22nd Fujitsu Cup Finals

Due to some odd alignment of the stars, by chance, I was given the chance to photograph yet another go tournament finals. /joy

The Fujitsu Cup was the first international go tournament, and is held jointly by Fujitsu and Yomiuri Shimbun (mega huge newspaper in Japan). The winner's prize money is 15,000,000 yen (roughly US157000).

The finals was held on the 6th July 2009 at Nihon Ki-in, Tokyo.

I'm extremely in love with the tournament room.

Can't really be compared with Yuugen no Ma (the one excessively featured in Hikaru no Go) because the nature of the design's different, but still, very very beautiful.

Kang Dongyun (姜东润) 9P vs Lee Changho (李昌镐) 9P for champion

Chang Hao (常 昊) 9P vs Park Yeong Hun (朴永训) 9P for 3rd

Kang Dongyun

Lee Changho

Chang Hao

Park Yeong Hun

Across the tournament room

A very empty press room before everyone invaded.

The guy in the far corner's from Hangame Korea. I was amazed that he actually remembers me from the Ing Cup because most people who'd just met me once or twice can't recognize me with the change of hair. =_=

Takemiya Masaki 9P (famous for his "cosmic style" opening) came in the early afternoon to give commentaries on the games.

Chang and Park's game finished really early, so he came in to speak a little as well.

Accompanied by a gorgeous female pro (I think she's a pro? Didn't manage to find out who it is though).

Large screen is large.

And... he has a winning smile.

But Eat and I both came to the agreement that Gu Li has the bestest winning smile. So no one beats that.

More Lee Changho
And Kang Dongyun

For some reason he looks perpetually sulky, sleepy, or like he's going to cry. (And I can't resist the urge to want to say "dongyun don't cry" whenever I see this pic. No, seriously.)

End game, counting scores.

And Kang finally smiles with the champion's cup. =D


It was a fun day. I really enjoy the change of atmosphere and mood it brings me whenever I get to cover go events. I also think there aren't enough resources (of all kinds, especially reportage) on go news, so, to those who find this utterly irrelevant, I'm sorry this had to turn up in your readers and alerts, I just want to share a little of what I can experience with the rest of this little community, please pardon my little selfishness. ^^;

See more images on Sina: link 1, link 2

For other go related entries please check the igo tag.

3 weeks worth of blogging condensed

The idea was initiated while talking with wen-m last year, to document how I pass a typical week of work. But the transit time in Incheon was long enough for me to write a whole 3 weeks worth.

It's kinda plain, and I really wish I could show more pictures. But even behind the scenes aren't allowed till publication's out so, I'm sorry T_T

And I promise not to do something so lame too often. XD

So here goes~ Starting from the day when I touched down back from Paris --

16th Jun, Tue
In Singapore. Tired, don't like long flights. Wanted to sleep, had to rush retouching for Orchard Central. (I think the ads are up at Somerset and Dhoby Ghaut stations)

17th Jun, Wed
More retouching into the morning.

18th Jun, Thur
Full day beauty shoot for Harper's Bazaar. Originally meant for Aug issue, but because there aren't enough pages it then got pushed back to Sept. Somehow one of my favourite shoots again.

Abby was in town (she assisted me in Tokyo and Kyoto), so I let her on set and we attended Steve McCurry's exhibition opening in the evening (and due to certain silliness on my part, Steve McCurry took a photo for us, hahaha). :3

19th Jun, Fri
Pre-production meeting/briefing for an ad job in the morning, to be shot in Jakarta. Quick interview for the Martell Rising Personalities Award nomination in the afternoon.

20th Jun, Sat
Worked on preparing my references for ad job as requested by client.

21st Jun, Sun
Finished up a 1800 word long article in Chinese for a photography mag in China. It sounds simple, only 1800 words, but I failed Chinese back in school okay, so it's quite a feat haha.

22nd Jun, Mon
Full day with the Harper's Bazaar team again, I was happy that I got to work with my fav Andrea Claire for makeup. Greg-O did the hair, singing and dancing with everyone along the way.

Funny bunch aren't they. Hahaha. My assistant Chenxi took this =3

Andrea just moved to Texas. /sad

23rd Jun, Tue
Half day shoot for Cleo in the morning. Self portrait session for another interview in the afternoon. Dashed for a meeting at Japan Embassy right after that to talk about the possibility of holding my exhibition at the Japan Creative Centre opening in Nov.

24th Jun, Wed
Flight to Tokyo~! Packed throughout the night before and had 2 hours of sleep, so I slept on the plane, felt terribly ill at one point of time due to the constant turbulence. Thought I was gonna throw up and die or get quarantined and panicked like I had never before because there were just way too many shoots lining up in the next 7 days.

Eventually after sitting bonelessly weak in the toilet and breaking out in cold sweat for like, half an hour. I somewhat recovered and made it down the plane safe and fine again.

Took forever to get to where I stay, it's one thing that annoys me quite a bit. Narita is so far away from Tokyo. T_T Then again, you can probably say that Singapore's too small thus it's so much faster to get home from the airport.

25th Jun, Thur
Hair salon in the morning. The roots were growing out so much it was reaching the point that I couldn't stand looking at myself in the mirror anymore.

Picked up my Intuos 4 in the early afternoon, rushed back to apartment, start rushing images for Bazaar.

Rushed out of the house at 6 for light-rental. Apparently while working I kept looking at my laptop's clock which was in Singapore time, and an hour later than Tokyo. This ALWAYS happens, and I don't know why I always think that I won't make the mistake of forgetting to calculate the time; and I always ending up doing just that, then always end up having to reluctantly change it to the local timezone eventually. /selfbish

Met up with assistant Chiaki around 6.45, rental place closes at 7, but was kind enough to wait for us before wrapping the day.

Took my 2 Profoto 500 Air and ran for Gothic Lolita Bible's office. Met Chiaki's ex-colleagues from Sony Pictures, who broke into some hysterical laughter upon me mentioning I'd came to Tokyo twice just to see X Japan. I don't know why it happened, it wasn't the first or second time either. Oh well, I entertained them somehow at least, I guess.

Meeting from 8-10pm, apparently everyone works there till the last train. -_-!!

Went back and continued on with the Bazaar pictures.

26th Jun, Fri
(sorry, I know the pic is from the previous entry ^^;)
First shoot was with the awesome duo Kokusyoku Sumire for GLB.

Attended some actress/model's birthday party at night because Sawaka was singing.

27th Jun, Sat
Sorta slept in, wanted to stay home and work, but had to leave the house because my Softbank phone ran out of credits and I couldn't afford having my team unable to contact me for the coming shoots.

Attempted to shop at Harajuku. Pre-shoot anxieties refused me any desires to spend.

Met up with Chris and had dinner together. Discussed about the following day's shoot a little.

First Kitchen = love.

During dinner we also pondered upon whether one would take Nutella with rice, so I posted the poll on my dA, see results here.

28th Jun, Sun
Special feature for GLB. I just LOVE the dresses so much (not that I can wear any).

29th Jun, Mon
Morning flight to Jakarta, transit in Incheon, did nothing but walk around (and shop) for 4 hours at the airport, which was surprisingly not that bad.

Someone from the production house picked me up at the airport, took only about an hour or so to reach the hotel.

30th Jun, Tue
My assistant Eric and I were both tired, couldn't sleep well. The pillow was too small and high, my head kept slipping off it every other hour.

Had pre-production meeting at Ogilvy. Then to the client's office in the afternoon.

Under the insistence of our producer we were moved to a much much better hotel in Kemang. *hearts*

1st Jul, Wed
Full day shoot for Pond's.

Eric and I played the piano while waiting for the set to get ready. It was so much fun. (We both played X Japan stuff, haha)

2nd Jul, Thur
Finished up 2 interviews, in English and Chinese (epic, yet again).
Flight back to Tokyo.

3rd Jul, Fri
Touch down in Tokyo, take forever to get back to the apartment again. Crash.

4th Jul, Sat
Kagetsuki is in town~~!!!

We're so awesome that we only hang out when we're overseas (Tokyo mostly, actually). I think the last time I actually saw her in Singapore was like, last year, but that was for a shoot, not hang out D:

So we went shopping =X

Saw this along the way in Shibuya station. Pretty awesome stuff~

Anyway, onto shopping.

I managed to get yun to buy her first pieces of Gadget Grow and Yohji Yamamoto *is proud of self* and she talked me into trying on pieces from Moi meme Moitie for the first time too. =3

Alas, the price tag is not meant for Jingna.

Did buy a simple jacket from Black Peace Now, which she hated, which I loved. Didn't have much time to do anything else since she had to rush back to Narita.


Lastly, new work is up:

Uncropped version (nudity warning) is available on deviantArt and Flickr. Thanks for everyone who commented so far. :3


I finished reading The Sorrows of Young Werther by J. W. Goethe. Awesomeness. Will try to find time to blog about some of the really inspiring (to me anyway) stuff I'd been reading.


Glad to finally have the coming 2 days off (I think). I can probably even sleep in tomorrow. Hope I'll be able to squeeze my way in to see the Fujitsu Cup Finals at Nihon Ki-in on Monday. *crosses fingers* Hope everyone's been good~ =D

Backlog photos and stuff

Man. Lugging 2 lights+stands+17"MBP+1Ds MIII around in this weather, alone, is no freaking joke.

So tired my whole body aches.

Thus, instead of heading down to Harajuku on a seemingly gorgeous Saturday, I'm gonna stay at home and emo, so I can rest up enough and repeat the above routine for tomorrow's shoot.


Cuz I'd been updating more on twitter than blogging, here's a random a mix of things from the past few months I'd been meaning to blog about. The pile is ever-growing but here's a start nonetheless.

Wacom Intuos4. Brand new from this trip.

This thing's so freaking gorgeous I wanna put it on display. Like, serously.

The one I'd been using for the past years had been a 9x12 which is just waaaaay too huge to carry around for travel. This new one's medium-sized and is so much easier to bring around. Now I can bring it on shoots to do quick demos on the spot for clients and my team. Yayness. Thou I'd still prefer the 9x12 for long-period usage since it's better for my wrist.

Post-shoot snap with Kokusyoku Sumire in their beautifully decorated cafe, stolen from their blog here.

I super love the figurines in the background. They're made by another Japanese artist who doesn't sell them anymore. /emo

This shoot was for Gothic Lolita Bible Aug issue (I think)


Okay, moving on to end Apr/early May photos:

With my lovely assistant Abby in Kyoto

With Kagetsuki at the Ghibli Museum.

Also, if I may, plug her new awesome fashion blog with Dawn - Monoxious.

More from the Ghibli Museum and cafe~

My X Japan concert guest pass. Shiny stuff *_*

Goban used in The Go Master movie filming. The go-kes here weren't inside, they're just in collection of the person I visited, designed personally by Honinbo Shuei.

Shuei

Ninja Jingna making okonomiyaki in awesome Junya coat. Chris looking very very skinny...


And Gullimer's (sp?) Village for Young People, with nary a soul in sight. With Rick, Chris, and Abby who's cropped off because my self-portrait skills aren't awesome enough. ;_;

Birthday dinner


Paris:

From my meetup~ That huge white book is my portfolio. XD

Gorgeous new Givenchy jacket

Awesome old mag store on rue de Temple

Not forgetting the inevitable stuff that break our banks...


There're a lot of other epicness, recorded in my iPhone, and all lost along with it. Oh well~ at least I have this:

Awesome food on Singapore Airlines. Hahahha.

Last but not least, a polaroid with Ivory Flame after the Lilith shoot. She's really really super stunning to photograph~


Sorry for the seemingly outdated/bland stuff. I'm working on trying to finding something interesting to blog about but being so busy everything seems like they'd just be too boring for a read. I'm so sorry!! T_T

Heading to Jakarta on Monday!!

Six years ago, I was forced to understand mortality, and I learnt, against my will, to treasure life.

I was told to make the most out of my every breathing moment, and to carry on the shares that were left behind.

For all these things you've taught me, things so important, so precious... Thank you, L.


街角に一輪の花
空を見上げれば最後の雪が掌に零れて⋯⋯

Lilith.

The epitome of my obsession with Waterhouse and the Pre-Raphaelites.

那些美好的日子，有时，多少还是会有一点点怀念。


Gonna see Dir en Grey today, probably. Hoping to hear a song that they'd probably never play again.

Summer

Fashion story done for SingaporeBrides.com a while back.

Photography: Zhang Jingna
Styling: Furqan Saini
Hair: Yvonne Lee
Makeup: Joanna Koh
Model: Nathaline/Ave, Diana/Looque
Photography assistants: Octavia S, Tan Yong Kuan, Hoong Wei Long

Kinda in the mood for summer~ so just posting some brighter photos, just for a while. :D




I'm gonna blog about go for the rest of the entry, so feel free to skip. XD


Recent news about Lee Sedol's intended 1.5-year-long break had been spreading like wild fire (well, for the go-lovers, anyway).

I read up a bit on Sina here and here (both Chinese, sorry), so I'm just gonna sum it up a bit in English for those who want to know.

Story began with his refusal to join the Korean league.

Because 4 teams withdrew from the league this year. 3 joined only after much efforts from the Hanguk Kiwon (Korean Baduk Association), one of which was a team from Lee Sedol's hometown. His withdrawal probably meant the withdrawal of major sponsors from the competitions and directly affects other professionals whose main income may come from playing in the league's games.

Hanguk Kiwon then called for a major meeting to discuss his actions, voting was conducted for whether he should be penalized.

86 voted for yes, 37 opposed and 2 forfeited. Online voting conducted by a major Chinese weiqi news websites for the public came up with totally opposite results though.

Lee Sedol's reasons for withdrawal were due to personal timing issues as well as concerns for the rating system.

(Wow, I'd make a horrible news reporter, so heck, I give up my attempt to sound formal because I can't put in my personal opinion~~!)

For someone of Lee Sedol's level, currently Korean #1, he has to win 10 out of 12 games in order to maintain his scores (which is, btw, pretty freaking damn difficult considering the frequency of these games, not counting the ones he has to play for all other major tournaments.).

Heck, he's contracted to play for a Chinese team in the Chinese league and each game he wins in that is equivalent to 10 games he wins in the Korean league, go figure.

Anyway what I'm basically trying to say is that games played in the leagues are just not what the very top pros put their most attention to, ranking drop is definitely a major no-no, so I think his decision to withdraw is pretty valid as a competitor.

This issue about how he should be penalized (I can't be bothered to find the article on what Hanguk Kiwon actually said) eventually ended up pretty unpleasant (come on, voting by all the pros, that's like, public shaming), and I'm sure eventually upset him deeply, so he decided that he'll stop playing go for 1.5 years and will only return in January 2011.


I usually never find myself in much of a position to comment on anything at all, the same goes for this, but I must honestly say that I think this is what makes Lee Sedol Lee Sedol.

Perhaps I'm biased because he is one of the top players, perhaps I'm biased because I didn't leave the national team back in my days when similar situations arose, but I know for sure that I'm biased because of just how rebellious he is.

His character that is piercing and ruthless like his go, that has so much pride, so much fearlessness and bravado, all that he's not afraid of being, that sets him apart from all the other top players of our time, Lee Sedol is someone whose name will be long remembered in the history of go.

And um, wow, that was so so much longer than I intended. I actually just wanted to say that Lee Sedol's my hero. But oh well, hahaha.

Paper Doll

Kinda old. Was digging around for images for my website revamp and came upon more than a dozen shoots that I'd never posted much of.

I like the colours in these ones. (And the fact that the pages are proofs from my photobook haha)


I really do rant quite a bit lately, but I end up shooting and retouching a lot too. If they go hand in hand, ranting more isn't that horrible a thing, right...? XD


Recently I've started to make it a point to take behind-the-scenes photos, because it's been requested for interviews a couple times lately... and so I realized that, to my horror, I really have absolutely none (simply because I never grasped the habit of holding up my camera for anything that's not needed for my end product).

My dear ex-interns and assistants, if any of you reading this have any photos of our shoots together in your possession, please be so kind to share some and email to me. Thank you :D

Isolation

I feel a strong need to distance myself from people lately.

I'm afraid to talk about myself, about my problems, about anything. Because the moment it leaves my mouth you cannot refrain from exercising your freedom of speech and whatever rights you think you deserve to judge me, criticize me, belittle me. Which by all means, is fine because it is your freedom. But to the point where it borders on verbal abuse? I don't know.


You say I'm self-absorbed and pretentious.

Am I supposed to talk about someone else's future when you questioned about mine? When did talking about myself when asked become a sin?


I'm tired of the same accusations, the same words.

I'm tired of the little images of what my success should be in your heads.

I'm tired of having to deal with it just because of how I think it's out of kindness you said the things you said, how guilty it makes me to be unable to follow your words which do not apply because you do not know my situations.


I cannot be one and a thousand at the same time and please every single one of you, each with an individual opinion.

I too want to lead my life down the path of choices I make.
No matter how your support has propelled me to where I am today, I still want to live my own life.

Is that wrong?

Why is even that being taken away from me?