Discover

Been a 宅男 for a couple of weeks already
Partly due to the fact that there was Starcraft II
"Was" because I have already since completed all the campaign missions
Damn....now 宅男 has to find something else to occupy his time at home
Besides the EPL
And the much needed rest after hitting long distances runs
Doing 30km in one week is like......WOW!!!
(finally hit 99mins for 16km...phew!)
:)

Anyways, did went out like...... for 1 weekend?
Celebrated Jia Yong & Eric's 21st bday on the same day
Had an unique experience for JY's 21st
That was to play a whole day of sports
Ranging from bball, soccer, captain ball, to even ping-pong
Can tell that the ping-pong bats are brannnnnnd new wor!
Effort points!
Didnt swim after that, thought would have fallen asleep in the pool anw
LOL!

Carried on Eric's 21st with a mini-BBQ
Couple of cock-up here and there
But all was fine in the end as the main thing was that there wasn't any rain
Right?
Sucks to have a BBQ with rain

But I think best thing nowadays with BBQ is that
I dont have to get my hands dirty anymore

That gotta be the best part to a successful BBQ!

=D

Group photo
:)
(time to invest in the SB-600 now!)



***宅男's all-new discoveries

Yuna Ito - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
(cover from Aerosmith)

One of the best songs on Planet Earth
As described by my BMT Sgt Nicholas

Love the cinematic, especially during 2.05-2.10
Something I wanna learn how to do

Not my favourite type of girl Yuna Ito
But somehow, it's the video and cinematic I guess
A lot of ppl are saying she is very pretty
Then somehow influenced me already
HAHA!

But 1st time hearing the female version of this song
Epic win!
*Like It*



The original microphone-swallowing lead singer

From 2.10-2.20
It's like the most impactful part of this video
Violins are like one of the most beautiful instruments to me
Vanessa.M anyone?

Anyone Aerosmith made this song much loved
And yes, Armageddon is like the 2nd most-watched movie for me
Comes close to my all-time favourite
(1st would always always be Independence Day starring Will Smith)

Liv Tyler is max-chio!
Always thought she was Kate Beckinsale
But Bruce Willis is the main-man for me






















Something lovely to take away
Golden hours at Punggol End
Near Punggol Marina Country Club there
Damn good place for photoshoot
:)

P.S.
Updated my DA already
HK pics are mostly up
Do take a look
Link is on the right yo
:)

The Girl Next Door

小猪 totally cracks the best jokes!
:)

At 0.13-0.20 is the most rocking part!
;)

Anyways for the full episode
You can try out these links

http://8dimentions.com/100-2010-08-05/
http://8dimentions.com/100-2010-08-05/2/
http://8dimentions.com/100-2010-08-05/3/

Quality is good!
*thumbs up*

Jolin 蔡依林 is just like any normal girl-next-door
Her style of talking and laughing is just........cute!
But of cuz she has the full arsenal of dance moves
Totally rocks!
Throw in the bowl-shaped hairstyle
And yes
Love the green-eye monster oversized BOYFRIEND tee
Add ten points
Immediately.
=)

Stronger, Better, Faster

阳光，酷热，汗水，阻挡不了我。
shokubutsu men, 天然植物威力。
洁净，清爽，畅快，唤醒全身细胞.
掌控生活，我坚持。
shokubutsu men, 让我充满自信， 面对所有挑战！

*winks eye*

Most inspirational video of the year
;)

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson

In Studio

Was looking at the SB-600 vs SB-800 review
Still cant make up my mind on it
Whether to spend the money or not
I guess.....wait a while first then

Oh well, got reminded that I went for an assistant job the other time
Hahaha!
Got invited to Gladys's studio photog at Joo Chiat the other time
Well........it was really an eye-opener
Learnt a lot of new stuff just in a few hours time

The shadows that were cast on the subject
It's awesome to say the least
It's not just those plain dark black that type
But something that just draws your eyes to the subject itself

Got to try out wireless remote shooting, sync flashes
soft-boxes, hair-dryer effect, backdrop selection and many more
Definitely cool stuff!

This was taken by Jason
The lead photog at Ink&Light

I thought the lighting and "feel" was there
Quite good for a demonstration har?
;)

Gladys was explaining her concept to Jason
And how it could be/should be done
It was interesting to see where Gladys's ideas come from
There were sample photos for everyone to look at
And I can see where the theme of the day was going
With her inspirations drawn more from fashion shoots that side

Simple and yet complicated to do at the same time
With the make-up, lighting, clothings and etc

After meddling with the lighting from the soft-boxes
Trying out the different kind of flashes
Positioning of the subject (or model in this case)
Toggling with the main camera settings
(my D90 with the 50mm in this case)
Jason decided that we should use the direct sunlight (?) setting
And he helped us fix it so that we could see for ourselves
How the pictures are gonna turn out

And after the make-up was done
Finally proceed to the actual shoot
This are some of the shots which I thought were the nicer ones
(Of cuz got the permission from Gladys before posting them up
if not seems like some copyright infringement)

This was done with the hair-dryer effect
Check out the hair!
"Smooth" is the keyword
Revealing the ear-ring and the focus on the red butterfly hairclip
Initially we thought it was quite over-kill
But the photo turned out well to our liking

$2 straw mat from Daiso
LOL!
"Daiso can get anything and everything!"
Now I know where Gladys go shopping then
:)

Nearly have crampy hands holding up the straw mat for them
Not so easy as you think ya?

I like this shot a lot
Like the moment it appear on the LCD preview screen
You wanna click on the "Like It" button
A closer look at the photo and I thought the make-up was gorgeous
Once again, there's something in the eyes
This kind of up-close portrait shots, besides the face
I think its always the eyes that draw a lot of attention

This was also another great shot
The kimono dress layered with the sakura flower patterns
Plus the shadows at the sides
Nice!

Like a movie poster

Another personal favourite too

This was good too
Got "feel"
Captured the theme
Which was sadness of a beautiful geisha
Or something along the line
But definitely got "feel"

The final photo for the shoot
Adelyn & Gladys

After 100+ RAW shots
We called it a day
Didnt have enough time to get to the 2nd theme
So that's it till the other day then

The Cast

Photog: Gladys
Model: Adelyn
Makeup: Klein
Hairstylist: Christina
Assisted by: Me & Bruce
Camera: D90 with 50mm prime lens

Klein and Christina were really good
DA ppl are saying the make-up was very beautiful
And of cuz, shooting with 50mm
Learnt that we should do it with f8-11 that kind of stop value
And of cuz shoot in RAW for these kind of studio shots
Adelyn was good with the poses too
And yes, one last thing
The circle line is damn power!
Dakota was like.......max close to Joo Chiat area
:)

So Badly

I miss home so so so badly this week
I don't know why
But I just do.....

Reiz's 21st

Honestly, my social circle is very small
And that's why this bunch of guys and girls I know
From Xinmin Secondary School
Whom I befriended at the age of 12
(and along the way befriended them again in many ways more than the norm)
Throw in the 9 years of friendships and counting
Yes, that's the reason why they are one of the
most impt groups of ppl in my life
:)

香港之旅 Day 5

Last day in Hong Kong
Die die must wake up to a good breakfast
:)

Tried something different for the last day
Local 油条 and soya bean drink
Plus some other side dishes
Rocks!

Just check out aunties doing their thing
Almost everything was hand-made

Packed some good 'ol delicious egg-tarts for our flight
back to SG later in the night
Proved to be a masterstroke in hindsight
;)

Some final shots of the buildings in HK and the
always busybusybusy traffic junctions

One last look at our hotel
The artificial football pitch which our hotel room can view
And a check on how to successfully pack your luggage
(see, the panda can fit nicely into the luggage too)
Hahaha!

Decided to leave our luggage at the hotel lobby area before
going out for some last min shopping

The girl in the picture was damn funny the other day
I rmb asking her where to go to get 老婆饼 (Wife's Biscuits)
And we passed her this map that we got

Guess what?
She said the nearest shop was near her house
Then she blushed, smiled and looked sheepishly away
We were like..........O.O
Then LOL-ed!
=)

HKDC

Actually a lot of shops are really hidden beside those
so-called more famous tourist attractions
You just have to go explore around
And will find a lot of different shops selling stuff that you cant really
find back here in SG

There was this chess shop which was selling chess pieces
with the 孙悟空 and 唐尚 on one side
And their enemies such 牛魔王, 铁扇公主 on the other side
Damn cool!

Cant really go back to SG w/o eating HK wanton mee again right?
Check out the ultra-magnified wanton
There are not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 freaking prawns inside
Hell of a combo!
Still can feel the 4 prawns springing around in my mouth
everytime I see this picture
Awwwww.....

Oh well
The morale story of the day was mango aids in digestion
Especially if there is shaved ice involved
And more so if the mango is 1 freaking whole piece
Totally off-the-charts~~!!
=)

SG only give you like 5 small cube pieces of mango
At most somemore
LOL!

And yes
Below we
The most hated road in HK for us
Especially when you ask for directions
And they tell you its on Nathan Road

Nathan Road is like the PIE in SG
Believe me

And finally the few pictures conclude the journey
This 5D4N in HK
Whereby I can proudly declare we cover almost 80% of HK's
most famous tourist attractions
Ate almost 80% of what local delights can offer
It's like a good mission accomplished
Hahaha!

And yet again
This trip proved to be something special
And leaves a so-called "trademark"
Which I flew to places with friends that got connections there
Like this time in HK the hotel accommodations were settled by Ding Feng

This HK trip also proved to be my first time planning the whole
itinerary by researching, researching, and double-researching
Wikipedia, google, and HK tourism board prove to be great help

Once again, flew budget
But once reach there, able to spend more w/o too much considerations
Just like in Australia Perth that time
And in Taiwan
Now Hong Kong is done
All were trips which were like 1.5k and under
With damn cheap air tix (except for HK o.O)
Putting into considerations the DFS alcohol
Trademarks for Aussie was Adrian's friend David, and our Deb of cuz
David got us the local rental car for like wayyyyyy budget price
Then Taiwan was the $20 bucks per night hotel stay
And Hong Kong was Cantonese-speaking Ding Feng and his Mom's help

Next year is India to see 1 of the 7 wonders of the World
"Touch-My-Heart" aka "Taj Mahal" in Feb or Mar
Then the ORD trip to Japan Tokyo and Osaka in July
Before starting school in August
Maybe can sneak in a cheap thrill trip to Bangkok
Can seek help from Sarah for Bangkok
India is of cuz........hahahah a no-brainer!
And then Japan would be Adrian's help once again
Cant wait till 2011
And of cuz hopefully the world dont really end in 2012
Cuz I still wanna see the world with my fav DSLR
And take back plenty of memories via the photos taken
=D