Kintastic

Silly jokes

2011-04-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine her birthday this week, so I decided to have a little fun. Long story short she's a hipster and I always call her out on it.

Check back in 12 months

2011-04-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

So I've finished my first full week of school and I'm really enjoying it. Only problem is I'm a terrible artist. I've got my strengths in music and photography, both of which don't translate directly into my program. Point is, I got some major catching up to do. So to start, I've put together this...logo...? I don't even know. I'm hoping that in 12 months time, I'll be able to look at this and just absolutely hate haha

Springtime, mostly

2011-04-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

Vancouver is a confusing place to live in. I took these photos this week on a sunny day. However, it has been absolutely miserable today. Just cold, cloudy and rainy all day, even now as I'm writing this.

Same as the previous post, click the picture to get a closer look.

PizzaFlowersParty

2011-04-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

So I finally turned 19 this week, woot! I ended up just inviting some friends over and the 5 of us just gamed/ate/drank for the whole night. I didn't have my camera on me the whole time, so these are just a few photos that I threw together. Click the photo to get a better look :P

Too much free time?

2011-03-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

So lately I've been feeling a little uninspired in my photography. I just haven't been feeling it if you get what I'm saying. At the same time, however, I have been messing around a lot just making silly pictures. I tried making something absolutely ridiculous for my friend, just to see how far I could take it. I must say, I'm feeling a little more inspired now lol

Messing Around

2011-03-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

First off, my appologies for the late post. Anyways, earlier this week it was really nice out for once. So I decided to take a photo from my room during the day and the night just to see what the difference would be. Anyways, take a look at this video if you want to see something interesting lol

Photos without a camera

2011-03-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

So this week I tried taking photos without a camera by using a scanner instead. I also used a bit of saran wrap to avoid getting the scanner dirty. It was quite a lot of fun, but I got a feeling that it's not too good for my eyes lol

P-O-K-E-M-O-N

2011-03-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

So, I'm a little obsessed when it comes to Pokemon. Well, I guess I always have been. In all honesty, I never found too much fun in simply "catching them all!" I've always been about breeding or trying to get every little detail right in order to engineer the perfect team. Anyways, the newest game in the franchise was released today, so naturally I had to buy it lol. According to the game, I've played over 5 hours already. Woops :P

Epic Bromance?

2011-02-27T22:05:00.000-08:00

So a lot of my friends were on reading break this past week, so I went out and about quite a bit. I didn't really have a theme or anything for this week, so I just picked out a few of my favourites from yesterday

Fun with film

2011-02-20T11:52:00.000-08:00

So this week I went out to Lonsdale Quay with a friend and shot exclusively on film. These are just some of the shots I thought turned out well

Human Eyes

2011-02-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

Man the human eye is pretty awesome. I tried to emulate what my eyes saw, and in I ended up having to use computer software to do so. Shows just how incredible our eyes are eh?

Wake Up!

2011-02-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, so this week I decided to try to document a lazy morning in the life of Kinta. Should be pretty self-explanatory :)

15 photos of a pear

2011-01-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

So this week I finally tried another photo project. Basically, I have to take 15 photos of a single object without touching or moving it. Good times lol

Little Secrets

2011-01-23T23:28:00.000-08:00

So I went out to a nice little coffee shop with some friends this week. It's kind of in an awkward place, with a misleading exterior. But inside, it is simply beautiful. I had gone past the place a dozen times since it opened up a year or two ago, but only went for the first time this summer. It's nice to have these little places where places where not many people seem to know about lol

Bleh

2011-01-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

To be honest, this has been a very uneventful week. For the first time in a long time, I only worked on 2 days. I had 5 days to do whatever the hell I wanted. Unfortunately, I didn't really know what to do with my time. Unlike in previous years, most of my friends were in class. So this resulted in a lot of:

-sleeping
-wondering what to do
-looking outside at the gloomy, Vancouver weather
-watching reruns of Scrubs
-cleaning room
-misc. errands

Looking at this list just makes me sad. I really gotta do more stuff lol

Track Dolly

2011-01-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

So this week my friend and I built a track dolly to use for videos. We shot some footage to test it out, and this video is what came of it (make sure your speakers are on). I'm not particularly experienced with video yet, so I'm hoping that I'll get better at it throughout the year lol.

Anyways, it's kind of nice to have more time between posts. I'm looking forward to posting higher quality content. Check back next Sunday for the next post :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

So uh yeah, it's now 2011. I've got a lot of things on my mind right now, the first being that I've just finished living through my first full decade. I don't mean that I'm ten years old, I'm saying that I lived all the way through the 2000's. Crazy stuff.

On that note, 2010 was an extremely eventful year for me. I (barely) graduated from high school. I gave up on applying to many schools due to my grades, and got turned down from the only school I applied to during the school year. I then broke my clavicle at the beginning of the summer.

But hey, I also got accepted into a post secondary program that actually appeals to my interests. I also found out who my closest friends truly are (wow that sounded a lot less cheesy in my mind). I experienced many "firsts" too. I'm slowly finding out what I want to do within the next few years. Although nothing is ever written in stone, I would definitely like to do some traveling. At the very least, I want to see Canada's eastern shores. Wouldn't be fair to call myself Canadian otherwise lol.

Now in terms of my photography, I think that's where I experienced the most growth. Looking back to my first few posts on this blog, I can't help but laugh. I started this whole thing because I wanted to get better at photography. What ended up happening was my passion grew instead. I started seeing photography everywhere I went. I would think about compositions and lighting at the most random times and places. I now know for certain that photography is something that will never leave me. I may go through many different cameras in my life, but photography in itself will always be present in some way, shape, or form.

So I guess the last thing to address is what happens now? Well my plan to stop doing the whole take/post a photo a day this year. Although doing this for a whole year really forced me to get involved and committed to photography, I often felt like I had to take a photo of some random object in my house just to get a blog post up. I felt like my creativity was extremely limited at times due to time restraints and my own negligence/procrastination. So this year, I will put up one new post each week. I'm not exactly sure what each post will have. It might be a photo project I did that week, it might be a video I shot with friends, it might be a graphic poster I made for class, I don't know. Point is, I want 2011 to be all about creativity and freedom.

So yeah, it should be fun times. I want to give a huge thank-you to all those who helped me through this year. It's been a hell of a year, here's to another!

Just gimmie a sec here...

2010-12-31T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's New Years eve, but I'm going out shortly. I'd like to write out a proper post with an awesome photo to wrap up the year, so I'll do that tomorrow. Until then, Happy New Year and stay safe peoples :)

Worn out

2010-12-30T23:25:00.000-08:00

The year will be over in a number of hours now. But right now I'm just feeling really worn out and tired. I just feel like I need a reboot. It's strange, in previous years, New Years has always just been about having fun and changing the year when you write out the date. But this year, it feels like I'll notice the difference when the clock strikes 12am on January 1st. My biggest fear is what I'll feel if I expect change but find nothing. But hey, maybe I'm just being totally nonsensical due to sleep deprivation. Sure, let's go with that :)

Aw yeah, new (used) lens!

2010-12-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

I am extremely excited right now. Today I finally met up with the man I bought this lens from. I just met him through Craigslist lol. But yeah, everything was fine. Just picked a place and time, and done. Anywho, I simply love this lens. Carl Zeiss lenses are known to be some of the best lenses available in the world. I've done some searching around Google, but I couldn't find out when exactly this lens went into production. Sometime between the 70s or 80s. But the image quality is just superb. And the lens itself is just a blast to use. It's all manual, meaning you gotta go a lot of twisting and turning to get a nice photo. I'm really looking forward to playing around with this lens a little more :D

It's me! Holding me!

2010-12-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, this is just amazing! Since I've been busy the past week, a friend of mine couldn't drop off a gift in time for Christmas. But today I got it, and I think it's simply hilarious lol. Basically my friend printed off a photo of me from Facebook, and took it to an artist who draws caricatures. Anyways, I'm absolutely thrilled about this now. I wonder if I should go out and print off a copy of this photo.....then take a photo next to that photo...

Oh jeez, what was I thinking?

2010-12-27T23:46:00.000-08:00

Since I got this 2TB external HD on boxing day, I thought now might be a good time to just clear out my entire computer and reinstall the OS. I was going through all of my documents and other files, trying to decide what to keep when I came across my photos in the Aperture library. Long story short, I found old photos I took that are just awful lol. Apparently I just could not compose photos for the life of me. It's quite interesting to see that computers can store memories just like a room in real life

Boxing Day ftw

2010-12-26T22:40:00.000-08:00

Not trying to sound like your typical mindless, materialistic consumer, but I love boxing day lol. Today I got up at 4:00am and got to Futureshop with a friend by 4:50am. It's strange, I've gone to bed around that time a few times. So naturally by the time we started heading home around noon, it felt like 5 in the afternoon. But uh, hopefully my sleep cycle isn't too messed up

Family photo

2010-12-25T21:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's Christmas. I know I've already mentioned this thing before, but I swear, Christmas just came out of nowhere this year. So yeah, I brought my camera and tripod with me today to get this shot. I'd say it turned out quite nice. Family photos are something that can be kinda tricky sometimes. Anyways, I've really gotta get to bed. Gotta get up bright and early for some epic boxing day shopping tomorrow :D

Unused

2010-12-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

So this is a photo I took yesterday when I as out downtown with some friends. I thought I might use it for that alphabet thing, but I didn't in the end. So I thought I might as well edit and upload it for today's post. In case it's not obvious enough already, this was taken by the Vancouver Public Library. Honestly, I had never been there until this year. This fall actually. But yeah, it's all kinds of awesome. So many damn books!

Round two

2010-12-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

There, done! After close to a month of shooting, I finally put together my holiday alphabet album. It's been nice to have a reason to shoot holiday themed photos. Last year I found myself a little disappointed that I didn't have many photos of the holidays. But this year I'm quite satisfied. Now it's getting late, and I need to get to bed asap for a 9:30-5:30 shift tomorrow. Oh boy, that's gunna be tons of fun!

Anyways, check out the album here.

Wait what?

2010-12-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

It's the 22nd of December. How is this possible? Where did the month of December go? Did it just unexpectedly leave without telling anyone? I feel like this month just hasn't happened. It feels like it should be like early December or so. I guess it must have something to do with me not being in school/having winter break. Luckily all my shopping has been done for quite some time now, but I'm still bewildered by the fact that the 25th is 3 days away.

Grace

2010-12-21T23:33:00.000-08:00

I am absolutely awful at dancing, so it always amazes me when I see skilled people doing it properly. These photos were taken at The Roundhouse Community Centre. Funny story, I was just going through Google to find something interesting to do Downtown when I found out that tonight was the 17th annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. I had no idea what it was, so I did some reading. Basically, it's just a huge celebration where people come together to make lanterns, and join in other various activities. I wasn't able to make it in time for the lanterns, but I saw some pretty neat stuff though.

Oh Christmas Tree

2010-12-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

After taking photos of the ornaments yesterday, i thought I might take a photo of the entire tree today. To be honest, it's not exactly easy to get a nice photo of a Christmas tree. The most important thing you need to consider is how the tree itself is set up. If you live in a house where your tree has tons of room, that's a plus. In my case, our tree is almost hitting the ceiling lol. Next up, you'll want a nice simple background. And last but not least, you'll want your tree to be full of life and detail.

Now since I couldn't fulfill all of these little guidelines, I had to get a little creative lol

Ornaments

2010-12-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

So our Christmas tree has been up for a while now, but I only started shooting it today. I think one of the most important thing to consider when shooting ornaments is lighting. Our tree happens to be right next to a large window, so one side of the tree has significantly better lighting. It was also quite cloudy out today, so the light was nice and even, not harsh or directional.I found myself moving ornaments back and forth between the two sides of the tree, just to get some nicer lighting :P

Notice Anything?

2010-12-18T23:49:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping not lol. I picked up a cheap cord today to get my external flash off of my camera body. In all honesty, it's really a lot of fun to use. You could be holding the flash in your hand and it'll trigger at the same time as the camera. Anyways, I'm just trying out different positions to use the flash in, and I'm also hoping to find some human subjects to use it with too.

To infinity

2010-12-17T23:45:00.000-08:00

So I had my camera hooked up to my computer today, trying to figure out what to take a photo of for today's blog post. And then that's when it happened: I broke the universe. Well, that's a gross exaggeration to say the least lol. But seriously, it was kinda cool to see this infinite loop of monitor in monitor. I guess it would've looked cooler in video eh? lol

Warp Speed!

2010-12-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

So I was out taking care of some errands and had my camera with me. I thought I was going to take some photos around where I was, but I couldn't find anything that interested me, so I got what I needed and went for the bus stop. Once I got on the bus, I realized I had my camera with me, so I started taking some photos. After a couple of unsuccessful shots, I decided to just ram my camera against the window and hold it there with all my might. In the end, I'd say I got a decent shot out of it lol

Light it up

2010-12-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

I love seeing all the colourful lights going up around this time of year. It's even cooler when you see them after it rains. I've walked past here every time I go to work, so I've wanted to take a photo here for quite some time. I'm thinking of going around to some other neighborhoods to get some photos. But I'm thinking it might be a little easier if I had a car lol

Hahaha

2010-12-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

So I just found this image my friends and I made back in accounting class one day when we were bored. I really have no idea what's going on, or why we made it the way it is. Anyways, I just thought this was a hilarious find, but it also made me think about what I was like half a year ago. I was the kid who was trying to pass some academic courses in order to apply for some science courses. I guess the question is, if I could go back in time and tell myself what I know today, would I take that opportunity? Like I've said before, I am the result of a very specific series of events. If I were to change something, no matter how negative it seems at the time, the end result would create a whole different me.

Old favorites

2010-12-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

At one point a few months back, I was absolutely crazy about hummus and pita bread. I would just sit in my room, watching TV while eating a whole 300g package of pita in one sitting. Those were some awesome times. But for whatever reason, I grew tired of them eventually, and I hadn't eaten it since. Well yesterday I went back, and it was just awesome! I went for it again today, and it was awesome! I'm just glad to know that even after I tire of something, I can go back in a bit and fall right back in love lol

Luncheon

2010-12-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

I always loved the Christmas luncheons at church. There's just always this great sense of belonging and community. People just seem to get along really nicely and it's great. Also, the food is always awesome too haha. Anyways, I had a jolly good time there. It was also fun since I was shooting with two other people who had happened to bring their cameras too. I can never tire of geeky photo-related discussions lol

Getting better...ish

2010-12-11T23:49:00.000-08:00

So today I was over at my friend's place, and I had my camera with me so I decided to take some photos. It was a little on the dark side, so I whipped out my external flash. I'm slowly getting more accustomed to it, but I still find some of my photos coming out too dark or bright. Ideally, I'd like to add enough light to avoid a blurry photo, without making my subjects look like pale ghosts lol

Reindeer

2010-12-10T23:54:00.000-08:00

So I went downtown today on my day off to take care of some Christmas shopping and also took some photos too. I'm working on another photo project, and it's coming along, bit by bit. I'll be happy when it's all done and ready to go. In the meantime, I just gotta keep at it. Anyways, I hate to cut yet another blog post short, but today it's for good reason...kinda. I've gotta be up for work super early tomorrow, and I've been sleeping in almost everyday for the past few weeks lol. So yeah, let's see well that goes

Happiness

2010-12-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but this picture makes me so ridiculously happy. It's based off of the phrase "U jelly?" which in turn is short for "you jealous?" Lately I've been staying up late just reading comics based off of some very poorly drawn characters, and time seems to just slip by. I've got to be up by 7am on Saturday, so I don't know how well that's going to go lol.

Epic clock!

2010-12-08T23:35:00.000-08:00

So today I got up and received a package in the mail. I was absolutely ecstatic. So I opened it up to find that my Secret Santa had made me an awesome clock. It's basically just a huge inside joke that won't make sense to most people lol. Anyways, the clock is currently just sitting on my desk next to my keyboard, so I'll have to figure out where to leave it. In the meantime, I've come to an interesting discovery: clocks make audible ticking sounds. I mean like, I've always known that, but I've never really experienced it for myself all too much. I'll just be listening to some music, and in that brief second between songs I'll hear it ticking. Now I'm wondering if I'll be able to sleep at night haha

Btw, you are now aware that you are breathing.

That's pretty much how I feel right now :P

Boom flowers!

2010-12-07T23:46:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why, but these flowers just really stood out to me today. It's not like it was the first time I saw them or anything though. I think it's just a matter of perceiving the world in different ways depending on how we feel. Some days you just walk past, while others you stop and look.

Waiting for lunch

2010-12-06T23:46:00.000-08:00

So today I went down to Lonsdale Quay with a friend to get some food and to hang out. It's been a while since I was last there to actually spend some time and twas good. As long as stores don't get ridiculously busy, shop owners tend to be in good moods this time of year. I guess some would call that holiday spirit. I'm just happy to be able to enjoy a nice day off lol

Nothing

2010-12-05T23:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't got anything here today. My life's been absolutely full of work recently. Luckily I have the day off tomorrow so I'm looking forward to resting up a bit. It never really occurred to me that working (almost) full time would mean working for the majority of the time you have available in a week. It sounds pretty dumb, but I guess I'm just not used to it. I just always imagined that full time meant working 9-5 Mon-Fri, or something along those lines. Anyways, it's getting late, so I really should get to bed lol

Really?

2010-12-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

So this evening after rushing home from a closing shift, I moved the TV from downstairs into my room. Yeah, that mess in the basement hasn't been cleared 0ut yet. I just went through my blog to find out that the original leak happened on the night of September 25th. Since then numerous people have been in and out, all promising to call or show up at some given time. Honestly, no offense to people in those professions, but get your shit together. We get that we need you more than you need us, that's a given. We get that this isn't something that we can fix ourselves. And we get that we're not in the absolutely most dire of situations. But I'll be damned if this isn't a major inconvenience in our day to day lives. The moving of this television isn't just a rearrangement of furniture, it's my acceptance that we've lost a room. A room I could once sit down to enjoy gaming without the distractions of others. I've lost too much hope to be disappointed anymore.

I'm not trying to be the douche here. On a superficial level, nothing seems to be wrong. I've moved something out of the way, and my room has become more enjoyable, right? So why should it matter to you? Is this what you wanted? Did you want us to accept that there's going to be a hole in the roof of the basement for an indefinite amount of time? Well then maybe I won't come to terms with it then. Maybe I'll just pretend that absolutely nothing is wrong. Unless, you purposly planned all of this to try to get me to question my own principals. Well in that case, you've won. I don't care anymore. Or do I? No. Yes. No. God damnit!

Hells Yeah Bowling!

2010-12-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

So today I went out to the bowling alley with a bunch of people. I learned a few things tonight. First off, I am absolutely terrible at bowling. End of story. Secondly, taking photos during glow bowling is just about impossible. Without using flash it's ridiculously dark, and the flashing lights don't help. But if you use a flash, it just exposes your main subject, and kills the ambiance created by the disco balls and black lights. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to come up with a solution someday lol

Letters

2010-12-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I haven't written a letter in ages. Actually, I'm not sure if I ever have, like ever. I'm also getting the feeling that I've talked about this before too lol. Well regardless, I wrote out a letter to a complete stranger to accompany a gift for a Secret Santa I'm doing this year. If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that I take kindly to strangers more than others often do. I dunno, it's jsut kinda fun lol

Colours are back!

2010-12-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

Ah, it's been a long month. I've definitely learned a lot about black and white photography throughout the last month. But I've also learned that sometimes you need to have colour is certain photos. Sometimes there just isn't a way around it. Anyways, I'm certainly looking forward to this holiday season, with colourful decorations everywhere lol. Should be good times :D

Smoke

2010-11-30T23:40:00.000-08:00

So there it is, the final photo from No Colour November. I thought I might try experimenting with smoke, seeing as I now have access to an external flash unit. Mind you, I don't exactly have a perfect studio setup though. I manually triggered the flash with my arm fully extended, and used a couch as my backdrop lol. Anyways, it was quite a lot of fun. I'm hoping to get my hands on some wireless triggers, as well as a nice (cheap) backdrop too. Boxing Day anyone?

Brush brush

2010-11-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

I think I'm going slightly insane again. I had a nice relaxing day today, despite working a closing shift at work. But I really gotta adjust my sleeping schedule. I was going to try sleeping at more, uhh, conventional hours, but that hasn't quite happened...yet. Just ask any teen and they'll tell you just how difficult it is to break out of an awkward sleep cycle lol

Tired

2010-11-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

You know, I don't get it. Sometimes when you stay up long enough and get super tired, you get this sudden burst of energy. Had I payed more attention in biology, I might have a better idea as to what happens. But I digress. It's been another long day, and I just can't wait to get to bed lol.

A night out

2010-11-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

Aw man, what a hell of a day. For starters, I got up at 7 in order to get to work for an 8-4 shift. It wasn't all too bad, considering that it's a Saturday. Anyways, i got home, showered, changed, and headed out. And after that point, everything was just perfect. The five of us went to the Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant for a nice dinner. It was my first time there, and I was damn impressed. The moment I sat down, I felt this total calmness overcome my entire body. The soft holiday music in the background combined with the spectacular view made for a feeling of bliss like none other. There weren't all that many people there, so it was nice and quiet.

During our time there, we enjoyed some wonderful food and great conversations. Our waiter was also very kind and hilarious. Honestly, I could just go on and on and on and on about tonight. However, I gotta get some sleep, so I'll try to wrap this up here. Long story short, I had the best night I've had in a long time. Grad was kinda neat, but this was just spectacular.

What to wear....?

2010-11-26T23:37:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow night is going to be quite important. A few of us are going out to the Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant. I've actually never been before, so I'm quite excited. I've just about decided on what I'll be wearing, since I won't have much time tomorrow. For that matter, I need to be up in 6.5 hours lol

Get high

2010-11-25T23:04:00.000-08:00

First off, this is a photo I took a few days ago, but never got the chance to put up. The only reason I say this is because it snowed a lot today lol. I mean, there must've been like 10cm of snow. Compared to the rest of Canada, that's no big deal at all. But for everyone in Vancouver, it pretty much means death. I saw this little comic somebody made and thought it was kinda funny lol.

Anyways, back to the photo here. I went out the other day with my camera, a wide lens, and a tripod. I basically just put the camera on the tripod, extended all the legs, and held the camera really really high above my head using the self timer. It was quite a lot of fun, but it was getting cold and dark so I had to end it short. I'm hoping to try it again sometime

Back to band

2010-11-24T23:32:00.000-08:00

So today I visited Windsor and took some photos too. It's been a while since I've walked through those halls. I mean, I was there a few weeks back to see their concerts, but that was different. It's strange, I feel like I kinda miss Windsor, but at the same time, I could never go back. It's really amazing how much your views can change over the course of a few months.

Iced...to meet you

2010-11-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

So it's been quite cold recently and the little fountain outside the Holiday Inn has frozen over for the most part. I honestly can't remember the last time this happened. Like I mentioned before, we're just so unprepared for cold weather, both physically and mentally lol.

Damnit...

2010-11-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

So there are a few things I don't like about sleeping through winter nights. The most obvious point is that it gets cold. I mean, that's just plain inconvenient. The next is that damn annoying thumping sound coming from the ceiling. I think it has something to do with how materials expand in cold temperatures. But I don't care about the science right now. I'm just getting really annoyed. It's like having someone jump on your roof at varying intensities every few minutes. Leave me alone!

Ceiling Fan

2010-11-21T23:33:00.000-08:00

I wonder what it would be like to walk on the ceiling for a day. I imagine it would be fun for the first 10 minutes of so, then it wold probably just become very inconvenient lol. I took me a while today to decide what to take a photo of. I'm trying to avoid just taking a photo of something lying around and talking about it. Honestly, I've done that so many times on this blog that it sickens me. It's an easy way out, but then what's the point? I might as well make the most of every given opportunity

How's it look outside?

2010-11-20T23:40:00.000-08:00

If you haven't guessed already, I took this photo through a peephole. It took a bit to figure out the best way to do it, but I ended up with an interesting photo. On the technical side, this photo isn't all that outstanding, but I feel like that doesn't really matter right now. I think this photo is about capturing the essence of an everyday action in the form of a photo...lol

Snow!

2010-11-19T23:38:00.000-08:00

Well would ya look at that, it's snowing! As a Vancouverite, this excites me greatly. The kid inside of me is just going nuts, thinking about making snowballs and going sledding. But then the realistic side of me can't help but worry about getting around tomorrow lol. Let's be real here, Vancouver is never prepared for any amount of snow. Everyone just freaks out and chaos ensues on the streets. Only the people who moved here from places like Saskatchewan can manage to find their way. For that matter, I'd honestly like to see what the rest of Canada looks like this time of year. I want to go somewhere where you can't take in a full breath without causing damage to your internal organs. I just think it would be a fascinating experience.

Gettin Cozy

2010-11-18T23:37:00.000-08:00

It's starting to get pretty chilly outside. And with that, it just gets so much nicer indoors in the comfort of one's own home. When I was doing yesterday's shot, I had used my Macbook to compose the shot so I didn't have to move a candle, then look back up at the camera's screen to see what I had done. Well today I actually controlled this shot with my Macbook. There's a usb cable running from my computer to the camera, on a tripod. I could've done the whole self timer and run technique, but I want to be able to perfect the focus so this was the only way to do it. Anyways, it's just something fun to do when I'm sittin' at home lol

Epic Turtle

2010-11-17T23:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've played with candles in photography. I guess I just hadn't gotten around to it. Anyways, I had a lot of fun trying to get today's shot. I ended up using 7 candles lol. Also shooting in black in white helped out quite a bit. If I was shooting colour, everything would've just turned out brown/orange. When I started this whole B&W thing, I thought I was going to miss having colour. But now it seems that I have just as many freedoms as restrictions. Awesome!

Ahh books

2010-11-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

I love reading, but I've never done all that much reading. I've just always found it difficult to find books that I want to read. Honestly, I never minded it when teachers assigned books to read. For example, I loved How To Kill A Mocking Bird. Some of my classmates disliked it for whatever reason, but I thought it was excellent. But yeah, I decided a while back that I was going to start reading through all those classics that everyone's supposed to read lol. I'm almost done reading Ender's Game and I'm trying to decide what to read next. I'm finding that the internet can be an incredible resource when it comes to researching books.

Washed Out

2010-11-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

Kinda spooky eh? Today I thought I might try messing around with the external flash. I haven't had many opportunities to try it out on other people yet, so I thought I'd just play around with it. The nice thing about black and white is that you can use either black or white as much as you like. In this case, I went with white. I got this feeling that I can do a lot better, but you gotta start somewhere lol

Six Fortuneeeeeeeee

2010-11-14T23:32:00.000-08:00

This has got to be one of my favourite discoveries in drinks of all time. It all goes back to the summer of 2007 when I had finished one of my first shits at Superstore. A friend of mine was also working that day, so we both decided to get one of these cans of what seemed like juice. We were both instantly blown away. Ever since that day, Six Fortune has become an iconic part of our friendship. Yea, a can of juice lol. But seriously, this stuff is just awesome. I picked up a tray of 30 today so I'm super excited now :D

Single Source

2010-11-13T23:33:00.000-08:00

So a while back I read about this technique where you light an entire room with only one light source. Now that isn't really all that hard to do. So long as you know how to work your camera's settings and you have a tripod, you're fine. The real challenge comes with trying to make the camera see as a human would. I find that in dark scenarios, cameras get confused quite easily. As a result you see a lot of blurry photos or photos with a huge burst of flash. Honestly, it doesn't matter how expensive your camera is if you don't know how to use it fully lol

Root Beer

2010-11-12T23:41:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to take this empty can downstairs, but just kinda forgot about it. So I did what I always do when I should be doing something, I took a photo. Only recently has that come to my attention. For the longest time, I just assumed that I should feel bad for not completing a task. But then I read through this article about effective procrastination. Long story short, you can get a lot done when doing action y when you're supposed to be doing action x. Ultimately action x is never completed, but action y is.

About Time

2010-11-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

How long ago was it that I got this new desk? Well point is that I finally cleaned out my room. Yeah, I can't believe it took this long. I've been living in a huge mess of a room for what seems like forever. But yeah, it's lookin pretty decent now. I can see the whole floor, and I know where just about everything is. I've still got a few things to sort out, but it's alright for the most part. I just hope I can keep this up haha

Great great grandparents

2010-11-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

So my mother just came back from Japan, and brought back two copies of these old photographs. I honestly don't know all that much about my family history. I'm sure I could find out more if I asked around, but I've never gotten around to it. Anyways, this is the first time I've seen my great great grandparents. This is just really fascinating on so many levels. It's really cool to see my ancestors from way back in the day. And it's also really cool to know that these photos must have originally been taken around 100 years ago. I recently watched this documentary about the history of the camera, and this just ties in really well.
It's easy to forget how photography started as a science, not an art form.

Blades

2010-11-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

A lot of things happen on a rainy day like today. Sure, it's pretty inconvenient when you want to get somewhere, and you get all soaked in the process. But on the other hand, you sometimes discover something absolutely beautiful in the process. You just gotta find it for yourself. And I think is true for a lot of things in life. Yeah, I know I'm sounding super cheesy at the moment, but hear me out. You'll sometimes meet those pessimists that complain about everything. And then you have your optimists that try to find the good side in everything. To me, it seems like there isn't always a good and/or bad side to everything in life. Some things in life just suck. Period. Other things are just plain awesome. But when you start thinking about the good and bad sides of everything, nothing is pure anymore. Everything just sorta becomes neutral.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying that I like a little more variety in life. When I step in doggy doo doo, I don't want to think about how that helps fertilize the soil. I want to get on and find a pot of gold later on. Just remember that that pot of gold isn't just going to appear. You have to find it. You have to want to find it. If you want something bad enough, you'll find your own way there. Just don't stare at the bottom of your shoe all day

Patterns

2010-11-08T23:41:00.000-08:00

With this whole back and white thing going on, I'm finding myself looking for shapes and patterns a lot more. I can't just rely on pretty colours to do all the work lol. But yeah, I was out with my camera today, and I felt a few raindrops. I decided that I should probably head inside, for the sake of my camera gear. Then on my way back I saw these puddles and decided to try for a shot. I ended up taking about 20 photos there and sorted though them at home. On a side note, that's one thing I love about digital photography. Anyways, I'm just loving this whole b&w experience. It's a really neat way to rediscover the world

It ain't pretty but...

2010-11-07T23:40:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a kid I've loved these Vietnamese sandwiches. They're just so irresistibly tasty. But I find a few inconveniences with them too. First off the bread portion tends to crumble a lot, so you better have a giant plate. Next up, they never really look all that pretty. Finally, they always leave a strange aftertaste in your mouth for the longest time. But I find that after years, I've just kinda grown accustomed to them lol.

Time Change!

2010-11-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, the end of daylight savings time. I remember being all excited as a child, knowing that I could sleep in an extra hour. But this year, I don't feel the excitement. It just seems like it's become so routine and logical. Is ignorance truly bliss? In some cases, yeah. The world always felt more interesting when I didn't understand it. Everything was just so fascinating and awesome. But now, anything we don't understand instills feelings of doubt and uncertainty, not wonder. Now just how did that happen?

Autumn Night

2010-11-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

There's something very refreshing and magical about nights in the fall. I was out taking out the trash after some friends came over for a get together tonight, and I just noticed how beautiful the sky looked. Honestly I was thinking about writing about my friends tonight, but I got this feeling that this takes precedence.

Beautiful

2010-11-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

After quite some time, I finally got a decal for my Macbook. Well, maybe decal isn't the right word. I'm honestly not sure what is. It's called a wooden skin, which is an interesting concept. But yeah, it looks really neat, and that's about the only purpose it serves lol. I'm usually not the superficial type, but I think I can make an exception. I mean come on, look at it! Oh, and it feels/smells great too haha

Aspect Ratio

2010-11-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I'm feeling extra adventurous today. I decided to move away from my standard aspect ratio. It feels a little strange, but it seems to work for this photo. If I had framed this photo a little better in the first place, I probably wouldn't have had to do this. But hey, now I've experimented with a new technique because of a mistake I made. I guess I should also give the 1x1 thing a try too. Now that is going to be strange. Wish me luck lol

Alternatives

2010-11-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

I am not used to shooting without colour. I was out today with a friend, and it became very apparent, very quickly that I rely heavily on colour for composition. I really have to rethink how I compose my shots. Initially, I was afraid that I was going to "miss out" on some great shots because I'm shooting black and white. But I just see it as an opportunity and challenge. A challenge to convey the same message to the viewer that a colour photograph would. And damn, it's not easy lol.

No Colour November

2010-11-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Woot! I gots me an external flash! I can go out and become a paparazzi photographer now!

Lol just kidding. But in all seriousness, I am quite excited about this. It's going to take a hell of a lot of practice, patience, reading, learning, and batteries to get good with this thing. It's just a whole new world when it comes to flash photography. If things go well, I might try to get my hands on an umbrella and wireless transmitter. But that's a looooooooooong way away lol.

Also, I should probably address the tittle of this post. Basically, I have very little experience shooting black and white. I use it sometimes, randomly, if I feel like it. Point is I want to get better at black and white photography. So I figure I might as well force myself to learn over the course of the next month. I'll be shooting exclusively in black and white. No excuses. Let's see how this goes :D

Halloween costume!

2010-10-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah that's right, I went as a double rainbow. And for the many who don't get it, take a look here. But yeah, I was honestly a little disappointed that so few people got it. Apparently 18 million people isn't all that much. And in fact, it's not. It's just that when you hang around the internet for too long, you start to think that you're surrounded by like minded people in real life. Gott watch out for that lol.

Life Saver

2010-10-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

We live in a damn convenient world. I'm planning on heading out to Vancouver tomorrow, and I would be completely lost without Google. I mean I first looked up the store location, hours, and phone number form their website. Then I just punched in start and stop locations. Done. Coming from a guy who doesn't venture into Vancouver all that often, this is just magical. I know I sometimes talk about the amazing powers of community, knowledge, and communication that is the internet, but other times it's just really useful.

I'm watching you...

2010-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

With Halloween coming up, I'm seeing more and more decorations everywhere I go.This little guy was actually on our window, and I only noticed it as I was snooping around the house late at night lol. But yeah, I am looking forward to this weekend. It's one of the few times that everyone can be whatever they want to be. I'm always amazed by the amount of detail and dedication that some people put into their outfits. Just imagine sitttin there in like, July, planning an elaborate Halloween costume. I wish I had that kind of patience lol

After Party

2010-10-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

So today I came home from that band concert and had some fun with some visitors from Japan. We talked, ate and had a good time all together. Oh and yeah, the concert was awesome too lol. But yeah, I just love socializing with people after concerts. There's a certain energy and liveliness that comes after any performance. Might as well enjoy it, right?

Baby Steps

2010-10-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

So today I got my hands on this storage unit...thingy. I'm very bad at describing it lol. Anyways, it just has these drawers that you can put stuff in. Doesn't sound all that exciting, but my room has been a total mess for the past few weeks, and this is going to save my life. I've still got heaps of work to do, but this is a start. Honestly I've never been so excited about cleaning in my whole life haha.

On a side note, I'm noticing that I haven't really taken any "good" photos recently, but I'm working on that. I'm hoping to do another little project or something real soon, so stay tuned for that :D

Just Crumbs

2010-10-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

I had a plate of cookies earlier, and I thought this would be an interesting way to describe what I'm feeling. See, I was eating these cookies, and before I knew it, they were all gone.

Now as much as I'm trying to get out of the habit of wasting my day away on the computer, I still spend a fair amount of time on it. Well this morning I was on Reddit for a couple hours and went downstairs for a bite to eat. Thing is, I couldn't remember a single thing about what I had been looking at over the past few hours. Wtf! I think this is just more reason for me to get away from the computer. Seriously, this is some messed up shit.

Hmmm

2010-10-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've never been a huge fan of scrambled eggs, but I think it's just cause I never really got all that good at making them. I was recently shown a recipe which included creme fraiche (not gunna bother trying to find the right spelling lol). I did a bit of Google-ing to find out a little about this mysterious substance, and man those scrambled eggs were awesome! I can't say for sure if it was because of the creme fraiche, but I'll definitely going to have to try this on other things too.

Flare-tastic

2010-10-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned yesterday, I'm trying to get into the habit of sleeping earlier and waking up earlier. One technique I'm trying is dimming my room before sleeping. Now I can't really dim the lights individually, but I can decrease the number of lights that are on. While I was doing this, I noticed that I could probably get some sweet lens flare using one of these lights, and I was right. So I took the photo, and now I'm here. Anyways, I really should get going to bed lol

Snooze Button: friend or foe?

2010-10-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

I am not a morning person, but I'm thinking I'd like to be. For the past 2 months, my life has consisted of work here and there. Thing is that it's not like I work 9-5 everyday, I'm all over the place. Often times, I'll start at 11am, so I'll get up around 9:30 or 10. I'll get ready, and then I'll be off to work. But what if I could get up at say 6 or 7. Imagine all the work that could be done before work. It would greatly expand my day. The only thing I need to worry about it getting to sleep on time in order to get up nice and early. And that's just another bad habit I should break out of. I'll often stay up until 2 or 3 looking at random, pointless crap on the internet. And because of that I'll sleep in until like 10. And then it just repeats over and over.

I'm thinking I wanna stop wasting time at night, and start living my life more in the mornings. So I guess I can't just hit the snooze button and fall back asleep right? lol

Well, I feel out of place

2010-10-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

So I've got another photo here from yesterday's adventure to Central Park. I saw that one seagull alone amongst dozens of ducks and geese. But it was kinda cool though, just chillin there like nothing else mattered. I'm thinking it would be nice for one day, to just live life without caring AT ALL about ANYTHING. Now imagine if everyone in the world did that at the same time. At first you'd think that chaos would ensue, but think for a sec. If nobody cares about anything, what's there to be concerned about? Nothing. Nothing happens, and nobody cares. Scary thought eh?

Friendly

2010-10-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

So today I went out to Central Park in Burnaby for the first time in years. I gotta say, it was a tid bit chilly, but it was freakin beautiful. All the trees were just so vibrant with colours. Better yet was the ride there on the skytrain. If you consider the amazing view of Vancouver you can get on a ride, it's one heck of a deal. And best of all, the squirrels were all super friendly. I've never been able to get so close to a squirrel before. At some points I thought they were going to just jump all over me lol

Shameless Plug

2010-10-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I'm performing with a band next week. I joined this band just this year, and it's been a total blast. My father can be a bit of a lunatic at times, but it's all good. I got a pretty sweet costume so I'm excited about that. I'm hoping to see some really sweet costumes there too. Anyways, if you want something to do on Thursday night next week, come over to Cap and you'll have yourself a fantabulous time lol

Late night jam

2010-10-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

So tonight I came downstairs tonight to find my brother jammin out on the keyboard. Mind you this was pretty late so it's just so much more entertaining. Best part of all is that he usually just plays songs he hears throughout the day, like songs from the weather network, video games, etc. I'm far too inexperienced to play the kinds of stuff he does....drunk lol. But yeah, just thought I'd share this photo here. Looking at it just reminds me that some of the most fun times in life are just the random moments late at night

Wooooaaahhh

2010-10-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

So tonight I tried out this face scrub stuff, and it's sooooo awesome! My face just feels soooo incredibly smooth and just wow. I can't believe I didn't find this sooner. I'm sure some super macho guy would laugh at me, but I really don't care, like at all. I'm just feeling like nothing can take me down lol

Hells yea

2010-10-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

So I was introduced to Banana Nut Cheerios recently by a good friend of mine. They are absolutely amazing! It's been a while since I've been this excited about a kind of cereal. I think the best part of all is that they remind me of the taste of Banana flavored Quaker granola bars. I loved those as a kid, and I haven't had them in years. I've been looking, but I'm thinking that they were discontinued :(

But yeah, I just thought it was really cool how eating this cereal brought back such a vivid memory. Funny how our brains work eh?

Idea!

2010-10-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking, and where do ideas come from? I mean think about it, very few things in our world are truly original. Most things are just combinations of things we've seen in our own lives. Sure, eventually we will find progress through new ideas, but it takes a lot of time. I'm just thinking about how much more advanced we could be if we could all come up with original ideas. I don't think I can say that I've ever come up with anything fully original. There's always that inspiration or relatedness to something else.

Now with that in mind, think about all the people who have come up with original ideas. They've all been regarded very highly for the most part. I'm not saying that we should strive to innovate for the sake of fame and recognition. I'm just saying that innovative thinking brings about great results.

So get out there, and think crazy things. Don't listen to anyone who says otherwise. If we don't, we'll never have hoverboards lol

Gaaaaaa colours!!!

2010-10-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

So first off, this image has not been manipulated in any way. I just used my wide angle lens to exaggerate certain features. But yeah, when I look at this photo I just feel this overwhelming wall of colour towering over me. I don't really know how else to describe it...should've sent a poet hahaha. Nah but in all seriousness, it was freakin beautiful. Though I had to work for most of the day, it made me very happy to be able to see all of this in the morning.

Light tent!

2010-10-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

Wooooo! So today I put together that light tent I talked about before. Honestly it wasn't all that difficult to put together. I mean, I did have a little help from my mother though lol. But yeah, it works pretty well. I'm still working on finding the absolute best combination of lights, camera angles, use lol

From lime to...?

2010-10-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

So I took this photo a few days ago at a friend's house and never had the chance to upload it here. Although they all differ in colour, they are all limes. Yea, limes. Pretty crazy stuff. I just thought it was kinda neat how they all seemed gradually show the change from green to yellow. We actually ended up opening one of them up and it tasted just like a lime lol

Guppie!

2010-10-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

So a little while back I got myself this little multi tool, and it has been very useful thus far. It's got a knife, wrench, screwdriver, carabiner, and bottle opener. I could go on and on about the knife, but more importantly I wanna talk about the photo. Looking through the photos I've posted on this blog, I'm noticing a lot of little things. You know, phones, keys, food, etc. I'd really like to put together a light box for shooting these kinds of things. I'll be sure to post some photos if I ever get around to doing it haha

Personal Style vs Routine

2010-10-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

So today I shot a few photos for a good friend. The weather wasn't fantastic, but in the end I came up with a few usable photos. What surprised me today was how little time it took to edit the photos. Usually it takes me quite some time to figure out what'll make the photo look the best that it can. But today I just did stuff without thinking too much. I guess I must be getting used to this. But it also made me realize that I think I need some more techniques when it comes to editing. I'm very satisfied with the end results today, but I'm thinking I need to expand my repertoire of editing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-10-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

So today I had to work from 4-9 so I thought that I was going to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner, Wrong. Turns out the family was cool with moving the dinner back to the late evening. It was freakin awesome! The turkey was done perfectly, and all the veggies were just excellent too. Everyone remembers in elementary school where you had to write about what you're thankful for. Well today, I am legitimately thankful for everything in my life. For family, friends, my job, just everything.