Foto-la...

I just realized that I don't have a label for Photos and so, am just creating one.. (^.^)

Anyway, on Friday, I had a day off since the company recognizes Agong's b'day on 1st Saturday of June.

Yes, yes... Agong's b'day will always be 1st Saturday of June, regardless of when his actual b'day is. Anyway, this is just an official b'day for the Agong.

So, I decided to scout around the garden to take some photos. I've been playing around with my aged Nikon Coolpix 5900 for a while now, learning to use some of the advanced functions without a manual. Kekeke.. I'm a geek and hence, by default whenever we get some gadget, we're such lazy bums that we don't read the manual at all.. *phhbbbbpppttt*

The first picture I took were of the pandan leaves which my father planted in the garden. We brought this over from our old house and we frequently use it for cooking and also as car de-odourizer. My Dad heard that pandan was very effective in removing odours from cars as well as prevent cockroaches from entering it as well. So, he used to place a few pandan leaves (knotted up) in our cars.

Imagine how the smell of pandan + durian is like... Mmmmmmm... Heavenly!!

Later, I thought that people would be bored with looking at just pandan leaves and so, decided to take a picture of the lonely hibiscus flower blooming in our garden. Hibiscus flowers tend to bloom during the dry season. However, lately due to the wet weather, we didn't get many flowers and so, just had one flower to look at.

My dad also planted a guava plant - I think back in 2000-something. We got it from our granduncle's place in Kepong that Chinese New Year. So, he brought it back to try to plant it. As of now, the plant still stands at 3-feet tall and still growing.... slowly. Not sure why it can't grow... Maybe need Snoopy's help to "fertilize" it. Kekekee...

Here's another herb which we almost take for granted in Thai cooking - sweet basil. My mom got this from her friend and after we planted it, it multiplied like crazy!!! My mom likes to use the leaves when cooking with eggs. Tastes absolutely yummy and sweet!

Anyway, it was raining very heavily on Friday and after the rain, I went out to take a few nice photos too. This is the best picture I've taken.. :P

Anyway, I didn't just take pictures of plants all day long. I also managed to take one photo of an inanimate object...
I'm not sure why the clock is stuck at 4:59. Anyway, this is an old, wind-up clock which requires frequent maintenance by winding up the spring. We also have to oil the spring if we want it to work. However, we've not used it in a while because my sis finds the chimes to be irritating. Yes, it chimes every half and full hour.

Of course, aside from all of this, there's my trusted camwhore - Snoopy... :P She's my favourite subject to photography because she's a natural and always, her white body makes a very nice contrast against any background. Hahaha...

Snoopy: Oiii!! Don't simply take my photos without asking for my permission first, ok???

Anyway, I'm still trying to get a foothold on this digital photography. Somehow, one must always remember that what you see with your eye may not be what the camera "sees".

Recently, while scouring dpreview.com, the samples gallery for the Canon PowerShot G7 caught my eye. Now, this camera was released in September last year and the photos were fantastic! Got to tip my hat off to the photographer who took those beautiful shots which showcased the camera's sharpness very close to the fine image of what a DSLR can produce.

Some of these pictures I've corrected using Picasa, a lovely tool by those nice folks at Google. I've blogged about them quite some time back. Anyway, have a look at Picasa if you can't afford to buy/install expensive apps like PhotoShop. ;)

So, I'm still learning... OK? :P