Sunday, 21 March 2010

Frozen Lake Fishing Season 2

It's been more than a month since I updated this blog. I broke my wrist during snowboarding at Hokkaido last month, and it was a pain in the ass to edit photos/type with one hand, hence the no update.

2010-1-30: Went Wakasagi Fishing with my usual Fishing Gang, Nakanishi and Sakaguchi, plus Zhikai. With all the training we had at Yamanaka-ko (see here), we gave ourselves an ambition target of 50 fishes. (We caught only 1 last season at the same place).

We set off confidently on Sakaguchi's small car and reached there before sunrise.
Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-1

The weather was so hot that day that the frozen lake was so wet and slippery. Zhikai slipped and fell. We even heard cracking sounds from the ice below us; we were wondering what if the ice melts and we fall into the lake.
But nevertheless, we rented tents just in case that the weather suddenly turns cold.

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-2
We rented 2 2-men tents, so we had to drill 2 holes close together.

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-3
Sakaguchi and Nakanishi working hard while Zhikai using his almighty eye power.

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-4
DRILLLLL!

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-5
Surprisingly crowded that day.

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-6
The drill was only rented for 2 hours, so we dug extra holes beforehand just in case the original place has no fish

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-7
Weather was so hot that we didn't really need the tent. Here's Sakaguchi fishing outside.

We fished till noon and guess how many fishes we got?
ONE FISH!
Damn, the fish was even smaller than the one last time!

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-8
Ojisans with fish detectors went around probing but all came back looking disappointed.

Frozen Lake Fishing 2nd Seaon-9
We left this place at noon and went shopping instead.

We learned from this experience that this place has got no damn fish! The obachan at the rental shop congratulated us and said that there was a group of 20 people and no one caught a single fish. I'm never gonna come back here again!

In the evening, we went to Yakiniku-ya for dinner and we BBQed it.

Sunday, 14 February 2010

Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6

6 Feb 2010 - Went to an outdoor portrait photography session organised by Fresh! (http://www.fresh-club.net/index.html). It cost only 3000yen for a 3hr session and you get assistants to hold reflectors for you. There are 8 models and you are free to move round and shoot anyone of them at anytime. And the best thing is.. you are allowed to post your photos online!!

相田瑠菜
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-1
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-3
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-7
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-9
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-14
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-15
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 相田瑠菜-20

愛野玲菜
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-1
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-4
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-8
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-9
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-11
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-13
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-16
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 愛野玲菜-18

成田レナ
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 成田レナ-2
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 成田レナ-4

春咲菜摘
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-2
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-6
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-7
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-8
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-10
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 春咲菜摘-12

川本彩華
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 川本彩華-2
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 川本彩華-3
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 川本彩華-5
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 川本彩華-6
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 川本彩華-7

土岐麻梨子
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-1
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-7
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-9
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-10
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-11
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-12
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 土岐麻梨子-13

吉越千帆
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 吉越千帆-1
Fresh!撮影会 2010-2-6- 吉越千帆-2

This is my 1st outdoor portrait shoot and I really learned a lot from the veteran photographers there.

Many more photos on my flickr

Monday, 11 January 2010

Operation Blanket Party

9 Jan 2010 - D-Day of Operation Blanket Party, that's what Jet calls it.

Date: 9th-10th Jan 2010
Theatre of Operation: Omachi, Nagano
Total Strength: 58
Ops Code: D190SAK
Location: Sun Alpina Kashimayari Ski Resort

I only had my 70-300mm with me, so I could not shoot the overview of the place. But this is roughly how it looked
Operation Blanket Party-3
Lifts
Operation Blanket Party-4
The advance slope
Operation Blanket Party-5
Riding the lift

It was a 2-day 2-night trip. We left on the night of 8 Jan, reached the place at 7am on 9 Jan. The moment we reached the place, we changed, rented our equipments and the battle began! It's been close to 8 months since I last snowboarded and I kept falling on my first few runs, like a total beginner. Slowly, I picked up the pace and got back the form I had last season but it didn't last long. Muscles worn out and soon I lost my strength to maneuver the board. All thanks to fatty Singapore food I cooked during new year and the lack of exercise.

After dinner, there was a fireworks display - short one but pretty good. Then I continued with a few night runs. Finally, I decided to end the day after falling at a high speed on my head.

I woke up the next morning with my whole body aching and feeling strengthless. So I decided to give up snowboarding but instead, picked up my camera and went shooting...

The Skiers
Operation Blanket Party-9
Here's Ansley
Operation Blanket Party-15
Jet doing the starfish
Operation Blanket Party-18
Jacelyn moving so slowly that she appears stationary

Operation Blanket Party-10
We lost the Olympics (sigh)

The Snowboarders
Operation Blanket Party-2
Wang Chun (correct me if I got the name wrong) practicing his toe side.
Operation Blanket Party-16
Ma Sibo posing for camera (but this chick came by)
Operation Blanket Party-20
Aldred in action
Operation Blanket Party-24
Rully did it in style

The NGs
Operation Blanket Party-6
Ouch!
Operation Blanket Party-12
Wouwoo...
Operation Blanket Party-19
Aaaahhh!!!!

The Experts
are the KIDS!!
Operation Blanket Party-17
Operation Blanket Party-27
Operation Blanket Party-21

and some other random shots...

Operation Blanket Party-22
Man on scooter
Operation Blanket Party-1
Michael trying some stunts
Operation Blanket Party-14
Resting

That's not all.. More photos at my flickr
You can also view all the photos from the following slideshow.


Note: The slideshow might not work on facebook. So if you are viewing this post via facebook, please follow this link to see the actual post.

Contact me if you want to have the full size photos