Another Day At The Q on Harris

I've been there four days this week for coffee and sometimes breakfast. I'm not sure why but the ambience of the place makes me sit back and chill. Coming here always makes me relaxed and all of my troubles are left behind as soon as I step in, order my regular coffee and sit by the window seat staring out into life. And I just love the staff here. They are the friendliest.

The Q on Harris.

{BTS}: House Of Organic Australia: Ft. Sam Gallaway

Hmmmm... Coconut water... 

I cannot stress how much of a privilege it was to be able to do a photo shoot for House Of Organic Australia. I had never done a photo-shoot like this before and on the day I discovered many strengths, and weaknesses that I hope I can overcome in the near future. One of my weak points was my ability to direct. It is something I still lack in experience and I am currently working on it. I'm not sure how else to improve on it, besides do more photo-shoots, but perhaps google could tell me. I'm pretty sure google has all the answers. 

House of Organic Australia

Food Is Love

Menya Noodle Bar has a 90% rating on Urbanspoon and they do indeed serve delicious noodles. At first glance of the restaurant it didn't look like much. It is rather busy and small but the noodles and soup are top notch, and I'd totally recommend a visit. Much like Chat Thai, I'll definitely be visiting Menya again. In terms of pricing their menus range from $10 - $13. Nothing you can't afford. 

Menya Noodle Bar

Lunch at Chat Thai. Try it, you will.

*Shutter clicks*

After two hours of photo-shooting for House Of Organic, we all decided to come out for lunch break. I have to say, I was very surprised when I was going through Chat Thai's menu as the prices were very much the same as the Thai restaurants in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, such as that of Canley Vale and Height's. If I remember correctly, the Beef Pad Thai I ordered at Chat Thai only cost us $12.50. And remember, this is a Thai Restaurant located in the city. You would usually expect it to be pricey but that was the opposite in this case. It was cheap - Cheap eats, great taste. It's a restaurant that offers value for money and you seriously cannot argue with that once you've gone in and tried their food and coffee. You must definitely and certainly must try their iced-coffee. That sh!t is the bomb! I don't really know how to review or describe what food taste like to convince you to go, but I know I was very satisfied with my plate of Pad Thai. 

Food, photos and an epic sunset.

If you haven't checked out Loc's blog yet, please do. His blogposts are written beautifully accompanied by the lovely photos he has taken. He only just started too, but his blog already looks so professional.

The Paramount Coffee Project

What can I say? I ordered a Caramel Popcorn Milk Shake and enjoyed that a lot. It tasted amazing, and I would rather have that over popcorns and cokes when I'm having movie-nights. If you're dropping by you should, no you must, definitely try it. It is a tad pricey and will cost you $8. City food is city food I guess, so don't be surprised at some of the prices that appear on the menus. 

Originally I had no plans for Tuesday. It was suppose to be just another day of work, that is, until Loc Facebook'd me the night before asking if I wanted to go out for lunch. We then proceeded to ask Aaron, and volia we planned a set time and place. 

Sydney Winter Festival 2014

To be honest, I wasn't sure what the hype was but the Sydney Winter Festival wasn't that great and there wasn't much to do there. It kind of reminded me of Vivid with its colourful lights, but even Vivid wasn't that great. Or maybe I'm just too over complicated? Hmmm...  However, I didn't come out to enjoy what the Winter Festival had to offer, but to rather use it as an opportunity to finally shoot something with my newly bought Fuji X-T1.

A collection of All Things DC

To One Sixth Oz,

This is no hobby. It is an addiction. And once you start collecting there's no turning back. We all know how expensive this hobby is and I would like to thank you guys for your sincere honesty and respect when selling figures in our Facebook group. It is very unfortunate with what happened today to one of our fellow members, and I hope that we have rid any other scammers from the group and continue to grow with an undying passion for our hobby and give respect and honesty towards all members of our community. Let us move forward, and hope that no such thing ever occurs again. 

Reflective Blogpost: We are just past halfway. Did you realise?

We're now seven months into 2014. That's just half a year gone (Duh!). I realised this as I was editing my latest wedding album Sandy & Cheung whilst listening to Time by Hans Zimmer. I am amazed at how fast time has flown. Is it because I'm too occupied with work and uni? I'm not sure. But I what I do know is that seven months into 2014 I have learned quiet a bit. To be a bit more specific, I have learned quiet a bit in the areas of photography. 

It has not even been more than a year since I started working for Sutoritera as a photo editor, and in my time here I have culled through many thousands of photos and edited them accordingly. I am still learning. And I am always learning. Each album that I have come by has challenged my creativity, especially when it comes towards off-camera-flash photos - something I am still working on at the moment. 

Every single wedding album I have gone through, I have been exposed to different and difficult lighting situations in certain events of the wedding day. Sometimes the photos are too green because of the lighting within our client's houses. Sometimes everybody's faces are pink, yellow, red and green because of receptions like Villa Capri. I have grown to learn that these things will be inevitable on the day of the shoot. These are the external environments that we cannot control, and thus we must compromise and do our best to ensure that photos are still being taken, even if they are going to look like rainbows and colourful unicorns. Wooo. As an editor, when I come across these photos they are the most painful thing to fix up. Hell, there was even a time where I had to black and white the whole ceremony because of the horrendous yellow and green faces formed by the Churches' walls and coloured glass windows. But as I said, some things are just inevitable. 

While that may be the case however, each photo, each album and each shot that was taken on the day by Sutoritera's photographers, I have seen and learned from them. I observe their framing, imagine where I would be standing to get that shot as well as asking myself what that photo will mean after I take it. In other words, what story am I telling? Because I have not officially shot a wedding yet, I also sometimes find myself looking at their camera settings in different lighting situation to get the gist of what appropriate settings will be used in this environment or that environment. I hope when the day comes and that I am able to shoot a wedding that what I have learnt and what I have been exposed to comes into play effectively. 

***

Since I've already gone all reflective about this year I may as well continue. Since my time as a photo editor  I have been asked this question many, many, many times. "How did you get your job?"

This story goes way back. But to keep it short, my cousin who is now a photographer for Sutoritera, used to buy a shit load of camera gear and had a high end DSLRs. He took lovely photos and my interest in photography sparked from there onwards. Eventually he met a guy called Dan and I met him soon afterwards when my cousin took me out to North Narrabeen to shoot the sunrise. After meeting Dan I followed his blog and was updated with photos he posted and stories he wrote. And hence why this blog exist. I was inspired to just do more than take photos, but to write and reflect upon each photo, and the experience I felt when taking them. Eventually, I began to assist him on pre-wedding shoots throughout my senior years of high school until the completion of my HSC. I enquired about how I was interested in working for him after relaunching his brand from "Daniel K Cheung" to "Sutoritera". 

... And that's my life story. Whoop, dee, dah.

Here's a few wedding albums that I've completed.  

Mini Blogpost: My First Camera - Fujifilm X-T1

I've never owned a "proper" camera before...surprisingly. So I wasn't surprised at the reaction I got yesterday from friends on instagram yesterday when I posted a photo of my XT-1 captioning it, well..."my first proper camera." Oh and, when I say 'proper' I mean that I've never owned a DSLR or a CSC where I could take advantage of all it's features -  i.e interchangeable lens.

Before the XT-1 I was using my Fujifilm X100. It's a small digital compact camera with a fixed 23mm. And thus, with a fixed lens I was unable to explore photography beyond the scope of the 23mm due to the x100 not having an interchangeable lens feature. This did somewhat, however, force me to experiment more to move up closer towards my subjects when shooting. I could say though, it's an ideal travel camera to shoot stills, but anything that involves a moving subjects - don't bother shooting it. The x100's auto focusing is horrendous. Literally.

I have in the passed been fortunate enough to borrow friend's and cousin's Canons and Nikons for shoots but  found them very inconvenient due to it's size and weight, until finally I was introduced to Olympus' OMD EM5. It was a light weight system, with the design of DSLR's. However, being an X-Shooter I wanted something similar but only Fujifilm. So when Dan of Sutoritera got his hands of them I took it out for a spin, and after the first few minutes immediately I knew I had to have it.

So here I am a few months later with the XT-1 thanks to Sydney's CBD Digidirect store. Fortunately, I placed an order for the camera while they were having a ten or fifteen percent off sale and got it for $1439.00. It currently retails at $1599.00 Body Only. If you're interested in one keep posted on their Facebook updates as they have sales regularly.

For a full review on the XT-1 you can have a read of the following articles by Dan:

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - Initial Impressions

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - 8 Hours Later

Fujifilm X-T1 Review - The ideal travel photography camera?