nostalgia. childhood

This week's theme is change so I'm working on the concept of the losing our "old childhood". In the past, kids play with simple toys and improvise with objects to create games such as hopscotch, roleplaying, "dog and bone" etc... We don on our singlets and shorts, frequent places like mamashops for cheap snacks and toys, make mad dashes to the sandy playgrounds to "chop" the swings, and pester our parents to let us ride the 20 cents token musical machines.

Today, with globalization, living standards rises, leading to growing affluence in our society. Children wear expensive clothes and shoes. Increasingly, fanciful gadgets are manufactured to appeal to children, setting the trend of playing with sophisticated games. The vibrancy of the gaming culture across the globe have also led to the upspring of gaming markets that competes to serve to the needs of these "cyber" children. Play, has become more commercialized than before.




Remember jumping onto these retro looking weighing machines that can tell our fortune apart from our weights?

Having a card that tells you of the time that you weigh XXXkg, with a fortune being printed at the back brings back nostalgic memories of our past.

Our all-time favorite afterschool hangout place. These are now probably replaced by 24 hour convenience shops like 7-11.

"Sweet Pills" we used to make our Doc and Patient roleplaying games more convincing.

Squatting along sideroads and feasting on our favorite icecream. vs sitting in a Bens & Jerry icecream shop.

Riding musical machines and reaching out for...

....the flown away balloons (transitional pictures: the sense of losing the "old childhood")

Colorful and high quality Pokemon chips with the same game concept as our "Eraser game".

Fancier boots. Notice those wheels: don't they remind you of the new roller shoes popular amongst kids these days?



Our discmans that pales in comparison to the era of high storage MP3 players.

The time of today: we live in the age of high computer ownership and CYBERGAMING.

Losing our "old childhood" is inevitable. People progress and move on, leaving behind old time. Because this change is constant passing phase, it is only a matter of time that the current becomes another object of nostalgia.

For this assignment, I give myself 8.5/10. The class had commented that my photoessay could be interpreted without a writeup, and that I had managed to show the change quite clearly. In this case, I think because I had tried to plan the shots in according to this manner: The first four pictures depict our "old childhood". The 5th and 6th shot ( girl reaching out and balloons) brings viewers through the transitional stage. the 7th shot on the kids with pokemon chips shows the fusion between the old and new. The 8th-10th shots (the boots, ipod and PS2) shows the affluence and the increasing tech savvy culture. The last shot gives it a neat closure.

I like Yikang's photoessay. I give him 9/10 for capturing the mood of emptiness and nostalgia. Interestingly, while many of us tried to show stages of change, he instead, showed the changed state. I feel that it is not easy to evoke the emotions of people by merely showing the changed state, but he did it quite successfully.

I also like samantha's photos because they seem to look 3D while mine seems rather flat. On top of that she has captured objects that might otherwise gone unnoticed by others. I give her 9/10 for her technique.

Playing with lighting

This assignment made me realised how much effort a photographer must put in to get the best picture. Over a span of two days I went around experimenting and looking for subjects to shoot. It wasn't easy finding the right the kind of subjects to capture. I suddenly understood the importance of the 'photographer's eyes'. Another problem encountered was while handling the equipment. It was like, when you found the subject, you have to start playing around with the settings to get the best shot. And by the time you managed to set everything properly in place, the sunlight dims, the subject moves, the wind blows or worse still, the battery goes flat. It was indeed frustrating, but I believe everyone has to learn the hard way. Out of a total 150 shots, only a handful turned out right.

I recokened that since this is an assignment on light, I could try taking a day and a night shot to show that I have experimented under different lighting conditions and limitations.

Here's my 1st photograph. Day shot.

1/30s, F/5.6, FL 47mm, ISO 100

This picture is in its original form, without any photoshoping. (Earlier on I had the impression we could use image processing tools to do some editing)

This is a picture of a symmetrical composition of the two trunks, together with the sun beams backdrop giving a feeling of a beautiful refreshing day. 'Beginning with optimism' I call it. Within the similarity, the contrasts in the thickness of the trunks and the brightness stands out too. The whiteness of the sun spot give viewers a sense of presence. I think it also has depth of field as a classmate commented that it looks like it was taken in a forest ( correct me if I'm wrong!), but it was just 2 trees standing along some pavement around bugis.

My second piece, night shot.

15s, F/16 FL 24mm, ISO 200

This shot took me over an hour to capture. Because of the lack of tripod, I had to make do with what I had with me. I positioned the camera bag on the floor and placed the camera on top of it. As it was not elevated enough to capture the view I wanted, I had to placed softer materials like a cap under the camera lenses to keep it at the correct angle. I tested this shot with several times with different shutter speed, ranging from 8 to 20 seconds. It seems that the best shot was at 15 seconds. Also it was necessary to press the button at the right time, not too early or not too late, otherwise the beams of the car will not turn out nice.

This photo in my opinion, looks quite like a postcard image. It has depth of field as seen by the beams of the taxi's headlights, which in turn give viewers a kind of presence to the vehicle. Also, there is contrast between the bridge and the beam. From this picture, we can also see the red looming clouds overhead the bridge.

For this assignment, I will give myself 8/10. Upon second look at my 2nd photograph, it looks a little overexposed. I should have tried with different ISOs which could perhaps haven given me better outcomes. But overall I am quite pleased with the two shots. More room for improvement in next assignment! : )

I liked Samatha's work. I thought it was creative to take pictures of an artificial setting. Also, it seems to tell alot behind the photo. Something like a grim storyline. I will rate her 9/10.

dreamy me

Photogram was something new and I started off feeling rather confused about the kind of effect i should create. I wasn't sure if a photogram meant a x-rayed effect or a solid full-colored image like a camera could produce. Through the net, these two vastly different effects claimed themselves to be photograms which made me a little skeptical. Nonetheless, they deserve some credits for sparking off some ideas and inspirations for my work.

The initial plan was to scan a collage of stamps to represent myself as a stamp collector. In that I was hoping to create an assemblage of diverse patterns and colors. However, it turned out pretty cluttered and messy. I also tried scanning the pages in the stamp book (since it might look more organized and has a pretty tracing paper page) but to my dismay it turned out stark black.

I reckoned that it might be easier if I experimented with translucent objects. I used some stationeries and they created a boring composition which didn't really give a good representation of myself ha, other than the fact that they accompany through my school days.

Eventually, I decided to use my dreamcatcher-windchime which was a gift from a close friend. I positioned the dreamcatcher onto the scanner and placed a tracing paper over it to create a dreamy effect. This was truly representative of myself, since I'm known for sleeping and dreaming alot. Not only is it representative, it also has a nice mix of texture- the embroidery, the feathers, beads, metal which I think, compensates for the simplicity of my final work. The only adjustments made were desaturation, curves, brightness and contrast and cropping.

Haha, probably it is precisely too simple that I didn't recieve much feedback about how I should improve on this piece. I seeked my sister's opinion and she commented that it'll probably look more pleasing if it is in the portrait position. What do you guys think? Please feel free to comment. Your advice is truly appreciated :)

Self assesment:

7/10
It may look pretty simple and easy to create, but I managed to portray the dreaminess. The brightness and overexposure gives audiences the aura of stepping into a "new realm". I also tried to crop it in consideration to fit the rule of thirds.

However, I think whilst it may give a dreamy effect, it lacks some depth. A dream is to experience a sequence of images with sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations during sleep. But my image seems speak less of what goes beyong the dreamy effect.

I like shirlyn's work. I thought that the composition was nice and the sihoulette effect came out pretty. Though the chains were complicated and long, it wasn't over cluttered. Also, the "spilled" effect is a good way to symbolize a change in the state of events, giving some depth. I give her 8.5/10.