NatGeo Channel Young Photographer Awards

Just a brief update on life - got shortlisted for the National Geographic Channel Young Photographer Awards! My photo's up at http://www.natgeo-canon.com/vote.php?photo_id=2200, and it'll mean a lot if you could help me vote :). Thanks, thanks so much in advance!

A Long Rant

Life has been busy lately - what with tonnes of homework, photography, and website designing projects.
I guess I have been too lazy to click on the "New Post" button in my blog nowadays xD.

Life already started a tendency to be repetitive - everyday was the same old routine; School, 7 hours of non-productivity-chatting-and-fun in school, then more time-burning-activities after school, which takes the forms of pool, hangouts, movies etc. Then the day would end with me regretting not doing much revision and all, and before I knew it, the next day kicks the whole routine into a repeat again.

I admit - I haven't exactly fulfilled my responsibilities as a student for the past few weeks, but I did wake myself up just last week - reminding myself that my trials are looming near, holding the keys to maintaining my scholarship, and to prove myself in the eyes of friends and family. I guess the pressure's going to be high for me in this test - what with an entire semester's syllabus to cram, and tonnes of essays for different subjects.. Yeah, time for me to wake up.

The past month has taught me lots of stuff - one of which concerning the true nature of friends. Watching the events in 2012 unfold, I have pondered many times about the people around me - those I call my friends - who exactly are my friends? Who treats me as a friend, who treats me only as a tool?

All pretenses aside, I haven't exactly been a perfect friend to others - yeah, I'm stubborn, I lose my temper, I break promises, totally not your "perfect friend" archetype. However, one of my personal precepts is to treat my friends as I would treat my family - I wouldn't take any of my friends as tools whatsoever, asking for them to get out of their way to help me, while returning the favour with a kthxbai sort of dismissal. Or perhaps, friends that're pretty friendly to me in my presence, and starts talking behind my back once I'm not there. Truth be told? Plenty of friends like this emerged in my mind's eye as I type these sentences in my blog. True story.

I guess I shouldn't rant too long about friends and all - guess it doesn't really help anything, well, unless I change myself first :). By the way! I've been meddling in website designing once again! It started with an offer from my previous General Paper lecturer, about a website that his friend wants to set up for his firm. I didn't have much confidence in the project initially, but I accepted, in hopes for some extra revenue perhaps :). Started to collect back the meagre knowledge I once had in website designing - basic HTML, and some basic CSS codes too. And I came up with..


- The initial design!

The first design was full of unnecessary shadows and gradients, hence I've already changed to a newer design, but didn't take any screenshots.

Momentum took over me as I then continued with starting off my own personal business-card-like website for myself: Ryo Photography!



Please, do spread the word if you do know someone who's looking for a budget photographer/designer okay? :D thanks thanks thanks!

Went back to Kedah last Friday - and had a new experience in photography - waking up early for the sunrise! Man, it was totally worth it; waking up early and going out of my way to park my car and snap the sunset. Couldn't have asked for better timing and luck :).



Neways, I've started a Flickr account specially to accommodate the "portfolio" section in my website, but then, it's up for public viewing, so if anyone's interested, here's my random photography photo set :) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/iceglacial/sets/72157629517281221/

Imma put up some photos to end this post :).





Ciao,
- Ryo :)