525600 minutes of absence

Tik tak, tik tak, tik tak...

I can hear the sound of the clock as it almost strikes twelve. Its not yet New year but when the hand of times passes midnight it marks my 525600 minutes of absence to my country.

It seems like just 72 hours ago when i first step out for a new adventure and yet here i am now reminiscing a year that had already gone by. I am not sooo good in counting but i feel like i had only accomplish a few and yet the agony was too long.

Honestly,i been away for 365 days and i crave more for my own bed. I may not have much at my room but i feel comfortable and relax. I always long to be seated in our round table and taste the delicious food my mother made.Because no matter how fancy or expensive restos i dine in, still, no one beats home cook meals. Or perhaps running the motorbike which i just drove for a year or the old friends that's too never too hard to pull. Well, i maybe just being too nostalgic but i think no one will disagree, truly there's no place like home. Simply, i just missed home.

I always feel that independence was too good. then now i realize being dependent sometimes can be too beneficial. 525600 minutes of being alone, away and alienated. I said "its a way to start anew", no one knows you, new land, new rules, new games and new contenders. And surviving isn't easy always tormented and abandoned, and to survive trust only you're instinct, only yours and no other else.

Every minute counts, every single second is important. Ironically i don't count by time and i don't remember dates. I only remember events especially ones that's worth storing. because someday memory will fade and dates are easy to be forgotten but the memorable events in our life stays always like every day.


525600 minutes of living on my own and still 525600 or more...

refreshing coke

a sort of scribble and doddle art..

a 3D experience (Avatar by James Cameron)

After a morning dash of badminton tournament, elsie then recommended watching a imax-3d movie in one of the malls here. without further ado we decided to spent the afternoon in going to the cinema house. Excitement filled my heart that i can't wait to seat on the cinema benches and sprawled my eyes to the wide screen (since we arrive earlier to the actual screening time.)




Then when its time to go inside the movie room, we can wait to get a grab of our 3d glasses and have them flashed with a camera (photo sake). whew! a crowded alley awaits us that we didn't even had ourselves a snack of popcorn.

we were pinned on our chairs when the movie started, i can't even stand up to pee. It was a good experience and artistically fascinating. 3D movie is an awesome experience. I can almost touch the screen elements and i can't stop to move along with the scenes (especially when the bombs explodes). Surely, Avatar was a plus.

I will surely agree if someone says this movie is tastefully done. The story, the actors and the whole thing was great. I would even love to set foot on Pandora.

Music for Artist?

Who speaks Russian? Well, I don’t. But I found this very awesome and so über Russian band that plays cool music. At first I thought I was only downloading some sort of instrumental album to be stocked and used in the near future for some video soundtracks but when I hit the play button and started to listen to it I found my head swinging and nodding and my body feels like moving with the beats. I guess my office mate was right. When I asked him why he listens to Arabic music for the fact that his an Indian (for sure he won’t understand a damn word from the lyrics)he just simply replied “Its about the music not the lyrics”. Because it is then now I understand what he means. It isn’t necessarily a must to know the lyrics to appreciate band music, it’s just a part of it, for as a whole the music has the beat, the tempo and the mood that sets you into it.

I’m indulging to this Russian band and I’m shaking my body to its beat, see, it just another piece of source to where I draw my emotions. Music can be everything and Musicians are artist, meet Muha.

Artemis Fowl Hype

I was surfing the net as I often do every afternoon when a site struck me. It was about a so called pre-casting for Artemis Fowl on the big screen. I immediately click on the link and to my dismay I found nothing but a bunch of fansites trying to make up there own chemistry for a possible Artemis Fowl movie. So with a little curiosity I tried to hit the search engine and look up for the actual site of might be true or just a hearsay up coming movie for Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl. I was not left hopeless for doing such idiotic act I say for honestly I found something interesting. Yes, much interesting that I was got hooked for a while, the actual Artemis Fowlsite.

It was very fascinating Eoin Colfer teamed up with a known comic writer Andrew Donkin and Disney illustrators Giovanni Rigano and Paolo Lamanna together they made a fabulous graphic novel. It was some kind of an evolution for a fantasy novel and somehow a good start before hitting the big screen. Now after the wizard boy I had no doubts that sooner this new boy genius with criminal mind might hit big time soon.

But for now just need to take some grabs of that well-illustrated graphic novels or either continue reading the story (since I just finished book 2 and im on my way for book 3).

How to do Vector Image?

Okey, I was talking on how vector mania hit the graphic world until early this morning a friend of mine asked me the question, "How do you vectorized a photograph?"
Well, its not so long since i learned this thing from a tutorial site
( www.tutorialized.com ) and from there i got a link from some one who tought its readers the things that they want to know
from a certain designing software.

So from this post i will be sharing the link where i've learned to do the vectorizing thing and from there on its up to you to explore the posibilities of vectorizing. Or somehow you might create your own shortcut in vectorizing ( like i do ).

But i must forewarned you, before you proceed with the tutorials at least equipt yourself with a basics of adobe photoshop and get to familiarized its tools (or any software you're about to use coz don't expect for the site to teach you how to use the mouse of your computer). For if not, you will find this tutorial a total shit and a pain in the ass.

http://9tutorials.com/2007/07/27/create-your-beautiful-illustration-by-using-photoshop.html

GOOD LUCK and ENJOY doing your vector!

Sardiman

started: Sept. 3, 2009 (3 hours)
finished: Sept. 4, 2009 (4 hours)
influence: rubenslp
listening to: alternative music (various artist courtesy of doidoi's selection)
software: started with adobe illustrator cs4 finished with coreldraw x4

Ladies in Vector

Vector images are everywhere and every artist shall i say graphic artist are dying to know how to do one. Vector thing had been a hits since so last year? And until here up to now is been a craze in every design media. Well, here are some vectors i made out from my friends pictures added with a little magic. Hehehe.. savor some.

Trying out the Redscale

I was browsing this particular group called Lomomanila in an online photo gallery called Flicker when I came across with a certain technique that I can actually do with my Diana F+ camera. I was pinned with the word Redscale and so I’ve done some research to know how the technique works and how to apply it.

(Here is the site that I came across with on how to do a home made redscale film http://fmphotocourses.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-make-redscale-film.html )

Well, redscale is just another technique were in the concept is to use the wrong side of the film in taking photographs. Not to be hard on oneself there are ready made redscale film available in the market but doing a home made one out of ordinary films adds excitement to the whole lomography experience.

While I was doing mine, I need to hide in the cabinet (since I don’t have a dark room) to insure that the yank films will never get exposed to any light. And with high hopes that the yank film which was loaded back to the other canister will also be as useful as the other film.

Then under the scourging heat of the sun here in Bahrain I snap some photos of summer bits from my Diana F+ with the own modified redscale film. The summer fun and the reddish looks of the output pictures seems to add flavor to the meaning of Bahrain in Summer eventually it also looks so vintage that you might wonder what era those photos are taken. Here are some of the pictures that I have taken: (best viewed when wearing some sunglasses, lol! )

Diana

“We do not know which act of providence brought you here. But we can safely assume that you do not know what you’re in for. Taking a trip through the illustrious realms of Diana, Diana +, and Diana F+ is by no means an organized journey. You’ll find yourself alone and a bit confused - facing the most wild, exciting, dangerous, charming, sinful, and unforeseeable adventures and opportunities ahead of you. “

- Diana F+ (more true tales & short stories), Lomography, p. 6

The idea of lomography was introduced to me by a generous friend. She was into it for some years already and she just keep inspiring us with the beautiful outputs she had made with her Holga.

One day we passed by to this not so techie shop in one of the malls in Bahrain to see something they could offer to a window shopper. Then the set of cameras displayed in a shelve attract our attention, they were toy cameras. Then she introduced to us the word lomography (see doy+lomo for brief history) where in she purchased her Super sampler to give a mate to her Holga.

Suddenly I feel in love with the word “lomography” and decided to explore the possibilities of being one. All I need was a good partner (camera) and I’m ready to be one of the group called lomographers.

As we come back to pay some visit to the same shop, we were amazed to see the wide variety of toy cameras that just arrived for there display. and then I meet Diana. A week after I come back to the shop and bought my own handy lomo camera, she was a shiny one, Diana F+ (Chromiacs). Early next day I was set to feel the beauty of Diana F+ (with the help of Liza I was able to take some shots by borrowing her 35 mm film back and fish eye lens).

Here are what me and my Diana F+ experience in one of those fine sunny day in Bahrain.

How it begin?

I never knew that i would found a place for my love to analog cameras and vintage type of photos. I used to own a Nikon SLR during my college days and i do love the results that it gives me. Though it is quite expensive to run one film camera (due to films, processing fee and etc.) still the though of being back to basics in this advance world is far more exciting.

A true photographer is not measured by the type of camera he is using but by the emotion of the photos he had captured.

I never meant to despise the digital evolution of camera its just that a true fine arts photographer may never be identified with the flocks of so called hobbyist now a days.

But whatever the cause a great photographer who he may be will always stands out among the crowd.

Here are the samples of my college photographs using Nikon SLR and a telephoto lens.