MONDAY's photo

Just sharing a shot for MONDAY. Day of work. Wohoo.

MIFW, photography.

Random shot taken from this year MIFW.

More Random shot taken from this year MIFW.

A lucky entrance to MIFW

I ignored the email to collect the photographer's passes. As I was not prepared to attend this.
Photo: Where I sat. After being ushered. Right behind the ladies.
photo: A model shot while getting the compact to respond like a dslr.
photo: My first shot was overexposed.

I got in via invitation. A kind lady gave me passes to VIP seating at the entrance. Nice gestures.

I got a compact camera that I was not too familiar with. After 10 mins, I just was trigger happy.

Here are the results. Quality cannot be compared to my dslr.

Absolut Vodka.

So, lets work on some still life photos.
It's all about the lights. Here, i've used a external flash off camera from the right side to eluminate the bottle. A reflector was also used to direct lights to the left. It would be softer.

photo :Behind the scene, with reflector.

photo: Another result with lights angled 45 degrees from below the bottle via reflector. photo: One shot with the flash directly behind the bottle. For testing and experimenting. But I like the result.

I'm relaxing sipping pu-er Chinese tea

photo : Red gel flash photography applied on chinese tea pot with mini cups. Reader can click on the photo for enlargement (and see the mini cups_)
I'm having some fun with Chinese tea and a camera rig that I DIY,

1) Tea like these taste so good if you drink it with company.
2) Tea leaves can be expensive but I'm okay with some simple tea like pu-er.
3) Tea unlike coffee helps digestion of oily food.
4) Learning to drink tea is a new experience that I am very comfortable to learn.

Well, I've met a friend who likes this photo.

photo: Some just love him, and he may love you.

Hi, I've always been a bit curious about transvestite, cross dresser, trans-gender of girl-guy, etc, I've a buddy who can tell you the differences between each categories.

He's some-what a professor.

Anyway, he tends to have an affiliation to people (not weird just different). So I thought that, he might like this shot, not the best ones compared to his collection of Koreans, Thais and even Malaysians.

Some, you may spot at the entrance of Sultan Ismail. However, I took this photo at a fashion function by chance. He was mucking around.

AS I blog, I'm not going to question right or wrong. Although tomboys are now taboo according to a "fatwa".So leave it as such, I'm just trying to enjoy the photo.

Couldn't we just censor this news?

photo :Newpaper NSTP Monday 24th. November 2008, clipping.

This is just so great, when it comes negative news, we get mentioned!

Aquafair 08, Wow, what a load of fish.

Photo: Many photographers with a passion for fish.



photo : More fish lovers

FISH, FISH, and more FISHES.
I finally allocated time to see my third fav. hobby, that's fishes, although not as active as before, I still love watching fishes.
So, wherelse to go on a SUNDAY?
Aquafair 2008 at KL convention center was okay. I was hoping to see more fishes but the expo were limited to Arowanas, Discus, Goldfish and some marine fishes. Overall I gave it 5.5 out of 10 points. You see, it's the variety that's captivating and Aquafair failed in this regards. They had lots of suppliers or selling booths hawking their goods though. Not really intereting to folks like myself.
photo: Overall view of the fair.

I managed to snap a few photos, mostly fishes.


photo: Large red arowana. Reader, click on the photo.
photo: Goldfish (I think it's Lionhead), staring at herself. readers can click to enlarge photo.

Super tired DIY Saturday

I'm super tired,

Was working and designing my backdrop. Saved me the dough to actually invest in one.

I used unused portions of IKEA beam rods (for curtains) to create a structure that was more or less a big cloth rack.

Due to it's length, I had to hacksaw the item into two halves and then devised a way to enable a smaller annular halve to rest. My jam nut idea did not work, so I placed a screw to rest the inner annular.

I was worked up when I could not find the legs to the frames. Had to venture to a few joints just to get parts and cannibalized it. A few places that costed me 35 km.

However, I managed to pick out a wrinkle free cloth at Nagoya textile for a small fee of RM 15.00,

As I type, I've just came out of the showers and the frame was assembled in the other room. Next, I'll have to try it out.

My early days in landscape photography

Photo : Sunset beside power lines, taken at Subang Lake, the foliage were less prominent these days.

My, my...how time has fly, my early days in photography brought me to many lakeside on evening skies just to capture the quick fleeting golden hours.

These days, laziness gets the better of me. I just want to shoot easy shots but finds it difficult to play with the lights. A change perhaps, from nature's evening lamp.

Two years of intensive experimenting with photography has brought me many ups and downs. Most things changed in those 2 years.

I was always loyal to my gears and even when the temptation was strong to upgrade, the fact that I still find more to shoot with it, predominates. It's the person that takes the photo. Never the camera doing its master's work.

Coffee, Kopi, my addiction.

photo :Coffee hang-outs are becoming, so popular, I blogging about it.

We all love to hang out at coffee outlets, coffee shops and cafe. It's like being in Europe. Europeans love coffee. They take espressos like drinking water.

I also love the taste of rich Arabica beans. Coffee beans.

1. Coffee is over priced in this city. RM 15.00 for a cuppa ice blended?

2. Coffee is a status symbol when you want to be seen in Starbucks, Dome, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves, Gloria Jeans, San Francisco and more expensive joints.

3. Coffee taste less sofisticated in the local kopitiams. Unless it’s a franchised cafe, like Old town’s White Coffee, etc.

4. Coffee looks better in a Starbucks take away cup, than in a plastic bag with protruding straw.

5. Coffee-makers are very expensive unless you get a unit without grinder.

6. Coffee served with ice-cream, is better than any sweetener or aspartame.

7. Coffee is a bean, carefully selected to be roasted, yet it taste sweet.

Ok, I'm going to get a cuppa.

Dating at the movies.

photo: Dear, pls. don't scare the animals!

Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa.

Dating session at the cinemas. This was a funny animation. Something I would recommend if you just wanna burst out laughing,.

My gf love it, I love it. The slapstick humour just gets to you. Go watch the movie. Wait, go see the first Madagascar before attempting this sequel. I was kinda blur at certain times as I had forgotten the first movie (having watched it long time ago).

Have fun at the movies. Even better if you go dating.

Chinese attire, photoshoot.

Above photo: The umbrella was an antic replica, This shot is titled "Beauty before the rain"

photo : Getting the lights correct was time consuming for an ametuer like myself, but learning the ropes was a plasure. I'm loving it.

Photography is in my blood? Well, I'm only learning my dear.

My First attempt : I'm capturing this "cheong-sam" modeled by my gf.

Decided to use dark background to protrude the red details in it's high contrast environment.

One of the most important aspect is getting the lights ready. Took me almost an hour. I got two flashes pointed at my gf before triggering them off-camera. This time not using CLS but instead a wireless remote trigger.

Darn, it is hard work. Posing my gf was also difficult but she has a natural talent in posing. So that just gave me a break to work on my lights. (again, I'm learning, you see.)

I love it but I still got to do some post processing.

photo: Black and white conversion, just to present this shot with nostalgia.

This is also a photography blog. part 1

Got this shot while testing the lights at Cameron, many months ago. Used on-camera flash to lit the little flower, and render the background darker. I think the settings should be f/5.6, 1/60secs @ISO 320 , 28mm.

This was shot captured against sunlight on a bright mid-morning. The colours were saturated via darkening during post processing (aka NIKON capture). Settings if I recall ; ISO 200 , f/7.1 , 1/200 secs @ 18 mm. Well, it is clear that flash was not fired due to the brighter , mid morning sunlights. Probably, this can be done at Cameron, where it is cooler and the sun diffused by the clouds. I doubt it can be done at the foot hill.

Proof that I'm not old (yet).

I love martial arts, especially this GTF taekwondo. This was shot by Alwin, and he gave me 2 shots. Thanks man, I merged both shots into one single shot.

This was taken to commemorate 20th Anniversary of Traditional Taekwondo Academy. Part of the demo team power breaking (special techniques). Honestly, my feet made contact with the plank by chance. Surprisingly I managed to get it right on a first attempt. My practice attempt was way out of place. That said, my back was hurting on that day because of practice a week ago.

Age may be catching up but I'll try. Heck, my senior could do this twice higher than mine at 45 years of age. So no excuses for me. Haha.

Ter-cirit (Malay) ?

What’s Tercirit ?
1) Cirit literary means diarrhea
2) Ter – accidental

The word formed accidental diarrhea. It a new word thought by a “professor” from West Hampton (WH).
Q : How does one uses this new word?
A : He was too afraid he “tercirit” , on knowing it.
So, off I went to find this new word in Wikipedia.
“Ayam terlepas, tangan tercirit.,
Meaning , Kejahatan yang tidak mendatangkan hasil, melainkan malu semata-mata”.
So there, learned a new funny word today.

Studio. I'm working on a secret project.

An ardent photography buff, I love to indulge in lights.

So, I got my gf, to pose (and slowly she’s getting much better than before).

The funny thing about posing is, after warming up, the photos gets better. It took almost 2 hours for the shots to materialize. Lights planning were done using flashes (off camera).

Most lightings were diffused to get the desired results. I tried both ways, with make-up and one without make up, it is best to use a little make up as it catches the lights well. The bonus to those shots were, I need not post process them intensely afterwards.

A little tip to would be photographers, NEVER get upset with your shots, I learned that the hard way. Yup, I got really frustrated initially because I was working hard to get the lightings correctly done, (okay, there’s no right and wrong with art photos). But I’m just being picky with the lights.

You can do all sorts of lightings and it would be okay as long as your model approved of it. This should be, how photo shoots being done. At least, not paid shots. Spare me the lecture of technicalities because it JUST doesn’t make sense at my level. I’m an amateur.

How amateur works? Well, I take the shot, wired it on my lappie (laptop), get the model to approve it, if not, re-take the shot, consulting the model on specific poses and correct my ever weaken lightings, in this case my flashes. I don’t work with strobes because I cannot afford any. Also because, strobes are bright hot lamps that melts make-ups. So I really don’t want to venture that far.

KL, KL, how much you have grown.

The capital, Kuala Lumpur, has developed so much over the last half century. I wanted to document a time progression photo using four (4) shots with the lights coming in to settle and cover the entire cityscape. This can be also done in reverse with the lights receding like low tidal waves.

If you are detailed, you just may pick out the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Convention Center) Suria, that is also known as Petronas Twin Towers. at the very last frontier in the first photo (top left photo).

Now the rant, it's great being in such a big city, but still, the mentality of it's rakyat needs more work. I guess the Ringgit can only strecth to tangible items leaving education and quality living far behind the hierarchy.

Editor's note :Photograph are copyrighted, courtesy of Kokenko.

Honda City

Yesterday, I got a phone call because my sis could not start her car (Honda City). The immobilizer apparently had kicked in and caused the entire car to be.....well, immobilized.

So, after calling the Car guru, and searching the internet for help :I shouted "help me internet!", MOTOR TRADER Forum was given as number one on esteemed Goggle search site.

My results ?

MOTOR TRADER forum sucks. Look, Honda city is a very common car by any standard, yet the knowledge in one reputable MOTOR TRADER forum is really lacking. All you subscribers of that particular forum, you better read with a pinch of salt, no make that a whole shaker of salt.

MOTOR TRADER went like this : You can disable the alarm if you press the button with the RED LED a number of times (not going to reveal it here).

Oh, very informative, how am I going to tell this to my sis?

THE SOLUTION:

So it takes FIVE (5) presses with the keys in the ignitions ready at ACC, in order to disarm the bloody alarm.

This just proves that experience (that belongs to the mall security guard), triumphs over modern internet. Some things are NOT readily available online.

Food for enjoyment, pita.

I've made some food and made a great recipe for it.

You buy and prepare :

1. 4 pcs IKEA pita, cut to 16 quarter slices
2. Salmon spread from IKEA and apply evenly
3. Goes into microwave for 10 secs, 15 secs if you want softer pita
4. Get salmon (thawed) and into microwave for 5 secs.
5. Salmon on pita, arranged vertically.
6. Diced tomatoes and sliced Japanese cucumber.
7. Get some Heinz tomato sauce.
8. Put Heinz tomato sauce for microwave heating 10 secs.
9. Apply diced tomatoes and sliced cucumbers on pita and pour a spoonful of Heinz tomato sauce onto pita.
10. Garnish to serve.
11. GET BEER.

M-iFA ( Fashion) 2008

Today I received an email from MiFa,

Welcome to m-ifa 2008 - NON OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER Pass‏

"As for your information, only OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER will be allowed to enter the Fashion Show Hall and take photo at the PHOTO & VIDEO PODIUM. However you are free to take photo shooting at our Public Exhibit Galley (Showcase Area) & Drop Off Area for VIP & Celebrities. Strictly NO ADMISSION for NON OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER in the Fashion Show Hall".


M-ifa 2008, (you can google it for more info), just means I can go shoot some photos. I'm not really a fashion buff but to get this info, means they entertained small people like myself.

The bad : I cannot enter the fashion hall. Means no lingerie shots, no extreme Russian models to ogle at.

The Good, I get to touch the fabrics and pretend that I am fashion conscious.

From MRC (muruku) standards to BS (british std), this maybe an up-class, at least for a few hours. At least it's very easy to up-class for people in MRC, Just takes an email, you see.