busy thursday

hv been analysing plant data, identifying useful (and useless) data, then compare useful data to 'model' data...
unfortunately the more improvements made to the analysis (which should give more and better useful data), the more disagreements these useful data make with model data...

so now have to figure out whats wrong with the model data (then again, could be the analysis part, or a million other reasons)

making up numbers appear to be far more 'accurate' and easier on the brain...
one of the many, significant take-home-messages i got from uni

...

everybody graduating, seeing alot more parents around the city...
everybody strutting their lv and channel and gucci...

prob too dangerous to do that back in home country

...

had to take pics of frens graduating...
the night before, checked batteries, checked memory card, cleaned lens, cleaned sensor, tested this and that, tried all possible combinations... all good all okay...

on the day itself, the very first shot...
camera once more decided to pms and lock-up, jammed, stuck...

happened 4 times... highly frustrating

...

attended another fren's graduation ceremony... noticed a couple of things:

1. carrying 2.5 KILO worth of metal and glass, whilst holding still and balancing calls for some significant arm strength
2. given a list of names of ppl to shoot whilst receiving their certificates on stage, is like given a HIT LIST of ppl to assasinate with a scoped sniper rifle of some sort... except they just wouldnt know what hit em
   
3. when youve found a nice spot, v nice angle... ppl who come later, must go and stand IN FRONT OF U, wth... should use the zoom lens to poke the back of their heads...
4. when u focused v nicely on the smiling target, ready to shoot already, then finally when snap the pic... somebody's head must pass by and COVER the target... blardyhell...
5. other ppl with zoom lenses love to shoot from far far back (cos can zoom), USING POP-UP FLASH... omg torturing the poor (and small) flash to fire at its maximum... and torturing the ppl sitting nearby with big big bursts of light... can get seizure

and with green eyes... why ppl with porshe equivalent camera... go use basic modes only... omg
whilst i hv to be inconvenienced with inferior tech and temperamental gear... cracking head to figure out best compromise given the unforgiving circumstances (bad weather, limited time, fleeting moments)... frus!

...

watercolor

had this weird dream where a small kid used crayons/color pencils/chalk to graffiti my pants... presumably an expensive one

so i asked him if he'd like water color as well...

then proceed to take his tools, dump it in a drain and pour water over it so that the colors all dissolve away... (should be concentrated acid/base but dreams hv different chemistry)



pent-up anger...

grey

ok so these days its been sunnier... but at night its still cold
occasional rain



overediting... abit prone to that recently


weird sticky substance...


year is coming to an end
emo time...

camera PMS is real

the other day had fren bday
need take pic so, charge cam battery, bring spare...



location - bar/lounge
so, expect dark rooms, moody ambience etc

expect shots with different # ppl inside
so better take zoom
the wide angle will help with group pic just in case
and the zoom for (spy spy) candids

unfortunately the zoom is not the expensive many many thousands zoom, means pics will either be dark or blur

so... flash to the rescue...



make sure got charge batteries also...



direct flash, not v flattering
dont hv cool diffusers either
so lets bounce the flash...

unfortunately when arrive at the bar, the ceiling is complex aircon duct, with a myriad of brown/purple colors
so when flash bounce, will get weird brown/purple lighting
difficult to get consistent colors

aircon ducts makes it difficult to bounce properly, so lets try the zoom function of the flash
but that would probably consume alot of power, so bring backup batteries...

actually can be rigorous and do color balancing, but arrived late, so no chance, sigh



either way, not v practical also...

thennnnnnn...
after about 80 or so shots, when it was getting fun...

this memory card decided to corrupt itself
so all pics gone
big big panic!

lucky theres a spare memory card

so continue shooting

go back lucky can recover pics, but couldnt recover all pics, missed out on the most interesting pics

my bad...

need more reliable gear...
somehow all kinds of error messages keep coming out recently
maybe needs servicing, like car

error messages go away after removing/inserting batteries and pressing many buttons
maybe needs to get warmed up
again, like car

also realise that it happens during extremely important shots
i finally see why 1 camera isnt enough...

i beginning to wonder...

... why the heck did i take 700+ pics DAILY when i went travelling?
theres so many to sort tru now...

i notice theyre mostly repeats, to increase probability of getting a good shot
...
if only i had ISO 102400, i wouldnt have to take so many pics then

fake...

recently got a little fond of blue skies again

Lightroom 3 beta

omgz its here...
decided to try since the splash page looks cool

new import dialog may be confusing... but nice to see the black/grey/gunmetal colours instead of standard os dialog

watermarking feature is nice, but no fine controls

new effects on vignetting (initially vignetting was very 'in' with lightroom 1 and 2, but after a while, when everybody has the same effect, made it boring...) hopefully better control for vignetting, although no noticeable difference between the 2 types offered here...

i think thats about it so far...