Singapore Grand Prix - Formula One Night Race

Did you watch the first F1 night race? It came and it went as quickly as the F1 race cars. And it'll be back for another 4 years. Several incidents made the race very interesting. Other than a few car crashes, the Ferrari team performs at their worst, with Raikkonen crashed his car and Massa dropped from 1st position at the starting line-up to the last after the mishap at the pit-stop. Alonso/Renault came back from the 15th position in the starting line-up to being the champ. Totally dramatic.

Photos of the event can be found here:
http://motorsport.com/photos/select.asp?S=F1&E=Singapore_GP/Tuesday&Y=2008

We don't have to catch "the best of F1 mishaps" to be able to enjoy some great moments in one race.

Canon EOS 5DMkII - DSLR with HD Video Recording Capability

While Nikon D90 is the first DSLR with video recording capability, Canon is the first DSLR with Full High-Definition (HD) video recording capability.

Canon's latest full-frame DSLR retains its "5D" brand and added a "Mark 2" suffix. Needless to say, there is not supposed to be any revolutionary technical changes, except for a new 21-megapixel sensor same as the flagship 1DsMkIII, and of course the HD video recording. A photographer recently published an independent 2-min short film that showcases the fantastic quality of its video capability.
http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/

Other than some in-camera interface improvements, the increased ISO performance, the 5D2 can only shoot at 3.9fps, and houses the same mirror box and similar AF chip as the 5D. In short, nothing that excites the existing 5D users nor the DSLR community. Kindda felt sad for them.

Got a feeling that Canon will not stop with 5DMkII for another 3 years. Probably a 7D within 6 months.

Fujifilm FinePix F60fd

T3 Magazine passed me the latest digicam to test.

And I wasn't impressed.

Not that it's not good. It's every inch an F-series.

For those who doesn't know, the Fujifilm F-series are well known for their high ISO image quality and recently their advancement in face recognition algorithm. These have already been demonstrated in the F100fd, Fujifilm's flagship model for the F-series, boasting 5x optical zoom.

For F60fd, it's an improvement over F50fd, with a larger LCD monitor at 3", the better Face Detection 3.0 just like F100fd. Plus a new Auto Scene Recognition mode that automatically selects the scene mode, like Portrait, Macro, Landscape, etc.

Ya, that's about it. Internally, the interface remains unchanged, the CCD sensor is the same, the quality is the same.

F60fd is just a camera upgrade and a means of Fujifilm to flood the market with another model in case consumers felt that the F50fd is outdated, which incidentally, was launched just early this year.

The Final Ember - Concept Notes

After sharing my latest photostory on ClubSNAP, the leading photographic forum in Singapore, there has been a few comments and questions regarding the portrayal of the character in the photostory. Basically, some viewers felt that the portrayal of a sick and dying cancer girl is glamourised.

Their argument lies along the lines that a girl who is ill cannot look so pretty. Nor have beautiful hair. Or doesn't look skinny. Or has radiant skintone. Along those lines, you get what I mean.

So I decide to post my thoughts regarding the intended concept here.

I never have the intention in the first place to do a true portrayal of a person in her final days. I have no intention to find a scrawny girl with severe eye bags or balding hair or a bloated face to do my photostory. I have every intention to dramatise the story into beautiful images and showcase the model's talent in portraying the bitter-sweet emotions.

When I create a photostory, I look at the subject that I shoot and decide how I should structure the theme. Should it be glamourised or should it be realistic? When I see the reference photo (refer to my original "The Final Ember" post) and Zoe, I knew I will be creating a glamourised theme.

For the sake of justification, I could say that the girl in the story did not actually die from the illness. Rather, she died because she fell from the stairs and injured herself. I only mentioned she has cancer, or in the story, a tumour, but I did not specify what cancer and the severity.

If I were to truly create a true-to-life photostory portrayal, there will be a few things that I would want to bring in:

- The interaction of the dying girl with her loved ones. You notice that there is no one except the girl in my story.

- Create low-key images such that it mirrors the emotions of the subject. My story images are mainly high-key.

- Less pretty wardrobe. This girl would not be dressed up nor will she be going out for walks.

- A portrayal of the sufferings she had to go through due to the illness. She'll be bedridden, on drips, throwing up, messed hair, basically showing all the signs of final-stage illness. My story is about her doing the 'pretty' things like writing letter, going for walks, playing with water.

Surprisingly, no one actually commented on the areas that I feel I should really be improving on - areas of photography and acting, to be specific. And I won't reveal here so as to give viewers a chance to share their opinions, if any.

And if you want a clearer view of the photostory, you can watch the 640x480 WMV file (35 MB) at http://photo.chester.sg/final-ember/final-ember.wmv

Anything You Post Using Google Chrome Belongs To Google. Bleah!

Did you read the End User License Agreement (EULA) before installing Google Chrome? Apparently there was a term that states that Google owns all content that you use to publish using Chrome.

Original article here.

A classic case of how neglected EULA is. Someone should just write them in plain English in less than 100 words.

Uniq Advertising Campaign

Check out the new widget I added on the right side of the blog - UNIQLOCK. It's a clock and after every few seconds you will see a dance sequence. Turn on the music and you get mesmerised by the trance-like music while waiting for the next dance sequence to appear.



In short, it's addictive.



I spent almost half an hour watching the sequence and finding some sort of pattern in their routines.



I had no idea what UNIQLO is, but soon I realise it's a clothing line. The creation of this widget is a way to promote the branding around the world. And from the website, the figures look impressive. Talk about global brand-building.



Click here to find out more about the campaign, that has been going on for over a year.

And then there is Google Picasa 3 (beta)

My friend read about my blog on Google Chrome and he asked me, "So, are you going to review Picasa 3 as well?"

I was like:"What? Picasa 3 is already out?"

Funny how things just came when you least expected it.

I quickly installed it and found some new features that will really change the way you create photos.

Apart from enhancements to existing functions, you can now:

1. Create slideshow movies in WMV format

2. Customise your photo collage better

3. Insert text will rotation capability

4. Retouch image

5. And a few other features that I have found little or no use - yet

When you select to create collages and movies, Picasa will create a new tab so that you can toggle between your creations and the main library. Better still, even after you have created the collage or movie, you can go back anytime to edit them. During collage creation, you can move images around the layout , no longer restricted to the random option.

Here's a movie collage I created using Picasa 3, using images taken from my latest photostory, The Final Ember. I inserted one of the Piano Spa tracks so that you won't get bored watching the images. I was unable to synchronise the music to the slides though: there is no option to change the transition period for individual images. Nevertheless, having this feature really simplifies the creation process and I'm sure Picasa 3 will satisfy most users. What do you expect? It's FREE!

Google Chrome Blazes!

This morning, I read on the Straits Times about the new browser by Google called Chrome. Upon reaching the office, I installed it on my office laptop and tried it.

And my, it simply blazes!

Websites load so fast! The window is so clean and clutter-free, maximising the entire window to display the web.

I was surprised how a web browser can improve surfing speed. All along I thought it depends on the bandwidth of the Internet. While the webpage source code does affect somewhat, I didn't know that Chrome could optimise the performance so well.

Do I care what bells and whistles that Chrome has or has not compared to Firefox or IE? I don't. The primary purpose of a web browser is to browse the web. Period. Chrome does it so quick. At least for those websites that I frequently visit.

After 5 minutes, I am sold.

Photo Montage - Kevin and Fynn

This is the express photo montage I did for the wedding couple on Sunday. I knew Fynn during Iris' wedding in Oct 2006. She and I stayed over at Iris' JB home to receive the groom the next day, so we had a memorable time. I was glad she asked specifically for my services after so many years.

The best men is totally sporting during the sabo. One of the bridesmaids even commented that when the same trick was used on previous weddings, the best men refused to do the tasks. Kevin's best men are simply the best: they did every task without a wince.

Playlist Update - Leo Ku "Xi Huan" (Favourites) 喜歡

It's been so long since I added new songs to my playlist. But recently I have been receiving a lot of feedback from friends and site visitors about my playlist, and how they actually visit my site everyday and play the playlist on their PC.

And since I have not done any new songs or arrangements for the longest time, I dug up some of my old tracks that was unpublished.

This new track was once a very popular song on the Mandarin Charts. Leo Ku was a cool-looking actor and an okay singer. "Xi Huan" is a commercially successful song and I arranged this in New Age instrumental style as requested by the album producer. This track, together with "I Believe" and 14 others, was never published.

For those who inquired about the availability of the Mandarin songs, it's currently unavailable anywhere in the world - except on the IMEEM playlist. You cannot purchase it because these songs are cover versions meaning I have to pay royalties to the original song publishers if I want to make it commercially available (not the case if they are unpublished original compositions). We have to respect commercial laws so that people can continue create music for all to enjoy.