DSLR & all that JAZZ
kimmysphere


The art of photography has always been a continuing fascination of mine, since I was a child. I’ve always had an appreciation for photographer’s use of compositions and lighting. Of course at that young age, I didn’t truly understand what those terms meant. To me, it was just a pretty picture. It was only when I was older did I fully comprehend that the picture was only pretty because it was taken in a deliberate and specific way as dictated by the photographer. And like any avid photographer will assure you, the tool (camera & lens) you use also aids you in reaching that ‘perfect’ picture stratosphere. I’ve always wanted an SLR, but back in those days, they were extremely bulky and way out of my budget. That has always been the dominating factor which deterred me from entering into amateur photography. However, after many years of admiration for the profession, I finally had enough monetary resources to fund this new venture. About a year ago, after much encouragement from Nana, I bit the bullet and bought myself a Canon 50D. After aggressive haggling with a few stores, I managed to nab the camera for close to cost price!

Next on the agenda was to buy some lenses so I could begin learning and taking pictures. I shopped around and found a store on ebay (they were based in Singapore) which sold the lenses I wanted for a good price. I decided to purchase the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and the Canon 50mm f1.8.



All this transpired roughly one year ago. What has happened in the space of then until now, I hear you ask? The answer is a resounding NOTHING! Early on, I was completely consumed with learning the ‘science’ of photography and found it remarkable interesting. I did numerous online research on it and read amazing photography blogs as well as essays on photography. I was slowly beginning to grasp the fundamentals of the art. But, like any artsy fields, you also need a natural artistic flair to create amazing things. Artistic flair, which I felt I had none. Even with the fundamental knowledge of photography under my belt, I continued to struggle with producing photographs which I could be proud off. This underachieving feeling lingered with me as I progressed, it dampened my spirit to keep absorbing and learning about photography. Consequently, my passion for photography began to slowly but surely fizzle out. Then one of the few major moments of my life occurred, I got married and we finally moved into our very own home. My priorities changed and photography suffered the consequences.

It wasn’t until last night when I was having a chat with Muy, and she was voicing her eagerness to also purchase herself a dslr and try her luck with amateur photography. It was through the grace of this conversation that my withering passion, this old forgotten flame was slowly getting reignited. The conversation brought back all the enthusiasm and emotions I used to have for photography. The eagerness to learn and one day take remarkable photos which I can claim as my own. Also with Spring in the air, and longer days due to day light saving, I would have more time on my hands to experiment and persist with compositions and lighting. It’s safe to say that my passion has been reinstated back into its rightful place! I will once again endeavor into the amateur photography path. Fingers cross that Muy buys a dslr soon so that she can join me in the learning process. I will attempt to regularly post photos of what I’ve captured, if I deemed them worthy enough of viewing J

Keep watching this space!

xox
♥ ♥
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Questionnaire
kimmysphere
PT (you can check out his insightful blog here: http://pt-redemption.com/ )suggested that I should follow in his footsteps and fill out a little questionnaire, just to give everyone a little insight into the real kimmysphere. Hence, I thought I should oblige...

1. What is your favourite word? Legendary! I dont really use that word, I just like it. ha ha.

2. What is your lease favourite word? I dont really have one, but I do have a least favourite phrase which is 'just relax'! Especially when that phrase is said to me after a preventable situation has transpired to get me fired up in the first place. Ggrrr

3. What turns you on? An intellectual mind whom likes to challenge/questions things rather than take everything for face value.

4. What turns you off? People who try too hard. Just be yourself and everything else will fall into place.

5. What sound or noise do you love? The sound of music, it soothes my soul

6. What sound or noise do you hate? The sound of my alarm clock every weekday morning

7. What is your favourite curse word? For fuck sake!

8. What profession  other than your own would you like to attempt? Photographer, although I dont really have the knowledge or flair to be one!

9. What profession would you not like to attempt? CSI. I would hate to see dead people or crime scenes day in day out.

10. What would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? 'See! I told you I existed!'

Why don't you all give it a go?! Show us a little of yourself.

xox
♥ ♥
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The Great Australian Dream: first phase
kimmysphere

Early March 2008

As some of you may already know, back in 2008, Nana and I took the plunge and secured ourselves a little patch of Australian dirt! Fast-track to 2010 and we have finally built and moved into our new home. Sounds simple does it not, buy land, build, move in. And hey presto, instant home! Well, let me just dispel this fairytale myth and plant reality firmly back into its rightful place. Back in March 2008, as we were quite young and practically penniless, our budget wasn’t of a standard to be admired. Therefore, when we were both looking at procuring our first house, we mainly looked into old established homes which were located approximately around our current neighbourhood. Nan was adamant that we should buy in our area as he refused to move out any further.

When searching for that elusive house, we were armed with three very distinct criterias: 1. We wanted a nice house 2. Attached to that a cheap price tag 3. Within our current neighbourhood. Not much to ask for right (lol)?! I know, we wanted the whole world, but weren't willing to pay the price! We never even entertained the very idea of building a house, simply because we thought it was completely and quite utterly out of our budget range. However, after scrutinising briefly through the local real estate ads and the internet, we came to the sad conclusion that an old established home just wouldn’t be sufficient, it just wouldn’t fit in our grand master plan of life.

That moment of defeat however gave me the inspiration to sit down one sunny afternoon and methodically crunch some numbers to devise a new plan of action. What is this new plan? Well, for the amount of money which we would need to buy an established home in our neigbourhood, plus stamp duty and all other associated governmental fees, it would cost just as much to go out 15mins drive further from our current neighbourhood, and purchase a block of land in an up-and-coming neighhourhood littered with new estates. The amount of money saved on stamp duty when purchasing land is in excess of $10K! Added to the mix the government’s willingness to give more to those willing to build a house, it wasn’t hard to distinguish which option was best for us. At least this way, two out of our three criterias were met. It’s all about compromising, and taking opportunities by the horn when it presented itself. With this new found epiphany, I presented Nan with my arguments and calculations as to why it would be more economically viable for us to proceed in this direction. It truly wasn’t difficult to persuade Nan to see things my way. All that was required was for me to fill his head up with pictures of nice new things and a beautiful house, it was like dangling a carrot!

And there, my friends, begins our journey of finding our perfect block of pristine Aussie land, building our first home, and chasing that elusive Australia dream…


xox
♥ ♥
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Miss me?!
kimmysphere
OMG I really need to stop my trend of posting a few posts and disappearing back to oblivion for another few months! Could I recycle my old excuse of 'I've been SO busy, you wouldnt believe the last few months I've had?!' haha

Fear not my (limited) audience, I am back and rearing to continue my blogging journey. I have an abudance of updates to do, so many pictures and stories to share! The progress of my house, my decorating endeavours, my diy landscaping attempts, my battles with council etc etc. You know, the usually old fart stuff...

Without further adieu, let the journey continue.

P.S. One of my beautiful friend, Muy has just created a blog. Show her some love and support and check out her life: http://amuygear.blogspot.com/

xox
♥ ♥
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Colours of a festival
kimmysphere
Early February 2010


According to our Western counterparts, the New Year is well and over, done and dusted. However, we Asians are either a little slower than our foreign friends, or that we like to take our time doing things. For most Asian countries, our new year lies between Feb-April. Thus, its only natural that all our celebrations are done during this time. In my local area, one of the biggest events of the Chinese New Year is the Springvale Chinese festival. It is an annual tradition that Springvale, our local suburb, would puts on a festival to commemorate the turning of the clocks, another year over, a new one has just began! The festival typically consists of vibrant colours, delectable food, dragon dancing, childish rides, games, people spruiking and terrible traffic and pedestrian jams!

The crowds that frequent the festival each year can be easily categorized into two groups:
1. Men, woman and kids who go to taste the variety of foods and games on offer
2. Impressionable adolescents who are all pretending to be ‘cool’
 
 
Every year, the majority of the crowd are made up of insufferable teenagers. They use the festival as a vessel to get together, flirt and perve on one another, and ultimately (sometimes) hook up by the end of the night. This has always been the way from as long as I can remember. I use to participate in these rituals many moons ago when I was an influenceable teenager, not the hooking up part, I should be so lucky LOL. However, it was only natural for me, when I hit my twenties, to take a step back and retire from such shenanigans and leave the mating rituals for the next generation of obnoxious teens.

But this year, my friends and I decided to belong to the former category on our return. After numerous years of boycotting the event, we all began to feel the urge building up inside of us again. Let me just take this moment to clarify the nature of this urge; it wasn’t an urge to go to the festival again and relive our hey days! No, our maturity simply won’t allow that. The urge I’m speaking of resonates purely from the stomach. The thought of all the exotic food available there makes our mouth salivate with hunger!


The first thing we noticed when we arrived there was the authentic Asian aromas which infiltrated the air, the lovely scent of herbs and spices. Stalls after stalls of different asian cuisines were available, for the right price of course. It was a hot day that day, plus the crowd was enormous, which equated to frequently bumping and touching sweaty bodies. I felt a sudden sense of claustrophobia and my personal space was non existent!
The boys tried their luck with some of the carnival games, and surprising their strengths and accuracy were rewarded in the form of large soft toys! Vann wanted to be in touch with his inner child by going on a ride which was only ever occupied by kids. The look of jubilations which was etched all over his facials were enough entertainment for one afternoon. His twirls and triple twirls, which he did in quick and steady successions, and all with a gleeful smile, seemed like a desperate cry from a grown man wanting to be young once again LOL.




My nephew Kai, who is but a mere 4 months old, was also brought along to experience the Springvale festival for the very first time. Even though the conditions were humid and cramp, he seemed to enjoy himself like a little trooper! By the end of our outing, he seemed to have over exhausted himself and fell soundly asleep in his little pram. Bless.


Once our stomaches were about to burst due to overindulgence, we thought it was time for us to make our exit from the festivities. After having survived the high heat that day, and enduring suffocating crowds, I dare say it will be another few years before we make our comeback to the festival again!!

xox
♥ ♥
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Emerging out of the Wilderness
kimmysphere
It’s been a long and winding journey,
But I’m finally here tonight…

After months of seclusion from the blogging world, I am finally back! During the last few months, my world has been full of escalations. One event after the other, it was a continuous flow of time consumptions, added to that a dash of pure laziness (that's right, I aint going to lie!). After being incessantly encouraged (or is harassed a more appropriate word) by my friends to venture back into the blogging route and start updating my blog again, I thought it was high time that I made my comeback to the land of cyber space. But first I needed to build up the momentum which at one stage was rampant when this blog was first thrust to life.

Now that is the most challenging task; creating, building and sustaining that momentum.

Momentum can’t be summoned on demand, it’s a force which exist only if there is inspiration to propel it. And inspiration, I have none! Definitely not at this particular moment. Having been in hibernation for a reasonably amount of time, I concede that it wasn’t quite so easy to simply start writing again. It felt like all my creative energy had escaped me, nonetheless, I will continue to write until the contents in which I write about become interesting. Which, now that we are talking about the contents of my blog, brings me to my next dilemma: What am I going to blog about now? Many things have happened lately, but nothing is happening now. Would it be breaking the rules of blogging if I flashed back and pen down things/event which has already transpired? What are the rules to blogging, who makes these rules, who enforces it, and what will become of my blog if I break them? All these questions inevitably lead to the main question:

Is it better to have back blogged than not to have blogged at all?

I believe so, and I’m certain my audience (the tiny few that read this) will also sing to my tune. Taking on this optimistic frame of mind, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to recount the highlights of the last few months. To exhibit precisely what has been occurring in the wonderous world of Kimmysphere. Stay tuned as I make a mental recollection of events and organize my photo selections to bring forth some new posts!!!

xox
♥ ♥
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