Photographs, Pasta and Pressure

Passion.

Sometimes during the course of life, we engage in self conversation. While some assume the effectiveness of verbal self conversation, others prefer to let the pen, do the talking.

Self conversations are interesting for they are dialogues from within, with your inner self.

“Where should I go for dinner?” “I feel like having pasta today.” “Today’s a good day.”

Dialogues are interesting due to its priority as a mode of communication and when this mode of communication happens between yourself, we often term this behaviour “reflection” or “reflecting”, so to speak.

Unknowingly, we engage in reflections and self conversation more often than we know in our day to day activities, which is a vital process, in my opinion.

Our world is subjected to numerous influences and forces. Forces that tells us right from wrong, good from bad and other contrasting opposites of the spectrum.

I feel that self conversation is a check and an assurance. It is the regulatory force behind our wellbeing, the one which really tells us right from wrong, positives to negatives.

There are many ways of interpreting right or wrong in this world; what’s right to you may or may not be right to another, and vice versa. And thus, this is where this self check comes into play.

Recently I stumbled upon a social networking site, also known as Twitter.

Apparently, it’s popular in the states and is a fast growing trend. It works on the fundamental question,

“What are you doing now?”

Since the dawn of time (seemingly), people have been asking other people that question.

And this is interesting because on twitter, people not only say what they’re doing, but also what they’re feeling.

I found twitter interesting (thus explaining the little widget to the right, feel free to click and follow me), and rather surprising on multiple levels. Largely because I was taken aback by the frankness and the willingness to express that self conversation within oneself, with the world through such a medium.

Indeed the world is changing and people are becoming more and more open. A question like “what are you doing now?” is no longer a sacred, personal inquiry but takes its place as a conversational topic.

We find ourselves more and more willing to express our thoughts, feelings and opinion and we venture out of our safety zones. With the emergence of blogs, twitter and technological advances, the process of self conversation takes on a different dimension.

New platforms are springing up and people are now, able to express themselves with a variety of ways and mediums.

However, I feel that the fundamental process is always the most intensive and important, to say the least. Whatever we converse with our inner self, a degree of rawness is engaged amongst ourselves and it is this unique interaction that for me, keeps things in check and sane.

Oh well, that’s that.

Only today, an idea came to me. It was a simple yet interesting idea but also, very time consuming.

An idea.

The idea is Flickr based, which means that it is mainly, if not entirely, graphical.

The concept? Simple.

Everyday, for 365 days a year, I will have to take a picture representing my mood, emotions or thoughts for that particular day. It can be anything, still life, weather, people, structures etc. So as long as the mood and emotion for that particular day is represented, the picture would have achieved that purpose.

So what do you guys think?

I’m not too sure if there already is such a thing going on in Flickr (but I do know of other concepts revolving around “taking a picture a day”) and I’ll need feedback and comments about the concept, before I decide to go with or scrape the idea.

It would look really good and interesting at the end of the 365 days, I guess.

And that’s about it for this update I guess. Check back soon for even more good stuff to follow.

Time to re-hit the books (yes, its time).

Stand strong, in the meantime.

*metallic-stains and its owner is in no way affiliated to twitter and flickr in anyway other being a user. All concepts and pictures used in the post belongs to the owner of metallic-stains and usage or adaptation without permission is not advised. In fact, you'd be better off not stealing. Just saying.

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Now playing: The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand
via FoxyTunes

If a Picture paints a thousand words

Its more than pointing and shooting.

Its been awhile since I last featured or talked about a particular subject matter amongst my post so for today's post, we'll be talking about producing a good picture and my personal rational and interpretation behind pictures.

So before you can say "pic spam!", let me warn you that you've been told...

A different perspective to things oblivious to the naked eye.

Well, I can safely say that I'm by no means, a professional photographer (or anywhere near that association as yet) but I guess producing both still images in the form of photographs as well as moving images in the form of movie and film productions can be considered as recent interests.

Both of which has grown into something deeper than mere passing interest.

Creation is satisfying to some while the Created Product is satisfying to the masses; Creation here being the process while the other, the final product. And that being said, I guess my interest for both aspects of creation has sprouted from the very basis of my course of study.

The Media is vast and ever changing.

While some like to convey their thoughts and ideas via literature, others tend to be more visual and thus convey their perceptions through films and the such. We also have a few others who communicate via still images.

Yes, different mediums are and can be used to communicate and accentuate your ideas, thoughts, beliefs or even perspective, if executed in a suitable method.

Literature, Film and Photos are just examples of different mediums.

And well, for me personally, its a tough internal conflict between the three.

I mean I love to actually write down my ideas, thoughts and perception (as seen here on metallic-stains); I love to make films (as cultivated through my course of study) and hope to make and product short but effective and powerful films in the near future.

Clearly, the newest contender here being the epitome of imaging.

Well, some of you guys out there might have notice a little addition to the link bar to the right and as mentioned in the previous posts, the new member of the management team has indeed widen and developed my interest in the said field.

While metallic-stains stands as my literal take on life, my pictures will (hopefully) represent my visual take on the big picture.

Some of my more visual works can be viewed here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/33694436@N07/ though I'm always open to comments and critical insights regarding my photos, both technically and idealistically.

Technical and Idealistic execution are both important aspects of a picture.

On a technical front, I'm pretty sure that I've got loads more to learn to even consider myself as a photographer. This comes with experience and guidance, things which I consider myself in vital need which (hopefully again) will come in time.

Thus, I chose to work towards my idealistic take on photo taking.

There are millions of photographers out there in the world but the sole appeal of the medium is simple because it gives the people to present their unique perceptions and ideas in the form of pictures.

Well, to me, I feel strongly about the idea and "feel" that the picture is giving me. What is it trying to say? What emotion is it trying to portray?

To me, a good picture means a mind provoking experience, though not always in a negative manner. A good picture should set the viewer thinking and relating.

There are numerous pictures out there on the net and I for one have certainly seen quite a number of good pictures out there, some even able to put my mind into a mental frenzy.

Yes, it is quite appealing and interesting to explore uncharted perceptions and ideas using this medium.

I have an aim every time I interact with Audrey (refer to previous posts for more clarification about the entity). Exploring perceptions has always been something that I value with high regard on a personal level and that is what I aim, every single time I look through her eyes in preparation for a shot.

Thus as we come to the end of this rather concise post, I would like some feedback and advice on the relevant topic;

Which is more important, the Technical or Idealistic aspect of a picture?

Remember to check back for some awesome material coming up and with that I'll see you guys around and hoped you've enjoyed this little feature as much as I did while taking the photos.

Keep Snapping!

*Pleas refer to the team's flickr page for more visual works. The uncredited use of materials from the above feature post without the knowledge of the management team of metallic-stains will result in negative consequences. Please, let creativity and ideas thrive, stamp out plagiarism.

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Whatever's Good in the Pot.
Now playing: New Found Glory - I Don't Wanna Know
via FoxyTunes

Friday night+Friends= Awesome-ness

Friday Night. Starbucks. Awesome.

These are the various aspects in which contributes to my destressing activities for the past week due to the taxing demands of poly life. In this article I'll talk about the... Oh wait, an article?

Yea right...

Let see, Starbucks last night (Friday) was awesome. Like really really awesome, period. Friday nights ever fail to perk a stressful week up.

First it was the Subway Sandwich I had IN Starbucks and the Coffee Frap which went really really well with the Subway Club (foot-long). Then it was the conversations we had and after that, a random photoshoot on one of my friend's Macbook. It was really rad.

Oh well. Thats all for the update I guess. Heading out into the wild concrete jungle soon; loads to complete. Will try and update soon. And oh yea, before I forget, a couple of pictures from last night. lol.

There are a couple more but I'm kinda lazy to upload them. Look, blame the workload yea?

Cya'll Later.