Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Mar 17 2010

The Oskar Barnack competition

I don’t enter a lot of photo competitions, especially after seeing how skewed the judging is in many cases towards certain parties and against others. But I do participate in the odd contest now and again, and my entry in the Oskar Barnack Leica contest this year is now up. I know, the gall I must have entering such a competition using Canon photos.

In any case, my 12-photo essay is on the monks of Luang Prabang in Laos. Last year’s entry was on the scooters of Taipei. I didn’t stand much of a chance of winning last year, and this year looks much the same, but it was interesting picking out the photos, a good self-editing exercise anyway. There are many really kick-ass photos in there to peruse, so go have a look.

I also couldn’t resist, after reading so many articles on the new Leicas and seeing the wonderful quality of the photos, going down to the store last night to take a look at the production models of the M9 (NT$245,000, body only) and the X1 (NT$75,000). As before, the M9 felt top-heavy and overly thick after the near-perfect dimensions of my M6, and the LCD was abysmal. The X1’s screen was the same, and the wait for it to lock focus was interminable. Shutting down took a long time as well. I could see trying to live with those faults just for the image quality, but the prices are insuperable: the Invincible Rabbit is less than the X1, and a new Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 is only NT$26,000.

posted by Poagao at 11:48 pm  
Mar 15 2010

3/14 at the park

Thanks to the Chinese New Year break and a number of other factors, it had been over a month before I went to practice last Sunday at the park. The weather was very nice and the grounds pretty dry; I’d been worried they’d still be muddy after Saturday’s rains. The only people there besides Teacher X, however, were Mr. V and NL Guy, who were grappling as usual. I talked with Teacher X for a while before going through the empty-handed form just to get back into the swing of things. I was quite rusty, and Teacher X gave me a lot of pointers and reminders. He also added some things, including a little spin that I’d never learned before.

We practiced some tuishou, and while he said I’d improved, I suspect he was trying to make me feel better as I’ve been stuck on the form for quite a long time. I need to practice lower stances to make retreating more effective. It’s not a really technical problem, just a matter of doing it more.

Then I did some swordwork, which always makes me feel better. While I enjoy the empty-handed form, the sword form feels better.

Mr. V and NL Guy finished their epic grapple, and announced that they’d been at it for an hour and a half. It turns out that they’re trying to break a record or something; their longest time is three hours and 25 minutes without stopping for rest. I’m not sure what the point of all this is.

posted by Poagao at 5:31 am