Singapore is a small nation, even smaller than most big cities around the world. With limited land and resources, there’s a fine line for us to thread: do we choose to preserve some cultural, historical and iconic building, or we advance by demolishing and rebuild for a something more modern and functional.
It has always been a heated debate between government officials as well as general public. For most, there’s nostalgic memories and emotional attachment to these building. For some, there’s cultural value displayed through the design and construction of these buildings. For others, they are just an eye sore or redundant piece of concrete that are taking up valuable space for better utilisation.
What’s my take on this? Well, honestly it is hard to give a concrete answer. On one hand, I understand the limitation we have and the reason why old needs to make way for new; on the other hand, I’m sort of a nostalgic person who likes things that show ages. Perhaps the perfect middle ground would be to redevelop and repurpose the old building to serve new function, like the National Gallery Singapore which was born from former Supreme Court Building and City Hall. Unfortunately, things were never that easy and straight forward.
Rochor CentreDakota CrescentCommonwealth Drive
The debate and dilemma will probably continue for the years to come. My take is to cherish what we have while it lasts. Take picture of them, weave memories with them. And in the future, take a pause and look back at where we came from. These pictures and memories will surely warm our heart and fuel us to the days ahead. Till then.
I’ve read the book “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek recently, and it kept me thinking about the concept of finite and infinite game in my life. In a nutshell, there are two different games in this world: finite game and infinite game.
Finite game has fixed rules, known player and agreed upon objectives. Football, baseball and 100m sprint for example are finite game. Fixed rules, known players and everyone play to score the most points or reach the finish line first.
Then there’s infinite game. In an infinite game the rules are changeable, there are known and unknown players who will join the game, and the objective for all players is to stay in the game as long as possible. There’s no winner or loser in infinite game, players join in if they decided to play, or drop out when they run out of resources or will to continue. Cold war is infinite game, business, marriage and our lives are infinite game.
Based upon the very definition, photography is definitely classified as infinite game. There are known and unknown photographers out there who create stunning photo, there’s no fixed rules in photography, and there’s no such thing as being No.1 in photography.
However, many photographers have a finite mindset when it comes to photography. They want to get more likes than others, they want to be No.1 in competition, they want to charge more for their services. In the end, many lost the motivation to continue when they didn’t reach their arbitrary target of being “No.1”, being better than the rest of their peers. So they gave up on photography altogether.
I think it is important to set your mindset correctly so that one can continue the journey in photography, enjoys it and not getting burned out in the process. It’s something for me to reflect upon as I ponder on how to move forward with my photography. Let’s see what will the future unfolds for me. Till then.
Recently, there’s an article posted confirming that Nikon Z9 is using sensor made by Sony, and as all of us would have imagined, the internet gone crazy with comments like “Nikon Z9 is essentially a Sony”, “Nikon can’t do anything without Sony” and so on. Well, fanboism at its extreme, to be short. Regardless how much we have advanced in terms of mankind, there’s still a part of us that was being left behind… somehow.
From a company, business and operation point of view, there’s no such device in this world that rely solely on in-house design, development and all the way to production (okay, maybe there is, but it is very limited). Such vertical control and integration has its merit of course, as one company will have total control over their product design and quality. But in reality, this approach is far from feasible and practical in such time and age. For one, in-house component may not be the most cost effective choice. And then there are patents and technologies hold by other companies that could be far superior than what in-house could offer.
Take a look at iPhone for example, Apple designed the processor, but it is manufactured by company such as TSMC or Samsung. The camera sensors used were usually made by Sony as well. Not to mention all other components and parts within the iPhone came from all sorts of suppliers from all over the world. And ultimately, iPhone was assembled in China, in facilities of Foxconn, which also manufacture phones for other major brands. So in the end, is the iPhone an “Apple phone” or it isn’t?
Perhaps such business and operation explanation prove too hard for those fanboys to understand, or perhaps fanboys are just ignorant. Well, we are in the social media age anyway, where everyone believed they could just hide behind the screen and say whatever they like.
So is a Nikon Z9 a “Sony Z9” instead? I’ll leave it for you to judge it yourself.
When you can’t afford one, everything is expensive. I believe nothing is “expensive” in this world, it is just the perceived value of the item to different individuals. A poor man thinks a Toyota is expensive, a middle class man thinks a Mercedes is expensive, a rich man thinks a Rolls Royce is cheap.
The same can be said in the world of photography gears. Recently Sony launched the all new A7 IV with RRP of $2,499, and it immediately drew comment on its price tag. Most people would like to see a $2,000 price tag like its predecessor model, so people started to label it as expensive and overpriced.
Considering the improvements Sony brought to the new body, both hardware and software, and the worldwide situation of parts shortage and price hike, I personally don’t think Sony has overcharged on the new camera. Most consumers don’t think like me of course, as I have the experience dealing with manufacturing and costing, so most will not be able to relate.
Many complained on the lack of improvement on photography area, hence the price hike is not justified. Well, if photography is all you care about, the A7 III is still plenty of a still camera today. It’s not like Sony has discontinued older model, there’s a body for each price point for you as long as you don’t tunnel vision to have the latest gear in hand.
Or perhaps even the A7 III is still expensive to you… well then just shoot with the smartphone you are holding in your hand. Start small and grow slowly. Don’t make an excuse to stop practicing and improving your skills by blaming on your gear.
Few years back, when Adobe announced that their software such as Lightroom and Photoshop will change from standalone license purchase to subscription model, there was uproar from the community on this. Everyone trashed Adobe for being money minded, some pledged that they will never pay for any subscription model, others made the switch and use other software instead. Competitor software companies that offer standalone license purchase were making good use of this opportunity to market their product, highlighting subscription is evil, luring consumer to jump ship and purchase their software.
Fast forward to present day. Recently there was another uproar on this software called Luminar by Skylum, where people complained that the developer releases new version too frequently (almost yearly basis) with minor upgrades. Their main complaint was that these “new version” has so little upgrade in it that the developer should have made it available to existing software owner as feature update, instead of packaging them and sell as new software version.
I can imagine and understand the frustration, because if that little upgrade is something useful to me, I would need to spend extra money to upgrade or purchase the new version instead of getting it free. This defeats the purpose of purchasing and using standalone licensed software. If users need to spend money frequently on standalone licensed software for feature upgrade, isn’t it the same as those who are paying monthly subscription for Adobe software?
I have a very different opinion on this topic. Although I do understand the frustration, but I felt that we as a consumer are probably asking too much. Consumers are expecting to pay low fees for standalone software, and yet they demand for regular updates and support for a few years down the road. Software developing companies do need on-going sales to survive, if they have decided not to follow the subscription route, they would need to earn additional income to sustain their business, be it asking for additional money for upgrades, selling complimentary product or services, increasing their price and so on.
Therefore, I could understand from business point of view why Skylum is doing this, and all I can say is that if the upgrades are useful, I would pay for it. If not, I’ll just wait out for the next release instead. I think we can draw similar comparison in the world of smartphones where models are refreshed yearly. Do I need to complain Apple for releasing iPhone 13 and made all other models obsolete? Do I need to upgrade my phone yearly just because a new one has been released?
A closer comparison in the software world would be Microsoft Office. The standalone version cost around USD 150, while subscription plan runs at around USD 70 per year. Microsoft do provide bug fixes, but in terms of feature update it is not frequent either, and every 2 years or so a new version will be released, and you will have to pay to upgrade. I hope you get the idea.
After pondering through, perhaps consumers are really expecting too much. Not saying that it is right or wrong to do so, but I do think that we need to be fair and consider both sides of the coin, otherwise this would be a never-ending spiral that doesn’t benefit anyone.
P/S: On the Luminar saga, there were complaints about customer support and other bugs that were not fixed, which I did not touch about in this discussion.
funny bunny photography 