Food, Film & Fotography.
Users of Highway
Dunno why I forgot to add this shot together with my bird-brained photos but anyway here it is. Can interpret this in many ways. Can think of the bird as Big Brother and the ant as terrorist, sneaking behind the bird. Haha... Or maybe no matter whether you are big or small, you still have to pass the highway of life? Or just simply, we are all citizens of the world, so let us share the world together.
f10, 1/250s, ISO400, 240mm.
Went for a free concert at UCC last Fri in conjunction with the NUS Arts Fest. Rock performance by local band Throb. Don't feel like typing much today, so I'll let the photos do the throbbing:
All photos taken either with my 70-300mm or 50mm. Post-processing done mainly to desaturate and to add noise.
It's Oscar season once again, and also the time when all the SG distributors cramp ALL the nominees into a single month. I will hopefully be able to watch all of the following, if I don't kill myself from overdose first especially when all of them average 2 hours (asterisks represent importance):
Brokeback Mountain *****Munich *****Mrs Henderson Presents ***Matchpoint *****- North Country *
Syriana ***Walk the Line **- Constant Gardener **
I Not Stupid Too ****Hidden *****
Before I show off my bird-brained photos, let me first introduce the latest addition to my arsenal. The Nikkor AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. I bought it from a nice uncle who sold it second-hand. It's definitely a good buy as it costs much less than what others are selling it for and it practically looks brand new. The lens is spotless and comes with the box, hood, etc. Been using it for coupla weeks now and it's great to have such a powerful telephoto zoom lens, especially for someone as kaypoh as me\. But I must admit it's kinda heavy though. My hands started to ache after carrying it around with the camera for a while. Wonder how I will cope with the 18-200VR which weighs slightly more. Anyway, the maximum effective focal length is around 460mm which is longer than the Sony H1 mega-zoom. And did I mention that it's great for snooping inside other people's house?
One weak point of having a long focal length lens is that it is prone to shaking especially if you don't have any form of vibration reduction, like the Sony H1. But oh well, this is one of the cheapest telephoto zoom lens around and shooting in the daytime should be ok when using fast shutter speeds. Shall wait for the day that I can afford a AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED. OK... enough with the introduction and on to the main course. Reasonably sharp close-up of a common yellow breasted bird:
Bird blending in nicely with the surrounding:
This is different from the above two. It has a dark blue neck. Interestingly this one seems to prefer the flower of the coconut tree while the above ones prefer to hang around 'normal' flowers:
Bird trying to act 'seh' ala Tom Cruise:
Finally the last photo:
Ooops... guess where the bird is now. ;)
Fireworks at Marina Bay (taken without a tripod).
f3.8, 1/30s, ISO200, 23mm.
Some shots after the Corrinne May concert at the National University of Singapore's UCC Concert Hall on the 12th of February 2006. More to come!
And now I interrupt your daily dose of food, film and fotography to bring you a hair-raising discovery. For my past few hair cuts (easily over a year since I cut it on average 4 times a year), I've been patronising Heatwave at Marina Square, often before or after a movie. For one reason or another, the past year has seen me appearing at MS rather often and in fact I can't remember when was the last time I stepped into Taka!
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Intermission of an Intermission
Marina Square is now a shadow of its past. Not sure whether that expression is used correctly or not but it is becoming a kinda hip place (relative of course). And of course there are so many food outlets! The first Carl's Junior in SG was opened here. Wah big American style burgers. Yum! Then there are the familiar Swensen's, Cafe Cartel, Billy Bombers, Hans, Sakae Sushi, Spagheddies and the not so familiar Waraku, Changing Appetites, Kyo-nichi Ramen, Dian Xiao Er, Corona, etc. in addition to the fastfood chains BK, Macs, KFC, Yoshi, etc.
And there was a surprising discovery lately that the food court, imaginatively called Food Loft, has a famous HK roast meat stall with lofty aspirations! It was reviewed in the latest 8Days and its one of the rare food stalls to sell roast goose (!) and suckling pig (!) roasted at the location! I tried the roast duck with char-siu rice (because the goose don't have anymore) and it was great! To add extra meat costs only $1! The char-siu not the usual boring type but it had character. And the duck had well marinated skin with meat that was flavorful as well. The queue was long enough too, with one guy packing 17 packs of chicken rice, no doubt influenced by the review, just like me. Kinda wasted that a few days prior to that I was there with HM and couldn't find anything nice there and had to resort to this not so nice claypot rice. Kena tricked becoz I thot the bacon advertised was real bacon instead of deep-fried bacon ala BK.
Well that's the food part. Marina Sq also has a cinema which used to be super hard to find. Now, it's just hard to find. Other than that, clothing wise the selection are pretty decent though for more branded stuff have to walk over to Suntec.
Of course all those are not the real ultimate reason I go Marina Sq so often. The reason... has to be kept a secret lah.
End.
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Anyway, as I was saying, I've been to Heatwave for several times and for the previous two times I've had my hair styled by Wini Kwek (hello if you are readin this!). Yes.. styled, not cut. I don't pay so much to just have it cut. :P
She's a nice and pleasant (and rather cute) girl who does a good job on my hair. No complaints so far. I like it that I don't feel obliged to make small talk, unlike with other stylists that I've had before. I don't trust a stylist who cuts and talks at the same time. And she dishes out good advice too in just one sentence per session. First time was don't wait longer than 2 months for a haircut. The last time was don't use hair spray as it flattens my hair. Ok maybe those are common sense, but it sure made sense to me. Another thing is this place is usually not crowded. I just go in, get shown to a seat and the stylist arrives in seconds. I don't even have time to pick up the obligatory magazine they offer you! Great for people like me who dreads spending time at a hair salon. All these coupled with the reasonable price of $21 for a wash and cut makes it a no-brainer place for hair-dressing. Only time will tell how long I will continue patronizing this place since I do have a tendency to change salons. But so far so good.
Growth of Hope.
Stone pattern found in my garden. This is (I feel) perhaps one of the best photos I've taken of all time. Great for wallpapers too. But as usual, the flickr colors aren't as saturated as the original.
f4, 1/60s, ISO400, 50mm.
Hmmm... I dunno why I missed this but I did watch one more film while I was back home for CNY. Anyway it's an old Jap film from the director of the more widely known Double Suicide. It's about a relationship between a student and a teacher and how the student seeks revenge for her teacher. Oh and the student is a lesbian while her teacher is a bisexual (?) herself. This show cemented the stereotype that women are born avengers. Don't mess around with them!
People take photos of flowers, I oso take flowers. Though mine are not rare and not found in Sentosa. Can find anywhere in M'sia.
The following three are stylized photos of some shots I took. Needless to say they are post-processed. I experimented a bit with Photoshop and obtained such results.
Looking forward to more great shots of flowers in the future. And oh ya most of the flower shots are done with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D.
OK... to make up for the lack of shooting over the past few weeks, here is a super duper long and image intensive post. Been back to M'sia for CNY, and of coz took lotsa photos. Ok first up is the surroundings of my home. First photo is what it looks like when I come out of my home from the front door:
If I turn left this is what it looks like (looks like a never-ending road):
If I turn right this is what I get (dead-end):
And if I return back into home. Wah so many cars! Not mine!:
Triple shot of bamboo in the garden. A good symbol for CNY:
Coconuts (all green but ripe). Er nothing to do with CNY:
Ok and now time for reunion dinner of what else but a simple steamboat for a simple family:
Close up of the main ingredients:
And of coz CNY surely got gambling. It's the chinese tradition. The kids' mahjong session, of all ppl!:
And blackjack sessions are a must:
On another note, I watched 4 movies at home over the past few days. Shaolin Soccer, Dogville (finally!), Darkness Bride and Face of Jizo. Former was funny and interesting but I still think Kungfu Hustle is the superior one. And at last I got my butt down to watch Dogville, which was rather disturbing, and at 3 hours quite a bit long. Contrary to popular reviews, I love the ending. I like revenge! I am not one for forgiveness. Darkness Bride is confounding to say the least. Still can't understand why the great Inky say its the best Chinese movie of that year. Finally is Face of Jizo, a Jap film adapted from a play about the psychological effect of the A-bomb. Have to admit it was kinda boring, but great acting nonetheless.
And to end it, I give you the expression for those people who study during CNY:
