"Inni...Akhafullah"

Solo Trip to Penang (Part 2 : Street Shooting)

2012-01-29T09:13:00.001+13:00

This entry is the continuation of the previous one, where I wrote about my journey to Penang Hill recently.

The initial plan was to go to Kek Lok Si temple which is situated near the Penang Hill. But since the time was running out so I had it cancelled and decided to go straight to the town via Rapid Penang. I hopped off the bus at KOMTAR and went inside to pray Zohor and Asar. Since it was still in public holidays, not many shops were opened.

I planned to walk alongside the Penang Road, dropping by the famous Nasi Kandar Line Clear for lunch (although it was a little bit late), and then walking through Lebuh Chulia, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and finally heading to Esplanade, before walking back to the jetty to go back to Butterworth.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear.

Situated at Penang Road, I don't know why this restaurant (or should I call it a food stalls) is famous across the country. Maybe because its food are tasty, or because I got a lot on a single plate for a reasonable price. The time I came here, there are a lot of people eating here and we have to line up to get our food. The reason why I call it a food stalls is simply because there was a series of stalls in the open area between the building premises.

The signboard of the restaurant.

Waiting for my turn to be served.

A long queue of people.

Less than RM10 for a supersize fried chicken and a drink. Not bad aye?

Street Shooting.

Now to the best part of the trip. This was the first time where I'm practising to shoot within a very close distance. For your information, I used an ultra wide angle lens which is Samyang 14mm f/2.8 UMC. Since this is a manual focus lens, I have to use the hyperfocal distance technique in order to get a sharp image. In my case, I used f/8 most of the time as the images taken are sharp at this aperture and set the focusing distance at 1 meter. According to the DOF table, if the focusing distance is set at 1 meter, the DOF will extend from 0.5 meter to infinity, which is quite comfortable distance of me from the subject.

Talking about style, it depends on the situation. As a newbie in street shooting, I tend to shoot from my chest level (as I put on the strap on my neck) and did the "hit and run" as to avoid the subject from acknowledging me shooting them. But there are also a situation where I didn't hesitant to shoot the subject while he knows it. The trick is simple, where you need to "blend in" within the scenario. Simply makes them know your presence, and maybe a smile will do the job smoothly. Or in an "expensive" way, go buy their product (if they are hawkers) to gain their trust. But personally I believe that Penangites are not so stingy and they are willingly to pose in front of the camera when we shoot em' as they knew that we are tourists and lotsa tourist scurrying around the island.

A guy went across the road.

I bought samosas from this man.

There's an old women, alone waiting for the bus to come.

Dam Aji.

No customer this afternoon, so better to sleep.

Go This Way.

Enjoying the sea breeze at Esplanade.

We want to eat as well.

Historical Buildings And Places.

I am so interested with historical places. Plus the aesthetic aspects of the architecture. But I don't know why, during this trip I don't time to visit these places (as I mentioned before about Kek Lok Si temple). I was actually planning to visit the clan house of Fatt Tze at Lebuh Leight, but unfortunately it was closed so I can only take the picture from outside.

View from outside of Fatt Tza Mansion.

All the way from Lebuh Chulia to Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, there are so many colonial houses which I believe to be preserved as parts of the Penang's heritage.

Row of trishaws parked at the roadside.

The beginning of Lebuh Chulia, starting from the junction with Penang Road.

Love Lane. I didn't know why, but there are so many Europeans staying or lingering around here.

Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling.

Finally, I reached this road after a long walk alongside Lebuh Chulia. As its name, there is a huge mosque at the roadside named Masjid Kapitan Keling. I stopped there for about half an hour before leaving for the next stop.

View of the mosque from the main gate.

There is also another main attraction alongside this road ; Kuan Yin Ting Temple. Judging from the outside, I reckon that it is a very old temple. Personally, I could have few great pictures if I went inside the temple but to be honest, I dare not to go inside any of the non-Muslim worship places. So I took the pictures from outside. The open area in front of the temple was crowded with the worshipers, tourists, and also a group of pigeons. I cannot stay for long there because I couldn't stand the smoke coming from the piles of joss sticks there that keep my eyes peeled.

Esplanade and Going Back to Butterworth.

Finally I reached the Esplanade. That was a very fine evening and a lot of people come to walk around the seashore enjoying the sea breeze. I didn't spend much time there, just enough to recover from the tiredness of walking.

Few peoples ready for fishing on the rocks nearby the Esplanade.

Cranes dominates the view of the straits.

It's almost 7pm and I started to walk back to the ferry terminal. I left the island for mainland around 7.30pm and reached safely.

Georgetown Skyline.

I left Butterworth at 8.30pm and reached home safely. This was a very enjoyable trip for me, and I wish to repeat it someday at the different places.

Thanks guys for reading this lengthy entry :)

Solo Trip to Penang (Part 1: Penang Hill)

2012-01-29T00:44:00.002+13:00

Last Wednesday I had a chance to go on foot travelling around Penang, alone. It was my intention to go alone as I want to get a "feel" as a traveller, and at the same time to improve my skills on travel and street photography. I left my hometown, Taiping in a express coach in the morning and went back later on at night on the same day.

Penang Ferry.

I was planning to go across the strait via ferry for both go and return journey. Actually, the jetty and Penang Sentral bus terminal are not so far, so this give a convenience to those who arrived in Butterworth via buses and want to go to Georgetown. The fare for pedestrian passenger is RM1.20 for single trip, while for car is RM7.70. The journey from Georgetown to Butterworth is free of charge.

It was a coincidence for my trip that day with the Chinese New Year holidays, so there were so many people who went across to Georgetown. Most of them are foreigner who works here (from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia). The journey takes time around 15 minutes from Butterworth to Georgetown.

RapidPenang.

The plan that day was to go to Bukit Bendera (Penang Hill) as I have never been there since born. To go there, I use RapidPenang public bus. We can choose to board bus number 204 that will bring us directly to the Penang Hill's train station. Or in case if you want to walk around the small township of Pekan Air Hitam (known for its Kek Lok Si temple), then we can go there with bus number 203. The fare is RM2 for a single journey from the Jetty or from KOMTAR, and it took me around half an hour to reach the destination (depends on the traffic)

Penang Hill's Train.

When I arrived, there were too many visitors as that day was the holiday. We have to line up long at the ticket counter. The fare to go up the hill is RM8 for Malaysian adult (need to show IC), and RM4 for children. While for foreign tourists, the fare is RM30.

After major renovation and upgrading works which made the train service being halted for almost 2 years ago, the service is way much better. The trains used are brand new, much bigger and equipped with air-conditioner inside. The journey is also fast and smooth (while not killing mood of the passengers to enjoy the view outside the train).

On The Hilltop.

The top of the hill is around 800 meter from sea level. From there, we can view almost the whole parts of Penang, including Georgetown and Balik Pulau. But I was unfortunate since I was arrived around noon, which is not really the best time to shoot landscape plus it was hazy that day which limiting the view.

View on the hill.

Penang Bridge can be seen from here, although haze limits the view.

Apart from the breathtaking view of the island, there are not so many other attractions on the hilltop, except few buildings like the Penang Hill Mosque, Sri Murugan Temple, a playground and few other colonial styled private houses. If you wish to tour around the hilltop, there is a buggy service that will bring you around.

Domes of Penang Hill Mosque.

The cleaner cleaning up rubbish on the stairway that going up to the children's playground in front of the Sri Murugan Temple.

I spent around an hour above before went down. Same as the time to board the train up, I have to line up long to board the train down.

Sleeping beauty.

The next plan after went down from the hill was that I'm going for street shooting around the Georgetown before going back to Butterworth. I'll write this in the next entry.

Thanks for reading.

Samyang 14mm f/2.8 AE IF ED UMC Aspherical

2012-01-25T01:01:00.001+13:00

I bought this lens last week from YL Camera Pudu Plaza for RM1.3k++ . This is ultra wide angle lens produced by Samyang, a Korean based company. If it fitted on a DX / APS-C camera, the effective focal length will be around 21mm. This is also a prime lens, which means that it cannot zoom.

Samyang 14mm f/2.8.

I have decided to buy this lens after reading a lot of reviews regarding the performance of this lens. In general, Samyang is known for making cheap lenses with par-to-par performance with the lenses manufactured by well known company like Nikon, Canon and Carl Zeiss. How do they offer that price? Maybe they cut off the cost by not including the auto focus mechanism in the lenses. As a comparison, the same lens produced by Nikon will costs around RM6000.

Below are my findings and verdicts on this lens, after using it for a week :

1) Very-very wide angle of view. 14mm is so wide on a full frame camera like mine. If we used DX cameras, we need at least 10mm to achieve the same FOV (perhaps with different perspective).

2) Manual focusing. To some of us who are used with auto focusing lenses, then it's time to practice. But it's not really a problem though with this lens, as the depth of field is so big that it can be focused precisely to get a sharp image. This is where I practiced the focusing technique called hyperfocal distance focusing. Simply remember a formula, or a table that relates the aperture used and focusing distance, then set it up.

As an example, I set the aperture at f/8, and according to the table/formula, the hyperfocal distance is 1 meter. So, I set the marking distance on the lens at 1 meter, then freely shoot anything within that distance. The result is that the half of that distance (0.5 meter to infinity) will be in focus. Simple isn't it?

Get the table HERE.

3) Auto Exposure (AE). My version of lens is equipped with CPU chips which make the process whole lot easier. I can use the metering in camera to get the right exposure, focusing confirmation dot in the viewfinder, get the EXIF data, using other modes like S, A and P, and also use my flash's TTL features. So far from what I know, only the Nikon version was equipped with CPU contact, while other version of Canon, Sony etc. don't (it is sold separately).

4) Heavy vignetting at wide open and only denounced at the optimum aperture of f/8 to f/11. This might be the drawback of this lens. But not really a problem though if it used for nightscape or to add the dramatic feeling to the picture. It can be corrected though during post processing.

5) Sharpness. The same case with number 4, as it is sharp at f/8 to f/11. But still acceptable though at wide open. Even it is way much sharper than Canon and Nikon's 14mm (from some reviews).

6) Distortion. It is unavoidable for an ultra wide angle lenses. But for this lens, there is also another kind of problem, which is called as moustache distortion where suddenly at the middle of the picture got a "fisheye" kind of effect. This is obvious if the lens was used to shoot architecture or straight lines and patterns, but almost unnoticeable for landscape shooting.

Samyang itself also had produced a lens profile for this lens so that it can be corrected in Adobe Photoshop CS or Adobe Lightroom.

7) Design and outer finish. Looks pretty tough and solid. Just the issue that need to be highlighted is that it is a rectilinear lens which got a convex front element. With this nature, no protection or UV filter that can be fitted, so need to be careful with that. The only thing that makes relieved a bit is that it got a fixed lens hood (plastic) that at least can protect the front element from being damaged if something unwanted happened.

Landscape shooters may feel uneasy a bit as it cannot fit any creative filters so they have to find other alternatives to imitate the effect of it (What I got in mind for slow shutter is to use black card technique). Or some creative fellas can try to design something to be fitted in the rear element of the lens (Try at your own risk).

Below are the pictures that I took with this lens so far :

I have it corrected using Adobe Photoshop Lens Correction.

That piles of sandals and polysterin box are just less than a meter from my legs.

Taiping Bus Station.

Taiping in town.

Times Square, KL.

HDR - Truck.

Times Square Musolla.

Crossing Bridge, Pudu. This is one of the very first pictures I captured using this lens.

Conclusion? I gotta love this lens, and might using it much for my Skyscapes shooting this year. And also sometimes for street cityscape photography. If you guys are looking for a budget ultra wide angle lens with good image quality and you have a fullframe camera, then this lens is the best choice.

Thanks for your time.

Sunset and Sunrise

2012-01-10T18:33:00.002+13:00

Salam,

Just want to share with you guys some pictures of sunrise and sunset that I managed to capture around this week. Most of the were captured around Putrajaya.

Sunrise at Broga. Although I was hiking up quite late, but fortunately I managed to be at the right time and right place.

Another picture from another view.

Perhaps the best sunset I captured so far.

Took this sunrise at Pullman. I arrived quite late as I was walking around 7km from home.

The view of Pullman Hotel and Ministries Buildings.

Sunset Over Putrajaya Lake. This was taken yesterday. Unlike other shots, I made this with an ND64 filter attached to my lens.

That's all for now. Looking forward to shoot around another places :)

Jendela 2011

2011-12-28T00:52:00.002+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

Entri ini khas ditulis bagi mengimbas kembali peristiwa peristiwa penting yang berlaku dalam tahun 2011 ini dalam hidup saya. Ilham untuk menulis entri ini datang setelah saya mengunjungi laman web Boston.com - Big Picture. Bagi saya, tahun 2011 ini adalah yang terbaik bagi saya jika dibandingkan dengan tahun-tahun sebelumnya, biarpun ada beberapa peristiwa berlaku yang agak menyedihkan. Diharapkan pada tahun hadapan iaitu tahun 2012, akan jadi lebih baik dari tahun 2011 Insya Allah.

8 JANUARI 2011 - Pi Penang.

Saya kira sudah lama saya tidak ke PPinang, jadi saya dan keluarga berjalan-jalan di Penang pada awal tahun yang lalu.

Pemandangan sekitar Batu Feringgi.

Line Clear.

Sekitar Padang Kota Lama.

31 Januari 2011 - Trip ke Universal Studios Singapura.

Ini merupakan trip pertama saya ke Singapura (selain transit), dan juga merupakan trip kembara pertama saya secara solo.

Beetlejuice.

Lama tak ber HDR :)

Salah satu persembahan yang sedang berlangsung di USS.

18 FEBRUARI 2011 - Pulang Ke New Zealand.

Memandangkan cuti musim panas sudah di penghujung dan semester baru bakal bermula, jadi saya telah pulang kembali ke New Zealand. Saya juga berpindah dari rumah sewa yang lama kepada yang baru.

Rumah sewa di Palmerston North, 8/107A Ferguson St.

Juga tak dilupakan hobi saya, fotografi landskap juga "dibawa balik" ke New Zealand :)

12 MAC 2011 - PROGRAM SUAIKENAL DAN PIKNIK MUMSA 2011.

Ini ialah program yang pertama diadakan oleh MUMSA pada tahun 2011. Ia bertujuan untuk memperkenalkan ahli-ahli MUMSA yang lama serta baru disamping mempereratkan semangat setiakawan antara satu sama lain.

Salah satu aktiviti yang diadakan.

Ahli-ahli (perempuan) MUMSA 2011.

22 MAC 2011 - PERSARAAN PENGETUA ASiS PERTAMA, TUAN HAJI IDRUS ABD HAMID.

Setelah lebih 8 tahun menerajui pentadbiran ASiS, akhirnya Tuan Haji Idrus bersara pada tahun ini. Banyak jasa dan bakti yang telah ditaburkan sepanjang bergelar pengetua ASiS, termasuklah apabila ASiS diumumkan sebagai salah satu sekolah berprestasi tinggi (SBT).

Dan saya secara amnya merasa bangga kerana batch saya (batch ke-2 ASiS 0405) telah memilih untuk menghadiahkan Tuan Haji Idrus sebuah gambar yang dipilih dari gambar-gambar saya yang terbaik.

Hadiah persaraan berupa sebuah gambar "Manawatu River at Dusk" disampaikan kepada Tuan Haji Idrus.

26 MAC 2011 - FESTIVAL OF CULTURES 2011.

Festival tahunan ini adalah antara festival terbesar yang dianjurkan di Palmerston North, dan disertai lebih 100 buah komuniti yang berbeza budaya dan bangsa. Setiap kali festival ini diadakan, MUMSA turut membuka gerai dan terlibat dengan aktiviti pentas bagi mempromosikan budaya Malaysia.

9 APRIL 2011 - MUPSA Super Six Cricket Tournament 2011.

Kejohanan kriket peringkat kampus ini ialah aktiviti tahunan yang dianjurkan oleh MUPSA, dan kali ini merupakan tahun ke-3 saya menjadi jurugambar rasmi kejohanan. Dan sejarah tercipta kali ini apabila pasukan India memenangi kejohanan buat kali pertama setelah menewaskan pasukan Pakistan yang juga merupakan penyandang juara bagi tahun-tahun sebelumnya.

23 APRIL 2011 - LIFT OFF LEVIN 2011.

Lift Off Levin ialah suatu festival belon udara panas yang diadakan pada cuti Easter setiap tahun. Program yang bertempat di Horowhenua, Levin ini menarik ramai pengunjung dari bandar-bandar besar seperti Palmerston North dan juga Wellington, New Zealand. Ia juga merupakan hari yang bertuah bagi saya kerana saya telah memenangi satu pertandingan fotografi yang diadakan pada waktu itu dan menang tiket untuk menaiki belon udara panas pada festival yang akan berlangsung tahun depan, Insya Allah :).

1 JULAI 2011 - BERSATU GAMES 2011.

Kejohanan sukan tahunan yang disertai oleh semua persatuan - persatuan pelajar Malaysia di New Zealand. Pada tahun ini ia diadakan di Dunedin, New Zealand. Dan ini merupakan kali ke - 2 saya ke Dunedin.

Ucapan dari wakil penganjur, saudara Imran Fauzi.

Turut dianjurkan ialah pertandingan bahas Bahasa Melayu di antara wakil Kelab-Kelab UMNO seluruh New Zealand.

15 OGOS 2011 - Salji Turun Di Palmerston North.

Pada pertengahan bulan Ramadan yang lepas, telah berlaku suatu fenomena luar biasa apabila salji turun dengan lebatnya pada sekitar waktu berbuka puasa pada hari itu. Difahamkan bahawa kawasan Palmerston North ini tidak pernah menerima salji sejak 100 tahun yang dulu. Alhamdulillah, dapat jugak saya nak merasa salji.

Salji turun sekitar kawasan rumah.

Jiran sebelah rumah yang suka bergambar.

31 OGOS 2011 - EIDUL FITRI.

Alhamdulillah, setelah sebulan berpuasa akhirnya hari raya sampai jugak. Walaupun pada waktu itu hari raya jatuh lewat sehari dari Malaysia, namun saya bersyukur kerana ibadat puasa dapat dilaksanakan tanpa sebarang masalah. Walaupun pada tahun ini warga Malaysia di Palmerston North berkurangan kerana tamat pengajian, namun suasana hari raya tetap meriah dan diraikan dengan rumah terbuka, sama seperti di Malaysia.

Solat Sunat Hari Raya.

Warga Malaysia di Palmerston North.

7 SEPTEMBER - TRIP KE NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND.

Melancong ialah antara hobi saya, dan jika ada masa terluang pasti saya akan merancang untuk melancong. Termasuklah juga trip ke Napier ini yang dianjurkan oleh International Student Support (ISS) Massey University. Saya juga adalah peminat fotografi jalanan, dan peluang untuk melancong ini saya gunakan untuk mempraktikan semua skil yang berkaitan. Ia membuahkan hasil kerana salah satu gambar yang saya ambil semasa trip ke Napier ini memenangi satu pertandingan fotografi di Malaysia. Lebih menggembirakan saya lagi apabila gambar tersebut dijadikan gambar muka depan bagi satu majalah fotografi baru yang dilancarkan beberapa minggu lepas.

Lautan Pasifik.

Pengkhutbah Jalanan. Gambar ini memenangi pertandingan "Foto Terbaik November 2011" yang dianjurkan oleh Komuniti Fotografi LensaMalaya.

Gambar muka depan majalah terbaru keluaran LensaMalaya.

18 SEPTEMBER 2011 - MAJLIS SAMBUTAN HARI RAYA MUMSA DAN PELANTIKAN JAWATANKUASA BARU MUMSA 2011/2012.

Program ini merupakan acara tahunan dan dihadiri oleh semua warga Malaysia di Palmerston North dan juga tetamu kehormat dari Kedutaan Malaysia di Wellington. Alhamdulillah, proses perlantikan jawatankuasa baru MUMSA berjalan lancar dan MUMSA akan dipimpin oleh gabungan muka lama dan muka baru pada tahun depan. Saya pula telah diberi kepercayaan untuk meneruskan jawatan saya sebagai Exco Multimedia pada tahun depan.

31 SEPTEMBER 2011

Tiada apa-apa yang istimewa pada tarikh ini, tapi saya merasakan bahawa saya berada pada masa dan ketika yang betul semasa saya cuba untuk merakam gambar Galaksi Bima Sakti ini buat kali pertama :

6 OKTOBER 2011 - HOME FUNCTION 2011

Program anjuran ISS untuk meraikan pelajar-pelajar antarabangsa yang akan menamatkan pengajian pada tahun ini. Tahniah kepada kawan-kawan yang sudah pasti tamat pengajian (ditentukan melalui keputusan peperiksaan yang lepas). Semoga berjaya dalam hidup masing-masing.

5 NOVEMBER 2011 - MINGGU PEPERIKSAAN AKHIR SEMESTER 2 2011.

Peperiksaan yang berlangsung selama lima hari ini berjaya ditempuhi dengan jayanya. Alhamdulillah, keputusan baru diperoleh beberapa minggu yang lepas dan saya berjaya lulus kesemua kertas yang diambil dengan baik. Cuma saya mengharapkan pada masa-masa yang akan datang saya bersedia lebih awal dan tidak perlu untuk tidak tidur semalaman sebelum hari peperiksaaan.

18 NOVEMBER 2011 - TT LENSA MALAYA

Saya pulang ke Malaysia untuk cuti musim panas pada 16 November. Dan antara aktiviti pertama yang saya buat ialah menghadiri sesi teh tarik (TT) bersama komuniti Lensa Malaya (LM) Zon Tengah. Program ini bertujuan untuk merapatkan hubungan antara ahli-ahli komuniti dan juga untuk merancang aktiviti-aktiviti yang bakal dilakukan pada tahun hadapan. Lebih menarik lagi program ini apabila ia dihadiri oleh pengasas dan pengendali Lensa Malaya, iaitu Saiful Nang (SN). SN ialah salah seorang jurugambar yang terkenal di Malaysia dan merupakan jutawan hasil dari mengambil gambar perkahwinan. Dia mempunyai syarikatnya sendiri iaitu CandidSyndrome International (CSI). Melalui program ini, banyak juga tips dan pengalaman yang dikongsikan oleh SN untuk faedah semua yang datang.

SN (duduk paling kiri) bersama ahli-ahli Lensa Malaya yang lain.

30 NOVEMBER 2011 - BERKUNJUNG KE ASiS.

Ini merupakan aktiviti kemestian bagi saya setiap tahun setelah tamat pengajian di ASiS pada tahun 2005. Pada kali ini, saya datang ketika pelajar ASiS tingkatan 5 sedang bersedia untuk menghadapi subjek-subjek terakhir mereka dalam peperiksaan SPM. Saya juga merasa bertuah kerana dapat bertemu dan beramah mesra bersama pengetua ASiS yang baru, iaitu Encik Baharuddin Burhan, di samping diberikan kepercayaan untuk menjadi jurugambar sempena lawatan kerja dari SMAN 1 Praya Lombok Tengah ke ASiS yang kebetulan sama tarikh dengan kunjungan saya ke ASiS ini. Saya juga bertuah kerana berkesempatan untuk bertemu dengan mantan pengetua, Tuan Haji Idrus yang turut sama hadir bagi meraikan delegasi SMAN 1 Praya ini.

Pelajar-Pelajar bersalaman dengan Cikgu Azwan setelah tamat kelas Kimia terakhir sebelum menduduki peperiksaan bagi subjek tersebut pada besoknya.

Pelajar-pelajar ASiS mendengar dengan tekun amanat yang disampaikan oleh Pengetua ASiS sebelum melangkah masuk ke dewan peperiksaan.

Saya berkesempatan untuk bersarapan dan berbual bersama dengan pengetua ASiS, Encik Baharuddin Burhan.

Kunjungan delegasi dari Lombok Tengah ke ASiS, disambut oleh Encik Baharuddin Burhan.

2 DISEMBER 2011 - PERGINYA NENDA TERCINTA.....

Nenda tercinta dalam kenangan. Al Fatihah.....

AKHIR KATA....

Tinggal beberapa hari lagi sebelum ketibaan tahun baru 2012. Semoga masa yang ada kita manfaatkan sebaiknya, Insya Allah. Dan semoga tahun baru 2012 membawa lebih kebaikan kepada kita bersama .

Gambar-Gambar Terbaik Saya 2011

2011-12-20T03:11:00.000+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt dan salam sejahtera,

Memandangkan tahun 2011 semakin hampir ke penghujungnya, maka ingin sekali saya menulis beberapa entri yang bersifat "imbas kembali". Dan entri kali ini adalah salah satu darinya yang mengutarakan tentang hobi saya iaitu fotografi.

Sebagai rumusan, tahun 2011 merupakan tahun yang saya sifatkan agak cemerlang bagi saya kerana banyak perkara dan ilmu baru yang saya belajar berkenaan fotografi ini. Mungkin ini bermula dari tindakan saya membeli majalah-majalah fotografi setiap bulan secara kerap dan aktif di dalam forum-forum online.

Saya juga kerap menyertai pertandingan-pertandingan fotografi di peringkat tempatan dan juga antarabangsa dan menang beberapa daripadanya. Hadiah dan wang ringgit bukanlah sasaran saya, tetapi saya jadikannya sebagai kayu pengukur terhadap sejauh mana keupayaan dan kemahiran yang ada serta penerimaan hasil karya saya di dalam komuniti fotografi.

Jadi berbalik kepada tujuan entri ini ditulis, ingin saya kongsikan dengan pembaca sekalian akan gambar-gambar terbaik yang saya ambil sepanjang tahun ini :

Masjid Jamek Kuala Lumpur merupakan salah satu tempat yang saya selalu kunjungi apabila datang ke Kuala Lumpur.

Pinggiran Tasik Putrajaya. Gambar ini diambil sebagai percubaan atas tripod yang saya beli pada waktu itu.

Dance of Light (Tarian Cahaya).

Salah satu realiti hidup sebagai pelajar di luar negara : Masak sendiri.

Gambar salah satu bangunan yang saya ambil di Dunedin, semasa cuti musim sejuk yang lalu. Gambar ini terpilih untuk pameran semasa KL PhotoFest 2011 bertempat di Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur.

Juga diambil di Dunedin. Pemandangan sekitar George St, Dunedin.

Jalan Keluar.

Latihan Bola Sepak. Bersatu Games 2011.

Percubaan pertama saya membuat star trails.

Percubaan pertama membuat vertorama (kombinasi dua gambar secara menegak).

Manawatu River dari perspektif infrared.

Pagi yang berkabus.

Seekor labah labah jenis jumping spider. Gambar diambil semasa trip ke FRIM Kepong baru-baru ini.

Salah satu gambar terbaik saya yang disenaraikan dalam Flickr Explore, antara 500 gambar terbaik seluruh dunia.

Padang Bola, SK Selama, Perak.

Snowdrop Flowers (Tidak pasti akan nama bunga ini didalam Bahasa Melayu).

Mencerap bintang di tepian sungai. Gambar ini juga merupakan salah satu gambar yang terpilih di dalam Flickr Explore (#36 dari 500 gambar terbaik seluruh dunia).

Manawatu River. Monotone.

Seekor lalat buah sedang mengutip nektar dari bunga-bunga sekitar.

Steelfort Engineering Limited.

Penceramah Jalanan. Gambar yang memberi saya kemenangan dalam satu pertandingan fotografi baru-baru ini.

Pemandangan matahari terbenam sekitar Festival Belon Udara Panas yang berlangsung di Levin, New Zealand.

Sejenis labah labah dari spesis "Hunstman".

Gambar seekor semut yang mencari jalannya pulang ke sarang.

Sekian sahaja buat kali ini. Mudah-mudahan hobi saya ini memberi manfaat kepada diri saya, dan kepada anda semua yang melihat gambar-gambar ini. Saya berharap agar pada tahun-tahun yang mendatang, saya akan menjadi lebih mahir lagi dan memperoleh kejayaan yang lebih baik lagi Insya Allah.

Salam.

Multitone

2011-12-13T21:21:00.002+13:00

Mixing up few tones in photoshop and I got result like these :

Reflection of a Bridge over the Putrajaya Dam.

Man made waterfalls.

Morning at Taiping Lake Garden.

Breakfast.

Towards each other.

Tuan Haji.

Between Illusion and Reality.

The Evening Fog.

Tutorial : How To Make A Star Trails Picture

2011-12-07T05:20:00.005+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

This is the response to the poll I created in the previous entry, where I was asking the you guys to choose which tutorial you want me to write. So, you have decided that I'm going to write on how to make the star trails.

As we know, the earth is moving slow, but constantly. This will make us, which are on the earth seeing that the stars are moving. If we shoot with long exposure enough, the stars will form the trails.

Tips on Choosing the Right Time and Place.

In general, there are few tips that need to be considered in order to find the right time and place to shoot stars, which are:

1) Choose the right night.

To ensure a clean and clear star trails, you need to find a time where there are no clouds and also visible moon. When the moon is visible, it will illuminate the haze that always in the atmosphere, causing the trails looks a lot duller. I usually do shooting stars during the end of the month, before new moon is rising.

2) Embrace the darkness!!!

A good trick to shoot star trails is stay away from the cities, or any places with higher light pollution rate. This excessive light will also affect the quality of the trails produced.

3) Find the epicentre for a round, circle star trails.

This will vary from place to place. Like my place in southern hemisphere (New Zealand), it is easy to get the epicentre in the frame as I was very close to the pole. But compared with my homecountry Malaysia which is located at the equator, it is almost impossible to get the centre within frame. The trick to find this is to pointed the camera to the direction of either pole which is closer (if you're in England then point the camera northwards, or if you're in Australia then point the camera southwards).

4) Bring your tripod.

Of course, when it comes to long exposure we need a tripod.

Camera Settings.

Basically, any type of camera can be used especially if it can handle long exposure without being affected by hot-pixels problem. I used my DSLR coupled with a wide angle lens to do all of these kind of shots.

The settings are as follows:

1) Aperture : Quite small, around f/8 - f/11.

2) Shutter speed (or I prefer to call, an exposure) : To capture the trails, we need a very long exposure. But as I mentioned earlier, this will be quite cumbersome if the hot-pixels appeared. So my suggestion is to shoot a series of moderate long exposures and later on combined or stacked in the software related. I usually shoot continuously around 100-plus frames within an hour with every frame exposure is around 30 second (100 x 30sec).

Another way to reduce the hot pixels in the picture is to turn on the long exposure noise reduction function in your camera. But this will make the process of transferring the picture into memory card much longer.

3) ISO : Generally, keep it lower. But sometimes when I want to shoot faster, I will increase the ISO around 800 to 1000.

4) Shoot in RAW : In case if the image produced has a significant amount of noise and hot pixels, it can be reduced through the post processing of a RAW file. Plus, dull or hazy color cast can be removed if certain adjustment to the white balance settings is done.

Post-Processing / Stacking

When you coming back from the scene, load up all of the pictures taken. If it was shot in RAW format, then we might need to do some post processing, like adjusting the white balance, reducing noise level, or dealing with the hot pixels. Finished with all of these, then convert all of the images into JPEG format.

I used a software called Startrails.de which can be downloaded HERE. The steps are quite easy. Load all of the images in the software, click the "start process" and voila, it will be done within a minute.

In the end, you might get pictures like these :

I shoot this at the backyard of my home. Not really a good place though, but not bad for a start.

Manawatu River 1.

Manawatu River 2.

That's all for now. If you have any question, please ask me through the comment section of this entry. Cheers.

Poll : Photography Tutorial

2011-11-26T02:33:00.004+13:00

Salam and hey guys,

I have created a poll in this blog. The purpose of this poll is to let you guys choose the photography tutorial that you want me to write in the entry next week.

There are three choice of tutorials which are :

- Manual exposure blending in photoshop (I used this as an alternative to the HDR technique).

- How to shoot and make startrails using stacking software, "Startrails.de".

- Guide on shooting the stars and Milky Way.

I have put the poll at the upper-left side (under the nuffnang poll) section of this blog.

This poll will run for a week, about exactly the time where I went back from KL to Taiping next week.

Thanks.

Macro Shots Around Burmese Pool, Taiping.

2011-11-24T19:36:00.002+13:00

Salam guys,

Just want to share some of the pictures I managed to capture this morning around foothill of Bukit Larut.

Ant.

Grasshopper.

Jumping Spider.

Another jumping spider.

Caterpillar.

And following are the pictures of an ant-mimic spider, known of its scientific name as Myrmarachne maxillosa.

Thanks all for viewing.

Interview for E-Magazine Lensa Malaya

2011-11-23T03:58:00.003+13:00

Salam guys,

Recently, I was interviewed by the editor of E-Magazine Lensa Malaya (LM). For those who don't know what LM is, it is one of the photography forum / community in Malaysia. The previous version of LM, PhotoSkool once was the biggest and active forum in Malaysia.

This magazine will be released for the first time next month (December). Mostly the interview is all about me and my point of view in photography, especially about black and white photography. Below is the content of the interview :

1. Bolehkah saudara perkenalkan diri saudara serba sedikit?

Nama penuh saya ialah Mohd Nadly Aizat Bin Mohd Nudri dan berumur 23 tahun. Saya berasal dari Taiping, tetapi kini tinggal di Palmerston North, New Zealand kerana melanjutkan pengajian di sini. Saya sekarang menuntut di Massey University, New Zealand dalam bidang kejuruteraan kimia dan teknologi nano. Insya Allah, saya akan menamatkan pengajian pada tahun hadapan.

2. Bagaimana boleh melibatkan diri dengan fotografi?

Saya mula melibatkan diri dengan fotografi semasa tahun pertama saya di New Zealand, iaitu sekitar dua tahun yang lepas. Hobi ini diperkenalkan oleh senior saya di Massey University iaitu saudara Lutfi. Beliau banyak memberi tunjuk ajar dan pemahaman mengenai asas-asas fotografi serta penggunaan kamera DSLR. Selain itu, saya amat tertarik dengan pemandangan dan landskap di New Zealand yang pada pandangan saya amat baik sekiranya dapat dirakamkan dengan kamera menerusi teknik yang betul.

3. Genre fotografi yang paling diminati, mengapa?

Secara jujurnya, hingga kini saya tidak punya genre yang paling saya minati secara khusus. Semenjak dari permulaan saya di dalam bidang fotografi ini, saya telah mencuba pelbagai genre. Antaranya landskap, sukan, makro, senibina, fotografi jalanan, dan juga journalism. Seperti yang saya ceritakan sebelum ini, landskap di New Zealand sangat menarik dan oleh sebab itu, banyak hasil karya saya terdiri dari gambar-gambar landskap. Namun begitu, tidaklah bermaksud landskap itu genre yang paling saya minati kerana pada masa-masa yang lain saya akan mengambil gambar-gambar makro, senibina dan jalanan. Dan ianya juga bergantung kepada masa dan ketika. Sebagai contoh, sekarang saya menghabiskan masa terluang saya mengambil gambar-gambar makro kerana ia merupakan sesuatu yang baru bagi saya dan sememangnya saya suka mencuba sesuatu yang baru.

Saya suka memetik kata-kata Saiful Nang,

"Mencari pengkhususan terbaik di dalam fotografi itu seumpama membuat tandatangan yang serasi. Kadang kala kita mengambil masa yang agak lama untuk mencari bentuk tandatangan yang sesuai. Akhirnya, apabila kita berjumpa dengan tandatangan yang serasi itu, kita akan terus kekal menggunakannya. Sama seperti fotografi, dalam kita mencuba pelbagai genre fotografi, suatu masa nanti kita akan berjumpa dengan genre yang serasi dengan kebolehan dan citarasa kita".

Dan saya rasa bahawa saya masih lagi dalam proses pencarian tersebut.

4. Boleh berikan beberapa tips dan petua untuk mendapatkan gambar hitam putih yang bagus.

Saya tidaklah begitu arif dalam mengenalpasti situasi-situasi di mana gambar hitam putih yang bagus dapat dihasilkan. Tetapi, setelah mengamati gambar-gambar hitam putih yang dipaparkan di dalam internet di samping mencubanya sendiri, kebiasaannya ia bergantung kepada beberapa faktor seperti berikut :

a) Keadaan sekitar dalam gambar yang bakal dihasilkan itu mempunyai lokaliti shadow yang agak kontra dengan lokaliti highlight. Contohnya seperti kawasan di dalam rumah yang gelap (shadow) dan pada masa yang sama mempunyai sinar cahaya (highlight) yang menerobos masuk ke dalam kawasan rumah.

b) Mempunyai corak-corak dan garisan yang menarik. Corak dan garisan ini kelihatan amat menonjol di dalam gambar hitam putih kerana apabila warna-warna dihilangkan, mata kita akan lebih tertarik kepada bentuk corak dan garisan ini. Oleh yang demikian, ia boleh berfungsi dengan berkesan sekali sebagai garis penunjuk (leading line) ke arah subjek ataupun Point of Interest (POI) semasa menyusun komposisi gambar.

c) Mempunyai warna-warna yang menarik dan menonjol sebelum ia di hitam-putihkan. Mungkin berbeza pada pandangan orang lain, tapi pada saya untuk menghasilkan gambar hitam putih yang baik, ia perlu mempunyai kontra yang jelas di antara warna-warna tersebut.

d) Sama seperti tips di dalam menghasilkan gambar landskap, makro dan jalanan yang baik, ia perlulah ringkas dan tidak terlalu padat dengan elemen elemen yang tidak berkaitan dengan penceritaan ataupun mesej yang ingin disampaikan di dalam gambar tersebut ("Less is always more").

5. Pesanan kepada penggiat forum LM.

Pesanan saya ialah, kita perlu berusaha untuk mencuba sebanyak dan sebaik mungkin untuk memperbaiki skil dan teknik yang ada. Anggaplah segala kritikan dan komen yang diberikan kepada hasil karya kita sebagai suatu bentuk input yang positif untuk menghasilkan output yang lebih mantap dan baik.

Namun begitu, segala usaha yang kita lakukan perlu perancangan dan latihan yang baik, terutamanya dari segi teknikal. Sebagai contoh, saya baru sahaja bermula mengambil gambar makro sekitar dua bulan yang lepas. Tetapi, saya telah mula membaca dan mendalami teknik-teknik makro ini lebih awal menerusi internet dan majalah-majalah fotografi. Oleh kerana itu, ramai yang apabila melihat gambar-gambar yang saya ambil, mereka tidak percaya bahawa saya baru sahaja bermula sekitar seminggu lebih (pada waktu itu) dalam fotografi makro ini.

Bagi saya, aspek-aspek teknikal ini perlu dikuasai terlebih dahulu dan sebaik mungkin, diikuti oleh aspek- aspek estetika dan kreativiti yang lebih mengambil masa untuk dikuasai.

Macro Outing @ FRIM

2011-11-20T12:35:00.003+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt and Hello everyone,

This morning I went to FRIM for macro shooting with few of my friends. Although a lil bit tired from the TT Lensa Malaya yesterday at Titiwangsa (arrived at home around 1am and slept at 3am), but it was paid off with these pictures that I got. This is my first macro outing this year as I just went back to Malaysia last Wednesday.

For all of these shots, I used Nikon D700 and Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di with Nikon SB600 attached to Orbis Ring Flash Adapter, and the lens was focused manually. So, these are what I got during the outing.

Hafiz helping Qhassimi to shoot an insect using reverse lens technique.

One of the earliest shots I got. A spider.

Found a spider having its lunch.

Easy to find this one around the forest.

Rare insect.

Grasshopper.

My best shot of the day. A jumping spider.

Thanks everyone.

Pasca Exam S2 2011

2011-11-12T21:05:00.003+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

It's been a while that I havent updated my blog. Busy recently with final exam which already ended last Thursday alhamdulillah. Hope the results coming out this mid of December will be great Insya Allah.

One of the things that I did during few days after exam was to continue with my hobby - photography. So I went out alone and sometimes with friend to take pictures. So below are the summary of the photography things that I've done.

Slow Shutter Landscape.

I was planning to buy a neutral density filter about 10-stop for landscape pictures. But somehow the filters I found in the market are quite pricey. One of em' was B+W 1000x ND filter which costs aroun NZD200. And another problem that I have was the maximum size of the filter thread is only 77mm (my 24-70mm got size of 82mm).

So, instead of that I found another inferior, yet cheaper solution that is to buy "made in China" ND64 and a step down ring which cost less than NZD30. And below is the picture I took using this filter :

Manawatu River.

I did also learn an essential technique for landscape called " Hyperfocal Distance Focusing". This technique is used to maximise the depth of field in the photo so that it will be overall sharp and in focus. I will write about it in the next entry Insya Allah.

Star Trails

Last night the sky was clear and there is moon light which brighten the surrounding. So I went down to the same place I shoot with ND64 last night, planning to shoot the star trails. I made couple of good shots last few months but for last night I used different settings for testing purpose. This time I used the conventional settings, which is using the lowest aperture and ISO available and shoot a long exposure for each frame. Unfortunately, I somehow displaced the position of the tripod little bit, resulted in un-aligned star trails during stacking process in Photoshop. So I had to removed few of the frames which resulting in picture below :

Still not bad uh?

Macro Outing @ Massey University.

This morning I went to the arboretum behind Kairanga Court at campus to shoot macro. This time I wasnt alone because Koid came with me. Like myself, he is also a photo-enthusiast. I did teach (if you want to call it as teaching) him few things on taking good macro pictures. And I lend him my Orbis ring to play around. We found few bugs and I managed to capture em'.

Koid In Action.

Beetle. Too small that I need to crop the picture off.

Also a little spider that Koid found first. I helped him to take few shots before did mine. This one is either a small huntsman or a crab spider.

A Fly.

Special pose from this cute little spider.

That's conclude my photoshooting for this year at New Zealand I suppose. This Monday I'll be leaving for Malaysia on 3 months summer holidays. If anyone of you who want to join me shooting around places in Malaysia, then feel free to contact me.

Cheers and wassalam.

Tebiat Orang Kita.

2011-10-16T00:44:00.003+13:00

Aku baru je tadi bukak page Ustaz Kazim dalam facebook. Utk pengetahuan semua, aku memang peminat setia Ustad ni. Tiap2 pagi time nak gi uni / masa nak balik umah aku denga ceramah ustad ni dalam Ipod aku.

Jadi perati la satu post ni dari admin page tu:

Dan komen2 yang sepatutnya mesti la ada kaitan dengan tajuk tu (pasal pengajian). Tapi ada la dua tiga orang kita yang tak bape nak cerdik ni tulis komen2 yang berikut:

Ada pulak tu yang dok perli :

Dah banyak kali dah puak2 macam depa ni dok tulis lagu ni. Akhirnya ustad sendiri yang reply:

Kata perjuang Islam, tapi ni dok memfitnah, mengutuk ustad. Dok sambut hari guru, tapi tak hormat ke orang yang mengajar kita. Ni apa ni? Orang lain sibuk mikir cemane nak tambah ilmu, nak tambah duit tapi orang kita?

Sikit2 politik.

Sikit2 nak gaduh.

Sikit2 nak cari gaduh.

Sikit2 dengki ke orang.

Lu pikir la sendiri.

My New Camera : GF2

2011-10-15T00:10:00.004+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

I used to bring my Nikon D700 around when I want to do candid or street shooting. But somehow I think that it's kinda heavy and it's easily to be noticed by people around that might make em feel uneasy. Plus I need to capture videos too sometimes.

So I had come into two solutions :

- Buy a compact camera.

- Buy a smartphone.

Initially I'm more to the 2nd solution but somehow, I think I will not going to use it often (plus from the experience of my members here, smart phones eat lotsa money through data usage etc). I'm kind of person that using phone for receiving text and calls + texting and calling only. So I dropped the 2nd choice.

So the compact cameras that I looked upon for survey were mostly micro four third format, like Olympus, Panasonic and Sony. Initially I had consider Canon S95 but since I want a compact camera that has interchangeable lens system (I can use my Nikon lenses with this camera) so I dropped it down.

Finally, I had come across Panasonic Lumix GF2 which is the cheapest among these cameras. Bought it last two weeks, and so far I satisfied with it. Below are some pictures that I captured with this camera.

So, for the serious things like shooting events, sports, portraiture, landscapes, macro etc I will use Nikon D700. While for shooting some casual stuff like street, travel, urbanscape, abstract and videos I'll use this Panasonic Lumix GF2. And I recommend those who are looking for camera that match the image quality of DSLR but smaller in size, you can have a look on this one.

Cheers.

PM 4th Exhibition & KLPF 11'

2011-10-11T20:49:00.005+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

Last weekend, there were two big photography events held in Kuala Lumpur, which are PhotoMalaysia 4th Annual Exhibition at Nikon Centre, Times Square and also KL Photography Festival 2011 at Mid Valley Megamall.

As I mentioned before, I have submitted few of my pictures, hoping that they will be selected to be displayed. The purpose was that I can introduce my artworks to the people much better and as a recognition of my skills.

The results of shortlisted photographers selected for PM 4th Exhibition was announced few days earlier in NikonClub website. Unfortunately, I wasn't on the list, which made me disappointed lil' bit. But I understand that it's not easy for me to be listed as I was competing with the very best photographers in Malaysia like Ted Adnan, Troy Lim, Soulfly etc.

But there's good news. Two of my pictures were selected to be displayed in KL Photography Festival 2011 (KLPF). This had put me on par with other known photographers such as An-Namir (known for his works at Darul Quran), Nazaruddin Wijee (known landscape photographer) and few more.

These are pictures that were selected :

Taken during trip to Dunedin.

Picture of my housemate preparing grilled lamb. He's famous last weekend I reckon.

Red arrow shown my picture on display.

Another one that was printed on the brochure with my name on it.

Was congratulated by fotokrapika @ Ahmad Jaa. He's known for his abstract/minimalist artworks and was also selected for PM 4th Annual Exhibition at Times Square.

That's all for now. Exams are few weeks ahead so I guess I have to focus on my revision from now on.

Cheers for reading.

Going Home Function 2011

2011-10-08T02:58:00.002+13:00

Yesterday, International Students Support (ISS) Massey University held an event called "Going Home Function" at The Centre, Massey University campus.

The purpose of this event was to celebrate those who are going to complete their studies this year before going home for good.

They had opportunity to wear the graduation robes and received token of appreciation. Few of my friends were involved as they are in the final year and will graduate next year. I was asked to take their pictures.

Hafezz with the dignitaries of Massey University

Ahmad Yasir Mustafa Bakri. Will graduate with Bachelor of Science.

Mohd Hafezzudeen Che Hassan. Bachelor of Telecommunication Engineering.

Ayu Shahiza Shahidan. Bachelor of Environmental Technology and Sustaining Energy Engineering

Ayu with friends.

Congratulations to them and I pray that you're completing the course smoothly.

Stars Gazing Alongside Manawatu River

2011-10-02T12:06:00.007+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

After a week at Nikon Service Centre in Auckland for annual maintenance, finally I got my D700 back in action last Friday afternoon. The weather was fine that day which sunny and cloudless sky. So I decided to go to the riverside, Manawatu River that night, planning to shoot Milky Way and if possible, a star trails picture.

At first, suddenly there were many clouds and moonlit that shrouded the sky, but didn't give up so I waited around an hour there. It was so dark on the other side of the river, but in my side it's quite bright from the houses and cars.

When the clouds disappeared and moon setting down, I started to take pictures. I put my tripod close to the water and made some try and error shots just to get the right setting for the pictures.

To shoot Milky Way, since I didn't have the rail system to shoot the still stars (as they and earth are moving) I shoot using the faster shutter speed possible. This meant that I had to boost the ISO up and use the widest aperture available. In a simple words, Shooting star trails need you to use the Milky Way settings in the opposite (I did shooting star trails as well, and to shoot it I need to use the lowest aperture available, low ISO and longer exposure).

It was worth standing there for hours when I managed to get several nice shots like these below:

Vertorama from two pictures, stitched in a single image.

Before packing up to go back, I made this shot which was incomplete due to the battery flat.

A dangerous attempt from me to take this shot. I put my camera on tripod at the bottom close to the water and set it on timer. So I only got 10 second to run up there. Luckily I didn't injured and worth it to take this wonderful picture. This picture was listed as one of Flickr's daily best pictures for yesterday (currently ranked #36 out of 500).

Alright guys, thanks for visiting. Cheers.

500px and POTY2011

2011-09-28T05:31:00.007+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

I just signed up for a 500px account. Basically it's almost same like flickr, but in the way that only the best pictures being shared. It also has the blog and the most important feature, the portfolio. Portfolio is like a curriculum vitae or resume for photographer where clients or prospected buyers or employers might have a look on it before any further steps.

For free account, I can only upload 20 pictures a week, which is actually good enough for me as it will restrict me to upload the very best of my pictures. You can visit my 500px HERE.

Screenshot of my 500px.

This Friday is the dateline of Photographer of the Year 2011 (POTY2011) entries to be submitted. For those who don't know yet, I'm entering this time and going to send my best pictures. Not hoping much though, but at least it's worth trying. Wish me luck guys.

p/s : There will be two big photography events held in Kuala Lumpur starting this 1st October. One is KL Photo Festival 2011 (KLPF 2011) at Mid Valley from 7 to 9 October while another is PhotoMalaysia 4th Annual Exhibition at Nikon Centre, Times Square from 1st to 31st of October.

So might worth a visit, plus you guys might have a chance to see my pictures if they're selected for display during the event.

Sakura Festival 2011

2011-09-22T21:57:00.003+12:00

Last Saturday, I had my chance to go to International Pacific College, (IPC) since they organised the Sakura Festival 2011. This was my 3rd time being there and unlike the past years, the weather was good ; sunny and cloudy sometimes. But I don't know what's the curse ; the cherry blossom (known as sakura to japanese and most people) was not blooming this time. I saw only few trees were start to bloom.

I went there after Zohor prayer by free bus from city centre. I brought my Nikon D700 with my macro lens (Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8) without any other lenses. The reason was that I want to challenge myself to use fixed focal length to shoot around and also my intention that time was to find some beautiful flowers (especially sakura) and bees.

There were many activities and performances being shown during that time including famous Yosakoi Dance, Kapa Haka, Kecak Dance, kendo demonstration and also Japanese Drum. I didn't take much pictures of the people since I want to concentrate on flowers plus bees.

Sakura a.k.a. Cherry Blossom.

Yosakoi Dance performance.

Ladybird. Found this on one of the trees while watching kendo demonstration.

Finally, got this fella. Costs me my track pant (got ripped by rose thorn).

Kapa Haka performance by school boys :)

So cute. Taken after the Japanese Drum performance finished.

Kecak Dance by Indonesian students in Palmy.

Seemed like many people asked me to take their pictures that day.

The event ended around 4pm. I'm thinking to come again around next week as most of the sakura trees should be blooming by that time.

Father

2011-09-14T06:59:00.000+12:00

To my pops … Know that I’ll be there for you
Cuz you made me the man that I am and that’s true
Perhaps u might be forgotten or under estimated
But your presence in our life is the most anticipated
I know the Mothers get all the credit and the attention
And your name sometime is not even mentioned
So I’m sending out this Appreciation
To the fathers all around and across the nation
You work so hard to put the food on the table
Taking extra late night shifts to keep us stable
U taught me how 2 b a gentleman and live life
How 2 survive the struggle, the stress n the strife
How 2 take a decision
How 2 chose wisely
How 2 be responsible
How 2 make a family
U took me from a boy 2 a man
So I thank u my father
Cuz I know the ups n downs didn’t bother

When I need an advice … You’re the one I’m seeking for
My inspiration in this life … Keep us safe and secure
No one can understand what you go through sometimes
But you still standing tall so we can have a peace of mind
When times r rough, u never let us know
When things r tough, you still go with the flow
Cuz you are the strength that holds us together
Sacrificing what you have no matter how’s the weather

So I thank you for my life and all the things that you did
And all the sweat and all the tears and all the blood that you shed
And all the time that you raised me to be a better man
So when they say like father like son I understand

Streets of Napier, New Zealand

2011-09-08T16:37:00.001+12:00

Salam and hello guys,

Yesterday I had a chance to go on tour to Napier, Hawke's Bay. This tour was organised by International Students Support (ISS) Massey University. Napier is east of Palmerston North and about 2 hours drive.

Based on the tentative of the tour, I have decided to go for street shooting rather than landscape. And I planned to give a go on abstract photography too. So, here's the photos of the tour that I taken. Most of the pictures were taken with my new lens, Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1.

Repertoire of a wall's pattern I found by the roadside in the city.

Took this during stop in Dannevirke. It's actually an outer layer of the playground.

Distinct pattern of the rope.

On the way to Napier, we stopped by the Te Apiti Windfarm to take pictures.

At Dannevirke.

I forgot the name of this street, but it's famous as George St in Dunedin, Lambton Quay in Wellington and Queen St in Auckland.

Wear it with pride.

Father and Son.

The Street Preacher. Found him while wandering around the Beach Domain. Although not many were come and listening, he still looks energetic and full of spirit when giving out his speech.

The Alleyway. Looks like one in Cuba or Vietnam I think.

A couple relaxed on the tree branch at the seashore. That's Pacific Ocean dude.

Beach Domain, Napier. I'm waiting quite long to get just a single person in the frame to give scale of the image.

Tour ended around 2.30pm where the bus left Napier for home. Looking forward to do street photoshooting back in Malaysia soon.

Macro Photography ; The Beginning

2011-09-05T01:24:00.000+12:00

Salam guys,

Assalamualaikum wbt and hello everyone,

Just got my first macro lens last three days, which is Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di. Actually, I bought Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro in the first place but somehow there's no stock available for Nikon mount so I decided to switch to the current lens.

Since there are not many bugs in New Zealand compared to birds, so most of the shots are flowers, plants, leaves and buds. But I'll try to search for insects next time perhaps.

For me, there are four most important factors that need to be remembered in order to get a good macro images.

1. The composition.
Take some times to compose the frame. If it's not possible then try to crop it during post processing. My principle on the composition is that "less is always more". Try to avoid cluttered, busy frame that will distract the viewers from looking to the main subject.

2. Focusing and Sharpness.
This is one of the difficult things to do. Since the subject are mostly bugs or flowers, it tends to move (bugs are flying from one place to another, and flowers being blown by wind). So, it's kind of tricky to lock the focus. Plus, when using macro lens, the focusing speed is kind of slow which most of the shooters prefer to do manual focusing. For beginning, I still stick with the auto focusing. Patience might be the best remedy for this problem. One of the simple tips might be on using a single focus point and aim it on the best parts of the subject. As for me, I prefer to lock the focus on the insect's eye or flowers' stamen.

3. Enough Depth of Field (DOF).
When using macro lens, much closer we are to the subject, the less the DOF become. In the normal shooting, f/2.8 - f/8 will be just enough to get the subject in focus but it's different when comes to macro. Usually I use around f/11 - f/20. The downside of this action is that the image will be under exposed and sometimes, it will be less sharp due to the diffraction when using lower aperture.

4. Lighting.
To overcome the tendency of underexposed image due to the factor no.3 as mentioned, we need enough lighting so that the details can be captured in well exposed image. First day that I went out shooting using this lens, I brought with me a Nikon SB600 external flash attached to Orbis ring flash adapter, handheld. And it was wireless triggered using built in camera flash. The good things about it was the light is evenly diffused on the subject and almost no harsh shadows on it, but it's way too heavy. I later on mounted it on the tripod I brought on the second day, but the downside was it took some time for me to setting it up (the tripod) near to the subject which later on flying away when I finished.

Finally, I have designed a better lighting setup, which using the SB600 attached on the Orbis arm which is connected to the tripod mount of the camera body. And on the flash head itself I put an el-cheapo softbox that I bought from Trademe. And it works, plus not too heavy so I can use both of my hands supporting the whole system. Below are the pictures of it :

I let Koid try it out while I took his picture :)

Here are some of the results I got for last three days shooting using this lens :

This one was taken by Koid, my friend using my camera during outing this morning.

I put SB600 + Orbis adapter to the left side of this flower, handheld.

Perhaps the best of my macro shots so far. This one kinda tricky since it tends to move quickly from one flower to another.

Apart from macro/close up, macro lens also can be used as all day normal lens or the best, as portrait lens. In fact, it's known as the best portrait lens since due to its sharpness like the following image :

That's all for now. Thanks for your time visiting my blog.

My 3rd Eid-ul-Fitri in Palmy.

2011-09-02T01:45:00.001+12:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

Eid mubarak to all of you. Hope you enjoying yourself.

As I told before in the previous entry, Eid in New Zealand is a day late than Malaysia, that is on 31st August.

Like previous years, I went for Solat-ul-Eid that morning. As the same for last years, it was held at Arena Manawatu to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims in Palmerston North from time to time. The takbir started around 7.30am followed by prayer at 8am.

Takbir being recited while waiting for the prayer.

Khutbah after prayer. Delivered by Dr. Ibrahim al Bahadly.

Usual scene after khutbah..

For this time, it was decided that the hari raya gathering is going to be held at 42 Ward Street, that is the 1st year undergrads place since it's a bigger place and has quite spacious lawn for this gathering. Rather than cooking the foods all alone, it was held in forms of potluck where every family / houses bring their own foods to be shared.

My "baju raya" for this year.

Self-service.

Usual scene.

Dapat duit raya :) (only for childrens)

Undergrads left for Eid. The rest whether going back to Malaysia or gone somewhere else.

Big Family of Malaysian in Palmerston North.

This gathering ended around 11am. And we went for several other open houses as well till night.

Open house at Botanical Rd.

Abg Mat's open house after Maghrib.

And that's not the end of the open houses...there will be another two open houses this weekend and the official one this 18th September organised by MUMSA.

Hope everything went well and as planned. And this is the start of spring as well :) Can't wait for Sakura Festival this mid of the month :P

Eidul Fitri Mubarak.

2011-08-29T23:56:00.004+12:00

Assalamualaikum wbt,

It is confirmed that Eidul Fitr this year will be observed on 31st August (Wednesday) in New Zealand. And this is my 3rd time celebrating Eid in New Zealand.

So, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you guys, Eidul Fitri mubarak. Kullu am wa antum bikhoir. May you guys be well throughout the year Insya Allah.

Thanks also for reading my blog's entries from time to time. May we'll be blessed, Insya Allah.

MOHD NADLY AIZAT MOHD NUDRI.

Bachelor of Chemical and Nanotechnology Engineering,

Massey University, New Zealand.

Snowy Palmy 2011

2011-08-19T19:50:00.003+12:00

In my place here, in Palmerston North (Palmy) we never had chance to get the snowfalls every winter. The last time snowfall being recorded was at 1934, that was around 80 years ago.

But things happened. Last weekend, there was winter blast, chilly wind making its way from Antartica to New Zealand. And it was predicted that most parts of the nation will be recovered with snow.

Weather Forecast from Metservice.

As someone that never had chance before to play with snow, I'm kinda excited. It was predicted that by Sunday night, it will be snowy around Palmy. I was eagerly waiting but still, none of the falls.

Monday morning - On the way to campus, I saw that most of the hills nearby were covered by snow. Since I finished early, I went back home early. It was sunny that day and seemed that it's not going to snow anytime. So after Zohor, I went asleep.

But things changed suddenly. I woke up around 4.30 pm, having Asar prayer and then opened my room's window. I was surprised to see what's happened outside. There's the snowfalls! I saw my bike and cars outside were covered with snow. Many of em' . Quickly I brought my camera and went outside to take pictures.

View of surrounding of my home during the snowfalls.

Muka baru bangun tido :D

Worm. Excited.

Again. Picture of me.

Neigbour. Excited as well :)

:) :)

Since it's almost the time for iftar, I went to the mosque nearby. I seen many people by the roadside, playing around with snow, snow fighting and make themselves snowman. Falls were ease as it's Maghrib / breaking fast time.

On the way back home, snow falls again. This time much heavier and denser. The things that killed the mood that night was the blackout. I guessed it was due to the heavy snowfalls and wind that night.

2nd Day - 16 August 2011

Weather was back to normal on the second day. But the snow were not melt easily. Instead, it's turned into ice or frost. And I noticed that not many turned up to the lectures in campus that day.

Home made snowman :)

While waiting for the bus...

Snow still covered most parts of the campus.

View of the campus.

Massey's main field. Still got plenty of em'

There was another snowfalls that night, but this time lasts shorter. Maybe just for few minutes.

I thought it's sign of farewell. From winter into spring. Seriously, I was grateful to God for giving me this chance to feel it, at this time. Hope it's gonna happen again next year (although it's almost impossible).

Snow on Cuba Mall in central Wellington (HD) from Ro Tierney on Vimeo.

Google Plus

2011-08-14T23:53:00.002+12:00

Assalamualaikum and good evening everyone,

- Finally, after few weeks waiting I got an invitation to join Google Plus.

- I just finished setting up things and adding some of friends for this new account.

- First time I went through this google+, I think it has some sort of combination of features introduced by previous known social websites like Friendster, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter.

- As for me, one of the features that will makes Google Plus being favoured when it's launched soon is the Circles. It's actually easier to manage circles than to manage groups in other site. And if you want to share anything, let say to the particular people (put them as A) and don't want others to know (give it B), you actually have the choice to do so.

- And for photos-enthusiasts like me, I will favour Google+ over Facebook in terms of the images quality when it is uploaded. Facebook will actually shrinking them down to the size that degrade the quality, while so far for google+, the images uploaded will be resized to the reasonable resolution (forgot the numbers :P)

- But, it's still under testing purposes so far. So, I'm expecting more to come from this new website.

- You can visit my page HERE. Those who have the account already can add me into your circles. And those who want invitation to join Google Plus, please let me know. I still have 150 invitations left for my friends :)

P/S : I'm still shooting pictures from time to time :)

My first attempt to do startrails. Got many positive feedbacks from the viewers.

Got this one this morning, after finishing my sahur. Seriously, I love monotone :)

BERSATU Games 2011

2011-07-16T18:20:00.004+12:00

Assalamualaikum wbt dan salam sejahtera,

Baru-baru ini saya telah ke Dunedin, New Zealand untuk menghadiri kejohanan BERSATU Games 2011. Kejohanan yang berlangsung dari 1 hingga 5 Julai ini disertai oleh seramai lebih kurang 500 peserta dari tujuh kontinjen yang datang dari seluruh New Zealand iaitu Massey Uni. Malaysian Students Association (MUMSA), Kelab UMNO Auckland, Union of Malaysian Students Auckland (UMSA), Lincoln Malaysian Students Society (LMSS), Canterbury Uni. Malaysian Students Assoc. (CMSA), Wellington Malaysian Students Organization (WMSO) dan kontinjen penganjur sendiri, The Otago Malaysian Students Assoc. (OMSA).

Kejohanan yang berlangsung selama 5 hari ini menglibatkan beberapa acara sukan seperti bola sepak, touch rugby, pingpong, hoki, bola jaring, bola keranjang dan banyak lagi. Saya hadir sebagai penyokong (supporter) untuk universiti saya iaitu MUMSA.

Hari Pertama (1 Julai 2011) - Ketibaan Kontinjen dan Majlis Perasmian

Suasana di lobi Leviathan Hotel dengan ketibaan para peserta kejohanan.

Kebanyakan dari peserta-peserta yang hadir tinggal di tempat penginapan yang disediakan penganjur, iaitu di Leviathan Hotel. Pendaftaran dibuka bermula jam 1 tengah hari hingga jam 5 petang. Namun begitu, kontinjen dari Auckland iaitu UMNO dan UMSA tiba lewat sehari disebabkan oleh flight delay.

Majlis Perasmian bermula pada jam 7.30 malam. Ia disempurnakan oleh Pro-Vice Chancellor (International) University of Otago, Sarah Todd. Antara VIP yang hadir ialah Pengarah Jabatan Pelajar-Pelajar Malaysia (MSD) New Zealand, Dr. Rosli Muhammad dan atase Pendidikan, Puan Salmah Kassim. Berikut adalah gambar-gambar yang sempat saya ambil sepanjang majlis ini :

Peserta-peserta dari kontinjen WMSO

Ketibaan para VIP. Dari kiri, Sarah Todd, Dr. Rosli Muhammad dan Puan Salmah Kassim.

Kontinjen CMSA.

My own...MUMSA.

Kontinjen dari Wellington, WMSO.

Kontinjen terbesar, OMSA.

Pembacaan ikrar oleh wakil peserta kejohanan kali ini.

Ucapan dari wakil penganjur iaitu saudara Imran Fauzi, Presiden OMSA.

Antara beberapa acara pada malam perasmian tersebut, termasuklah persembahan silat gayung oleh Kelab Silat Gayung Dunedin

Gimik perasmian. Nyalaan obor menandakan bermulanya kejohanan Bersatu Games bagi tahun 2011.

2 Julai 2011 - Touch Rugby dan Hoki

Hari kedua kejohanan. Hari bermulanya perlawanan diantara kontinjen yang hadir. Sebahagian besar perlawanan diadakan di Edgar Centre (indoor). Untuk hari ini hanya hoki dan touch rugby sahaja yang dipertandingkan. Untuk MUMSA, perlawanan pertama touch ialah menentang juara tahun lepas, WMSO. Dalam perlawanan ini, MUMSA berjaya mengikat WMSO 1-1 walaupun kalah dalam perlawanan-perlawanan seterusnya. Emas dimenangi oleh UMNO Auckland, perak oleh CMSA dan gangsa untuk UMSA. Dan untuk hoki pula, Emas dimenangi oleh OMSA, diikuti oleh UMNO Auckland dan CMSA.

Hoki : UMNO Auckland (baju merah) menentang OMSA (baju hitam).

Touch Rugby : Cubaan touch Syaiful (UMSA) terhadap Daniel (OMSA).

Amir Haffiz (MUMSA) cuba untuk melakukan try sambil dihalang oleh Huzaifah (WMSO).

Larian untuk try dari UMSA, dikawal ketat oleh MUMSA :P

WMSO menentang UMNO Auckland.

3 Julai 2011 - Bola Tampar, Futsal (Perempuan), dan Pingpong

Bola Tampar

This game received the most attention of the day. Cheers could be heard throughout the venue. There were some really intense moments but everyone showed very good sportsmanship in their approach to the game. Well done

Gold : CMSA
Silver : WMSO
Bronze : UMSA

Futsal (Perempuan)

The most explosive game in Bersatu history. The games came to a climax during the final playoff between UMSA and WMSO. In the end, the best team won. Congratulations girls.

Gold : WMSO
Silver : UMSA
Bronze : UMNO Auckland.

Pingpong (Lelaki dan Perempuan)

The game started as early as 9 am. The game had to be hold for a few times because some of the participants were involved with other games which clashed with table tennis timetable.

Men
Gold : UMSA
Silver : UMNO Auckland
Bronze : OMSA

Women
Gold : WMSO
Silver : UMSA
Bronze : CMSA

4 Julai 2011 - Bola Sepak dan Frisbees

Memandangkan perlawanan bola sepak diadakan di tempat yang berasingan (iaitu di Kensington Oval), saya tidak sempat mengambil gambar untuk pertandingan frisbee di Edgar Centre.

Bola sepak mengambil masa yang agak lama sepanjang hari ini. Bermula seawal pagi yang sejuk (suhu sekitar 0-5 degree Celcius) sehinggalah matahari terbenam. Pemain bermain dengan baik sekali dan rata-rata mereka berpuas hati sepanjang perlawanan berlangsung. Oleh kerana masa yang suntuk, perlawanan akhir di antara CMSA menentang UMNO Auckland hanya dapat diadakan pada keesokan harinya (5 Julai jam 3.30 petang). Emas dimenangi oleh CMSA, manakala Perak dan Gangsa masing-masing dimenangi oleh UMNO Auckland dan WMSO.

Sesi memanaskan badan CMSA. Keadaan padang ketika ini berfros dan suhu bawah daripada 5 degree Celcius.

Sesi warmup MUMSA.

Perlawanan pertama dimulakan dengan UMNO Auckland menentang Lincoln. UMNO Auckland menang 2-1

Syaiful (UMSA) cuba merampas bola dari Helmy (MUMSA). UMSA menang 2-1.

Perlawanan antara WMSO menentang Lincoln.

CMSA menentang MUMSA. Tendangan Faizi (CMSA) berjaya menewaskan penjaga gol MUMSA (Syuib) lalu menghasilkan gol pertama untuk CMSA.

Sepakan percuma dari Daniel Loh (CMSA).

Penjaga gol MUMSA, Syuib cuba untuk menyelamatkan sepakan sudut dari CMSA.

Pemain WMSO, Huzaifah terpaksa diusung keluar akibat terjahan keras dari pemain Lincoln semasa perlawanan berlangsung.

5 Julai 2011 - Hari Terakhir Kejohanan - Bola keranjang dan Bola Jaring

Bola Jaring

Antara pertandingan yang ditunggu-tunggu sepanjang kejohanan. Kesemua enam kontinjen yang bertanding sangat kompetitif dalam memburu kejuaraan. Perlawanan diadakan secara Round Robin, iaitu kesemua kontinjen mempunyai peluang yang sama banyak, iaitu sebanyak 5 kali perlawanan. Pertandingan dimenangi oleh WMSO

Bola Keranjang

Pertandingan antara kontinjen sama seperti bola jaring, adalah sangat-sangat kompetitif. Ia juga diadakan dalam format round robin. Ia dimenangi oleh UMSA kerana mereka menang dalam semua lima perlawanan. Pingat perak dimenangi oleh CMSA dan gangsa oleh Lincoln.

Dengan berakhirnya pertandingan-pertandingan ini, maka berakhirlah BERSATU Games bagi tahun 2011 di Dunedin ini. Majlis Makan Malam Penutup (Closing Dinner) telah diadakan pada malam itu juga, di mana beberapa anugerah telah diumumkan. Juara Keseluruhan jatuh kepada Canterbury Malaysian Students Association (CMSA). Hadiah dan medal telah disampaikan kepada para pemenang oleh tetamu kehormat pada malam itu, termasuklah Duta Malaysia ke New Zealand, Datuk Hasnudin Hamzah.

Sekian sahaja untuk kali ini. Mohon maaf kalau ada terkurang dan terlebih. Huhu. Jumpa lagi tahun depan di Christchurch untuk BERSATU Games 2012 :P

Streets of Dunedin, New Zealand

2011-07-10T16:36:00.003+12:00

I'm going to post pictures for Bersatu Games 11 recently soon as most of the pictures are not being uploaded on my flickr yet. So, while waiting for that I would like to share some of the pictures I snapped during the trip to Dunedin last week.

These pictures can be categorised under "Street Photography" or "Travel Photography" or "Architecture Photography" (who cares :P) Shots were taken with Nikon D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8. As you see, most of the pictures are in monotone. It's simply because I like it that way :)

Dunedin Town Hall. Located at the Octagon.

The Alleyway, George Street, Dunedin.

Dunedin Railway Station, Dunedin.

Poppa's Pizza. Expensive, but delicious. And halal too.

Ladies First. I took this shot randomly while walking around the Queens Garden.

Archway to the heart of the campus, University of Otago.

Ok, this is not Dunedin but railway station, Wellington.

The Clock Tower, University of Otago.

Evening at George Street. Sun setting earlier during winter. This shot was taken around 5pm.

The Way of Salvation. Dunedin Railway Station.

View of one of the building in University of Otago campus.

A day without laughter, is a day wasted.

Time is precious.

Thanks for visiting this blog. Wait for the next entry about Bersatu Games, real soon.

The World In Mono

2011-06-01T14:42:00.008+12:00

Manawatu River. Great place to walk every evening and weekend. But beware with the dogs.

SK Selama's soccer field. Was my playground 11 years ago.

Masjid Jamek. A must-go destination when I come over to KL.

Tango. Sabor-a-Mi.

Jamie Oliver in the making?

The Land of Down Under. Moo Moo :P

Lebuh Campbell, Penang. Mecca for photographers.

Between modern and old modes of transportation.

My little cousin.

My parents.

My grandma.

On the "seasoned" bus. He's not pissing off the seat :D

Najmi.

Masjid Kelang by Ahmad Nabil . I just made the editing only.

Masjid Jamek.

Manawatu River in Infrared.

Steelfort Engineering. Aluminium smelting.

Me.Myself.

Photography Competitions

2011-05-30T08:11:00.003+12:00

Recently, I have participated in two major photography contests. One was Lift-Off Levin Photo Competition, and another was NZ Amateur Photographer of the Year. I have submitted the following pictures ;

Picture that I submitted for Lift Off Levin Competition

The one for NZ Amateur Photographer of the Year.

The results for both came out last two weeks. Alhamdulillah, for Lift-Off Levin competition, I won the first place. The prizes are two flight tickets for the Lift Off Levin Festival next year, a certificate and also two prints of my winning picture courtesy of Kodak Express Levin. The total up of these worth NZD400.

Unfortunately, for NZ Amateur Photographer of the Year, I didn't win anything although my image was listed as one of the finalists. Well, I'll try again next time in the other competitions as well :)

Just arrived this morning.

Steelfort Engineering | Fieldtrip

2011-05-29T08:38:00.003+12:00

The purpose of this fieldtrip is to get some rough ideas on opportunities of waste minimisation and also to implement the Life Cycle Assessment method on the operating system of the factory.

Due this Friday, and I'm off for the study weeks.

Final Exam + Bersatu 11' + Tumblr

2011-05-11T21:57:00.004+12:00

Hey guys,

Final Exam Sem 1 2011

Final exam for this semester will be around 4 weeks from now. As I'm writing this entry, I'm actually struggling to finish off assignments and lab reports which is actually a good thing since it can be used as the preparation for the exam.

I don't know what/how to comment, but this time I will take two exam on the same day, for two days consecutively. One in the morning, and another one in the afternoon. From the positive side of course I'm going to finish off early this exam season while from the bad side, it's gonna be disastrous if I'm not sufficiently prepared.

Let's pray for the best then.

Bersatu 2011 Games, Otago.

For your information, the Bersatu Games this year will be held from 1st to 5th of July at University of Otago, Dunedin. I'm going this time, but not as the participant. I'm going to make the coverage for our MUMSA team. Hopefully, we're going to repeat our best achievement last two years. And finally, we have our jersey already ;

I'm not the one who designed this jersey. Thanks to them.

Tumblr

I'm not really sure what advantages does Tumblr has, but for sure it might be a great medium for quick updates compared to blogspot. So, I've created mine called "The Circle of Confusion". What does it mean? Well, if you read through the macro photography then you will know what the meaning behind the lines. Huhu.

You can have a visit, and hopefully can follow it HERE.

Cheers.

World In Infrared

2011-05-01T05:33:00.003+12:00

I've been searching for IR filter from early this year, but had no luck. Luckily I managed to get one recently, but it's 850nm IR filter which resulting in B&W image.

What I did before taking shoots in IR is to make the WB preset. In the beginning I'm doing the preset with the filter unattached, which I found later as a mistake, resulting in the purple 'ish images. So a day after I made the correction of the step which to attach the filter during the preset. All shots were done during afternoon ; the best time for infrared photography since the main source of the IR light comes from sunlight / heat.

Before taking any shots, I did pre compose the picture first, making it in focus before turn to the manual focusing and attaching the filter. Then, there's the tricky part where I have to try n error with the settings to get the correct exposure. I used slow shutter speed around 10-13 second and ISO 400-800, plus f/8 all time.

Post processing was done with Nikon Capture NX2 (adjusting contrast and exposure compensation) and Adobe Photoshop CS5. Since there is not much change between red and blue channel (in channel mixer in photoshop) during swapping, I have skipped this part and proceed with selective colour menu and made some adjustment, mostly with black slider. Also not to forget, adjustment were being done using level and curve. And lastly, I used Noiseware Pro to reduce the amount of noise due to the high ISO and long exposure used. And these picture are what I got :

Manawatu Riverside in Infrared

Rose Garden, Esplanade in Infrared

Manawatu River in Infrared

The Centennial Lake, Hokowhitu in Infrared

Fitzherbert Bridge in Infrared

I'm still looking forward to find and using R72 filter, which can produce colored IR images. But that one is not easy to find here. Or even better, buy an old Nikon DSLR and modify it into fully IR camera.

Lift-Off Levin 2011

2011-04-25T23:19:00.003+12:00

Last Saturday, I went to Levin (half-an hour drive from Palmy) to see the hot air balloons festival called Lift-Off Levin. This was held annually during the Easter Weekend (in details, Good Friday and Easter Saturday).

At first, I wasn't really thinking to go since nobody were going that morning. So, I went cycling to uni and made some shooting, especially around Bledisloe Park.

Turitea Stream, Bledisloe Park.

On the way to Islamic Centre, I got a text from Bidi that they want to pick me up to Levin. I replied that I'm in Massey so instead of that they come and pick me and Lutfi up at the campus.

Upon the arrival, we saw no balloons on air. I thought that it's already finished. But actually not yet. The finale will be starting around 6pm they said. Plus, some of the balloons were actually located across the field, waiting to take off to the main venue.

Taking off...

Just above my head..

Preparing for landing. Maneuvering a balloon is not that easy as with plane.

If you see those pictures, it was cloudy all the time. But there was a moment where suddenly sun coming out from the clouds, showing itself. It was the beautiful moment that day where everybody, hundreds of people suddenly became quiet and watch over the sunset at the horizon. I was grateful to see this moment and captured it with my camera.

Picture of the Month.

It's beginning to dark. But the event is still running high like a funfair where there are games and foods stalls everywhere, plus a small concert. Many peoples are coming from all the places nearby such as Wellington and Palmerston North. The finale of the event was the music performance by all of the balloons, where they synchronising the music with the lights coming from the balloons (in fact, gas being burned).

The event ended around 7pm. We headed back to Palmy then. Thanks to Hafezz, Bidi, and others for inviting me to go with you guys.

MUPSA Super Six Cricket Tournament 2011

2011-04-12T23:35:00.004+12:00

Last saturday I had a chance to come to this cricket tournament, organised by Massey University Pakistani Students Association. This is the 3rd time it was being held. It started from 10am and finished around 5pm. Unlike the previous years where it's being held in October, this time it's much earlier. Finally for the first time, the Achayans team won the tournament. Better luck next time, Pakistan All-Stars. Trophies and awards were given to the winners by MP of Palmerston North, Mr Ian Lees Galloway who're willing to come that evening.

In this event, I'm using my Nikon D700 with a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8. All shoots were wide open. Here are some of the pictures that I managed to capture with:

That's all for now. Easter Break is coming. Wait for my new landscape pictures :)

Manawatu River

2011-04-01T00:35:00.003+13:00

If the legendary photographer, Ansel Adams is known for his works at Yosemite National Park, hopefully one day I will be known for my works at Manawatu River, Insya Allah.

I don't have much time to update for new entry ; Maybe this coming autumn break. So, I just share with you some of my pictures of Manawatu River.

At least once a week in the evening, I will come by the riverside to take few pictures. Although this river is not so beautiful compared to unpolluted streams across the country, but if it's on the right time and places, the scenery will be so great :)

Ok, now let's back to the assignment.

ASiS : Farewell Tuan Haji & SPM 2010 Results

2011-03-25T20:45:00.006+13:00

Finally, after almost 9 years leading ASiS, perfecting an initial, "second hand" school (after legendary school Alam Shah (SAS) moved to Putrajaya) into a high performance school (SBT), it's time for him to retire from this profession. The person I'm talking about is ASiS first principal, Tuan Haji Mohd Idrus Bin Abdul Hamid.

So, there was a ceremony being held last Tuesday at ASiS to celebrate his retirement. If I was in Malaysia that day, surely I want to come. But unfortunately, I'm thousand miles away from there. But thank God, everything went very well, although it's slightly raining that morning. And eventhough I wasn't there, few of my friends made it to come.

As for our batch (OASiS0405) , we had already planned couple days earlier to give a farewell present to Tuan Haji. And lastly, we have decided to give a framed picture to him.

And I feel honored when they decided to buy a canvas print of one of my pictures (I mean, landscape pictures that I snap over years). So in general, it was a gift from our batch to Tuan Haji as a token of appreciation of his hard works throughout the time. But also personally, it was a gift from me as well. And I hope that he gonna like it.

This is the chosen picture.

After printing and framing, here it is.

2nd generation of ASiS, will never forget you, Sir.

Thanks a lot to Izzat Rahman, the most committed person.

One thing that attracts my attention (and other as well) is that Tn Haji wore our batch's tie during his final day.

Till our next meeting, Sir.

I want to thank all of my batch mates who're involved and contributed whether directly or indirectly in ensuring our plan for Tn Haji's retirement being successful. Special thanks to Akmal Mehat (KP ASiS 05') for gathering our mates back, Izzat Rahman for your time and commitment, and also to the sponsor (he preferred not to be named).

SPM Results 2010

Well, until this entry was written, I don't have any confirmed details about the result. But roughly, the numbers had increased (might be good, and might not be good). ASiS maintained its position as the best school in Kuala Lumpur. Six students got straight A+, while over hundred students got all As. Subject History made a record as the best among the schools in Malaysia, but after all of this, it's still not enough for ASiS to maintain its position among the best five SBPs. SASER still leading, followed by SBPI Gombak and few others "common schools in top five", except a new comer, SEPINTAR. And ASiS was placed 6th. Not bad.

Congratulations to them (proudly called "Patriots"). It just a beginning anyway. Prove yourself to do better when you become a college / varsity students soon.

P/s : Thanks Izzat for the pictures.

Good Luck to all SPM Candidates

2011-03-21T18:54:00.002+13:00

After few months since the end of SPM, now it's almost the time where you'll get the fruits of your patience, hardworking etc.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you guys, especially my dearest juniors of ASiS, all the best. Hope that whatever you get, it's gonna worth it.

And what will happen after that? Well, a decision time on your next stages of your life. Some want to do medicine, engineering etc.... So my advice to you guys,

BE WISE IN MAKING YOUR DECISION.

Barakallahulaka.

Fluidr's Explore & MUMSA Picnic

2011-03-15T01:59:00.003+13:00

Hey guys,

Referring to one of the photos in the previous post, I feel surprised and honored when it was listed on Fluidr's Explore. What is Fluidr's Explore? Basically there are 500 pictures from Flickrs worldwide that are listed according to the interestingness. And my picture was listed as number 146 most interesting picture out of 500 pictures worldwide on 10th March 2011.

Manawatu River at Dusk

Eventhough I didn't get any prizes (of course since I didnt get the first place), I feel satisfied since it was one of the best picture I ever produced. Since that day, I got many messages on my Flickr and many of em' also added me as their contact, plus added this picture as their favourites too.

I'm going to join one of the photo competition by next month. So, wish me luck guys :)

MUMSA Picnic and Ice Breaking 2011

This event was held last saturday. Basically to introduce the new Malaysian students to the existing members of MUMSA plus to get together. Few activities were being done, more to the team-building purposes.

Those who're coming

Lutfi, Mr President

"Introduce Yourself" session

War games. Main pijak2 belon.

Fill in water into the balloon and transfer it into another bucket. The most filled in bucket's team won.

Lipan Mengamuk (Guys)

Girls' part

The most awaited part ; Makan2.

Lastly, group pictures.

Next activities? Tunggu......

Introduction to Vertorama

2011-03-11T16:01:00.011+13:00

Assalamualaikum wbt and very g'day to all my friends who read this blog,

This time, I want to share with you guys on how to do a vertorama image. Vertorama is simply the same thing like panorama ; photos-stitching. And it's an alternative way to imitate the broad, wide angle lens used vertically.

Example of vertorama

Centennial Lagoon, Hokowhitu

Basics

Things that you need are simple. A camera, a tripod, remote shutter and also if you want to playing around with light, then bring along neutral density (ND) filter. Another thing, the best moment to capture the picture. This is sometimes, not an easy thing to do. Like myself yesterday, I spent around one hour just to capture pictures on the right time ; sunset.

As usual, I shoot in RAW. Why RAW? This format gives me more flexibility to tweak few settings like white balance in order to get spectacular pictures that I want, plus to retrieve details that lost if the pictures are under or overexposed.

When the time comes, I mounted my camera on the tripod and positioned it on the best angle (I prefer to use low angle, depending on the situation). Use of remote shutter is highly recommended since slower shutter speed is used.

Vertorama technique

Well, in vertorama, at least two frames are needed. One for foreground, and another one for background. Here comes the importance of tripod, because when you finished with one frame, you need to change the camera's position vertically (upwards or downwards) without changing much of the horizontal position.

The most important thing here is that to ensure white balance for both frames are the same. You can either set this up in your camera before taking shots, or if you're shooting in RAW, just simply take care of this with appropriate software like Adobe Camera RAW or Nikon Capture NX2 (I'm using the latter).

I used the Aperture priority mode (A). Manual mode (M) also can be used as well, if you don't want to change any other parameter such as shutter speed.

First frame for the background.

And the second frame is for the foreground (can be in any order you want).

Post-Processing Workflow

After coming back home from the scene, I loaded up all of the images taken. Since I'm shooting in RAW, I will settled down white balance first with Nikon Capture NX2 and maybe some of the things like to eliminate vignette, contrast enhancement etc. In this example, I used "daylight" white balance with the setting of either "cloudy" or "shade" to give the pictures much warmer, suitable with that moment. Finished with all of that, I saved the files as 16-bit TIFF. Done with Nikon Capture NX2, now I moved out to Adobe Photoshop CS5.

For your information, I'm usually shoot few frames for each foreground and background. For this purpose, I used Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) feature in my camera, so that I can merge some of the pictures in Adobe Photoshop CS5 manually in order to get the best exposure for each frame. If you want to know more about this, you can google "manual exposure blending". There's plenty of tutorials available online.

Now I moved to Microsoft ICE for the final process ; photos-stitching. Basically simple stuff, just load the images, and the rest it will get it done for you. Finally, save the final image as JPEG (or if you want to do any further editing, then make it TIFF). For those who are still new to Microsoft ICE, then please refer my last entry about it HERE .

Here's the final images that you may get :

Manawatu River from Awapuni's part.

Manawatu River from West End's part

The unreleased version of Manawatu River, Palmerston North

That's all for now. Feel free to ask me if you don't understand or want to know in details. I would like to thank my brothers in FOTOMEDIA for introducing this technique to me.

The Last February Weekend ; Bi-Picture.

2011-03-01T03:41:00.003+13:00

Manawatu River during sunset.

Nikon D700|f/32|3s|24mm|+1EV|ISO 100

Comment : Planning to get an ultra wide angle lens. Perhaps 12-24mm.

Weekend soccer.

Nikon D700|f/2.8|1/200s|140mm|ISO 500

Description : One of the activities done by Malaysian at Palmerston North during weekend. Soccer game. One thing that differentiates here with any other places is that undergrads are very friendly and close with the postgrads. It's the thing that made me like being here and feel like in Malaysia.

Flickr | Random Best Shots (09'-11')

2011-02-25T02:13:00.005+13:00

Assalamualaikum,

I've been using flickr to store most of my pictures since mid 2009. And I've upgraded my account to PRO and after two years, it will expired this coming September. Since that, I've uploaded 2853 images and few video clips. Things that I like about flickr are the images didn't degrade much and (this is what I feel), it seemed like the contrast of the image has been increased lil bit after uploading process, make the pictures look much better.

Just now, I've been through the images from the latest upload until the earliest one. And since I don't have any idea so far to update this blog, I'm going to share with you guys on few of my best shots that I picked up randomly based on years. And hope you guys enjoy it :)

2009

Mr Tariq Mahmood

Huka Falls, Taupo

Shakespeare Regional Park. Captured this on the way to the north.

The panoramic view of International Pacific College (IPC) lake. Captured during spring that year.

Mr Faisal Rana playing cricket on weekly basis. Organised by MUPSA.

Sakura Festival 2009.

Eid Prayer, Eid-ul-Fitri 2009.

Friendly match between Malaysia and New Zealand. Malaysia lost 3-0.

Muslim can pray everywhere that is clean, not only in mosque.

In New Zealand, you can see this kind of view almost everywhere.

Home Sweet Home. Summer Holidays 2009. Kuala Selangor.

Tuan Haji Idrus, ASiS 1st Principal. Will retire next month. Jasamu dikenang.

Pantai Cenang, Langkawi. Hard to find sunset though.

2010

Bread feeds the body indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.

Tame silverleaf monkeys in front of my house.

Posted this many times on this blog, but never feel bored looking on it.

Melbourne's alley.

Diamonds.

Christchurch Cathedral. Now's no more.

I want to come again this year, hopefully. Milford Sound.

Happy hour!

Line up of my (ex-)lenses.

I like to shoot flowers. Can't deny that.

Masa itu Emas.

Summerhill Drive. Lovely place to take photos in Palmerston North.

It was first time I'm shooting model.

Pakistan hai tumhara. Pakistan hai hamara :)

A-Must-Go destination for me when I'm going down to KL. Masjid Jamek.

Zoo Taiping. Like shooting animals too, but never had chance to get closer to them in wild.

My grandma.

2011

Penang City Hall. In HDR.

Typical soccer field in Malaysia.

Full Moon. Taken from my room's window.

Putrajaya. Taken from Presint 2.

Long Exposure Test. 1 and half minute.

Playing with Nikon CLS. And also Noiseware to reduce noise level in this image.

First try on macro (not so macro) photography.

Rose. Rose Garden.

Usually, I prefer not to take any worship places pictures other than mosque. But, this church intriguing me as it has Star of David on the top of the church. Interesting, how can a Jewish symbol can placed a top of Christian's sacred place?

That's all for now. Since the classes commence next Monday, I won't take much pictures as I have other commitment that much important than these. Wish me luck, guys :)

Palmy 11'

2011-02-22T04:45:00.002+13:00

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. and good evening to all,

Alhamdulillah after 3 days of journey from Malaysia, finally I reached Palmerston North last Sunday morning. The journey started on Friday afternoon from LCCT before arrived in Melbourne Airport in Saturday's morning. The transit took me around 10 hours before the next connecting flight in the afternoon. I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand around 5pm. From there, I took an express coach to Palmerston North and finally arrived in Sunday morning. So, as I said in the previous post, I spent most of the time on my bed. Huhu.

As I said before, this year I'm staying in the new flat ; 8/107A Ferguson Street. So, this is the flat.

It's pretty spacious, and I'm living with another three of my friends.

My room. Ground floor.

And we got our own cat too. (This is Hafiz Bakri's cat).

Currently, it is summer right now in Palmy, with the estimated temperature is around 17 to 28 degree celcius. Sun setting quite late, that's around 8pm.

I spent the last afternoon in The Square.

That's all for now. Will update soon :P

Towards the End..

2011-02-10T05:53:00.007+13:00

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. and good day,

My three months summer holidays now finally come to the end. I will leaving for New Zealand on Friday next week.

Semester 1 2011 in Massey University commences on 28th February. It means, I will arrived a week earlier ; perfect timing to be prepared with everything necessary.

For your information, I'm moving to new house with new housemates. It is 8/107A Ferguson St. The place is quite far from the campus compared to my house last year, but it's closer to the nearest bus-stop. So, not a big problem either.

View of the house from outside

Inside. Messy huh? Baru pindah beb. Bese r.

Journey Back

This time, I will travelling alone, as usual. The flight is from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne with AirAsia X (Now Everyone Can Fly). I'm leaving at afternoon, and will arriving midnight.

There will be 8 hours gap to the next connecting flight so, I need to find somewhere else in the airport to sleep.

The next flight will leave in the morning all the way to Auckland. And as last time, I choose Emirates (gonna love this :D) Supposed that the flight arrived in Auckland that Saturday's afternoon.

Well, here's the thrill. All the flight's ticket to Palmerston North are already sold out, so I decided to take coach from the airport back to Palmy.

The journey usually will takes around 10 hours. So, if I'm leaving at 8pm, the bus will arrived in Palmy around 6am in the Sunday morning.

And for sure, I'll spend the whole Sunday on my bed :D

Problem

I have tried lodging my ETA application for transiting in Melbourne from yesterday, but something wrong happened where I cannot access the online payment's page. I have sent an email to the department and they replied and said, if it still happened, then I have to go myself to the embassy in Kuala Lumpur A.S.A.P. Without this, I won't be allowed aboard to Australia.

So, I'm coming to KL this weekend and probably drop by the embassy on Friday (tomorrow) or the next Monday.

P/s : I'm going to ASiS this Saturday.

Journey to Universal Studios, Singapore.

2011-02-08T01:17:00.011+13:00

In the end of last January, I had a chance to go to Universal Studios, Singapore. I left on Sunday the 30th, and going back on Tuesday the 1st of February.

So, the only attraction this time was the Universal Studios (USS) only, since it is not possible to cover the whole main attractions and places in Singapore in a day. I booked almost everything online, from the admission ticket into USS, return bus tickets to and from Johor Bahru (JB), and also two-nights stay at Tune Hotel, Danga Bay JB. Altogether, all of this costs me around RM500.

Departure Day (30th January)

I left Putrajaya (I'm staying in my sister's house here for few days before that) to Johor Bahru at 10.30am (from Putrajaya Sentral) with Transnasional (You guys can buy your tickets HERE). It takes around 5-6 hours before arrived in Larkin Sentral Terminal. From there, I took a cab to the Tune Hotel which is around 5 minutes drive from Larkin. I checked in and took a rest before going down to the lobby to claim my shuttle's ticket to Universal Studios the next day (Altogether with the stay, I was offered to buy a voucher for the journey to USS with the shuttle organised by Odyssey Travel that departs daily from the hotel. This costs RM23 for return journey).

Tune Hotel, Danga Bay

View inside my room.

Unfortunately, I was told that it is already full (since the service on first-come-first-serve basis) for the next day. So, I was refunded back on the spot. The receptionist told me that, she was nearly getting slapped by one of the emotional guy who staying there because he didn't get the ticket. She said that, it was not their fault since the complaints were many times posed on the travel agency and till now, they didn't manage to provide extra shuttles from the hotel. I didn't complaint anything since I've prepared for this earlier, and I know there are so many options of transport to go from JB to Sentosa Island :) I decided to take a bus from city, directly to Sentosa Island and going back later that day with MRT and a bus back to Larkin before taking a cab to the hotel.

Singapore (31st January)

5.00 am. I woke up already and getting prepared. Luckily, Subuh prayer is around 5.50 am so, I managed to do mine before going down to the lobby. I asked the receptionist there to get me a cab. I went out that morning to the Terminal Kota Raya 2, situated in the heart of the JB city :)

It was raining heavily that morning, that I hope and pray to God that it will stop soon. Anyway, I waited there for about one hour until the bus come and picked me up. For your information, there's plenty of bus services that going in and out of Singapore on daily basis. So, need not to worry. I'm taking the Transtar Cross-Border TS-8 service since it takes me directly to Sentosa Island. Any other services mostly will end up in Kranji MRT Station, Queen St and also Woodlands CIQ. This costs me RM 5 to go from JB to Sentosa.

Transtar Cross Border bus service.

Basically, there are two checkpoints that need to be done before getting ourselves into Singapore. First, in our land, Bukit Chagar CIQ. This doesn't takes much time since I'm using e-Passport, the same like one in airport. And then, the bus took me across the causeway to Woodlands CIQ, the next checkpoint in Singapore. Here, we will be required to fill in the immigration form called, "White Card" which later to be handed to the officer. You will be given a portion of the card that need to be presented later on the way out of Singapore. Another things happen here in Woodlands was the X-Ray scan on your belongings, and that's it. Time estimated for both checkpoints are vary depends on whether it is the peak hours or not. It might take 10-15 minutes during off-peaks and might take up to 1 hours during peak hours.

After this was done, I was realised that the bus I took earlier has already left. I don't worry much since I know, if I still have the ticket I don't need to buy the new one on-board. Things that I only worry was the time constraint, since I know that it is the peak hours and it's also heavy raining. I planned to get to USS by 10 am. Luckily, the next bus arrived on time as I seen on the schedule. The journey from Woodlands to Sentosa took around one hour since most roads from there to Sentosa are all congested. Plus, it is raining heavily that time.

View from the Transtar's bus. There's a message I'm trying to tell through this picture. Can you guess? :P

Finally, the bus reached Sentosa Island at around 10.30 am. It stopped at the coach bay situated underground so, I have to go upstairs on escalator. It's still raining, but there's plenty of covered areas so I didn't get wet much.

Upon arriving, I didn't go directly into the USS since I want to go walking around first, looking for any photography opportunities. There's still a lot of constructions taking place around. For your information, USS is not the only attraction there. The place is actually a huge complex, comprising few hotels, a casino and convention centre (plus USS as well).

The Forum, walkway in front of the casino.

Bankruptcy starts from here.

Well, it's almost 11 am. So, I went to the turnstile, and scan my ticket that I printed earlier at home. Upon the admission, I was given two vouchers, one for food and another one for retail worth $5 each. It's a big place, consisting few sections and parts in it. The first part is Hollywood and New York City. It's covered so raining is not really a big problem.

New York City

The library

There's shows going on schedule so you need to be aware what time they'll commence. Here, I saw few famous and glamour characters like Marilyn Monroe, Frankestein etc where you can go to them and take pictures. The assistants will help you for this.

Marilyn Monroe with the tourists.

I don't know who's this character in any Hollywood's films. Batman?

The next part or the next section is the Sci-Fi City. This is supposed to be the main attraction in USS. But, since the well-known Battlestar Galactica roller coaster is closed from last year for maintenance, so mostly people will just going across this part to the next section (also there's few of the Battlestar characters are there for you to take pictures.

The gateway to Sci Fi City

Under testing.

There are two type of the coasters ; Human and Cylon

From there, I moved to the next section ; Ancient Egypt. Since it is already afternoon and I didn't eat anything from morning that day, I went to the Oasis Spice Cafe that situated in front of the Revenge of the Mummy's roller coaster. Using voucher I got earlier, a plate of biryani rice + roasted chicken + acar + fresh orange + bubur cha cha costs me $13.50.

Finished with lunch, I went for my first ride. The Revenge of The Mummy. The entrance is guarded by two huge Anubis figures with a representation of miniaturized Karnak Temple in front. There's a locker available near to the entrance where I put my backpack and tripod. The locker's system is unique. To rent a locker, firstly you need to type your date of birth and your favourite colour before you're assigned a locker. To retrieve your items back, you need to type again these two details and also the locker's number. Simple, right? The first 30 minutes is free, and minutes after that, you'll be charged $2. I rent two lockers for my backpack and tripod.

The Revenge of the Mummy's entrance.

The ride? Well, I can said it is superb. Much frightening than make a bungee jump I guess. Because I'm riding most of the time in dark. Feel like I'm jumping or going down out of nowhere. Huhu. The part that I remembered was when the coaster hit the "dead-end wall" with high speed where lotsa beetle's scurrying in the sides. And without warning, the coaster moves with high speed and goes into reverse, DOWNWARDS.

Finished with Egypt. I walked to the next part which is, Far Far Away Lang (I skipped the Jurassic Park's part since I don't want to get soaked in the last part of the ride). This is the place where I spent most of the time taking pictures. The view was superb! The Farquaad Castle is surreally huge and here, I went for the Shrek 4D show inside the castle.

View of the castle from the front

The gateway to the show

Inside the castle, there will be an opening show first before the 4D. Nothing much, just the excerpt from the movie I guess.

Movie before movie

The closest you sit to the front, the more effect you'll feel (that's what they told us)

The movie begin! You need to wear the 3d glasses to experience the "3d"ness of the movie. I think the another D that makes it 4D was the feeling of wind, feeling of rain and effect of spiders going around my feet being made up.

Finished with that, I'm still going around the castle to take pictures.

View from the side

There's a frog looking to the castle, 24/7 :P

My HDR seemed not working due to the rain.

When I'm about to going out from the castle, I meet with Faris Fikri. , one of my facebook's friends. What a coincidence :) It was first time that I meet him in person. He's in vacation with his family around Singapore that time.

The only picture of me.

Finally, I finished the first round which took me around three hours. I decided to spend the next couple of hours around the New York and Hollywood's part, looking for any shows that taking place.

Walk of the Fame, modelled after one in Kodak Theater, Hollywood

U.S. Embassy I guees?

Madagascar's show. There's also a section and also Madagascar ride, which is still under construction and will be opened this year.

While waiting for the next show, I found an alley which leads to the Wharf. The alley is modelled after a Gotham City I guess. Or New York City around 1930s' . I managed to take some of the pictures there.

Archway to the alley

Where's the Batman?

View of the castle and Lost World's roller coaster from the Wharf.

Upon the exit, there's a show taking place. A break dance show.

Moonsault

Yeah!

Crowd of people watching their performance

The next show is one of the main attraction here in USS. Camera, Light, Action by Steven Spielberg. I didnt take any picture since it is advised to do so. Basically the show was how Steven Spielberg design the special effects in most of his film. It starts with the introduction movie by him before the audience being brought to the next stage. The theme is a terrific storm taking place in the boathouse. You can feel the strong wind struck you, things flying, water splash, oil spill where later ignites fire and the climax, a huge ship break the door and going directly to the audience! Huhu. Show ended with the platform shaking due to the collision with the ship and it managed to makes them shout. Hehe.

Finished with that, it is the nick of time for the next show ; The Musical Show. So many people inside the hall. Well, actually it's kinda boring for me though.

They're singing and dancing "I want nobody2 but you". Haha.

There's also another show is going on outside the hall. So many people over there, especially those who're watching the musical show earlier.

Dolls?

It's already 5pm. Rain has completely stopped before that. Time to go home. As I said earlier, I'm going back to JB via MRT and bus. So, I went out from USS and Sentosa to Vivocity across the strait via cable car.

Adios, USS :)

The cable car's station is situated not far from the entrance of USS. I walked from the entrance through the Festive Walk and then to the Imbiah Lookout. This place can be easily noticed from the huge Merlion tower there. A single ride of cable car costs $24 per person, while a return ride costs $26. The last station is at Mount Faber, but I decided to stop in VivoCity since it is nearer to the MRT station.

View of Keppel Harbour from the gondola. Keppel Harbour is one of the busiest port in the world.

Keppel Harbour and Tanjung Pagar Industrial Park

From ViVoCity, I went to the Harbour Front MRT station and buy a ticket to Kranji MRT. This costs me $3.20 (Which later you can claim the $1 deposit from the ticketing machine). The journey is pretty long, around one hour. I need to change to another line at Dhoby Ghout Station and then, change to another train at Yishun Station before arriving in Kranji. From there, I take a bus to Larkin (Causeway Link 2 - CW2), which costs me $1.30. As usual, I need to go through the two checkpoints first in Woodlands and Bukit Chagar before arriving in Larkin (Arrived around 8pm). Alhamdulillah, I managed to get to my room safely.

Later that night, I went out to Danga Bay. Well, not so many people that night as weekend. It's a place with waterfront, an amusement park and few seafood restaurants. Since I brought my tripod with me, I decided to play around with light trails :) Finished with that, I have my dinner at one of the restaurant there before going back to hotel.

Cruise. Dunno when it will leave.

Light trails of a train inside the funfair.

Merry go round.

The Last Day (1st February)

I checked out around 10 am. Since the bus depart at 1.30pm, I went out to Larkin quite late, around 12pm. The journey back to Putrajaya takes around 6 hours, since most of the passengers dropped by the roadside altogether with those at Bukit Jalil, and Tesco Puchong before finally disembark at Putrajaya Sentral.

I spent a night at my sister's house for a night before heading back to Taiping the next day.

THE END.....

Cara Menghasilkan Gambar HDR (High Dynamic Range)

2011-02-04T10:09:00.012+13:00

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. dan salam sejahtera,

Kali ni aku nak kongsikan dengan sume, cmne nak buat gambar yang ade ciri2 High Dynamic Range (HDR) ni. Firstly, sengaja aku tulis dalam bhase Melayu xrasmi (still cmpur BI sket) sal nak bagi korang paham sket cmne nk buat ni. N then, sume yg aku tulis ni adalah berdasarkan pengalaman aku sndiri shoot gmba2 HDR ni spanjang hampir 2 tahun. So, maybe ade yg salah n ade yang terkurang. So, kalo de otai2 dan pro yang terbaca entri ni, boleh la memberi komen dan pandangan untuk memperbetul atau menambahkan lagi mne yang kurang dan tersilap.

Maksud HDR secara kasar

Utk pengetahuan sume, kamera DSLR yg kite selalu gne tu ade limitation dye, iaitu dye xdapat nak capture mcm mane yang mata kita boleh tgk.Sebagai contoh, kita amek gambar dalam bilik menghala ke arah tingkap. Bila focus point tu tertumpu kat tingkap, n then kita amek gmba, yang kita perolehi ialah area tingkap tu saje yg well-exposed. Sekeliling tingkap? Ruang dlm bilik kita? Jadi underexposed. Tukar2 metering pun xbape nak mmbantu sangat. Jadi, biasanya fotografer guna ND atau GND filter utk solve problem ni. Tp, de gak cara lain yg berkesan, iaitu dengan teknik HDR.

HDR ni secara kasarnye bermaksud, gambar yg terhasil melalui teknik ni akan dijadikan lebih tinggi intensity (kekuatan) pencahayaan diantara bahagian gambar yang gelap (shadow) dan juga bahagian gambar yang terang (highlight). Senang citer, gmba tu xde la parts dye yang terlalu charak (bhase kedah- cerah) dan yang terlalu gelap. Semuanye sekata je pencahayaan dye. Untuk memahami dengan lebih lanjut, rase2nye banyak je buku2 sal HDR ni. Aku rekemen korang bace buku2 tulisan dari Trey Radcliff dan Rick Sammon. Aku de satu buku Rick Sammon ni dalam aku nye megaupload. Boleh download kat SINI.

Basics untuk menangkap gambar HDR.

Untuk menghasilkan sebuah gambar HDR, anda perlu menangkap beberapa gambar bagi scene yang sama, tetapi berlainan exposure value. Mnde ni boleh dilakukan dengan menggunakan satu function di dalam kamera yg dikenali sebagai Auto Exposure Bracketing. Jadi, just setkan berapa exposure yang hendak ditangkap dengan sekali shutter-press, dan juga setkan berapa increment bagi setiap exposure. Sebagai contoh, selalunya hanya 3 gambar yang diperlukan, dan exposure increment bg setiap gambar ialah, -2, 0, +2. Jadi, setkan bracketing function anda kepada 3F (3 exposure) dan juga +2.

Bagi kamera yang xde feature ni, so tpakse setkan secara manual menggunakan exposure compensation button. Selalunya, mode yg digunakan ialah Aperture-priority (mode A). Untuk memastikan xde bnyak pergerakan antara setiap gambar yang mungkin mengganggu proses blending, penggunaan tripod amat digalakkan. Aku selalunya shoot dalam RAW format sebab dlm format ni lagi bnyak details yang ade n lagi tinggi dynamic range dye berbanding dengan format JPEG.

Ade gak care lain utk hasilkan HDR ni, iaitu shoot satu gambar RAW, n then gunakan RAW editor untuk hasilkan beberapa gmba yang berlainan exposure dye. Selalunya care yg cmni aku gne bile nk shoot something yang bergerak cm kereta dsb.

Setting ; Guna ISO yang paling rendah, dalam 100 tu cukup r. Bnyak2 lak nnti timbul noise yang terkumpul dari sume gmba2 tu. Aperture seelok2nya guna dalam 7-11 stop, so depth of field dye lagi dalam, sesuai untuk gmba landscape yang sharp.

Jadi, contoh yg aku gne dalam entri ni ialah gambar yang aku amek tempoh hari time trip gi Singapore tuh. Time tu aku amek 5 gmba yg berlainan exposure.

Gamba kete kat NYC, Universal Studios.

HDR Processing

Okeh, ni part yang paling penting aku rase. One and only software yang aku gune utk HDR ni ialah Photomatix. Senang nak buat mcm2. Huhu. So, balik2 dari amek gmba, terus aku bukak software ni dan load gmba2 yg nak di-blend.(Utk setengah2 gmba, aku mybe gne Nikon Capture NX utk betulkan bbrapa mnde yg aku rase sesuai sebelum proceed dgn photomatix).

Menu utama dalam Photomatix

Pre-processing options

Okeh, part ni akan pop-up bile korang dh settle loading gmba2 yg patut tuh.

Jadi, dye ade bape options kat situ. First skali, align source images. Option ni utk matchingkan gmba2 tu. Jadi kalo de pape pegerakan antara gmba cm aku kate tadi, so software ni boleh la betulkan balik. Tp, lastly de la jugak part yang kena crop. Huhu. Aku selalu gne by matching features, coz dye bagi the best matching yg boleh dibuat.

Reduce ghosting artifacts. Ghosting artifact ni terjadi bile ade something dlm gmba tu yng bergerak, cam orang. Jadi feature ni boleh la kurangkan sket.

Reduce noise. Mcm bese la, aku pun dah tulis tadi kat atas, cmne wujudnye noise dlm gmba2 HDR ni.

Reduce chromatic aberration. Letih aku nk explain sal ni. Google r sndiri k. Haha.

RAW conversion setting. Option ni ade kalo korang load gmba2 RAW. Terpulang pade korang utk choose White balance yg sesuai utk final image nnti.

Peringatan - Options yang anda pilih di dalam ni akan mempengaruhi kecepatan atau kelambatan pemprosesan :)

Image Processing

Selalunye ade kot dalam 3-5 minit mnde ni nak siap before gmba yang kat bawah ni muncul.

Bile gmba kat atas ni muncul, jangan lak gelabah coz nampak cm tak jadi. Hehe. Sebenarnye xde pape yg salah pun. Hehe. So, pastu, select "Tone-Mapping/Fusion" kat sebelah kiri gambar tu.

Voila! Kan nmpak cm dah ade ciri2 HDR tu? Haha. So, kat sini, mostly editing dan adjustment dibuat. Aku hanya gunakan Detail Enhancer, xpenah lagi so far aku guna yang satu lagi tuh (lupe lak mende). So basically, ade beberapa sliders yang kita perlu adjust mengikut kesesuaian. Aku explain satu2 k.

Strength - Adjust bape gmba tu nye contrast. Kalo tolak slider tu smpai 100, then mmg increase giler2 contrast gmba tu.

Color Saturation - Untuk adjust gmba tu nye color saturation. Bubuh r secukup rase. Jangan kalo merah tu, merah menyala sangat. Huhu.

Luminosity - Adjust utk bagi terang sket bahagian yang shadow. Slider tu kalo tolak ke kanan, lagi la terang gmba tu.

Microcontrast - Aku xbape sure, tp berguna bile nk kurangkan amount of noise dlm gmba. Selalu aku push slider ke kanan smpai abes.

Smoothing - Bergantung kat gmba jugak. Untuk balance kan amount of white points and black points dalam gamba tu. Kengkadang aku letak -10.0, kengkadang 0, kengkadang +10.0. N kalo aku ske, aku letak gk amount yg laen.

White and Black Points - Ni utk adjust bape bnyak cerah dan gelap yang korang nak dlm gmba tu. Buh r secukup rase.

Gamma - Aku xpenah usik yg ni. So, keep it at 1.0. Rase2 aku something to do dengan overall exposure dlm gmba tu kot.

Temperature - Xde mnde kot. Adjust la ikut suka ati korang. Kalo rase2 gmba tu amek time petang, so adjust r kasi panas sket. Huhu.

Saturation Highlights - Adjust intensity bahagian yg agak cerah dlm gmba. So, kalo bahagian tu agak blown-out, boleh r adjust smpai nmpak details kt tempat tuh.

Saturation Shadows - Same cm highlights nye.

Micro-smoothing - Adjust slider pegi ke kanan, so it will give u natural look. Tp, aku selalu letak ni kat 0.0. Bagi de art sket.

Highlight smoothness and Shadow smoothness - Ni boleh guna r utk kurangkan contrast pada bahagian masing2 tuh.

Shadows Clipping - Kalo de noise dlm bahagian shadow, ni boleh digunakan utk minimise kan noise tu.

Bile korang dah puas hati, boleh la select button "Process". Ni pun amek mase gak.

Processing.....

Tadaa..!!!! Ni la result akhir dye.Huhu.

Lepas tu, terpulang la kat korang nak buat pape. Selalu yang aku buat, aku save gmba ni dalam format TIFF 16 bit, pastu bukak dalam Adobe CS5. Post-processing yang aku buat selalunye dgn CS5 ialah membetulkan curve, tambah unsharp-mask untuk sharpen gambar, or noise-reduction dengan noiseware. Kengkadang, aku reduce saturation satu2 colour dlm gmba tu utk kasi natural sket.

Contoh adjustment yg aku buat dengan Adobe CS5.

Bile dah puas hati, baru aku save as JPEG and then share it on facebook or flickr like these:

Tu saje dari aku. Kalo de pape yang memusykilkan, boleh r tulis komen kat bawah. Huhu.

Snippets | Facebook Group ASiS

2011-01-24T07:37:00.004+13:00

New ASiS students will enrol this coming 7th February. Some of them even added me on facebook, asking about whether it is worth it to go to ASiS or not. I tried my best to explain to them, even forwarded my article on OASiS's blog, "10 Reasons Why You Should Go To ASiS".

But somehow, I'm not the only one who convince them. When I read ASiS facebook group's wall this morning, I saw few of our OASiSian fella replying to a post written by one of the new ASiSian this year. From the way they replied, I feel like...............................................haha I dunno what to say. But still so convincing, no?

Hahaha..Well, to the guy who posted this question earlier, I believe there are no other reasons why you shouldn't come to ASiS. I bid you welcome, and have fun for the next two years!!!

Bungy Jump - Nevis Queenstown

2011-01-15T03:04:00.004+13:00

I wrote this entry since I don't have any ideas to write so far, except my visit to SK Selama recently. Well, I'll get to that one later on.

If you go through my blog, you will find a series of entries regarding my trip to South Island, New Zealand last year. To be honest, I'm thinking to go again to South Island this year during autumn or winter break. Maybe this time, I will go to the West Coast, going around few famous glaciers, and of course going to Queenstown, again. Well, let's keep to the topic.

Actually, this is just a recap to my previous entry where during the trip, I had a chance to do bungy jump, which is famous here, in New Zealand. Actually, there are few places in New Zealand where you can try this activity. In North Island where I'm living currently, bungy jump can be found in Taihape, Taupo, Rotorua, and Auckland (there's two site in Auckland ; Sky Tower and Harbour Bridge). The one that I did was in Queenstown, and here alone there are three bungy sites; The Ledge, Kawarau Bridge and Nevis, Gibbston Valley. And I did my first leap in Nevis, which is the highest bungy jump in New Zealand and Australia (132 m ).

This activity actually originated from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu where a tradition being held by the local tribe there during the Nagol Festival during May-June. It is simply a rite of maturity of them. You can read about it HERE.

As I mentioned before, the first thing we did when we arrived in Queenstown during that trip was to book our activities to be done here in I-Site. So, I did this jump alone while the rest of my friends were decided to do downhill luge and gondola ride.

Meanwhile, I waited at the AJ-Hackett Building across the road. This building is the place, almost like a bungy museum, where you can find many infos and pictures regarding the history of bungy jumping. There are many peoples there, waiting their turn to get to the jumping site, either to the Ledge, Kawarau Bridge and Nevis. Included in the package, I can get access to internet and of course, facebook. I wrote that time on my facebook status that I'm going to do this jump huhu. After a waiting for a while, finally the shuttle arrived and then departed to the site.

View in the shuttle.

The journey to Gibbston Valley, the jumping site took me about half-an hour passing through the beautiful scenery of Queenstown valleys and hills. Lucky for me, the weather is sunny; very nice for jumping. The tourist guide also shown us by the roadside; Kawarau Bridge where the first bungy jump in New Zealand was being done by AJ Hackett, the founder of bungy jumping.

Kawarau Bridge's view from the shuttle

The shuttle now going off-road into a small alley uphill. This take around 10 minutes before finally we arrived at the site. We were given keys to store our belongings. I did the same but I bring my camera with me. The instructors were very kind, telling us on what to do especially when wearing the safety gear for the jump.

Instructors who guiding us for safety gear.

To be surprising, I was happened to be the first jumper that day, which honestly, made me so nervous. But I keep it. The jumping platform is suspended high on the valley, connected with series of strong wires. It is connected by a cable car from the main building. Sometimes, strong wind keep struck the car, which also made me and others feel so nervous :)) While waiting for the cable car to come, I take few pictures from the side of the main building. Being seen by another, one of them asked me, " What a big camera (I brought my D90). You want to jump with it?". All of us laughed :)

View of the jumping platform and high-wires that suspend it and connecting the place with main building.

View of the stream underneath the jumping platform

As I said, I'm the first jumper that day. So, I keep listened to the instuctors there since this is a serious things. You messed things up ; you gonna die. Although there are some things that I don't really understand, I just keep it, like the instructor said that during the cable pulled me up after the leap, I need to pull some sort of rope on my legs which later on I didn't.

This pic and other pictures plus video costs me $80. When I checked on my flickr, this picture was taken using Nikon D80! How impressed!

Jumping time. Well, if you can see video I put later in this entry, I was supposed to jump but since I didn't get the instruction clearly, I'm quite hesitate to do so. So, I said to the instructor ," Can I jump now?" and he said, " Yeah man, go3!". Huhu. Seriously, I dont feel nervous this time but when I made the jump, I feel like my heart is ripped apart ; too much of adrenaline rush.

There I go!

Damn high I feel when I see this pic.

Pray to God I am when I see this picture. How lucky I am, thinking that I'm still alive after seeing this picture.

This is the video taken.

If you can see, after the first jump the rope is pulling me upwards. That's the part that I felt too excited. Feel like I'm flying somewhere else. Haha. It happened three times that after that, a cable pulled me up back to the platform. If you can see, that the cable pulling me upwards where my head is heading downwards ; same like fisherman carried up a tuna or whale fish. Haha. It supposed not to be that way though. I should pull up the rope I mentioned earlier, so that I can just get up and my head facing upwards. But, it's already happened ; no big deal.

My turn's over, and the next participants congratulate me for my jump. And they seemed excited too. Huhu. I've to waited until all of them finished jumping before heading back to the main building. And I managed to take few pictures like one below;

We have to wait for a while since most of the tourists want the pictures and video taken during the jump, and it is processed that time. Finished with all of that, we heading back to the city, where my friends are already waited there. They seemed enjoyed telling their experience playing luge ( I didn't want to play since I did mine in Rotorua in 2009) and I'm too enjoyed telling mine to them. We later on had our lunch in Nando's and after that, going around Queenstown's beautiful Lake Wakatipu for taking pictures.

This is what I got after the jump, plus few other merchandise.

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown.

THE END