My New Collection!

I said to myself yesterday that money should not be spent on unnecessary items so that I can save enough money to get better equipments earlier...(see...photography is really a money black-hole, sometimes I wonder if I am working hard to earn $$ for those camera and lens manufacturers...)but I couldn't resist this beautiful fox...I saw it, looked at it...walked away and came back for it...well of course it is a "A product" (fake jewelery...I wish I can afford real ones la lol ), I think the curves of this ring is designed really beautifully...so haha like what we always say: "it's very easy to take money from women's wallet" (女人錢好易賺)

I admire the design of this ring, perhaps I always like animal stuffs...now I think it somehow looks like a deer...haha but with that tail...I think it should be a fox...hmmm

anyway....let me remind myself to spend money wisely again...

September The First

Valuable books that I have collected in the past 3 years.

For many years, 1st of September meant the beginning of a new academic year to me. In this year, it meant the date I get my salary. I still can't believe I have already graduated from school. Has it really been three year since the day I was admitted to the university? Time flies.

Seeing students who are on the way to school, with tidy uniform, I feel old suddenly. In fact, a while ago when I went shopping, a cute little girl dropped her fairy stick and I helped her to pick it up, she said "thanks auntie", I started to realize that I am no longer a little girl.

Still, I embrace aging, we don't need to envy others who are younger, because we all have been through that. I watched a very touching video this morning which is about an old man visiting old places and looking back at old pictures, crying. This is perhaps one of the reasons why I like to take pictures, it reminds us of the old days, something we might not be able to remember so meticulously.


It is so fun to go to school and to learn, thankfully there are so many means for us to learn nowadays outside school, but still, I will miss school!


"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter" ~Mark Twain

"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional"~Chili Davis

The 52-Week Collection - Week 25: Believe

Tradition - according to wikipedia tradition is beliefs or customs that are taught from one generation to the next and that are maintained by the society. I always admire the wisdom of our ancestors and the knowledge that have been accumulated for thousands of years.

However, tradition can also be limiting in terms of what we are capable of, because we have too much too follow rather than building up a new system. I admire scientists and people with great creativity, that they are brave enough to do what is not said in the history, that they are willing to try and adjust, it takes a lot of courage to do so and so this is the quote for the week "we are what we believe we are". Believe in ourselves and do not fear. Heard some sharing today, I think to become successful we need to have a flexible mindset. There must be rule to get the things working but we have to ensure that the rules do not limit change or creativity.

Reality

Have been working for a month now, glad that the progress of my collection project is not affected. Earlier I  have attended two concerts by HKFO, and I asked my friend the other day if he is worried about the growing musicians, that when they start working one day, will they still be able to squeeze time and play music together?

He assured me that as long as people know what the like to do, they will find a way to do what they like, like the musicians in the orchestra who also work in the law firm / accounting firm. This is encouraging.

These few weeks I have been spontaneously asking my friends to hang out together, I feel thankful that we can make it.. even though I asked only a few days in advanced..

Still feel a bit emotionally troubled when I read the news about the hostage. I somehow feel a bit scared because this tragedy seems to grow into politics and racism issues, with negative emotions that might be affecting our rational thinking. Time will lessen the pain.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 24: Escape from the city

The more busy we are, the more important it is for us to take the time and go sight seeing / do something relaxing regularly. This might sounds a little bit contradicting or that we might be too busy to even think about it, we have to squeeze time for it.

Being in an office or library, with 4 walls around us and a computer or book or a pile of notes in front of us, 5 or 6 days a week, might somehow make us to forget the other aspects in life that are also worth paying attention to. That is the reason I believe that we have to do something we like or relaxing regularly to keep our mind fresh and in reality.

Rooms for improvement

I am off this Saturday happily so decided take the time to play around, and I went to Disney...station today...haha and the inspiration lake.I am so thankful that the weather is fine and that we have a blue blue sky. Other than too hot and humid lately, everything is just fine. Disneyland is surely a great place to take pictures and I am glad to have chosen this place today, the place somehow gave me some childhood strengths...lol

Thanks George for accompanying me to sight-seeing around and to let me take pictures of u...haha long time no see. This is the first time I take portrait of male...purposely. George is someone who are quite spontaneous and enjoy relaxing style, although he is also a musician playing the piano and violin, I thought a "relaxing" album would suit him more.

I like the pictures but I am having a difficult time trying to develop in other directions...Looking back at the work of this half year, when I pick up the camera to shoot portrait, most of them are half body ones, and the worse thing is I take pictures of this structure automatically. I like the pictures but I don't like that most of them with such alike structure. I need more variations. I need more inspiration. Maybe I should stop taking portraits for a while to cool down a little and to spend more time to be inspired by other photographers for the time being.

Continuous improvement is important...and how could that be done? hmmm...

HKFO

Finally have time to write something. Earlier in this week I was lucky enough to attend 2 music concerts of HKFO, I haven't been to a music concert like this since secondary school! HKFO was founded in 2009, non-profit and with about 80 musicians. That was the premiere concert of the orchestra. The music was touching and powerful, we can definitely feel the hearts and souls the musicians have put into the music. When people are doing something because they simply love doing it, the mood is much different, the musicians were really enjoying themselves and the audience can feel their desire to share music with everyone. Symphony #9 "from the new world" is definitely my favorite.

It is very easy to see how successful people are on the stage but not the hard-working moments behind the scene. I admire the whole orchestra because they are all people who can fight against the fear and limitations we often give ourselves when we are pursuing what we want. When about a 100 people are working towards a same goal, that's how powerful cooperation can be. The sleepless nights, tear and sweat they've put into the orchestra have well paid off at the second they start playing music on stage, the applause from the audience assured their hard work. Their spirit and the action of how they fulfilled their dreams are something we should learn from. Dare to make a difference and make the dreams come true.

How could young people only in their teenage and 20's have the ability to form an orchestra from scratch? The answer revealed in the concert- their passion towards music, see it for yourself next time when the great orchestra is performing again in the future!

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

My sincere congratulation to HKFO.

Yum Cha (Drink Tea)

I can't recall since when my family have developed a habit to yum cha every weekend, yum cha is a noun in cantonese which basically means to eat dim sum and drink chinese tea at the chinese restaurant.

Tourists often feel a bit overwhelmed when they are presented with the long list of dim sum order sheet, wondering what should they order or what are the most famous dishes. I can't say my suggestions are the best but I would suggest our tourist friends to eat SiuMai (燒賣), which is appeared at the right bottom corner on the above picture, this is a must-eat (I guess) dim sum at the Chinese restaurant, but beware if you are allergic to prawn (like me><). Other dishes include rice noodle rolls (sorry that I don't have a picture here, will shoot it next time~), usually there are plain rice noodle roll / with barbecue pork inside / beef inside / vegetable or mushroom inside / seafood inside. Okay, other good dim sum in my opinion includes the Chinese bun (barbecue pork or chicken or the sweet ones), beef balls, prawn dumplings, normal dumplings, congee, and dessert like the sesame rice ball at the right top corner!

If you are crazy about dim sum, even if you pick any on the list randomly, it can't go very wrong...LoL

Yum Cha is something we must do when we are visiting in China, a very good way to enjoy food, tea and to explore the culture. Many visitors can master chopsticks even better than me because they really love Chinese food, I am really proud of our food and culture! :)

The 52-Week Collection - Week 23: The Mask

It is not easy to shoot in the summer...I am so exhausted now after half day working, only 2 hours' walking and 1.5 hour's shooting in the evening...I can feel my body was drying up under the sun, but I am still grateful that my brain has enough room to shoot pictures after work haha. It is really important to squeeze time to do what we like in our busy lives, it fuels up our emotion stability tanks.

It's good to meet up with old friends, Daisy is my secondary schoolmate and now we are graduated and working, time flies. I am really glad to have known a lot of good friends at schools. I didn't realize I do like this style so much, black clothing, black long gloves, red lips and hat. I was watching Breakfast at Tiffany's yesterday and I do like how the women dress up back then. Watching old movies once in a while is really great.

Looking back at my photos now I think my works are too alike, which is not a very good thing, I need some breakthroughs to further develop my styles, think I need to look at more works by other photographers to grow and develop.

The 52-Week Collection - Week 22: A Drop of Effort

Week 22, The weather is so hot and unstable, I was planning to go take pictures of Vitoria Harbour but am a bit concerned about the sudden changing weather lately so I think I might have to do that next week.

Glad that I finally got a new ball head for the tripod, the old platform only allows me to take pictures in landscape direction so I think it should be great to get one that can allow me to take portrait direction also~ money come and go since the day I realized I like photography...

This is what I have done finally...I didn't know why would I do water but anyway...I have shot for about 2 hours and this is one of those done in the first half hour...so exhausted...not a very wise choice to shoot water again until I get a small spot light ($ again), the environment was not bright enough so that was a bit difficult. The liquid's color is from food coloring, hmmm wanna try blue coloring next time hehe

"Be a learner all the time, learn from everything."