We've moved...

Hihi everyone,

Rayearth has been with blogger for a good 4ish years but things have changed and I've finally made the switch to Wordpress(:

New Blog Link: Rayearth

Website: Jamie Chan Photography

Email: jamie@jamiecphotos.com

Hope to see you guys there<333

Attack of the strings

I went down to a few guitar stores a few weeks back to take a look at some really pretty sounding guitars. My goal was to flush out a sound that I really liked as I knew nuts about guitar.

In a way, selecting my cello was pretty easy. There are not many stores that stock the cello in Singapore. They prefer miniature instruments like the violin, guitar or even the piano. Its so rare to come across a store that stocks the cello and the double bass! So with the two stores that I visited, I probably had about fifty-ish cello to choose from. These fifty can be further divided into three ranges, mainly: 

1) The affordable range

2) The eat grass for a month range 

3) Go marry Steven Tyler range

As the prices go up, so do the quality and tone of the cello. 

The 'go marry Steven Tyler range' had a selection of about 5 different type of wood all with it's own gorgeous charm and workmanship. The tone is to die for! It is absolutely beautiful!

The affordable range had such an affordable sound that it was kind of pointless getting it.

So I got a really lovely cello from the eat grass range and I love my cello so much.

As compared to the cello, selecting a guitar was terrifying. Well anything more than ten choices are always terrifying. So imagine a room with close to a hundred guitars of every imaginable color and patterns. Red, blue, purple, Hello Kitty... Yes Hello Kitty(: My favorite depressed cat, screaming BUY ME I LOOK PRETTY!!!

dilemma.jpec

I had one goal in mind when I walked into the guitar store and that is to play the blues. So inspired by Clapton. 

The cello is great but the cello is still a cello. You can play almost everything and anything on the cello but I just can't bring out that blues twang. And the strings are really thick but playable just not as bluesy as the guitar would sound like.

The sad story comes as I left the stores without getting a guitar as my clients decided to delay my payment PAY ME DAMMIT *shakes fist* but all was good as this gave me time to think and digest the different kinds of sounds I heard(:

So I shot a few emails here and there with the intention of getting a guitar. The problem now would be what kind of guitar... Acoustic? Electric? Classical? 

As I was mulling over it, my uncle offered me an electric guitar with an amplifier and all the guitar stuff I needed to get started! I was over the moon!

It's a really pretty 600sgd ish guitar!

So I took the guitar, gave it some love and began playing the blues like Clapton 8D Layla~ You got me on my knees, Layla~ I'm begging darling please~

Ok I am lying. I took the guitar and went to youtube to learn how to tune it... so much for a musical genius

Cello -4 strings

Guitar -6 strings

I mean how hard can it get? With a dead electronic tuner and a tuning fork, what could possibly go wrong?

I died.

YouTube is a brilliant place to learn stuff but you can only do so much with it as tuning the guitar with YouTube is even more difficult than I thought.

It took me an hour to get a partially tuned guitar...

Partially tuned because it sounds right but wrong. Partially.

So here I am, playing the blues. With huge amounts of images to go through from eight different shoots. I am not very happy with the most urgent batch as I did really badly for the actual shoot. Which makes my motivation to post process the images non existent. T_T

Ah wells... I will get there!!! After the blues(:

Ponyo: Ahhh! That mad woman is playing the guitar again!!!
Make it stop!!!!!!!!

Confessions of a Queenie

This is gonna be a 'thought-full' post whereby it will probably not make any sense to those who are not in Singapore right now. I just need to get it out of my heart and thank a few people for the slaps along the way. Feel free to skip this and I promise a real post soon.

I am not dead. Nor am I having a psychotic breakdown and on the verge of jumping off the 11th floor. Yet.

For those who saw me on Monday, called me on Tuesday, wrote to me on Wednesday and slapped me on Thursday, I am so so sorry. You guys are probably ready to stab me anytime now and I could lie. I could lie and say that I was on coke or breeding unicorns. I could lie to myself that everything is fine and the world is beautiful but it is not. As my old psychologist used to say, the first step to a solution would be admitting the problem so I admit. I am self destructing. My behavior was absolutely disgusting for the past few week and the drama climaxed today. I am not a masochist but I enjoyed that slap in the face to wake me up. Although Naru and would NEVER had done that -.-

I used to hate her voice ringing out in my head here and there but now that its gone, it a really weird feeling. The sound of silence is wonderful but kind of creepy.
In fact, it was so silent that I went back to my roots -the only thing that kept me alive back then was music. So I started playing the cello again.

I never exactly gave up or quit the cello. Its just that things happen and I used busy as an excuse but now that I picked it up, I can really feel the music again.
Although she was the musical genius, I kind of got scraps of her talent. I mean I still suck at bowing and heaven bless my Bach but hey, I am playing Eric Clapton's songs on my cello!
I ditched the classical side of my roots and went straight into the blues. In fact, the first song I played when I picked my cello up again had nothing to do with classical. It was Kiss From a Rose by Seal and I can do a mean rendition of that right now which is by no means concert standard but give me a few more months and I know I can polish my music up to her standard. Or at least, it is my standard now.

After all that banter, I just want to say thank you to everyone who put up with me. I am so so fortunate to have people who would slap me back to shape when I am self destructing.
I am still playing the blues, Hello Kitty is still miserable and nothing really changed. But I now know who to call when I start hallucinating Naru sitting in my living room using my computer.

Thank you S.

Tag Repiles:

Kino: haha he sleeps too much.

Chanel: Coffee soon dear!

JKT: He is fit. He runs faster than you do!

Life with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Its a strange sight. A really strange sight.

I swear it is as if we adopted a new baby in the house and my parents are literately cooing and going gaga over it. Well at least my mum thinks my dog understands and 'communicates' with her better than I do.

It all began when my mum wanted to take Riko to places such as the market or for dinner. In other words, to eat in peace without Riko barking, gnawing on the leash, attracting stares and being the untamed and partially trained Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that 

he is.

She came up with this brilliant idea of getting a carrier bag that a bag of rice the 10kg dog could fit snugly in and by the mercy of the stars, behave.

So the hunt began for a carrier that can fit Riko. Shoulder bags, pull along trolleys, designer's sling, carrier case and basically everything fit for a king the size of a Chiwawa. Thus it was back to the drawing board because Riko is a tad long and like his owner, borderline overweight.

For one, my dog loves being on something that can be pushed around. Eg, a trolley so we sourced for a different kind of carrier. 

One with wheels...

Enter the grey-blue Ibiyaya stroller. It looks like an oddly shaped baby pram with three wheels.

Pampered baby.

Push me around? :3

It was a big hit! Not only were people who were scared shitless of dogs not afraid of my hyperactive monster, dog lovers, random strangers and people on a whole loved him. Most took a second look as they would expect to see a baby in a stroller and instead they saw this brown ball of fur wagging his tail and sticking out his tongue.

Eyes on the world.

He is always looking at something. 

Most importantly, I actually ate dinner. In peace! While he was resting comfortably in his little stroller.

The best part was that when we took him out of his stroller, he refused to walk and wanted to jump back in. Life of a cavalier king charles... Always forcing his human slaves to serve him.

Fits in the hawker center like a glove.
Well, almost.

Dinner! Well just the Ice lemon tea at least.

Anyways, looks like my little darling will be following me for dinner from now on(:

Oh and my dad suggested that he needs those kind of baby napkin as his saliva keeps getting on his fur.

Did we adopt a pampered baby or what?

And if you are wondering about the images, they are shot with a 15inch Macbook Pro's photobooth, Nokia 6700 and the S90. Depending on which 'camera' I had on hand(:

Images of the band to come!

Tag replies:

George: Money makes the world go Ka-ching!

Kino: haha no they don't. I'm sure its because you don't look up to the sky often after it rains!

You’ve got a magic tree: what does it grow?

Two post in a day? I deserve a medal! okay I did this post a long long time ago and just dug it up>.<
Y sent me this question quite some time ago probably a few months now and it was really interesting(: She got this from some website, did the post on her blog and challenged all the really busy people quite a few of us to answer it. Her magic tree grew food to help aid the food crisis and it was a really great read. I can't seem to find the link to that post so just ask her if you are interested:3

Perhaps I should do something like a Q&A thing on my blog since I had so much fun doing up this post! once I clear my backlogs and shoots T_T

Anyways, You’ve got a magic tree: what does it grow?


For those if you who know, way back when I was 6ish?, I bought my first plant. Or 'tree' as they always coined it as a 'money tree'.
It was planted in a little brown coconut pot and I hung it on my balcony since it was a creeper plant. (Correct me if I am wrong)

So there I was, fascinated by the fact that a 'tree' grows money! *cues happy and innocent music*

As the story goes, I showered my money tree with sugar spice and everything nice and almost killed it until my mum suggested water. Following her advise, I watered it and it finally stopped turning brown.

In fact, it started growing out green notes. I mean leafs. Well it grew and grew and soon it kind of resembled a woman with long green hair.

So as one of my quotes goes, my money tree is still not growing money.

Alrights so after this little introduction, I am sure some of you are banging your fist on the table going 'answer the question dammit! What does your magic tree grows???'

Well we all know this image: The list of 'wants' is kind of never ending and always evolving. When will the 'best' be the best? I mean I am a proud owner of the latest, fastest, shiniest and prettiest Macbook Pro. 

Only time will tell when Apple comes up with Macbook Extreme next month. 

So my very first answer to that question would be that my magic tree shall grow money(: 

However, I decided to scrap that idea after recalling a quote that money can't buy you happiness. sad.jpec

So, what can my tree grow to make Hello Kitty smile instead of looking sad, lonely and depressed?

In other words, what makes me happy? 

I know that I would be over the moon and grinning like a cheshire cat if I had a Leica M9, Canon 5D MarkII, 35mm F1.4 and the list goes on and on, so how about my magic tree grow cameras and lenses? That sounds pretty nice (:

Then the question comes, what the hell am I going to do with all those gears....

Thus, if I really have a magic tree, it would grow a cure for cancer. Surprise, surprise(: 

Yes a cure for cancer because cancer has taken so many people around me. Beside I would be rich if I sold a cure for cancer and at that point of time, I could probably buy over Leica, Canon, Mamiya, Hasselblad and everything I can think of. So thats where the money part comes in(:

The money I earn could even buy me a small island! 

So yessu. for the good of all mankind My magic tree grows a cure for Cancer.

So tadah~ you guys just had a five minute preview into the random workings of my head(:

Let me know if this is too random even for me 8D

4 more shoots to finish up, 3 shoots and counting to look forward to and I really feel like eating rojak :3

Tag repiles:

Kino: Eh you have never seen a rainbow D8

Go out and look up at the sky more often!

JKT: haha I just answered your tree question! Nope it is still not growing money!

Besides, I have absolutely no idea where my money tree went...

It kind of disappeared after I shifted house ~.~

A closure

I had not been really active on the cyber space again due to my insane schedule last week.
Most of the events that happened deserves a post of their own due to the images that go along with it so here is a preview/ run down on my dramatic life.


IP

It's over. The module that bugged me for two months.

One of the worst module ever, IP is over. It was officially over for me on the 23rd so better late than never to blog about it

There was so much drama leading up to my presentation date! It's a pretty long story but I shall keep it short.

1) all presentation timings got pushed up by 10 minutes.

2) I was supposed to be the first to present on Wednesday at 10am.

3) Thanks to the change in timing, I became the last to present on Tuesday at 5.30pm.

3)  Guess who did not find out about the change till my friend wished me luck for my presentation on Tuesday evening...

Conclusion, I missed my final presentation...

The weird part was that I was so sick of IP and it did not really sink in that I just missed my presentation date till 1am in the morning when I really started to freak out and lament on how unlucky I was to have my timing pushed up and I so happened to be in the hospital that morning so I did not have Internet access with me till 9 at night.

I really want to drop out of school should I fail this module because of the presentation.

Well thankfully I did not have a psychotic break down and jump off the 11th floor. I just told myself to stay clam and look at the solution and somehow slept really soundly for someone who has missed her final presentation and potentially has to graduate a year later than her classmates.

Anyways, the point is that it is over.

I don't know if I would actually fail the module but at least I presented.

I also went on a shopping spree the minute IP was over and kind of overspent again.....

So I had been really busy with back to back shoots driving me insane for the past week. The good news is that they are a fun kind of insane. 

I met up with so many people within the last week that it was pretty overwhelming. Familiar faces seems to pop by every corner and it was so ridiculous that I seemed to be meeting someone I know with every shoot I attend.

ANZA Shoot

This one really deserves it own post with images.

I mentioned in my last post that I was gonna shoot a band, and I did!

It was so so so FUN! Many thanks to S and K for the invitation.

Well what can I say mate? Aussies really know how to party 8D

Canon Shoot

This was one epic shoot.

Images to come.

 Impact with Compact workshop

I won the 3rd prize in a photo competition and went for a free workshop by the School of Photography Singapore. This one deserves a post of its own as well as it was so fun 8D

So you guys can expect three blog post once I get the images up and running(: need to clear my assignments shoot T_T

So enjoy 4 random images of my cavalier king charles shot on my S90 for now(:

Lastly, a shout out to my cousin if she is reading this, HIHI! Lets have lunch again soon(:

The really colorful Mardi Gras(:

I had the crazy opportunity to shoot the Mardi Gras event for TGIF and it was awesome! I mean representing STOMP aside in which I probably only partially fulfilled the brief, I love love the shoot! 

I posted the rest on my photoblog.

Full set of images on the STOMP website here.

As you can see, it was a riot of colors! The lighting at Fridays made it really really hard to shoot anything without a flash! Well you could go without it if you are shooting at half a second on the 35mm but half a second exposures on the 24-70mm is insane. Or I am probably not up to that level yet>.>
Party shoots are kind of not my favorite things to shoot as I have to put on a really sparkly aura and go 'hai there lets get a picture!' And you would have to smile for the entire event>.> Or at least, you would have to act happy no matter how much IP is bugging you in your head.
The Mardi Gras shoot is probably one of my more challenging shoot in terms of balancing my ambient with flash as I was doing my 'Hail Mary' dance to make sure that my exposure was spot on when I show people their group picture. Surprisingly enough, everyone loved the images I took and everything looks accurate on the 550D's gorgeous LCD screen. Then again, guess whose image was some 2 stops under when I pulled them in the computer...

Gear I used were the 5D, 550D, 24-70mm, 35mm, 135mm and the speedlite 580ex2.

Thank the god of kiasuism (afraid to die. Google kiasu) I brought the 550D along. Squeezed the hell out of my Lowepro and it was probably close to exploding. But no worries about exploding bags as I have the Vanguard which I have yet to try out:3

So there I was happily shooting away when the 5D's battery died on me 2 hours into the shoot and I almost died along with it as I had 2 more hours to cover! Thank goodness I brought the 550D and the best part is that I had been using the 550D for previous shoots without ever charging the battery. So it was a bit of a risk I took to completely rely on the 550D>.<
I mean its not as if I could walk up to my client and go 'oh hai! My batteries just died on me so I am going back early(: See you<3'
Even though I was shooting for the love of it child exploitation, I just could not see myself doing that>.<

I mean I had three batteries for the 5D with me and all three died just when I decided to leave the other 2 batteries at home. 
IMG_dig_your_own_grave.jpec


So my brief stated to submit about 200 images and I submitted 150ish... Its not that bad I guess considering the fact that I had such a hard time with the 550D in which I shot 3/4 of the entire set with.
I know that I can do so much better if the 5D did not die on me. 
The 5D's noise control and color is so beautiful that I want to lock myself in a room and cry about it while the 550D's noise control and color is something I really want to cry about... I mean every single image shot by the 550D looks so gorgeous on the LCD screen and once you get it up to the computer, it looks like rubbish.
Lesson learnt. Bring ALL 5 batteries for the 5D where ever you go.
Open your bloody aperture and compensate with your flash so that you do not get severely underexposed images which happened to look really gorgeous on the 550D's LCD screen.

Anyways the people there are really friendly! Besides TKK's assignments for me, I can't really think of an assignment where I get so many free shots of tequila, cocktails, beers and food. Like real giant plate of food. Awesome much!

The best part of the entire shoot would be the contacts I made! I mean I am probably going to shoot a band sooner than I though! 
The thing I really took away from the shoot would be to design and print my bloody name card. People were asking me for it and I was like *.* I am in the midst of finding a designer to design it for me? 

Oh wait. I am attending a design school. 
The least I could do is to design name cards no?
Anyways, my submission for IP is so so screwed. I have no idea what I am doing and I am not doing anything either.

Rocking out with really gorgeous ladies at Mulligans tonight.
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone(:

Tag replies:

Seres: *Hugs*

Kite: I am not going to school till submission. If you noticed, I did not even go to school for the whole of last week(:

Sara: Miss you!

Will: I know! Everything is so expensive send me a swedish/ scandinavian postcard soon!