Thursday, December 28, 2006

Stanley 'A Clockwork Orange' Kubrick

An image from 'Look' magazine in 1949 depicting Stanley Kubrick attempting to photograph an unknown woman in an undisclosed location. Guess what camera Kubrick is using there... No prizes for guessing :-) Kubrick throughout the years have no doubt established himself as a cult movie director. His career encompassed many successful and cult movies we have today, namely: A Clockwork Orange, Space Oddesey, Full Metal Jacket and the superb: The Shining which starred Jack Nicholson. Kubrick somehow had a signature recipe to all his movies and never failed to leave an impact so hard, viewers yearned them over after. Have a joyful New Year ahead. OTOH: My flight ticket got confirmed last evening, so London here I come!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas and jolly New Year ahead! 2006 has been sweet, let's look forward to an even syrupier 2007 soon...

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

De Ja Vu


Yup. You got it.. Last time I was in the UK: Jan '06... fast forwarding to Dec somehow the yearning to be in the UK (or London for that matter) is always a motivation for me to work harder at work (I always do btw.. :-)); with hopes for a short and enjoyable little vacation in cold Europe, to clear my busy mind. So, keeping my fingers crossed, my air ticket is still on standby, so please pray for me to be able to go....The MAS flight is apparently fully booked... On the other note, this scenic photo here was taken with my trusty Leica M6 & the recently disposed off 21mm Elmarit lens at the Kensington Palace grounds (home of the late Princess of Wales, Diana). I still remember vividly that cool winter morning, the sun had a peculiar skin penetrating warmness effect on our already heavy clothings. It perfectly contrasted the notion of cloudy and foggy winter days in London... A little dry for us tropical homosapiens but nevertheless; refreshing in every way. Remember, cross thou fingers mates!

Thumbs...

I like this photo very much: subject is clearly focused and attention to the viewer is immediate. The bokeh throwed basically everything else out of the way... Photo courtesy of wifey, Jessie.

Clowning around

This shot came about last nite when Jessie and I started to coax the 5D and the L zoom to its max. performance. This is at 70mm focal length at the largest setting aperture of 2.8 for the zoom lens. Not bad a bokeh for a zoom lens... Indeed, it will be a favourite walkaround lens for a while.. Shall post more of yesterday's rather abstract evening with the DSLR. Cheers.

Monday, December 18, 2006

End of 2006, Bienvenue 2007!

Just a note following the milestones of 2006, despite all the upgrading hifi wise, I'm quite certain my music setup will stay this way for a while... perhaps until I get my own coveted sound room set up, likely in February '07. Nevertheless, the Roksan, the Naims, and the Pipit, not forgetting the Sonus Faber have never failed me this year + 2 odd weeks more... they are in my books; good investments. Hifi, Guitars, and Photography: a ménage a trois in the making... I'm looking forward to my personal dedicated sound chamber in 2007!

A dragon caught not flying...

A macro shot of the dragon fly resting at the national butterfly park using a Canon EOS 20D & Sigma 50/2.8 Macro EX lens. Sadly I only had the 20D for a week before I upgraded to the 5D which is a more fabulous camera to shoot with. Behold, more images to be posted...

Photographic Gear Lust

The cast from top (L to R): MacBook 1.83Ghz, MLY Passport until 2010, Marlboro Lights and lighter, Manfrotto table top tripod, Leica M6 Classic 0.85x with Motor M and 35mm Summicron ASPH, Fuji Provia 100 E6, Voigtlander 21mm finder, Metz 36 C-2 flash gun, Blower, Canon EOS 5D with Sigma Macro 50/2.8, 21mm Elmarit M, and the 90mm Elmarit M. Not in the photo: Canon 24-70 f2.8/USM L zoom lens.

My cheeky littl' niece

None other than the notorious, chaotic, hyper, street-smart, loving and cute Chloe Xue de Souza

Rejuvenated and Looking Forward To Some...


Well apologies for the blogging sabbatical. As you may notice, my inclination these past weeks and months have been in the form of photography and art. So engrosed I was, blog life was shut out temporarily... Anyhow, I'm back. So here goes: finally, I got a DSLR after swearing by never to own one; actually pretty pleased with the built and image quality. I somehow feel that digital SLR cameras have come to a new level of maturity since the last few years, hence the feet dipping... This time around I got the Canon EOS 5D body; a full frame 35mm equivalent CMOS sensor DSLR with a 24-70 f/2.8 USM L lens coming with it. It has 12.8 Mpixels on it so that would last me at least a couple of years without having to upgrade. I find that while this combo is well built (like a tank), it's weight really does, kills! It's not a real comfort walking around the streets lugging around a 2kg camera system for the whole day.... Those were the day of ol' rangefinders... Slowly I began to miss my Leica M system, a well heralded system which is compact, handy, and produces envious images even among DSLR kakis. Coming to my senses however, I realise that these are two very different beasts designed for really different situations of use. You don't drive your nice posh Mercedes (if you have) to work everyday do you? So, I'll continue to use my M6 on lazy vacations where I want to travel light and don't mind or have patience not to be reviewing shots in between... Or, when I feel I need the fast nature of the Leica lenses in low light conditions or where flash work is prohibitted. OTOH, the DSLR is really nice for safaris, bird watching or simply papparazi fests! He He... That I think I'll leave it to the beautifully made Canon L lenses to provide snazzy and cheeky photos... Keep you updated when I get back from a short stint to London's Kensington High Street next week. Cherrio!