Have you heard of Odds&Ends? Well, Odds&Ends is one of the runners-up in the 2005 Photobloggies Award in 4 distinct categories: Best South East Asian / Indian Photoblog, Best Writing of a Photoblog, Best Kept Secret Photoblog and Best Photoblog Design. I’m happy to do a short 10 Questions with Lim Zhi Xin, the owner of Odds&Ends.

1. Care to give our readers a short introduction about yourself and what you do?
   I’m Zhixin Lim; student and photographer by day and your friendly neighbourhood Sleepyman by night.
2. What 5 words best describe you?
   Smart, charming, funny, witty and delusional.
3. You are in London right doing your Actuarial Science studies in City University? Er… what’s Actuarial Science really?
   The official blurb for Actuarial Science is that it makes financial sense of the future. An actuary evaluate the probability that an event would occur and devise ways to minimise the ensuing undesireable financial impact. Some actuaries are so good, they’re almost clairvoyant.
4. In your photoblog you stated that you are looking for freelance or part time a job as event photographer. What’s your rate like? They always say if you dun tell me how much it’s going to cost me, we might not never buy it from you.
   My first gig was for a 2-day holiday camp for a group of kindergarten kids (here’s one of the shots from the event. As it was done on my aunt’s request, I was paid pretty much next to nothing. I’ve wised up; I’m open to any offer as long as it’s in the region of 500 to 1000 pounds. Nah, just kidding… The rate would have to depend on the amount of work involved and the availability of free food and booze.
5. How did you get started in the whole Photography stuff? Any advice for upcoming photographers out there who wish to to learn the trade of photography?
   I kind of knew instintively since young that I would take an interest in photography later on in life. It probably has something to do with the fact that my dad used to be an avid photographer and having seen his collection of photos (I have vivid memory of seeing his experimental long exposure shots), I thought it would be a cool thing to do. I started with a “prosumer”-level camera with shutter and aperture priority and have since moved on to a dSLR. If you’re a photography enthusiast, you’ve got to have a dSLR in your arsenal; it doesn’t translate to better photos (subjectively) but on the technical level, your Canon IXUS just can’t beat the high-end optics and the lack of shutter lag of a dSLR. If you’re just starting out, here’s a great site on the basics of digital photography: http://www.shortcourses.com/using/
6. You are quite a gal person with Cammie and Nikki around you all the time. Meet anyone new recently?
   A gal person? I wish! Am still waiting to meet Alexis Bledel.
7. Has Odds&Ends won more any awards recently? What’s your plan for the future? Full time photography maybe?
   Nope, but I would like to think I’m awarded everytime someone responds to my posts. In the immediate future, I hope I could get the all-important summer internship in the insurance industry. In the long term, my passion is in movies and film-making and I see photography as a stepping stone to that end.
8. Any exciting new projects we can expect from you?
   Not at the moment as I forsee a busy term ahead. Plus, I’m experiencing my longest creative dry spell to date.
9. We really like some of your pictures, how can we get our hands on them? Do you sell them? How?
   I hope to get a photobook out one of these days. I was supposed to work on it during the summer but it didn’t quite work out. It might turn out to be a blessing as at the moment, I don’t have enough shots fit for a book.
10. Finally give us some websites you really really like.
    I love my daily dose of imagery at http://wvs.topleftpixel.com and my Rocketboom fixes http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/ and most of the sites on my links page http://www.odds-and-ends.net/links/

I’m thankful to Zhi Xin for agreeing to do an interview with me, this really help to kickstart the whole 10 Questions initiative again. I hope you like this interview and the many more interviews to come.

Finally, remember if you are in London and need a freelancer to help you cover your events. Maybe you want want to give Zhi Xin a shot, I must say his rate are quite affordable, free food and booze will do.

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