After missing out on the photography event by Replay Productions, I thought I would do a walkaround of the streets of Brisbane CBD. What you would normally walk passed or drive by seems different when you have a different mindset: rushing to work or to catch the next bus as opposed to walking slowly with camera in hand and with no particular purpose but to admire the scenery. The daily routine is so fast-paced that we often fail to notice little things around us. Just slow it down when you can and enjoy life.

Tip: Changing the aspect ratio (size/dimensions) of your photographs gives you a different perspective of your objects or scene. It also forces you to think about the composition and what you should include or exclude in your frame.

Jojo’s new camera Loving it!!

Red is love.

I think its time.

For adoption: Nikon D90 DSLR camera body.
What an amazing camera its been. Seriously. Everything that any beginner or intermediate level user could ask for. I have babied this and it is MINT. Besides the technical stuff, what makes this camera so good is its built quality, the ergonomics, and obviously because its NIKON. If its not for my crazy camera obsession, I would keep this forever.

RRP: $1400

MY PRICE: $850

One of the pics taken using this camera:

Please let me know if you need additional information or pictures.

I feel a little grey.
How am I going to handle it?

One of my resolutions for this year was to spend more time behind the camera and hopefully get enough nice shots to make a portfolio. What better way to start then get myself more involved in the events around the community. I went to my first music gig last Saturday night at the yearly chinese singing competition. This is one of the biggest events for young talented people because the winners from all around the world get to go to Hong Kong to compete against each other. The winner of that final gets the opportunity to enter the show-biz and sign a music contract with a huge company.

You do feel the pressure and having to run around, ducking under the video cameras to not get in the way, dodging the guests at the front while trying not to distract the nervous contestants on stage. I could only work with what I had, which was just the kit lens and “nifty-fifty” prime lens – not what you call ‘pro’ at all. The thought of getting a $2000 lens did cross my mine, but I do consider before making any purchases the $1 per use/wear formula: Would I use the lens 2000 times?? Well, probably yes. But given my schedule these days, it might take me maybe 20 years to use it that much. For anyone wanting to upgrade lenses, the primary consideration would be to find what drives YOU to take photos. I mean it doesn’t matter that Tom, Dick & Harry all use the $1500-$2500 lenses and $5000 camera (although yes it would be nice if that’s your budget and you require it). At the end of the day no point having it all at home collecting dust when you maybe only need the ‘all-rounder’ for 90% of the time. For me, I’ve really found my passion for taking portraits and capturing the emotion on people’s faces, plus landscape & objects every so often.

Recently, I’ve started…

• a new job
• uni semester 2
• drinking two coffees a day
• to like my fringe that went horribly wrong when it was fresh cut. Its actually turning out alright when its grown a bit.
• complaining about the trackball on my Blackberry (YAY new phone soon then!)
• considering whether to stick with micro 4/3 GF1 or invest in just Nikon gear? The more I read, the more undecided I become.
• a new shopping basket with ASOS… majorly needing some discount codes peeps!
• convincing myself to keep the iPhone 3GS for another year… and4its4not4working…iPhone4 yeah!
• thinking about which colour iPhone 4 to get… sexy black or fresh white?
• using twitter more than facebook… for some reason I feel better updating knowing mostly random ppl read it (and most likely not care anyway). Discuss.
• collecting spectacles… 6th pair on its way.
• to miss girls nights! Come back to Bris ppl!

blah.

A HUGE CONGRATS TO BEE for landing a job as an intern psychologist!!!!!! For those who aren’t aware, it is ridiculously difficult to find positions in psychology when you’re a fresh graduate. Surprisingly, many universities do not equip you with the necessary practical experience for you to become a registered practitioner. So proud of you!! Although its a few hours drive away, I suppose its better than being interstate.

Chilling with L at Tea Centre – great alternative to Starbucks!

Happy birthday to Eunice!! What a nice dinner and lovely to catch up with some familiar faces.
Seeing a few people in suits was something different – makes me want to hurry up finish my degree and graduate! Two years to go for me… its seems like so far away still. Then again, the thought of the whole recruitment process and working full-time straightaway gives me goosebumps. But its great to have all my law girls & boys there alongside me for motivation. We will all make it to the end!

Oops, I bought another 2 cameras…
A friend recently asked me, ‘how would you feel if you don’t have or didn’t bring any camera with you?’ My answer is I would feel completely naked and anxious that I might miss out on a “moment” or some opportunity for a great shot. (Oh yes, a huge photography bug bit me. HARD.) I am currently working on covering a wall in my room with photographs from film and about 1/4 of my wall is covered. Hope I can get a scanner soon so I can upload them on here too.

The thing I hate about our digital era is:
1) it fails when there are no batteries; or
2) most things die after 2 years, or conveniently the day AFTER the warranty expires.
Well I suppose, if everything lasted for a lifetime then businesses will go bust. For those who want to get serious about photography, I highly recommend getting a manual film SLR camera. I have here Nikon FM2n (black, left) and a Nikon FE2 (chrome, right). My other inexpensive choices would be Canon AE1 or Olympus OM-1 or OM-2. They are made to be so solid and provided you don’t drop it or run over it, it will last a lifetime. Although film can be quite expensive these days, say about $7 for a roll with 36exp, it actually forces you to really think about what you’re shooting and be more careful or precise with your composition. No ‘delete’ button or reviewing the photo immediately after. Exciting isn’t it!?

Anyone shooting film still these days? Love to hear from you!

2) Asahi Pentax SP500 – Film SLR, 55mm f/2, 135mm f/2.8 and 2x teleplus. Price: $25.
No joke. I’m assuming the seller had no idea what his camera was worth, and probably thought a 40 year old camera would have no salvage value. Oh he was very wrong. There’s still a pretty huge market out there, be it collectors or users, who are still on the look out for good condition film cameras. So happy I got this amazing bargain!!

Currently working on decorating my wall with all my photos from film. My little humble collection so far:

Next on my list: Nikon FM2 and Lomo LC-A.

I just love that excitement when you get your film developed. You just don’t know what it’ll turn out like – sometimes you surprise yourself with a great shot. Another thing about film is it forces you to really think about what you’re shooting and composition of your photos because you can’t just delete the shots you don’t like! Can’t wait to develop my next roll and also run a test roll in the Pentax!

More camera porn on my flickr.

Hipstamatic iPhone app is designed to not only take pictures like retro analog film camera, but it even looks and feels like you really are. The viewfinder is just a little square, shutter button, film window, flash ready indicator coupled with the respective sound effects.

At first by looking at the intro in the App Store, I couldn’t really grasp the concept and it just look like such a toy to me. Once you play with it, its a lot clearer! Basically, you have 3 components: lens, flash and film. You slide them left to right to change them. I took some time getting used to the controls and constantly pressed into the in-app purchases.

This app is $2.49AUD and comes with some default “lenses”, flash and film to give different effects. Since I was given an iTunes gift card (thanks Bobo!) I went ahead an bought the extras as well! So if you want full access to everything available in the app, its going to cost about $7.50AUD. Whether this is worth it depends on the individual but personally if I could make any random photo look good, why not?

I’m always curious as to why some apps receive such high ratings and always tempted to try them if it is within a reasonable budget. I have tried quite a lot of photography iPhone apps and this is one which I have to say I’m very impressed with – seeing as I’m taking the effort of doing this little review. Those who love photography as much as I do should really get it and those who think their photos are plain and boring should get it too Download in iTunes now.

I spent so much time playing with this. See the results:
Click to view slideshow.

Check them all out on my flickr album.

Creds: Mijonju's Flickr Photostream

And of course Mijonju @circlerectangle would be the first one getting his hands on it. Check out the Mijonju Show for a short review.