Tag Archives: photography

Testing out the Lumix Pancake Lens

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So I’ve joined the bandwagon of buying lenses for my camera. Sir Olympus, the white knight extraordinaire, couldn’t have been more pleased.

(Yes, I name my things – which is probably why I get attached to inanimate objects)

I sold off one of my two kit lenses yesterday. Heartbreak. Still waiting for a buyer for the other one, another impending heartbreak. But let’s focus on today.

Today, I bought a pancake lens for Sir Olympus. A Lumix 20mm f/1.7 to be exact. Do you know what this means? I don’t either. To me, it means that now I can take bokeh-licious photos!

Check these out. They made me forget all about the lens that got sold off:

The following photos were taken at Thai Express.

Doesn’t the bokeh look so good? Makes me want to invest in fairy lights now so that I can take pretty photos.

Mango Salad

My beef noodles, absolutely divine with chili padi

FP’s soft shell crab with rice

We also went to Cedele to satisfy a random cake craving. The cakes weren’t that great (too dry!) but they look good enough for photos:

This was a “chocolate nougat cake”. The best part of it were the tiny chocolate balls.

FP’s gula melaka cake. As exotic (and yummy) as that sounds, it was an utter disappointment.

But I guess these photos have proven what the Lumix pancake lens is capable of, and I am very very happy with my first lens purchase.

Personally, my favourite photos are of the cakes, and coming a close second/third is the bokeh shot ;)

Hoping this doesn’t snowball into an expensive habit, though I have a feeling I’m gonna have so much fun with it for more than just a little while.

:)

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52 Weeks of Her – Weeks 11, 12 & 13

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Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve updated on this project. It’s not because we haven’t been taking photos, it’s just that I have been procrastinating – which I should really stop doing when it comes to updating this site. So let’s get on to these 3 awesome photos!

Week 11

Click to view this photo in his photostream

This was done more than a about a month or so ago. Doesn’t this just remind you of the memorable Power Rangers’ Morphin Time? (Oh, I’d totally be the pink ranger.) Once again, this is more of an artistic shot rather than a pretty shot. No idea why he doesn’t let me look pretty in photos.

I complained that the blurred version of me could be improved. My hair was messy, I look like a total idiot but FP told me that nobody really cares about the blurred part of the photo. Well I care, but oh well. I guess the focus is really more on the image on the foreground, embedded into the iphone.

The lighting is awesome don’t you think? There’s a bit of a music video feel to it. Pretty cool. Well it has to be cool when I get raving comments from my friends in Facebook when I made it my profile picture for a few weeks!

Week 12

Click to view this photo in his photostream

This was one photoshoot that I really enjoyed. The background is so pretty in some of my favourite colours, it’s really amazing. Yes in this photo, the attention should be given to the background rather than to *cough* me.

He made me shake my head left and right for quite awhile (as compared to up and down for the original hair-o-graphy shoot) while he captured all the “glamourous”, tiny movements. Most turned out okay, but some photos could be used as blackmail.

He chose this shot to be the “official” photo for week 12. On the other hand, I had other ideas of what was the photo of the week:

Doesn’t this just look like a shampoo ad? You can just imagine the tagline, “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good” somewhere in this photo and it’ll fit perfectly. This was originally his choice for photo of the week but he changed his mind the day after. *mumbles-butilookbetterinthisone – mumbles*

In any case to be fair, the first photo is now the wallpaper of my iphone (yes narcissistic, I know) and the second one is still my facebook profile picture, and was also my twitter’s for a short while)

Week 13

Click to view this photo in his photostream

This must be the first photo in this project in which you can’t “see” me, but it’s still awesome because who can resist a pretty pink gebera? (yes, it’s real!) All I had to do was stand there and hold the flower. For once I didn’t have to worry how I look, haha.

But this is certainly one of our favourite photos so far. There’s a soothing feeling when you look at it, and the colours seem to complement one another really well. I really think that this photo speaks volumes. Plus, it’s a personal preference for me to like things that are white and clean, with a splash of colour. So this really hit the spot.

Till the next time we take photos! :)

52 Weeks of Her – Weeks 9 & 10

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Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on this project. Well we are back from the long hiatus and there’s some changes. For starters, it’s now 52 Weeks of Her instead of 50 Weeks of Her (making it rounded to one year sounds better) and FP has gotten himself some awesome new equipment. What equipment? I have no idea. But let’s get on with the photos for Weeks 9 and 10:

Week 9

Click to see image in his photostream

This was done a few weeks back. I was so excited when he showed me the military hat and put it on immediately. I have a liking for all sorts of weird headgear (well wait till u see the photo for week 10, lol). Thankfully that day I wore a jacket that can pass off as a military jacket, since this shoot wasn’t planned beforehand.

Anyway, the concept of this photo is sort of like The Chronicles of Narnia. Open a wardrobe and finding yourself in a completely different world. In this case, it’s opening a closet and finding a completely different universe. Imagine if this really happened. Now, wouldn’t it be fun? It could be serve as a teleportation station as well. Jump right in and you’ll be in the office, something like the Floo Network in Harry Potter – oh you get my point.

The whole shoot was fun, as was the post processing :)

p/s: I absolutely love this test shot. It has an anime feel to it and finally a nice shot of my side view!

Okay onward to Week 10!

Week 10 also involves a crazy headgear which I so love! It’s like a Russian hat and it’s really adorable. I wore it even before the photoshoot started, haha!

Click to view this photo in his photostream

I forgot to mention the Kanye West glasses! This is such a goofy photo of myself. But goofy = quirky = fun! Who needs pretty photos all the time anyway, haha.

Don’t you just love the Russian hat + Kanye glassea + pouting Sha combo? It’s classic.

So, the question is: Am I really in Bali in this photo, or am I not? That’s up to you to decipher! :)

50 Weeks of Her – Week 8

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This was done almost a month ago, but I only have time to talk about it now.

Sigh Sigh.

If you had noticed, I haven’t been posting anything on the project for quite some time. This is because FP and I are taking a break from the project – due to other timely commitments.

Also, right in the middle of the shoot for Week 8, one of his flashes refused to work – permanently.

So, here it is – the photo for Week 8:

Click to enlarge photo

It’s an image of solitude, though I personally find it abit creepy.

It looks fanstastic when it’s huge – especially when it is a desktop wallpaper on FP’s computer.

When will we be continuing with this project? We will keep you updated! :)

Urban Acid

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Here’s a photo that isn’t part of the 50 Weeks of Her series (but seriously should have been!)

Click to enlarge image

This should have been Week 5′s photo, but FP discovered this photo amongst all the out takes much later. Apparently, the effect in this photo is called Urban Acid (Don’t look at me, I’m just a pseudo model who just sprouts out fantastic sounding words like this without knowing what it means lol).

I really like this photo. I look tall (lol) and it looks like a high fashion magazine ad. No, I do not look like a high fashion anything in real life. Hahaha!

Just wanted to share this photo because FP takes the nicest photos of me ;)

We technically didn’t have a shoot for Week 6 so this weekend, we’ll do the shoot for it. Nobody said it has to be 50 consecutive week, hehe.

50 Weeks of Her – Week 5

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Well, this week was quite an emotional train wreck from both ends.

FP has been moody for a week. None of his ideas seem to materialize, making it seem worse. To top it off, my mood always seems to be synchronized with his, so you can just imagine the situation.

I am not a fan of this week’s official photo, because I was having a bad hair day, bad face day and I was having irritating nightmares and it showed.

Certainly not one of my best photos, but I will still showcase it – because good or bad, it is still part of this wonderful series that portrays not just his undeniable talent but also an awesome collaboration of two individuals in love who can’t be any more opposites of each other.

So here it is, the official shot for week 5:

Click to enlarge image

I had in my hand a very interesting photography book called Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe Mcnally. I haven’t read through the entire book but from the snippets I have browsed through, it’s pretty good stuff. FP was actually on the waiting list to get this book, but he got it anyhow at a local bookstore :)

Another differing factor in this week’s shoot was that he didn’t use his normal Canon 5D camera. Instead, he used his Canon G10 (which was a birthday present from me *ahem*) :)

Though this week’s shoot was lacking any particular direction, it was also a week of experimenting – which is a very important stepping stone in any learning curve.

We actually did some other shots during the weekend, but that will be for the next post, I promise. (I don’t quite like mixing topics in one blog post – Little Miss Anal here)

Here’s to week 6 and beyond!

50 Weeks of Her – Week 4

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For this week’s shoot, I would say that it was a completely impromptu shoot, if we hadn’t spent the entire week planning and looking forward to a whole other concept.

But you know how it is sometimes. When things choose to go wrong, it goes really wrong.

The planned concept sizzled out because we couldn’t find the right props. Then we tried another, which sort of made me almost injure myself again. Funny consequence, but FP didn’t wanna risk another injury and there wasn’t enough space in our Pseudo Studio to achieve the desired effect.

So, we were lost for inspiration and so eager to fulfill our commitment to this week. Emotions went awry and if there had been a slight miscalculation in the way the planets were aligned, this week’s photo might just become a figment of our imaginations.

Yes, it almost didn’t happen. But we persevered. We dug through our memory vault of scrap ideas that we’ve had in passing and came up with the photo below. Do note that this concept had it’s misgivings and it was the concept that almost made an empty slot in the project. But it happened anyway :)

So here it is, the official shot for Week 4:

Click to enlarge image

Many versions of me, all in one photo. Makes me wish I can clone myself like this everyday, so I can be in many places at once. Do a lot of things at the same time. Wishful thinking, huh?

I thought the final results turned out pretty good and quite cute. Which brings about two lessons to this story:

1) Simple, unplanned ideas work better than elaborate, planned ones
2) We should never, ever give up when the going gets rough.

Besides, nobody said it’s going to be a breeze all the way. 50 weeks is a long time, two weeks short of a year. Things are bound to happen; inspiration will tend to die out. But that’s how we learn and become even better.

And then after 50 weeks, when we look through all the shots that we’ve created, we know that there’s a story behind every photo and every one of those stories will then be part of an epic masterpiece :)

But till then, we have to get through 46 more weeks! :P

Here’s this week’s shoot photo album in my Facebook account.

50 Weeks of Her – Week 3

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So for this week, we had to settle for an indoor shoot despite the fact that FP had planned to do some outdoorsy stuff. My ankles are not yet fully healed (sigh sigh) and we didn’t want to risk it.

And most of all, it is important to get into the momentum of weekly shoots if we want to fulfill the commitment of 50 such weeks (47 more now).

It was a pretty fun shoot, with equally fun results. The idea was that I will be a tiny person (think Thumbelina and Tom Thumb) living out of a shoe – yes like that nursery rhyme.

Well to be honest, that’s the concept that I had in my head. I’m sure it sounds different and more professional from his view point ;)

His theme in mind was “Too Big a Shoe to Fill”. See, doesn’t that sound much nicer?

So here they are: two photos from today’s photoshoot:

I prefer this photo, in contrast to the one he chose to officially represent Week 3. But he’s the Photographer, and it’s his project.. so it’s his call. I still love this anyway hehe :D It took some time for him (with the slightest help from me) to decide which pose to use and to position where.

And below is the shot that he chose to represent Week 3. For this photo, it was all him. Once again, I wish he’d chosen a photo where I am smiling pretty. But according to him, in compliance to his chosen theme, this expression suits better.

Wanna know what the actual shots look like before I was manipulated into a tiny person?

Here you go! Behind the scenes of this week’s shoots:

I absolutely love the shot below. We both do actually. It was the first pose we chose to implement. But turned out, the other shot suited the theme better. :)

Looking back at these week’s photos, I’m very excited about the next 47 weeks. I totally adore this week’s photos and the unique concept. Can I be a character in a pop-up book next, FP? :P

Stay tuned for next week’s shoot!

The Perils of Art

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As some of you might have known, FP (previously known as Lex in the old blog. Have promoted him to Frog Prince) has taken up an avid interest in photography. 

And me, being the leading lady in his life has become the focus of his lenses ;)

Recently, he has decided to start on a project which is entitled 50 Weeks of Her – which basically means 50 weeks of me, quite literally, hoho. I’m only too happy to help him in his endeavour because his ideas are always so fantastic. 

So last weekend, we ventured out into the “woods” (location is secret) for a photoshoot.

It was an open grassland. We were careful to walk slowly in case of potholes and snakes. I was honestly more worried for snakes than potholes – because snakes make me hyperventilate and potholes don’t.

We kept walking on thinking it’s gonna be grassy on flat land all the way (coz thats the way it seems from afar) until we came to a grassy ditch. Which we had to cross over in order to get to the artistic looking tree in the background of the photo above.

He ran and jumped over, quite easily (of course) and then asked me to pass over the heavy equipment that we have brought along for the shoot. I could barely pass him the heavy bag across the ditch, what more myself. LOL.

So, what’s left next was me.

First of all, I do have a problem with jumping. In a photo taken in San Francisco, my friends and I were supposed to jump in the air while the photo was captured. Turned out, I was the only one in the photo barely off the ground. Embarrassing, really – which is why it will not be published here.

So, all I had to do was jump over the ditch, where FP was ready to receive me. But I was scared. Don’t know if I was embarrassed to run-and-jump in front of FP or because I was half afraid to fall in the ditch (or I was pretty certain that I would fall in) so I did a few “false starts”.

Which cracked him up.

When I finally gathered the courage (this is without thinking), I run-and-jumped over and he caught me and we both fell over. According to his account of the incident, he said I did the “funniest little prance” instead of running but nevermind.

When I landed, I felt that familiar pain that I’ve often felt when I have injured my leg after falling many times before. Almost thought I couldn’t walk, but I could. The pain was momentary and soon after we were busy trying to get the best of the last minutes of daylight.

However, the next day at work, the pain began. The pain got worse and worse until on the drive back home, I felt so much pain while maneuvering the manual car pedals. By night time, I was suffering in tears.

The next day, I still went to work as normal. I took a cab to and from work and even wore slippers and ankle guard to work. But the pain continued to escalate until my knees and thighs. :( :(

It wasn’t until yesterday that FP had had enough of me being in pain, he practically kidnapped me from the office and took me to the A&E at a hospital nearby.

Took an x-ray and turns out that my ligaments were sprained and ended up with both ankles bandaged lol. And oh, did I mention 3 days MC (inclusive of yesterday)?

dsc00786

Sigh sigh.

Anyway, here’s the image FP has chosen to represent Week 2 of 50 Weeks of Her:

I don’t really like how I look in the photo, but he said it looks like I am trying to find for something. When I look at it again, it looks like I’m trying to tell something. So maybe he has a point in choosing this photo.

I am looking forward to Week 3, despite being seriously injured in the name of art. So, stay tuned for more updates with gorgeous photos from our fun-filled adventures :)

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