Toying with Creativity

Haven't been reading much because I'm feeling rather drained these few days, with work taking over much of my pathetic life. Pathetic because I wake up at 6am, get to work by 7am, leave at 7pm, get home and just stone. I appreciate why they say "the daily grind". This book was a past read and I probably forgot to get it up onto the blog. Now that the Holga has arrived, it's time to present the ultimate guide on Holga/Diana photography. Chockful of lovely shots, all lomo-style, this is also a comprehensive guide on how to use a plastic toy camera with lots of tips thrown in. The result is practical and useful information in bite-sized chunks with nice photos to look at. And the cover is so cute :)

Love thyself

It's been a crazy week at work. They weren't kidding when they said they needed a guy to "hit the ground running". Work came non-stop and the worst thing is I was never really left alone to do it. Nothing drives me more nuts than having my concentration and train of thought broken every so often. It's difficult to maintain clarity of thought (I really like this expression and its meaning) when you are either being hauled away for something else or have someone barking orders at you. It takes a mighty lot not to rip loose and start barking back. But I tell myself, please do not create a shouting game because it's not worth it. Instead, preserve my dignity, speak calmly, sensibly and confidently and reason and sanity will prevail. Civilised, cultured and well-bred ladies do not shout or bark.

So anyway the weekend is here and I can indulge myself. But since my pay is very little having only worked a few days this month, I'll reward myself in a frugal manner:

food

sleep

nice ring

a beautiful apartment in a great locationsomething fierce, like me

Moments

My Holga arrived today! Can't wait to start shooting. Great timing too, weekend is here!

Updates

2nd day at new work place and I'm already swimming in work. Can't complain since I have been moaning about the slower pace back at the old place. I have been thinking about how to keep my energy levels up so that I can max out my hours and make sure that I have time for everything else outside work, including this newly formed pact with hubby to try and capture little moments in life and keep a log about them on Monkeys Go Shooting. We take turns to decide the weekly theme and post a photo each daily on MGS according to the theme. The idea is to (1) slow down and try to take note of what is going on in our lives, and (2) attempt to interpret the themes in different ways and hopefully improve creative vision. I guess it helps him more when he is the one trying to take better pictures. Me, I am just not so into the technical parts of photo-taking, which is a convenient excuse for the ordinary photos I post. But I do hope that this project can lead me to view ordinary things in different ways. Let's see how long we can sustain this - I've not been able to keep posting on time and hopefully things will improve after I've settled down at work. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how to stay energetic.

Vase & Shoes

right shoe
left shoe
inside face
vase

opposite face

Finally had some time to do the canvas shoes I had bought earlier in JB. I liked the blank white canvas and the high cut, which had a lot of space for me to work on. Also did a bit of decor work on the white vase for Teresa and Alvin and their new home.

Mon Dieu! The heat!

It's a bit early in the year to be so hot, no? And the horrid haze is making the heat even less bearable. But nature seems to be taking to the heat well, and looks to be flourishing even under very uncomfortable conditions. Happy, on the other hand, is not liking it very much, just like me.

Camera DIY

Hubby did something recently which I thought was pretty clever. Instead of buying a diffuser for his camera, whose purpose is to ensure that the light from the flash is diffused evenly, particularly important for taking portraits, he cut out the bottom of a small Meiji Milk bottle and capped it onto the flash whenever he needs it. The effect is quite good, creating shots with a warm feel and no one has that white ring of light on his face.

Food for thought

"If you do not have much imagination, you will be difficult to deceive."

~The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

This is totally random. I wrote about having a lot of fun with my Stanza app on iPhone and have been downloading all sorts of free ebooks to read. This sentence popped up when I was reading the thoroughly enjoyable writings of Agatha Christie, whose books I last read when I was in secondary school. I take the sentence to mean that if a person does not have the tendency to think too much or too deeply about things but instead takes them at face value, it may not be easy to mislead him, for very often the truth is not as complicated as we like to make it out to be.

Adopt a Dog

Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) rehomes stray dogs. They have a good website with details about the dogs and adoption. They are organising a movie screening to raise funds for their Adoption & Rescue Centre located at Lim Chu Kang.

A fun-filled family movie close to our hearts about a group of kids who, when their guardians refused to take their dog Friday, turn an abandoned hotel into a shelter for Friday and his friends !

Date: 5th March 09
Venue: GV VivoCity, Hall 4
Time: 7:15PM

Help support the strays of Singapore ! The proceeds will be channeled towards the maintenance of our Adoption & Rescue Centre (ARC) and for the medical needs of the residents.

Buy tickets

iPhone App - Polarize

Polaroid-ed my photos! And it's free. The Stanza App for downloading and reading ebooks is also great! I'm reading "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for free. iPhone iPhone!

The Veil

Been thinking about an appropriate veil for the gown. Kenny lent me a classic long veil, with satin ribbon trim for the photo shoot but I did not pin it on in the end. I realised I had a problem with the veil cos it was covering most of the embellishments on the toga strap and the bustier area. Given that the design of the gown was more "old-school" with the toga and mermaid cut, I thought about getting Kenny to make a birdcage veil:

So how does this look?

Photo shoot flowers DIY (3)

1 Big stalk of sunflower, de-leafed. A bit of drama, a bit of goofiness. Happiness and great fun for $3. And u don need anything else to go with it.

Photo shoot flowers DIY (2)

Hydrangea bouquet

1 white hydrangea. 1.5m long white satin ribbon. Clear tape and rubber bands. Straight flower stems (I used the cut rose stems from the pomander earlier, or u can ask if your florist has unwanted cut stems.) Pearl head pins.

Hydrangea is my favourite flower and its big round "head" makes a lovely bridal bouquet. Hydrangeas are water guzzlers so Mr Supplier prepared the flower by dunking its head in water for a few minutes. (Cos hydrangeas absorb water through its flowers; their woody stem makes it difficult for them to draw water through it.)

Cut the hydrangea stem to a desired length for the handle. Bundle cut rose stems (I used about 14 stems which were halved lengthwise from 7 original stalks) around the hydrangea stem and secure with 2 rubber bands. Wrap clear tape around the stems to further secure them. Wrap the ribbon from the middle leaving tail ends equal in length in a criss-cross fashion, starting from the bottom of the bouquet handle. Cross the ribbon flat in front, bring the ends to the back and make another flat cross. Bring both ends to the front again, this time cross the ends and make a tight twist. Bring the ends to the back, make a flat cross, and bring up the ribbons to the front again for another twist. Repeat so that the front is a series of twists and the back is a series of flat crosses. To end, tie a double knot at the front and secure the knot with two pearl pins as shown below:

Trim the remaining ends. Or u could tie a bow and leave the ends trailing (for this, u probably need more ribbon, about 2m long)

Hydrangeas need water so have to spray the flowers regularly, Mr Supplier suggested once every hour so that the flowers will not droop. Hydrangeas are pretty hardy and will last for a while. They also come in colours like pink, blue, purple, yellow-green.

Photo shoot flowers DIY (1)

Just went to collect the flowers for the DIY project to prepare for tomorrow's shoot. And Mr Flowers Supplier had a little surprise in store for me. He apparently left the stall for a while during the day and came back to find that his baby's breath and forget-me-nots had all been SOLD OFF, by his ultra-efficient stall helpers. So we had to rush around a bit to find replacements. We did anyway, though for I suspect a high price, partly because it's the goddamn Valentine's Day season. Anyhow, we managed to produced the goods:

Pomander

15 stalks of fuschia roses (Mr Supplier did as told and removed the netting one day earlier to allow the roses to bloom fully, and he got me nice big ones from Holland). A big bunch of forget-me-nots (if I hold the bunch with both hands, my fingertips touch) for about $13 from another supplier who probably overcharged me. A 37cm-in-circumference wet floral sponge ball (bought earlier from FarEast Flora). Lilac ribbon. A satay stick and clear tape.

I prepared the sponge by submerging it in water completely for about 5 min to make sure it's thoroughly soaked. Poke a straw through the sponge, without pulling it entirely through. Use a florist wire to tie both ends of a 50cm long ribbon to it, and put the wire through the straw. Draw out the wire and attached ribbon through the straw, then remove the straw completely. Make sure the ribbon does not go through the hole completely. The loop at one end will be the handle and the tails at the other end will be used to secure an anchor at the bottom of the sponge. To make the anchor, cross two 4cm long satay sticks and secure with clear tape until tightly bound. Tie the cross anchor to the sponge with both ends of the ribbon. Trim away the tail-ends if desired, or u can leave them behind like in the photo above. Cut the roses, leaving behind 3cm long stems and poke them through the sponge at random spots leaving some space in between for the forget-me-nots. Trim forget-me-nots to desired length and fill in the gaps.

Sungei road find

Dropped by Sungei road's "Thieves Market" after visiting the temple yesterday. Found this typewriter that is still working and bought it for $18 after some bargaining. All it needs is an ink strip and it will be ready to go! Hubby said he will have lots of fun fiddling with it and restoring the exterior. There is something vaguely therapeutic about pounding hard at those keys and seeing each word being etched out onto the paper,like you really MEAN everything you write(say).

There were also many old old manual cameras lying around, the Yashicas and the like, and even a Singapore-made Rollei which was going for $120. Took some effort to resist making a purchase. But I will be back for more.

Boutonniere

Originally intended as a flower girl basket, I can see this being adapted into a boutonniere for the groom, as long as it's flowers with long stems. Works with the hoop too, although i would drop twirling the ribbon around it. The ribbon weaving at the stem is ingenious. Vintage Glam offers a DIY tutorial.

Salsa Recipe chunky version

Was sending this to Teresa and decided to keep a record here, in case I can no longer remember it in future.

Ingredients

Red and yellow peppers, diced.
big fat ripe tomatoes, diced and drained
garlic chopped
small red onions, chopped
basil, chopped
bay leaves whole
chopped chili padi, (for spicy versions)
olive oil
salt to taste
some rock sugar, if not ordinary white sugar also can.
can also add a small stock cube for stronger flavour.

Steps

1. heat olive oil in saucepan med heat, add garlic and chili (sweat chili longer to reduce spicy-ness). When garlic's colour darkens a bit, add in onions. Leave onions to sweat till soften.
2. Fry the colored peppers till they soften a bit.
3. Add tomatos and bay leaves and basil. Fry a bit more. When the juice start to boil, turn down heat to low. Continue to simmer till juice is reduced to the consistency u like.
4. Add salt to taste. Then some rock sugar to balance the sourness.

Lust

Lubitel 166+

Start saving now ~ HKD3120 with cable release and color flash.

via lomographyasia

Holga!

I ordered a Holga 135, a 35mm film version of the classic Holga 120. Decided to go for the 135 mainly because I don't think I can always unload the 35mm film from a 120 in a completely dark room and if i shoot outdoors, that means I cannot change the roll after finishing the first one without losing all the images. The 135 is more convenient but cannot shoot square photos or produce sprocket effects. It is however cheaper cos 35mm films come in more (like 36) exposures and 120mm in 12 exposures max i think. Also bought a multi-color flash. Can't wait for them to arrive at the end of the month.

Khloe brings them in.

Red candles

Red ball and pillar candles from Ikea. $4.90 each. Think I need 2 balls and 3 pillars for the wedding photo book table. Plus small bunches of roses/forgetmenots, crepe paper with ribbons.

Eyes

After an unusually strong cup of coffee this morning.

via my funny eye

How we say hello

Check out this project by two photographers who live in different cities and have been collaborating to put up one photo each a day based on a pre-agreed theme per week (Mon-Fri only). On Fridays, the theme will be revealed in the comments section. ~ how we say hello

Ribbons Winter 2008

This rounds up 2008.

Theirs

was the marriage

we envied

mandarin ducks at the edge

of an artificial pond

Karen Cesar

*~*

kneeling

in blue Speedwell

we let them go

a school of brilliant flashes

then the dark pond took them

Kristy Karkow

*~*

two heads of garlic

sit in an empty room

his last request in this land of winter

the constant calling of crows

Thelma Mariano

*~*

on the stoop

of a foreclosed home

a cigarette turns to ash

in a moment

it will all collapse

Mark F. Harris

The Tanka Society of America