Short Tutorial for a Quick Snap!

I initially planned for a video tutorial but decided it would take way too long to produce. (my inner perfectionist self won’t allow a poor production :p)

Today I’ll be focusing on a quick tutorial to get you start snapping photos by maximizing the ability of the camera. I have with me a Olympus EPL-1 and i’m gonna use it to show u how to use some of the more interesting functions. Along the tutorial, i’ll be using some previous snaps i took. (NOTE: the button may look slightly dissimilar on different models, but the same priciple applies).

MODES

there are 4 important modes which allow us to take very different sets of photos

1. SCN
2. iAuto
3. M (manual)
4. ART

SCN

SCN (Scenic) mode have most of the preset for different situation, so if other modes does turn out good, try use SCN and select from it. Though beginner-proved, i find most photos from this mode isjust acceptable quality.

iAuto

iAuto is one of my favourite mode to use. It allows some fine-tuning wihout needing too much control. Most of my photos are taken in this mode. And the most used “option” is the ‘brightness‘ and ‘blur‘ control.

Brightness:

Particularly useful in most scenarios. Giving a quick setting of brightness.

to get to this mode, turn the dial to “iAuto” then press “OK” and the OPTION menus will appear along the right side of the screen.

Click “OK” again, and you will be able to use the “Simple brightness” control. Use the “up” and “down” arrow to adjust brightness accordingly.

At this point, if you press the < left arrow, an “Extended Brightness” control will appear. This will allow finer control like “brighten the dark area” or “darken the bright area”.

Blur:

Useful mostly for my playful macroshots. I’d push the blur to the highest, then focus and snap!

The effect, as shown on this test-shot. A clear object with blur-out background 

M (manual)

In low light condition, i would sometime prefer the M mode. This is what the professionals are playing with their DSLR. In this mode, you are allow to change many settings, todays’ focus are: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. These will determine the amount of exposure for the shots. (in simple term, the amount of light captured)

To adjust the settings, turn the dial to “M” mode and press up button. This will allow you to adjust “Aperture” (by moving left and right) and “shutter speed” (by moving up and down). Note that after setting at certain value, you may click to shoot immediately.

(1) Aperture

in order to get a good low-light photo, i recommend to open the aperture by adjusting the F(focal length) to the lowest number. For Olympus 14-42mm lens, that would be F/3.5.

(2) Shutter speed

The shutter speed determines the time we allow the camera to capture the light. The faster the shutter speed, the less time it have to capture the light, hence a dimmer shots. However, at slower speed, the shots will become blurry, because we moves while the camera still trying to capture the light.

For low-light condition, turn the shutter speed to around 1/20 of a second (equal to the value20). Some people with steady hands can actually go up to 1/8 (value 8) or less. But once your hand shakes, the shots became blurring and unusable.

This sample shot is done with shutter speed of 12 seconds! (with a tripod of course :p) See how much light it captured causing a very bright shot

(3) ISO

ISO can be simply explained as light absorption. The range for this camera is 100 – 3200.

To adjust ISO, turn the dial to “M” mode and click “OK”. Select the ISO option and adjust accordingly.

Ideally, lowest ISO is best! (at higher ISO, more light will be captured, but the shots become “noisy”/ grainy) . I use this to compensate for the amount of light in the room. Usually at low light, ISO 800 – 1250 will be suffice. In broad day-light situation, i’ll stick to 100 – 200instead.

By this fine tuning, i was able to capture night scene better. And the shot will turn out with better details!

ART

I seldom use ART mode as most of the effect can be added afterward using computer software. So, i’ll just take the shot by focusing on clearness and proper lighting and add on the art filter using photoshop, lightroom or picasa 

If any, i’d be using the diorama or dramatic option because it is plain fun 

A foggy morning at the hospital. After applying the monochromatic effect, the “feel” of the photo give an air of eeriness

TIP!

1. First tips is to press the capture button half-way in order to focus the object you would like to capture.
2. play with the angles 
3. capture the photo like it is your own eye. Candid shot are the best!
4. use “2 seconds delay” shooting mode if you deliberately need to decrease the blurriness due to slow shutter speed.
5. shoot towards light sometimes :p this will give u the Bokeh effect (see photo below)
   
6. be playful! remember the subject you are trying to capture is not only the people, rather the emotion they potray 
   few years back, there is a trend to capture jumping shots. And now a new trend called planking, which is rather silly.
   Recently, there is also a surge of people trying to re-create old shots. I think it is rather brilliant 
7. Shoot video sometimes  Olympus is a great camera to shoot video. If you intend for a full documentary, shoot short videos and perhaps you could stitch them into a video slide-show later
8. Fish-eye lens is fun too! if u put it near your head, then the rest of your body will appear shrinked.  (Note: zoom out the lens to see the fish-eye effect)

Otherwise, if you are taking scenery shots, using a horizontal line to make the fish-eye effect stands out.

last but not least, don’t be too busy shooting! Be part of the event and enjoy the night-out. Don’t hide behind the camera instead of being in-front of it!

Life between pre-call, on-call & postcall

Time flies as I went through paeds department. All I could say that it is overall a good training. Met some of the cutest children. And some not so cute, but certainly memorable ones.

In particular, the baby who loves to smile and had the habit of taking a deep breath when one blew air onto his face. (malabsorbtion syndrome)

Then there is the boy who can only count the number 4. (Eventration of diaphragm)

Then the boy who smile and say ‘hi’ to doctor eventhough he is literally out of breath.
(pneumonia)

The girl who stop crying when I sing ‘you’ve got a friend in me’. (hyperactive airway disease)

The boy who remind me of cookie monster 
(pierre-robin syndrome)

The girl who like to scratch her backside. (barter syndrome)

The boy who want the precise piece of his Nasi himpit size covered with even spread of peanut gravy. (steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome)

The boy who can still eat chipsmore cookies while having his iv line inserted. (acute lymphoblastic leukemia)

They will all be part of my treasured memories who got me through this hectic department.

Moscow: tear-striken

it is a sad day in Moscow when it was struck by the bombing attack lastweek. I was so shook by the news. And to learn that fellow malaysian was actually on the scene, in the same wagon when it happens just sent the chills to the core.

i was studying there for a good 6 year. the 6 years that made me now a half-blood moscovites. i was pretty attached to the place, i must say. I met few of the wonderful ppl i became friend wif. Part of me grows there.

when i saw a picture on The Moscow Times this morning, i couldnot held back the sadness i felt for the loss of victims’ families and Moscow itself. It is such sadness that could not be contained within anymore. The photographer captured the emotion so well with his lens.

I pray silently for those lives lost.

Black Hawk Down

i was just discharged from hospital today. was admitted for 3 days due to pain on my right lowerback. Turns out to be a stone down my urinary tract causing hydronephrosis.

they dont have a clock in the ward. I was placed in a 2-person room specially reserved for staff member who got sick. Apparently, i was the only inhibitant for the whole 3 days. time was something that seems most inconsistant. the only ‘time’ i remember is between the wakes from the pain, the jabs then the nauseating episodes of vomit and then, it is back to slumber.

nurses came in every once in a while. every so often, they will stop by to check my vitals. they do appear to come in intervals. mostly on time. sometimes they are late. but it never bothers me. In fact, the short conversation was the one thing that kept me from fading away.

my regular heart rate is about 45-55. it is not normal by medical book standards. most people have a heart rate of 70-80. Mine was less by some reason, but it was normal. (i had it check out when i was in med-school).

most of the time the nurses will be alerted with the number the see on the screen :”45?” “are u okay doctor?”… i would explain to them it is my normal heart rate. they would turn away with some disbelieve on their face, but otherwise, woud proceed with their other errents.

The funny part is, when i was in great pain. My heart rate will rise to somewhere around 80. That is a whooping 30+ difference from my baseline. (it is normal to have heart rate increasing in reflex to pain stimuli) And the nurses will give a big smile and say “well, all is normal!”.

Obviously, it is not normal. cant they read the subtle grimmace on my face? the body language telling them otherwise? Usually, i would bother and just order for another jab of IV.Tramadol. IM just wont cut it for me.

The worst part of the jab is the after-effect. Soon, a swirling sensation will spin in my head. Coupled with the pain i am already in, sweat will breaks on my forehead. For a brief moment, i can hear my breathing gets rather heavy…Then, came the gushing wave of vomitus. If you wonder what it was like. It is like getting your gut turned insde-out…

soon, everything will settled in the burred out ways and i will return the long slumber i was in, before i get woken up by another pain attack.

Pain from a renal colic is excruciating. Those who didnt know will never knows. If you want me to put it into words, then i’d describe it as the sensation worst then being kicked in the balls. (please dont mind my language). The bastard just wont give it to rest. It will keep hiting you again and again until you give in.

In medicine, we usually rate our pain from 1-10. that is what we call a “pain score”. one being the least painful, and then 10 is like when u get a heart attack. Pain from renal colic could go up to 8 by my standard. Usually, i could handle pain score 2-3 (which is somewhere between mild and moderate). But when it hit pain score 4-5, that is where it gets tricky. Your mind will start asking question wether the pain will reduce back to score 2-3 or will be became more violent, hitting score 7-8.

The logic is, one would want the jab before the pain becomes too much to handle. So, i’d have to decide FAST. The reason simply being (1) it takes some time for the medicine to work (2) It also take MUCH time for the nurses to come, to prepare the jab… until you “finally” gets the jab.

To call the nurse, they designed the “nurse buzzer”. Well, i dont really know what it is really called, but it is the very button u pushed to get the nurse in. They made it conveniently close to the bed where u can just reach out and press it swiftly. However, no matter how close it was within reach, it usually took my a good few minutes to press it.

the dillema to press the buzzer, is that u wont know for sure if the pain in getting worse or better. so, like most sane people , i’d to wait it out, and decide if it is REALLY getting worse?

…. and if i have one good tip from this whole hospital ordeal, it is this: NEVER HESSITATE to push that button. Stop being a thickhead and think you’re tough, the pain will ONLY get worse!

after seemingly endless cycle of waking up-and sleeping, i finally got well enough, to be able to push myself up beyond the boundary of the perimeter of the bed, and let in the sun and refreshing breeze.

And apparently, after the long-standing pain, the stone finally trickled down my ureter and now resting just a few milimeter from my bladder. The surgeon decided i wouldnt need to go under the knife. Rather, he would have me wait for the kidney stone to be flushed out from my system the “natural” way.

So, off i go, being kicked out of hospital before actually being healed.

# special thanks to Dr.Dar of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, who had troubled himself in order to helped me locating the nature of the illness. He had shown kindness and efficiency in his work, and it meant a lot for me.

when was it?

it has been a while since i stayed up late like this doing nothing but staring into the darkness of the room, listening to radio playing endless streams of songs. 988FM is playing some soft tune tonite. mostly love songs by artist unknown by me… i wondered when was it, that i last let myself drown in such emo mess… strangely, it is refreshing.

i went for “Alice in the wonderland” yesterday. watched it alone. it is a nice movie. i laughed a lot. but now that i think of it, i’d rather to have someone to laughed together with :/

hahah, i think midlife crisis must be catching upon me.

dear friends, wherever u may be… i do miss u

Dinner talk: execution of criminal

today, we were discussing about criminal execution over dinner.

nephew01: is it true that we hang criminal to death?
nephew02: of course, they tie some brick on the foot of the criminal, then put him on a plank then kick off the plank and let him fall. that is how i heard it was done.
me: yea somewhat, but malaysia have 2 type of death penalty, one is “gantung sampai mati” (= hang till you die) and another is “hukuman gantung” (= only hang)
nephew01: then if only hang, surely a lot of ppl will survive
me: unlikely, by the force of body falling, usually one will snapped their neck
nephew01: the magician wont die, since they know magic
nephew02: oh, then it will be exhausting for the executioner to hang them repeatingly
me: …

nephew02: why dont we electricute them?
me: US is doing that, hanging is the “malaysian” way
nephew01: which one is more painful, hanging or electricuting?
me: … how do i know, i never got hanged or electricuted before

nephew02: in China, they shoot them to death rite?
me: yes
nephew02: so i heard, the executioner will stand in circle and shoot the criminal in the center. that way, the criminal will surely die, unlike hanging
me: if they stand in circle, then not only the criminal will die, all the executioner might die too, shooting at each other :p
nephew01: LOL

nephew01: why not just toss them into the volcano
me: well, that might work, if only every country got a volcano
nephew02: nevermind, indonesia can lend us the volcano
me: … (wow, how diplomatic of them to think indonesia gonna lend us a freaking VOLCANO!)

nephew01: but it will be a hassle to climb the volcano everytime
me: we can just build the prison next to the volcano
nephew02: or we can fly a plane over and push them down
me: LOL
nephew01: come to think of it, might not be a very good way, if the volcano erupt, it will be dead body all over
us: LOL

nephew01: we can actually dig a big hole and push them all from the plane. that way, we kindda took care of the funeral one shot.
me: but it is not very cost effective to fly a plane everytime we wanna execute a criminal.
nephew02: we could just tie them to the aeroplane tire and dragged them all the way till they die
me: LOL… (yea, they might just die before u took off) or we could just drive a lorry into them
us: LOL

such educational dinner talk, rite? now i can rest assure our future is secured if my nephew becomes the leader of the country next time. next time a judge will pass down a death sentence, it will sound like this: Hukuman mati dengan dilanggar lorry sehingga mati!

2010: not yet 2012

2010 started with a BAM!… i meant that quite literally. BAM! as in collision kind of bam. As 12 midnite clocked-in on us, it actually slipped passed without much celebration. we were busy resuscitating a 16 year-old kid from a motor-vehicle accident. I succeeded intubation on 1st try, yet it wasnt enough to pull him back from the damage that has been done. pronounced brain dead somewhere near dawn.

I stepped outside from the hectic ER and watched the sunrise over the horizon. breathed a bit of fresh air — air without the smell of blood.

that’s how my newyear rolled by.