Shine Youth Festival J-Rock Concert

June 22 was the start of the 5th Shine Youth Festival held by the National Youth Council, and I was there to help Joan out. I didn't take any photographs in the day though — instead I helped out as a videographer. It was interesting but I think I don't quite cut it as a videographer yet. It's tough enough composing still images, what more moving ones!

Anyway, I did take some photos at the end of the day. So I took the Nikkor AFS 17-55mm f2.8 for a spin on Joan's D90 and had quite a bit of fun taking the J-Rock performances. The most exciting group to shoot was the last one I shot before leaving for the night, and here are three of my favourites:

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

I tried shooting with flash at the start, but after a while decided it was still better without flash, mainly because flash takes away the colourful stage lighting and turns everything into white light. Having a fast lens and a camera with high ISO performance surely helps in this.

I'm beginning to itch for more gigs to shoot... Hmmm.

PS. It's been a while since my last post... have been busy keeping up with work and adjusting to my new sleeping patterns. Sorry about it, I shall try to update a little more frequently from here on!

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 36

May 27, the last day of my graduation trip. T_T

Some pictures:

A view from my room in the morning.


Signpost #1


Bus stops


A house by the river


Signpost #2. Wonder what it means!


Had a late lunch at a bagel cafe with Vicky. Her bagel looked more delicious than mine. Ha.

Photo of the day: a random snap just before I left the restaurant.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

That was it. Left to get my stuff from Rita, and then headed to the airport for my long flight home.

I really enjoyed my trip. There is still much to explore and photograph in Italy and the Netherlands. I hope to be back soon.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 35

May 26, spent the better part of the day travelling from Rome back to Leiden. First a plane to Brussels, then train to Leiden. It's funny but I felt a strong sense of homecoming when I reached Leiden station.

After unloading my luggage at Rita's former residence (the landlord was kind enough to let us use the storeroom), we met Vicky for dinner. Had some nasi padang (haha), then headed to a nice restaurant for some Dutch pancakes. Some fellow diners:

I thought the pancakes looked like crepes. But they were nice.

Had a walk about town again that evening. Can't help thinking that I will miss this town.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

Grad Trip - Photo of the Day 34

May 25, was supposed to visit the Vatican Museums, but got turned off by the massive queues and went shopping instead. I went to the main shopping area to look for a good bag that I can use for work, and only found a couple I liked. Fortunately, one was wayyy too expensive so that made my choice easy.

Anyway, my photo of the day was taken while I was hopping from shop to shop:

Since there was a kitchen in the room, decided to cook dinner that night. And because I didn't take any good pictures of the final product... Here's a picture of my shopping basket. Haha.

© Lin Zhaowei, 2009.

That was it for Rome, left early the next day for Brussels.