Anime Festival Asia 2008 after thoughts part 1.

Finally its over! The very first anime based event in Singapore, Anime Festival Asia 2008 came to an end on Sunday evening at Suntec Exhibition Hall. On the organisers part, the 2 years spent on planning this event paid off. What a crowd it was on both days. The performances of Ichirou Mizuki ala Aniki and May'n were simply amazing. Can we have them coming to Singapore to perform again? Never had I been so fired up and hot in a concert. May'n live in front of my eyes, hontoni sugoii!

Also, Aniki was really the legend in Ani-songs, Marzinger Z to Captain Harlock, he brought out the garness in my friends who were big fans of old school super robot shows. His actions portrayed what a good aniki (brother) would do. Aniki took a group photo with the fans that welcomed him in the airport. Also, for the signing session, he signed on the personal items brought up by the fans, shook hands and took photos. Nicholas, Calvin and Chin How, do cherish the moment upstage with the man himself. Darren, your Aspire umpc, find a way to preserve the autograph.

Sadly, for reasons unknown the autograph session with May'n was very disappointing to a great extent in my view. What was done on stage was very unprofessional and disrespect to the fans that paid a premium sum for that moments with May'n up close. Her autograph was signed beforehand on a board was bad enough already, to make things worse, it was her representative that passed the board to the fans that came up. Not May'n herself. Yes, it was really nice to shake her hands and exchanged some words, but the way they did it was totally wrong. Yes, I'm really voicing it out. Surely there are many many disgruntled fans out there that felt the same. No autograph on my personal item, no photo with her to keep. Boo, very very negative fan bonding session. Well, I did managed to give a card to her, my time spent running around Suntec, Marina Square and Citylink for a giant 'Thank You' card paid off. Well wishes from splifearts.com, Nakadashi, Bonkuratsu, CDS and KKnM were in it and hopes she like it.

Here's end of part 1 of my after thought. Will do up the rest later.

-Kenneth.

AFA 2008 Announcement.

As you can see from the photo above, this post will be regarding the announcement for Anime Festival Asia 2008. For starters, this event will be a first in South East Asia, celebrating the diversity of the Japanese culture. For this year's showcase, it will be held at Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Center Halls 403 & 404. Dates are 22 & 23 of November with the doors open to public visitors at 10am.

The whole event will be divided into different sections, like the manga showcase where Shounen Jump will be displaying their works as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations. Anticipated titles includes Death Note, Bleach just to name a few. Also there will be mangaka competitions and visitors can views the works as well. 

Next up will be the anime blockbuster. What's a anime festival without the main course? The anime! Currently titles confirmed are Shakugan no Shana, Code Geass, Skip Beat. There will be more titles as the organisers are working out the details.

Other than manga, anime, part of the modern Japanese Otaku culture also includes the plastic modeling (Plamo in short). This year's Bakuc will be held together with AFA and guess what? Kunio Okawara will be gracing AFA as well, expect some tips and hints for the local modelers from the master himself! Before I forget, Okawara-san will be part of the judging team for the Bakuc finals!

For the merchandise collectors, don't worry. There is the Akiba section whereby big names like Goodsmile Company, Alter, Revoltech, Kotobukiya, of course Bandai will be showcasing and selling various collectibles and goodies. Local shops like KKnM and RapidCulture will also be there, so get ready your wallets!

Cosplayers, you are more than welcome for this big event! Register early and you will get free admission! Also, there is a competiton as well.

Last but not least, the big news that we all are waiting for. . .

Nope, Megumi Nakajima aka Ranka Lee WILL NOT be making her way down to AFA. Instead, *drum rolls. May'n, the singing voice behind Sheryl Nome of hit anime series, Macross Frontier will be here for AFA 2008!

No rewards for guessing what May'n will be singing in AFA 08, also she will be having meet the fans session and autographs session. Fans, get ready your single CDs!

More details on May'n's performance here and here.

There will be more updates once Dentsu gets more confirmation of the various arrangements, performances and so forth. Meanwhile, stay tuned!

Happy Birthday 1st Birthday to alphadslr.com!

Finally back here to post again. What happened in between the weeks from the last post? Nothing but more and more shoots. So far already went for 3 TFCDs, and though still in the learning curve, but I'm enjoying every single second of these shoots. From each shoot that I been to, always there are new things to learn. Be it camera settings, model posing, somehow its a brand new experience to me. With September to come, there are more shoots to come, new things to learn.

Last Saturday was the 1st birthday of the Alpha mount user group in here in Singapore. Despite the very spoiler of a weather, but everyone still enjoyed the celebration. From photo hunt, cake-cutting, special talk by Stanley from SLCC on flash photography and also Wilson from Sony for 'helping' to further poison us by letting alphadslr.com members to have first hand try on the new flagship flash. Yes, I mean it, where's the MO for the flash?

With Comex approaching, gearing up to push for sales during the 4 days for Buffalo. Yes, looking for external storage or network solutions, do approach me in any of the 4 days and I will do my best to provide with the best solution possible within my means.

Sign off for now, do look up for more photos as I aim to finish up the TFCDs before September or else its a never ending work for me. . .

-Kenneth.

Tired. . .

Already starting of August 2008, time really flies. What a week so far, started with Garden Festival on last Sunday, went back there again for my first TFCD in the same venue with 2 gorgeous ladies. Then concluded by a ride on the Singapore Flyer on Saturday night courtesy of bro Tan KM. Not to mention the number of photos also piled up as well, still haven't done with the TFCD photos, while just finished the shots taken on Saturday night. With NDP coming soon, gonna find someone to cover my NDP weekend shift and enjoy the 2 days snapping all day long. . .

-Kenneth

Long long long gap since my last post. Its like nearly half a year since I posted. Anyway, in between that long gap, I managed to get myself the Sony Alpha 200 as my first DSLR. Quite amazing I got to say, its like only 4 months since I got myself a decent camera before I finally got the Alpha. From my initial plan of getting the K850i till the ownership of the A200. Wow.

Since then, I have been to a couple of outings with my fellow Alpha brothers from Alphadslr forums
and from them picked up tips, tricks of course, enjoyable hours of photography with them. Firstly was the Formula Drift Singapore, and what a hot event it was. And I do mean hot, went home sun burnt but at least met up with most of the brothers from the Alphadslr. Though did not stay till the end of the event, but the time spent there was already worth while. Some pictures taken during the event.







Yes, the whole group of Sony Alpha mount photographers.



Since then been going around randomly taking photos during off days. Also learnt how to post process the photos in Photoshop and much later on, Lightroom.

Happy Lunar New Year minna-san! ! ! May you readers have an enjoyable holidays ahead and happy ang bao gathering! ! !

For the first time, I tried something different for this CNY countdown Instead of staying put @ home, I went down to Marina for the fireworks display. Goodness me, surrounding me was not the usual masses of avid shutter-bugs with their DSLRs, instead it was hordes of foreign workers, mostly from China. Goodness me, either they ARE dumb or loose screws, messing around even though they are just 1 mis-step away from dropping into the dark waters beneath. And of course, so the 'considerate' to those shutter-bugs by moving around like monkeys, blocking the views or even coming down to knocking down the tripods. Damned, I know that being the CNY, I shouldn't be saying all these, but ZzZ, I can't keep it shut, so just vent it out here. . .anyway, still manage to grab quite a couple of shots during the display. Yes, I DO really need a DSLR, though my T20 is doing fine this early morning, but the difference is quite obvious la, since the T20 is just a point & shoot as compared to the complex DSLR. Also taken some night shots of the surroundings before the display began. . .