Thursday 29 May 2014

人间烟火

136.为缓慢的步伐加速,我的日子开始变得忙碌。五月是一个忙碌的月份。除了工作,还有数不清的聚会。那天与难得回来、大腹便便的蜻蜓相约喝茶。我只想知道她过得好不,所以我们都在聊着她的近况;到了后来她却提起了三月的尼泊尔之行。“你啊,真的是越爬越高!高山嘛,我从远处眺望就好。”蜻蜓说。其实对于登山这回事,我从来都没有以想要征服的心态来对待。我只是想磨练自己、增广见闻、丰富人生阅历。我只是想学习如何与大自然相处。我,在学习着。

137.大姐曾说两个月后的今天,《Rasa Sayang》的旋律还在她脑海里盘旋着。而我却每天都要在心里念过一遍那个温柔的问候词,像是对自己的一个问候。

138.因为阿河的婚礼,简难得从美里下来一趟,大伙就相约一起吃顿饭。大姐最准时,我走进餐厅时看见她已牢牢地坐在那儿,相信菜单都读过好几遍了。你点了吗?我坐下来时问她。“还没,我要用回尼泊尔的方式,”大姐说。呵呵。旅行就是这样,许多在路上发生的事、大伙一起经历的事,后来无须太多的言语,我们都读懂了彼此。好,我们就回到尼泊尔的餐桌吧!




139.与在狮城实习的小澄谈起他的近况。他说自己对老年人的心理学比较有负担。我想起了自己在大学的最后一年,曾经在精神科部门办公室里的墙壁上看见一幅又一幅的图画。那是一些被虐待、被性侵的孩子们,以铅笔在白纸上画出他们的恐惧和悲伤。我对小澄说我曾希望自己能成为可以帮助他们的人,到了后来神却成就了另一个我。就像一幅还未完成的拼图,对于神的计划,我们也许还看不清楚;相信到了那一天,我们会看见的。

140.原本只打算吵着极光,但我想最近我打扰最多的应该是月球人。得空时我都会挖一些读不懂的东西来问他、考他。月球人真的很有耐性,有问必答,帮助了我不少。知道大伙计划明年去蒙古时,月球人的手指开始发痒。我其实真的希望月球人能同行,到时我就会有一个能够切磋的伙伴。

141.出席高中同学的婚宴,最吸引我的不是瑰丽的场地装潢、不是这对新人、也不是很多久违了的贵宾,而是摄影师手上的宝物!惨了,我想我真的是病入膏肓了!

142.《少年Pi》中的有个画面很震撼我的心,让我久久不能自己。我想起了那个从小陪我长大的第二个梦。那个画面与我梦中的太相像了:月光。黑夜。深海。蓝鲸。就只差了鲸鱼温柔的歌唱声。

143.你走过的众地方之中,哪一个最令你难忘?朋友问。尼泊尔,我不假思索地回答。也许你会认为那只是因为我对尼泊尔的记忆犹新;也许明年之后我的答案会改变。也许吧,未来的事谁晓得呢?我想起了小涵之前说过的:有些地方只有亲自走一趟才能体会。那一段路我曾用轻松的脚步,红肿的脚趾;以快乐、以沮丧;在汗水与雨水的交织中,在山与雪地的交界里;搭着伙伴,带着自己,踏实地走过。


144.难忘,不是因为地理、不是因为一个地方。难忘,是因为那段路、那些人和事、那段时光。就好像相爱,也不是因为外貌、不是因为学历身世。相爱,是因为两个灵魂的依偎与守护。

Wednesday 14 May 2014

关于生活。关于梦想。关于学习。

最近都在“埋头苦读”。埋头是有,不过不是苦读。我倒是乐在其中。
小刘对我在钻研着哪方面的学识感好奇。
那是很深的一门学问:摄影。
从以前到现在,我对文艺的热忱没有减退过。中学时期我热衷于画画:肖像、水彩、蜡笔、海报设计甚至油画;前前后后参加了不少比赛,也获得不少的奖项。只是到了后来,我放弃了平面设计,选择留下完成我的高中学业。有时候的我会想,如果当时家境好一些,我们家很有可能会少了一位工程师(金鱼太太),多了一位作家;少了一位医生,却多了一位设计师。
但你知道,人生这回事没有如果,而这样的如果也不会有答案。
我不想自己对摄影只持有三分钟热度(我应该不会这么“衰仔”,哈哈),不想买了一台相机却没有认真地使用,所以规定自己在对摄影有更多的认识前,绝对不要买相机(虽然我明白熟能生巧的道理,也知道精湛的摄影技术绝对是从不断练习而锻炼出来的)!
今早读到一位德国摄影大师 Martin Gommel的文章(德文已被翻译成英文),觉得很棒,在这里与大家分享。
100 Things I’ve Learned About Photography
1. Never do photography to become a rock-star
2. Enjoy what you are shooting
3. Prepare well for your shooting, realizing that your battery isn’t charge when you’re setting up for that sunrise shoot is too late!
4. Always take one warm garment more than you actually need with you
5. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions while you are shooting
6. Set goals you can achieve
7. Write tips about photography, because writing is also learning
8. Never go shooting without a
tripod(这个在EBC之旅时可以叫极光帮忙背吗?呵呵)
9. Be pleased with the little successes
10. Build relationships with potential photo buddies
11. Watch the place you want to shoot first with your heart… and then with the camera
(同感。真正优秀的摄影师不只用镜头,更是用心好好去看这个世界)
12.
Always stay calm
13. Know that you tend to overestimate yourself
14. Perspective is the killer
15. Dedicate yourself to photography, but never browbeat yourself too much
16. Take part in a
photography community
17. Keep your camera clean
18. 
Never compare yourself to others in a better or worse context
19. 
Find your own style of photography
20. Try to compose more and to hit the shutter less
21. Seek out and learn to accept 
critique on your images
22. 
Do something different to recover creativity
23. Get 
inspiration from the work of other photographers
24. 
Criticize honestly but respectfully
25. Get feedback from your lady
26. Don’t copy other photographer’s style
27. Be bold
28. Take care of the 
golden ratio
29. 
10mm rocks!
30. Take 
self portraits
31. Read 
books about photography
32. To give a 
landscape photograph the extra boost, integrate a person (maybe yourself)
33. Every shooting situation is different than you expect
34. Pay attention to 
s-curves and lines
35. Always shoot in 
RAW
36. 
Keep your sensor clean, so you can save some work cleaning your image in post production
37. Discover the things you think are beautiful
(太多了!)
38. It takes time to become a good photographer
39. 
The best equipment is that what you have now
40. You can’t take photographs of everything
41. 
Break the rules of photography knowingly, but not your camera (感觉上这句好像是对我说的,哈哈,因为我就是那种不按牌理出牌的人!但在这之前,也必须晓得所谓的牌理才行)
42. Pay attention to the different way that light falls on different parts of your scene
43. The eye moves to the point of contrast
44. 
Clouds increase the atmosphere of a landscape
45. Start a photoblog
46. Accept praise and say “thank you”
47. ‘Nice Shot’ is not a very useful comment to write
(噢,我前一阵子才对Keng说过这样的一句话,原来not very useful啊)
48. ‘Amazing!’ isn’t useful either. Try to describe specifically what you like or don’t like about an image
(好像也有说过这句)
49. You are not your camera
50. Ask a question at the end of your comment on a photo to get a ping-pong conversation with the photographer
51. Do a review of your archives on a regular basis, the longer you photograph – the more diamonds are hidden there
52. Always clarify what the eyecatcher (focal point) will be in your image
53. No image is better than a bad one
54. Everyone has to start little
55. Your opinion about photography is important!
56. Leave a funny but thoughtful comment
57. Speak about your experiences with your photo buddies
58. Limit your photograph to the substance
59. Participate in Photo contests
60. 
Post processing = Optimizing your image to the best result
61. Shoot exposure latitudes as often as possible
62. Use photomatix as seldom as possible, HDR’s always have a synthetic flavor
63. Always remember what brought you to photography
64. Never shoot a person who doesn’t want to be photographed – 
ask permission
65. Always turn arround, sometimes the better image is behind you
(在尼泊尔山里的那些时日就已深深体会了)
66. It’s who’s behind the camera, not the camera
67. 
Mistakes are allowed! The more mistakes you make, the more you learn!
68. If you have an idea and immediately you think : No, this is not going to work – Do it anyway. When in doubt – always shoot
69. 
Understand and look to your histograms while shooting. It delivers very important information about your image
70. Know your camera, because searching the menu button in the night is time you don’t want to waste
71. Shoot as often as possible
72. Believe in yourself
73. Don’t be afraid of getting dirty
74. Pay attention to quality in your image
75. Your photographs are a personal map of your psyche
76. Re-check your 
ISO-Settings. It’s aweful to detect the wrong settings on your screen
77. Be thankful for long and thoughtful comments on your images
78. Never trust your LCD. Normally it is brighter and sharper as the original image
79. Provide for enough disc space, because it’s cheap and you will need it
80. Learn to enjoy beautiful moments when you don’t have a camera with you(这很重要。手中的相机无论多贵重,如果与上帝所赐、可以随身携带的双眼相比,永远只能是“次货”,哈哈)
81.
Always arrive at least half an hour earlier before sunrise / sundown, composing in a hurry is a bad thing(也难怪卫星的相机买了这么久,拍照技术还是没什么进步,嘻嘻)
82. Try to amplify your mental and physical limits. Takes some extra shots when you think “it’s enough”
83. Pay attention to structures in the sky and wait until they fit into structures in the foreground
84. Visit the same place as often as possible. Light never shows the same mountain
(再回尼泊尔一趟的最佳理由)
85. Print your images in big size. You will love it
86. 
Calibrate your monitor. Working with a monitor that is not accurate is like being together with someone you can’t trust. It always ends badlyKeng曾对我们提过他的bad monitor
87. Don’t think about what others may say about your image. If you like it, it’s worth publishing
88. Never address reproaches to yourself. Learn from your mistakes and look forward, not backward
89. Fight your laziness! Creativitiy comes after discipline
90. Ask yourself : What do you want to express in your images ?
91. Always try to think outside the box, collect new ideas about photographs you could do and ask yourself : Why not?
92. 
Search for a mentor(虽然朋友之中有不少优秀的摄影者,但暂时我应该只会打扰极光,希望小马不要介意我没缴学费,哈哈)
93. Photography is never a waste of time

94. Every community has it’s downsides. Don’t leave it out of an emotional response
95. There will always be people who will not like what you are doing
96. Henri Cartier-Bresson was right when he said that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
97. A better camera doesn’t guarantee better images
98. Always have printing in mind when you postprocess your images
99. Photography is fair: You gain publicity with the quality of your images. Unless the images are stolen, there is no way of cheating yourself higher
(哇,这句赞!)
100. Write a 100 things list

Tuesday 6 May 2014

人间烟火

131. 一年就这么过去了。我重读一年前所写的《战后日记》,一切都历历在目,仿佛只是昨日发生的事。然后时光飞逝了。物换星移了。勇士也陨落了。留下的只有那因爱国情操而产生的不死精神。但愿这份伫立在风中微弱的残烛之光,能长长久久地延续下去,生生不息;更像燎原的星星之火,能点燃一座座的都市丛林与每个公民的心,从此兴盛光辉。

132. 漂亮妈咪在读完我的部落格时传来简讯,推荐印尼的Mt Bromo。“你去谷歌看看,不要告诉我你不喜欢。那是不可能的事,” 她说。吉普、骑马、背包。“不需要花太多的时间,三天两夜或四天三夜就可以了。” 很明显地漂亮妈咪知道我的顾虑。有时候的我会很纳闷,难道我的心事就写在脸上,我就是一个这么容易被看穿的人吗?呵呵。

133. 对,那真的是一个很不错的地方。世界这么大,有太多想去的地方,却太少的时间。我们都在那有限的框框里不断地探索、选择、放弃,然后再选择。我不想变成一个贪心的人。如今将蒙古摆在私房地图的正中央,我要暂时忘却珠峰神秘美丽的呼唤、忘却桑托里尼的蓝白、忘却乌尤尼的水天一色。我要学会忘记。在万变的世代中、在时代的洪流里,我所能管住的,就只有自己的心。仅是如此而已。

134. 我将部落客小涵拍下的照片贴在面书墙上与大姐分享。在照片里的不是明媚风光,而是书中那段摘自郭子鹰《最好的时光在路上》的文字:在路上,你会遇见那个你最想成为的自己。那个你,卸下了都市丛林里背负的重重铠甲,活力蓬勃,宛如新生。我想自己最好的时光除了在路上,也在文字间。我曾对云儿说我只有在写作时才能找到自己。云儿说她却是在写作中才能想起自己是谁。就像一次又一次的飞行,我们在文字的翱翔中拥抱自由、遇见自己。

135. 昨夜身在台湾的简为大伙传来一张照片。她在观赏着由Discovery频道播放登山客攀登圣母峰的写实纪录。纪录的尾端说道:“自此之后,所有的登山客都不会再是一样的了。” 我想我们也是如此,简说。不知为何,这一段话让我莫名地感伤。我想起了在Chommrong那个最漫长的傍晚,我想起了在一片白茫茫的雪地里步行的那个上午,我想起了拖着红肿的脚趾在滂沱大雨中挣扎下山的午后,我想起了在这之后,每当我静下来时,耳边就会响起那群山的回音。那么遥远,却又如此靠近。我为这一切的一切,感伤又感动。不会再是一样,也不可能再是一样。