Bad Fence

I noticed this badly painted(I think it was brown over white) fence at my parents' house. I thought that the colors and textures formed by the peeling paint and the dead/dying creeping plant were interesting.

Cute and ugly

I was so excited today, because I was going to my parents' house, which holds a treasure trove of subjects for photography. They have a large garden with lots of flowers, so I was going to practice my macro shooting. Well, it started raining before I got there, and it only stopped when I left. Go figure.


I caught a photo of their adorable little terrier mix, Ben. Since it was dark, and I was kind of reluctant to increase the ISO any further, the shutter speed was low. As a result, the image shows the hallmarks of camera shake and subject motion blur. I think this photo had potential, but now it's too blurry. I guess I could post process it and make it look like I took it through a soft lens.

I managed a rather sharp photo of an ugly fly with my Tamron 90mm macro lens, despite having to stoop over at an awkward angle. I was trying to capture the little red flowers (Ixora) and caught sight of this little fella. Obviously, the photo could have been better if I had used a tripod and external flash, but I'm not sure I want to see this fly in any more detail anyway. Sour grapes?

A flower and me!

I finally managed to take my camera out with me, by sneaking it in my large "new" handbag. I have been using my old and tattered bag for a long, long time, but I finally switched bags just so I could cram in a DSLR with a decent length lens (eg. my 55-250mm). I was still deathly afraid of people staring at me, so I would whip out the camera quickly from my bag, snap, and swiftly return it to its hiding place.


Because of my fear, I didn't manage to shoot any decent photos. Here's a photo I kind of liked, but I didn't have time to compose or to focus properly. I set the aperture way too big, and I missed the focal point as well. Still, I like how the bougainvillea "flower" (the purplish bits) is actually made up of leaves, and the real flowers are nestled inside, ignored but still beautiful in its own right.

I got my new camera strap, it's a Black Rapid Rs-4. I love it! It slings across my body, allowing me to walk around easily, and my camera is accessible with a smooth and quick motion. I took a photo of myself while using that strap. The photo is noisy and the strap can't really be seen. But it's the first photo I've taken of myself with the camera.

Chime

It was raining again today. Everything was dark and dull, so I thought what the hey.... just shoot something dark. This dark blob is a wind chime I got for Christmas.

The chime was moving imperceptibly, so I ended up having to increase the shutter speed in order to avoid a soft-looking photo.

Rain again

It's Christmas and 'tis the season to be rainy over here in Singapore. I tried to capture the raindrops, but they just look like little dashes. This photo is heavily cropped.

Kazu and the Christmas present

It's Christmas day, I'm dead tired from cooking the turkey and gravy and doing the socializing thing. I think I can be forgiven for taking snapshots today. I got a great pillow thingy from my sister and her husband as a gift. I was immediately reminded of the fat one when I saw that ovaly, squishy pillow.

So here she is, held against her will behind the pillow:

And here she is again, putting her foot on the pillow. She doesn't like the pillow too much.

 

Here's the same photo, but with some post-processing to create a "lomo effect". I can see halos around stuff, so it's obviously over processed. It's possible the halos originated from over sharpening. I'll try to work on my technique.

 

A dragonfly

I heard Miki making chattering noises, and I went to check out the object of her attention. Turns out it was a dragonfly. I could have whipped out my macro lens, but this little creature was up on my ceiling light. So I used the 55-250mm lens and zoomed in (the lens, not me).

I balanced myself (albeit shakily) and shot upwards, but it was a giant pain trying to get the camera to hold steady. I basically stopped breathing just to try and stop the extra movement. Luckily, the image stabilization on this lens works like a charm.