2009

2009 has been a great year for me. Lots of things, good and bad, have happened since I picked up photography and started blogging. Quite awesome I would say. Through this blog, I've met lots of fantastic people.

Let's go through the highlights of 2009.



The starting point was in late January when I decided to get a DSLR. After spending a couple of weeks researching about DSLR, I bought Canon EOD 40D and 50mm f1.4 lens.

Not long after that, I opened my blog in March 2009. Since then photography has become my hobby and blogging is one way to share it to the world. Photography and blogging have become part of my life.


My first photo shoot was the St. Patrick Parade. I came an hour early to find the best spot. Like a kid with a new toy, I was excited. The day before the event, I ended up spending my night reading tutorials on the internet. I wanted to get to know my camera better.

The photo shoot was a success. I love my 40D. The lens was a bit of pain though. Canon 50mm f1.4 is a fixed lens. You can't zoom in or out with this lens. However, the quality of the photo taken by this lens is amazing. Like a hidden gem, it took a lot of effort to get used to it, but I could tell you that I never regret purchasing this lens as my first lens. It's a very nice lens and I still bring it with me from time to time.


I started to go around Tokyo and Chiba every weekend to take photo. My next photo shoot was Nokogiri Yama. I wanted to see the largest Buddha in Japan and to take a peek from Jigoku Nozoki.


Next was Hanami, the Sakura season. As a photographer, this is a season not to be missed. I managed to get a couple of good photos.


After posting the Inohana Koen post, I realized the ugliness of the black border. I admitted that I was a bit of a paranoid about having someone steal my photos. If someone really wants to steal your photo, there are lots of way to do it (such as screen shot). Nothing you do will stop them. Using a border will ruin the photo and using Flash will just slow down the website. Neither choice will make your reader happy.

Took me a while to admit that I was a paranoid and that I already stepped away from my original purpose, Sharing. The border was removed shortly after that and will never ever returned.


Tokyo Tram was the first post that got lots of hit. It gave me a booze of motivation to continue blogging.


Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, etc (mainly Tokyo) are famous places and have been covered in lots of blogs, so I am not going to bother about those places. If you expected to see Shibuya post in my blog, you will be disappointed (unless there is a special event there).


The famous 1/1 Scale Gundam RX-78-2. Took this photo on the first day of exhibition. It was an awesome experience to be able to see and touch it.


Having fun in Tokyo Disneyland. Tokyo Disney Resort for me is one of happiest place in the world where people of all ages and generations can smile and laugh together. Do you know that Tokyo Disneyland is actually located in Chiba ? Glad that they didn't name it Chiba Disneyland.


Took this photo during my Paris trip. I was lucky enough to be invited to the IT meeting in Paris.


Paris was indeed a very beautiful city. I spent three days taking photos but that was far from enough. Don't mind going to Paris again someday.


Danbo made the first appearance during Kushiya Monogatari post. Since then, he always follows me when I go on a photo shoot.


Went to Wonder Festival for the first time in my life, and was really amazed by how high the quality of the cosplayers.


Was originally plan to meet the famous Tokyo Trooper in Wonfes, but I couldn't find him. Instead of him, I found some Storm Troopers there.


August 2009 marked the start of FAQ post. I only managed to post two FAQs in 2009. Will try to post more this year.


Futago Tamagawa Hanabi was my first time shooting fireworks. Most of them were failures. Shooting fireworks felt very different than what I used to shoot. It was a very good experience though. Good thing that my friend Steve was there to teach me how to take good photos.


Went to Chara Hobby to learn more about shooting figures.


I noticed lots of people there shooting with build-in flash. I never like the build-in flash because the subject will get washed out (over exposed). I prefer to play around with ISO and shutter speed.


Got a lot of problems with my IBM Thinkpad, and suddenly my HD decided to give up. I managed to recover more than half of the data, but some of the data were gone. I started taking backup more regularly and finally switched to Mac. I love my Mac.


After a long time, my interest on design and web suddenly returned. I picked up my Photoshop and started making wallpaper of Mirai chan. Currently trying to catch up with web programming and designing. CSS3 looks cool.

Not long after that, I changed the layout of this website and thrown away some useless code to speed things up.


If you like Japanese culture and you've never heard of Danny Choo then you probably live under the rock. Danny, also known as Tokyo Trooper, is an infamous Japanese blogger who writes about life in Japan and Japanese pop culture which includes anime, figurines, dolls, cosplay, games and everything else that comes under the genre including oppai and dolphin ^^. He is a very interesting person who managed to magically inspired hundreds of people including me. Danny was my inspiration. This blog was also inspired by him.

I've been wanted to meet him in person. I planned to catch him on the street but unable to do it because Danny usually goes during weekday. I received a surprise attack when Danny ambushed me by inviting me to CGM Night. Almost died of excitement because of the ambush.


CGM Night was awesome. I managed to meet lots of famous people there.

Well, that's sums up 2009. I hope 2010 will be a fantastic one. And last, below are some of my favorites posts.


150 Years of Yokohama


Ushiku Daibutsu


US Trip 2


Canada Trip


Kobe Walker


Narita City