Venice, Italy

It is 20:45 when I begin my writing. My room is completely disordered. I have to do something with it. Whatever it is, I have to deal with it otherwise, it is going to be worse I reckon. As a matter of fact, I’m planning to uncluttered my room so that I have more space to move around. Just to make it looks more organize.

By the way, even though it is nearly 21:00 now, the sky is still bright outside. It is quite windy though. I shall be taking shower once I have done blogging. Hopefully it is not going to take long. I always have problem whenever it comes to writing. I may have a few ideas what to write in the beginning but then start to ponder in the middle. Or should I just say, I’m stuck.

Okay, the genuine motive I am writing tonight is to share with you a little bit of my story while in Venice, Italy couple of weeks ago. Basically, I was in Venice for only 30 hours if not mistaken. Just went for a short trip. Nevertheless, it was fabulous! Never had in my mind that one day I would be going to Venice. Not even a single thought but now, my hard drive is full of Venice photos. I took the opportunity to capture as many photos as I could while I was there. Also, that was my first time traveling by myself. It is a shame to go to Venice alone because the place is just too romantic to be on your own. I would recommend you bring another person with you if you’re planning to go, haha.

The most interesting thing is wherever you want to go, you will have to go on the boat or else, there’s no way you can go to other places. Venice is surrounded by water everywhere. I spent most of my time that day in San Marco which is the capital city of Venice. Then in the evening I went to Rialto where there is a local market. It is almost like regular market where they sell clothes, foods, souvenirs and other stuff as well. I did not shop anything in Rialto because I have already done it in San Marco. Like I said earlier, I spent hours in San Marco taking pictures, walking here and there and it was a beautiful day. I cannot be bothered even though it was very hot that day. The sky was so blue and clear. I am very satisfied with the pictures I made in Venice.

Travel alone is fun though but the only problem is you have not got anyone to talk to, haha. I remember when I was looking for a spot to have my sandwiches (which I brought from home) and luckily I found it but there’s nothing I could do other than watching people while eating. If you have got someone or acquaintance, at least you do not feel that tired (because my flight to Venice was at 6.30 in the morning and the airport coach fetched me at 2.00 in the morning to go to the airport so basically I did not get a chance to sleep the night before, haha). Then, in the evening my body started losing energy. My feet did not want to make any further walk anymore. I felt like sleeping and decided to go back to my hostel. So, from Rialto I took a boat and make a move to Zitelle where the hostel is. Basically, it is a youth hostel and you have to be below 25 to stay there (that’s what it says on the hostel’s website). It cost me €25 (Euro) per night so it was not that bad I reckon just for one person.

I got to meet new people though. I still remember I was queuing at the counter to get my room’s key there was a group of young girls in front of me and one of them tried to get my attention… I reckon!! Haha. So I went to her and asked, “Hey, what are you looking at?” Nahh, I’m only joking! I wouldn’t that to any girl! LOL. I was so tired that time and all I wanted was to sleep (yeah right, hahaha). As a matter of fact, I met her for the second time when having dinner that night but she was too busy with her friends. By the way, the hostel has got a small canteen where you can buy whatever meals sold. I just had vegetarian pizza considering that was the only choice I had. But it was fun though. It really was. I enjoyed it till the last day I was there.

I was lucky enough to meet a few nice fellows in the dorm where I was in. There were two from Mexico, one from Germany and one from Japan. I did not get to know much about the guys from Mexico because they left quite early next day in the morning. So, I spent a few moments having breakfast with the German and Japanese guys before I leave. In fact, we did snap a few photos of us together! Haha.

It was an amazing trip although it was only for one and a half day. I enjoyed it very much. Would love to go again next time whenever time permits (and financial as well haha). Perhaps with acquaintance next time? Haha. We’ll see.

Thanks a lot for reading and viewing my photos ladies and gentlemen. Much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed your stay. Have a nice day! Cheers.

Posted in Travel, Photography | 16 Comments »

Attitude

I am so mad about lightings nowadays. Everyday when I get home from work, I shall think of something to shoot. I begin to understand a little bit how to light my subject by making mistakes and of course trial and error.

As I said I was quite confused in the beginning but surprisingly, the ”confusion” in my head is slowly fading away. I’m not saying I have completely mastered now. It makes more sense now as you try and try by experimenting how the lights work.

And of course I am very lucky to have such amazing nephews to be volunteers for my project. Well, as a matter of fact, they just love to come into my room so I grab them quickly and ask them to pose for me. They are brilliant.

I shall try to persuade my friends if they would like to volunteer themselves to be my model otherwise, most likely you’re going to see these kids again and again in my future entries

Thanks very much for dropping by. Cheers.

Posted in Portraits, Strobist, Personal, Photography | 3 Comments »

Strobist

I know most photographers and DSLR die-hard fans are common to the word “Strobist”. It becomes very popular nowadays when many of us share the information about the art or technical of lighting. Since I was introduced to photography many years ago, I always wanted to learn more and more about it whether it is about composition, exposure, lighting and many more. The only thing is, we’ve got certain limitation when we haven’t got enough equipments as well as exposure.

When I first started playing with strobes, I thought it was not that hard. Apparently, I began to confuse myself with a few things in my head. Then I thought I should read more to get myself cleared and understand how it works in the correct way. To be honest, it was not as easy as I thought. By the way, the photo above was taken in my room with single Nikon SB-800 shoot-through umbrella. I positioned the umbrella at his eye level on camera right. It is just out of the frame. Pretty straight forward setup. Not complicated at all. The shutter was set to 1/250th at f/3.5 and ISO 200.

After shooting indoor, I thought I wanted more challenge. I did some reading how people work on outdoor lighting. Again, it looked easy until I tried it and you couldn’t imagine how many wasted photos I had when I downloaded it to my PC. Nevermind, I considered that as part of learning process. Luckily, I have got a few acceptable photos to be shared and if there’s something wrong with the photos, please and please leave comments and critiques. I would love to hear from you as well. At least, I know what I have done wrong. Anyway, the shot above was taken at 1/250th at f/8 and ISO 200. SB-800 shoot-through umbrella on camera left.

Hope you enjoyed your stay and thank you very much for reading. Cheers.

Posted in Portraits, Strobist, Gear, Personal, Photography | 2 Comments »