XAgraphy

 

I am still amazed withe these little cameras (XA/XA2)

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Dead Meters

 Olympus OM-2n | 55/1.2 | Scanned negative

I am planning to take off all the batteries in my cameras this weekend. Some of them were left with batteries in them way too long. Hopefully, I'll be shooting with dead meters mechanical cameras till I get bored. OM2/XA/XA2/F3 will be resting for a while :-)

Hello FM/M6/OM1/Trip35/PenEE/Zorki and the likes!

Unfolding Conclusion

Leica M6 | Summicron 50/2 | Scanned negative

Although the weather does not seem to matter for many of us, there are people who are in high spirits when the sun shines whereas others seem happier when it rains.

My Cup of Tea

Olympus OM-2n | 55/1.2 | Scanned negative

"But there is a difference between a cup of tea and life. When we brew tea ourselves, we can put it aside or throw it away if it's not to our liking. That's not so with life's cup of tea. We have to drink it. How we go about swallowing those difficult cups of life depends upon what we know and believe about the nature of our life's "tea strainer."

by Kathy Helvey

Taming the wild soul

Olympus OM-2n | 55/1.2 | Scanned negative

Generally, when someone is asked what their character defects are they say “well, I have a bit of a short temper sometimes, but other than that I’m a great person.” No one will say, “I am a terrible person filled with bad characteristics” because the ego hides our defects so that we won’t work on ourselves. The wisdom of following a spiritual guide is that they have walked the path and purified themselves of these defects. They know all of the defects, and they know how to treat those defects - just like a doctor knows how to diagnose and treat a patient.

Contradictions

Nikon F3 | 50mm | Scanned negative

My life is full of contradictions.

People say they want health food, but stalls flavored their food with MSG still makes billions of dollars each year. People say they want to work satisfying jobs, but end up chasing after the biggest paycheck. People say they want news on world affairs, but tune into trash on Astro. I’m no different (except that I don't have TV at home). I have plenty of contradictions between what I truly believe and how I behave. And I think anyone who says they don’t is lying to themselves. Practicing what you preach isn’t easy. It may be impossible to do it completely. But even if you can’t escape the contradictions of modern living, you can lessen their impact. You can consult what you know to be true, and use that to guide you, instead of rationalizing your behavior and living a lie. Personal conflicts is one thing but pushing out to the masses is altogether a different story.

There was this seminar about inculcating integrity among Malaysian. Most dictionaries define integrity as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. I was early at the registration counter as the program was supposed to start at 8.00am. By 7:55am, the hall was filled with crowd anticipating the coming agenda. 15 minutes after eight, the crowd started getting restless and at 8:30, the announcer called for patience in the audience as the seminar would commence in another 10 minutes. Words came to my ears that the VIPs and presenters were still having their breakfast at that time.

It is not uncommon to be experiencing the same situation in our community. I was amazed on why was the programmed fixed as such. If social breakfast is something really important prior to any event, then the program should start at nine or ten. Why do people has little respect for others’ time. I have no objection with anyone wasting their own time but if they are wasting my time, I have little tolerance towards that.I left the place immediately after the announcement. I was looking inside the gift bag with neatly written words on integrity in pamphlets and publication. If only those words were put into real practice.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys :-)

7D | 50mm | f2

Growing up in a remote small village, I remembered how smart children picked up on things that their peers didn't at a very young age, and since they didn't know any better, they expected their peers to understand what the we're talking about. Their peers, however, did not understand and in order to avoid embarrassment, would avoid intelligent children, or, out of jealousy, bully them. This lead smart kids to grow up resenting their less intelligent peers, and to some extent disliking social contact. 

Now, towards the end of my working life, I've noticed that any time there's a smart person around, everyone else gets nervous, so the smart hide, and don't breed. In many organizations, I got the feeling that the administrators don’t feel comfortable when there are smart people around. Smart people are often misunderstood and misconstrued by the aggregate. I myself don't claim to be smart but I do know the difference between duck from a doe, and it costs me to some extent. 

Being bright is more of a handicap in school these days when they're trying to make everyone equal by lowering down public education quality. Anyone in secondary schools in the 70s can confirm this just by comparing the Science and Mathematics curriculum then and now. Now, what used to be 'average' is considered advanced, what was below average is now acceptable. 

I wouldn't necessarily say that society hates smart people. It's human nature to envy those smarter than themselves, but in any good society, those attributes are encouraged and the lesser strive to improve themselves. The problem that I see is that the bosses hate smart people. The people in power hate smart people. It's easier to keep a stupid, uneducated populace in check, because they won't question their authority. It's in the bosses' best interests to dumb down their workers, to encourage the breeding of the stupidest and weakest members of an organization. That way, monkeys are happy with peanuts.

:-)

Birds around me.

Thanks for viewing!

The train has left without me

Nikon F3 | 50/1.4 Ai | Scanned negative

The train has left without me. I was like a little boy standing on the corner watching the train back home from my boarding school disappeared down the track, hearing the shouts and laughter of my friends grow fainter and fainter until I was left alone in silence.

Penang on foot

All shots taken with Olympus OM-2n | 50mm/1.8 | negative scanned

I packed 10 rolls of film and left my car at home. The 90 minutes bus ride took us right to the jetty where a ferry ride is necessary to get to the Island. A walk along the narrow streets with my OM-2n for frequent stops for pictures landed us at the hotel doorstep. Thanks Foozi for being a good company.

Thank you Jitra sunshine

Thank you Jitra sunshine, a photo by ıusnɾ@w|©kedf|lm on Flickr.

I woke up this morning to a clear sky with moon shining bright on the western sky. Sometimes it is easy to motivate to get out the door early when it is that beautiful and fresh out there. This morning I had a plan to take a long bike ride in the rough countryside around sunrise to go out and shoot some pictures. I was warming up with 4km ride tiring my children around our house. By 7:30am, we were home and I took some pictures below when the sky was spotless blue with leaves still drenched with dew. Before I knew it, I'm in the sun and five minutes into the open country, I'm loving it. I passed by huge flock of cattle egrets, greeted by beautiful wild flowers and took a fall when I suddenly spotted something good for pictures on hard gravel. The bike took some bruises and it was painful to look at .... :-)

Thank you Jitra sunshine for a beautiful Friday morning, Malaysia.

Light headed and happy

Olympus OM-2n | OM G-Zuiko 55/1.2 | Kodak MAX400 | Scanned negative

Last Friday evening had made me light-headed and happy - I took a long walk with my camera around the neighborhood. It was sunny and calm and warm all day, not too hot and perfect for strolling through the long grass in the sweet-smelling shade of rough area by the highway. The sky was blue and calm with golden light showering on weeds and wildflowers. The moon on the eastern sky was quite high up as the new month has passed a week long. I had cleaned and put my OM G-Zuiko 55mm/1.2 glass under the sun earlier. It was perfect to test out the optics with 400 ISO film. I have shelved this lens for a very long period of time due to the size and weight of the elements inside it. I was home before the sunset. That night , the bamboo plant outside our house were swaying and deep rivers of water were rolling down the windows.

Back to riding

I used to ride bikes a lot when I was younger. I spent four years as an undergraduate cycling to and from campus with a road bike. I was maintaining my riding habit until about ten years ago – when my bike was stolen. Last week, I was reading reviews on a few websites about bikes and riding. Finally I have decided to get one cross country bike on Friday just to sweat around every now and then.

My first ride was on Saturday morning after my Subuh prayer after a night of bike preparation. I was planning on a short trip just to test the balance but ended up with more than 10km terrain of a few hills and rough surface around the vicinity of my house. I felt good to be free again with my Nikon FM on my back.

A long day at work today and a few chores after that left me with little time in the evening. I managed to clock eight kilometers on rough surface before sweating home in time for a good shower before I headed for the Surau. I am happy with the ride so far and looking forward to clocking longer miles during the weekend.

19mm view

All shots | Nikon FM2 | 19mm/3.8 | Scanned negative | film

Last week I took an extra four days break after Hari Raya just to laze around not doing anything important. A week break from rain rendered beautiful sky all around. It gave me perfect opportunity to try out my new 19mm optics. I hope the coming long weekend will be bright and sunny again.

Sun looking like moon

Homeward Bound, a photo by ıusnɾ@w|©kedf|lm on Flickr.
Nikon FM | 50mm | negative scanned

As I pulled in the parking lot at my workplace today, the sun was so round looking pretty much like moon. By the time I have my camera ready for a shot, the cloud covered that ball of fire and the ride out stays gloomy till now. My lappy took super long time to boot and I have to make a cold restart to get it working again. It is now official that today is my off day. I think I am a great warm human being and I am entitled to have an off day and it is good to feel that I am human. Bad days make me more aware of how fragile strength is. For today, nothing motivates me to go change the world. To do the things that I love, seem laborious. To do the things that I hate, feels worse than they usually would.

Good people out there

Pennywort, a photo by ıusnɾ@w|©kedf|lm on Flickr.

Nikon F3 | 55mm | negative scanned

I think we are being surrounded by good people who would really care about us because there are a lot of good people out there - we just have to let them inside our heart.

Recently as I was driving out with my family to town, my wife heard strange sound from the rear wheel of our vehicle. I pulled to the side and realized that we had flat tire. Being a handyman, I started taking out tools and spare and went on with the routine procedure. Once I pulled out the flat, I realized that one side of the car was on the soft ground and there is no way that I can replace the fully inflated tire even with my jack at full stretch.

I called the mobile repairman and waited by the roadside. An Indian uncle stopped by and asked if everything was alright with us. I thanked him for the concern and he moved along. Moments later, the repairman arrived and his pickup truck is equipped with pressure tank and repair kit. The puncture was repaired and I have no need to use the spare. He charged me just RM10 as he said we live in the same Taman. I drove straight to a Tire shop to get the wheel balanced and the worker there courteously tidied up my spare for easier air refill later on. He even took out the tire from the wheel to clean up the debris inside the punctured area. For all the job done, he charged me RM6. My wife did not believe when I told her the two good men just caused minimal damage to my wallet. In a stressful situation like that, I am more than willing to fork out 50 or even 100 as long as I can get the job done.

Everybody seemed to be concerned about how much they can get. Most people don’t even have much time for other issues. The first thought that pops into their head whenever an issue is raised is “how will this affect me and who is going to gain more than me” - which in this case is not true.

Thank you to all the good people out there and all those good deeds will not go away unappreciated, I'm sure.