Baby Elephant Seals for Christmas

I spent Christmas in Carmel and Monterey the next day. It was my first time in the area. Carmel is a pretty nice fancy town with lots of fancy art galleries. I wonder how the artists make their money since I don't think all of them sell that many paintings to cover the rent for their elegant galleries.

I had a pretty nice Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant called “Hog’s Breath” in Eastwood buildings. Food is not the greatest, but the atmosphere is very nice.


Christmas day was shooting day for me. I went to Monterey to shoot the sea lions. I wanted to go to the aquarium, but I don’t think it was open on Christmas day. Point Lobos was the next destination. Love that place. The shooting day ended with an experiment with long exposure on the waves after sunset.


On the way back to Los Angeles, I stopped by San Simeon State Park near the Hearst Castle. I can smell the odor from the parking lot. Guess what’s there? Elephant seals! Yay! If you know me, you probably know how I love watching animals. Even better, there were quite a few newborn babies. They are so adorable; they made my Christmas.

Re post: Film vs Digital

For those of you who didn't read the response of the Film vs Digital post.

ruby_soho said:
"...i just want to share similar insights on the "analogue-digital divide"...i've heard almost similar criticisms against digital film/video-making from the "purists." they say that the art of filmmaking is going down the drain because of digital video. its sad cos i'm into filmmaking and i teach video prod. classes in college and i see so much potential in kids these days, so much stories...it's only right for them to use whatever medium is at hand. technology is there for their taking. i dont see why digital should be perceived as an inferior medium if it empowers them to express themselves. ..."

Ruby, your comment is definitely on track. I too started taking photo because the technology (digital camera) made it easier for me to take pictures, see the result and learn right away.

If it wasn't because of digital camera, I don't think I would start taking pictures (or at least not at that time anyway.) And that means I might have never found my talent in photography. That would be an absolute waste.

I was only 19 when I was introduced to (digital) photography. Before then, I didn't know what I'm good at. Photography has made my life a lot happier. It also gave me self-confident. It felt good to know that I have something to be proud at.

Digital cameras also speed up the process of learning for me. In only two and a half years, my photography has come from zero to where it stands now. I don't think I would have learned as fast without digital cameras.

Photomom said:
"...I came from shooting film. I went digital and don't think I'll ever look back."

Photomom, you're not the only one. I'm not saying that digital photography is better that film photography. Absolutely not. It's depends on what you want to achieve and what medium you're most comfortable with. Each has advantages and disadvantages. So let those "purists" do whatever they want and let us enjoy what technology has to offer. :)

Brand Spankin' New!

Alrite guys. I finally finished with the redesigning of my website. I hope you guys like the new design. It now has a new flash section for my graphic design portfolio. I should be adding a web design section soon.

Due to this recent re-design, some of the url you have from some time ago might not work; maybe you bookmarked it or found a link from another site or blog. If that's the case, just go to the main page and go from there.

This whole site is designed from (almost) stratch by me. No templates used except for the copy & paste-ing some javascripts and flash codes. I'm open for comments and suggestions. You can email me at photo@annamunandar.com.

I also registered another domain just to make it easier for many of you who can't spell my last name. :) The new domain name is www.minianna.com. Easy,right? At this moment, the content is the same. I might change my mind later time and have different content. Of course, I will still have the annamunandar.com along with many others.

Enjoy......

Film Vs Digital

I went to a photo expo a few days ago and met someone who is against digital photography. He kept bragging that he does everything in the camera, nothing in the computer. "Digital manipulation is more like painting than photography," he said. I respect people who are really into film photography. But I have no respect for those who don't respect photographers who do digital.

It's like those people who always ride bicycles and don't respect people who ride motorcycles. Does it really matter what we use? Aren't we all going towards the same goal? If you like using 35mm film cameras better than using digital cameras, that's totally fine; no one has a problem with that. But don't disrespect those who like using digital cameras.

To be honest, I like many of the photos he showed. I think those were wonderful and very inspirational. But to me, some of his photographs have some obvious flaws that can easily be removed in photoshop. I think he got so into bragging that he does everything in the camera that he doesn't seems to realize that he can get better results if he uses a little bit of photoshop. It's like, if you're late to work and you have the option of using a bicycle or motorbike, which one would you take?