2009 May

lara croft shoots wedding

Thursday, 21 May 2009

Shooting with two camera bodies can be a little bit of a pain in the butt. Slinging one over each shoulder sometimes results in a collision and as I stand and squat and move around, one would occasionally slide off.

Frankly, I wish I didn’t have to hold anything. If the cameras would just float in the air around me at the ready that would be just peachy but unless I’m related to Magneto from the X-Men, that ain’t gonna happen now is it (I checked ok, lifted the palm of my hand and concetrated real hard…nothing moved).

The other thing I thought of was a holster…yeah like for guns but it would be for cameras.

Exhibit A: Lara Croft
See, hands free, they just strap on to your body. However, this would require shorts (really short shorts) and shapely thighs.

Exhibit B: John McClane
Great idea, just gotta lose the dirty clothes and lower the holster a bit, wouldn’t wanna be tucking a camera under your armpit now do you?

So anyway, I’ve always wished they made holster for cameras and lo and behold, they do! My friend just pointed me to the Black Rapid website. Check out this double strap:

It’s exactly what I’ve always wished they’d make but now that it’s available I don’t know if I’d be game enough to wear that to a wedding. I remember one of the videographers had a big black vest on for strapping the video camera to himself and I thought he looked like he was with the bomb squad.

Honestly, it looks ok on a dude but on a chick? If you find any photos of this on a female photographer, do let me know! BTW Gizmodo appropriately called this double strap a “John Woo’s take on wedding photography” haha.

I hope the guy in the photo never finds this post ‘cos I’m about to say that it reminded me of this:

Very innovative but for now, I’ll just stick to my slidey shoulders until I see it in action =)

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first time fritters

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Has anyone been watching Master Chef? I’ve missed a couple of episodes but I love this show. It’s so inspiring and it makes me wanna try new things.

My mum is a great cook and of all things she passed on to me, her culinary talent didn’t quite make it through the umbilical cord. I did have many opportunities to learn from her but I was a lazy daughter. I’m Thai and I can’t even make Tom Yum soup. I’ve tried a few times and it never tasted right, my last attempt involved a jar of pre made paste ‘cos I’ve given up on trying to make it from scratch. Oh how my mother would be so proud.

I can’t cook anything that is too complicated or has long list of ingredients. I love looking at all the pretty pictures in cook books and just wish I could snap my fingers and have it appear right in front of me. Sure I’ve tried recipes but sadly, I don’t follow instructions well. I’m definitely not a calculated type of cook, I am more intuitive…but with um…bad intuitions.

Anyway, being inspired by Master Chef, I was determined to try something new. I came across this rather simple looking recipe in a magazine – Haloumi & Zucchini Fritters. I love love love haloumi, it’s my favourite cheese. I’ve never made fritters but I have haloumi and zucchinis in the fridge so why not, let’s have a crack.

Now, the smartest thing I did was to halve everthing ‘cos I knew there was a high chance of failure (eventhough this looks VERY easy). Recipe said to grate zucchinis and haloumi:

After that, I read that I’ll also be needing eggs, plain flour and spring onions. Umm perhaps I should’ve read ALL the ingredients before I started ‘cos I didn’t actually have flour. Argh fine, I’ll get off my ass and go buy some flour.

Then you just mix it all up (with a bit of pepper) to make a batter and then fry it.

Notice how it looks kinda burnt? Well, here’s the thing…you know how the stove has a dial where you turn the gas on. One end is low heat and one end is high heat right? So I figured, if I put it in the middle…then it’s medium heat which is what the recipe required. Wrong! Go on and laugh, I already got laughed at today and a question to boot “well, if you leave an empty pan on low heat for an hour, is it still low heat?”. I’m such a doofus.

The fritters:

The verdict: They were so freaking salty but that ain’t my fault ‘cos I didn’t add extra salt. A bit burnt on the outside (due to my medium heat geniusness) and a little soggy on the inside ‘cos I couldn’t leave them on the pan any longer. BTW, half and egg and one egg is the same diff right? Hmm the batch was meant to make 12 but I only got 7…maybe I made them too fat.

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