Alex’s Blog

No no, not my blog, but my baby boy. He has reached a milestone; turning 1 year-old last week. “One”, signifying a first, I guess entitles him to a few more “firsts”. So besides his first birthday cake, his grandparents (mom’s side) also bought him his first shoes.

We also took him on a holiday to Berjaya Hills (not his first holiday actually), and as soon as I’m done post processing the pictures taken, I’ll post them up here.

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 haven’t been out shooting for sometime now, having to juggle work and family, and an upcoming “project” which I have to spend time researching and reading on. I had a break yesterday afternoon since Wifey was out getting her hair done and my kid was sound asleep, so I quickly grabbed my camera, put my handphone and 2 plastic bags in a small Nikon shoulder bag and headed off to Bukit Hijau. This Bukit Hijau is not the one in Kedah, but the mini one near Greenlane Heights apartment.

Before I headed out to shoot, I set some challenge for this round. My good friend LoctorMayat would refer to this as No Frills™ photography, but basically what it means is no post processing like cropping, color adjustments, noise removal or any sort like that is allowed. But obviously I will resize the pictures for Internet upload purposes and that’s the only thing done to all the pictures U see here. In order to achieve this I cannot rely on the Standard Picture Control setting anymore which I have used all this while. As I like colors that really pop, I selected the Vivid Picture Control, added a notch to sharpening from 4 to 5, and bumped up saturation another 2 clicks.

To make things more interesting, I also added another rule to the challenge, all shots are to be at 18mm only, like as if I was using a prime lens instead of a zoom.

After about 30 minutes walking and shooting, I reached the peak and not a moment too soon as it started to drizzle lightly. So I quickly go grab some shots…

…and made my way down. I also took some shots which I had missed earlier.

and my favourite shot of the day…

A few things I have learned from this exercise:
1 - I am damn unfit,
2 - It’s very difficult to hold yourself steady for a shot when your heart is pounding,
3 - zoom lenses will make U become lazy, and
4 - 18mm isn’t wide enough for a really breathtaking landscape shot.

The exercise has certainly been fun and it was really a great workout. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at the same time being kind to my body. I would certainly like to try some No Frills™ street shooting next when I have the chance. U hear that Loctor?

I’m working on something big along with a “partner” right now. Hopefully everything will be finalized by the middle of the month and we can go live by early December.

For a sneek preview, head over to http://www.malaysianphotographers.com/

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.

Finally, I’ve got the approval from my buddy to post their wedding pictures and use them as my “portfolio”. So without further adue…enjoy.

Daniel & Wai Mung

Do come back here if U would like to leave any comments

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

Last Saturday, I joined my Wifey and her friends on a firefly watch outing in Sungai Kerian near Nibong Tebal. There were a total of 11 of us who went in 3 cars. We met up at Autocity’s McDonald’s restaurant and as we were unsure of the way to the Sungai Kerian jetty, I was tasked as the navigator. Fortunately I had earlier entered our destination as a POI on my N95’s Garmin software.

We left Autocity at about 4:45pm and along the highway, it started to drizzle! Thank god, we were heading away from the clouds and sure enough the drizzle stopped when we finally reached the jetty at about 5pm.

As we were early, we wandered around the area, snapped some group photos and I finally had the chance to test out my less-than-24-hour-old brand new toy…:D

Soon, the tour operator arrived and gave us a quick briefing and told us to put on our life jackets.

He also told us to use the washroom if we had to. If not, we will have to hold it in for 2 hours, if not it’s freeshow for all in the open sea…LOL. After taking turns going to the washroom, we were on our way…

During the trip, the operator talked about the ecosystem of the river. He was speaking in Mandarin, and me and my Wifey being bananas (me being the bigger banana), we had to rely on her friends to translate for us.

The first item he mentioned was that there are man-made ponds of sort used to rear fish near the jetty.

If U watch closely in the picture above, there are small tree trunks used to build a structure to create the pond. But I was more interested in capturing the reflections of the tree and sky on the river instead.

The next thing we saw was a flock of egrets hanging around the mangrove trees. These are the same mangrove trees that fireflies hang around at night hoping to find a mating partner.

Another shot of the flock of egrets. Notice the huge pipes sticking out of the river. Those contraptions are used to suck water from the river into nearby ponds used to rear fish.

We also managed to catch a group of monkeys monkeying around on the other side of the river. This picture was heavily cropped from the original picture as we were on the other side of the river and the lens I have is not as telephoto as I wished it was. The power of 12.3 megapixels. HAHAHA!

Not long after that we passed by a fishing village by the river.

And we also got a glimpse of a guard dog swimming in the river. Cute as it may be, we were told that these guard dogs are not to be messed with. The moment U swim near the fishing village, the guard dogs will spring into action to protect their masters’ belongings.

Next up, a huge building built on top of the water. It houses, among others, a floating restaurant that tourists or anyone can go in to enjoy fresh seafood. We didn’t stop there though…

Then we left the river mouth and headed into the open sea. Luckily the sea was calm on that day and the ride was pretty smooth. After about 5 minutes or so, we arrived at one of the floating platforms used to rear fish.

It’s pretty huge and my guestimate is that it is at least 40*40 feet. The guide told us that each plank that we stepped on costs RM400!!!

Each “square” on the platform is used to rear different breed and size of fish. We were also told, each “square” is about RM20,000!!!

After spending about 20 minutes on the platform, the sun slowly began to set and we managed to catch a few great shots of it. It was pretty difficult trying to get a correct horizontal shot when U are sitting on a rocking boat, but here’s another shot that I managed to grab.

I love this shot as there is a mixture of golden sunlight reflecting on the clouds with blue skies on the side.

And soon after that, the sun was completely gone, and it was time to make our way home. We reached the mangrove trees we passed by earlier and by then it was completely dark with the moonlight being the only light to guide us. We did see a lot of fireflies, but my attempts to photograph them were not that successful. In reality, it was sort like a Christmas tree lit up but with tiny bulbs. But in my photographs they looked more like hotpixels rather than flickering fireflies.

We soon left the mangrove trees and were back on the jetty in no time. By then, it was already 8:30pm and all of us were starving. The guide asked us what we would like to have for dinner, we settled for seafood and were given a nearby recommendation.

We quickly made our orders and soon after that our “appetizer” came.

Boiled (I think) octopus. Served with chilli sauce with fine grounded nuts. We were hungry, so these were finished very very quickly.

Moments later, our rice and dishes arrived.

And we also ordered their speciality, crab porridge.

Divided equally, we payed RM17 each, not bad lah. The promfret itself was already RM48 if not mistaken.

After that we walked back to the jetty, bid farewell and went into our separate cars and headed home. An afternoon and night well spent.

For more information on the firefly watch and other exciting activities operated by our tour guide, check out the website of the tour operator at http://www.amazingplanner.com.my/.

U can also see some other shots from this outing on my earlier post below.