Ever since I’ve moved on to my new job, I hardly had the chance to flex my photography muscles. Worrying that I might deviate away from my photography passion (haha, if it is a passion I shouldn’t be deviating huh? But anyways that’s me), I’ve been spending some time seeking excuses to pick up my dust collecting camera once more. One evening while I was commuting back from work, I got inspired by reading Dave’s ShootTokyo blog, particularly his daily photoshooting post.

As of last week, I’ve started a smallish project called A Shot A Day, where I’ll be attempting my very best (fingers crossed) to take a couple of good shots everyday, from the time where I work commuting to weekend traveling. One of many reasons I’ve decided to take up such a project is to push myself to do more photography on different angles instead of the same old style I’ve been sooooo comfortable with. With that I’ll learn more and face different challenges every now and then.

The projects rules are simple:

1. One shot a day for 365 days
2. Free for all methods: Indoor, outdoor, street photography, scenic, abstract, macro, portrait, wide,  etc.
3. Interchange randomly with my small collection of lenses weekly (Starting with my prime f1.8 50mm)
4. That’s it!

I know this is a late post, but I’ve started this project since 16th April 2012. Hope it all goes well for the next few months and onwards.

If you are curious of the daily outcome, you can follow me at Twitter @ronniechong or via hashtag #AShotADay (previously was #OneShotADay, so inconsistent I am)

I’ll try and setup a Flickr album on this too once I post process it via Lightroom.

One of many reasons that before any product release regardless it is an app or an ad or a website, it must be screened through by a QC/QA (that’s Quality Control / Quality Assurance for the uninitiated) team. It may look trivial for small projects  but  making it a practice to run through a QC/QA will save heaps in the near future. You do not need to gather a bunch of experts to be in a QC team. Just grab an ordinary Joe or your colleague sitting next/behind you and ask for their thoughts. Their inputs are invaluable I must say.

Management sometimes thinks it’s an extra cost in the production budget but it won’t hurt if you invest a teeny weeny of time into it. Simple problems can be easily fixed  in a jiffy but horrible ones can bring down the image and reputation of an organisation. Or being made fun of.

A good example is this Target ad in facebook. At this point of blogging, they have yet to fix it. Can you spot the little hiccup?

No? Yes? The main male in the ad has three arms.

Well what can I say, I’m moving on to a new organisation. Today marks 5 years (ok ok ok, 4 years and 11 months) of giving away my blood and sweat into this e-learning education provider. If you peeps are reading this, you know it’s true.

It has been a great journey in retrospect; picking or taking over photography and other technical skills, diving into the world of education and e-learning. It was mind blowing and also challenging at times. The most satisfying thing was photography and I do not regret gaining so much insight of capturing these visual elements for an e-learning content. Lenses and gadgets that I could not imagine I have access to and the opportunities to go offsite photoshoot or in a green screen studio; it was very rewarding for personal development.

What about the education/e-learning? Totally engrossing. It was (and still is) a totally new world. I admit I was struggling to grasp the concept of producing multimedia content in the context of a learner, be it a young schooler or a senior individual. At the end of the day the process of producing a complete, universal and engaging learning material still eludes me. In short, an ongoing experience helps and I’m still learning as I’m counting my fifth summer.

So, where do I go from here? By next week, I’m jumping out of my comfort zone and deep into the aggressive world of digital agencies, fighting for customers’ satisfaction and meeting impossible timeframes. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit too much but the point is, I’ve not experienced any digital agency work life and like the saying goes, “there is always a first time”.

I’m an advocate of documentation and knowledgebase. To be honest, when I’m leaving this current organisation it is like I’m taking away the entire server with me and render partial of the organisation paralysed.  I have too many fingers in too many pies, metaphorically speaking. Of course I have ill intention of burning any bridges. I won’t lift my middle finger and walk out the door along with the knowledge. Having said that, for years I’ve been preparing for my organisation should this day would come. Documentations, documentations and more documentations. So much stuff, so little time.

Aaaannnyways, the final day is at hand. There’s a farewell party/lunch today with everyone. Plenty of opportunity to say my goodbyes and am looking forward to my new challenge.

Wish me luck!

Some illustrator has created a cute mascot, Zunko Tohoku to serve as a virtual character to support the people in Tohoku region after the earthquake. The images are copyright free so spread the love around!

[Official website]

Smartphone widget

They also created a moe version of her as a widget for smartphones and I tried it on my Android. Not sure about the iPhone and oh, it’s in Japanese but it’s a very simple RPG-ish widget. You train her archery skills, feed her with mochi and watch her gobble up the food. The app can be found in the Marketplace.

[More info]

Travelling the Great Ocean Road is not all about cruising along the coast. Some inland roads have remarkable attractions as well. This one is taken on a misty morning at Lavers Hill, the day we return back to Melbourne. It was a peaceful quiet morning and since there’s hardly any incoming cars, I stopped and took this shot with my mobile phone.

Took this shot when she’d just finished her dinner. I guess the pillow belongs to her… like, forever.

I’ve had a long weekend road trip to the Great Ocean Road last week. It was a blast and there is so much to blog about. The experience at the break & breakfast accommodation, timelapses  I played around, scenic photography and the long coastal drive at Great Ocean Road itself. With so much other stuff going on for the next couple of weeks, I’ll have to find some time to break these travelogue posts apart in the upcoming future. Stay tuned!

I usually don’t use iTunes as my choice of player unless I have to sync with an Apple product but I’m using it to listen to my internet radio while leaving the Visualiser on for fun.

This arvo I just noticed this. Is it me with a  twisted mind or we have a bunch of dancing sperms in iTune’s default Visualizer?

Over the weekend, I had a seven course dinner with my colleagues at Tao’s Restaurant. It’s one of those Asian fusion (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Western)  and fancy restaurants that I do not bother to try until my colleagues suggested me this. Overall, the meals were good; food was well presentable and the atmosphere was well, charming.

We get to choose our appetiser, main and dessert and I chose beef tataki for my appetiser. When the dish came and placed in front of me, I just can’t help laughing out loud when I saw the way they present my food. The first thing came into my mind was the egg (where the facehugger is born) from Aliens. The picture below says it all.

The internet meme below tells it all.

Well, my backache hasn’t fully healed yet but I can’t wait for weeks long before I get to ride my new hybrid bicycle for the first time (The same darn bicycle that made me hurt my back a while ago). Ignoring my physiotherapist’s strict orders, I decided to ride it last weekend.

I wanted a speedometer mount for my bicycle but I am too cheapskate to buy an proper attachment and can’t be bothered to mount it up, so I went to eBay and bought a mobile phone mount for my Samsung Galaxy S2. After all, a smartphone can do more than just displaying me the speed stats. All I need now is an app and I found this nifty free app called MapMyRide. Not only it has all the basic speedometer and statistics tracking features, it also records my rides/journey/workouts using GPS. Arming with the app, I recorded my first 10 kilometres workout  Here’s my route info.

Of course with that punishing workout without warming up myself, my back hurts again. My physiotherapist is not going to please to hear about this, but it was worth it. : )

P.S Oh, one of its cool features is letting me to capture images with my mobile phone’s built in camera and uploaded along with my route info. But the shots are not rotated when they are shot in portrait mode.

It’s my birthday yesterday and today I’m officially over the 30 year old bracket. Signs of hitting the old age (well for me, 30s is old) is the severe backache I’m still suffering. According to the physiotherapist, it was a disc spinal injury. Having said that there was no no grand celebration, no drinking sessions, no visitations from mates. I’m just not in the mood for anything until my back gets healed. It was just a simple, quiet dinner with my partner.

What about prezzies? Nah, I’m way too old for that now. I buy my own present and it’s a bicycle.  The irony is, it was that same darn bike that aggravated my back in the first place when I tried to transport it back to my home. It was also one of my new year resolutions, to pick up cycling again after more than 15 years and go healthy. Now, the new shiny bike is sitting idly in my garage and I’m not in a position to ride it.  (-__-)”

It has been more than a decade since my last visit to these local attractions. As a local boy there, there is no reason walking into temples and caves once every week like a shopping mall unless I have a reason to. This holiday, I had one; showing my girlfriend around especially Sam Poh Tong and Kek Lok Tong caves. My home town is surrounded by limestone mountains and these historic hot spots is a must, aside from gorging good food (another top ‘attraction’) from the local eateries.

The trip  to Ipoh was a short one so I decided not to carry my heavy DSLR along. The shots I took was from the Samsung Galaxy S2′s camera. It does take pretty shots IMHO.

What a way to start the first day of work (officially office starts today but I’ve been working since last week) in 2012! I hurt my back last weekend when I was (again) lifting and stuffing my brand new bicycle into the car. The pain initially was not present until yesterday morning.It was so intense till I can’t move much of my waist when I’m asleep and I can’t even stand up straight. Literally I swore after each step I made.

My god, I feel like I’m 70 years old now with a crooked back. Going to see a physiotherapy this arvo. Hope he’ll somehow ease up the muscle cramps/tensions so I can drive safely home and get myself a good night’s sleep.