Will Fancy Gears Help You Take Better Pics?

If one is to believe all that's being said, one could be forgiven to think that to take better pictures one would just need to acquire the latest and greatest gears. The advertising industry shoulders a big part of the blame here but gearheads also contribute a lot to the myth.

But seriously, will fancy gears really help you take better pics? The answer unfortunately is 'yes and no'. Thus you can't blame the advertisement for spreading lies. They're only spreading half-truths. Which are worse than lies by my standards but hey, that's just me.

Fact is fancy gears will make it easier for you to take pictures but they do not guarantee great pics. Fancy gears that costs and arm and a leg will help you by giving you faster focusing, better image sharpness, increased contrast to make your pic stand out and reduce distortion and noise.
So using them will make life a little easier for you but that's about it.

Even with fancy gears, one would still need to know all the basics of photography and how to compose a picture to get a good shot. Advantage of having fancy gears is that they increase the chances of you getting the shot right but it does not mean you can't get the shot with normal gears.

Gearheads will pour technical facts all over you and try to convince you that having such and such a lens or camera body will get you good shots. They will say, "Look at that level of image sharpness on this pic! You can only get this with such and such a lens!" or "Can you see any noise in this pic? No, right? That's what such and such a camera body can afford you!" Pretty tempting words right? Yeah, but if that's a sharp image of the back of a horse taken in a dark barn using just ambient light without any hint of noise then it is not much better than a noisy, not quite so sharp image of the back of the same horse taken in the same dark barn using normal gears. Both images will not make it into any living room walls.

So get your head around this pitfall. If you don't learn to take good pictures using normal gears, acquiring fancy gears will do little to help you advance your skills. Until and unless you realise that people prefer to look at the front of horses more than the back of horses, fancy gears are not going to help much.

Some Reasons Why You Are Not Rich

I got a email a while back with the subject along the lines of this post's title. It was originally penned by someone called Jeffrey Strain - a name I don't recognise but there are some truths to his article.

Below are the 10 reasons he says why someone is not rich. Edited by yours truly of course:


1. You mind what your car looks like.

I find this to be very true. Most people use the car they drive as some sort of a status indicator. It's like, "I drive a big car therefore I must be rich." kinda statement. Don't get me wrong, I am as much a car enthusiast as the next male but with the prices of cars in Malaysia I find it very hard to justify driving even cars like a Toyota Camry and other equivalent models. Those cars retail in M'sia with prices in excess of RM100K!! Man, if I had that kinda money, I would rather buy a house! Real estate can appreciate (albeit slowly for some cases) whereas cars just depreciate. After 10 years your car will be worth next to nothing but a house can still sell for the original sum you bought it for at least.

A car is just a mode of transportation to get you from point A to point B. Car prices in Malaysia are just not making any sense - financial sense that is.


2. You feel entitlement.

The mindset that you feel entitled to something that you can't afford can prevent you from geting rich. A lot of people are seemingly living a lavish lifestyle going by the material things that they own but if acquiring those things lands you into debt, you may want to rethink your lifestyle.

I can hardly blame some people due to the amount of 'brain-washing' one is subjected to through advertising these days. But if you have your head screwed on right you really should live within your means rather than relying on the credit card. It may be really ego satisfying to own a 50 inch flat screen TV and 'one-up' your neighbour and friends but if you are like me, you will spend less than 2 hours per weekday watching TV. If you think that way the question, "Why are spending so much money on something that you hardly use?" will crop up.


3. You lack diversification.

Investment diversification that is. Problem is most people hardly even have savings let alone investment portfolios. Here's the killer - the first step to investment is savings. If you don't have savings then you don't have any chance to invest. Period. "Investing" using money that you need for some other things is NOT investing. It's called 'speculating' or a more common term - gambling.

Most people think that they will start investing when they have a little bit more money. Thing is you will never have that 'little bit' more money, ever! Why? Because you will find some use for the extra - be it for something useful or otherwise. You've got to get your mindset right first. That is you have to change your thinking and habit into 'Save first, spend later' rather than the more widely accepted norm of 'Spend first, save later'. After you spend, there will be nothing left to save.


4. You started too late.

After you've got the investment part down right, you may find that it's too late to make much of a difference. You may find that you're out of time to make your investments give any significant returns. So you need to start early. How early? The answer is, "You're never too early to save and invest." The best time is when your first paycheck comes in but thing is most people don't think about investing until they're almost due for retirement.

Some people might cite other reasons for not saving and investing. Excuses like they've got kids to send to college. For me I would rather save for my own retirement first than worry about how my kids are going to go through college. This might seem heartless on my part but the truth is there are banks and financial institutions out there that are willing to loan money to a young adult to go to school but there is none that are willing to loan out money to finance someone's retirement. If my kids really want to get through college, they will find the finances one way or the other. when funding your own retirement, you've only got yourself to rely on. Youth is an asset after all.


5. You don't enjoy what you do.

This just about covers everyone. Just about because the minority that enjoys what they do, employs the rest of us! You're right, I'm just kidding but it's true that if you don't enjoy what you do, you will find it very difficult to save money. If you hate your job, chances are you'll need to spend money to de-stress yourself and that might leave you with nothing to save in the end. So go find something that you enjoy doing or learn to enjoy what you're doing. How? That's a topic for another day!


6. You don't like to learn.

Would you pay money to get a bunch of clowns to work for you? Nuff said.


7. You buy things that you don't use.

If you have ever gone shopping without a shopping list then you've probably ... no make that definitely bought something that you don't use. Save money! Make a list before you go shopping and STICK to the list!


8. You don't understand value.

Another shopping tip. Don't let prices fool you. Expensive things may not neccessary be good but cheap things may not necessary be all the cheap either! You need to look out for value. Example - would you rather buy a RM300 knife that can last a lifetime or a RM50 knife that you need to replace every year? Think about have many RM50 knives that you would throw away in a lifetime and how much that would cost you.


9. Your house is too big.

Similar to reason number 1. You only need so much space to unwind. Big house = big installment payments + big maintenance cost = wasted money that you could invest and make you rich.


10. You fail to take advantage of opportunities.

This one needs you to keep your eyes and mind open to opportunities that come your way. I too need to really brush up on this!


That's some of the reasons why people are not getting rich. Phew! Getting rich is hard work! No wonder most of us are poor!

Learning and Understanding

After every major exam period, we will see reports of students getting strings of A1 for all the subjects that they have taken. Of late the number of subjects taken by students have been steadily rising. Back when I was still in school it was about 7 or 8 subjects max for SPM.
Nowadays you can see students with 10, 11 or 12 A1's!!

Getting good results is great but what I am concerned about is does the number of A's obtained really relfect the learning ability of these students?

Now it's no secret that if one is good at memorising and regurgitating facts in textbooks, one can do quite well in exams in Malaysia. If that was all that it takes, then the string of A's means nothing much at all. Most it says is that such and such a student is really good at memorising.

The ability to memorise facts does not mean a student actually understands the facts memorized. They may be like copier machines - simply reproducing perfect copies of facts with zero understanding of what they mean.

Although there may be some students out there that are truly outstanding, I suspect most of those with straight A's are merely copier machines. Spend some time talking to them and you can easily tell them apart.

I've encountered undergraduates and fresh graduates that does not even know how to construct a sentence in proper English. I'm pretty sure that these students got an A in English during their exams or how else could they get into universities?

Most of these students and fresh graduates are also not well read. They rarely even recognize classic literature works like 'Tom Sawyer' or 'Jane Austen'. Far be it to expect such students to have read such works. It will even be a surprise when they even know of such works. Ask them if they know 'The Lord of the Rings' and they will probably tell you that they have seen the movies. Ask them if they know who the author of the books is, they will answer you with blank stares.

We also read in the media of prospective employers lamenting the fact that our local graduates 'lack critical thinking ability'. This is also a sign that most straight A's students are copier machines. These young people lack knowledge of current issues and have no opinion of their own. They can barely form arguments to substantiate or justify their decisions. They also seem to be unable to think creatively to solve issues they are faced with.

What's the use of having straight A's when one is really lacking skills in communications and critical thinking ability? How can one compete and survive in the world when one cannot even come up with arguments to justify one's decision? Does one say one does things in such a way just because that's the way it has always been done before? That will be the death of innovation and development and what we have will be an army of followers and no leaders. Like having a ship full of sailors but no captain or navigator. We will all be lost and adrift!

We must make sure that students really learn and understands what they are taught. Only when one truly understands can one apply the knowledge gain to one's advantage. It's no use remebering Newton's third law of motion - "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" if you do not understand and apply it. If you do not understand it how would you ever know that jetplanes tear through the skies because they are propelled by thrust created by the engines that points the opposite direction of where the plane wants to go. If one does not understand the previous statement, how can one hope to ever improve upon it?

So for all you parents out there, please make sure that your children are learning to understand rather than learning to memorise.

Flashes, papers and a box!

These past 2 days I have been busy DIY-ing my own photography studio equipment. After a lot of hard work and spending an unmentionable amount of money, I finally got my very own light-tent. What's a light-tent? That's just some photography jargon that means a place to put some small items inside to take some pics. It gives you soft lighting so that whatever item you are photographing will turn out looking nice.

So here are some shots that I did using my light-tent. Mind you these shots are not edited in any way and are straight out of the camera. My light-tent still needs some work and probably needs some more money to be invested into it so these shots are labelled as 'pre-production'.

My wife's half used bottle of perfume.

Some costume jewellery.

My own half used bottle of perfume. You can't tell as the bottle is not transparent.

My non-MMS, non-GPRS, non-GPS, no music player, no built-in camera, non-3G mobile phone. It's pretty beat up but you'll be hard pressed to find another working model like it.

My 50mm Minolta lens.

And this is how my light tent looks like.

Yup! I scavenged some old unused box. Cut some holes in it and patched some tracing paper over them and voila! - Your very own 'studio grade' light-tent!
Total financial damage - RM4 for the tracing paper that I bought in a bookstore. Told you the amount of money spent is unmentionable! I had some A4 paper so that cost is negligible. What I need now is maybe some color paper to deck as background - that will also cost me below RM10 and maybe find some relfective surface or two to use as the 'floor' of the box. I'll have to see what I can find.

You don't need to buy expensive softboxes and strobe lights or whatever to shoot good pics. All you need to know is how it is done and how you can control your lighting. Heck! You can even substitute my flashes for lightbulbs!

The Working Life

Recently I came across 2 funny comic strips. They were in Chinese and I had to have someone translate it for me. The strips touched on the working life and I'm sure most of us can relate to. Below I will briefly outline the story in the strip:


Story #1.

There was once a pig in a farm. It was no ordinary pig as this pig could do lots. It could crow like a cockerel when the dawn came. It could mend fences and it could even herd sheep like a sheep dog!

This pig could do so much that the other pigs asked him why he went to all that trouble. The wonder pig replied,"In these trying times one has to have a multitude of skills in order to stay relevant."

One day the farmer came in to look for a pig to slaughter and he picked the wonder pig out of all the rest.

With tears in its eyes, the pig asked the farmer, "Why did you pick me? Can you not see that I can do so much? Why?"

The farmer answered, "No particular reason - I just felt like eating pork chop tonight."

The moral of the story : It's not what you can do that matters. It's what the boss think you can do.



Story #2
There was once a farmer and a pig and one day the farmer announced to the pig that he will be having some guest over later in the day. So he asked the pig to prepare some cookies for the guests.

So the pig laboured over the dough and made all the cookies pain-stakingly and put them into the oven to bake. He set a low temperature and waited for the cookies to be ready.

The farmer came in at that moment and asked why the pig had set such a low temperature. It would take a long time to bake the cookies. The pig explained that a higher temperature will burn the cookies. The farmer said, "You're just a pig! What do you know about baking cookies?! Turn up the temperature now!"

So the pig did as ordered and sure enough the cookies got burnt. When the pig showed the burnt cookies to the farmer and asked him what to do next. The farmer replied, "Looks like we're having pork chop tonight!"

The moral of the story : The boss can do no wrong and even if he did, it's your fault anyway.


I read the strips and thought to myself - how true they are. It's hard to find a boss that's really understanding and one that can really nurture their staff and propel them to greater heights. Most bosses only know how to eat pork chop when things get out of hand. (With apologies to muslim readers!)

Piracy and the Justifications for it

I am not talking about piracy in the waters off countries like Somalia. I am talking about piracy in the form of buying pirated CD/DVD and illegally downloading movies and/or songs.

It's not secret that in Malaysia, a lot of people buy pirated CDs and DVDs. This is obvious from the numerous peddlar that you see selling their wares in coffeshops and hawker centers. Like the old adage that says. "Where there's demand, there's supply." we see that demand for these pirated goods are high.

Here's the killer - asked if they know that buying pirated stuff is a crime, they will say yes. Asked why they still do it despite it being a crime, they say because they are affordable. Can you justify commiting a crime just because you cannot afford a certain item?

When you buy pirated stuff because it is cheap means that you don't buy the original becuase you cannot afford it, right? So you're basically commiting a crime just because you cannot afford to buy the item. How is this any different than buying a stolen BMW from a thief selling it cheaply because you cannot afford to buy the original, legitimate BMW?

Piracy is stealing. And stealing is a crime. Buying stolen goods knowingly is also a crime. So why do people persist in buying pirated CDs and DVDs? Is it because they know that they are unlikely to be caught and charged? Is it because 'everybody' is doing it? Is it because pirated CDs and DVDs are so easily available?

Whatever the excuse it really boils down to a person's integrity. The sense of right and wrong must come from within and a person must abide by it. There's no compromise. Just because most people do it does not make it right. Just because it is there does not mean you have to buy it. Just because it's unlikely one will get caught does not make it ok to commit a crime. In the same vein it may be just as unlikely to get caught for murder but does that make it ok to kill someone?

Do the right thing. Stop buying pirated CDs or DVDs. Stop downloading illegal copies. When the buying stops, the piracy will too.

Then and Now

As we go through life and get caught up in our personal pursuits we sometimes fail to see the changes that happen around us. We go through life day by day and when we meet a friend we haven't seen for some time and are asked, "How's life?" we tend to answer, "Same old, same old!"

But are things really 'same old, same old'? The days may be similar but the passage of time does make subtle changes to things that we are familiar with.

Let's take the ubiquitous TV serials for example. TV series has existed ever since my dad first bought us a TV set and they still exist today. They are usually given an hour's slot, one day of the week to air. Familiar, no? But are things still the same? Not exactly.

Although we still have TV series now, things have changed quite a bit with them. I still remember some TV series from the 70's and 80's and when I compare them to the TV series that we have today, the differences are quite stunning.

First off, the pacing of the shows are different. In the 70's and 80's, the pacing is a snail's pace compared to today's series. Shows like The A-Team or The Incredible Hulk (yes, I was a fan of Lou Ferigno clad in torn jeans and swathed with green boady paint!) forward their stories quite slowly in comparison. You could get up and go to the loo for a leak and come back to the show and not miss much of the story.

Yesterday, I was watching Navy NCIS and trying to have a conversation with my wife at the same time. I found that if I spoke to my wife for more than a minute, I risk missing important plot information that flash by. I had to really concentrate to follow the plot. My wife, on the other hand, placed more emphasis on our conversation and ended up not knowing what was happening at the end.

In these days if you miss the first 5 minutes of a TV series you might as well forfeit the whole show. You'll have no idea what was going on! Those days you could join a show after about 15 minutes and still be able to follow it with little trouble.

Another thing that is different is the format of the TV series. Back then most series had a 'monster of the day' format. Meaning each episode will feature one bad guy or one situation that will get resolved at the end of the hour. You see Airwolf going after one bad guy's plane, blow it up and then it's then end. Or Micheal Knight and KITT in Knight Rider puts another criminal behind bars and then it's the end. That's how the series will go. Each episode is self-contained with little or no over-arching plot lines.

You could miss a few episodes here and there in a season and not miss much. Of course if a major character was killed off or written off, then it wil affect the rest of the season but that's about all. The most is you will get some episodes that ends with a 'To be continued...' screen but you can be sure the whole thing will get resolved in the next episode. Rarely does an story arc span more than 2 episodes.

Nowadays, there are few TV series that still have this 'monster of the day' format. Yes, the protagonists still deal with new issues every episode but there is this grand over-arching story that never get resolved unless the series finishes its run or gets cut by the TV stations because of dwindling ratings. NCIS and CSI still have the 'monster of the day' or rather 'killer of the day' format so that's why I can still catch some episodes now and then.

Don't believe me? Try 'Lost' the TV series. Anyone knows what's really going on before the series' finale? Not even a season's finale will give you any inkling of what's to come! Frankly, 'Lost' lost me way back in season 1 when I missed the first few episodes. That was before I even knew the series was showing on free to air TV. Nope. Don't have pay TV. Couldn't afford it.

Missed the whole 'Heroes' season 1 because of a badly placed time slot that caused me to miss episodes more often then not. No point chasing the series after you lost track of what's happening.

Then there's the new 'Battlestar Galactica' series that I also gave up on after the second season. The free to air station could not make up its mind what time slot it wanted for the show and kept changing the schedule. It's nothing like the old 'Battlestar Galactica'. Yes, the old series also have the survivors looking for Earth while fleeing the Cylons but it was just an excuse to put the characters into cool looking spaceships and have them blasting each other to smithereens. Now, there are Cylon infiltrators that look and think that they are humans and to cap it all off, the machines even have their own quasi-religious agenda that's central to the whole plot! Heck, them Cylons can even resurrect themselves! You can blast 'em all you want - they'll just keep coming back! How do you fight something like that?

'Prison Break' also has this grand story line that goes on and on. Shoot, I even got lost on 'Desperate Housewives' for not following the episodes religiously. The characters got married or divorced or was that married and divorced and whose kids are those... well you get my drift.

Those days, you get some warning that you're about to embark on a series that will have this over-arching story line. These shows are usually called mini-series and usually last anywhere from 6 to 8 episodes only. Nowadays, more often than not, you get these series that you have to follow each and every episode to know what's going on. What's more, the thing goes on season after season!

Well, that's how different things are with TV series nowadays. I don't know about you but sometimes I prefer to have my 'monster of the day' servings more than this 'grand-story-that-will-not-be-resolved-anytime-soon' flavour. Life's complicated enough. Maybe that's why I'm watching more and more 'Power Rangers' and 'Ultraman' series lately. Lucky I have my kids to point my sorry finger at!

Oh! My Aching Head!

Last 2 weeks I was living with an almost constantly blocked nose. Due to a recent cold, my nose was blocked up most of the time. I didn't do much about it cause you can't get no medicine for cold anyway.

Two weeks later i.e. a few days ago, I started developing a headache. It started a dull ache at the bridge of my nose and it crept upwards in time. My temple just above my nose was aching a while later. It was also sore to the touch. I thought it was because of the constant nose blowing that I have been experiencing and paid it little heed.

The ache spread and the whole area from the bridge of my nose up to my hairline began to ache and my right brow area was also aching. The ache was getting worse and on Saturday morning I could hardly even think straight with the constant throbbing pain. It decided that it was time to visit a doctor in case I decide to shatter my skull to stop the pain on a whim.

Well, for all the well-intentioned plans made by men, it seems the heavens has other ideas. That Saturday, I could not find one clinic open in the area where I stayed. That was because it was a public holiday! Fortunately I had some painkillers at home and I downed one pill and it took away the pain until the the wee hours of the morning on Sunday.

I awoke to go to the loo and the throbbing pain was back. I had to down another painkiller to get some sleep. Early Sunday morning I was frantic to get to a clinic and get some medication. I managed to find one and the doctor said that I probably had some inflammation that had gone into the bone area of my temple. He prescribed some antibiotics and painkillers and some other pill to reduce the swelling.

The meds did their job and I was relatively pain-free for the rest of the day but the condition will need some time to recover. When the effect of the painkiller wears off I can still feel the aching. The doctor only allowed me to take the antibiotics 2 times a day cause I am allergic to most antibiotics. I have medications for 3 days and I guess if I'm still not in full functioning mode after the 3 days, I will need to see the doctor again. Sigh!

Of all the things to get I had to get this crazy booger-induced inflammation that causes a throbbing headache! It's hard to do anything with a headache pounding away inside your skull. I just hope that I will feel better after tomorrow. Else it's back to the doctor's consultation room and that's one place that I have spent way too much time in these past month or so!

Service? What service?

In Malaysia, the service level is almost non-existent. This is not to say that there are no good service places to be had but they are few and far in between. If you are like me, just an average person, the places that you frequent usually offers customer service that are well below par when compared to countries in Europe or the US or New Zealand.

How many times have you seen restaurants with a sign 'Please Wait to Be Seated' up front but there's no waiter or waitress there and while you are waiting some other patrons just waltz in and seat themselves? Most people don't even bat an eyelid at this but I am always taken aback when it happens.

I mean why bother to put up the sign if you don't mean it? What's worse is that these supposedly posh eateries charge you service fees for service that are ultimately not rendered or not up to par.

Not only am I disappointed by bad services is so-called posh places, I also have tons of stories of bad service received at places that I do not even expect much service in the first place. One example is at those 'mamak' curry house. I go to one 'mamak' place for breakfast. The place is not really crowded but all the empty tables were not cleaned yet. I should have picked up this clue to slow service but it was early in the morning and my mind was running a bit slow.

So we picked one table and called the waiter to come clean up the table. After standing there for about 5 minutes with a toddler and a baby in tow, there's still no sign of anyone coming to clean the table. We motioned to not one but a few workers there to come clean the tables but they all gave us the 'wait' sign. I had half a mind to leave the restaurant there and then if not for the fact that the market was just opposite the shop and we need to go there afterwards.
When we finally got the table cleaned, we still had to wait for someone to take our order. All this while some other patrons that came later than us were promptly attended to. What service is this? I did not even expect much in places like these but they can botch up a simple breakfast experience in such a way! Cannot even follow a simple queue of first come first served. Needless to say I had blacklisted the shop and it is not likely to get my patronage any time soon.

It is not only eateries that offer bad examples of service. Even clinics are guilty. I am not referring to government clinics. This is a private clinic. A child specialist doctor to be exact. I brought my 4 month old son to the clinic early one morning. The clinic opens at 9am and we were there about 9.30pm

There were already quite a number of parents there at the time so we were prepared to wait for a while before the doctor got to us. When we registered we were told by the nurse that we had to wait for about 1 hour! We were shocked. Although there were people there before us, surely there's not so many as to qualify for a one hour wait. The nurse just gave us a apolegetic grin and we sat down to wait.

It was then that I realized why the wait was so long. Other parents had phoned in to the clinic and registered their child before even setting one foot into the premises. The nurse just put all names into one single queue, regardless whether you were present or not. So as we waited, we saw numerous parents just come in and was quickly called in to the consultation room.

I do not think that this is at all fair to people who are already in the clinic. How can you put all the names into one single queue? The clinic should do a 2 queue system and put priority to those who were already present at the clinic. Those who phone in should be put into another queue and when they arrive, they would need to announce their presence before they can be slotted into the present queue.

Private hospital emergency rooms are no better it seems. Although I cannot say it for all private hospitals, I can surely say it for one that I have been to not once but 3 times. Service is slow. The worst one was where we had to wait for more than 3 hours just to be seen by the doctor on duty. Why the long wait? There was only one doctor on duty after 9pm.

We were there shortly before 9pm and saw 2 doctors on duty. The ER was crowded and we registered our name and waited. After a while we realised that there was only one doctor left. By the time we left it was past 1am!

The main reason we went to a private hospital is to avoid the long queue but it seems that there's no difference at all. And we were in the ER no less! Although most of the cases do not qualify as a full blown emergency but it is bad service to let all those people wait for hours before getting treatment and then charging patients through the nose for all the inconveniences. People can get the long queues at government hospitals and the upside is after all the waiting, the treatment is FOC.