Shot of the Week 2

Strong rains wouldn't stop me (us) from shooting.
We braved the continuous downpour last Sunday and drove to Cambridge and visited the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory.

Butterflies love the sun. When we got there, there was a big cloud covers so most of the butteflies were hiding the moment there was a clearing, they all went crazy. Taking photos was a challenge but I managed to get a couple of descent shots.

Festival of Lights

This is a bit late.

Winter Solstice is when we have the longest night, it occurs when the earth is at its farthest from the sun. This year at Kensington Market, it was celebrated (again) with the Festival of Lights last December 21.

One Photo a Day

A lot of times,taking picture for me has always been deliberate. I take pictures when am on trips, outing with friends, at work or if there is an occassion. A little planning has been always involved.

But everyday, even if I or you just walk by our common routes, there are a lot of good and interesting photo opportunities. So, it is no surprise that a lot of people have cameras with them all the time. Even just sitting in front of my table, am sure I can think of something to shoot.

A friend recently started a one photo a day project. Sounds interesting, no particular theme in mind, just shoot one (or several photos depending how much time you have). I've thought of doing the same before, the day I got my digital camera. Only, my idea was to take a photo of myself everyday. But thought that that sounds too vain, too narcissistic! And the project didn't materialized :)

Today, due to boredom, I thought, maybe I should also start the same project. But afraid for a moment that I can't commit to it. I decided to take one photo in a week and the additional challenge would be to write something about it! Now this blog can live up to its title, snapshots.

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Photo 1

Drinking bottled water or mineral water is nothing extra ordinary. Though a litre may cost more than gas, we still buy these water. I have tried a lot of different brands, but this particular one caught my attention. Look at the label. What does ozonated means? Not even wikipedia has a definition for it. Does the word really exist? Or it's just another marketing ploy?

Will It Blend

In need of a new blender?
Try Total Blender!
Let the company prove you how powerful these blenders are. Watch this you tube video.

Tom Dickson is the top honcho at Blendtec, manufacturer of Total Blender. One day, the marketing person noticed saw dusts in Dickson's office floors; and learned that these are saw dusts resulting from Dickson's blender tests. Dickson, to test new products would stick a wood on a blender. The marketer became interested and watched Dickson do it and decided to record it. Once posted over the net, they received suggestions of other things to blend. Dickson tried to blend almost anything and everything including the IPHONE!

*** Blendtec's client roster includes Starbucks & Disneyland..

Today, as we step out of the ROM, we ran into an ice cream vendor.

Great! A good way to deal with the sweltering summer days. An ice cream treat.

And, she offers a new flavor - beer!

Interesting flavor, everyone got excited, including me.

Pulled out $3 and got myself one.

At first, you get a little hint of beer, but on your third or 4th spoon, it tastes more of a dairy, tastes like your vanilla ice cream.

Made of fresh cream, egg yolk, vanilla extract, sugar and Golden Horseshoe Premium Lager, it has less than 1% of alchohol by volume.

Mighty Heart

The Mighty Heart recounts the events when Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter got kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan after 9/11 and how his wife, a fellow journalist relentlessly searched for him. It is a pretty straight forward story, a docudrama with out the usual Hollywood "big scenes," which, don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. (After being satieted with all fast-paced, effects driven films, one should put her/himself in a particular mode before watching this film) The actors were really subtle, the film not melodramatic.

A bad viewer as I am, I thought ahead. Anticipated how authorities would inform Mariane of Daniel's death. That was the saddest part. "Sorry, Danny didn't make it," that was the line that broke the strong facade of Mariane. She broke down, in a foreign land, with no one to hold and hush her down. It was almost painful to watch her thank people who helped her search for Daniel around the dinner table, while holding back her tears and forcing out a smile.

How Mariane held herself together through out is very admirable. She bore no hate nor bitterness towards the kidnappers, nor blamed authorities for not finding Daniel. She didn't succumbed to fear. Her husband's death gave her more strenght and determination to do her job.

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I am never apolitical, but have not really read on much about other countries' domestic and internal(tional) events. The movie got me curious on Pakistan-India and Jewish-Islamic relationships.

TBWA Hakuhodo

This site is so neat. Using stop motions of cut outs.

It opens with a big hand putting together the page, click on it and you get flicked by a metal hand, it takes you in an elevator ride complete with music and brings you to a client presentation. The site is refreshing to me, something new. Only it takes awhile to load (or it could just be my computer.)

TBWA Hakuhodo, http://www.tbwahakuhodo.co.jp/ a Japan-based agency is relatively new (established in 2006). It has an impressive list of clients like Addidas.

Ofcourse, the commercials (TV & print) are in Japanese (except the one of David Beckham) so, there really isn't a way for me to tell you if they really are good or not.

Firsts

There's always a time for everything.

This is my first stab at blogging, well, not unless you consider posts in networking spaces like facebook, friendster and multiply blogging as well.

Meeting three "veterans" in blogging, somewhat inspired, challenged, got me curious, got me started in writing one too. http://shaicoggins.com/, http://pic.blogspot.com/, http://blog.robinyap.com/

Why snapshots? That was the first word that came to mind, when I was prompted to put a title on the page. But I think it is appropriate and gives you an insight on what will be posted here. For sure, you'll see photos. As I am no expert (YET) of a particular subject, you'll get a glimpse of things that interests me and my thoughts on it.

For now, I won't have a theme, hopefully soon, I'd find and decide on one. :)