Random 35

Sometimes, i just have no idea what to rant about, but i have some pictures that i would like to post. Just to update the blog. ya know, its kind of like a diary to me. maybe in the future i can look back and read all the nonsense that i had written.

So i'm calling this new set "Random 35", just some random collection of pictures from my X100S.

Handheld, x100s, night shot wide open at f2, iso3200 at 1/25s

Having a conversation with my head

I'm in dilemma....

What i am thinking right now....

What's in my head.....

Those are just some of the supposedly titles for this post, really its just about ranting. I have so many thoughts and i'd like to put it down on paper or to be more precise on my blog. and of course i'm thinking about cameras and gears. it just never stops. GAS is just everywhere. new gears, old gears, as long its for sale, i'm here to buy it. As if i have a million dollars in my bank account. Such a bad disease to have. Yes, i'm calling it a disease. GAS is a disease. Its an obsession. More gears doesn't equal better photos. But then i just like it because its like buying toys. Boys never grow up. I told you this.

So what am i thinking and doing right now? Well, for starters, i still browse around ebay looking for a cheap used Leica M8, hopefully winning the bid in a tight budget of $2k and preferably in silver, as the blacks look common nowadays for a leica, the silver looks rare and old school like those leica M2s, M3s. The average trending prices for a used Leica M8 on ebay is around $1500-$2000 and of course higher depends on the seller. and that's body only! As for lens, i'm looking at the cheaper options available which is the voigtlander's, and those sells for $400-$600 and higher depends on how fast the lens is. I'm looking at the Voigtlander 35mm 2.5, 40mm 1.4, 21mm f4, and those lenses ranges in that $400 - $600. So a body + one lens is gonna cost me about $2600 US dollars. Phew!! With that money i could buy a new Fuji X-T1 + kit lens plus one prime lens but then i wanna experience the M. I want to shoot a Leica. Thats whats in my head right now and ever since i got into photography which is merely 11 years ago, i want to own a Leica and now that i have a job for a good 10 years, i should be able to save up for a Leica. but based on reviews, the Fujis are the better cameras, especially in high ISO. So why still looking for a Leica? ...................................................................I just need to fulfil my dreams.

X-pro1 vs X100S

I gotta be honest right now, my favourite camera and still is the undisputed winner, my X100S. Period. Why? Its simple. Just switched it on, and start taking pictures. With its fast lens at f2, it's so nice and easy to get that bokeh. and it is also smaller and lighter than the X-pro1. less bulkier. If i'm opening my camera bag, it will always be the x100s to be grabbed. I think it also got to do with its IQ. i think the new sensor, makes it much cleaner and somewhat more contrasty, punchy JPGs when chimping. Maybe this has got to do with the quality of the LCD, i dont know. When i shoot with my X100S, i always looked at the 1.5sec playback review and it just puts a smile on my face when i look how contrasty, punchy and clean the images look. i felt the opposite with the X-pro1, somehow on its playback review the images look washed out although it actually didnt matter as you can edit it in lightroom. Must be the LCD. Maybe its just placebo. and its also unfair to the X-pro1, as its lens is not as fast as the X100S, time to get the 35mm 1.4? and see if my X100S is still the favourite.

Speaking of X100S, i'm having trouble choosing which is my ultimate camera for travelling. Should i go with the Xpro1 or the X100S, my heart says X100S, and with its nice add-ons, the wide conversion lens and the new tele conversion lens makes my life difficult over which cameras to choose. Why difficult? Because if i bought the WCL, it gives me a 28mm perspective which i already own (X-pro1 with 18-55), and then if i buy the TCL, in the future i have a plan to buy the 35mm 1.4 for my Fuji X-Pro1.... so all in all, its a bit redundant, dont you think?

28mm, 35mm and 50mm is all i 'mostly' need for my kind of photography. The Fuji X100S with both add-ons is a very nice complete kit. Perfect for travel! i'd love to buy both converters but that will make my X-pro1 collecting dust. and then the redundant issue.

Ah well..... story of my life

Hi, My Name is Dark Moody

I'm beginning to dig the look of my 'Andy Lee' wannabe look. It has the sort of surreal feel, painted look and really dark mood feeling about it, as if its about to rain in a few minutes. I dont really shoot a lot of landscapes lately or ever but now that i have that 'dark mood look' recipe, i wanna try it on all of my landscapes pictures but first i need to shoot more landscapes. I've been digging my library and see if i can find more landscapes pictures but alas there's only a few. Shucks! I need to get my ass off this couch and start taking photos!

I found a few photos from my last year's trip to Kota Kinabalu Sabah. I'm diggin the look. I'm calling this my "Dark Moody" set.

All shots taken with Fuji X-M1.
Awesome little camera!

Rumor Patrol...

So there will be a new upgraded, updated X-T1?? That will pissed a lot of early X-T1 adopters. It's still a rumor but if its true i'm surprised with fuji's move. The X-T1 is only just 6 months old and there's already a successor line up? What happen to the Kaizen philosophy? Usually the first step is, Fuji will push new firmwares to update or upgrade the camera but now it seems they are pushing a new updated X-T1 instead. As if the present X-T1 is a prototype and we customers are camera testers except that we spent money to test it. But then again this is just a rumor.

Speaking of firmwares, there will be new firmwares for the old X series cameras, which includes the x-pro1, wishful thinking is that they improve the x-pro1 features wise or performance wise but then the reality is, its only probably a firmware to detect the new weather sealed lens that is about to be announce.

And then there's the x100t...

Exciting times exciting times

Rumors via fujirumors

Why Mauricio Pochettino is NOT the right man for Tottenham........ But i might be wrong!

I just had to take this out of my chest.
To Americans, i'm talking about English soccer.
Ok, you can go back to whatever you're doing. lol
To Tottenham fans, well, i'm a Tottenham fan ever since Gary Lineker was in the team. And then there's Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Jurgen Klinsmann, Darren Anderton, Edgar Davids, Teddy Sheringham and of course Gareth Bale.

photo from express.co.uk

Why Mauricio Pochettino is not the right man? Well, based on statistics, last season we beat them twice while he's in charge. Even Tim Sherwood's Tottenham won against Mauricio's Saints. and AVB's Spurs was above Southampton in the table. Which can or cannot mean, that our previous managers are better. Statistically. Why bring mid-table head coach to Spurs? Are we going back to where we've been a decade ago? A mid-table team.... thats what a gooner gonna and always say. We were never above Arsenal in the league when Arsene is in charge and still is in charge. Tottenham keep changing managers, i was rooting for AVB to be our long term manager but his football is a pain in the ass. It's enduring! When he was in charge, i've skipped a lot of Spurs games. It is just not worth watching. and he's stubbornness cost him his job. i think we should have stick with Redknapp although he never rotates the team and likes to talk bull but he did gave us Champions league qualification.

But i might be wrong. I have to admit, Southampton did play beautiful football. and it was a tough team to beat when Mauricio was in charge. Southampton was never a mid table team, they were more of a team that is closer to relegation. no offense. But Mauricio did turned things for them. Made them exciting, made them superstars, made them highest in the league in Southampton's history, beautiful to watch football, and making me nervous of playing against Southampton and boy was i relieved that we were able to beat them. So that do say something about Mauricio.

But then again, statistics is statistics, in 60 games, Mauricio won 23, draw 18 and lose 19, with a winning percentage of 34.39%. It's not convincing to say the least.

We should have appointed someone with a winning CV, people like Benitez, Mancini, De Boer and almost Van Gaal. AVB had the better CV than Mauricio but i still think he is unlucky (AVB) to get the players that he wanted to suit his style of play. Really? Played Dawson with a high line defense? LOL. No offense. Dawson is a great defender but he cant play high line defense. He's too slow. Let's just say it didnt suit him nicely.

But i hope i'm wrong. I do get excited to see him in action. but that's the thing, get excited season after season with new appointments, new signings (last season's signing was a mess) and hoping for the best which is not the case. Let's just hope that our players are better players than Southampton's and get that winning formula. If that is not the case, then we're back to mid-table, where we were most comfortable.

My 'Andy Lee' Wannabe photo

I was reading dpreview when i stumbled upon an article featuring Andy Lee with his Iceland in Infrared landscapes photos. I'm not so much into landscapes, i love it but its always been done to death. "Hey, look at that, a mountain!" ..(setup tripod, set long exposure, shoot). I'm not saying that its not beautiful, it is beautiful when done right...to my eyes. What i'm trying to say is, our eyes are the best camera of all time. No camera can replicate what our eyes can see. So when you shot landscapes, sometimes you'll say to yourself, "It's nicer to see and experienced it with your own eyes than looking at photographs" or maybe i just sucked at photography. I guess its the latter. It's like my first time looking at the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes, i'm just in awe and it was breathtaking. I didn't have that same feeling when i look at a poster of Eiffel Tower. So when you look at pictures of landscapes and it was breathtaking, it makes you wanna go there and experience it yourself but to find out later, that place was just normal looking, it is beautiful, dont get me wrong but the pictures look nicer, then you got yourself a 'landscape photographer' genius. Andy Lee is one of them. When i look at Andy's pictures, i'm just inspired. It is my cup of tea. Bravo, bravo, that is nicely done. It's how he post-process his pictures, i bet if its OOC, its just normal looking landscapes but then he laid down his personal touch and OOoommpphh.... breathless!

For me, its all in the post processing, composition and light. Chasing light. I dont have neither. I'm still looking for post processing recipes and light? Me chasing light? Maybe the light chases me and if lucky i got a camera in my hand. and then came composition..... i'd be damn lucky if i got it right.

Here's my wannabe 'Andy Lee' look .... its not anywhere close....

So to Andy, Good Job, Bravo and i salute you...

Monday Blues.... Oh wait...It's Thursday

Maybe the weekend is coming, i'm just on hibernation mode. I wish i could stay in bed and look at the ceiling but we all gotta work. Now i'm just figuring my next move. Should i bid the Leica M8 just for GAS's sake? Or i should just ignore GAS? As history shows, GAS always won. I'm a slave to my desire. Not good at all, not good at all. Something about a Leica, i just wanted to have it, owned it. Its something i always wanted to do or have. Owned and shoot a Leica. It is just like owning a Harley Davidson, now that i own it, i'm not looking at other bikes. I hope i'm like that with Leica, because i'm actually tired of GASing for cameras. I should just concentrate on taking pictures or get another hobby or back to playing music. My Fujis are the best in the business, i have the cameras, i dont need no other cameras, i just need to shoot shoot shoot. but that's the thing, these gears, these cameras are just like toys to me. I mean we men never grow up. We still buy toys except that it is more expensive. You know we jumped for joy like a little boy when we get our so called "toys". I hate GAS. i totally am but i need it to feel alive LOL. Wait till my bank account goes zeros then lets see if i still feel alive!

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, desaturated, contrasty, painted look, orthodox, all mix into one or not. I guess i'm bored. or i want to find/do/look something different. I'm not gonna print these over-processed pictures, just for web, just for fun. It's funny when i visited photography or camera forums, people or trolls get too critique, or attacking/bashing each other, especially fanboys who got really defensive and start swearing, attacking, arguing, fighting, and then there's the ego maniacs, and so on... i wont go into details but you know what i mean, you stumbled across this once in a while if you surf a lot on the internet. Why fight, why argue in the first place? Are we in the Olympics? Is there a gold medal to win for? When people start giving harsh critiques to someone else's photos, didn't they ever think that he/she wanted it to look like that? It's their taste, their cup of tea, who gives a sh!t what critiques have to say but of course being human, we were born with anger in one of our DNA and of course we got defensive and start arguing. i mean it's just a waste of time, arguing over the internet with no real winner of the debate competition which is not even taking place..... Oh boy i got too deep + emotional here... must be the monday blues eh wait, its thursday...weekend blues it is...... Its just sad to see our human civilisation is not even civilised...Sorry i just had to rant...You know how rants are...just got way off topic..........................

I believe taking photos are for the passion, pleasure, for fun, be it snapshot, documentary, reportage, art, manipulator, and the list goes on... but the root of it must be the passion, for the love of it.

Anyway, my mood at the moment is making my pictures over-processed, wayward colours, hey... didn't i already said this?

Lets put some random pictures, enough of this ramblings. Because a picture speaks a thousand words.

Some over-processed pictures goodies.

 Dark skies, moody landscape. Just like how i'm feeling today

There are times when i like to see things differently. Different colours. Like you're in a movie, the colours were never 'normal'. 

To photo nerds, this is taken with my Fuji X-M1 + kit lens. This is in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Kundasang, Malaysia, at Mount Kinabalu, ...far away from the city...... Thank god they have KFC here.