Friday, October 30, 2009

Copper Week maybe...

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Next Tuesday is suppose to be a public holiday but since Monday will be e regular work day, I took leave specially to go down to Tokyo to meet a good friend to fulfil a promise made long ago. Since things didn't quite go the way I wanted, and I really didn't want to revoke the leave, I thought I should try to exploit as much of it as I can.

Tonight I will head to Karuizawa to crash a Halloween Party and my choice of costume, a Chinese Zombie since I had the Kung Fu shirt and all I need is a tailsman which I had already printed it out thanks to the company's printer. And then tomorrow after my Japanese class, I will head down to Tokyo maybe for more parties? Not sure yet but since I got to crash at my free and cosy Tokyo pad, I couldn't care less. Sunday will be a full day of shopping by meself I presume since everyone else will be busy.

I had already mapped out the locations and wrote down the items that I need to get to start playing with my films. So indeed I am really excited...and then on Monday, I will visit the Tokyo Motor Show with my SG bro in Tokyo. And the best of it all, Tuesday will still be a holiday after all these...and that almost sums up this year's amazing spread of holidays. Golden week, Silver week, Bronze week but as a joke I shall name it copper week.

Picked up my paycheck yesterday night and loitered around the area for a while. Found a nice family style Kimono Shop which would be able to tailor-make me the Samurai Kimono if I supplied the pictures so I might see what they have to offer. Walked around a little more and stopped by a rustic camera shop where I spoke to the lady Boss in charge. Found out that not many people in this area I presumed do their own film developing which she was really surprised when I told her I wanted to do my own developing. Before leaving, I "seduced" her to whisk a few rolls of expired film hopefully so that I could practise the spooling action. Satisfactory obtained 1 roll in the end.

The pictures of the photoshoot last week went pretty well and though most of the pictures are already posted on Facebook, I will try to get them up here as well along with the other wedding pictures. Blogger has always been slow in the picture uploading process which I really dread. Anyway I got quite a decent number of good hits, constructive comments with regards to the recent photoshoot. It seems that my friends have a rather high level of expectation and thus I shall not disappoint in the future. Really made my day to see so many friends appreciating my pictures and putting those pictures that I had taken as their profile pictures.

Looking at more wedding pictures of my Master, I was more intrigued to step into the vast world of artistic vision to preserve the most beautiful moments of humanity. Of course the works of my Master were of leaps and bounds beyond me and I could only try to walk in the trail that he had blazed. Hopefully someday I can make my mark and have my efforts recognised as well. I did remember my Mum saying to me when I was young that the teachers in my primary school realised that I had a potential in the artistic field since I sucked at regular subjects. I wasn't very analytical to begin with but my textbooks were all donned in insane depictions of various characters. Somehow I always tend to excel in art classes even till secondary school where I drew a banana the way it was with inperfections, like distortions, color variances, etc and everyone else drew what they wanted to see, a perfect banana. The sort of seperated me from my peers who scored amazing grades and went on to pursue an amazing career.

Me, I fleed to Japan to further expand and realise my potential in artistry thru photography and some computer wizardry. Then I met more inspiration people and they enlightened my vision even further.

Though my current job pays rather decently and probably has the most holidays, it has been 3 years and I thought I needed a change of environment. I want to be a wedding photographer and I started pulling contacts and strings. There is one slight opportunity at the moment but I have not met the man in charge yet. Still I have to go thru interviews and screenings but my triumph card would be my ability to speak 3 languages and the difference of perspective. I had to start somewhere and wedding photography in Japan is a totally different ballgame from SG. Photographers are not an independent entity but rather part of a package tied to a location or wedding company which provides the dress, photographers, planning, etc. Nonetheless, I am willing to take this leap of faith and plunge my passion into a career.

Ok all that ambitious blabbers aside, I am ready and set for the PARTIES!

P.S. I do hope that my little Teddy Bear is doing fine and I miss my little Teddy Bear.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The drapes of perfection

- Never Stop Dreaming -

It all started when with a huge fascination about Japanese cultures and history but Kimonos have kinda lost the masculine appeal while retaining the intricate and beautiful depictions reserved only for the female form.

I do like Kimonos a lot but I would say I appreciate them wrapping petite Japanese females like little presents than on the males. Thru my tour of duty here in Japan, males are hardly seen in Kimonos unless at Weddings or Funerals. Besides, it's a lot easier to drape a male in Kimonos since dressing a female is pretty much an ancient art like tea ceremony. Other reasons which I presume would be that the Bushido depiction of a male clad in Samurai Kimonos might seems a little violent and not generally accepted.

Nonetheless, I do not like the typical wedding kimonos for males since they tend to be a little bland and dull for my taste. Instead the "Ronin" or lone wanderer Samurai appeal seems to protray a more subtle but mysterious aura which I really like. And I have absolutely no intention to stick any Katanas in my Obi to complete the look. I kinda felt that a simple Bushido Kimono with the clogs would be a nice style from the warring eras in this modern society that we life in. I do know that not many people fancy it but that's not really my issue anyway.

The one Samurai that I draw most influences from is Sakamoto Ryoma (坂本龍馬). The other famous names in history had huge helmets, armors and are battle ready which would be ridiculous if worn without a good cause.


This was the replica of the Kimono Sakamoto wore with the family emblem on the sleeves. But I presume the light grey hakama, though very cool would be dirtied easily so I am actually looking at Toshizo's version.


Eventhough these are not the original pieces, they are still pretty costly raking in close to SGD$1k.

A day with Autumn in Fall

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Went out for a photoshoot that I had promised a friend yesterday...which had me sneaked out mid way thru a "normal" workday. Evil and sneaky bastard but there was no work for the second half of the day and I had to hang around with the possibility of catching the deadly influenza, I opted to flee and take advantage of the fine weather after 2 days of continuous rain.

Her name was A and she was pretty sweet to work with but I found out that only certain angles was appropriate since I was rather picky. I wanted to find the angle thad appeals most to me so I had her struting her stuff as she like. She was tall hovering around 170cm but that's besides the issue. The place was not my first priority but thank god I went there because the Sun, the mountains and the colors turned out better than I had expected. It turned out really fun because the photoshoot was done purely in natural light, located on a gentle hill and had me leopard crawling to get those much desired angles...

The second location was foiled when some old Japanese grandpa discovered my evil plans to inflitrate an abandon building for the B/W shoots...DAMN! Might need to do another covert operations with the correct crew under the cover of darkness.

I didn't go all trigger crazy but rather selective on the framings...will try to get ir proccessed tonight if time permits. And those on film...I am not sure when they will be ready.

Reasons we all have readily to be expolited

- Never Stop Dreaming -

As the temperature starts to decline steadily and slowly, the days becomes shorter, the leaves start to dazzle with rich colors and I become more crazy. Indeed the short span of autumn colors are only here for a while like the sakura(s) in spring, I have to kick into high gear and try to catch as much of it as possible before they are all gone.

Been burying myself in photography and events just to stay away from unfortunate incidents which I found to be rather complex in nature. Since the weather is becoming colder as winter lurks around the corner, I guess I have to move a bit more to keep meself warm. Been hanging out healthily with a bunch of old school photographers/friends who have cheap, unfanciful monster film SLRs like Asahi Pentax 67, Pentax LX, Contax ???, etc. These old gems can be easily bought off the numerous second hand shops all around for a mere couple of hundreds, a small affordable fraction of the price of today's newest digital SLRs.

Film used to be a taboo for me which I believed was expensive and difficult to fool around with. But as I progressed thru the path of photography, many influences and inspirations started to poison me and in the end, I found out that film though might be a little more expensive than digital, it's a lot more fun. Besides, the colors, contrast and the grains are not yet possible with digital manipulation even with the Wizardry of Photoshop Gurus. Certain film, camera and gear are almost in non-existence in SG but here, they can be easily obtained which clearly fuel the very niche group of film users. You would be surprised that there are actually quite a decent number of film users in Japan.

I started out with my first roll of Neopan 1600 3 weeks back to test out the camera that I had bought. Boy was I excited like a little kid when I tore open the box, took out the cylindical canister, opened it and popped the roll of film into the camera and hear the mechanical winding sound. With no LCDs to display the fanciful histograms or picture playbacks, it was now pure instincts to test out the possibilities with an old but not obsolete piece of precision engineering (God I simply love that phrase!).

One of my friend who has like 4 to 5 cameras that are almost equivalent to the price of my single 5Dmk2 dabbles a lot in film. I was seeking his tutorage since he had a good head start in film before me. Then I found out about the dangerous Natura 1600 which produces some of the most beautiful faded colors when used at the right lighting and conditions. I was tempted once again because what I had till now was just digital manipulation at it's best and presented before me was an array of prints that were beyond description.

So with all that, I forsee a hefty budget into the near future with the purchase of a film scanner, darkroom materials, printer, etc. But at the moment, I have a couple of things to get with my limited budget which puts me in a delimma. I have set my eyes on the Sigma HSM EX DG 50mm F1.4 for a while but at the same time I have also decided to get meself an affordable Samurai Kimono Set since the authentic ones are almost SGD$3.6k. The scenarios are in such a way that if I get the lens, I can play with it and also use it at the upcoming wedding which I had volunteered to be the main photographer to mark my debut. Sad to say it's for free...(Am I stupid?), which if I get the Kimono, it would be the only chance I could get close to possessing a piece of history at a affordable price. The lens will still be there but not really sure about the kimono. I might need to try the lens to confirm the various focusing issues littering the net but I would also have to try the kimono to see the fit. Decision and more decision...but I am leaning more on the lens.

Initially I was pretty happy when a good friend told me she was coming to Tokyo and I would get to meet her fulfilling our long promise made ages back. I took leave specially for that day with plans to get the lens along with the darkroom materials but, it somehow ended in a disappointment instead, the second one so far. Well, I guessed I could fault anyone since everyone has their own priorities in life and I am no where near the top. You see she was coming with her bf and of course I would not fit anywhere in the picture or the schedule. The other disappointment was pretty much the same with me being casted in the shadows. A couple of good Japanese friends was nudgling me to accompany them to SG in Dec/Jan 2010 crossover some months back and I was almost ready to drop a surprise visit in SG for...nvm but I guessed that reason is no longer valid since people move on with their lives. Maybe I might just... but only to see my good friends, do some photos for them, for my family and for my grandma and to meet the sole reamining reason in person.

And when decisions have been made, any attempts to justify, redeem or explain only yields more reasons to confirm the decision made so why bother.

Expensive shopping list for months ahead but I really hope I can find the much needed warmth in Winter without making a trip back to SG. Maybe a short trip to Taiwan to visit my BROTHER would be ideal...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

There is ONLY one reason left...

- Never Stop Dreaming -

A while ago, there were more than one reason to subdue me and drag me sorry ass back to SG. Not that I really want that but I was "ready" to return to SG for those reasons. But time is really Man's best friend as "All shall be revealed with time" couldn't have described it better.

I had already forseen the imminent arrival into the future but still it griped me a little hard but not enuff to suffocate. My hunch had never failed me and once again I got it spot on. The departure, then return and then the departure plays like a loop on a CD track and though I wasn't very happy about it, I wasn't in a position to judge. But this reason soon puts a closure to everything after 2 or maybe 3 years of uncertainty. I see no future in uncertainties and I can only wish I was half as good. So go forth and put me in the shadows like I had always been, never seeing the light and never fleeing the darkness.

And with each closure of reasons, the numbers become smaller until finally there is only 1 left.

The ONLY 1 that has no lies, no truth, no future, no past and had withstood the elements and even time. This will be the sole reason I would wanna go back to SG and be there for good. But this will also be the ONLY reason I will have regrets giving up to seek The Path since it (the reason ifself) had never left and had always been by my side in times of ups and in times of downs.

However in light of all these reasons and reason, I have absolutely no intention of going back so I can only sulk and remember the memories. I really hope that there are less pathetic, less fortunate, lower educated, dumb assholes like Ris "the no brainer IQ is super" Low and her sub-standard-deserved-to-be-ghosted kind of shits would stop plaguing this planet.

Go screw yourself!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Avoiding Radar Detection but smiling

- Never Stop Dreaming -

I am laying low for a while now since there is a huge puncture in my forcasted budget for this month. It was all because of my Company screwing things up bad...but to console myself, at least I learnt something meaningful because the Stupid company can get anything done right.

I had to pay a decent lump sum of some weird tax in one go all because my company told me to ignore it when the tax form first came something back. Totally surprised me since I did not budget for it and now I had to go thru such troubles. I wasn't prepared to take it in my stride since I was being credited for overdues. So after some persistence and arrogant stand, my company decided to pay the overdues which they totally should not making the decision right when they got the chance.

Ever since I got the film camera, the path from there forth is going pretty influential. Next month, I will have to go down to Tokyo to get the necessary supplies to develop my own film. With no intention of spurging and expanding more space in my house, just enough supplies for a low production would be sufficient to sustain the current film option. Was initially eyeing the Sigma 50mm f1.4 prime but depending on how it goes, I might have to delay that purchase. Besides, my best friend D, is coming to Japan in Nov and I took 1 day leave (hopefully it will get approve) to meet her for 3 days in Tokyo. We had talked about meeting each other in Japan since God knows how many many years back but finally now everything will become reality. Don't really want no dogs barking at me while partying with great friends but I don't think that is in my control. "@*`!"#$%!!!"

There is a very high chance, almost absolute I would say, that I will not continue my line of work from Mar 2010. Will move to pursue a photographer's role and presumably in wedding, hopefully in Karuizawa or Tokyo. I really don't need luck at the moment but possibilities and opportunities.

Never have I even imagined that photography which I had picked up as a hobby might be my very rice bowl...

Pictures of the Shikoku Road Trip

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Here they are, the pictures in exchange for the wordy essay...sorry for the delay but thanks for the patience.


The wide lanes beautifully decorated with white broken lines before the series of massive "A" monsters crept in.




The Twin Red Aces.


These distracting oil tankers are squeaky clean so I had to catch that magnificient reflected view.


"Ahhhh yeah! Ghost in the resonance....!"


"You see all roads lead to the same destination and it's definitely not ROME!...it's DEATH!"


"More bridges!"


Really didn't expect this to turn out well but hey, it wasn't THAT bad!


While I got my epical Dawn on the top of Fuji, this had to be the epical Dusk on the highways on Shikoku.


"Pretty Boy P"


"And so the silent crow, the sacred pet of Darkness, watches as yet another one falls victim to the scythe of Death."







Japanese Feudal Architectual never fails to mesmerize me.

And here are my favorites...the Lost Glory of the Samurai(s)!


Even emblems like these are so uber cool.














The view from the top of the castle was equally amazing before the pictures of the starry night skies flows in. Here, gazillions trinkets of blinking gems scattered the velvet skies to embrace a path of mystery, the Milky Way.





Yep, we camped in front of this little pond gazing up at the stars!



Beaches were next...




Photoshoots and other misc pictures

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Have too much holidays and time recently and I didn't spent them on un-productive issues so I decided to seive thru my photos and process as much as I can. I will go thru the photos with a short description beneath each when necessary.


While I was back in SG during my annual Summer break, I went out with E whom I had not seen in flesh and blood for more than 700 days. Wanted to check out Henderson Bridge after seeing the crazy pictures of it but had a rather unusual experience. Didn't went trigger frenzy but rather opted for a more subtle chilling session. This one shot of E's beautiful eyes did yielded some magic.


You see upon closer inspection of the file taken by the monster 5Dmk2, reflections of life was artistically painted on E's soul window. A silhouette of a stranger, trees and the horizon seperating the skies. I personally really like this picture because E's eyes were fantastic to begin with.












These insane pictures was the obvious brain child of me and so I shall take all shameless credit from there! Well, the inspiration came when some of my friends were playing with it in a bar making the usual palm shapes. The uber famous Han Solo in carbonite scene came zapping into my head like a laser and viola. Let's start with the last one as representing Yours Truly, me. The second last one morphing into a devil and the third last one from The Frighteners.


M was the sister of a Japanese friend, E, and though she was only 18 going 19, she had the traits of a potential model. So I decided to zap her once for lens food and boy was I delighted that I did.

And the one(s) below was a recent "Mini Photoshoot" that I did using the umbrella, colored gels and wireless triggers. The tunnel that I had travelled thru numerous time was always the place that I wanted to do a shoot and this was a fairly nice chance. Outside it was raining non stop and the weather was rather chilly but everything went on smoothly and boy was it fun. The model was A, a fellow photographer but she does wedding using a Canon setup as well. She was extremely fun to work with and wasn't critical of my amateurish 5Dmk2 toys.











One of my kids in her "Concentration" moments!


Another one of my younger kids (she is only 12 in 2009) with a HUGE potential to be a future model.


Ha, this is one really really adorable son of the current principal of Tenrikyo Singapore. Caught him eyeing the colorful mind fuel while I was back in SG.