10.10.10

It's a very unique date. I only wished that I had published this post at 10pm...

Speaking of dates, it just so happens that I've just hit the 2nd anniversary of me getting more serious with my photography hobby.

Looking back, my style certainly has changed within the past 2 years. I've certainly moved on from a newbie to a slightly less newbie photographer. LOL!

Photography Excursion @ Sekinchan Part 3

After a great lunch, we all had quite a number of hours to "kill" before we could head towards our final goal - to have a great dinner at Ijok. So, based on the directions of the restaurant captain, we set off to find a lovely beach nearby.

We drove on and finally heard the sound of waves hitting against the shore... We were near a beach!

It's a slice of photography heaven as the beach was quiet and the sky was clear of any clouds... We jumped out of our cars and happily snapped away.

My only regret is that I don't have a lens hood and so, some shots appeared to have quite a bit of lens flare. However, I managed to incorporate that effect nicely...

When we walked on the beach, we noticed that we were not walking on sand but on shells!! Shells were just scattered around the beach.

Most of the shells were intact and absolutely beautiful. For those who loves to collect shells, it was a great find. Luckily, I brought some additional plastic bags to pass around everyone who were collecting the shells as the photographers were busy with their work.

We also saw that there were a few fishermen by the shore. We're not sure if they were locals who just came to fish for pleasure but this kid sitting by the beach offered a great subject for a photo.

I converted the photo to black & white for more impact... Luckily, the boy and the fishermen were not bothered by us. They were busy with the business of catching fish.

As I walk along the shoreline, I noticed a great tree which became a perch for some sea eagles flying in the area. I wished that I had a superzoom to capture their majestic flight around the beach. They did not approach us and as I neared the tree, they hid in the mangrove plants nearby.

We spent close to about 2hrs around the beach before moving on. We had another location to shoot before we headed off to Ijok for our dinner.

Photography Excursion @ Sekinchan Part 1

I apologize for my belated post. It's been a hectic couple of weeks for me.

As well as wrapping up some documentation for the project before the end of the year, I had to get some stuff ready for Christmas.

Anyway, some ex-colleagues and myself decided to embark on a trip to Sekinchan for a photography excursion. Now, my geography isn't so great but Sekinchan is northwest of KL, towards the border of the state of Perak.

When we arrived at Sekinchan and spotted the lovely fields of green paddy fields, we didn't know what to do... We stopped the car at the side of the main road and had a short discussion to see where we can go. So, we drove into the fields and began our session.

As we drove into the fields, we noticed that it was close to harvest time. Lots of other friends have mentioned that we may not be able to photograph the lovely fields during this time of year. But, luck was on our side - we had fantastic clear weather and GREEN fields!

As I looked around, I noticed that there were no scarecrows (contrary to popular belief) but there were plenty of grey buildings dotted all around the fields for the swallows to nest. These buildings are where people can harvest birds nest which is great for Chinese herbal medicine and delicious as a dessert.

We were lucky to still spot that some parts of the fields were harvested, which provided us great photography opportunities to capture the entire process.

Rice is a grain and once the rice is extracted from its husk, it needs to be polished. So, what we have on our table is essentially processed rice.

We drove deeper into the fields and managed to capture some very good shots of some people at work as well as a rare sight of the harvester coming around to harvest the rice. Can u imagine the amount of effort it took to harvest a large paddy field of rice?

We were backing out of a small lane when we spotted the harvester from far away. Not wanting to miss this opportunity of watching the machine at work, we stopped to take lots of photos. This shot was taken through the tinted window of the car, which acted like a "filter".

It was cool watching the machine work. In the distance, other parts of the paddy field were already harvested and they had done some back-burning to prepare the soil for another round of planting.

We also spent some time around the fields taking lots of different photos. I brought my 50mm lens and was quite happy with the effect. As for the exposure settings, since were under direct sunlight, we were using f/stop f/22. When we photographed our "models", we used a fill-in flash to illuminate the face. Thank you Digital Camera magazine for those tips!

Psstt... I'm not at liberty to post pictures of the "models"... So, it'll only be pictures of food and rice fields for now. LOL!

International Pillow Fight Day 2009

My weekends are for family, relaxation and photography.

It was just my luck that my friend and I stumbled upon a flash mob at Cineleisure, Mutiara Damansara. I had been there for a lunch and movie session (I watched Know1ng), hanging out at the magazine shop; when my friend heard a commotion outside.

We had noticed an area at the basement of the mall had been cordoned off and there was an event to be held - International Pillow Fight Day, sponsored by Corntoz.

Me: See, lucky I brought my camera, right?
EV: Yala! Yala! Yala!! (Translated: Yes, you found a use for your camera)

The grand master officiating the fight - spelling out the rules.

I'm not particularly good at photographing events but decided to give it a try. With my teeny in-built flash, I proceeded to take a few interesting shots...

Group A... I presume

... vs Group B

FIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHTTTTTT!!!

The "event" was participated by mainly students and curious on-lookers quickly took out their digital cameras, and mobile phones to capture the action.

Some folks actually brought their "bantal busuk" (old "security blanket" pillows) while others actually SPENT money buying a new pillow - apparently some bought from the nearby Living Cabin store. (@.@)

The carnage - in all wars, there will be destruction

All in good fun... It was a great way to de-stress. However, for me, de-stress means paintball. LOL!! Anyway, more pictures at my flickr.

Actually, the real purpose of spending the day at Cineleisure was also to have THIS.....

MUAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!

Turning "Manual"

After reading drewnity's article on "Shoot in M" as well as an article in January's issue DCM (Digital Camera Malaysia), I've been trying to experiment the "M" mode on my camera as well.

I've been learning the differences between the Aperture Priority mode ("AV") and Shutter Priority mode ("TV") and so far, I seem to favour AV modes when I'm outdoor and TV mode for action shots.

Snoopy proved to be a very willing model for me. I think she had too much to eat in the morning and was not moving as much. Anyway, she's a wanna-be supermodel dog, so, she's a natural with poses. :P

Snoopy taking a nap on the cool floor... 50mm, F/2.8, 1/8sec, ISO-200

Snoopy taking a sunbathing session - 50mm, F/22, 1/25sec, ISO-100

My sister's dried flowers - 28mm, F/5, 1/99sec, ISO-100

Awww... Two puppies - 50mm, F/2.8, 1/8sec, ISO-200

These were my first few attempts. I still have a lot more to learn especially dealing with shutter speeds and white-balance settings. In the camera LCD, the shot looks good but on computer, while looking at an uncalibrated monitor, the colours seem to look quite messed up. :-(

Oh well, practice makes perfect. I quite enjoy taking photos in "M" mode but I need to learn a lot more about the settings to what makes a great shot. My goal is of course to take a good photo and not do too much "dark room techniques" to spruce up/correct the photo.

Some Gears...

This is somewhat of a filler post as I'm still doing some post-processing work on some pics I took over the weekend.

Anyway, I got this "pressie" some weeks back as a surprise. I never expected to get this thing but now that I do, I believe that I will have to put the gift to good use. And posting about it is one of the ways. LOL!!

Yeap, it's my new DSLR lens - Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 MkII!! It's one of the cheapest lens to get out of the Canon range and a good addition to a budding gear collector.

With an f/stop of f/1.8, you can imagine that the aperture setting is wide enough to capture some really creamy bokeh pics like this:

I took this photo with nothing more than my fluorescent table lamp as the light source in my room at 1/8sec!! Of course, I didn't use f/1.8 but at such low-light conditions at ISO 100 or 200, this lens was really amazing!

As my first prime lens, the focal length of 50mm makes this useful for taking portraits due to the optics involved, i.e. less moving parts. Hence, the quality of the pics taken are often a lot more superior to those taken with zoom lens.

I've actually had my eye on the 50mm compact macro lens but when I saw the price tag of RM1XXX, I'd figure that I can temporarily set aside my love for macro while I build up my basic skills. So, I'm quite content to play around with this for a while. (^.^)

Nevertheless, my gears list grows everyday... And I plan to get the following:

• 1 spare battery
• "Walkabout" Zoom Lens - 55-250mm/18-200mm
  
• External Flash
• Wide Angle Lens for those lovely architectural and landscape shots - 10-22mm
• Filters - Neutral Density, Circular Polarizer
• A solid camera/laptop bag
• A steady tripod (least important as I got one free with my camera)
  

Yes, some friends remarked that this is an expensive hobby but it's a very fulfilling one for the soul but not the hip pocket, I'm afraid.