We started planting mung beans in mid April, until now 3 months passed and it still keeps on producing mung beans, we only harvest it on weekends, and some have dropped onto the ground.

We first started with throwing a palm full of mung beans into a pot.

After the seeds have sprouted and had at least 2 leaves, it was the time to transplant them.

In order to make the seedling to have equal distance with each other, we made holes on the soil and put 3 to 5 seedlings into each hole.

We did it under the hot sun, some of the seedlings could not stand properly.  We watered and covered them with newspaper until the evening.

Not all the seedlings were alive after this transplant, and not all of them were healthy.  I also removed some of the weak plants after they were 1 feet tall.

I put organic fertilizer twice and watered every 2 days except rainy days.  They grew taller and taller.

After about 2 months, it started blooming.

After the yellow flowers drop, little bean pods can be seen and they grow longer day by day.

Some ripen bean pods were in light brown, but some were darker.

We still have quite a lot of unripe bean pods despite our continuous effort of harvesting the mung beans.

With the area  of about 40 cm X 60 cm, how many mung beans do you think it can produce?

This is my new watch.  I bought it about two weeks ago at the the same shop where I bought my previous watch four years ago.  It has officially retired now after a heart transplant, a watch band replacement and four long years of hard labour.  And now it’s time for the watch above to stand in the front line.

This is how the new watch’s band looks like.  The watch band of my previous watch was broken twice.  The first time it was broken, I took it to the shop and they changed a new watch band for me.  The second time it happened, I was told that they don’t have that kind of watch band in stock anymore unless I want to buy the same model but in blue.

I thought about it and had a look at the blue one.  However, I still prefer pink and they don’t have it anymore.  So at the end, the lady showed me a few new watches and I chose the one in the first picture (quickly scroll up and have a look again! :P).  As you can see from the picture above, this is what is left now of my previous watch.  It has been a pleasure to have it by my side and we have gone through a lot of ups and downs in life together.

This is the back of the old watch.  Dirt has accumulated itself.

I asked the lady at the watch shop if she has the backup watch band for my new watch.  She said that will depend on the demand or if the factory still produces this model.  Then, I asked how often people change their watch band and she said they usually buy a new watch if their watch band is broken or has worn out.  I was quite surprised to hear that.

I still treasure my old watch a lot.  And I will do whatever I can to take care of its remains and I will try my very best to protect my new front line commander!

I have just got my proper light box and studio lamps recently and I am studying on what background is suitable for what objects.

One thing I found out was that the exposure need to be increased on white background for 1 - 2 steps, and vice versa for black background using average / auto metering.

This is because when using white background, the sensor on the camera might thought it is bright, but the object is actually darker then the white background, and if the exposure is not adjusted, the object will become under exposed (too dark).  Same as black background on the other way.

It is the same concept when taking photo at night, and also taking photo on beach / in snow scene.  Some experienced photographers might know that they need to adjust the exposure.

Usually camera come with exposure adjustment range from -2 to +2 step with increment of 0.5 steps.  A more advanced camera will have -3 to +3 steps with increment of 0.3.

My camera is having -2 to +2 setting with increment 0.3.  But I discovered that when I use exposure bracketing, it automatically can go up to -3 to +3 (without showing on camera display).

Which one do you prefer, white or black background?

Days ago, I posted the picture of our harvested mung beans, and promised that I will post the entire process of planting mung beans.  I have taken too many photos and still in the process of selecting and sorting them out.

I found this hairy leave in one of the photos, and it reminds me on an important topic in photography - Depth of Field (DOF).

A question came to my mind as I see many photographers overly done on reducing the dof (eg.  the model’s has only one eye in focus, whereas her nose, ears and the other eye were blur).  Is it a good idea?  It depends on the photographer’s thought and what to tell through photos.  Sometimes, we can see that it is to show off how the lens can perform (eg. f/1.2) .

I wish to have a f/1.2 standard lens too.