Day 2 On The Road (Part 3)

Alone an Alone, another view in Terminal 3

Day 2 On The Road (Part 2)

Another interesting view.

Day 2 On The Road (Part 1)

Yes, I know that I missed my Day One post, but hey! I'm on a vacation so spare me! Yesterday I am amazed by the view of the Terminal 3 of Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng. Spacious; sophisticated; humane. So very different from Terminal 1 or 2. You can actually enjoy your waiting period there.

Below I inserted one photo that I took with my mobile phone.

Day 225 in Coincidence With Day -1

Here I am writing this one blog post when I should be rechecking BALUT II and BAST II documents for various projects before I embark on my travel in my long-awaited vacation.

I had one paracetamol 500 mg earlier this morning and yet my headache still have its reign over my head and disturbing my peace. Oh my delicate head and its precious thoughts and ideas!

Luckily my lenses and my camera is ready and already cleaned and checked. I'll be bringing my Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 and Nikon AF 80-200 mm f/2.8 D ED with tripod collar plus my Yong Nuo YN460 speedlight for this trip plus a SLIK tripod but haven't decided on bringing my monopod or not.

Of course a backpack and a daypack for my stuffs and gears for this short trip is ready but the contents aren't yet.

I have uploaded my travel itinerary to the cloud just in case I lost my printed ones.

My medicine is packed in a special case.

Now I really think that I miss something. I just wonder what that is...

Day -2 And Still Unfinished!

Today is.. Oops.. Tonight is the Day-2 but I still haven't finished packing yet and as midnight looms I'm getting tired.

Maybe I just call this a night and get some sleep. I need sleep.

Today is Day -3, Let Me Think First

Because today is Day -3, I thought it'd be appropriate to recap about all the things I did and haven't do yet. My backpack and daypack is ready. My personal medicine too.

My clothes? Not yet. I haven't decided yet which jacket to bring. And how many t-shirts would I be needing? And shoes, what about shoes? Should I be wearing my old sport shoes or a newer canvas ones?

My photograpy gears, should I bring my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 or just the Nikon tele or would I better be bringing my kit Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DX lens too? Three lenses? Isn't it too much to bring? In which bag would I be keeping them all? In separate cases or in one daypack? What about tripods and monopod? Or should I bring my monopod too? Does Angga have a tripod that he can spare me?

The list would be a long one but I must keep all the stuff I bring along to a minimum. Or else I'd be getting back pain. I guess I'm not that young anymore. Sigh.

Day -4 A New Week A New Problem

As I said before, my fever has subsidized (kind of) but my cough seem reluctant to let me go. The doctor said that I might be allergic to dust or small particles not just from cold climate. He even warned me about the risk that my tonsils have to be taken in case it got infected due to the allergic reaction that made me unwell.

Such a horror!

Anyway, I should be using masks everytime I might be exposed to a lot of dust (or fine particles in the air) or else it'll be an operation! Now, I guess I have to get back to work, making list of stuff to bring with on my upcoming travel!

Day -12 And Another Thing Coming Up

I just don't think that their business group will take on our offer and our price but will choose another design consulting service instead. A bad sign because then maybe my boss will have a second thought about taking the concrete and transmission tower erection.

And another thing coming up so I must travel out of town for a couple of days tomorrow. But at 22:21 I still haven't done any packing. I'm such a lazy person. Actually, my headache is killing me and I wish I have a special ability like removing my brain to lessen the pain but still live.

Well, can't blame me for having imagination, though.

Day -16 And Still Nothing New (or Day 210)

Just a couple of weeks to go and still I acquire no new skill and I even feel that I am dumber than ever.

I should do a lot of things and learn a lot more but here I am writing this feeling gloomier and gloomier. Should I do something about myself? Like making list of things to be prepared for the event?

Yes I should.

But here I am typing at this window for a post while my mind went partially blank, not even know what to do next.

It's Now Day -22

Today I learn that you can only trust one that much. Being "that" is loosely based on the character of the person whom you gave it to.

But then again, I really hope people can expand their own abilities and upgrading themselves -- which is an egoist notion actually. By being more qualified means that I can delegate more and more work to others.

But then again, doing things would only make me better and better at those things. This is not dillematic because it's simple, really. Do more, practice more, became an expert.

I remember that I haven't finished making padding for my sidebag so I can fit my flash unit and my camera in a bag safely. Safe here means that it has adequate protection against banging them to other things and the bag doesn't look like a camera bag which might fool people who would've thinking of robbing me out of my gears. That way, I can travel feeling more secure.

Day -23 and Another Distraction

This time my job is distracting me from my goals. I have to give support for my colleagues -- which is expected -- and set my priority list aside.

But that is O.K. Since it was my job that sustaining me all these time and surely that being the thing that enable me to take this excursion. Surely, being involved in a committee took up my mind off this preparation too. Maybe I just have to put up extra time for accommodating all these things that happened simultaneously in my life.

Right now, off to my colleagues!

Day -24 And Counting Down

Time sure slipped by..!

And I'm kind of afraid that I won't be prepared enough when the time come!

Day -25: Priorities Get Mixed Up

You see, I have made a priority list.

But being me, I got it all mixed up with the top most became the third or fourth and the not-so-important became number one priority.

Oh well, that's what went wrong with my head. I should preparing myself and my gears but then my concentration and will get distracted by this application that already take up much of my online time, mind, and energy.

Right now I am typing this while occasionally checking on the progress.

Hmm.. Shouldn't I be doing something more productive?

Day -27: Easily Exhausted

Now I really have to admit: My body is a wreckage.

Months -- even years -- of desk job with less than adequate physical activities has already take on its toll. Now I am an overweight-lazy-couch potato with a beer gut. Not that I drink beer, it's just that now I look like someone who's three months into pregnancy. Not that I am pregnant -- I am a male, for crissake! It's just metaphorically speaking.

Even when I tested myself by climbing four-flight stairs, I ended up gasping out of breath on the top floor with my heart thumping loudly in my chest and making me hard to hear anybody. I thought at that time that heart attack was imminent.

No, I am kidding. I just happen to like exaggerating things to impress others. All right, maybe I am a little bit pathetic. But exaggeration sometimes add colors to stories, right?

Okay, back to my point here. I am easily exhausted and right now at three in the afternoon I have to fight this drowsiness eventhough I already gulped a cup of strong black robusta coffee. Okay, I lead an unhealthy way of life and now that I am preparing for an excursion to the east, I realize that keeping a healthy and fit body is a precious thing and appropriate.

Oh hell. I will walk more, climb stairs more, and even take out my old and dusty sneakers from under the cupboard and don them. Come tomorrow, I'll be walking around in the city garden!


... If I wake early enough.

Confusion on Day -28

Aaarrrggghhh!

I am really confused. Too many things to do yet so little time to do all of them! Especially when lately I seemed to be having some new level of laziness. I slept early and woke up late and still felt sleepy in the office. That made me unable to search and read all the things I deemed important to learn.

You see, previously I thought I could use my spare time in the day to learn about as much information and new knowledge and doing some practices in the night or early in the morning but my body just refused to cooperate with my mind!

Really make me confused...

Starting The Countdown: Day -29

Hooray!

Such an excitement that feels kind of strange to me these days -- because it has been such a long time before that I felt it.

I'm preparing for another excursion to escape this city that has been kind of depressing to me in these couple of months.

So much to do. I have to check and recheck my gears and my schedules and my plans and my itineraries. I have to be healthy and fit for doing the activities and whatever demand on my physical fitness should the need arise.

Well, that one is kind of hard. I am too lazy to wake up in the morning for doing any physical activities to keep myself healthy and in condition.

I should clean up my daypack and my backpack. Which shoes to wear? Do I have to bring two tripods or one sturdy tripod and one monopod? Which lens to bring? When will I be able to search through the internet to find interesting spots and places to visit? How much time does it require to reach each destination? Will the place worth the travel?

I must be doing some preparation and not even writing this post. Geez, so little time...

Let Me Quote You: Lonely Planet's Travel Photography

quote from Richard I'Anson's book:

The ability to interchange lenses is one of the most persuasive reasons for buying an SLR. It increases your creative options and ability to solve photographic problems. DOn't compromise on lens quality. If you're on a tight budget, go for a camera with fewer features and buy the best lenses you can afford. Lens quality determines image sharpness, colour and the light-gathering capacity of the lens, which can determine how you shoot in various lighting conditions.

Tele-Zoom Lens

For an action photography, I think that my Nikon AF 70-300mm G is not adequate enough.
Take a look at this photo for an example.

Because the action happened in broad daylight, I was able to capture the contestant's facial expression clearly enough. That two shots at the lower side was at 300mm f/5.6! That's why the depth of field is somewhat large.

But to buy a wider (or "faster") lens, I had not been able to sum up the money needed.

Damn, life's hard when you're dirt poor!

So that leave me with the option of ONLY shoot with my tele-zoom in BROAD DAYLIGHT - which left me with so little possibilites (which I haven't explore yet)!

On second thought, maybe it's an adventure waiting in shooting tele with my lens here! Remember: I already purchase a monopod.

In the end, its better to have this lens for everyday shooting. It is CHEAP enough - even for me - that if it get broken I could just go to a respectable camera store and buy another one...