Pointless rant about volleyball and photography
I had an exhausting weekend. Usually after my 1.5hrs of beach volleyball, I go home, shower and passout. This week, after our class, we commandeered a court and played a few games with the other people in the class, plus a few stragglers on the beach. So after about 3hrs of beach volleyball, I get home, shower and sleep. Surprisingly, I didn't sleep the entire night away. I managed to drag myself out of bed after an hour nap, which was sooooooo hard to do! All I wanted to do was sleep! But then considering the past week, the earliest I've gone to bed is midnight, beach volleyball may not be the cause of my zombification.
I finally got to sleep in on the Sunday (First time in agesssssssssss!) and decided to take my camera for a spin at the Auburn Japanese Gardens. I haven't been to the Japanese Gardens in YEARS! I used to go there all the time with my family for BBQ. The last time I went would have been......10 years ago? And the time before that would have probably been about 5 years? I was quite disappointed when I got there yesterday. It seems to have lost all its glory. Of course, I was going in Autumn, and all their Cherry Blossom trees are bare or missing. The wandering peacocks also seem to be missing. I remember as a kid I could wander through the gardens and see a dozen or so peacocks roaming around. Yesterday, all I got was a few swans and ducks. Quite boring photography subjects to be honest. But then, to make a shot interesting, its up to the photgrapher more than the subject itself.
I'm quite lucky to have a workmate who is a top notch photographer. He's the one who's been convincing me to get a DLSR for about a year now! So when I finally caved in and took the plunge, he promised that we'll go out one day and take some shots together. Of course that hasn't happened, and the little photography tutorial he was supposed to give me, hasn't happened either. But me, being the curious beaver that I am, has been a little obsessive about photography lately. I've been fiddling with my camera whenever I have free time. Turning this dial and pressing that button to learn what my camera does. So without any proper instructions, I took my camera out to the Zoo the other week and went nuts with the camera.
When I showed the photos to my workmate, he was impressed that I took so many shots all in Manual. He had guessed that I would be using the Auto function until we get a chance to take the camera out for a spin. But why spend so much money on a camera, only to use the Auto function? If I was to do that, I should just use a Point and shoot. And even then I don't use the Auto anymore on it! My philosophy is that you need to take a lot of bad photos, to take a good photo. Yes, initially a lot of my photos are going to be crap, but I need to learn WHY they're crap and improve on them. Taking photos in Auto is just the easy way out and I'll never learn how to take better shots. Photos in Auto would be "good", but considering the money I spent on the camera, I want them to be "F**kin awesome!!". Of course, sometimes you just have to use Auto, like when the scene is just too hard to take (Cloudy, sunny and raining all in one go) or when you're drunk. :D
The other thing I've noticed since I got my camera is that I am addicted to Flickr. Not only are there thousands and thousands of awesome shots that you can use for inspiration, but its a chance to get feedback on your own shots as well. I've also used it as a backup of my photos. When I spent the long weekend battling a stupid computer virus, there was a 10min window when I tried to reboot and it said "Disk Failure". I had seen something like that previously, when my computer got fried. I felt the blood drain from my face when it looked like I had lost everything on my computer. Lucky it was a false alarm. So for the past week, I've been uploaded a whole heap of my photos onto Flickr. I've even upgraded myself to a Pro account so I can have unlimited storage. For a trigger happy person like me, I need all the backup I can get. Plus, I figured it'll be a good way to post up photos of my trip without completely killing this blog with the 234452353 photos I post up!
Anyway, you can check out my photos if you're bored.
I finally got to sleep in on the Sunday (First time in agesssssssssss!) and decided to take my camera for a spin at the Auburn Japanese Gardens. I haven't been to the Japanese Gardens in YEARS! I used to go there all the time with my family for BBQ. The last time I went would have been......10 years ago? And the time before that would have probably been about 5 years? I was quite disappointed when I got there yesterday. It seems to have lost all its glory. Of course, I was going in Autumn, and all their Cherry Blossom trees are bare or missing. The wandering peacocks also seem to be missing. I remember as a kid I could wander through the gardens and see a dozen or so peacocks roaming around. Yesterday, all I got was a few swans and ducks. Quite boring photography subjects to be honest. But then, to make a shot interesting, its up to the photgrapher more than the subject itself.
I'm quite lucky to have a workmate who is a top notch photographer. He's the one who's been convincing me to get a DLSR for about a year now! So when I finally caved in and took the plunge, he promised that we'll go out one day and take some shots together. Of course that hasn't happened, and the little photography tutorial he was supposed to give me, hasn't happened either. But me, being the curious beaver that I am, has been a little obsessive about photography lately. I've been fiddling with my camera whenever I have free time. Turning this dial and pressing that button to learn what my camera does. So without any proper instructions, I took my camera out to the Zoo the other week and went nuts with the camera.
When I showed the photos to my workmate, he was impressed that I took so many shots all in Manual. He had guessed that I would be using the Auto function until we get a chance to take the camera out for a spin. But why spend so much money on a camera, only to use the Auto function? If I was to do that, I should just use a Point and shoot. And even then I don't use the Auto anymore on it! My philosophy is that you need to take a lot of bad photos, to take a good photo. Yes, initially a lot of my photos are going to be crap, but I need to learn WHY they're crap and improve on them. Taking photos in Auto is just the easy way out and I'll never learn how to take better shots. Photos in Auto would be "good", but considering the money I spent on the camera, I want them to be "F**kin awesome!!". Of course, sometimes you just have to use Auto, like when the scene is just too hard to take (Cloudy, sunny and raining all in one go) or when you're drunk. :D
The other thing I've noticed since I got my camera is that I am addicted to Flickr. Not only are there thousands and thousands of awesome shots that you can use for inspiration, but its a chance to get feedback on your own shots as well. I've also used it as a backup of my photos. When I spent the long weekend battling a stupid computer virus, there was a 10min window when I tried to reboot and it said "Disk Failure". I had seen something like that previously, when my computer got fried. I felt the blood drain from my face when it looked like I had lost everything on my computer. Lucky it was a false alarm. So for the past week, I've been uploaded a whole heap of my photos onto Flickr. I've even upgraded myself to a Pro account so I can have unlimited storage. For a trigger happy person like me, I need all the backup I can get. Plus, I figured it'll be a good way to post up photos of my trip without completely killing this blog with the 234452353 photos I post up!
Anyway, you can check out my photos if you're bored.
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