National Schools Track and Field Championships 2004
This post is dedicated to all ACSians
I only heard about this yesterday, at the very last minute. So since I was off today, I packed up my equipment after having a lunch with my parents and headed over to the national stadium - which ironically, is a stone's throw from the rotten base.
Unfortunately for me, while I did get many good photographic opportunities, I was not allowed to walk around the field level. Which meant - no finishing line shots! Other than that, I spent most of the time shooting from the seats. What made it worst was that, besides the horrible lighting we had today, as well as the fact that I have cheap camera lenses that don't work well in lousy light. It rained. Heavily. Twice. The rain was so heavy at some points that, shooting into blank air at the fastest shutter speed possible, I could catch a few hundred rain drop streaks in that one frame.
What was worse was when I got home. Out of 700 photographs I took, I deleted about 10% of them on the spot. Nevermind, what really broke my heart today was that 90% of the photographs I took were blur. They were out of focus. And after all the blur photographs at the sea sports carnival, checking and double checking, as well as testing my camera with all kinds of shutter speeds and apertures. I have come to the conclusion that my wide angle zoom lens works perfectly fine. But my telephoto zoom lens has some focusing issues. Almost every photograph I took with the zoom telephoto lens that I have has a slight double image to it - signs of a back focus.
I'm quite disappointed as I did get a few really good photographs that only turned out blur. I realise that at the end of the day, I did drop this lens onto the ground a few weeks back and that could have been the cause of all the out of focus photographs. What I'm thinking of now is to never purchase anymore Nikon equipment and switch straight to Canon next year. Nikon's cameras have given me far too many problems, both lenses as well as camera bodies. Time to go over to Canon, which seems to be slightly on the cheaper and value for money side. Nikon only puts its fastest autofocus, the AF-S, into its super expensive lenses that retail for 3 to 4 thousand dollars. Canon is a little kinder by stuffing in the equally fast autofocus, the Ultra-Sonic Motor (USM) into all their consumer offerings.
So this it, next year, 21st Birthday. I switch to Canon. I'll probably give the camera away to a very good friend who has great passion for photography, but can't afford his own. After all, that's how I started out - by borrowing other people's digital cameras for practise. So in a sense, this is a "pay-it-forward-one-deed-one-lifetime" thing on my part.
What I notice once again. All those people who had brought normal point and shoot consumer digital cameras were getting photographs of one huge field, half the track and 8 tiny dots on them. And I did notice that there were alot of photographic enthusiasts as well as newspaper reporters carrying their 20 thousand dollar Nikon/Canon high end sports digital SLR cameras. So far, the most impressive school is VJC, they actually bought a sports lens for their media club to play with. Unfortunately, they are dogged with a dirt-cheap camera body that has too much shutter lag, and that causes them to keep missing good photos. Not like I'm not missing good shots all the same. Our ACJC side didn't fare any better. The "school's camera" was really no better than mine. Oh dear, I think I'm being swept up in "camera envy". =)
These straits times reporters. Oh my goodness... They are carry the latest Canon EOS 1D Mark II camera body. 9 thousand dollars! And some of them have a 400mm lens attached to the camera as well. another 10 to 12 thousand dollars! And it doesn't even cover the rest of their equipment - tripods, 1 GB memory cards, monopods and so on. And later some clown my age was walking around with a 12 thousand dollar canon camera. It is really when it comes to times like sporting events that a camera that shoots with 8.5 frames per second, blasting eight megapixels for each photograph really shines... Oh God! I want a Canon EOS 1D Mark II as well! And er... an L series 400mm lens!
Next year! I'll be shooting sports with a monster sports camera! =) I guess that in the meantime, I still somehow stuck to take photographs of the AC side and on the AC side even though I don't feel close to ACJC anymore. Time to move on in life and head out ot university and do what needs to be done in life. Canon here I come! In the meantime, I did shoot a few clear shots before the sporting events started and immediately after it had concluded. Enjoy the 4 pathetic photographs in the meantime while I try desperately to salvage whatever other photographs that I can! God bless everyone and for all ACSians, truely the Best is Yet to Be!
Lawrence Ang! Hahahahaha!!!! Miss this joker/clown/dork/nutcase/funny dude from my days having PE. Oh yes, he still wears them Oakleys!
I've never seen so many ACS flags in just one photograph I've ever taken. This must be the record indeed! All SEVEN ACS flags brought down by the student's council are nicely being waved in this shot! One of the best I've ever taken indeed!
Singing the School Anthem. This year, the organisers hijacked the "plan" before anything could be done - they requested EVERYBODY sing the national anthem to some nonsensical malay dance pop tune with live singers provided. But still, after Majulah Singapura was done, it was ACS FOREVER!
TEAM ACJC! I left the venue early not because I wanted to, but because I totally ran out of digital film! Argh! I'l make sure, that for my next camera, I'll have at least 4 GB of compact flash memory and another 4 GB of SD card memory, so it will NEVER EVER happen again!
Ok, till then, pray hard that I can salvage just 20% of the 590 blur photographs that I have! =D Canon Digital Cameas here I come!!!!
This post is dedicated to all ACSians
I only heard about this yesterday, at the very last minute. So since I was off today, I packed up my equipment after having a lunch with my parents and headed over to the national stadium - which ironically, is a stone's throw from the rotten base.
Unfortunately for me, while I did get many good photographic opportunities, I was not allowed to walk around the field level. Which meant - no finishing line shots! Other than that, I spent most of the time shooting from the seats. What made it worst was that, besides the horrible lighting we had today, as well as the fact that I have cheap camera lenses that don't work well in lousy light. It rained. Heavily. Twice. The rain was so heavy at some points that, shooting into blank air at the fastest shutter speed possible, I could catch a few hundred rain drop streaks in that one frame.
What was worse was when I got home. Out of 700 photographs I took, I deleted about 10% of them on the spot. Nevermind, what really broke my heart today was that 90% of the photographs I took were blur. They were out of focus. And after all the blur photographs at the sea sports carnival, checking and double checking, as well as testing my camera with all kinds of shutter speeds and apertures. I have come to the conclusion that my wide angle zoom lens works perfectly fine. But my telephoto zoom lens has some focusing issues. Almost every photograph I took with the zoom telephoto lens that I have has a slight double image to it - signs of a back focus.
I'm quite disappointed as I did get a few really good photographs that only turned out blur. I realise that at the end of the day, I did drop this lens onto the ground a few weeks back and that could have been the cause of all the out of focus photographs. What I'm thinking of now is to never purchase anymore Nikon equipment and switch straight to Canon next year. Nikon's cameras have given me far too many problems, both lenses as well as camera bodies. Time to go over to Canon, which seems to be slightly on the cheaper and value for money side. Nikon only puts its fastest autofocus, the AF-S, into its super expensive lenses that retail for 3 to 4 thousand dollars. Canon is a little kinder by stuffing in the equally fast autofocus, the Ultra-Sonic Motor (USM) into all their consumer offerings.
So this it, next year, 21st Birthday. I switch to Canon. I'll probably give the camera away to a very good friend who has great passion for photography, but can't afford his own. After all, that's how I started out - by borrowing other people's digital cameras for practise. So in a sense, this is a "pay-it-forward-one-deed-one-lifetime" thing on my part.
What I notice once again. All those people who had brought normal point and shoot consumer digital cameras were getting photographs of one huge field, half the track and 8 tiny dots on them. And I did notice that there were alot of photographic enthusiasts as well as newspaper reporters carrying their 20 thousand dollar Nikon/Canon high end sports digital SLR cameras. So far, the most impressive school is VJC, they actually bought a sports lens for their media club to play with. Unfortunately, they are dogged with a dirt-cheap camera body that has too much shutter lag, and that causes them to keep missing good photos. Not like I'm not missing good shots all the same. Our ACJC side didn't fare any better. The "school's camera" was really no better than mine. Oh dear, I think I'm being swept up in "camera envy". =)
These straits times reporters. Oh my goodness... They are carry the latest Canon EOS 1D Mark II camera body. 9 thousand dollars! And some of them have a 400mm lens attached to the camera as well. another 10 to 12 thousand dollars! And it doesn't even cover the rest of their equipment - tripods, 1 GB memory cards, monopods and so on. And later some clown my age was walking around with a 12 thousand dollar canon camera. It is really when it comes to times like sporting events that a camera that shoots with 8.5 frames per second, blasting eight megapixels for each photograph really shines... Oh God! I want a Canon EOS 1D Mark II as well! And er... an L series 400mm lens!
Next year! I'll be shooting sports with a monster sports camera! =) I guess that in the meantime, I still somehow stuck to take photographs of the AC side and on the AC side even though I don't feel close to ACJC anymore. Time to move on in life and head out ot university and do what needs to be done in life. Canon here I come! In the meantime, I did shoot a few clear shots before the sporting events started and immediately after it had concluded. Enjoy the 4 pathetic photographs in the meantime while I try desperately to salvage whatever other photographs that I can! God bless everyone and for all ACSians, truely the Best is Yet to Be!
Lawrence Ang! Hahahahaha!!!! Miss this joker/clown/dork/nutcase/funny dude from my days having PE. Oh yes, he still wears them Oakleys!
I've never seen so many ACS flags in just one photograph I've ever taken. This must be the record indeed! All SEVEN ACS flags brought down by the student's council are nicely being waved in this shot! One of the best I've ever taken indeed!
Singing the School Anthem. This year, the organisers hijacked the "plan" before anything could be done - they requested EVERYBODY sing the national anthem to some nonsensical malay dance pop tune with live singers provided. But still, after Majulah Singapura was done, it was ACS FOREVER!
TEAM ACJC! I left the venue early not because I wanted to, but because I totally ran out of digital film! Argh! I'l make sure, that for my next camera, I'll have at least 4 GB of compact flash memory and another 4 GB of SD card memory, so it will NEVER EVER happen again!
Ok, till then, pray hard that I can salvage just 20% of the 590 blur photographs that I have! =D Canon Digital Cameas here I come!!!!
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