f/1.4 and slightly cheesy, overused PS technique. Background is distracting, I know.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
MiKE: Static Face, selective colour
Same picture as the previous day, except with some image manipulation.
MiKE: Static Face
Boxing Day was crazy. Crowds everywhere, even on icy sidewalks with snow banks that reduced the amount of walkable space by up to half in some places.
In shopping malls, people were thronging the aisles, looking for good bargains; and to be honest, there were really good bargains to be had. Not 30% markup pre-season before 25% boxing day sale kind of trick. Or at least I think so. I don't really know because I don't keep track.
Anyway, at Eaton Centre, a major mall downtown, the escalators were full of people on their way to support the economy. Interestingly enough, this one face appeared to be still.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
MiKE: Couple shot!
We like to take photos of ourselves like this once in a while, and found that 35mm film equivalent focal length of 28mm really enables us to take a good picture of ourselves, and include enough of the background to give some context. It would be nice to be able to have a camera like the Ricoh GR-1V again, actually. Except for that fact that it shoots film, which, though makes for beautiful colour rendition, grain and dynamic range, is a pain to process, and would take up too much physical space during a vacation for the number of pictures taken.And I know Ricoh has a digital version of the GR-1; don't get me started on how pointless small sensor P&S cameras can be. But I digress...
This picture was taken with a 50mm equivalent, at handheld distance, which makes for very little background. I cropped it slightly to balance the picture. I like the result. Better focus on the subject foreground, and no distractions. What do you think?
Friday, December 19, 2008
MiKE: I get it, I think.
So, I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I have been very distracted from work. I am supposed to be completing my comprehensive examinations any time now, the exams which confirm my candidature for the PhD. I have two paper proposals which have been accepted for conferences in April next year (which means submission deadlines sometime in March), and three professors want to write papers with me, or want me to submit a single authored paper. I've not finished the comprehensives, and needless to say, I've not started on any of those papers yet.
And all I've been doing is obsessing over photography. Of course, you'd noticed that the recent posts about my fascination with large aperture lenses, but I bet you probably don't know I've taken over 6100 photographs since I got my camera in September. Sure, the vast majority of the shots have been the "just in case" kind of duplicates, adjusting the aperture/focal length, and general messing around. Also, the dSLR makes taking pictures really easy - with such rapid responses rates, it is not hard at all to fire off 3-4 shots in about 2 seconds. But still, there's something not really right here. And I think I know what's wrong.
Part of what drives me, what makes me want to be an academic and write and be a scholar and all that, deep down inside, is a desire to want to change the world, because of injustice, unfairness, stupidity, political machination and other such ethical moral and social injustice that I experience personally, or through close friends and family. I believe education can be one very powerful way out of situations of oppression and unfreedom, seeing my own personal example as a very strong example. If I had not gone to school and did well, if my parents had not forbidden my association with the neighbourhood kids and strongly encouraged (to put it mildly) me to study, I probably would not have been where I am now, in relative luxury to contemplate these matters in such a theoretical way.
And now, since I've been in Toronto, I've been in this neither-here-nor-there situation. I've stopped reading the singaporean blogs, because I've stopped caring. It seems to be some place far away, like reading about the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Yes, I know the town council funds have been mis-invested and all that, but, really, do I care? Does it concern me, here, now? Besides, I am so far away, and have no sense of being able to do anything about it.
On the other hand, I've not been integrated into this local community yet. There is a strong activist culture here, to be sure, much stronger civil society presence, and a somewhat more democratic government, but, once again, things here are happening to others, not people I know, not to me (well, ok, some of it is), and as a 'guest', I feel as if there is little I am qualified to do. To top it off, I know little of the political histories and struggles of this place, and how the battle lines are drawn, so to speak, so I am wary of suggesting anything.
And all these is affecting me. As I live in this place as a guest, and isolated from the stupidity and outrage at both places, I am feeling as if what I am doing is highly synthetic, and at points ethically wrong, or at least, hypocritical. And that is giving me pause.
I want to get angry. I want to get connected. Outraged, worked up, and activist. I need to know what I am doing is actually connected to some real action in the world. I want to know that I am changing the world, not just for my selfish ends, but also for others.
Do I sound like over-idelistic and naïve yet?
And all I've been doing is obsessing over photography. Of course, you'd noticed that the recent posts about my fascination with large aperture lenses, but I bet you probably don't know I've taken over 6100 photographs since I got my camera in September. Sure, the vast majority of the shots have been the "just in case" kind of duplicates, adjusting the aperture/focal length, and general messing around. Also, the dSLR makes taking pictures really easy - with such rapid responses rates, it is not hard at all to fire off 3-4 shots in about 2 seconds. But still, there's something not really right here. And I think I know what's wrong.
Part of what drives me, what makes me want to be an academic and write and be a scholar and all that, deep down inside, is a desire to want to change the world, because of injustice, unfairness, stupidity, political machination and other such ethical moral and social injustice that I experience personally, or through close friends and family. I believe education can be one very powerful way out of situations of oppression and unfreedom, seeing my own personal example as a very strong example. If I had not gone to school and did well, if my parents had not forbidden my association with the neighbourhood kids and strongly encouraged (to put it mildly) me to study, I probably would not have been where I am now, in relative luxury to contemplate these matters in such a theoretical way.
And now, since I've been in Toronto, I've been in this neither-here-nor-there situation. I've stopped reading the singaporean blogs, because I've stopped caring. It seems to be some place far away, like reading about the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Yes, I know the town council funds have been mis-invested and all that, but, really, do I care? Does it concern me, here, now? Besides, I am so far away, and have no sense of being able to do anything about it.
On the other hand, I've not been integrated into this local community yet. There is a strong activist culture here, to be sure, much stronger civil society presence, and a somewhat more democratic government, but, once again, things here are happening to others, not people I know, not to me (well, ok, some of it is), and as a 'guest', I feel as if there is little I am qualified to do. To top it off, I know little of the political histories and struggles of this place, and how the battle lines are drawn, so to speak, so I am wary of suggesting anything.
And all these is affecting me. As I live in this place as a guest, and isolated from the stupidity and outrage at both places, I am feeling as if what I am doing is highly synthetic, and at points ethically wrong, or at least, hypocritical. And that is giving me pause.
I want to get angry. I want to get connected. Outraged, worked up, and activist. I need to know what I am doing is actually connected to some real action in the world. I want to know that I am changing the world, not just for my selfish ends, but also for others.
Do I sound like over-idelistic and naïve yet?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
MiKE: Queen's Park shadow
It snowed last night, about 9 cm downtown in Toronto. More storms are expected on Friday and Sunday, with temperatures not exceeding -6. So, I guess this probably means we'll be having a white Christmas?
MiKE: You know it's winter in Toronto when...
Frozen food that's normally stored in the fridges are sold out in the open like this. The light red and grey packages at the front centre are frozen shrimps(!)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
MiKE: Happy Birthday
Knowing her, this would probably not be enough... Maybe if I just said I suck at photoshop so badly this took me the better part of about 40 minutes, she'd think better of my effort? Anybody got a good book/site to recommend?
MiKE: 30mm f/1.4
For those that claim that cameras are irrelevant to picture making... Here is a picture taken at an aperture of f/1.4 with a borrowed lens.
True, you probably could accomplish something similar with image manipulation software techniques, but then, it would not be as good, nor would it be as quick.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
MiKE: At Niagara Falls.
We went to Niagara Falls yesterday. Yes, in winter. At night. We went with the International Students Centre (ISC). Overall, I'd say that the trip was not only inexpensive, it was also somewhat cheap. Anyway, the full set of pictures can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/sets/72157611194638335/show/
ReNe: art gallery ontario
When the Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) opened a month back (14th Nov), admission was free for that weekend. We wanted to go but the queues were too long. Turned out we need not have worried; Wednesday evenings are also free admission and last Wednesday, we finally went down to take a look.
The building where I work is about 5 mins from AGO so I was always very curious to see what's inside, now that the construction's done and cleaned up. The architecture is beautiful, so even though we're not really art aficionados, we enjoyed walking around the gallery. Somehow, the place reminds us of Center Pompidou in Paris (a little), which we also didn't really 'get'. Behind, attached to the gallery, was the restored Grange House. The short tour around the Grange House, which mostly talked about the mystery of the wax (art?) pieces left behind by the third maid of the house, was pretty interesting too.
It's great though that these museums have free nights. (AGO's not the only one; the Royal Ontario Museum and Bata Shoe Museum also have free evenings), for it encourages people who might normally not be interested in such places to have a look, especially the local residents. Certainly I would go again. I might not fully appreciate the art collections, but it's a nice way to spend an evening after dinner at Chinatown. Unfortunately for AGO, cameras are not allowed inside (though we have seen people sneak in cameras, and not small point-and-shoot types!), so no pictures (yet?) to put up.
The building where I work is about 5 mins from AGO so I was always very curious to see what's inside, now that the construction's done and cleaned up. The architecture is beautiful, so even though we're not really art aficionados, we enjoyed walking around the gallery. Somehow, the place reminds us of Center Pompidou in Paris (a little), which we also didn't really 'get'. Behind, attached to the gallery, was the restored Grange House. The short tour around the Grange House, which mostly talked about the mystery of the wax (art?) pieces left behind by the third maid of the house, was pretty interesting too.
It's great though that these museums have free nights. (AGO's not the only one; the Royal Ontario Museum and Bata Shoe Museum also have free evenings), for it encourages people who might normally not be interested in such places to have a look, especially the local residents. Certainly I would go again. I might not fully appreciate the art collections, but it's a nice way to spend an evening after dinner at Chinatown. Unfortunately for AGO, cameras are not allowed inside (though we have seen people sneak in cameras, and not small point-and-shoot types!), so no pictures (yet?) to put up.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
MiKE: want. last. bit. of. ketchup.
at Ikea restaurant. blogged about this last year. Ikea is pretty much the same here as in Singapore, and I assume, all over the world.
Friday, December 5, 2008
MiKE: Sunset on the Market
We walked down to King Street to get her a cap. I walked from home, to meet her near her workplace, and went through Kensington Market looking for photo opportunities. Saw this, and had to wait out in the cold (about -4ºC or so) till the light faded enough to get a good photo. By that time, my fingers were so cold they started to hurt.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
At the Casa Loma
The Casa Loma was built as the private residence of a very rich man, Sir Henry Pellatt. Ever famously derided as a 'five legged elephant', deserving to be 'stuffed and mounted' to remind people of its monstrosity, and considered a blight to the local landscape for its romantic notions of castle-hood, with its crenellated walls, high spires, and commanding location on a hill, it is now owned by the city of Toronto, and run by the Kiwanis club. As you can see, the grounds that are open the public are impossibly large to maintain; this photo was taken inside one of the spires, where the raw brickwork was probably deemed by the vandals as more spots to leave their mark.
Well, whatever. A pretty picture of Serene. And I'm quite glad how this picture turned out, because it would have been close to impossible to make with lesser gear. Just in case you were wondering: there was no window to her right, and the ambient light is actually as dark as the background behind her. Flash was bounced off the wall on her right, made of brick, so the reflected light had a reddish cast, warming the tones in the picture.
Monday, November 17, 2008
MiKE: Santa Claus Parade
Yesterday was the Santa Claus Parade. Started in 1905 as a means for a retailer to drum up business for Christmas season, it consisted of only one horse float carrying Santa Claus from downtown Union Station (the rail hub) to the Eaton Centre. Now, over a hundred years later, the kid-oriented parade has grown to 25 floats, 24 bands, over 1700 participants, and hundreds of thousands of spectators, including the live telecast. We decided to take a walk, do the touristy thing, and see what the fuss was about. The parade was supposed to start at about 12:30, and take about 2-3 hours for all the floats and contingents to wind its way through almost six kilometres through downtown Toronto. We started out at about noon, and since the parade passed by very close to where we stay, we did not have far to walk to get to see what people were doing as they waited for the parade to start.
Apparently, to get the good views of the parade, many families had arrived early, and set up comfortable places; many of them brought warm blankets, some had foam pads to keep the bums insulated from the cold pavements, and many of them had brought some ladder or constructed an elaborate scaffold set up so that the kids could view from a high enough vantage point. At some places, this was necessary because even though it was supposed to be a kid's parade, the streets were lined with adults, and older kids. Some of the solutions we saw:
The problem with coming early was that the kids had to wait out in the cold for quite a long time. The temperature went as low as about 3-4ºC, and it even snowed at one point. One way to spend the time was to get the kids to paint a poster:
Although I personally have my reservations about this. One day, the kid is going to learn the truth; about how this is a festival celebrating the winter equinox co-opted by a religion to commemorate the apparently miraculous birth of their leader who would be murdered before middle age.
After a long enough wait where we walked along the parade route, the parade started and caught up with us. There were the usual floats, some marching bands, and even cheerleaders. This is the part I don't get--the sexism; ah well, insert the standard feminist critique here:
A few words about this photo: This is actually a frame out of a series of eight shot in continuous mode. All of them turned out good. I am impressed with my camera!
As we walked along the route, we came across the junction of Dundas and University, which is really close to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). AGO's opening was last Friday, and they were having free admission over the weekend, and extra late hours, till midnighton Friday and Saturday. Interestingly, at the junction, it seemed like there was an exodus of people who were moving toward the AGO:
We went to take a look, and the queue was very long, almost 500m in length, and, according to some, was at least an hour in the cold before admission. Not wanting to wait in line, we moved on, to see a guy in a Santa outfit, skating away from the parade route:
And one last photo; this one of a clown, who, in this photo, looks like he's about to slap the kid. On the face:
Apparently, to get the good views of the parade, many families had arrived early, and set up comfortable places; many of them brought warm blankets, some had foam pads to keep the bums insulated from the cold pavements, and many of them had brought some ladder or constructed an elaborate scaffold set up so that the kids could view from a high enough vantage point. At some places, this was necessary because even though it was supposed to be a kid's parade, the streets were lined with adults, and older kids. Some of the solutions we saw:
The problem with coming early was that the kids had to wait out in the cold for quite a long time. The temperature went as low as about 3-4ºC, and it even snowed at one point. One way to spend the time was to get the kids to paint a poster:
Although I personally have my reservations about this. One day, the kid is going to learn the truth; about how this is a festival celebrating the winter equinox co-opted by a religion to commemorate the apparently miraculous birth of their leader who would be murdered before middle age.
After a long enough wait where we walked along the parade route, the parade started and caught up with us. There were the usual floats, some marching bands, and even cheerleaders. This is the part I don't get--the sexism; ah well, insert the standard feminist critique here:
A few words about this photo: This is actually a frame out of a series of eight shot in continuous mode. All of them turned out good. I am impressed with my camera!
As we walked along the route, we came across the junction of Dundas and University, which is really close to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). AGO's opening was last Friday, and they were having free admission over the weekend, and extra late hours, till midnighton Friday and Saturday. Interestingly, at the junction, it seemed like there was an exodus of people who were moving toward the AGO:
We went to take a look, and the queue was very long, almost 500m in length, and, according to some, was at least an hour in the cold before admission. Not wanting to wait in line, we moved on, to see a guy in a Santa outfit, skating away from the parade route:
And one last photo; this one of a clown, who, in this photo, looks like he's about to slap the kid. On the face:
Saturday, November 15, 2008
MiKE: Lest we forget
Last Tuesday was Remembrance day. This year was supposed to be especially significant as it marks some anniversary of the beginning or end of some war some time ago.
Yes, I am being somewhat contrarian and disrespectful, if only because I am somewhat of a pacifist myself. I understand that the wars, and wars in general, are highly unfortunate things, representing a massive breakdown in our ability to communicate. Many unfortunate people die. It is sad, especially for the families of those who died.
But why hold elaborate memorials for the dead? And why only the dead on 'our side'? Are the enemy combatants less human? What about all the other victims of all the other wars that have been fought? Are we possibly glamourising something that is, in essence, no different from murder, vandalism, and property destruction, except in scale?
...
So, at the UofT, there is a tall clock tower, the Soldiers' Tower, which commemorates the war dead of the UofT. Annually, a ceremony will be held there. At the foot of the tower, there are a few walls, upon which the names of the fallen UofT students and alumni have been inscribed. I saw this woman look wistfully at the names on the wall, almost as if she recognised a name or two. I sincerely hope that it was my imagination. It would have been quite sorrowful for a mother to have to bury her children.
MiKE: Rainy Day
AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) official opening was yesterday, with free entry till tomorrow. Christmas (already!?) festivities beginning today at Yonge-Dundas Square. Santa Claus Parade tomorrow. And it's raining, and expected to snow tomorrow. ...come again another day?
I actually don't mind the snow, the rain is irritating because it is wet.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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