Burning out the Hornets

The DBKK responded to requests to remove/destroy/burn this huge hornet's nest that was on a hill near my house. We had to close our windows to make sure the hornets don't fly in. We even brought Chester and Happy into the house.

The whole thing took about 10-12 minutes for the whole nest to collapse into sparks and charred debris. It was pretty awesome. Some flaming debris landed next to a plastic water tank that belonged to my opposite neighbor. One of the DBKK workers quickly went and removed it before it caused any damage.

Garama River Cruise

Went to a river cruise that was arranged by Only in Borneo Tours. I've never been on a river cruise before so it was really exciting, but mainly because I had a chance to snap some photos :D

The cruise is an opportunity for people to see the long tail macaques, proboscis monkeys and the silver leaf monkey, the guides dubbed it the "David Beckham monkey" because of its natural Mohawk hair. xD

Other animals that could be seen included monitor lizards, crocodiles [very unlikely because only the really young ones linger around this river, the adults move on to another place], and eagles. Sadly it was difficult to get any kind of a closer image to the monkeys unless they were close by because I don't have a longer zoom lens and add to that the fact that silver leaf monkeys are very shy so they tend to hide further in the trees. The guides were fantastic with spotting these creatures even from far, and incredibly informative about them.

Anyways, I tried to make the most out of the disadvantage from the short focal length of the kit lens. I tried to be as creative as possible when framing the shots, and playing around with the flares. It's always during these times that I get to learn new things in photography.

This cruise session had two boats because there were about 18 people altogether. There was another photographer in the cruise, he has a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 1000D with a 24-105mm and a 70-200mm lens and by the looks of it, had no problems zooming into the monkeys.

There was a small village along the river belonging to a tribe which I completely forgot what it was called.

As the cruise neared nightfall, we had a chance to see some fireflies. We really didn't think we would because it looked like it was threatening to rain, but I guess we got lucky. They were like Christmas lights flickering inside the bushes :) the guide caught one and it looked like a really tiny beetle, almost like a tiny cockroach. It's very much like the 'photinus pyralis' firefly from the photurinae sub family.

It was impossible to get a sharp image with slow shutter speeds because it was close to dark and the boat was moving.

We got back to base camp after that to enjoy a delicous buffet dinner :D

Kit Lens to Macro

These shots of an Ant moving around a Mulberry Plant were taken with the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens. Some of you may or may not know that when you hold any SLR lens back-to-front against the camera mount, It shortens the minimum focus distance between your subject and lens. This means you can go much closer to the subject that you are trying to photograph. Unless you already have a macro lens then you really don't need to do this.

But for those who are on a tight budget and want to experiment with macro, then try this out [at your own risk]. Make sure you get the hang of using Manual control on your camera so that you don't underexpose or overexpose.

The problem with doing this is that you're going to risk dust flying into your lens and camera body [so be careful]. You also can't auto focus because obviously you're just holding it in front of the camera mount. The only way to focus onto your subject is to move the lens closer or further.

Which also brings about the need to shoot under bright light to be able to increase shutter speed to avoid blurring from your hand movements. That is why the second shot has a slight blur to it.

Another problem is aperture control. Unless you are using a lens with manual aperture control, you are stuck with the wide aperture of the lens. This means that your area of focus is incredibly thin and you have to be quick to press the shutter when the subject goes into focus.

Having said all that, the shots that you get will really be worth the try :D

With Lives to Spare

It has been long overdue for an update but I have been really busy with this semester's final exams.

Apparently, not busy enough to take pictures :p

This morning, as I was about to turn on the computer, I heard my dogs, Happy and Chester barking in a strange way, so I ran downstairs to check on them if they were attacking something or something was attacking them.

When I found them at the back of the garden, they were both inside the drain trying to attack something. I heard hisses and I thought it was a monitor lizard. When I got closer to break up the fight, I saw to my horror, a Cat was held in Chester's mouth. I yelled at him and he dropped the poor cat.

The adolescent cat moved to safety as I tried to hold the dogs back. Happy came closer to try and attack but I grabbed a fistful of her fur and shoved her back until my sister had come to chain the both of them.

I examined the cat and to my relief, there was no blood, but just mud covering the frightened cat.
It was raining the night before so the drain still had some mud that hadn't dried up. I got the camera and took a several pictures of the cat. Apparently the cat had a DIY collar that comprised of a thick string and a bell.

After I was sure that the cat was okay, I brought it out of the house compound and left it at hill nearby the immigrant houses that were higher up the hill. My sister kept watch outside to make sure the cat didn't enter the compound again and soon saw the cat going up the hill towards the houses.

The cat can count its lucky stars that I quickly came to check what was going on, otherwise it would have been a brutal mess to clean up. :s

Meanwhile, I'm trying out this new watermark I made. It's much simpler than the other one. But I think I like this one better.

Lights and Flares

Ahh, the Waterfront. There's always something to photograph there. :D

I finally got to take that rainbow flare that I always wanted in that last photo. I only discovered it by accident :p

Exams are coming soon :s so I might not have too much time to edit because I will be studying.

Trails at Dusk

This is kind of my first time attempting to take a shot like this. It is not often that I get to take these shots as I don't always have the chance to go up high buildings in the city during dusk or night time just to try something like this.

There weren't many cars driving by in the shot because the road wasn't that busy then... I had to take 7 pictures with 5 seconds per exposure and used layer masks in Adobe Photoshop to combine all those lights into one picture.

Even then I still didnt get enough light trails to make enough of an impact on the image... :(
I still like the flare from the lamp posts tho :p

Better luck next time. :p

☻Happy Halloween☻

☻Happy Halloween !!☻

What a fun day this turned out to be, I went out with Bernard, my sister, Vinoun, Nadira, and Beth to One Borneo. We watched "Jennifer's Body". It was fun and creepy at the same time...

There were parts of the movie when people were laughing, most of the time people were bracing themselves for when something scary was about to happen and there was that one part I remember when Nadira screamed at the top of her voice which blasted into my right ear.

Altogether, I guess if you like gore and stuff you should watch that movie. :)

After the movie, we went downstairs to take some photos. Nadira remembered the artists at the M.A.C shop [The makeup place] had made themselves up to join in the Halloween spirit. We decided to go in and take a few photos.

Of The Deepest Red

Gah It's been so boring... Exams are coming and I cant even think of going on another photo shoot outing till the end of November.

This photo was taken in my garden a few days back in the evening. Once again, I am beginning to run out of photos to post because I haven't been taking many pictures lately.

There's almost nothing happening... or maybe I haven't looked hard enough...

The Legend of Ki Choy

I was going to title this "Crouching Ki Choy hidden Ikhwan", or "Anak Bruce Lee" or something like that but I decided not to. LOL.

Anyways this was taken during the Yayasan photo shoot. I used Ki Choy's Canon EOS 40D for this shot... It was fun using the continuous mode at 6.5 fps lol... I only just got the photo from him.

I know the kick looks insanely high... well yeah... it really is.... but the height was achieved by running across and jumping off the underside of an overturned boat which was sitting about 3 to 4 feet high.

It's been a strange week... my midterm tests and quiz was surprisingly not as hard as I expected... but my scores are yet to be seen :p I just gotta make it through the coming weeks till the final exams are over then I will be freeeee for the rest of the year :D

I still cant wait for Christmas :)

You'll Never Walk Alone

First of all if you didn't know, I'm a Liverpool fan. :D

I made this wallpaper using an image I took of a Liverpool FC logo from the packaging of my Liverpool scarf.

This edit was simple enough. I used Adobe Photoshop to change the background to a single solid color and just blended the Liverpool logo from the image I took.

I turned it black and white since It looks better than the colored one.

Im sure all you pool fans out there already know the result of the match last Sunday which saw Liverpool halt their 4 game losing streak with a 2-0 win to League rivals Manchester United at Anfield.

The gamble to play Fernando Torres paid off on the 65th minute as he held back Rio Ferdinand to fire his shot into the roof of the net which sent the roof off Anfield as fans screamed their delight.

When it came to extra time, United were piling on the pressure to get an equaliser until the killer blow came when they were caught on the break with only one defender against Lucas and Ngog. Lucas delayed his pass to send David Ngog on his own to slide his shot past Van Der Sar for the second goal.

Shoot that Garden

This week has just been one of those totally random and long weeks... It seems like last monday was ages away and exams here to stay. hahaha random rhyming with bad timing. Anyways tomorrow I have midterm exam for two subjects, I have to pass up my group assignment for history class, and I have yet to properly memorise for the exams tommorow.

Church today was entertaining, I fell asleep during the Homily, the priest was oddly skipping past syllables which made the sentences sound completely broken; I think that he was in a rush for something, I sang some parts of the hymns off key, which made my mum laugh.

When I got home, I was chatting with steffers about today when the subject about cracks had suddenly emerged. She's so excited about the avatar movie, [The Last Airbender] and im pretty sure jedi knights came into the conversation at one point (not literally).

Anyways,

The pictures above were taken yesterday around my house garden (except for the last one which was taken a week ago). I shoot photos of random stuff when I run out of inspiration. :)

Unitar SIDMA College Annual Dinner 2009 (Sutera Harbour Pan Pacific Grand Ballroom)

These are the photos from the Unitar SIDMA College Annual Dinner 2009, themed: Hollywood Red Carpet. Unfortunately, I cant display the photos during the dinner because they are meant to be sold to the students who want them.

The good thing is, there's these photos which I can upload here. The first two photos were taken before the dinner, and the rest were taken after. Sort of like a photo shoot lol, There are more photos, I haven't edited one or two more which I might update to this post another day.

During the event, we planned to take portraits of students before they went in, but the only problem was, our proposal for lighting equipment was not approved and it turns out that our club has to raise its own funds for lighting equipment.

We instantly had nothing to use because raising those kind of funds on our own would take a really long time. The only alternative that the Sutera Harbour management could provide was a row of four spotlights to take the portraits. I know it sounds tacky AND cheap but that's all we could get.

Don't get me wrong, because those are the best darn four spotlights I have ever used to take portraits. hahahahaha, honestly! The rest of the photography crew also did a wonderful job, capturing the best of the dinner.

The food was great, although I didn't fancy the tough black pepper lamb. The performances that night was fantastic and kudos to the organizing committee for working so hard to make the dinner a huge success.

SPCA Kota Kinabalu Gaya Street Booth (11th October, 2009)

SPCA Kota Kinabalu [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] had organised a booth in gaya street to raise awareness to the public about responsible pet ownership. There were SPCA T-Shirts, pet collars, and napkins on for sale as well as some home cooked food by the members of the SPCA.

Local pet store, Paragon were also present selling their products and donating 100% of the proceeds to the SPCA.

We were also helped by Miss Malaysia Earth 2009 contestant, Madelyne Nandu who will be competing at Boracay Ecovillage Resort and Convention Center, in the Island of Boracay, Phillipines on November 22nd, 2009.

Her arrival had sparked a vast crowd to the booth as people were clamouring to get a glimpse of her. She had also got people to sign up, purchase SPCA T-shirts, etc. as well as donate to the SPCA.

So the next time you come across an SPCA booth, sign up and join to help those who cant speak for themselves. :)

Just another Dragonfly

This photo was taken on my opposite neighbor's driveway. I was actually in the car about to leave for an SPCA booth in Gaya Street [Which I will post soon]. Anyways, as I was saying, I was looking out the car window and saw this dragonfly land on the driveway.

I got out of the car and took some pictures of it, surprisingly it didn't fly away even when I moved the camera closer to it. :) It really loves cameras I guess hahaha...

Oh, and the Annual Dinner/Prom on saturday night was awesome. [I will also post those pictures soon]

:)

The Sushi Express

This was taken in a Japanese Restaurant in City Mall with the Nikon Coolpix S210. I was trying to make the sushi train look like a real train. hahaha. I used the Alien Skin: Bokeh plug-in for adobe photoshop to blur the background.

I just got back home. There's so many things to do tomorrow; I gotta pay my semester fee which I completely forgot about, pass up my assignment, get a haircut, and get ready for the Unitar Annual Dinner which was themed:"Hollywood Red Carpet" coming up this Saturday.

And right after the annual dinner, im switching to Study Mode. It feels so dangerous going to class totally unable to focus.

Well not all classes just two...

okay maybe just one...

DOH!

Yayasan Sabah Photoshoot

These are the photos from the photo shoot at Yayasan Sabah. I never knew there was an area behind the building which was suitable for a photo shoot. We arrived at about 8am and started taking some shots of the surrounding area.

The shoot began as soon as our model, Queenie had arrived. It was all great fun, the shoot ended at around 10.30am because we were all getting hungry. We ate at the nearby McDonald's drive thru.

The shoot was really meant to be a vintage one but I didn't turn all of them vintage... lol...

It has been a while since the last photo shoot so I wasn't really on my game. :s I need to keep practicing so I wont be rusty the next time around. :p

Note: The last photo was taken by Ki Choy. lol.

Dreaming In Sepia

I took this picture in my kitchen with the Nikon S210. The vase was actually on top of a fridge so I used stamp the tool in Adobe Photoshop to blend it into the yellow wall behind it. This was inspired by a photo I saw while browsing through the internet so I decided to give it a try.

I was going for a vintage sepia look. Well im not sure if it worked. The noise is deliberate from the Alien Skin Exposure II plug-in [click on the photos to see larger version as the grain is not visible from the small thumbnail]. The old paper effect was done with paper textures :)

But, the more I look at it, the more I start to think that something is missing...

Is it Bokeh?

Now, obviously a compact like the Nikon S210 isn't going to achieve this much bokeh in this kind of situation. The alternative that's closest to real bokeh can be achieved by using the Alien Skin Bokeh plug-in.

Just a little info for those that do not know what bokeh means:

Bokeh comes from the Japanese language that means blur. Its a term used for foreground/background blur in photography.


Cheers :)

Cupcakes

This was taken at City Mall with the Nikon D200. Consfood were selling their cakes and cupcakes nearby the main entrance so I decided to take some pictures.

UHBI(Understanding the Human Brain and Intelligence) Class was fun today, everyone had to give a 3 minute speech on whatever topic that they choose to talk about and present it in front of the class.

I was extremely nervous at first but when it got to my turn, I was already quite ready for it, even though I had to refer to my paper a couple of times and spoke too fast :p

Some students weren't prepared but they bravely got up there and spoke seriously random stuff. hahaha. Better than nothing right?

A Flower

To be honest I'm not sure what flower this is. I took this picture at the McDonald's drive thru near Yayasan Sabah. Again today, I spent hours and hours trying to get a new look for my photos. This one was very close to what I wanted to achieve, but I still need to fine-tune a few things.

Previously this evening I went with Ki Choy, Ikhwan, Bernard, and Francis to play football at a field near Foh Sang. We were afraid the rain might get heavy during the evening but we were spared the wrath.

The field was still wet though, lined with puddles and the occasional trenches, yes, they looked like trenches because the ground was scarred so deep I almost got injured running into one of those.

I bet they would look like the grand canyon for ants. hahaha

Genting Highlands

Here's some photos from Genting Highlands. Its a great place to go to, but be warned, food ain't the cheapest thing there. ;p But im sure if you do plan to go there, you are prepared to burn some cash :)

The place is enormous, Its quite easy for first timers to get lost around there. The theme park looks amazing, and there's so many things that you can do there. If you are planning to travel around Malaysia and you haven't been here, then it should be on your checklist. :)