weekend snapshots

Koflow, my scratch sensei, at his album launch gig:

Just to mix things up, here’s a video:

After we got back from Koflow’s gig, the Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens I’d ordered off ebay was in the mailbox. I had never used a manual focus lens in my life, but was emboldened by what people had said on various photography forums about how easy it was to use old manual focus lenses on the Nex cameras. Here are some of my fledgling efforts with the lens – I’m quite happy with them, but given that these were literally among the first 20 pictures I had ever taken with manual focus, I’m guessing I could get better with practice.

My friend Yi-Sheng at his 30th birthday party (yes, he’s doing the Mentos and Coke thing):

After dropping friends off in Balestier around 2 a.m., we went to the bakery. That’s how Alec rolls.

 

The last photo is only visible to Facebook friends or Flickr friends, but it’s my favourite one of the weekend. One week before, my mother had gallbladder surgery. It’s keyhole surgery which a sensible person wouldn’t have worried unduly about, but when it’s your beloved mother, even the most miniscule possibility of things not going well can be terrifying. So here is my mother (on Facebook / on Flickr) one week after her surgery – healthy, pain-free, and the best reminder I could ever get that one of the most wonderful things about photography is capturing the beauty of someone you love.

Due to my blog redesigning efforts I spent a couple weekends in a PHP/CSS fog, but I’m out now and trying to catch up. I am, however, still tinkering with various shiny new WordPress toys, like this way of displaying photos. What do you think? (If you prefer to page-down through bigger versions of the photos the usual way, just follow the “Continue reading” link under the gallery.)

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Read More “Weekend Snapshots 30-31 October”

Hasty phonecam photo before messy bak kut teh gobbling at Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh, Joo Chiat:

Wandering through the Botanic Gardens after brunch at Halia:

Hasty over-the-counter shot before messy yakitori gobbling at Kushigin, Cuppage Plaza:

Karaoke song cycle:

Tokimonsta being awesome at Home Club:

Dinky being adorable on my family’s living room floor:

This is the first in what will hopefully become a regular series. It’s not an original idea, but I’ve decided to give it a try for a number of reasons. One thing that’s been making me sad about this blog for the past few years is that apart from sporadic travel updates, I stopped using it as a record of events in my life. It is a wonderful repository of memories from my university years, a small collection of selected events from the first few years I was back in Singapore, and a gaping void of nothingy nothingness from, probably, the time I got engaged and onwards.

Of course, some say that if you’re out there living life too fully to have time to write about it, you’re doing things right. But no person as addicted to my laptop as I am deserves to use that as an excuse, so I won’t. Instead, I’m just going to try and repurpose some of the time I already know I can’t help but spend in front of my computer towards doing something that will make me happier in the long run, rather than suddenly realizing that my greatest accomplishment over the past 5 hours of mindless surfing has been clearing my Google Reader backlog.

So yeah, weekend snapshots. They’ll give me a built-in timeline for updating this (again, I would much rather do this here than Facebook) and opportunities to give my cameras regular airings. Most importantly, due to the strange little thing that is the human mind, it’s been my experience that recording the fun things I do can be a great impetus to keep finding fun things to do, and that having a camera with me opens my eyes to beauty that would otherwise pass me by unnoticed.

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All photos except the last were taken by my new baby, the Sony Nex-3, which I’m intending to write more about some time soon. Since I’ve only ever used compact digital cameras with built-in zooms, I wasn’t sure how best to use the 16mm wide angle lens that came with the camera, so I forced myself to use only that lens for the whole day on Saturday. I’m still getting to know it and as always, comments on the photos are welcome, especially if I’m doing something wrong!

Outside wall of dbl 0, Queen Street:

Sashimi platter at Standing Sushi Bar, Queen Street:

Ridiculously large Vietnamese water pipe owned by husband:

Window shopping for a personal Jesus, Queen Street:

Entrance lobby, Singapore Art Museum (Queen Street branch):

View from a basket of durians, Queen Street:

WTF, Peninsula Shopping Centre:

Chefs at work in Chef Daniel’s Kitchen, Iluma:

Light fixture, Iluma:

Giant stoned Doraemon in Mushroom video arcade, Iluma:

Down escalator, Iluma:

Happy Cities exhibition (part of Archifest ’10), Iluma:

Blue cheese gelato from Coccogelo, East Coast Road (taken with my still-beloved Fuji Finepix f31fd):