Paris!

Here are some photos I promised! Wishing all a Merry Merry twelve days of Christmas! (I'm just saying it because I'm late for an actual Christmas greeting)

Touch Down!

And yes I'm back! Almost 2 days ago to be exact. But well, it's the festive period and parties and gatherings are all coming up so it might be a while more till I have time to post. But I'll get some pictures of my trip up soon! I promise!

Short and Sweet

And so this post shall be. Alright, maybe not so much of sweet, but short at least.

After an extra long hiatus, ugly biscuits and forgetting my blog's birthday, I'm going to leave you guys (and my blog) once again as I take a long awaited trip! So, I'll be setting off tomorrow on a tour to Europe with my family. We'll be visiting Paris, Pisa, Rome, Venice, Lucerne, Innsbruck and Brussels, to name a few. I'm excited about the weather, the shopping, the scenery, the food, the souvenirs, basically everything!

I'll be gone for 16 days so I'll be in time for Christmas. Which will kick start another busy festive period with all the present-making, baking and Christmas shopping and partying. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a post or two before the end of the year!

Till then, have a happy December!

The Forgotten and The Not...

Have you ever forgotten a close friend's birthday? Or didn't even bothered remembering in the first place? How about forgetting your own birthday? Hrm...

Well, because I just realised my blog's birthday was 2 months ago. Not that I find it particularly important, but when Bea posted about her blog turning two, it dawned on me that I started my blog around this time last year. I checked and realised it was in October. And to be exact, 2 October. Okay okay, so my judgment's a bit off. But it's no big deal, there's always a next time!

So this post isn't just about forgotten birthdays and anniversaries. It's also about celebration! My abstract representation of cha-soba noodles actually brought me 3rd place for best capture in Click! And if I had wanted a belated birthday celebration for my blog, I think there's nothing better than a recognition of the photography I do for this blog.

Big thank you to Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi and the judges for this pleasant "birthday present". If you'd like to view the other winners, head over to Jugalbandi and take a look at the amazing entries!

Fireworks for the celebration!

Click!

When I first heard about Click!, I was really kinda excited. And why wouldn't I? Photographing food that I make/eat makes up half of what I do to keep this blog and photo events just makes it more fun. Of course there's DMBLGiT but the more the merrier right?

Well I really really wanted to participate in the first edition but I was up to my neck in school work and didn't have time to photograph any eggs. Now that the holidays are here, and I'm free from school, I wouldn't miss this month's edition for anything.

Nudel. Noodles. 面.

Although I'm not a carbo freak, I do like eating noodles. Pasta, mung bean noodles, soba, udon... the list goes on. So the choices as to what to photograph were many. I have had my packet of cha-soba from Daiso for quite some time and haven't had the chance to cook it. And it came in handy for this month's contest.

I took a whole series of photographs of soba but wasn't very happy until the last few shots. Because the bundle of soba is just as such, it got quite boring lying them flat on the working surface, which was a stool with a cardboard on top (to enlarge working area), covered with a black fabric that I bought for my fashion design assignments. Even when I tried to arrange the soba unevenly, it just looked to me like a broom that we used in the kampung.

So I had seen Ilva photograph her squid ink pasta (for some reason, I can't seem to find that photograph!) and decided to use the way she composed her picture. So I stuck the bundle into a glass and let the bundle open up slightly and photograph from top down. And I liked it! I liked how it opens up like a flower or like fireworks, just not as colourful. I like going up really close and playing with DOF. So I ended up with quite an abstract shot, I must say. Which really worked for me. I wanted to go with something that doesn't say noodles outright. It might not work for everyone but hey, art is quite subjective isn't it?

Some details of the photograph
Camera: Nikon D100
Lens: Nikkor 70 - 180mm
Exposure: 0.02sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 70mm
**Handheld with natural light from window 0.5m above and behind the set up.