New Year Resolution in 2009

Top on my list is to shut down this blog. Why?

Since I'm not posting much and found blogspot is not suitable to post photo. Thumbnail is so small and difficult to navigate to other photos. Site like flickr is much more suitable for photo, even Facebook is easier.

Also, commitment is not there. Still very passion about photography but not on blogging about it. Beside that, have other new found hobbies that is taking much energy and time out of me.

Finally, how do I bring it down? As usual, there are instruction to setup blog, website, email account etc, but no guide to shut it down. Anyhow, will do it by end of Jan 09. Do let me know if you know how.

Thanks

Kinabalu Trip

The week before going to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah trip, I got excited because will have plenty of opportunities to shot interesting subjects. Firstly, knowing Sabah will have awesome sunset(furthermore, staying in Promenade Hotel with Anjung Senja just in front), surely I need to bring along the tripod, with some filters and a wide angle lens.

Next, surely there will be beautiful and unique people to spot, must bring a telephoto lens, 70 -200 will be nice. Next, sure to have beautiful plants and flowers, and not to mention, may also spot some small insect or animal – macro lense.

What next, cultural show – flashgun. Also, essential accessories like charger, portable hard disk, cable etc.

Not to worry, my Lowepro Minitrekker AW can accommodate all.

Haha, wishful thinking, as I am forgetting that it is a family trip. Most importantly, Dylan, our 1 + year old son is coming along.

Nevermind, I will just sacrifice the macro lens, in thinking I will have no time to spot them. Opss, what about the heavy 70-200… also, the troublesome tripod. In the end, I was wondering what else I have left to shot without all those gear. Anyhow, my mind still playing with the idea still might capable to bring all along.

Finally, it stuck me that I will not be able to carry all those gears as first planned. Why? When my wife start to pack for our luggage bag, found that we have tons of stuffs to bring along, 0.5kg of milk powder, 1 week supply of Diapers (55 pieces), bottles, Dylan jacket etc. In fact, we need to buy a new 62 liter bag in order to carry all those stuffs!

In the end, I only bring Nikon D70s, with 18-70mm kit lens. Also some little accessories like card reader, charger and portable hard disk : - )

What else did I bring along for all those spaces save?
A backpack filled with
Hobbes – Dylan best friend (a soft toy)
0.5l Thermos
1.5 liter water container
A Pacifier
A Jacket
A set of spare clothing
A pair of slipper
Some biscuit
Some bread

Start wondering if I will have any opportunity to shot . . .

Been missing quite sometime - guess where I have gone?

Wow, my last entry is from last year.....

Anyhow, been away for 1 week + with my family.

Where? A photo clue, taken outside of our room.





Click to have bigger view.

4th Jun 2007 Second Day Part 1

Wake up early in the morning and all have the official first shooting. Where we went?

Shooting at Pasar Ikan, Fishing Jetty, Chester Street and Pasar Besar, Tawau. There are lots of interesting subjects. (Click on photo to zoom in)

When I almost reach the jetty, I smell a very refreshing fragrance. Quickly, I dashed there, seeing crowds gathered around.
It was totally choas for me. However, I start to notice there are bags of packed mango, which smell wonderful (suddenly, felt very hungry!).

Later, it stuck me, this is a market. People is selling immediately after stocks are unloaded from the boats.

Customers selecting packed mango. Lots of choices!!!!

There are lots of other stuffs traded here.








Boat fully loaded with bananas. Workers unloading after a deal is agreed upon.





















Fishing Jetty.

Lighting was very good, ray of light fall onto these 3 fishermen that just woke up and relaxing in front of their boat.

First Day


On arrival, after checking out from Tawau Airport. There is already a welcome party, other peoples though this group of people might be VIP. Yusuf, Steven and Bani started taking photos of us.

This is also the first opportunity that I got to know who is who, as usually I know them my nickname only. Beside Malaysian group from Photomalaysia, Indonesia's group also arrived leaded by Kristupa.

After check-in to Kingston Hotel, have lunch in Sri Keningau, buffet style. Everyone start to get to know each other, very nice environment, as all are chatting about photography.

Later, we all decide to rent to 4WD landcuirser to a fishing village for our first photo shoot session.

Here are 2 photos from that session.


First, Drying salted fish near jetty. Local make salted fish from their catch. I found this interesting because they are dry hanging up. I composed it with fishing boat as background and showing the beautiful blue sky in Sabah.













Child Play

Saw group of local boys playing around their village. Compose when they were nearby cloths where hang dry under the sun.

Joining Crossing Bridges IV

Joined a trip organized by PhotoMalaysia.com (the best Photography related forum in Malaysia) recently. Below are some info about it and will post photo very soon, stay tune.

CROSSING BRIDGES INFOSHEET

Crossing Bridges is a project by four (4) online photography communities in South-east Asia : Clubsnap.com (a Singapore based online photographer community), Fotografer.net (Indonesia), Photo.vn (Vietnam) and PhotoMalaysia.com (Malaysia).

Crossing Bridges is aimed at fostering friendship among online photography communities through their passion in photography. Initiated by Eddy Ng from Clubsnap.com (Singapore), Crossing Bridges 1 (CB1) took place in Central Java, Indonesia in 2004 when Fotografer.net (Indonesia) hosted 20 members from Clubsnap.com in Central Java for 4 days (May 20 – May 23, 2004). The activity did not just end there; members of both communities took one step further by holding exhibitions of magnificent photographs taken during the outing. Two exhibitions were held, one in Jakarta and another in Singapore.

Following the success of CB1 in 2004, Clubsnap.com took the opportunity to host CB2 in 2005 by taking members of Crossing Bridges 2 on a 5 days trip to Hong Kong and Macau. Learning about CB1, sponsorships started to come in to Clubsnap.com supporting the cause for CB2. PhotoMalaysia.com was invited to join the Crossing Bridges Project in 2005 which was thus widened to forge friendships between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia’s photographers.

Crossing Bridges got to be more exciting when Photo.vn (Vietnam) came into the picture in 2006 offering to be the host for CB3 in Sapa and Hanoi. The event took place on August 27 - September 1, 2006. With the same aim of fostering friendships across international boundaries amongst photographers outside the virtual realm, the Crossing Bridges project in 2006 moved closer towards becoming an annual event extending across the boundaries of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. Hope and aspiration builds up for “Crossing Bridges” to be more than just photography by bridging differences, beliefs, skin colours, language, race and geographic boundaries. It is building understanding through the medium of photography.

CROSSING BRIDGES IV 2007 In Semporna and Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia

Malaysia with two distinct parts, separated from each other by the South China Sea, is the home of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak of South East Asia at 4,095 meters on the island of Borneo. Malaysia has a rich geography between green highlands and blue oceans. It has one of the tallest sky scrapers in the world. And it has natural wonders as diverse as its cultural heritage, derived from an exciting and eclectic mix of the many different cultures in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. This year it is PhotoMalaysia.com’s turn to take the challenge and become the host for Crossing Bridges 4.

We’ve timed our hosting duties to coincide with “Visit Malaysia Year 2007”. Crossing Bridges this year will be between June 3 – June 8, 2007 Forty photographers from Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia will savour the delights of Sabah. With their cameras and lenses they will capture and showcase the enchanting beauty of Sabah, and share it with the people in their home countries, through photography exhibitions, photographic essays focusing mainly on Tawau, Semporna, and the pristine beauty of East Sabah.

As the saying goes “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Each international member of Crossing Bridges 4 will speak thousands of words for Sabah as they translate what they see, and describe their feelings, through their lenses in this coming outing. The final Farewell dinner and slide show as in the past years has been the finale of the outings where members get to view first hand the photos taken during the visit. Most of the time, no matter how experienced and seasoned a photographer is, they will always be intrigued by moments and frames captured by another. And this is what members of CB4 wish to share with other photographers in each home countries and further.

The CB4 Group will be carrying out community service work on Maiga Island within the Sabah’s Tun Sakaran Dandai Marine Park. They will be conducting a “Kid’s Klick” project to introduce the joy of photography to children on the island, as well as running the recently launched “Little Artists Workshop”.

I shot Penang's Bridge (not bomb) #2

I shot Penang's Bridge (not bomb) #1

Am I a sharp shooter??

A new member to the family - Dylan

Wish to inform and share some moments the arrival of our baby.








Hun and Dylan looking at each others for the first time after delivery.




Looking like Mom or Dad? Click on the photo to zoom in.

Our Neighbor

I always fascinate by astronomy and space. Since Moon is the closest planet to earth, decided to give a try shooting with my available gear, with Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 mouthed on a steady tripod and ballhead.

Guess what? I have problem of too much light to get sharp image... unbelievable!! No choice, with shutter speed at 1/1250 sec, F5.6 at 270mm. Will attempt again soon to improve(when have the right gear - I don't mean to have scoping stuffs).

If you have any suggestion, please let me know.

Petronas Twin Tower


Another 2 photo of Petronas Twin Tower from different angle.


1) I need to shot this via lying down flat in front of the KLCC entrance.

2) I love this shot the most.

Petronas Twin Tower

Althought Petronas Twin Tower is not the world highest building anymore, I still stuck by it awesome view. Ever so impressive, especially when the twin tower light up at night. Here is my shot handheld : -

Plants and Flower - In Bloom

New Year's Day

Plants and Flowers


Been a long time since I have update this blog. Will try to at least update 1 per week in future.

This is a shot of Chrysanthenum flower.

I always enjoy looking how a flower petals closing up to the centers.

She love me, she love me not, she love me, she love me not, She love me, she love me not, she love me, she love me not, She love me, she love me not, she love me, she love me not, She love me, she love me not, she love me, she love me not, She love me, she love me not, she love me, she love me not.................

Flowers & Plants - Ray of Light

A sudden ray of light on the subject made things seem more interesting.

Flowers & Plants
My current favorite subjects. Collected quite a numbers of them, guess it is time to display some of them to share with all.

I found below subject in North South Highway, at Jelapang stopover. Don't know what it is called, do let me if anyone know about it. Shot it with Sigma 70-300mm APO, under Macro mode.

Prosperity God (Chai Sen) - Indian Version

Today is final day of Chinese New Year celebration.

However, my photo is nothing to do with ChapGoMeh. It is a Prosperity God that I saw during the CNY Open House in Penang. The unusual about it is that he was an indian. When I saw him, he was greeted with lots of crowd. Lucky for me, when I asked him to post for me, he gladly did althought he was tired and sweating heavily(under thick uniform).

Happy ChapGoMeh(aka Chinese Valentine Day) everyone!!

Chinese New Year - Kek Lok Si

According to Lunar calendar, the 1st day of Chinese New Year is on the 29th of Jan 06. On this special occasion, Kek Lok Si (Penang, Malaysia) hang thousands of lanterns. The lanterns will be cover almost every available spots and will be light up every evening around 7:30 pm till dawn. Below are some of them,









Pagoda with lanterns






lanterns covering every corner
















Buddha statues








Kek Lok Si Lightup view

Mom's Garden - Part 3 (Trilogy)

The final subject is the most interesting one. One of the reason I decided to go for a DSLR is because the shutterlag is significantly less compare to P&S. I thought that I could shoot fast moving object easily.... well, it is still pretty difficult as I found out. Been trying hard to capture a decent photo of bird for month, all I get is only blur, out of focus, no bird etc... total failure.

Until now, I learn some skill along the way. The most important is patient. I don't know what species is it (do let me know), below are 3 of my best:

Acrobat
























Lunch Time














Singing

Mom's Garden - Part 2 (Trilogy)

The second set of photo is also bee, but another type. I found that there are 3-4 type buzzing around. However, I only able to capture the 2 of them and here goes: