Alex’s Blog

Well, not exactly. But I’ve decided to “migrate” my blog to another site, shared with a fellow photographer who I think is extremely talented. There are a few factors that has made me arrive at the decision to close down this blog:

1 - Freehostia, while is very generous at providing free webspace with 0 advertisments, needs to buck up at maintaining uptime. My blog has been down for a couple of times, and there was once where the downtime was for a couple of days because of “server migration”.

2 - My Wordpress is still at version 2.6.3, and I don’t feel like upgrading it to the latest version.

3 - Because of reason number 2 above, I’m getting spammed left, right, and center as my akismet plugin stopped working. As I am typing this, there are 685 comments to be approved. (And I can bet they are all spam)

4 - http://www.malaysianphotographers.com/blog is WAY WAY cooler than http://alexchew.freehostia.com/blog.

5 - I can *finally* afford paid hosting. LOL

6 - 2 heads are better than 1. Or in this case, 2 bloggers are better than 1.

So as they say, all good things must come to an end, and this is, the end of Chapter 1. From now on, please head on over to AC2Photography Blog where the action continues. I sincerely thank all my loyal fans and followers for allowing me to waste their time with my silly posts. I hope they are as entertaining for U to read as it was for me to write them.

So remember boys and girls…

AC2Photography Blog. Watcha waiting for?

Most important thing before U attempt to take these kinds of macro shot is to ensure that your CD is dust-free. LOL

And yes, I know these “water droplets on a CD” shots have been done to death.

When U are bored and have about an hour to kill, what do U do? What I did was put on the +4 close-up filter and shot anything I could get my hands on.

A colleague of mine recommended Hotel626 to me, which is a flash game website. Not just any flash game, but a horror game. It can make use of your webcam and mic for a really emersive gameplay, but U can skip it and just point and click with your mouse instead. The creators recommend that U turn off the lights and plug in your earphones for that maximum effects, which I did. The graphics and sound effects really gave me the goosebumps. However, the loading does takes some time, and I would recommend that U let it load for about 30 minutes before U start playing. I completed the game in less than 45 minutes (including the loading). Do take note that the website only works from 6pm to 6am (hence Hotel626), but U can bypass that by setting your PC clock to anytime in between.

So, if U have the guts, click on the link above and get ready to piss your pants.

If U need any hints for any stage, just post a comment and I’ll give U a clue.

Since our 1st photo outing which I had posted here was quite successful, I organized another one and this time our group grew to 11 people, thanks to LoctorMayat who brought his colleagues and also Alexandra who brought her assistant…LOL. This time, we went to shoot the Kek Lok Si temple in Air Itam which was fully lit for 15 days during the Chinese New Year.

Lanterns, lanterns, and more lanterns…

ISO3200 shot…I love my D90.

And playing with Starburst filter in Photoshop…

We also went up to the Kuan Yin statue but as soon as we reached, it was time for lights out. What a bummer. Oh well, I guess there is always a next time, or in this case, a next year.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year

This has been a pet project that my partner and I have been working on for sometime now, since early November to be exact. The idea was actually a spontaneous one. I asked my partner (my Wifey’s colleague back then) if she was interested to team up to earn some extra cash for our very expensive hobbies…and as the say, the rest is history.

We initially planned to launch in Mid Dec ‘08, but thanks to my super rusty HTML skills, our packed schedules with our own families and also not forgetting the year end holidays and such, the project was delayed and delayed…until now. Ok ok, I’m just making up excuses, but what the heck.

Head on over to malaysianphotographers.com to find out more on our photography services. And as a special launch/early bird promo, we are giving a 10% discount for all confirmed bookings made before 31st March 2009.

We took my baby boy up to Berjaya Hills as part of his small 1 year-old birthday celebration on new year’s eve. Berjaya Hills is previously known as Bukit Tinggi, and is situated just next to Genting Highlands in Bentong, Pahang. In fact, U practically have to use the same route up to Genting Highlands, and take a detour and drive another 30 minutes or so before U reach Berjaya Hills.

There are basically 3 resorts U can stay in Berjaya Hills, the regular golf and country club, Colmar Tropical, and Japanese Village. My wife made reservations for a room in Colmar Tropical, which is a French-themed resort.

After settling in, we quickly took our buffet lunch at one of the many French-wannabe restaurants, and waited for the resort provided shuttle to ferry us to the rabbit farm. But before that, I managed to snap a few shots around the resort’s lake.

5 minutes later, the shuttle arrived, and we were off to go see Bugs Bunnies…:D

Besides rabbits, they also have some horses, a deer and some other farm animal which I can’t recall…LOL! We spent like 30 minutes there, but had to wait another 30 minutes for the shuttle to come fetch us. After that , we went back to the resort, and decided to drive out instead, so we don’t have to rely on public transport schedules. We jumped into the car, and headed to the Japanese Village, which also hosts the Botanical Gardens.

My handheld, slow shutter shot. I love VR.

The Koi pond in the Botanical Gardens. U can buy some fish feed for these hungry buggers. After another 30 minutes in both the Japanese Village AND Botanical Gardens, we headed back to the resort. On the way up, I stopped by the roadside to snap a picture of one of the upcoming resorts, which I also cannot recall the name…must be getting old.

Back in the resort, we went out to scout the place, which takes no more than 30 minutes. There is an “observation tower” situated right at the end of the resort, where U can get sort of a full view of Colmar Tropicale.

I also took a night short of the same scene.

After the buffet dinner at night (which was compulsory as part of their New Year’s Eve celebration), my wife and I went out to snap more pictures. One of the more interesting pictures is the drawbridge leading into the resort.

After that, we headed back to out room and called it a night. At the stroke of midnight, where were fireworks to welcome 2009, but we were too dead tired after the long drive and scouting of the place to get up to see it.

The next day, we decided there isn’t much too see, so we had our buffet breakfast, checked-out and headed home. I guess this is one place which I will not be coming again for a foreseeable future.