Here are the days of my life

Life is struggling

2012-02-03T17:30:00.000+08:00

It has been rough two years, both in terms of my work and personal life.

Life is fragile. I know that because my mother was battling cancer since more than two years ago. Only a handful of friends and relatives knew about this. I tried my best to keep it a secret so it wouldn't affect my everyday's life and at work. It has taken its tow on me ever since, more seriously than I could imagined.

Mother had gone through operations, chemotherapy sessions and Chinese medicine treatments. Mother was being so ever brave and strong. Just when I thought things were turning for the better, situatuion has gone for the worse. Her organs seemed to be failing. This was just after my sister's wedding celemony at Toronto in November. My mother was then back to Hong Kong afterwards. Since Christmas, she was unable to go outside of home except for the bi-weekly doctor's appointments. She was absent at our family Chinese New Year gatherings, where we had made up some excuses so not to upset my 90+ years old grandmother.

By the same time, my aunt was also hospitalized due to cancer. It runs in the family, so it seemed. I can't imagine how this might upset grandmother if she ever knew.

Two days ago, mother has broke into a slight fever. We brought her to the hospital late at night. Doctors were running scans and tests since last night. It worries the hell out of me, only to prepare for the worst.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

2011-10-07T02:17:00.003+08:00

(Photo from Wired.)

Honestly I didn't think of this much on the morning when this piece of news broke in all my social network channels.

It wasn't until later in the day, when my mind started wandering past in time, then realized how profound Steve Jobs has affected my life.

No, I'm not a Apple fan at all. I stopped using iPhone after my iPhone 1G gone obsolete. I don't have a iPad. My mobile work horse was a Macbook Pro since three years ago. My first owned Apple gadget was a iPod Mini - one of the first Apple music player that works with a Windows machine.
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I learned to use a NeXT computer at university. I could never forget how advanced it felt at the time.

Back in my college days, it was Mac armed with Photoshop and Illustrator which brought me into the world of desktop publishing. I still remember that I tried hard to save enough money to get my own Mac clone (yes, there was a time where Mac clones were available - for a short period of time) because I couldn't afford the original. I failed, so I ended up running back-and-forth between school's Mac lab and 24-hours Kinkos, burning many overnight hours to complete my projects, rather than working on my frequent crashing PC at home.

At school classes, it was Mac which brought me to the world of digital music - the first concept of layering multiple audio tracks on a computer. I also learned to connect midi keyboard to it.

I probably wouldn't became a graphic/web desiger if not for Mac.

To me, it wasn't about the iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc., that makes me attracted to Apple so much. Hardware are merely tools. It was actally Steve's "think different" vision, his attitude toward hardware/software design works well together. His creative thinking that has quietly affected my perspective; not only in IT field, but in the way of viewing life in general. These has shaped me the way I am today - and I am sure I am not the only one that feel this way.
_____________________________________

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement speech, June 2005

This will probably be the most significant inspiration for me to live by for the rest of my life. Thanks Steve, for everything. Rest in peace.

Social network first tackled - in Google+ way

2011-07-05T00:14:00.003+08:00

(Photo: Reuters) A screen shot of the Google Plus social network

is shown in this publicity photo released to Reuters June 28, 2011.

I should be honor to be fortunate enough to become one of the earliest adopter to the newly launched (well, it's still under field trial at this moment of writing) Google+ (Google Plus). So early, that I barely got my foot in the door, just before Google slammed the door shut due to too many people demanding to get in. I can only send out invites to my friends, only to find out that Google is still keeping the lid so tight, that they will have to wait and try their luck to get in.

Google+ is not revolutionary. There were so many social network existing around: Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, 4Square, etc., etc... Do we really need another one?

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;dfgadfgs&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

I have been testing Google+ for just a few days, and already love its simple, minimaistic approach to its UI design. It takes anyone who got used to Facebook probably about 30 minutes to learn all the basic functions. Everything is just so clean and tidy. Only time will tell if this will win users over.

The best thing is the Google Circle. It is a much improved way of organizing your group of "friends" over Facebook's method of throwing all your friend's group altogether. In Google+, you have much more control to segregate different group of people, so it is better and easier to target your audience when you share your contents.

The Social Network Problem

Let's face it. It is a mighty complex problem. It's not only about technology, but really a human nature social problem we all trying to understand for ages. And if you are a social network expert trying to put this media into something useful for any business enterprise, you better understand the implication...

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams

Paul Adams was a UX (User Experience) Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. Currently, he works as a product manager at Facebook.

(Yeah, it's a long read slide presentation, but very interesting read to get a deeper understanding of what social netowrking is all about.)

But all-in-all, I don't think G+ will be a Facebook killer - or of any other social network killer for that matter. Facebook has taken a huge lead over G+ by very far. The vast user base it has accumulated is just phenomenon. But I guess it fails in growing up with the rest of the user. As the user base growing up in past years (yes, I included), there is this base group of people (call us early FB adopters, if you will) are discovering Facebook is kind of at a standstill. Facebook is still catering to the young adults with all the games and fun stuffs. But we "old guys" have already past that. Our social network include many offline groups (i.e., family, relatives, childhood friends, school mates) as well as many online groups (i.e., hobby group like hiking, food eating; professional group like photographers all over the world, etc.) Honestly, Facebook has just not designed for that. That's why many of us kept using others like Twitter, Buzz, Tumblr, Flickr, etc. Google+ is almost like a grown-up version of FB. Though it will not eliminate all the other social networks but probably will be at the core to many people that I'm in close tie with. Those are the ones that are really important to me at this stage in life.

I'm probably bias, since I never like all the games and "fun stuffs" on FB. I can't really organize my contact list group. I hate their way of downgrade/downsize my photos' quality, not to mention their legal terms and condition practically took my photo copyright away by force. These are enough to give me all the reasons to switch over to the other side.

Don't take my words for it. Now go take G+ out for a spin.

(Disclaimer: I'm in absolutely no way whatsoever in any connection with Google. None of my friends are Googler. This is not an ad!)

Criticism in the speed of light

2011-06-04T23:21:00.002+08:00

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity.

A true event unfolded in last couple of days right before my eyes. It's everywhere - on FB, local news, photography forum, etc. It angers many; stirred moral sense, social controversy, environment protection.

This is yet another social viral infestation at its best.

It all started when a fellow renowned local wedding photographer had put his creativity to work at his best and came up a pre-wedding shoot idea with fire - real burning fire - with no special post-process effect.

It was all good until he had decided to do it on one of the public park area which under law protection of a Grade 2 Historical Building Site. He has got no permit from any authority for the stunt performance.

(All photos click to enlarge.)

(Subject faces and watermark signature masked for privacy reason.)

The photo resulted in outstanding quality. The photo, as usual, goes up on his FB page (with a popularity of over 20,000 "Likes"). With more than 600 "likes" on this single photo alone in very short time, praise discussions went from whether the fire was real or special effect post-processe, to location of the shoot, all the technical stuffs, etc., etc. He was proud and self-claimed of not using much post-processing on all his shots - so admittedly, the fire stunt was real.

(Apparently the photo in question as well as the post thread itself has since removed from the FB page and his official web site by the author.)

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Hiking is one of the most popular leisure activities for many HK people. The fame didn't take long travel across the net, to one of the popular hiking sites. People over there were outraged when they found out about their favorite hiking site with burned ashes on the ground.

It looks like the ditch was filled with flamable liquid (gasoline?) and lit upon.

Not sure about those mark on the wall though, whether they were burn marks or otherwise.

Just wild guessing...

The "white dots" are plastic BB gun pellet leftovers.

The area was a popular war game zone for enthusiasts.

Ashes and burn marks were apparent in and around the ditch,

with freshly burned wood branches laying around.

(These photos were taken by unknown hiker from the other forum.)

"Let the flame begins!"
All of a sudden, there were pages-after-pages of discussions. Two of the local newspapers has even reported the matter. People has filed complaint reports to police, as well as to various relevant government departments.

Everyone has an opinion.

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Often people complains about having no artistic creativity freedom. All of a sudden fans immediately switched into "defending-idol" mode; saying that this is the reason why HK has became a "cultural desert".

But this has nothing to do with art and creativity. It has everything to do with possible fire sparks flying off onto trees and grasses in suburb area nearby on a dry climate condition without adequate fire safety measures in place. In fact, that's the main cause of many wild fire incidents every year.

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It was quite a pity. I have much respect for his photography work for quite awhile now. But a misdeed is a misdeed. Hope all goes well for him soon.

Totally overkill and a waste of time...

2011-05-20T17:21:00.002+08:00

(All photos click to enlarge)

I was sitting in a cafe working on my own, and here comes a team of 3 people (!) doing a product shoot for... coffee and ice-cream. They were like spending a good 45-60 mins. for the damn simple setup. Honestly, the equipments (and labour) were a complete overkill by current day standard. Not to mention, for a shop location shoot where business-as-usual, their flash power is mind-bogglingly disturbing to customers sitting nearby. Oh well, I guess the client must have paid good money for it - and photog must bring in the "heavy guns" for show. And I'm like watching them doing their job with much time idling playing with their iPhones. I swear I could have done it alone with 1/3 of their equipments and 1/3 of their time spent and yield the same quality pictures.

(In case you are wondering, the guy on laptop is Facebooking,

and photog with the 70-200 is shooting gals on street. This is what the client is paying for.)

I'm sorry, but this is a disgrace to our professional. Just need to voice it out.

Cutting down on FB

2011-05-08T11:04:00.003+08:00

from The Oatmeal "Winter 2010 State of the Web" by Mathew Inman

When you are obsessively checking your mobile (Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, etc.) and updating status every ten minutes or so no matter wherever and whatever you are doing, then think of this as a awakening.

Since last week, I started put a lid on spending less of my time on Facebook. I have had enough of my Wall posts of negativity about our governments, our school system, our younger generations, our lives. Everyone is quoting/forwarding from someone else. Mind you, I have not a very long friend list as all my friends are personally known. Imagine that on Facebook (or any other social networks), one article page view amplifies 100-time-folds in mere minutes. The scary thing is, no matter how many "friends" you have got, all their posts all look very similar. There seemed to be trend on any given topic - and at any given time, it biased in certain way.

Internet is supposed to allow us to have more freedom to diverse our own view and thinking. Come on, people, stop just copy someone else words, and let's write something on our own! Facebook is becoming a self-serve BRAINWASHING MACHINE! There's a whole world out there waiting for everyone to explore.

Sharing is too easy. With Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, sharing contents has became ever so easy. A click of a button, almost any contents on the web can be share (or retweet in the case of Twitter). Many times, I wondered whether the people who share/retweet the link have ever read the content. Blind link sharing - or share without consumption seems to be the trend these days.

So is the world getting a lot smaller, or are people getting wider apart? Like most people, I spent most of my daily life on my computer - either on my desk, or notebook on the road. With the help of social network, yes, we are connected with one another all the time - simply with a click of share, or a "like" button; but are we closer?

From my observation on the MTR, for example, it is individual isolation - everyone is busy texting, twitting, FB'ing, gaming - all with their attention fixed on their mobile screen within their own virtual world. Kirita has her point well described on her blog posting (in Chinese). Seriously, do we really need to update our dinner in progress to our virtual acquaintance far, far away in real time, while our living, breathing friends are just sitting beside us? I guess in-real-life socialization skill is becoming a lost art. It's kind of sad really.

I just missed the day when I was able to strike a casual conversation with a stranger at the coffee shop.

戰場上的最後聖誕

2010-11-30T17:15:00.001+08:00

戰場上的最後聖誕
曲 / 詞：孫耀威
編 : Jim Ling@Zoo Music 監製：舒文@Zoo Music & 孫耀威

聖誕燈飾於尖東今年可有看過
你也會否想起於這個世界裡這某一角
槍火都永未斷過火光彷彿比起煙花更加好看
燦爛裏閃出的坎坷戰地裡盡是挨餓
但這刻的駁火從來沒有些好結果

聖誕氣氛只得酒精可安慰了我
也記得當初身邊總會有個你可永遠撐我
爭吵將以後別過不須多講你我永遠再不相干
昨日老死再少一個節日裏特別無助
但昨天的戰火仍然纏困於你和我

你再可憎我也不好過如像戰禍
是你的出錯我的出錯仍可改過
即使當初的風波我也有傷過
佈滿轟天的槍火並沒幫助
在炮灰找結果銅鞋踏破可找到麼
只得個軀殼

再記得當天跟他牽手走進教堂
說這生交給他不怕世界撇低了我兩個
分手將信念劃破一息間放棄愛卻覺得釋放
怨恨化作我的心魔歲月也像被蹉跎
上帝不心痛麼旁人亦會否可憐我

你再可憎我也不好過如像戰禍
是你的出錯我的出錯仍可改過
即使當天的風波我也有傷過
佈滿轟天的槍火並沒幫助
在炮灰找結果銅鞋踏破找得到麼

你再可憎我也不好過如像戰禍
聖誕假使再無多一個你想怎過
想起當初欠過你這老友一個
我再不懂珍惜她還在等我
未用去寫千千闕歌都可跟你言和
放膽去說清楚

多得有你在旁
慶幸我可不致陣亡慶幸我還得你共我
戰後也再可跟你高歌

你再可憎我也不好過如像戰禍
是你的出錯我的出錯悔不當初
即使當天的風波我也有傷過
佈滿轟天的槍火並沒幫助
在炮灰找結果銅鞋踏破找得到麼
只得個軀殼

聖誕普天歡呼怎麼可少了你我
你也會否懂得捉緊身邊那個
就算當天拆伙情誼仍然未過
讓愛戰勝槍火

Technology is only a tool

2010-11-04T09:32:00.000+08:00

Technology is only a tool. It means nothing with no soul behind it.

Pixel Imagery - Photo shoot for Kirita + Carlos

2010-10-31T21:53:00.000+08:00

"Post-wedding" for Kirita+Carlos

I blog less on this side now, as I'm pretty active on my Pixel Imagery blog. I'm all into that for the time being~ I will still blog in here - when I have more personal thing to say... ha!

Here is the recent blog by Kirita, as I've done a photo shoot session for her and her hubby recently~

更新花絮! [9月鉅作之三] Pixel-Imagery婚妙照

Linkin Park - Waiting for the End

2010-10-22T22:45:00.001+08:00

This is not the end
This is not the beginning
Just a voice like a riot
Rocking every revision
But you listen to the tone
And the violent rhythm
Though the words sound steady
Something empty within em

We say yeah

With fists flying up in the air
Like we're holding onto something that's invisible there
Cuz we're living at the mercy of the pain and the fear
Until we dead it forget it
Let it all disappear

Waiting for the end to come
Wishing I had strength to stand
This is not what I had planned
It's out of my control

Flying at the speed of light
Thoughts were spinning in my head
So many things were left unsaid
It's hard to let you go

I know what it takes to move on
I know how it feels to lie

All I wanna do is trade this life for something new

Holding on to what I haven't got

Sitting in an empty room
Trying to forget the past

This was never meant to last

I wish it wasn't so

I know what it takes to move on
I know how it feels to lie

All I wanna do is trade this life for something new

Holding on to what I haven't got

What was left when that fire was gone
I thought it felt right but that right was wrong
All caught up in the eye of the storm
And trying to figure out what it's like moving on

And I don't even know what kind of things I said
My mouth kept moving and my mind went dead
Picking up those pieces now where to begin
The hardest part of ending is starting again

All I wanna do is trade this life for something new

Holding on to what I haven't got

Man of Justice 法網群英 - the first or the last?

2010-09-20T01:59:00.001+08:00

I enjoyed US TV drama series. 24, House, Ugly Betty, Monk, Mentalist, etc. They have good story. They are original. They are funny with smart and witty scripts.

I rarely watch HK TV drama - especially the ones produced by TVB, but there are so many people sticking to it every night, no matter whatever trashes TVB puts out. What happened to all the talented screenwriters? Did they all died or something? Today, I can only see trashes - and many are copied trashes. Storyline is so old; scripts are rarely written well; production quality is below average. Even when they are copying others (i.e., TV drama from Japan, US, etc.), I can't help but only view them as 2nd or 3rd grade imitations!

Story copying is not a crime; after all, there is nothing new under the sun anymore. For example, the movie Star War storyline was as old as any old drama which goes way way back to the black-and-white 粵語長片 TV days. It is the storytelling style differentiate the good and the poor.

Ironically, I learned about《法網群英》from all the negative publicity - Yes, that's how the usual HK media's 跟紅頂白 way of ethics working at its best. It caught my attention when I learned it was from 鄧特希工作室. 鄧特希 made his fame on previous successful TVB drama production of《壹號皇庭》and《妙手仁心》series years ago.《法網群英》followed the same story idea concept, but in a much richer, deeper way.

What 鄧特希 has done with《法網群英》is pushing the limit to find a new breed of (niche) audience. The drama itself is a revelation. It has many characters. It has many court cases. It has conflicts, with many mini-storyline crisscrossing each other - just like it is in our real life - many of which has no right or wrong. Life is not all black-and-white. It invokes viewer to think a bit deeper - which I guess most HK viewers are too lazy to do.

Other things I like about this drama:

Almost all character has given "a deeper layer" to keep it real - no matter how small parts they were.
Much research was done in police crime scene investigation to keep the drama as real as possible - unlike other TVB's sloppy drama production which were so fake and treat its audience like fools.
OST (original soundtrack) music was given much thoughts - definitely enhanced the viewing pleasure.
Lighting, camera shot angle handling, real location sets - were unlike anything in previous HK TV drama production. I particularly liked it, because of my photography background. It doesn't feel cheap - and more closer to a film production quality rather than just TV drama.
Serious storyline balanced with humorous comical relief - I particularly like many of the conversation remarks (and the part played by 林雪 - he was great!). I can see that they have put much thoughts into the screenplay.

I sincerely felt that this is a big step forward in HK TV drama history. This is the first of its kind, and let's hope that it won't be the last.

I know probably no one would even care, just because it was an ATV production.《法網群英》was scheduled to broadcast on ATV from July 26th to September 10th. I didn't have chance to watch the last few (recorded) episodes until yesterday. The surprise twist toward the end was a nice touch - kudos to 鄧特希! Thanks for the great drama.

Man On The Moon - Jun Kung

2010-09-15T11:29:00.002+08:00

作曲: 恭碩良
填詞: 喬星
編曲: Johnny Yim / 恭碩良
監製: 恭碩良

發現嗎　就快看不見地球
太悶嗎　被困這偏遠月球
史書中說過　先祖的過錯　天災中上過　滅世的一課

我讀過　地殼有廣闊平原
我夢過　世上有開心樂園
不息的戰鬥　不休的佔有　硝煙中消失　哪個可補救

無聲變化　全球一剎那　如同灰燼給火化
文明的進化　人情的退化　何其悲哀的等價
這裡沒有花　你種過嗎　這裡沒有家　你會開心嗎　我害怕

我望見　垃圾已堆積過盛
再沒有　那鳥語花香美景
身體複製過　基因改變過　星空中奔波　全人類的錯

無聲變化　全球一剎那　如同灰燼給火化
文明的進化　人情的退化　何其悲哀的等價
這裡沒有花　你種過嗎　這裡沒有家　你會開心嗎

看看望遠鏡想去找舊照片的繁華　不堪風吹雨打
再見末世裡只看到被染污的年華　流連在月球嗎沒有家　沒有家
如果記掛　回去好嗎
若離開更怕　回去好嗎

太渴望聽風　太渴望看海　太渴望最終　銀河上歸來
Because it's my home, it's my home

Rim of light

2010-09-10T18:57:00.001+08:00

iPhone. Rim of Light. 2010.9.10

The rim of light. It is so underrated. I always consider this as one
of the (if not the MOST) important elements in any shoot. Whether it
be a portrait, a dog, a cat, kids or any dead object. As long as it is
'the subject', it deserves it.

It brings in focus. It brings in attention. It serves as an soul
anchor to the image.

It's just a miniscule thing that many people tend to overlook. Just
because that one's naked eye cannot see it, it doesn't mean that it
doesn't exist.

The lies, the truth and the quasi-truth (part 2 of 2)

2010-08-26T16:37:00.003+08:00

(I didn't plan this to be a 2-part series thing, but I guess my chain of thought didn't stop there. So here it is.)

Illustration courtesy by David Hollenbach

Official news of the incident kept pouring in today, focused on victims' body being transported back home. Meanwhile there were still rumors from all channel, but overall they were a lot calmer and rational. The smoke is clearing up. Truth eventually emerges.

The entirety of the truth may never reveal itself. It is ugly.

In a nutshell, it reveals a story of elaborate government political corruptions. Hidden conspiracy. "Small people" driven against a dead end corner by "powerful people" to do unthinkable deeds. Money extortions. Police arresting hijacker's brother tries to force his surrender. Poor calls of judgement at all level. Impotent negotiation and tactical skills. Senseless regards to human lives at hand. Lack of moral sense of general civilians. Countless decision mistakes upon mistakes.

The phenomenon is very scary. This is the whole country we are talking about. This cannot be an one-time coincident. It has became an everyday norm to them.

*******************************

Today I came across an article (Chinese) on the view of the incident. There were many similar religion related articles floating around on social network channels, and one can expect more of them in near future. Please note that I have no religion belief. There were many references to the Bible and to its interpretations. I'm not in position to judge on any of them. Pardon me if I have offended anyone.

Anyone has his/her agenda. Any government has its agenda. Any religion has its agenda. In Hong Kong media, we called it "抽水" - means taking advantage of some incident happened to benefit one's own agenda.

"抽水的，不只是某些FB港人，某些菲國GAME PROGRAMMER，某些搏出名的大陸網民，還有某些宗教的實求其。老實說，這文章和站在巴士前拍照，開棺拍屍，分別不大，只是，人家是低下教育的菲國人，你何信是寫聽講中文的香港人。" ~ quote from my FB

I hate to say it, but it is the human nature. Greed vs. moral, greed always win 99% of the time.

It's not only limited to Philippines. It will only get more so around us.

The lies, the truth and the quasi-truth (part 1 of 2)

2010-08-25T23:46:00.001+08:00

Media frenzy of the hostage crisis in Manilla was amazing. Rage is all over against Philippines. This shall become a textbook case on social media studies.

The incident has been magnified by x-fold, apparently by the live TV broadcast as it unfolded right in front of public TV audience. But that is nothing compares to what was happening in the aftermath.

Information overload: On the same night, all online channel - thanks to various HK/China discussion boards, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, t.sina.com.cn (a popular twitter equivalent within mainland China), etc. were flooded with so-called "news" literally coming in from everywhere - most originated from HK local region and mainland China region, spreading across SE-asia and beyond as we speak. Many of them were repeated citings from very much the same sources.

The lies, the truth and the quasi-truth. When you look at these "news", it takes trained eyes, knowledge experiences and common senses to be able to see through the rumors, to decide what to believe. Judging from the speed of its "viral" spread across the net, I bet not much of those people were doing any of those. Without thinking through their heads, a simple click of the "Like" button, a simple click of the "Twitter" button, a simple click of the Blogger "Share" button, and viola, you instantly become a microblogger journalist. No one even bother to check the sources, who say the words, or where the "news" came from. They just take it as the truth. Spread it. No responsibility.

Case in point: "真相！ＣＮＮ證實有３名港人死者是被菲警流彈殺死" (Eng. translated: "The truth! CNN confirmed 3 Hong Konger deaths were killed by bullets from Filipino police.")

The fact, is that there was a CNN video footage with description on Youtube (note: that footage and the description was uploaded by some 3rd-person; it is not from CNN). Someone on a discussion board linked to it, wrote a description of the incident speculating - his/her own words of the death confirmation. The subject line became "The truth!". Amazing. How convenient that was! Instant rage and hatred spreads just like throwing petroleum into the bonfire. Burn baby, BURN!

(p.s., I haven't catch on the news today. For all it worths, that title maybe true as of now. But not yesterday!)

*******************************

"Who is dumb enough to really trust the info from the net, right?" Dead wrong. There are more people genuinely believe into everything they read on the net as the truth - especially when it was from someone they familiar with, i.e., from a Facebook friend, a twit, a familiar forum, etc. And they clicked "Like", "Retwit" and "Share".

"When you repeat a lie a thousand time, it becomes the truth." It is so easy with the social networks these days - you can tell it a million times in no time. Not to mention, there were the quasi-truth - apparently not from the official channel, but from some guy/gal speculations on some forum or some forwarded twits and retwits.

Think about it. The phenomenon is very scary.

Price of the human lives

2010-08-24T14:49:00.000+08:00

(image link from CNN News)

Last night, The hostage crisis in Manilla played out in full live action in front of all Hong Kong TV screen. Hostage beings are Hong Kong civilian citizens age from 7 to 72, who were just having a leisure tour at Manilla.

No, there is no 24 CTU well-trained anti-terrorist tactical team lead by Jack Bauer. This is for real. After all they are just a bunch of mercenaries who only work on their own agenda. Human lives are worthless to them. Their reckless actions spoken loud and clear, that they don't give a damn.

And no, the hijacker was not even a "terrorist". He was just a honorable police officer who believed in his good, and got banged up by the corrupted political system. A poor soul who got so backed into the deep corner which caused him to do such a terrible deed.

For the Hong Kong touring bus and its occupants, they just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Epically tragic.

**********************

I can't help to think that there is no future in human race. Good people finish last. Greed will eventually drives all moral and innocent away, and that's the end of it. Yes, there are still some good in people, but I don't think that would make any difference - cause all good people can't survive in the corrupted atmosphere. Godspeed to all.

Some day... in July

2010-08-23T17:38:00.001+08:00

Went out on one hot summer day with friends to Tai O. Just to remind myself that I still do photo shoot other than work...

New Turn

2010-08-22T21:37:00.000+08:00

Engagement | Gloria & Jacky

It has been months since my last posts. Much had happened, and I'm back on freelancing. Now I have the full opportunity to go after my wish of being a photographer.

There are much things in life to deal with, and not all are pretty. I just want to put all those negative things behind me.

Summer days was hot, but still, I managed to get some pre-wedding shoots done in July. And after many rearrangement, I've got things ready to start shooting.

I shall have more to blog about soon.

"Stop and Stare"

2010-04-09T20:58:00.006+08:00

Many people believe they can leave their day job and run their own business.

There are only two type of people who would want to do this...

(1) The type of people who consider that their day job is going into an dead-end. At certain age, your living days are numbered, so you jump out of the secure monthly salary pay job, keep your finger crossed, and believe we can do something greater. Have no family burden, so run with no regret.

(2) The type of people who got enough cash to burn until the end of his/her days. Pretty much just do it for the hobby.

So which type are you?

When I look around, I always notice (2). They are everywhere. They are just not me.

"I've got my heart set on anywhere but here
I'm staring down myself, counting up the years
Steady hands, just take the wheel...
And every glance is killing me
Time to make one last appeal... for the life I lead"

If you are (1), then more often than not, always be checking over your shoulder.

"Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh"

"Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see"

Walking on my own

2010-04-09T20:15:00.004+08:00

Since last July, I have started my own business of graphic design for advertising (mainly prints) along with my partner. It is a very small business operation of 4 people (incl. a part-time designer) with a small office space at Kwun Tong, where many printer shops are concentrated nearby. It is convenient for us to run around (and believe me, we do a lot of that these days) to work things out with various local printer and supplier. Another colleague of mine deals with factory / print shops at Mainland China via QQ (IM client specifically works within China; equivalent of MS Live Messenger for the rest of the world). This is pretty much how everyone is doing business in the field. Our clients incl. mostly locals; a few oversea from UK. We do signs, restaurant menus, posters, catalog, brochures, backdrops, exhibition stuffs... pretty much anything you can print on.

Business was hectic just before X'mas and CNY. Many things gone wild, such as over-demanding clients, impossible deadlines, un-cooperative suppliers, shoddy quality control on the China manufacturing side, (Believe me, this is a very big problem for us. Anyone should really think twice before you jump into business - ANY business dealing with China. Don't believe all the hype you hear!)... All I learned, is if anything can go wrong, will go wrong. Money-wise, it's really mediocre. We are hoping to grow bigger, and things should look up. After all, our business is just about 7 months old, so we are biting the bullet.

Moving along

2010-04-09T19:49:00.005+08:00

Gosh, this place is deserted...

Well no, not exactly, coz I'm still breathing.

It has been... like 6 months I haven't wrote anything. Mother's chemo treatments went well, considering the condition she was in. She is now back at home after the surgery of removing the what remained of the cancer cells, and she's well into full recovery.

But it is indeed, cancer. We all know how relentless these buggers are. No matter what doctor has told you, even with today's medical standard, you can't really kill cancer - at least not by killing the patient first.

You do all you can do, learn to live with it in your body under control, and hope it won't come back bite you any time soon. That's all.

It's time to face the reality. Life is short. I learned a lot to cherish life with my mother and with my family. And I intended to protect it with all my life. It is that important.

And for that, I will move on. Things may not look up well any time soon, but I'm anticipate for that. Two arms up and ready.

New career

2009-07-22T22:18:00.002+08:00

It has been a long while since my last post, and here is a short list of what has been going on in life...

I quited my long time day job 2 months ago to start my own business with my partner. I'm still in design field - just a lot less in web, but more (hell... way way more) on prints. There are a lot for me to learn.

I helped my ex-boss to find myself a replacement - all trained and enabled him to takeover all my job responsibility in about 2 weeks time - so I can leave and go on my long planed trip to Kenting, Taiwan with friends...

Back to HK, into the new job in full swing. There are loads of work to do continuosly - and it has been just less than a month time. I didn't even have time to work on our new company web site yet. Now is 9:40pm and I'm just on my way home from office. I tried hard to not make it a habbit of OT after work hour... :(

-- Blogging via iPhone on the run --

"我不信命　我只信你"

2009-06-25T22:01:00.003+08:00

Kenting Trip

2009-06-16T23:58:00.001+08:00

After planning for so long (like a year!)
, we finally got our act together and off we went to Kenting for our photography trip. As part of NoPhotoTechnic - total of 6 members - we have planned, organized, arranged to work with a model (who we've never met) in Taiwan for a 2 days.

Kenting is a great place for vacation. It's like an opposite to Taipei - with amazing beaches and big blue sky. It worried us though when we first noticed the rainy weather forcast just a day before we heading to airport. As a matter of fact, it was a thunder-stormed day when we arrived at Kaohsiung. It was raining like crazy when we pick up our cars from rental. But then the sky was clearing up during our 2-hours drive to Kenting.

I'm sorry, but only iPhone photos for now...

-- Post From My iPhone

"Oh, I'm not ok"

2009-06-07T00:27:00.002+08:00

"人在愛情裹越殘廢　就會越多安慰　無論多虛偽"

沙龍

2009-06-03T02:41:00.004+08:00

"捉緊生命濃度坦白流露感情和態度留下浮光掠影飛舞"

Opportunity knocking twice

2009-05-26T01:51:00.000+08:00

Just when I thought I'll have to scratch my plan of getting into wedding photography, it seems that I just got myself jump right back into it.

A meeting with another two friends, and looks like we are indeed getting our own gig rolling (yes, another one~)

All of a sudden, life is so filled. Have been longing to run my show for so long, and like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces are falling into their own place.

Life is funny this way.

-- Post From My iPhone

So much can change in an instance

2009-05-24T10:38:00.006+08:00

I had planned to take the jump of becoming a full-time wedding photographer, but due to recent events, that had changed.

Another opportunity comes, and as quickly as I wanted badly to change my path, took the chance; next thing I knew I quit my day job, and started my own gig. I officially resigned just last week, with a month advance notice.

It doesn't mean I've stopped my wedding photography altogether. On the contrary, I shall devote more time on that in near future. Just that I feel that now may not be the right time to do so.

My own "gig" may not be directly related to my photography, but it is nonetheless somewhat related. It covers my bread and butter (and some), which is very important in this economic down turn.

Only succeed in this, will then have chance to bring my photography career into next stage.

The treatment

2009-04-05T23:30:00.001+08:00

Really can't get myself back into action lately. I can't let myself being like this...

We are preparing for mother's chemotherapy treatment starting on Tuesday. We will be keeping the house as sterile clean as possible. I know it will be a long period of hardship treatments for Mother - i feel bad just to think about that. I'm trying hard not to show it. I'd be a god damned liar to say I can carry on my own day-to-day work normally. Nonetheless, there are arrangements need to be made. At the same time I have to show that we are cheerful and optimistic about the situation - which we strongly believed that is the key to beat the odds. Sometimes I can almost taste the tearing within me.

The Preparations

2009-03-15T22:53:00.002+08:00

I have been really quiet in past few days.

Mother is fine - I mean she is not in any pain or suffer at all. She has been hospitalized for examinations. I visited her whenever I can; was hoping we can bring her home each day, but she wouldn't be going home with us till all the examinations are done. I know the hospital has put her at high priority, and will fit her into examination schedule as soon as possible.

She finally got home this morning.

My mother is a strong woman. We have been talking about family arrangements down the road - just in case when anything happens. So far, it has been confirmed that the tumor is too big to perform any operation. We won't know any more detail until end of the week when the results come back. Meanwhile, the preparations are underway.

My mood swing quite a lot these days - I'm trying best not to show it. Sadness and sorrow doesn't help with the upcoming treatment my mother about to face, and she needs all our support to get through this together, while we keep carry on our own every bit of our lives as usual.

I'm trying. I must.

The Day

2009-03-15T22:36:00.002+08:00

[written on March 12, 2009]

March 10, 2009 marks the beginning of my sorrow journey.

My Mother was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital the day before, and the cancer has been confirmed.

I admit, I knew it was coming judging by her health condition in past few years. And I think she knew too. She was not willing to go under the knife while she knows the chance is slim, not to mention the treatment process is a very difficult one.

I admit, I knew one day, all of us have to face the decease of our most loved ones. I just didn't expect it so soon, and really I'm loss.

***********************

The doctor confirmed the cancer had spread - so much that it is beyond the scope of any operation. Next day, a series of body scan will tell us more detail about the situation.

I feel sorry that my Father has to face this alone at the hospital during the day, while my physical body at work in office. As a family, yes, we are dealing with this altogether. But yet, he as her husband, my brother and I as her sons, my sister as her daughter, are all alone in our heart.

I feel so weak - we are all so vulnerable. For the first time in my life, I don't know what to do.

Privacy

2009-03-11T14:19:00.003+08:00

I know I haven't update for a long time. So much had changed; everything just breezed across my eyes.

Mentality changed.

Life changed.

There will be changes here. Due to recent incident in my life, I'm marking this blog private. Everyone has to have secret of their own.

(Mar. 15: Hell with the privacy - it's not like I'm famous or anything. Just want to blog.)

-- Post From My iPhone

That don't kill me can only Makes Me Stronger

2008-08-30T19:52:00.009+08:00

"Work it Harder, Make it Better
Do it Faster, Makes us Stronger."

"Something Beautiful"

2008-08-19T14:15:00.005+08:00

Jingna's works are mesmerizing beautiful...

jin.zemotion.net

Something Beautiful exhibition - really should drop by if have a chance.

I ordered it at the very first chance at my noticed. Hope she doesn't mind I linked some of her photos here. (Please let me know if I've offended; I shall remove them immediately.)

"I Want to Believe"

2008-07-30T15:19:00.004+08:00

Heard that this is the finale of X-file series. Never thought they would have done it

Yeah, I admit that I'm a X-file fan! :P I think I have watched every single one of the TV episodes. It was so so long time ago... So long that none of my friends remember it anymore and I probably have to go theatre to watch it by myself...

MMORPG

2008-07-28T14:57:00.006+08:00

Not too many friends knew that I was once a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) player - so totally dedicated - that there were times that I actually play it as a job. I can play up to 3 different characters simultaneously in front of two monitors as a team or separately, at "different time and space" so-to-speak, to do repetitive tasks just to fight monsters and loot treasures, then fight monsters, loot treasures... again and again.

Back then, it was EverQuest. Today, it is World of Warcraft. I've left that part of my life long ago. There were times that I wished I have time to play again - and not as a 'worker' - but just for the old time sake.

'Real' world people may not understand. We liked that 2nd persona of ours; living in a parallel world as a druid, a wizard, a cleric, etc. Yes, it is an fantasy escape from our real life. With the MMO, the interaction is not unlike among real people in the real physical world.

Came across this article - the word best to describe our game play in MMORPG is "grinding".

"Hours upon hours of mind-numbing grinding."

If anyone has any experience of MMORPG - be it EverQuest, Lineage, Guild War, World of Warcraft, etc. - that there is this only one thing in common. You need to level-up. You need to fight monsters. The point is that, the game only get interesting when you start to battle with BIG monsters at high level. And in order to do that, you'll need to level-up - way up in fact. Get good gears, weapons, items, anything that works toward that goal. It's not the question of whether you can get there; it's the question of WHEN. As long as you got the time dedication (and cash to keep paying for the subscription), you know that you will get there.

I guess this is also why some of us like it so much. It is indeed NOT the same as real life - in which sometimes no matter how much effort we put on, at the end of the day, we still don't get what we deserve.

It's here...

2008-07-24T14:50:00.001+08:00

It's here at office! Arrived 2 days ago, but still hasn't time to start on it...

"Less gear. More brain."

It just speaks my mind. ^^

Blogged from my iPhone

Strobist Seminar DVDs

2008-07-18T11:00:00.005+08:00

Ah, finally they shipped it!

I don't remember since when I have became one of the many many 'strobists'. In a nutshell, 'strobists' are photographers who make the most out of their strobe guns/flashes with their DSLR to work without the need of some very expensive equipments for both indoor and outdoor shoot, with skills to produce extraordinary professional works.

I have been following their web contents for quite some time now, and I must admit that it does inspire me to improve my lighting skill. This is by no mean for the beginners - don't let the words "Lighting Gear for Beginners" on the cover fool you!

This is the next best thing to actually to go attend their meet in US - which is of course not possible for me. Back in mid-June, I ordered this... only to find out that they are already sold out and back ordered. I still ordered the item through MPEX - knowing that they won't charge my credit card till they have the item ready for shipping - a big thumbs-up for them!

A month has passed, and I was just about to cancel my order; but ha, they'd notify me this morning that the item has already shipped! Great, I can't wait to get my hands on these... ^^

Studio - Kiko 2008.3.2

2008-07-15T10:52:00.002+08:00

Team members
Kiko (model)
Maxcher (model style idea)
Hellokit (make-up + rope idea)

More photos HERE. Best view image at original size.

"Thanks Kiko! We have done quite a few shootings together in the past, and you've never disappoint us." ;)

Style - Freestyle on our individual own.

I ended up with series of different tone. I will NOT work in this way if this is a normal commissioned assignment. It's a time consuming post process; and the end result is unpredictable - in terms of NOT having a firm idea/theme (to communicate with client, for example) - with a "shoot now, think later" kind of attitude. At the time, we kind of threw whatever ideas on top of our minds and possibilities onto the table, and see what we could came up with. It's order and chaos. It's a team effort, yet at the same time, we dance our own gig individually with our light setup and cameras.

Product shoot session

2008-07-08T17:38:00.004+08:00

Last Thurs lunch time received a product shoot job. They emailed me the requirements, their budget, with an 'ASAP' as deadline... Hmm, aren't we all in a hurry! It's so urgent, client asked if I can do the shoot in the afternoon. Yeah right, if he could be satisfy with product photo taken by my iPhone - the closest thing I have on hand to a camera - I wouldn't mind ;) (Well, I actually I do mind... I wouldn't be able to get myself out of office in such short notice!)

Being a freelance photographer means we are supposedly to be the master of job juggling. I work full-time Mon.-Fri. normal office hour, so I'm on a Thurs. lunch break here. In next 30 mins., (what left of my lunch break) I started scrambling for rental studio space, generating a list of thing (lenses, lighting table, etc.) I need for the shoot, scheduled assistant, scheduled shoot on Sat. afternoon. Right after work, I went looking for a extension tube (for macro product shoot) - but I couldn't find what I needed. I ended up borrowing William's macro lens (thanks so much! I dunno how else I could have done the shoot in such short notice). Also bought a 'light table' that's big enough to accommondate the product that it will be resting on. Dragged the heavy table up to studio, borrowed Ray's Nikon and did some test shoot (about 9pm at night) so I can send it to client as reference later. That pretty much a wrap for a day of work.

Friday went by without much hitches, except client worried if we can have 50+ toy samples shoots at various angle/position in 3 hours time (which I quoted him on the job order). Original plan was to have 5 hrs shoot with 130+ items, but hours later, client revised it to 50+ items only. Honestly, I didn't know if I can have them all done - it's just my educated guess. By Friday night, client revised again - we are back to the original plan... shoot all 130+ items all at one session - and yup, we have to have it done in 5 hrs. I also promised to have all the photos 'tuned-and-edited-out-background' by Monday... "Ha! I bet you couldn't find another photographer to top that!"

So Sat. goes the shoot. Total studio usage time: 5 hours. Product item counts: 100+. Shot counts: 250+. Final image submits to client: 133. Lunch break: 0. We stopped at nothing. Just 5 straight hours of non-stop shoot.

(photo contain notes. click here to see it in flickr.)

I started working on post-process even before I reached home that night. I needed sit down to have a break with my heavy gears, so might as well do some cropping at the cafe.

Sun. afternoon started my image editing tour to hell. It's not difficult edits, but really time consuming.

By Mon. morning, I could only get about 80+ images done with 2 hours of sleep the night before. Off to work I go, and do uploading at office. Client couldn't wait for the rest of them for another day, so I uploaded the ones that haven't been processed too. By night, image process continues.

Tues. 4am - all done! Immediately upload to client's server. Good! Look, I still can catch about 3 hours of sleep before I leave home for office, ha!

Many thanks to William (for lending me his lens) as my assistant who had gone through the exhausting shooting with me on Sat. I bet his work role that day was harder than mine!

Dayoff...

2008-07-01T16:10:00.002+08:00

Yay, just one work day on Monday, and then one public holiday off on a Tues. It feels like Sunday, especially when there are kids all over which effectively turn this favourite cafe of mine into their Sunday playground... =_=

Blogged from my iPhone

DigitalPixel.Net...

2008-06-25T12:12:00.004+08:00

DigitalPixel is one of my most favourite photography web site for both great tips and resources and to see good work from photographer all over the world.

They had picked two of my pic for feature... Thanks for the invite~

Selection from Flickr pool I

Posted using ShareThis

How real is our photos...

2008-06-21T02:03:00.005+08:00

From reading of another photographer blogger's post, one probably can't help to ask, "How real is our photograph?"

Well, in one of my recent studio shoot...

This is the first shoot from the camera (converted straight from Canon raw .16-bit cr2 file to 8-bit .jpg; colour profile from ProPhoto to sRGB)

Then...

This is the 1st tune stage by LR (started from the original raw file). Brings out more detail of the white dress, more contrast, you know, the usual stuffs...

This would be the final version.

More photos HERE. Best view image at original size.

Really, I don't think it is much too far off.

Note: Someone asked me about the colour choice of the BG... well, the final version was actually what I really have in mind - and I did have the light setup in the way so it gradually falls off to complete darkness toward the back..That backdrop you see in the original shoot is actually a gray color, and not black. If I had chosen a black backdrop, I probably can't get the brightness in front in the final version.

Also... we actually ran out of black backdrop at the time, so gray colour was our only next-best choice... :P

Bridal shoots

2008-06-20T10:25:00.005+08:00

This shooting was not meant to be as it appears now...

More photos HERE. Best view image at original size.

The proposition - the shop lent us the dresses, we (along with another 2 x photogs; 1 x MUA) all make some portfolio pieces for all of us. Sounds good and fair, right? The shop gets the pics we made (we all agreed on letting our copyrights share among all parties for self-promotional purpose); our MUA get her 'big head' makeup shots for her portfolio, and we photogs get the dress sponsored.

It was supposed to be an outdoor shoot. Preparation ran more than a week ahead of the shoot date; we briefed with model, MUA, picked and fitted dresses with our model at the shop; decided on the location; got everything altogether.

At the last minute (well, actually 2 days before shoot), shop owner concerned that we might get her dresses dirty during the shoot outdoor. So we changed plan - got ourselves a studio, making changes to our idea (which is a complete makeover) in the shortest possible time. All was done like clockworks.

Then the shop owner concerned that her dresses leaving her shop door... WTF?! So she want us to shoot on location at her shop?? What's the point?!

Our MUA sprang into action, and she almost immediately found us another bridal shop owner, Tina - who was so trustful with us, and lent us 2 set of dresses immediately on the spot at the last day before shoot. The 'idea' shoot took another complete makeover (again) to approriately fit with Tina's dresses style, and finally we got this shoot session done.

Thanks all who had put effort on this shoot with me. It was all scrambling too close to cancellation, but nonetheless, we got this done nicely! We should do this again another time... ^ ^

Other team members for this shoot:

Hellokit - www.flickr.com/photos/hellokit
William - www.fotop.net/william07

Shirley Louie - www.shirleylouie.com

Chole Wong - www.fotop.net/bandc

(I'm interested in working with others in the field on selected interesting projects/concepts. Let's talk.)

This has been way, way too long...

2008-05-20T19:34:00.001+08:00

Some old blogger friend of mine finally tracked me down on FB; asked
do I still blog, hmmm...

Well, yeah, I still want to blog, and I have got much to say. Many
things happening; I just need to find the time to do it!

Actually I'm kind of ashamed of myself. Being tech savvy meaning I put
all my tech gadgets into full usage till they die, and I'm always
online in some way or the other all the time. For example, now I just
got off from work, sitting in Kosmo Cafe enjoying my Kosmo Bliss
smoothie (no caffine for me today as I've already exceeded my caffiine
quota), and blogging on my iPhone.

Btw, this is quite a gadget! I just had this for about a month, and I
don't know how I can do without it.

Anyway, I shall post some work of mine later on tonight. Oh geez, that
reminds me I'm still behind on some bridal photos urgently need to be
done... Darn!

Blogged from my iPhone

This is fun!

2007-11-27T14:48:00.000+08:00

Snow hits after

2007-11-24T14:11:00.001+08:00

Weather turns completely different on the next day. Great sunny day with blue sky... wow, who would have thought? :D

Snow hits

2007-11-23T15:49:00.000+08:00

Have to drive my sister to work, since her car was in the garage for service. Woke up bright and early (ok, it's not bright - but sure it is early), and the scene hits me at the front door :O ...

Ok, I knew there was a snow alert warning the night before, and it started snowing when I was dinner with friends - it was wet snow - very slippery but it melts on the ground. I didn't expect so much snow! Traffic going to be bad for sure.

As expected, going nowhere fast...

...due to poor visibility... and noted the slushy snow on the ground! Very slippery...

And then later on the day, check out the clean driveway! All done by me, ha!

Long vacation

2007-11-16T21:38:00.000+08:00

It has been a week since I arrived at Toronto. Other than the 15+ hours of flight and a few problems with Canadian custom (ai...don't ask :( ) and the baggage lost (the baggage was found and delivered to me the next day eventually); otherwise everything is smooth. The weather is a bit cool (around 6~7 degrees Celsius in daytime), and by the time I arrived around 6pm, Edward (who came to pick me up from airport) told me that today it's the first snow drop of the season - though it looks more like rain to me.

[My temporary work station... ha!]

In past few days, I have been going over my old stuffs, like CDs, vinyl records, and among other things since the day I left - which seemed like ages ago. I also went outside to take a walk around the neighborhood park - to have a breathe of fresh air (rarely have chances like this in HK) - the weather is quite amazing! Blue sky, white clouds with cool temperature. (Although the temperature seemed to be dropping each day, hoho!) I shall enjoy the weather before it becomes worse of the depressing Canadian winter season...

More photos will be add HERE for the rest of my trip... and hopefully update my blog more often! :P

"Sayuri Westside Story"

2007-11-14T07:14:00.000+08:00

Model: Sayuri
Concept & makeup: Hellokit

[Whole series HERE]

What the $%#& wrong with me?!

2007-09-27T09:22:00.000+08:00

Gosh, it has been almost two weeks...

I just wanted to get this illness thing over with! It has been many days I've been dealing with my physical fatigue, headache, short-breathlessnesses... What's going on with me???

...Ai... I really hate this... >.<

*************************

There are often times in life that some major career changes need to be made - sometimes not by own choice, but instinct does alert me the right thing need to be done for someone/something else at the moment. I'm not sure if this is one of those times, and I'm not sure if I'll be going to make a difference, but I guess I'm going to offer the chance to at least help it out.

This illness of mine... maybe it's a sign?

Stress, stress, and more stress...

2007-09-18T17:29:00.000+08:00

You know you are stressing out yourself too thin when...

1. your right wrist and forearm is aching due to RSI...
2. having difficulty to hold the chopstick steadily...
3. right hand shaking when not in use...
4. whenever stop working, can fall asleep in any position, at anywhere...
5. wake up and dream talks about "is it uploaded yet...?"
6. gone sick (and necessarily went to doctor) TWICE in less than a month time...
7. energy level at the lowest possible...
8. thinks having dinner with friend is a waste of time...
9. don't even have time to goto gym ONCE in past two months...
10. carrying notebook and can work everywhere; always look for cafe with a wall plug and a wireless connections...
11. all food became tasteless (except salty) on my tongue; the only reason of putting food in my mouth was merely to keep my easy-upset stomach in peace, or so I won't take my pills with an empty stomach.

Believe it or not, I've got all of those.

Life sucks.

At first, I thought it is only going to get better. Before long, I can see no end to it. You work better, faster, harder; they just dump more and more loads on you. It's going to consume you alive till your last breathe of life. For what... Just earning a few more $$$ ?!

I always hold out truth and hope for the career path. I'm not asking for big returns; I'm not expecting myself to become a billionaire or anything close to it. But even a simple survival wish in this material world takes toll on the strongest will in mind, and even that may not be enough.

Sometimes I just want to throw away all of it. The mobile phone, the notebook, PDA, email, MSN, etc. so no body can find me; quit the fuxking job, don't give a damn about the client, and throw myself out the window on a 20th floor building... metaphorically speaking (I'm not a suicido!)

Gosh, I really need a long vacation to leave it all - even when it means to quit my job.

Will see.

"OK" - 張震嶽 A-yue

2007-09-16T02:17:00.000+08:00

Life is crazy... In past two months, I felt like I'm completely drained out of my mind. My only life savers were my music, and this album came along. Bought it about two weeks ago, this one is a complete refreshment for me, and almost all the songs in this album are some of the my best favorite on my iPod/iTune list ever since.

I love this album cover shot! It's so simple, with a classical guitar - definitely reflection the nature of the music. And 張震嶽 in a suit and tie... never could have imagine that... ha!

This album has a lot less rage, less rock. In their place is the much mallow, easy-listen style - some R&B, some rap.

Some of my most favorites:

《思念是一種病》- I always stop what I have been doing on hand, and just listen to this song. I found myself paying attention to lyrics (which I don't do on most songs I listen to), not to mention I'm lousy with mandarin. Next thing I know I would be holding the lyrics booklet, and read/sing along. Guest vocal by Tanya 蔡健雅 - who is also my favorite, ha!

《很難》- I found this song often at the mid of my hectic work. It is like echoing within myself - especially the chorus:
"有時候　想把自己關起來　還是　學著把心門打開
人與人之間的關係變得不理不睬　習慣無關緊要的冷淡
有時候　莫名其妙哭起來　難道這就是自怨自哀
誰不希望像飛鳥一樣自由自在　誰不希望啊　誰不希望　只是很難"
...

《OK》- rap is pretty much not my cup of tea, but I like it with beats - especially when the lyrics are in tune with my vibe:
"走一步算一步算尋尋覓覓當你遇到一個喜歡的人
卻不想在一起　有時只想一夜情而已
放了真感情　卻害怕自由會失去"
"有的失守終生　有的繼續等
有的乾脆剃度　永遠不再過問
這紅塵滾滾心中是否沸騰　是否還有時間值得繼續等
曲終人散走在陌生的街上　剩我一個人唱"
"愛情面貌我試圖瞭解　卻把自己搞的很狼狽
有一段時間我不OK　把靈魂關在黑暗裡面
當然還是有一些小小的痛苦在身邊
寂寞很OK　一個人OK　習慣就OK"

《就讓這首歌》
《路口》
《小宇》

I think this album will stay in my iPod for a very long time... :P

Liberation of the mass (for the mass?)

2007-07-13T14:40:00.000+08:00

Web2.0, amateur vs. professional.

One of the questions get asked around a lot these days: What define a "Big C" (HK Chinglish; meaning: professional) photographer? The photographer who get pay $ for their photo works, are they professional? What about photographer who sell their photos as stock? People who takes terrible pictures vs. people who takes good photos (what is good/bad anyway?)

In journalism, is blogger true reporter/journalist? Can blogger become reporter/journalist/photographer/publisher all-in-one?

Web2.0 - The Wild-West-Web

This is what our world is becoming. This whole thing, the so-called Web2.0 is becoming more and more significant everyday. In the age of Web2.0, audience is no longer just audience. They can also become contributor (to the content), and let everyone to view. Others can jump in to participate, to add their say, to discuss, to judge.

Hot zone 1: Journalist vs. Blogger

Under their professional training, journalist/reporter follows a strict set of rules and value of reporting any event. They have their code of conduct to uphold while doing a story/article/event. They have a social responsibility to the public. They get pay for their story. Blogger... well, it's just you, me and pretty much everybody else. Blogger in general doesn't have a 'code of conduct'. Blogger doesn't fact-check stories before opening it to the public. (For the most I'd do is to cite sources from elsewhere.) Do we really care about consequences? I don't think so... ("coz it's my blog!") Does it mean I can pretty much say anything in my blog? Well, yes! The only thing that hold me back of saying anything nasty/harmful to the public, is my own ethical value. Oh, let's not forget some of the best bloggers do get pay for their stories.

However, like everything in life, technology is changing the rules, and the line of journalist and blogger are not as clearcut. A few bad apples in journalists/reporters realm and a few good bloggers out in the field, will easily given the advantage to the blogger side. This is happening right now, right here at this minute.

Hot zone 2: Professional vs. amateur photographer

Ah, technology is always a bless AND a curse.

This comes to mind as a Moliu shown me the Nikon D40 Picturetown ad campaign, which they gave out 200 DSLR cameras to ordinary folks in Georgetown, US, and see how good they can make use of the camera.

Fact 1: Technology has lowered the cost of owning almost any camera equipment, and enabled a lot more people to get into photography field - the bar is lowered - it's no secret; just economics.

Fact 2: Camera is getting a lot easier to use. With the right combination of hardware and software (for $ amount that won't empty your bank account), along with some good technical skills, almost anyone can shoot like a pro - or at least the result photos will be pretty damn close to the pro's.

Don't get me wrong; I think these are all good things happening. The result? A stock photo taken by a pro will sell about US$500 a piece, while a similar photo taken by an amateur with entry level DSLR camera will sell about US$40 a piece. There are winners and losers.

Pros be warned: your amateur counterpart is right behind your heels. If you don't move on, be prepare to get push on a side.

"Closer"

2007-06-25T23:36:00.000+08:00

There is something mesmerizing about this song that draws me so much attention. I remembered I just froze watching the video till it ends at HMV when I first saw the video.

No, there's no glamorous people, no flashy fashion, no naked body.

Maybe it is the music... it's so soothing;
Maybe it is the lyrics... Franc's voice is so beautiful;
Or maybe... that people are just so cold to each other these days, that this is really deep down what we are longing for...

I've had enough of this parade.
I'm thinking of the words to say.
We open up unfinished parts,
Broken up, it's only love.

And when I see you then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you then I know you will be there with me
I'll never leave you...

Just need to get closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now,
closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now.

Keep waking up (waking up), without you here (without you here).
Another day (another day), another year (another year).
I seek the truth (seek the truth), we set apart (we set apart)
Second glance, a second chance.

And when I see you then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you then I know you will be there with me
I'll never leave you...

Just need to get closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now,
closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now (lean on me now).

And when I see you then I know it will be next to me
And when I need you then I know you will be there with me
I'll never leave you... just need to get...

closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now,
closer, closer,
Lean on me now,
Lean on me now (lean on me now).

closer, closer... closer, closer.

Live Life...

2007-06-12T15:57:00.000+08:00

Time passed slow today - about 5:10pm now, and it feels like I wanted to leave... to start my other job task! I managed to get the workload under control (don't get me wrong... I'm still very busy these days, both at day job and freelance).

************************

One job's done is another job's start - that pretty much sums up what happened these days. Things looks bright in almost all fronts, but 'look' can be deceiving. As quoted from some other blogger (sorry, forgotten which one...), "雖然工作很忙, 但還是那句, 賺不到錢!" Oh well, maybe not yet, but it's rolling... especially when I collect all my previous freelance jobs' fee!!!

************************

Sometimes, I wondered why I don't start my career in financial field. It's all about money these days... the IPO, money market, economics in China. All related topics are on the news, in the radio, on newspaper, everywhere. It's not like I don't like money (I need it!!!), but people around me is all about $. Hong Kong is such a materialistic place - everything judging by money. Greed is showing on everyone's face. Every action and result is measure by how much $ you spent, and how much $ you made. It's all about real estate $ value per sq.ft. It's all about how high/low Hang Seng Stock Index when closed today.

I'm so sick and tired of it to a point where I wanted to throw up.

300

2007-03-19T01:17:00.000+08:00

Gosh, how should I describe this movie...

This movie is pretty much a surprise for me. First saw it on a light box poster in MTR stations, and I thought, it was just another B-grade (or C-grade) movie since I haven't heard much about it before hand. The poster mimic an old illustration style (well, it is indeed a photo image). The Chinese text description of the movie... as usual, is less than desire. 「壯士肌餐地獄血」, in large, bloody type fonts. Okay, this slogan really sucks. Thanks to it, that pretty sums it up as a B-grade III-level* rated (equivalent to North American 'Restricted' rated) movie alright. (Persionally, I like the clean layout of the original posters design with just the visual much better than the chinese version. I think it's already enough to catch attention without much of words.) It really do no justice to the movie itself.

The movie is definitely a treat. I'd say this is a 'catch-all' Hollywood feature film, in that it attracts people who:

- liked violence action film (i.e., Gladiator)
- liked explicit bloody scenes with flying body parts (e.g., heads, arms, legs)
- liked Lord Of The Rings
- liked RTS game (i.e., Age of Empire/Methology)
- liked the visual effects; shot composition; overall color mood tone - definitely can learn something from and to use in graphic post process - (ha, this is me!)
- liked to see beautiful human (man) body figure forms in action
- liked Frank Miller style (i.e., Sin City) comics

People who would hate this:

- if he/she's going to cover eyes (or faint) when seeing blood and/or arms, legs and head getting separate from their human body
- if he/she's easily to have nightmare after a scary movie
- if he/she's going deep into the truth of the history
- if he/she's going to expect a comprehensive story line

Some ppl complained about the truth of historic history, and Lord of The Rings monsters is just... Oh, come on, this is an action thriller! The story is based upon on the historic Battle of Thermopylae - it's sure very far from being a Discovery Channel documentary. Even the producer admitted that they are not interested into accuracy of historical details. Besides, the movie is actually closely created with Frank Miller's comic novel (btw, I love his title "Graphic Novelist"... wow!), and not to the history itself.

Special visual effect does worth a mention. It's pretty much a real people shoot mimicking hand drawn graphic arts, instead of the other way around. Overall story is a fast paced (the whole film lasted almost 2 hrs.), and it brings viewer breathtakingly close to the hand-to-hand combat battle ground. For me, that's a great treat!

[Goto the official 300 web site]

p.s., it is actually this film which got me interested in looking up the true history of the historical events. If you are interested in the true history background, you might want to google/wiki some of these: Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas, Greco-Persian Wars (thanks max!), Sparta, Battle of Artemisium (history after this battle), Battle of Salamis.

* The actual rating of this movie is rated at IIB in HK.

"It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be"

2007-01-17T21:37:00.000+08:00

I hadn't bought and read any book for a long time. (Okay, design and photography books and magazines as references doesn't count!) With my limited free time, I really don't have much luxury enjoyment of reading.

I was at PageOne after work, as usual, looking for design references. This book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden caught my attention.

I don't like buying books. My bookshelf space is very, very limited, and I'm kind of a 'tree lover'; and most of all, I don't have time to read. But this book is small; it's also quite short. Anyone could easily gone over the book casually in less than an hour.

I bought the book after reading first few pages. After so many years of working experience, I'm so happy to see at least someone has acknowledge my thinking all along. This book should be view as a collection of quotes. It wasted no time. Straight forward to the point, with zero BS.

The author Paul Arden as a vetran creative director was speaking in the field of creative advertising, but almost all of what he said can be apply/paraphrase into other career field. As a photographer, many of these quotes are 'hits on the head'. I'll keep this book handy on my office desk to alert me whenever I feel bad about what I was doing on hand, then pick myself up, shake off the dust, and move on.

I highly recommended this book as a mentality booster; for work, career, photography, and life in general.

Thinking more, shooting less

2006-10-21T21:56:00.000+08:00

(Believe it or not, this is exactly how I saw it via the viewfinder just before the shutter pressed.)

No, I haven't given up shooting.

In fact, I have spent more time in photography than ever. I'm now pretty sure that I'm not going to give up this hobby of mine as long as I live.

Human eye (and brain) is such an amazing, god-created piece of 'hardware' equipment, that no mankind invention can ever compare. Ever wondered no matter how much money you spent on some of the newest and greatest high tech piece of photo equipment, you still only gets a mediocre photos? I mean technology can only do so much, that no matter how advance your piece of hardware, it is still a tool.

Today's camera is quite impressive. They can most likely reproduce so very close to what a human eye can see - the technology have actually came so far as to mimic how our brain visually perceive things - but it is also the exact same thing that makes it yet just short of what we come to expect as good photography.

So really, what is photography? To me, it is what I like to see in a photograph. The most advance camera is so good to reproduce 'the reality' our eyes perceives. But is everyone seeing things the same way? Am I seeing the thing the same way as you? Hmm... I wondered.

I'm coming into a point, that when I'm looking through my camera's viewfinder, I'm seeing 'things' - things that I really wanted to see, and not just what there is in reality. When I'm shooting something moving, I actually seeing movements itself - where most people would never give it a second thought. It's very interesting view - like my mind is slowing down time, and actually seeing the exact view of the final picture itself just before I pressed the shutter. Imagine when I look at the pic afterward, it is exactly as I was imagined it - kind of scary.

It's so ironic when you come to think of it - while technology advance all this time to catch up of what human eyes can do, and I'm learning and adapting hard to see thing as the camera lens does - to capture the image in my mind. So... is it creativity spawned technology, or is it vice versa?

New photo gallery

2006-06-14T16:44:00.000+08:00

I love to have my own designed website to present my photo works, but, heck that could take forever with my schedule... For now, a decent photo hosting will do. So, After testing of various photo hosting service I have chosen Smugmug. Although it is a bit more expensive than most, it has a better layout, better security, and more comprehensive feature than others. I have established my new photo album HERE. Now all of my current work will be updated *immediately* any time, even like 4:00am in the morning - before I post it out to anywhere else. Please, feel free to comment (good or bad) and put ranking on my photos.

Bookmark URL:
http://www.waillyphotoworks.com OR http://wailly.smugmug.com

I'm pushing very hard on finishing up photos these days. I've spent almost every night for at least a 2~3 hours at a time to catch up with photo post-processing. I'm streamlining process, training myself with better skills (I can almost handle Photoshop with eyes blindfolded AND with one hand tied to my back... hahaha, just kidding!), and finish up with better photos. So it looks like I'll be adding new photos every night for at least till the end of this week.

Is photography an art?

2006-06-01T15:51:00.000+08:00

Interesting conversation came up on one of the photography board...

http://dgphoto.photosharp.com.tw/DGPHOTO/ViewPublish.aspx?PublishId=114206

"由學習影相的過程, 我們往往都很專注對焦, 測光, 及構圖的精準性, 而忽略左"意境""

"... 曾經有一位不懂攝影基本技巧的人, 用了Dummy Cam拍了一輯不開心的相給我看, 我看了真是找到她的感受.

反思, 自己的相不是要表逹內心的感受嗎? 但似乎只想砌一張漂亮的相片似一點"

***********************************

There are two-folds to the issue.

You can use photography to express *your* feeling. Use your equipments as your brushes, techniques as your paints. To express your feeling, u probably dun need every brushes and paints available. A charcoal and a large piece of paper may do just fine.

Photography can be also use to express feeling other than your own. It's not necessary your own view, but see things through other ppl eyes (this has a purpose, for example, for a commercial client), and recreate in your own meaning. Sometimes it does hv meaning (which is a good thing); sometimes it doesn't (not as good, but not necessary bad neither).

99% of the photos taken at our level only express beauty (...in the eyes of the beholders, of coz), and that's pretty much it. We use whatever means (i.e., good lens/cameras/flash/PS skills, etc.) to make it "looks good". Once everywhile we shot one or two out of hundreds we may find "something" in there. The skill is on your own to discover what you have taken, "shave" it (as in sculptures) by means of adjusting colors, texture, crops, etc. to your vision. This is in essence, the art in photography.

And then (unlike many other art forms) there's this element of fluke in photography. When you have shots hundreds/thousands/tenths of thousand shots, there bound to be one or two 'master pieces' in there somewhere. Remember all the cameras, skills you've got are all merely tools. You can use it just as a recording equipments, or use it as a paint brush.

Only when you flow with your brush then you can paint the best work possible.

"Advertising Space"

2006-05-28T19:56:00.000+08:00

"Advertising Space" ~ Robbie Williams

There's no earthly way of knowing
What was in your heart
When it stopped going
The whole world shook
A storm was blowing through you

Waiting for God to stop this
And up to your neck in darkness
Everyone around you was corrupted
Saying somethin'

There's no dignity in death
To sell the world your last breath
They're still fighting over everything you left over

I saw you standing at the gates
When Marlon Brando passed away
You had that look upon your face
Advertising space

And No one learned from your mistakes
We let our profit s go to waste
All that's left in any case is Advertising space

Through your eyes The world was burning
Please be gentle I'm still learning
You seemed to say
As you kept turning up

They poisoned you with compromise
At what point did you realise
Everybody loves your life but you

Special agent for the man
Through watergate and vietnam
No one really gave a damn
Did you think the CIA did?

I saw you standing at the gates
When Marlon Brando passed away
You had that look upon your face
Advertising space

No one learned from your mistake
We let our profits go to waste
All that's left in any case is advertising space

I saw you standing at the gates
When Marlon Brando passed away
You had that look upon your face
Advertising space

No one learned from your mistakes
We let our profits go to waste
All that's left in any case
Is Advertising space

I've seen your daughter
Man, she's cute
I was scared but I wanted to say
Boy, she looks a lot like you

The higher you are, the more BS'es

2006-05-28T19:22:00.000+08:00

There was this story I heard of over the email quite a few times. It's a story about a crow and a rabbit...

“坐得越高，廢話越多” ~ 鄭丹瑞

從前，有一隻白兔，牠走過一棵大榕樹，發覺樹上面坐了一隻烏鴉。
白兔問烏鴉：「可以教我像你一樣終日無所事事嗎？」
烏鴉點頭表示：「這個容易，只需坐在這棵樹就可以。」

白兔如言坐在樹底，果然清風送爽，好不快活，豈料卻惹來一隻狐狸，一口把白兔咬住。

白兔臨死前向烏鴉講：「我死得很冤枉，都是你的錯！」

烏鴉不慌不忙回答白兔：「想終日無所事事，像我般風流快活，首要條件是要坐得很高的位置。
你只是坐在樹底，一定是首先被犧牲的那個！」
白兔死不瞑目，詛咒烏鴉嘴只懂講廢話。

烏鴉望住白兔吞下最後一口氣，冷冷回答：「對呀，坐得越高，廢話越多！」

It is a ironic metaphor for the crow being the top management people in any organization, who do a lot more BS'ing rather than doing anything constructive. The rabbit, being the small potatoes (i.e., me) who work hard like there's no tomorrow. And when hits come, most often than not we are the very same ones who will be taking the fall for.

The story as a fable, it is just fine. I'd like to see us 'small potatoes' evolve to become 'smart potatoes' though. I see no reason why the rabbit can be as dumb as to believe the crow's advises at the first place. Nature has given the rabbit a pair of decent long ears with fast legs - and I'm pretty sure there must be a very good reason for it. The top down management is so out, and more than often they have no more clue than lower guys like us to run things.

No one in the company will care shit about us than ourselves nowadays. So smart up, and make sure when the tree falls or when the wolf comes whichever comes first (which is more often than you think), you will not be under it.

It's fine if you are the rabbit under tree. Just make sure you are a running rabbit, and not a standing still one under the tree.

To the limit and beyond

2006-05-15T10:03:00.000+08:00

As in any field of design, only the sky is the limit. That's why I love working in this field, as well as the reason I love photography. There is no one perfect solution for every project.

In my work, sometimes I do worry. I mean it's not that I didn't perform well, but sometimes I'm not sure if I'm doing well enough. You see, I can see that I'm getting better and better at it, but at the same time, clients are expecting more and more. It takes more drafts before the final one; it takes more thinking on each and every drafts; and need to ready from more banning from demanding clients. In another word, life is tough!

The thing is, I really need to think harder and longer. I need to spend more time to look at more brilliant designs from others, from books, from MTV, from anything. I just can't sit at my desk in front of my computer. I need more coffee. I need more time off...

Pushing

2006-05-13T12:14:00.000+08:00

We all know it's coming (...or has it came already?)

We are literally improving upon project after project - in terms of both design outlook and useable features. We are squeezing every ounce of our existing engine, pushing the envelope of its limit to the max.

New clients are getting more demanding as ever. No wondered, cause we shown them some of our best work every time we present ourselves in front of our potential clients.

I was doing some hard drive backup the other day. When I looked at some of my earlier work when I first joined the company, I knew I came a long way.

"It can be better," I thought. But to what end? Or is there an end?

The days

2006-05-13T12:12:00.000+08:00

Didn't blog for far too long... :(

It has been a hectic week - at least for me mentally...

It all begins after the electronic expo about a month ago. Nothing actually exciting happened, but it seemed afterwards, we were getting some 'picky' new clients. Not that they are bad news - actually it's good news for us, cause these are the 'good clients' who don't mind paying more money for good features.

The problem is that boss is getting a bit too sensitive on the design, and making us churning up five to six draft before even start showing it to the client. For all I know the client might ban it anyway since I've not yet get a 'feel' for what exacly they want. At this stage, we are still doing quite a bit of blinded guessing.

*****************************************

We've done quite a bit of modifications on our design template. The changes are invisible to the old clients - but they will be apparent to all the new client from now on. Took me a couple of days to get used to it, but it's all cool! :)

Departure of a loved one

2006-03-09T21:07:00.000+08:00

Sad day at the office...

It has came to my knowledge that my junior colleague's father has passed away - after a lengthy battle with a rather serious case of diabetes and complications.

It has been several weeks since his father was in and out of hospital intensive care unit. For what it worths, he was taking the matter quite calmly - everything is just business as usual - other than he needs to take sometimes off to be with his family - which is just fine with all of us at the office.

Personally, I haven't lost any of my parents... How does it really feel? Is there a way to prepare? We all know that it's inenvitable; it's just part of everyone's life. Just that at our age, not all of us are aware of death to our closest family member could be so close. How am I supposed to understand? And without that understanding, is it possible for me to do anything to help others surrounding me to cope with such tragic incident?

And yet, he's still working here beside me now. What the heck is he still doing here?? It's not like there's any urgent tasks on hand. There should be much for him to take care of at home. Shouldn't he be attend to his mother? And all the funneral matters? I have only seen him broke into tears just one time - at lunch. I wouldn't think he's taking it well - in fact, he's unusually calm - too calm. Boss already told him to take an extended leave to go take care of things first but he insisted that he'd rather stay. It seems apparent that he's avoiding rather than facing the cruel reality.

And I've no idea of how to help him out.

The awakening

2006-03-07T17:54:00.000+08:00

(La classe de danse | Edgar Degas | c. 1873-75)

I'm out growing my previous mold. Never thought that it will come to this, but since I have learned the most basic photography since my high school days, I never thought that I could came this far.

Digital photography is such a different beast compare to the traditional film photography, but yet they are so similar. Nonetheless, the newest and the greatest camera and equipments are merely tools. It cannot (well, not yet anyway) replace a human eye out looking for aesthetic beauty.

(L'Absinthe | Edgar Degas | c. 1834-1917)

It was some time ago last year when I attended one of the impressionist art exhibition and it was quite an experience for me. All I learned in commercial graphic design (mind you, I never had any formal fine art training in university) - the layouts, compositions, colour, lightings, etc. - all element of photography today - especially in portraiture, many of which were practically stemmed from here. Mind you, yes, they are paintings, but concept have much in common in today photography than differences...

From then onward, I knew that I'm all into portrait photography not becoz of meeting beautiful girls and models, but to the art itself... I'm eternally doomed... :P

2006

2006-03-07T16:34:00.000+08:00

Wow, it has been a long long time...

I can't believe this is the first blog I wrote since 2006 arrived!!! How time flies... where have I been? What have I done for all this time?

This is also a first... blogging from work! Finally caught things up, and it's now 4:30pm and I'm blogging! (yeah!) Have been working hard everyday all day long - solid 9am to 6pm (No OT... that's my bottom line! I'd rather bring work home with me than to stay in office...). The price is to work extra hard on the double all day long with no break and eating lunch in the office almost everyday...

Photography is pulling almost all my leisure time. But yes, I'm loving it. I'm going to write more about my days spend with photography, design, culture; will try to post more photos, etc. There's a lot to talk about...

3-days trip at Taipei (2)

2005-12-30T17:39:00.000+08:00

The rest of the trip was in bad weather with lots of rain. I brought along two DC camera (luckily didn't bring along any film camera - it would not do much good). On 2nd day, we were at 深坑 and Chiufen (九份). Chiufen is located in an uphill area. There were tons of local eateries, cafe and tea shop. We didn't lingered long and with our soaked wet body we were waiting for transit in the cold rain for almost half an hour...

Joined by SM, we spent the night at 仕林夜市 – a very popular place where you can find all kinds of interesting food – which pretty much covered as our dinner, haha! Oh, and the day was actually Diaphin’s birthday (Happy B-day!)

Hmm, “sing-k” (Karaoke) seems to be a mandatory activity in Taiwan… Almost everyone I know who traveled at Taiwan has gone at least once per trip – and we are no exception. Christy seems so alive at 錢櫃 Karaoke – even it was like 2:00 am in the morning.

On the last day, we visited Taipei 101 – the tallest skyscraper in the world (as of now anyway). The day was still a windy and cloudy, so not much photo was taken. To be honest, I don’t think this is a very attractive building. Yeah, I know it is the tallest building with its 101 floors and with its architectural marvels and everything, but I’d say this is one heck of an ugly building. It resembles “the tower” hold in hand by one of the Chinese mythical character in 封神榜 Lee Jing. If I remembered it correctly, “the tower” is actually a dead trap for all the evil demons (or for anyone if that matters)… Not sure if the creator had thought of that when coming up with the building architectural design. It must be a Fung Shui thing…

Anyway, it was a good trip.

More photos: HERE

3-days trip at Taipei (1)

2005-12-13T11:47:00.000+08:00

[Nothing better to do than staring straight at the airport ceiling...]

Ok, the whole trip didn't exactly went as I planned it...

I missed the plane in the morning... I just couldn't get myself up in the early morning while friends were waiting at the airport about to board while I was just out of bed, shxt!

ML was helpful enough helping me to arrange for the next flight out (12pm), but just missed the time deadline before the ticket booking control left the agency's hand... :(

So I couldn't get on the flight until 6pm at night. Have to wander around like a ghost with a backpack at TST, and then later at airport waiting hours to pass, flooded friends with SMS messages (yeah, nothing better to do...).

Missed almost the a whole day trip. Almost (I thought) lost my PDA at airport. Just got in time to meet with the gang at Shi-men Ting, Taipei for dinner at night.

**************************************

It took me quite awhile for me to find the gang. The staff at the airport bus station was so sure gave me the correct instruction in finding way to my motel (which it proved wrong, eventually), and since this is my first time in Taiwan, I have no choice but to trust her. I even double-checked with the bus driver when I get off the bus after about 30 minutes of bus ride - as he told me I need to take a short taxi ride to where I wanted to go.

Taxi cab drivers gave me a very friendly impression - despite the fact that he took me to the wrong hotel (hmm, a 5-star hotel I think, which I sure didn't paid for) when he drove me to 長榮 instead of 長虹!! Darn, I knew my mandarin was lousy, but not THAT lousy... :( Anyway, it happens that he had no idea where 長虹 is. In fact, even the 2nd taxi driver (I needed to take another short cab ride to where I really wanted to go) have never heard of 長虹 (I even pulled out my PDA and use it as a scratch pad to write chinese in words and show him where I wanted to go this time), so had to ask him to drop me off somewhere in the destination neighbourhood. I finally got in touch with the gang with the walkie-talkie 2-way radio (Case in point: got to have these when travel with friends - it saves you much mobile long-distant $$$ charges.)

We had eight people include some new friends for hot pot dinner that night at Shi-men Ting. Then went midnight movie show of Harry Porter And the Goblet of Fire till very late. Some of us fell asleep in the theatre - long day. :P

X'mas is coming!

2005-12-07T17:36:00.000+08:00

Haven't been blogging for the whole November. Before you know it, Christmas is just around the corner. :)

November was a crazy month. It all begun with a frantic preparation of brochures,banners, and other printed material - all for the 3-days World SME Expo at HKCEC. We did't get the large booth this year (thanks god!) so the prepartion work was about half of what last year was. Also we had loads of leftover booklet from last year (though we still need a new add-on version this year to present new system features). So I'd say we were very efficient in whatever we were doing in just short of two weeks before the expo.

Things got a bit complicated when I have got a handful of almost due deadline in about the same time period...

Well, the expo has came and gone. We gained a few oversea potential client contacts, a few publicity, and a brief mention on a local computer tech magazine. Yup, more publicity is what we need.

November's Chopin - Jay Chou

2005-11-05T15:03:00.000+08:00

Today I sat down and listened to this album, and actually listened thru the complete album almost without break; without fastforward; without skipping one single song - which I haven't done for any album a very long time.

I'm not a Jay Chou's fan, and I actually liked this album - at least better than the last one (not Initial D OST - it doesn't count). When Initial D the movie came with the two OST songs "Drift" and "All The Way North", I thought they were good, and I almost bought that Initial D Jay Chou Greatest Hit album (luckily I didn't, since I've already got most of his older songs already!)

One of the great thing about Jay Chou's work I liked is the rhythm, the way he blend different style (i.e., classical, vocal, choire, rap, 小調 etc.) mixed together to create his own style; and yet he can still managed to make it interesting. Try listening to the music arrangement. For example, "Drift" is all about rhythm and beats. The chorus is just repeating over and over, with little variant, yet it still captures me. I like having this song playing while I do my work, coz it keeps me motivate. This one is in rap style (which really I'm not hot about it), but much more musical than most rap song I know of. The subtle music arrangments changes from phrase to phrase is what makes me keep on listening.

At first I listen to this album, I thought it was... just so "Jay Chou"! Gosh, I thought this might well be one boring album. As one song after another song gone by, there's definitely no doubt that the Jay Chou element (I mentioned above) is everywhere. The interesting thing is that how the music arrangement was done - very little variant changes within the same song; makes quite a difference. Really enjoyed it. If anyone know about music, you'd find the chorus music in most part can be improvise with your own new melody and/or new arrangement - just play it softly in your mind or sing it out loud while listening to it. It's great fun.

About the lyrics, well, I don't speak mandarin anyway. Yeah, I know probably even fds from Taiwan may not be able to make sense by just listening alone without looking at the lyrics booklet. I don't care, coz to me it's always "music-priority". Music is the universal language. Human voice can just be another music instruments even without sensible words. If the music was boring, no matter how great the lyrics were written, I'd skip it anyway.

My favourite worth mention in this album:

- Drift
- All The Way North
- 夜曲
- 藍色風暴 - love the beginning/middle choire arrangement, followed my the phone touchtone sound then merged into the song.
- 黑色毛衣
- 四面楚歌

"You're Beautiful"

2005-10-23T12:03:00.000+08:00

(Microsoft Media Player required to see above video. Browser Other than IE may not display properly.)

"You're Beautiful" ~ James Blunt

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

Densha-Otoko

2005-10-23T10:45:00.000+08:00

The Japanese TV drama Densha-Otoko is a refreshing one. Not only that it's very funny, but the fact that it portraits so closely (in a somewhat exaggerated Japanese comical kind of way) to nowadays IRL (in-real-life) “cyberculturist" that makes it so close to us.

One of the biggest manifest of internet culture is how easy it is to pull people together without even seeing the each other faces (i.e., complete strangers), base only on common interest and hobby.

Internet is a vast virtual space. If you have no focus of your own, you will be so lost in it. One of the glories of internet manifesto is so-called forum or discussion boards. These "boards" are the successor of BBS boards back in the earlier days of 9600 and 14.4k dial-up modem, and the word "internet" is not yet known to most people except tech nerds. It creates virtual communities for people of different culture and background and yet with mind thinking alike, where they can share ideas and opinions among each others.

After so many years of "living" on the net, I found myself mostly attached to just a few "interest" fields, mainly photography, tech stuffs, i.e., computers and PDAs, and multimedia/web design. In any of these boards, there has to be a general subject area - where everything and anything can be chat about - and usually that's where the most interesting group of people from a diverse cultural background formed. These people gives advices, comments; be the judge, form a jury, BS'ing, etc. on anything. It is that this kind of interaction among people make these boards so addictive sometimes, and one of the reason why so many people get themselves so bogged down on a computer all day long.

That thing we called Love

2005-10-21T16:36:00.000+08:00

Things can get pretty ugly upon a breakup of a bf-gf relationship. Especially when it involved whole lots of people you never met.

Yes, I'm talking about cyberspace. No, I'm not talking about cyberdating.

It all started when a couple (we are talking about IRL here) breakup. When the girl started to see someone new, her ex-bf starts taking it out in our forum. Not a problem there, afterall, it is a love and relationship forum.

Now here is the twist. Our forum, is actually the homebase of the new founded couple, and it's open for public participation.

It started out as a peaceful discussion. We were pretty much a friendly crowd, and strangers were welcome. Then more of "his friends" came along (now whether they are actual "friends" or just a list of different rather newly registered aliases, it's anybody's guess), and starts labelling people and calling names. Next thing you know, it has became a flame war that went on for days. For some reasons or the other, I would say all he wanted was is to piss everybody off, includes our forum admin.

I guess ppl can get pretty lonely in real life. When there's no one to talk to, forum board can be a great place to be to express oneself. Heck, what better way to hide behind a randomized alias and just let one's "darkside" to show through? You can even show your multiple personality, and just chat to your inner self...

At the end, someone finally got kicked out; "the art of insultation" finally loses its steam, and everything has gradually gone back to normal. Yeah, I had fun while it lasted though. Thank you everyone for everything! :P

Losing it...

2005-10-12T17:59:00.000+08:00

Ok, it has been 33 hours with working straight hours (ok, maybe not straight, discounting meal times, washrooms, showers, about an hour of TV break and about 4 hours of sleep) since yesterday 9am. The only good thing is that I have been working at home yesterday (on a public holiday off), at least that made me a lot closer to my bed... :(

Another solid working day at office today since 8am this morning. I should be fortunate enough though to catch lunch with Pily @ TST (was supposed to have lunch with boss (!) today, but he got called out by client at the last minute... ^_^"). That's about the only good time (and a not-bad coffee) today. BTW, we should have lunch more often, since she works not far from my office.

I don't feel tired anymore, but sure am losing concentration... seems like going to be another all-nighter tonight. :(

I'm going home now.

The heat is on

2005-09-28T21:00:00.000+08:00

Ok, it's crazy. In less than a month, we have gained many new clients - so much that I can really feel the pressure.

This is not normal. In past 6 months, we were experiencing "wave of businesses" - meaning that we gained a load of new clients in a short period of time, then a period of quiet, then busy like hell, and the cycle continues.

After a meeting with the team, it has came into our concern that our account manager was getting leads for new business (that's when I don't have much work to do), then there were times of actually having new clients jump onboard (and that's where my busy workloads begins to get heavy). 90% of the the time, they get throw at me all at the same time.

And here goes. This week alone, I have got 13 projects (incl. all big and small tasks) threw at my directions. Really, I don't mind the workloads, but if we can spread this through every month, I'd be a much merrier person... :(

The "white towel" generation (3)

2005-09-18T18:42:00.000+08:00

Yes, young people are over-protected nowadays. Many of which seemed unable to stand on their own two feet.

Mentally, they are weak. Just few weeks ago, we have (yet) another sucide of a young couple - apparently due to love and relationship. And then there is another sucide incident of a school college (or was it high school?) due to bad school grades a few months ago. This kind of news are pretty common as I observed.

I know we have a less-than-satisfy school system at hands, but killing themselves can't really be the ultimate answer for their problems.

Irresponsibility is also another common trait found among young generation. Have they ever think about their parents, family, friends and their love ones before killing themselves?

In my college university years, I've many chance to inteact with the teenage generation. (That was back in Toronto; not here in HK.) I could felt that a few of them were lost in life. A number of them has some complicated family problems, but nonetheless, they were willing to accept help from others. And I did what I can to help them. This is when I found out about myself wanted to become a social worker.

Now that same generation has grew up somewhat, and has became even more complicated. How can you help someone who don't even help themselves, when all they were capable to learn was throwing down the white towel and giving up on just about anything?

I just don't dare to imagine...

The "white towel" generation (2)

2005-09-14T19:54:00.000+08:00

It has been a common believe that the 20s~30s generation isn't as tough (in life) as once their parents were. No sure if that is exactly true, but surely they don't last too long in one job. Many of which quited even before the 3-month probation period is over.

Note that they quited; not let go by employer. Can't even stay just a bit longer, or until they have found the next best job.

The reason? Salary too low / boss too bossy / boss too incompetent /job nature too boring / no forseeable future in the company.

Almost half of these they should have known before the job starts. And the rest, "guilty as charged" - based on experience no more than first 2 weeks on the job.

They are just too quick to judge; too slow to learn.

(to be continue)

The "white towel" generation (1)

2005-09-12T22:04:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure whether this is a generation-thing, or if this is just a HK local trend.

It got my attention to think about the issue after conversation with one of my friend who is a high school teacher; when she was talking about how difficult it is to handle high schooler nowadays.

Yup, I can understand her pain, since she is currently working in a band 5 school. (1 = best; 5 = worst. This is just one of many classifications at HK school system.)

Young people (late 10s ~ early 20s) are just too rebellious. But that's okay (I guess), coz I was kind of a rebel too. Still, I consider myself turned out ahright as a grown-up.

But there seemed to be another trend. They are just giving up too easily. We are talking about everything here. School, job & career, relationship, dream, even their own life. They throw in the white towel way too hastily, sometimes don't even bother to try, not to mention try harder.

****************

Hiring a junior as an assistant at my work place was not an easy task. My boss let me in for the recruitment process. 1st interview was such a pain to me... Many of them just don't care - unprepared, non-enthusiastic, un-focus. I have no clue of why they even bother to send us their (messy) applications at the first place with that attitude anyway.

I don't mind dealing with arrogant people, but they just have to show me what they've got - and many of them don't even try.

(to be continue)

In search for the "right" PDA (part 2 of 2)

2005-08-25T16:48:00.000+08:00

Went hunting (on various auction sites) for a Palm Tungsten T5. I have seen a lot of them available on the 2nd-hand market. Its specifications look good on paper. Got enough memory built-in + a SD card slot. It has built-in bluetooth (good!) but without wi-fi. That's not a problem, since SD wi-fi card is available for this model as an option. The only drawback is the shinny electroplated plastic outter shell body, which I'm sure it will deteriorate in about 6 months or so with everyday normal usage.

After bidding without success on several unit with reasonable price tag, I finally gave up. Another higher-end model LifeDrive has just dropped to a more reasonable price level, and so I went for it.

This one pretty much has everything - and more. Built-in bluetooth and wi-fi, full-screen color TFT with 320x480 display, and 4G memory capacity, this practically can take over almost all the task I do on my notebook on the road, yet the size is much much smaller. Granted, it's almost twice as thick as the Sony Clie TH55, looks much bulkier, and it runs a bit slower (since it's accessing on the built-in 4G MicroDrive, not RAM) compare to other PDA model. There were lots of negative review on this model (as well as the Tungsten T5), as both of them got new design of using flash memory (slower; cheaper to make) instead of RAM (faster; cost more to make). Some older software may not be fully compatible with the new model. Personally I have been using it just about less than a week with about 75% of my most needed software installed on it, and so far, I'm quite impressed by its performance! It also act as a portable hard drive, a mp3 player (not that I use it as one), and even a video player. Sorry, no digital camera, but that I can easily live without.

Useablility - Although it is much bulkier than many others, its design and quality is definitely top notch. Start with a aluminum brushed-finish outter case, the contoured back design, so that hand can rest comfortably (and securely) while holding it. All four-function buttons is just where it should be where I can easily access it with my thumb.

I know I'm going to blog more with it! :P

In search for the "right" PDA (part 1 of 2)

2005-08-25T14:26:00.000+08:00

For the past month or so I was having fun (well, sort of...) experimenting with two palm PDAs. I really want one with full-screen display, net surfing ability, as well as work well with Office documents - so I can work almost anywhere without my notebook.

PocketPCs are just out of the question given my negative past experience...

Based on "positive reviews", I've got myself a used Sony Clie TH55. Yeah, I know, Sony has abandoned the Palm-powered PDA market, but nonetheless, this was labelled by many the best Palm-powered PDA to date, so heck, why not, I'd just give it a try.

***** (after more than 3 weeks of living with Sony Clie TH55) *****

Ok, this baby looks good. It's ultra thin compares to others, well-made, got full-screen (but need to install a 3rd-party software to enable landscape mode display). The screen display quality is better than most other PDA. There are many good improved feature on calendar (can attach note, as well as photos and hand scribbles). The launcher is a great addition as compare to Palm's original simple PIM design, and its interface looks good. The Clie Desktop software sucks though, so I'm back with using Palm Desktop. The problem is that all those extra features data will not be in-sync with the handheld. It happened once, as I need to hard reset the unit, and lost all my hand scribbled data...

Some software (designed for Palm) still doesn't fully work with Clie, but that's just a tiny problem I can overlook.

Built-in wi-fi is a big plus. Without bluetooth is a big mistake. (The European version has built-in bluetooth, but its 2nd-hand market price is just ridiculously high!) Even the original Sony Clie bluetooth MS adaptor won't work with this model (but it works for all other Clie models though...) There is simply no option at all in this regard.

Usability - I thought these are just minor things, given this is such a sleek unit, but they are not. I guess these are just plain bad design, which I can't adjust myself to them...

Power switch - it's on left edge of the unit body, with spring-sliding action to turn on/off/hold. As a right-hander, I found this quite inconvinient to turn the unit on/off with just one hand, or risk dropping the unit onto the floor.

The four-function buttons - which are located in the bottom edge of the unit are again located oddly; makes one-hand operation difficult to operate.

Jog-wheel + left/right button - located at the back of the unit - operates by my (left) index finger is not a easy way to work with at all. Also, they are totally not workable when working with the unit resting on a table.

Sony Memory Stick simply slow like hell, no matter how you work with it... :(

Yeah, I know I might be just a bit picky, but I can't imagine this being the flagship model of the last of Clie model line, hmm...

This one got to go.

Fed up

2005-08-12T13:47:00.000+08:00

Ok, this may not be exactly my matter to deal with, but when client becomes pushy and start taking every efforts we do for him for granted - especially with technical incompetent ass... hmm, sorry, I meant client.

**** [before the site launch] ****
client: "DNS server? Oh, that, we don't need that, we already have that arranged..."

**** [on the day of site launches] ****
client: "DNS server? Isn't that incl in the plan package? Why extra charge?"
Us: "No sir. But you said you'd have that arrange..."
client: "Yes ar, we have the our own domain..."
Us: "Well then sir, do you have it the domain parking service with it? All you need to do is to point it at our hosting..."
client: "What parking service? I paid for it already!"
Us: "Well sir, you still need to have the parking service to have your domain name blah blah blah..." [many words omitted]

**** [half-hour later] ****
client: "But that already included in your package. You are not robbing me, are you?"
Us: "No sir, that's not included in the package, and of coz no, we are not robbing you of anything..." [many words omitted]

**** [later yet] ****
Us: "Ok sir, we will have the extra service for free just for you. (Are you happy now, you little $#^&*^!...)
client (sarcastically): "Well, if you put it this way, then I must pay you blah blah blah..." ["you son of a #$%^^$@!#..." foul language omitted]

Gosh, I'm so lucky that it's not me answering that phone call...

Soler - 雙聲道

2005-08-11T01:05:00.000+08:00

(This review was a bit late... but actually I have been listening to this CD for quite awhile since I bought it.)

Frankly, I have no idea about this album at all. At first glance at the MTR poster, my guess was another "Twins-wannabe" - in male version. (Ok, that was too mean of me... I know that they are real twins!)

I remembered the very first time I overheard one of their songs from radio. "That was a real good song!" I thought. I had no idea of what that was, except I suspected that it was something new from Beyond, or Paul Wong. (The song I heard was 海嘯 btw, and it was in fact its lyrics by Paul Wong, hmm...)

I downloaded the whole album in mp3s, but took me just first 2~3 songs before I decided I got to have this CD...

I probably won't go into detail of their biography - which you can find out from here. The whole album is so outstanding. It is so local, and yet so international (i.e., Cantonese + English + Putongua). Music style is definitely my favourites - reminded me of Tai-chi, Beyond, Paul Wong, Jun Gung (恭碩良), as well as vocal by 張崇基/張崇德. Too bad that none of them have new songs anymore.

Highly Recommended:
海嘯
陌生人
緊箍咒
羅馬冬假
暗器
Stay Awhile

Wow, I was surprised over 50% of the whole album is excellent! This is an album produced with heart - nothing fancy; just good music, good lyrics, great songs.

Guess our local music is not yet completely hopeless afterall. Let's just hope that they can keep this up!

"非禮勿聽，非禮勿視，非禮勿言"

2005-08-09T17:57:00.000+08:00

Everyone is a critic

2005-08-01T15:03:00.000+08:00

Ok, maybe it's just me, but when I ask for comments on my photo work, I really mean it. Praise is not exactly what I am looking for; coz I rely greatly on someone else's eyes to tell me what my photo convey to them. I need critism. Then I'll learn; I'll fine-tune. I know all my work is far from perfect, and I'd like to get as close as possible. One of the most "insulting" (well, to me anyway) comments is someone else praise by saying "靚女" (meaning: pretty lady, pretty model, hotties, etc... take your pick) and that's all! Kind of pisses me off coz it seems there's nothing else to say... I mean "靚女" or not is not really my hands' work (I'm not god in case you haven't noticed!) I liked to believe that everyone has his/her own beauty, and it takes me to discover and bring that out in my work. If I can do that, I'd think I really accomplish something...

It's time to shoot something else other than "靚女"...

Life as a designer/photographer

2005-07-26T17:03:00.000+08:00

Striked an interesting post at Image Is Live with couple of forumners (is this a word??) Victoria and Avedon couple days ago.

Here is a direct link to the post. In both Chinese and English. Might already expired by the time you get to it.

All about photography, art, advertising and the business world.

The Sky

2005-07-26T16:21:00.000+08:00

It has always been there

Being neglected

It changes

It can be so cruel, so powerful

and yet so beautiful

Just taking a break - sort of...

2005-07-25T12:47:00.000+08:00

I feel bad. Working on a project for a Beijing health spa client due in two weeks (I thought it was just some cheapo spa like the ones at MK/Jordan/YMT area, but hell, I was way wrong - shame on me to think like that!), and I promised to have the first layout done by Mon. (I guess boss shouldn't get so happy so soon when I said that... ha!) Really, I shouldn't say that, coz I got lazy on Sun.; went out for a hair cut as well as a long coffee break on a layback sunny afternoon. :P But then again not all is loss, coz I really do think about the layout a lot during the whole weekend; no matter where I was, what I was doing on hand. I just wanted to get the 1st draft to client for approval ASAP.

*****************************************************************

I rarely buy books any more unless really necessary - coz either 1)no time to read it, 2)no more bookshelf space can be spare and I'm too lazy to do some serious cleanup. I came across this photography collection book "“Now you see it, Now you don't” by Kabo which I've casually flipped through few months ago, and love her work. Finally bought it the day (as the stock is down to the last few). Recommended to any beginner who are seriously into photography, or great to have it as an idea jump-starter.

Gosh...

2005-07-22T15:06:00.000+08:00

I couldn't believe I haven't been writting for so long! Damn works are never done, and it just getting heavier... maybe I should configure my PDA, so that I can blog anywhere (even on transit, for example).

Well, but no, not just works... Have been going out quite frequently with a bunch of friends from kakasite, and yeah, we were having fun, like going out and doing fun stuffs - movies, boat cruise, dinners, etc. Hmm, should have post some pics here soon, just for the good memory. Ok, maybe just a bit too much fun time, and not enough time to CATCH UP ON WORKS!!!

Alright alright, I'm going back to work... :(

Beauty is not enough

2005-06-13T08:02:00.000+08:00

Last Sat. we shot with HK Mini Club - basically outdoor event shooting of beautiful gals with cars (all Mini, of coz). This is 2nd time I attended similar event like this one (last time was with Type-R car racing event at Zhuhai). To be honest, I don't exactly enjoy this type of event that much. This is the type of photographs you find in many magazines, with less-car-focus, and more gal-focus. I mean it's just not too much point of interest other than gal models posing in front, behind, beside, and on top (yes, on top...) of the car. Models have fine looks and not that they are not pretty or anything like that, just that shooting with cars in motion would be a lot more interesting - although I did took shitty photos last time at Zhuhai... still got lots to learn about shooting at car racing event.

A photo session should have themes (hey, even with cars, it can be done... I think), ideas, expression, story to tell, etc. In event like this, I just don't know how I fit myself into it, and often I don't have a focus of what I'm doing - other than play myself as a magazine reporter, and keep my finger jumping on the shutter... :(

I feel great!

2005-06-12T14:49:00.000+08:00

ok, I'm finally back to my normal self these days (well, almost). I just need to keep my strict schedule of going to the gym every other day, two hours per session, no matter how busy I am - since last Wed., either early in the morning before work, or at late after work. This time I'm really pressing myself to make this my everyday habbit from now on with no matter what. Although I feel a bit fatique physically, but all are fine, and I feel I'm in touch with myself mentally more - to find will and energy within myself to deal with anything in everyday life.

Got to take good care of myself and prepare for anything, coz in this world, no one else care more than your own.

No energy...

2005-06-07T09:25:00.000+08:00

My energy level at its lowest at all times...

Lots of work are on my back - from both full-time and part-time sides. It has been that way for about two weeks now. I'm afraid to admit that this trend is going to stay...

I really want to goto gym more. I know I have to, coz it is so obvious that even after a night of 7 hrs. sleep, I barely had enough energy to handle the a day's work.

Yeah, no doubt that the day's work got heavier. The thing is that I'm just too bombed out to hit the gym after work hours. The gym is just so packed with ppl at those hours! (And yeah, I know, it sounds like an excuse... Shame on me!)

That's it. I'm going to the gym tmr at 6am.

I must be crazy...

2005-05-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

May 18 already? Oh shoot...

Work is gradually piling up, and seems no end to it... And I committed myself to another freelance project! What am I thinking... I must be crazy!

Hired a new junior to help myself last week, and he starts tomorrow. Hope he can do me some good. But I still haven't configure his workstation yet... must hv it done by today...

Lots of things going on these days. I'm working on a photo-story lately, and now working on it. Probably not going to tell much in here for now - just to keep it under cover for awhile, hehe! It's currently on storyboarding stage. Need to organize/meeting with models, book date for shoot, concept thinking, thinking, and more thinking...

Photography work - Tien Tien Mar. 05

2005-04-26T10:05:00.001+08:00

More of my works here...

See ya' kaKAsite Gallery

2005-04-20T13:39:00.000+08:00

*"I won't use the word "Goodbye", coz there'll be the day of meeting again."

Kaka has announced the closure of kaKAsite Gallery. Go figures, though it is not unexpected (well, it is not exactly a valid business venture anyway; more like a private gathering place...). The coffee, well, it's not exactly gourmet-grade (but hey, better than many places elsewhere... AW! Don't hit me, kaka!) I had lots of good times there. Met many new friends; rekindle my long lost passion for photography, and many more! I'm sure our gangs will continue to stay close via kakasite forum and within your photog events.

To kaka: This must have been quite an experience for you, huh? Business venture is great, but there's a bigger world for you to see and experience out there. Life is too short to stay in one stage for too long. So go on, and have yourself a great time! I'm sure you are more capable than this! :D

Photography work - Portrait - Mar. 2005

2005-04-20T09:55:00.000+08:00

Photography is becoming a serious hobby for me lately. Shooting schedule is almost packed in next few weeks. So many plans and ideas, so little time... I wish I could have more time for post-production though.

Here are some current work:

More of my works here...

Janice - "Day & Night"

2005-04-13T22:36:00.000+08:00

Things are pretty hectic at work these days, and the only thing that has been keeping me sane is my iPod music. And I found this...

Janice - "Day & Night"

This is a long awaited album for me. Before its release, there was only one plug-song - "情深說話未曾講" on late night radio. (Actually there were another song "Big Brother" which I haven't heard before.) The only detail given was that her name is Janice, so-called "see-mui" of Leon Lai, and that's all. What a beautiful voice she has! It is such a rare treat at current trend of rather disappointing local canto-pop scene nowadays. That promo on radio was quite a long time ago, and have been waiting for this album ever since. A few days earlier, her name Janice caught my eyes on a bus stop poster. Album finally released on Apr. 12. and I bought it right away on the next day.

I'm not going into Janice's profile here - that should be easily found elsewhere since the album has been released, and seemed many ppl are already talking about it. The package is rather simple, even a bit of an understatement. It has nothing fancy and not much design of any sort. There is a lyrics booklet, with a few portrait photos of Janice herself (and personally, I think the photos could have been done better). This is definitely one very bland package I haven't seen in a long while - especially in HK, where lavish packaging is the norm way to go.

But who cares? Music is everything. CD goes onto the player tray. The music is on.

What I was hearing is that this is an album full of music with heart and soul. Granted, all were Leon's old song, but with new arrangement by Mark Lui and other musicians, unlike many other pop music artists in HK canto-pop scene, you can tell everyone who had their work put into this album are REAL pros! They really know what music is all about. And Janice voice is just breathe taking. By all means, no, she's not perfect (and no, she's not another Susan Wong want-to-be; not yet anyway). Even with my amateur music training background, I can see that she still need to work on her vocal techniques, etc., but oh heck with it - she's one great refreshment in a long while!

"iPodding seriously damages your chances of getting laid."

2005-03-29T13:40:00.000+08:00

Came across this interesting article on The Register - "Australian head teacher has banned pupils from bringing their iPods into school, because they encourage social isolation."

Hmm, let's see.. is this any different than we were not allowed to bring walkman, Nintendo Game&Watch (the pre-historic version of today PSP), etc., to class ages ago? Basically anything that distract student from listening to teachers was on the banning list anyway.

Social isolation - now that's another issue altogether, and it has a point. iPod does create a "isolated bubble" surround any individual in public places - wherever it would be on a subway, bus, or in a cafe. Actually, not only iPod - same goes for PSP, PDA, as well as anyone with a mobile device (i.e., phone) with games on it. Just that iPod with its headphone full of music is much more "isolated" than others.

But isn't that's where our social is moving toward? Our city is so crowded - we hardly have any time and space of our own anymore. Everywhere you look, day-to-day, is crowded with people.

In Canada, I used to enjoy driving so much, just becoz it creates a bubble for my own - where I can enjoy my own little private cabin space. In HK, automobile is a sheer luxury - not to mention over 90% of the time driving you are in traffic jam...

So is iPodding such a bad thing? Not for me. But to who still in their growing-up-phase, this will create "loner". Japanese was one of the first to reconize this as a serious social disorder problem for their teenagers.

And what about net surfing? Teenager spending way too much time on computer now than ever before. Shouldn't they go out and play/social more?

I'm telling mrsoong NOT to allow his baby daugther to even get close to the computer - and NO COMPUTER GAMES - at least as late as possible... :P

Here are the days of my life

Life is struggling

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Social network first tackled - in Google+ way

Criticism in the speed of light

Totally overkill and a waste of time...

Cutting down on FB

戰場上的最後聖誕

Technology is only a tool

Pixel Imagery - Photo shoot for Kirita + Carlos

"Post-wedding" for Kirita+Carlos

Linkin Park - Waiting for the End

Man of Justice 法網群英 - the first or the last?

Man On The Moon - Jun Kung

Rim of light

The lies, the truth and the quasi-truth (part 2 of 2)

The lies, the truth and the quasi-truth (part 1 of 2)

Price of the human lives

Some day... in July

New Turn

"Stop and Stare"

Walking on my own

Moving along

New career

"我不信命 我只信你"

Kenting Trip

"Oh, I'm not ok"

沙龍

Opportunity knocking twice

So much can change in an instance

The treatment

The Preparations

The Day

Privacy

That don't kill me can only Makes Me Stronger

"Something Beautiful"

"I Want to Believe"

MMORPG

It's here...

Strobist Seminar DVDs

Studio - Kiko 2008.3.2

Product shoot session

Dayoff...

DigitalPixel.Net...

How real is our photos...

Bridal shoots

This has been way, way too long...

This is fun!

Snow hits after

Snow hits

Long vacation

"Sayuri Westside Story"

What the $%#& wrong with me?!

Stress, stress, and more stress...

"OK" - 張震嶽 A-yue

Liberation of the mass (for the mass?)

"Closer"

Live Life...

300

"It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be"

Thinking more, shooting less

New photo gallery

Is photography an art?

"Advertising Space"

The higher you are, the more BS'es

To the limit and beyond

Pushing

The days

Departure of a loved one

The awakening

2006

3-days trip at Taipei (2)

3-days trip at Taipei (1)

X'mas is coming!

November's Chopin - Jay Chou

"You're Beautiful"

Densha-Otoko

That thing we called Love

Losing it...

The heat is on

"我不信命　我只信你"