Water Village Fire

A water village near sutera harbour caught fire on Christmas night. There was nothing much that anyone could do but to watch and take pictures of the incident.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! :D

Forces Of Nature

The day before was really tiring, strange and scary at the same time. There was a pretty short thunderstorm which caused floods everywhere and most ironically my house which is on a hill. We thought it was just another flood that we would usually get when the drains were blocked by leaves but we saw that everything was covered in thick mud and it looked suspicious.

A small portion of the bottom part of the retaining wall behind my house had cracked (possibly because there was too much water retained within it because of some flaw in the design) and gave way to a large amount of rocks and soil which filled the drains around my house and flowed all over the driveway and made its way down the hill.

A lot of water had also flowed into the house and filled everything but a small portion of the living room. It took an incredible effort from the family to shovel, sweep, scrape and mop various parts of the house. We worked non-stop from 3pm to 9pm. Bernard came back at 6pm and helped as well.

Thank god the water didn't touch anything electrical and the most damage it did was on some wooden cabinets that got partially ruined. Now there is the bigger issue of that retaining wall which my parents are contacting the right people to come and repair.

DIY Soft Box Light Test

So this was what went down the past week. Bernard and I made a lightweight and portable soft box that would fit a Canon 430 EX II. There were no specific instructions to making it, we just went along and designed it based on what we could use.

It was made of cardboard, aluminum foil and a large piece of paper as the front cover. It works awesome, and the light is evenly spread. I also purchased a wireless radio transmitter and receiver for Canon flashes. You can check out the details for it here.

Edde & Dewi

More photos from the wedding reception last month. I haven't done any photo shoots recently but I expect there will be one before Christmas :)

Faces Of Art

Haven't been doing too much lately. These photos were from an outing with Mahira quite a while back.

Violet Roses

This is a shot of a cake at a wedding reception that Ikhwan and I were hired to shoot last month. Everything was decorated with a white and violet theme including the cake.

Ethereal Clouds

Shot these one evening last month.

Nokia Ad

☻EXAMS ARE OVER!!☻

The exams are finally out of the way and I'm free to continue posting :D My last exam paper was today and it was tough but I think it went okay.

Now this is an ad I made for the Nokia 5130 Xpressmusic. Lighting was simple, just one light from camera left and a reflector beside the phone.

True Self

Me and Bernard were walking around Lintas one night and came across a shop lot that was under construction.

The place was pitch dark but I had the external flash that I borrowed at the time so I bounced the flash off the ceiling to create an indirect source of light.

The flash used was a Canon 430EXII. I am looking to get one for myself but I will have to save up some money first :D

Note: I might not be able to post too much till after my exams which will end on the 5th of December

Impossible Is Nothing

These were shot about a week ago. I wasn't too sure of what to do with the original and Bernard suggested to create an ad for Adidas.

We did this just for fun. Lighting used was a Canon 430 EX II Speedlite on camera bounced off a white wall on camera left. I'm not sure which one I like better so I decided to post two versions.

I played futsal several days ago with Bernard and Ki Choy. It had only been barely 15 minutes into the game until I got slide tackled (a major no-no in futsal) by a player from the opposing team while I was about to kick the ball . I got injured and so I had to leave the court to try and recover.

It had been a long time since I scored in a futsal match so I wasn't going to let the injury stop me. I got back in the game for the last 15 minutes and scored 4 times.

Now I'm having to deal with a severely bruised right foot around the metatarsal and phalange areas. It's getting better but I limp when I walk because the joints still hurt.

Unirazak Annual Dinner 2010 Modern & Contemporary Masquerade (Putera Ballroom)

These are a couple of photos I shot at the Annual Dinner. I will post the rest on my facebook soon. Overall, the dinner was a success and everyone had loads of fun.

Front Cover Shoot (Smash Magazine)

The second day shoot continued in the afternoon at the top floor our University campus (We had permission to use it) where we needed studio style photos for the front cover of the magazine assignment (Refer to previous post). FYI there is no studio in our campus, we just needed a large room with white walls :)

The lighting idea for this one was simple with a little improvisation just like the previous shoot. A Canon 430 EXII speedlite mounted on camera, but pointed at a white styrofoam board on camera left to reflect diffused light towards the model. It would have been much easier if I had a transmitter and reciever to use the flash off camera but this was all I had to work with.

The hair blowing effect was created by waving another styrofoam board close to the model like a fan. We spent a total of 4 hours for this shoot (most of which was spent on test shots and model make up). I was really happy with the results, seeing as I had limited equipment.

It was difficult trying to adjust every setting according to trial and error but once I found the proper exposure, everything fell into place and they started to look better. I chose this one to be on the front cover.

The amount of extra effort we spent on getting these photos was actually unnecessary because the assignment didn't require for that much work. Having said that, it was real fun during the shoot, I learned a whole lot and gained experience from it and would like to thank everyone involved for an awesome job.

Update: Admittedly the quality of the magazine printing didn't do too much justice to the photos. But at least it most probably topped the other students' assignments ;)

There's a new 'Like' button at the top of every post now for facebook users.

Model: Ayda
Make up: Ayda

Back Cover Shoot

The second day of shooting saw us at the Tanjung Aru third beach looking to get a shot for the back cover of the magazine (Refer to previous post). It took over an hour to complete the shoot.

Lighting used was a Canon 430 EXII mounted on camera and bounced off a reflector on camera left to reflect diffused light onto the model as a fill light. It didn't provide too much of an effect but just enough to fill the shadows.

Model: Christy

Playground Shoot

It had been ages since my last photo shoot so I was pretty much not on my game during this one.

The reason why we needed to do the shoot was because Amelia needed my help to get photos for her magazine assignment. It was ages since I went on a shoot so I agreed to it.

We had two days of shooting. These are just a couple of photos from the first day.

Model: Christy
Makeup: Ayda

Work In Progress

Me and Mahira went for a photo outing a couple of weeks back. She rented a DSLR from a friend for a day so we went around looking for places to take photos of. This photo was shot at the first place we visited.

Ending October

☺Happy Halloween☻
*sinister laughter*

This has been a really busy week and I was glad I could catch up on some sleep today. I went on a photo shoot a couple of days ago and there will be another one next week.

I will post the photos soon :D

Exams are at the end of November and it's time to busy myself with studying :(

Street Portrait

This is an impromptu street portrait of Bernard several nights back at Lintas. Oncoming cars provided the rim light and the rest of the light came from the surrounding buildings and streetlights.

Unirazak has moved to the Bundusan campus and we had our first class there today. The lecturers were still unpacking and a lot of things that were brought over from the previous building have not been sorted out yet.

It was interesting because everyone was so unfamiliar with the building layout that it was really confusing to get around. We did get used to the place tho after walking around a few times.

Crossing Over

It's been a really busy week and I'm glad I got a lot of assignments out of the way.

In A Bowl

So much to do, so little time.

Timber!

Here's what went down yesterday. One of the residents nearby complained about tall trees on the hill that they feel were unsafe which could possibly fall on their house if ever there were strong winds. The JKR sent a couple of contractors and several other people to cut the trees down from the area. Part of that area was also behind my house.

I had a feeling that something really dumb was going to happen.

It didn't take long before my fears were realized. The panicked yells along with the crashing sound of branches confirmed that a tree had just fallen into my garden. Every plant within the area had been crushed and it took them a good while to think of how they were going to remove the tree.

The workers then came in with a plan to cut the huge tree into smaller pieces to be carried away on large trucks. It took them a little more than an hour to complete the removal and rounded off a very peculiar Saturday afternoon.

Trapped Within

Seeing Stars

Still nothing much to post. Haven't had any photo shoots :(

Hang On

I shot this photo a few days back while I was going past Inanam with Ki Choy and Amelia. To whoever that owns this shop, I'm sorry but I find the name pretty amusing :)

Tun Fuad Park

Here's some photos from this morning when I went for a walk at Tun Fuad park. It's been extremely boring these past few days with work piling up one after another. I might die soon if I don't get to play futsal.

Kasih Sayang Resort

To be honest I really didn't know what to expect when I was on the way to Kasih Sayang Health Resort with Ki Choy, Ikhwan and Joanna. It was just a last minute decision to check out the place and I was the only one with a camera.

When we arrived, we were treated to a spectacular panoramic view of the whole of Kota Kinabalu from end to end. It felt strange to be able to see Tanjung Aru and One Borneo at the same time. The panorama I shot very much pales in comparison to the real view. You just have to be there to see it.

Monkey Business

I had dinner at a restaurant called the Brass Monkey a few nights ago. It serves western cuisine and our dinner that night was delicious as usual. The owner, Raja also treated us to some baked scallops (second photo). We also took photos with a couple of gorilla masks that we spotted on the bar :D