Kindle ~ down under…

Last week, after a couple of months of using my hubby’s Kindle and the constant “where’s MY kindle?!” bursts, we decided I should get one too. After all, with books starting at $0.99, who can resist? Some books are even free…the complete works of Shakespeare, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Jungle Book from Kipling and many of my favorite fairy tales. Selected newspapers are delivered to your Kindle everyday and magazines like Times and Newsweek…all at a much discounted price from the print version and-and-and for those monitoring my ‘green’ actions…its paper-less! So of course I’m excited doubly so because I can begin to tackle the problem of buying books, reading it and shelving it which is mounting up to several shelves….and forgetting to bring it with me when I’m traveling or out and about leading to the purchase of another book. (I love reading several books at one time, which is a problem, I either forget to bring the books along with me or I misplaced it!)

Yep this is Good News. So, I started my order on Amazon. Since we already have one hanging around in the house, thought it would be a good idea to buy the white option. Yeah, I just like to be different. DOOING….’this product is not available in your current address’. With great disappointment I clicked the ‘Graphite’. No problem, I just have to buy skins or covers, y’know, so it doesn’t look the same as His. DOOOING….cool covers that complement the Kindle is NOT available my current address, neither are the cool skins which will transform my plain grey Kindle into a painted canvas. So, there you go, I’m stuck with ‘Graphite’, even the creators thought calling it grey, which is what it really is…is boring. Within the week, my Kindle arrived, plain Jane grey but loaded with my pre-downloaded books and magazines.

Am I happy with it?…oh YES. Battery was charged about a week ago, didn’t need any more even with constant tinkling. Its said to last a month. Page turning is seemless and fast. Its 3G and wifi so my magazines are updated and delivered weekly with a whisper.

Annotations and notes: I can place annotations and share it to the Kindle world. I can share it to the Facebook and Twitter world as well. It doesn’t have colours, or touch pads but I tell you what, Bindy, my 2-year old’s been using it too (or rather stole it from me) and its survived her TLC. Since its 3G, it has an internet browser option so I can read my emails, it plays MP3 and reads to me if I’m lazy (or audio books) and it can hold 3000 books. I have about 16 books now. Some of which comes free like 2 amazing dictionaries.

In the dark: I don’t have a problem with the fact that its not back lit so you can read it in the dark…so what…I usually fall asleep before I could finish the 2nd paragraph. So, pooh that.

Expensive? Hell no! Especially if you think about what its costing you in buying prints. The cost of purchasing the kindle =  $189, kindle books so far = $35. If I were to buy the print versions of the books and magazine that I Kindled it would have cost more then $100 already because I subscribed to 2 magazines, downloaded several ‘free’ books (that are royalty free cos its copy write has expired ages ago and since its not printed, there is no cost, each of these books would have cost me RM15/A$5 if I were to have bought them) and bought novels at $5 Kindle price ($35 paperback). Its already paid itself back really.

Oh btw, if you already have an iPad or a Galaxie, you can read Kindle books on it. Just a little note, this one is a lot cheaper! I’ll bring this around with me to every where…like i do with my tiny cheapy Canon Powershot.

So, I didn’t get exactly what I wanted and I had to use a ‘special’ Australia Amazon Kindle site to purchase it which made me feel a little ‘prejudiced’ but in the end…it did exactly what I needed it to do….keep my library of books in one slim mama of a device.

And since I can send my stuff over to my device because it gives me a special k-mail i.e. kindle address, I now have my favorite recipes in it too ready to keep me from going bored in the kitchen! Of course I could also have connected it to my pc with a usb but heck, kmail is much cooler! LOL

Oh one other thing about Kindle-ing down other and not in the UK or USA….I can’t Kindle my blogs. If I were living in the UK or US..this blog would have been Kindle’d and you could opt to get it uploaded automatically to your Kindle device. Neat huh? But, I’m way down under. So I’ll have to settle to some of the idiosyncracies of being down under…

A happy baby

Mr. Gobbles, a kiddie book on Kindle

The Kindle takes the 'TLC' of a 2 year old

We share a Kindle

The secret to capturing great photographs

If you’re expecting a technical solution from this blog, too bad…its not. Its just a simple revelation, for me.  And I’ve heard so many people say….’i don’t have a good camera to take good photos’. Rubbish…well, almost. It doesn’t need to be technically perfect or that you have the subject staring at you. A moment is just when you ‘connected’…and you have a camera, any camera. Having a good camera, the skills to use it, the discipline to process it …its gravy. (although I do agree that sometimes, its the gravy that makes a difference between a good dish and an awesome dish!)

One hot day, I thought that day is the day that I will crack open my camera bag which has been laying dormant for a month. If it had a life, it would probably walk away and sent me a Dear John letter.  Its been a long time since I squeezed that shutter button. For someone who is supposed to be in love with photography, I haven’t been spotted with my SLR anywhere since moving here in Perth. But you know, i like to think it as reverse snobbery, capturing moments doesn’t need a super duper expensive latest SLR, it just needs a camera and a keen eye and a happy heart <3.

So there you have it….the 3 secrets to capturing those unguarded moments:

1. a camera – that’s simple enough right? What matters about cameras is that you don’t mind losing it. Sure, you would do all you can not to lose it but if you’re constantly worried that you might scratch it or ‘spoil’ it, get it wet, get it too hot, get it dirty, drop it, etc …you will never enjoy taking photos because half of the time you’re worried what will happen to your camera. In other words, never buy a camera you cannot afford to lose! I use my DSLRs for commissioned shoots and portrait sessions and when I’m on trips for landscape photography. But one camera never leaves my side and that’s my cheapie canon powershot A495. I love this camera because Yes, this is one camera I can afford to lose so I bring it everywhere. And because its so compact, it goes in my pocket in the most crowded places, in rainy days, in kayaks, in sandy beaches etc. So if you’re thinking of buying a camera, think about what you want it for…to show off you’ve got the latest gadget money can buy or to show off the photos you managed to take with it. And you know, if you can afford the latest gadget…hey, go for it! Maybe you can get me one too! I’d love one of those Olympus Pen cameras..small and good …. (wish list! LOL)

2. A keen eye. Now this one, you either have or you don’t. I think you need to be somewhat a dreaming idiot to be a good photographer. Especially for kids and family. No, really. I see stories when I take photos and I see the stories other great photographers capture as well. Thats what I mean. I don’t mean that photographers are idiots in anyway. I respect them a lot because in this day and age, you really need more then just a camera to become one. For me, I imagine a fantasy like world of fairies and pixies. When children scrunch their noses, I see a fairy landing on their noses. When a child picks a leaf and puts it in his mouth, I see a bush full of lollies. I’m a hopeless dreamer. I love browsing through fellow photographers pages. It helps to browse through inspiring pages. This will train your eyes and mind to spot the moments…and click. And this will also give you an idea how to capture the moments, i.e. sometimes, you don’t need a full body photo, just what matters and clues of what’s going on so you inspire people seeing your photos to use their imagination as well. Hard huh? That’s why straight traditional studio sessions are limiting….I think. But it has its purpose. For me, its all about fantasy…

3. a happy heart

When I unzipped my camera bag for the first time, I wondered why I didn’t do it earlier. This is what prompted me to write this blog entry. You need a happy heart to take photos that matters. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy, I was stressed. I couldn’t see the world of fantasy that would surround me, they sizzled in the hot sun. This is when I knew photography comes from the heart. If you don’t have the passion to learn it, if you don’t have the interest to seize the moment, if you can’t dream, if you don’t know by now, what makes you happy and the conversation you have about photography is ‘what megabyte pictures does it take?’…and that’s probably as far as photography will take you…i.e. a collection of megabytes. Take photos from the heart.

Here’s a small collection of photos I took that day that I unzipped my camera bag…hope you enjoy it! (I certainly enjoyed the session!!!)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Happy 2011 and getting over the shock!!!

Oh my gosh. I am in Australia. Its taken my a while to get to this post because hey, moving is difficult. Even more when everything you know or think you know, turns out to be ‘inaccurate’ at best! You would imagine that coming from Malaysia and having lived and adapted to a British culture, things should be easy…(cos maybe I was ‘exposed’ to it, used to it, blah blah blah). Er no. This major milestone did not come without culture shock! I could list a few…

Shops closes at 5pm, let me explain…in Malaysia, I could ‘hang out’ and do window shopping after work. I enjoyed this because I know the shops are there to drown any frustrations and mend any wounds when that particular someone steps on your tail. I was further spoiled  by Tesco’s 24 hour shopping in UK. This means I no longer need to q along with the blue and white collar folks who straddle into the shops after work…I could go at 10 pm! Heck, at midnight if I had a craving for brie and cranberry rolls! Here…despite the government allowing merchants to continue trading after 5pm…most still decided it’s far better to go home and put the barbie on and have a beer by the pool. At least that’s my point of view.

Ham instead of turkey …. yeah. Even in Malaysia, my parents would buy a turkey for Christmas. And that’s special considering that there aren’t enough locally (Malaysian) bred turkeys to supply the ever increasing western influence to a Malaysian Christmas menu. Being married to a British made it even more special since I look forward to the left overs on boxing day for a hearty turkey and cranberry roll. Here, its Ham. Barbecued ham…with cranberry! Don’t get me wrong, I love it just as much!

‘Barbies’. Every house has one! Or it seems like it! Its the height of summer and what do Aussies do on a freaking hot Christmas  and New Year’s Day? ‘Pull out the barbie mate!’. In Malaysia, be it gas or charcoal, barbies are done mainly at night. The idea of cooking out in the heat just doesn’t quite have a Malaysian appeal. But I had a go anyway, so we did it the Aussie way, we had a barbie in the freaking hot outdoors. Will I do it again, yeah, actually I think I would.

Prepaid cards for mobiles. I can’t find any vendor that sells a prepaid card outside the CBD (Central Business Center) or the city center. In Malaysia, its Digi here, Maxis there…erm, a gerai by the road side in a kampung would be selling a prepaid card! And just my luck, the first day we arrived, we ran out of phone credits with Digi so we couldn’t call a taxi to pick us up to get to the CBD or call any of our friends and with no public phones insight, we WALKED. Took us a whole hour to get there. Yep, in Malaysia, I would probably be admitted into the A&E ward for walking in the heat. Oh that leads me to the next point…

Its hot. I monitor the temperature on my desktop screen, Perth vs Kuala Lumpur. 1 out of the 34 days I have been here, Perth is cooler…by 5C. Maximum temperature on our car gauge was 43C. Just before we got here, we were monitoring the temp gauge in our car in the UK…and it hit -11C…yep, more then 50C difference. Today the temperature is 25C, in a couple of days time it will rise to 36C again. Getting used to it though…the nights are pleasant…I’ll have a night here anytime, back in Malaysia … its just too humid.

Amah….oh, do I miss this privileged life! An amah is not a servant or a cleaner. An amah is a life saver and a super woman. I am now appreciating my little electrical helpers like never before; a dishwasher, a washing machine, a tumble dryer, a vacuum cleaner and the dvd player(plus Toy Story 3, Shrek 4 and Nemo) to keep a certain little miss busy while I busy myself with the ‘On’ buttons of my handy helpers. And all at the expense of several …. a lot of…aussie dollar bills. I fall short of calling in help from home…. I will survive!! (A note to my mom: I now know why you get frustrated when we leave our cups on the table and not return it to the kitchen.)

Hahahaha. I can list a lot more but let me just end it here…why, because I can whine (a lot)….and one thing I miss most from Malaysia, is the Limteh sessions (a.k.a. coffee/teh tarik sessions). Those blessed or cursed to love it …know that its not the tea or the coffee or the food that makes a good limteh, its the whining!!! I’m having a cup of coffee now (raising it)  ‘So, here’s to all who decided to move, whose in transit, those where change is the only constant thing in life, those who managed to juggle life and children and a clean and tidy household, those who decided that 2011 is going to be different … and better!’

Happy New Year…..mate!! … and No’ worries….

Priceless moments are sometimes quiet moments

Priceless moments doesn’t need to be accompanied with bells and whistles. Sometimes, its those quiet moments that are precious….like this when Bindy’s face lights up when she sees birds and sheep through the window, as granpa looks on.

 

Picture taken in Carreg Cannen, Wales.

‘Mummy, take photo’…

I’ve been taking her photos since, yep you guessed it, she was born. And a few weeks ago, she started to put her fingers together in the ‘L’ frame, like you would when you’re framing a picture with your fingers…and said ‘Mummy, take photo’. Isn’t that cute or what! And she’s only just turned two! LOL. Its amazing what children pick-up from their parents and things around them, so make sure you surround them with all things wonderful!

Two days ago, we went to Toys R Us and bought her a kiddie camera! We bought her the Vtech Kidizoom Digitak Camera (Pink)

Although it has a lot more functions then most of the other kiddie cameras, I think I really would have settled for the simpler (but same price) Fisher Price version. Mainly because its simpler and has less buttons. Nevertheless, its a great camera, she carries it around and is beginning to figure out pressing the button captures the photo. But as most 2 year olds, as soon as she sees something else…she drops it…which is exactly why this is great! Padded all around…its surviving Bindy! LOL

The nose vs the durian

Had a durian flavoured ice cream tonight at the local icecream store Desserts. It lay side by side with other contemporary flavours…choc mint, cookies and cream etc and all except the one labeled Durian, had no cover. Apparently the smell is so strong, it will ‘kill’ the rest. And I can ‘smell’ that it could be true, the killer of all flavours. As the lady opened the plastic barrier, it was like a jack in a box of olfactory insults, it hits you! I do love durians but still the first smell hits me quite hard. Its as if a few of my smell-o-sensors shifts a gear or two and suddenly, it smells goooood.

But if I have to be in a car with the fruit for long distance, no thanks…I think I’ll take the bus.

This nosey pic was taken by the little Canon A480 on macro in the craft shop in town, processed in Lightroom using its preset Aged photo action.The nose is an amazing thing…cos most of the time, you can find a smile just below it. …well, most of the time…

Happy Tuesday!

The best handbag camera: Canon Powershot A480

I have a dry box and usually I’m pretty diligent in making sure cameras go back into their dry box homes after use but my Canon Powershot A480 has my handbag as a permanent address.

I love it. I never go out without a camera, its as important as a mobile phone, so you might say thats why mobiles has a camera! GREAT idea except that its too expensive and valuable to be tossed around in different situations.

My definition of a handbag/camera:

1. CHEAP – so that I can afford to wreck it. You have to know whats in a handbag…keys, pens, lipstick, mobile phone, loose change etc…ALL can cause potential harm to a ‘memory capturer’.

2. LIGHT – so my handbag will not weight a tonne.

3. AA batteries. So that it can stay in my bag for-eva without worry of charging it before I go out. This is important, how many times have you said…’Aiyo! No battery!’ …AA gives you the option to just simply buy one in a garage!

SO….

In the shops there really isn’t a lot of options…its the Nikon, Olympus and Canon. I have Nikon SLR gears but you know, I’m not a freak, I buy whats good.

Olympus was just simply, bigger. So I didn’t look into it.That leaves me with the two, both under rm500.

NIKON L22 coolpix has a clunky interface, being the owner of 2 other coolpixes, it was disappointing. I needed to access functions quickly, like a one touch MACRO and flash. I don’t want to pause and look at the menu for this. Nikon had a far bigger screen at the expense of the easy buttons. Too bad. Big screen also means its going to sap more power. It also has 12M, sounds great but its not always about the pixles. So I was willing to compromise.

CANON powershot A480 has this neat button at the back which means it had to give some LCD space to it.So its about 0.5″ less preview/review screen then Nikon, but I have those easy access buttons! Love it! Press once you’re on macro mode and another, the flash comes of. There are ‘scene’ functions too and effects.

I can’t spot meter with this, which the Nikon apparently can but again, the button functions win it. Its not a camera for technical photograhy, its a memory capturer, i.e those moments when you just think ‘wouldn’t it be nice to remember this’.

And I found it! Had it for a month now. Here’s what i learned about it….

FACE DETECTION: It has a face detection feature, which is cool but is rather annoying when you want to photograph something else with people in the background so for me, its a little annoying but otherwise, its a non-issue. I found ways to get around it by changing the composition.

FOCUS ON HIGH CONTRAST: It also has a bit of a focus problem so sometimes I need to to press the button half way a few times before it focuses well. It wants to focus on an object further away. Top was captured using macro, for macro it wants a lot of contrast to focus so make sure you point the center of the frame to a high contrast object, let it focus then move to frame it.

SELF PORTRAIT: And there is another neat function, the 10s auto timer starts when you look at it. Perfect for the self-portraiter!!

LOW LIGHT: Its surprsingly good. See the photo posted yesterday in sunday post: How i harnessed the wind , it was taken when the sun is really low on the horizon, so I adjusted myself so that the rays come tru the whistle. this would have been impossible with an SLR cos I had to take it close to my nose!

CASUAL: below is a snapshot of me waiting for my number at the bank. You could stamp the date or take it off.

MACRO:I don’t like using flash on macros unless you have an external flash. So same for this little camera, I don’t use flash cos the lens snout protrudes and blocks the light from getting to the subject effectively.  It has a 1cm macro so its good stuff this. For macro when light is not great, dial up the ISO, it goes to 1600. Sure its grainy but adds to the effect. My hubby sometimes uses his hand to bounce the flash back out to the subject, that works too. Below was taken macro iso 800, wild flower by the road side.

So in conclusion…my best handbag, bring all around, cheap camera…CANON POWERSHOT A480….I’m rm380 poorer but loaded with memories!

For more detailed specs, check out the canon A480 page

Super wide angle lens and dramatic landscapes

Two years ago I bought a super wide angle 10mm lens, I took this photo while trekking Rossilli, Wales. Super wides are a great way to capture dramatic landscape scenes. I could never be satisfied with just the normal wides on great landscapes like this because. it just simply is great. One thing about super wide angle tho, you can easily find yourself overdoing this. While trekking, its hard to change lenses on open landscape, wish I had a second body! This time, I do…not unless my hubby wants the exact same lens at the same time!!!

Sunday post: How I harnessed the wind

Yesterday, I found a party whistle with the wheely things and it turns as you blow it….love them Happy sunday all…

Pop art on Macbook

I’m soon going to do a review of my arsenal of weapons for capturing those unguarded moments. Its in the draft now, you’ll love it because I have a camera for every purpose! And I’m not a studio photo freak, I don’t have muscles to lug around heavy stuff and I really prefer to just bring one. Perhaps you can learn from me what to buy or what not to buy! But that will have to wait a little cos I’ve recently got a MacBook, making sure that I have everything I need on this to last me at least 3 months of iMac-less-ness is proving to be challenging. For one, downloading the stuff i need is taking forever, internet is crappy to give the kindest words. And another, backing up my photos from the iMac is taking forever. I now have a better plan on how to backup my photos when I get to my final destination. But today, the virtue i need to practice is patience.

I am bored, my photos are jammed in a busy usb-highway. Lazing on my chair I can see the count down of files left to copy, its 29,606, and thats just one disk. So what do I do, play around with the built-in camera and its neat software Photobooth. It the only source of photos I can get hold of right now….

It has several effects options other then just the regular snap a slice of life in actual colours which can be quite ugly for my case, i.e. no makeup, poor lighting, wrinkles, freckles hahaha, so the effects lets me disguise some of those for me . This one is called pop art. Yeah, I think i prefer to be red then my actual true color.

I find the ‘glow’ effect is tricky. It just doesn’t look good if you stand in front of the pc and ‘press’. its best taken when you feel rather goth like. But great effects, again disguising myself from the whole world!

Now this is suppose to cartoonise me. I guess its how I would look like on the cartoon page of the Star newspaper. Notice the prints, its neat, again another way to disguise myself!

sigh…I will NEVER let a cartoonist caricature me! LOL. This is using the stretch effect.

Anyway, enough nonsense! It has 36 possible effects including replacing the background. So endless fun when one is rather …bored….seriously, I’m already thinking of many ideas! Meanwhile, another one to amuse me…

I’ve always wanted to be half human, half klingon. Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam