Time...

My Japanese exams are over and the school is on a break till next year. It's the perfect time for me to clear as much work as possible so that I work on some personal projects like cleaning my awfully messy room, getting to some of my photos and most importantly think about what I would like to do next.

Last year, I purchased the Adobe Creative Production Suite mostly because I needed it for work. The software I used the most was Premier Pro but I also own After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop etc but have barely used them. The software I most wanted to learn is Photoshop and after that After Effects.

Recently, the public library open a branch near my home and I took the opportunity to borrow some books. I borrowed mostly photoshop books for digital photographers because that's where my main interest lies.

Now that I have time, I think I should get back to picking up more digital skills. I made an important decision almost 3 years ago when I took a pay cut in exchange for greater flexibility in my work schedule. At that point in time, I wanted to do so much but I've got so distracted with work and life that I never reached my goals.

Lately, I've been thinking that it's time to make better use of the opportunities that have been gifted to me in life. Recently, two of my friends made brave life-changing career decisions and that made me think long and hard. I wanted something 3 years ago when I made my own big decision and I still can achieve what I had set out to do then, so there is no reason not to do it. Hence, aside from Japanese, my new goal is to become skilled in Photoshop and after that After Effects. Initially, when I first made a decision to learn Japanese seriously, I didn't realise just how much the experience will affect me. I was an obsessive student. =) And the best part about it was just how much I enjoyed it. Next year, I will not have so many hours of Japanese, so it's time to learn the skills I set out to learn 3 years ago. Maybe it's a little late but if I can be obssessive about Japanese, there is no reason why I can't be equally obssessive about digital art. =)

Anyway, the above is my first attempt at using channels to convert a colour photo to black and white. Previously, I'll use the photoshop default conversion which was always horrible but there are many far better ways to do it. This method makes use of channel mixing.

This photo was taken off a ship that was headed toward the lovely island of Miyajima in Hiroshima. I like the clouds in this photo very much, I think the sky is very dramatic and the reason why I picked this photo to convert to b&w was because I feel that shades of black and white will enhance the drama in the skies. Too much colour would be distracting.

Okies dokes, that's it from me for today. It's awfully late and I'll need to sleep.

Hope you enjoy the photo. Good night. =)

Tadaima!

I'm home safely. The photo above is a shot of the street lights in singapore from a moving cab. Can't wait to get back to my house. Tired from all the travelling that we did yesterday. I wish i was still back in japan though. :-) this has got to be one of the best trips i've been on. It isn't so much that i like japan, it was meeting manami, sachiko and sachiko's father, it was all the different food adventures, it was travelling with good friends, it's all these that made this trip so memorable. I really enjoyed myself. Will have to go back again for more food adventures and to meet my wonderful japanese friends. As for now, it's time to rest. :-)

Japan day 12

Am now at ueno on the keisei skyliner bound for narita airport. Before we left takasaki, sachiko took us to this really good soba restaurant near the train station. The soba from this restaurant called ume no hana is 100 percent buckwheat and uses no preservatives. I wanted to buy some to bring home but was advised not too as it probably wouldn't keep. :-( apparently the takasaki area is quite well known for it's soba too and there is a reason why, the soba we had for brunch was really awesome. :-)

Japan day 12

It's our last day in takasaki and japan. After brunch today, sachiko will take us to the train station where we'll take a 2 hour train ride to ueno. Because we wanted to save money, D and i had decided to take the local train instead of th JR shinkansen which would have taken us only one hour each way from ueno to takasaki. From ueno we'll take the keisei skyliner to narita airport where we'll say goodbye to japan for now. The above picture is a photo taken from a postcard of the lake and waterfall we were unable to see. Maybe next time. :-) k, gotta go pack. :-)

Japan day 11

Sachiko and her dad were trying to take us up this mountain to see this huge lake and waterfall but the traffic up the mountain was very bad. It took us about 3 hours to get to the falls and the lake. We were told by a parking attendant at toshogu that it would be an hour to hour half drive so we thought we would get something to eat when we get to our destination. In the end it was too dark to see much. In the darkness, we were able to spy the white rush of the water off the falls and we also saw the reflection of the waters in the lake. Most of the stores were closed so we got some japanese rice crackers and a sponge like cheese cake as snacks. The rice cracker was rather spicy, kinda good. :-) although we didn't see much, i enjoyed the ride and it was a nice adventure. We also saw several wild monkeys on the way up and that was cool. :-)

Japan day 11

Today, the biggest attraction for the day was the visit to the toshogu. We visited several shrines and what is believed to be the final resting place of tokugawa ieyasu, the founding member of the tokugawa shogunate i believe. The buildings are really ornate and quite beautiful even though they are quite old. The photo above is of 3 monkeys. They illustrate see-no-evil, hear-no-evil and speak-no-evil. It's quite a cool place. Now we're on our way back but have unfortunately been caught in a traffic jam on this rather tall mountain... Most unfortunate. :-(

Japan day 11

We're still on our way to nikko. So far we've made two stops. One was a toilet break, the other was to catch a view of a man-made lake created because of a dam and also to check out some of the local produce and sample some of the street food. We had some freshly made walnut manju, shitake tea and fried japanese sweet potato. Very tasty!