Grad Trip Nepal

March-April 2012 has been pretty crazy, I don't think I've experienced so much drama in the space of 2 months before! I want to always have an attitude of thanksgiving for God's grace in seeing me through the at-times-seemingly-impossible-to-pass exams. And not to mention the epic graduation trip to Nepal with an awesome bunch of people. I've been planning something like this for a couple of weeks and finally the video is done, take a look at it below or click on the vimeo link to watch it in HD on their web.

Many thanks to Narendra Timalsina, the best guide in Nepal. And to all my friends! I had so much fun making the video, and it was my first time attempting such an ambitious project with voice overs and all. Special thanks to Daniel who helped me carry my tripod just as I was starting to struggle with all the gear I brought along for the trek!

Grad Trip Nepal from Michael Lee on Vimeo.

Frank and Dolly

testing out a budget dolly I got for video on wheels, Frank my assistant is the model. Every time we put the leash on him to go for a walk he does the collapsing trick though. Fat lazy sausage! (He eventually overcame his inertia and went for a walk)

Weddings

I have no idea how to format posts on blogger... anyway two weddings in two weeks ( : and all 4 individuals from my cell group!

I enjoyed the role of an extra photo/video person, with no pressure I was able to roam around and capture the stuff that the official dudes did not have time to cover.

like random pictures of friends (taken with flash!) :

Wedding stuff and decor:

picture of the official photographer:

Picture of Sharon waiting to enter the church:

Joshua and Claire:

Claire and Sarah:

more pictures to come after the exams...

Thy Word

Psalms 119:105- "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"

It has been too easy, in the midst of preparing for the upcoming exams, to go into an "auto-pilot" mode. A fear of failure spells out to me what is the next thing to do, and when I'm tired I look for means of escape. Unfortunately turning to God was something that didn't seem obvious to me- I was often too tired to spend a moment with him after studying/ doing something else to "relax" (taking pictures, reading about taking pictures etc.)

I stumbled upon the verse from Psalms today, and went to watch the similarly titled hymn being sung on Youtube.

Thy word is a lamp onto my feet: the verse reminded me that it is in God that I find my true identity. I can spend an eternity trying to find my place in this world, trying to craft an identity that I think is what I am, but none of that will ever produce a satisfying answer- especially when the going gets tough. And it is an important question to answer. The question of identity and purpose needs to be answered before I can meet the challenges of everyday life as a warm-blooded creature- having an idea of how things should be inside me, as opposed to merely reacting to what the day throws at me and letting it affect how I feel.

And a light unto my path: Having found who you are and meant to be, the next step is to look ahead and ask "what should I be doing with my life?". No, not the life that starts after the exams, nor the life that starts after houseman year. The life that is now, today! It is quite possible to dull the senses, knuckle down and eventually pass the exam, but why go that way when you can ride out to meet the challenge (like how Aragon and friends rode out to whoop the orcs in the battle of helms deep). God often has a very different measure of success. Maybe it's not just passing, or doing well for that matter. Maybe it's keeping your chin up, encouraging your friends (positively, not just scaring them) and keeping a close walk with him throughout whatever happens.

He who knows how many hairs there are on your head, he who makes sure that the sparrow has enough to eat, he who never sleeps nor gets tired, he who knows the entire history and physical examination findings of all the patients down to the molecular level, says: "don't worry, you can do this". Like a shepard who has gone ahead of his flock to prepare the way, he has taken care of things- we just have to listen for his voice and press on.

So to all taking the upcoming med exams: take heart! You are all part of that flock with that awesome shepard, whether you know it or not.

On a side note, another lesson I learnt from my first photo-job was...that I should learn how to use a flash! If used well flash photography can produce amazing results, so I'm hoping to learn a bit of this whole new arena of photography (to me).

One of my first few attempts at flash- Frank sends a wet and squishy-nosed greeting:

Lessons From My First Photo-Job

Barely a week ago, a friend asked me if I could help her family take pictures at their grandfather's 80th birthday dinner. After sizing up the task (need for pro-grade photos, high expectations etc. of which it seemed to be manageable because neither was present :p) I decided that it was an opportunity that I could not turn down.

My camera set-up of micro four-thirds gear isn't ideally suited to the demands of paid-event photography, where the benefits of being discreet (small cameras, small photographer) is a less pressing need. However, during the dinner I found out that small-ness still had its role- and a somewhat priceless role at times.

Thanks to Esther lending me her awesome panasonic G3, I effectively had 3 camera bodies to work with :p The set-up i managed to put together was as follows:

1. Panasonic G3 with 90mm (equivalent) f1.8 prime (with eBay metal hood)

2. Panasonic G2 with 40mm (equivalent) f1.7 prime (again with metal eBay hood)

3. Panasonic GF1 body with 28-90mm f3.5-5.6 zoom (with plastic eBay hood)

4. 2 Tripods (they were not the expensive kind) with one base-plate attached to the G2 and one to the GF1

5. My Dad's awesome old canon flash

In summary, the above combination allowed me to:

1. Shoot with available light. Because the four-thirds sensor and prime lens combinations produced perfectly usable results when shot wide open (f1.8, f1.7), in addition to providing some extra depth of field (as opposed to a larger sensor), I was able to shoot without a flash in the indoor lighting conditions. The 90mm was paired with the G3 because the newer body had better high-ISO performance which was needed to get faster shutter speeds to avoid camera shake (the longer the focal lenth, the more obvious camera shake is).

While shooting with a flash is ideal in most cases, as yet it remains a skill too advanced for me. The function room lighting at the Shangri-la hotel was quite nice, so I was counting on the 100% brightness setting of the room lights to save me!

2. Multi-task. I guess one of the factors that could make my services unique was the fact that I tried to take both videos and photos at the same time. How? For example, during the cake cutting, the GF1 with zoom was set on the tripod for video-taking, while I snapped with the 90mm and 40mm. My choice of using prime lenses is mainly centred on the fast apertures they provide and the consistency of focal length that gives the images a certain look. An f2.8 zoom would have been too slow (for my camera's high-iso shyness and my lack of flash ability).

3. Shoot with multiple cameras. I've had some practice with this during playhouse and some informal dinners, so I have a system of slinging the cameras on myself (90mm on left, across neck, 40mm on right, on shoulder) that reduces confusion and the chances of getting entangled. That is where the lens hoods came in useful- they prevented me from grabbing the front element of the lens (fingerprints on the glass :o) and allowed me to go filter-less which optimizes lens performance.

Multiple cameras also equates to more battery life as I use both cameras interchangeably for video and stills. And of course, they allowed me the option of using primes practically.

During the dinner itself, I tried to formulate a plan because I quickly got overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up (~120). Getting overwhelmed at the start was a good thing because it forced me to prioritise and set me in good stead for the rest of the dinner.

So the plan was to:

1. When in doubt, stick to the birthday boy! Roxanne's grandfather went around greeting and shaking hands with the guests (and he moved very fast!) so that gave me something to focus on.

2. When the birthday boy was taking a break, stick to the immediate family! Since they did the invites they knew everyone who came so there were many photo moments.

3. Grandparents and friends= Gold! Grandma, grandpa, grandpa's best friend, great grandmother...I really like taking pictures of seniors, especially if they are animated and smiley.

4. Capture tender moment between grandma and grandpa- more difficult than I thought. They sat together but didn't really talk much, so it was a case of constant vigilance for that tender moment :p

5. Capture all the major birthday happenings- sounds obvious, but the obvious things are also those that hurt most if you miss them.

6. If I had time, to capture the other guests at the dinner (aside from the VIP tables). I avoid taking pictures of people eating because the pictures are usually unflattering, but there were performances where people paused to watch the screen/stage where I could get some pictures of them.

7. Food photos! To be a little more comprehensive in the coverage of the dinner.

8. Stay discreet. There were numerous occasions where I had to move in between tables and crawl/kneel near guests in order to get shots of the birthday boy, especially during the shows and presentations where standing up would have meant blocking the view of other guests. The relatively small size of the cameras meant that people did not feel too uncomfortable when I got close and they could still see my face behind the camera (smiling at them helps them to feel more at ease/ return the smile).

I am still making my way through the photos in Lightroom, will put up some shots when they are ready ^_^ Immensely thankful for the photo opportunity, hope the photos turn out well!

to be continued...

Mountain Sunrise Moment

It was my 2nd trip up to the mountains during the 2 weeks that we spent in fugong. We were tasked with visiting a village called guchuan-wai and conducting health-screenings for several families. The village head was a feisty lady called fushayi-ma, and we met her at the base of the mountain after a short tuk-tuk ride along the mountain road.

She had, apparently, the ability to scare even the most non-compliant men into taking their medication (on one occasion, with the threat of reporting them to the authorities because it was an infectious disease). She was a well-respected village head who had overseen major improvements to the lives of the village people together with the help of the group we were working with. She was also to be our host for the night should we require to stay over in the village (which we did), as descending the mountain after sunset was too dangerous.

Chili-padi. Fushayi-ma was a chili padi of a woman. Small built, with an even smaller built husband, but with an unmistakable air of authority around her. She was probably well past middle-age, with one of her eyes beginning to show signs of a cataract forming. She welcomed us and led us up the mountain, picking up one of our bags without hesitation or question- like a boss.

The climb up was not as treacherous as the one I had attempted the previous week. Then, the ground was slightly mushy from a slight drizzle the night before. It could get pretty dangerous, and the trip would have been cancelled if the rain had been any bigger. Before long we had reached the first family on the agenda.

Elderly lady from the second household we visited. She was cheerful and (in this picture) swatted flies as she sat in the doorway while we interviewed her husband.

Some children we saw on our way up. Parents get a new name (in addition to their existing names) when they get children. It is "child's-name-followed-by-ma/pa" e.g. Fushayi-ma is Fushayi's Mum. So parents are very careful in choosing names for their children...

The group of us who traveled to China was quite a unique one. The people whom we were working with were predominantly Christian missionaries and doctors, whose presence in the region allowed us to tag along on this amazing adventure. The people in the villages belonged to a Christian minority, with imressive churches dotting the mountains despite their poverty. And so we were exposed to the spiritual side of things quite a fair bit, which made things interesting because half of our group were Christians while the other half were not.

Talking about religion brings about a wide range of responses from people. It is not just an emotional topic but one that fires the logical and, dare I say, spiritual side of a person into overdrive. It is as if one's entire life is distilled down into a conversation- his reason for being, the reason why things happened the way it did and what it means for his future. This is why I feel that the approach to this topic should be the one spoken of in the bible- one of gentleness and respect. It is not so much about convincing the other person of something, but rather coming alongside one another to work out the difficult questions....of life.

The difficult questions. The ones that leave people stumped, unable to offer anything more than what sounds like pure speculation. Why is there suffering? What is faith? Why would anyone need God? These are examples of questions that while proving bothersome to the "unbeliever", should incessantly plague the "believer" simply by virtue of the fact that believing in God moves you nearer to these issues rather than further away from it.

Every time I share my brain goes into an overdrive (talk about coming alongside) as I link together points and examples to illustrate what I am trying to share. The result is that at the end of it there is a bundle of residual energy left in my brain. I don't think that the energy is a bad thing, in fact it often ends up in my trying to write stories like this. However, in the process of sharing I often catch a glimpse of the side of the person that I have never seen before. It is not so much a side that is hidden, but rather it glows like embers. I think when you try to work with God and see people through his eyes, you see people in a totally different way. A way that makes you want to share with that person a spiritual brother/sisterhood that is free of the veils and barriers that mask our current relationships. A kind of wanting to say "Eh brother/sister!" and giving each other high fives and slaps on the back because you have figured out something awesome together.

That night as I drifted off to a fitful sleep I was to be awakened earlier than everyone else. Despite being exhausted from the climb and health-screenings I could not get back to sleep. At this point an idea lit up the room- Mike, go see the sunrise. As quietly as I could, I sneaked out the door, only to find that it had started to drizzle. I entertained the idea of giving up and going back to bed but then I remembered that I had brought along my umbrella (up a mountain?? but yes I did). With my camera and umbrella in hand, I sneaked out for a second time (Joy, FSYM etc. were alseep on the living room floor so I had to sneak past them) and stepped out into the pale morning light.

God knows that I am a sucker for nice clouds and sunrises. If it was my restless mind that led me out into the cold morning drizzle, it was God's soft yet magnificent voice that kept me there. Sometimes he doesn't answer all your questions, but just a reminder that he is there is enough.

It can be difficult to feel compassionate when it is expected of you in your work. Especially when a lack of time and the heavy load of hospital work wears you out. Sometimes it is good to bring yourself out of that environment, and go back to the simple yet profound, when a listening ear and time taken to understand a person's problems already goes a long way toward helping them.

The 'twang' in your heart when you see beauty on this earth. Keep hold of it, inspect it, listen. There is so much more to life than what we know. Keep on searching my friend, don't ever stop.

Mike

Pictures to de-stress

Frank has rather large floppy ears. They can double up as an eye mask! I put them over his eyes, and they seemed to help him sleep better in the bright light. All these pictures were taken with old manual focus lenses, in this case with a 2 second exposure and the camera set on the floor (doing so helps you see the world from a dog's perspective)

It is said that dogs don't think about the past or future- they mainly live in the moment. Although it seems Frank has many pensive moments.
Frank sleeping on my sister's bed. When I entered the room he knew I came in so he started wagging his tail which made a lot of noise as it smacked against the mattress- all the while being very drowsy and sleepy. After a few minutes he was fast asleep once again.
Frank waiting for his dinner. This is the time he looks very happy and tries to remind everyone that he is still around.

The ubiquitous weeds you find all over Singapore.

My dad's old Canon fd 100-300mm lens produces sharp pictures on my panasonic but struggles with contrast! In any case it is actually quite fun to try and take pictures of birds. This one was taken in my garden, using a window grill as a makeshift support.
The contrast and colour on this one was really bad so I turned it into a black and white picture. Looks like a sweet bird couple nudging each other! The christmas tree in the garden provides a dramatic backdrop for bird photos.