Panas Hari Ini

Cuaca kurang bersahabat hari ini. Terasa panas bahkan AC yang dinyalakan pada suhu 18 derajat tak mampu membuatku berhenti berkeringat. Mungkin akan hujan sore ini tapi aku juga tidak tahu. Kuharap tidak.

Aku sudah lama tidak memotret pertunjukan panggung dan tawaran untuk datang ke acara ulang tahun sebuah operator telekomunikasi di Indonesia membuatku ingin sekali menuju Senayan membawa kamera setiaku, si Nikon D50 dengan dua lensa wajib: Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 dan Nikon 80-200 mm f/2.8 yang sudah lama sekali tidak dikeluarkan dari tabungnya.

Tetapi tentu saja kekhawatiran soal cuaca adalah persoalan utama. Aku tak tahu dan tak yakin soal cuaca dan kemungkinan hujan-hujanan membawa gear senilai lebih hampir dua puluh juta rupiah (nilai saat aku beli tiap barang) yang rentan terhadap pengaruh elemen -- terutama air -- sangat mempengaruhiku. Ragu kan jadinya untuk berjalan dengan kondisi seperti itu?

Pilihan dan alternatif lain adalah dengan mengendarai mobil dengan resiko kena macet yang biasanya terjadi tiap weekend di rute yang rencananya akan kuambil. Memang terlindung dari elemen tapi ya tetap saja kemacetan akan membuatku terlambat datang ke tempat tujuan ditambah lagi kelelahan menyetir. Tapi setidaknya kamera dan lensa-lensaku aman dari resiko rusak oleh elemen.

Semua itu membuatku ragu dan YA, aku memang seorang yang peragu.

Apapun akhirnya kuharap tidak ada gangguan dan hambatan karena aku sudah ingin sekali memotret pertunjukan panggung. Kuharap semua bisa dilaksanakan dan lancar-lancar saja.

Day 285: Discipline And Focus

That's two of the most important things for character integrity -- or so I think.

Even with a commitment, being discipline and stay in focus take up a lot of energy and can be surprisingly tough thing to do. As with my initial intention on keeping a 5-day blog post which by the time you're reading this you must be able to guess that I am failing miserably.

My ideal thing with this blog is that I will write an update at the minimum of one for every five days passed since first of January, 2009. I even loosely limited the topic on anything that might be interesting to me -- since that time I thought on just focusing on one theme only and post anything related to it every five days might be an untenable task (please consider to look up on dictionary if "untenable" is an appropriate word -- atmr).

But that turned out to be a folly. Without focusing on a certain theme and keeping it on schedule (the fifth-day regular update), I can easily lost focus and not making any update AT ALL. Don't try to tell me about that fault because I am already felt like a failure at this and my self-esteem is hurting like a... I don't know. What'd be a word to describe it?

Again and again I am reminded but as always I am easily distracted and that cause me to unable to attend to my own schedule, the one I set for myself. Maybe I should do this differently from now on, like making a more specific description on my topic for that five-day regular and maybe sometimes make it a special!

Blah blah.. I am only so full of ideas!

:(

Day 279: Jumper

No, I'm not refering to the movie about some people born with an ability to teleport to places just by looking at the image of the place. Instead, I am talking about the Third Eye Blind's single, titled "Jumper" that I saw in Jim Carrey movie, "Yes Man".

The song tell about a friend that want to commit suicide by jumping from atop of a building. Well, that was kind of stray too much from my REAL point but the tune catch hold in my head and I found myself humming or singing part of the lyrics.

Maybe because that song remind me of myself, as I standing here prepare to jump. No, you! I don't mean to jump and die as in suicide. I mean that I'm jumping to embrace another operating system, jumping away from Microsoft Windows XP that I have been using these past few years. Let me admit it:

I am embracing open source software!

There! I said it!

I am the first in my office to start backing up my own work and personal files to CDs and DVDs. Too damn bad I didn't found one system to catalogue the content of all those disks, scratched on both surfaces and unable to be put inside a drive anymore.

I am the first in my office to start putting some work files in the cloud. That's because I don't want to carry a notebook around, adding at least three kgs to the overall weight of my luggages. That way, all I need is an internet connection and a rental computer loaded with appropriate office suite, be it OpenOffice or Microsoft Office.

Now, I am the first in my office to jump to open source section of the computer users. That's right! I now use dual-boot, Windows XP Home Service Pack 3 and Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. Even right now, I'm typing this post in a Mozilla Firefox web broser on GNOME, using Rythmbox to listen to my music list (it's still on mp3 format so I have to install the proper restricted codecs).

What I really mean that, even on a small scale thus have no power to change any other computer users in my office to ditch their older software and take Open Source Software instead. When I push up the idea to change into open source, I justgot rejected. Nobody seemed to like the notion; give it some consideration first; or even curious about Ubuntu Linux! Nobody, except me.

So here I am, writing this post, after jumping to another Open Source operating system and softwares..!

Let me qoute something:

At the core of the Ubuntu Philosophy are these core philosophical ideals:

1. Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.
2. Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice.
3. Every computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a disability.

The freedoms at the core of free software are defined as:

• The freedom to run the programme, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the programme works and adapt it to your needs.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
• The freedom to improve the programme and release your improvements to the public, so that everyone benefits.

Source in here!

Today, I'm thinking of doing another Jumper session. What jump now that'd be?

Day 270: Jakarta (Tak Pernah) Sepi IV

apa ini cukup sepi? whatever!



yes? no? maybe?

Day 270: Life Is As Good As What You Make Of It

It is two in the morning and everybody's asleep. Well, that's almost everybody, because if you can read this post that only mean that I am not sleeping, not yet, anyway. I did not want to sleep because when I sleep it will be Your face that I see, it will be Your face that I will be dream of. So, instead of a slumber, I chose to keep myself awake.

Someone I overheard saying that Life is as good as what one would make of but maybe I just didn't buy it. I mean, if there's always this perpetual feeling that things could be -- or should I say must be -- getting much better, why does it seem that for me at least that everything has come to a halt, being stagnant (if I couldn't say that it's getting worse and worsen), depressingly routine. It is hard to believe and hold on some optimistic point of view when every facts you have point on the other way.

I shouldn't be saying this -- or in this case, wrote about this -- but this need to write something on this wee hour is so great that I must write. Something. Before I will myself to sleep. Facing You again, in Your own domain, Your dwelling place. And there is nothing that prepare me to another encounter with You.

There is light and there is Light, but there is Dark also.

I just don't know what You represent. Not yet, anyway.

Isn't It Curious? Photography Books Queries...

Right now, sitting in a cafe, drinking black coffee, no sugar (one of my favorite drink) while using the available free wi-fi, my mind got on a journey -- as what a wayfarer should be. That's me, wayfarer, if you don't recognize it. Maybe it's just my nature or the caffeine in just one cup could get my mind soaring and wandering to places that might be unrelated to my everyday life.

Right now I remember my previous visit to a famous bookstore that boast to be the largest in Indonesia. You see, as a photography hobbyist, it's no wonder that I'd walk to Hobby/Photography section on my every visit to that bookstore -- or any similar but different brand bookstore.

But in any Indonesian bookstore, I see similarities. Coincidence? I don't know. Maybe that's because it just what we Indonesian do things.

You see, there's seemed to be a lot more books on photography's digital editing, more than about how to photograph or any real photography books that even tell you about basic rules in photography, or books on tips, or about certain places that are photographically beautiful. There's these line of photoshoping books on different version of PS, or different subject but using Photoshop, or using Photoshop to edit photos.

I mean, want to find a book about lighting tutorials or composition or how to use certain types of camera? Good luck on that.

Maybe because doing photography is still an expensive hobby or maybe there's not enough local photographers willing to write books about their experience or offer their insights but there's an army of photoshoppers willing to share. Which is, to me, is inadequate, at least for me.

I mean, are those pro photograpers, Indonesian photographers, unable to find time to write quality books on various subjects? How can it seemed that photographers are more content on showing-off their work -- thus a lot of coffee table photography books -- but not their how-to's? How come you can find image editing books easier than photography books?

I know there are a lot of photographers, Indonesian photographers, that have great works and cool photos. But what about their thoughts? Their taking on some photography subjects?

No wonder you can see a lot of average photos out there on any social networking sites that are photography-centric. Or average photos heavily edited with various techniques and tricks. I must admit that I am amazed at the photos, the amout of work (time, energy, thinking) that were put on that photograph.

But you just can't take any average photo and photoshopped it to be outstanding. That's just be really tedious. Or maybe it can but that'll take a lot of work than doing it right the first place...

Come on you guys! Where's your books?

Day 250: New Gears Mean Broader Options and Creativity Choiches

That's what my decision based on when I bought the Yong Nuo YN-460 universal pin speedlight and later Fotga's wireless radio trigger PT-04TM. But the set you can see here is that I ordered my set with modified 433MHz antenna for farther reach -- which I haven't tested yet.



Now suddenly I was so much into creative lighting using remote strobe and already planning for another set of speedlight+radio receiver which would look like this one! Of course that setup would mean that I need another lightstand and -- just in case -- a couple of light modifiers.

And to spice this post up, below is a result from my using of one speedlight mounted on a standar tripod with bounced lighting and no modifier.

(talent Theresia / makeup Theresia / wardrobe Fajar D / boots model's own)

Hak dan Kewajiban, Ketidakseimbangan Memori...

Mungkin ini alasan saja atau mungkin juga bukan. Mungkin pula bahwa aku juga seperti ini. Betapa sering kita menjumpai orang-orang yang mengingat dengan tepat kapan haknya seharusnya diperoleh atau dilakukan tetapi bisa dengan gampangnya melupakan kewajiban dan tugas? Betapa gampangnya kemudian beralasan lupa mengerjakan karena sedang sibuk padahal orang tersebut memiliki waktu luang PADA JAM KERJA untuk mengerjakan hal lain yang berorientasi pada keinginan/kebutuhan pribadi semata?

Betapa ada orang yang harus ditanyakan kemajuan suatu pekerjaan baru dengan sigap mengeluarkan telepon seluler dan berkata akan menghubungi orang di sebelah sana untuk koordinasi padahal dia telah hampir setengah jam berbincang-bincang denganku membicarakan hal-hal yang tak berkaitan dengan pekerjaan sama sekali? Bagaimana pula bahwa kejadian ini berlalu sampai berminggu-minggu padahal sudah bukan cuma sekali aku harus bertanya soal kemajuan pekerjaannya sebelum dia mulai bekerja? Bagaimana pula kalau orang tersebut sudah ditegur berkali-kali saat berdua saja dan bahkan di depan koleganya?

Betapa aku tidak capek dalam pikiran karena bila semuanya melambat atau mengalami gangguan dan masalah lainnya karena abainya pihak-pihak lain maka semuanya akan dilimpahkan kepadaku untuk membereskannya dan diharapkan aku bisa dan harus bisa menyelesaikannya sementara mereka yang abai dan cuai bisa dengan tanpa rasa bersalah sama sekali melanjutkan hari-hari seperti biasa bahkan tak mendapatkan teguran?

Betapa aku tak capek menghadapi orang-orang yang selain abai juga tak mau belajar bahkan tak merasa tidak tahu? Atau bahkan setelah mengetahui kalau mereka tidak tahu mereka dengan gampangnya mengabaikan tugas dengan alasan "tidak tahu" kemudian malah duduk bersama-sama mengobrol hal-hal lain, bukannya mencoba mencari tahu? Mencoba memecahkan masalah?

Betapa aku tidak merasa lelah karena dianggap suka memerintah dan tidak punya perasaan hanya mendelegasikan pekerjaan ke orang lain lalu setiap hari bertanya soal kemajuan pekerjaan tersebut? Apakah cara bertanyaku yang salah atau apa?

Mengapa ketika diberi kebebasan untuk pulang lebih awal di bulan puasa, semuanya berebut pulang dan mengabaikan bahwa ada pekerjaan dan tugas yang sebenarnya bisa diselesaikan hari itu malah ditinggalkan karena adalah "hak" mereka untuk pulang lebih awal?

Mengapa ketika diperingatkan soal tugas dan pekerjaan yang belum selesai malah terlihat rasa tidak senang dan ketidaksukaan telah diingatkan?

Lalu entah mengapa aku malah membahas semua ini padahal mungkin saja aku mengalami ketidakseimbangan memori dan ini hanyalah sebentuk upaya pembenaran diri sendiri.