Leigh is a pro?

Had an interesting conversation with a colleague today. I've been working with this guy for almost 8 years and I didn't know he is a professional photographer. So as soon as I found this out I showed him my new camera and told him about my sudden interest in photography. It was great! He explained to me a lot about shutter speed, appeture and ISO and then the rule of thirds. You say what? Rule of what? Yup. Rule of thirds. Goes to show you learn something new everyday.

Oh well...

I have a daughter who's turning 18 in September. Traditionally in the Philippines, a girl's 18th Birthday is something big. It's a debut. There's usually a traditional dance involved called Cotillon which is basically waltz involving 18 pairs or less depending on availability of dancers (they're usually friends or relatives).

Why am I telling you this? My daughter with her friends have been practicing this dance for about two months now. Guess what, tonight I found out one of the girls is pulling out. We've had a couple of guys pulled out already. Just when we're about three weeks away from that special night.

What happens now?

Three months ago the company I was working for was bought out by the competitor. Many people lost their jobs as a result. I was one of the lucky ones to be absorbed by the new company. All is good until two weeks ago we were called into the boardroom and we were told that there will be more redundancies. I had to speak up then. I admit I was upset and no one in the management could stop me from expressing it. They did try to calm me down. Even the top IT Manager called me from Sydney to assure me that I'm safe.

Today is the day people were told that they're losing their jobs. Five of us in IT and three were told to go. Such a sad day for us here at the office. On one hand I'm happy I still have a job, but on the other I feel sad for those guys I've been working with for so long. One of them I've been working with for nine years.

Life can be really tough sometimes.

Japanese Restaurant

Tonight I had an appointment with a builder. That’s right a builder! I’m thinking of building a house. After that we’ve decided to have dinner at Williamstown since my appointment was close by. Saw this Japanese Restaurant and boy those guys there can cook. Talk about delicious!!!

The Siblings

My kids! Jesi and Jules posing in the lounge. Love this new camera!

Cairnlea Park

The flower! LOL!

The Battery

Just testing the macro function of my new Canon.

The Backyard

Is this good enough? Need to sharpen my skills some more?

Urban Force (Raw Sounds Mix)

I’m currently working on a new mix for Urban Force studios which they’ll use for the next Raw Sounds. Length of mix is between 10 to 15 minutes. Liza gave me a visit last night to make final changes to the mix and that should be it. Looking forward to seeing my kids dance and hearing my mix.

Click here to listen to this mix.

Brimbank Shopping Centre

Took this photo of the local shopping centre where my house is. I was picking up Jules from a friend’s house and decided to order Nando’s chicken first. I thought I’d practice while waiting for my order.

Port Melbourne Apartments

Another building near where I work.

Grollo Building

This is the building behind ours (work). Taken yesterday 28th of August straight after work.

Port Melbourne

I took this photo yesterday straight after work. Our office is very close to the beach so I decided to stop there and prace my photography skills which is currently NIL.

Front Garden

Here is a few of the first photos I took with my new Canon S3 IS. Still trying to learn how to use this thing. I didn’t think photography can be so complicated. What do I know about shutter speed, apperture and ISO?

This photo doesn’t look so bad for a beginner though. What do you think?

My New Camera!

I did go through with it. The break in upset me so much that I had to buy a new camera the next day. However, this time I thought I’d buy something more serious and not just a toy. Since I don’t know anything about photography, I decided to go for something not quite SLR but almost. I thought if it looks like an SLR, then it must be SLR. I was wrong. But this is still a very good buy as I checked some reviews on the net after I bought it and it turned out I didn’t make a mistake in choosing the Canon S3 IS.

I was actually going to buy a camcorder with 3CCD but as I saw these still cameras, the urge was so strong I couldn’t resist it. They had this Canon S3 IS at JB Hi Fi for $850. I decided to go to Harvey Norman to check out their price as they had a big sign in their store saying “Digital Camera Megasale!”. I went inside and looked for this particular model and guess what? Price tag was $895. Spoke to the saleslady and told her about JB Hi Fi’s price. She left and talked to someone for a couple of minutes and she came back with a new price of $840. Not bad I said. Time to take some photos!

We've Been Robbed!!!

On Friday 25th of August, I decided not to go to work as I really felt crap. Went to see. A pinoy movie called “Suklob” being shown in Melbourne cinemas. Wow! There were like only 10 of us in the whole cinema watching the movie. All Filipinos of course.

Anyway, we got home to find that the doors to our house were unlocked. Yup! We’ve been robbed. No sign of force entry. Lost my HP DV1000 laptop, Pentax Optio X camera and my Canon MiniDV camcorder. Very upset no question about it!

I was so upset that I felt like buying a new camera the next day.

Hello World!!!

Ok! My very first attempt at blogging. I’ve always thought about doing this but I always told myself that I’d never have the time to do this. But heck, nothing to lose here so I thought I’d give it a go anyway.