Yearly archives of “2017

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My Little Helper Strikes Again!

She saw that I was doing the laundry, ran to the laundry basket and grabbed all her shirts, got a chair so she can reach the hangers, and voila. My little helper strikes again!

Later she helped me load the last load into the washing machine and she became upset when I told her that we wouldn’t start the machine until after we wake up from our nap. She was eager to push the buttons, that’s why. 🙂

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Multiple use cooling pad

Miyu was at Baba and Jji’s house this evening and when she came back… she looked like this. I was immediately concerned because normally those cooling pads are used for when you have a fever. Well, it turns out that Miyu accidentally broke a vase at B&J’s house. It was sitting somewhere high and Miyu touched it, and as it fell, it bumped her forehead along the way. It was just a small, raised scratch really. 🙂

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Custom Shutter Release Button

I’ve been loving my experience so far with the Fuji X-T2 but I noticed that the shutter release button was really sensitive and I felt like it was kind of small coming from a Canon Rebel T2i. So, I ordered custom shutter release buttons from Amazon. For the particular ones I bought, they cost $7.99 and they were from a seller called VKO Photography. It comes with two sets of buttons and four rubber rings. I chose the color gold because I like black and gold together.

Having it on feels really nice because with the elevated button, I feel like my finger doesn’t have to spend so much time searching for the shutter button. It’s just there now and the convex shape of it helps as well. 🙂

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Hanabi Photoshoot

As I write this, the clock reads 1:46AM. Even though I’m exhausted, I wanted to post a quick entry since I recently finished uploading photos from our little hanabi session in the park. (See my Flickr in the sidebar.) Here are the things that I learned from this shoot using my new camera, the Fujifilm X-T2 with the 56mm f/1.2:

  • I compose shots better when I look through the EVF (electronic view finder)
  • Fireworks are tricky to shoot since 1) the environment is dark, 2) the autofocus has a habit of focusing on the smoke, 3) the various lights from the fireworks reflect on skin, thereby presenting a bit more work post-edit
  • Having continuous auto-focus ON comes in handy, especially when working with children
  • It’s good to scope the surroundings so that when you’re shooting, you avoid bumping/tripping/falling into things 😛
  • Fuji has damn good dynamic range! Even though I experimented a bit with different ISOs and shutter speeds, I noticed that in general, I was able to recover lots of shadows before the photo became grainy
  • I feel that face detection in the dark wasn’t that great in general compared to daytime conditions
  • Holding a vlogging cam and a mirrorless cam at the same time is rough!

I haven’t gone through the video footage yet, but when I have time tomorrow, I hope I can edit something decent. I think what I’m going to do is create a compilation of the entire year into one single movie.

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I’m still alive!

I can’t believe it’s already September. It seems like yesterday that Miyu started hoikuen. Five months have passed since then.

A lot has happened. I wish I had more time to share my experiences.

I’ve put my fiction writing on hold but have gotten back into photography. I’m also taking two classes online from now until October 15.

Despite all this, here’s to hoping for more blog entries. 🙂