Last wednesday kicked off the first evening of four in the HSBC Celebration of light fireworks competition at English Bay. The weather was perfect and we were able to set our equipment up at a good spot. It was only too bad that my first stab at a fireworks photoshoot was a bit of a flop. There were no problems with focusing or aperture settings but the exposure timing was off or too long in some instances. As a result, I got pictures after a spectacular pattern had just fizzled out into the darkness of the sky or ones which were filled with too many explosions. I will have to go back this coming saturday for the fireworks finale to do another photoshoot. Looking at the website for the event, there are some downloadable photos except that I find them to be not very appealing either. Artistically, the composition and even the content aren't very good as they aren't that much better than mine. Maybe you will see a future entry on what not to do when taking pictures of fireworks.
There were three of us together taking photos with our cameras and tripods. Craig is a fellow budding amateur and Jorge is a studio model photographer from Mexico. I met him at the Photoclub meeting the other week as he was looking to network and get a foot in with a local studio. He had a portfolio with him displaying a collection of his work from back home. There were many young models, middle aged pregnant women and one photo of the Mayor of his small town. They were all very good as many of the other club members remarked. One went so far as to give him advice on how to apply for his own exhibition in September at the same gallery that the photoclub just had theirs. Jorge has been doing professional studio photography for the past six years and being a new person here in Vancouver with sometimes no one else to talk to, he was very happy to make my aquaintance. He has an easier time talking to me than most people and is very open to helping me. So far I haven't come across anyone who has not been open to giving advice.
I received an email asking those interested in a photo contest in London from the club and spent this evening going through all the photos I've taken in the past year from my trips. Many of them good and some bad. The Swan's from London, friends from the San Francisco road trip, candid shots of more friends on the Oosterdam cruise and in Disneyland, and the Maui wedding including the woman that I met and her son. In our backyard, we have planted a number of bamboo plants amongst the other bushes and small trees. When I first saw the bamboo shoots stand up with their leaves sprouting over me, it reminded me of a similar photo of my relatives standing in front of a large group of bamboo plants at a pineapple plantation in Maui. Every so often, my sister n law will bring us a pineapple from the Costco in Washington state. A funny lesson for us after packing a suitcase full of Hawaiian pineapples and other fruit only to find out that they could be purchased locally nearby.
At first I thought my photos were good because of the candid nature of the pictures. The spur of the moment strike a pose shots which I find much more appealing than the standard touristy pose beside a monument, and believe me, I have those as do everyone else. Then I think that maybe I like them because of my personal relationship with the people. Does my empathy towards them bias my opinion of the photos? What would a total stranger think if they saw the pictures which I would show? How would it make them feel and is there a mood to the photo?
After the evening of badminton almost two weeks ago, I decided to buy a Victor Discovery Ti 58 racquet. It was the only thing I could find in the middle price range. Everything else was either really cheap or really expensive. And no sooner than I had made the purchase, I chipped the frame in a clash with my playing partner just hours later. Lets face it, I suck at the game but hey, it's fun. On saturday one of the members held a movie night in the theatre room of his condominium complex downtown. The unnannounced movie which we watched was "A World Without Thieves", winner of last years Hong Kong or Asian film festival. I highly recommend it despite some of the farfetched actions of the characters but being an asian movie production, it is not to be expected. We watched the film in mandarin and I spent most of the time trying to match the speech to the subtitles. After turning down the offer to spend one month with the chinese snowboarding team in Whistler thinking that my mandarin wasn't strong enough, I've decided to work on my mandarin. On my bookshelf I still have the two text books from the mandarin class I took at UBC before my one and only trip to Peking many years ago. I think I was supposed to return those books at the end of the term but that was nine years ago...
Project Red Neck Truck Revival has begun. The appointment with the bodyshop has been made for the back end of the truck to finally be repaired after all these years. I'm surprised that the small dent has only rusted so little. All four tires were replaced with a set of rare Toyo Open country A/T's. I say rare because the 225/70R14 is a rare size and not many tire companies make it. I had the outlined white lettering put on the outside thinking that it would give the truck a more sporty look. Maybe it may have backfired but its done now and I'm stuck with it. There was also some hidden damage from the accident earlier this year. The radiator mount was found separated the other day which means that the whole radiator will probably have to be replaced. I don't mind this little freebie as ICBC will have to pay for most of it I hope. Fingers are crossed...
The free time has been good as it has allowed me work on my health without worrying about planning my alterred meal plan and sleeping pattern around a day job. The pain and discomfort has come back to the extent that I can't take a deep full breath. It's like there's a blockage inside. I decided to do a series of consecutive mild liver flushes last week. Both were successful but another one is needed. Everytime I do it, more stuff comes out and there's an instant relief. Unfortunately, I feel that it is not completedly unobstructed yet requiring further attention. No more crappy post softball pub food. I'm glad this week is the playoffs. The season will finally end and I've turned down further requests to play hockey for the rest of this month.
Posted by LeanPorkLei at August 2, 2005 03:57 AM | TrackBack