Kitty Cat Diary 2010

2010

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December

The next 22 photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX5, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat after a bath, looking very clean.

Kitty Cat out and about, making a money run.

Kitty Cat at Shangri-La, one of Fuzhou's best 4-star hotels. They have a pretty good buffet there, and is one of the very few (maybe even the only) place where you can get decent western food (besides McDonald's or KFC).

Kitt Cat looking slightly Gypsy-like.

Kitty Cat taking care of business at the bank. She gets embarrassed when I snap photos of her when there are other people around.

November

The next 4 photos were taken with the Fujifilm F30, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat on a money run. It's interesting to compare these 4 photos directly to the ones below, since you can clearly see how much better the Lumix LX5 is when it comes to dynamic range and clarity (due to image stabilization).

The next 7 photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX5, hence the difference in image quality.

After the money run, we stop at one of the restaurants she owns to have lunch.

Gauzy top and jeans is a good combo.

That silver headband looks very disco.

The next 7 photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX5, hence the difference in image quality.

Like I previously mentioned, the Panasonic Lumix LX5 gets noisy at ISO 800 and above, and it's best to keep the auto ISO at 400. The auto white balance is also unreliable, so it's better to use manual white balance when possible.

October

Kitty Cat cut her hair and started sporting a slightly wavy look. I always find it fascinating how sometimes she has this doe-eyed look about her, but I can't predict when it'll happen or why it happens, as it has nothing to do with whether she's wearing makeup or the time of the day. It's like all of a sudden her eyes just light up and she looks like an innocent little bambi. Sometimes I feel like I'm married to two different women--one is the mature, serious woman, and the other is the adorable and cute little girl who blushes easily and smiles shyly. She only turns into a blushing little girl around me though, so maybe I'm the catalyst?

I like this particular combination she's wearing.

September

The next 25 photos were taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX5, hence the difference in image quality.

Kitty Cat in our living room. Couldn't decide which one to post so here's both. Funny seeing her in a elegant dress and a pair of indoor slippers.

This is Kitty Cat's older, elegant look, as opposed to the "I think I'm still twenty-five" look. What's interesting is that before she met me, she always dressed far older than her actual age. Ever since she started working as a teenager, she always dressed older so others would take her more seriously in business situations, but it somehow carried over to her personal life as well. As soon as we started dating I began to work on that problem. The concept of dressing to look youthful never even occured to her, and I actually had to explain to her the advantages of dressing younger than your actual age--IF you can get away with it. So it wasn't until she was thirty-one that she started to dress her actual age or younger. Now she loves it and totally regrets dressing like an old lady when she was in her youth. In the past nine years or so she's really made up for lost time though, but she's about to turn forty, so her days of dressing like a twenty-five year old are numbered.

This was the business call that ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back (or the cat's back). Her business partners and employees have disappointed her so much that she decided to just quit her job and remain a silent partner. She was totally fed up with all the issues out of her control that makes it impossible for the company to evolve into a better business. So now Kitty Cat just stays home and enjoy our semi-retirement together.

I was actually in the middle of taking some casual snap of her with the new Panasonic Lumix LX5 when the phone call happened, and she tried to be a good sport after the call and posed for a few more snaps, but I could tell she was still fuming over the phone call and she just looked unhappy.

These were taken when I first got the Panasonic Lumix LX5 and was putting it through its paces. You can see the full review and test photos in this blog entry.

Overall, as long as the LX5 is kept to no higher than ISO 400, the image quality is actually quite good for a compact camera, but as soon as you go up to ISO 800 you'll start to deal with significantly more image noise.

The LX5's automatic white balance can get really out of whack if you're not careful. This kind of severe yellow cast is very common when shooting under tungsten lighting, and you're much better off if you set the white balance manually.

August