Making up for lost time

OMG! How time flies when you're too caught up! June 27th was the last post in this blog I tried so hard to find time to maintain. And here I am 7 months later, wanting a new blog, a photo blog in particular, to compliment my new toy and hobby.

To recap the last 7 months:

• The project that rid me of blogging time, or any other personal time for that matter, is finally over (yey!)
• Only to be replaced by an equally demanding new project (boo!) but less time-consuming at that (yey!)
• Spent almost a week in Singapore for a well-deserved respite (yey!)
  
• 300 bucks for a beer in over-hyped and undersized Hooters (boo!)
  
• A business opportunity itself for a partnership to revive a provincial road-side bar (yey!)
• Only to have me, and eventually the principal partner, retract for the very same reason I wasn't able to blog (boo!)
  
• I turned 1 year in the coolest company I'm currently working my ass off for by the time the project went live (yey!)
• But it took less for me and the love-of-my-life to call it off (sob...)
  
• I was able to finally grab my hands on the much-coveted Nikon D40, an early Christmas present and long-overdue birthday gift in one! (yey!)
• While some cheap bastard was able to get his hands on my wallet at the same time (boo!)
• I'm loving every bit of my new found hobby - digital photography (yey!)
• While still struggling to find that oh so precious time (boo!)
  
• Our barkada finally was able to book a trip to Bangkok (yey!)
• Which only purged my purse empty, at least for the time being, for my dream lens, a Nikkor 18-200mm VR (boo!)

T'was not a bad year after all.
Ok, I'm gonna stick it out with Blogger.

Still Dreaming of SLR

Couldn't help but go through my dad's stuff last night...

It never crossed my mind how huge a fortune this hobby must have been then until I started scouring the net for more info and specs on these accessories. Lens kits, including Wide Angle and Telephoto lens plus all the filters, easily come in at least 4 figures per piece (not including the decimals mind you). I haven't even mentioned the cost of rolls (and more rolls) of films (thank God for digital!), renting a "dark room" (it's actually a red room) and all those plates and stop bath solutions needed for developing your negatives the old-fashioned and creepy way. I honestly thought these were inching their way closer towards the trash bin. Or maybe just another set of antiques highly awaited by the curator.

It seems I just might be scheduling a trip to my dad's old friend(s) in the studios, or worse-comes-to-worse, Hidalgo (Click on Hidalgo for a quick info on, well, Hidalgo, and the camera shops you could find there. You could also check out the map on the right). Might as well have these valuated first by the experts. The camera bodies (I hope at least one of them) might still be revived to its former operational glory. That old shimmer could still be brought out of the lenses. I could have a brand new, err, kinda new, plaything! I'm crossing my fingers though that I wouldn't need to shell out that much for all the repairs and restorations. Otherwise, hello DIGITAL!

Actual pics of the gear (Left-to-right, Top-to-bottom):

1. 1977 Nikon FM w/ Nikon 50mm Series E Lens Kit
   
2. 1979 Yashica FX-3 w/ Yashica 55mm Lens Kit
3. 1976 Yashica 35MF (Yashica 38mm Lens)
4. 2X CX Teleplus MC Lens + Vivitar 49mm Wide Angle Lens Kit
5. Weston Master II Universal Exposure Meter
6. Cokin Chroma Filters
7. (UV) Filters, Adapters, Lenses, Flash, exposure meter
   
8. Camera bag (other stuff in the bag: dessicants, cleaners, remote trigger, Sunpak flash slave unit, etc.)
   

DSLR: Dreaming of SLR

For several months now, I've been fancying myself on owning a Digital Single-Lens Reflex or more commonly a DSLR camera. With the proliferation of megapixel camera-phones (have you seen the 5MP Nokia N95?) and dirt-cheap digital cameras coming in all shapes, colors and sizes at your suking tindahan, preserving that perfect Kodak moment is now as easy as "point-and-shoot". With the piles of pictures I've collected and the narrowing price gap of the latest point-and-shoot with entry-level DSLRs however, I've realized that I wanted to capture moments in more detail, more style, and more drama. More and more, I guess I've (re)discovered an "eye for photography". And this I could achieve with a DSLR - "ung mukhang Pro na camera"!

Having a DSLR would be a rekindling of sorts into this vivid world I plunged into as an innocent little boy of 6 (or 7, can't remember exactly) with my dad. My dad, who taught me the basics of which I've lost though time without practice, was a part-time photographer for then Kameraworld (now Picture City after the original co-owners have split up) and owned several mechanical SLRs. Among his stuff which I have recently unearthed were ...

a 1976 Yashica MF35, ...
a 1977 Nikon FM, ...
and a 1979 Yashica FX-3 ...
... with a bevy of accessories ranging from detachable lens kits and filters to remote triggers and tripods, not to mention your run-off-the-mill photographer's bag. If time permits, having a trip down memory lane with these 3 snappers would be a great way to immerse myself (again) in photography from a historical perspective. That's also 3 new posts for this month. Haha!

My interest has reawakened so to speak ever since I've started snapping away with my trusty old Sony Ericsson W800i. With its decent 2MP-Auto Focus camera, I've been taking pretty neat snapshots of varying subjects (check it out) that I decided it was time I needed a "true" camera that could do more.



It's been almost a year since my so called reawakening. My friend Ronnie (you can check out his blog by clicking on his name) has just recently grabbed his own Canon EOS 400D and is now finding time to tinker with it. As for me, I'm still without one. I mean hey, these things don't come cheap. The neophyte-friendly Nikon D40 is a hefty P26k in Quiapo. And that's already in photographer-haven Hidalgo where cameras are often at least 6-7k cheaper than malls. That's why they're called investments. And like all investments, these things need planning. To kill time, or should I say "While planning...", I plan (again that word) to brush up on the technical stuff like lighting, apertures, metering and the like. I've also been working my butt off (I wish there was OT) and saving up on unnecessary expenses. And so I've been planning since. Sheesh...

Somebody wake me up please... or better yet hand me a DSLR!
Hmmm... I think I just found the perfect birthday gift for me this May!

[keeps dreaming...]