are closing in on entry-level DSLRs already – why? For the FLEXIBILITY and CONVENIENCE.

Now imagine having an EXCELLENT still camera and a decent, if not good, video camera in one body.

If you’re a traveller and taking good photos are part of a good vacation, wouldn’t you prefer to be carrying a DSLR over a point-and-shoot or a video camera that is mediocre for stills? Not only will your photo requirements be covered, you can shoot impromptu videos in high definition as well when the parade passes by.

If you have children and you attend their recital or sporting event, not only will your cam be able to shoot high quality action/low-light stills, you can record and video the moment when the audiences applaud your kid’s performance.

How can that NOT be a good thing to have in a camera?

It’s not as if the video mode robbed or sacrificed any capabilities from the camera, nor did the video add more weight that you have to carry, right?

The price of the new 5D Mark II is almost US$1,000 cheaper than the first EOS 5D during its release. Value-wise, you just got 50% more resolution, faster burst, better dynamic range and noise control, sensor cleaning, better LCD with Live View, HDMI output, HD movie, and a lot more – FOR LESS!

What are you whining about???

A brief background about this event. I’ll just pull it out from their website:

The full length of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway will be opened to motorists on 20 September 2008. To celebrate the completion of the longest underground vehicular tunnel in South East Asia, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is organising the Swing KPE to provide an opportunity for the public to be one of the first to walk and run in the unopened portion of the KPE tunnel (Phase2). Participants will also get to enjoy exciting activities in the tunnel!

Before I get started about my wife’s exciting event, this was my day to test out the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM pro-grade lens as well. Read about it in my upcoming post (link not available yet).

My wife, Vio, started jogging about 2 months back as a way to get fit while waiting for Yoki to get out of school. Our neighborhood jogging track has been her most visited place outside our flat and she’s truly enjoying it.

Vio blew out her knee a decade ago in karate and she’s lost quite a bit of lateral twist resistance with a severely torn Anterior Cruciate Ligamen (ACL). She loves sports, but unfortunately, her knee prevented her to seriously partake in raquetsports and martial arts again. Even with a metal brace, the knee gives way if twisted the wrong way.

When we moved to Singapore, it was inevitable that jogging/running will catch on to her routine as it is the most popular sporting activity for most Singaporeans.

When she first started out, she can do a lap of around 250 meters (fine, metres) then have to walk the rest of the way because of our lack of cardiovascular activity. The neighborhood middle-aged “aunties” can do lap after lap without breaking a sweat. Instead of feeling embarassed, it actually is very encouraging to know that you’re never too old to run – and run well, at that.

After a couple of months of daily perseverance, she can run our neighborhood, hilly track for half and hour or more straight before resting. Even then, she walks several laps before slowing down just before picking Yoki up from school.

Last month, a good friend of mine, Yvee, called her and informed her about the Swing! KPE Tunnel Fun Run. She’s aware that Vio’s been running for a few months and it would be nice if she can get her feet wet with a 5-kilometer route while having the luxury of running/walking indoors in a tunnel instead of running in a hot, scorching Singapore morning. Vio signed up for the 5K leisure walk/run route and a couple of weeks later, we picked up her free shirt and race number from Suntec City.

After Registration

Leading up to the big day, she’s been having butterflies in her stomach and couldn’t get much sleep. She was both excited and worried as this’ll be her (well, our) first time to join any sort of running event. So when the Sunday (Sept 14) arrived, she was awake 2-hours early and was raring to go by the time I woke up.

Yoki wasn’t all that excited as he was still tired from our activity the day before.

Took me a while to get going as well and I had to bribe Yoki with a cellphone game to get him up and running.

We waited a little while for the bus but decided to take a cab to the MRT station instead. Once there, Yoki got hungry so he had his packed sandwich for breakfast before getting on the train as it’s prohibited to eat inside the station and in the train itself.

The train ride takes about 30 minutes to reach the station where the shuttle buses are. The morning sun broke through and it was a nice, clear day to have a family outing.

The train reached the Tampines MRT station and we saw A LOT of runners in the area already. Sensing that the line (ahem, queue) will take a while to clear up, I looked for a McDonald’s for some breakfast. McGirdle to go please!

After a while, we got on the shuttle. The organizers did a great job by supplying ample busses to keep waiting to a minumum. Even if the line was long, it took us less than 10 minutes to get on a nice, clean, and cold bus.

We got to the venue in about 20 minutes, the place is still sealed off from public so there aren’t any public traffic to worry about and the participants were able to walk around freely across the dual 3-lane road.

There were people EVERYWHERE, but you don’t feel like a packed can of sardines while you’re outdoors because of the space. People from all walks of life and age group were present. There were A LOT of under-5 kids and over 60 year-old seniors ready to participate. I sincerely doubt that you can get that much turnout from those age brackets in most other countries.

We met up with Yvee along the way. She’s a relative newbie to running as well, but she’s already more advanced than Vio and light years better than my fat ass. It was nice seeing a familiar face in such an event.

Apart from the “inauguration” of this new tunnel, the organizers were hoping to achieve another (pointless) goal, to form the longest lantern parade for the Guiness Book of World Records. Today’s mid-autumn festival for the Chinese, so they gave out little red lanterns for the participants to carry into the tunnel where a section of it will be pitch black and (hopefully) the lanterns will be flooding the darkness.

As the participants wait for the announcer to start the event, people were stretching and warming up all over the place.

It was like a carnival. You get TV celebrities, fire eaters, folks on stilts, balloons etc. It was interesting but the venue wasn’t really ideal for such shows as the performers just get overwhelmed by the sheer number of the crowd.

The 10K runners were placed ahead of the casual runners and walkers. They get a head start so that the slow-pokes won’t be blocking their way. The avalanche of 5K participants was a sight to behold, while it’s not as numerous or prestigious as the Boston or New York marathon, you don’t get to see babies, toddlers, seniors in such events that often.

Vio was already part of that crowd while Yoki and I waited for her. We really didn’t know what to do while she’s running because there aren’t a lot of places we can go to, so Yoki and I decided to just join the crowd as he was anxious to “race”. He just kept saying “C’mon Dad, let’s race with mom… We have to win!”. I don’t know about winning a race, as your Dad hates jogging, but let’s give it a shot.

You’ll see all sorts of strange warm-up and stretching routines from the older folks, quite entertaining.

The marshalls and event crew had quite a bit of a task of keeping order of the crowd, and it’s not the young ones that are causing the raucus. The elderly were very anxious to get started and they used the side path to go around the other 5K runners you see that are positioned near the balloon arches. The marshalls had a blast trying to SLOW DOWN the oldies.

Soon after, the 10K runners were a kilometer in and the 5K runners are off!

Some 10K racers were late, so they had to contend with the mob. As Yoki continues to look for Mom…

The annoucement of the Guiness record plan gave the crowd a lot to cheer about as they raised their red lanterns up in the air. Oh, and I did mention there are a lot of elderly, right?

Celebrities (I have no idea who they are) were cheering the crowd and announcing all the significance of the event while side show performers were there as well to keep the crowd enthusiastic.

The entrance of the tunnel was quite a scene, if this wasn’t in a country where jogging and crowding are routine, a stampede would be inevitable, yet there were no complaints or hysteria going on as the crowd inches their way into the first few meters of the tunnel. The excitement and happiness were genuine, and the community presence was impressive as several community centers joined in as a group, waving their own flags and all.

Then finally, Yoki and I saw mom…

Soon after, the three of us was part of the event. Yoki wanted to run, but the crowd was still thick. So Mom and Yokes weaved in and out of the crowd while I was busy shooting the frenzy. In less than 30 seconds, I could no longer see them. I ran my way though the crowd but failed to see the two of them, so I gave Vio a call and found out that they stayed behind, so we decided to meet at the first marker, which was a very colourful and loud light show. Oh, this also was the starting point where the tunnel was pitch black to give the lanterns a better effect.

We finally regrouped and Yoki was telling me not to wander off… Soon enough, we saw the turning point – the indicator where you’ve completed 2.5KM and start heading back to complete the race.

The turning point merged some of the 10K runners with the 5K crowd. Some of the 10K runners were gasping for air and resting along the railing as the air is quite thin as you get deeper into the tunnel and the humidity is quite high with all the 5K participants adding to the ambient heat and humidity, eventually, some folks did pass out.

Found out that most of those who were wheeled out were the 10K runners, the oldies are fine, surprisingly.

I asked Yoki to come with me so that Mom can really run as the path is a lot clearer now, we’ll just meet before the finish line.

After hiking a couple of kilometers, we saw the Mom and the finish line was within sight! It was literally a “light at the end of the tunnel” moment. At that point, Yoki was extremely tired, so he had a piggy-back ride on mom. Mom was excited as well and started running towards the end zone. It’s amazing how adrenaline pushes a someone. Normally, she can’t even walk 5 minutes with him riding on her back, now she’s RUNNING.

Just like that, we’ve completed 5K together as a family. It wasn’t even planned for all three of us to join, but how can I document the event without joining? And how can we finish the race without Yoki with us? We can’t… So we made it, as a family Wish that Nicole, our cousin, could join us today, but she’s down with a bad cough so she had to stay home with her mom.

As we walked out of the tunnel, we collected our goodie bags that contained some food and gift items from the sponsors. Vio and Yoki got certificate of completions too.

We got out of the tunnel happy and tired. We met up with Yvee as well and she has completed her 10K as well, I think this was her first 10K race and she looked satisfied with her performance – as she should be! We rested a bit and trickles of runners walk out from the tunnel.

The run itself would’ve been a nice ending, but the organizers have another surprise for the crowd, something that both Yoki and I would love to see – a motorcade!

The Harley-Davidson motorcade showed up first with their familiar rumble. The last time I saw so much Harleys was back in 96 at Daytona Beach, it sure was nice seeing those beautiful bikes around.

Then the classic cars rolled in. Yoki immediately saw his favourite car – the SMILEY CAR, an Austin Healy bug-eye that he saw 8-months ago in the city. Then came a whole bunch of others.

This was taken last Feb 2008.

Yoki cheers on as the classics roll off to make way for the Lamborghinis. Murcielagos and Gallardos galore! The exotic Italians are showcased and some kids were pre-selected to ride with the car owners for a lap around the tunnel, lucky chaps!

As the Italians roared, the zippy British Lotus Elises starts to come in. I could almost hear Jeremy Clarkson screaming “This is bloody brilliant British engineering right here!”…

As the motorcade ends, we started our slow march under the sun towards the shuttle bus. Along the way, some attractions were available but are not suited for kids under 12, so we didn’t get the chance to try them out (yes, I’m under 12 as well).

The comfortable bus ride rejuvenated us a little and we capped off our morning with some early lunch. Yoki had a plateful of his favourite pene with marinara and sausages while Vio had mushroom pasta and I had my baked spicy dory pasta.

I still dislike jogging, but this wasn’t a jogging event, this was a family event that allowed the three of us to have unhibited fun as a tight-knit family.I’m so proud of Vio going through with this and Yoki as well for dragging his little legs for 5 kilometers.

I don’t need anyone to convince me to participate on that

Almost feel ashamed of saying this… My job involves writing user manuals so customers will have usable reference on how the products they’ve bought operates. Having user manuals prevent idiots from using a CD-ROM tray as a cupholder, or using a washing machine to clean their pets. You’d think that I’d spend the time reading a user’s manual when I buy something new – well, I ALWAYS practice what I preach!

I love user manuals, I’m just geeky that way. When I buy something new, reading the documentation is like smelling the interior of a new car. It doens’t matter if I already know what an item does (like a bottle of milk, for example), I just have to read the labels and whatever paperwork that product has.

Last week, I bought myself a Philips 7-in-1 Grooming Kit. Basically, a clipper/hair cutting package so that I can cut my own hair at home and do Yoki’s hair as well when he needs a trim. I find $12 to be a bit steep for snipping a few strands of baby hair – not to mention he prefers mom and dad to cut his hair.

Image courtesy of amazon.com

I ripped (well, cut) the packaging as soon as I got home and read the manuals right away. For whatever reason there is, Philips did NOT have an English section in their guide. I could care less about French, Danish, German, Russian, Turkish as I can’t read any of those – and I’m not going to type it in Babelfish either. Fortunately, I can read illustrations fine.

Anyway, a quick guide stated that one should give the clipper at least a 10-hour charge before its first use. So I plugged it in and had dinner and watched TV.

I told you I read the manual.

What I didn’t tell you was the fact that I chose to IGNORE what the manual suggests and after two hours or so, I took the clipper from its charging dock, went to the bathroom and started cutting my hair.

(squeezing in a mini-review on the product right now…)

Mini review first:

I have to say that I absolutely hate hard-shrink plastic packaging that you can’t just open. You’ll probably have a 50/50 chance of getting an inch-deep wound opening this darn package. Use scissors and be careful!

The base where you can store the accessories and the clipper itself is flimsy and cheap-looking, but it’ll do its job of holding the stuff in. I’d prefer something sturdier for a S$99 package, but what do I know about plastic costs?

The clipper is light and ergonomical. The larges comb accessory is roughly 1.5″ wide and it is a little narrow for adult hair-cutting, but I chose this because my son’s head size isn’t suited for a standard-width clipper. Also, the kiddie haircut place uses the same clipper, hence, my decision to get this model.

The accessories include a hair, beard, nose/eyebrow, precision, and a fixed clipper guide that you can attach and detach from the clipper’s motorized handle. 

The clipper can only be used in cordless mode, meaning, you can’t use the clipper when you’re charging it. This is irksome (as you can see later). Charging takes 10 hours for its initial charge, that’ll allow you a loaded usage time of about 45-minutes. I think that’s ample as you rarely need to keep a clipper running continuously for that long anyway. I could pose a problem if you’re doing this for a living as the product claims to be “professional”.

The motor bogs down quite a bit when it’s cutting through thick heads, I mean hair, like mine. At the time of the test, my hair was growing about 3 inches vertically, and my hair is thick. The Philips struggled to glide through and you can hear the motor slowing down. It gets worse as the battery drains. My advice is to cut your hair to about an inch with a scissor before attempting to use the Philips. It’ll be like cutting a cornfield with safety scissors.

Once you get down to an inch or so, the clipper is very easy to use and handle. The guides work really well and the blades run smoothly with no accidental hairpull. The small footprint of the clipper allows you to cut the areas behind your neck and ear with ease. Something I find difficult with standard-sized clippers.

I haven’t tried the other attachments yet, but I doubt that you’ll be interested on what I did with those… 

I think the Philips 7-in-1 is a good buy for light duty cutting. With my hair-growth rate (I know balding folks will hate me for this), I need to cut my hair about once every 3 weeks. If I wait any longer, I should get my hair cut outside. For my son’s hair, it’s perfect.

Now back to my initial story about reading the effin manual. 

Since I chose to NOT follow the initial charging period of 10-hours. I attempted to cut my thick field of hair with only a 2-hour charge. If my math hasn’t failed me, that amounts to a total of 9-minutes of usage. You CAN’T finish a 3-inch thick hair on a large, round head in 9 minutes. Not with a mini clipper, at least.

I ended up with this…

After 9 Minutes

Like I mentioned previously, it’s annoying that you can’t use the Philips while it’s charging (their documentation NEVER mentioned this!). So I actually had to sleep with that hair-do and finish the job the next day. Before I shaved everything off, I thought of doing something interesting.

Click the image to see where that idea came from.

Remember folks, read and FOLLOW the user’s manual… I was lucky this happened on a weekend. I don’t think people would be delighted to see an overaged psycho monk in the office.

Title: Contemporary Wedding Photography by Julie Oswin & Steve Walton

MSRP: US$24.99

Book Description
“Essential Know-How for a New Era in Wedding Photography*Wedding photography is one of the most lucrative areas for professional and aspiring photographers *Working photographers must master the less formal contemporary style of wedding photography to win clients *The highly acclaimed authors are featured regularly in the bridal and photography pressToday’s wedding photography has to tell a story and capture the emotions and atmosphere of the day in a natural, photojournalistic style. This user-friendly manual reveals the techniques necessary to shoot in this contemporary style, whether for professional photographers looking to update their methods or aspiring photographers wanting to break into this high-end market. This comprehensive guide:*Guarantees successful shooting by using comprehensive checklists, professional tips, proven templates and step-by-step photographs*Includes advice on pre-wedding planning, presentation of images to the couple and everything in between

*Inspires achievement in photographers of all levels through the authors’ inimitable shooting style An A to Z directory of professional tips makes vital knowledge easy to find.”

Image Courtesy of Amazon.Ca

The book covers a lot of essential information for the relatively new and intermediate wedding photographer. The chapters are separated into the following:

• Preparation
• Directing Poses
• Photographing Details
• The Wedding Story
• Editing and Digital Darkroom
• Designing the Album
• The Business of Marketing

I’ll go through the book review, chapter-by-chapter in terms of usability and content later on.

The book contains a lot of quality photographs, in colour and monochrome, mostly taken with a digital SLR. Exif information are provided in each photo along with meaningful captions on why or how the photo was chosen.

___

Chapter 1: Preparation

This chapter is a very good inclusion for the book. It covers “background” preparations that are not related with equipment. The chapter talks about how and when to meet with clients, how to plan for the formal and informal shoots, how to work with suppliers, and interestingly, know when to refuse a client before getting yourself into more trouble than it’s worth.

The section about selecting locations is very well constructed as it includes options on what venues to shortlist depending on the personalities of your clients, such as whether they like it in a private place or a public park, for example.

The chapter also mentions the gears expected to be brought when going out for a shoot. Interestingly, the authors prefer natural, available lighting photographs instead of relying on artificial lighting, so they made sure that the discussion of using natural light modifiers are included later on in the book.

The authors included an sample checklist and schedule for photographers to use as reference when they go out for a shoot, which I find to be quite useful.

The key quote for me in this chapter would be “Communicate with your couple at all times. Remember, every couple has different personalities and different expectations of their day.”

I wish this chapter was longer, though. Most less-established wedding photographers spend most of their time figuring out how to shoot rather than the business and preparation aspects of wedding photography.

___

Chapter 2: Directing Poses

A lot of photographers need this chapter. Portraits, especially weddings, are about poses. Without good direction from the photographer, images will look static and boring. The book included 13 pages of text and images for the reader to explore captivating poses and ideas on directing the subjects creatively – which, I think is insufficient, like the previous chapter.

“Soft-skills” like directing poses and patter are hard to learn and experience will be the best way to improve. The book illustrates several classic (read: common) poses that works almost 100% of the time. Candids, romantic poses, outdoor/environmental, dramatic, and group poses are covered in reasonable extent but lacks technical instructions on how to “correct” imperfections in common facial or body features for couple and individual poses. Nevertheless, there are a few great pointers in this chapter that I haven’t read in other books such as:

Keep all the family and guests away from the couple when you are photographing intimate moments. They will thank you for this precious time together without disturbance.

and

As a professional, you will only be as good as your last commission. Handle the formal family and group photography well and your reputation will soar.

Overall, I’d prefer more instructions on directing and less hypothetical “what ifs” described in the chapter.

I find this paragraph the most useful:

It is far easier and quicker to remove people from a group than it is to add them.

___

Chapter 3: Photographing Details

This chapter is written very well. The illustrations and examples provided are very easy to follow in an actual even and the authors provide you the intricate details on what to look out for, how to position them, when to shoot the items to avoid schedule conflicts, among others.

The chapter also mentions another side of wedding-details photography — the business side of using the still captures for your own advertising and portfolio as most wedding detail items are universal in nature, void of obvious corporate branding. On the flip side, it also mentions how you can foster business partnerships and relationships with suppliers of wedding accessories, florists, designers, car rental companies, etc. How your photographs can be a great leverage for mutual advertising exposures.

___

Chapter 4: The Wedding Story

The fourth chapter is the “meat” of the book, and rightfully so. The authors spent most of their time writing this section and it covered a lot of useful scenarios and technical content to please anyone. While the authors clearly stated that they’re illustrating their style of coverage, it is pretty contemporary and I’m sure most photographer, regardless of culture and religious requirement, will be able to relate to.

The chapter starts with covering the events occurring in the bride’s home, as well as the groom’s (which they indicated why it’s best to shoot in tandem as a single photographer won’t likely be able to cover both unless the couple are already staying in the same place during preparation). Samples are provided specifically on intricate details like make-up, hairdressing moments, candids with close family and friends, etc. It’s also nice to see that the authors didn’t chimp on discussing the groom’s side of the coverage. Most books concentrate too much on the bride (yes, it’s pretty much the bride’s moment, but it takes two to tango, right?) and ignore the groom’s importance before the ceremony. The insights of following the groom is refreshing and very useful to say the least.

The chapter then moves to the en-route stages between home and church. The authors suggest a very useful tip where they suggest that you should scout the areas between the house and the venue as there may be interesting and captivating sites that you can squeeze into the clients’ schedule for some portraits before arriving at the church. As you probably have experienced yourself (either as a client or the photographer), the time between travels are usually ignored, but there are a lot of unique places you can shoot if you do your homework ahead of time. Simply schedule 15-30 minutes for a couple of shots en-route to the church can add a whole new dimension to your final product. The people who’ll be viewing the photos will undoubtedly say “where and when did this happen???”

The Ceremony itself was dissected properly and there’s not a lot of grounds that were left uncovered by Oswin & Walton. I love the fact that they cover their events with available light most of the time and the photos are very natural and spontaneous, but not having enough discussions about flash usage is a bit limiting for me as most venues don’t offer adequate, usable available light and an artificial lightsource must be utilized.

The authors then covered some considerations when shooting reportage photos such as the couple’s privacy, the expectation of parents, how to interact and photograph children, and how to shoot in sequence for the album itself. Like the previous section in poses, this chapter covers a lot of group shots as well. This is an important topic to discuss over-and-over again as the difficulty in directing a group is almost directly proportionate to the number of subjects involved. The more elements and subjects, the more complex the arrangement will be. The book covered group shots adequately and that alone is worth the cost of the book.

The coverage moves from the confetti throwing, en-route to reception halls, then to the indoor reception hall itself. The topics will then include the customary toast, cake cutting and dance sequences. This is the only chapter where flash usage is discussed the most. I like the repeated suggestion of using a monopod as well in conjunction with flash to control the ambient-to-flash lighting ratios. Unfortunately, technical instructions are not discussed in details for flash and low-light photography in here. This book is clearly not a beginner’s resource, so keep that in mind if you’re just starting out.

___

Chapter 5: Editing and the Digital Darkroom

The concept of editing is not well transferred from the days of film to digital. Nowadays, people think of “editing” as post-processing only. Turning zits into flawless skin, making people 10-years younger, adding funky effects, etc. Fortunately, Oswin and Walton covered the basic fundamentals of digital editing and workflow that’ll benefit any digital photographer without going into too much detail that’ll detract from the purpose of the book.

The post-processing covered in this chapter are almost direct transfer from the film workflow involving basic things like cropping, desaturating, adding vignettes, toning, etc., basic things to ENHANCE instead of RESCUE photographs.

The chapter covered the imporatance of duplicate backups and basic printing information as well.

The digital darkroom is a very complex subject matter and a lot of the topics lean heavily on subjective, personal artistic preferences. I strongly suggest getting a dedicated book or two about the digital darkroom if you’re already familiar with the basics and have established a proper workflow when working on digital images.

___

Chapter 6: Designing the Album

The sixth chapter covers some basic justification on why the photographer should invest in learning how to design albums instead of outsourcing the product. The chapter shows a couple of album-authoring applications such as PhotoJunction and JA Album Designer, which I think are very solid starting points for those who doesn’t want to venture into the more complex (but also more customizable) PhotoShop route.

Basic layout designs are presented along with comprehensive checklist on how the sequence of photographs should be presented and what should be included as well.

There aren’t many techniques discussed in this chapter and the approach is very generic. As mentioned earlier, PhotoShop isn’t described in this chapter hence the usual discussion of blend modes, textures, and other technical elements are not available.

___

Chapter 7: The Business of Marketing

The last chapter involves the marketing side of wedding photography. As it should, it stated:

It should not be forgotten, however, theat for most practitioners, wedding photography is a business and, like any other, itmust attract customers and it must be profitable.

The authors provided basic glossary terms and key points to refer to on every marketing task. Tips on how to maximize exposures through trade shows, portfolio creation, self-marketing, websites, and it even discussed the standard strategic marketing matrix – The Boston Box.

Very useful, but like the rest of the book, it skims through the basics and expects the reader to obtain further reference materials if they want to know more.

___

Conclusion:

The book contains a wealth of information that’s written with a budding wedding photographer in mind. It bypasses a lot of basic photographic instructions as it assumes that the reader has some level of fundamental photographic skill set and I think that’s a good way to approach ANY book that discusses professional (paid) coverages.

Contemporary Wedding Photography covers most of what you’ll be facing during a typical western/Christian wedding setting and spent a tremendous amount of time discussing the most important part of the event – the actual day coverage.

While I would’ve preferred a more “hand-holding” instructions, it really wouldn’t be appropriate for the book’s purpose and target audience. An accomplished pro may still get a tip or two, but this is not an advanced level reference material.

There are some obvious editing lapses in the book (such as DSRL instead of DSLR in the last chapter), and other than the fourth chapter, the book tends to skim through the topics and leaves you hanging for information. On the other hand, the way the authors provided the high-level info allow readers to narrow down the reference materials they need to use to supplement this book.

The price is just an absolute bargain for this much quality illustration and text. At US$24.99, you can find a lot of junk photographic books that are merely extended version of user manuals in the market.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 rating for sheer value, casual writing, and well chosen illustrations. Buy it if you’re getting your feet wet in wedding photography.

I’ll keep the text short and the photos abundant…

This lens is a monster – in size, weight, and most importantly, output. The Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM is a very specialized lens, concentrating its prowress in portraits and selective focus control.

Image courtesy of DPREVIEW.COM

The lens is RAZOR SHARP even at f/1.2, spectacular at f2.2. Color, contrast, resolution is amazing as well, just like most professional grade prime lenses from Canon. A bit of chromatic abberation (CA) at f/1.2-1.8 around the highlights, while easily fixed in post-processing, it is quite visible. Vignetting isn’t noticeable on a crop-sensor camera but slightly visible on a full-frame (I tried looking through my Elan’s viewfinder – will post film shots soon, as soon as I get them scanned).

The huge lens sucks in a tremendous amount of light, so much that most consumer-level autofocus cameras will have a hard time focusing correctly. The autofocus is unusually slow (if you’ve spent almost US$2,000 on a lens) for a lens of this caliber. Consumer grade lenses, even kit lenses will feel lightning fast compared to this lens. The internal focusing mechanism feels like a group of mini hamsters running around the ring-USM mechanism.

One thing I noticed is that the 85mm f/1.2L II USM uses an electronic manual focus control mechanism where the MF ring isn’t directly hooked up to the lens elements. This feels very “disconnected”, much like those “power zoom” rings on Minolta Maxxum lenses before. The ring is too light and doesn’t give you much confidence to lock on your manually selected spot. Full-frame camera helps tremendously with manual focusing – well, almost everything is easier with a full-frame camera anyway.

Focusing is very accurate once it hits the spot, but this lens is meant to be manually focused to optimize the extremely thin depth-of-field (DOF) provided by such a wide aperture telephoto lens. By thin, I mean razor thin. At the lens’s minimum focusing distance (3.2ft), the you can’t even keep a whole eye’s width in focus, that’s how thin the DOF is.

This lens teaches you NOT to rely too much on autofocus. There will always be autofocus variances in ALL camera models regardless of brand, just because the AF confirm light appears, doesn’t mean the focus is exactly where you want it to lock on. I have quite a few of shots that had AF confirm (and a high shutter speed utilized – like 1/500 or higher) and still resulted to soft images due to a few mm. shift in focus plane. If your subject moved an inch or two on the “z-axis”, your focus will be thrown off.

I need to point out that this is NOT the fault of the lens, at 85mm (length) f/1.2 (thin DOF), the chances of mishits are quite high. That’s the same reason why a lot of newbies think their f/2.8 or wider lens are “soft” or “backfocuses” coming from smaller aperture kit lenses. As the aperture opening gets bigger, the margin-for-error increases dramatically. The shots I’ve taken at f/4 or smaller with this lens less mishits that at f/1.2, which proves that in most cases, it’s user error that’s at fault.

Ergonomics is a mixed bag. The lens is really huge and heavy. Unless you’re carrying a 1d/1ds series body or a 5D with grip, chances are you’ll strain your right hand quite a bit after a couple of hours of holding the camera (note, I don’t use a neck-strap, so my camera is in my hand most of the time). It feels weird holding a wide-diameter lens with your left hand, but it’s easy to get used to. On my light, film camera (Elan IIe), I feel like I’m holding a lens with a rectangular handle.

Don’t rant if I didn’t get technical by shooting resolution charts and test subjects in a studio. If you want to get technical about it, read WLCastleman.com’s review and The Digital Picture.com’s reviews instead.

I love this lens’ output. I don’t care about the AF issue and the relatively high rate of wrong AF chosen issue for an AF lens as a lens like this should command more attention in your shooting skills than just point-and-shoot. The focal length (about 135mm equivalent on a crop sensor) is wonderful for head/shoulder portraits on a crop sensor, full length is nice if you can take a few steps backwards. On a full-frame/35mm body, it’s highly versatile.

I shot most of my photos at f/1.2 for this review, unless I need the DOF when I’m shooting more than one person to keep them both in focus. What’s the point of testing this lens beyond f/1.2 if that’s the main, unique feature of the 85mm f/1.2L II USM, right?

If you don’t need f/1.2, the consumer grade EF 85mm f/1.8 is a lot lighter, focuses a lot faster, a lot cheaper, and amazingly sharp as well. Once you’ve tried f/1.2, though, it’s really hard to look back. The way it lifts any subject away from the background and recessed from the foreground is to die for. The three-dimensional feel of it will make you stare, not glance, at your photographs.

Enough talk. Here are the photos.

You can see the rest in my Flickr EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM set page along with their larger sizes.

The photos were imported into Lightroom, corrected white balance on a couple of shots, exported with 1024px, long-edge resize. No other adjustments nor sharpening were applied.

This is the Konica C35V, it’s small, it’s light, it’s brilliant.

If my history lessons have served me right, the Konica C35 series was launched back in the late 1960s as simple, point-and-shoot cameras for the general public. The term “General Public” usually means that the cameras will be very simple and devoid of manual controls and other bells-and-whistles.

The C35V is the simplest of all the C35 series. It lacks a self-timer (the “V” badge replaced its place), it lacks the flash guide numbers present in the other C35 series, and it only offers zone-scale focusing unlike its brothers that employ rangefinder focusing.

Nevertheless, that’s the whole point of the C35V – simplicity.

You load the film as you’d normally would in most film cameras, set the ASA/DIN rating knob at the front of the lens (maximum of ASA400), pre-determine your focus range, then shoot.

The Konica C35V (like all of the other C35 series cameras) comes with a 35mm f/2.8 lens. Right on top of the lens is a metering cell that’s powered by a PX675 battery, which is no longer available due to its mercury content. You can use an Energizer Zinc-Air hearing aid, size 675 (blue) batteries with no problems at all as it produces 1.35V as well.

Speaking of batteries, when I received the camera from the seller, it was shipped with a 1.5V watch battery, while it did work, it caused erroneous meter readings and underexposed my first two rolls by roughly half to 3/4 stops. Theoretically, I could’ve just dialed a lower ASA setting in cam than the actual film used, but I’ve already bought the Energizers when I saw my negatives.

Metering display can be seen through the viewfinder using a traditional needle display. The viewfinder shows the approximate shutter speed of the camera and tells you if the lighting condition will require flash to be used. Based on the display, my guess is the C35V assumes any shutter speed below 1/30 of a second will require a flash unit as 1/30 seems to be the camera’s slowest shutter speed.

You can adjust your aperture settings from f/2.8 to f/16, but I believe that those settings are to be used as flash exposure control only, meaning the C35V will be set to its flash-sync speed only. Most of the time, you leave it on “Auto”.

Having said that, there’s no stopping you from shooting an under or over exposed shot as the shutter will trip regardless of what the lighting is.

Focus is set by selecting four preset distances, 3.5 feet, 5 feet, 10 feet, and infinity – with matching pictograms for the numerical estimates. It’s amusing to see those pictograms through a small, triangular window when you look through the viewfinder. Focusing accuracy will be a relative challenge for close distances (3.5-5ft) as the depth-of-field control is absent, but as long as you know how far 3.5ft is from the camera, chances are you’ll get a decently sharp shot.

I strongly suggest using ASA400 film in most cases due to the lack of exposure control. The C35V doesn’t have exposure lock when you half-press the shutter, so you’ll need the latitude to expose high-contrast scenes properly.

The C35V is very small, it’s about the size of one-and-a-half credit cards in length and can easily slip into your jacket’s pocket. Unlike most point-and-shoot cameras of the late 80s, you can attach an external flash unit and have a fast lens in such a compact camera. It is well built and finished with a matte silver coating (black is available as well). You have to watch the finish though, as it scratches quite easily especially the areas near the rewind knob because the lever barely scrapes the top cover if you’re not careful.

I can’t comment on the flash performance as I don’t have an X-14 flash unit yet.

The C35V is really silent. It uses a Copal leaf shutter like most rangefinders from this era. It’s a nice, discreet little camera to bring for daytime street shooting as it only emits a light “click” sound when pressed.

I got this camera from an eBay seller for a measly $20 plus shipping. The copy that I got was in excellent condition. No light seal problems, no scratches, no mercury battery corrosion, barely a scuff. Even the baseplate sticker was intact. Only the plastic battery cover had some marks, but that’s expected.

Here are some photos I’ve taken with the C35V.

It’s a wonderfully compact, light, and capable camera to bring along vacations and street shooting. The build quality is decent, the design is clean and classy, the performance is very respectable – overall, an excellent value for your collection.

I recently got an Altissa Altix-N (along with some accessories from the same era) from eBay. I had no idea what this cam was about but I like the fact that it has full manual controls, a 15-blade prime lens, and most of all, it was really cheap. I got it for less than 6 Euros + shipping from Germany.

I got the cam and boy it was heavy. The whole thing was made of glass and metal, and the leather case was crackly old. Overall, the condition of the camera was very good. Some brassing here and there, but the controls, glass, seals etc. were in great condition.

Anyway, I couldn’t get the back open to load film for like two days. I had to ask Mr. Google for help and it directed me to a great site called “Retrography” by Simon Simonsen (http://www.retrography.com). I dropped him an email and he promptly provided me great details on how to load film, change lenses, and other intricate info that’ll allow me to start shooting (thanks again, Simon).

So for my contribution, I’m giving other new Altix N owners some basic illustrations on how to get this baby working.

To load film:

1. Flip the cam to reveal the knob where the tripod thread is located.

Turn the knob counter-clockwise until you feel little to no resistance – the knob is captive, it will not come off.

3. Once loose, gently slide the whole back off the camera.

4. You’ll see the back has a wedge that acts as a pressure plate, while the cam itself has a film pressure plate that keeps the film on-plane.

5. Insert your 35mm film into the film chamber, since the base comes off, there’s no need to pull the winding tab out when inserting a roll.

6. Pull the leader of your film and pull enough (about 3 inches) of the film and insert it into the slit of the feeding spool. Use your finger to lightly keep the film in place. As with any film load, make sure that the feeding sprockets line up to the film guide slots.

Note: I strongly suggest you do this with the camera securely in your hand or place the camera face-down on the table, you can drop the camera rather easily since it’s very front-heavy. Ask me how I know this. I managed to bend the hinge of the pressure plate, when that happens, the film will crease and wrinkle, good thing it was an easy fix.

7. Flip the metal plate back into place and slide the back into place. This metal plate pretty much guarantees that your film will not be loosely loaded.

8. Slide the cover back and turn the knob until it’s tight. Cock the winding lever and shoot a couple of shots. If you did it right, every time you wind the lever, the rewind knob will turn as well. If it’s not turning, your film leader wasn’t loaded correctly.

Some user tips:

The Altix-N is fully manual without any metering assistance, so you have to know your shutter/aperture calculations by heart. It’s a challenge, but trust me, it’s not the difficult to get a decent exposure. Proper focus will probably be harder to achieve than exposure accuracy if the subject isn’t static, much like any manual focus cameras.

Almost everything is controlled on the lens mount and lens area. The aperture, shutter speed, and focus are all situated near or on the lens, hence the seemingly overwhelming number of markings around the lens.

The tip of the lens (near the front element) contains the aperture ring (f/2.9 to f/22). The roughly knurled focus ring is right behind it with metric and feet markings (black and red, respectively), the DOF scale is right next to the two distance markers.

You’ll find the biggest knob – the lens bayonet mount release knob right after the DOF scale. Lastly, you’ll see the shutter speed control ring – a thin, ridged ring with a red dot. Shutter adjustment is step-less from 1/250 to 1 second + Bulb, which is very handy.

To remove the lens, just turn the large knob counter-clockwise (facing the camera) and the lens will come off easily. Best to grab onto the lens before doing this.

As you get more familiar with the camera, you’ll find that placing these three controls one after another is actually quite intuitive. Choose your shutter speed, estimate the distance, then select your aperture.

Expect your forefinger and thumb to develop callouses as the controls are pretty rough, but despite its age, they turn with reassuring tightness and tactile feel.

Other intricacies:

1) The ASA/DIN knob does nothing. It merely serves as a reminder to the user what film you’ve loaded. The Altix-N has no meter, so film speed means nothing to the camera. Having no meter, you don’t need any batteries to get the Altix-N going as well.

2) The film counter doesn’t advance automatically, you have to manually nudge the exposure count to remind yourself how many shots you’ve taken. I personally just ignore it and shoot until I’ve reached the last frame.

3) I love the sliding film back instead of the more common, pressure plate/hinged back of more modern cameras for one reason. There’s no need for any foam seals. No seal deterioration = no light leaks. I’m surprised how simple the solution is instead of relying on foam and spring pressure to keep the back tightly sealed.

My baseline for manual focus distance estimation would be my arm’s length, which is roughly 2.5ft, I get pretty accurate focus regardless of what manual focus camera/lens I’m using (such as my M42 lenses on my EOS10D, my scale-focusing Konica C35V, Yashica Electro35 GSN, and Fujica ST-701 cameras) using this technique.

Anyway, here are some shots I’ve taken with my first roll. I based all my exposure estimates using the Sunny-16 rule and most of the shots came out decent. As I’ve said, you’ll probably struggle with focus distance more than exposure, it’s best to familiarize yourself how far the common distances are when shooting manual focus cams.

If you want a cheap, reliable, and well-designed camera, try the Altix-N. You should be able to find a lot of them from European (especially German) eBay sites. I got mine for Euros 5.90 only.

I love this camera and I find myself using it quite often due to its heavy-duty construction and full manual controls. The lack of any indicators for focus and metering allowed me to completely rely on my focusing and metering skills which helps me shoot a lot faster and make decisions ahead of time. While my focus hit-rate is lower with the Altix compared to my other manual-focus cameras with focus indicators, this camera is just a joy to shoot with. It’s really a wonderful camera – too bad it has no rings for me to attach a carrying strap to… Germans.

Go try one

It’s that time of the month (no, I don’t get monthly periods… yet) where the lawn on my dome needs to be trimmed. Instead of doing it myself, this time Yoki (his real name is Marcus Zachary, by the way) volunteered to cut my hair today.

Haircut, Anyone?

He has seen me carve my scalp quite a few times and he’s been fascinated by my transformation from a Chiapet to a horse and other impersonations then finally, a Velcro head (see my DIY Haircut posting). So today, he’ll have his chance.

Preparing the Clipper

(Side Note #1: I’d like to thank Vio (my wife) for taking these great pics as well )

I squatted down and set the clipper to about 5mm height and told Yokes to let it rip!

Who’s Gonna Carve the Turkey?

Getting There

Watch the Cord, Now…

Stepping Up to the Task

After ten minutes or so, he decided to use the hair clipper as a drawing tool. Yoki moved slowly and started carving lines on my head again.

Faster, Faster!!!

He reached for the back of my head while pushing my shoulders down to keep me still.

“Stop Moving Apa!”

He hates little hair spikes, the itch bothers him quite a bit. When he saw how much 1/4″ hair was on him, he ran off and took a shower. Leaving me with this…

Done! (Almost)

If I didn’t have to go to work every day, I’d gladly wear this haircut of his. Unfortunately, the real-world awaits so I finished the rest of my hair off in a jiffy.

Cost was approximately a big bear hug and a couple of kisses… Quite a good deal, if i could say so myself

So who’s next?

(Side note #2: Thanks Nick for lending me the clipper, by the way! You can view his blog here – not exactly “general patronage” content, though )

My family has been here for a little over three months now. During that time, Yoki was home schooled by Mom and has learned great new things that will make his formal schooling a lot easier for at least the next year and a half as Vio has been teaching him lessons at K-2 levels already.

Today (January 2, 2008), Yoki’s official day school starts. He’s excited as hell to start!

PCF Radin Mas

A couple of days after Christmas, we went to the school to buy his uniform, while we were talking to the teachers, Yoki just couldn’t stop roaming around and admiring all the things he can play with and the friends he’ll be able to play with, in fact, he didn’t want to leave the school that day.

Uniform

His nursery classes starts at 8A.M. until 10A.M, which is tough – for me. You see, I rarely wake up before 9, so to ask me (and Yoki) to wake up at around 7 and get going before 8A.M. will be a challenge. Good thing I’ve just committed myself to lift weights again, so my workout schedule will coincide with his school hours, at least all of us will be awake by 7A.M.

Day Break

As usual, Mom woke up around 6 to prepare breakfast for us, I woke up shortly after that, then woke up Yoki around 7A.M.

Good Morning!

Luckily, as soon as we told him “Time for school! Time for school!” (like what Nemo told Marlin at the start of Finding Nemo), he woke up and slowly got up to take a shower.

Trying to Wake Up

Half-asleep, we dressed him up in his cute school uniform along with his jacket as it was chilly this morning. Still half-asleep, he ate his breakfast porridge while playing his harmonica.

Breakfast

Musically Inclined

Keep the Smile Shiny

Did I mention the school is just a 5-minute walk away from our block? There’s no rush as long as we leave around quarter to 8.

Waiting for Mom

When we arrived, there were some kids and parents around already. The younger ones (same age as Yokes) were a bit anxious, while the older ones (Kinder) were more excited since they’ve done this before. Yoki spent 2+ months in a small playschool before we moved to Singapore, he really missed it after we left, naturally, he was psyched to get started again.

Open Please!

Hi!

Being 108 cm tall, he is bigger than most of the kids his age, as expected, he walked up to a pair of siblings and started talking to them using his usual “Hi, I’m Yoki…”. The kids were very friendly and they were rushing to see what’s inside the school even before the front door opened.

New Friends

Can’t Wait…

When one of the kindergarten teacher opened the front door, she called the kinder students to line up and enter the classroom. Yoki’s new “friends” walked in and he followed suit. When the Nursery teacher started calling her students, Yoki was nowhere to be found. He went with the kinder kids as they were more his “size”.

Come In!

The Principal

Off We Go!

The Frenzy

Where’s Yoki? (Went inside this Kindergarten class)

We called him out and he gleefully lined up as instructed, but couldn’t help himself reading the letters and numbers presented along the corridor.

Hi Teacher!

The Tall One

Then they paired up and walked into the classroom.

“HoldYour Partner Two by Two…”

Mom and Dad walked around the park while waiting for his class to finish, and when the time came to pick him up, he was all smiles as he waves at us from the front door.

Waiting

I’m out!

We asked him if he liked school and if he had fun, he said yes.

Then we asked, “What did teacher tell you today?”. He proudly answered: “Teacher told me to listen and sit down!”

That was the exact same thing Teacher Karen told him in Manila when he first started going to school! LOL!

“I Had Fun!”

Yoki’s now a big boy…

Mom is Teary Eyed

Another year, another Christmas, only thing is, this is the first ever Christmas we’re spending away from the Philippines and our family.

Instead of making this a gloomy Christmas, we made sure to make this a memorable one – our first Christmas in Singapore.

We spent most of the 24th doing some last-minute grocery shopping for our midnight Christmas dinner, bought some goodies to give our nice neighbors, even though only one of them celebrates Christmas.

Xmas Socks

Yoki had to take a late, long nap to make sure he’ll be awake for Christmas eve. He’s been really anxious to open his big box underneath our little tree for the past few days as he already knows what’s inside (he was with us and chose the toy he wanted) but he loves to act surprised with his presents, especially those that he can rip open from the wrappers.

Look for the Tree!

We went to take a nap and woke up just in time for early dinner around 8PM. After dinner, Yoki has been sitting on the armchair near the clock and has been pointing at it, counting how many hours it’ll be until “the moment”. Hours have past and we’ve decided to make good use of his holiday cheery mood to hand out presents to our neighbor.

Three More Hours

Giveaways (no, theyre’ not locked up!)

After handing out the presents, Yoki and dad went down to buy some call cards so we can call our friends and family in the Philippines. Every single person he met, Yoki shouted “Merry Christmas, friend!!!”. Chinese, Indians, Malays, doesn’t matter what nationality he saw on our way to the store, Yoki greeted them with utmost cheer and enthusiasm, and he got big “thank you” and smiles in return.

Mom was busy preparing our Christmas dinner. Vio and Tetch has been planning this for weeks, listing the food we’re going to have for tonight. We love food.

The Cook

Finally, the time of the night came, the short hand of our wall clock struck “12″ and we yelled “Presents time! Merry Christmas!”. As Christmas songs play in the background, Yoki grabbed his large box and started ripping the paper off the box. “WOW! CHOO CHOO TRAIN!”, he exclaimed. He starts to distribute gifts to mom, dad, and ninang.

PRESENTS!

We also invited my friend, Nick, for dinner. The more, the merrier, and having good company with our family a welcomed bonus for us.

Latecomer

Each simple gift we’ve given each other were great, as presents should be. It’s not about the value or the rarity of the item, but the cliché of “it’s the thought that counts” is more pronounced when celebrating Christmas in a tight-knit group.

Gifts!

After opening most of the gifts, Yoki was pre-occupied with his James the train gift and we asked him if he heard Santa dropped by. “Santa? Where?” was Yoki’s first question. We told him to look into his igloo, we saw Santa left something for him there. He finally saw the box, hurriedly ran back to open another large box.

“Hey! Santa Was Here!”

It was Thomas and his barnyard! After dismantling the box in record time, we’ve decided to leave the other gifts for tomorrow as it’ll have a hard time competing for attention.

Thomas From Santa!!!

Soon enough, dinner was served. He have a hefty serving of pasta, potato balls, roasted chicken, and flan. We were stuffed and we haven’t reached our dessert platter yet. I guess those can wait until tomorrow.

Yoki Setting the Table

Dinner… Is Served.

We spent the rest of the morning (it was past midnight) chatting with Nick and Yoki stayed up until 3AM playing his trains. After which, we went to bed, Yoki agreed – hesitantly.

December 25, 2007, 1130AM – We finally woke up. Still tired and sleepy from our abrupt schedule change, we had leftovers for breakfast and stuffed ourselves.

We started calling our family in Manila and HK. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, video conferencing with our loved ones was a cinch. Lola, Ninong Mike, and Ate Nicole were in front of us. It’s a shame that we didn’t celebrate Christmas the same way we’ve been doing the past decade, but all is not lost. We chatted and laughed for an hour, mostly Yoki and Nicole doing silly things, actually.

Phone Call

Ate Nicky

We wish Nicole was here with us, as there’s nothing better than seeing kids enjoy this festive time of the year together, but this is the next best thing for us and we had a great time nonetheless. We’re planning to fly back next year for Christmas, it’ll be great fun to see everyone in the flesh, until then, we’ll enjoy this special and unforgettable Christmas the best way we know how – being together.

Family

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

My apologies for posting a colored blog on my black & white site… But it wouldn’t do the topic justice if I didn’t do so.

Yoki has been painting and drawing quite a bit since we’ve moved to Singapore. His art are getting more and more artistic and unique. Elements are clearly defined in an abstract, child-like manner. Most of his work evolves around his favorite toys and characters, but he consistently creates art of himself with mom and dad with great joy and enthusiasm.

He’s clearly a very happy child.

You can view his best works in my Flickr page.

As he finishes a piece, we stick it on our wall with Blu-Tack as we’re not allowed to drill/nail on our wall and it covered a third of our main wall.

Yoki Showing Off His Artwork Gallery

I wanted to frame his artwork in a colorful manner without breaking the bank (nor the wall) so the gears in between my ears started to turn.

Over the weekend, we went to Ikea to shop for some frames. I picked up a small, black, wooden frame for my monochrome photo gallery plan at home and saw some large, light, colorful frames in one corner. They were $15 each and it’ll fit two of Yoki’s artwork with excess space for borders.

Black Frame inclusive of Mat

I picked up a red and a green frame (opposing primary color) and was excited to get started. The frames are made with light recycled wood, backed by a light corrugated board and covered with a thin acrylic sheet instead of a glass front.

After a few days, I bought two pieces of illustration paper, in different yellow shades, a cutter, a metal ruler, a medium-sized cutting mat from an art store.

The Supplies

I proceeded with figuring how to measure the illustration paper correctly so that I can fit two papers into one frame while bordered with equal margins.

I’ve never been good with geometry and cutting paper, so i knew it’ll be a challenge. I guess I should have stayed awake and not skipped class over a decade ago in high school. Oh well.

After measuring once, twice, thrice… I finally grabbed the cutter and trimmed away.

Fortunately, my measurements were not that far off and the yellow paper framed the artwork decently. I wish I used a thicker paper type, but i couldn’t find any with that size in the art store.

Nat-Geo-like eh?

I taped the artwork onto the border and replaced the cardboard backing and peeled off the protective sheet covering the acrylic.

I had to find a way to mount this, and I tried 3M’s new Command Picture Hanging Strips. These things are quite amazing and I’m really surprised that 3M has continuously creates products from things that people have used in ages without realizing. These mounting strips work like Velcro strips. You basically mount a piece onto the wall via the supplied mounting tape, and stick another one onto the item you want to stick to the wall.

3M Picture Hanging Strips

The result? A way to peel and re-attach your frame as often as you wish. You can now change the mounted frame to another one, just like you would if you have a nail on the wall!

I’m surprised it has taken this long to find this commercially as I’ve always used Velcro stuck to an item to secure it into a car’s trunk compartment, floor mats, etc.

Anyway… Here’s the end result.

Green and Red

Not bad at all for a relatively low cost and easy mounting. I plan to put another one (blue frame) to mount his blue artwork like his Thomas the Train paintings.

I’ve bought a Canon iP4500 Photo Printer a couple of weeks ago to print my photos, so for sure I’ll be getting more black frames for our photos. The joy of seeing our humble home plastered with framed items created by our own hands is hard to explain with words.

I’m so proud of his fun and cheery artwork. I need a mansion to fit all of them as he grows older, though.

Read Impromptu Trip – Part I: Mount Faber

We hopped on to another cable car, this time heading south to the islet of Sentosa, Singapore’s Island Resort. I’ve never been there myself despite my adventures here a couple of months ago. I wanted to wait until Yoki and Vio arrives.

As soon as the cable car stopped, we’re greeted by – more souvenirs! Commercialism on full force here. The place is like another small country inside an already small country. The Carlsberg Sky Tower greets you as soon as you get out of the souvenir shop.

More Souvenirs

Carlsberg Sky Tower

One More Time

We walked around a bit and headed towards the dining area as we’re starving and sweaty. Yoki saw the display truck in front of the “Images of Singapore” display area. After a couple of shots, we went in and ordered lunch.

Old Jalopy

Then and Now

Tired and Thirsty

Waiting for Food

Sate

Chicken Rice

The food was relatively expensive, but were pretty good. The drinks were expensive, we should’ve just bought some drinks from VivoCity. The nice thing about Sentosa is they don’t make a big deal of folks bringing food/drinks from somewhere else. Most theme parks in like Enchanted Kingdom will not allow you to bring stuff in and you’re forced to buy overpriced, lousy food in their premises.

Yoki really wanted to hit the beach, he kept pointing at the Sentosa map for the beaches available. Before we can reach the beach, however, we need to reach the base of the island. How do we get there? The Luge…

I’ve heard several positive feedbacks from friends and family about the luge and I can’t wait to see Yoki on it. The line was surprisingly short and we picked up some helmets and hopped on.

Safety First

Geared Up!

Let’s Roll!

First Ride

Final Instructions

Vroom!

Hit the Apex!

Slow Down!

The ride was exhilarating and I just wish it’s a lot longer. The ride was just too short for a $9 ride, but the exciting blend of go-karting and the safety of a kiddie rides made it a perfect family entertainment.

This Way!

Podium Finish

We alighted the luge and walked our way towards the beach. Yoki ran towards the water and unfortunately the sun was high up and it was scorching hot so we can’t let him play in the water. He felt really bad about it and really wanted to get in the water.

Found the Beach!

“Can I Swim?”

Cool Shade

With Apa

“I Don’t Like Home Yet…”

After a long conversation with him, he finally agreed that we’ll just return on another day. He wanted a peek at the souvenir shop, though.

“Is This My Toy?”

We need to ride back up to the cable car station and guess what, we have to ride the Sentosa Luge Chair Lift – essentially a 4-seater ski lift that Mommy Vio. Yokes liked it a lot and wanted to lift the safety bar up, making mom even more anxious for the ride to end.

“Buzz is Flying Apa!”

Mommy Worried

Look Out Below!!!

Do Not Lift!

Dangling

Almost There

Drop Off Point

It was just too hot and we have to meet Ninang Tetch in a couple of hours so we have to return to VivoCity. But before that, we saw some fountain and ponds and rested our feet a little and Yoki was treated with a balloon animal on our way out.

Ahhh….

“What KindLah?”

All Thanks To Chairman Lee

We hopped onto another cable car and headed back to the real-world, tired and sore, but well worth it.

My Dog

Tired and Thirsty

Going Home

We’d love to go back to Sentosa soon for the beach alone. We’re lucky enough that it’s less than 15 minutes from our place and Sentosa is not an expensive place to visit unless you’re going for the rides and shows.

… Four days have past since our Sentosa visit, Yoki still asks us everyday when we’re going to the beach.

We wanted to visit the Chinese Gardens at first, but we overslept our afternoon nap so we canceled our trip that night.

Next morning, we’ve decided to go to Labrador Park instead, after finding out that there’s a S$12 entrance fee per person just to see the lanterns in the Chinese Garden. I’ve seen the photos from other local photography forums and the lantern displays weren’t that impressive anyway, so we decided against spending that much for nothing.

As I was planning on our day trip, I realized I wanted Yoki to experience riding on a cable car and it also made sense that we should visit the parks nearest to home first.

That’d be Mount Faber Park, literally a couple of blocks away from where we live.

View from Mt. Faber

Flora

We hopped on the bus and proceeded to Harbourfront to catch the cable car ride. Yoki saw the cable cars from the bus and immediately wanted to ride the “contraptions”.

As soon as we enter the cable car, a wide-eyed Yoki started pointing at ships, construction yards, buildings, roads, trees, anything his eyes could see. One thing he kept mentioning was “beach…”, as Mommy Vio made sure the doors were tightly shut.

Elevation

In Case of Emergency

The views were pretty amazing from up top, since you’re viewing a very commonly traveled stretch of road and a mall that we get to see on a daily basis in a very different vantage point. The bird’s-eye view of the cruise ship and the construction dividers separating the soil run-off and the sea is quite amazing.

VivoCity and Keppel

Floating Luxury

Yin Yang

We got off Mount Faber cable car stop and was immediately greeted by a viewing deck and souvenir shop. I thought that was a bit opportunistic to stick the souvenir shop in front of you as soon as you get off.

Lobby

Tacky Bunny

We walked around the viewing deck, admiring the colorful and uniform flowers wrapping around the building. Turns out that they were artificial flowers, hence the uniformity. We also saw the supposedly incredible Lego cable car display, only to see a faded, dust-coverd cart that has been neglected for quite some time.

Enjoying Nature

Artificial Perfection

Lego Dust Magnet

Needless to say, I was quite disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be much to look at since this viewing deck is mainly a cluster of fine dining restaurants and bars – not an activity area. I didn’t realize that the “real” parks of Mount Faber can only be accessed by foot or by bus. So we explored the area a little more and found a wonderful

Gobble

Up Close and Personal

Having a Good Time with Mom

“Hey, Come Back”

Once we’ve established that there aren’t anything left to view, we’ve decided to hop on top Sentosa Island, Singapore’s crowned island resort and park. We grabbed some maps and lined up (oh, sorry, queued) for the next cable car ride to Sentosa. Along the way, mandatory photo poses in front of a lame “night scene” backdrop, good thing the attendants were nice and they don’t pressure you to buy the prints. Then off to another cable car ride.

All You Need to Get Around

Souvenir Photos? (Nice gears, though)

Wheelin’

Continue to Part II: Sentosa