christography

Sometimes, when things go really bad, we only have to believe, or we only have to behave.

What is it like to feel old and worn?

Recently got my hands on 2 Ricoh GR digital. Had tried it last year when I went to Japan, and already I thought that perhaps this is a point-and-shoot camera that I should invest in. 

Imagine my surprise when I had a request to do a show based on the Ricoh camera. So commercial, I thought, but let’s not loose sight of what I’ve always kept close to; which is creativity. The camera is just amazing in the way it works almost like a Lomo, but not quite. 

The first thought was to create an omni-camera with 2 cameras. Where a single image now consists of images captured by two cameras simultaneously. To have a bigger perspective on where the original image came from, like where did the light come from which created the shadow? How do I show two sides of the same flower? It looks deceptively simple, but is really quite difficult. Just imagine you have two cameras in both your hands and you have to trigger both at the same time. Why not just do 2 separate shots? Well, shots like the Coffee Shop shots would not have been possible then. And well, it is the honestly of having worked at it when creating the images that appeal to me, also. On some level, it works kinda like a panoramic camera, but well, it is a lot more as having 2 separate images come together as one just forces the photographer to think more, and the reader to read more into the images. Here are some of the results.

It all started with horizontal panoramic look-alikes, than progressed to side by side vertical ones, than the vertical panoramic, and then into multiple shots like the last one. Most of you would be able to recognize that it is my fav garden that I no longer spend enough time in. : )

Some new images created over the past few days. Mighty pleased with them. Too bad you can’t see the white border around it (white on white background, dah), as that really completes the image. 

It’s strange how when the darkest is removed that some clarity comes through. 

Thanks to Timothy Wee for the wonderful great help!

Click on the images to see the actual proportion. This blog thingy changes the proportions a little weirdly.

John Ruskin had wished that he could be very wealthy, but his wealth was not of the dollars and cents, or that plot of land, or cards, he wished to be wealthy in kindness, curiosity, sensitivity, humility and intelligence. Which life is made up of.

I’ve been talking about how the bad market situation should finally give people the time to rethink what living was about, and then I read this, I don’t think I would have been able to say it better. 

Relationships and life are not only about money transactions.

I believe there’s a nest of snake in my neighborhood! Just saw a snake skin on the road.

An accident either happened this morning, or last night. And this is just after my blog yesterday. I noticed big, fresh pieces of a car on the road. I didn’t see any blood, thank goodness, or I’d have a really, really bad day imagining things. This is actually not new, of the accidents that I do notice, I think it happens at least once every 2 weeks.

Maybe the police should just stand there and book all those really rude / careless / speeding drivers. The camera sure doesn’t do all of that except speeding. Who else can make a change in a situation like this?

With citizens who don’t seem to know how to look out for one another, who doesn’t care about the safety of even their loved ones, who doesn’t have the decency to just respect life.

It’s no wonder we are known as a police state. 

*sigh*

Singapore drivers are getting from bad to worse. 

I know it’s not just me when my students / friends have started to comment how fast and unsafe drivers are these days. And how they’d speed through a traffic light about to turn red. How they’d honk or tab light other cars when the traffic slow them down; which are already traveling near the speed limit. Not to mention the countless times in a taxi when I either see a driver stare at my taxi driver, or my taxi driver stare at another driver for slowing / cutting / braking in on them.

All you need to do is to stand at the Marine Parade / Still Road junction. You will see a possible accident that almost happen with almost every change of the traffic light. You can start seeing it from 7am till 10pm. I’m not too sure about the other hours as I don’t walk past there at all times of the day, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll probably see the same thing.

Do people not treat a fellow human life as precious anymore? Does the few minutes mean so much more than a fellow human life? Does the high of speeding cause people to think that fellow human lives are not precious anymore? 

I hate this.

Had a nice conversation with D last night, after such a long time of not really talking to each other, it was really quite refreshing, and welcoming! The rain and warm food just made it even better! 

Our conversation turned to my current curated show that I have at The National Library Board Building. She suggested that perhaps part of the show should have swapped floors. I couldn’t agree more. I’d try to describe it, but had just deleted that whole chunk of text as I realized it has to be seen to understand what I’m talking about.

You know, I’m really secretly happy when I realize that photographers are growing, and picking up experiences and lessons that can be applied to real photography (read. not technical photography or photography-wannabe).

It started as a rather pleasant morning. Went our to my regular kopi tiam to have my breakfast and sat with a bunch of neighbors and their friends. 

The conversation turned to animals. 

A cat was run over by a car, and A packed it off in his shirt and brought it to a nearby pet shop. He was told that he would have to pay $140 to dispose of the animal. He was furious that he had to be charged. B went on to say that since A had done so much from the goodness of his heart, the shop should at least have taken the decency to help dispose of the dead animal. The other people in the group had similar experiences when they were younger, so it got into a discussion of how pet shops should provide such a service.

Yes, A has such a heart of gold. To have taken the shirt off his back to wrap up the dead animal and to try to find a way to properly dispose of him. And by dispose, it means having to dig a hole and properly bury the animal. 

I love animals. And so does every single person who sat on the table with me this morning. But surely that does not give us the moral high ground to judge people like thus, and to EXPECT things of people. It was just too much ego there. 

The pet shop is a business, not a charity organization. Just because they are selling cute little furry things does not make them a charitable entity. It’s like saying everyone who works in the bank is rich. It is a business. Disposing of dead bodies really requires some work, either through burning, burying, or even driving to a suitable place to bury the body is work that is beyond the call of a pet shop.

However, I now know that if we ever want to find a way to dispose of a dead animal, we can call the SPCA, it would be for free, and they would even come pick it up. Now THAT, is a organization that goes beyond charity and comes from the heart. 

Get it right, folks.