Finally, I am birding again........

I took half day leave on Thursday, 2nd April 2009, as I could not wait any longer to test my new lens. I made arrangement with a person I met in a bird photography forum so that I could learn from him......

When he (rey) saw me, he was surprised to see that I am a lady. I use a "nickname" in the forum. He asked me why I bought this huge lens (500mm) instead of a 300mm...I said it was the advice of those in the forum. I had initially decided on a 300mm but someone replied that it was not enough for bird photography, and said I should get at least 400mm....I got the 500mm.. :-). Rey said that the advices were given on the assumption that I am a MALE. I guess he was right...the weight of the lens (almost 4 kg), the tripod and head (another 1kg +), and camera + flash + etc (almost 1kg)....nearly killed me that day...we walked quite deep into the forest to look for kingfisher....we didnt see any! ha ha. It is still a good day for me to go on a field trip with him. And luckily he checked my setup - I didnt fasten in the tripod head tight enough.....I just cant imagine if my lens dropped on the ground..........oh dear dear me... Needless to say, my shoulder ached for 3 days and I am almost certain it was bruised!

I did a bit of DIY on my tripod - bought a sponge from Daiso $2 shop and strapped it onto my tripod legs where they rested on my shoulder....it worked...it really felt so much better now. But it is real ugly....need to think how to DIY it better....might end up buying the real stuff, maybe.

So, on Saturday, I contacted another person from the forum who agreed to take me out bird photographing. This time, I thought he was a lady (from his name...French has a way of naming a guy name in a lady's spelling...ha ha). Anyway, I again had great fun photographing birds....one thing I need to note though....photographers go without lunch on field trips! Luckily I had brought some chocolates....Next time, I will pack some sandwiches.

Ok....still a beginner in bird photography...need to adjust / fine tune the settings...but I was just so excited and started triggering the shutter release the moment I see a bird that I forgot all the rules of nature photography...Well, I guess I will learn as I go out more....

A Collared Kingfisher - this was heavily cropped as the birds were far across the lake...too far to have good quality image...


This is a spiderhunter - I think we spent more than 2 hours sitting and waiting for it to turn up...it came regularly, but only stayed for a few seconds before it flew off again....but each time it came, I would jump to my camera setup and just fire the shutter away......ho ho ho....

The spiderhunter again...this time, she posed nicely for me...

I am still not pleased with my output as most of my other pictures didnt achieve the sharpness that this lens could deliver....and, practice makes perfect....I believe!

New lens

THIS WAS IN MY DRAFT BOX FOR SO LONGGGGG......

Just a record so that I can remember when my new super telephoto came in. Yupp, Nikon delivered it one week earlier than promised. Got my lens yesterday (25 Mar 2009) in a super heavy hard case. Will post some photos of the lens later. I still cant take it out to the field yet as I am waiting for my tripod head....just put in an order online with Wimberley.....(I cant even believe this is me....I dare not even think of how much I have spent...)

Okay..some photos

21st Mar - Relief Society Birthday party.

Sister Christine Ng requested me to be the photographer. I am excited as well as nervous. I dont know whether to use my new camera (which I am still not familiar) or use my old Canon S3. I know pictures with my new DSLR would be superb if I take it correctly, but what if I dO not? Finally, I decided to use my new camera (otherwise, when will I ever use it if I dont trust it!!) and as back-up, I gave my S3 to Michelle Lee as the backup photographer...haha. I had a great time taking photos...The RS sisters put on a fashion show....

I think I am going to love this camera..............

New Camera

Finally, after a whole month of torment, I made up my mind and got myself a new DSLR camera - Nikon D300. I was just window shopping, checking out and comparing the prices offered for the camera until I was caught in this shop in Funan Digital Mall - the salesman let me tried out the camera with the various lenses - and from there I was hooked and cant let go of the camera - need to go to two ATMs as nowadays, shops accept cash only.... Bought it on 4th Mar 2009. This was a decision well made, I think. I love this new camera. Wont mentioned here how much I have spent (one ATM machine is not sufficient to dispense the cash-ha ha), or how much more I need to spend (have put in an order for a new telephoto lens 500mm f4), I am just going to enjoy my new toy & hope to capture the beauty of nature in my photos. Pic - Billy, the mop (or door-mat)!

Focus.........

Uncertainties in job security is causing some havoc in my mind and life lately....all I can say is reading scriptures help in getting the comfort that I need.

Okay....what will happen if I lose my job? What should my preparation be? It is quite interesting how my mind explores the many various opportunities and how fickle my mind can be....My flow of thoughts (not all in one day, but over the past 3 months...)

First thought - Great opportunity - now I will have time to practise my piano that I can be good enough to serve in the church, playing the congregation hymns. I believe this is a good skill to have when I serve as a senior missionary couple in the future - there are not many pianist around. Right now, I am still hopeless at the keyboard.....Oh yes, I would have time to research my mother's side family genealogy and hunting in the cemetery ground! And yes, I could improve on my Chinese (somehow I feel that when China opens its door to our missionaries, there will be many needs to serve in China or at least to the Chinese people...it is embarrasing that I, as a Chinese descendent, dont read or speak Chinese (Mandarin) whilst my old bishop, an American, could speak so fluently (well, I am not that bad.....out of a score of 10, I think I could rate myself as 3 or maybe 3.5 on oral, and probably 1.5 on reading!! :-D )

Hmmnn..my intial thoughts are so noble and good.....but someone brought me back to real world - I am too young to stop working....sigh...so the worldly needs come creeping in...

Thoughts # 2 - My next idea - I will start a yarn store business, teaching people crocheting (I still havent learned how to knit yet!). I will have books that people can choose the pattern they want and I can teach them provided they buy the yarns from my store! ha ha ha. (my mom likes the idea - maybe because she has been pestering me to buy her some yarns (ha ha) but my 2nd sister said the business wont be able to survive in our small hometown.......hmmm)

Thoughts # 3- Then I thought I will be a photographer - earn money by selling my photos! I went to the library to borrow books on "How to make money from your photos" - Great book, but it also brought me back to reality -The author said one should photograph what one loves! Great except the things that sell are not the things that I love to photograph!.

(Photo - My winning entry in a contest ran by my Company in 2007 - photo taken in Sungei Buloh Reserve, Singapore).

...I like nature photography - animals (particularly birds), insects (macro), plants (macro), landscape etc. This, according to the author, is a very competitive market and most publishers have already their preferred sources - it is not easy for new photographer to slip in to get a place to hold (let alone earn a living)- he also cautioned that you are not likely to get rich in this area (echoed by many other nature photogprahpy authors as well ! sigh).

(photo - taken from a Canon S3 compact camera in Jurong Birdpark, Singapore)

To be able to sell your photos to agencies, I need professional quality cameras - the camera body itself is already S$14k..the lenses also in high end of the 4 digits category! This is nightmare number one!. If I believe that I wont be able to sell my photos, then I shouldnt invest in these cameras. I guess I dare not take the risk. So, my next choice is to downgrade one level - the price range of the camera body is now about S$3k to S$5k. Lenses are still in 4 digits category - some can go to near 5 digits since I am looking into long telephoto lenses for bird photography.

Nightmare # 2 - which camera should I buy. I limit myself to two choices only - Nikon or Canon. And that already caused enough confusion and late nights reading. My current choices - Nikon D300 vs Canon 50D ($S3k) or Canon 5D Mark II vs D700 (about $4-5k). From photoshoots found in books, I like the output of Nikon but I love the lenses of Canon ~~~so nightmare continues~~~

(photo - taken from a Canon S3 compact camera in Jurong Birdpark, Singapore)

I dreamed to be a professional bird photographer. There are many great bird photographers in America and UK and they wrote many books on bird photography (I got my hand on some of them from my local library). So I thought - ha...here is an opportunity opening....I can be the professional bird photographer of Malaysia/Singapore! There is none in the market. I went on day dreaming on how I will stalk all the birds in Malaysia & Singapore and all the great pictures that I could shoot - and how all the publishers will look to me for birds' photos. My dream was sweet but it lasted only until I searched the internet for bird photography in the Asia region. Actually, there were already a lot of photographers out there in this region and most of them are carrying the professional cameras too! Shucks. Only consolidation is was the quality of their shots vary, but there are plenty of great shots, and they travel quite extensively to search for birds. My dreams are cracking.........In my dreams, I didnt take into the consideration of how heavy a camera with long telephoto lens would weigh, and not forgetting the weight of a steady tripod - in total, that must be at least 20kg plus....about half of my own weight. How did I even think I could do this? Maybe I will forget about forest birds and just do garden birds instead....ha ha ha .

(photo - taken from a Canon S3 compact camera in Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve, Singapore)

Just a thought that came to my head this moment, I think I should join the Asian photographers' chat forum and ask whether their photos could sell or not in this region. That would be a good gauge whether I should go headlong into this.

Thoughts No 4 - My 2nd sister owns a florist shop. During Chinese New Year, she showed me some of her stuff that can sell and ask me to consider making these things as a business. They are home decorations made out of flour dough. She sold them for a couple of hundred Ringgit Malaysia. This is one made over a wine bottle...she hasnt put in the words yet.

She gave me a wooden board and showed me how to use the flour dough to make a decorative poster. Being a very BIRD person, I decided to make a picture with birds in it. My sister was impressed with my output - she said I am a very detailed person and have the right patience to do this work! (Although she was appalled at the amount of dough I used because it was expensive - next time, if I do it again, I would make the body of the bird either hollow inside or much flatter..ha ha). Another assignment is for me to find out how to make these dough which hardened when dried up so that we dont need to buy it from outside and pay premium price. I have found some information in the internet but have not tried it yet whether their formulation is good enough for "saleable items".

I was very proud of my creation, honestly. As a first timer, I think I did pretty good in this free-hand sculpting (except for the lettering which uses a mould, the rest are done without one).

Next, I got to paint them. This is when I got into trouble.....My first attempt as below.

Not good...second attempt...still not good. My sister said it cant sell.....

I brought the poster back to Singapore to continue working on it - I think I will paint the background more yellow-based. And if that still doesnt make the birds stand out, I might have to change the colors of the birds. Havent had time to do it yet. But judging at the amount of time I spent trying to paint it correctly, I am skeptical I can make a reasonable business income of making & painting these things.....

So, my current thoughts are still on bird photography, unless it changes again over time......Where is my focus? Yesterday, I was feeling quite down and I turned to the scriptures for help and I did the random flip-open book method, and these were the words that stood out:

"Go ye out from Babylon"....D&C133:5

Ha ha....I guess I should re-focus on my first dream/thoughts....

Welcome Ox Year 2009

25th Jan 2009 -the eve of Chinese New Year (Lunar Calendar), my family all gathered together for our family reunion dinner - a tradition observed in the Chinese culture.

Our fare is steamboat in herbal soup. This year, we held our dinner in my eldest sister's new home . Usually, we either had it in my parent's home or we will eat out in restaurants. I like to eat in at home - this way, we can really be ourselves and make as much noise as we can.... The crabs were yummy....... so were the prawns and fish and fishballs and noodles and....everything!

I sat at the further end table. Somehow, due to lower power or whatever, our table's steamboat pot took a very long time to boil compared to the other table's pot. My brother, holding on to his chopsticks, was looking real hungry indeed. My nieces (in blue and pink), couldnt wait any longer, made a smart move by asking their father to scoop some food from his table to them.

My brother is laughing now. The soup has finally boiled ... My mom looked over to make sure we do ok. Trouble with steamboat was, if the food was not cooked properly, the suffering after the event would be rather unpleasant......

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR.........THE OX HAS ARRIVED.....

My family.....3 generations...

1st and 2nd generations....all arranged according to age.

1st and 3rd generations......missing here was Jacky Chong, who only arrived the next day.

I invited two missionaries (Elder Duron & Elder Bickmore) serving in Sitiawan to my home to give my dad and mom a healing blessing. Sitiawan is an hour's drive away from my home. Later, I kicked myself for I did not ask the elders to share a message with my family and my extended families. It was such a good opportunity as most of them were at home that day. It only hit me when my 2nd sister asked me why I didnt ask the elders to teach (after they had left!!). My 2nd sister belonged to the Methodist denomination. I hope another opportunity will arise. Notwithstanding this, I am grateful that the elders and this brother made their way to my home and exercise their priesthood authority when called upon.

At night, we had fun lighting up fireworks.

Bad news are abounding around the current state of economy. I dont know what lies ahead.......but I know of Elder Wirthlin's counsel to us as his mom had counselled him.............Come what may, love it.

Happy New Year!!

Flashback photos - Ward Temple Trip - Perth - Oct 2004

I received a digital photo frame in a photo contest, and was looking thro' all my old photos to put into the frame. It could contain 999 photos! I selected 500plus photos, so there are still more space to fit new photos in. Anyway, I found these old photos and they brought back many happy memories....there is just this simple joy as we play at the beach.....

(From Left - Sue Brown, Hieu, Me, Gigi) - My first ocean.

(Laurie and Gigi - Thanks for the pose! I love this photo.) Feeding the seagulls.....(i think!) since I can see a speck of something thrown at them by Laurie. I could just remember that there were flocks of seagulls surrounding us.....and I was kept busy hoping to take a good shot with my camera - if only the gulls could keep still while my camera find its focus!

(From left - Son of Schroedter, Lauire, Daughter of Schroedter, Bishop Schroedter and wife, Hieu, Sue Brown (back), Me, Gigi (back), Sister Hazelbarth, Brother Hazelbarth). Outside the Perth temple, after (or before) my endowment.

Perth Temple.

My crochet history......

In October 2006, I heard about a service project started by Sister Sandy Semeski (no idea how that should be spelt! - lady in red blouse) in the church - to make preemie beanies ( little hats for premature babies). Sisters (members and non members included) gather for an hour and a half, two nights in a month, to crochet preemie beanies. Hundreds (by now would be thousands) were made and donated to hospitals in the Philippines, Cambodia, etc. I decided to join them eventhough I dont know how to crochet.

I learnt from the sisters in this class. It was difficult at the start. The dark green beanie was my first beanie attempt - it wasnt exactly great, but it was accepted into the collection box (ha ha). The rest of the pretty little beanies were made by the sisters....

My second attempt....this little pink one. I think I did improve, right?

After that, I was totally 'hooked'. I crochet at every available time I have - at the bus-stops while waiting for my buses, in the bus if I can get a seat (and didnt turn dizzy from the bus movement), in MRTs even while standing (well, MRT didnt shake that much).....I just kept going...

And I learnt more patterns from the sisters, and I created some patterns on my own..(just trial and error by mixing different stiches - there was one that I created which was really nice, and one sister asked me how I did it, I had to say - "I dont know" - as I didnt record my trial and errors and it was completed quite a while ago before I submit them..... :-)

With the knowledge I learnt from the sisters, I put them to use for my family. This was in Feb 2007 - my youngest niece, Hannah Lee. I was amazed how large her head was, because in comparison to a preemie beanie, I took a long time to finish this one!

Another niece got a different style hat from me....by now, I have learnt how to read patterns from books and follow them...

My mum wanted to go to Japan, so she got a gift from me too....although I am not sure this beanie get to see the Japan's daylight, because my mum said she looked like a sick person (those who lost their hairs) wearing this beanie...hmmmm.

From here, I moved on to scarfs....Due to the warm weather here, they don't get to be used at all. So this year, the scarfs are used as decorations for the base of my Christmas tree (see 2008 Christmas tree picture in previous post).

2007 efforts slowed down ...and somehow in late 2008, my interest in crochet was revived again. I found some affordable cotton threads in the Philippines. I bought quite a lot home - the seller was very happy at my purchase!. I think that could last me a while.

#1 (choker) and #3 (bookmarks) were made from these Philippines threads. They made simple Christmas presents to friends and colleagues. I have started a small doily...(not completed yet).

My other accomplishments - (Dec 2008) #2 a corsage as requested by a colleague (acrylic yarn); #5 - an abandoned shopping bag project, turned into a small bag (gave up midway!) - somehow acrylic yarns dont do well being made into a bag.

#6 (2007) - My crochet skills saved the day - the foam covers on my headphones were torn - without them, it is painful to put the headphones against my ears. The shops don't sell "one pair" of covers, you had to buy 3 pairs or 6 pairs in a set - so that they could sell at higher prices, but why would I want so many pairs? A stroke of genius struck me...ha ha...I tried crochet the covers, and it worked - it was thick enough and soft that it was gentle on my ears...yippee! (though I wished now that I have used some softer colors for it...that orange was way bright!!) # 7 was also a self-created little bag to put moth-balls in my bookshelf, so that the mothballs didnt get all over the place or touched my books....

(2008) #4 - my current project -a bag - (the green yarn in my ribbon basket) - I have made one side of the bag - need to do one more side before I can see whether this project could turn out successful - this time, I used the more expensive cotton yarn - it surely made a difference - I like the feel of the crocheted fabric, very much better than acrylic....well, more report on it once I complete it (fingers crossed).

Happy New Year!