The 2011 Favourites List

And here's my second 2011 round-up post, just a few lists of my favourite things this year.

New Favourite Blogs new discoveries of 2011
A Plus B In The Sea
Dear Coffee, I Love You
Mr & Mrs Globetrot
Vanilla Minuet

Perennial Favourite Blogs that I will always read first on google reader
A Photo Diary
Curating Cuteness
Everything Reminds Me Of You
For The Easily Distracted
Much Love, Anna
Pugly Pixel
Sleepwalking In Tokyo
Tais-Tois
The Blue Hour

Favourite Books that I bought and read in 2011
The Audacity To Win - David Plouffe
The Day We Found The Universe - Marcia Bartusiak
Any Man Of Mine - Rachel Gibson

Favourites Shows that I began watching in 2011
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
Mary Poppins The Musical
那些年，我们一起追的女孩 (You Are The Apple of My Eye)

Cafes that I would go over and over again
Crazyworld Cafe
Raindrops Cafe
Restore

2011 Cameras & Films Round-Up

Earlier this week, I started brainstorming for ideas for some end of year round up posts. As I was clicking through my photo files, I thought it would be interesting to take stock of the total amount of films I have shot this year and how they break down into different categories. It took one afternoon of calculations but here's the results!

Total No. of Films Used 
92

Although I have been shooting film exclusively this year, finding out that I have used 92 rolls was still quite a shock. 92 translates to 7.7 rolls per month or 1.76 rolls per week!

Most Used Cameras
1. Canon EOS 88 - 74
2. Fisheye 2 - 8
3. La Sardina - 4
4. Holga 135BC - 4
5. LC-A+ - 2

No surprises here that my Canon EOS 88 slr came out supreme. It has been a complete trooper and I think I have really improved in terms of composition and framing since I started using it. As for lomography/toy cameras, I expect that the LC-A+ will raise up through the ranks next year to give the Fisheye a good fight!

Top 3 Negative Films Used
1. Ferrania Solaris 100 - 12
2. Ferrania Solaris 400 - 8
3. Ferrania Solaris 800 - 7

Again, no surprises here, you must know by now that I have a love affair with Solaris films.

Top 3 Slide Films Used
1. Lomography Chrome 100 - 6
2. Fuji Velvia 50 - 5
3. Lomography Xpro 200 - 4

It was love at first sight for the new Lomography Chrome film when it was first introduced earlier this year. Almost every order I have placed on Lomography have at least one box of Chrome to ensure that I always have a supply of this lovely film. The Fuji Velvia 50 is also a recent favourite of mine, I love its elegant green tones when cross processed and just lately, I processed it correctly (E6) and am head over heels in love with the rich colour tones produced.

No. of Film Types Tried
17 Negatives
12 Slides
5 B/W
1 Redscale

It's been fun trying out so many different film types. It may seem like I have tried quite a few but there's still so many out there and I am looking forward to experimenting more next year and finding new favourites!

Cameras Purchased
1 LC-A+

I saved up the entire year for the LC-A+, both piggies and real dollars! It's been a real learning experience with this camera and I can't wait to use it to document 2012!

So that is how it all shakes down. I think it will be even more interesting next year when I can do a year-to-year comparison and see what things has changed or has remained the same. I have two, maybe three more end of 2011 posts planned so look out for them!

just a minute, in december

i enjoy jotting down these little "just a minute" posts, i like that i am able to scroll to my earlier posts and remember what i was feeling and doing at that time. almost like a time machine!

watching...the big bang theory season 5
reading...the day we found the universe by marcia bartusiak
finding...that i have a craving for cake
listening...mistletoe by justin bieber (don't judge, it's actually a rather sweet song)
drinking...a&w root beer
enjoying...the cooler temperatures at night

a day at the museum

i had a day off yesterday and decided to take a busman's holiday to visit the national museum of singapore to check out the latest blockbuster exhibition in town - dreams & reality: masterpieces of painting, drawing and photography from the musee d'orsay, paris. it was exciting to get up close & personal with paintings by master artists like monet, degas, seurat and van gogh. it was intriguing to see how paintings are displayed against coloured walls, a point of discussion that i recently noticed about museums. however, i was a little disappointed at how it was curated. the way it was laid out was certainly very thoughtful but i had hoped that it would be a little more non-traditional since the paintings are being displayed in a non-european country.

01. outside exhibition halls 1 & 2.
02. the coloured ways, yay or nay? personally i like them, but i think it could also depend on what sort of exhibition it is.
03. claude monet, regatta at argenteuil, 1874
04. one of the few photographs featured. i am utterly in love with this photograph, it's eerie, gorgeous and serene all rolled up in one shot.
05. vincent van gogh, starry night over the rhone. the older brother of the more famous the starry night, i like how luminous the painting is and that van gogh didn't just drew random stars but decided to use the constellation ursa major.
06. theo van rysselberghe, sailing boats and estuary. ever since i read a readers' digest article about georges seurat and pointilism, i have been fascinated by this art technique. it just blows my mind.

everyday life lately, with the iphone

18 Nov - 6 Dec 2011

i have a bit of a history with instagram. when it first launched, i downloaded it and when i tried using it, it kept crashing on me. frustrated, i deleted it and resolved never to use it again when there were so many other awesome photography apps out there. fast forward to about a year later in melbourne when i saw the filters that my friend, tk, was applying to her iphone pictures. i was fascinated and when i had a wifi connection at the melbourne museum, i immediately downloaded it. since then, i have been obsessed with it! every picture i have been taking on my phone have been filtered through it and i am having such a blast! if you want to follow my photostream, my username is greenteafields.