Monday, May 23, 2011

End Of Year 1 In UTAR, Kampar

About a year ago I enrolled into UTAR Kampar for my degree course. I was quite happy that after the struggles I had while doing my diploma, finally I'm here. Some of my friends who are already there were telling me the university admin has some issues and Kampar is not a place Penangites would like but none of them actually did any thing to stop me from coming. One year after that, I wish they did. I never knew leaving Penang was going to be so difficult especially to a place like Kampar.

During the first semester I was struggling to get used to the place and also the higher demands needed to excel in UTAR. I took things way too easily and ended up paying the price for it.

The same amount of effort will only result in poor results. I had to do more.

2nd semester, I looked at reasons why I failed try made some changes which were not enough. Only 2 subjects taken for the short semester and I failed one of them which resulted in termination of my student status. I had plenty to think about how to do better.While there is a very good chance for the appeal to be successful, I was having the darkest hour of my life. I didn't have a timetable, I couldn't register for a parking sticker and worse of all during the appeal, looking at everybody at the queue thinking how lousy of a student people are. And then I realized I'm one of them.

It was like going to jail, looking at all the criminal faces, thinking of what terrible things they have done only to find out you are one of them now. I had to wait until week4 to start attending classes again and that gave me some problem. I had to join assignment groups that are already formed and met the worst assignment group members in my life.By the time I'm done with assignments I'm already feeling very frustrated by how hard things can be here. I took short vacations with my friends and often went back home during weekends. I skipped lots of classes like I never did before. The only positive note from the 3rd semester was my acting during a drama which gained a round of applause. =) Still, I felt like doing any thing but study for the final exam.

It was until the final weeks when I managed to find the strength to do what I have to do for my exam. I'm quite convinced that I have put in a reasonable amount of effort to score at least get a pass. If it is not, then I will quit UTAR and study somewhere else.

Monday, May 2, 2011

1 Year Since I Bought My First DSLR

Exactly one year ago during Labour Day, with my mother's support I bought my first ever Digital SLR. My photography journey started on the 1st of May 2010. Today marks the end of the first year and the beginning of the second.

So much have happened throughout the year, there were good and bad moments with my camera. And I have also changed quite a bit during the course of the year.

The clicks were reducing, most emphasis is paid to quality rather than quantity. More thought is put into when taking a photo. Comparing the photos of the first months and the ones I took recently I think I have improved to another level but with plenty still to learn.

There were good moments when people liked my photos on facebook. Some even made it their profile picture. I also managed to capture some happy moments during a wedding event. It is also very satisfying for me when the photos I took put smiles on people's face. At the same time I makes me very happy as well.

However, its not all smooth road during this journey. There are times when I just ran out of ideas of how to take a good shot during crucial moments. Sometimes when the golden opportunity came and I got the settings wrong. Some slight reliability issue also caused some nervous moments. I even deleted about 70% of the photos I took during a macro shoot. Very frustrating indeed but it was a good lesson. It also hurts when some people just go 'DELETE ! DELETE ! DELETE !' even when I thought the shots were good.

Overall it has been quite an interesting experience. And I look forward to do more research on this subject and also meet more people of the same hobby. Also I'm looking to buy my 2nd lens which is quite a difficult choice due to financial reasons. Do I buy a cheaper lens to hold on or do I wait and save so that I don't have to sell the cheaper lens in a cut-price deal?

I hope to have more honest comments on my photos,more 'likes' and less 'DELETE !' and 'I look fat !'

hehehe ! Happy Anniversary my Sony Alpha A550+18-250 lens. MAKE.BELIEVE