What A Week....

Quite a hectic week I last last week. I will try to summarize them here in this posting. So bear with me as this is going to be quite a long posting.

1. Teh Tarik session with Photographer friends. (Monday, March 30, 2009)

Sumardi (a photographer friend I met during the F2000 Powerboat Race) was down in KK for a short visit. He decided to have a teh tarik session among some photographer friends that we met Facebook. We had a great time and it was fun getting to know fellow photographers from KK.
Click on this link to view some photos taken during the Teh Tarik Session

2. Model Photoshoot Session - Rani Maan (Tuesday, March 31, 2009)

This model photoshoot session was arranged by Sumardi. The model is a friend of mine. I asked her if she would be interested to be a model for our photoshoot and she agreed to it. I used this oportunity to learn about lighting setup for portraiture. Special thanks to all the other photographers there that night for helping and guiding me. It was my first time doing a model photoshoot session.

Photos taken on that night can be viewed at the links below.

• My Project 365
• My Flickr Album

3. Model Photoshoot Session - Fharelynne Ivonne (Thursday, April 2, 2009)

Sumardi had another portraiture session on Thursday. This time our model would be Fharelynne, Unduk Ngadau for 2004. Our initial plan was to do a photoshoot at Likas Bay but due to the unbearable sun, we moved location to Tanjung Aru 2nd Beach. It was a great and fun session. Thankfully, there we lots of guidance that day. I received lots of help from my fellow photographers. I will definately try to learn more from them. Perhaps I should tag with them more often, just to give myself the necessary exposure.

Photos taken on that night can be viewed at the links below.

• My Project 365
• My Flickr Album

4. Fast And Furious 4 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)


It's been a while since I went to the movies. A friend managed to get a ticket for me on Thursday night. Well, technically, I was a replacement. Rani was supposed to go but due to work commitments, she was unable to go for the movie. So I offered to take the available ticket. The movie was nice. Lots of fast cars, non stop action and lots of eye candy as well.

5. Shell Ferrari Model Car Launching at 1Borneo Hypermall - (Saturday, April 4, 2009)

Coralie invited me to attend the above function, which was being held at 1Borneo. It function was for the launching of the new Shell Ferrari Model Cars with touch steering. You can read more on the model car here. Below are some photo's which I took at the event.






After the event, we went around walking for a while before deciding to leave 1Borneo. We left at about 7.00 pm. I headed towards Coralie's house as I had to drop her off. Once we reached there, I decided to stay for a while as her cousins would be dropping by later. They were planning to do some hunting that night. I was there till about 12.00 am. In case you are curious on what they were hunting, check out the link below for the photo.

• The Hunt

6. Visit to a crocodile farm. - (Sunday, April 5, 2009)

Kenneth (Coralie's cousin) knew a person who has a crocodile farm. That Sunday evening, we all decided to make a visit to the farm to have a closer look at the crocodile. Nothing much to report from the farm, but click on the link below for a view of the crocodile.

• Crocodile

Well, that is all the activity I had last week. Don't know yet how this week would be. But rest assured, I will keep all of you informed.

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Kiansom Waterfalls, Inanam, Sabah

:::... Kiansom Waterfalls, Inanam, Sabah ...:::

My last posting I gave a brief writeup on the Kiansom Waterfall, Inanam, Sabah. Here is the full report from my weekend excursion.

The say started early for us. We had made plans to meet up at one of the restaurant nearby for breakfast. We all met up at 8.00am and had breakfast amidst laughter and anticipation of the trek ahead. There were 9 of us at the restaurant when I got the call from Sharin that he would not be joining us for breakfast. Instead he would be waiting at the waterfall location.

After breakfast we all headed down to Kiansom Waterfalls. I introduced the rest to Sharin as it was the first time that they meeting him. We paid the entrance fees (RM 1.00 per person) and Sharin led the way up to the waterfall. We would be going further up, not the usual place where others usually picnic. Sharin has been there once, so he was our guide.

:::... At the beginning of the hike ...:::

:::... Me taking a rest ...:::

The track itself was not to difficult. It was a uphill track with slippery boulders to be wary off. We had reach a spot which looked promising, but according to Sharin, there is a better spot further up. So Sharin and myself left the others and proceeded to hike further up to look for the waterfall. Once we found the fall, we went back down to call the rest to come up. It was another 20 minutes hike up and down before we arrived at the intended location.

:::... Crossing the stream to get to the other side ...:::

:::... Unwelcomed guest ...:::

Sharin and myself wasted no time in setting up our tripod and camera, while the rest we getting ready to hit the water. The scene there was absolutely breathtaking. Such a calm and serene feeling. We were only about 15 minutes away from civilization, but it sure feels like we were a hundred miles away.

:::... Kiansom Waterfalls, Inanam, Sabah ...:::

:::... Such breathtaking view ...:::

We spent quite sometime there. At about noon we decided to head down as the weather has not been to kind lately. We would want to be caught in the rain, especially when we are at a waterfall.

:::... Taking some time out after swimming ...:::

:::... Back to civilization ...:::

:::... Group photo before departing ...:::

We all arrived down safely but a bit tired from our track down. We then proceed to Inanam to have our lunch. We did a postmortem on our excursion, and we unanimously agreed that a second outing is to be planned in the near future.

:::... Lunch Time ...:::

Note : More photos available at my Flickr gallery and Facebook gallery

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Kiansom Waterfalls, Inanam, Sabah

It has been quite sometime since I went to a waterfall. I used to go to a lot of waterfalls when I was younger. Back then, every weekend would be spent at a waterfall at my dad's estate. It was great fun. We would all set up a BBQ and would potluck food from home. Sadly, I never managed to learn swimming. Up to today, I am still not able to swim.

Tomorrow (22 March 2009), me and a bunch of friends would be headed towards the Kiansom Waterfalls in Inanam, Kota Kinabalu. The initial plan was for me and Sharin to go there for a photoshoot. Sharin has been there before and according to him the waterfall is a great place to practice photography. I then asked if I could bring along some non photographer friends, and have some sort like a mini outing. Great way to relax and unwind after a long week of work Sharin was ok with this plan, so I sent a few instant messages and got about 7 friends who would be joining me and Sharin.

Below is a map on how to get to Kiansom Waterfalls. I did do a seach on Google on Kiansom Waterfall but there doens't seem to be much information available on Google. I will do a short writeup on Kiansom Waterfalls once I get back from there tomorrow. Hopefully I can manage some decent waterfall shots.



Do check back on Monday or Tuesday (latest) in the updates on Kiansom Waterfall.

Have a great weekend all......

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Project 365

Hello and Happy New Year to all.

Danny and myself are planning to embark on a new project for the year 2009. This project is called PROJECT 365. Basically, we would each try to take one picture for each day and try to post it up in our respective blogs. Danny has decided to maintain his pictures in his existing blog, and I have created a blog specifically for this purpose. The new blog will be a photoblog, no description whatsoever. Only the photo and the EXIF will be show on the blog.

I will do a link back to this blog to share on the technical details of a specific photo (location, method, tips, gears, etc). The reason being I have chosen a template that has a clean background and I have set it up to maximize the photo to be shared. Makes more sense to do a photoblog rather than jumble everything up here. Call me fussy, but that is how I work (plus its free).

The new URL for Project 365 is as below. Do check it out daily, starting from 1 January 2009. Comments and feedback are much appreciated.

Project 365 - A Photo A Day

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DIY Lightbox Project

As i was browsing thru the postings in ShutterAsia forum, I came across and interesting article by one of the forumer. He had done a lightbox and posted some sample pictures. Seeing this, I was inspired to do my own lightbox.

Materials Needed

• White Light Bulbs
• Cardboard boxes
• White paper (I used manila card)
• Aluminium foil
• Craft blades, marker pen, masking tape, double sided tape

:::.. Material Needed for the DIY Lightbox Project ...:::

:::... Another view of the materials needed ...:::

:::.. Found this old cardboard box lying around in the office. The lights would be placed inside this box ...:::

:::... Remove the top and punch a hole for the light bulb ...:::

:::... View of the hole made to accommodate the light bulb ...:::

:::... Line the inside of the box with aluminum foil ...:::

:::... View of the light source once the bulb is in place ...:::

:::... Remove the top of the bigger box to make the mini studio ...:::

:::... Line the inside of the bigger box with white paper. Careful not to dirty the paper as it will reflect on the pictures taken later ...:::

:::... The completed setup ...:::

I am not quite satisfied with the lightbox as yet. One thing that I noticed is that the lights are not quite bright enough. For this setup, I used 2 units of 8W bulbs. I think I would have to change the bulbs to a higher Watt. I am also thinking of adding additional light on top of the box, so that I would be getting 3 light source instead of two. I also plan to to cover the whole box in with white paper. Maybe that would help to reflect the lights more.

Stay tuned for more updates on this project. Here is a sample shot taken. No PP done except for resizing and placing the watermark.

Nikon D60 + Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55 mm — Aperture Priority, f/5.6, ISO 100

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