ZR, 1 Photography Skill Point

I'm sure by now some of you have heard about Zoe Raymond. If you haven't, here is the Facebook link of the story. (You need to scroll all the way down to start from Chapter One. It's in Chinese from Chapter 2 onwards by the way and if you click on "translate by Bing", the translated English is horrendous and hence still not understandable. Reading in Chinese will convey the emotions of the author more vividly, so yea  加油了 my friends!）

In summary, the Singaporean blogger Zoe Raymond stole Yuki's fiance Alvin just 2 months before their marriage, that led Yuki to create a personal blog entitled "Alvin & Yuki" on Facebook to pen down her story, with one of the posts describing how she came to know about the 3rd party but still kept quiet about her knowledge hoping that Alvin may come to his senses someday. The blog was so well illustrated and detailed that it garnered to more than 15,000 likes within a week, which included 16 of my friends, and has now won over 24,000 people's hearts, inevitably making ZR the most hated blogger ever.

I first came across this saga about 2 weeks ago when one of my friends liked a photo of Zoe Raymond side by side with a picture of Lao Fu Zi (老夫子）on Facebook, and there were several comments ridiculing her, especially on how ugly she look. I found it very disturbing and hysterical as I've been a loyal fan of her blog for 3 years now and on her blog she appeared to be such a sweet girl, so how can anyone possibly hate her? Of course every celebrity blogger no matter how nice will have haters but all along, but Zoe Raymond is one who makes the least amount of enemies. Hence having sprung on the rude comments led me to intuitively google "Why do people hate Zoe Raymond?" Again lots of hateful comments in forums came up and one of these led me to Yuki's page.

I really sympathise with Yuki. She was highly anticipated bride-to-be but yet just before her wedding the one she wants to be with for the rest of her life betrayed her trust and her world crashed instantly.

You know, when you began an agreement to start a relationship with someone, you are actually opening yourself up to the susceptible world of hurt. In some way or another, he/she may hurt you, it's just the case of whether the hurt inflicted on you is mild or severe. In her case, perhaps it was mild or almost none throughout the relationship but became so severe near the end of it that she couldn't deal with the sudden blow and tried to end her life.

It's so scary to think how someone whom you thought you know dearly change in a flash, and it happened so quickly that it caught you off guard. Being betrayed must have hurt big time, and I would never understand such pain until I experience it myself (but choy!). But agreeing with others who left encouraging messages on her page, it's good news that at least she saw his true colours before marrying him than to be deceived later when a child comes along in the picture. She is hurting now, but ya I'm sure a fine girl like her would find someone more deserving for her. Well, I really admire her courage for writing her personal thoughts and feelings out for thousands of strangers to see as I would not have the courage to do that if it is me. :D

As for ZR, she is getting most of the attention and blame since she is well-known by some people to be a successful entrepreneur beforehand and now they found out that she had a history of stealing boyfriends. If it wasn't for that history, I would think that perhaps Alvin already had problems with Yuki and Zoe Raymond came at the time to say, "Hey Alvin, I am a more suitable girl for you." But no, from the look of it, she seems like someone who enjoys flaunting her victory over another girl by taking away her beloved, which may be her everything, from her. I suppose she loves winning every guy over and so to her Alvin is just a chess piece (手中的一个棋子); she will dump him as soon as she finds another relationship to destroy.

For me, after my last failed relationship, the feeling of distrust is still stuck with and haunts me even after so many years, and no matter what I do now, I am wary of putting in all my efforts in my current relationship. I tend to form a shield all over me and remind myself not to be so trustful of Simba. This  is just in case someday he may turn his back on me just like what Alvin did to Yuki, and I will be forced to take everything into my own hands. Whether or not I will be sprung on the bad news in the future, I always prepare myself so that I would know how to take it better later.

Emotional things aside, I recently earned myself a skill point in photography. It's like the Sims game where the characters you created practise for example painting over and over again to earn ART skill points. Lol. I went online and watched a short tutorial video on how to entirely focus on an object so that the background would be blurred out.

Here are a few casual photos of my work:




I initiated the self-learning by placing a set of skin care and health supplement products on the table to set the background. The pocket-sized bottle of SK-II is in focus while everything else behind is blurred.

The 30ml sample bottle of SK-II at $25.90 was bought online as I've been dying to try it out since there were a widespread of good reviews about it and what made me click on the "Add to Cart" button ultimately was when Jun Wen told me that the new intern in his company started using it and his face became so radiant that it looks like the glow was from deep within. The Facial Treatment Essence, also known as Miracle Water, must be miraculous!





Another effect I tried was to blur the object in front and make the background in focus.
:D

The closer your camera is to the object you want to focus, or the more zoom you subject the camera to, the object is comparatively more in focus and stood out. In contrast the background would appear significantly blurred.





Took my NTU grad bears from the shelf by force to make them part of my photography project. Intended for the standing teddy to look more prominent than the other 3 bears and although it did appear in focus, the 3 bears in the background weren't that blurred. Failed.




Randomly assigned some of my jewellery to participate as well. Was quite pleased with this since the fine details of my piece of ear ring are photographed and the background which contained my necklaces, other ear rings and hair clips, was blurred till the extent of becoming tiny specks of light. This was the result I wanted to achieve.





This keychain was bought for us by our work supervisor as a souvenir! Really liked the shadow this keychain created.




My fave photo was this one where my watch played the main lead. It suffered quite a few scratches because of my carelessness lol. Look at its poorly maintained strap!


It was a Friday again. As I was still keeping up with my enthusiasm to try out the new camera especially when I read up about how to take a night scene photo, I wanted so much to visit Gardens by the Bay again and hopefully take a nice good photo of the man-made tree. But my plan was rejected by Simba since it was a long walk from the MRT station to the park and my legs might not be able to take it, so we went to Bishan instead after much compromise.



We tried the new Creme Brulee MacFlurry ice cream! It felt great to have ice-cream after so long and this was a strongly flavoured one! Simba was over the moon when I agreed to share one with him since I have stopped dieting after my surgery (but will continue with it after I recover).

The DSLR has saved us time for any photo re-taking since we got pretty satisfied by the photos taken of us. :D




It's still Christmas in Junction 8, and Simba was still caterwauling in the departmental store as the Christmas music played in the background.

We dawdled about in Junction 8 but stationed ourselves at a spot outside BEST so that I could use my newly acquired skill.













Only when the subject is near enough then would the background be completely blurred.





I continued my practice when we reached home which made him quite irritated. Lol.

Hope I have passed Photography Basics 101.