I Think I Want to Buy and Sell Hand-Made Toys. Or Not.

I Think I Want to Buy and Sell Hand-Made Toys. I opened an eBay account recently to post a collection of bags that my wife bought from her hometown, Bicol, the Philippines. It has been a week and I've had no offers so far. But I'll have to admit that having an item listed on a market is fun, a better word would not come to mind.

Last Saturday, after my day's course at a Singapore Institute, I went to Cash Converters and found this old hand-made toy tractor that was selling for a very attractive price, that's according to my non-existent experience in the second-hand toy market. It looked interesting to me, I guess it would, especially after spending my recent week nights watching The Pickers, Pawn Stars, and Kings of Restoration. I talked to one of the store keepers and he agreed to sell it to me for S$3 dollars less than the list price. I was delighted!

I cleaned the little thing up as soon as I got home, took photos and posted it on eBay right away.

Or Not. When my son got home from the playground, he's face lit up when he saw the little toy and grabbed it by instinct. I have a feeling he won't be letting it go any time soon.

Here's my eBay, if you dare:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261276484083?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Lone Skater

Lone Skater, a photo by Day Garcia (Will be back soon) on Flickr.

Trying to straighten out all the loose ends.

Between the Door and the Window

Between the Door and the Window, a photo by Day Garcia on Flickr.

I bet there's a happy kid inside this house!

The Messanger and the Message

The Messanger and the Message, a photo by Day Garcia on Flickr.

This pigeon is an artist.

Little Ice Cream Girl

Little Ice Cream Girl, a photo by Day Garcia on Flickr.

Ice cream does make you forget about mom and dad just for a while!

Bless the Beasts and the Children

Bless the Beasts and the Children, a photo by Day Garcia on Flickr.

This is fast becoming my favorite photograph. The mother was actually playing with her son and they were both laughing, but the black and blur turned the image into something very different.

Keepers And Fillers

After about two weeks of prowling the night time streets, I finally finished my first roll of Fujifilm Natura ISO 1600 film last week and had the it developed that Friday afternoon at Kanota. I spent my Saturday alternating between playing with my daughter and scanning the strips of film. Saturday night I killed myself post-processing until Sunday morning. And guess how many keepers I got? Out of 36 shots, I was only contented with 9. What a terrible yield rate! I reviewed all of my shots from the roll and the first thing I noticed was that I had a lot of repeat shots, it seems I've been very concerned about not getting the correct exposure, which I think stems from my previous experience of busting what could have been a perfect shot save when I scanned that particular frame, it was horribly underexposed, which I attribute to me metering to close to the light source.

I took three shots of this particular scene in three different exposure settings. All of which turned out fine and perfectly processable through Aperture.

Another thing I noticed is how trigger happy I have become even after pledging to a goal of minimum filler shots. I have repeatedly told myself not to press that shutter release unless I am fully satisfied with what I see in the viewfinder but I just was not able to help it, I let the shutter go more times than I wanted to with no feelings felt, just wasteful, useless excuses to hear the M6 breathe.

Well, I have another roll of the ISO 1600 film and last night proved to be a test of self-control to me. I thought I did well, initially, as I was able to capture what I thought was a beautiful feeling with just one shot. However, I left the scene repeatedly convincing myself that my hands were steady when I released the shutter as I took the shot at 1/15 seconds. I wanted to take another shot at 1/30 seconds but my goal of  high keeper rate won over me. I just hope I lost to the right goal. I didn't fare well with my self-imposed sanction going though the rest of the night but I thought I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

Here are the remainder of my so-called keeper shots from my first roll of the ISO 1600 Fujifilm, the photographs are also featured in my Photography Page with titles. I hope you enjoy them.