The 52-Week Collection - Week 28: Backstage Hero

Another week! It's like time has already flew away before I can realize what I actually did in the week. Need to find a way to enjoy more of my daily life!

Got some flowers when I came across a flower store today, the flower is really cheap! Five dollars for 4 flowers...I was planning to shoot rings photo this week but the flowers are too cheap to resist...

When we see beautiful things, or successful people on stage, don't forget how hard they worked on    building up the stage before they become successful. And, one day, when we taste the joy of success, don't forget how we get there and the people who were supporting us behind our back!

The 52-Week Collection - Week 27: Touch from the Sky

Another week! I can't believe it, time just flies... This week is a rather tiring week, the weather is not very nice, thundering and lightning for a few nights...and the picture for this week showed how it's like! Those nights are quite scary indeed, haven't seen the weather change that suddenly before, I hope the earth is fine..

Touch From the Sky

A shocking thunder storm show was started just when I thought it's almost time to go to bed. This is the first time I see thunderstorm with my camera, shocking-beauty is the word I would use, this is the very first time I sit there and watch the lightening for about 20 minutes (and the thunderstorm is still going on out there...)I didn't know when should I press the shutter so only got a few pictures with the lightening in...the lightening comes from every way I just didn't know which way to turn to...

The setting I used was 1/10 f5 ISO 400 MF, I think the focus was not very right and should use a tripod next time.


When I try to read on more articles about taking lightening pictures just now, I learnt that to take good lightening pictures, we've got to firstly determine if the thunderstorm is near or not as it would affect the F value we would use. For example, if the thunderstorm is estimated to be 8km away, use F8, more than 8km, use 5.6, around 5 km, use f11. To know how far the thunderstorm is away from us we can count the seconds the thunder came after the lightening. According to the passage, the speed which air can transfer sound is 340m/second, so let's do the maths!

Secondly we need to find somewhere with a darker background to get a better exposure of the lightening, use a tripod.

Thirdly, the aperture have to be small with long exposure time to catch the lightening. Focus the focus point to the furthest point and be patient!

Got to be careful when we wanna take pictures of lightening, better stay indoor! Safety comes first. Let's keep learining!

source: http://www.southcn.com/it/sheying/200302100528.htm

Cough Cough

Picture taken in Central, Hong Kong.

I am having the same express as this doll does - feeling sleepy. Even though I sleep quite a lot everyday, I still feel tired these days, and my throat is not feeling well these days...hope to get well soon. Life goes on as usual, working every day, seeing a lot more students on the street now since school has started. I saw a class of primary student in their PE lesson on a playground, which reminded me of the time I was in primary school. I was a great athlete lol I won  gold medals in running in the sports day every year when I was in primary school...(of course, I was much thinner back then...) when I was in primary one I often think about the time when I will be a primary six student. After realizing time flies really fast in primary six, I started to comfort myself that secondary school will be another seven years, and that is a long while. And now? the seven years secondary school plus three years of university, here I am, joined the work force.

These few months has been the season of announcing public exam results and every-year people would think about the issue on whether university studies is useful for future job hunting. In my opinion, it does, especially if you want to become professionals like an accountant, doctor or lawyer etc. That would be the path to get you there. However, it might not be that important if you don't aim at those professions. Knowledge and experience are both as important, they help each other in a sense. 

I am indeed quite happy about Hong Kong introducing minimum wage, I heard that countries like USA has a min. wage of US 8 per hour, which is really great. Perhaps that can explain why it is so expensive to dine out in foreign countries compared to Hong Kong, and that people who discovered they don't like to study would just drop themselves out of school and join the workforce, since they can maintain their daily live quite well with that min. wage. There are drawbacks also but I think as a whole, it brings more good to the society, at least people can maintain a better live (assume the employers do not fire workers for that). 

The 52-Week Collection - Week 26: Food For Eyes

Looking back at my work in the past 25 weeks, I think I need to work harder to improve my photography works. I have been told that my pictures are a bit too dark in general, and I really agree. In the coming weeks, I will work harder, focusing on adjusting my exposure settings.

Week 26, half way to the 52 week collection, quite grateful that I am still feeling energetic about this collection! It is somehow a relaxation activity for me, I have been going out to take pictures for a few weekends and it's a bit too tiring...plus the sky is a bit grey due to the typhoon lately, so I decided to take pictures indoor today.

I have collected this emm...I don't know how should I call it...flower decoration...for a long time. I always think that this is beautiful, with the bricks I like (I really like brick pattern) and roses. I didn't know what to do with it when I bought it...and I still do not know what to do with it...haha it feeds my eyes every time I look at it.

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.