How to sleep in bilik guru

This is not staged. Its a real phenomena, I was lucky I was not caught taking their pictures. Hehe.. Now I understand of the thrill of being there at the right moment.

looking at this photo again and again, I regret not getting closer, the shot would have been perfect. Thinking of converting it to full grayscale image but it did not turn out as good as this. At least to my humble opinionlah.

documenting

Since we have another 3 weeks left before this practicum is over, I decided that it is about time that we took some pictures for the purpose of documenting stuff. Well, to be honest with you, I hate documenting things, I really love to take pictures that I like to take but I hate taking pictures that I HAVE to take. sigh.

Anyway, I did have a lot of time today so I experimented a few things that I just learned. This here is a sample of a slow shutter using flash off camera. 1/6 shutter if not mistaken. that's why its a bit soft. I could say that it came out quite okay to my newbie standards. I darkened it a bit via post process because the window there was a bit too distracting. The flash was on auto mode diffused with an A4 paper(my whale tail not here yet). I think that it could be a better shot if the shutter was on 1/25, probably still have the ambient light inside that room. oh yeah, forgot to turn on the lights.(tampaq dahi)

Also tried crosslighting later on during the evening with the sky. which is my flash VS the sun. DUUHH.. metered a bright sky and flashed my penyelia petang with 1/1 only manage to expose his white teeth. failed there. Still thinking how am I going to use this flash to fill someone while still saving the sky.

Internet access

I woke up this afternoon and started using the internet, stopped for awhile for solat and iftar. But did nothing except playing the internet. browsing forums, reading blogs and chatting in Messenger. Now its 2 am already and Im supposed to go to sleep and I realise that I've been using the internet the whole day without realising the time passing.

Now, it gets me thinking. If I were a prisoner in jail I wouldnt really mind if I have the internet access. I mean a whole day infront of the computer without having to go to work, now that is life brother..

Now I wonder if those people in jail have internet access. If they dont, I think it is about time we give them internet access. It would do them good for them since they dont really have anything good to do with their time anyway. We could also hire them to become an IT advisor, or even webpage designer or give them something to work on like maintaining a website or something. They could download movies, music, go online forums, learn some new language, get to know more friends through various social websites and hell, they could even write a jail blog. That would be something interesting to read on. Seriously we would do them a big favor by giving them internet access. Maybe a laptop with internet access for five persons. they could share..

Im sure they would love the internet.

Welcome Evan I

ok, this is what people do when they dont know how to use a flash. They are curious about how a flash to be used, but dont know what and how to deal with it; so they just take the pictures of the flash itself. hahaha

ok, lets welcome Evan I. My first flash, Im going to get more soon flash soon; but for the time being let me learn how to deal with one single flash. Im sure there's a lot of learning to be done with this single flash alone.

So lets welcome him to the family and hopefully I would know how to handle this baby soon. Oh yeah, and that is a picture of yours truly, youraveragemat.

A day trip

Ted Adnan giving his pose

Albnok, the famous Alpha strobist guy.

Went to KL a few days ago. It was a day trip. from Kedah during the friday afternoon and went back on the bus again that night. Bought Evan I (ma new flash, its pronounced aeven wann) and the transaction was quite ok. the guy was very nice.

Anyway, Aswat came to accompany me bukak posa. well, thanks aswat. (aswat is a canon film user) ..He even accompanied me to buy some Lowepro pouch in Lowyat. We went around looking for a local gary fong diffuser, The Reporter, some call it whale tail. But no shop around lowyat have that in stock. They only have gary fong lightsphere (which in the shape of a bowl) . Whale tail or reporter more looks like a toilet bowl, our gang call it jamban which is the type that I like. ehhehee..

anyway, I called albnok, (an Alpha friend and a sifu) to ask him where I could get this whale tail. He said it was a cool coincidence since he himself wants to let go of the whaletail. He just bought hi f58(new design) so he cannot use the diffuser. So he wants to sell it to me. I said cool, where was he right now? he said that he's hanging around in pasar seni with TED ADNAN. TED ADNAN? huiyoo.. I told him to wait there. Im going to come. Ted adnan is my idol, love his photos. I followed his collection of photos since I was a flickr NUT then. hehhehehe.. So I told albnok to wait.

we went there to annexe Gallery to find out that someone was having a photography @ fine art sort of gallery. So it was cool since There were many people there. Most of them were holding cameras too.. so I just guess that these people are just more enthusiasts like me. HEHEHE...

I greeted albnok and the sifu Ted Adnan, he was surprisingly a nice guy. Happy go lucky and really humble when meeting people. I barely recognized him because he was wearing a new hairdo. A shorter one. Albnok joked about him being a school teacher because of his hair.

Well, of course.. the master was there with some new *ahem* gear that is still under production. not in the market yet, So I cannot post or take any pictures of the *ahem* product. But I tell you, it was an eye opening. the *Ahem* with carl zeiss 24-70 and F58... Its like a perfect combination. cool eh.. So I take back my blinded review on the *ahem* product. Seriously we need to check the product first before jumping into conclusion right?

But Anyway, THANKS Ted, and Albnok. Its an honor to meet you guys in person. Really love to feel the charismatic aura being around you guys. Note to Ted: very heavy aa your crumpler, what kind of laptop do you have inside? huhuhu...

Here's a link to Ted Adnan's Blog.

Cant wait till tomorrow

oyeh oyeh.. cannot sleep cannot sleep. why? because Tomorrow going to get my first pre-owned flash. oyeh oyeh..

With the memory of an old friend Evan Temple ( We lost contact)

and also to my deceased tortoise pet Evan( may he rests in peace, he died during the 2001 Kuantan Major flood)

I am naming my first flash the f42, Evan. Yap, he's Evan allright. wait evan, Im picking you up tomorrow. oyeh . oyeh .oyeh..

My birthday

eyoo.. My birthday is around the corner. Usually I dont really care much about my birthday, but this year my birthday seems a bit important to me. dont know why. I dont even know whether Im turning 24 or 25, I forgot.. have to count it again. Im bad at math..

Anyway, our lovely government gave us some money that we dont know what for. Its quite a lot for someone like me who has no money. So this is the chance to buy camera stuff. yazaaa... Sometimes people say that your equipment does not matter in photography. But hell yeah it is important to me. I dont have that much money and these equipments really cost a lot. SO IT DOES MATTER to me.

And plus, how are you going to do your photography without your equipments, right? hahaha...

So lets wish me a happy birthday. Im an adult already. which is something cool. Some people always wants to go back to their childhood. Not me, I had a sad childhood and even bad teenage years. To be honest to all, early adults is the best time in my life. Dont know about future. happier maybe. But if I ever wanted to stay forever in one age, I want to stay this age.. not less or more.. I guess life starts at 24/25 for me.. hahahhaha..

p/s my mom sponsored RM100 for my flash. Love you mom.. Love you forever..

clouds

Yo.. this is some recent clouds taken from my apartment window. yaza.. love clouds.. especially the shots from Sean Eng of Photomalaysia.. Im your fan man..

Why clouds are so interesting? well, clouds will always be unique.. no one could imitate other people's clouds. So it's like a patented thing. Your clouds will always be your cloud. in this case, this is my cloud. Aint no one going to take it away from me.. Love you cloud.

In case you dont know, landscape pictures are meant to take at f8,f11 and f22 if its possible.. this is to create a very all rounder sharp picture with no bokeh at all.. we would want to focus at infinity. And for metering, it is easy to use the matrix metering but sometimes it is better to use spot or center weighted metering in difficult light condition or maybe you would want to create the silhoutte effect. It is best to use a tripod(f22 remember?) and probably in Manual priority since we want to create the image just like we want it, not like what our camera wants it.

go try it out yourself. Impress me with some images that I could not capture because busy writing this blog..

clouds

Yo.. this is some recent clouds taken from my apartment window. yaza.. love clouds.. especially the shots from Sean Eng of Photomalaysia.. nee

vertical grip

not much photos taken lately. U know what this means.. its shopping time. yerp, if given the chance and money, probably going to get me my first off body flash f42. and probably a battery grip.. we will check the piggy banklah .. hahhaa..

Xr3, alternative transportation

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/09/do-it-yourself-xr3-hybrid-vehicle/

I got the information and pictures from the above site. hope its not a problem, if it is a problem, contact me and I will remove the images. Thank you.

Hello there folks, look what we got here, a new type of car. It is called Xr3, a hybrid car. It runs on battery and biodiesel, sounds very green dont it. It could run 125 miles to the gallon. Now that is cheap. This could beat a perodua kancil in terms of gas usage. But it could only go 80 Miles per hour, not for the racing punks. But seems good enough for me.

My only question is, why dont they design it like a normal car. I mean, the one with 4 wheels. This car looks like it comes from the star wars movie. I aint riding this car if they dont improve the design.

sony a900 revealed

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/sonydslra900/page1.asp

here's the link for DP review.

I read it and it seems that a900 didnt meet the requirement for my dream camera yet. To me A900 looks like another A700 with more megapixels. Not much improvements on the ISO. Meaning that there will still be a lot of noise when we boost the ISO. Boy, you are not close enough to D700 I dont think..

The top LCD panel also looks pretentious. Like said in the DP review, its redundant. We can check all the details in the screen anyway. it also has a button to light up via LED. what is this? 1947?

The top left control dial also looks ugly. PASM, Auto and 1,2,3. Looks like a big cybershot to me.. SIGH...

Thank god it doesnt have live view, something that I dont need and I dont really care if it's there or not. But it has this intelligent preview which is something similar to live view only that its more complicated to use.

geez.. make a 6 Megapixel camera that can shoot in lowlight, I will buy. Investing Rm10 000 for this baby is not worth it folks. I will stick to my entry level and maybe change soon to another system. Perhaps the system that could shoot its flash to 200m. hehehehe....

I would invest extra to get a better deal of D700. its far more worth it. Dont get me wrong folks, Im not trying to put down Sony, it is just at this moment of time I still think Sony have not been improving yet. By the time I have my money to upgrade, if Sony still plays around with the Megapixel slogan, I would certainly change to other brands.

Sony, take a note:

1. Do something with the Dial and control so it would look more like a Pro DSLR. Photographers want practicality.

2. Improve the ability of your flash in terms of practicality, we would want a flash that could cover 10mm- 300mm range. not just some fancy flash design that could oohhs and aahhss the consumer.

3. Do something with the colour. I still dont know whether its your lens or your processor sensor thingamajig, the pictures looks a bit under contrast and grey.

4.Improve the Noise and when boosting up the ISO. I want to shoot at ISO 12000 with clean Image.

Well, In conclusion. I would not invest my money for this camera. However, this is my personal judgement and would not change the real quality of this camera. This camera is good. It is just not good enough for me. I bet my entry level DSLR could perform the same if not better than this camera.

To zul, you were right all along. A900 is not an upgrade. Its not.. Sony needs to do a lot more than just advertising. Get back to the drawing board. Gimme an A1 (alpha 1) . a real deal PRO SLR. I will be waiting for it. For the time being, my a200 works just fine.. just need to get me those Carl Zeiss lenses.. muahahhahaha...

Alpha full frame sensor

This is a new camera from Alpha, probably called a900. Its a full frame sensor. The sensor is the same size as those of Film 35mm cameras. So This is the digital version of those old cameras back then. So its back to basic, back to 35mm film size. yazaaa.. for those who are wondering how many pixel, its approximately 25 megapixel. big huh?

there's been a lot of rumours on this camera, probably live view, probably could capture like 5 frames in one shutter click..and could do 5 shutter clicks in one second.. how bout that huh? huhuhuhuhu.. (these are just rumours though).

When can we buy this baby? dont know yet.. probably will be launched this 22 or 23 september 2008. so its about two days after my birthday. So if anyone wants to give me this camera for my birthday present, I wouldnt mind waiting for a week. kah kah.

yaza. go Alpha! come to me come to me.. and oh yeah, I probably couldnt afford it though. must be around RM10 000. hope it could be cheaper than that... please god make it RM4000. kah kah..

Wall

This is a picture of a wall. taken in Penang.

Broke up with my girl friend. Having problems with my students and their taiko big brothers. Didnt get an A for my practicum. I dont know what to feel anymore. So here's a wall to all. cheers. like people always say, brickwaaall! talk to da hand.. ngehehehe..

Gosh..

Old house

did some conversion.. Looks ok to me. Dont know what you guys think..

A kid on a green bike

Gosh I love this picture. Composition a bit off, but its all I could get. The Kid was fast.. Not use to take pictures of fast moving objects. Need D3. heheh... Just kidding,

New book by Evanna

hi all, would like to recommend this collection of poems from Evanna Ramly. Check it out in your local bookstores. Its written by my friend Evanna.. the book is Entitled Characters Under Glass here's a link to her blog..

Congratulation Evanna for your recent publication. May Allah bless you.. Do write about me in the future please.. heheh.. just kidding.. keep up the good work.

Rainbow

Yes, yes yes.. I ruined this photo just to show you that I shot a rainbow.. just to make sure the rainbow stands out.. the whole shot is ruined. but who cares.. those other details are not that important as my rainbow.. .. let the rainbow be there.. forever.. in this file... in this blog.. let it be there.. let it.. shhh.. shhh..

lifeless?

I've been browsing to see pictures and I notice recently that my photos are not that interesting anymore.. I mean, usually I have photos that I could tell stories or compile it into one big story. Is it possible that as we move on the journey of photography and starts making pictures that are lifeless.. I mean, the no soul type of photos.. My photos use to have its own sincerity.. Now what I see is that its really losing its sincerity. Dont know why? now when I browse into my recent files.. it consists of only photos that are separated and have no connection to the other photos in the same file. Does this mean that subconsciously Im trying to create a photo that could speak for itself?

who knows.. trial and error and try to save the shutter.. no money yet for a new one.

over post-processed?

This is an example of an extreme over-processed technique that could be done with adobe Lightroom, photoshop, camera raw, element 6.. you name it. Its called the dave hill effect where the photo is transformed to look like something out of animation. this one is a badly imitated technique that is done by me.. still learning the workflow and testing it here and there.. yes, many photography puritans hate to see images being abused such as this.. but they have to open up their minds too.. photography is not merely a process of documenting things.. its also an extension of our imagination.. This is one of many to come..

anyway, you could google it up.. dave hill effect is the name.. any tom, siddiq and khairi can do this technique.. but the real effect is not the post processing.. its the lighting.. so, need to learn lighting to get the image at it's best effect.. try it out people...