Sunday, September 25, 2011

Losing Interest

       I don't really know if this is going to be another of my common victims of "ningas-cogon".  It's a Filipino expression that means starting up something very enthusiastically then gives it up half-way quickly.

       I mean, I love my work.  I love photography.  But somehow my drive is lost.  I think it all started when I sold my laptop.  It's like I'm missing a part of my photography system.  Even though that laptop only lasted a short time with me.  But it feels like I can not function well without it.  And then comes the night scenes.  I've gone to places repeatedly and I think took many pictures of them repeatedly, that it's starting to get old.  I got an extension tube that got me introduced to macro-photography but in my heart, I really am not so interested with it.  Now, I just got a new Samyang 85mm 1.4 lens.  For some reason, I'm not so excited on using it.  Even when it just arrived.  There's nothing wrong with it.  I think it's me.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Hyoseok Cultural Festival

       So I finally got myself out of the house and went straight to another rural area called Jangpyeong.  It took me some hours in the bus and even missed my stop.  It wasn't so much a bad thing since I'm out to photograph, regardless of where I'd end up.  A couple of locals started staring at me which made me uncomfortable, so I was only able to take snap shots of a bridge and a river.  It's too bad that I didn't see much of this place.


Monday, September 12, 2011

Follow Through

       I'm lucky enough to have an eight-day holiday on-going this week.  I still have a couple of days left but boy did I waste a huge lot of them.

       Right after work, I could have gone to another city, two hours from my place.  An exhibition of traditional martial arts (Korean and other countries) was being held for some days and I'm about to witness the last day.  I gathered all the information I needed and I've been to that city more than twice.  So there shouldn't be a problem...  Actually, there is.  As usual, I got so tired from work, I fell asleep just as I got in my room (this happens all the time).

       With the approaching Chuseok (big holiday in this country), I was worried about having my bike checked-up and fixed.  All businesses will close within those 2 days and sometimes more.  That alone, set me back by cash and by time.  Something in the engine needed replacement (I'm still bummed with this new purchase) and it all costs $100.  Right now, I'm not really tight on cash, only a bit tight on budget.  You see I've been wanting to buy a new lens.  And my laptop money is just there waiting.  I got others saved for other stuff.  But the laptop money is also a lens money.  It's a choice between the two.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Extended Versions

       Did I mention I got a three-sectioned extension tube from that John guy who sold me his bag and tripod?  Yeah, I only heard about extension tubes and not really looked into it.  But it got me curious so I placed it on my camera.  During these times, I am getting more and more fond of the nifty-fifty lens (Canon 50mm 1.8 II) so it's what I attached to the tube.

       At first, I was wondering why everything was so darn blurry.  No matter where I point the camera, it's either totally black or just a cloud of blurry white.  At that time I was thinking "tele-converter" and not "extension tube".  So it's my fault for not reading.  It only came to me when I was about to set my camera down to check online, when I happen to glance at the viewfinder and saw a bit of detail.  That's when I realized that it takes to get close to see something.  OMG it's a MACRO!!! Yeah, that's what I exclaimed once I got the lens-tube combo to work.  It's awesome!  And I got really excited even by merely looking through the lens without thinking of taking shots...

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Maybe it's time to change my lover Part 2

       Ever since I bought Shiela, I didn't really considered her permanent.  Selling her after a year of use was the plan.  But George (my first motorcycle) kept acting up so many times, I got irritated and put him on a retirement home.  Only to be borrowed by some random people, occasionally.  I love him and that's why I can't find it in my heart to sell him, even for cheap or for parts.  But seriously, I just have to move on.  Shiela, however, stood by me even though I never did treat her as good as George.


George in his retirement home. 

Maybe it's time to change my lover Part 1

       I went out on my bike (Shiela) for breakfast this morning.  It's Saturday.  I still have work today.  But I planned to start the day feeling good.  So I went out with all my gear, hoping to take some morning pictures before breakfast.  Turns out, it's a non-cloudy morning.  That didn't bother me.  Shiela takes good care of me and my total weight (almost 100kg with full gear).  I enjoyed my breakfast.  On my way back, I tried to stop by a store to get some food for lunch.  The parking road was grimy, dusty, and not even cemented.  For some reason Shiela slipped.  I was thrown away from her for about 2 feet and skidded face down for about 3 feet.  Hands down and protecting my body (at least I have my helmet on), I only had scratches on my palms and knees.  My right limbs took the most damage but that was it.


Fresh meat? 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Weeding out the Weak

A follow-up on the post, "Evolving"

       I was wondering how people store their multitude RAW files.  I personally haven't decided which photo-sharing sites best suit my needs for storage.  I'm currently a paying customer for flickr but I fear my photos won't be accessible once I get back to being a regular "free" user.  I once thought my photobucket would be a nice place to store all my images, thinking it'll be a nice basis to look back and see how my progress look like.  Even though I'm just a free user, photobucket doesn't seem to restrict how much I upload there.  The problem is it's means of saving space.  All my photos look decent enough but they're all resized so small, I might as well just make it a scrapbook.  I don't know if uploading photos on my facebook has limits.  What made me sway from making it a storage is how it reduces the quality of my images.  I don't really care if people see all my bad pictures there.  It's not meant to be a portfolio and I'm not promoting myself there as a photographer.  Just merely to update my friends what I've been doing.

       Having only a humble HDD on all my computers, I started to get worried when I saw my raw files fill up my hard drive space up to 40%.  That's huge!  CDs and DVDs can only handle so much Gigabytes and I can not rely on its longevity.  Online storage might be a good idea but I fear they'd shut down anytime without warning (I might look more into it, though.  Feel free to suggest any).  I could get myself an external hard drive dedicated for this.  But for now, I just finally decided to start weeding out what I think shouldn't be kept.