ThisCowIsPurple.com

Its a really amazing piece of programming. Take a normal photo, combine with some love from lightroom and the photos really pop. RAW really helps also.. saved a ton of my photos. I suspect alot of photgraphers are not as great as they are in their slideshows and portfolios and it really comes down to the digital darkroom skills. Who cares how you do it, as long as the photos come out nice right? heh. Here is where we have some respect for the filmheads who can manipulate their photos to some extent.. but never with the ease, power, flexibility and speed of the digital people.

Going to purchase some film+developing from fotohub and try in the US on the minolta. Got a sale on for Some Kodak Portra 160NC film! haha.. I wonder if scanning is expensive at fotohub.. if the $9.90 doesn’t cover it.. I guess I’ll give it a miss. These are exciting times.. haha.. Makes me wonder if I’ll get a DSLR in the far future. But I’m at least waiting out the next 4-5 years. If I don’t earn anything from photography, I’m not going to throw so much money in. After all, so much collecting and then one day having to give it up is quite a zero sum game (hey we’re all going to die right?). This came as a thought after suggesting to Henry that he liquidate his entire equipment stash which is reasonably substantial.

Off to read and correct more bad english in my group’s project report! Ta..

It feels so good to run! Physically I mean. Did 5K with the big chern. Was going to go for supper with Bernice but the girl has been out the whole day and wants to go home. Happy early birthday anyway! Hmmm.. now I have an unsatisfied craving for maggi goreng. Oh well..I have a 600 calorie deficit today then.

Mondays are always super short cos I go school from 8:30 to 10 only then fly home. Today I took it slow and went out to get stuff at bugis before meeting and eating won ton mee with YX. We walked about and went to eat at canele a small tiramisu as well. Makes me kinda miss the choco cake at fullerton hotel.

I’ve never felt so much despair at something since an August 29th a couple of years ago. Listening to music helped me look back to God again.

“You are good, and your love endures..”

Somehow looking at an attribute of God that is seemingly unrelated had a calming effect on me. I promised him I’d never look back if he helped me look at him.

A few emails here and there later, I’m ready to go for a run. I need to be fit.. to live long and be productive. To be as much earthly good for as long as is physically possible. To serve till the day my body cannot move and my mind grows senile, to do something today that will echo for eternity. Join me?

What a beauty!

I was going to sell off the body to keep the ultra fast 50mm/f1.4 lens but as I read more and more about it.. I really don’t think the XGM is very much more awesome although its about 8 years more advanced (1973 vs. 1981). So I think.. I will keep this thing (if it works like new). It cost me a total of…. $63sgd!!! hahahahhahaha.. thats peanuts cheap for a 50mm/f1.4 lens alone. I’m really quite happy with this. So (obviously) I’ll give the Yashica 35GSN a miss. This is an even better deal! I totally cannot believe it. Here begins the story of the 1st ever SLR I own. Mine’s abit dirtier than this though.. I guess thats not a problem that autosol and buffing cannot solve!

Some pictures from other people:

A tub of Gelare Ice Cream! From the Wangs.. whose friendship I’ve really enjoyed (I hope its the same for them.. haha..)

Haha.. pastor gave me this today. A money belt! For my upcoming trip to the USA. I’ve been using a po lan disgusting beige thing for years. Its a good time to change! Can add it to my bumper crop of very very good presents this year..

Oh man.. I saw a semi decent buy (I think).

But its an slr.. like.. whats the point of getting one of these when DSLRs do so much better? still.. 50mm/f1.4 is really quite decent. I’m still aiming the Yashica 35 GSN

Har har har.. but this one wait long long for this other guy to repair and sell his for about $100. Then i can keep my dad’s camera back in the dry box where its safe and sound.

You’ve got to listen to it.

I was looking to buy stuff off ebay again but I felt I shouldn’t even though it was quite a good deal.. In the end my bid (which would have been the winning one) was thwarted by a “confirm your bid” page which delayed me just beyond the end of bid time. In the end I lost 30 min of good sleep (545am leh!!), a dirt cheap Rollei 35LED  (which I really wanted cos it had problems that were so easy to repair) and felt generally tired and annoyed through the morning.

Anyways, I think I shall be more sensitive now.. Haha.. its funny I would say this after I JUST bought a cheap flash.. BUT that was actually the 2nd flash I saw after I felt I shouldn’t buy the first one. haha.. is that counted? Still.. Some things are not meant to be I guess..

Lastly, I’ve fully repaired the lightmeter on the Rollei 35S. Its super cool these discrete device circuits.. so simple to fix and replace. Spoilt something just get the part (30c-$1?). Integrated circuits just completely fail and require an exact replacement. Realised there was a short circuit.. once I just insulated the cotntacts properly I tested out the meter with my G9 and the metering was spot on! I couldn’t believe it. It only varied by about 1/3 of a stop in different situations (one spot bright, general bright, shoved in front of my lamp). And this lightmeter is like made of 3 resistors and a battery vs a DIGIC3 processor and gaget wizardry in the G9. How amazing is that?

Next step is to zhng it so that when I depress the shutter button halfway the lightmeter will kick in. Shouldn’t be hard.

A Voigtländer 35mm viewfinder wuth super bright brightlines! I mentioned it about 2 months back. Can even see it in the dark with a little light in front la! From YX! Thanks. Check it out!

Cool? No?

I can’t make the G9 retain manual focus once the screen is off yet.. if not I’ll try using it already. Well, it also came with a card of course..

An Apple iPod dock! lol! I’ve been aiming one but always felt like too expensive like that. So my bro bought one for me in the end. Thanks! Its got this rubber base which doesn’t slip around. Its nice and hefty so it doesn’t roll over.