Net idol? I wish!

A couple of years ago some of my friends and I were obsessed with net idols and trying to be one. This would involve us taking loads of photos of ourselves and editing the photos in Photoshop to no end, as if we were the hottest things out there. Here are some examples from our 'portfolio':

Looking back at this, I think it's rather embarrassing but also pretty cute. This was a time where whenever I was bored, I would just grab out my camera and take photos of myself (this is evident in the last photo, where I was in the middle of drawing something for PD class). This was also an awkward time of my life in terms of my appearance, with braces and an explosion of acne. I'd like to think that I've grown out of this and become a mature, not vain, lady but really I haven't. I still enjoy taking photos of myself (especially with friends!) and I still occasionally wish that I was some sort of popular net idol/blogger.

A couple of my 'inspirations' back in the day - Xiaxue and Tang Guo:

'Cause I use film like a hipster

I've read a lot of photographer raving about how much they love film photography but even after spending the last few months doing mostly film, I'm still a fence sitter between film and digital. I get anxious really easy and film photography just brings so many anxieties, especially with B&W where I develop my own photos. Sure, when they do turn out good, they just feel so special but most of the time you're not getting good photos.

Yet with digital photography - it's absolutely everywhere. I find it really weird when a little year 7 boy is the official photographer for school events and is also in charge of the school's photography club.

I spent almost every week this term taking photos at bowling for a 'photo series' but in the end I wasn't very satisfied with them.






My friend is into contact juggling, so he makes a very interesting/fun model.




Ballerinas are also interesting/fun models, even if they're in a park wearing school uniform.

Long Exposures = Super fun times!

My grade recently had its Semi Formal on a cruise. The dining area/dancefloor downstairs was really crowded and cramped so my friends and I spent most of the time upstairs on the deck. I got a bit bored using flash all the time, so I played around with long exposures. Like always with long exposures, I got interesting results!

I spent all of last week at art school for Black and White Photography. It was super fun and tiring. It was a great experience spending the whole week devoted to photography and I made some interesting friends. The highlight was making massive A2 prints. That was really exciting! I'll scan some of my photos and upload them in the next couple of days hopefully.

the wonders of photoshop

the difference between this and the original image freaks me out to no end.

ugh exams

There are so many photos I want to post but I really should be studying right now.

(Wang Leehom rehearsing for the 2009-10 Taipei New Years Eve Concert)

Last Friday, 3 albums I ordered arrived in the mail. I really love all of them, especially Leehom's album. I'm now waiting for my Taeyang album to arrive!

Saturday in London

Recently my parents and I went to London to visit my brother. On my parents' last day in London, my brother took us out and about to his favourite park in London (I can't remember its name) and the surrounding area. The day would've been perfect if I hadn't gotten three nosebleeds. As my brother describes it, the park was like "heaven on earth".











More photos from my London trip are coming up.

eclipse

After a long (and pretty boring) day of training for a volunteer program, my friend Anthony I went to watch Eclipse. I quite liked the movie, although I wasn't particularly attracted to any of the characters except maybe Riley (the bad guy)...

It's mostly because I think he looks like Kyuhyun (my favourite member from Super Junior).

(I don't think they really look alike in that photo but as I was watching the movie, I could've sworn the actor, Xavier Samuels, looked like the white version of Kyuhyun)

Also, as we were buying popcorn from Kernels, I noticed that one of the workers looked like Seungyeon from Kara. Too bad I didn't get a photo of her for Bryan (biggest Seungyeon fanboy that I know).

help and pride

I feel that with some of us, we can be quick to offer help (when it's convenient for us) but because of pride, we don't like to accept help from others.

omg we're so hot

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

inspiration

On Friday a man who had worked on Ground Zero after 9/11 came to talk our grade. Through his experiences he gave us a few invaluable life lessons. These are the things that touched me the most :

• Every time we work or study, we are honing in on our talent which will help contribute to society.
• We are unable to feel fulfilled if we only feed our egos. The only way to feel truly fulfilled is through helping others.

(Isn't ironic how instead of studying I was watching a drama hoping to get some study tips from it?)

Crying in public is super embarrassing

First of all, I had a great "extra long weekend" as my school calls it (we had Friday to Monday off). I spent my weekend at church camp where I grew in my walk with God whilst bonding with fellow church members through fellowship, late night mafia/assassins, Disney movie skits, and numerous other silly games.

However, that retreat definitely did not last long enough and yesterday I had to return to the reality. Today has been quite a ride, filled with several flights and drops: balancing sickness, school work, family problems and other commitments.

Envy

a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.

Antonym: comfort, confidence, contentedness

I'm a person who likes to avoid drama as much as possible but as with all of us, I have a lot of internal struggles. One that God is currently testing me with is envy. I'm really unsure about how I should act. I know I should be happy for others about their advantages, success and possessions but what am I supposed to do about myself? Is it okay for me to still be aiming for better, even if that means I'm overtaking another? Will that still mean I'm happy for the advantages, success and possessions of others? How am I supposed to achieve the feeling of comfort, confidence and contentedness?

Also, Reality TV stirs up even more envy. I was watching MTV Teen Cribs the other day and I was so jealous of the people's houses. This is not good for my mentality.

Torn

I was ripping photos to make a sort of photo montage thing as part of my experimentation for my recent VA project (the end product was really bad).





It's currently holidays and I'm planning on going out with my friends a few times, but I'm mostly going to be at home with nothing to do. It's the perfect opportunity to do something more with this blog.

Black and White?

I wanted to see how the photos I took on Saturday would look in black and white. Comments are much appreciated.







Also, I need to customise my blog's layout. I will do this when it's the holidays (which is in a week!!)

Camera Panning

Yesterday my brother was home for most of the day so I decided to try camera panning with him. It didn't really work, but it was fun trying.


My brother washing his car.










I think in this one I was showing my brother how it would look if I didn't pan the camera.


This is the best I got - his left arm is in focus.

One fine Sunday morning

Early Sunday morning my friend Bryan was kind enough to accompany me around our neighbourhood to take photos.

He didn't quite enjoy posing...

I've been editing my photos using Lightroom and I love it! It's so much easier to use than Photoshop when I have a lot of photos to use.

School work's been killing me at the moment. My half-yearly exams are coming up in two weeks (exactly 16 days to go!) so all I have been doing this weekend is studying. Modern History is probably the worst. For my share of my MoHo study group's work, I have to take notes on a book 105 pages long and there's probably a lot more to come.

But I will obdura [persist].

-Harena