Graduating Photography

Yesterday was a big day for all the U.W.I. Cave Hill graduates. They're all officially released from the confines of school work and assignments and have been thrown into the real world. Two of my closest friends graduated yesterday. I'm so proud and happy for them. One of them, I've known for 10 years now. It's like he's all grown up now.

My graduation is still a ways away. I'm only halfway through my fourth year with my fifth year yet to come. Time flies so quickly, I'll probably be graduating before I even realise. But until then, I'll be watching each of my friends obtain their bachelor degrees before I can grasp mine.

One of my graduating friends asked me to take some pics for his graduation. Me! I'm pretty surprised since I'm not actually a photographer or anything. I got to make use of his Nikon Coolpix L110...a very nice camera. I'm not a photographer but I certainly do have an interest in photography. So, place a good camera in my hands and I'll go crazy on the shutter button. Which, of course, is what happened.

I have to say, though, I was surprised to be asked of such a favour: to be entrusted with a camera to take good photos for memories of a graduation. And I was asked because, among my circle of friends, I'm always the one just snapping away with my little camera. Haha. I certainly felt quite honoured.

My friend is a difficult subject to work with when it comes to giving off a natural smile or general facial expression but I did the best I could with my extremely amateur skills. I think I got some nice photos though. I also captured a photo that I'm very much in love with at the moment. I'm not familiar with plant names and species but this little potted plant had beautiful flowers which certainly caught my attention. This was the result of my admiration:

I like photography because it captures moments that can be shared with everyone. It can capture an object from a different perspective so that its beauty can be shared with others who would not otherwise see it. And I really like taking photos of nature. Something about it is just amazingly beautiful. The world needs to be seen for the beauty it holds.

Congratulations to all the 2011 graduates around the world, regardless of when you graduated. I pray you all have the successes you deserve and that you thrive in the hardships of employment!

Super Hectic Week!

So, I haven't had a chance to blog or do anything much computer or internet related in the past week. So many things have been happening, there just wasn't much time for anything!

From preparing a budget for the Medical Students' Association for three long consecutive nights to a full day of work after 4.5 hours of sleep to a day out on a catamaran and a night out at dinner and concluding with another full day of work after about 5.5 hours of sleep. It's been one mad busy week but I had a great time for the most part!

I got to see this old piece of equipment, unused in the corner of one of the Guild rooms.

The catamaran cruise was on Friday and it turned out to be great despite being seasick for the first time in my life. I've been on boats and catamarans before...without any problems so I really don't know what it was about this one. But it was a great day with friends and classmates. Tiami Cruises is quite a cool choice so if any of you decide to give Barbados a visit go on a day-long Tiami cruise!

I also celebrated Tammy's birthday dinner Friday night and it was great. Turns out, I'm great at playing pool! But maybe it was just a lucky night for me? I made some amazing shots I wish were caught on camera. Either way, I had a great night and I couldn't help practicing the art of photography.

I may only have a Sony Cybershot DSC T200 but it does the job well enough.

Who said summer was for relaxing? =)

Hello Summer!

It's so nice to meet up with you this year! This will be our first meeting of two. The second being at the end of August. =)

My exam has finally flown by me and I can sit back, relax and enjoy the 6 weeks of vacation I have ahead of me! Turns out, my Neuroscience II course wasn't so bad. I wasn't able to study everything at all! What I didn't study had few questions asked about them so I was so happy! All in all, it turned out so much better than I thought. I hope my grade will reflect this feeling.

It's been about a week since I made an entry, though, it's not like it's the longest my blog has missed my presence. During the past week, I've been trying to set myself on studying and studying alone. But it was quite difficult. Studying the same course for so long became quite monotonous. The closer the exam came, the more I didn't want to study. In the time I didn't study, I discovered and subscribed to three youtube channels, followed two people on Twitter and edited a couple photos of some flowers I took at school.

My favourite edit turned out to be this one:

The quality of images I take with my Nokia N97 mini astounds me every time.

I've decided that I'm starting to like photography a whole lot. It's really quite a fun hobby. Snap a photo of this. Snap a photo of that. I think I'm getting better at this photo-taking stuff. =)

As for the Youtube channels, I randomly discovered JumbaFund when I opened up the homepage which led me to KevJumba's channel. One of his videos further led me to WongFuProductions. And before I knew it, I was following @kevjumba and @wongfupro on Twitter. I watched a couple of Wong Fu Productions' videos and ended up following @thewesleychan. All actions were conducted over a period of two days.

I said all of that to say this: Wong Fu Productions uploaded a new video two days ago. "When Five Fell" directed by Wesley Chan, produced by Ted Fu & Philip Wang. I completely fell in love with it! It's so poetic. A phenomenal short film. A masterpiece. So, I just had to share it:

Wong Fu Productions has a number of other short films that have been so entertaining and soothing to my information-packed mind. Thank you, Ted, Phil and Wes.

I've also been trying to plan out a Shanghai trip that I convinced my Mom that we just had to go to. We'll be going to the Shanghai Expo, of course. Nothing's set in stone yet. We've come pretty far in our plans so it might as well be set in stone. Once I see all the reservations, I'll be one of the happiest people in the world! I'm so blessed. I really am.