Dim Sum mornings.

Kept these two pics for sometime now. I especially craved these simple mornings where someone will accompany me to a quiet morning walk in the park (botanical garden, duh!) then proceed to fill up in these dim sum place nearby. Been looking forward to these walks lately, because work has been rather bad. Kinda lost the motivation these few months. Working with a bunch of lazy germans is no joke.

Typical chinese eateries ambient:
noisy, packed, humid, laid-back, somewhat excellent service
(compared to lansi expensive franchise outlets or german restaurants).

Chopsticks and condiments.

Nowadays it seems like my life is kinda moving downward. Not much excitement, not meeting new interesting people, no new things to play with. Sigh. What a life.

Botanical Garden / Floral "Fest" II

Plan to went for an early morning hike up penang hill on saturday, but its drizzling so decided to went for dim sum and then go back again, in the rain, for the floral fest. Might go again next week because photo taking is extremely limited (imagine asking my company to hold the umbrella for me, and imagine photographing in the rain). If it wasn't bored enough for her to wait for me taking my sweet time composing my photos.

I like to go to the garden, it's always so refreshing and there is always something new to capture. And not to mention leaving the office far behind. Some of the plants are really nice. The blue coloured tarp is a real bummer though. Why don't they just put those plants on neutral / natural coloured elements instead. Stupid event planner.

But overall, the floral fest is a disappointment. Not much nice stuff to photograph. The event is badly organized. It is planned to start on saturday, but there were national guards guarding the entire place preventing people from going in on saturday. Reason? To give some room to the judges to judge the plants on display. I do saw many disappointed photogs hanging around the area. Though I'm not one of them. I'm cool. I manage to sneak in and take photos for around an hour before being detected and chased out.

Early morning shots. Somewhere in botanical garden.

Desert Rose(?), my mum can grow a better hybrid than this pot back home....

Fake Flowers on display, anyone care to give me a clue what is the name of this plant?

Bouquet of flowers.

Malnourished plants on display.

Some bonsai are without leaves, wonder how they grow.

Nothing special on this plant :)

Random shot.

Flowers Instead

Managed to get myself sick in the weekend, so did not turn up in the office and have some time to take photos instead :)

As usual, went to Botanical Garden but this time only managed to stay for around 1/2 hours because of impending rain. This time around I bought along my close up filter and flash (nicknamed cobra), and because I have such a powderful light source now I'm able to use small aperture and high magnification ratio for an almost macro-like photography.


There is still a lot to be learnt about flash photography. It is so difficult to get 'just the right amount' of light and using automatic metering is not an option for close ups because the lighting will either be very dull or wash out all the details in your subject.


I should probably spend more time if I have another chance because if you realized, I only photographed 2-3 types of flowers this time. If only work is less hectic and I have few more daylight hours after work, I'd probably grab my gears and go photograph some stuff instead of getting stuck in the rat race.


Quite a lot of my friends had been concerned when they saw my camera gears and the amount of sweat-and-blood cash I must've spent there. I must admit though, with F58 flash, various Cokin filter attachments, and a 'small' zoom lens attached the whole setup can be quite intimidating to someone who is not really into photography. For once, they really thought the setup is quite 'pro' level. If only the same could be said with the quality of my shots :)

Just an abstract photo with no apparent subject.

My boss even went to the extent of 'reminding' me that the money I spent here could've already been used as a downpayment for an apartment. I do pledge myself to not spend more on photography this year. But I still have an assortment of lens which I could make good use of, for my photography style :)
1) 50mm macro prime lens: This one is cheap; RM900 for Sigma or RM1.5k for a Minolta 2nd hand lens.
2) 10-24mm UWA: New from Tamron, UWA can be quite an exciting lens to own, but expect to pay up to RM2k for this lens :(
3) A900: Now, who DOESN'T need one of those? :D



At least I'm not as crazy as some other guy who go out and actually buy an A900 the day it was released. Anyway, I think it's time to pull the plug on photography, at least for now, and to plan for the future of my career. Things have changed drastically these few days and some events had really made me realize I might be unable to continue to work in my company soon.

Hope

Could this be the last thing I say to her?
I do not know.
The words are so simple,
so mellow,
and profound.

All the same

I looked into all the terrible things I've done in the past,
I looked into the future, and asked myself,
"Has anything changed? Has anything really?"
"Or am I just telling myself that?"

Not my pic :)

Penang hill hike

I usually went to Bukit Jambul to hike almost every week, but recently there is malaria outbreak and it don't seem safe anymore to hike there, so I had to find another hiking spot before I die of inactivity.

Went to conquer Penang hill on the weekend. The 5km uphill hike is interesting and the scenery is really nice, but downhill is a torture cos i'm wearing my slippers. To compensate for my ego physical fitness I lug my heavy SLR with flashgun with me so I don't go too fast.



The hike is not for those physically unfit *cough* Juan *cough* or those suffering from any major malfunctions on their body part. Started climbing at around 7am (the sun already rise) and reached the peak at around 840am and we're really suprised cause normally you need 3 hours to reach the peak. I guess we're just too fast :)



Saw this bitch escort dog who kept tailing us from around 3/4 uphill until we reach the peak, and managed to snap her portrait pic :) Strangely, another bitch escort dog escorted us downhill until around 3/4 from the peak too. Hmmmm.......... Something sinister happening there?

I photographed this flower a thousand times already, and this must be the 1,001 time its being photographed. Not much variety is available here =)

I must've fogged up my SLR during the hike uphill from moving too fast, and the lens must've been slightly blurry when I took this pic, which turned up rather nicely, dreamy effect :)

I think I'll definitely go for a second round, third round and a couple of hundred more rounds, the view is fantastic and the climb is not as hard as you might've imagined. And to enjoy a hot cup of coffee in the middle of nowhere, it's a really rewarding experience.

Bokeh

Once in awhile I took some photos that I grew to like very much :) Click to zoom in and admire the intricate details :D Before you ask, it's my hands :) One hand holding camera, one hand on the book.

50mm f1.7 and f58am in wireless mode can really do wonders :)

P/S: If you don't like it.... well, suck it.