Emirates Cup 2007

Finally I managed to grab 5 tickets for the Emirates Cup from Arsenal website at face value of GBP25 each. Buy the tickets directly from the club is my advise, as I learned a lesson from the Chelsea scam months ago.

Even though Arsenal is not my favourite team but I am really excited and look forward for the games. 4 teams from 4 European top leagues will take part in the event - Arsenal, Inter Milan, Valencia and PSG St Germain.

My tickets are valid for 2 Saturday games - Int v Val at 2pm and Ars v PSG at 4pm. Our seats will be behind the goal post at the orange quadrant, row 1 at lower tier!!

On the players line up, I don't expect the managers will play the top players for the cup. The player I wish to see the most is Robin Van Persie, I believe he'll be shining this season after Henry's departure. Fabregas will only play against Inter on Sunday, Adebayor, Rosicky and Walcott will miss the tournament due to injuries problem.

It's a reunion tournament as Vieira and Edu will comes back to the Arsenal ground, playing for Inter and Valencia respectively.

Others I would like to see on the pitch:

Inter Milan - Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Adriano and I'll spit on Materazzi's face if I see him, for Zidane.

Valencia - David Villa! Morientes, Joaquin, some of my favourite spanish players.

PSG St Germain - The less interesting team, the only player I know is Pauleta who play for Portugal terribly in World Cup 2006.

It has been a crazy summer in the UK this year, been raining almost everyday and I hope the weather forecast is right and we'll enjoy the game under some lovely sunshine!

And Old trafford, wait for me.

External Hard Drive dies

The 3 months old 120GB Samsung external hard drive dies...

My heart breaks... all my memories for 2006-2007 are gone with it... All the pictures and video clip... it's invaluable to me...

Totally moodless...

HDR High Dynamic Range Image

I have seen some excellent HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures on some forums and decided to learn the technique. It's a technique to create images with a more detail in the highlights and shadows, blending of same photo at different exposures.

Found this excellent tutorial and had my first attempt on creating an HDR image.

I downloaded the trial version of Photomatix. There is a HDR function in Photoshop but I had problem with it that it says there's not enough details for the image I used, even though I saved it in TIFF 32bits.

2 methods to get the same image at different exposures, first is to use a tripod and take few pictures at different EV exposures, I don't have any in my HD that's why I use the second method - use a RAW file and create few images at different exposures.

The original photo, taken at Pantheon, Paris, you can see Eiffel Tower at far sight. I like the mood but there is not enough details on highlight of the sky.

Adjust the EV to -2 in RAW, for the details of the sky.

Third picture at EV+2, all these are saved in TIFF format for more details.

Open the 3 files in the programme and click 'generate HDR'.

Not done yet, proceed with the key tool of the programme - Tone Mapping to adjust the luminosity, saturation, micro-contrast, strength etc.

Here's the final product and my first attempt on creating a HDR image. Too bad it comes with Photomatix watermark on the trial version... USD$99 for the license... let me think about it...

Some people made it way too different from the original photo, looks more like piece of pure graphic artwork, which I think that's not the original purpose of HDR. Anyway I quite like the effect and certainly will try more.

Another useful tutorial on HDR using Photoshop can be found here, here and there's a HDR group on flickr.

Malaysia Week Part III - The Fashion Show

There were fashion shows during Malaysia Week, some nice batik collections by Malaysian designers. Grabbed this great chance to practice my skill on stage performance.

Carmen Khor

Ah Mark and... I don't know her name (not pretty :p)

Pam Yau

I love my multi-purpose Tamron lens. I had taken plenty of her pictures but cannot post too many, later the petty woman sure jealous.

A walk by the river with Audrey, Mark, May Ling and Chee Wei.

What is it called? An interesting game along the river with blue blue sky.

Malaysia Week Part II

Little girl wearing the batik dress, she has a funky father.

A busker at Covent Garden, taken with 50mm at F1.7

Batik painting.

Money making business - satay for one pound per stick! Buy 4 free 1 ketupat.

Some traditional games around the hall.

Never seen this kind of dance before in Malaysia.

From East Malaysia I guess.

Some folks dangdut in front of the stage and enjoying themselves.

This fella was a bit error, with his pervert dance shaking his bottom front and back.

My Country

Check out this alternative rap version of Malaysia national anthem - "Negarakuku"


This is going to cause a small wave in the country.


I think he just added this today, preparing to be arrested and jailed.

Lets bless this bright, young, brave and talented guy from Muar won't have any trouble with our petty government.

He has absolutely nothing to fear, coz what he said is nothing but the truth. RESPECT.

His blog, in Chinese though.

p/s: The video had been removed from youtube, read this post. Malaysian government is really powerful yeah, and of course capable in covering truth. Semua boleh!

Malaysia Week London 2007

The Malaysia Week '07 was held in Covent Garden, London in June.

Suddenly Covent Garden feels like home.

I was surprised when Mark called me and told me that he's taking a modeling job for the event.

I went to the event during the weekend with Chee Wei to shoot some pictures. Most of the stage pictures were taken using the Tamron 90SP (I haven't really use it much since I bought it in May).

Some traditional dance performance.

Chinese traditional dance - the costume and make-up was a bit error.

Ramli Ibrahim performing in London.

Traditional Indian dance. I like this shot much.

Sony New DSLR Models

It has been more than a year since Sony launched the first DSLR - A100 in the market. All the Sony/Minolta users have been long waiting for the higher level models.

Sadly, dCap the ex moderator of Dyxum is not waiting anymore and decided to move to the dark side.

I think it won't takes long as Sony has uploaded some images on the official website here for the new bodies and lenses.

Sony has to be quicker than it is at the moment, if not more and more users will be leaving before these gems are launched.

The advanced amateur model with ISO, WB and drive buttons on the top right of the body.

The flagship model with big pentaprism viewfinder.

More news and speculations from Photoclub Alpha.

I'm quite confidence that Sony will catch up with Canon & Nikon in DSLR market in the near future.

Tour de France - Stage 1 London to Canterbury

First stage of Tour de France 2007 started at the Mall in London on 8th July and finished at Canterbury in South East region of England.

I went out early Sunday morning with Sonia and we had decided to wait for the Peloton of riders at Tower Bridge near my flat.

Sonia and Francesca posing before the race.

Climbed onto the parapet wall alongside Tower Bridge Road to get the best view. Guess which one is me?

After weeks of raining, we finally had a lovely sunny weekend for le tour.

We waited for more than an hour and the peloton ride passed in 30 secs.

The Queen's guards performing at one side of the street and a group of cyclists watching at the other side.

Before It's Too Late

Every friend of mine in M'sia has watched transformers the movie since end of June. I don't understand why in UK the movie will only be released at the end of July.

Anyway, I have watched it here 'unwillingly' as I wanted to watch the movie in the cinema for the audio visual effects and also as the support to my childhood heroes.

One of the movie soundtrack "before it's too late" by Goo Goo Dolls, quite nice.

Tour de France - The Photographers

I always envy the professional photographers who get access to events and get to shoot whatever they want.

My dream job......

To my surprise, I think more than 90% of them are using Canon, Nikon isn't really popular among the professionals. I was the only wannabe photographer who hold a Sony in the crowd.

See the professional set up, I didn't know his idea until...

I read this in thelondonpaper the next day (I guess this is what he gets). What a brilliant idea and set up!

Some are pro some are not, but their enthusiasm in photography is the same.

Tour de France - Prologue

The first stage of the tour was held in the city of London, starting from Whitehall and finishing near Buckingham Palace. It's an individual time trial known as a prologue.

I arrived at Westminster an hour before the race started but it was already packed with people. I was struggling to find a spot for good shooting angle.

Being chased by the car.

Striking blue - taken with beercan at 160mm, ISO 200, 1/320s, F4.

Concentration. Slightly out of focus, it was really difficult even I used continuous focusing as it was too fast.

A lot of pictures were out of frame too, unintentionally.

Keep trying with my beercan.

After long waiting, finally a kind gentleman who set up his huge Canon gears in the crowd offered his place to me when he left.

210mm F4, 1/250s, ISO 100

Panning shot. This is my favourite shot of the whole day. Using lower shutter speed and follow the object for the effect. Taken at F7.1, 1/60s, ISO 80, with my Tamron 90mm SP!

Taken more than 600 pictures on the day, and I think 80% were either out of focus if not out of frame. Anyway it's a very good experience shooting sports event and I think I am improving.