Discoveries

These few days I've been wondering around on my bicycle, and the outcome has been pretty good, something I didn't expected hah.

First, is the discovery of a 2nd hand goods store located not far from the daily commuting route. Instead of turn right as usual, I took the left route and discovered the shop.

The section which stirs my interest is the audio CD part (as usual). There're 2 rows of shelves dedicated for CDs ranging from Japanese artists, English artists, to a few soundtracks too.
Price ranged from 105 yen to 500 yen, and some unopened albums selling above 1k yen.

Here's some of my loots worth to be mentioned here.

I've been wanted to get Enya's album after having Celine Dion, Toni Braxton and Mariah Carey's. This "The Best of Enya" fits into my collection well.


Ennio Morricone is a famous film music composer which I've yet to get acquaintance of. Since this album just cost 105 yen so I'll just take it.


"Long Vacation" is a J-drama I've watched many many years ago. It was fateful that I've bump into this album selling at dirt cheap 105 yen! Didn't hesitate to grab it.


Kenny G collection. I like the cover image illustrating a cartoonish Kenny G with the fine details like the blend of musical notes with the hair and the saxophone nose hah!


One of the best grab were these Enigma albums. Haven't seen Enigma albums anywhere before and I'm surprised to see quite a few of them on the shelves.
The album graphic designs were unique for the later years which smartly made use of semi-transparent materials.
The albums: MCMXD aD, The Screen Behind The Mirror, Enigma 3.




The other discovery I've made was playing around with my camera. I used to complain that I had difficulties to capture pics in low-light condition. Using flash light will just ruin it.

Last night the moon was round and bright, so I tried to play around in the camera's manual mode, and switch between different ISO ranges. I was stunned with the results....

ISO 80


ISO 100


ISO 200


ISO 400


ISO 800


ISO 1600


Highest setting, ISO 3200


Another shot at ISO 800


Shot of the hostel building at ISO 400. The red light on the left is from a bicycle's headlamp.


Summary of what I've learn about ISO.
1. Before this I dislike to switch ISO settings is because the photo will appears to be grainy and noisy, thus it'll ruin the details of the pic.
2. My hand isn't stable so just a little tremble will produce blurry pics. The winter weather doesn't help much as I've to take off my gloves in order to had better grip of the camera. A tripod will help perhaps?
3. From the few pics above, I notice that there's no universal setting for ISO settings based on the lighting condition. Some pics will look better in higher ISO range but some will shines the most at mid-range settings.
4. I've yet to learn how low ISO settings can contribute to photography. Any suggestions?

That's all for now..... sharing with you my discoveries.  :D