When we physicists can drive. . .

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Busy busy holidays!! Right after the exams, I'm caught with research and conference. I barely had time to breathe preparing the poster for the conference. Now, every day I've gotta wake up early(early in the context of holidays!!) to attend the conference. Draining indeed!! Nonetheless, the conference is REALLY interesting!! We got to meet a lot of people who would share their experiences and inputs with us in our researches! Prof even had ideas for new projects, meaning, new research labmates soon enough~

Anyway, yesterday we managed to come back early for the conference because the only interesting part was the poster colloquium where we managed to speak with people who're doing closely related stuffs. Put it short, this conference was really an eye opener!! As I was saying, I managed to come back early, so asked Yok Yin and Sean for dinner, but ended up having a pizza session instead.

Sean's so..............I can't find the word for that LOL.
Ordered the family set. According to Yok Yin, " 'Cause we're one family mar". You bet we are, you're the mother!! XD
Cheesy mushroom or something of that sort.
Might be the last time I see them.

That was it for our short short gathering. Our 2 presidents had to leave for a meeting. That was why we decided to order in instead.

At night, we went out for Jeremy's birthday supper. It was the last day that Song Wee can drive so we sort of made full use of it(you'll see what I mean later). Our man here suggested a place and drove us out for supper, can't be anymore grateful!!

Went to a Hong Kong style cafe somewhere near Anchorpoint.
Ordered some food to share while chatting over them. I believe there's no introduction needed for this dish?Prawn Paste Chicken, if my memory serves me well.

Peanut Butter toast.
Ice cream French Toast. Really nice! Not too sweet!
Some dumpling.
Jeremy brought his wide angle lens to show us! It's REALLY wide! 10 to 20mm, f4.0 to 5.6.

Well, like I've mentiond earlier, it was the last night Song Wee could drive so freely so we made full use of it. By that, I mean. . . .

NIGHT SHOTS!!!!! Muhahahahaha!! Arranged in the order of my personal preference!! This was my favourite! Taken at Clarke Quay. Somehow a lot of my friends didn't like this shot cause I guess I overdid the colour balance!
Here's another more natural one!
Third place!! Clarke Quay too. The middle part was a little bit overexposed but I still think it turned out well!
Taken from the Henderson Wave. Thanks Jeremy for reminding me of the rule of third!
Violation of rule of third! 'Cause I saw the sky was quite interesting. However, the clouds were blurry cause of the strong wind and my long exposure. I really love the composition of this shot!
Tried a composition of the bridge and the city, too bad my lens' angle was not wide enough. Jeremy took a similar shot with his wide angle lens and he managed to cover a lot more!! The composition was better IMO!
Regretted that I did not take from somewhere further away. I missed out the reflections on the water! Song Wee took a similar shot and he played out the reflections nicely! Envious!!Wavy water = not sharp reflection!! Q.q
The decorations was really nice!! But that's all to it. In my humble opinion, this is quite the dull building.

Constructive feedbacks are welcomed!!

Balance of good and bad. . .

Monday, December 7, 2009

Miserable Monday indeed! Throughout the whole day, I was busy. . .busy with what you ask? Hoho, you would not believe it, but I was busy. . . . . .
.
.
.
WAITING!!!! The whole freaking day!!

Things in my to-do list today was:
1. Physics Club Meeting, particularly our own photoshoot session, since none of us like the horrendous photo taken by SPMS. Curious? Here it is.
2. Meeting with Prof Cheong regarding my research data and also my poster for tomorrow' conference.
3. Gotta go to the US Embassy in Singapore to leave my passport there for visa issuance.
4. Have to go out with Jeremy and Prof Cheong to print our posters for the conference starting tomorrow.

Well, the worst part is not the number of tasks, but it's the fact that all the tasks have the same freaking timing!! All are to be done in the afternoon!

Physics Club Meeting was from 1130 onwards; Meeting with Prof Cheong is slightly more flexible, but it was supposed to be somewhere around lunch(before/during/after); Trip to US Embassy had to b done from 1430 to 1530; Prof Cheong's supposed to fetch us out for the poster printing at 1530. So yea, the timing for everything were superposed when buffer and travelling time is taken into consideration. And just when I finally convinced myself that things could not be more complicated, I was proven wrong as usual.

Physics Club Meeting was delayed and the photoshoot was further dragged 'cause of some late members.

Song Wee was like the silver lining between the dark dark clouds of my Miserable Monday when he offered to drive me to the US Embassy. True enough, I managed to get there early and got things done fairly quickly. However, good things never last. His phone died on him, and we lost communication, so after searching for him blindly for 30 minutes, I've decided not to waste more time and just take the cab back to school. Prof Cheong's waiting for me for the poster printing. I'm not blaming anyone here, my point is:

Shit happens

Regardless, I'm very grateful for Song Wee for sending me there. Really saved me heaps of trouble!

Went out with Prof Cheong and Jeremy to print our posters, but throughout most of the time, we were waiting for the posters to be done. By the time we came back, it was already 2000 not to mention I've cancelled dinner with Sean and Yok Yin prior to the delay. So I'm bored, tired and hungry! Boo! However, just like how good things never last, neither do bad. Quoted, "When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better."

I originally thought that I have to buy dinner back to room and as usual, eat alone, but surprisingly I bumped into Connie in canteen!! Apparently she slept past her dinner time so she was out buying food too! So we ended up being dinner company of each other!!

Anyway, after all the rantings and complainings, there are good stuffs that's worth sharing. Yesterday, or rather, this morning, Song Wee and I went out for some night(midnight actually) photography around Singapore. Fortunate enough, one particular photo from our night photography session made the sleepless night(we came back at 5am) and the tonnes of other failed shots worth every bit of it!

Lo and behold~

Tada~ Somewhere around the Merlion, I did an HDR shot of this by setting the exposure time to 30 seconds! With this, I've taken interest into night photography. I realised that long exposure shots are sometimes very intriguing and exciting! Yet another sub-field to venture into!!Similar shot but a different angle. Hmm, I guess I've gotta keep an eye for the red shift effect.
Here's another not-so-bad shot too!!

On another note, the photo that I took of the Physics Club Committee turns out not bad!! In fact, I personally think it's much better than the shot taken by SPMS! XD

No glare, no squinting, no 'trying-to-smile-but-the-sun's glare-is-killing-me' and NO SWEAT(in every sense of the phrase). All I used was a tripod and my kit lens. Oh by the way, we're not too shy with our own school building.
My poster!! Muahaha!! Gotta work hard for my research now.

Well, it seems that all the events that turns my mood back on are related to photography! If all the lack of sleeps will be so well paid with such beautiful photos turnout, I should start sleeping less and less!! Haha!

Holland Village. . .

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Many many thanks to Andrew, Suyun, Mei Mei and Yin Mun!! I sort of asked them out for dinner after exams before I fly off to Canada, so today we went to Cha Cha Cha in Holland Village. I've always wanted to go there with 'you', never had the chance though, I guess. . . there won't be any opportunity in the future. Sigh. Anyway, it was my first time there and I was surprised, that the whole street is occupied by restaurants of different variety and category. There's Mexican, Arab, Western, Japanese and the list goes on and on. Really a nice place to dine. Moreover, most of the restaurants have very nice ambiences!!

Nonetheless, nice ambience means bad lighting for photography and true enough, the photos from Cha Cha Cha didn't turn out too well. I guess I'm not good enough to cope with the bad lighting. Ohh by the way, we had Mexican cuisine~

The girls at the MRT station.
Center weighted metering. The subjects are a little bit overexposed in this case I guess.
On the bus to Holland Village. Apparently they're playing Phua Chu Kang and Rosie. The bus jerked a little bit so I missed PCK.
See what I mean by bad lighting? Hmm. . .can't seem to get rid of the blues on their faces. Advices are greatly appreciated!! Anyway, while everyone was busy looking at the menu and pondering over what to order, I'm busy snapping as usual!
Apetizer!! Forgot what is it called though.
Another apetizer. These rolls consist of beef and chicken. Originally, I cluelessly ate without knowing, until when Andrew mentioned that they're of beef and chicken. Luckily, the one half chewed in my mouth was the chicken one.

Su Yun ordered this. If I'm not wrong, its Burrito.Yin Mun and her chicken something something. Haha!! I'm bad with names!!
Mine! Crab something something! Haha!! It's really nice but the portion is too small! :(
Mei Mei's. They really gave her a lot of stuffs!! She got a bit bloated after that XD
Mei and her dinner~
Andrew started without letting me snap his food! Haha!!
A shot by Yin Mun. Apparently my side of the table(same side as Su Yun and Andrew) are better lit.
Shot by Yin Mun. Really nice shots by Yin Mun!!

After dinner something really interesting happened!! Andrew suggested that we go for a shisha session in some nearby restaurants, and Su Yun was like "I want to try I want to try!!". So off we go to a nearby Arabic restaurant that has shisha. However, when we sat down, the waiter asked for our identification cards just to confirm that we're all above 21. Well, normally this wouldn't be a problem cause I normally walk around with my student pass and Malaysian IC. Unfortunately, Su Yun and Mei Mei did not bring any form of identification cards that has their date of births stated, hence, no shisha for the night!! So we proceeded for some beer at another nearby pub. And if you think lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, you're wrong! Surprisingly in a pub, they' asked for our identification cards to confirm our date of births too! That's like a double disappointment! What a bummer! Lesson learned: Always bring something that indicates your age out!!

As a result, we resorted to ice-cream!! Since we can't do adult stuffs, we'll have to make do with kiddy activities!! Haha! So we went Cold Rock, where your ice-creams of dream are made.

I ordered this! It's called "Just Got Dumped"!! Haha!
Yin Mun and her ice-cream. If I'm not wrong, its called "Drink and Drive"!! And this is my favourite shot of the night!!
Yun on the swing!
Mei on the swing too! She looks like she's about to cry, but tried to smile. LOL.
*Poke*
The sweeter-than-ice-cream couple!
Last shot of the night before my camera goes back into the bag. Photo by Su Yun.

Really enjoyed the night, but I've gotta pay the price now! Tomorrow I'm supposed to submit my poster draft to Prof, but I'm totally not done yet! So much left to do! Wish me luck people! It's gonna be an all nighter for me! Can't believe that I'm getting less sleep after the exams!! Ugh!

P/S: Thanks all for the special treat!! Didn't really see that coming.