Alex’s Blog

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.

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.

Some shots taken during our street photography outing last weekend. For really great pics captured from a friend who was also in the group, U will want to head over to Alexandra’s Flickr. I guess after U’ve seen her’s, there’s really no other point to see others. LOL!

And now, some HDR…

And my favorite shot from the whole bunch, as they say, save the best for last…:D

I had the opportunity to let my hair down (ok, I have super short hair, but that’s not the point) when I attended my department’s Christmas party in Parkroyal last Tuesday. But since so many “budding photographers” in my department have their own dSLR (even 1 guy with L lenses), I decided not to bring mine and just take some snapshots with my N95 instead.

Granted, there’s no way on earth a cameraphone’s teeny-tiny sensor can match a real camera (dSLR or even just a basic PnS) in terms of detail resolution, dynamic range and ISO noise performance. Nor do U get the experience and enjoyment of shooting with a dSLR on a cameraphone. But…

What I’m trying to say is that by shooting with a super-duper dSLR doesn’t automatically mean U will have great pictures. In these times when dSLRs are getting cheaper and cheaper, a lot of noobs/rich kids will just go out, buy one and go “Hey lookie here I got a dSLR and U are still using a stupid compact ha ha ha”. Same thing applies to those with super-duper L/gold-ring lenses or elite f/2.8 tele that looks down on kit lens users. It really pisses me off when these kids/rich guys who knows jack shite about photography or how a dSLR works comes showing off their gear, but with no good pictures to share, only under-exposed, framed like a donkey’s backside or worse still, super blur ones then they go asking “Eh how come my RM10,000 lens got IS/VR but the picture still blur har?”. Worst of all, some of these people don’t even know how shutter speed, aperature and exposure are all related. LMAO

So boys and girls, it doesn’t matter if some rich kid comes up to U and brags about his super elite gear U would have to sell an arm and a leg (or maybe all your limbs) to afford. Show them what U can do with your camera and shut them up. Remember, only gearheads talk about camera, photographers talk about the pictures. Ken Rockwell also sort of talks about this in his Seven Levels of Photographers and The Two Kinds of Photographers articles he wrote a long time ago. Although some of his articles on Nikon’s greatness is so far fetched, I have to admit I do agree with him on both articles.

I also have a great story about a hammer and a bridge, but let’s save that for another day when I feel like ranting again.

Oh yeah…and Merry Christmas!

An impromptu shot of fishing boats in Kuala Sepetang, where they serve fresh seafood.

I have to admit, I’m a total noob when it comes to Photoshop. All I’ve been doing with it is mostly to:
1 - Crop,
2 - Sharpen,
3 - Auto Levels, and
4 - De-noise.

Well, today, with a short, simple yet effective tutorial from a friend whom I think is a very very talented photographer / Photoshopper (is that even a valid word?), I had a go at post-processing one of my sunset pictures taken during the firefly watch outing not too long ago. My objective was to make the sky as dramatic as I could without making it look fake. I spent 5 minutes in CS3 and this was the result, again thanks to the tutorial.

Not too bad for a first attempt if I don’t say so myself…LOL. Actually, I got too excited about the results I forgot to watermark the picture, and I’m too lazy to redo everything again.

So anyways, if U are interested to see more pictures of surreal skies and other beautiful, beautiful pictures, do check out Alexandra Chiam’s Flickr right away. I promise, U will not be disappointed.

Besides the lack of interesting subjects, what else can I say? Let the pictures do the talking.

All these were taken during the firefly watch outing yesterday, which I will blog about in a bit. But for now, enjoy these first shots from the D90 with the 18-105mm VR kit lens.

Flower “macro” shot.

What the $!*# are U looking at?

The boat we took for the firefly watch.

A flock of egrets flying away as our boat approached.

My not-so-successful panning bird shot.

Fishing boats.

A fisherman in action.

A fishing boat zooming by us.

Bird on a pole.

A floating platform in the open sea used to rear fish.

A “cat couple” on the platform. Must be food paradise for them

The golden sunset, my personal favorite from the whole bunch of pics.

And finally, one of the many unsuccessful panning shots of fireflies, at ISO3200.

That’s all for now.