Artmire - Christophe Jacrot

Never have I been so excited or anxious as I have been the past few days, in a long while. The flight and accommodation have been booked and I'm heading to Hong Kong in 15 days. I have been doing research on places to go and eat and see and have been looking at photographs that other people have taken of Hong Kong. I'm most excited about shooting the streets of HK, I think that was the whole plan all along. I've always liked old towns, derelict old buildings and though I love shooting modern skyscrapers and city life, it's overwhelming knowing that I will be out of Singapore to do that. They(I've read in articles) have said that Hong Kong is the New York of Asia, and whilst I am still planning and hoping to go to New york soon, Hong Kong will have to do for now.

If there was ever a possibility to fall in love with a place you've never been, Hong Kong is my number 2. Nyc will always be #1.

I'll be spending 7 days in HK, fitting Disneyland and OceanPark in the itinery. I am prepared for alot of walking and stopping to shoot and hopefully, meeting up with old friends. I just hope the weather holds up. They say it'll be cold in January, that which I am prepared for and while we could expect rain, I really hope not. That just puts a damper on plans, but ... there is hope for rainy pictures after I found Christophe Jacrot's photo series Hong Kong in the rain. (His New york and paris photos are wonderful too!!) Photos of Hong Kong below.

Of course, it is ever so possible that I would need to balance holding an umbrella whilst trying to take a shot and I have tried before and failed. Maybe I could get one of those umbrella hats, but those extra large ones which would have to be suspended over my head via some wire work type of hat. These don't exist and I would probably look very silly but one can only hope that maybe I would get some help in the umbrella holding area.

So to Hong Kong it is. 15 days to be kept under control for fear I might just be bursting with too much excitement that I would be deflated by flight day.

InstaArtists : A Crowdsourced Art Exhibition

I took part in a small exhibition featuring instagram photos. All we had to do was tag our photos according to theme. They picked 12 of my photos and they're on the walls at Shots Cafe at 90, Club Street. They are also on sale at the cafe for $35 and comes printed 12 x12cm and framed(frame size 25 x 25cm)

You can check out their website and facebook for more info. 

Chinatown.

The weather wasn't too bad today until the evening when it got really dark and rained. I feel a sense of "longing" to shoot more often now, especially since I work at home and hardly go out unless I need to run errands or if I have a freelance shoot or if it's the weekend. But even so, I tend to react slowly to photographic opportunities and then feel bad afterwards for missing the shot. 

So, I tried today in the slight drizzle. 

What you need to know about printing your Instagram images.

A few weeks ago, 10centdesigner shared a coupon code to print an Instagram book with Blurb, on her instagram feed. The cost of printing the book would be free and all I had to do was pay for shipping. So I jumped on the bandwagon. It took me about 3 to 4 hours in the wee hours of the morning to collate and organise my instagram images that I wanted to have in the book. Once that was done and paid for, all I had to do was wait. And believe me, I was excited about it. The anticipation, of the sound of the metal clanging of the mailboxes, killed me. Checking the mailbox everyday, til it finally arrived. And lo and behold, in all its cardboard packaging glory, inside held the holy grail. Ripped it open, took my first look at the cover and my heart sank.

Pixelated.

The cover image. was. pixelated.

Disappointed.

I went thru the rest of the book. Noise and grainy images, I'm okay with. Pixelation just ...(sigh). I have no words. Safe to say, not ALL the images were bad, but some. I slot the book back into its cardboard home and there it stayed for weeks until today.

Anyway, here's how the book looks like in not so many images. The book measures 7 x 7 inches and these images below are shot with the iPhone 5.

So the question is, what resolutions are iphone or instagram photos saved as?

I've had my iPhone/instagram pictures printed before, in digital xerox prints. So how could a book making company like Blurb have this issue?

So I googled. And found this. (Noted : We don't naturally know this kind of info until we actually go looking for it.)

Save high-resolution versions of your filtered photos 

High-resolution versions of your Instagram photos are saved to your device after you upload the photo to Instagram. This means that you are the only one with access to high-resolution versions of your photos.
We will always save images in the highest resolution size possible. The maximum resolution on both Android and iOS is 2048x2048, but your device’s resolution capabilities may be lower than that.
On Android devices, image resolution capabilities vary widely by device.
For iOS devices, the resolutions of photos taken with the Instagram camera (not the Camera application) and saved to your device are:

• 2048x2048 on the iPhone 4s

• 1936x1936 on the iPhone 4

• 1536x1536 on the iPhone 3GS

Please note that photos imported from your iOS device (not taken with the Instagram camera) and then uploaded to Instagram will save at a much lower resolution (612x612). Apple has recently updated their API to allow high resolution importing to applications, and while this feature will be available in the future, we have no estimate for its release.
You must turn on your save photo settings to make sure filtered photos save to your phone.

Yup. This kind of information is gold! My photos are mostly shot with the iPhone camera and then uploaded to instagram. I sent 612 x 612 resolution images to be printed! That shit is crazy. If I were still working in a design agency, my boss would've cut my head off.

Well, so now we know. At least, I know. I do not blame Blurb. However, the options for title placements on the cover could be better. (Just sayin').

I would still like to make another photo book with Blurb, but then again Artifact Uprising looks quite good too. So til then, shoot with instagram.

*article from here.

2013 Quote A Month Calendars

I finally got them done. I had been meaning to do a calendar since last year and this year I almost forgot. I stressed over it the past few weeks, thinking first how to do it. At one point, I almost thought of giving up, but I was probably tired and worked on it another day. 

Each month is accompanied with a hand drawn quote, which is then scanned. Wrote out the days and dates as well. Scanned them too. Went through a couple of trials with different types of paper and now,  it is done. I produced a limited quantity and shall see how it goes. 

Calendar available here.

Turning 33.

You can see below that I did some updates. I haven't been totally stagnant on the creative front. Two days ago, I turned 33. It doesn't feel any different from 32. Like it's been said, age ain't nothing but a number. There's no big revelation when you get older, you just keep going. However, I did upgrade to an iPhone 5, and I love it even more cos the camera works quicker than the iphone 4. I believe the sensor has changed too, cos it seems to work well in low light. I use my phone for 2 main reasons; communication and photography. So, I really just can't wait to shoot more. 

Off to bed now. My boyfriend, Djohan is taking me to Universal Studios tomorrow. It'll be my first theme park visit ever. I'm excited. Like it's prepping me for bigger things! Like Disneyland in January. Yes!!! I'm planning to go to Hong Kong next month. I may be older, but my heart is forever young(hypothetically speaking). Okay, toddle-loooooo!! 

Orange totes

Printed two new totes, this time in an orange/yellow/green color way. These are up in my etsy store.

New Quote Posters

Created new quote posters. Been prepping for the Handmade Movement Craft Fair which will be taking place in on January 19 at Fort Canning. Am pretty excited and trying not to get too overwhelmed cos I'll be creating new products as well. However, these posters are also available in my Etsy store. 

Commisioned : logo

Was commissioned by a friend last month to create a logo/branding and to also produce namecards for her cupcake business in a pink and purple color scheme. She makes yummy cupcakes!! Am still in the midst of creating her facebook page but you should check her instagram out here.

Commissioned : wedding invitation.

I'd always wanted to do the whole wedding thing. The invites, decorations, planning. Maybe not so much the planning, but rather being involved in the creative part of it. But I do know it isn't easy. Cos you're responsible for making a girl's lifelong dream come true. You have to make her dream wedding a reality. You're basically her fairy godmother. And whilst I'm not one of those girls who've been dreaming about the details of her dream wedding down to a T. I know I'd definitely want my wedding to be DIY. and colorful. and in a garden. with fairy lights streaming from tree to tree. And since Singapore's weather is erratic, maybe I'd take my Indonesian friend's advice and hire a rain bomoh (a shaman), so he can dance the rain away. 

Anyway, in pursuit of being involved in weddings somehow. (side note: I used to shoot weddings for work. but there was the occassional friend who needed my services). I was commissioned to design a wedding invitation earlier this year. The bride wanted a Victorian theme. I used gold and a very faint tiffany blue for the color scheme, and had a lace damask pattern to match closely to the bride's dress.