Ben the Man

Oh, it's mine

2011-02-18T04:01:00.002+08:00

i was blog browsing moments earlier.
(Yup, am aware of the time, but due to toooo much Chinese New Year activity, had had my time pretty turn upside down. Oh, Happy Chinese New Year to you too :D)

As i was saying before i had my train of thoughts being diverted (as usual as always), i stumbled upon a blog titled "Ben the Man' under one of me friend's reading list.
Truth be told, i have seriously forsake and forgot my blog which was started few years back.

To start off, lets give a recap/update of what has happened to me since i last login
(it says March 24th, 2010)
That is pretty much a year. A year gone by in a blink of an eye eih.

For starters, after a whole 1 YEAR tenure at as a photojournalist at the press, i have continued on with my studies as planned.
Truth be told, i was indeed kinda sad to leave the press, i mean, i did like the work there, albeit the impossible workload.

It's sad i wasn't able to write a blog about my life when i was at the press (only 1 miserable entry),
would be interesting to read in back in years to come, the challenges i met, the people i met, the environment, the politics, well, you pretty get the idea.

One thing i can tell for sure,
BEHIND EVERY GREAT PHOTO, IS A GREATER PHOTOGRAPHER

Skill and talents apart, INSTINCTS is one factor of utmost importance that has to be garnered, and is not as easy to come as skills and technique.

Stuff i learned was definitely beyond books and class. Thats for sure :D

And moving on:
Having resigned my job to further on continue with studies, i bought a new camera to erm, whats the word?

Accompany. yes.yes.

Accompany me through my journey from hence.

Spend quite a hefty amount from all my savings,
(i gladly worked overtime while at the press for this sole purpose)
i became the proud owner of the Canon 5D Mark II on August the 6th, 2010, therefore, slashing away 1 of my longterm Goals under my wishlist.

It was no doubt, by far my highest investment so far.
(i bought the lens and the flash 1 shot, so you can guess the amount),
but the satisfaction of actually realising one of me dream, it's
GRATIFYING

Ok ok, showing off aside, i'm well aware many kids have dslr these days so hence this is no biggie for many.
But what i'm trying to point out is not the fact that i purchase a camera that cost the same as the downpayment of a low cost flat, but merely to highlight the importance of achieving one's dream.
Now, how many stuff are there still on my list ei? hmm....

i'm doing my Bachelor Degree in Law now, first year, and erm, after 7 months of study, exams is up in 3 months time.
Mum has been 'reminding' me the fact that she wants to be THERE during my convo which is not going to happen so soon.
So yup, that basically is it.

Upon completion of that, whether or not do i progress to the legal field, i'm still vague about it. Ask me when i was 16, 17 what i wanted to be, and i would answer without a breath of doubt.
Ask me now, i would end up saying it depends.
So, fingers cross that when i read this post 2 1/2 years from now i've gotten the damned paper from London.

Hmm... what other update.
Oh, i'm photographing for a stipendiary every now and then, for the thrill of it and to support my expensive hobby.

i still strongly believe that everyone should be given a chance to have their photo taken professionally, at a reasonble price, hence the reason to my 'affordable' price.
No seriously, it's affordable.

Think of it in terms of PHOTO AID,
like the Legal Aid you can receive from the government for legal services if you fall under the not so rich category :D

What else...
1. i got a jacket from Zara to celebrate my 1 year tenure in the press.
2. My Compaq has retreated to eternal slumber after 3 and 1/2 years of service rendered. You shalt always be my first.
3. i've increased 6kg and 2 inches in waist.
4. i still hope to grow another 1 inch in height (eih, no harm there right)
5. am still single.
6. Back to playing basketball after the increase in weight. hahaha.
7. Is in plans to start a photography partnership with Nic and Priest(still needs the healing)
8. Is loving life :D

Thats bout it.
i shalt start posting photos again from next entry onwards :D

Updates to come promptly

2010-03-24T04:43:00.003+08:00

For those whom still drop by every now and then, i know there are some, my heartfelt apologise for failing to update it. Job has been hectic. Seriously.

Any how, i'd promise i'll dropping atleast 1 post per week from the start of April. Would seriously want to continue typing in my life as a record for later days. Oh, and PHOTOS too. LOADS.

Just a short one before i go:

I PASSED MY CHINESE !! WOOO HOOO !!
WITH AN EFF-ING B !!
(result came out of the 11th March, 2010)

Til April,
:D

It's a Dream

2009-11-26T03:39:00.001+08:00

It's a Dream, originally uploaded by shirostrike.

Along with the previous shot, "Bring Me That Horizon", this shot is shot at Sabak Bernam coastal line.

Single shot RAW, converted into 3 sets of different exposure of 2 stops difference.

Bring Me That Horizon

2009-11-18T06:20:00.001+08:00

Bring Me That Horizon, originally uploaded by shirostrike.

i was send over to the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia for a few assignments. Shot in Sabak Bernam. i found this lovely spot while waiting for time to pass me by.

HDR-ed with 3 shots of 2-stops difference.

And you thought all we did was shoot

2009-09-09T06:50:00.001+08:00

A month went by in a blink of an eye.
The cliched saying of "Time pass fast when you are having fun" is nothing but the truth, as my 1 month stay at the press was nothing but excitement, adrenaline-pumping action, and but of course not forgetting to mention lack of sleep.

Not knowing when to begin the post, i shall start my long dreaded story-telling adventure from Day One, and a few highlights that i would like you guys to know what kinda stuff i've encountered. Do endure with me as this is gonna be quite a long post :D (long-winded i mean)

Day One, AUGUST 1st
Like any F-N-G, i went into my new working place with much anticipation and excitement at heart, not knowing what assignment would i be send to. I was partially hoping to be send into the heat of the town, as on this very day, the ANTI-ISA PROTEST was happening in a few hotspot in town, but alas, who in their right mind would send the F-N-G to the 'highly anticipated event' of the year.
(Some even claimed it was as large as the Anuar's Protest that happened around 10 years ago)

As i entered the photodesk, i was greeted by the PhotoEditor, whom showed me what he does, and did a brief 'induction course' for me on how things work and run.

Twenty or so minutes after saying 'yesh... yesh, ohh.. okay, like that arh??" i was send to do my very first assignment,

Shooting the Traffic Condition at Jalan Bangsar,
which is right outside the office =.-

Kuala Lumpur: All traffics heading towards town has been heavily monitored thus leading to a congestion.

The traffic, if you didn't know, was badly jammed since the day before and lasted till late night on that very day. Thank to our enthusiastic, diligent and hard-working policemen ensuring everyone-no-one pass through and or, enter town without being thoroughly checked. The car i mean. Their capacity to work-so-hard on one very day exceeds my very expectation on any human being, for that, they earn me 'respect'.

The photoeditor, knowing that i have a wide angle lens, ditch me a large tele (which made me go OMGWDF) and spare batts to do the assignment.

"Proper gear would be assigned later by the Chief," he said.

I completed the task, came back, and was greeted by another fella colleague of mine, Sam. Wearing a stereotypical photographer vest and bag, it wasn't hard to tell him from a random journalist whom came in everyone now and then.

He went on complaining not assigned to the 'real action' in downtown, whereby he had already prepared all the necessary gear for it, for example mask and toothpaste.
(i'll explain regarding the toothpaste later)

It was around 2 p.m, and my photoeditor was getting anxious not receiving any photos at all from the hot zone at KL despite there was more than 2 photographers posted there. Sam was then 'despatch' to 'retrieved' the photos from our photojournalist posted there. And being there, i was offered to join :D

Kuala Lumpur: Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (infront of SOGO) being heavily guarded by the Police and Federal Reserve Unit to render the protestors from passing.

Kuala Lumpur: Two unlucky protestor arrested by the police infront of SOGO Shopping Complex, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman

Kuala Lumpur: A protestor doing his part in the Anti-Isa Protest that happened on August 1st.

Kuala Lumpur: A police armed with a tear-gas launcher is preparing to fire at the protestor below the Bandaraya LRT Station, Jalan Raja Laut.

Kuala Lumpur: A platoon of police awaiting the signal to fire tear-gas grenades at the Anti-ISA protestors at Jalan Raja Laut.

Kuala Lumpur: Protestors fleeing from the water cannon and tear-gas at Jalan Raja Laut.

(i'm not sure which international news agency covering this story, but heck, check the video camera man's stance)

Riding the motorcycle, Sam maneuvered through the thick amount of jammed cars heading towards the city with me at the pillion seat. We reached Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman in less than 30 minutes despite detouring a few roads due to the blocks.

Meeting up with the photojournalist stationed there, he took their memory cards and continued to find a 'safe spot' to upload the photos into the laptop to be send back to office. I tag along my other colleague to learn more about the situation.

Upon completing sending in the photos, Sam was to head to another hotspot to gather photos. i sat on the pillion seat once again, still psyched being able to be at Jalan TAR and manage to shot a few shots.

We exited Jalan TAR into Jalan Kuching, and there, we bumped into a group of protestors marching from Jalan Kuching towards Jalan Kinabalu, and from there, i presumed they were planning to go to Jalan Istana.

Now, being my 'first time experience inside a mob of protestors', i thought it was kinda cool.
Until i heard multiple shots and i saw white smoke heading our direction.

THEY ARE ACTUALLY USING TEAR-GAS.

FUCK YEAH.

MORE STUFF TO SHOOT :D
(or so i thought)

Sam told me to get off the bike as he mounted the bike on the divider preparing to head towards the opposite road. Being adventurous and seriously, not knowing how awesome the tear-gas was, i suggested we should head nearer.

He told me to start running, and that was when i inhaled my very first tear gas.
Tears started flowing like river, and both my mouth and nose was very much agitated with a weird sensation that made me sneeze and cough non stop.

Without a second thought, anyone, i mean anyone would have run the opposite direction by mere instinct. I ran, and ran with one breath in my lung, knowing that with another inhale i would sneeze and cough more, not to mention that i could even drenched in my own tears, seriously.

After 10 seconds of running while holding my breath, i gave up and exhale. BAD CHOICE.
Inhaling the 2nd mouthful of tear gas was far worst than the first.
i would say, the closest comparison to tear-gas would be, being continuously shot with pepper spray, and the pepper spray's gas linger around the atmosphere for more than 5 minutes, picture that situation, and multiply it by a 100.

i found Sam a few minutes later, still at the same spot i left him, with mouth mask on. He passed to be a tube of toothpaste, i was like wtf, and he told me to apply some on my cheeks. The chemical compound of the toothpaste, or the mint, 'nullifies' the tear-gas.

Simply awesome.

We climbed up a hill to use the pedestrian bridge that links to the Bandaraya LRT station. There, we continue to watch and phtographed how the protestors being shot away by tear gas and water cannon.

Another 30 minutes or so of dodging tear gas while trying to obtain some good shots, we finally headed back to the office.

and thus, end my first day as a photojournalist.

................................................

SOME RANDOM MUGSHOTS I'VE DONE THIS MONTH

...............................................

Scoop

My very first Front Page Photo came on August 21st.
Like any other day after my first day at work, i thought it was just going to be a normal day with a certain degree of excitement, not too much.

i was driving from office to Taman Mutiara, opposite Leisure Mall, Cheras. 5 minutes on the road, i received a call from my photo editor, speaking ever hastily,

"Something.. something... something... DON'T GO FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT....SOMETHING SOMETHING... WAIT FOR REPORTER TO CALL YOU"

Well, atleast i got the keywords, and i know it ought to be either accident or crime that happen nearby and i could be the nearest at the moment.

1 minute later, the reporter, called, identified herself, and told me to wait for her after the Salak Express Toll. Jolly good, i won't have to find my way.

2 minutes after the reporter's call, MY CHIEF called this time, telling me that my last assignment of the day has been transfered to another photographer, telling me to,

FOCUS AND DO WELL ON THIS ASSIGNMENT.

Now, i'm curious and worried on what i've been to assigned to.
2 assignment cancelled just for 1. INTERESTING.

Couldn't bear to wait another few more minutes before i meet the reporter, i called her up and asked.
She said we were going grave hunting, to hunt for the 'supposingly ANDY LAU's alleged father-in-law's final resting place', which he(the father-in-law) was going to be buried in tomorrow.

Met up with the reporter and she led the way there.
The cemetery was located at Bandar Tun Razak, not far from where i was heading, therefore, being the nearest to spot, i was choosen. (Seriously lucky me)

Question,
How do you find the specific grave in the whole cemetery?

Well, apparently, accourding to the reporter's credible source, the family bought a 'double slot grave' for both the mum and dad. Andy Lau's alleged mother-in-law, passed away sometime ago (i don't know when), and has already been buried there. Another spot beside her grave was meant for the dad.

Now, knowing which cementery the mother was buried, all we have to do is go there, and start looking. According to the reporter, a day before the burial, the grave would have already been dug to be prepared for the actual day. A tent, would then be built above it to keep it from rain or whatever than might falls into it.

We found the tent.

The moment we stepped down the car, a chinese dude whom was a supervisor/worker there came and attempted to stop us from venturing further. It was however a public area, therefore, the only thing he could do was to stop ME FROM TAKING PHOTOS of the tombstone.

My reporter walk around the tombstone and started asking question, while i observe the surroundings.
That dude followed behind her closely, afraid she might start jolting down names she sees from the tombstone.
It was then i realised, SHE WAS LURING HIM AWAY FROM ME.

I took out my gear, set it to the widest, aimmed, and fired a few shots before keeping it away. We then left.
i rushed back to office, as the photo was need for the night paper. After printing the photos, i went with the photo editor to explain the photos to a beared man whom at that point of time, i didn't know was the Chief Editor.

Apart from being front page, this was also a

SCOOP !!
for one day only though

Kuala Lumpur: Final resting place of famous HongKong singer/actor, Andy Lau's father-in-law.

The next day, i was position at the cemetery. By then, it was crowded with reporters and photojournalist.
After 2 hours wait, they finally arrieved.

Seriously, i wasn't sure who was this at first, but apparently, APPARENTLY, this IS Andy Lau's daughter.

Andy Lau never appeared after all.

And after all the big hoo-haa, i was called once again to go back to the cemetery a day or two after the burial. Apparently they are photographers there.

Someone came to pay their last respect a bit later than the others but heck, i didn't care.
Was still wondering why was i send back here AGAIN.

That night, GuanMing Press scooped everyone by successfully capturing a series of 3 shots of Andy Lau leaving the tombstone area.

It was stated that the shots were taken between 9:00am - 9:20am, i was informed to go to the site at 11:15am, reaching there only at 11:45am, was from Shah Alam okay.

Rumors has it that the photographer camped at the cemetery from 6 in the morning. Rumors though.

.............................................

Malaysian Wushu Competition 2009

Heck, i've been uploading and typing for a few hours now and i'm getting lazy.
These are a few shots of the 1000 over shots i took that day. Only 1 shot was used in the paper.
Loved the performance and action;
Hated the lighting.

....................................................................

Fire at Kepong.
I was happily 'loitering' around KL awaiting my next assignement in Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad when i received the call to head to Kepong to cover a Fire.

Partially glad a boring press conference was cancelled, partially excited to be covering fire for the first time, i called up Priest to give me direction to head to Kepong.

Getting the correct bearings, i reached within 20 minutes.
There wasn't fire or smoke anymore, but the firemen were still spraying at it to ensure no ember survives.

Even the altar is consumed by the fire.

.............................................

I have a confession to make.
I do not like doing Chinese entertainment stories.
But heck, not that i can choose.

i was send to cover this Chinese Globe Award thingy something local entering international market something something something, gosh, my chinese sucks.

The media are given a ticket each to vote for the singer of their choice. I have no idea who is who.

A group called MANHAND and a dude i don't know whom who tag-along to get his shot taken along.

..................................................

Robber Jumps into Klang River
My colleague was passing by the area between Pantai Dalam and Jalan Klang Lama in the reporter's car when he saw the action.

He stayed behind to cover the story while the reporter left.
I was send to 'retrieve' him from the site.

Quite a waste this was given much attention on the papers as this was a scoop.

Oh the best thing is, from the photos, you might have tought the police did all the work. Which wasn't.
A member of the public was the one whom stop the robber from entering into a pipeline/hole. Our police, apparently, was afraid to jump into the river.

.............................................

Taman Midah Recycling
Seriously, some news i really wonder why are we (the reporter and photograher) are even sent to cover.
Don't get me wrong, not that i don't like doing it, but heck, does it even have that amount of news value to be worth covering?

I hope no Taman Midah Resident sees this.

............................................

Astro Malaysian Chinese Beauty Pageant Audition
Now this was interesting. Apart from the fact that the reporter was a decent looking chick, the thingy i was covering was much of my liking. Too bad didn't stayed long.

........................................................

That would be all for now.
I seriously hope you enjoyed this entry. Uploading the photos alone took quite sometime.
I haven't done any entry before this was due to the fact i'm exhausted everyday after work. Seriously.
But while i'm still enjoying it, it's all worth while :D

Would try to update more frequent whenever possible :D

Henceforth

2009-08-01T02:23:00.002+08:00

To those of you i've yet to break the news to,

I've Got THE JOB
:D

So, at 9 a.m. tomorrow, 1st of August, i'll be checking into Chinapress to be a Photojournalist.
(it's kinda ironic that i'm in Chinapress while the only paper i'm failing is Chinese Writing)

i've have yet to know what section would i be placed under, nor my salary (would be discussing tomorrow). Basically, all i know is, after given up all hope that my resume and interview has been rejected, i received the call notifying me that my application has been accepted. That would be last Thursday. Thats pretty much it.

i've got some time to spare actually, while waiting for resit, results and intake,
i thought i must as well get into something i'm passionate about, well, while i'm young that is.
A question has always bothered me, that is, how many people out there actually get to work at something they actually love, that they are passionate about, that they actually have a feeling for the job, not the stipendiary offered.

Given the chance to actually 'Work my Passion', well, let's just say i'll be doing my best :D
Front page cover photo coming right up.

........................

To the readers of my blog, i thank you for the support, or even it's just the mere thought of dropping by just to see how are my photoshoots lately. Your support are much appreciated. Seriously.

To my good friend Rachel for teaching how the shutter speed works :D
"Why i use flash, the photo clearer one arh? If i don't use flash why blur one?"

To my Photojournalism lecturer, Mr. Chow, thanks for teaching me on how to further utilise my camera. Teaching me the importance of SKILL > GEAR
"How do i count f/stop again?"

To my good friend T.J the Priest, thank you for submitting to peer pressure, which lead to you buying a dslr and joined our little group consisting of me and Nic, without you we would have way less photo outing and mamak session, and but of course my healing bitch :D
"Moar heals please. Mooarrr!!"

and to my best friend Nicholas Yong "Cums-on-U",
thanks for being a massive-pain-in-the-ass-photo-critique-bitch, without you guidance my shots would be far less pleasing, not forgetting the massive about of photoshopping skills you taught me, and ninja-ing the cookies your sister bakes for me :D
"Drop your random aggro please... Tanker can't tank the damage"

French Village, Bukit Tinggi

2009-07-25T01:24:00.001+08:00

French Village, Bukit Tinggi, originally uploaded by shirostrike.

Located at the Berjaya Hill or also known as Bukit Tinggi, The French Village is quite a popular place visited by tourist and locals alike.

This is a better framed shot compared to the one i posted earlier

Of Interviewee and His Unofficial Assignment

2009-07-16T04:53:00.005+08:00

It was time.
I counter checked the photos i was to present, nothing much, just a very small selection of my favourite shots which are not entirely related to the field i'm about to venture in:

Photojournalism

It was a hot Monday afternoon, and despite the rise in the haze, the sunlight still penetrates to the thick smoke with ease.
Inhaling my last puff of nicotine, i walked into Chinapress, tagging behind a fellow photojournalist, a stout looking dude who greeted me with a warm smile, came all the way down from the photoroom to show me the way in.

Never been into any news publishing house before, i was fascinated by the amount of employees they have here.
(you know what i'm thinking.....)
(Could have told by the amount of double-parking outside the building)
Wasn't up for a tour, we headed straight to the photoroom, which is located acrossed a room known as the Resource room. Old, dimly litted, and lots of papers. Lots.

The photoroom wasn't something of my expectation. Very much smaller in size compared to the previous room, this room has 2 offices, a stereotypical large wooden table you would find in any chinese office and a few comps. I was expecting a room filled with photos occupying every inch of the wall.

Of the two office, one was the Chief Photojournalist's, quite obvious with the once again stereotypical large chair. I was seated in the main area, while they sorted out some photos on the comp, while i continue me observation. What attracted my eyes was 2 square boxes and a rectangular one in the Chief Photog's room. The black one had the words CANON - 50D imprinted on it, while the white rectangular one, 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM.

*droooooooooooool

And the 2nd room, which i ruled out it wasn't an office afterall, looks to me like a pantry that hasn't been mantained since the 80's. It even has a leaky basin with a pail underneath to collect water.

I feel so at home :D
(provided i get the job)

The interview started shortly after i completed filling the application form. The grounds rules were quite simple, be prepared to work late. When he reached the part where i ticked 'yes' on 'anyone u know working here', they were surprise to know that Chee Yuan was my classmate. and apparently that fella is quite popular with the people here, i mean jee, they were all smiling in approval :D

I then showed some of my shots via tha lappy and then we were done.
Since i was coming back again the next day to submit a passport sized photo, the chief send me on
my first unofficial assignment -
Shooting the haze and Petaling Street.

The haze conveniently disappear when i left Chinapress, therefore, Petaling Street was what i'm left to cover. I'm to shoot the mat salleh's there. At Petaling Street. The Chinatown of KL. Where the locals avoid due to many reason. Where i avoid. Where i'm heading today.
i'm f-ed sideways, pants on.

So how hard can it be?
Cold sinister eyes, starring at you, from top till bottom like you were some sort of prey,
(now i know what it feels like to being watched, i promised i won't stare at a chick more than 3 secs no more...)

My shots i have in mind were simple.
White folk + buy stuff = Photo

After roaming for a while eyeing for a suitable prey, i mean subject, i found a decent group whom i shot.

Petaling Street : Tourist shopping for a good bargain at our 'infamous' Chinatown

I then proceeded to other subjects, till i stumble upon a large entourage.
A LARGE ONE.

I smell politicians.
(i seem to be confused with the word smell and see. which isit again? :D )

The Tourism Minister, (i'm bad with names... remember?)
was visiting. (erm... visiting, yar... visiting...)

Large group of photojournalist, some video crew, and loads of sidekick to clear the path.

Opportune moment.
i joined the group of photojournalist, blended, and started snapping.

My first few shots were, no doubt fail. Lighting has always been my best friend and worst enemy. And now, competing for a shot is another. At a 180 degree arc, there was practically nearly no room for anymore DSLR. i tried off-hand shoot and this was the result =.-

You get the idea...

Well, she then decided to 'meet and greet' some tourist at the Restaurant outside the OLD POPULAR BOOKSTORE.
(the restaurant that IS ONLY VISITED BY NON LOCALS DUE TO A COMMON REASON)

More photo opportune for me.
Its sad to hear that everyone's shutter can run continuos for like a zillion shots but mine stops at 4th shot. BUFFER. BUFFER. BUFFER.BUFFER.

Petaling Street: Tourism Minister (can someone fill me in her name pls?) giving a warm welcome to the foreign tourist at a restaurant.

i was more than delighted when she called for a group portrait :D
Shot while standing on a chair, once again. Never thought those practise i got from primary school for not doing my homework might actually come in handy.

Petaling Street : Can someone write the caption for me pls?

Thats about it.
Will update whether i get the job. Waiting for the call for the 2nd interview.
*crosses fingers

P/s:

i've just realised alot of people has access to this blog address, therefore i relief myself on excessive cursing and swearing; and yup, thats one contributing factor to my so-not-sound-like-ben typing throughout the starting of the post .

Sweet Whispers of Jane

2009-07-12T05:59:00.004+08:00

Sweet Whispers of Jane, originally uploaded by shirostrike.

"Whispers i hear, before my slumber,
Bringing me nearer, to a place of another,
A place filled with tranquilitiy, a place of wonders,
Granting me wishes, i wanted ever. "

a cherry red classical guitar for my 21st Birthday from my college mates:
Rachel, Zi Wen, Guan, Yia, Melissa and Psycho.

P/s: i didn't bother to wipe the dust from the board nor the strings since it gives a more old, nostalgic look.

Up We Went, Without a Plan

2009-07-06T19:43:00.006+08:00

Planning for short photography trips within the small photog group of mine had always been me job. Not that me plan has always been smooth
*its rough most of the time
but its always better to have a rough idea, or an ideal itinerary to know what you're gonna do and shots to cover, as oppose to not knowing what to cover at all.

To date, the most impromptu trip was this year first visit to Camerons during the Chinese New Year whereby i suggested we head up to the highlands after 8 hours of sleep. It was 4 a.m. then. Easy thing to do when we have thick wallets after a high input during the festive season. All we had to bring was a few clothing, a decently warm jacket, our guns and our WALLETS. Crashing at Tj's fully furbished apartment is awesome.

Now, however random the outing could be, we would naturally discuss about it first.
On Sunday however, it was different. The randomness caught me off-guard, but heck it was a so-so trip, well atleast i found a new spot.

.............................................................

A friend of mine, Mel bought himself a gear recently. A Nikon D90 to be precise.
Since the good old days i've known him, he has always been the ambitious one among us.
AMBITIOUS in every thing he does.
Now, getting a new gun would mean he has to learn how to utilise it to its fullest potential. I gave him the basic crash course after he bought it, and he has been applying it to photography (i hope)

After 3 months or so of practise, he has been slowly diverting towards a certain aspect of photography, which appeared more fascinating to him than others.
Quite typical for most photographers, but i just don't seem to know why.
*No, i'm not a fag, i just prefer shooting flowers and nature and those as oppose to posing portraits.

Many readers of my blogs, yesh i mean you, definitely would have quite an interest towards photography,
*else you won't even bother to be here reading
therefore you would know, photography, apart from being a type of art; is a type of knowledge that comes with practise. And to be good, u need more practise. I mean jeez, even camwhoring needs practise.

Practise is something that takes time and effort. Dedication in other words. Passion boost the speed.
It took me 2 years and a half to reach where i am today, partially i was shooting crap the first year and no one taught me nuts, not even the basic. Rachel was the first whom taught me the basic, then my lecturer Chow Shang on the technical aspect. And from there, it was more research, more mamak session with malayboy Nic and his 400D, and more FlickR.

And not forgetting, theory and practical is 2 separate entity.

There are no short cuts btw.

.................................................

To boost his photography skills and technique, Mel acquired assistance from a model friend of his, whom apparently was more than willing to help him. He therefore then propose to us to go shoot along with him, to guide him is more precise.
*he was actually shitting bricks on the mere thought of himself screwing up
Nic was interested, i was okay with it, and we invited Priest along.

At first, seriously AT FIRST, the plan was to shoot at some broken down building. But heck, that require some decent strobing equipment which apart from the 430Ex flash gun Mel ninja-ed, we were all on basic gear.

The plan then shifted to Bukit Tinggi or known as Berjaya Hills.
Now, on normal occasion, i would usually go what-the-farq since we're ought to stick to the plan.
But heck, since it sounds interesting :D
*not to mentioned my dad ninja-ed my car and pump it till it reached F the night before :D

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We met up with Mel, Veronica (his very friendly and nice girlfriend, that lucky S.O.B) and his model friend whom i forgot the name momentarily at Karak Toll.
*Once again, mel was shitting bricks, due to the fact the two chicks weren't talking in the car.

Veronica, blocking my camera's view.

With his wira leading, we headed up the steep winding road.

The drive up was naturally fun for any guys, revving over 3ooo rpm just to have 60km/h, curves, hairpins, quick entry, well you get the idea. (read or watch Initial D)

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The place was awesome for a one day outing. Seriously.
Cooling air, great scenery reachable from the KL within 1 hour + drive.
There were several spots to visit up there. Of those, we only visited the Botanical Gardens and the French village due to time constraints.

The Botanical Gardens is a heaven for nature photographers, i shite u not.
Priest and Shammy boy conveniently disappeared from the group, while i was to assist Mel by "sharing my little knowlege regarding photography". quoted from Nic's blog :D

And they conveniently shot this while i was away. Bitches.

I managed to pass my responsibility to Nic after an hour or two, and managed to shot a few shots. FINALLY.

A high angle view of the French Village, shot in 3 exposure, HDR-ed and added some magic thanks to Nic's suggestion.

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P/S:
If you actually read all my rants before viewing the photos, i thank you for your much-not-needed patience. And me apology for only having so limited shots.

Btw, since we all failed at shooting portraits, we have cleanse our gear from it.

THE TRUTH

2009-07-02T02:43:00.004+08:00

This is a compendium of all the answers for the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION by you guys :D
and sorry bout the delay in posting, quite a boring time i'm passing through now, unless you would want me to blog on how much i like watching BEN - 10 on CARTOON NETWORK.

Now, if any of you guys have FACEBOOK, which i'm quite sure you have, from the photos you would have realised that my hair has been miraculously growing shorter and shorter, and as of last week, non remained.

Let's start with some basic YES and NO answers:

NO, i'm not going through chemotherapy.
NO, i'm not going through depression. i have liquor to sort that out for me :D
NO, did not go through a break up.
NO, it's not a new trend. i can't remember who asked me that. BUT YES, it's gonna be :D
NO, am not journeying into monk hood. Jeez, who would take in a fella who drinks, smokes and curse. and NO, do no want to repent.
NO, i don't feel any difference with the temperature. i hoped it would though.
NO, contrary to popular belief, i still shampoo my head. So shampoo is still needed.
YES, ran out of wax
YES, is enjoying the attention.
YES, is enjoying the attention.
and YESH, is enjoying the attention.

Now, would you believe if i told you that the narcissistic me would give up my 2 inches of gravity defying hair just for hang of it, or in lay-man-terms, just for fucks?

Rachel saw through my ploy, which defeats the purpose of me hiding it any longer.

If you ever heard of the term peacocking, you would understand that it means to dress up, to look your best, yada yada yada, the first impression thingy. After having spiking my hair for several years now, i've come to notice a few things.

First off, in Malaysia, atleast 5 out of 10 males have short-medium length hair, 3 out of 10 have long hair, and 2 do not give a damn about their hair.

1.Now if u analyze closer, 3/5 short-medium hair length males are lalabengs, 1 is plain joe, 1 is awesome joe.

2. 2/3 long hair dudes are mother fugly, with the exceptional 1/3 like malayboy Nic who turns heads everywhere he goes. That bitch.

3. Of those who does not give a damn, 1/2 are those that play WORLD OF WARCRAFT for 12 hours a day, the other 1/2 have their faces constantly glued to a book.

4. Spending 10 mins each morning before going out place me in the 5/10 category.

and now,
not doing anything puts me out of the race, get my drift?
Mathematical term would be,
i'm the 11/10

Growing bald is not an option
*points at some one i know who teaches chinese writing in a college partially funded by governement which is located in Setapak
But shaving bald is.

Apart from being a attention-whore yet again, there are still some other reasons as to why BALD. Well, lets call it experimenting.

And anything beyond that, i must admit i got lazy in mantaining my hair. Clairol shampoo not cheap, and if i ninja my sister's she'll scream at me.

with that, i hope people shall stop asking me via msn :D
"Why lar ben, why..."

p/s:
i've actually started 'practising' how to shave my own head.

Passion as a Job

2009-06-13T06:15:00.003+08:00

i've really been procrastinating on new post for the blog. Had been spending too much time after my final paper on Tuesday with my head under the pillow, avoiding sunlight, roaming the streets only when the sun is well set below the horizon. In other words, i've farqed up my sleeping hours ONCE AGAIN.
*cheers

The wedding registration photoshoot which i was commissioned was a day after my finals.
It was no doubt a much anticipated day for both the couples, and with that being said, a significant amount of pressure was on US, the photographers.

The further i continue to dwell in my thoughts, the more i like what i do.

"I preserve memories of individuals of a specific time and space."

i've never actually thought of it from this perspective before, that my passion is actually quite nobel. Yesh, do allow me to be full-of-meself every now and then :D

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After sleeping for an hour or so, priest morning-called me. Having pre-event jitters does render me from sleeping well. We ate breakfast and left our place at around 8:30 a.m. , destination was Putrajaya's Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara.

i was happily driving at 140km/h down MEX Highway (KL-Putrajaya-KLIA), when i realised my petrol gauge was a quarter to empty. I was cock-sure it was atleast 3 quarter full the last i parked the car the night before, which was before the-girl-who-sleeps-in-the-room-next-to-mine ninja-ed it to go yumcha. Close to 100km gone from her yumcha session.

(the more i ponder on it, the more i dularn. how in the blasted world she can drive 100-farqing-kilometres in a night, and apparently she went PJ ONLY. Sounds more like Port Klang to me. it just blardy pisses me off that she drove my car for joy riding knowingly i have to go Putrajaya the next day. Argh...)

Just had to let that one out.
We reached on time, thanks to the traffic-less highway. Found an awesome open air parking lot next to the Registration Building itself, FREE-OF-CHARGE (how i wished KL as such)
Priest was pretty emotionless, but heck, i was pretty hyped by the mere thought of the following hours to come.

Like all Putrajaya's building, it was fancifully built but was seriously under use. Once in there, you won't have to find you way to Wedding Registration Department, (there are many floors and department, Identity Card Application/Renewal being one of the many)
just follow behind some young, good looking girls with an extra radiance about them while dress in white gown and you'll find your way there. I'm serious. Both regarding the radiance and dresses and the good lookingness.

We met up with our bride and bridegroom and the rest of the family members shortly. After a brief introduction and explantion on what we are planning to do and what's expected of us, we started firing away, so much so they've missed their queue to enter the registration room.

After a short wait, erm, not so short actually. IT WAS TIME.
We were led to a room just next to the waiting place. A room would be quite an understatement. A very well decorated chamber seems to be more fitting. Talk about commercializing weih~
There was a large table where the documents are read and signed, ample amount of seats at a the side, a large Malay styled wedding seat thingy (insufficient vocabulary, my apologies), and awesome indoor lighting :D

A lady, whom i presumed was the registrar/legal advisor started off reading the standard protocal stuff which you get to see and hear in a church wedding. Both parties read their vows and said the two words 'I DO...'

it might be weird for a random stranger like me whose job is just to photoshoot actually feel happy for this couple. i guess it was the atmosphere, just so, hmm whats that word.

Upon completion of that, both the bride and bridegroom signed the legal papers which purposes are to BIND them LEGALLY, or is it physically, oh wait, or isit both? Nono wait, it has to be legal to be physical. Arhh.....

But seriously, i was smiling ear to ear all the time, i presumed the mere presence of being there and seeing all the happy faces naturally makes one happy.

The witnesses from both parties signed too, and with the slipping-in-the-ring and some smooches and more 'chik-chak' from us, the couple are LEGALLY WED. And hence, end my first 2 hours job as a photographer :D

i honestly love what i do
:)

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On some LOL Guidelines of Do's and Don'ts:
1. Do have sufficient sleep of atleast 6 hours. Trust me on this one.
2. Do drink coffee to start off your day. If you're a smoker, stock on ciggies before leaving for Putrajaya. You won't want to go round searching for a sundry shop, you won't find one.
3. Do make sure if you have a sister that knows how to drive, hide your car keys and spare car keys (if any)
4. Do make sure you have done your basic home work, at the very least, go check out other photographers' work to have an idea on what's the basic stuff that needs to be covered.
5. My Favourite. Do SMILE. You're a photographer afterall.

Don'ts:
1. Do not stay up playing DotA till like 3a.m. in the morning.
2. Do not come out for a drink after the DotA has ended despite the fact you a quenching for one.
3. Do not willingfully agree to lend your car to your sister when she has a car of her own, not knowing where she would go, and who would she be going with.
4. Do not be late. I'm on time :D
5. Do not be checking hot young brides. They are taken. Wait .. Wait a sec, that shouldn't stop you from looking, or should it? Hmm... Interesting thought to ponder.
6. Do not be discussing hot young brides with your partner-in-crime.
7. Do not be distracted by other hot young brides. Eyes on the client. Do not wander your eyes to places 90% of men stare at. Do not be wondering and pondering upon what is beneath what you would have starred but you should not be staring. Trust me, if you're like me, part of the majority 90%, its tough to not to stare at all. The other 10% has of difference interest compared to general males.

That oughta wrap it up.
Btw, i won't be posting official work photos here.
If i do get permission for posting, it will go to the portfolio/project site Me, Nic and Tj is planning to set up.

Of Good News and Bad News.

2009-05-31T07:00:00.002+08:00

Well, lets start with the bad ones first shall we?

My result of AHMC 1144 Chinese Writing for the Mass Media came out last Thursday. It was a C- again. For those of you whom are familiar with what does a C- mean, you would have naturally felt the sudden struck of pain at your heart, just as i did. i was at most, AT THE VERY MOST, 5 marks from passing this paper.

Comtemplating my dark and vague future, (as it was my last chance to pass the paper, or so i thought)

i went to look for Ms.Chan, Program Supervisor for my course, in attempt to sought out strings to be pulled. Obviously there wasn't any =.-
However, i was told that apparently i have 1 more year to attempt to pass this paper. i was actually seeking advice also on credit transfer, which is kinda silly, i mean, who does a credit transfer but for failing ONE paper?

Apart from having 3 more bites at the cherry, apparently, there might be a change of lecturer on this subject. Quoted from Ms. Chan,

"This may be better for you since you might have 'compatibility issue' with Mr. Ching."

i mean like wadafarq... The retard that had been teaching this sub, refused to give any guidelines or tips. i mean jeez...... Oh well, resit again.

................................

My A-levels examination was just so-so. Down to my last 3 papers. 1 more Law paper on Monday and 2 remaining Business papers on the following week. i'm worried about my Law Paper 1, on English Legal System. Didn't manage to goreng sufficiently on the essays. And sadly, failing one would means i have to redo all the papers.

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On the brighter side of me life.
i've been hired to be a photographer :D
A secondary classmate of mine, Lee Jane contacted me via FACEBOOK, stating that her friend is getting married, and was looking to hire someone to do the Wedding Registration photoshoot. Apparently, of the people she knew, she noticed me and Nic shot real pro photos.
*Breaths to raise the chest :D
She requested a quote for the service.

At the sight of that message, i called up Nic-yang-sedang-berdating to break him the good news. We met up a few days later with Priest (that budak now stays at Sunway can't cari him to mamak easily) to discuss on price to quote. We have been working as a team since the beginning afterall, therefore pricing should be discussed and not determine solely on me.

Profit maximisation came into mind first, then Street Cred and Rep building came into mind. And those two are conflicting one to the other. We have no idea whatsoever of the street price for hiring a photographer. Whats too much and whats too little? We finally decided to charge a minimal fee on travelling and our time (its gonna be at Putrajaya after all), and if the photos are deemed to have been shoot well, they are welcome to pay us more. Not a very good way to do business, but a good way to build rep :D

Lee Jane contacted me a few days later, stating that we are hired. Her friend offered a higher pay. i presume she was either too paiseh to pay the wage we quote for, or she expected better job out of us.
So... Pressure to get it done perfectly :D

Apart from this, Nic who had been busy building his portfolio was offered a wedding photography job. Actual wedding photography job. Vague details on that, but we would most likely be taking it if his friend were to hire us.

Well, i presume this would mark as the first step of turning from amateur to pro eih?

P/S:
oh darn, i have to invest in a little to buy a new battery and a flash gun along with a decent mid-telephoto lens. Time to find a part time job :D

Twilight

2009-05-27T06:09:00.002+08:00

Twilight, originally uploaded by shirostrike.

Shot on a late evening when i came home.
Couldn't find a nicer spot to shoot it, therefore practically just pointed-and-shot it outside my house.

I'm gonna miss that bugger

2009-05-25T04:14:00.010+08:00

*Thinking on how to kick start the lead paragraph again.

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Been pondering on a phrase my mum (and definitely everyone's mum) onces said,

"If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything."

That was just random. Lets start off with Guan's birthday
Fatty Guan's has finally turned 21 and we celebrated at The Italianese, The Curve on Saturday, 23rd May.

The food was good, surprisingly, i like the Caesar Salad =.-
Didn't like the meatballs on spaghetti though, too salty.

There was nothing too interesting to type about then though; partly due to the fact i was sitting at an emo corner chewing meatballs. On purchasing the birthday gift though, thats interesting.

A day before, i met up with Yia, Zi Wen and Psycho to 'discuss' on what to get him. Seriously, i wasn't even THINKING about getting him anything; not after how he sabo my birthday present by selecting a cherry red guitar instead of some other color . Yesh, i'm evil. Chaotic Evil to be precise. And vindictive too.

Zi Wen was pretty much neutral about it, Yia however, was plotting to sabo to it's maximum extend which he could think of, which is why he required every little bit of intellectual contribution he can gain from us. Nothing came from me though, since i continued asking the same question after 3 hours,

"We seriously getting him something arh?"

It was Psycho who came out with the brilliant idea of getting him a book, a book which he won't read. A book, according to review and critics, it is meant to read at a bar to scare away people whom might be interested to start a conversation by portraying a weird, whacko persona. A book written by a NINE YEAR OLD BOY.

Guan and his birthday present, SINCERELY from the all of us.

A quick preview of the content which made me lol. What happens to the other 2 percent of the pretty girls?

Yia on the other hand, personally bought Guan a die-cast car model, smash the hell out of rear, as memento from his recent car accident. Crap, i forgot to shoot that.

A cliche shot of Rachel posting as an Ambassador :D

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Apart from the birthday makan thingy, this little gathering serve as a a little 'farewell' for Zi Wen too, or atleast thats the way i see it.
(else the turn up rate would not be so high, arhahahhahahahaha)

The Father and Son, or is it Lecturer and Student?
Hmm...

Leaving for Kampar UTAR to persue a degree in Business Adminstration (that turn-coat), he won't be back for the next few months.

His justification was,
'Journalist can't earn much money, neh.. Ben also got back up plan".

Time really passes in a blink of an eye. Jeez, i've already known this bugger for 3 years, and i must admit, i'm gonna miss him. It's kinda sad you only realised you are gonna miss something only during departure.

Zi Wen and Ben with his new haircut

He has, in all ways possible, been a very close and good friend, helping me in whatever sticky retarded situation i get myself in.
(Which ranges from jump starting a car to doing assignment)
And not forgetting to mention, shooting those retards whom almost backstabbed me in COD 4. i'm gonna miss those time.

I guess All the Best is in order, and may you achieve more headshots :D
Less 1 Mat Romeo in town, naturally leads to less competition.
MOAR GIRLS TO AGGRO.

.......................................

Everyone took turns to have a photo shot with Ziwank.
Macam celebrity ajer.

Melissa and Ziwank.

Rachel and Ziwank

Chee Yuan attempting a gay shot.

Guan succeeding a gay shot.

HITCH 2: How to Talk to Girls in a Mamak Stall.
This has tainted my camera and memory card.

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Oh, i've shorten 2 inches of my hair last week. Bad weather.
And no, it's not like me in a Sakuragi Hanamichi situation where i failed in something therefore i shaved.

i feel like an animal getting pat =.-

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Oh and remember why people say don't drink and drive?
i got a better one.

Before:

After:

That oughta teach girls not to drink too much :D

GRATIFYING MY ITCH

2009-05-09T23:22:00.005+08:00

I'm well aware i promised meself not to do any photoshooting of events or outing until after 9th June, my final paper for my foundation in law. But heck, my right index finger had been itching, a sign from the withdrawal of my trigger-happy-syndromme. An opportune moment to gratify it arrived when Justina told Nic to cover Taylor's Talentime on behalf her Taylor's Marketing and Communication Department. Naturally, i was invited.

The event, organized by the Final Year Students of Hospitality Management course, would contribute a whooping 70 % to their finals. So technically, their degree certificate was at stake here.

Venue was at the Taylor's Multipurpose Hall, (which was rather small, if you had attended any of TAR College event :D ) Being a fanboy here... Nevertheless, 600 attendees crowded the hall.

Ok screw description, im here to post photos. As tj had said, give up on posting legal post as no one gives a flying farq about what i wrote; and or they don't understand. Arhahahaah...

By the way, this event would signify the first official usage of my new lens :D Haven't been using my 50mm f/1.8 for proper function.

One of the contestant that made it to the finals, awesome steady guitar plucking skills and superb voice. No doubt he could can make girls go "Aaawwww........"

Few significant things you would be able to notice in Taylor College. Every girl seemed to dressed, whao... Tastefully. And less material also, if you had to ask :D

And apart from that, everyone seem to be holding a DSLR. OK, maybe not everyone, but atleast ONE in EVERY group. And there were atleast 6 formal photographers for the event (excluding me and Nic), all mounting >100mm zoom lenses, and a large flash gun. Here we go again~

As foreseeable, few of these retards were blasting their eye-blinding flash like no ones business. Gosh... Farqing annoying. Events should band photographers from using flash. It disrupts the event, it disrupts other photographer's photoshoot whose settings are not set for flash.

I can't remember what she sang.

I would comment that the event flow wasn't smooth at all. There were too much technical problem in between contestants. Nearly every e-guitar or semi-acoustic guitar player had to have an additional 5 mins to fix the cable connection which render their guitar from producing any sound.

The time management was appaling. The event started 'officially' at 4 p.m, and only ended at 11 p.m. Correct me if my maths is bad, thats around 7 farqing hours. Seriously overkill.

One of the few bands that performed.

Of the 21 groups that participate, nearly every group did very well. The thing is, they did not divide the contestant's talent into groups/genre. Everyone just naturally went up and performed. There were a few crappy hip-hop wannabes, one magician (who calls himself an illusionist as if it makes a difference), way too many guitar performers, few solo singers and 1 handfull of bands. All competing on equal grounds to be in the FINAL 5.

Bored of shooting with my 50mm, i mounted the kits lens and attempted some zoom-burst.

Another chrismatic guitar-player.

Before the event, Nic had told me to keep a weather eye on one dude whom is gonna do e-guitar solo. He performed the classical Canon in a rock verion. Youtube CANON ROCK to have an idea what he played.

The Canon Rock player. Totally mindblowing. The crowd sceamed like there was no tomorrow.

After 6 hours of preliminary rounds, the FINAL 5 had been choosen. Sadly, the guitar solo dude did not make it. But seriously, i have no idea how the China-mui in black from the left manage to enter the finals.
Dude in grey won the talentime with amazing singing voice.

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Now with me little 'expertise' in covering event shots, here are a few pointers for those of you whom uses a DSLR WITHOUT A FLASH:

1. Remember, it's low lighting, therefore you would seriously want to shoot at a wide aperture, or atleast as large as your lens can support. I was shooting with f/1.8 throughout the event.
2. If you're lazy to monitor the shutter speed changes due to the event lighting, set your camera to APERTURE PRIORITY MODE, then tweak your ISO setting to a reasonble figure in order that it won't result in a super low shutter speed, around 40-800 perhaps? I still prefer to shoot in FULL MANUAL MODE.
3. Shoot in RAW if possible. You can adjust under-expose shot later.
4. Normal movement/ Action of any person can be locked at shutter speed of 1/50 and above. Dancing, jumping and those hip-hop crap however, need shutter speed of atleast 1/100. These was my observation lar. So make sure your ISO and Aperture can compensate for the lack of light.
5. Apply RULES-OF-THE-THRID as always.
6. Close in on your subject as always.
7. If you seriously want to use flash the built in dslr flash, use moderately, with a home-made-diffuser. Just place a paper cup on the built in flash, it should spread the blinding white light to a substantially wide area, and it would be less harsh. I still do not recommend flashing in events though.
8. Enjoy. You won't like what you do unless you enjoy it. :D

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Just for LOL. Check the shot below. Nic dispersing aggro randomly once again.

P/S:
My law paper is this coming Friday. Wish me all the best. :D

SUE ME

2009-05-06T21:51:00.003+08:00

Forewarning: I'm going to raise an issue on law here that might be sensitive to some readers. If you think your clean and untainted mind cannot withstand a little aspect of SEX from the legal point of view, i strongly encourage you to stop reading before the end of this paragraph. I'm not to be held liable for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress for projecting some unsightly mental images in your mind. Discussion here are merely for academic purposes and does not hold water what-so-ever. Sue me.

It all started with the topic of 'THINKING-OUT-OF-THE-BOX"

Now i presume everyone is familiar with the term rape. Generally, on graphics, you would be picturing a male individual forcing himself onto a girl. On the technicality side, it would be the unlawful penetration of the penis into a girl/woman's vagina. That's the general presumption. Since the girl/woman is usually on the losing end (usually...), therefore by convention since the good old times rape has always been a male associated crime against woman.

Now since the whole gender equality, Europeon Convention of Human Rights, and Human Rights Act 1998, Woman-associated Organization are getting stronger by the day (remind me not to bully girls) it won't be long before soon they will start global domination and make every living creature with a protruding organ between their thighs to be their slaves.

Ok.. i went off topic there.

What i'm trying to point out is, rape can now also be a female associated crime. Yes, getting sex from woman and you sue them under rape.Woohoo!! Now get yourself a cookie.

Shit, i don't seem to be able to write a serious post without any retarded stops in between.

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Now that we are clear regarding rape, we shall move on to another aspect. If any of you guys reading this was with me on my first day at FORM 4, right after me being veto-ly selected as the Class Monitor, you would remember what our beloved Form Teacher, Mrs.Francis said regarding sex:

For a minor, under the age of 18, consensus to sex is irrelevant. In layman mentally graphical explanation, this would mean, you're a 16 years o' male, you find yourself a decent 16 years o' female
(definitely long straight hair and nice lips and anything that rhymes lips for me),
you decided you wanna fill her with your fondue,
she decided to give you a ride of your life,
and you guys decided to do it at your place after school.
Both of you guys have adrenaline and endorphin pump up so high in your brain you forgot you're not wearing a latex.

" What are the chances," you ask yourself?

9 months down the road, apart from finding yourself having the need to name a bastard, a police warrant of arrest is issued and slapped at your face for Statutory Rape.

So unlike the conventional rape, the guy don't have to force himself on to a girl. They might agree on both the terms and condition, but the fact that the girl is a minor, despite the fact he is one too, renders him from raising it as a defence for statutory rape. He is fucked. Figuratively speaking. Not literally. Literally would be the 'she' in the example given.

Yesh i know what you might be thinking, unfair for minor guys ain't it? No worries, you get to sue someone too. If an adult female, somehow persuaded you into conducting a lets-explore-our-body-shall-we-practical-course, despite the fact you VOLUNTARILY did it, the adult can be sued for Statutory Rape.
But ya right, you getting some action from some hot intern teacher and you would sue her, and rid yourself of more actions to come.
What are the odds? Same as the odds of Chelsea winning Champion's League.

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So as far as i can explain at my level, those mention are what i understand about rape and statutory rape. As a finale class of June/July A-levels intake, my law lecturer, Mr.Siva just had to pull out something awesome to discuss, before leaving. The example was regarding an acquaintance of an acquaintance who defended a defendant. The case reads as follows:

"Tom is an adult male. His neighbour, Syria, a 14 year old female has just given birth to his child. Tom has been charged for Statutory Rape by the police and presented at the courts. As his lawyer, how would you advice him and to raise a defence? "

Being me, i almost shouted out loud,

"Good job, that oughta remind you to stop at 7-11 first next time."

Bearing in mind that wouldn't really contribute to my reputation in class, i gave a more subtle answer,

"He is f-ked",

with an added muting to the last word, a high leveled technique i learned from Mr.Siva when it comes to silencing profanity in classes just in case some admistrative lecturer passes by the class.

He gave an equal opportunity to everyone to give a shot at the case.

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10 seconds passed. If silence amounts to acceptance, i guess everyone has agreed upon the only answer given by any student and upon majority, agreed the defendant is hereby, no longer a fucker, but a fuckee, as he is being figuratively penetrated by the law.

His lawyer, the acquaintance of my lecturer, gave a defence. Despite the fact i couldn't relatively think of one. Apparetly i wasn't fully focus lar. Is hard to focus when a chick is sitting 3 feet in front of you and wearing a one piece dress baring her shoulders. Eih, i might be a law student but heck, i'm still blardy straight male.

The defence was, Tom and Syria were at the movies.
Tom masturbated (no seriously...) and upon ejaculation, Syria wiped the ejaculation (seriously.i ain't not kidding you) at her vagina.
Now, if you can picture this at all, give yourself a pat-at-the-back for i no longer need to link you to some sites to get some idea.
There were no penetration what-so-ever.

Shocked by the defence raised by the lawyer, i actually shouted out
"Nonsense, the chances of the sperms actually being able to swim from the labia..."

Then i realised what went wrong =.-
The chances are low, don't ask how low, but they are THERE.
There was this case this girl got pregnant after swimming from a swimming pool.

Now. The judge did not buy the lawyer's story, therefore the defendant was convicted. Not that is a bad thing.

The idea is about thinking-out-of-the-box. Do understand our court system is not TRIAL BY JURY. If it was as 12 Jury Trial, there was a high chance that the Jury might be convinced that the teen was being naughty herself and was buttering her muffin by herself. More on Jury and court structure on my later updates.

For now, lets ponder on fact that every single tiny spermy that you guys 'released' through a means has an opportunity to father you a child.

If Death has been materialised into a a few sheets of paper.

2009-05-04T04:29:00.005+08:00

After every 45 minutes of constant-hardcore-jam-studying, i would give myself 15 minutes break. i would use usually the opportune moment to pump in an extra dose of concentrated caffeine and smoke up a stick of nikotine. But heck, my cig ran out on my last 15 minutes break, so here you have me, typing on what monstrosity i will be facing in less than 5 hours time.

As you have most definitely have heard, AHMC 1144 Chinese Writing for the Mass Media is but my final obstacle which renders me from obtaining my Diploma. Sad to say that, to most students that choose to face it, defeated it without breaking a sweat.
*i drowned in my own sweat, if you were wondering how i died the last 6 times i faced it.

Rants aside, i'm proud to say i have crammed in all the basic stuff (which i already have knowledge, but in English) which includes, News Writing, Broadcast Writing, Advertising(ok maybe not so much on advertising), and Traditional Media and Internet Media. All within the past few hours.

Despite the fact those are core-elements that we study and actually apply, the exam is completely different. It only affects the exam marks at a miniscule level.(Which might actually determine my grade a C- or C.)

25% would be random question from the whole syllabus we studied. Anything can come out. Short Answer. But the questions are so random, you won't know where to start. Prays to whichever god residing up there now to proc-crit-some-how-or-rather comes out with the core-elemets of Media writing. Tough luck with that thought.

25% would naturally be on News Writing, which despite the fact i do not have substantial amount of vocabulary in Chinese, i still can excel. No biggie here.

25% would be on editorial/opinion based writing. 600-farqing-words. The question is "un-spot-table", has a random factor of >9000, and the lecturer would not give a flying-farq-clue on what will be out.
i'm butt-farq-from-the-side-ways-with-my-pants-on.

25% is the last random thingy. It could be Short Essays, or it could be Letter Writing (i blardy hope), Report (i blardy hope) or whatever is in the lecturer's twisted and tormented mind.

...........

There you what my encounter is.
My chips are already half-way through the table on media writing(whichever it is) to come out on essay. I might just as well play my hand till it ends.

From the past 2 examination, it has proven 5 more marks is all i need.
Five more freaking marks from whichever section.
Then 'puff',
Diploma, baby ....

Do pray to pray for me soul while you read this will ya :D

PAINTING PEOPLE WITH BALLS

2009-04-19T04:45:00.000+08:00

it was around last week when i was contacted by Nic's sister, Justina regarding this event Taylor college is organizing. Some sport event thingy held beside Bukit Jalil Hockey Stadium, consisting PAINTBALL, WALL CLIMBING, and a few others i'm not interested. She told me to get atleast 5 fellas to form a group in paint ball.

in my proposal to the rest of the guys, i told them 90 % of the people joining are definitely first timer, they won't know anything about recoil or conserving bullets, and before any of us get shot down, they would be screaming Out-of-Ammo.

"ITS TIME TO PAWN SOME NOOBS", i said

Sadly, most of my kakis were busy working, therefore only, me, Nic, Priest and Feigai were able to form a group. 1 man short.

As i thought all hopes are lost, Nic suggested we take my younger brother, Jian.

"You want me to recruit that chicken-wuss? He's only 15 ffs,"

Nic said why not... both of us agreed that teaming with my brother would be a much more enjoying experience compared to recruiting another friend of mine whoms not a team player, ninja looter, bad debtor and much much more.

So yar, that is pretty much how we got our 5 man team bearing the team name - THE KILL.
*too much 30 seconds to Mars.

.........................................

Waking up after 4 hours of sleep is quite a rare occasion for me, especially on a Saturday. But heck, we needa check in by 8:30 for the paintball briefing.

The team captain briefing was to mark attendance along with the standard talk on safety guidelines, Rules and Regulations, Do and Don'ts.

64 teams.
Whao... so as expected, it is gonna be elimination/knock-out competition. You lose the game, you're out.

Game format is CAPTURE-THE FLAG.
However, this isn't the usual Capture-the-flag we play in COD or TEAM FORTRESS.
Rules are simple:
1. Shoot down the bottle located on the right side of the no-man's-land. That is the requirement to capture the flags.
2. Capture both the flags and bring back to your check point. One player can only capture one flag per time.
3.Shoot the living hell out of opponent's flag runner :D
4. 5 minutes game. It doesn't last that long though.
5. No one really dies. Just go back to the check point. Flag runner dies, flag drops on the ground to be retrieve by team members.

The red block are barriers and obstacles to provide cover.
The blue block at both side of the no-man's-land are the bottles. Shoot the one on your right.
Green is where you start or revive.

Our strategy is simple,
3 players on the right to shoot down the bottle, 2 players on the left to shoot down opponent's shooter.

As soon as the bottle drops, flag runner runs to grab the first flag on the right, 1 player provides cover while flag runner runs back to base. Another player grabs the last flag.

Win

.............................

We decided that Jian should be that first flag runner, since he is smaller in size and definitely faster.

i decided that i am to be a meat shield to take bullets in his place. After all. i'm his elder brother :D

WHOS THE MAN !!

Feigai whom is the steadiest, cunning and most chibai player in whatever games he play, was sniping from the center position, providing cover for both left and right field. Yesh, he is being a chibai again.

Nic and Priest's initial job was to take down opponent's sniper, buying time and rendering them from dropping our bottle. As soon as we drop the bottle, they will run in to grab the flag.

................................................

Our first match was after a long 1 hour wait. Feigai was having pre-game jitters. After all, losing means byebye.. i had no doubt that if we win the first match, we can go all the way to the finals. First match was important to build confidence.

THE KILL vs THE LECTURERs 1

and i was wondering what kinda idiots name themselves THE LECTURERS?
*that was before i found out they were really TAYLOR COLLEGE lecturer.

As soon as the referee gave the signal to start, THE LECTURERs fired at will, like nobody's business. By the way, only 30 paintball bullets per person.
i was wondering how were they aiming, praying that stray bullets gonna hit something?
Good luck with that.

Before i manage to get into position, (mine was the furthest from the starting point)
Feigai dropped the bottle. It was less than 10 seconds into game.

Jian ran out to grab the flag.
My turn to shine, i told myself.
Dashing out from cover, i stood by the no-man's-land and started drawing attention towards me, while shooting at 2 opponent behind 2 boulders. My idea was to intimidate them enough to hide below their boulder thus doing nothing.

I guess shouting profanity, cursing and calling them pussies for not shooting me does help :D

Nic capture the other flag with fire support from Priest and Feigai.

Scoresheet. Given to the winning team's team captain to be submitted

We won the first match under 60 seconds.
Upon removing the mask, that was when i realised the group of people whom i called 'bitches, pussy, retards' were a whole group of lecturers. 5 of them. Ops.

.......................................

We watched a few matches while waiting.
Out of 64 groups, there were barely 5 groups with people whom know how to play, or at the very least, play with team work.

There was this one team of 5 girls.
4 typical china-mui looking girl, not too in shape, except their team captain.
On their first match, i guess everyone was lol-ing them. Okay i admit, even i was lol-ing.
5 girls against 5 guys on a game of paintball. Who wouldn't lol?
i didn't watch that match, feigai told me the outcome.
Upon dropping the bottle, 2 players simutaneously captured 2 flags. Under 1 minute.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE CHICKS. ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE NOT HOT.

..........................................

While waiting for the next game, i headed for rock-climbing. Not as tall as i expected, not as easy as i foresee.

Bugger, the rocks that are meant for you to grip are too small for my fingers. i was literally holding on to the rocks with the tip of my fingers.

Blardy hell, had to stretch so far i thought me balls gonna fall off.

And while doing all that, this fella had been dumping aggro randomly.

First thing Nic asked when i got back and rest while waited for the next game was,

"Did you realised we are being watched,"

"No, not WE, YOU ARE,"

................................

Jian came to report that there are going to be 5 more matches.
5 more matches before claiming the title as the winner =.-

That fella is gonna have a bright future :D

...................................

The 2nd match was an easy win.
Clean sheet once again, no one died.
Fei Gai, Priest and Nic did a marvelous job in taking down their snipers that they didn't even managed to shoot down our bottle.

.......................................

The next match was going to determine the group champion, which would continue into the Quarter-Finals. We decided to gather intel of possible opponents. Nearly half the teams have gone home. Remaining teams would have some-what skills or teamwork.

There was this one player, significant due to the fact he is the only fella in the whole field wearing a red baseball cap.

He headshot an opponent within 2 shots.

Now thats a challenge :D
We check out his other following matches. He was playing with the strategy quite similar to ours, holding on the same grounds as us. But he and his teammates were steady, sharp, and fast. 2 flags in less than 60 seconds.

..................................................

We faced TEAM HEADSHOT to compete the title of Group Champion that would enable us to go into Quarter Finals.
They even had 'cheerleaders' cheering for them.
The last sentence i heard before entering to the field was one of their cheerleaders asking them go HEADSHOTS us for their sake.

INTERESTING.

We were playing against a team with mix boys and girls, competiting for the Group Champion. After watching an all-girl-team playing and winning; and being reminded by Feigai how girl's play Counter-Strike in the cafes, we decided not to fool around. After all, they made it that far.

The referee gave the signal to go.
Amazingly, no shots were fired from the opponent.
Conserving bullets eih?
As i made my way to my position, i saw the girl from the opposite team made her way to off-center boulder.

She was going to be a runner for the 2nd flag !!

Jian and me took down the bottle after 3 continuous shot. Jian ran out to grab the flag, and their flag eliminator started firing without mercy at him. I ran out to cover fire.

Instead of the usual 1, they had 2 to make sure the flag runner goes down.
I ran out to the open, triggering before i aim at both of them. Obviously taunting them to shoot at me instead of my brother.

One of the shooter turned his gaze at me and started firing. I know by his action itself, the first flag would definitely be secured.

I continued my tanking for the next 10 seconds.
Adrenaline rush with a added Sugar Rush from overdosed of high-sugary-content drinks had a favourable effect on me.

I COULD DODGE BULLETS. SERIOUSLY.

One of the shooters from the right-side went down into hiding. i'm not sure he ran out of ammo or he was too intimidated by my awesomeness. It wasn't hard to take me down, afterall, i'm clear in the open.

Our bottle went down.
At the sight of that, the girl whom was shooting me vigorously ran into the open to grab the flag.

I wan't aiming.
I was spraying the paintball marker as if using a MP 5 - NAVY from COD.
*if you ever played paintball, you would know that wouldn't hit anything.

She got hold of the flag.
it was now or never...
By getting hold of the flag, she would have to turn around to run back towards her base. That would give me a split second of her standing in position.

I went down into one knee and took aim.

First shot, too off-center
She started turning.

Second shot, missed by an inch
She prepared to sprint.

Third shot,
As she started sprinting, the paint ball shot straight and painted her butt in yellow.
*NO, I DID NOT AIMED AT HER ARSE. HONESTLY :D

FLAGGER DOWN !!

The referee called and signalled that the game ended.
Either Nic or Priest captured the 2nd flag.

We're in the Quarter-Finals !!

This was close. Despite it was still an average of 1 minute to finish this match, no opponent, not one, got as close to get the second flag. Two teams didn't even manage to drop our bottle, thanks to our Anti-Sniper Team, Nic and Priest.

I had to be a bitch while walking out of the field, taunting the cheerleaders of TEAM HEADSHOT.

.................................................

Sadly, our journey ended at the Quarter-finals.
We captured both the flags, but the referee said we cheated, while the opponent team captured both the flag too.

I was quite sure we down the bottle and captured the first flag before them.

As to how we cheated, he state that our flag runner did not drop the flag after being shot.
I was cock sure my brother dropped the flag after he was gunned down, as i was the one whom retrieve it from the ground.

Anyhows, Nic said not to cause a scene. So yar..
Niama, i saw the referee actually asked our opponent team after the match
"Apa sal boleh macam ini punya?"

Cheated? My nuts. Its a conspiracy. No doubt they were sharper shooters than us, but in term of speed, no farqing way they were faster in running or taking down the bottle.

Fuck. i hate losing. It was a good 4 matches anyhow. And we did manage to go through so far.

From left in orange: Nic and Tj the priest - Anti-Sniper Team, Feigai - Intel and Sniper
From left in green: Jian - Flag runner, Ben - Tanker and Team Captain.

P/S:

i'm damn cocksure that group with the marshall were friends.
what nonsense, first he said they capture the flag faster than us.
then he said we cheated.

Of Liking a Challenge and Running into Deepshit

2009-04-15T07:05:00.000+08:00

This is not gonna be a post on photography again. i've barred myself from seeing, much less touching the shutter, which would kick me in to TRIGGER-HAPPY-MODE. Not until i finish my exams anyways. So if you want to see my artwork, come back after 9th June 2009.
My darling is well hidden in the abysmal depth below my bed, where my darkest secrets lurks, which includes Ah Yia's ironing box with alot of FAIL DVDs =.-

i've just checked the TAR COLLEGE examination timetable.
So at 9am, 4th May 2009, PA BLOCK, Exam hall 5, Seat 42,
i shall face my final battle (or 'moment' if you want it to sounds dramatic) For those of you whom aren't aware,
I'M STILL FAILING AHMC 1144 - 'Farqing' CHINESE WRITING FOR THE MASS MEDIA.
It's an optional paper, i could have choosen that

OR

the "Close-One-Eye-Can-Cocksure-PASS" Introduction to Drama
(i kid you not, no one in my course failed. NO ONE. Many got A's infact. Then again, im in Journalism. Not too sure regarding other courses)

So yesh, before you start wondering on why as to the fact that led me into taking Chinese instead of Drama, i shall tell you a tale. A long winded tale :D

....................................

it was nearing the end of the semester. First semester to be exact. Despite having only 3 subjects in the semester, the timetable was wonderfully organize in a way that i would have to spend atleast 8 hours in college, with loads of breaks in between. 2 weeks away from examination means less classes and more breaks in between for basketball. How i love my new college life, or so i thought.

my final tutorial class had just ended, tips given, which was something highly unusual for me as i wasn't aware that lecturers and tutors gave out what they refer to as 'studying guidelines'.

My phone rang as soon as the class ended. Great timing i told myself.

A call from the Office, and as the Course Rep of my course, i'm expected to be on calls, run crappy errands, PR with lecturers, PR with other Courses' Rep to network. it is basically an office boy/ errand boy job, with an added authority and supervisionary power. i lust for power, i know.

What is it now?

As i rushed up to the office on the next building,
i was handed a pile of forms and a namelist. Urgent apparently.

"Hand in the forms along with photocopy of SPM results in 3 days time."

3 days time with student going missing every now and then was not doable. Heck, i wanted to tell her to shove it up wherever the sun didn't shine. Nevertheless, i told her okay along with a smile. Wouldn't want to jeopardize my reputation before even making one.

i walk my way out and headed to TBR for a drink with two of my closer friends from class, a fat boy with nerdy glasses, Guan; and a girl whom almost always dresses in black, Rachel. Everyone forms clique within the first two weeks of the new semester, else you'd be either a lonewolf or an outcast. i guess us three were a clique.
(i wanted to play the lonewolf persona when entered college, failed though.)

i hand to them the forms, and started reading one of it myself.
it was a form to select what elective subject we would be interested to take on the 2nd semester. Students with a credit or above in Chinese in the SPM results are allowed to take the Chinese Writing, while students that did not sit for the Chinese paper will join Introduction to Drama by default.

Interesting....

That left me an option.
Both Guan and Rachel did not take chinese back in SPM therefore they were defaulted to Drama. i on the other hand, manage to get a C. Nothing to be proud of, but nevertheless it was a credit.

i told them my decision on the spot that i would take Chinese. Sounds interesting i said.

The shock from Guan's face could only led me to assume that i never told them i did Chinese back in high school. My bad.

Both of them spend the next half an hour trying to convince me not to fall to the 'darkside'. Well, on prima facie, it doesn't even take an Einstein to tell that i won't be able to perform in Chinese as good as Drama. i hardly even speak mandarin.

All their good efforts in trying to convince me were to no avail. i ended my debate by saying a statement which is now a quote for laughs.

"i LIKE A CHALLENGE"

...........................................................

2 and a half years down the road.
i'm still stuck with a mistake i made more than 2 years ago.
i got my challenge alright.
i had alot of What if thought regarding this. Seriously.

What if i took Drama, would i already be in Advance Diploma now?
What if i took the brighter clear path instead of one so bleak, what are my opportunities?
What if...

i got what i asked for, thats for sure.

By the way, this was one of the reason i started using another quote,

"There is no Right or Wrong. There are only What a Man Can Do, and What a Man Can't Do"
- Captain Jack Sparrow

i can take chinese, and right here where i am 2 years and a half later.
i can dont take chinese, and end up some where else, which i'm pretty sure looks much more pretty than here.

What do you think?

2009-04-08T15:00:00.000+08:00

MAT ROMEO TURNS LEGAL
Article by Benjamin C.
Photos by Benjamin C.

KUALA LUMPUR, Weds :- Flamboyant and Mr.Ladies' Man (more commonly known as Mat Romeo by some lecturers) of the Journalism Course in School of Social Science and Humanities of TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN COLLEGE celebrated his coming of age last Friday.

Yeong Zi Wen, or also known as Zi Wank, Punani or Shui Zhai by his classmates, celebrated his 21st Birthday amongst loved ones and class mates.

Attendees includes Diploma in Journalism ex-Course Rep, Benjamin Chin, classmates and de facto assignment group mates, Kng Zheng Guan and Gho Chee Yuan, Tech specialist but a noob fire-starter, Yia Zhi Jern, and his lovely girlfriend, Ching Yee.

From left: Yia Zhi Jern, the failed fire-starter whom was demoted to a useless noob and was reinstated to charcoal fanner, Ching Yee, the girlfriend, Yeong, the birthday boy - legal finally, Kng Zheng Guan and Gho Chee Yuan, classmates and close friends, Benjamin Chin, cocky and narcissist ex-course rep and self proclaimed fire-starter whom demoted Yia.

Missing in action were Rachel Lau, Ms.Treasurer and close friend, Melissa Mok, the current course rep, and Psycho Imrant.

The barbeque party, or 'gathering' as Yeong likes to call it, was organized at the park right beside his corner house in Cheras.

In an interview, Yeong was asked what would he liked for a present.

"I don't expect much, but if you guys insist, you all can get me a Core i7 along with a new motherboard and SAPPHIRE ATi Radeon 4870 Graphic Card; or you guys could just enjoy the chicken wings with me joyfully."

A man of many talents, Yeong used to be an active basketballer and swimmer, which explains the muscular built, while indulging himself in too much computer games.

"The first question he asked me when we first met three years ago during the college orientation was what game did you play?" said Benjamin when he was asked how the two met.

When asked regarding the food, everyone agreed the chicken wings marinaded by Ching Yee's mum was amazing after nicely roasted while the meatballs which was apparently can't be consumed without heating it up caused Yia to have an upset stomach.

The party 'adjourned' after the blowing of candles and cutting of cake and consuming atleast seven pieces of chicken wing per person, except for Ben, whom was the most glutonous of them all, taking in 10 and still demanded for more.

This is as near as you can get to the birthday cake. The three layered vanila flavored ice-cream cake was splendid.

The lovey-dovey couple, Yeong and his girl, Ching Yee.

Crime scene of a murderer stabbing the victim with the birthday cake's knife, however the knife was concealed by the victim's hand. How stupid can he get?
*Someone isn't looking at the camera

Yia giving the birthday boy a facial with cum, i mean CREAM from the cake.

P/S:
Happy Birthday Ziwank :D

A REASON FOR A CHANGE

2009-04-08T06:19:00.000+08:00

JUST A NOTICE

i've changed my blog color as i think i won't be posting much photos these coming months ahead.
White background with black colored font helps reading, so yar thats about it. Anyways, i guess i would be posting more on my college life and my coming exams other than just photography.

Expect more post with substantial reading value from now :D

ATTEMPTS TO BE A LAWYER

2009-04-07T04:29:00.000+08:00

In conjuction with me sitting for my Law paper this coming 15th May, i've decided to share abit on what sort of question i will be tested on. The following question is not of my own, it has been extracted from me revision planner with a full set of past year questions. Cambridge A-level fully owns the copyrights to the question.

Anyways, the reason i chose the question below was due to the fact i'm darned pissed off with the full time students whom crashed MY PART TIME CLASS and was ARGUEING ON REDUNDANT AND LAME POINTS.

"Margaret inherits a very large house, its contents and gardens from her rich Uncle Richard. The house contains a collection of art treasures that Uncle Richard had brought from around the world. Margaret decides to turn the house into a museum and charge an admission fee. She arranges for builders to restore the house. The work, which takes place over a period of a year, causes resentment among those living nearby because of the dust and noise created by the builders. They are also concerned about the increased traffic on surrounding roads that visitors to the house will bring.

Discuss the rights of Margaret's neighbour in respect of the present and future disturbance caused by the building work and the opening of the house to members of the public. Consider what remedies might be available to them.
-Question 6, May / June 2005, A2 Law of Tort

.................................................................................................

The lecturer, Mr.Siva (a very cool looking bald dude thats nearing his 50 but still has a sense of humour of a 15) and the rest of us discussed on the question above RIGHT AFTER HAVING TAUGHT US THE TOPIC.

The topic as to be refered to is NUISANCE.
It is divided into 2 category, Public Nuisance being "an act, omission which act obstucts, damages or causes inconveniece to the public"
and
Private Nuisance being "interference with the rights of a specific person with his enjoyment of his land"

In a layman's term nutshell, is whereby your tone-deaf-neighbour sings karaoke EVERY FREAKING NIGHT OF THE WEEK AT 2 IN THE MORNING. It involves annoyance of a land owner's (you own a house, you're the land owner) quiet enjoyment of his own land.

That oughta give a brief idea what is nuisance in law.

...............................................................................................

Anyways i was saying, i wasn't pissed off due to the full timers crashed the part time class, heck who am i to complain, but more on the point that it was right after the lecturer taught the topic, and that stupid bitch had to give a stupid argument. It goes like this:

i was being Mr.Know-it-all-wannabe, therefore i terus hentam the points and facts of the question as soon as we done reading the question. Partially(more than partially actually, it constituted 70 percent of my action)
trying to impress a new girl in the class whom is just doing revision, very decent looking, very very nice racks :D
*i was thinking FINALLY, a decent looking Chinese girl in my class. Okay, maybe decent its an understatement.

On the issue of the noise and dust created by the renovation/restoration of the house, my arguement was its obviously Nuisance. The cause of action for the neighbours was to sue under Public Nuisance, despite the fact only ONE neighbour might taking any action. (You can argue its private nuisance, granted, but i have my reasons)

Sueing under public nuisance would leave the burden of proving to the defendant, Margaret, to prove that she hasn't cause the nuisance of the dust and noise and whats not. Private nuisance however, would leave the burden of proving on the Claimant, the neighbours. So i was being a lazy bugger, therefore just i opt for the Public Nuisance course of action.

Now...
i understand that conflict of thoughts might arise. So i was waiting for the lecturer to shoot me, or anyone else. But tolong-lar, shoot me at the right context.

The full timer girl, gave a very interesting short argument.
"She is the owner of the house, she can do as she please in her own house."

Whao....
Her argument included the part whereby in one year time, when Margarent opens the house as a Musuem, and visitors coming to visit.

i was like Hello?? Where was your feeble mind wondering to the past 2 hours of class?
"She can do as she pleases in her own house??"
Wadafarq was that !!
And in reference to her 'she can do as she pleases in her own house',
obviously she wasn't around when Mr.Siva talked about the Singapore case, whereby a child living in his parents apartment, saw through the window to the opposite apartment, a couple having intercourse. It wasn't just intercourse per se, apparently the couple was going oral.
Don't ask me who is getting it, apparently the boy told his mum that a girl was blowing a flute but no sound came out. I lol-ed like crazy when i first heard it.

Oh, just for your info, oral sex in Singapore is illegal.
"She can do as she pleases in her own house" My flute lar. i mean my foot.

.................................................................................................................

Niama, i damn 7 dularn stupid people giving stupid argument. i mean jeez, the lecturer baru habis teaching the topic like 5 minutes ago and you had to open your big gap and vomit out something like this?

I then decided i had to be a chibai.

Mark of a pro is to beat people at their own game.
i came out with an argument in reference to her context.

"Hi, where do you stay yar? You know, i play the guitar and drums.
How bout if i'm your neighbour, and how bout i turn up the volume of my Roland Amp, pick up the IBANEZ and start doing the guitar intro for Avenged Seven Fold's - Blinded in Chains, or perhaps my best friend Nic can do the intro for guitar, while i spam the drums intro,

AT THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

and if you sue me and the courts ask what is my defence, i shall say
"My Lordship, a house is a gentleman's palace. I SHALL DO AS I PLEASE AND SEE FIT. Do mind your own business and go fly kites on the way."

(okay the statement made by me that day was without the guitar brands, or the title of the song to pwn her with, but you get the idea)

.............................................................................

SCORE
Ben 1 - Full timer 0

.............................................................................

The lecturer was somewhat impressed with my stupid argument, but heck, i was trying to impress the chick at my 9 o'clock.

Anyways, moving back to the question. What the neighbours can do regarding the dust and noise would be seek for an injuction, which is awarded upon the discretion of the court, to control, NOT TO STOP, the amount of noise and dust produced by the builders.

Regarding the house being a museum, converting a house in a housing estate for commercial purposes has to be checked with the land law. Legality of it can be determined by the locality of the house. Bearing in mind that IT IS A BLARDY HOUSING ESTATE, it would be illegal.
(yesh, the house nearby TAR COLLEGE, opposite TBR that conducts music classes ought to be illegal, not license per se, but the location).
Therefore, the neighbours could also seek an injuction to stop the house/museum from conducting business as the increased amount of people in that proximinity due to the museum would naturally lead to the increase of traffic, which its foreseeable it dangerous for children around the neighbourhood (the gardens nearby, remember ?)

Prove its illegality to commercialised the house, get a fucking injunction to stop further action by the defendant, happiliy ever after.

p/s:
jeez, i wished i had seen that full timer face when i smacked that at her. She was sitting infront.
Me being me, always behind.

I'M SICK OF...

2009-04-01T17:10:00.000+08:00

i'm sick of listening to rants about how my shots should be, how would it better, especially from retards whom know NOTHING about photography.

i'm sick of listening to retards in forumers comparing and saying their gears are better than mine.

i'm sick of editing my photos to make them more appealing.

i'm sick of my lame ass battery that does not even last me 150 shots.

i'm sick of listening to terms like 'rules-of-the-third', 'composition', 'leading lines', 'point of interest', 'focal point'.

i'm sick of the constant upgrade of cameras due to technology improvement.

i'm sick of being sick with my DSLR, therefore i'm trading in for 2nd hand and getting myself a 2 mega pixel point-and shoot.

Bybye 300D...

p/s: Check the date of the post.

RANDOM RANTS: CURE FOR INSOMNIA

2009-03-29T06:12:00.000+08:00

Good morning boys and girls,
it is Sunday, 7:30 in the morning, and i'm once again looking at my ceiling fan, having insomnia. Heck, i hate it when i can't just fall asleep when i want to.

Anyways, a little update on me minus the photography. Have yet to touch my DSLR since i came back from Camerons two Sundays ago. i just don't know what to shoot.

i just came home a few hours ago, after watching a midnight movie with the rest of the monkeys. Sangloong had been bugging me to watch this horror movie, THE UNBORN since a month ago since he heard of it, knowingly i hate horrors. i must say though, the producer did have a fine taste in choosing the protagonist, Odette Yustman, a hot, long-haired chick whom also starred in Cloverfield, as Beth. (i bet Nic would remember this one). Anyways, THE UNBORN was a typical American Horror, with almost typical plot + a hot chick to look at :D
Don't bother to watch it in cinema though. Obtain the source, erm, elsewhere.

....................................

Since i'm at movies....

Cedric Diggory returns after being killed by the Avada Kedavra spell. Apparently, apart from leaving a lightning scar mark on your head if you DO survive,

You could turn into a vampire in TWILIGHT

Yes, i'm aware it is a chick flick movie filled with faggotry, but heck, i watched it FFS after it was 'released' online. Robert Pattinson plays as the white-boy vampire whom can read minds and does not suck human blood. So on one fine day, when he sees this girl and he realises he can't read her mind, he mindfarqed himself.

i wanted to welcome him personally to the World of Man, whereby reading girls mind had been attempted and failed since the beginning of time. So... Don't bother.

and..

BLOODY HELL, WHAT KIND OF VAMPIRES SUCK ANIMAL BLOOD AND CALLS THEMSELVES VEGETARIANS?
Answer: *koff koff* FAG *koff koff* in denial.

and... i would prefer Odette Yustman to play as Bella, the narrator and the protagonist of the movie. Then again, thats me with my preference of long-straight-black-haired-girls :D

and jeez, they placed Linkin Park's Leave Out All the Rest and Paramore's Decode all the way back when the credits are rolling.

Okay.. maybe i wasn't giving fair comment. it's a standard movie, with a standard plot, kinda reminded me of THE COVENANT. But since Twilight is an adaption from a novel, it has been announced that the sequel to it, New Moon is in production.

.............................

P/S: it's a lousy review, (it's not even a review per se) i just did to bored myself to sleep

UNLEASHING THE POTENTIAL OF THE POINT AND SHOOT

2009-03-23T03:49:00.000+08:00

Foreword : This would be my very first educational post for my dear dedicated readers. Would be attempting to publish more post of substantial quality instead of just mere rants.

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i'm quite sure many of you own your own digital compact / point-and-shoot cameras. i'm here today to teach you how to unleash it to it's fullest potential.

BANKAI !!

*to disappoint some of you, it is not on camwhoring. A guide filled with examples can be found on my sister's facebook and friendster :D

The reason i'm doing this post,
(i always have ulterior motives)
is due to the fact i'm feeling the need to impart my knowledge to everyone :D
No, seriously, just the other day i was teaching one other friend of mine on how to fully utilise her compact. And i realised many people are not using it right. Not forgetting my dear readers who reads this blog should have a certain amount of passion in photography,
(i don't think u are reading this blog for the rants i write...)
and i think it has been selfish on my side for not teaching anything at all. Till now.

The other reason would be the fact someone told me over msn
"Point-and-shoot are for dummies," said a girl whom made me I.Q dropped >9000 after having a short brief conversation with her.

................................

Now a short introduction on the terminology used in photography.
Shutter speed = Speed of the Shutter, think of it as your eye lids, opening and closing. It controls the amount of light entering to the camera sensor/film. The faster it open-closes, the less amount of light enters. From lightning fast speed of 1/8000 of a second, to slow snail speed of 30 seconds.

Aperture = a hole, a window, think of it as your iris in your eyes, it controls the amount of light entering to the camera sensor by widening it's hole. The wider it is, more lights enters the camera. The narrower/smaller it is, less amount of light enters. Affects depth of field, which would be discuss later on. Shown with the symbol of 'f'. f/1.8 is wider than f/22, therefore letting more light in.

ISO = it used to be the 'speed of the film'. ISO rating affects the sensitivity of the film, now replaced by the camera sensor, towords incoming light. The higher the rating, the more sensitive it is to light. However, nothing comes without a price. Boosting the ISO higher would affect the quality of the photo, causing 'dots' known as grain/noise to appear. ISO rating ranges from ISO 50 to ISO 6400, and some even higher.

What are all these? These are three main ingredients to compose a correctly expose shot. Not too bright, not too dark. Ngam ngam ho. You might not had seen all these figures in your compact p-n-s, as the camera does all the work for you. A little extra knowledge is good :D

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i hope you guys are aware that by pressing the shutter button half way down, it focuses. As we all do, as soon as it focuses on something, we press it all the way down. The thing is, did you manage to focus on the subject intended?
New p-n-s are fitted with the 'face detection', 'face-recognition' technology that are endorsing more noob-friendly users. This technology helps the photographer to focus on face of the people within the view of the camera, effortlessly. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good piece of technology, apart from focusing random people sharply :D

What if your's isn't fitted with one of these technology? That's what i'm here for :D
Every p-n-s has a minimum of 2 basic focusing option. The first one being the popular one among cam-whorers, the 9 box Auto-focus, which divides the screen into a 3 x 3 rectagle, a total of 9 boxes. Each box possibly being the focus point. The camera would then either focus on the nearest subject from it, or the furthest.

You can't select which point you want to focus, the camera will do it for you.

What you can do is try to re-focus till it lands on the box you want. Not a very clever method to shoot.

The second focusing option, is just a box in the middle of the lcd screen. It focuses the subject that is placed on the center sharply. Many people choose not to use this because, either they don't know how to find this setting in the menu, or they don't know how to utilise it, or the subject they are shooting is never in the center.

Since p-n-s does not have the luxury of selecting focusing point like a DSLR ,
my CANON 300D has 7 focusing point, Nic's 400D and Tj's Sony Alpha 200 has 9,
the only way to have control is to utilise this ONE CENTER FOCUSING POINT of the camera.
i'm not telling you to shoot everything placed in the center. i'm asking you to place your subject in the center, focus the face or whichever more interesting or desireable point you wish to focus, holding on to the shutter but not completely pressing it, re-frame the shot. Upon getting a desireable framing, fire at will. Here are the examples on how to do this:

First, know what you want to focus.
I've choose to frame the lipbalm against the messy desktop of mine.
As you can tell from the shot, only the center, The iPOD is sharp in focus, the words 'MENTHOLATUM' is blurred out of focus.

Place the focusing box on the subject, the lipbalm.
Press and hold the shutter (half-way), don't depress all the way down yet, we just need it to stay focus.

Lastly, frame it back to the original framing. When you are happy with what you've framed,
press the shutter completely.

This is how you can select what subject stays in focus and what not, without having to frame everything in the center which is just plain wrong.

The technique is called
BAFOLOT - Ben's Awesome Focal Locking Technique :D
i know, i know, i'm just plain awesome.

........................

Apart from focusing, the other thing i'm gonna teach today is the basic composition; how to frame a shot and some basic stuff.

First few telltale signs of a NOOB and a standard photographer would be how a photo is framed. Ask yourself now, when you shoot a photo do you:

Shoot everything in the MIDDLE;

or

Shoot everything ANYWHERE but the MIDDLE?
*if you answer the 1st of the above, you're a farqing noob.

Love it; hate it, everyone should atleast know the basics rule of 'THE RULES OF THIRD'. Smartass will say this rule can go fly kites; rules are meant to be broken. But heck, you are only suppose to break rules when you are good enough to come up with your own rules. So before you turn Einstein, i suggest you read what i have to say.

The basic idea is simple. The subject you shoot should never be kept in the center of your shot. It should always be kept off-center, towards the left or right is your choice.

As can be observed, the photo is divided into 9 boxes, 3 partition horizontally and 3 partition vertically. Now the red dots in the photo, is the crossing point of those lines. Subject is ideally placed at those red dots for a more impactful shot.

So what you do is, mentally divide a scenery before pressing the shutter into this 3 X 3 framing, and place the subject of choice at your 'imaginery red dots'. However, i found out that some point-and-shoot, like the LUMIX my mum has, has the feature of activating this interface, enabling easier framing. They really are endorsing noobs...

.................

Another composition rule that i always stick to is, FILL YOUR FRAME.
When you already know what you are gonna shoot, go near, make sure you do a full coverage of it. A lot of photos looks better when they are shot up close.

A wise photojournalist once said, (i forgot the name because i wasn't paying attention in class)

"If your shots are NOT GOOD ENOUGH, you are NOT CLOSE ENOUGH."

Therefore, go near. As near as you can when you are shooting something.

...................................

Well, thats it for now. i can go on forever, but i think i should keep it for later entries. Please do not obtain the mentality of having a DSLR will grant you GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS. it will grant you HIGHER RESOLUTION photos, more megapixel, but not BETTER PHOTOS. Is the photographer that counts :D

A post dedicated to my Olympus i-dont-remember-what-model 2 megapixel p-n-s, my LUMIX FX-7, a 5 megapixel p-n-s, and of course, my CANON EOS 300D DSLR.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS : RE-RUN

2009-03-16T10:08:00.000+08:00

This is one post that has dragged for almost a week.
i'm not sure if you guys were aware, after my recent Cameron Highlands trip, as in just last week, i caught a very bad fever. i actually thought i died.

Anyways, moving on with my Cameron Highland trip first.

.........................................

The 4 of us, Nic, Priest, meself, and this time with addition of Honlun had already decided to go up there once again, since the last trip was quite, disappointing.

Priest being a hero, stayed up all night playing Dota or some crap on Garena Gaming Platform. Me being me, thinking that since someone has to drive later, went to bed early. it has been decided that we would only ride the Priest's Myvi and i wouldn't have to drive the Kenari as 2 other fellas decided to not join.

We gathered around 8 a.m for breakfast.What really amazed the heck out of me is, we were more than punctual. Seriously. Didn't know that was possible.

and yesh, it started to rain by the time we left at 10 a.m.

.......................................

The journey uphill, took longer than usual. We did several detours, no more
"We can shoot this later when we are heading down hill"
The last time i said that, we ended up shooting nothing.

The first stop was at the Lata Iskandar Waterfall. Located along the way to the highlands, it is unmissable.
(there is only one way up and one way down)

We spend around 30 minutes there shooting, while i was volunteering meself to help tourist to photoshoot for them with their point-and-shoots, cameraphones =.-

LATA ISKANDAR WATERFALL
*i tried to go as low shutter speed as possible to get a blur-water-effect. However, the sunlight was still too intense despite it was diffused by the clouds. 3 shot HDR. Didn't turn out well though.

You then get us posing retards :D
Priest's Sony Alpha did the job.

...................................

Just 15 minutes of drive from the Lata Iskandar Waterfall, you will see aborigin's settlement popping out like daisy. We stop at one of those aborigin hut selling a type of weird native plant that can only be found in Cameron Highlands.

We exited the car, headed to that hut to photoshoot. He was friendly, started telling stories about how orang puteh drops by and shoots photos, and ask him to put on a costume, and pays him a few ringgits.
*i was like wadafarq, since when does aborigins still wear their native customory clothings? Those dumb white folks.

He then insisted on showing us where he stayed. We walk a small path slightly down the hill. He gave us introduction on some plants, telling us which was poisonous, edible and the standard stuffs.

On the way out, i was thinking, what the heck, just buy a few plants for the fella, since he had been such a nice guy. "The Chicken Feather Plant" direct translation from BM, looks kinda cute anyways. He sold us 3 for 10 bucks. And as soon as i handed him the red, he asked for another 5 bucks photos and showing us around.

ITS A FARQING SCAM !!

No wonder he had been so friendly =.-

This photo cost me 5 bucks.

We continued driving further up, till we saw an abandon hut :D
Guess we can jimat 5 bucks this round.

ABORIGIN HUT
*didn't do much, just shoot, sephia-ed it.

....................................

We reached Priest's apartment at Desa Atrurium at around 3 p.m. Unloaded everything and we went shopping for vegetables. Still pissed off with the amount of MEAT the steamboat restaurant provided the other time, we decided to bring matter to our own hand.

WE SHALL COOK !!

I brought sufficient amount of lean pork. VERY SUFFICIENT. Now what we lack are vege to make the soup tasty.

The market at Brinchang opens from morning till the nightmarket starts, and continues till just before midnight. Good source for vegetable bargaining. But heck, with that ridiculously low price, i don't think there is even a need to bargain.

....................................

Nic, preparing meat pasties after exiting the toilet. magehai...
*ok i exaggerated here.

i admit, there is seriously too much vege.

and the final outcome....

it was just AWESOME. We ate our steamboat at the balcony.
Cold air + warm food,
WHERE IS THE BEER !!

Since i didn't help in the preparation, i washed the dishes. The water was farqing cold...
F-A-R-Q-I-N-G C-O-L-D !!

We went to sleep after our very early dinner, i hope that the night sky would be clear for star trails. Lady Luck screwed us over again with cloudy night sky, so we continued to tidur till the next morning.

..............................................

Day II

i woke up feeling weird. i pump in 2 panadol instantly during breakfast, to prevent further possible damage.

We were heading to the peak of Cameran Highlands today, Gunung Brinchang, where there the communication tower is located and there is a tower where you can see the view of 'almost' the whole Cameron.

The drive up there was a thrilling one. Badly mantain, rocky, and the best thing of all, both direction of traffic shared ONE lane. and i was annoying the shit out of Priest while he was driving for fun sake :D

It was all worth it.

i didn't get any shots i liked there, but the view was spectacular. i'l link Priest's or Nic's shot when they uploaded theirs.

....................................

After freezing an hour at the peak, we headed to Boh Tea Plantation's Tea House for a drink. being a natural coffee drinker i am, i didn't like the tea, AT ALL. And it wasn't cheap.

BOH TEA PLANTATION
*3 exposure hdr.

Doing some rubbish yet again. :D

..............................

We then headed to the Rose Garden, shot some flowers. Not many flowers bloomed well this season.

I like the bokeh in this one.

THREEs
*three has always been the EVEN number in photography.

SNAIL
*a tiny snail crawlinng on a petal, couldn't get it to come out though.

LIPS
*the rose petal on the right, looks like... hmmmmm...

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That was some of the stuff i manage to produce while in Cameron. The next day, we had to leave Cameron Highlands early as i was too sick. i was wearing 3 layers of clothing.

My high fever lasted for 3 days. For a moment there, i thought i was going to meet JOE BLACK.

P/S: COULD YOU GUYS TELL WHICH OF THESE SHOTS WAS DONE WITH A POINT-AND-SHOOT :D

Of counting Sheeps and counting Tits, none seems to fit

2009-03-09T06:51:00.000+08:00

i'm posting this due to the fact i've once again done counting sheeps, counting chicks, and even counting tits, and yet i'm still wide awake. errr... my internal clock is once again screwed up. oh, it is Monday, 6:57 a.m. in case you were wondering.

i know. i know. i have yet to post any good stuff for the past one week. Been trying to explore K.L to do the night shots, but the hell, it's either i'm too late for any night activity or the lights are down. i did mentioned ima nocturnal creature didn't i?

Went down the clubbing street around Jalan P.Ramlee the week before, wanted to do some shots of the clubbing scene, but what we saw was rows and rows of taxis, most of the them doing double time as a pimp too. So better not fool around. They might have the slightest thought that we were fooling around with their 5 feet 8-skimpyly dressed-income-generator. So, ended up going home empty handed.

PHAIL !!

Few days ago pulak, i headed down to KL Tower. it's a shame to say, i did not exactly reached the foot of KL tower.
i ended up in Pineapple Hill.
Convent Bukit Nanas was there.
*gosh i remembered those good o' high school days when we went down to KASTURI for tuition, that school provided substantial amount of eye candy.

and so, while attempting to find the entrance, i got stuck at a randomly produced retarded jam from Masjid Jamek all the way till Puduraya. it took ONE FARQING HOUR AND HALF to leave that place.
Ended up eating Wantan Mee at Chan Sao Lin. Went home empty handed once again.

PHAIL !!

Yup, that would be the reason for the lack of photos the past week.
So being
*ahem*
lazy,
i've decided to post some random shots i've archived in Lightroom. its RANDOM.

.........................................................

WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY
1/1250 seconds, f/4, ISO 100, 28mm.

*a similar morning very much like now about a year ago, wide awake, took my gun, started shooting around my room. This was once of my very first few successful silhouttes.

........................................................

COLOURS. GONE WITH THE SUN.
1/250, f/14, ISO 100, 18mm.

*a much more successful silhoutte of a coconut tree.
(Thank you Captain Obvious)
Shot at some where along Jalan Genting Kelang early this year.

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MID-AUTUMN
1/3 seconds, f/5, ISO 200, 71mm.
*many of you guys might have actually since this shot of mine. Gosh, this shot is old. Erm, officially, this is THE FIRST GOOD shot that i'm proud to show off. This was shot 2 mid-autumns ago.

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THREEs
1/160 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 100, 50mm.
*shot last month, one early morning, while waiting for Nic at his place to head out for breakfast. Seeing flowers gives me an inner peace. Especially white ones. i like how the morning sun cast a soft shadow on some petals. This is currently my desktop wallpaper :D

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Ok, ima sleepy now. :D
Oh by the way,
All the shots above, were STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA :D

P/S:
DO NOT WATCH THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI.
Unless all you wanna watch is Kristen Kreuk's mesmerizing dreamy eyes (which was the reason i went)
and to look at her AA cup racks, hidden behind a spaghetti top.

KL. AGAIN !!

2009-03-04T06:44:00.000+08:00

Since the pass few months, photography has played quite a substantial part of my life.
it has enabled me to see things i've never seen before, felt my surroundings with a new keen sense, and to observed even the most quiet discreet activity.

i have never quite been able to comprehend how certain people treats camera as a merely tool. Nothing more. Replacing it within months.
My 300D has been a faithful partner these 2 years. She has been an extension to my sight and senses.

Obtaining new gear does not grants you good photos. it's the photographer that counts.
Just thought i'd voice out a little after Priest told me how some forum trolls from a local forum,
*you know which lar
bragging about how they replace a 400D with a 450D. i was like wadafarq =.-
is the 2 megapixel boost THAT important?

.............................................

Anyways, i've decided that i shouldn't stall my shots, or else it would end up hidden within my photo-stash. So fresh photos no longer than 6 hours ago, coming right up.

The weather has been a little emo-ish these days. Random downpour in the middle of a blazing hot afternoon. So heck, emo-fied my first shot for farq sake.

ALONE IN THE DARK
Alone in the dark,
After a day that sucked,
On a journey you embarked,
After telling me goodbyes and good luck.

30 seconds, f/18, ISO 100, 25mm. Emo-fied by adjusting White balance towards blue.
*i'm aware the lamp should be a little more to the left, my eyes chehh kai-ed.

...............................................

in case you were wondering where the shot above was done, it was at the busy junction of Jalan Tun Perak / Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, just before Dataran Merdeka;
which wasn't so busy at 2 in the morning.

The pre-war Clock Tower of Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad (did i get it correct?)
A foreign tourist must-shoot-site, so why shouldn't a few local boys that are not asleep come visit eih :D

The first is the correctly expose shot, or so i thought read correctly from the metering. Done with:
30 seconds, f/16, ISO 100, 26mm. Reduced the orange street lamps by tuning the white balance.

i did an addition of 2 shots, 1 Underexpose, and the other Over, for High Dynamic Range editing. The results, is one of my better HDR-ed images. Still have much room for improvement.

Apparently, i just found out now while looking at the shots data, one of the shots fired twice with the same exposure, there fore, i didn't manage to get an overexpose shot. Heck, still manage to HDR it anyways.

30 seconds and 8 seconds, f/16, ISO 100, 26mm. Generated with Photomatix Pro.

The last one, is a B+W HDR. i guess without one overexpose shot, i didn't manage to bring out the midtones of the clock tower.

i've just realised this while heading home after the photoshoot. All the places we go, there are always rempits =.- Time to learn to ride a bike eih :D

..................................................

My favourite shot of the day.
Call me boring, call me sentimental, but heck, i just love car trail lights.

The orignal STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA shot was nice, but i decided to try something new. i'm still not too sure how to use selective color to select the color i want, while desaturating the rest, would need Nic to enlighten me on that. i did this by desaturating every other color in Lightroom, leaving behind, well, RED. Kind of the reverse method.

SPEED. NO DESCRIPTION REQUIRED.
20 seconds, f/25, ISO 100, 25mm.

30 minutes after that shot, we could be found in BRJ sipping the usuals.

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P/S: CAN ANYONE SUGGEST ME SOME NEW DESTINATION TO GO SHOOTING? GOSH, IMA RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS.
and... THANKS GUYS BY SHOWING SUPPORT. U DON'T HAVE TO MSN ME TO SAY
NICE SHOTS :D

GO CHECK OUT NIC'S and PRIEST'S. THEY HAVE LOADS OF AWESOME SHOTS.

and DAMN....
i still owe someone a poem

CITY WITHOUT IT'S CIVILIAN

2009-03-02T11:08:00.000+08:00

It's Friday.
in less than 12 hours or so, i've gotta say my goodbyes to my mum's PERODUA KELISSA that had been at my disposal for the past 2 weeks.

The smooth transmission, fast pick-up, and not forgetting the awesome fuel economy. Darned i'm gonna miss her.

By the way, i seriously mean AWESOME FUEL ECONOMY when i said it. SERIOUSLY.

...................................

Before departing with her, i thought of wasting a little petrol
(since i can afford it with this car :D ),
and drove all the way to Putrajaya for some random architecture photoshooting.
Had only driven down to Putrajaya twice so far, and both are for fireworks.

We left at around 11:30pm, via the new highway, MEX or was it MES, that links to Putrajaya and KLIA, entry from either Jalan Tun Razak or Sri Petaling. it took us less than 15 minutes.
i kid you not.

Being ME, as usual, i stopped at the road side, technically there wasn't any cars,
and just headed to lake / large pool / large-puddle-of-water which reflected the lights from the Putrajaya buildings.

Before the cam was fitted on to the tripod, one of the buildings went into Power-Saver-Mode. =.- Since when the government owned building ever gave a flying farq about conserving electricity? And of all times ...
i'm aware i'm at Putrajaya at 12... but heck ...

The night view of Putrajaya. Shot from one of the bridges there.
30 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 100, 25 mm. B+W fied with Lightroom, Stroked with Photoshop.

We reached the first bridge after a short drive. The whole city is so vast but yet so lifeless. Kinda gives you the creep.

THE WHITE BRIDGE OF VOID
30 seconds, f/16, ISO 100, 18mm.
*Damn, i didn't realised a car went pass dragging a trail light along it's wake.

While half way photoshooting, we heard a girl sceamed to the top of her lungs, along with a hard kicking sound. i looked at Lun, attempting to read his facial expression. Both of us were in doubt whether what we heard was real. A car 50 feet in front of us, immediately drove off.

Nic who was further infront, saw the whole incident from the moment the girl screamed. it was genuined. Lun and i hooped on the car, and 'attempted' to give a chase.
*partially was curious, partially because we wanted to help and partially because of too much movies.

it'll be awesome to say that we rescued a damsel-in-distress. But to no avail, we didn't even manage to see the rear lights of the car after the bridge.

Sure hope she is okay.

............................

We proceed to the other bridge, which attracted a few more photographers, mat rempits and nocturnal creatures of the likes. Dimly litted with purple-blueish hue, it gave a very sexy sort of atmosphere.

Not so BLUE
30 seconds, f/18, ISO 100, 18mm.

There was a wall mounted ladder on the center pillar of the bridge leading up. For maintenance purposes i presume. After 10 feet worth of climb, i found a padlock waiting before me, rendering me from venturing further =.-
No entry for non-personel. What a bitch.

As you can see from the shot, there are two 'windows' from the bottom. i didn't even made it to the 1st window.
Gosh, the view from the top should be mesmerizing.

...................................

Well, that's about all. Oh, one more.
i just had to do something, erm... retarded.
Self-portrait
*or as per Nic says, cam-whoring.

I'M AWESOME
13 seconds, f/14, ISO 100, 18mm. 10 seconds timer.

...............................

P/S:
i still think sunsets should be orange and ORANGE only. Weird weird colors are allowed, only during the afterglow.

By the way, i'm attempting to cover night time architecture and scenery shots from all over Klang Valley. Any suggestions on where i can go? Anyone is free to join me and the rest of the kakis for outing :D
*you'll have to endure Ben's random ranting and singing and cursing;
Nic's random throlling, jumping about dancing, and pure randomness,
and Tj the Priest's ermm... 'Blessings...' :D

TO BE GIVEN A TITLE WHEN I THINK OF ONE

2009-02-23T19:20:00.000+08:00

i miss spending my Saturday afternoon doing nothing but looking at the ceiling fan.
instead, this Saturday and the following ones to come i have to attend additional classes given by my over-zealous law lecturer (possibly because he couldn't complete all the topics on time), combining my part time classmates with a group of fresh out of high school 18 year old kids.

Jeez, this bunch of monkeys couldn't stay quiet for even 5 minutes. SERIOUSLY
Atleast there were some eye candy in class, compared to my part time classmates
*smiles ear to ear

................................

it is Saturday night and i just had to do anything apart from staying at home. Anything.
i've been dying for pool games, but Melissa had been busy since her internship started.

Gosh, i miss sliding Scarlet's body between my fingers.

................

The rest of the kakis headed for either DOTA or Left 4 Dead, and since i've manage to PURGE THE NEED to go to a cyber cafe, i better not dwell in it now.
Nic had to be a good boy at home. arhahahhahahahahahhahahahahhah

Me, Priest and Lun headed up the Look Out Point, or better known as Nga Nga San in Cantonese, for photoshooting.

Via the Middle Ring Road II, the journey to Pandan Indah took barely 10 minutes, while the journey from the foothill to the hill top took less than 5 minutes. Kelisa FOR THE WIN.
*grins

Well, at the hill top, there are several cafes, nothing too fancy. The idea is to dine at a hilltop overlooking KL's night view.

The shot above was done at a look out tower at the hill top. Not a shot to be proud of, but gives you an idea what does the view from up there looks like.

..............................

We headed back to the mid hill, where the scenery looks better to frame. Crowded with couples, and mat rempits and a few Impak Maksima wannabes. Surprisingly, all the lala bengs with their ah lians are all at the hill top, while here are the remainders along with 2 photographers and their tall friend. Felt kinda out-of-place. Really.

i shot this couple without them from the back, discreetly.
These 2 love birds just couldn't stop touching each other,
where i'm not sure lar =.- , hence, the slight blur.

30 seconds, f/8.0, ISO 100, 46mm

.....................

The sky was cloudless for sometime, therefore we thought it might be an opportune moment to shoot stars AGAIN.

Running 10 minutes into exposure, Lady Luck screwed us upside-down once again by bringing in fresh new patches of clouds.

Forsaking the stars, i started to play with car trail lights once again :D

235 seconds, f/3.5, ISO 100, 18 mm.
Controlled the lighting with a black card.

...............................

P/S: The pass week, i think the one name that i have been mentioning one too many times is Jasmine. Nic, Priest, Loong and Lun is gonna murder me one day, not too long from now.

in Chase of Sunsets

2009-02-20T03:51:00.000+08:00

Sunsets.
A sign from mother nature signifying the end of the day.
Unless you are staying far up in the north pole or down south, you will see it nearly everyday.

Being quite a nocturnal person meself, i have yet to been able to shoot any sunrise. Any attempt at doing so would still result in me lying on the bed 5 hours later. Therefore, the only other alternative in capturing a moment with the SUN is at dusk.

The question at hand is,
"Will today's sunset be breathtaking?"

Well, the thing is, you'll never know till the times come.
Chasing sunsets is like chasing girls.
You'll never know it is a beautiful sunset till you missed capturing a moment with it.

i shot this after sending Lun home. The sun was setting and i had my gear with me. i was on my way to Nic's new house as his sis invited me over for dinner. Awesome cooking, seriously. You don't find many girls that can cook these days.

Sorry ran off a bit. Silhoutte again, still one of my favourite type of photography focusing mainly on shadows and highlights only. S.O.O.C shot from RAW, i've only cropped it due to the fact my lens is too wide.

While driving towards Sunway via the NPE, the sun was setting real quick. It was going to be a good one. i couldn't resist not snapping a few along 20 minute journey there. The shots are shot through the Kelisa glass, while driving. For once, i'm grateful for the jam resulting a slower traffic.

i was hoping i could get a nice sweet, wide open area to frame the shot. By the time i reached Sunway, it was already to late search for any spot, and the sun had set. The afterglow however, was mesmerizing.

i HDR-ed the shot with 3 separate exposure. Shot in RAW separately. Tone mapping causes the shadow, midtones and highlights of the shot to blend together like a Long Island Icetea, but the color of the sky wasn't tampered by me.

Still not doing the processing correctly. Much to learn. much to learn.

P/S : As you can tell, i have still yet to capture my breath taking sunset. darned.

i NEED A PANADOL

2009-02-19T00:51:00.000+08:00

i AM SO DAMN FRUSTRATED !!

And there i was, thinking about getting my portfolio prepared to be presented for any potential client if they were to be interested in hiring a student as their photographer for any event.

Seriously, you get paid fairly well. One night worth of coverage of a dinner party can get you 300 bucks, or so i heard that was the last quoted 'market price' i read from an email i received.

I was telling myself,
HOW HARD CAN IT BE? SERIOUSLY?

....................

Well on Tuesday, i went Bandar Puteri in Puchong to attend my primary school mate's 21st Birthday Party. Naturally, i was requested to be the photographer. Obliged... Would have volunteered too even if she didn't ask.

Went there an hour earlier than the rest of my not-so-punctual kakis, with Nic and Priest.
The sight of Miqi, the birthday girl, wearing a deep pink, spaghetti-strapped, 2-inches-above-the-knee-dress, with gorgeously done hair and *quite some make up*
stunned me.

Upon finishing dinner, we started moving around to shoot. i started out with my Birthday Lens, named by friends whom read this blog. i must say, i never would have thought very-the-cool-dim-lightning was so so sooooo hard to capture and decent shots.

i started raking up the ISO.
200...

400...still too dark...

800... okay, i told myself any higher it's all lost...

1600... and it was still giving me shutter speed of no more than 1/40 seconds.

at the very least, i still had decent speedy shots at 50mm till... i realised i couldn't frame anything AT ALL. True, the idea of the fix focal prime lens is for photographer to move around to frame, instead of 'lazily' adjusting the focus range, but the hell, there wasn't room too move around. And i had to be discreet when i do the shots, since everyone started looking away as soon as i raise my 300D to my eye level. Gods of Trigger-Happy is obviously not shining upon me that night.

Uber Low Lighting + Limited Space to Move Around + Uncooperative People Who Looks Far Far Away = I SENSEd FUBAR-ness PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE MAKING

*before i go on, i have to clarify a few things.
i don't FLASH.
i mean, i don't use the camera flash.
if done wrongly, which 99% of the people are doing, flashing causes blown highlights (faces become very white and unnatural), harsh shadows (everything behind the subject you shoot becomes BLACK); the photo produce wouldn't have the natural 'feel' of the atmosphere.

The other reason is also due to the fact i have yet to learn how to properly flash and i haven't gotten my flash gun yet.

And i still insist on using ambient light/natural light.
And gosh, isn't it farqing annoying to see retards flashing and flashing with their white blinding light?

................................

Knowing the reason why i don't flash, i shall continue ranting about my day.

Since there wasn't room for me to move around to frame better shots with the 50mm, i had to switch back to the wide angle lens; and i continued using it till the end of the night.

On average, my handheld shots that night was all around:
1/20 seconds,
f/3.5,
ISO 1600

if the figures means anything to you, you would be able to tell how dim is the lighting, and how fubar the shots are gonna be.

Nic's was below 1/10 despite the fact i told him there was gonna be handshake.
Priest's was well below 1/10 too.

and the best joke was, i was bragging all these while on how skills pwn gears;
the shots they produced had SIGNIFICANTLY LESS NOISE on the photos. SIGNIFICANTLY. In low lighting condition, newer models of camera with better processors SHINE.

Tuesday 17th Feb, has officially been labelled the worst photography day of my life.
(and i thought the last Putrajaya Fireworks Photoshoot with raindrops ruining my shot was gonna be the worst)

i have much to learn.

P/S : heck, atleast i was feasting my eyes on this very hot chick in purple tank top and tight denims. Could this have been a contributing factor in my phailed photography?

Snail Paced Random Pacing @ Lake Gardens

2009-02-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

The post title might actually sound sort of familiar to some of you who follows Nic's blog. i seriously ran out of brain juice for a post title, so heck. Soorreeey Nic, i buy Neslo Ais tonight :D

After much post poned, delay, AGGRO DISPERSION INACTIVE, PROCRASTINATION, i was finally able to to conned a girl out for my portait photoshoot. Janice had the honour to be my PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY TEST SUBJECT 0001.

in layman terms,
she is Victim #1 lar.
muahahahahahah
*koff koff*

...........................

Well, on the 1st of February, we headed to Taman Tasik Perdana, or better known as the Lake Gardens, located somewhere ahead of Jalan Tun Perak, behind the Dataran Merdeka. Way waaaay behind. *did i get my bearings correctly?

Me being a hero, had just went for Jogoya the night before, and the guys crash my place right after that, Ji Munn had to be the other hero who brings a DVD titled "La Lingerie", of ALL DAYS, we had to watch it that night, Fei Gai and the mahjong kakis started sek wu, well you get the idea.
*Oh by the way, the main chick in the movie can go fly kites, my vote is on the blondie wannabe.

By the time they left and i managed to sleep, (i'm not sure whether shutting your eyes and reopening them right after is considered sleeping), it was already 9 a.m.

i ran out of Nescafe by the way... just so you know...

......................................

We reached the destination at 10 a.m or so. and gosh, the parking lot is spacious, and surprisingly, there were A LOT of empty parking slots, and i had problem choosing which slot to park again.

The entrance was not much of an entrance, i suppose it was the side gate or back door. Upon entering, all we could see was a walk path/jogging path/a-path-to-walk and all greeneries.Or so i thought.

Less than 2 minutes walk from the entrance, covered behind the trees, we saw on-going construction site. i was like wadafarq? Nic must have jinx me to stumble upon his 'ugly land' which he actually told me before hand. Not a very interesting sight to start of the day.

The scenery from then onwards, improved tremendously. i seriously didn't know how to frame or what to shoot any more. Preparation is a part and parcel of photography, but the hell, what i had in mind earlier, what i was prepared to shoot, all just went *puff* and i was brain dead.
*lack of coffee is a contributing factor

Instinctively, i naturally began shooting the standard portrait i do best. Close-ups =.-
which naturally lead to Jan lecturing me on how to do portrait shots
*close-up can see pores wor... and that is bad wor... yada.. yada.. yada...

i guess having a design student as your model does has it advantage. Slightly. Ok, maybe more than 'slightly'.

...................................

We continued walking-shooting till we reached a pondok,
(what do you call pondok in English again? Hut?)
and rest.
Seeking the opportune moment, i took out Jane - my classical guitar which has a duo-function of serving as a prop for the photoshoot as well as an aggro gear.

i started playing.

Apparently my aggro dispersion went haywire again, and instead of aggro-ing the girl infront of me, ang mo langs that walked past gave me a smile. Its lang's', plural.

30 minutes later, it started to rain. and i officially became the Rain Summoning Shaman. Not the rain was bad or anything or did i mind the rain. :D

Darned i've been ranting forever. Here are the series.

Due to my failure in good preparation (then again, since when i'm really prepared), i have only a hand full of shots i like.

Most of my shots are done with the 400D with 18-55mm lens, RAW mode.

This on the top right, has been lomofied for fun sake.

On the left, one of the few close-up portrait that Jan didn't manage to delete.

"Pores tooo biiiiiiiig," she said.

Pretty much S.O.O.C, straight-out-of-camera, i only adjusted it to portrait mode in RAW editing.

Getting her to smile naturally is really quite a challenge i faced.

This shot is pretty much S.O.O.C too. Portrait moded it in RAW Conversion.

A good tip to you fellas out there to make a girl smile naturally for photography.
*sadly, i only figured that out after the whole photoshoot, during lunch.

BRING FOOD.
BRING YOUR iPOD
MAKE SURE SHE IS WELL FED BEFORE PROCEEDING TO PHOTOGRAPHY.
*can't charm her with looks, entice her with food :D
AND BE PREPARED TO LISTEN TO CONTINUOUS NAGGING OF "I'M GETTING FAT" !!
YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THE iPOD. A7X songs can drown all the noise :D
*oh, please be emotionally and physically prepared to be murdered after posting such a post if you ever do this.

On the left. A very low angle shot she wanted me to try shooting, which turned out not bad.

Lomofied for fun sake. Poisoned by lomo. Jeez.. i can't be handing in shots that has been post processed as port folio can i?

On the right. B+W. Shot in RAW, converted to .jpeg, monotoned with Photoshop CS2

Left. My favourite shot, which was just a random 'chik-chak', after looking into the viewfinder. The detail on this shot is still one of the best, and best thing i love about it is, this shot can displayed both horizontally or vertically.

The eye tend to 'shine' in this shot.

RAW Conversion converted into .jpeg. Monochromed in Photoshop CS2. Sepia-ed with a layer of brown with 'Overlay' blending.

This shot was an idea of her's. The glasses served two purpose. it became a natural frame for the shot; and it reverse magnified her face, creating a distortion.

As per what i mentioned earlier, having a DESIGN student here has it's advantages :D

This is a cliche shot that you could easily find in Flickr or Deviantart. Not my concept; i copied, but heck, that's part of learning ain't it.

Quite a waste this shot didn't turn out sharp. i don't know what went wrong.

P/S : and NO............. i didn't get lucky if thats what you were wondering from the shot above :D

CHINESE NEW YEAR - a very delayed post

2009-02-11T04:55:00.000+08:00

Before i start out my very-delayed-post for February, i would like to kindly invite my dear readers to take a look at the picture on the right.

As you might have guessed, this is a DSLR. A Sony entry-level DSLR that is capable of producing superb vivid shots for a good price deal.
*not forgetting to mention with lots of complicated, user-UNfriendly functions, that makes a CANON user like meself goes,

"Where the farq is the ISO?"

and whao.... they even have BUILT-IN SUPER STEADY SHOT. That ought to be something. i wonder why CANON never had one of these built on their cams.

because....

SUPER STEADY SHOTS ARE FOR SISSIES!!
muahahhahaaha !!
*koff koff*

okay okay... That was merely a joke. Partially.
Quite a few shots in this post the credit goes to TJ actually.

........................

Back on track.
My Chinese New Year was kinda like eat, sleep, drink, drink, DRINK and sleep. Apart from the fact i went up to Cameron Highlands with Priest and Nic, and my outdoor portrait photoshoot, my Chinese New Year activities were kinda mundane.

Not forgetting to mention i got very sick on the second week. VERY.

My reunion dinner at my mum's side celebrated a day earlier, on the Eve of Eve of Chinese New Year. Wasn't quite looking forward to it, since i'm aware that whoever that is going to order the dishes suck at it (and he won't be the one paying). Sadly, i was correct =.-

and as usual, the same fella who pays for the bill every other time, whom is my 3rd Uncle, willingly, obligingly went to the counter quietly and settle the bill. The other uncle sat down and mind his own business. Never offered, never asked.

I went WADAFARQ!!

Not to be prejudice on my mum's family or what, but heck, usually what i see from dinner i attend to at my dad's side will be everyone FIGHTING TO PAY THE BILL. There is also no doubt they are a whole bunch of EGO-WHORES.

This uncle of mine seriously gave a new definition to kiam-siapness. Jeez, i think even Scrooge McDuck is not so kiam-siap.

You think his retardness stops there? IT STOPS THERE NOT
i was gonna shoot the family portrait, well, my 3rd Uncle is gonna head back to US and god knows when is he coming back, and my grandma, well, lets say she has seen better days.

i tripod-ed the camera in the middle on a not-too-busy entrance, and waited for everyone to gather. That fucktard had to tell me 'shoot, shoot',
i was like, "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOU PROBLEM MAN, CAN'T YOU FUCKING SEE NOT EVERYONE IS HERE?"

i sarcastically triggered the shutter and said done.

After finally being able to shoot the portrait, that retard had to rub it in and said,
"Boy, you are cameraman, you gotta be fast..."

"Nia seng, you want me to rush a grandma to walk faster is it, where the farq is your farqing brain, not too smart for a MASTER DEGREE HOLDER eih?"

and i swear to god, if weren't for the fact that his wife is my mum's sister, i would have TRIPOD the MOFO's face with my SILK Tripod.
*those of you who actually held it before knows how solid it is

*breaths in... breaths out..
gosh i gotta control my temper.

...........................

On Sunday, the eve, we headed down to Seremban. Two days of pure, utter, boredom with no Internet connection. Or so i thought :D

My laptop detected a weak broadcasted WIFI signal, with WPA encryption, the type that Nic and TJ doesn't have problem, ermmm.. 'unlocking'.

Well, since i didn't have the necessary required skills to do the job, i randomly spammed some numbers in, in hope it could tap the line.

12345678 DENIED
87654321 DENIED

I gave up after a minute or two.

5 minutes later, my brother who was on the other laptop, shouted from inside the room, stating that he is on MSN.

The password was 1234567890 =.-

..........................................

Reunion dinner was simple, as we all ate at home.

Well, atleast here i can rest assured that there would be sufficent liquor and beer to drink. Not that i drink alot, but is nice to have some after dinner :D

Oh by the way, has fire crackers been legalised this year?

I spend the next 24 hours finding opportunity to sneak out for some fresh air.

Couldn't resist the urge but to shoot a few shots on the way.

and gosh,
why is everyone planting the same species of flower?

...................................

i manage to negotiate to go home earlier, that would be on the 1st of Chinese New Year night. Couldn't stand sleeping on the mattress on the floor and the rock-hard pillow that gave me neck ache. That was the excuse i gave to leave.

45 minutes later...

i love K.L
*despite the fact i didn't even gamble a cent.

.........................

We went for our annual JOGOYA on Saturday, the 6th day of Chinese New Year, and trust me, their standard dropped to abysmal.

They still had Tuna, Salmon, and Oysters, but the only good fresh oysters are those you exchange with the limited VIP coupon.

Loong couldn't take in the oyster. That phail noob.

i was so depressed, i remedied my depression by feeding on a full plate of Tuna slices.

"Where are the Alaskan King Crab !! and i want my Cheese Baked Escargot!!"

The Jasmine Fairy chinese tea, was the only one thing i exceptionally liked. The tea leaves are wrapped around the flower, and while brewing, the leaves will spread open exposing the flowers. Is it me or does that sound a bit wrong?

i gotta spend one stupid VIP coupon to exchange for this.

Group pic
Bottom row from left:
Hon Lun, Kok Kuin, Feigai, Durian Sheng

Upper row from left:
Eric, Sang Loong, Priest, Mun, Keong, "Your brother" Ji Munn, Wai Yau, Benji.

MIA:
Nic the dick - last status report was toilet hugging.
Danny boy - last voice call was, "Not free..."

Jin Beng and Chin Cheung - Missing in action, status report file corrupted, cell phone unreachable.

.....................

My annual Lou Shang was done badly. Well, i wasn't feeling well, didn't bothered to invite anyone except the guys, didnt bother to marinade chicken wings, so it was plain Lou Shang and liquor. No worries Marcus, you didn't miss a thing this year.

Then my dad commandeered the Mah Jong table, rendering my friends into a corner, playing Blackjack.

Those that did not gamble, hogged the Karaoke System.

*points at Loong, Ji Munn and Danny boy.

This is shot is filled with faggotry :D

That would be all of my Chinese New Year activities in a nutshell.

........................................

By the way,
just a random shot early in the morning while i was having insomnia again.

have i mentioned how boring is the view outside my window in my room?

Trust me, it is boriiiiing...

Well, atleast...
I LOVE MY KING SIZE BED !!

jeez, i still have yet to paint my room.

Cameron Highlands

2009-01-31T17:32:00.001+08:00

i'm aware that i have yet to publish any post for the past week, and to the dedicated readers of my blog, my apologies. it's been quite a busy week since Chinese New Year started.

About my little trip up to Cameron Highlands.
it all started with 3 retards ranting over msn chat room at 4 a.m. on how we should pass the Chinese New Year holidays. Feeling adventurous, i suggested we should head up Cameron Highlands when we wake up; that would be 8 hours later. TJ the Priest has an apartment up there :D

.................
Day One
By the time we had our lunch, it was already 3 in the noon. We had to cover 180 k.m. distance to reach the foot hill of Cameron, another 60 k.m. up hill. And boy, trust me, revving the Kenari up to 4000 RPM to mantain the speed of 130km/h is noisy. NOISY. i wanted to rev it higher, but the engine sounded like it was gonna fall off. Literally.

An hour and half later, we reached Tapah, the foothill of Camerons. From here onwards, it would be winding roads, and hairpins. The drive up was way more challenging than the road up to Genting, as it consist only of 1 way up, and 1 way down, not forgetting to mention it is narrrrooow.

The whole journey up took us an hour and half, and a total of 50 brakes, thanks to those retards who jammed braked for no apparent reasons.
*i thought it would be fun to do some counting on the way

TJ's apartment was on the road between Tanah Rata and Brinchang, a lovely place called, oh crap, i don't remember what was it called.

The apartment lot consist of 3 rooms, living room, kitchen, arh, u know the rest...
The best thing is, it is fully furnished!!

20 degrees Celcius, not too bad, or so i thought...

The view from the balcony was blocked by a hill, nothing of much interest except some china-muis that walk pass down there every now and then.

*No... there wasn't much to see despite it was a top view :D

Well, the first thing Nic tried to do was to connect the laptop to the TV via a tv out cable.

No one wants to watch porn, i mean movies, via the 14 inch laptop screen which is too small.

The couch was so comfortable, i wished some girl would just ride me there and then.

The foot print has 6 toes, or am i seeing things?

it was dinner time by the time we finished unloading. Driven by peer pressure, i decided to join them in wearing shorts, instead of jeans.

What i've learn from that was...

DO NOT wear anything shorter than the length of your legs.

DO NOT consume anything thing that says, "Mint", or "Menthol" or it is green in packaging when you are in Cameron Highlands.

...............

For dinner, we headed towards Tanah Rata, for steamboat. Nic was eyeing at this one girl that he claims she looks like Michelle Branch.

Apparently Nic failed to aggro one girl for once :D

The food was splendid by the way... apart from the fact it was 80 percent herbivour food, it was decent.

Having warm food swimming down your stomach keeps you warm for like 30 minutes, therefore, the only way to constantly keep warm was to eat, eat and EAT.

The next stop was Brinchang for the pasar malam. And gosh, the jam up in highest town in Cameron Highlands is as bad as the one you see in Jalan Tun Razak at 8 a.m. Holiday season does make a difference.

The freezing air could be felt as soon as we left the car and headed to the pasar malam.

i was cursing at those 2 for 'manipulating' me into wearing shorts.
ok maybe it was just my plain stupidity...

Being myself again, i just can't help to be on the look out for girls again. Jeez, god gave us EYES for a reason.

Nic came out with a quote:
"Cameron Highlands is cold, but the girls are the opposite"

I have to agree.
The girls there were mostly wearing shorts, like in KL.
How the farq do their retain heat lar??

Girls and their secrets, it really makes you wonder...

..................

Day Two
Cold air + Nice mattress to sleep on = Waking up late
and do you want to know the irony of it? it was sunny till we left the apartment. it then started to drizzle, and then it rained like there was no tomorrow.

and my dad had to be a pussy by calling me to come home earlier in order for me to pass him my birth cert. for some documents he need to apply for the bitch he own. Totally farqing spoilt my mood to know that i have to be home the next day in the early morning.

.......................

Gosh, they even have wifi here :D

After lunch, we started photoshooting gardens, and any place we got to park the car. The rain made the jam worse.

..............

Flower Series

This was a shot from one of those flowers distributor. I combined 3 exposure of the same shot.

Still much to be learned from High dynamic range photography.

We headed towards Boh Tea Plantation around 5 p.m. with much hope to drink the tea at a renowned tea house located inside the plantation.

To our dismay, we found out it closes after 4:30 p.m.

Obviously, Lady Luck has not been with me since the trip started.

This is a HDR processed shot of the Boh Tea Plantation. I changed the emo skies into a more warmth sky. This was also the last shot of the day before my camera went emo and the battery died.

Since drinking tea was an option no more, we started camwhoring :D

There was this stone where we did our shots. Both me and TJ was able to go up.

Nic, however....

Boh Tea Plantation view from a wooden shack.

That night, we watched a marathon of SAW series. Half way through, while hanging out at the balcony, i saw the sky was heavily litted with stars. Due to the lack of light polution of the city, the stars can be seen clearly.

We started packing up at 5 a.m. No, i did not sleep.

The drive down took slightly longer than the way up. It was in complete pitch black apart from the lights from my car. i had to brake on almost every curve, which resulted up to a total of 150 brake count from Ringlet to Tapah.

Well, that was it.

CANDLE IN THE NIGHT

2009-01-24T04:27:00.000+08:00

A life without light,
is a life without sight,
dwelling in darkness in it's delight,
searching for hope, with all your might.

Fear not my dear,
in darkness there is light,
i shall be your candle in the night.

Dedicated to a girl i loved very much.

2009-01-20T04:30:00.000+08:00

it is 4:35 in the morning, 20th January 2009. And to be precise, by time i finish posting this entry, it ought to be near 5 in the morning. The clock is ticking, oh yesh, i'm having my RESIT for 'PUBIC' RELATIONS exam later at 2 p.m. That gives me slightly over 8 hours to prepare before i enter the examination hall.

Minus time to get ready and transportation would be 7 hours. Hmm... 7 hours to cram in Chapter 1,2,3,11,12,13 and 14. That would give me an average of 1 hour per chapter. Fair odds i'd say.

Gosh trust me, studying the THEORY on Public Relations is nothing like the actual Practical side, or as i presume it to be.

IT'S FARQING BOOOOOOOOOORING!!

Hence, you have me here once again, ranting.

and me being ME, in search of distration, i've decided to attempt HDR; HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE photo editing.

it is a commonly seen photography that utilise MINIMUM 3 shots at different exposure to gain the best DEPTH and detail of a particular shot. Commonly found in scenery shots. Here i have, is a shot i did in front of Taman Bunga Raya infront of TAR College in the evening, just before the sunset. i have to thank Melissa for seeing it, as the sky was behind my back.

Heavenly
shot with CANON 300D,
mounting CANON 50mm f/1.8mm Prime Lens,
exposure 1/4000 seconds,
aperture f/4,
ISO 100

This however, is a combination of 3 shots. And since i didn't do 3 separate shot, i altered 2 different sets of exposures in RAW :D
Yesh, i'm aware im cheating, shut up NIC.

Using Photomatix, i combine 3 different exposure and generated this shot.

i'm aware there are alot of distrations, but heck, i can't find a better framing, and i malas to crop it.

But seriously, you guys should have seen it with your own eyes, it was really heavenly. Seriously.

Wish me 'good luck' for the paper later... i'd need it :D

KICKING START MY UBER LENS

2009-01-16T00:22:00.000+08:00

After much random spamming and nagging from my friends enquiring
"where are the shots with the new lens, do not disappoint us",
i have finally went out this afternoon with my 300D mounted with my birthday present,
the EPIC CANON 50mm f/1.8 MK II Prime Lens.

i saw this small little garden just down the lane of my house when i was taking a walk for fresh air. Quite stupid of me, to go round everywhere, but not my neighbourhood to look for subject to shoot.

"The grass at the other side is always greener eih"

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy the shots. This first and second shots are my personal favourite.

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/500 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

*i love the uber blured background thanks to the wide aperture.

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/640 seconds,
aperture f/1.8,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/160 seconds,
aperture f/1.8,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/640 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

*somehow or rather, i forgot the white colored surface is way more sensitive to light. the texture of the flower is burned. kinda wasted. ya i know, how the heck do i forget that right =.-

shot with CANON 300D,mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/800 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/1600 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/1000 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

shot with CANON 300D,
mounted with MY OWN CANON 50mm f/1.8 PRIME LENS,
at 1/1250 seconds,
aperture f/2,
ISO 100.
Location: Happy Garden, between Jalan Sukacita 2 and Jalan Sukacita 4

*its the same flower as the above, just shot from a top angle to include the greens and some other random flower below as background. Love the abysmal background.

As you can see, some shots, if your enlarge it, isn't pin-point sharp. A weird phenomena that i realised since back when i used Nic's 400D with the similar lens. And it only happens with greens and flowers. Weird~

i'm still figuring out whats the problem, though Nic thinks its thanks to the TOO BIG APERTURE. Still need to do alot of experiments.

Next mission, Portraits and Bokeh (Blurred Lighting)

HOPE I DIDN'T DISAPPOINT YOU GUYS :D

P/S:
hey, anyone is interested in helping me to kick start my portfolio?
i need models :D
Girls only, if i needed guys i would just grab Nic and Sangloong or just camwhore myself :D

No.. i'm serious...
alot of part time job requires PORT FOLIO too.. and i was like wadafarq?

anyways, for location, i think i'd start out with LAKE GARDENS.
i'd buy lunch (or if you prefer, DINNER), and movie too :D

21st

2009-01-13T04:37:00.001+08:00

i've been thinking for two days now, on how to start this entry. Well, for one, my memory is kinda distorted thanks to Mr.Tiger Beer (damn, my dad knows i hate Tiger and only drinks Carlsberg yet he bought that), which gave me quite a headache for many many hours. On the bright side, for once, i didn't puke-like-there-is-no-tomorrow like someone(s). i cheated with butter :D

My party came and went. The 6 hours of joy went pass in a blink of an eye. i remember getting alot of handshakes, loads of hugs, and alot of pat-at-the-back by friends and family members.

The food, was decent. it's catered buffet, can't really expect much, but i presume everyone had a filling meal *i hope*.

Loved the Prawns :D

What was suppose to be a 6.30 in the evening part, only started at 7.30pm when the crowd gathered. The standard Malaysian's-1-hour-late-punctuality. i must admit, at around 7 i was really wondering where is everyone, the seats were soooo, EMPTY. Then my friends started coming in, and the food suddenly vanished.

As for the drinks, i'm not sure how well my hospitality faired here, would need Zheng Guan and Psycho to leave their testimonials. Loong would definitely complain, as my dad refuse to serve the Cordon Bleu and the Royal Salute. Only plain 12years Chivas and beer, loads and loads of beer. The first batch of i-dont-know how many Tiger Beer bottles went dry quick soon, i contributed to that =.- , was bottoming mug by mug with every friend that drank within reach. And i had to go out to restock on Skol and Carlsberg with Psycho.

So much for
"i won't drink a sip until after cutting the birthday cake, because i scared i drunk and then emo"

i was juggling between indoor and outdoor; indoor where my friends that have eaten sing the karaoke, and outdoor, those who are still eating.

At 10 p.m. sharp, when i decided to bring the birthday cake out to cut, Guan brought in a gift from all of them, in a 3 feet tall box. i was to open there in then.

IT IS A CLASSICAL GUITAR!!

Before i could even finish catching my breath from all the shouting of thanks, Ji Munn passed me a KFC dinner box, and was to open it too. In there, there was...

a chicken drumstick and chicken wing, muffin and something wrapped in aluminium foil, and i was thinking... since when KFC baked potatoes?

i unwrapped it, layer by layer. Thinking it was some kinda joke from them yet again, half expecting a pack of condoms in there.

At the end of 3 layes, a bubble-wrap wrapped what looks like a small canister black in color. Removing the top covering wrap, the following alphabets greeted my eyes:

CANON
1:1.8 50mm EF Lens II

i think the video can describe better than me :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MobG1aDBHMY

Then someone among my friends shouted and asked me to play
Secondhand Serenade's Fall For You, ahh jeee... of all songs =.-
then again, thats one song i practised countless times to serenade a girl.

The tempo went haywire AGAIN. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZtDaPj9is0

Right after that, it was the stereotypical cake-cutting ceremony. i saw my birthday cake for the first time, and gosh, my sis does have good taste.

i gave my speech, continued with my mum's impromptu speech.

The Usual Suspects,

Rachel, Benjamin, Zi Wen and Zheng Guan

College Mates

Yia, Wallace and his girl - Ling, Melissa, Rachel, Jing Pei, Zi wen and his girl - Ah Yee, Guan, Psycho, and Bopet.

Kakis

consisting, whao...
who didn't come arh?

High School Mates and Class Mates

Clockwise from left, Seow Shan, Li-Huei, Jung Dng, Ken Sheng, Ooi, Chiu Hon and his twin, Chiu Seng block from view.

Primary School mates and People i know since i-don't-know-when

From left, Miqi, Tze Yin, meself, Zhi Kok, Durian Sheng, and TJ the PRIEST who uses a SONY ALPHA 200 DSLR.

Jun, Ba, Meself and Jian

Me and Mummy.

and of course,

Me Best Friends
Wai Yau, Sang Loong and Nicholas Yong 'Cums on U'

i got loads of 'very adult' gifts,
whao... Red wine, Whisky, and Cigars, Shot glasses (Wallace you naughty boy)...
21st ler... Not 51st yet :D

and isit really THAT easy to get my size of clothes? The formal shirt from G2000 was a perfect fit,

and the NIKE DRY FIT BASKETBALL SHIRT which she told me to
"WEAR IT TO SLEEP" ...

and of course, my new guitar would mean i need to give her a new name,

and with the new lens,
i shall give the city a better class photographer it deserve, NOT those phaggotographers you see in *ahem*.net

i would like to thank again to everyone whom made an effort to come, and even those who didn't manage to attend yet send their regards;
Marcus you idiot, you didn't have to call me all the way from the States,
Syasya, thanks alot for calling me. Sorry, was a little tipsy when i answered your call.

and to my Mum who actually came despite she "would have rather not to see my dad's face"...
you gave me life 21 years ago, i owe everything to you...
love you Mum.

and to my college mates, the Usual Suspects especially, thanks for supporting me through my 2 years in TAR COLLEGE.

and to all my kakis,especially Nicholas, Sang Loong and Wai Yau , you guys have been the best buddies anyone could ever wished for :D

Well, that is it. i hope everyone enjoyed the night, cause i certainly did :D

P/S:
i forgot...
Thanks to my best friend Nic for the photoshooting the night,
Thuang Jung the Priest for shooting along, (seriously Do Not Doubt the Ability of a Sony Alpha User),
and of course my good friend Wai Yau for Video-shooting with the Panasonic LUMIX point and shoot.

Thank you guys alot, for 'digitizing' part of my life for memory purporses :D

TEARS FROM HEAVEN

2009-01-07T18:13:00.000+08:00

i love the Star Trails so much, i decided to further PP (post production) it. i adjusted the WHITE BALANCE in RAW, changing the orange-ey street lights that light the background into purple hue for a more calm effect.

The star trails which wasn't prominent in the original shot has been 'brighten' using the DODGE TOOL in Photoshop.

Then to balance the shot as a whole, i adjusted the LEVELS in Photoshop.

Tears from Heaven
shot with CANON 300D with SIGMA 18-50mm at 18mm focal,
T/V 1000 seconds BULB mode,
A/V f/10,
ISO 100.

RAW file converted with DIGITAL PHOTO PROFESSIONAL,
adjusted WHITE BALANCE,
Sharpen details, converted to JPEG.
Further enchancement done with PHOTOSHOP CS2

Shooting Stars

2009-01-05T06:42:00.000+08:00

If i do get remarks on why do i have eyes bags, instead of saying i went to 'steal chickens' during the night, this time i will have a better excuse:

I WENT TO SHOOT STARS, literally.

Late December and early January has always been a great time to look at the sky and admire the shimmering stars. Some time ago, Nic read on some site that it is possible to photoshoot stars, as they move. i went OMG-WADAFARQ.

The logic is simple. The earth rotates around its orbit around the Sun. If you actually studied science at all, you would know that a complete rotation of the earth is 24 hours, which lead to dawn and dusk, day and night, moon and sun. Because of earth slow 'movement', stars in the sky just seemed to be at one place and not to move at all.

However, shooting with an extremely slow shutter speed, erm, i mean LONG shutter speed, the rotation of the earth would
(jee, im thinking of how to blardy describe this)
create a star trail in the long exposure shot.

After watching Manchester United won 3-0 against Southampton, me along with Nic and the Sony Alpha User-TJ, headed off to the darkest place we could find in the whole of Happy Garden,
The Haunted Happy Garden Hill Top Basketball Court.

its not haunted when there is sunlight lar, but apparently there are stories lar. it is still a very well used basketball court IN THE MORNING. But seriously, i wouldn't want to be there alone shooting stars.

This is a shot with stars on the background which any TOM, DICK AND HARRY AND MONKEY can do with a point and shoot compact camera. Wait, i think even cam-whoring chicks can do it with camera phones. No lightrails of stars can be seen as the shutter speed was too fast.

shot with CANON EOS 300D in RAW mode,
mounted the SIGMA 18-50mm
with f/3.5,
shutter speed 30 seconds,
ISO 200 (i forgot to tune it down),
on my dad's good o' 20 year old SILK tripod.

This next shot however, is framed very badly i know. i was testing whether the setting would overexpose the shot. Enlarge it to have a better view of the star trails. despite i was at ISO 200, i had a serious problem with the NOISE.

shot with CANON EOS 300D in RAW mode,
mounted the SIGMA 18-50mm
with f/22,
shutter speed 909 seconds,
ISO 200 (i forgot to tune it down again),
on my dad's good o' 20 year old SILK tripod.

This last shot however, was the last shot because my battery died right after that. i didn't even manage to view it until way later. it was overexposed badly, but since i shot it in RAW, somehow or rather, i manage to salvage it. In the RAW converter, i took a blue/purple-ish white balance tuner, instead of the orange-gy light from the street lamps.

You'll have to click on the photo to see the trail clearly.

shot with CANON EOS 300D in RAW mode,
mounted the SIGMA 18-50mmwith f/10,
shutter speed 1000 seconds,
ISO 100,
on my dad's good o' 20 year old SILK tripod.

There isn't much of a long 'trail', because i was afraid if i drag the exposure up to 30-50 minutes, it will be overexposed.

Not exactly a failed photoshoot, nor is a a very successful one, but jee, this is learning :D

P/S:
i wonder how is Nic's and TJ's shot

Dawn of 2009

2009-01-02T03:23:00.000+08:00

The first post of the year... Whao, time really flies by in a blink of an eye. It's kinda shocking to actually look back and analyze what one has achieve in the past year.

As usual, year ends are always emo for me. *Previous year i got lost from my group and got stranded below Maybank, opposite of the large McDonald in KL, 1 minute before the COUNTDOWN. They found me the following year.

Well, this year is the same lar. Is not like i got lost this time.
Few days ago, i found out the Horizon Lomo Camera that i want to buy is out of stock GLOBALLY for like don't-know-how-long. i'm serious. it's written on the Internet.

Then... after finally getting sufficient cash to buy my drum set,
*Nicholas agreed to loan me a sum which i still lack, as i couldn't gain back some cash from a bad debtor friend of mine, Thanks Nic
the PEARL secondhand drums set that i laid my eyes on, the shopkeer refused to sell, as he states,
"We would be keeping it as we would be upgrading our shop and we are going to have 1 more jamming studio."

Yesterday i headed to one of those TBR printing shop to get NIC's assignment ring-binded. i SPECIFICALLY told that dumb-farq-stupid-cunt-biatch to bind according to the farqing order, DO NOT FARQING MESS IT UP.
You can guess what happened lar.
IS MY REQUEST SO DAMN BLARDY DIFFICULT TO BE COMPREHEND BY THAT FEEBLE MIND OF YOURS?

and the best one lar...
as i headed home, i saw there was a nice 'after-glow', its a phenomena after the sun sets. i found a decent spot, raised the tripod, mounted my 300D on it, and pressed the shutter. The camera ended up rebooting itself, every time i trigger the shutter. The afterglow lasted for like 5 minutes. The camera emo-ed for 5 minutes.
I know lar, i havent been using you the past months, and actually considered and still considering replacing you with a 50D, but need to like this treat me meh?

WADAFARQ IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD!! EVERYONE IS AGAINST ME!! WHY LAR!!

..................................

Back to the countdown shall we...
i insisted on waiting for Danny to reach home after work, before leaving for KL. We left at around 11.00 p.m. As soon as we passed Midvalley, an endless trail of red lights could be seen. i turned in to Bricksfield instead of heading down Syed Putra, god knows how long the jam will be. We then decided to take the Monorail from KL Sentral to KL. By time we found a parking, it was 11:45 p.m

Well, since my objective was to shoot fireworks, as long there is a nice framing it would suffice. Before i parked my van, i saw a spot where i can shoot both KL Tower and Twin Tower, along with the Fireworks. Not a close shot, but will make do. It was at the divider between 2 busy roads.

i set my tripod, sat comfortably on the divider which is barely 3 feet wide, and prayed to whatever God which was not on holiday to watch my back for drunk drivers.

i was COCK-SURE the fireworks will be shot at where i was aiming. COCK-SURE. seriously, COCK-SURE

Midnight came. To my 10 o'clock direction, flashes of light and the sound of fireworks could be heard. Meridien Hotel and Hilton Hotel have their celebration too apparently. There was no clear view of it from where i camped, therefore i continued to wait patiently for the ones at KLCC.

Within the 15 seconds, to my far 3 o'clock, some fellas was letting go some big ones too, and the view was blocked by some buildings. i continued to wait for the ones at KLCC.

The ones at KLCC went off FINALLY,
but far off my framing... FAR FAR AWAY.

*TJ must be cursing at me for spoiling his first fireworks photography.

TRAILS OF LIGHT
shot from where i camped,
with CANON 300D mounted with SIGMA 18-50mm,
RAW,
25 seconds exposure,
Aperture f/20,
ISO 100,
on my SILK tripod with self-timer

I WONDER HOW WE SURVIVED
with CANON 300D mounted with SIGMA 18-50mm,
RAW,
2.5 seconds exposure,Aperture f/8,
ISO 100,
on my SILK tripod with self-timer.

*Clockwise from left,Danny boy, TJ the Priest, and Ben the Man. Coincidently, the flare from the street lights looked like halo above their heads.

............................................................

We then headed down Subang SS 15 Asia Cafe to look the others, whom apparently, 'got lost' and reach there instead.

This is how they celebrates New Year.
*SALUTES

...................................

15 hours later...
Went for dinner with my mum, aunts and cousins. The food ordered was just so-so
(i wondered who did the ordering, as i could have done a better job compared to that).
And bearing in mind no one from my mum's side of the family drink, i had to restraint from ordering a bottle =.-

Seriously, when it comes to food and alchohol, my dad's side is the best :D
Which would also naturally leads to kidney failure, heart disease, beer belly etc.

Shotting in RAW FORMAT does make a difference. Trust me, Jun is not half as pretty as she looks on the picture :D

I converted myself into B+W as the shot by Jun was totally out of focus, and was focused on the PLUS SIZED lady at the back.

Hey Ziwen, i rid myself of "The Cursed Fate of Photographers"

Just bring a blardy tripod everywhere you go :D

POISON

2008-12-29T01:49:00.001+08:00

It all began when i asked Rachel how she did for her Feature Writing Article (which of course everyone knows before asking she did blardy well, just asking lar) and she passed me a soft copy of her work.

Her feature writing was on prominent Lomographers in Malaysia. it is photography. Okay, by saying that i'm definitely discrediting them. IT'S MUCH MORE THAN PHOTOGRAPHY. i can't seem to find the right word to describe what they do, but heck, do press here to find out more.

Anyways, being a megapixel-gear-whore, which naturally lead me to use photoshop to do some touch up on the shots i've done, i was SERIOUSLY AMAZED by the shots done by that toy camera. SERIOUSLY.

Despite all the amazement i had viewing the photos, a part of me still insisted
"cheeehh, can be done with photoshop what... no big deal..."

Until....

i saw this shot which is not at conventional 3:4 or 4:3 ratio, a long stretch shot, a panaromic shot, and it was pure POISON running down my vein. My heart beat faster, adrenaline pumped straight into my brain.

After checking with Rachel, i found out it was THIS little bugger that is doing the shots. The Horizon Perkeft and Horizon Kompakt. A few interesting points that made me droool over it:

1. it has a different shutter system compared to the standard open-close shutter system. This little fella opens the shutter, and it swings from left to right, or is it right to left.

2. Mechanical clockwork operated. NO BATTERIES NEEDED!!

3. Film operated, something old, but very new to me. Will keep me wondering how many rolls of film i have to screw up before achiving a good shot. i LOVE a challenge :D

4. Like all LOMO cameras, it produces those flaws that would be deemed to spoil the shot in digital photography. But in lomo, it's ART. Beauty in Imperfection.

5. The color produced is naturally over-saturated. Gives a very warm feeling.

Anyways, since i got bored stucked at my own room alone, and no kakis to yumcha tonight, i selected a few shots to be lomo-fied. Definitely not as mesmerizing as those done with a Lomo cam, but heck...

Love at Your Grasp
shot at Steven Corner with Huishan's hand and her tiny little heart-shaped pendant. We got bored of listening to Ah Yia tutoring Melissa.

A Touch to Remember
Thank you syasya for coming up with the title.
shot at the wall (obviously) at School of Social Science and Humanities' Lab (where are the MACs are hid.) and yesh, is my hand this time.

If Only i was Bigger
shot infront of the SSH lab, thanks to Psycho for contributing his leg in this shot :D it was his idea, not mine.

in Wait for a Storm
i was standing on top of a water tank at Bukit Antarabangsa. Very Emo skies.

"THE ABANDON SKIES"
shot at Genting Kelang's Desa Setapak after helping a friend shift house. The view is SPECTACLAR.

P/S:
in case you retards are wondering, NO, i'm not having wetdreams of the camera *yet. But yesterday was the first night after doing research on the camera, i sleep without thinking about girls. Damned, at this rate i would end up having a camera as a wife.

Staying focus on something i like helps keeps me from being emo. Would play the guitar instead, but jee, i broke her by accident during Christmas Eve.

MERRY CHRISTMAS... i think

2008-12-27T04:37:00.000+08:00

well, i don't celebrate Christmas the way Christians do, i usually just organize parties. And since this year my sis has book the venue earlier, i guess all i could do is crash her party and drink her liquor :D

Don't ask me what happened after that though.. i can't remember...

Anyways, a little something 'gift' from me to you...

Merry Christmas!! HO!! HO!! HO!!
*koff koff*

P/S:
SANTA IS NOT COMING TO TOWN, AS BOTH ME AND GUAN HAVE SMOKE SUFFICIENTLY UP THE CHIMNEY THIS YEAR

I'M GETTING OLD

2008-12-23T21:59:00.000+08:00

i'm not sure viral marketing is working or not, never quite like the idea how fast (or slow in my case) news spread.

anyways, i'm organizing my 21st Birthday Party at my place on Saturday, 10th January, 2009.
*i'm aware i'm sooo full of myself :D
well, if you are reading this, chances are you are invited. *Unless you are some random farq whom some how stumbled upon my blog and INVITED YOURSELF lar~

Anyone knows how to use Google Earth/Map? i suck hard at drawing, therefore, i thought the best solution would be extracting the map from Google Earth and paste it here.

In a nutshell, these are the things you needa know:
Date: 10th January, 2009 Saturday
Time: 6 p.m. till LATE
The address is: 1134, Jalan Sukacita 2, Taman Gembira, OFF Jalan Kuchai Lama 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

oh yar, one more thing... it's gonna be buffet dinner.
So it's recommended you come empty stomach.

i don't mind if you bring liquor though, that is if you doubt my capacity in hospitality :D

erm... i welcome any suggestions, enquiries, remarks, whatever lar.
contact me via my:
Mobile phone 012 215 8182
Email/MSN shirostrike@hotmail.com

p/s: by the way, if you plan to plan to bring your 'other half' along, just bring lar. Everyone has a +1, just do notify me in advance as i'm still 'adjusting' and calculating the headcounts. Sadly, i don't stay in a semi-D.

I CAN'T PLAY THE DRUMS BECAUSE I'M SHOOTING

2008-12-21T19:22:00.000+08:00

Waking up at 7:30 in the morning is seriously tough for me. SERIOUSLY. ON A FARQING SATURDAY!!
*i sendiri asked for it also lar, was at mamak till like 3:30 in the morning.

Well, i'm shooting for this little-mini-tiny-event organized by Music2U which is located at Taman Bunga Raya, opposite the Foon Lok Coffee Shop. The music event thingy, however, is held at Cola Cafe in freaking 9a.m in the morning!! (cost cheaper guar~)

Anyways, brief explanation about what the event is all about. Students learning musical instruments at Music2U groups up to form band of no more than 6 people.
Sadly, THE BEST LEVEL 1 DRUMMER CAN'T PARTICIPATE AS HE HAS TO DO THE PHOTOSHOOTING.

Brian/Bryan, came all the way to fix the drumset.

For the whole event, i'm equipped with Nic's 400D mounting the 50mm f/1.8 to do close up and portraits, my LEGENDARY 300D with 18-50mm for wide angle. Dual-wielding FOR THE WIN !!
*partially just for the sake of lagak, can make do without the 300D, but would requires me to constantly change lens, which is plain retarded.

Start off with some of the vocalist shall we. Ahh jee, i realised i don't even know them, and i have nothing to crap about why these shots are done

Just give me comments on what you think, just don't throw me rubbish like, 'you should shoot nearer?'
i'm 2 feet away from the stage. Any nearer i would be kissing them. The chic i don't mind lar~

Muka banyak feeeel~
They were saying he looks and sing like 'Ah Do' some chinese pop singer, i've no idea who though.

Full-Time Chef / Part-Time Vocal+Guitarist
ah... our local Foon Lok chef who cooks decent fried rice. After this shot i'm bound to get discount from him :D

i was told that with our standard kinda of lens, the lens can't capture certain light. The weird framing of this shot was to test whether the direct light source from the light bulb above can be recorded by the camera. PHAILED!!

The Judges
Mr. Guitarist on the left and Mr.i'm-not-sure-what-he-plays on the right.
The Simon-Cowell-Face disappeared right after the competition ends.

(this shot terkena flare due to the shinny reflective surface of the table)

The guitarist for the champions, WHATEVER, who performed Jolin Tsai's 'Shuo Ai Ni'. Yesh, it was Chinese Pop all the way.

Tired of conventional shots, i attempted the 'Zoom-burst' technique.

Mr.Chow would be proud :D

The Top Management Team, calculating the score given by the judges at a secluded corner.

Group Photo
(sadly without me)
Shot by me, standin up on 6 stacked chairs, camera on a tripod placed above a table.
Who's the man lar~

Done with official business, these are some shots i liked.

i forgot to change the setting of the 400D and was shooting at RAW for whole 4GB Kingston, and only a hand full i kept as the .jpeg version is good enough. The followings are converted from RAW.

Ok, i can't remember her name. Man Zhu or something, which would literally translate to 'Full Piggy'?

I'm gonna get murdered one day :D

Anyways, she was the most decent looking girl around there and then, can't expect me NOT-TO-LOOK right?

i convert the RAW files with Digital Photo Professional software - a bundled software that came along with the DSLR, Photoshop CS 2 does not have the blardy plugging. B+W is done with Photoshop.

i still manage to find a little time in between to shoot stuff of my forte.

Life
shot in RAW with CANON 400D,
mounted with 50mm f/1.8,
shot at f/2,
shutter speed 1/1600 seconds,
ISO 200 (i forgot to turn it down).

P/S:
if the alignment of the Pictures are good,
thats because I'M GOOD. if its not, i blame blogspot for being a bitch. :D

Internal Struggle

2008-12-17T00:01:00.000+08:00

Have you guys ever had the internal conflict thingy going on inside your head?? Telling you to 'Do this, no no, do that instead', and it goes on and on and on and on and on~

Well in my case, its

WHAO... THIS MODEL IS NICE..
NO NO NO ... THAT, THAT IS BETTER!!
but... THE FIRST ONE BIGGER WOR!!
WHY NEED SO BIG? ONE HAND FULL ENOUGH LAR.

arh jee... it never gets easy when it comes to choosing err... camera... what were you thinking? =.-
Ok to start thing first, this is just my 'internal conflict' that has been happening in my head since last Thursday. There is no guarantee that my 'persuasive skills' or 'manipulative skills' would actually get me dad to buy me a new DSLR. Though i seriously hope to get one new one lar.

........................

Let me justify on what grounds do i need a new DSLR before you guys say i'm a spoilt brat :D

ONE - my Epic CANON 300D which i wield for almost 2 years is in critical stage. She occasionally has her ups and downs, but recently, it has been CORRUPTED DATA and ERR99 (the legendary Error 99 plague the took down many CANON guns) has infected her.

TWO - On presumption that after sending her to I.C.U and she recuperates, which is a GOOD THING, i would still need a new DSLR too as the 300D frame per second speed is erm.. slow. (Continuous burst shot max up to 4 shots in a row)

THREE - the 300D has a capability of handling Noise/Grain in low lighting is BAD, but one cannot blame her as she is a 5 year old. (oh yar, my dad bought/got/one-way-or-the-other got the camera from my uncle)

FOUR - despite that fact that i highlight to everyone that ANY CAMERA CAN DO A GOOD JOB IF IT IS ABOVE 5 MPs, i wouldn't mind a little extra boost for mine (300D shots are 6.3mps)

FIVE - very very slow start up time and picture loading time.

and No, i'm not a spoilt brat, i rarely ask for anything from my dad.

...................

Anyways, with that aside. The models i have been considering includes the CANON 400D, 450D, 1000D, 40D, and the all new 50D.

Basically, the 400D and 450D the younger siblings of my 300D; categorized under the 'entry-level' DSLR range.

The 4 digit 1000D is a bastard child that CANON suddenly decides to announce to the general public. The reason they made it 7 point focusing instead of 9 points in order it won't spoil its own market of the new 450D.
i guess they priced is so damn cheap (RM1999 retail price with all the standard thingy they will offer you, RM1899 if you buy through college, inclusive of a CANON EF 50mm PRIME f/1.8 lens which cost 300 bucks), is in order to spoil the other competitor's market targetted at student photographers. CANON FOR THE WIN.

2 digit 40D and its successor, the 50D are categorized under the amateur level DSLR. Has better processor, better speed, better this, better that, well, you get the idea lar. Comparison of the camera bodies only, the amateur level DSLR are nearly twice the price of the entry levels.

ok i sound a little tech nerd-ish now...

Anyways, since i'm at it, the Canon SINGLE digit series, the 1D, 1Ds, and 5D are aimed at those with too much money to spend, or preferably called, photo-enthusiast. Its fast, is has a wider focal range *(full frame for 1Ds and 5D, 1.3 crop factor for the 1D), larger mega pixel, HEAVY-IER, and yar, heads will turn when you walk pass not because you are good looking, because people are wondering how your neck can support the weight of a large camera mounted with a large lens. Easily above 3 kg.

Thats quite enough for intro on cameras. jeez, i'm starting to sound like a nerd i know.

*a bit on the FULL FRAME and crop factor thingy just in case some readers were wondering.
CANON's apex and highest of the high end model, the 1Ds is a full frame, along with slightly cheaper 5D. Full frame would mean the camera's sensor would shoot at 1.0X crop factor. in layman term, if you put a 18mm wide angle lens onto it, it will shoot at 18mm wide. The 1D has a 1.3X crop factor, therefore, an 18mm would be equivalent to a 23mm on a FULL FRAME. Mine is a 1.6X crop factor, therefore, mounting an 18mm lens on it would be equivalent to have zoom at a focal range of 28mm on a full frame DSLR.

The thing about fullframe is, it is superb if you are shooting uber wide angle shots, but you lose out when doing long range shot (but most probably any owner of fullframes can afford expensive lens)

P/S:
anyways, anyone has any plans/ideas/suggestion on how shall i CON me dad to buy me one for my 21st? :D

Simple Complexity Me.

2008-12-13T04:09:00.000+08:00

just a random thought before i started this entry.
i just finished Quantum of Solace at my mum's place.
which is what that led to this very random thought of mine

James Bond famous tagline/motto while introducing his name:
"My name is Bond. James Bond."

Presuming a chinese dude with surname/lastname KOK, and gives himself an english name,
and does his introduction James-Bond-style:
"My name is Kok. Harry Kok"

................................

That was just for laughs.
Anyways, i realised i have yet to do any ' formal introduction' of meself in this blog. Bits and pieces of me that you might already know, or you might not know at all. Got this idea from nic's entry on his Big List of List.
Amazing how he is capable of doing 'point form' for his intro, a real man-of-few-words indeed. Tough chance you gonna get something like that on MY BLOG :D

Jee, where do i start.

Physical first then.
i have a nice smile and loves to smile :D
if i havent smile for once in more than 2 minutes it would mean im pissed off, or im asleep.
well, my mum hoped that i would be a 6 footer, but thank god im not or else i would look way skinnier than i am now presuming i remain the same weight. i'm at the safe height of 175cm, that should be around 5 feet 10 a very nice height of not being too tall or too short (gotta consider asian chicks are not that tall), weighing around 55kg and well aware that im underweight, thanks to my uber metabolic rate.

Skin tone on the scale from 1 - 10, 1 being fairest, 10 being dark, i think i fall at 4. okay okay, maybe 3. Oh by the way, my right arm is darker than my left arm... waaaay darker.
i have hyperactive hormones that produces too much sebum on my face every now and then, thus causing me to not look as good as i should be. ahh jee, GOD is fair. Having decent intelectual capacity and a prettier face would mean i PWN all lar those pretty boys out there. :D muahahahahaha.....

oh hair.. jeez how can i forget that. Thick black hair, trimmed short, just enough for it to go anti-gravity. oh and I DON'T BELIEVE IN 'having long hair brands you as an artistic person'. Guys should have short to medium length hair. NOT LONG HAIR. The weather here is like omgwdfbbq.

built wise i guess i'm just lean/toned, too skinny to have a muscular built.

Pierced my left ear when i was 14. ONLY 1 piercing. More than that leads to either punk (i dont mind actually),
or the Sungei-Wang-Syndromme. it's either an earring or a Black Pearl stud that i put on.

Mentality.
i strongly believes Confidence Conquers All.
Positive mindset gets you to places, meeting people, and doing things that makes people go 'whaooo'...
that reminds me, thank god i got to know Rachel, Ziwen as friends in Journalism. Hanging around with people with confidence and a positive mindset makes you feel,
what's that word arh?? INVINSIBLE OR INVINCIBLE? i can never get it correct...
diu, go play World of Warcraft or Warcraft, get a PALADIN, initiate DIVINE SHIELD, then you get what i mean :D

btw, just to come back down to earth yar...
wanna know the difference between positive and negative mindset? Observe the way they talk, the choice of words, how they carry themselves, the way they walk, the way they sit, the way they present themselves. Mixing with negative mindset farqtards will end up having mindfarqed.
Best example: Attempting to persuade them to do something, before trying, i Cannot lar, i Don't Want lar...

well,
i have the whole dark-side, light-side thingy going in my head ALL THE TIME.
speaking of darkside and lightside, i met this dude once, his name is Luke, i had a random conversation with him,

"join me Luke, the force is stronger in the DARK SIDE".
"No... i shall remain in the BRIGHT SIDE."

and i was really wondering at that moment where he got his name from.
Luke Skywalker?? Ring any bells?? ahh jee... PHAIL!!

anyways, i do wonder sometimes do i have split personalities. maybe i ought to go for a checkup eih? i mean, i LOVE helping anyone i can whenever i can (upbringing, not that im soft or a push-over in this sense). Well that would be the nice me, or you are someone worth helping, or i just like helping you lar. Know that sometime i do consider on what will happen if i sabo someone (those i dularn lar), just for kicks, haven't really done it though... But consideration is there :D

On handling STRESS.
Technically, how my feeble brain works is relatively simple, problems/challenges/obstacle whatever that occur or anything from a question or statement from somebody or someone,
i disect it and break it down into a few pieces. Everything is simple when in small parts. Well after breaking it down, what i get usually its no more than 2-3 options of what i can do or can't do; along with should do or shouldn't do.
*instead of stressing on HOW LAR HOW LAR. SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!! and endup over stressed.
And along it i estimate the outcome of each option. it would naturally lead you back to Capt.Jack Sparrow's,

"What a MAN CAN DO, and what a MAN CAN'T DO".

So yar, the another thing about me is, i label people. You know stereotyping? well, if you did CULTURAL STUDIES, you would know that it helps you remember better. Generally lar, a person's morale and virtue, i label everyone as positive, good. Despite i dont know you. It helps you socialise faster, seriously. So if i get to know you better and like your personality, you'll see me inviting you for tea/chambing/ mamak/ pool/ movie/ hitch-a-ride-on-my-van/ fresh air behind block V / you know the rest... or, i could label you as farqtard, retard, nerd, slut, wannabe, trying-to-be-wannabe, and the most dangerous one of all 'PR practitioner - APPROACH WITH CAUTION', you won't really know what's in their mind, seriously. Not all PR lar, i hangout with the few good ones also ok. THE FEW.

and if it goes the other way, well... you'll be condemn by me lar. in my perspective, once you fall to negative, you can't regain to positive. Labelled under 'IGNORED'.

Despite the complacent me you see everyday, i am capable of getting serious. Seriously. Well the thing is, for everything i do in life, i need a motivation as a trigger. Anything can be a motivation. Then i need a focus point to know where i'm heading. i'm pretty much of an extremist, which would make the 'serious 'me no laugh, no smile at all. Kinda boring if you'd ask me. And when i go all out, i GO ALL OUT. When i go serious, i would endup too engross in completing the objective rather than enjoying the process of achieving it,
unless the objective is to WIN then it's different case lar.

Few rare examples of me being serious would be pool game against Melissa. and please don't say sorry for beating me 3 times in a row today, jeez... i don't need your pity. in fact, i'm grateful you won. it keeps me in check that i'm still capable of losing, and renders me from thinking i'm UN-PWN-ABLE.

i'm HIGHLY COMPETITIVE on things i participate or do. in other words, if i'm into that field, i would generally prefer not-losing. Or else i wouldn't bother to 'bother' at all. in general, i guess this is one way i improve myself. i'm not talented naturally. Therefore the only way i learn things is to screw up, learn from my mistake, improvise, improve, and farqing remember it. i usually have certain individuals i want to 'pwn' in certain aspect, not for the purpose of humilating them *might be fun to do that though :D,
but for the mere purpose of improving meself. Hey, should be an honor you know, if i label you as MY RIVAL.

i realised i have spend 2 hours plus trying to think what i am. jee, do i really know myself arh? hey why not you guys throw in comments on me :D

oh one more interesting fact. JUST FOR FUN. arhahhahaha

Type of Girl i Like.

Appearance
Fair skin, long straight hair, dangling earrings, NICE SMILE, around 165cm, weight around 50kg. white tank top and blue denim mini.
(better not put in vital stat or else my mum ketuk my head if she reads this post)

Character
oh, i believe in attraction of the opposite values. So, convert whatever i've written under my mentality to the opposite and you'll get the characteristic. Malas to type ...

NOW YOU KNOW WHY I'M STILL SINGLE.
arhahahahhahahahahhaa

And i thought all they did was coffee and donuts

2008-12-12T00:41:00.000+08:00

and there i was...
thinking on what to blog about since i haven't got any decent photos to post these few days.

Plug on to my iPOD,
i was crossing the street with traffic lights,
RED obviously at that moment,
and a very dangerous thing to do.
i turn my head, looking back to ensure there wasn't any cars taking a turn that would end up knocking me down.
Dying in the middle of the road is fugly. Seriously.

At the sight of the nearest car to me was easily 15 feet away, i sprint to the opposite, along with my laptop hanging across my left shoulder, and the 400D slinging on my right.

Proud of meself being able to run across with a single breath, i continued walking to my van.
Sudden revving of engine could be heard even through earphones, and the next thing i know, a WHITE WAJA WITH SIRENS stopped next to me.

The co-driver's door was definitely open before the car stop, as he came down in one swift motion, and demanded me stop.

*huh? oh shit... i jump red light...
eih wait, i walking lar.
There is no such thing as jumping red light for people walking right? ... ...
or wrong?

"Bawa apa, pergi mana, I.C. mana," he vomitted out the words within a blink of an eye.
Before i could digest what was happening, he was enquiring again what was slinging on my right shoulder.

Reaching for the back right pocket of my jeans, i pulled out my leather wallet.
Stretching her legs wide, ops... i mean the flap, er the thingy lar,
i slide out the the first card on the left, and handed it grudgefully to the man.
While he verifies my identity, his colleague the driver, came out of his seat and had a small chat with me.

Repeating half the question that has been asked and ANSWERED is ANNOYING.

Playing along, half faking my fake smile, half cursing in my mind that their fates were doomed (and would crash into some random tree/car/something-solid) from the moment they stopped me and deprieved me of me iPOD headbanging.

"Tadi apa pasal you tengok belakang lepas tu lari? Aku ingat kamu lari lepas nampak kereta polis..."

*i was crossing farqing street you dumb farqtard. WALKING SLOWLY across has a higher marginal chance of landing me in the hospital bed thanks to those lala shits who loves to go vroom vroom.

Automated PR Mechanism activated, i said,
"Ya lar Tuan, memang banyak kes jenayah dekat sini. Hari tu rumah saya hampir kena pecah masuk juga. Kena ronda lebih oh... .... ... (you guys know how long i can talk when i start)"

*He then thanked me,
i'm not sure whether he apologise for stopping me, but i was quite sure i heard him saying, then again i might be the one hearing things.

........................

So much for STOP, SEARCH, SEIZE, ARREST that i learn from English Legal System Classes.

Dog Fight

2008-12-07T01:57:00.000+08:00

Ok, screw it.
Forget what i wrote in my previous post stating ima blog only with photos.
That is plain retarded. Emo emo sajer...
Anyways, i none 'voluntarily' involved in TAR COLLEGE Intercampus Sports Carnival again. Went to look for Wallace, shoot some photos, then the SAD officer (Student Affair Department) came.

..........................

"Hey ben, you shooting arh?"
*diu... you see me holding a DSLR, takan i wanking with it

"No lar sir, for fun only. Testing new gear."
*i know what is coming next...

"oh like that arh, you shoot and pass us the photos also lar. i want big big size so can make banting..."
*diu... can't reject him. he remembers my name... then again, i have always been the 'active' one

"errr sir, wei ji shooting anot? his camera can give you BIG BIG photo for banting. Mine NOT SO BIG... "
*i had the urge to say it was WIDE, mana tau nanti he get the wrong idea...

"Yar he shooting..."
"ok sir, then i pass the photos to you later lar..."

......................

Thats how i got 'committed' into shooting for Intercampus Sports again. Well, the thing is, when i am shooting not for passion or FOR MY GRATIFICATION PURPORSES, i tend to,

err.. malas to do so much effort lar~

but end up running around the football field, basketball court, volleyball court just to attempt to capture a few decent shots.

looking at my gear, i'm definitely not equiped for Sport/Action photography. but farq it lar, my lens can't go near enough, I GO NEAR MYSELF...

That is why, i don't understand, why some people with 70-200mm Ultrasonic Motor L lens CONSTANT f/2.8, wants to stand behind behind to shoot.
Diu, you get a farqing bazooka lens so you can shoot from far only meh?
The purpose is so you can get closer shots marh.
At the range you shoot at, me and my 28-90mm also can cover that ground lor.

And if your defence is

'so that the ball won't hit me',

i was thinking, diu... go shoot models lor... models won't bite you one.
Seriously, maybe i boh zhai si or what lar, human got sense one mar.
if the ball coming, dodge the farqing ball like Neo dodge bullets in the Matrix lar~

..................................

That is why i always say...
SKILLs PWN GEARS... or so i thought until...

i tried on that lens, and i was like omg-wdf-bbqed.
With that kinda gear, skill might not be able to compensate the difference.

anyways, seeing weiji has the lens, i told him to shoot football, he replied with his usual i-dont-have-the-right-gear look,

"This max focal length is 200mm ONLY, i need atleast 300mm to shoot football..."
i totally felt like slapping him. Seriously.

*btw, that lens cost like RM 4k now. just in case you were wondering why i don't own one *you are welcome to buy me one for my birthday you know :D

i always believed, at different focal length, there is always different to shots to be made. In fact, a shot at 300mm removes too much background detail. What i'm trying to say is, even you are mounted with a kit lens, there is always still something to shoot.

Think Out of the Farqing Box lar

if photography is limited by what gear you have, then seriously, i would sell my 300D and buy a kite to fly. Care to join? Kelantan is good :D

anyways, since i realised no one really gives a damn about the metadata of every shot i take, i'm not gonna post them anymore.

oh, just trying a new way of laying out my pictures. So as you can see, its 'sprinkled' all over my typing.

2 on 1
Two School of Business Studies students tackling a School of Social Science and Humanities Student.

Aren't they pussies?

Clear
A Spike made by a School of Technology Students against our boys.
It was in the semi-finals.
We won by only 2 points difference.

Nice Balls You Have There
i found the angle the SOT student looking at the football very very amusing. it looked like he was checking on a different ball :D

Not So Easy!!
a i-dont-know-from-what-school goalkeeper stops a shot from entering his goal

I've Got the Ball.
Yup, you sure did, right on target.
OUCH!!

Shall We Dance?
a SSH student performs break dance in the middle of a game. We are the best lar :D

btw, if you are wondering who was that,
that's David from Hotel Management Year 1.

Thanks
for the Support
Body contact and such makes handling the football way easier.

Chance!!
An opening right beside long stretched arms gives opportunity for a nice sharp spike.

P/S:
im running out of ideas on what shots to do...
anyone have any idea / suggestion on what should i shoot or 'try to shoot'?
thanks in advance...

i would be using Nic's 400D up to 20th December. Thanks Nic :D
9 point focusing FOR THE WIN.
my 300D is having PMS. Error 99 and corrupted data all the way.
and i thought i was the only one 'under the weather'

Mere Random-ness

2008-12-04T03:03:00.000+08:00

i find it hard to word my feelings now. The right words to express it just seem to slip off my mind. and if i do find the right words, i would endup hurting people i care.

"Love is fragile..." was what she once told me.
Well, i guess "Feelings are way more fragile..."

i've never led any girl into tears in the 20 years of my life.(*bully my sister when i was a small kid don't count lar.) Seriously... i felt horrible of what my actions led to. Sensitivity of an individual is not relevant here, i myself should have been able to foreseen the consequences of my action.

For once, i have no excuse for myself. Nor do i need to find one. My heart aches in pain when i found out what happen. it still do...

Apology wouldn't mend anything at this point, anyhow, i'm terribly sorry.

i should stop here. i can go on describing about my feelings which would then cause all the readers of this blog emo, or out of protectiveness, friends will start writing nasty things about the other individual, which would lead to the whole scenario again.
i love you guys, seriously... thanks for being there, i can take care of myself.. jeez, im gonna be 21 in a month time ok!!

anyways, i've decided this would be the last entry with words until further notice. i'm just going to shoot and post pictures here, something i do best without hurting anyone's feeling.
enjoy the pics. :D

A Not-So-Lonely-Night
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6,
with f/16,
shutter speed 15 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 55mm focal length
Location: In front of Steven's Corner, Jalan Genting Kelang

Reaching Out
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5.6,
shutter speed 1/100 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 46mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

Reaching Out II
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5.6,
shutter speed 1/80 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 46mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

In Dark, I THINK
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5,
shutter speed 1/30 seconds,
at ISO 400,
at 25mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

Dog Fight
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 50mm PRIME lens f/1.8,
with f/1.8,
shutter speed 1/1600 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 50mm focal length
Location: TAR COLLEGE Basketball Court.

Bamboo Leaves
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 50mm PRIME lens f/1.8,
with f/1.8,
shutter speed 1/4000 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 50mm focal length
Location: around TAR COLLEGE.

In love with the Sun
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5.6,
shutter speed 1/800 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 55mm focal length
Location: My place, Happy Garden

Bamboo Leaves II
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 50mm PRIME lens f/1.8,
with f/1.8,
shutter speed 1/4000 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 50mm focal length
Location: TAR COLLEGE Basketball Court.

Flying Kite in the Dark
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5.6,
shutter speed 30 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 37mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

Kuala Lumpur
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/18
shutter speed 30 seconds,
at ISO 200,
at 55mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place

Silhouttes
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/5.6,
shutter speed 1/80 seconds,
at ISO 200,
at 55mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

In chase of Sunset
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/36,
shutter speed 1/5 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 55mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

In chase of Sunset II
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens,
with f/36,
shutter speed 1/25 seconds,
at ISO 100,
at 55mm focal length
Location: Rachel's Place, Bukit Antarabangsa

There's A Story Behind
Shot with 400D,
mounted with 50mm PRIME lens f/1.8,
with f/1.8, shutter speed 1/15 seconds,
at ISO 200,
at 50mm focal length
Location: Mid Valley Megamall

P/S:
i found the One word to describe my feelings right now, FUBAR