Beyond the Beauty

The State of Hawaii is known as the land of paradise to many. However, it may not be considered paradise anymore once you see beyond its beauty. As you pass through certain beaches, parks and/or sidewalks, you will notice those with long, shaggy hair, dirt filled fingernails and old, ripped clothing. An estimate in January 2010 showed results of over 4,000 homeless residents, a 15% raise from the previous year, on the island of Oahu and over 6,000 in the state. Homelessness is obviously becoming an uprising issue in the State; the real question is how do we deal with this issue?

Every homeless resident has their own reason behind their residency on the street. Drug addictions and laziness are common reasons but one key point many overlook is the cost of living on the islands. In 2007, Hawaii was placed at third for the most expensive housing market. A simple studio apartment for rent is around $1,000 a month. Along with that, necessities, such as food, are not cheap since the shipment of food is shipped from the mainland. There are many who are barely making ends meet.

The government is proposing a solution. They want to provide a one-way plane ticket for the homeless to fly to the West Coast or to where they came from. About 30% of the homeless population is not residents of Hawaii. This could cost the state around $100,000, however, this number is nothing compared to the $35,000 per year the state is providing for social services to each homeless resident. To many, this is a quick, efficient and cost effective solution. But others believe that the issue should not end just by providing a one way ticket and visually removing them. The issue would still remain; just not in our state.

Luckily, there are many who sincerely want to help the homeless residents get off the street and into permanent housing. Unfortunately, there are some who do not wish to be helped. We should put more time into those who take the initiative to help themselves get back into society. If they do not want to help themselves, no matter how great the solutions the government provides, they will not put the effort into changing themselves.

News Corp. Scandal

It has been a few months, but the story of News Corp. scandal still lingers in our minds. News Corp's News of the World, Britain's oldest publishing newspaper, had been caught in dozens of scandals within the past past year involving intercepting cellphone voicemail, hacking into telephone lines, and many other ways to illegally obtain information. On July 7th 2011, News of the World announced its withdrawal from publishing.

Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp., is feared by many politicians because of the investigative stories behind his news papers. Politicians fear that speaking out about Murdoch would only ruin their own careers. This type of system is an oxymoron. Media in Social responsible counties is free from government control in exchange for serving the public interest, but Murdoch's media empire violates laws to report on the filth they dig up. That resembles an authoritarian government.

I certainly think that News Corps. deserved its demise. Stories are more interesting when every detail is filled in; but not when it's illegally obtained. The purpose of news is to deliver accurate, meaningful content and inform its audience. Its purpose is not to go beyond the legal limits to produce segments that violate the rights of people.

Eternity@Hiff

I sat through the movie even though half of the people walked out within 30mins of it. I thought that if I could just sit through this movie, maybe I could pick up on something that others missed. I was wrong. I should have left with the crowed. Before buying the tickets, I read the description in the Hiff website, then I watched the trailer. The trailer really grabbed my attention even though I wasn't a fan of watching movies with subtitles. I'll skip to the point; Hiff released the wrong trailer for the "Eternity" on their website.

The trailer I saw for Eternity on the Hiff website was this one-



The movie Eternity that showed was this one -



Hiff messed up the trailer for the 2 movies because it had the same title and were both made in Thailand. They recently changed the trailer from the top one to the second one. If I had seen the second trailer, I might have still watched the movie, but probably left right away.

First of all, the heads and tails of all the clips could have been trimmed by 5-10 seconds; in some cases, maybe even removed. It was filled with long and boring still shots of meaningless sequence. I am not a filmmaker nor am I a professional critic, but I think most people can agree that this was a very dull and boring movie. Second, the movie was made to look as a documentary. The shots were long and boring with people coming in the frame to scoop 4 scoops of rice out of a rice cooker and walking out of the frame, to a guy having a conversation with a girl with long pauses in between conversations as if there were emotions to be expressed without words but THERE WAS NO EMOTION EXPRESSED.

Maybe I am being too critical about this movie. Maybe I missed the best parts while I fell asleep for 10 minutes during the beginning of the film. Maybe the climax was in that beginning part. If not, then I give this movie a 10, out of 100.

Interview with Crissy

Today I had a chance to interview Crissy Gofigan, Senior at Hawaii Pacific University, majoring in journalism. She briefly talked about our Writing for New Media class and explained the purpose of the course. Crissy also talked about other classes she is taking this semester and her goals upon graduation. Like many, she plans on staying in Hawaii if possible.

Hawaii is a beautiful state. Some of us, myself especially, take the gorgeous environment for granted. I would like to go beyond this paradise and experience the harsh winter.

Photography 101 Aperture Part 2

When you are shooting on aperture priority mode, you, the photographer, chooses the aperture while the camera chooses the shutter speed in order to produce a well exposed photograph.  So what situations can you use aperture priority mode?  I will give a few different scenario where aperture priority mode comes in handy and what aperture you should choose for the scenarios.

If you're trying to take a picture of a beautiful scenery in a place with a good amount of sunlight, you could use a small aperture opening such as f11, f16, or f22.  The smaller the aperture, the depth of field increase.  This means more things in your photograph will be in focus.  For example, if you use f2.8, and you focus on a tree that is 5 feet in front of you, another tree 20 feet behind the first tree will not be in focus.  But if you make the size of your aperture smaller and use, for example, f22 instead, the second tree that was not in focus before will most likely be in focus also due to the increase in the depth of field.  Remember the smaller the f number, the larger the aperture opens.  The bigger the f number, the smaller the aperture opens.

So you're thinking, why don't I just use f22 all the time since I want everything to be in focus.  1, blurry background is an artistic effect a lot of portrait photographer use.  Most portrait photographer prefers the subject to be in dead focus and the background in a creamy, de-focused state.  2, the smaller the aperture, the more things is in focus, but also, the less amount of light is let in to the camera.  When there's not enough light, the camera often raises ISO dramatically which produces noise aka different color dots in the photograph AND the shutter speed is also slowed down in order to allow extra light to come into the camera sensor.  When the shutter speed is slowed down, meaning the shutter opens longer to let light in, slight movement in the camera would cause the picture to look blurry.  It's not the same blurry as when we use a big aperture and our subject is in focus and the background is blurry.  Rather, everything on the picture is blurry which results in a poor photograph.  Although you could use a tripod to prevent movement in the camera.

If you're shooting at an indoor event such as an indoor concert with fair amount of lights and there are no fast motions you are capturing, you should set your aperture to the widest your lens offer.  For example, if I am using a lens that has the widest aperture f1.8, then I will shoot on f1.8.  If my lens is a f1.4, then I will shoot on f1.4.  (I would probably have to use a very high ISO and a flash depending on how dark the concert is.  I prefer not to use flash as much as possible because flash washes out the picture.  Although flash is a great tool and you could adjust the flash compensation, I would suggest to beginners not to use flash as much as possible.)  Although if the event is an indoor sport such as indoor basketball or hockey, etc. you would use another setting, shutter priority, which I will explain in another blog.

I personally use Aperture priority all the time on almost everything.  I know most photographers choose manual mode instead, but I prefer aperture priority because you don't have to keep adjusting the shutter for the rapid change in exposure.  I prefer to capture things instantly in case I miss the moment.

Photography 101 Aperture Part 1

I am a passionate photography enthusiast so I like to help out anyone who is interested in photography and camera settings; and if anyone could help chime in that would be awesome!  My first photography post is on the Aperture mode on your DSLRs.  Although this is a topic posted by many people, I think it's good to cover the basics before moving on to other complicated settings.

First of all, your DSLR comes with a few setting on the mode dial; usually Program, Aperture, Shutter, Manual, Auto, and other preset scene modes.  Aperture Priority modes are what I use the most.  It is usually signified by "Av" on most Canon DSLRs or "A" on Nikons.  Aperture Priority mode means you, the photographer, chooses the aperture while the camera chooses the right shutter speed to match that aperture in order to produce a well exposed picture.

So what is aperture?  Aperture is the size of the opening of your lens.  Usually, lenses would have a numbers on the front element indicating the maximum aperture.  The number is called the f number.  On the lens, it is indicated, for example, "1:1.4", translates to the lens's maximum aperture is 1.4, but on the camera, the aperture is indicated by the f number, so f1.4.  The larger the opening of the aperture, the more light is let in to the camera sensor.  You need light inorder to produce a picture.  

When you open the aperture wide, you will achieve a few effects.  1, the bigger the aperture, the thinner the depth of field becomes.  Depth of field is the amount of space in focus(I will cover this in another blog).  In short, the bigger the aperture, the less amount of space will be in focus.  For example, if you're shooting a person 2 feet away from you, and there's a mountain 20 feet behind the person your taking a picture of, if you focus on that person and you're shooting on wide aperture such as f1.4, the person you took a picture of will be in focus, but the background of the mountain will be blurry/creamy.  That is due to the reason of thin depth of field.  Vise versa, if you shoot on a low Aperture, that same mountain will probably be in focus.  2, another benefit of wide open aperture is the fact that you can shoot in lower light situations because you need light inorder to produce a picture, and with shutter/aperture opened wide, you can take a picture and avoid a blurry photo due to your hand shaking.  

About me

Hi, my name is Jack.  My major is Integrated Multimedia.  This is my 4th year at HPU and I hope to graduate by May of 2012.  I just turned 21 a few days ago, but I don't feel like I'm 21.  Maybe after an epic party this weekend, I will...

I was born in China 21 years ago (pretty obvious).  I came to Hawaii when I was 10 and stayed here ever since.  I learned English when I came here, it was a very big challenge, but I made it okay.  I went to Roosevelt High School and graduated in 2008.  It was a great school, but I didn't learn much.

I like to play soccer, skate, take photos, and make videos when I have time.  I guess that makes sense since I am a Multimedia major.  Upon graduation, I would like to work as an independent photographer or movie maker.