December 2012

It's been a very busy month, but that's to be expected, with all the festive preparations and holidays. 

A brief respite from the busyness

Still loving the Holga very much

Long exposure with the stars, maybe not long enough?

Light leaks at the top and bottom of the Holga, but have to get used to the fact that rotating the camera sideways has no effect on a 120 film

Homemade Fruit Enzyme, Muffins And Oreo+Kit Kat Soy Ice Cream (With CUTE ANIMALS!)

On Labour Day we took the holiday as a chance to do some experiments in our kitchen. I know what you're thinking - 'is this going to be another food post?' and 'is this blog becoming a food blog now?' Yes and no. I've been writing about food as of late, because that's what we've been doing a lot recently. Judging from the analytics of this blog, most people come here to check on camera related stuff (and sometimes for the Air Asia Call Centre) and this may not be your thing. It's okay, I do appreciate your presence and as proof of that please enjoy the following pictures.

Thanks for dwopping by

 

Too cute!

Alright then, on with the food.

Grape and pear fruit enzymes, will have to wait 3 weeks before harvesting this.Check back later!

The Mrs made banana muffins, half of them with red bean paste as filling

The Oreo+Kit Kat Soy Ice Cream

I'm pleased that the ice cream turned out so well. It is not that difficult to make, and given that we eat quite a lot of ice cream, I think we'll be doing this more.

Recipe List
1 Cup Cream
1 Cup Milk ( we used soy, that's all we had in the fridge)
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
Oreo, Kit kat or whatever you want the ice cream to taste like

Add the cream and milk together and bring it to boil.

Separate the yolks and beat them together with the sugar.

Remove the cream/milk mixture from the fire and pour in the yolks, a little bit at a time while stirring. Put this in the fridge to cool.

Get a big pot and fill it with ice and salt.

Put the pot with the ice cream to be inside the bigger pot and put in the freezer. Check on it every 20 - 30 mins and break up any ice crystals you find at the side. Do this 4-5 times. The purpose of doing this is to make the ice cream 'creamy' instead of having them turned out like popsicles.

Add whatever you want to the ice cream. We used oreo and kit kats here. If it's not sweet enough for your liking you can add honey or more sugar. After half a day, transfer it to a container for keeping and enjoy!

Solids

Baby Cyrus has turned 6 months and started taking solid foods. We have fun experimenting with foods and seeing his reaction to them.

Today we're trying pumpkin porridge

Wat the....?!

So we switched back to what he's familiar with...

...and added some of the pumpkin porridge

But he found out...

...and kept his mouth closed. Lol.

He did finish the whole thing in the end. We've found out that he likes apple, bananas, grapes (with a very sourish face) and papayas. Sweet potatoes, potatoes...not so popular with him. We hope he will enjoy as wide a variety of food as we can give to him, with it being easier now at this age when he can't talk back or refuse to eat. 

Season's Greetings

It's been an unforgettable year for many reasons and we'll cherish the good ones and learn from the bad. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012!

Peek-a-boo!

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd month of life, Cyrus started blabbering and using his voice to express a wide range of emotions. His first word wasn't mama or papa but Earl (highly disputed by my wife who claims he was saying uggh instead. I beg to differ...). The one event that made us drop everything and stare at him was when we realized he was laughing. Oh yes he'd smile before this, and try to laugh, but always without the accompanying audio.

Why are babies amused by peek-a-boo? And we tried peek-a-boo-ing with two people hiding behind the blanket instead but he wasn't amused at all. Then we returned to just one peek-a-boo-er and he resumed laughing like normal. Remind me to check the rules regarding multiple peek-a-boo-ers/peek-a-boo-ees.

Hacking The DX Coding On The Film Canisters

Mom: So is there anything you'd like me to bring over when I visit?
Me: Hmm, ya. Whatever happened to my old film camera?

So she searched around the house and found this.

My old Olympus Mju-II. This camera accompanied me through my college and uni years and to many places in Europe. It's a reliable old friend. There was one problem with it though, it automatically sets the ISO based on the DX coding on the film canister. That may be alright for normal photography but a massive inconvenience when shooting with redscale or black and white films.

So how to get around this?

Changing from 400 to 1600

Fool the camera by changing the DX coding. The film at the bottom is at normal 400 speed and the film at the top has had its paint scratched so the camera reads it as a 1600 film instead. Probably the best thing about this is that the Olympus is such an easy camera to handle that I can be in the pictures more often.

With available window light and spot metering on the Mju-II

Darkroom Fun

Following up from my last post, I tried my hand at developing my own black and white film. The very first time, I had a few issues to iron out, like getting all the chemicals at the right temperature (20 deg c) before starting. I tried putting ice in a basin but it wasn't getting anywhere near that figure, so I just stuck them all in a freezer till it dropped. Thanks to the timer from the Massive Dev Chart App on the iPhone, once everything starts, it's pretty easy. I took a shot of my setup and here it is.

I've done 3 rolls so far with 2 different type of films and the results vary quite a bit. I think I may have been a bit overenthusiastic in agitating the chemicals in one of the sessions but I'll know more after many more trials and errors.

He's wearing a 'I love mum' shirt... -.-

This last film with Delta 3200 - oh the grain!

Thankfully there are many things to shoot these days. Cyrus is growing really fast and looks different everyday.

Now there have been people who have been saying that Cyrus looks more like his mom and yes, if you look at the shots above, you can see the similarities with the nose and the chin. But if you look at him from another angle, you will see that he looks EXACTLY like me.

Huhuh! Thanks for such great hair dad!

A New Family Member

... and one that doesn't need to be stored in the dry cabinet too! We welcomed the arrival of our baby boy, Cyrus, last week with much joy and relief. It's been a long journey for my wife and I, one in which we've faithfully recorded daily in a journal.

One day I will hand it over to him so he will know the ups and downs we've been through together and the many sacrifices made by his mother, but until then, I've got some words for you Cyrus. Think of it as an instruction manual for inheriting your new set of genes, though I can only speak for my part... So let's start off with the not so good news first.

1) Acne/Pimples

Yup, truly sorry about this. I wish I didn't have to pass this on to you. If you wonder why you don't see any of daddy's pics on the day you were born, it's partially due to the fact that I was the one behind the camera. I had a bad outbreak prior to your birth and didn't want that to be immortalized.

I know what you're thinking and hoping desperately for, 'Mom has such flawless skin! So maybe my skin takes after her!' Don't get your hopes up too high, it's a dominant gene. How do I know this? My mom (your grandma) has flawless skin too and she told me she's never had a single pimple, but not my dad (your grandpa). Unfortunately my sisters and I had none of the 'flawlessness' our mom had and had to go through our teenage years 'dermatologically challenged'. So you have around 13 years or so to enjoy baby smooth skin, but hey, thank God you've got pharmacists as parents eh?

2) Facial Hair (or lack of)

Nothing I can do to help you out here... I've looked at the male relatives from your mom's side and the prospects aren't that fantastic either. Clean-shaven all the way then... I don't know if it works but you may want to try finding a hairy wife? Looking at the bright side you'll save a lot of time from all the shaving that you don't need to do.

3) White Hair

Late 20's ... but it doesn't really bother me one bit.

Despite all the flaws, you'll be inheriting my wit, charm and sense of humor. That will be more than enough to see you through whatever life may throw at you. Welcome to the family son!