Snippets of this and that: December 2006

Brief updates

Forbidden City

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The Great Wall

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Still in Beijing
back next year

Labels: holidays, photography

BRB

Gone to Beijing
back next year

Photos from Ipoh

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The cute little phone has been handed over.

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I'm doing this because I can (my previous phone has NO language options)

I went to Ipoh with 川, 君 and 洲. A heavy breakfast of dim sum at Fu San followed by white coffee from Old Town Coffeeshop, then off to a temple in a cave, 极乐洞. Sat around for a bit, then we went off to look for a famous curry mee stall, which was unfortunately closed. 洲 was disappointed.

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Then, cendol, yim kok kai, 芽菜鸡. On the way home from Ipoh, we stopped at Bidor for some duck leg noodles.

Food expenses (per person): RM 30
Petrol and toll (per person): RM 37

Petrol is expensive.

The empty shell of an unwanted shop-house.

Exposed Brickwork

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And something remarkable from 极乐洞- a dragonfly that would not flee. It remained still even with the huge optical set up uphovering 2 inches from its face.

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Labels: holidays, photography

Photo updates

Oh My God!

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Olympus Mju Mini, Panasonic FZ-30, Canon EOS 300D, Olympus is-1000
Captured with an Olympus 740UZ with processing on Photoshop CS2.
Photographer: Tan Yee Hou

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My current film gear: Ricoh KR-10 Super 35mm SLR body; Vivitar 28mm f2.8; Nova 50mm f2.0; Tokina 28-105mm f4.0; Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 purchased from Albert Ng

Onion and Ginger Slices

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打包
(bungkus/ take away)

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A full view of the above image

Welcome to My Loo

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Screw Valve

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Connections

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Braided Snake

Toilet Paper

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Labels: photography

The knifeman; photo updates

With my four fingertips, I clamp firmly onto the turnip. My knuckles slide against the broad stainless steel side of the vegetable knife, guiding the cutting edge with sub-millimetre precision.

The recently honed cutting edge bears down on the turnip, removing a millimetre-thick slice from the root. The knife is raised, the thumb pushes the turnip forward by one millimetre, and the knife is slid down again.

The knife edge crackles repeatedly through the juicy and crunchy turnip. Thin, curved slices accumulate quickly.

Anyway, I have installed myself as the de facto knife-handler of this house’s kitchen. ~~Cooking~~ cutting for five (or seven if the cousins stay over) is much more interesting than cutting for one- the variety of materials that pass over the chopping board is much better.

It is said that a certain carbon-steel knife is lying dormant in one of the drawers. It was withdrawn from/ never put into service because carbon-steel is extremely high-maintenance. It needs to be cleaned and properly dried after cutting wet, salty or acidic food, otherwise the surface will start to rust.

The upside is that carbon-steel is very hard, thus it is able to retain a sharper edge.

***

Note the well defined, fluffy clouds in the sky. This was done by taking the same scene twice: once exposing for the foreground, and another for the sky. These images are then combined to give an image with both the sky and the building well exposed.