Shot with the Sony Nex-5; Note, photos were (colour, light, crop) treated in post-production.

I guess it’s about high time I did this review post on the Sony Nex-5 I promised about a month ago. Naturally, if I was at the reading-end of this promise I would’ve enquired whether the review was being delivered by a three legged donkey and could I please get my act straight. In fact it was. Delivered by a donkey. Don’t insult the disabled donkey.

I won’t go into the coming-of story of the model; that, including technical specs, you can read here. My experience with the camera, albeit short, did put me in a rather shaky relationship with my current point-and-shoot, the Nikon P5000. Note, I didn’t compare it to my Canon DSLR – it’s a little hard to compare the two; after a few days with the Sony I realised this wasn’t meant to be a replacement for a DSLR, it was meant to be the perfect sidekick. As demeaning as that might sound, a sidekick camera still requires quality colour and light interpretation capabilities, as well as tight control over aperture and shutterspeed. The sidekick can travel with or without the main deal, but most importantly it’s that camera you can ‘whip out’. Of course with DSLRs the ‘whip out‘ is more of a ‘unstrap gingerly and ease out‘…. My favourite bit of the Sony Nex-5 was definitely the detatchable lens. The one I had was a bundle lens with a mediocre max aperture of F3.5, but as you can see it works like a charm, and more lenses that provide more bokeh (blurred background) are available. With the 16mm f2.8 it might even be a decent camera for a set of outfit photos on a style blog.

So say, if I was someone starting a blog, wanted good photos, but did not want to commit to learning photography (because what good is it if it’s not hot or cold… learn the whole deal or don’t, there are no ‘photographers’ in the middle) this would be the camera to go to.

*This is not a paid promotion. (Unfortunately)

Coat – ASOS White, Scarf – Gifted, Top – Courtesy of AA, Jeans – Courtesy of Levi’s, Shoes – Zara, Bag – Jin Yoo 103684

Thanks Leonie for the photos!

One

problem with posting often is that, sure, at times there’s just naturally something to share – usually a somewhat cavalier commentary on other people’s jobs and practices, but there are times where you can’t even remember what you did that day or why the particular outfit. I personally call it the post-grub epoch, where everything is in slow motion and there is a gleaming bed in the horizon with… …wow I just fell asleep, sorry. OK let me cheat and describe something practical from the outfit: The Zara shoes are surprisingly comfortable, they’re good for about the first five hours, and after that it feels like you’re walking on dominos pieces. The coat is LETHAL when going down the stairs at the tube station, the wrinkles in the fifth pic is evidence to how much I scrunch it up to save my dear life. Last but not least, a silk scarf in 3° Celsius is the stupidest idea.

Mutated pants with ingrown waistband

‘Draping that mimics twisted muscle tissue, viscose jersey with texture to imitate ultrasound scans, jackets with in-grown waistcoat details with vests…’

Do you have a 9-to-5? because I don’t. I wouldn’t know what it’s like getting up every morning and picking a different outfit everyday. I wouldn’t know because I happen to be the maestro of bumhood and freelance webdesign means I can meet my clients in my underwear. Wait, that didn’t come out right. The first time I encountered Eugene Lin‘s work was on my first ever trip to Fashion Week, and even then he had violated classics into a twisted yet subdued collection. The Vanishing Twin, the inspiration and title of his SS11 collection is a medical syndrome otherwise known as ‘fetus-in-fetu’, where a malformed parasitic twin is found within the body of a newborn. Don’t google it if you’re squeamish. (Which means everyone will have opened a new tab now…) The clothes might have a disturbing essence to it, but to go back to my opening question, aren’t they perfect for the 9-to-5 office? And when that well-informed male co-worker goes Hey that’s the Vanishing Twin! you could always murmur that your grandpa had that condition* and bag that free guilt lunch. So.Evil.

*The Vanishing Twin is apparently a common case in pregnancies. (grandpa did not have baby, or did he?)

Answer to pop quiz from nail post: Tripod. Just wanted to see what you might come up with. You guys are hilarious.

The Circus Bookazine Blogslam was truly unlike any event I’d attended. The bookazine is a blogger-only publication, and the first issue was on Fashion – so I’d expected the usual roster of fashion bloggers with the latest of Jeffrey Campbell trotters around the Asahi beer lake, but the entire night I didn’t see a single familiar face. I attended as a contributor after having sent a few shots under the theme of DIYA: Do It Yourself Alone, featuring Gyu, Ellen and Daniela from the F Blog. But these bloggers wrote about politics, human rights, relationships, feminism… and some of the things they read out during the blogslam competition, my my, couldn’t keep my Vitamin Water booze down. There are just so many more ways to blog than posting pictures of what you wore, check out Scalene Adventure for example – the readers decide the fate of the storyline, now how neat is that.

This might come across as blasphemy from someone who is allegedly a ‘fashion’ blogger, but I never read the contents of Vogue or Elle, simply because I don’t agree to the perishable lifestyle they promote. This Bookazine on the other hand, I’d like to sit down one day and read it cover to cover. The articles are smart, humble and written with humility – rare trait in fashion, wouldn’t you say? My favourite quote must be from one of the articles by a 19-year-old model: ‘I don’t consider myself a model; the word ‘model’ means something that should be followed for its perfection, and no one is perfect.’

The bookazine is in both German and English, available here! Thank you Anke & Flo & Circus Team for the hard work and Flo for editing the video!

Red – Model’s Own; Orange, Yellow, Mint, Blue – BarryM; Navy, Pink, Brown – Chanel; Purple – L’Oreal, Grey – Missha (Korean)

Noticed I was singing the ABC song while painting this, is that why I only know the song up to J?

Something about rainbows remind me of scales – the ABC’s, the 123’s, the Do-Re-Mi’s – and if those are building blocks to amazing reads and Kiss from a Rose‘s then what will my nails build today?! <Insert corny life lesson> Probably just a few snags on my tights and nail-marks on important documents. Reminds me of them Crayola markers that smell good but don’t taste good.

Quiz: Who’s holding the camera!!??    Awesome answers in upcoming post.