Had fun!

Studio shooting is really fun!

Actually I was tasked to do some portrait shots under different light situation for my color class, but since I'm in the Light Control class also where I have access to the studio, I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be super fun! And since I know nothing about portrait shooting so even though I did a lot of mistakes it didn't matter too much (well, coz I don't know it anyway)... haha


I don't really like formal technical portraits so I decided to create a moody feel, using mostly one strobe all the time. I think it turned out OK... my model G-i-E was pretty fun to work with. She got a lot of idea. Argh, yeah, I easily run out of ideas.

Tomorrow I'm going to try out some shots food products. Hope all things come out great!

TO

barbershop
Originally uploaded by monochromejournal-v2.0.

Wow!

You know what, i've been to this having my hair cut once!! It was like a couple years ago when i visited Toronto, before my parents moved from Elm street to where they're living now. The result was OK, more importantly it was pretty inexpensive. In fact, I think it's much better than any stylist I went to in China Town!

Looking at this picture, my memories of TO came back all of a sudden. That vibrant but relaxing city life, that trendy hippy people, and those great and inexpensive food..... and the memories of cooking almost every Saturday for my family served with good wines :-)

It was truely good times.

懊惱

Don't know why... but recently I'm so annoyed by nothing. I know I have a lot to do, but I just don't know where and how to start...

ARgh!

* * *

Looks like I have yet to improve. My friend said I am not facing my own weaknesses... and my friend was forcing me to improve. Such a painful process.

I guess, I need to be motivated.

* * *

Came across this poster by chance. The tagline is pretty thought provoking, isn't it?

Looking into my innerself, there is a place that is, kind of, empty.

"Apart from what I really want, I have everything."

Is what I believe in REAL? Am I a REAL follower of HIM?

What, if any, am I believing in?

不加思索

My dentist's office used to be pretty good at reminding me the next appointment, which is, you know, six months after the last visit. However it seems like a year has passed and I received no call from the office.... I was thinking.... is the dentist... died already??

Since the office was quite close to where I work, so i decided to give it a visit after lunch. Fortunaly, they're still in business :-)

As soon as I stepped into the office, the secretary said, without a thought, "Are you Boris?"

I was surprised my name was remembered by someone I don't really know....

So the reason why they didn't call me was that they thought I have moved to CA.

What even surprised me was that, when she said, "Oh, right, it was Jacky Ho who moved to San Diego...."

Unbelivable.... Even it took me a few months to remember Jacky Ho's name :-)

****

Do I really not look like a 30 guy? Someone asked tonight if I go to Samuel the college fellowship.

Oh well... the other night when I had dinner with my elementary schoolmate, the waiter said if I were her younger brother....

Sigh.

****

The light control class was *still* pretty fun, although I was very tired. I kind of like shooting in a studio, since things can be manipulated in a lot of ways :-)

****

11/6 is a big day for my brother, since it's his birthday. It's also going to be a big day for me, and I started worrying about it....

bringing color into my life....

So today is the first class of the color photography!! It's been a long time I haven't do any printing since the B&W class, and this time it's more fun since color printing is totally different from B&W printing... and I found it more fun! Why? Since all you have to take care of is the exposure (oh well, which is A LOT more work than B&W), and you'll enter a space-ship like door where you feed the paper in and the machine will take care of the processing for you.

So.... here's the first print I've done! Argh, the picture wasn't taken by me. The picture was from my instructor Seth Thomson.



Unlike B&W printing, in color you need to take away any unwanted color using filters (and there are 100+ different filters I can choose from!).

This reminded me a saying my friend used to put on his email signature, "Perfection is not achieved, it's at the point where you can't take anything away from it."

Hum.... may be my life needs some unwanted color to be taken away too...

Oh the picture is not a final print since there are a few more things I needed to work on, like burning the sides, and adjusting the color. This is a difficult film to work on btw, since the color wasn't represented well on the film...

And Seth is a very interesting person. He was a painter before becoming a fine arts color photographer, so he said he'll introduce some of the paintings to us :-) And he really looks like a painter too! you know, very tall and thin, wearing that painter's hat etc...

So I guess his background makes him a perfectionist? First of all, he said he'd pick on every subtle changes we need to make on a picture to make it look great. And secondly, he said he'd stay in the classroom until all of us are done with their prints!!!

And that's why I didn't get off from the class until 11-ish...

Yup, that was a 5+ hours class!

去 Deception Pass 吹吹風

So during the last two days of summer a few of us went camping at the Deception Pass. The weather can't be any better, and we were lucky to have a "chance" to see a beautiful sunset. Yup, I didn't realize the sunset was done so quickly that I was just able to catch this last bit after a few minutes walk to the beach from our camp. No wonder people are saying 奔向夕陽. Next time I needed to run :-)

May be that applies to life too?

In the evening we had a swell time with HK style BBQ. John took out his military grade night vision goggle. It was amazing!

If you look at the sky through this gadget, you'll see a lot more stars than your unaided eyes.

"We walk by faith, not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7

All of a sudden, the nigt vision goggle was like the faith that I have inside :)

After the dinner Jeff gave us a tour of the sky. It reminded me Abraham 的信心故事,

"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore." Genesis 22:17

And looking at the couples in this trip, I felt like I was in heaven--a place full of love.

This reminded me a song I recently came across--

似乎在天堂 (listen)
人群中我悄悄地出走 忘記了已流浪了多久
我的靈魂好孤單 靜靜地讓往事沉澱
找不到暫時的休息站 一路上總忘記了被愛
我的記憶已空白 下一站哪裡是未來
我記得你說你愛我 不論往何走你仍抱著我
淚光中似乎看見你的臉 原來你一直在我身邊
我願意讓你來愛我 不願一個人好孤單地走
我相信愛與被愛那麼真實 在你微笑中我似乎在天堂

上學去

So today is the first day of the Light Control class. I pretty enjoyed it!

Our instructor is Brian Allen, who does a lot of commercial work. The class isn't that big, just a mere of six students, myself included. Most of them already have extensive experience in photography. I guess some of them do commercial work too.

I just learned that Brian uses a Polaroid 195 to "preview" the lighting situation before shooting the real thing. Polaroid 195 is a lovely camera that you can change the aperture and shutter speed!!



The picture it takes is pretty good too!

I have a Polaroid 220, a gift from my brother-in-law who got it from an estate sale for me. I haven't tried it out, since it needs some weird batteries for its autofocus thingy. I'll probably get some batteries before I visit Toronto in November.

****

Jeff has arrived! He's going to have class at 7.45am! Wow.. I just can't believe it. If I were him, I would have skipped it :p

****

So when talking to my elementary schoolmate last night, I found out she has been to a lot of places like Puru, Morocco, Greece, and a lot of other countries! Wow, all of these are my dream country I'd like to travel to too!

Hum, looks like I really have to work on the Tibet trip.

Found this itinerary from another blog. Good reference for planning:

(Oh, and here's another Tibet travel diary that's worth a read: http://lastplayground.blogspot.com/2005/12/tibettravelog.html)

1/8 - 廣州: 晚上坐火車上, 留宿一天, 待明早機.
12/8 - 廣州飛西寧, 接青藏鐡路: 晨早機去西寧, 參觀塔爾寺, 晚坐鐡路(需27小時)赴青藏高原.
13/8 - 火車之旅, 晚扺拉薩: 火車翻越唐古喇山, 穿越可哥西裏無人區, 晚扺拉薩.
14/8 - 拉薩>林芝: 翻越米拉山口, 訪巴松措湖.
15/8 - 林芝>八一鎮: 翻越色季拉山，參觀千年巨柏國家公園, 晚返八一鎮。
16/8 - 八一鎮>澤當: 朗縣
17/8 - 澤當: 參觀桑耶寺, 雍布拉康, 昌珠寺與藏王墓。
18/8 - 澤當>日喀則: 羊卓雍措.
19/8 - 日喀則>定日: 紮什輪布寺, 在烏拉山觀珠峰全景。
20/8 - 定日: 絨布寺, 珠峰大本營.
21/8 - 定日>日喀則: 薩迦寺
22/8 - 日喀則>拉薩: 大昭寺
23/8 - 拉薩: 哲蚌寺參觀”曬大佛”, 沙拉寺
24/8 - 拉薩>納木措: 唐古喇山, 晚觀滿天繁星, 正.
25/8 - 納木措>拉薩: 欣賞納木措全景, 晚返拉薩買手信
26/8 - 拉薩: 參觀布達拉宮, 在羅布林卡看”雪頓節”藏戲表演。
27/8 - 經成都, 往深圳, 回香港

ramblings

Had dinner with an elementary schoolmate. Hasn't seen her for a long time. I guess the last time was like 6 years ago when I was still in Toronto? It was a great evening. Too bad I can't meet her fiance tonight. May be next time :-)

***

Peggy called and said that 彭家麗 left a message on my blog :-) So excited to learn that!

Oh, about her CD... I emailed the producer/publisher and they said they don't currentluy have a distributor in the US. I've already asked my friend to get one for me in HK.

***

The photog classes are going to start tomorrow. This quarter I am taking two: Intro to color and Light control. I can't wait to start the Light control!

***

Hum, the school in Italy said that they're fedex'ing a catalog to me... it's beeen almost a week already! Still haven't received it.

rats....

haha... Ho gor (aka rat) is sick today, and I found this sticked on the door:



He's so funny. Oh well, he still got the energy to draw so I guess he's not that bad :)

Oh, btw, the day he returned, I dreamed of eating a lot of....

rats!

Deep fried :-)

好好戀愛

Sharing another song. A very good one that I just heard it from the 星光背後人生曲—遇上的驚喜 tonight. I've never heard of the name 王祖藍, but I think he created the climax of the entire night!

Ho gor and a number of other people made the decision to accept Jesus as their personal savior. Congrats! I asked what hit him the most in the messages, he didn't tell. May be it was because of this song :p

Well, this is my question to my 天父 too...
"Where is that special one?"

《好好戀愛》

主唱：王祖藍 / 彭家麗　
作曲 / 填詞：陳立怡　
編曲：John Laudon

(女）我的天父，可否讓我好好地談戀愛，
不再流淚，不再傷痛，不再聚合又要分開。
我的天父，我只想要安穩地找個人來愛，
請讓我知道那個人在不在。

(男）我的孩子，難道你忘記了我就是愛，
學懂愛我，學懂愛你自己，你就懂好好戀愛。
我的孩子，何不嘗試安靜地慢慢去等待，
你就會知道那個人在不在。

(男）　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　（女）
你是否願意相信，　　 願意相信，
每時每刻都在我手裏，　　
沒有事情是太早或是太遲。 沒有事情是太早或是太遲。
願意相信，　　　　　　　 愛我的主，我願意相信，
　　　　　　　　　　 萬事萬物都在你手裏，
我教你順服，我的旨意。 請教我順服，你的旨意。

Argh, 順服... 等待...

****

Well, what hit me the most tonight except that song? I guess... everyone's testimonies!

彭家麗: (btw, she sings really well! So well that I decided to check out her latest CD 《奔向明天》 :) She reminded me that we need to be thankful for every little things that I take them as granted every day... just like being able to walk, or being able to change my position while sleeping!

王祖藍: Why do we need to comapre with others? We're all special in his eyes. He makes everything on purpose.

溫裕虹: To me, it's very difficult to alpologize, especially to your family, to those you love.... but she reminded me that love takes action, and have genuine communication... i.e., not just do this and do that for someone you love!

蔡少芬: Don't focus too much on your succes or failure. The most important thing is... whether you've tried your best or not.

*****

Met a few friends I haven't seen for a long time during the event!

*****

Argh, the photo editing is killing me!!!!!

當年

時光倒流二十年
陳奕迅
作曲 伍樂城
填詞 林夕

童年你與誰渡過 聖詩班中唱的歌
再哼一哼可以麼
當時誰與你排著坐 白色恤衫灰褲子
再穿一穿可以麼

遺憾我當時年紀不可親手擁抱你欣賞
童年便相識 餘下日子多閃幾倍光
誰讓我倒流時光一起親身跟你去分享
能留下印象 閱覽你家中每道牆
拿著你歌書 與你合唱

從前你與誰路過 逛的公園有幾多
再走一走可以麼
當時誰對你凝望過 是否真的比我多
再演一演可以麼

* 遺憾我當時年紀不可親手擁抱你欣賞
童年便相識 餘下日子多閃幾倍光
誰讓我倒流時光一起親身跟你去分享
遺憾印象 沒有你家中那面牆
拿著你相簿 *

從前拍過的相
多麼妒忌你昨日同過的窗
早些看著你美麗模樣
對你天真的讚賞
Repeat *
從頭細看 你六歲當天 已是我偶像

house prices

Oh well, I'm not arguing anything, but will this trend sustain for a long time?

Anyway, I think it's still a good idea to buy a house and rent it out partially if you are going to stay in this area for more than two years -- you can't probably rent out stocks :) Except the fact that you know how to play the game and earn 10%+ in a month (and, of course, bearing the risk of losing it all in a day :)

好陽光!

Finally I found a few friends who are interested in watching Little Miss Sunshine!

A very thought-provoking movie that is presented lightly and humorously.

Like this picture, Dwayne (the boy in white) just found out that he is color blinded, so he rushed out of the VW van and screamed like crazy. His mom couldn't calm him down, which is kind of expected since Dwayne hated every one in his family. Oh well, who would love a dysfuntional family where the father is an unsuccessful motivational speaker; the uncle who tried to commit suicide because of some messy gay relationships; his grandpa a drug addict who always say f words; and her mom tries very hard to glue the family together. Oh, and the girl, Olive, a very cute girl who has a dream of winning "Miss little sunshine".



Anyways, Dwayne has a dream of entering the Air Force that he swears he wouldn't say a single word until he gets into the army. He tried very very hard to keep this promise (but of course a dumb promise) and didn't even say a single word -- until he found out that he is color blind and can't fly a jet.

Which comes to this scene in the picture. He was really upset, and sit helplessly alone on the ground. While his family members hopelessly sanding far away from Dwayne, Olive comes besides him.

And with a gentle touch, she calm down Dwayn.

Yeah, a gentle touch, can heal a lot of wounds :)

A very heart-warming scene.

******

Oh, a very good quote that hits me in the movie:
A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning he doesn't even try.

*****


I also like the idea that it would be lovely if we face life's difficulties together as a family. It's funny to see that every one in the family has their own struggles in life, and they happen to have 'locked' in a VW van during the journey. And it's because of this, they need to learn how to deal with each other, support each other, and deal with themselves.

*****

Lastly, it doesn't really matter if your dream comes true or not--it's the journey of reaching the dream that matters.

You already gain a lot even though there are a lot of detours and bummers!

無無聊聊

Ho gor's coming back on Saturday! Finally the house has a little bit more 人氣 :) And I was told that there are going to be a couple people staying for a week or so next two months... hopefully we can get along.

***

A friend sent this blog to me, and I found it very insightful!

回顧 - 攝影篇
....

有錢不一定要買樓供車 不一定要旅行儲蓄
真的可以用來為自己年少時的一團火或一個夢

....

這年photog給我的啟示:
1. 鏡頭如看別人--Paul教拍人像相時，盡量就眼睛反光的角度，才能拍下對象眼神閃爍的一面。看人也是一樣吧..
2. 教我看見自己..什麼也沒有-- Paul放了一輯相, Photo Story, 一個攝影師沿著一條公路走，拍下途中遇到的人，他都是拍攝他們拿著一些代表到他們的東西。一個鏟和一堆泥，一個耙和一紮草，一枝水喉和一個油站，一個老婆 和一個兒子．．想想自己，我竟然沒有什麼東西可以代表我是誰，沮喪．．（我很像中年危機的人吧？）
3. 但也救我一命--加上很多其他東西例如荷爾蒙失調，覺得自己很沒用，什麼也半桶水，對這世界又沒貢獻之時..有天要交相，沒心機的被迫去影相。拿著相機，每按一下快門，就好像把我拉回世界近一寸，拍了半天，一個星期的沮喪盡掃一空。

只要你拿著相機
你就會有那種實際踏實的感覺
無論你技術好不好 是不是一個有用的人
只要你是在拍照
那一刻你就會為世界紀錄著一點東西
那一刻你就是用盡方法去欣賞這個世界
那身為一個人　已經很好了

Take me home

So my friend got the book "Take me home" by Tina Ko.

Here's just part of the drawings I like:


May be some day, I will just leave Seattle without telling anyone....


How true! Loving someone, until the end of time, is a difficult yet rewarding process.


Well, may be having a normal life is a dream of somebody. But at this point in life, I'm glad that I still have the courage to dream -- and possibly can go after it if I have the courage.

Well, at the end it's not important whether your dream becomes a reality or not. I guess what's more important is that I am living with a goal, for a goal.

妙 想 … …

Finally I am 3/4 done with all the weddings this year! Don't get me wrong, I am excited in each wedding, and was touched by each couple. But sometimes, I'm just so looking forward to my own :-)

****

Had a haircut while I was in Vancouver. I think I have the same style as the headline 24 boy on Apple Daily today -- and we end up working in more or less the same industry. And get paid very differently...

****

I should have gone home by now working on the thousands of pictures I owed the couples, but I am supposed to have dinner with my coworkers but they're so busy now.

Sigh.

So I read an article on Food Lovers (from Next magazine), and was tempted to go to Holland!!! I'm so attached to their design... very creative and elegant. I guess I know which city I should keep an eye on when SAS has their end-of-the-year sale again...

阿姆斯特丹!

Because....

It was a simple yet beautiful wedding!



And very good food too!



May we all find the true love in our lives!

我 們 愛 、 因 為 神 先 愛 我 們 。
We love, because he fist loved us.
1 John 4:19

On the road shooting again

This is going to be the fourth wedding shooting this year, and probably the most enjoyable one since I only have to shoot in the banquet! And the wedding party is kind enough to provide lodging!!

Will be back on Sunday from Vancouver.

忘卻

「寫作就是忘卻。文學是忽略生活最為愉快的方式。」

No wonder... I kind of like wrirting blogs, and I put up "忘卻工作" as my 興趣...

Oh, and I picked up the English translation of 《惶然錄》 today. I probably won't finish it though.. :)

***

So weird... my coworker in India whom I've never met suddenly IM'ed me as soon as I logged in saying "Good Morning!"... when I asked "What's up?"... answered "Nothing, just want to wish you :)"....

(He used to ask me questions on the thing I worked on that is now outsourced....)

***

From lovelab:

http://thestranger.selectalternatives.com/gyrobase/Personals/ISawYou?keywords=obidos

unbox'ed

I'm not a big fan of their recent products, including this unbox thingy--not to mention that they don't support OSX (and probably that would take a long time until they start supporting OSX since the player is tied up to Media Player).

Sigh.

(oh, and the player wouldn't install on Vista as well :0

gold

Honestly I know nothing about investment, but this is an interesting article that I came across today:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/09/04/ccview04.xml

***

So tired because of all the events during the weekend, and I think I caught some nasty bugs!!

百川匯海,有容乃大

壁立千仞，無欲則剛。

C had a very good reminder today, which reminded me of 《 莊 子 ﹒ 外 篇 ﹒ 秋 水 第 十 七 》I read online the other day.

A lot of things... I just don't have to be 斤斤計較.

geotagging

Pretty cool! You can now add the location of where you take the picture in flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/euqus/223488294/map/?view=users

Umm, may be I can visit every single Starbucks or whatever chain company, take a picture of it, and locate it on my map :-)

Isn't this something *similar* to A9's yellowpage?

Oh well, Yahoo doesn't seem to be more innovative then the big A company, but at least their stuffs are more useful from users' perspective, like their not-so-new http://upcoming.org

But then their newest killer app? The ZoneTag where you can take a picture using your mobile phone close to the venue of the event listed on upcoming.org (at the time the event is happening), the photo will be automatically tagged!! The best part is, you don't have to do anything extra.

Imagine one day people can create an event within their online community, and can upload the pics on the fly that have the right tags!

Cool!

It can be my last all hands... but then they probably are going to sell the recent buy back plan. Sigh. I'd rather skip it again.

****

My friends stopped by and let me have a peek of the pics... and I finally know who that person is. Ha, no wonder she's being so rude in that event.

Your aggressiveness is just so... making me feel very uncomfortable.

****
I just got back the films today. Overall I am OK with the result. The Holga was messed up though. I guess I didn't have a chance to get used to it. Hopefully the color rolls turned out OK.

Argh, I just found out that Canon and Nikon doesn't work well -- in the software level. I was using Canon's PhotoStudio to scan the pics (using a more advanced feature), but then it doesn't work in Nikon's Capture NX! I had to switch back to the intuitive mode.... sigh.

*****

My primary schoolmate just called, and she's engaged! Congrats!

Isn't this funny? Who would know that after 20 years we'd be living in the same city again!