So here I am back on my laptop with a unintentionally diluted cup of milo that I made. Definitely going to make another cup of milo, but does anyone have preferences to the blends of milo? Whether you prefer the Australian (more chocolatey) or the Asian (sweeter) blend of milo? I sure do prefer the Australian version! This week seemed to pass extremely fast due to the test that I had on Wednesday. When all you are focused on is the exam, everything else before seems to dull down and everything after is seen as a "cool off" period for my hard work. Well in the case of this exam, not-so-hard work; It feels like the closer you are to graduation, the slacker you get! and hence if you asked me what happened this week, i'll probably reply you "I don't know!"

This week was yet another week to test out my Sony Alpha 7 photographing and.. I don't think it quite worked out?? It felt a tad fumbly as I was not used to the interface, like it somehow felt different than using a DSLR, but I'll get used to it! And in the process, I did learn tricks here and there and ways to improve too. Of which I think deserves to be combined with my little review on the previous post into an extra post just on the camera itself -- an in depth review.

My goal for this week's photoventure to the colourful HDB blocks at the Rochor area... wasn't quite successful! The colourful HDB blocks are one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore and the different coloured blocks offers a nice break from the conventional, commodified colours and looks of HDB blocks in Singapore. Oh yes! for those who don't live in Singapore, HDB = Housing Development Board. Basically they are government regulated housings. Apart from the new ones in the Punggol district. They tend to be very blandly coloured and designed but they serve a great purpose in providing kind-of, can't-fully-agree-with, affordable roofs over our heads while packing a cocktail of Singaporeans of different races into a plot of land, thus saving the nation tons of precious land.




I found it difficult to capture the "oldness" of the area that is slated for demolition and will definitely go back again for a second try! Hopefully it will be better! There wasn't that many shots that I knew that if I took it from a certain angle, standing at a certain location, it will look good and I will be able to capture the essence in the photograph. It's like when you set up for that shot, you have the confidence that it will look good, but not for this instance! I was really trying to get the shot but time and time again, something just felt like it was missing. I wanted to capture the old architecture in my photographs, or the old appliances, furniture that they had and so I tried shots like the one below but it just looked "normal".




Upon observing the crazy number of birds there, I gave the sports mode setting a try! boy did i take tons of crappy shots just for that one photograph that places the birds' wings in a not-so-awkward position or turn up blurry.



On the overall, I took about 1.5 hours to take the photographs around this small and quiet estate. When I looked up, people were still brushing teeth getting out of bed which was definitely what I wanted to do that day!!! You know to sleep in on a Saturday and let your body clock wake you up or let the sun's rays do it's magical job of gently warming you up or jabbing its rays into your eyeballs. I did bring my film camera too, so I am expecting nice shots from there! I felt so much more comfortable when using the film camera. Pretty sure that all i need is to get used to the new digital camera of mine. Suddenly I have that playback function and I gotta admit that since getting the camera, I've been spamming that button a whole lot more! I've been meddling with film photography and there is no playback button. You should have seen my face when I realized there was no such feature. But there is beauty in the lack of such a function. I have learnt to love the lack of this feature and the importance of getting that one shot right, instead of spamming the shutter and praying that one shot turns out good. Film cameras have taught me so much as they are so manual that I realized how dependent we are on that teeny weeny overworked microprocessor in our new age digital cameras. Then again, digital has its great benefits! Such as seamlessly importing my photos into my laptop or handphone almost immediately, thus showing you these photos while my film camera sits on the shelf, waiting for that roll of film to be fully used up and sent for a bath.