Approaching the Year End

Its been really hectic the past few weeks, not just with work. Now speaking of work, sometimes I feel that we are biting more than we can chew.

Nuff said.

I've also been making myself busy shooting (pictures) almost every weekend now. Two weeks ago was a portrait shooting event organised by my fellow shutter-bug and sifu fox which is detailed in my other blog here (or the link to the left), while last weekend was mainly location scouting at KLCC for good views (also posted in the other blog).

This weekend there is a colleague's wedding event at Labis, Johor. Hopefully I can wake up early for a tentative 6am-ish start from KL to reach there by 9am when the ceremony starts. Hope there are no speed traps too ...heh.

And the weekend after that, there is ANOTHER wedding event...in Malacca. Phew.... thats quite a bit for me. This is followed by my leave to Singapore to welcome a friend from Holland and to visit other friends there.

With all these shooting, I'm running out of space on my 20Gb laptop reeaal fast. Sigh, I need to get myself a big external hard drive......

Climate Change

Has anyone noticed the quite dramatic change in our weather patterns and climate recently? It all started mainly after the recent short spell of haze we had. Two thursdays ago I noticed what initially I thought was haze (and news over the radio blindfully announced that the haze has returned again), but it wasn't. It was more like mist ... maybe even low clouds..but the latter is almost impossible on low lands.

It happened again this morning on the way to work along the NKVE. The mist was really thick that one would almost be forgiven thinking it was low clouds. This most probably have been caused by the dramatic rainfall we have been having everyday for the past few weeks, maybe even month. But one thing I can say about the daily heavy evening rain is that it produces beautiful sunrise in the mornings. Great for someone like me to take landscapes. :)

Unwinding the Curve

Felt really great to just unwind after a really tight week with a bunch of us from work. Everyone was feeling really drained and so needed re-fueling with the usual...and me with...err....coke..haha..

It was really quite packed for my first friday night here as mostly we hang around at work.....sounds sad but our office is in Mid Valley so...

Felt guilty leaving my colleagues at midnight but have an early morning shoot with another bunch the next day...sigh...

Bukit Tabur (test run)

Meant to post this awhile back but just could not get my ass to it. Anyway, went to Bukit Tabur with a fellow friend two weekends ago. This place located in Taman Melawati near Zoo Negara provides breathtaking view of KL city on one side and a lake/damn..sorry..dam on the other.



Apparently this hill is quite frequented by early rises as their regular workout routine. Though I would not recommend this track to those who don't like to place their delicate hands on sharp rocks as this is a journey with which there will be plenty of.....touching rocks that is.




Well one thing I can say from this little trip is that you have to respect nature. Learnt that when we realized the route down a year or so ago no longer is the route down..phew..almost panicked when the sky turned dark to welcome the potential rain. Anyway, tragedy avoided we were safely down by 1am plus thanks to good decision making skills and some good samaritans we found along the way. And after all that (and looking at the pics), I welcome a trip back to ..... take more pics!!

Rainy Nights

Its been raining heavily in the evenings for the past few days maybe even weeks. Driving home in the rain (and the jam..) last night got me thinking: I've been so busy lately and so is everyone around me that it seems that all those close to me are just drifting away.

And I think I'm getting used to that....

And thats the scary bit...

Revisiting Nature (in the frontyard)

Wanted to just pay tribute to my parents efforts at maintaining the garden mostly without my help. Did a lot of work on the garden at inception but just could not find the time nor the inclination of late. I must say though that through their care the garden has really matured well. Seen here are my best shots using my new .....err...companion. Above is a bougainvillea and below is the red ginger.

P/S: The 50mm lens does a nice 'bokeh' for the shot on top. FYI, bokeh (from the japanese word boke reffering to 'blur' is a term used in photography to describe, how shall we say, the subjective aesthetic qualities of out-of-focus areas in an image or in short foreground and background blur. How well its coined...

Tiger shooting

Went on this project of shooting tigres with fellow owners of DSLR now that I have obtained the 400D (ok ok.. its a bit of a deviation from the original plan of a 350D). It was quite hazy the day we went shooting at ZOO Negara but we went on ahead without heed.
A note though that I had to borrow a friend's 28-135mm lens as my kit lens did not have the focal range that was needed. So thanks James. Much appreciated.



Click on any of the pictures to be taken to the Zoo Negara photoset.

Road Culture

What's up with the friggin' psychology of drivers in Malaysia. I mean wherever you go people keep changing lanes without freakin' using the bloody signal! I've experienced this for quite a while now but its just damn bloody annoying. Someone told me that this whole thing is a reverse psychology for those drivers whom when you do give a signal, they would step the pedal to the metal...ok ok...maybe thats a tad over-exaggerating but they do accelerate and stop you from changing lanes. Anyway, back to the first point. Whats really annoying about people not giving signals is when they change lanes suddenly and there is not much room between you and the front car which results in you having to break like crazy. Jeez, are we that much in a hurry that we forget common courtesy? Heck, didn't we even learn that (using signals when changing lanes) when we were taking our driving exams? C'mon people, I don't think its too much of an effort to flick your finger and hit the signal indicator knob. Else you would be on the receiving end of the middle finger...or worst yet, you might lose your rear bumper!

Photography resource 2

Anybody interested in taking a photography workshop with National Geographic? You can find out more here. These guys are still into film SLR and by the looks of it you probably need to be a veteran photographer to join one of these workshops, besides being costly for me ( my choice workshop to Venice would set me back by about US$4,000+ and that does not include a return airfare home). So I think I will stick with experimenting through trial and error for now (by understanding and applying the fundamentals of course).

Speaking of fundamentals, came across another site on photography by Sean McHugh. Quite a technical site and very resourceful on the fundamentals of photography. You can see his tutorials here. His gallery of images taken around Cambridge is quite spectacular too (he uses these compositions to illustrate certain techniques. You can view his gallery here. Well, now there is quite bundle of information that I have garnered, all I need now is the actual camera (and the accessories) to put all these theories to practice...........

Just in:

Another reason to wait for me is the news of Canon's 350D successor: the 400D. Slated to be released in September in Europe and America, I hope it hits our(my) shores around then too. This supposedly the first in Canon's line to introduce the EOS self cleaning system. You can check it out at Canon's site, dpreview or CNETasia. Or just google it!

Scenic Spot Setting 1

Came across this link whilst looking for photography workshops in Malaysia. This site belongs to a 'at-least-I-think-he-is' Malaysian photographer. It's an album set taken around the locale of Bukit Tabur, Selangor. I have not even gotten my SLR and I have already found a place to do some shooting. This would be a great day trip spot for shooting. For those interested the link is here.

Photography resource

In relation to my last post, I would like to share here a link I stumbled across whilst doing my research on photography. I was looking for basic techniques and any information on photography and came across Dan Heller's site. Quite resourceful (at least for a beginner like me) and plenty of interesting compositions. A decision I have recently made upon this is to start off with a mid range lens preferably with a focal range from at least 28mm up to maybe 100mm or lesser (i just hope this is NOT sending my wallet into space! Coz' I know my dream startup lens,Canon's EF-S 17-85mm f/4.0-5.6 IS, would require me to save for another whole year.. so for now I guess I should stick with the 'kit' lens) .... and so my quest goes on.

To D or Not to D, that is the question....

Been thinking about diving into the realm of serious photography after many years of just yearning for it and deciding on a vehicle to start on my journey. Canon and Nikon were recommended by my peers based on their wide customer base and hence wide availability of accessories as well as their reliability. Tentatively decided to begin my journey with Canon's 350D (it recieved an editor's choice and readers choice award on CNET Asia) ..



A friend said this cost around RM2800 but after checking out some stores it was slightly over RM3k. Sigh...hopefully due Christmas when I am planning to get it the price would be reduced (here's to hoping)... or someone could get it for me as a Christmas present. Now that would be great!! If so, might as well the Canon 1D MkII.... :). Thanks ahead...

Life's Lessons in Four Seasons

Came across this in my emails a couple of months back. Normally I don't do forward mails, but this deserves a special mention. And instead of forwarding to a select few ( and be labelled a spammer..haha), I'll share it here. There were beautiful images than came along with it but the images were corrupted. Anyway, here it is:

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look
at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Moral:

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches
and better times are sure to come some time or later

Double Nights of Live Music

It had been a great relaxing weekend with colleagues and friends after the being involved in such an arduous team building event. The weekend started with spending time in the company of colleagues at Feeling Cafe in Serdang. This was my first experience of live chinese music with a duet. Not bad for college students...

The second night was more of a good friend's fiancé's birthday get together. Normally these people would party with rave music or R&B but this time they decided a change of pace was needed and we went to Double Take's Summer Jazz Series II at Flo in Equatorial.




Bar flo









Bar Flo interior









Double Take comprises of Mia Palencia, a very talented singer-songwriter who also appeared recently in M!The Opera, and Roger Wang, a very skilled fingerstyle guitarist. The performance was quite spectacular for me as they could perform a whole range of songs with just Mia's voice and Roger's guitar though mostly it was more of a Bossa Nova ambience to it. There was also Mia's own "extended" version of 'A girl form Ipanema' though for her it was 'A girl from (insert name of a place that it too long for me to remember)'.

World Cup Finale 2006

What a way to end the World Cup. I'm happy for Italy...seriously I am, but part of me wishes that France would have been the one to take away the world cup. One thing for certain in this prestigous event held every 4 years is uncertainty. There were a lot of upsets: Argentina, Germany and Brazil to name a few..but they were surprises too. I mean the Zidane's headbutt for example that made Italy's win seem like a sideshow. I don't condone it but the press everywhere is suddenly making him look like the devil. I am sure provocation was the cause... maybe he had been provoked throughout the game by that Italian defender, who knows? But whatever it is, I think we need to find out the reason behind things before we come to a conclusion. In any case, Zidane (Zizou) did get the Golden Shoe award which was decided by the media. Though I did not watch the final match due to fatigue from a week's work, I found out later that both Zizou and my personal fav, Theirry Henry, was not around for the penalty shootout decider. That was a pity because it is my feeling that with these two around, the scores would be a little ....... different.

ammended:

Just got some 'enlightenment' from wikipedia regarding the events of the world cup final. You can read it here. If this is true (wikipedia cites various sources), then the Italians really have no honour in their win.

Houzan's Cosmos GT Queen

Of all the GT queens that I saw at the recent Japan GT 2006 event at Sepang, I would say the ladies from Team Houzan's Cosmos/Excite tops my list and specifically Saly (seen here with Yuumi Andou). Though alot of people have been telling me she doesn't look Japanese. Well she she certainly looks Japanese (and different) in her blog ..

Oh, and for those interested in more pics of GT Queens, please visit my friend's site: fox and yong...

Zonda!!

Came across this baby at a stable behind the paddock of Sepang Circuit during the Japan GT 2006. This is the Zonda c12 from the Italian supercar maker Pagani and this particular one belongs to the Chairman of the Sepang Circuit. The road tax alone for this beast in Malaysia can cost you an arm and a leg (even more than the annual income for some of us). The latest 2005 incarnation of this 7.3L mid-engine V12 monster, the C12 F, can reach top speed of over 375km/h. Too bad there is no autobahn in Malaysia to test this out. At least the chairman has Sepang though being a technical course, the longest stretch in the circuit probably isn't enough to push this baby to its limits

Japan GT!!

Was given free passes to the Japan GT in Sepang from my neighbour who is involved in the JPM Integra Cup held during the same time. Think of it as the side show for Japan GT. Anyway, the day started at 9ish when we arrived and hung around the tent belonging to JP Chin. This guy organizes club races and this particular one involves 25 Integras with the same spec and engine with the only difference being the personalized tuning for the drivers...



First stop was the rooftop of the paddock to see the Asian Formula Renault race and the Japan GT practice run. Actually before that, managed to do the pit walk prior to the official one. This was good as you could really get up close with the GT beasts without the crowd, only downside was that the pit girls were not around yet. So we went to the back lane of the paddock and did managed to get more than a few glimpses of these ladies..


Soon after around noon was the start of the Integra Cup with drivers who come from rich backgrounds, on of them was the Ftech (laptop business) owner. The overall winner was this guy named Firhat Mokzhani..I think.. am not much of a fan of the local racing scene as you can see..

By the time the actual Japan GT started it was 4pm. Met up with some local girls in the industry and after half of the 54 laps spent at the grandstand, I decided the sun and sound was tooo hot for me and headed back to the airconditioned area of the paddock facing the pits where it wasn't so deafening. By the time everything was over, it was already way past 6pm.




All in all, although it was a very tiring day going back and fourth but I think it with all that I managed to see and experience, it was all worth the it...

The winning Arta NSX Honda Racing Team car..though am personally a fan of the Nismo Fairlady Z.

Please visit www.flickr.com/photos/azerila for more photos.

Unwind

Some of us have been feeling really stressed out of late and we chose to de-stress at a regular joint just across the office, All Star, for pool and the 'usual'. Check these colleagues of mine out...Gaya, Mutu.....Keunggulan?? Hmmm.... not so sure about the last statement.


(PS: That motto used to be/or still is held by Dunhill)

The return

Was in Penang recently for work and stayed along Gurney drive. The beach here is totally gone as the land has been reclaimed for development. I was born in the gurney area...and now..such a waste..sigh.There are many tall buildings now facing the sea with myself being 'consigned' to the 34th floor at Gurney Hotel with a room all to myself. Since some meetings on the last day were cancelled, only my colleagues went for a single meeting at Sungai Petani (an hour away) leaving me doing support work for HQ at coffee bean the whole day. Oh well, its better than travelling back and forth... 

Discover Tenggol (or TO discover)

Came across an article in the recent edition of Men's Health magazine on Pulau Tenggol. Looks extremely beautiful. This island off the coast of Terengganu, Malaysia apparently is one of the best kept secrets amongst local divers..untill now. Have not been diving myself for a couple of years now, and so will definitely need a refresher course before heading there. Hmmm...now I just need to look for some 'leg' (kaki). Will post again once I have been there...nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes...

The antipodal point revisited

Listening to Bon Jovi's 'Welcome to Wherever You Are' the other day on the way home from work really got me thinking. This is such a great song and very motivational especially this bit in the lyrics:

'When you want to give up and your heart's about to break
Remember that you're perfect; God makes no mistakes'

I won't put up the rest of the lyrics here. Just google if interested but very inspirational words nonetheless.

Memoirs bequeathed in Taman Negara

I would have written here a comprehensive recollection of the trip me and 11 other colleagues and friends had on our trip to Taman Negara, replete with accolades on how great the the forest was and how much fun we had taking part in all the activities but .... I would consider it to be a mute point considering they have already done it for me. And more importantly because it is here that I have truly departed with my dearly beloved. Without her, I will no longer be able to take spontaneous pictures...sob. Goodbye dear k750i. I will miss you truly along with all the memories that you have captured for me since the day I had you. Anyway, as consololation NYPD, mimi and fox have already covered this well in their blogs. Enjoy.. (you need to understand chinese for the latter two)

In Search of Sunrise

Location: Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, Thailand


I know, the title is a direct rip-off of Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise series but it just fits the bill perfectly. I was listening to the easy melodic progressive trance tunes on the first CD on the way to Samui and it was there.. the feeling of the beach and sunrise.

As soon as we got there, we headed for dinner at a Seafood restaurant whilst waiting for our Japanese friend whose flight got delayed when transiting in Bangkok. Next, we headed for a Red Moon Rave which was at Lamai Beach if I'm not mistaken. The next day was an early start (9ish is pretty early for us as most of us slept at 2/3am) with breakfast and chilling by the beach. We took a 3pm ferry to Koh Phangan, a smaller island north of Samui. The picture above shows some new chalets being contructed near the cliffs by the sea. Our plan here was to go to the full moon party on Haad Rin beach but alas there was no full moon, so we just hung around Haad Rin with all the other Europeans. One peculiar thing was that because they had paid toilets, ocassionally a row of Europeans (of both sexes) by the water front just 'letting it go'...or perhaps the phrase here should be 'letting it flow'.

Speaking of the restrooms, I am simply amazed at how clean the public toilets here are. They're so very well maintained and clean that it makes the toilets in Zouk, KL look like a war zone (ok I MAY be exagerrating ..slightly). In any case, we retired late again..or should I say early and again we could wake up for a very early relaxation at the pool which was facing the sea. After almost half a day (yes, thats right..close to 8 hours) we headed for the pier to take a speed boat (pronounced 'Saa-pit bot' in Thai dialect ... and no, thats NOT the Sa-pit boat there on the right) back to Samui. After a dip in the sea and the infinity-pool, we clubbed at a popular local outdoor place called the 'Green Mango' with its wooden huts located in Chaweng. As they close by 2am, we proceeded to another outdoor club called 'Solo' a few streets down and stayed here right till 6pm. They had an area where they played nice house and progressive trance music. There also was and R&B area. By the time we took the cab back it was almost dawn and we could almost see sunrise.

The next day, after a 4 hour sleep we decided to AGAIN relax by the sea and pool followed by some last minute shopping in Chaweng. Things here are really cheap and Samui or Thailand in general is THE place for good immitation goods. Our plane was delayed that evening and we ended up arriving back in KL a little past midnight. All in all, although it was tiring I think we all had an excellent Thai experience.. (no, there's no 'other' meaning there....)..

The cute little Samui international airport terminal

BioChicago2006

View of Chicago from the pier

First ever trip to the US and I got Chicago. Mighty huge place. Would explain the reason why we got lost most of the time. They say Chicago is a better place to visit than Detroit though San Francisco is much better. Both of these latter places are much smaller though compared to Chicago city area. Everything went smoothly in terms of flight and immigrations despite me having a name with a BIN. The hickup occured on the day of arrival when I nearly lost my marbles due to a nearly missing passport. Thank god a kind and gentle soul saved me when she returned my jacket with the passport inside (got a scolding too..."You left your passport outside!!"). Thanks miss... (i assume she was a miss).


Anyway, we were there to attend an industrial event, Bio2006, which was held at the McCormick Place (seen here - looks empty but wait till you get in). This building too is huge one - 2.2million sq ft of exhibit space, apparently the biggest in the nation. Whats up with that..big city, big convention centres, big cars, big meals...ok I'll stop there. And going back to the building, they're in the midst of completing a whole new McCormick west side!! All 470,00 sq feet of it! Man, if you have to go from the west to the east I think you're legs will dislodge.



The event itself went very smoothly. Our company booth was located in the Malaysian pavillion which was designed to resemble the DNA's double-helical structure though you can't really see that from the picture. It was rather amusing that whenever the minister for MOSTI was around, that was the time you see the pavillion swarming with delegates and the press. Speaking of the press, our marketing guy who is supposed to be a hit with the ladies got snubbed by a female reporter for TV3. We all felt the rejection..lol.



After the 3 day event, we only took 1 day extra to be in Chicago. There are many things to see in Chicago like the Aquarium and the lookout point atop the Sears Tower but upon my colleagues request we ended up going to the Field Museum of Natural History. Though it sounds dreary, it was quite a good place to visit. In the mainhall stood Sue, supposedly the world's largest and most complete T-Rex. After the museum we took a stroll along Michigan Avenue where all the outlets were. This ended up with dinner at a Thai restauraunt in Bloomingdale's where the Thai ladies were very friendly. Ahem! Anyway, as a whole it was a good trip even though it was for work purposes. People in Chicago are friendly and very helpful bunch. There's lots more to tell but I can only afford an abridged version (I can hear sighs of relief).

View of the Chicago city line through a window in the Field Museum

Friends of mine, please visit www.flickr.com/photos/azerila for more pictures.

The excursion

Tis' a very belated posting on the events of early April 2006. And this is mainly a post to share pictures of the excursion me and my colleagues had to Bukit Cahaya, SA, Malaysia. Being on April fool, the pranks started early with Aunty PD but being the cautious person that I am, the prank failed. Better luck next time ya!


To the left is a view of the main house at the Malay Kampung. We all rented bicylcles to navigate through the whole area. I don't know about the other lot, but it was really quite tough going up roads with almost a 45 degree gradient. Felt it in my thighs right through the next day! This is much better than going on those stationary bikes at the gym, at least there's a view here. Well, there are 'views' at the gym too but that another story altogether now.... This whole excursion ended up taking us more than half a day but it was a great day indeed amongst friends..heck I see them everyday at work that they almost feel like family now. Anyway, pictures speak a thousand words so I'll leave the pics below to tell the story.....

Disclaimer: These photos are taken with the SE (not SM's relative ya..) k750i. Please visit here to view better pics taken by my colleague who's a much better photographer and more fully equiped (if you can read Chinese, it would help)

New Years Eve '05/06

Its funny that I mentioned earlier that I could not miss the Ferry Corsten event at Zouk for the whole world and I was really psyched about the whole week prior but come that night...sigh...I blew it off.. Probably was feelin really tired and so were my friends. Wierd thing is I was planning on an uneventful new year's eve but ended up going out with some close freinds. Talk about sponteneity....ok ok..actually it wasn't as the event was planned during a Christmas Eve gathering at a friends place. And what a New Years Eve it was..just like what a friend said.."New hopes, new dreams.."...hmmmm and Dave Seaman is coming down to Zouk next weekend...hopefully won't be tired to go fer that...