Wakeboarding.

First update of this week. Its been a long week i guess.

Really really busy with this project our whole class is doing, of which i will not publish here yet as its still not ready to be published.

I guess it should be done by next Monday anyway.

So what have i been doing since my scuba and Wakeboarding FO camp?. Tons. And i have not even managed to do a post on that camp yet. Well, thats for later anyway.

Went for the first wakeboarding training on tuesday, at first felt like ponning as they said we were going to run around the whole school, which was about 3km. Total sianness. But went in the end anyway.

The run wasnt as bad as i thought, but was really slow towards the end. Didnt feel shagged as i would have thought after the run anyway. Went to the gym and did some stuff with the rest of the group, which only counted 6 i think.

While the rest bathed, me and ryan went to buy some overpriced burger from Bang Delhi, then sat down to watch the taekwondo ppl practice. Ryan said they were really lousy.

That was tue. Between that and Friday, i did lots of planning and stuff. And on Friday, i finally had my first wakeboarding experience!

Wilson did not come as planned as he had some important lessons, so met with Ryan, this other guy called Ken and Shi Fu, then trained downed to Pasir Ris to meet with Donavan (our wakeboard president), and he took us to meet the coach somewhere along changi beach.

The coach (which was also the boat driver) brought us to somewhere north of singapore (arnd pulau tekong according to don) as the waters there were less choppy. so here i let the pictures tell the story again..



first we were taught how to get up and out of the water when the boat starts. then after that, what direction should our board point when we are on the water.


splash. actually most of the photos here involves people falling. hahah


but we eventually get the hang of it.


yeah, the waves have a tendency of sneaking up on you.


a job well done.


its really funny, as the currents in the water would move you away from the boat, and you are some what helpless to swim back as your legs are tied.


another splash.


going to splash.


each person rode for quite long actually. it was also somewhat tiring.


shit cant rmb her name. haahha


another splash.


i go up in smoke.


i hate splashing face first. Its really hard to flip the board back to the correct position again. but otherwise falling is actually quite fun. hahahah


The rain arrives and we had to stop play for a while.


but the rain didnt stop us from cam whoring.




poor ryan had to wait out the rain. luckily it passed fast and we could resume wakeboarding.


hehe, yup i stil had time to do "arty" shots.


ryan does the getting up training thingi.


yeah, we changed location due to the rain..


splash.


and again..


"graeme vision". Seen thru two half naked dudes.


lol.


Superman!




the zai boy takes to the sea. (thats donavan.)


we changed location again.


don gets some air.


before landing off balance.


guess what there doing in there...


got another chance to run and finally get the hang of it.


its actually quite tiring as you are doing a half squat the whole time.


and for some reason i was too tired to get on the boat. hahah


there were clouds around the mountains. or hills.


the sea was much calmer now.


the water broke in a cool way.


everyone was somewhat tired already.


the sun was setting.


and we were still cam whorin'




graeme likes.


yeah, they were like super camwhorers. and they spoke chinese. tsk.

My Digital Workflow.

Wonder why i always bitch about posting blog posts on the same day as an event? or how i always talk about having to take 3 hours to complete one blog post?. Yup, maybe through this post, you'll see why.

So i start off the "day" by transferring all my photos from my camera down to my computer, which usually takes about 10 mins to complete as each picture averages 7mb and on average, i take about 200 photos per "event".

and if you're wondering what am i doing talking to "gaybee" "princess hanablah" or linnette, well, Gabriel is under the name Gaybee, JQ is princess (yes, rmb, my weirdest friend) and Graeme is using his sisters computer for some reason.
During that long 10 mins, i might start to do a writeup about the events that happened in blogger, but i usually only complete one paragraph due to the really distracting conversation going on on skype.

The transfer completes and i import them to this really useful program called Lightroom 2.



This program helps you sort files really easily and "tag" them with keywords so that its easier to find them. Kinda of like a photo album, just that its much better and less chunky.

So i import them in, then begin my long sorting process, in which i decide what photos to delete and what photos to keep. I usually start with a quick run through, blurred photos are deleted immediately (unless its a photo on a really important "event" that would tell a good story eg. wilson acting really gay or something.)



Then i'll move on to ugly photos, like photos that are not nicely composed or stuff like that. After that, its down to useless photos. Photos that do not tell any story at all, eg. camwhoring pictures. That said i usually keep 1 or 2 photos every person present (even if they are camwhoring), otherwise, its down to the bin.

All in all, i usually end up with 50% of the photos that i have taken. (previously my "keeper rate" was 30%). This usually takes 1 hr, or if a skype conversation is going on, it can take 2 hours. haha

The final time i move through all the photos taken again is to pick out whats suitable for the blog, like pictures that are funny and captionable or pictures that are nice. This is usually only 70% of the photos that i kept so far, and is also one of the hardest process as i have to keep it below 60 photos. (more on that later).

Editing is done to the photos that i would post, most of the time i would use lightroom to brighten or darken the image. Sometimes i would induce vignetting, which is darkening along the edges. But thats about it.


this picture required some brightness tweaking.


this picture had its saturation or vibrancy reduced, and i introduced some vignetting.

Exporting the finished photos to a folder, at a reduced size of 820pixels on the longest side and compressed to jpeg form, the size of a photo now is a mere 100kb, max. Then ill upload all the photos to my many flickr accounts.


selecting all the picked ones and exporting them.

Uploading takes a long time, as my internet totally sucks, thats why nowadays i usually upload them at school, as its incredibly fast there. (this induces a one day delay as i have to put them in my laptop and go to school the next day to upload it).


uploading.

While uploading, i would start the blog post and start going through the photos again to see if i can crap out any caption story and junk like montages.

Once im done uploading, the tedious parts comes. I need to open all the photos in flickr in tabs, then click on a small button, then i would be able to link it to my blog post.

After reordering the pictures, the steps repeat itssself... Find suitable place for picture, Copy link, Paste link, Caption picture, rinse and repeat. Total bore unless i suddenly come up with a funny caption story that would induce a burst of laughter from me and consequently inducing comments that im watching some gay shit from the bunch of people on skype. Hahaha


the mundane task.

A final read through and then triumphantly clicking on the "Publish Post" button with an intense sense of achievement before being shot down by Gabriel when he spots a spelling mistake and burns away my self esteem.

After that, gabriel will do some weird voodoo and upload the pictures to facebook, where the tagging frenzy starts and your inbox gets spammed.

Thats it, 3 hours gone like that. Now dont rush me to post your stupid pictures.


Yeah, and im also finally back from camp. Will blog about it on another day when i find the pictures and time though.