With the monsoon season around one can have almost not hope for getting blue skies. as i am a sucker for blue skies i will inadvertently sometimes willing to forgo photo outings just because of this, after all, the sun is still my best friend. But this time is different, it has become dull and lifeless, it’s no big deal actually, all you need to do is simple: don’t shoot anything that has skies! in fact, with such cloudiness, it also acts as a very good diffuser, giving it a gentler light to your subjects.

a poorly executed panning shot, happened to fast in front of me, was even commented that this shot was taken from a camera phone! 

where shall i park? again, some blurriness effect, didn’t really show on my LCD screen then. i thought it would be a good foreground and background subject, but i guess the effect failed.

brothers

another shot of this albino like dog. as you can see the puppies are quite blur, i was using a 300mm F/4.5 lens, mind you, it’s a manual lens, meaning i have to do manual focusing on this baby. and yes, the stupid little green dot on my D300 ani’t helping at all.

a macro shot, shot against the sky

some flame, they were actually burning some stuff outside this temple, as i did some levelling, i pressed the “auto” function, and somehow the computer think that this is the best exposure level for it, strange funky colours indeed

another one of those funny flames

me, trying macro

a closer shot

we then went to this thai bhuddist temple. i used a 85mm to create nice bokeh out from it

another shot, notce the nice blurred background.

in short, i think it was a lousy day for me, while writing this blog, i realised that the pictures i took, look rather amateur-ish, haih, don’t really know what’s wrong. i guess with digital, anything goes, not much of a consideration is required on the way you compose. it looked darn good on my LCD, but i guess i was tricked by it.

oh wait, this is supposed to be a fun cloudy day… what the heck am i doing!? WHOAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

i am a crazy photographer, or sometimes, i am known to be crazy about photography. i just love taking pictures, but of course there’s a downside to it, with the D300 i just go crazy, it’s always burst mode shoot at all angles and then review the pics later, this will usually result in hours of frustration in front of the laptop doing tonnes of editing on the photos. 2 things i hated:

1. too many photos to review
2. my fancy wancy photoshop skills are a joke

So i used my trusty FM2n, with film, i really have to be careful with my shots, it is after all 36 shots per roll. you have to consider composition wise is it ok, are your exposure settings correct, whether you’re down to your pants or underwear or buck naked (LOL).

and of course, the viewfinder is indeed way bigger and brighter compared to my D300’s, and with film, you don’t have to do fancy wancy photoshop on your picture, “it’s film whaat, why need photoshop?”. Good excuse eh?

going the film path also brought along some complications, you need to get them developed, it’s hard to find any shops that does HC-10 (BnW) or E-6 processing. so i do tend to stick to C-41 processing, which includes taking your camera into a jungle and blast it up with plastic explosives is usually processed at your normal photo labs.

shooting film of course got a bit quite addictive to me, and i started looking at pictures shot with films and i stumbled upon lomography. these are sometimes known as toy cameras, they’re awesome, it’s like you just shoot and to hell with the colour rendition, it's a bit like liberating oneself from the boring photography rules. so i started to look around for lomo/ toy cameras, but unfortunately my friends are using digital cameras, or analogue users who think toy cameras are a joke.

being awfully constrained financially means i cannot afford to buy one, my wife is already giving me the stare if i were to get one. one of stares that gives you the creeps which usually come to a tragic end. naturally i browsed around the net, trying to get the best deals for these guys, and since there’s so many toy cameras in the market, it’s just too hard for me to make a decision on which toy camera to buy. that is, i met my saviour Adrian, from The -Click- Shop (Malaysia). he came up with this post here.

i am to contribute 2 blogs per month to his site, and in return, i get to try out the toy cameras he is selling. man, HOW COOL IS THAT!!! so, quickly i shot an email to him and showed him my blog, he said other than my lousy engrand and my fat appearance, i am ok. i was over the moon! now i can try out cool cameras for FREE! WOOHOO~!

we exchanged contacts and i got a review unit:

introducing, the blackbird fly, it is a toy TLR (twin lens reflex), it has 2 aperture modes, F/7 and F/11 and comes with one shutter speed 1/125s.

twin lens, 2 lens, one for the viewfinder, the other for the camera

this is what you will see via viewfinder

2 aperture modes

considering the fact that it uses film, choosing the best iso is rather crucial, i am trying out iso 200, see how it goes, till then i need to get out and try it out.

Whoahaha :D

I guess my wife has seen me do way too many weird stuff, and decides to try it… on me!

tee-hee-hee, hubby ar, let’s see you try on this eyeliner, see fun boh? tee-hee-hee

i don’t really remember when did i take this series, although i have been busy, but i seldom missed a weekend out shooting, so like a good boy now, i am slowly repaying what is due.

Well, kluang railway station is popular because of its good breakfast (though i think it’s over rated). when one visits the station at kluang johor, it is usually crowded, the coffee and the buns is a must try. of course, i would try to take pics of the shop and food, but why bother? i am pretty sure by now there would be gazzilion of pics like that floating in the internet by now.

instead, let’s have a look at the station instead.

a bit ugly. LOL

the scowl on the man’s face. but actually, they’re having a nice chat

safety isn’t really in his mind. NO, DON’T JUMP!! 

i wonder how father’s nowadays keep up, i am quite sure back then they don’t have computers. but kudos to this guy.

with so many kids… he must be kinda happy

crossroads

a grandfather and grandson moment.

well, i think that’s about it. didn’t do any photoshop on it, just me and my good ‘ol FM2n

Yes, 32 days till i get away from this hell hole, and into another kind of hell, it’s crazy i tell you. the web of complication we weave ourselves, it’s definitely frightening.

shot at KLCC does reminds me of a web

Well, like what i do most Sundays, i grab my camera out and do some shooting, i wish i could come up with more pictures, but i have loaned my D300 to my wife’s relative. needless to say, i was at my usual self again. i shot most of this outing with a slide film, meaning, i need a lab that does E-6, and that means i will have to send it over to KL, Pudu area to be specific.

what? slanted horizon? is this picture acceptable? beats me, but it does look pleasing to me. 

pic taken by jellyfish. no one was crazy enough to do this.

Well this was taken when we came across some firemen doing some mandatory tests on their pumps and hoses. they were actually using “drain” like water to avoid wastage, we were playing around with it and different settings set off instant rainbow. well, me being spontaneous, i did this… cool eh?

WHOAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hmm, i have a few random pictures, which i don’t rightly know which category to put under

Shot at Jalan Pudu, why did i take this shot? i don’t know doesn’t tell a story…

shot at KLCC, everything looked like miniature from here

took this shot at Melaka, stumbled upon this dark alley and there was this guy coming towards me

taken at Melaka as well, shot this at some hall, and this bike caught my attention

shot this on my way to kuala sepetang, i don’t rightly remember what’s the name of this town, but this is indeed an interesting bus stand

blown! oh well, you can’t get ‘em all, have a drink instead! taken at Melaka, where a drink is certainly welcome after the amount of walking around was made.

it was one of those sundays which i don’t go out and take random pictures of people doing their thing. so i accompanied my wife for the rest of the day, and being bored, we decided to go to The Spread restaurant, located at The Gardens, Midvalley. it’s my favourite place actually, it is a buffet styled restaurant. you get LOTS of variety, at a very fair price. they serve food like raw oysters (my fav!), and a fair variety of both east and west and malaysian food. Ice creams, Ais Kacangs and the lot. what i usually do is take a bit of each from the food served, like that, you get to taste all of them and it’s not bad actually, their fettuccini cabonara spaghetti is not bad as well.

but of course, to me, a sunday without taking pictures is a wasted sunday to me. These are shot using fujifilm Pro 400H, it’s not bad actually.

my wife, doing some weird poses, don’t know why

 the atmosphere at the restaurant is not bad actually

oh, more shots of her

oysters, shashimi, prawns, brocolli, scallops… yummy!

some of the smaller bites, don’t know what fancy name they call them, but sometimes they do out in some imported cheese, and they taste good also

interesting desserts, they have white chocolate and jello as well

and to my surprise… they have this as well!!

yes, cotton candy! dem syiok lah! just like when you’re a kid….

now i remember why last time my dad never bought for me anymore…

WHOAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

well? what was the damage? it actually cost about RM 70 per head, you get a 20% discount if you used Amex card.

Business Hours:
Spread Breakfast: 6.30am - 10.00am
Spread Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm
Spread Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.30pm