My result's out!!

My exam ended in mid-june. Then until last week's friday, my transcript was finally released!! I'd passed my 1st year!! hurraz!! hehe so happy ler.

I used to fail before taking up law. And that consistent failing started when I'm still in my form 4. I'm in science stream. I drop biology, and exchanged it with reka-cipta since all my seniors said that it was very easy to get an A for it and that it was helpful if you are going to take up engineering courses in College. Well, due to my bad hand-writing and delayed, i mean really delayed project, i got a C5 for it in my SPM. Nevertheless, i still remember my form 4 was disastrous! I had the whole of my report card painted RED! meaning i've messed up all the subjects. well i guess my english and bahasa went through. And it was hell when report card day was father's day coincidently. Not sure if it's really coincident or the teachers set the date purposely.

Well i guess you know what happen when my dad view my report card. He gave such respond "this is the greatest father's day gift ever" oh my..

But hey! now i'm different! I passed my A-level! even got an A in Law in As Level! Now I passed my 1st year law degree! So folks, if i can make changes, you can too!!!

My trip to Hat Yai with Nokia 7390

Last year I'd been to Hat Yai, Thailand with my girlfriend's family. I did not own a DSLR at that time, and my old Canon Poershot A80 was broken by me, so the only camera I could rely was the humble pinhole camera in my Handphone, the Nokia 7390.

The camera in my handphone was, indeed, very simple. No more information other than 3 megapixel sensor and equip with Auto Focus function. I'm not sure about its lens.

But the image quality was fine if the light allows. In dark situation, noise problem would come. This, however, was nothing to be surprised of as its sensor size would be reasonably small in order to fit into a handphone.

Even activating the camera takes a considerable amount of time, which, as a result of, several great moment had been missed. Either it's due to my inefficiency, or, the camera was just too slow.

Text wouldn't be a good medium to express while pictures speaks a thousand words. So, here goes. 

WELCOME TO HAT YAI

This was taken on a temple which was located on top of a hill. While I can't be sure what this temple was named, but this temple's wall was covered with coins! Due to my camera's limitation, I did not intent to have a shot of it.

This was found on the roof of the temple i'd mentioned above. Not exactly sure what it's for, but i guess it's design was nice.

The street of Hat Yai. I personally loved this shot since it contain a very traditional medium, which is the dragon dance, while such view was contrasted by the marie france billboard above.

If you will, look closer to this shot and you would find a small dot of light behind the elephant! I was kind of surprised that they are concern of the animal's safety in the road too! It actually was a backlight for use in a bicycle. But instead of fixing it on the tube frame of a bicycle, it was fitted on the elephant's tail.

Again, this place was located on top of another hill. I'm not very sure why there are so much elephants statue here. But i guess they must be donated by the devotees. However, this temple was also located inside the city's park!

While on the top of the hill, there was massive elephant statue, at the mid hill, you could find this giant buddha statue. As you can see here, the statue was under going a restoration process!

Up the the last day, we had a little walk in local markets. While browsing around, i found this cat sleeping on those plastic wares which, surprisingly, are for sale! But it was just too comfortable to be awaken!

New DSLRs-what a hype!

D90 of Nikon, announced at 27th August 2008, that's today! in Amsterdam! A mid-class DX format DSLR and 1st of its kind, a DSLR with movie recording function! 100,000 shutter cycle, with max 4.5fps, 11 point AF. live-view! 420-pixel RGB sensor too!

My opinion: walao, these giants are releasing so many new DSLR, Olympus would have a hard to catching up! I've been told that its imaging system are par with the D300! But no price available yet ler. But previously, i heard rumor that this D90 has the universal vibration reduction the uVR. It has the ability to give you 10-stops advantage. But dunno if its true or not.

D700, Nikon's answer to Canon 5D. A full-frame 12.1 MP sensor, exactly the same as D3 with dust reduction! carbon/kevlar shutter which withstand 150,000 shutter count, 51point AF 15 cross

My opinion: walao!! full-frame at lower price woh! same low noise quality as Nikon's flagship D3 woh! who also wan leh! but no money.. pity pity....
Canon Eos 50D, the new predecessor* model for Eos 40D. Not full frame but has APS-C 15.1 mp and new DIGIC 4, extended ISO range of 6400-12800 and improved noise reduction ability! NEw Creative auto mode. Able to do 6.3fps. Body only $1399 us dollar estimation!

*thank Guest for the correction :)

My opinion, even canon comes out with sumthing new! APS-C sensor with 15.1MP superb noise control oso! the thing is, it has yet to be release in malaysia. Canon fans got to wait lur.

sigh.. Olympus has got no breathtaking new models like what Canon and Nikons have produced other than announcing the micro 4/3 system which gave me a little worries that 4/3system would stop production. I'm not sure what's wrong with Olympus, brand-conscious photographers owez say Olympus no good. I even heard someone told me that if you are using Olympus or Pentax in 'L' college, your friends would owez bug you with the "why that brand?" question.

Seriously, in my opinion, a DSLR is a mere tool that enable you to capture a scene that you intended to. All those new features only helps you to take a photo easier, it does not improve your overall photographing skills. So I wanted to express this, it does not take a certain camera brand for you make good photos, but it takes a little passion in photography. Happy shooting fellow photogs!

p/s: Olympus is going to announce something big in Photokina 08'. wait and see..

My Macro Works!

Since my purchase of my DSLR, I've only used my kit lens. I never thought that it has limits as i thought that it was suitable for all situation multipurpose lens! To be honest, I don't even have very much photography knowledge when I bought my Olympus! I don't even know Live-View was a trend feature! I don't even understand the meaning of focal length!! Then I put continuos efforts to learn more and i realise that I loved Macro Photography! Then, I made my 1st lens purchase, the Olympus Zuiko Digital 35mm f3.5 macro.

Due to its 2x crop factor, my 1:1 magnification is actually 2:1 on 35mm sensor! The photos that the lens made was incredible! Below are to proof! :) May you be so kind to leave some comments if you like them :)

Macro on Daisy found in Kinabalu National Park (i got my pants some dirt to get this photo!)

One of the 1st photographs I took after I bought my Macro lens

One of them too! Incredible details! look at those pollens!!!

Pine Resort, Kundasang, Sabah

Pine Resort was located in Kundasang,Sabah. One of the hottest tourist spot in Sabah due to the location of Mount Kinabalu. This was a resort which utilized Pine trees as its resort's theme and successfully won 3 consecutive best landscape award in national level! (if i'm wrong, it should be two). And again, fresh air is guaranteed!

The walkway to the restaurant and reception

One of the chalets

The welcoming corridor to Pine Resort

Prior entering, you would be greeted by enormous pines! Try visiting in Christmas! All the pines will be lit up by thousands of little bulb! Pine Christmas, ever tried?

Organic pattern of pines, only be found in Pine Resort!

And they have got little fish pond too

They even set up a HotPot on my balcony of my room upon my request! Best Service!

The Pines' Restaurant

Mount Kinabalu

Welcome to Kundasang, Sabah!! The place where you can find one of the world oldest rainforest and the highest mountain in south east asia. Sitting approx. 500metres from sea level, fresh air are guaranteed!! 

It is also the place where climbers will have to go in order to conquer Mount Kinabalu which claims the highest mountain in south east asia region which stand as high as 4095m above the sea level. Chinese in Sabah call it "shen shan" aka, God Mountain, such a name comes from the meaning of Kinabalu, which in Kadazan language stands for God. They, the Kadazans, believes that their ancestors' spirit will go to the mountain after death. 

Despite of countless legends and myth being told to the younger generations, the Mount Kinabalu was itself, an inactive volcano. However, its lava still lies beneath which provides hot springs in Poring. However, the interesting part is, Mount Kinabalu has many faces, viewing the mountain from Kota Kinabalu would be different from viewing it from Poring. Certain faces has its story, like there's one i know of was "the waiting pregnant women" I'm not very sure of which side you have to be in order to view it, i got to ask my dad for it, you could actually see a pregnant women actually laying on top of the mountain, tales were there to say that she was made pregnant by a chinese merchant (old old days, where chinese sail to borneo for hasil hutan), he promised that he would come back from china for her, so she climb up to the summit of the mountain to see if there is any ships, but not surprisingly, the merchant never came back.

Tales aside, but the mountain do has some unexplainable myth which relates to those who got lost in the mountain, if you guys still remember the most recent one was the caucasian siblings. I've climb the mountain before, seriously, i can't see there is any way you could get lost along the trail, it's simply unreasonable, but somehow, some folks blame it to the mountain gods, hence, the rule of mountain hiking must be followed there ie. no calling the real name and sort of. 

Anyway, to those who wish to climb the mountain, you will get a certificate of one of the two types, one was the one where you only reached Laban Rata, which was the last check point before reaching the summit, the second one was, the cert to be given to those who reached the summit. however, bookings of guides and accommodations in Laban Rata is necessary.

Mount Kinabalu in dusk! Just nice, the mountain was caught between both different light.

This was shot in the morning, the sky was very nice but a little too bright, it rings a bell in me! TIME FOR HDR!!

My trip back to Sabah, My hometown, *konon the land below the wind~~

Take off from LCCT!!! I setup my camera in the SkyBus before bording the plane just to get the panning effect right! hehe, the result not very great lah, but not bad ler i guess..

My 1st stop, the Monsopiad Cultural Village, if not becoz of my friend from KL come to visit, I oso dunno KK got such attraction. Since we're late being there, this was the only dance we manage to watch. Bad news is, we missed a lot. Good news is, We saved the best performance!! Hurray~ :)

This guy doesn't look like orang asli, but more to Indian to me hehehehe :)

Okay, i guess he realise I'm talking bad bout him.. :~(
Their feet moved so fast in this!! LOOK!! MY CAMERA OSO CANNOT CAPTURE THIER FEET LEH!! FAst leh?!!

The Performers!! Me n my friends took picture with them too!!

The house of skull! We were instructed to say a phrase before we go in, er.. it was kadazan language, it sounded like this "Siou Do Mohoing", meaning, excuse me, I'm coming in!

Our Tour Guide.. Not bad ler.. average English speaking skills, even the OZ can understand them! hehe

A tourist from OZ trying out how to grind rice grain! He was happy doing so!

Fuiyoh!! Calling alcoholics! This one is good oh! Call the Montoku! In this picture, it was the distilling process of Lihing(inside the can) after boiling it, it comes out to the Black Jar, inside was, the Montoku! 40%-50% Alcohol oh!! but lihing was nice and mild. The alcohol content was on par as beer. The taste? Anyone tasted Japanese SAKE? yes? Add alot of sugar to it, you'll get Lihing! hehe Best Served Chilled!

Day 1=Photography to me

Wow, I finally started to do this after blogging has been around for sometime. I'm not pretty sure what to do about in here, but I have one aim in my mind through this blog. I wanted to let others see what I saw, what I think and what I felt by using photography. I'm not very very good at it, but trust me, I'm trying to improve! So i hope I could improve somehow! 

I find this hobby isn't that easy, why is that so? 1st, it's very expensive, heck I've already spend RM3000 on equipment, and I'm still very far behind of what a complete system! I did not realize this at first, not until I started taking a lot of pictures! I thought all I need was a camera body, 1 bundled lens, and viola!! I'm off shooting nice picture! 

NOT!! I realize that i needed more! The thing is, what is it that is missing? So I consult my fellow local forumers, some recommended according to my need, while others tell me to be happy of what I had, and even instruct me to remember that to take nice photographs, the photographers' skills was more fundamental than his equipment! Well, i find it true in my situation to a certain extend. Cuz I realise one thing, everything has its limit! And we just have to accept that. 

I remember when i bought my 1st lens, the Zuiko Digital 35mm. It had shown me what my kit lens is missing. B..O..K..E..H.. Simply that's the limit of my kit lens and I have to spend RM760 for it! And the result? Great macro! But it is also true that no matter how good your equipment is, if you don't have the skills, you are not going anywhere. I know a guy who has the money, and own several DSLR or different brand! This guys must be loaded! 

Sadly, his photographs.. my oh my.. it is just not worth the effort for me to describe. But I'm not saying my work is great or anything, I'm just trying to say that photography is not all about what camera you are using, or how creative you could be, its all about how well you could work with your camera.

Well, folks I hope this blog would be a good start to share my thoughts! Happy Shootin'!