2010 Langkawi

Went to Langkawi last weekend, using MAS.




[1. Sunset at the rich-men port. Look at all those yachts-sssss] 



All I can say that, Langkawi = Duty FREE!!!!!


Meaning, a bottle of 1 liter Black Label cost about RM70, where as in KL, the bottle of Black Label is around RM160-180 for the 750ml.


SWING!!! JIM BEAM!!! CHIVAS!!!


wahahaha...

Anyway, was raining all day for most of the day, since its Dec, except for a few hours where we manage to get some sun.



Click on the jump for the photos I took during the trip.

What Mircosoft Project is to me...

[Click to enlarge..]

KLIMS 2010

Kuala Lumpur "International" Motor "Show"

That's a lot of quotation marks.








Well, it deserves it, as it was not as "International" as I would hoped, and the "Show" was more like a street performance. I think I am being harsh, but, at least they could have fired up that 458 Italia. It would make everybody happy that they spent RM20.00 or 15 and be f***ed by a fake batman and bat-mobile.





[Look at them tiny wheels...]



Well, them showroom booth professionals are not as you would expect from the sexiness you would normally get during PC fair, (which reminds me that I wouldn't have the chance to go.. =.=), but, in return, you would get some sense of elegance, if there is to be found among Korean and our Local car manufacturers.









There is only so much I could rant, as I paid the RM 5.00 student fee. If not, it would be a total rip-off!


The rest of the photos are in my Facebook album, since I'm lazy to post it here.

>>>CLICK ME

Guilin Trip Day 8

Day 8 is all about travel, that is from Shen Zhen to Hong Kong through the ferry port of She Kou 蛇口.





[1.]



So, it would be pictures about the plane.. I'm bored..

Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 7

Day 7, travel again, and shopping at Shen Zhen... Crazy, with lots of people




[1. At Shen Zhen's 步行街, or shopping district. This shot was hand held at 1s, ISO 200, f/9, -1.0 EV in Matrix Metering. Minor camera shake, but forgive me for not using a tripod and taking the picture for 1 whole second at 18mm (27mm equivalent in 35mm format) ]





[2.]


Again, few pictures, but do click on the jump for the rest of Day 7 pics.

Guilin Trip Day 6

Day 6 were all travel.

From Guang Xi to Shen Zhen, with more than 8hrs on the coach.




[1.]





[2.]



Hence the few pictures.


Click on the jump for the rest of the pics.

Guilin Trip Day 5

Day 5.








Got a cold in a super windy boat ride (again), went to the lake where we took some of the night scene, some night scene shots..






p/s. I'm lazy to comment on my photos... sorry..

Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 4

Day 4








In Guilin, went to the King's Palace (not the Emperor), and a scenic boat ride, and night scenes, and finally, what trip would it be without shopping??






Click on the jump for more pictures.

Guilin Trip Day 3

Day 3.

I think travel to Guilin, sit on a bamboo raft, look at them chocking a bird, silk 'museum', circus, and hotel.






Click on the jump for more pictures...

Guilin Trip Day 2

Day 2.

Hmm... Travel from Shenzhen to Guilin.


Went to a cave. Don't ask me what cave, since I'm too lazy to find out and the travel itinerary is at Kuching.






p/s. Get ready for an acid trip when looking at the pictures of the cave. Looks nice on photos, but in real life, the Mulu cave is more impressive!


Click for more pictures after the break.

Guilin Trip Day 1

Went to Guilin 桂林 on the 20th of Nov till the 27th Nov.

It was foggy =(

But it was an exciting experience.








Nothing more to say on the first day, since it was all travel.








Firstly, we reached the airport at 6.35 a.m. Flight was at 9.00 a.m., to KK then to HK.

From HK, go through immigration to get to Mainland China.







Then a bus to Shenzhen, 深圳.

Hotel at Maple Leaf at Shenzhen.

And that pretty much concludes day 1.


Click on the jump for the photos.

Philosoraptor!!!

Awesome!!!  =)

From theCHIVE

Finals

Exam time... 


23rd Oct - Foundation Engineering 1 (Saturday afternoon) That's tomorrow!!!

29th Oct - Engineers in Society (Friday morning)

1st Nov - Highway and Transportation Engineering (Monday morning)
             - RC 2 (Afternoon)


Funny how I'm the more free during the exam week...

So far...

What two and a half months with a camera has thought me...

1. Camera doesn't matter much, since you would need it to take photos. If it gets the intended job done, its golden.


2. Same thing with the lens. Think first, with steps, like feel, ask, refine then finally, take the picture. FARTing is what newbies like me keep on forgetting since we would tweak the DSLR first, as we are still learning what to do with the giant log. DSLRs are complicated, even if one knows the basic of exposure. Simple is best. Makes you focus more.


3. Don't worry. Keep shooting. What is important is to learn the mistakes that we made.


4. Henri Carier-Bresson (The guy who shoots with a Leica and a single lens throughout his life) was right when he said "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst". In fact, in digital, its more like 20,000-100,000 cause maybe we are 10 times more likely to take useless crappy photos. (Ever used your camera phone to take pictures of the floor, toes, wall, etc. and then delete them?) What is important with digital, is that to learn. Like students, we are forgiven (somewhat) when we make a mistake (like in a test or quiz or exams) where no lives (significant) are at stake. If we don't learn, we don't pass.

An example of me learning is, when shooting the drift event, using a fast normal lens, i.e. the 50mm f1.8 is far better, since the wide aperture allows me to lower the ISO, giving better results (less noise).


5. Experiment. Just shoot, don't research stuff online, cause you will forget it by the time you've read this sentence. Doing is learning. Reading and not applying is just spectating. Just like watching football doesn't mean you know how to play (well).


Well, that's all. Thanks for reading.

Street Camera

Leica is a good system to shoot street photography.

Well, so is the newly announced Fujifilm X100... Its great (on paper), with a fix lens (means you can't take it off and switch lenses) of f2.0 with an equivalent field of view of 35mm on a full frame 35mm camera. This could mean cheaper construction of the lens and body.

[Click to Enlarge]

Wait, there's more... Its hybrid viewfinder, ala Rangefinder system which is sorta like a fake Leica with magical electronic viewfinder to line up with the optical viewfinder. Means its small, and compact. Packs an APS-C sensor too, means that it will be cheaper.

[Click to Enlarge]

Until they mentioned the launching price of $1000 USD, or RM3300!!! WTH!??!!! It is RM1300 way overpriced for this piece of shit, I mean work of fake Leica rangefinder. Too bad though, cause it would have destroyed those crappy NEXs, PENs and GF1 crap. Heck, we need proper dials and buttons to use the cameras, and an Optical Viewfinder is helpful, either that or make it so that it is able to shoot 1500++ pictures on 40% battery life =), and the AUTO setting is still not smart enough. Menu system are stupid, means that the designer is too lazy to think of how to put in buttons and dials in the correct place, so they just put it in the menu. Heck, even Nikon does this, but it has buttons for more important stuff. Hmmm...


More to the reason is that digital is too complex.For that amount of money, a Leica M3? Though, would need to self develop the B/W negatives by yourself to get the same amount of savings.


Though, going into Leica is sorta like... Well, you can figure that out yourself...


Well, the Canon S95 is just shy of RM1000 today, passable ISO performance, and is a good price. But its not a X100.. LOLX!!!


In the end? A D90 with a 24mm f2.8D... Either that, I heard that those newfangled camera phones are still crap... WAKAKAKAKAKA!!!


PS: Thanks to fujifilm.com for the press release.

Saturday Night Drift (25th Sept 2010)

Location: MAEPS Gate 2, UPM,  Serdang

Hint: Search for the Go Kart Track on MAEPS



#1



Time: 5pm till late

Fee: RM5.00

Almost every Saturday


Went to watch a drift event that is on every Saturday night..





Click on the jump for more pictures...

Experimenting - Off Camera Flash

Setting the SB-600 as a slave, with the pop-up flash as the command flash, and we have a surprising 'strobist' effect..


[With a simple light modifier called a snoot, the light is concentrated]

Click on the jump for more pictures!

Raya and Malls

Spent the whole week in KL shopping complexes..




[#1]

Click on the jump for more pictures!

Meaps and Doppy

Went to my sis's place on national day... 
Couldn't get Panya cause she was shy as usual..



[Ain't know why Meaps looks like this >>>  =_=]

Putrajaya Botanical Garden Photo Shoot [29 Aug 2010]

Cloudy day, no sunset...










View more after the jump

Sony Multi-Card Reader/Writer MRW62E-T2

I mean, who the heck reviews a card reader/writer??

Well, there's something interesting about card readers... Most of the China brand card readers reads almost everything, from CF, SD, XD, MS, M2, your mind, your dog's mind, a book and so on... They do suck. Not because of their transfer speed (which is slow), but their quality. I mean, would you trust something dinky to transfer your precious photos from an 8GB memory card (could be 1000++ images) to your computer while it decides to kill your card and everything in it? I can hear those people using film laughing and snickering now...


But, everything has it ups and down, right?


Well, yesterday I bought a card reader/writer from Sony. Been all the shops around the Mines Shopping Mall and all I got are 3 reputable brands. Sony, Cooler Master and Apacer. Each were priced (sticker) of RM32.90, RM33.00, RM35.00.


I got the Sony. I got it since they are known to have better QC, and Cooler Master don't do chips, and Apacer... Well, I'm not sure about them...


I mean, what Card Reader comes with a instruction manual??? And the USB transfer cable comes with a ferrite choke.


I haven't tested it's speed though, but it reads my phone's Multi-Media Card (RS) and writes, to which my previous no-brand card reader/writer on reads.. -.-"

Overall, the Sony card reader does its job.

Zoo Negara on the 22nd August 2010

Went to Zoo Negara, on a Sunday. Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of people...





Since I've its been ages since I went to a zoo, (either that or I didn't even remember when was the last time I went to a Zoo...)







Click on the link below to see the rest of the pictures..

Film Photography

Here is an interesting article of film photography through an enthusiast that has embraced both film and digital photography. Its like yin and yang, for a person to embrace both formats, as usually people would just dis at each other, *cough* fanboys *cough*...


Enjoy. =)


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Experimenting - Pop Up Flash

Pop up flash are underrated due to its low power, low reach, and well, we can turn the thing in another direction.

But, flash photography is still important, especially when taking portraiture, or in fact anything. Since light plays a major role in all photographs and pictures, [unless you like to a black image through out] we actually need more light to make it as though there is no light. [a.k.a no shadows]



As the photo suggest, there is no clear visible shadows on the model, yet she is well lit [thought about using well exposed, but then it would seem wrong] because during the photo shot, studio lighting or maybe strobes are used to take the photos.




In my case, I simply used the pop up flash on my D90, set it to rear curtain sync, in just aperture priority mode, set the negative (-1) exposure compensation for the flash and good to go. Without the flash, there would be visible shadows due to the angle of the brochure. [Don't know why there's a lot of pictures of a single clothing item on a brochure]


Yeah, the image looks kinda soft cause its a printed material.

KONICA MINOLTA PAGEPRO 1380 MF part 1

THIS PRINTER DOESN'T SUPPORT WINDOWS 7, yet.....


Until I did something like this...



Though its not fully supported on Win-7...


-.-"

52.5mm Challange

Armed with just a loaner 35mm f/1.8G AF-S, with an equivalent focal length of 52.5mm on a DX crop factored camera (which is what my D90 is), see what the standard lens can bring to the table...

But before that, what is a standard lens? (WARNING: BORING STUFF AHEAD, JUST SKIP TO THE PICS OR OTHERWISE)

A standard (normal) lens is "A lens that provides about the same angle of view of a scene as the human eye and that does not unduly magnify or diminish the relative size of objects in the image." as quoted from www.sederquist.com/clagloss.html

Or scientifically, (very boring stuff) "let's conduct a thought experiment in which we take a picture, make a print on the spot, then see how it compares to the scene in front of us. Simple geometry (using the concept of similar triangles) states that a print viewed from a distance equal to it's diagonal will exactly match the subject in perspective when the focal length of the lens that was used to make the picture is equal to the diagonal of the sensor. When we use this approach to calculate the focal lengths of 'theoretically correct' standard lenses for various sensor sizes, the results are slightly surprising. Full frame works out as 43mm, 1.5x APS-C as 29mm, and Four Thirds, 21mm. This flies in the face of received wisdom (and convention), which suggests 50mm, 35mm and 25mm respectively." (DPreview.com)



Simply put, its the lens that is about the same magnification as what our eyes perceives.


Note that this challenge is to use a fix focused length camera all day without changing lenses, with the purpose to reduce bulk on light travel.


The setting: PC fair 2010 (II)



First up, parked the car at Menara Keck Seng, and since its Saturday, the whole day parking rate is RM3.00 (after Saturday afternoon working hours).

And walked to Pavilion which is opposite, and saw this...















[Check out the price, close to a cool million ringgit, though gotta say that the rated fuel consumption is not bad]



[Big Bum]



And later we passed by a construction site on the way over to KLCC [convention center]







[Now I sorta understand Kai W...]




And here we arrived at the PC fair...

Booth professional pics and some other interesting pics are next...












[A strike at the PC fair??]




































[Hmmm... The booth professional at Lenovo Hall 2]








[They were shouting... Something like a 10-pac DVD for RM1, t&c is buy above RM10]















[The booths are tall...]












[Cloudy day... and this pic seems like a d*** coming out of a b*sh. Wakakakka, that's Maxis for you]






After hauling the big ass multifunction b/w laser printer for 1.7km, we head to the Curve for dinner... [another post about the printer... *$%#&@!!!!]



















The conclusion:

1. At some point I would still prefer my 50mm lens as I'm used to frame with it.
2. Using the standard lens brought me some wide coverage, as in I don't have to reverse back for side to side shots. (22.5mm difference is quite a lot in wideness, considering)
3. Would I get it? I think that I would need more time to get used to the loaner lens..


Another thing is that, thanks to Ng. PL for the loaner lens. Good lens, fast auto focus (and quiet too).