New beginning

I don't know, Maybe I am really am a perfectionist! even though I know I not, but I am always wanting more out of myself in what I do, and it is here in editing that I feel the need to be more better than I am now. I want that moment where I blow myself off and say "Wow! Damm! Now that's really awesome editing". THat is what I want for myself

So let these day begin as I start my journey into becoming a really friggin damm good image editor and manipulatior.

BUt first things first...still need to get me wideangle replacement and a complete set down to...enough for studio shoots! Hahaha

Trust me I always get what I want...That is of course if the wife doesn't become an obstacle heh. 

Morning Jog.

I KNOW!!! IT'S ALL BLURRRRRR!!! My most used lens (14-42mm) dying out on me. Actually the manual function still works but having to adjust the ring for a clear focus is impossible in low light and it's impossible to see that well.

My SOlution: be replacing with a new wide angle lens soon...very soon.

Anyways Am still busy With my New Resolution, though I have achieved it...but now it's an obsession heh. Even on weekdays my friend... even on weekdays 5:30am Jog.

Hence THis is My Last Photo from my 14-42mm...I am seriously depress now... the agony of sorrowness... Lesson learn: Take Good care of YOur Lens...Real Good.

Inactive

I remember when I was 8... I cldn't get myself to sleep during the night. I was actually having difficulty breathing, and it happen every night for as long as I remember. It followed me during daytime...I was wheezing to breath. But unknowing me, I brought it with me to play soccer during recess time, basketball, running around in the playground... there were many a stage my chest tighten that I cld only breath in little. All that while I never told my parents about it, cause I didn't simply care, untill I got totally sick and they told me I got asthma. Ever since than my dad bought a personal nebulizer for me.    
I never hold back, doctors told me I can't do strenuous fun (I was 8! and in my school we had all kind of sports going on during recess). So I was 8, getting more active than ever... than I realize the frequent asthma stop. untill it completely stop  when I was 13. 

And now 17 years later. It hits me again, this time much more worst! I was literally mildly suffocating for air in every move I make and my whole upper body just ache from the strain to breath in more. Lucky for me, parents knows best, they are my saviour and they loan me one of the many nebulizer they have- mum checks on me every few hour (no matter how old you are, nothing beats the feeling of being cared by your parents esp, when you are sick).

It been 4 days now everyone is still recovering-my kids still coughing, but better than yesterday, wife still having her flu (doesn't seem to get any better) and as for me-still coughing but recovering, unfortunately being so has kept me away from my new year resolution, which I have accomplish so far, but this new year I need to push myself further as it tend to get harder in the final process.

I just hope this asthma won't hit me when I pushing myself to achieve my resolution. So till then, in days to come I just need to rest and wait. 

Olympus Works differently In Low Light

I am not to happy with my Oly's for low light shots, but I really befriend with my Oly and exploit it to a more tasking and demanding shots. Because Oly has good tonal and rendition, with the right time of day and lights... from the camera itself Oly can give an almost cartoonistic result. Such as below...The clouds are unedited. (another cartoonistic image can be found in previous pages of my first mall I shot that was inspired by J'squared) 

Anyhew... I believe I realize now why I am running out of idea to shot. THis shot above was taken early morning on last Fridays- heading off for exercise.

Yup... that is why! I am still busy and my needs to have my old body is higher at the moment. Exercising 6 days a week...it's really is all up and going for me... leaving my camera behind on many occasion.

I am losing weight on the right track but the effort I have to do is really overwhelming, since I not obese... the fitter you get the harder it is to loose that extra fad. BUT I AM SO TIRED OF IT!!!! But I have never gone this far, so it's worth to make this as that special effort.

Love Hate With Local Adaptation

Local Adaptation can be very annoying sometime and for me it's a love and hate relationship. I like it when it give the result I want, I hate... when things don't turn out the way I wanted it. THis image below emphasis that; mostly work in Local adaptation (Only the building) adjustment after adjustment-not happening.

I am very shock to find out that I was at Tungku just few hours after the incident had happen and few minutes later when I left were there a search party.

The body of the boy was found on Thursday afternoon. My condolences to the families.  

Honestly On that very day whilst shooting at the rocks, my skin just tingle... a bad yet scary feeling I felt throughout the whole moment... and somethings just pull my attention surrounding the area.

 

Don't Get Too Excited

One common flaws I always have in photography is getting too excited about the moment, that I totally forget about setting the exposure or depth of field to my liking. And sadly the image below represent that mistake. It's so unfortunate liking the composition so much that I forgot to set the Apreture to get more detail of the background.    

One Handful Daughter

I rarely talk about my kids these days, it's not that nothing is happening (especially with this child above!) everyday is a headache for me and my wife by none other than our eldest child Alysya. Oh... you may feel the name sounds so cute and nice (of course it is!) but the personality my daughter have is if you watch Jon&Kate Plus Eight, Alysya is a whooping combination of "unique and spectral" character and personality, but if you put her in the Jon & Kate family she would definitely be the most difficult to handle! And I mean that literally.

Parenting: Alysya  

Alysya, I wldn't say not easy to handle but rather challenging! she has a lot of talent in which she wld use to her own advantage against us (Yes, sadly the parent, gramps, uncles' and aunties becomes her victims). But lately having a brother in her life, she's been more "up-to-the-walls" with her behavior and as usual seeking more attention. Parenting is just so demanding and challenging with her... God, there wld be times when she wld be on a marathon of excruciatingly bad mood (when I say marathon wld last a whole day!) no matter if we try to listen or discipline or time-out her...wldn't stop. she can be impatient and can be at it a whole day if she put her heart on something. The famous one is like what my wife say "talking or disciplining to walls"! She can totally ignore you and just keep at what she wants to do!

But then, inspite the challenges we have a lot of love for Alysya, cause like I said she has "unique and spectral" personality and character. Alysya is also full of colours and sun shine on her... she brings laughter and warmth. In most time she can entertain herself in her own world of playhouse disney. She does help with simple request when she we need her help and she's easy to handle at function. During at stressful moment "entertaining" her she would look at you and say "bapa" or "babu" and she would give her innocent cute look and she just gaze you with full of enlightenment and she has the capability to give you back her love to you, not to mention she adore her brother so much. But the best part is no matter what, at the end of the day when I'm hard working in the office, recalling all her behavior surely will make me laugh to myself and helps decrease the tension of work =) 

We simply have an eternity of love for Alysya and our love transcend our ability to shape her unique and spectral personality and character and I personally feel she is an extra-ordinary child that is capable of achieving anything big. But that goes an impression for now... children can and will change thru their developmental stages and that will be something to wait for.

The 5am Scene

Today mark a new experience for me as I head out to bandar at 5am, to get my "this week theme" "abandonment". I must say it wasn't easy as there are people and cars out and about at 5am!

I want to give a sense of ghostly environment, a street busy during the day, turn residentially unoccupied in the night. Impression "Resident Evil"

Actually I am very disappointed with myself, making a lot of mistake (as I was shooting all for HDR) i.e. forgetting to set my WB, poor composition and didn't fully utilize my spirit level. But today will be trial and error... the next time I'll come will be more systematic and plan.

Anyways more shot to come... saving the best for last ;) 

Monkey see, Monkies do!

Hahaha, I sorry to offend you, but it's the truth! when one photographer does something the rest will surely follow... it's like a conversion disorder LOL. I went to have a buffet sungkai at a Local Hotel, so I brought my camera (thinking I could shoot a few food here and there) but to my surprise... damm there's a whole flock bringing and shooting. I said "that's it! I am not going to be in those mood where everyone does the same, I want something else different". So instead I shot the coming Hari Raya Mood...hahaha yes....

At my work place, we are all hyped for the coming raya as every year we are in competition mode of Raya decoration. But this year I am in a different unit so it will challenging cause we have to cover a wide area to decorate.

But with our motivation raving high... hope we'll take the winners trophy this year.

From Hari Raya Celebration

 

Reflective

I could say that August is a record breakthrough for me (after finding out about J'squared, Benangsutera, and SoulJah) having improve a lot in many areas... and have come to term having my own "trademark" of photography and editing. It is these days I started in Photography with my simple Nikon S5 Coolpix to Canon S5 IS and eventually Oly E510.

For me I will never allow myself to have a status as a professional photographer, I am more of a "drifter" cause what I have is great love and enjoyment for photography which in many way interpret the "subconscious" side of me... and I believe what most of us would like to express.  

My last Shot for the end of a previous months...to begin a new months 

RBSC Drive Range

Once upon a time...where I use to enjoy my night leisure with my brother-in-law. Liking Club No.7,6 and 4!

Impression

"Long Drive Range"

Remembering them...

...Remembering the days of our late Grandparents...

Meet THe Uncle's and Nephews

Before you go on looking at this picture, am risking my arsh by posting it... sorta like didn't get their permission...so will delete if they tell me so. 

My Tua

Bungsu Boy

My Cousin's son...has too many kids, can't keep up but they are all lil gremlins. But I love this picture

most, like the movie "Artificial Intelligence".

Abang Acip, he's saying "as long I give you my back you can't take picture of my face!" Clever boy eh.

Stuck in traffic this morning took a few quick shot.

"Front View"

"High Contrast Sight"

Alysya-rama

"Shadowess"

"Ju-on"

It not easy to get a 2 yr old to pose for you and the above shots are all lucky ones. Alysya can follow instruction but when she's in her own time (feeding time that is) you won't get anything from her except her own imagination and creativity. Actually I was exploring the effect of shooting at and against a light. I really like Alysya as the Ju-on version, Where the shadow drops on her eyes giving her eyes pitch black look and she nail it also by giving me that almost sad look on her face...Hahaha why she feels sad I don't know...but after that she's fine eating away her milo waffer.

Dewan Majlis Mesyuarat

The actual frame by frame shot to be merge to the panorama

This is 2 picture merge of the panorama. Both using a standard zoom lens.

This is all 3 shots merge to make a full panorama of the DMM. Had a lot of difficulty saving it to a JPEG format cause when I automate it in Photomerge...it wasn't able to process it, so had to merge it manually. Hence I am still trying to understand CS3...it took a very long while just to save the file after I have merge the pictures. However I just so-very please with the end results. Very Satisfying indeed.

Back to School

Came back to school to accompany my senior colleague deliver his talk. Talk at Sekolah Menegah Berakas (SMB) and being there bring many sweet and fun memories... Ryu School of SMB 1990-93, 1997-98.

Nothing much change for the library...same old sign...it seems...
Ah the famous discipline room (now a financial dept kinda office), where all our vicious and terrorizing Teachers are station in the old days. I remember coming in as a new student was brought here to fill out a student form, and (still remember the teacher's name) cikgu Yusof whilst entertaining "innocent me" was shouting and banging the table scolding a number of students behind me. Boy! did he leave a mark in my memories. Not a pleasent teacher to get to know.

The aisle leading to our "detention" class (Oh yes! we did have detention room!) in the distant close gate. But I never been there. hehehe

Our old and still WoodWork block...think it's also an art design class now. Now this one had a crazier memories. There are 2 class here me and 2 of my friend were in a separate rooms while the rest in the other room. We were joyfully talking and making silly sound effect. Now like all naughty and cruel students...our guys Lock us in, deliberately (consider our woodwork teacher didn't even bother to check the other room). So shouting Helplessly we couldn't get any help. Apparently one of my classmate remove the metal bar and window glass (we didn't break, just removed) and manage to get out. It was really late and my mom was Mad-worried about me, she thought I was kidnap o smthing.

One of my Class block as a secondary 3 Student(1993-94), nothing much considering I didn't do well for my formerly know BJCE and my last year being in school as I head off the following year to Tehran.

Block of my Secondary 5 (96-98) and yeah I had to repeat Secondary 5 since I just came back from Tehran and join back middle of the year.

My Class of Secondary 1,(now an office).This class has a lot of fascinating memories. Not to be so arrogant or proud about it, but during that time, our Class 1H (Well known as 1 Hantu) was the worst class any teacher come about. we were well known for our disobedient , poor discipline, mischief and lack of co-operation from us. But actually most are good student, just because 2-4 student are well known gang member...it create an environment of "conversion disorder" hahahah everyone just start being bad and mean. But if there was one teacher who could handle us all and she put fear in all her class and student that would be the unforgettable Cikgu Jamaliah. Now if we go monkey on her She go Silverback Gorilla on us, we go Lion she would go Crocodile on us, we go bazooka , she drop an atomic bomb on us and that pretty much ended for us. She was by far the meanest teacher ever...but she wasn't any mean teacher...there was never any hate in her , she was full of love . I remember she would made all of us stand up on the table until the next class because we didn't do the homework she gave, and that she would stand us up in the hot sun for getting the wrong answer. Though her method of teaching and discipline would seem unorthodox , but she was the only teacher who could get the weakest student mark percentage of 60 above! For that her effort and ways we salute and appreciate. If i ever see her...I would tell her she's the best teacher ever!
Block of my class Secondary 2. Still with the same classmate from 1H and our class teacher...Cikgu Jamaliah! But this time she is easy on us since we did good on her science class on the previous year.

At the end of the day, same school...same old student behavior....different story.

Night of His Majesty "Tanglong" 26/7/08

I had plan already to attend the "tanglong" night, was excited, but unfortunately due to a bigger responsibility I have to abide to, had to stay back home. But just so not to disappoint me entirely ask my sis-in-law's man to shoot for me. It's nice really, so here's just some of the photo. BTW Next year will be a sure thing I'll come down to attend!