douceur de vivre

All-In One Desktop

2009-12-08T18:05:00.006Z

My Compaq Presario F700 is already two years old and getting inefficient dealing with heavy photo editing tasks, and HP's stupidity in designing this laptop so it works perfectly on Windows Vista and disabling the mic function on XP... until today I couldn't find a software update from HP to fix the problem!

I planned to get an all-in-one desktop when I went back to Malaysia last week. I find myself not really needing a laptop coz the current one always sitting at home which I use mainly to get online, edit photos and watch movies. An all-in-one desktop is more powerful without having to move around with a bulky CPU, for nomads like me who move around once in a while. Went to PC fair with my mind stick to either Dell or HP.

Dell Inspiron One 19 - the cheapest all-in-one desktop available in the market selling at RM 2,399

Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 2.93 GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium
18.5" screen (no touch screen function)
4GB DDR2 SDRAM
500GB hard drive
Single drive 8x DVD RW
Intel GMA x4500 graphics

H P Touchsmart 300 - my original choice, better spec overall selling at RM 3,588

AMD Athlon II Dual Core 2.70 GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium
20" TFT screen with touch capabilities
4GB DDR3
500GB hard drive
SuperMulti drive
NVDIA GeForce G210 512MB

I went straight to HP booth at PC fair with cash ready in my pocket. Too bad the sales person was busy selling to a richer looking guy and turned his back on me. Therefore I decided to walk around and give myself more options.

Acer was never in my mind until I saw this in brochure - Z5610 at RM 3,388

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium
23" Full HD screen with touch capabilities
4GB DDR3 SDRam
1,000GB hard drive
SuperMulti drive
ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB DDR3 memory graphic

At that competitive price with the specs that outdone the HP, this is the obvious choice. Unfortunately Acer got the brochure ready at PC fair but failed to deliver the model to Malaysia on time... arrrgghh...

Now I'm back in Doha and I doubt I will be able to find the latest Acer model here until after couple of months... I will definitely get this when back in CNY!

My Happiest Day of The Decade

2009-11-12T22:20:00.003Z

Today, 12 Nov 2009 is a special day, I passed my Master of Science in Construction Cost Management with merit from University of Reading. I am so happy that I've done it finally...

Study abroad was something I dare not even think about when I was younger... and I still remember a decade ago I was so jealous when the stupid University Teknologi Malaysia sent a much less qualified person to University of Reading to further for the master degree, because of my skin colour...

Life has been on a roller coaster for the past decade, few years of hard work in JB and KL with low wages and I had a rare opportunity to move to the UK... thanks to the stupid UTM again, because the degree was not accredited by RICS I had to take a master degree in order to sit for the APC... with the support from my ex company regardless of my skin colour... and I've made it after two years...

For my mum who worked so hard when I was small... who sent me to tuition with her Yamaha 80... who moved to the old hut to save money for my first degree fees in local U... who sacrificed more than half of her life for me...

Thanks mum.

PVD Music Discovery Project 2009

2009-11-10T01:02:00.002Z

Six month ago before I left London I enjoyed the best gig ever - Paul Van Dyk at O2 Matter.

I stayed at the music console right in front of PVD for more than 2 hours continuously, even passed him my phone requesting to play my favourite 'Adrenaline', priceless experience indeed.

PVD Music Discovery Project 2009 - a phenomenal show with his band and the symphony orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk. How could I missed that... it's brilliant!

New Life

2009-11-08T00:48:00.003Z

Life has changed since I moved to Doha 3 months ago. Although I'm still unwilling to accept the fact that I've left London, a place I like much.

I've got a comfortable pad, with cable TV and internet connection which allow me to connect to the 'outside' world. It's actually better than what I imagined before.

New life is quite routine though...

Sunday - it's 'Sunday blue' now instead of Monday coz weekday begins here. I still don't feel like working coz most friends in the outside world don't have to.

Monday - stock trading day begins which give me a bit of excitement apart from work. The best thing after work is to download the latest HK drama from here and watch it while having dinner.

Tuesday - yeah... it's Heroes day!

Wednesday - yeah... another day before end of the week! Cleaners will clean my mess in my apartment today.

Thursday - yeah... last day at work! Sometimes I'll follow the old folks to do grocery shopping at Family Food Center after work.

Friday - the day when I don't have to work while the my friends in the rest of the world have to. Sometimes will follow the younger people to have roti canai and nasi lemak at Taste of Asia. The stuff here can speak Malay, feels like home. Anyway it's not as bad as the review says. Grocery shopping again at the Carrefours... at Villagio, Landmark or City Center... I only hope there's Tesco or Sainsbury here... Carrefour sux!

Saturday - mostly relax at home... catch some English Premier League actions, watch some movies...

In short, I'm glad and thankful to the people who make their efforts uploading the dramas, movies, live stream sports. Without u, I wouldn't survive here...

Liverpool - The 'Luckiest' Team in EPL

2009-04-23T00:37:00.008+01:00

Manchester United beat Portsmouth 2-0 tonight and lead the Premier League table with 4 points ahead of Liverpool with one game in hand, 6 games remaining.

Liverpool drew 4-4 with Arsenal at Anfield the night before and again, another goal at extra time to earn them another precious point. Liverpool is indeed truly blessed with so many extra time goals scored to win or draw last minute in my memory to bring them to where they are.

I'm interested to find out if take away the goals scored at extra time, where will Liverpool be on the table this season today (71 points). Finding as below (EPL only) and does not take into account extra time goals which does not affect the standing:

23.08.08 Liverpool 2-1 Middlesbrough - Mido (70), Pogatetz (og 85), Gerrard (94) -2
05.10.08 Man City 2-3 Liverpool - Kuyt (92) -2
07.02.08 Portsmouth 2-3 Liverpool - Torres (90) -2
04.04.09 Fulham 0-1 Liverpool - Benayoun (91) -2
21.04.09 Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal - Benayoun (93) -1

Minus 9 points that'll be 62 points and today they'll be on 4th place, same points with Arsenal, which is not as bad as I thought it might be.

How about Liverpool's late goals in UEFA Champions League 2008/2009?

27.08.08 Liverpool 1-0 Standard Liege (Qualifying 2nd Leg) - Kuyt (118)
04.11.08 Liverpool 1-1 Atletico Madrid (Group Stage) - Gerard (pen 94)

The fans should be glad that they made it to quarter final before the journey was ended by Chelsea.

Anyway I salute the team for its fighting spirit and perhaps that's the reason why the fans love it so much.

Road To Wembley

2009-04-11T16:52:00.014+01:00

Went to watch England played Ukraine for the World Cup 2010 Qualifier on 31 March 2009. England is on a good run under manager Fabio Capello and hopefully will do well next year in South Africa.

It's amazing to be at Wembley, where all the major football matches I watched on TV since like two decades ago were played.

Inside the stadium the atmosphere was great.

England was dominating the game and Peter Crouch scored England's first goal.

Beckham wearing number 17 jersey came on the second half to replace the new number 7 Aaron Lennon. He was the man best remembered wearing the number 7 for both England and Manchester United. It's arguable that who's the best replacement right winger for England, either Aaron Lennon or Theo Walcott, both are lightning fast but maybe not yet have the 'touches' Beckham has.

I must say Beckham still delivers the ball brilliantly, especially at the set piece. And he's the different one, when he gets the ball you hope things will happen. The £40 ticket was well worth it watching him alone.

Andriv Shevchenko, the number 7 for Ukraine came on the second half as well. He's the only two players who I recognised in Ukraine squad, others than Andriv Voronin, the Liverpool striker who is now on loan with Hertha Berlin. The European footballer of the year 2004 was a different class and he had brought changes to the game and scored the equaliser.

Just when everyone thought the game will be ended up a 1-1 draw... Beckham on the set piece...

and John Terry sealed the winner with a header! Beckham is still relevant and should continue to play. My wishful thinking is Beckham to divorce with Victoria and return to Manchester United and end his career there.

It was a good game and I was one of the 87,548 fans there to witness England on the path to win the World Cup 2010 (another wishful thinking?).

Few things that I want to do this year...

2009-03-28T13:35:00.006Z

2009 started off a little troubled. Things are slowing down now and finger crossed will get back to normal soon. One will always become stronger when gets over the obstacles and then will probably appreciates more of the surroundings.

It'll soon be 3 years since I first arrived in England, ya 3 years and I still have not done enough yet. There are a few things on top of my list that I must do this year or I'll regret it if I were have to move if circumstances change.

Watch England plays at Wembley - and YES I'm going next week for the World Cup qualifier to watch England v Ukraine!
Visit Old Trafford and watch a match, even Kenny Sia managed that and why I have not? Hopefully will be able to get tickets for one of the Champions League match.
Get a bike and organise a road trip to Scotland - the ultimate location for landscape photographers! Well.... bike is unrealistic, especially I'm not looking at others now except the Ducatis... and unless I make some fortune unexpectably i.e Lloyds' share price shoots up more than 100% like Barclay did last few weeks... but I'll definitely visit Scotland this spring / summer.

I bought the wc qualifier tickets online yesterday from the FA and it reached the doorstep today, that's very efficient. I was worried that I might not get it on time before the match day :)

Will have more plans (well I don't usually plan, things just pop up in my mind, once in a while) when things get settled and dusted, gotta keep reminding myself to live life to the fullest during the stay.

Bermondsey Tank

2009-03-22T20:00:00.007Z

There is a WWII Soviet T-34 tank near my place which I always wanted to shoot some photos. Finally brought my gears there after I watched a clip on Youtube recently about its story.

The privately owned tank is located at the junction of Page Walk and Mandela Way, near Old Kent Road, a highly unlikely place to find such thing.

The story behind: originally the land owner submitted a building plan but it was disapproved by the authority. He was pissed and submitted another plan for a tank to be placed there. The authority thought it was a septic tank and approved it... and next thing you see is a real tank there.

On the wall is "we all fall down" by graffiti artist Mantis.

I'd stayed there for quite a long time taking multiple shots of myself around the tank, for another 'self-cloning project', until...

two policemen came and questioned what was I doing there. I was not surprised as this is not the first time. Two years ago when I was shooting at Canary Wharf for buildings and kids playing I was stopped and demanded to delete the kids photos. This is not a very photographers friendly country. If you take photos of high profile buildings you are a suspect terrorist, if you take photos of kids you are a suspect pedophile.

Anyway, they are both very friendly and just took my details and asked me to be careful of the area. And now I regretted not to ask them to pose with me to include them in my self-cloning project!

Wireless MU

2009-03-09T03:06:00.006Z

Finally bought myself a Man U jersey at Sports World Piccadilly Circus. It's ashamed that as a self-proclaimed Man U since early 90's I have never bought an original MU jersey. All jerseys are selling for £25 now, or £30 with player's name and number. This is also for the preparation to visit Old Trafford, one of the things that I must complete while I am still in the UK.

Photo taken using wireless flash - Sony A700 + Tamron 17-50mm/2.8 on tripod with built-in flash as trigger; HVL-56AM flash set on another tripod on the right, approximately 1.5m from the object and power set to 1/32; black side of my 110cm 5-in-1 reflector as back drop; focal length 45mm and exposure setting ISO 200, F8 at 1/60 sec.

Wireless flash with another flash Minolta 3600HSD hold in hand, bit harsh though even with the smallest power.

Another wireless flash attempt, this time HVL56AM on the right and 3600HSD on the left. The power control on the 3600HSD is not as good as HVL56AM as it can only on focal length distance (24 to 85mm / guide number 20 to 36), quite difficult to control. Whereas HVL56AM's power can be set from 1/1 to 1/32 (guide number 17 to 56). Not that well-verse on the flash terms but it's very interesting to try out wireless flash with my low budget studio set up. Will definitely do more experiment when I find time.

Joanna Wang 王若琳

2009-03-08T23:05:00.006Z

Have not been following new Chinese singers for years until I heard about Joanna Wang 王若琳, Taiwanese version of Norah Jones. She has got impressive voice and talent.

"Let's Start From Here" - it's not new but I wonder how I could I missed on this one.

Am listening to her two albums now "Start From Here" and "Joanna & 王若琳". Just after a few plays I know I will like her songs. Highly recommended!

Streetfighter

2009-03-02T00:32:00.008Z

Had a chat with a friend who just sold his Honda CBR 600RR and bought a new Kawasaki Z750, that's over RM50k in Malaysia, what a hobby... He changed for the reason that he doesn't has the balls to handle a super bike and prefer a street bike instead.

I will enjoy as much on a bike compared to a fast car, if money is not an issue. Been browsing on used Ducati Monster recently, that's about £4-5k for a 3-4 years old S2R or S4R, kinda realistic for a potential first time buyer like me... still, it's a dream, especially at the current economy condition which it's better to keep some cash for the tough time.

Ducati is launching its new street bike this spring, the streetfighter, which is a real beauty!

Love the matt finish twin exhaust pipes!

Starting price £10k and £12k for Streetfighter S with additional traction control and data analysis technology.

The official video.

Well, what I will do is to spend £1 weekly on lottery to buy a dream.

F*** The Credit Crunch

2009-02-22T21:50:00.005Z

Talk about credit crunch... read this news on Friday...

The banker in his early 30's who spent £43,000 in a single bill at Maya in Soho. 2 bottles of Dom Perignon Methuselam, I don't know how good is it to be priced at £9,000 per bottle, that sounds pure insane to a working class. Service charge was £5,600 plus a £1,000 tip for his waitress on top of that.

He was heard to toast the PM: "Gordon Brown, you a**hole" and declared: "f*** the credit crunch, there isn't one."

I hope he doesn't work with one of the banks the government just bailed out with billions of taxpayer's money. Some of these top bankers who still taking million pounds bonuses despite the bank's failure are to be blame for screwing the world's economy!

Credit Crunch vs Sales

2009-02-21T05:10:00.012Z

Credit crunch has affected life style of most Londoners, more or less and that's something noticeable on a day to day basis. In the office itself, after first round of redundancy and an expected 12.5% pay cut at all levels coming May, the business at the canteen has become poorer as most colleagues are now bringing lunch box to work. Retail shops are closing down one after another, a Slug and Lettuce nearby my office had just closed down.

On the other hand, it's a good time for shoppers to grab some bargains, the sales have been non-stopping since before Christmas, this is unusual. For foreign tourists who are not affected directly by credit crunch this is the best time to travel and shop in the UK as pound sterling has dropped to the lowest point in many years. Good for people like me who rarely buy things at original price.

Bought this back in December at WHSmith for £10 (RRP £30). I used to hate history back in old school days but nowadays I find it interesting after traveling a bit around the historical cities in Europe. Malaysia's history never interested me as you don't know what's true what's not. I heard Hang Tuah who used to be the Malay hero was taken out from the text book because he was later found out to be Chinese origin. What a joke.

Bought 3 books by Jeremy Clarkson from WHSmith as well for £10 (RRP £7.99 each). He is one of the very few British others than footballers whom I admired, for his great sense of humour.

Zavvi is one of the high profiled retail chain who became the casualty of the economy downturn. I had grabbed "The Magnificient Seven" (my all time greats! read here) for £2 (RRP £7.99), "Future Proof" for £2 (RRP £10.99) and few button badges for 25p each from the megastore located at Tottenham Court Road. The music albums were selling cheap as well but I still prefer to download free :p Heard most Zavvi stores were purchased by HMV to be merged into their chain. I doubt HMV will survive as they have already got so many stores along Oxford Street, with market shrinking.

I have stop traveling on Oyster monthly and change to Oyster pre paid as this could save me around £40-50 per month by taking bus instead of underground. In London one has to learn to walk as it's often faster and cheaper to do so. Wearing leather shoes is something torturing so I decided to get a pair of decent trainers to wear to work. Bought the Nike Reax Run III from Sports World Oxford Street for £35 (RRP £49.99), really lightweight and comfortable.

Perhaps we should all listen to Gordon Brown to spend out of credit crunch.

My First Wiki Entry

2009-02-15T22:42:00.002Z

My first entry on wikipedia, small images contribution for:

Tiffen DFX

2009-02-15T03:25:00.016Z

Installed Tiffen DFX v2 Digital Filter software as Photoshop CS3 plug-in recently. There are hundreds of filters and special infects with layer and mask controls. It turns complex Photoshop edits into simple filters that you can apply easily in seconds!

The filters are grouped as below:

Film lab
Gels
HFX Diffusion
HFX Grads/Tint
Image
Lens
Light
Photographic
Special Effects

Some quick test of the software:

The original photo.

Bleach Bypass 3

Faux Film 1

Shadow 8 Yellow + 5247 200ASA

Enhancing Blue 8

Gold Reflector 3

Vignette Rectangular Black

Halo 1

Ultra Contrast

Tint Orange

Aged

Light Cyan

Classic

Lots of fun, highly recommended!

International Construction

2009-02-10T01:42:00.002Z

Attending the sixth module in Reading this week on International Construction, the third last module, two more to go in March and May and finger crossed I'll pass the exam and dissertation by September.

This is an interesting module coordinated by Professor Roger Flanagan who is very practical and made it less boring compared to some previous modules.

There are about 130 post graduate students who are attending this module, from 29 different nationalities, which makes it very 'international' indeed.

Malaysia was mentioned several times by Professor, who talked about its involvement in Middle East projects from Islamic / political connections. Also, Professor mentioned that in some countries, the governments apply policies to protect minority interests. I wished that I had raised my hand and told him that Malaysia is going the other way, applying policies to protect the majority and bully the minority...

Bike

2009-02-08T08:57:00.005Z

Too many things happened even before year 2009 kick start. Fortunately it did not went the worst case and I'm still able to hang on for at least another while. Hopefully it'll get better.

Like most men, I love fast cars and bikes. However to me it's kind of luxury, I have other things which I should spend money on and until I got that 'extra' money I'll keep my head cool.

If, if I'm able to make £5k from the volatile FTSE market by July this year, I will get a used black Yamaha 998cc YZF R1 2008 version to pamper myself, which I seldom do.

It's a beauty.

My Photo

2009-01-26T03:26:00.003Z

Posted a blog on SWPP Convention 2009 last week. Joanne added Gary Fong on Facebook and tagged him on one of my photo. It was a surprise that Gary used the photo on his blog and my name was mentioned. What an honour from the well-known professional photographer in the industry :)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009-01-26T02:56:00.004Z

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie is one of its kind, unlike any I've seen. What will happen when one grows reversely against the age and the effects on the people around him? The script writer Eric Roth's story is absolutely brilliant and the director David Fincher's direction in the film is almost flawless.

Some of the quotes in the movie did touched me:

Benjamin Button: "Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance."

Benjamin Button: "... But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control..."

Another good movie not to be missed.

SWPP Convention 2009

2009-01-21T04:13:00.014Z

Went to The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers (SWPP) Convention 2009 with Joanne last Friday.

There are many wedding related business in the convention, especially those wedding album printing business. I'm now compiling some of my travel photos, trying to publish my own photo book using blurb, the pricing is very competitive and the quality looks good. This can be an extra service for my photography business in near future :)

Of course, all the major DSLR makers demonstrate their latest products in the convention, including the latest Nikon D3X, Canon 5D Mark II and Sony A900. Canon 5D Mark II's HD video impressed me a lot, and that's something I would like to have in my next DSLR.

A sample video using different lens.

Sony booth was a bit quiet hence I had the opportunity to play with A900 and all the top notch Sony / Carl-Zeiss lens.

Some of the Sony glass, including the AF 70-400 F4-5.6 G SSM, however, the grey colour is not my cup of tea and it feels a bit too plastic.

Shooting Sony AF 70-300 F4.5-5.6 G SSM using Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T 16-35/2.8 ZA SSM at 35mm focal length F2.8 - solid, sharp, nice bokeh, and of course, expensive.

Another shot at 35mm focal length F2.8

Taken using Sony AF 16 F2.8 fisheye, wide angle lens with large aperture, very nice effect compared to the Sigma 10-20mm which I owned.

Sony also set up a studio and invited a professional photographer Michael Wayne Plant to demonstrate A900's excellent low ISO performance. Michael was very kind indeed to share his professional studio lighting experience and let me try it with my A700. Photo above was taken with 2 soft light boxes and a silver reflector in front of the model.

These were taken using my cheapo Tamron 17-50/2.8.

This was taken using Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135 F1.8 at F14 1/250s, an exceptional lens, who says Sony can't compete with Canon / Nikon?

Michael had convinced me that I made a right decision to stay with Sony. He also taught me to learn how to shoot with prime lens, to try to capture image at different perspective using same focal length.

When I came across the long speakers list, guess what, Gary Fong was there! He's also the creator of the famous Lightsphere and WhaleTail flash diffusers.

His talk on wedding photography business was very inspiring indeed. He had a star price of $150 per day with no limit. According to Wikipedia, by the last shoot of his career, his fee to shoot a wedding was published at a minimum fee of $120,000. What I learnt from him is to be successful in wedding photography, one has to be with the right attitude, learn how to do marketing without advertising and how to do the pricing strategy.

A very fruitful session indeed.

Car Photography

2009-01-21T03:10:00.009Z

I love shooting cars, and it's much easier to shoot a still object.

Shoot for John's RX8 for his wedding calendar at O2 Millennium Dome.

I love processing car photos in HDR especially those shots on a cloudy day to make it more dramatic.

One day I would like to try shooting a moving car from another car with same speed, like those in the car advertisement.

Shoot for Jonathan's Bimmer on another cloudy day.

This was taken handheld at 0.4s F5 ISO800, thanks to Sony's Super Steady Shot.

Ran out of idea where else to take car photos in London. Must do some research later on.

I've posted an advertisement on Gumtree offering car photography service. There are too many people doing wedding photography and so far I haven't come across anyone who offer this, and I think it's another field which I'd like to explore :)

John & Chrystele's Wedding

2009-01-16T02:03:00.010Z

John and Chrystele's wedding in JB was the second one added on my photography portfolio.

Photos taken during the day.

The charismatic video man should take the credit for most of the posing. That's something I gotta learn.

I didn't take much photos during the wedding dinner as the hired photographer was working and I was busy eating.

I have compiled the photos and produced a slide presentation video using Windows Movie Maker, the easiest one to do the basic stuff. Initially Adobe After Effects was on my mind but couldn't get a clue how to do it even google it for several nights. Anyway much to improve and will do more research on it.

Higher quality video can be viewed here. Had copyright issue on the original song selected (Close To You by Cranberries) when uploading the video on youtube hence changed it to Enya's Flora's Secret.

A Dog

2009-01-10T19:33:00.003Z

Am watching Bolt now on xunlei. Suddenly I feel like I want to have a dog again, although not necessary a super dog. Wait, Bolt is not one, wrote this half way watching.

In my memory, I have had 4 dogs before. The first one was a mixed breed, a very loyal watch dog. Unfortunately one day when I was back home on a school bus, I saw my mum and sis crying at the front gate... she was knocked down by a car... the whole family was very sad for a long period and my mum decided not to have a dog again.

The second one was a Shih Tzu. When I was 16, a friend who didn't know how to take care of a pet bought it and tied it outdoor all the time. It was suffering until finally one day my friend decided to give it away. Without my mum's permission I brought it home and had a hard fought to keep it in the house. She's very smart and brought our family a lot of happy moments. Every night she'll jumped up to my bed and if I locked the room, she'll scratch the door begging me to let her in. 2 years later when first time in my life I moved away from home to go the uni, my mum decided to give it away as she has got no time to take care of it despite of my strong objection...

After many years, I graduated and started my first job in JB. My mum moved into the new house in BP and one night some god damn Indon broke in and robbed the house. It was a new development and the area was quiet so I decided to get a watch dog. Went to SPCA for a look around, there was a quiet Rottweiler who looks friendly but certainly I didn't want to take the risk which it might hurts my mum. Next to the it was a mixed breed dog which keep barking and challenging the Rottweiler. It looks like the first dog we had so I decided to give it a new home. She did a good job for few years as she hates Indon. However she was afraid of fire crackers and dissappeared one night.

The fourth one was a Shih Tzu when I was in KL but that was a stupid story which I don't wish to repeat.

It's a huge responsibilites to keep a dog. They need our company too. That's the reason why I am not prepared to have one. I still haven't find a base yet. I will definitely keep a dog when I settle down and live with the family.

By the way, finish watching the movie while writing this, brought me some laughter on one of the coldest day since I came to London.

Seven Pounds

2009-01-08T16:25:00.005Z

I can't remember when was the last time I watched a real good movie, seriously. Have not got a clue what seven pounds mean before I decided to go for this as there isn't any other more interesting movie available here.

A small mistake in life could come costly but how many has the courage to make amend?

Not to be missed.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T13:31:00.002Z

2008 had been a tough year, lots of sh*ts happened, however I'm lucky that the woman has joined me and has been with me for the tough time.

Life is not always the way we want it to be however we have to face it positively. In this new year hopefully all of us will get over all the obstacles and have a better year.

Fantasy Football

2008-09-26T21:27:00.004+01:00

There are so many fantasy games in the UK hosted mainly by the newspapers. Others than picking up 5 teams for free in Metro Fantasy Games, I have paid for GBP6 to join the Telegraph Fantasy Games. 20 of my company colleagues have also joined and formed a private Super League. Each of us has paid an extra GBP5 and the winner will takes it at the end of the season.

This is my reshuffled team after 6 weeks. Made some early mistakes by picking up Cesc Fabregas, who was injured for the first 3 weeks and picked up 2 yellow cards on the recent two games. Also Joleon Lescott was another flop which earned me some negative points.

The defenders chosen are mainly from the top teams as each clean sheet will earn +4 and each goal conceded will get -1. Patrice Evra and Bacari Sagna are two safe pick as they are the regular first team players. Clichy is a replacement for Nemanja Vidic as he's a bit expensive to fit in my current team. Corluka is the only defender who is not from the top four, but he has got the scoring ability and I keep in faith that Tottenham will gets better under Ramos.

The midfielders chosen are those who have good assisting and scoring ability. I don't think it's wise to pick up a defensive midfielder in any fantasy football game! Joe Cole, Shaun Wright Philips, Ashley Young and Fabregas (yes still!) are my choice. I am in dilemma whether or not to transfer Fabregas out and bring in Samir Nasri or Theo Walcott who is almost a million pound cheaper. Ronaldo was my first choice however at 7 million he is the second most expensive player after Torres.

At the beginning of the game I picked Van Persie and Anelka as my strikers and they had earned me some decent points. When Drogba came back from injury I decided to change Anelka to Agbonlanhor as I think his chances will get thinner. Van Persie was transferred for only one reason - Berbatov is now in Manchester United jersey and I hope he'll fit in to the team soon and start scoring to win the golden boots this season!

I'm currently scoring 156 points after 6 weeks and positioned at 61496 out of 235828 with 17 transfers left. My current target is to climb up to the top 10% at mid season!

Heroes (Villains!) are back!

2008-09-24T01:53:00.003+01:00

After months of waiting finally Heroes Season 3 'Villains' is back.

Episode 1 "The Second Coming" & Episode 2 "The Butterfly Effect" can be watched here online stream.

Many questions arise after watching the first two episodes:

Why Ando kills Hiro in the future?
Is Tracy = Nikki?
Why Sylar didn't kill Claire after stealing her power?
What happened to Mohinder after possessing his new power?
It the future Peter Petrelli a hero or villain?

Another nice drama series for me to pass time.

Moonlight Resonance 溏心风暴之家好月圆

2008-09-17T00:06:00.005+01:00

Ever since the woman came to London we have been chasing some HK TV drama series. It's the best thing to do during dinner to watch the latest episode of the day.

Recently been chasing for Moonlight Resonance and just watched episode 34 & 35 after a long search online. So far the best up-to-date stream site is this one with good quality.

Update: surprisingly episode 36 is up here today!

Sony A700 Firmware V4 Update

2008-09-16T23:39:00.003+01:00

It has been a while since the latest firmware Version 4 for A700 been leaked on the cyber community. I have been waiting to get the 'genuine' version and finally it's up on Sony Europe site!

The improvement and solved issues:

The choice to select auto exposure bracketing (single & continuous) with 3 shots in 2 EV steps has been added.
The choice to turn [Off] the High ISO NR feature has been added.
Improvement of the image quality in high ISO setting.
Improvement of the auto white balance and D-Range Optimizer performance.
Improvement of reliability for communication between camera body and vertical grip.

Just update the firmware in my camera and everything is up and running. A few test shots on high ISO seems it has improved (or psychologically maybe!). Time to shoot more to get the best out of my A700!

Emirates Cup 2008

2008-08-19T01:57:00.018+01:00

Following last year's Emirate Cup, I have received an email notification few months ago for Emirates Cup 2008 featuring the host Arsenal, Hamburg, Juventus and the star-packed Real Madrid.

Unlike last year where I bought the first row tickets behind the goal which allowed me to take some nice pictures, this year we bought the middle tier for an overview of the pitch, more expensive seating but I don't quite like it coz even my longest zoom can't reach the distance effectively.

First match was Juventus vs Hamburg, don't know any of the Hamburg players except for the Dutchman Van der Vaart who wasn't in the line-up. Juventus were a different team after the relegation crisis two seasons ago which seen many new faces in the team. Anyway still glad to see Del Piero, Camoranesi, Jaquinta the world cup winners playing.

How many of them do you recognise?

Del Piero is old but still good.

Claudio Ranieri the familiar face in English football, coaching Juventus now.

Olic scored two goals and eventually Hamburg beat Juventus 3-0

Arsenal played Real Madrid in the second match.

The bright young gunners and the new Zidane - Samir Nasri, he's very good indeed.

The gunners.

Real Madrid players warming up.

Another young star Carlos Vela showing off some skills.

Gunners in colourful boots - Diaby in yellow, Van Persie in blue, Adebayor in green and Sagna in white.

The ex-MU player Gabriel Heinze was the boo-boys target of the day.

Adebayor scratching his butts before the match.

Guess who's back? Eduador who had a terrible injury last year is back to the Emirates.

First team line-up, probably not the real first team for Real Madrid but it's still packed with stars.

Adebayor and Van Persie kicked start.

Sagna headed off a high ball to Robinho.

Even though Arsenal lost two key players before start of the season but it's still a team to watch with all the young gunners rising.

It's Jerzy Dudek! Didn't expect the ex-Liverpool goalie to play for Real.

Van Nistelrooy came on second half.

Van Persie brought down, Adebayor stepped up to take the penalty and scored the only goal of the match.

Arjen Robben came on! He was one of my favourite who has wasted his time at Chelsea before moving to Spain.

Eventually Hamburg won the Emirates Cup 2008.

See you at the Emirates next year!

Schmap Bath

2008-08-18T18:47:00.010+01:00

Although I don't make a living from photography, but it's always a delightful things when the photos are being recognised by some people, even though just a small group of people.

I have a photo published in The Star paper back in the late 90's which won me RM50 which was a small achievement for myself during that time. That was a photo of 3 little guinea pigs of my neighbour hanging on the glass cage. Unfortunately I didn't keep a copy of the paper cut and don't even remember where the printed copy has gone.

I was happy that photokaki put my photo on the front page last year - ya they change it like few times a month but it feels good to have one of mine on the front.

One of the photo published in Dyxum Galleries Exhibition #39 early this year.

And recently I received an email in flickr...

Schmap is actually an online travel guide which I have never heard before but it should be something to have its 5th edition in the making.

It is not one of my favourite picture but certainly I am more than happy to have it included in the guide.

It's just a small thumbnail picture on the website.

With my name on it, hehe... nothing to brag about but it's a small encouragement to myself.

I am eager to change profession to a job which I truly enjoy but unfortunately that will only realise when I can make more money from photography than what I am doing now in order to survive, that's the reality in life.

The 'Not So' Happening

2008-08-05T22:50:00.004+01:00

Can't believe it has been 3 months since I last blogged. Since I broke my hands I think I've been very lazy and still so even it's fully recover now.

Watched 'The Happening' directed by M. Night Shyamalan yesterday and I couldn't believe it's from the same man who directed 'The Sixth Sense'.

Half way watching the movie I already thinking there what kind of comments people will give, it's a complete waste of time when I suppose to study for my final exam. One of the worst I've ever seen in many years.

I wouldn't tell the story but some comments from IMDB just made me laugh:

"This is a joke, right?"

"A terrible screenplay and poorly acted"

"The happening is not happening"

"Awful doesn't cover it"

"If it's intentional, it's still a bad film"

"Will someone just confiscate Shyamalan's typewriter"

"An insult to intelligence"

"The crappening"

and many more...

Can't agree more than the above said, in fact many people joined IMDB to made their first comment on a movie after watching this, that was what I initially wanted to do.

I'm glad I didn't spend to watch this.

London Mayoral Election 2008

2008-05-03T18:27:00.004+01:00

Not long I registered for London Elects. I am qualified as I have already lived here for more than a year.

On 1st May, I casted my vote for Boris Johnson of the Conservatives, for his promises to reduce the rising crimes and more importantly to get better value for the taxpayers' money. He has got character and great sense of humour.

Boris in Top Gear.

Boris' great tackle on a Germany player in a charity match, in the rugby way.

I haven't even voted in Malaysia before. The mayor in Kuala Lumpur is not elected but appointed by the government despite of the uncountable complaints of its poor performance and corruption scandals.

Perhaps it's time to give the people a choice.

Spring in UK

2008-04-06T21:03:00.004+01:00

Summer time has arrived in April but this morning when I look out from the window...

The surroundings were covered in white..

Breakfast in the snow.

Is it the climate change? I just hope there'll be a warmer summer this year.

Alpha 2008 Lineup Update

2008-04-06T02:45:00.006+01:00

Early this year I've posted my 2008 line up. In 3 months time I have tidy up the lineup, adding few lens and sold the Sony A100 kit with the Dicain vertical grip.

So the updated 2008 lineup will be:

Back row: Sony HVL-F56AM, Minolta 70-210mm F4 'Beercan', Minolta 3600HSD (supposed to let it go but decided to keep it a little longer til I get a right price)
Front row: Sigma 10-20mm, M42 Jupiter 9 85mm F2, Sony A700 with Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, Tamron 90mm SP F2.8 Macro, Minolta 50mm F1.7, M42 Helios 135mm F2.8

The last thing I want on my list this year is the Sony VG-C70AM vertical grip.

Europe Day One - The Grand Place, Brussels

2008-03-31T01:59:00.007+01:00

Brussels is relatively easy to walk around if you have a map in hand.

Eglise St-Nicolas, processed in HDR.

The Grand Place, the geographical, historical and commercial heart of the city.

Hotel de Ville, built in the 14th century as the town hall.

The main entrance and the belfry, I keep thinking why the entrance wasn't center aligned with the belfry...

Courtyard of the hotel with nice pavement design.

Entrace to the reception lobby.

The statue and landscape at the courtyard.

Le Renard and Le Cornet.

The Maison Du Roi, built in 1536, now home to the Musee de la Ville. Too many museums in Europe and I decided to skip this one. I went in almost every museum when I visited Paris and lesson learned - just visit the highlight and not to waste the precious time and money.

View of Maison Du Roi from entrance of Hotel De Ville.

With the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle, I can now take pictures of myself without others help or tripod! La Maison Des Ducs De Brabant at the middle of the background and Everard 't Serclaes on the right. Touching the bronze arm of Everard 't Serclaes is said to bring luck but too bad the place is closed for refurbishment during the period.

Godiva chocolatier outlet at the Grand Place, the premium chocolate manufacturer among the uncountable numbers of chocolate shops in Brussels.

Day One in Brussels

2008-03-30T12:12:00.007+01:00

I'm still recovering from the 6 days trip in West Europe. Weather were terrible and my skin are badly dry out and cracking. Brought too many lens this trip and I didn't use the Tamron 90mm SP and Jupiter 9 at all. Taken nearly 1,000 pictures this trip and it's gonna take some time to edit all.

On the way in Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi on Thursday morning. Managed to grab pair of return tickets from lastminute.com for GBP55, it's always a good source for last minute deal as I couldn't find tickets from Eurostar website.

The bi-lingual city is often confusing with its French Dutch names for places and roads. Initially I thought Brussel Zuid and Bruxelles Midi are two different stations and apparently it's the name of the station in two languages.

The adventure begins with a Belgian cappuccino and pain au chocolat. I had not done much study before the trip, no booking on any accommodation nor intercity train tickets.

The Flying Ceiling (1976) by Pol Bury in Bourse station. Public transport in Europe is relatively cheap when comparing with UK. A day travel card cost 4 euros to be used on all metro, tram and buses. Actually there are no barriers or check on the metro and tram so you can try a few free rides.

La Bourse, Brussels' stock exchange, the stairs is a meeting point for people and also serve as speaker's corner for protests.

First Day In Brussels

2008-03-20T23:02:00.003Z

Arrived in Brussels Midi Station this morning. Things went smooth and managed to grab the return tickets to Amsterdam tomorrow on a cheaper rate than the one I checked on internet. Had a nice Belgian cappucino and pain chocolat and started the journey in the city, with my 20kg backpack.

Just hang around the central area, the Grand Place and few other tourist spots and it started raining, in fact it's still raining, and it was quite heavy, worst than London! Can't afford the risk my camera under the rain so I started to look for accommodation, the one I plan to stay initially was fully booked.

Luckily found a 3-beds shared private room in another hostel. In fact it's quite crap, no towels, no hangers, no water, nothnig is provided and even have to pay for the internet. There's only another Korean guy there and he's quite friendly. We might head to Amsterdam together tomorrow.

Anyway, weather are not looking good over the weekend. Forecast says it's gonna rain through the weekend :(

Looking forward to explore Amsterdam tomorrow!

Nomadic in Europe 20-25th March

2008-03-20T04:17:00.003Z

2 cameras, 6 lens, a tripod, few travel guides, few clothes.. I'm going to explore few more cities in Europe for 6 days stretch through Easter holiday.

What's in my hand now is only the return Eurostar train tickets to Brussel. I think I'm brave enough this round, didn't book any accommodation nor connecting trains to other cities, could end up sleeping in the train station.

Brussel and Amsterdam are the two main destination and probably will visit Bruge or Antwerp along the way.

Weather forecast over the weekend will be cloudy and rainy.. wish me luck!

M42: Jupiter 9 85mm F/2.0

2008-03-17T02:06:00.014Z

Brought my second M42 lens - the Russian made Jupiter 9 85mm F2 to Bricklane two weeks ago with Joanne to test the lens' portraiture capability.

The first 2 digits on the front of the lens tells the year of made, mine is N7508915, so it's a year older than me, and still fit as I am!

It's heavy and build solidly that's why it can last for so long.

Bokeh test at F2.0

It's soft at its widest aperture.

The soft effect is ideal for portraiture. The lens is old but the quality is there!

High key finish with superb bokeh.

It's sharp from F4.0 onwards.

With nice contrast as well.

My favourite shot of the day, the street performers at Bricklane. It's an honour to be selected in Dyxum's Exhibition #39

For the price I paid for it's the best value lens I have now and it's gonna be my favourite lens in the bag for a while.

Conspiracy Theory - PGCC

2008-03-16T22:52:00.009Z

An article received in a forwarded e-mail written in Chinese recently, which I think worth sharing.

Despite losing 2/3 majority and 5 states to the opposition in the election, leaders from BN - Badawi of UMNO, Ong Ka Ting of MCA and Semi Value of MIC decided to stay in a thick face manner despite calls for them to resign from the top post. Their reputation to the people has dropped to the lowest point and it doesn't do any good to their party so they have to go.

The only BN leader who admitted defeat and resigned from the top post is Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon. He even attended the swearing ceremony of the newly elected Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng from DAP. He deserved some respects.

There are rumours saying Koh purposely lost Penang in order to let DAP take charge of the state, to avoid being controlled by UMNO Youth - which link directly to Khairy the son-in-law.

What's the relationship of Khairy with Penang? - the RM25 billion rated Penang Global City Centre (PGCC).

Equine owned by businessman Patrick Lim, aka Patrick Badawi who won the project because of his close ties to the son-in-law and the first family.

Such mega projects of course had to be approved by the Chief Minister which Koh wasn't quite agreed as there are too many issues involved. Badawi stepped on Koh to launch the project even before Koh approved it. Koh still didn't approve the project and UMNO decided to play their usual trick - the racial card by accusing Penang is marginalising the Malays who live there. The motive is to pull Koh down the CM chair and to put its own people who will be willing to 'cooperate'.

The issue was finally resolved, Koh kept the CM chair but was badly hurted and had to approve PGCC.

8/3/08 - BN lost Penang to BA

10/3/08 - KLSE was suspended because KLCI dropped more than 10%, many stocks were suspended twice including Equine.

11/3/08 New CM Lim Guan Eng announced to review project PGCC.

Many will doubt how Koh influenced the voters. He made some surprises relocating PGRM candidates in the states which created some mess in the party before the election.

I heard Equine was the first to send bouquet to congratulate Lim Guan Eng, I hope Lim will do something to justify Koh's sacrifice, if it's true.

Good news to the people, bad news to the Badawi's family.

Had enough from Badawi and his son-in-law? If so sign the petition to support Mukhriz Mahathir's urge for Badawi to step down as Prime Minister, my signature is No. 391.

Malaysian Dreamgirl?

2008-03-16T01:32:00.005Z

A Malaysian made reality show, Malaysian Dreamgirl. The title is actually a bit misleading, I thought it's some kind of competition to find what men are looking for but it's a model search.

The production is done quite professionally, the show is broadcasted on internet only. However, looking at the 12 finalists... I think you can pick one easily on the street in KL who are better than the 12. Sorry to say but one of them even look like transvestite.

I don't know how many turned up for the audition, but most certainly the choices were limited. In any case, I couldn't agree with the judges' taste, especially Kenny Sia on all his 'favourite'.

The Taiwan Top Model search 2007, that's how it should be...

超级星光大道season 3 满分

2008-03-13T00:34:00.003Z

徐佳茔自创歌曲“身骑白马”在星光3获得满分。

Very talented girl, it's a very nice song especially the hokkien chorus part, abstracted from chinese opera.

原戏曲背景：

薛平贵本来是个不得志的青年
王宝钏是丞相的女儿
因为一些际遇，王宝钏执意要嫁薛平贵
后来因为西凉国的代战公主发兵讨阀中原，平贵从军
当大家都以为平贵死了，而事实上经过一些事，他已经和公主结婚了，后来还登上了王位
此时宝钏还在家苦守，还有人要害她，平贵的义兄后来知道平贵没死，就带着宝钏一路乞讨到西凉
平贵接到血书，得知宝钏的际遇，即刻打马走三关，只为赶回中原见宝钏

A Day to Remember

2008-03-10T02:09:00.004Z

It's a big day for all the Malaysians, BN although won the GE2008 but lost the 2/3 majority and 5 states to the opposition. A victory and a new hope for the people who have risen and spoken of their will.

Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the Barisan Rakyat has played a major role in the victory. Although I am still not very sure whether he can be trusted or not (he could be one of 'them' if he wasn't framed in 1998) but no doubt he is a more respectable figure comparing to Badawi. Dr Mahathir can't be trusted as well but at least he managed to keep things under control during his leadership of the country.

Lim Kit Siang and the DAP members are the people whom I really respected. They have fight for the Malaysian people for decades without any datukship, tunship or personal benefits. I believe under the DAP government, Penang will develop better, the state fund will be spent more carefully and of course less or zero corruption.

Lim's son Guan Eng is taking over the role of Chief Minister for Penang. In the press conference. Asking how's his feeling, he didn't forget to tease the Malaysian press sarcastically: "I think the only difference is I find more press attending our conference than before the election". Shame on the major media who are all pro BN.

This is something we won't be able to listen from local media, covered by Al-Jazeera. In Jalan Pandan Indah, KL, 500+ voters have registered on the street, 20-30 registered on one address. If not because of these phantom voters, BN could even had lost more than that. Check out the explanation by the EC Kamarazuman, what a joke in front of the international media.

Dr Mahathir has launched his new attack on Badawi and his son-in-law in an interview with Malaysiakini, urging Badawi to resign as Prime Minister. I think Dr. M is a smart old fox, praising Najib to succeed Badawi as new PM, to create some wave in UMNO since virtually he can't do much anymore without power.

On the son-in-law:
"I think his son-in-law played a big role (in the defeat). This young man who has no achievements before but apparently the PM listens to him"

On Zam, mis-information minister:
"He won or lost? Oh, he lost. Well, the way he was campaigning was really funny, telling people to look at his face and how it doesn't change. But I think that a face that doesn't change can be very boring. Sometimes you must laugh, sometimes you must cry.

He was telling everybody "Ini muka tak bertukar, tak bertukar". Who is interested in his ‘wajar’? If he was Britney Spears, then…"

On Samy Vellu:
"I think that Samy Vellu played a big part in the defeat. When he was in BN, he doesn't allow any of the MIC people to come up to his level. If they come up (to be) deputy or vice-president, he will knock them down and even expel them from the party"

It's a pity Rafidah Aziz won her seat if not I can expect Dr Mahathir to make more interesting comments.

"Goodbye Sam", another masterpiece by comedycourt: "and this result has been welcomed by mixed feelings, some are shocked and some are very shiok" hahaha...

There will be a protest on Monday morning at Istana Negara when Badawi meets the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to form the new government. The thick face said he won't resign despite of the biggest defeat in the history, the son-in-law and the cronies certainly won't want him to go. Let's see what happen in the next few weeks.

And, let's hope for a better future for Malaysia.

Election Day

2008-03-07T03:36:00.003Z

8th of March is approaching, the Malaysia general election day. Enough is enough and it's time to change. Although it's quite unlikely that the opposition will win the majority but I believe it's possible to deny a 2/3 majority win by the BN, provided it's clean and fair.

Wake up fellow Malaysians. I love the country but hate the government, wish I will return to a real democratic Malaysia one day.

Day Trip to Nottingham

2008-02-23T10:11:00.009Z

Attended a company training course in the hometown of Robin Hood - Nottingham on Thursday. Passed by two football stadiums in the city - Nottingham Forest and Notts County on the way to the training centre.

After the day training I only had an hour to walk around the city centre before catching the evening train back to London. Time was too short to visit the Sherwood Forest to see the Major Oak tree.

Sight by the River Leen. All pictures are taken using Tamron 17-50mm/2.8 in RAW and processed in HDR.

Nottingham train Station.

Towards the city centre, there's a 'Nottingham Eye' at the far sight.

Statue of Sir John Betjamen at the new St Pancras Railway Station, London where I took the 2 hours train to Nottingham which cost me £118 for the return tickets on company expenses. Travel cost in the UK is absolutely ridiculous.

A never ending hug at The Meeting Place in the station.

M42 Photography

2008-02-23T01:17:00.014Z

DSLR photography can be an expensive hobby. Once you get a DSLR body, you'll start looking at the lens for different range and purpose, which can be even more expensive than the body. I found the cheap option - the M42 lens mount which is also known as Praktica or Pentax thread mount. These lens can be found cheap on eBay or second hand shop.

You have to get one of these M42 adapter specially made for different mounts. For my understanding, it works well on Sony/Minolta and Canon but not on Nikon as it can't focus to infinity. I got one for my A mount from eBay for USD$10. Btw don't get it from the China seller, 3 weeks delivery in the modern world just doesn't make sense!

Got my first M42 lens from eBay for £11 + pp - a Japanese made Helios 135mm F2.8 (I thought it's Russian made initially)

I guess this lens is older than me, should be 30 to 40 years old.

Brought it for a test near Tower Bridge overlooking River Thames and the surrounding.

Photo taken at F16, shutter speed unrecorded. For such a cheap lens, the performance is quite acceptable. Anyway I was struggling with the manual focus but I do enjoy the challenge.

Shooting the Gherkin at an angle I never thought of before with a tele lens. In fact I never really thought of taking landscape pictures with a tele lens. My favourite shot of the day.

Stalking people on the bridge at F2.8

It works well on portraiture.

An useful M42 database website - M42 artlimited.

Too many lenses in my camera bag and dry box now and I don't know which lens to bring every time I'm out taking pictures. Perhaps I should get the A200 as second body? (stop thinking about that!!!) And... I just won my second M42 lens on eBay, a Russian made Jupiter 9 85mm F2.0, can't wait for its arrival!

Cyril Takayama

2008-02-22T23:28:00.004Z

Watch some street magic performed by Cyril Takayama.

Playing with alligator in a Lacoste store.

Sero jisan switching a ballon with bowling ball.

Cyril's famous head trick.

He is absolutely brilliant!

The Casino @ The Empire

2008-02-21T21:55:00.003Z

Chinese New Year 2008 used to be the gambling season back home. I haven't really been gambling since moving to the UK, except betting small monies during the World Cup 2006.

Joined Roger and Alex to The Casino at The Empire at Leicester Square yesterday, with initial plan to watch the Champions League actually as there's a nice bar area in the casino with a big projector screen.

You have to become a member to enter any casino at the West End.

"A touch of Vegas", I never been to Vegas before but this is a small 2 levels casino with a stylish restaurant and a nice bar. Only like maybe 5% of the size of Genting Highlands' casino with limited choice of games: banker player, poker, 3 cards poker, blackjack, roulette and some gambling machines.

Finally get to play a few rounds of blackjack finally this CNY in the casino and won small sum of money enough for a meal then ciao. I'm too timid to bet the hard earned money on the gambling table.

Portobello Revisited

2008-02-17T23:51:00.013Z

Looked out from the window on Saturday and there was rare lovely sunshine so I decided to visit Portobello Market to try my luck in hunting some used M42 lens. All pictures were taken with the Helios 135mm F2.8.

A candid shot taken near Liverpool Street Station. It wasn't that impressive before post processing. Picture desaturated with high contrast. I quite like the 135mm (200mm on APS-C sensor) range for candid, portraiture and landscape.

I didn't check the weather forecast and it was freezing!

Same old place.

Same old stuff.

The popular destination for Londoners and tourists.

As the Helios is a manual lens on the M42 adaptor, no EXIF data for aperture used were recorded. I guess this was taken at F3.5.

Vernon Yard.

A street performer who perform on the divider on the middle of the road.

Didn't manage to find any lens and it was too cold so I decided to call it a day at this point. Lesson learnt - check the weather forecast and wear proper clothes before going out.

CNN Interview with Abdullah

2008-02-17T15:02:00.004Z

Parliament has been dissolved and the election is coming in March. Watch CNN's interview with Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi:

Everytime I watch Malaysian leaders interviewed by the international media I feel embarrassed as a Malaysian. Pak Lah's answers were leading no way and confusing as always.

A response from blogger Din Merican:

Lim Kit Siang speaking at the press:

Obviously the whole world knows that why is the reason the election date is fixed earlier than it supposed to be - to keep former deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim out of the race, just a month before he's eligible for the election after a ban expires. Pak Lah said it's not his concern and I think that's an ultimate bullshit!

"No eye see"

AND1

2008-02-17T13:32:00.004Z

Since there are more and more people playing basketball in the gym regularly these day, it's time to get a pair of proper basketball shoes. Being the only representative from the Malaysia I have to look better if not play better.

I saw this pair of AND1 Open Run Mid in two sports shops at Oxford Street but all running out of my size. I didn't give up and finally found the last pair at Lilywhites Picadilly Circus at 50% discount, for only £27. After long consideration I choose the AND1 over the Adidas A3 Artillery (with a high tech look sole for a very good bargain price too at £30) because it feels really comfy and lightweight. The Adidas feels a bit clumsy to me.

Unlike other brands, AND1 is specialising in basketball shoes and apparel and actively promoting street basketball.

A video on AND1 Mixtape tour. Anyway it seems that the rules deviate from the standard one which players are allowed to carry the ball above the shoulder and there's no traveling and double dribbling violation??

Always look on the bright side of life

2008-02-13T23:49:00.003Z

Just watched the '50 most shocking comedy moments' on Channel 5 and found this comedy by Monty Python a real classic.

Scene from the 1979 film 'Life of Brian'

'Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it'. The controversial comedy was banned for few years in several countries as it's making fun of religious issues.

I think I will have to catch up the Monty Python 'Spamalot' (spam a lot!) musical theater in the West End before it ends this March.

Photo Session @ Kudos

2008-02-11T02:05:00.001Z

It's day 4 of Chinese New Year, suppose to meet up with the boys for dim sum lunch at Chinatown but turn up late hence meeting them at the Kudos Cafe Bar at Charing Cross instead.

It's quite a nice place and they have picked a nice corner which is a perfect set up for indoor shooting.

Taken with Tamron 17-50mm at F2.8, ISO800, the dark wall at the back matched well with the good lighting.

Michael, who said he has not got any decent pictures in recent years for his gaydar profile should be happy with this.

This is for Ivan. He has got a big acne mark on his face so I have to photoshop for him in every single picture.

Tried using the bounce flash but it doesn't works well here. Probably I should get the Stofen Omni-Bounce Diffuser soon (I have to keep telling myself stop buying, buying and buying...)

For the straight guy Marco.

Different quality from different hands and obviously the camera wasn't in my hands.

Euro Millions

2008-02-11T00:48:00.000Z

Last week was full of dreams at work, not because of Chinese New Year but the Euro Millions jackpot which hit a whooping £96,000,000. Bought few tickets with colleague Roger, discussing what should we do on coming Monday after we won the jackpot.

Just imagine that, equaling more than RM600,000,000, say 3% interest rate p.a., that's RM1.5 million on interest earning itself, or RM50,000 pocket money a day.

Sometimes it's good to spend a little money and keep a dream.

For Sell: A100 & Accessories

2008-01-06T23:13:00.000Z

So my 2008 line up isn't my final line up as I can't afford to keep 2 DSLRs at this time and I'm raising fund for the Sigma 10-20mm. It's time to part with the A100 which has accompanied me for a good one year.

1. Sony DSLR-A100K

Bought in December 2006, the camera is in mint condition with box, rear display screen is protected by film protector since day one of purchase. Shutter counts approximately 7,000 to date. Sensor just cleaned and serviced by Sony Service Centre in December and filmware updated to latest version 1.04 which give better performance at high ISO.

Package includes:

All cables - AV, USB etc
Original NP-FM55H batteries x 2 with charger
Sony Pro Duo Stick adapter (memory card excluded)
User manual
CD installer
Sony DT 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 - glass is perfect, no fungus whatsoever, will include a 55mm Hoya Skylight filter which is always on the lens as front element protection.

Asking price: £300 plus delivery cost

2. Dicain VG-1 Vertical Grip

6 months old, by far the best 3rd party vertical grip for the A100 (there isn't any Sony grip available!). Great for portraiture and other vertical composition and believe me, once you have it fixed on the A100 you won't want to take it down.

Asking price: £60 plus delivery cost

3. Minolta 3600 HS(D) Flash unit

I bought the Sony 56 flash unit so I don't need this anymore. It's in very good condition, comes with diffuser, leather case and the MS-2 stand.

Asking price: £85 plus delivery cost

Oops... I just won a M42 Helios 135mm F2.8 lens on eBay for £15 including delivery... for experiment purpose, I must stop somewhere on the purchase...

Meeting with the A700s

2008-01-05T19:25:00.000Z

Managed to meet up with two A700 users in a small TT session at Times Square before leaving Malaysia. Both Malaysian bloggers and Sony Alpha featured photographers.

Jason aka Smashpop, famous of his jump shots. Picture taken with Albert's 8mm Peleng lens.

Albert, he has some wide coverage on Sony/Konica Minolta system in his blog with many interesting tests.

Shooting each others with the A700.

We also tested the A700's wireless remote control on 3 A700s and it works!

Test shot with Jason's Sony 11-18mm at the wide end.

I seriously got tempted by Albert's 8mm Peleng fish eye lens. A very interesting lens indeed for creative photography. It'll be my next purchase after the Sigma 10-20mm.

The lens can be used for candid shoot, they weren't actually realised that they were framed when I was aiming at the Tamron lens.

Been reading their blogs for some while and finally got to meet them in KL. It's great pleasure indeed for their kind sharing on the flash technique and some features on the A700.

2008 Line Up

2008-01-01T16:49:00.000Z

Happy New Year 2008 and I'm back in London with my new gears bought in KL.

Picture taken with Canon IXUS 30 at manual setting, custom WB and ISO400 so pardon the poor imagine quality despite the equipments that I owned now.

So my 2008 Sony/Konica Minolta line up are:
Top left to right: Minolta 3600HS(D), Sony HVL-F56AM, Sony A700, Sony A100 with Dicain VG-1
Bottom left to right: Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro, Minolta 70-210mm F4 'Beercan', Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6, Minolta 50mm F1.7 and the newly acquired Tamron 17-50mm F2.8

Bought the Sony semi-pro DSLR body A700 finally and I'm happy with the ISO performance and the improved AF, also the high end HVL-F56AM flash, which is much better and accurate than my 3600HS(D), both at Boeing Sg Wang. Also bought the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 which is a perfect replacement for the kit lens from Shashinki.

The only lens which I'm going to buy in 2008 will be the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle zoom lens, that will be after I sell my A100 + kit lens, vertical grip and the 3600HS(D). I will concentrate on taking good photos and stop talking about the equipment after then!

Heroes Season 2 Finale

2007-12-04T23:35:00.000Z

Months ago, I downloaded Heroes season 1 from emule which taken me ages. Mid way through season 2 I found some sources to watch it without needing to download it.

There's youtube from the US which was always my favourite to find all sorts of interesting video clips, too bad you can't find the latest Heroes series on youtube I guess because of the copyright issue. Then there's youku from China, which copyright isn't a big issue there and Chinese makes or copies everything including the fake eggs.

There's a better DivX video from HERE.

Season 2 has been annoying to have many stupid characters which doesn't really make sense. Peter was used by Adam but why he didn't use his mind reading power to read Adam? Maya helped Sylar to regain his power and got her own brother killed; Monica I thought she's suppose to be smart as she learns things fast but she caused Nikki's death (?); Angela Petrelli killed Nathan to keep the company's secret...

So the two heroes who fall are Nikki and Nathan, did they died? "Powerless" refers to Peter after absorbing the virus?

Hiro is again the only hero who has the clear direction and buried Adam underneath his dad's graveyard. I hope the script writer hasn't reach his bottleneck when it comes to Season 3.

Bicester Village

2007-12-04T22:48:00.000Z

2 weeks ago went to Bicester Village at Oxfordshire. It's a designer outlet village selling luxury and premium brands at discounted prices.

Imagine all the branded outlet shops in a village like layout, a very special shopping experience indeed despite of the shitty weather.

A nice Starbucks at one end of the village, it would be nice to have a sip of a hot cup of coffee if the weather wasn't that cold.

Nearly 2 hours driving journey did pay off which I bought 2 pairs of diesel trousers originally priced GBP85 at only GBP15 each! Also bought 2 CK undies but I think it wasn't really cheap but I was a bit over excited to make the harsh decision.

The x'mas lighting isn't that great but the atmosphere is there.

Taken this at Piccadilly Circus while on our way for dinner, ISO 800, F3.5, 1/8 sec hand held, I wish to have the A700 soon for the high ISO performance!

Heroes To Zeroes

2007-11-23T21:37:00.000Z

Been addicted to the TV series 'Heroes' since last month, season 2 is getting more and more excited as more questions answered. Adam survives to the present day for the revenge, Matt's ability has developed that he can control people's actions now, Noah was shot dead by Mohinder but regenerated with the transfusion of Claire's blood... can't wait til next Tuesday for Episode 10 - Truth and Consequences!

The EP10's trailer! Santi virus threat, Claire vs Elle, Sylar is back, Hiro's sword is on Peter's neck...

Sadly, 2 more episodes and it's end of Season 2... However, new series 'Zeroes' is coming!?

Damn kelakar!

Autumn

2007-11-22T00:35:00.001Z

Autumn is near end and winter is approaching and I hate the weather. Been busy during the weekdays and lazy during the weekends and been not processing the pictures taken few months back.

The spider 'Maman' by Louise Bourgeois displayed outside Tate Modern in October. If you look carefully its belly contains eggs. This is a popular photography object for the Londoners lately. Apparently there's a 'Maman' group in Flickr with hundreds of photos for the spider, see here.

Another view of the 'Maman' in front of Tate Modern.

There is a line of crack in the turbine hall inside Tate Modern - the Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo.

I don't know how she did it and how is she going to fill the gap back when the exhibition is over, or are they going to change the whole granite floor?

Tonite, England screwed up big time by losing to Croatia and didn't make it to the European Cup next Summer. After watching the game, what I can say is England doesn't deserve to go to the final. What a shame after Russia handed them the life line last week and they lost it in their own hands.

Tomorrow, as Steven McClaren said he won't resign, I expect to see him gets sacked by the FA and Mourinho to come into the picture.

Onitsuka Tiger

2007-11-15T01:18:00.000Z

I love sneakers and trainers than all the other type of shoes, just like I love jeans than trousers.

I miss my Air Kukini, my personal favourite of all time and wish I can own it again and I found it here! It has becomes a vintage collection and selling for nearly 20,000 yen (about GBP 90... bloody hell...).

The last pair of sneakers I bought was the yellow Adidas Tuscany GP which I had big problem cleaning the suede material, and that was 2 and half years ago.

Been looking for a replacement which is light weight and comfort and when I saw this, I know I wanna own it.

The dark brown/beige colour Onitsuka Tiger Runspark.

Onitsuka Co. Ltd. introduced its first sport-specific shoe in 1949 and now better known today as ASICS, re-introduces an original collection of Onitsuka Tiger footwear.

FYI, the brand was little-known until Uma Thurman wore the yellow shoes in the movie Kill Bill in 2003 (Timesonline). That's one huge re-branding success in the fashion industry.

It comes with two pairs of shoes strings, another look with the yellow strings. What do you think?

The only thing I hope is don't let me find it cheaper in KL when I go back in December!

Magnificent 7 of United

2007-11-15T00:31:00.000Z

Cantona 7 - the legend of United, purely genius. The French man is ugly but damn yao yeng! Check out the song in this clip!

Beckham 7 - the world best set piece and free kick specialist, it was really sad when he left United. I was still hoping for him to come back when he left Real Madrid. Lesson of the story: don't marry a wrong woman, it ruins your life! Not matter what, he deserves the respect well.

The best replacement yet for the No. 7 jersey.

EOS Discovery

2007-11-09T22:53:00.000Z

Signed up for the EOS Discovery event as Alan just got his 30D and keen to see more on the Canon products.

Before the event, I went to the Sony Centre at Tottenham Court Road and finally get a touch on the GBP1,000 Sony A700, with the GBP250 tagged vertical grip. No way I am going to get it in the UK for that price but just to get a feel of it to decide whether or not to upgrade when I go back to M'sia this December.

First impression, it's solid and looks great with the function packed VG, the AF is much faster than the A100 and the 3" LCD Bravia like screen is absolutely amazing. Although the noise at high ISO seems much improved now but at the same time it becomes my worry that it could be over processed for the on-chip noise reduction.

Come back to the event, To be honest I don't have plan to switch brand yet at the moment but no doubt Canon is the major player in the DSLR market and I don't mind to have a look on the system. I did owned a EOS 50 many years ago and do have some product knowledge on Canon range.

The event is hosted by professional photographers, Drew Gardner is one of them which has some amazing works (found his website online, ehhh... how come he's the Nikon featured photographer of the Year???). I am quite attracted by his philosophy that don't set a limit in photography and try to catch as much in the camera rather than post processing (more than agree as myself is taking ages to process the photos...).

Photographs submitted by participants online were presented and discussed and it was really interactive. Alan got his baby's photo shown on the projector screen at last. The event is mainly promoting the new EOS 40D, and now I realised how useful the 'live view' function is especially for macro photography when they demonstrate it on stage. The event also covered portrait photography using wireless Speedlite flashguns. All done professionally.

After the seminar was the Product Touch and Try, with coffee and cookies provided! Initially I thought it's only for the new 40D but apparently it's the whole range of Canon products, with models and objects for participants to shoot, freely! I was happy enough playing with the top 1Ds MKIII, 5D, macro ring flash, top lenses like 600mm/F4, 300mm/F2.8, 85mm/F1.2 etc etc. You won't be treated this way if you're going to a camera shop! We even got a goodies bag before we left.

I was quite impressed indeed. How I wish Sony UK will spend some money organising this sort of events.

So... after touching both on the same night, 40D or A700? If I can afford those top glass I'll definitely go for Canon. But if it's 40D vs A700, the answer is obvious - A700 is still my choice, even though it's without live view but it just gives me the right feel ;-)

Lost in Translation

2007-10-27T11:16:00.000+01:00

Previously I thought of taking the cheap China Airlines back home until I watched this...

It was an incident happened in New York Airport April this year where the China pilot struggled to communicate to the ground control tower. Damn funny but imagine this could cost hundreds of life if thing goes wrong.

Check out how the pilot who has 20 years flying experience who just passed his English oral exam answered the question.

Interviewer: "Have you ever had problem talking to the tower?"
Pilot: "Yeah.. ahh.. we ahh.. flew ahh.. to ahh.. American.. Europe.. just pilots.. eh.. usually speak English.."

Dare you take China Airlines anymore after watching this?

A week in Reading

2007-10-13T23:51:00.000+01:00

Attended the first module of the course for a week in Reading last week. It was really tiring as I have to wake up at 6+ in the morning to catch the 8am train from Paddington. It only takes 25 minutes on a fast train but that cost more than 20 pounds for the return fare. Public transport in the UK isn't the best but the most expensive! Sometimes I don't even get a seat during the peak commute hours!

First module was on the Principles of Project Management, where we combined with the students taking MSc Project Management, met one of my colleague Anita in the lecture and got to know some friends from different backgrounds and companies. That's one of the advantages taking a MSc - get to know more people in the industry.

Overall the module lectures are ok, with lecturers from both academic and private/public sectors sharing their knowledge and industrial experience. It's amazing to meet some of them whom I read their books many years ago.

It's a smart move to put it as the first module especially to me as I manage people and time poorly. It did motivates and inspires me a bit. Basically 'project' can be about anything, is to "achieve an objective with a start and end time".

There are several projects ahead which I need to close, either short or long term...

The master degree of course.
Assessment of Professional Competence, that's on the critical path too as I hope I can complete it together with the MSc.
After I achieve the above, hopefully within the planned period of time. I plan to do an 1 or 2 months back-pack/bike tour across Asia, China to be exact to find my roots. (My colleague Francois inspired me, he'll be on a 3 months bike tour going back to his hometown South Africa). It'll be tough but that's something I must achieve when I still have the energy.
The fitness project, I had gained 2kg successfully for the past 2 and half month, targeting another 2 kg before December holiday break and to hit 70kg before March 2008. Of course it's not just about the weight but for the health.
Last but not least is the project woman, a bit complicated at the moment but hopefully can sort it out soon.

2 years used to be quite long when I was younger but now it seems I have too little time to hesitate any longer.

Fontana de Trevi

2007-10-11T02:13:00.000+01:00

Located at Tridente district, one of Rome's more surprising sights, easy to stumble upon by accident - the huge and magnificent Fontana de Trevi (Trevi Fountain) was completed in the 17th century. It is the most beautiful fountain I'd ever seen.

Picture taken at 18mm, ISO 100, F22 and 30 secs exposure - the surrounding was packed by tourist and it was really hard to find a spot to set up the tripod.

The theatrical design incorporated the entire Neoclassical facade of Palazzo Poli as the background and containing a figure of Nepture in the centre.

No way to set up tripod in front of the fountain. Picture taken hand held at 18mm, ISO 800, F3.5, 1/5 sec exposure. The A100 built-in anti-shake works perfectly well and the noise level at ISO 800 is not too bad!

People surrounding the fountain - 18mm, ISO 400, F3.5, 1/4 sec exposure.

There's a rooted tradition - if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain before you leave the city it'll bring good luck and ensure your return.

The Colosseum Part II

2007-10-05T02:17:00.000+01:00

The interior of the Colosseum - the arena. HDR technique is used as the sunlight was too strong to capture the details on the top part of the picture.

The substructures beneath the arena (hypogeum) provided space for the mechanism by which scenery and other apparatus was hoisted into the arena and lifting caged animals to the surface for release. It makes me want to watch the Gladiator starring Russell Crowe again.

It could probably hold more than 50,000 spectators.

View of the Arch of Constantine from Colosseum.

It's hard to imagine how it was built nearly 2,000 years ago.

One of my favourite picture taken inside the building. It was near evening when most visitors have left.

I appreciated the moment of quietness where no tourists can be seen in a clean picture.

Back to the real world, the area outside Colosseum is crowded with tour groups, souvenir stalls and noisy Roman 'gladiators' who keep persuading tourists to take pictures with them.

It's Italy, they have super cool Alfa Romeo 159 as police cars! (As Malaysian have the not-so-cool Waja). I like new Alfa's head lamps! FYI Carabinieri are the military police in Italy.

The Arch of Constantine, the triumphal arch which was erected in AD 315 and located right next to the Colosseum.

What is a triumph? The original triumph was once stipulated that you have to kill 5,000 of the enemy in a victory to bring a war to an end.

A couple taking the wedding photos around the area.

Another view from lower Palatine Hill.

See the moon?

The journey in Rome has just begun.

I wandered around the area until late and took this picture at 35mm, ISO 80, F22, 30 secs exposure.

The Colosseum

2007-10-04T00:27:00.000+01:00

Anyone who goes to Rome can't miss The Colosseum - the emblem of Rome, and the largest amphitheatre ever built by the Romans.

It's located right in the middle of the city, Colosseo station on metro blue line.

It's one of the most colorful train I'd seen among the Europe metro/underground, covered with graffiti arts.

Exterior view of one of the best preserved section.

One of the many pictures I took at the Colosseum, processed in HDR.

Rock Climbing @ YMCA

2007-10-02T00:49:00.000+01:00

For the past few Mondays, I kept watching the rock climbing group practicing in the gym. Finally today I stepped up and asked the instructor whether I can join or not.

I was given a declaration form to confirm that I am doing this willingly and will be responsible for any consequences at my own risk...

To be honest, I am very scare of height and will feel dizzy and my legs will become strengthless when I look down from tall buildings. It's a challenge for myself to overcome my fear. The instructor Andy is very experienced and he guided me and the other newbie Mark on the safety rules and various basic rope knots tying techniques.

Climbers usually work in pairs, with one climbing and the other belaying. The role of the belayer is very important and must be alert at all time to 'lock off' the rope in case the climber falls. I was surprised that I managed to climb up the 5-6m wall at different difficulty levels without falling even once.

It's a sports where strength, endurance, and mental control, as well as agility and balance, are required to cope with tough, dangerous physical challenges. I enjoyed it very much and think I will join the class regularly.

I love YMCA~

HDR: 1 London Bridge

2007-09-25T22:29:00.000+01:00

A lot of people have often mistakenly referring Tower Bridge as London Bridge, simply because to many people's surprises, London Bridge looks too ordinary than its name.

It's easier to recognize London Bridge by one special building sits right at the south end of the bridge - known as 1 London Bridge.

Taken this picture beneath the building on Thames Festival 2 weeks ago, with an idea ready in my mind.

Picture shot in RAW, at 18mm, ISO 100, F10 and hand held 1/25 secs. It's difficult to get a perfect picture in situation where a lot of details are shadowed beneath the roof and the side of the building will often becoming over exposed.

Picture processed in Photomatix merging 3 pictures at 0, +2 and -2 exposures. The details of the reflection stands out more and it looks much balanced at all area.

Thames Festival

2007-09-22T13:22:00.000+01:00

Thames Festival is an annual end of summer event with food, drink, arts, crafts and activities for children by the River Thames.

This guy (I think he's a guy) enjoyed attention from the crowd very much and pose a lot for the photographers.

Live performance at The Scoop, More London.

Always try a different angle for a different view.

The little drummer.

Minolta colours.

Taiko drum performance.

I like the enthusiasm and excitement shown on the drummer's face.

The female drummer.

Walking pass the bridge to the other side of the river in the evening. I am confused by the names of the bridges along River Thames. Moreover this one is called Hungerford Bridge or known more as Charing Cross Bridge but actually the 2 pedestrian bridges on the 2 sides which shared the foundation of the main railway bridge are called Golden Jubilee Bridges.

The parade started from the North bank of the river, with some interesting groups such as this one.

I am not quite sure this is HMS President or HMS Wellington.

I named it "The Coconut Tree" fireworks - taken at 18mm, ISO 100, F8.0, 10 secs exposure.

Fireworks @ Thames Festival

2007-09-20T03:10:00.001+01:00

Last weekend was the Thames festival and I had been lazy these day to walk along the river even though it's so close to where I live. I was interested when I heard they are gonna play fireworks at night at the end of the event.

It was really crowded at both sides of the river and there was a parade from the north bank, where the London mayor Ken Livingstone was spotted. I spent some time looking for the best spot to shoot the fireworks after I found out they will play it right in front of the OXO tower. I decided to go to the Waterloo Bridge on the west which overlook Blackfriars Bridge, St Paul Cathedral etc on the east. It was already packed with people when I arrived 10 mins before the fireworks. I managed to squeeze to the front and set up my tripod perfectly between the bridge railing and the safety barrier. Then this idiot security came to me and told me: "I know this is a nice spot for taking picture but u are not allow to place your tripod here". Damn I had to push the crowd behind me backwards and narrowed the tripod legs. It was quite windy and the tripod was not very steadily set up.

The fireworks started... I tried various settings within very short time and managed to get a few decent shots...

18mm, ISO 100, F8.0, 5 secs exposure

18mm, ISO 100, F6.3, 5 secs exposure

18mm, ISO 100, F7.1, 8 secs exposure

18mm, ISO 100, F10, 5 secs exposure

18mm, ISO 100, F11, 8 secs exposure

I reckon the best setting for fireworks shooting should be shutter prioritised at 5-6 secs, 8-10 secs seem allow too much lights and made it looks quite congested on the sky. A great fireworks shooting experience indeed. Wish I'll get another chance to shoot fireworks again soon.

Back To Campus

2007-09-19T21:39:00.000+01:00

Days been passing fast these day. Work, gym and photography has kept most of my time occupied. And now after more than 7 years graduated I can't imagine that I'm now a student again.

I wouldn't want to add pressure to the existing if I wasn't required to take the MSc course as a requirement to sit for the professional exam. Should I blame RICS for not accrediting my Malaysian degree (it was accredited eventually anyway after I graduated) or should I blame UTM for their standard.

It's good to have some obstacles in life that makes you move further. It has always been a dream to study abroad for myself but due to financial constraints I realized since I was very young that I will not go anywhere except for the local options. My mum had done her best to allow me to complete the local degree.

One of my ex gf during university time argued with me naively before that I should asked my parents to send me oversea whatsoever. She studied in Australia that time and I bet that she thought money will fall from the sky. I remember her words until today. Who doesn't want to give their children the best education? I did better in my SPM than most of my friends who went oversea and as a 'reward' I was offered a place in a local university which is like striking lottery for poor people in Malaysia.

However, I have to admit that higher education has been a big failure of the country due to the quota system (racial discrimination I would say) that bring the standard down. There were only 8 non Malay out of 140 in my batch and it wasn't really competitive to be top in the class. I didn't relied much on the lecturers teaching as it was mostly in Malay and really impractical so I spent most time doing my own research in the library. Although most of the lecturers are graduated from the UK they insist to translate the materials into Malay which made us so confused. Perhaps it'll be useful if all of the graduates are going to work with Samy Vellu's department.

The university has all the while sending the wrong people oversea for the master degrees. One of the old tutor was sent to UK 3 times with his family at government expense and failed all 3 times. To be honest, he barely speaks a full sentence in English and how could he survived in the UK? A course mate of mine whom was the 'best' of his color but not better than the non Malays was sent to University of Reading 'quietly' after graduation. It was understood that if the competition is open it'll be a controversy for not spending the money on the best qualified person.

I am truly blessed that I am able to make it to University of Reading today. The syllabus of the MSc course is good, and after 3 days of introduction this week I think I'll like the challenge although it's going to be very busy. The lecturers are good and some are even authors of the reference books that I depended a lot during days in UTM.

The next 2 years will be tough, but it'll be fast.

Sony A700 Flash Trailer

2007-09-13T07:36:00.000+01:00

Sony Alpha 700's flash trailer:

Like no other ;-)

We are not so furious

2007-09-11T00:31:00.000+01:00

Mat Rempit is the very own street culture in Malaysia and some time ago some silly politician claimed that they are one of the Malaysia's biggest assets. There's a group being created on facebook - "Mat Rempits are scum". I simply click on Mat Rempit on YouTube to view some video and found this...

'We are not so furious' remixed by Hitz.fm morning crew JJ & Rudy, the real funny duo. I still remember April fool 2-3 years ago they spoke Malay in the English station to confuse people, changing English songs to Malay, 'Where's the love' to 'Mana Cinta'.

This one is damn funny as well, 'doncha' remix.

San Pietro In Vincoli

2007-09-08T14:58:00.000+01:00

When I was on my way heading towards the Colosseum, I saw a steps on the road side and few artists working on the piazza, as I have plenty of time I decided to climb up to the top and have a look if there's anything nice.

Like any other cities, Rome can't escape from the youth creativity.

Rome is a place where you must bring at least one travel guide book so that you won't miss anything. I'm sure I'll miss San Pietro In Vincoli if I walk pass the building which looks so ordinary without a guide book.

I was actually quite tired of visiting all the churches in the Europe even though all of them got great interiors and unless you spend reading a bit of history about the church it's pointless to visit thousands of those.

I've shoot many pictures on these guardian angels and the green spots appeared on every picture. I'm not sure whether was it just optical effect or something else...

The church was built to house an important relic, the chains ("vincoli") that held Saint Peter when he was in Jerusalem and those that held him in Rome, which miraculously joined together.

I thought that's the only highlight of the church so I decided to continue my journey else where. Well, I'm that kind of person who most time only read 30% of an article and think I've done enough. When I saw some people surrounding the statues on the right hand side of the altar I pulled out the guide book and read the bottom part which I did not finish earlier.

It is Moses carved by Michelangelo for the tomb of Pope Julius II. This is the famous unfinished masterpiece of Michelangelo which occupied him on and off much of his career and eventually he reluctantly gave it up to paint the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which I visited later.

It is a bit commercialised though, the light around the tomb will only lit up when someone put in coins to activate it. I waited for some other people to contribute so that I can take the pictures under decent lighting.

More Sony A700

2007-09-08T01:21:00.000+01:00

It has been a hot topic since A700 was unveiled 2 days ago and it receives various responses in several photography forums. Of course most forum members in Dyxum are quite excited and looking forward for it as the next upgrade. However there are some negative comments in the other forums whom members are mainly from the other camps, which were baseless mostly even before seeing the real model.

A senior member whom I believe is associated with Canon Malaysia has made a straight comment that A700 is an ugly camera here. Well, it's personal favour and probably it's his rice bowl that he needs to take care of so I can understand.

A side by side comparison on the appearance of 3 new advanced level DSLRs - Canon 40D, Sony A700 and Nikon D300. Some people may like a more curvy body but I think A700's design is clean, simple yet elegant. Again it's personal favour anyway. I am quite open minded and do consider the other 2 DSLRs as my next upgrade models, in case A700 doesn't live up to my expectation.

Somehow, I think the statement that Canikon looks better because it is designed by Italian is rather childish and not very convincing.

Perhaps he can suggest this to Canon to make the 40D looks more Italian.

There's a good review on the pre-production A700 by cameralabs:

Sony A700 unveiled

2007-09-06T07:22:00.000+01:00

It has been more than a year since Sony launched their first DSLR Alpha 100. Finally after all the rumours the advanced amateur model, the Alpha 700 is finally unveiled.

The front view.

The rear view, attached with the most sophisticated vertical grip that I'd ever seen.

The spec:

12.2 megapixels CMOS sensor
ISO 100 to 6,400
5 frames per second shutter speed
3" LCD screen
11 points AF
Weather shield magnesium alloy body and aluminium chasis

Some pre-production previews from:

dpreview
c|net
imaging resource
Camera Labs

It has also appeared in this retailers website from Japan which I find quite useful for price guide and comparison. The A700 should be priced at around RM5,000, and probably more than 900 pounds in the UK (with that bloody 17.5% VAT). I'm quite tempted to have this as the upgrade of my A100 which keep me happy so far.

Santa Maria Maggiore

2007-09-05T07:36:00.000+01:00

Located near to Stazione Termini, Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the city's great basilicas, the largest in Rome dedicated to Virgin Mary.

I thought this is the front view but apparently it's not. Not many people on the street as the temperature reached 42.5 degree Celcius.

It has one of the Rome's best preserved Byzantine interiors, and the ceiling is quite impressive.

The confessio, and some nice mosaic works on the altar.

The kneeling statue of Pius IX under the confessio.

The front view of the basilica.

Tall Buildings, Narrow Minds

2007-09-04T07:13:00.000+01:00

Happy 50th birthday Malaysia, and, after 50 years, Malaysia should stop treating a third of its people as not-quite-citizens...

Things which local media in Malaysia are disallowed to publish.

Worth a read here.

The Marches

2007-09-03T07:52:00.000+01:00

I spent my first day in the east coast of Italy - The Marches.

Ancona airport is a real quiet one, I was the only passenger on the bus to Ancona centre.

I was kind of lost in Ancona, Sonia has given me a few options but it was quite difficult to check for direction as most of the local doesn't speak English. I found a Chinese shop and the lady was really kind and directed me to Passetto, a nice seaside.

Monumento ai Caduti - the memorial to the victims of the 1st World War.

It's heaven and it has the Summer that never came to London.

The color and the texture of the sea is just lovely.

As I had extra time before heading south to meet Sonia's Aunt Ada at Civitanova Marche, I stopped by at Loreto as I was told there's a nice church there. I thought it was within walking distance but apparently it's not possible when I checked with a young man, he was kind enough to give me a free lift to the church. However I regretted soon after arriving as I only had half an hour to catch the last train and it's not possible to walk back by foot! Luckily another kind man gave me a lift back to the station on time. I'd met some nice people even though there were some language barriers.

Ada picked me up the station and we had dinner at her son's place at Civitanova Marche, luckily her little daughter Lavenia speaks a bit of English so we could communicate a bit. We drove to San Benedetto Del Tronto to spend a night there at her new apartment. Everything is nice except there was no water supply being connected yet. What a day as I'd been sweating the whole day and couldn't take shower...

I took the coach to Rome early next morning, it was a 3 hours journey to the west coast.

Took some pictures when the bus stopped by mid way for a break, and I nearly missed the bus for this.

Back from Rome

2007-08-31T02:04:00.001+01:00

It was a great vacation, a great break in Italy for 4 days.

The kiasu me's preparation before the trip.

I flew to Ancona, east coast of Italy on my first day and spend the other 3 days in Rome.

The great view of the Mount Alps from the plane.

Obviously I didn't read enough before booking my trip. I only read the lines in The Rough Guide to Rome when I was on the coach to Rome. It says "If you can, you should avoid visiting Rome in July and August, when the weather is hot and sticky, and those Romans that don't make their living exclusively from the tourist industry have left town; many business are closed."

Thinking that I am from the tropical country with summer all year long, I was quite sure that it will not be an issue to me, until I arrived in the city, stepped out from the coach...

I felt the heat immediately, it was an absolutely insane 42.5 degree Celcius on my first day in Rome!

Luckily you get to see these beautiful water fountains everywhere in the city, which carry the natural mineral water from miles away. It did save my days in Rome indeed.

A lot of walking in Rome, now I totally agreed with the famous idiom "Rome wasn't built in one day" that I've been listening since I was a small boy. I have to walk because there are so many interesting places every few steps away and I don't want to miss it.

Measured on map, I've covered 20km in the city by foot on the second day itself, double of my one day walking record set in Paris last year. Furthermore this round I was carrying my camera bag with 4 lenses at all time. My shoulders and foots are still aching now. I think I need one full week to fully recover.

Taken 700 pictures during this trip. Hopefully it won't takes me too long to process it.

Weekend in Italy

2007-08-25T06:08:00.000+01:00

It's a bank holiday long weekend, I am going to Ancona, Civitanova Marche and Rome adding a few more cities in my Facebook travel map.

I actually feel a bit tired even before the journey. Hopefully it'll be a good one.

Project HDR 03

2007-08-21T23:09:00.000+01:00

I'm very impressed with the HDR processed picture and playing with it more often than Photoshop these days. Another experiment on this shot taken some time end of July viewing of The Gherkin behind a church building.

The original version - a bit under exposed on the tree leaves, a bit over exposed on the left of The Gherkin.

The HDR version - I think I still tends to adjust the 'strength' on the strong side in tone mapping.

Project HDR 02

2007-08-19T05:00:00.000+01:00

Ever since I joined the gym end of July, I have got lesser time to play with the pictures. Whenever I switched on my laptop after a long day work and gym after work, I'll fall asleep within short time.

Thanks to RaD!c4L from Lowyat forum who passed me his 'godly package' which now there's no more watermark on the my pictures modified in Photomatix!

Whenever I go to my client's office at Paternoster Square, there's a view of the St Paul Cathedral from a small lane which I have an idea composing the image long ago. Finally last week I grabbed my camera and headed to the spot to take the shot.

The original image taken in RAW format at 18mm from my kit lens. I used the spot metering to get the correct exposure on the Cathedral, but then the foreground appeared to be under exposed and the sky became over exposed. This is a situation where High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique becomes useful.

2 more images were created in JPEG format at +2 and -2 EV respectively. An HDR image was generated from all 3 images in Photomatix. Tone mapping done to adjust the strength, saturation, contrast etc.

A quick 30 mins job. The foreground appeared much improved especially on the bricks texture and the signboards. Anyway it can be improved for sure in particular to the sky which looks a bit error to me.

YMCA

2007-08-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

To me, gym is always the best place to hang out after work and during weekends especially for a guy like me with the status of alone but not available.

I was a gym member in Fitness First Menara Maxis KL for nearly 3 years before I quit due to relocation to London. Throughout a year living in the city life has changed much - lots of pressure from work, having to cook daily for a lazy person like me, lots of crisp and junk food. I had lost 7kg and looks so unhealthy. A year ago I was 70kg and I was fit!

I had been looking a gym desperately and visited few gyms including Fitness First, LA Fitness and some small timer but none made me feel right to join. Nearly join the 'platinum' Fitness First club at St Paul as I can sign up with corporate rate of GBP41 per month. I was pissed because being misled that I can visit all FF clubs in the UK but later found out I can't go to 2 'black label' clubs which are bigger and better and cost GBP55 per month. In fact most of the 'gold' or 'platinum' clubs are much smaller and extremely packed during peak hours. LA Fitness is about the same at GBP40+ per month.

After much consideration I finally decided to join the Central YMCA Club located at Tottenham Court Road. It's the very first YMCA in the world established in 1844. Although it looks a bit old but it has everything that I need. At GBP47 I joined the London Fitness Network package which allow me to go to some other local gyms in case I'm lazy to visit the main club.

It's a 4 storey basement building:

Ground floor - reception area
Basement 1 - swimming pool, studio, stretch area, lounge with live sports! Cafe, there's even a photography club room but I'm not sure whether it's active or not!
Basement 2 - weight machines, stretch area
Basement 3 - a huge multi purpose sports hall, a rock climbing wall, a RPM (cycling studio), a squash court, sunbeds area (need to pay extra though), cardio machines, weight machines, free weight area, changing room and sauna (no steam room which I prefer more though)

At last the gym glove that I brought to UK a year ago is useful again!

There are a lot of interesting classes included in the membership like body pump, abs class, RPM, yoga, capoeira, canoeing in the pool! badminton, volleyball, basketball! ping pong, trampoline etc.

I love playing basketball, it's the best sports to sweat a bit and not as boring as doing the cardio machines. Hope to make a few friends and can play a bit more. I would like to try rock climbing as well but so far I haven't seen people doing it there. There's a volleyball class on Wednesday evening and the training looks very professional. Anyway I think volleyball is a very gay / ah kua friendly sports if you watched the Thai movie Iron Ladies before. I saw a black ah kua who played exactly like those in the movie!

There's a very interesting Trampoline class on Tuesday evening. However I don't think I'm able to join the class at the moment as when I first joined, I picked up a skipping rope (the last time I did that I think was like 15 years ago!) and I was a bit shocked when I felt dizzy just after few minutes jumping. I don't wanna collapsed half way doing it and I'm glad that I didn't continuing to hesitate longer before joining the gym.

Trampoline YMCA from Eugene Goh and Vimeo.

The only part which I don't quite like about the gym is the shower as there are only 2 dividing partition between the showers and no doors! Being an Asian I'm extremely uncomfortable with it initially seeing everyone walking around exposing their private parts and to my horror, lots of gays! It reminds me of the gay fella who approached me in FF KL before sending me 'I miss you' texts. Anyway slowly I'm getting used to it as I start realising that my size is actually quite ok comparing to the kwai lou's.

I saw an old gay who looks 80% like Paul McCartney of Beatles and I almost laughed out when I saw him took off his shirt in front of me in the changing room. He got nipple piercing on both of his sagging tits. Not only that, he has got the funniest body tattoo I had ever seen in my life - 2 flowers surrounding his 2 nipples.

After few weeks joining the gym I start to appreciate and like the gym more. Although now I can only lift half of the weights which I managed to do last time but I feel I'm picking up the pace and is getting fit again. I had gained a kg to 63kg after 3 weeks and I'm closely monitoring the progress and let's see the result after 3 months.

Emirates Cup 2007 Part IV

2007-08-12T10:56:00.000+01:00

Match 2 of the first day, playing the host team Arsenal and Paris Saint Germain and we started to feel the heat.

Warming up before the match.

Manuel Almunia, the Spanish goalie who looks alike Silas, the character in the movie Da Vinci Code. I guess this season he'll play more than Jens Lehmann, the aged German goalie in the first team, and probably the new signing Fabianski will play a bit.

The video man is on douceur de vivre and I'm on Sky TV.

55,000 attendance on the Sunny day.

Starting line up for the match, I don't know many of the players in PSG, and there are plenty of young faces in Arsenal. Anyway, I was happy that Van Persie and Fabregas appeared in the line up. The rest who appeared were Flamini, K. Toure, Hleb, Clichy, Diaby, Denilson, Sagna and Sanderos. The new signing striker Eduardo hasn't got his UK permit at time so wasn't playing.

The most popular player in Arsenal now obviously is Cesc Fabregas, you can tell from the crowd's reaction when his name appeared on the big screen.

The match started and both teams were playing their best even though it was more like a friendly for the cup competition.

The midfield ace Fabregas in action.

Sanderos v The Portuguese striker Pauleta. As predicted, Pauleta performed as how he did in the World Cup, plenty of chances but wasted all.

Rothen the PSG winger took the free kick against the wall formed by Clichy and Denilson.

My favourite shot of the day - RPV in action. I agreed with Wenger's decision to sell Henry as I think he is not as good as before, might as well sell him when he still worth 16 million pounds. I think RPV will be the next big time in Arsenal and the premiere league.

Flamini scored the only goal during the first half. Even though it was just a friendly match, some fans from opposite teams were swearing and shouting at each others.

Police got involved before a possible fight could happen. This is English football, make sure you wear the right jersey, say the right thing and sit at the right place to avoid any trouble.

You certainly don't want to sit besides fans like this one.

The photographer sending first hand data during the half time break. I guess I will never be a good sports journalist as I am too slumber, posting the entry 2 weeks after the match.

Typical Arsene Wenger post.

To me, Alexander Hleb was the player of the match, he's a hardworking type of midfielder linking the whole team after Fabregas was rested for the second half.

Hleb won a penalty and the young Danish striker Bendtner took the initiative for the spot kick.

He took the shot, and missed it. Another Adebayor in the making it seems. Anyway he used his physical advantage and scored and a lucky goal later. Arsenal won the match 2-1 and lifted the Emirates Cup after beating Inter Milan the day after.

The Mexican Wave from Eugene Goh and Vimeo.

Overall view on Arsenal, there are plenty of talented young players who has great individual skills but they will need to rely much on Fabregas and Hleb to link the whole team. I predicted Arsenal will fall to 5th or even 6th place, after MU, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham in that order. Watch out for West Ham, Newcastle and Man City as well.

Arsene Wenger wrote me an email after the match asking my interest to join Arsenal, but I told him that I prefer to join MU instead.

Emirates Cup 2007 Part III

2007-08-10T07:53:00.000+01:00

Match 1 of the Emirates Cup - Inter Milan v Valencia.

Valencia dominated throughout the game and I really couldn't believe Inter won the Serie A last season. Anyway, a lot of superstars and it was really unbelievable to see them play right in front of my eyes.

Materazzi conceded a free kick, the most hated football player in the world got boo-ed all the way throughout the match every time he touched the ball. Everyone still remember how he provoked Zidane and got him sent off in World Cup 2006.

It's Luis Figo the ex world player of the year organizing the wall! No. 10 is Adriano replacing Ibrahimovic just after 15-20 mins.

David Villa scored a brilliant free kick. Too bad he didn't come to the premiere league.

The new fat boy of Brazil, Adriano succeeding the old fat boy Ronaldo.

Bench players on the field during half time, I think this young lad of Inter will shine in near future, I don't even know his name but let's see.

The most friendly player on the pitch - the Spanish goal keeper Canizares. The English boy behind me keep shouting "Blondie! give me your drink!"

I didn't know Ivan Helguera has moved to Valencia from Real Madrid.

Julio Cruz took the free kick.

Valencia scored 2 goals in the first half and won the match 2-0. I was hoping to see Patrick Vieira but he didn't turn up, not even on the bench.

Emirates Cup 2007 Part II

2007-08-08T07:44:00.000+01:00

Been really tired and lazy these days, every night when I tried to write something on the bed, I fell asleep within minutes.

So we made it to the Emirates on 28th August, I tried my luck to bring in my camera and I was glad that it wasn't as crap as Stamford Bridge.

Me, Tom, Angel and Sam outside the stadium, KK was taking the picture.

I was quite excited even though it was not MU.

In the Emirates! 1st row behind the goal at Orange Quadrant, the seats are really nice.

Took a video with Arsenal's mascot. Video quality of my IXUS 30 is a bit crap though.

The Wrestlers

2007-08-04T05:42:00.000+01:00

I used to be a big fan of wrestling sports during the WWF (now WWE) era in late the 80's and early 90's. My favourite wrestlers back then were Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, The Ultimate Warrior and The Road Warrors (later Legend of Doom). I used to paint my face like The Ultimate Warrior when I was a school boy and fight with my childhood friend Chee Heng.

Got bored of it as it was getting over commercialised and over dramatic when the whole McMahon family step in to the ring. Since then I hardly follow the 'show' or any news of the 'sports', it's an entertainment show after all. Until recently I read the shocking news of Chris Benoit killed his wife and kid and later hanged himself.

I browsed on YouTube and Wikipedia and found out more news of the wrestlers to my surprise.

Bret Hart was such a cool wrestler no matter he was with the 'good' or 'bad' side. He suffered a stroke in 2002. His brother Owen Hart, the small time wrestler died in 1999 from a stunt accident in the ring.

There are a number of wrestlers who died young, mainly due to misuse of steroid and other drugs rather than from injuries suffered from the 'sports'.

Hawk (of Road Warriors) (1957 - 2003) - heart attack
Curt Hennig (Mr. Perfect) (1958-2003) - acute cocaine intoxication
Bam Bam Bigelow (1961 - 2007) - drug related heart disease
Rick Rude (1958-1999) - heart failure
Andre The Giant (1946-1993) - congestive heart failure
Eddie Guerrero (1967-2005) - heart failure
Miss Elizabeth (1960-2003) - the former manager of Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, died of drug over dose or domestic violence by Lex Luger?
Dino Bravo (1948-1993) - The self pro-claimed "world's strongest man" was shot dead
Davey Boy Smith of British Bulldog (1962-2002) - heart attack
Big Boss Man (1963-2004) - heart attack
Earthquake (1963-2006) - cancer
Yokozuna (1966-2000) - heart failure

In memories of some of the dead wrestlers.

The conclusion is - don't try steroid, you will die young.

If not, you will become insane like The Ultimate Warrior.

A Big Thanks

2007-08-01T02:18:00.000+01:00

A big thanks to Chee Wei, who saved all my precious data in my crappy Samsung external hard drive. I guess it was the casing causing the damage and corrupted the hard drive hence the data couldn't be read from Windows Explorer.

That could have cost me GBP100 to 250 if I were to fix it in UK, like this one which quoted me GBP129 for normal recovery and GBP249 if it's physical fault of the hard drive.

I nearly send my hard drive back to KL for cheaper option here, for RM200, but limited to software failure only.

What a relieve and I will do double back up next time coz it was really an heart attack for losing my memories for the last 2 years!

Emirates Cup 2007

2007-07-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-26T06:33:00.001+01:00

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

2007-07-22T21:42:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-19T06:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-18T07:47:00.001+01:00

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

2007-07-17T20:25:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-17T02:50:00.000+01:00

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.