Spot the following:

- a young David Caruso
- Freddie Mercury
- a skinny Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Richard Simmons
- a white Stevie Wonder (complete with shades and head-bob.)

Failing which, you could just be amused by how the 80's looked.

Man, I wish I knew about this so I could throw my own Windows 7 Launch Party!



I watched it to the end and could not contain my excitement!

However, since comments are disabled, there are comments in this other video about how fun and fantastic it would have been if I managed to get the Windows 7 Launch Party Pack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UrnsS8mPU8

Best comment ever over there is:

A scene-nerd, a granny, a menopausal soccer mom and a non-threatening black man.

In America, they strive to be politically correct and having the token black guy. What about the other token people?
- geek with glasses
- gay
- soccer mom
- elderly person
- black
- Asian
- South American
- blond Caucasian

Combining tokenism, they could have:
- a black gay geek with glasses
- a blond Caucasian soccer mom
- a South American elderly person
- an Asian

Now a black geek is cooler, as it is the Mac ads have white geeks. Microsoft needs to fight back black. Black people are always cooler so having the gay token attribute doesn't detract from them much or bear a negative stereotype.

I also wish I had a Laser Potrait when I was a kid, so I could be as cool as the kids on Saved By The Bell:
We Have Lasers!!!!!!!!!!

Always known famous producer Rick Rubin for his scraggly beard and Chewbacca mane? Under all that hair he was actually good-looking!

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2007/rick_rubin/

And now, for pictures from my Sony Cybershot DSC-W190! It packs a 35-105mm equivalent zoom lens (surprisingly, 35mm can be quite wide even when you're used to having much wider focal lengths...)


It reminds me of slide film, with a specific latitude that you must adhere to. Then again, I don't mind the high black point, as it was the light and shadow I was trying to convey.


For the pixel peepers - the maximum ISO is 3200, and you can only expect so much from a regular front-lit CCD sensor. (This is not a back-lit CMOS!)


Of course, when you need it, it gives the mood...


Enough arsing around. Having Live View all the time helps with tricky angles (where having a SLR would make it very obvious that you were trying to take a picture!)


Live View (which is what all point-and-shoots offer) gets you nice overhead angles.


Big chunky cameras are for girls!


The other thing I loved about using a point-and-shoot, is that there is no mirror, and the mechanical shutter is very quiet, so you could take street shots in a shopping mall without people noticing (even though my camera was metallic red!)


Had I used a SLR the owner would've known I was trying to take pictures of his shop.


I love Smile Shutter. It gets the goofiest smiles out of everybody (since the W190 isn't extremely sensitive to smiles, you need to smile harder and bigger.)


Smile Shutter not used for this one (incidentally, Face Detection struggles with back-lit faces, so it would not have been possible unless I bring the camera real close to the face.)


Given good light, the colors are awesome!


Taking pictures while waiting for the train is a nice way to pass time.

Down on the catwalk, 27th April 2008, at 1 Utama...


...with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan on my A700.


Male models - that is when you hear all the male camera-owners take less pictures.

I really don't get what's so great about catwalk photography for most male camera-owners. "Oh it's so difficult!"


Pfft, the models pause at the front of the catwalk and turn around for all to see. The lighting is consistent. People who say it is difficult should get out more and shoot more genres.

Obviously, the guys are there for the female models, and for a chance for the typically bespectacled engineer/IT support person to use his expensive telephoto lens (which practically can't be used at home.) You see all these uncles as well, overjoyed that their big lenses finally get some use!

I went with some friends once to shoot. We'd all huddle up in the photographer booth, which was elevated. We'd shoot a half-hour session, and not leave the booth during the intermission, in fear that we'd lose our space.


Yeah I get excited, I like pretty faces. I like how she looks so much like Kristin Kreuk!

However, by 3 to 4 half-hour rounds, I got bored of seeing the same faces! You see the same faces at every catwalk/fashion show. (Everybody loves Andrew's Models.)


So what can I say? Obviously, the straight guys are not into shooting catwalks for the fashion. I know they don't care and neither did I for the clothes.

However, I will comment on this outfit - I don't like it when girls dress up in shape-less gunny sacks.


And now, fast-forward to 7th August 2008, at Twenty-One, for a showcase of Kariza Designs! At least these models were different because they were all friends of the founder/founder's brother's girlfriend.


Twenty-One was tight, and no telephoto would've been comfortable.


Not that I even brought a telephoto that night - I only had the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 on the A700. Manual focus was a challenge, and there were many spoiled shots!


Sorry Shannon there's an elbow!


"Ooo, I have feet now."


Yes, it was real packed!


I'm not sure what was up with my lens that night, but it seemed to have some focus curvature.


I found the concept to be amazingly cool - a colorful batik wrap that can be transformed into many different outfits! Instructional DVD included with every unique design.


Group shot! Argh, again the focus curvature.


Catch a flash.