High Key - X

Hmm...I need a reflector

Hmm...

On my last trip back to KL, I was given a book by my uncle. Head Strong by Tony Buzan.

This Tony Buzan is the Mind Map guy. He's written a lot on mental literacy and how to use our brains to positively affect ourselves. Seems he is a genius of sorts...the book itself is very interesting. ...soooo verrryy interesting especially when I read the sentence below.

Now I'm no expert in languages but even I know that there's no 'f' in sexual reproduction! Unless he's talking about that other word...

X at Karambunai

Shot X over the weekend at Nexus Resort, Karambunai. First time using off camera flash in daylight.

Seems I've overlit her legs...

This was a hard shot. Shot this a lot of times and only managed to get one nice jump.

I like this last shot.

Film

Ever since I've crossed over to a digital SLR, I've never touched my film SLRs. Looking through some of the shots that I took with a film last time, I find that these are sometimes more meaningful to me. I have no idea why...

My cat Miao Miao who treats the house like a restaurant these days, coming back only for food.
Long exposure and light painting...with FILM! hahah...

Shot with film and coverted to BnW

This one too...

Batu Caves, 272 steps. This is one of my favorite film shots. Very nice crisp colors out of camera and not much digital post processing (except for the watermark on top). Of course there are disadvantages to shooting film, but I will continue shooting film anyway. If I have time...

Lion Dance

Last Friday I was informed that a very famous lion dance team would be performing at a mooncake festival celebration nearby. Apparently these guys from Inanam are so famous that they are always invited overseas to perform their thing. Of course I had to check it out...

The 'bait' for the lion

Guy at bottom: 'Unngghhh!! WHO SAID HE'S NOT HEAVY??!'

The Lion ...er...releasing a huge fireball of gas...

The Lion swallowing some leaves to soothe its stomach.

A healthy Lion is a happy Lion.

Kids who attended the event will always listen to their mommy and eat their vegetables from now on.

Model X

Ted Studio is proud to announce its first model, X. Heheh

More to come soon...keep tuning in.

Bena Arts Park???

I've been staying here in Kota Kinabalu for almost 6 months now and I must say I do enjoy the life here. Things here are different from KL/PJ. No kidding. When I drive around I do have time to look at my scenery and enjoy the view.







Yeah....that's when I noticed this.



Taman Seni Bena??? After consulting the sifu, Seni translates to Art in english and I'm pretty sure most of you will know that Taman means Park. So what about Bena? Hmm...the sifu has never heard of any BM meaning to the word and neither have I. However, the first thing that comes to my mind when I saw that sign was this...

Yea! Bena Expectorant for chesty coughs. Sorry about the blurry image, I got it off the XSP website and they only have a low res image. So that means Taman Seni Bena loosely translated to english would be...Bena Arts Park? The Art of Bena Park? Sounds like a very sick place to be no? A Taman filled with sick people with chesty coughs...Maybe the road was sponsored by the drug company itself?

In fact that's not a bad idea! Sometimes you know the roads in our Taman or vicinity is so poorly maintained you must wonder whether the Majlis Daerah has any $$$ or not (I'm sure they do lah)...but lets just say that they really are strapped for cash. Why not? I mean just rename the roads a bit, sign a contract... let the name of the road be chosen by the drug company.

Heheh...mali mali

MIFC: Team Global (Merdeka Day)

Ok as promised, here are the pics from Team Global. Having gained experienced from my virgin shots of fireworks the night before, I decided to 'apply' them. I got there late though and managed a couple of test shots from my locations.

Immediately after I shot this pic above, people were shouting 10, 9, 8.... So judging from the first shot I took during Team Japan's performance, it is too near. I quickly pulled back a bit and was rewarded for doing so in my next shot.

Just in time.

Overall, the performance was quite disappointing. I've heard people saying that its not worth going for Team Global's performance, but they do have the wind to their advantage compared to Team Japan. Probably because the performance was 7 mins long only too, so not much smoke generated.

Tried doing a vertical shot.

This is my favourite one though. It reminds me of rambutans.

MIFC: Team Japan (Merdeka Eve)

This year may be the 50th Merdeka for Malaysia (or 44 as many people would argue), but it is quite a hollow occasion for me with certain things going on in our country. Anyway, putting all that aside, on the eve of Merdeka I went to Putrajaya to shoot Team Japan in the Malaysia International Firworks Competition (MIFC). I also met Kwan FM and Clement there as well.

The fireworks started at midnight and lasted for half an hour. I arrived quite late, 8pm. Apparently people were already setting up their cameras and waiting at the good locations since 5pm...kiasu-nyer.

Having seen some of the previous teams photos on an online forum, I knew I had quickly take the shots before the smoke settled in. This means I have to get it right first few times. This is my first time shooting fireworks, so I set up my tripod and camera at 11pm and spend around an hour waiting and taking test shots.

In the end this was the view that I decided on. Not too high that you can't see the bridge, and not too low that you can't see the fireworks. After the fireworks started I immediately regretted it.

It was too low! Crap! This could've been quite a nice shot!

I quickly re-adjusted the camera and continued shooting. This one above reminded me of flowers.

Then the smoke started getting in the way...

Smoke again...

Yet more smoke...

A heart-shaped one.

Another heart-shaped one.

The fireworks finished at12.30am and it was jammed all the way home. I reached home at around 4 something in the morning and slept at 5am. It was really frustrating sitting in the car for 4 hours. As a photographer, I did what any other photographer will do. Go again the next day for another shoot. Heheh... Watch out for pictures of that in the next post.