jeudi, août 30, 2007  I've just invested in a beautiful 50mm lens ($135 from MS Color in AMK, which is $15 more than the unofficial price guide on clubsnap.org, but oh well...), and I am LOVING the photographs that I'm able to take. I'm a massive fan of the shallow depth of field photos, like the Starbucks cup on the left, and the 50mm lens allows me to take more shots like that at night since it's faster (and thus allows me to open apertures BIG and WIDE to let more light in.)I tested it yesterday night at Vivocity with Rie, then at home while I was idly waiting for my room to clean itself (it didn't), and then at my church carpark (gorgeous bokeh!) and then on my Starbucks cup (Saher would have a fit.) Unfortunately, it didn't perform very well tonight when Dom and I headed to Punggol Park to try some long-exposure shots on the tripod. I thought the stuff he shot was not too bad, but he's super fussy about his shots, which I really don't get because it just takes all the fun out of taking photos (and life in general.) Oh well. Different attitudes towards life, I suppose. I never think I'm an optimist until I meet people who are discontent at their lot in life. There's always space to move forward, of course, but like Rie and I just discussed on the way home yesterday night, a lot of Singaporeans are like Dom: very goal-driven, never taking time to enjoy the process of it all. There is beauty in the process, and learning takes place in waiting. Just ask Beckett's Didi and Gogo (Waiting for Godot.) There's an inspirational story floating somewhere out in the ocean of the Internet that's of a man who was given a ball of string that represented his life. If he wanted his life to go quicker, he could pull on it and his life would fast-forward. Of course, he fast-forwarded through many unpleasant situations in his life, but he came to the end of his life faster too. Needless to say, he regretted every pull of the string because he missed out on so much. The process is painful because we dull creatures cannot experience pleasure without knowing the pain. In the same way, the goal is made much more beautiful because so much more went into it. Art and beauty is truth; we may not arrive at truth without first being tested and purified/cured through fire. (I did not intend to write so much; this was supposed to be a banal post about my lovely 50mm lens.) And now, as they say - on with the show! photos with the 50mm lens (vivocity with rie)   vivocity: toothache alert! corduroy chocolate | vivocity's water art fountains are beautiful   Forever 21 @ Vivocity: you put your right hand in, you put your left hand out... photos with the 50mm lens (church and home)   bokeh in basement church carpark (2210hrs) | laundry hanging (1430hrs) photos with dom's 10-20mm (wide angle) at punggol park (0030hrs)   pavement lights at 0030hrs; no mosquitos!   dom mucking about with the tripod (again) | our possessions on a lonely bench lousy photo with the 50mm lens at punggol park (0030hrs)  <<夜思>>, or <<近水楼台先得月>> since this photo was taken by the water, and if I may mix my chinese 成语. I feel smart. :-) The lens just couldn't focus, and I didn't know why until Dom told me it was due to the low levels of light. Apparently the lens needs light to autofocus. So frustrating. :-( Definitely needs a tripod, which I will bring for Mich's Esplanade gig this Saturday. Libellés : issues, personal, photography, singapore, thinking [50mm: fun fun fun!] |
1 Comments:Please bring me out to play. I'm very bored at home. Look, you can take pictures of me. I'm damn photogenic.
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