Tuesday, May 22, 2007
• a man and his dog
one of my all time fave pictures ever taken in life. this one was from a trip to Bordeaux, France in 2005. Dune de Pyla was the name of this place. it's the highest sand dune in Europe. as someone who is afraid of height, it was quite challenging to take pictures while trying to be relax [and telling your self that you won't fall by standing on this giant sand] at the same time.
in the end, it was a place that worth to visit. especially if you like taking pictures, i'm sure you'll get some good ones too there!
**photo was taken in 2005 with Canon EOS 300D
• the beef
a picture from my Paris collection. this one was taken in summer 2005, during a movie session in Paris La Villette outdoor cinema. i remember i was having so much fun in the beginning of that evening. sitting on the grass with laurent, ayu and her husband. munching some cheese, ham and pate with glasses of wine, while waiting patiently as the sky turned into dark blue and the movie was finally played which turned out to be... a chinese movie with french subtitle.... *DUH!*
**photo was taken in 2005 with Canon EOS 300D
loucee said it on 12:48 AM | |
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
• foggy liverpool
in early February 2007, a bunch of us from PPI Newcastle went to visit the city of Liverpool for a one day tour. days before, the weather forecast posted in our mailing list said that it'd be a bright, sunny day and we all were very excited hoping that we would have a good time enjoying the city which in the end... stayed as a false hope. the sun never came out, and worse... it was foggy for the whole day. *bloody english weather!!*
**picture was taken with Canon ixus i
• my friend's tattoo
i wrote about the concept behind my friend's tattoo on the scribble page. and this is how the final outcome looks like on my friend's left arm. due to a job interview, i missed the chance to witness the process when the batik pattern was being tattooed during his second visit to the tattoo shop. i heard the tattoo artist recommended first to use grey color on the batik pattern, but they decided to stick with black instead, which i think look much nicer and powerful for the overall design.
**pic was taken with macbook pro's isight
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
• me and my passport
it was a one fine afternoon in September 2006, when I took a stroll to the post office to send all my documents to Croydon Home Office for my UK Residence Card application process. I just had finished my enrollment at the Northumbria University in the morning, thus couldn't send the documents earlier despite of the fact that I had been arriving in UK since the beginning of the year.
since that day, for months I was living in England without my passport. It was the first time in my life being abroad without any proper traveling documents at all.. and boy it sucked... big time! especially for a frequent flyer like me who is so used to hop on and off [budget] planes.. :) jetting to the main land Europe. it felt that i was being imprisoned in the land of the Queen, no way out nor in. I must forgot about all the plans I had made including the one that I was supposed to go during Christmas holiday.
for months I was waiting anxiously, hoping to see a silver envelope with my passport inside when I opened my mailbox everyday. even when we had to move to the other apartment still in the same building, I begged my previous landlord for keeping the key of her mailbox, so that I could still open it. and as months went by, the anxiety began to grow bigger and bigger until the point when I was thinking that I might never see my passport again.
it took Home Office 6 months to process my application. And that was the amount of time I had to live with my own anxieties of staying 'illegally' in a foreign country. so, when I finally saw a silver envelope inside my previous mailbox a couple of days ago, I couldn't hold my self for not jumping in joy for days after. It was a HUGE relieve, especially when I saw this nice Residence Documentation sticker which lasts until 2012 on one of its pages.
for many, this photo might not has anything special to be posted on this photoblog. but for me, it means a whole world! I took it with isight first thing in the morning, one day after i got my passport back as that was the only one thing i remembered when i woke up. my face might looks very dopey in this picture as i even hadn't washed it when i pushed the click button. but who cares? the big grin says it all...
**photo was taken with macbook pro's isight
loucee said it on 12:02 AM | |
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
• a newbie in Newcastle
i always love pictures that can tell a story. stories about people, event, well... basically anything. i must admit that it's not easy to take such pictures. especially if i want to take a story-telling pics of my friends. what is likely to happen is they would start to pose when they see me holding my camera, ready to take their pictures. 'banci photo'... as what they call themselves... hehe... :P
this picture of me, Ade and Firman [the guy on the right] is one of the not-so-many story-telling pictures i have. it was taken during the enrollment week outside Student Centre building at Northumbria University. i just met Firman for the first time on that day. he just arrived from indonesia the day before and seemed a li'l bit confused of what's going on around him.
Ade and i were actually sitting quite far from Firman than what is appeared in this picture. what we did that time was... ahmm... talking about the new comer in Newcastle... *sorry, Man.. just couldn't help it...* hihihi...
**photo was taken with Canon ixus I
Monday, January 01, 2007
• Northumbria Library
School Library... hmmm.... i don't think i had ever spent soooo... much time in the library like what i've been doing lately. In the past, as an art student i prefer book stores to do my 'research' - means more of finding ideas or visual inspirations - than libraries.
but, as a Design Management student, whose assignments required mostly writing and writing... i have no choice other than going to the library to get my research materials. this is not something i like, though... coz i hate reading books with too much text in it.
better get used to it now... :)
**photo was taken with Canon ixus I by Emmanouil Chatzakis
Saturday, November 11, 2006
• self-portraits
i do take self-portraits from time to time. is it a sign of narcissism? i hope not, as the term has been over-used everywhere [read it all over friendster on those ABG profiles who took their own same smiles-angles-poses pics with cellphones].
experimenting with the camera while using my self as an object at the same time is one reason of why i regularly take self-portrait. it's actually not easy to do, because i have to concentrate on a lot of things; holding the camera, twisting the lens, trying to get the focus, while trying to 'talk with your face expressions' in front of the mirror. and why not using self timer? errrr... not sure... i just never enjoy the time gap between the moment i push the button until the second when the camera is actually taking the pic. it's just awkward, and doesn't seem natural to me.
i have made many attempts of taking self-portraits. so far they are all craps except the two pictures above. the left one was taken one night in my Versailles' apartment with some help from my table lamp as the only lighting source. and the other one was taken during the day, 5 months later in Newcastle. i selected them both because each shows the two qualities in my personality; vulnerable yet fearless at the same time.
**photos were taken with Canon EOS 300D
• i'm watching you...
unlike New York City, there are not so many murals you can find around Newcastle. but during a trip from Baltic, i found this one mural painted on a wooden board, covering an empty space behind. the mural is actually part of Spank The Monkey exhibition in Baltic. somehow, the pair of those yellow eyes just remind me of the characters made by Matt Groening.
**photo was taken with Canon ixus i
• stairway choir
Baltic has became an oasis for me who always seek for new inspirations. during a visit to see Spank The Monkey exhibition - which is berrrryyyy... good btw- i found this very interesting video installation entitled Working Class Hero by Candice Breitz attached spirally on the side of the museum's public stairway.
the installation is consisted of several 42" plasma screen. each of them shows different person, singing the same songs [John Lennon's], making the stairway as a concert hall for the Lennon's fans choir.
**photo was taken with Canon ixus i
