k.a.n.k.i

it is 2012, playing at the meadow

2012-01-02T23:05:00.002+08:00

To some, it is just another ordinary Sunday with a work-free Monday on the following day. No count down, everything is ordinary as it should be.

The meadow in Tiong Bahru, Singapore, is my favourite place to hang out and photo shoot. First found it accidentally during a photo trip with the NTU PVS's darkroom people to Tiong Bahru old residential area, then remember how sweet it was and decided to bring my dear here to share with her.

This is our first memory, of 2012.
We turned an otherwise ordinary photo outing, to an extra-ordinary one, tagging it with January 1st, 2012.

May our dreams come true. Together.

Happy Hiking Seoraksan (하나): Flying Dragon

2011-12-04T21:00:00.000+08:00

I think I seriously am lagging behind all the series of events that happened which I think I should blog. The memorable Korea travel with my Seremban buddies, all the reason I should blog about it.

Let's start off the Korea travelogue series with the place that I enjoyed the most in Korea, Seoraksan! And for my love of hiking in the nature!

The colour of the memories of Seoraksan is the emerald green, the colour of Summer, the colour of Zen. The lushness of the green in Seoraksan, is contrasting the meaning of mountain's name, which suggests Snow Mountain.

Prior to the hike:
The day started off with an early morning bus ride from Song-Seoul to Sokcho (속초). We actually passed by the mountain ranges of Seoraksan and the views were already impressive and scenic. Others were asleep and not really aware of surroundings. The stony river on my right and the surrounding temperature is going down as we went up slope. Another short bus ride from Sokcho bus terminal to bring us to Seorak-Dong C Jigu (East Seorak C station) Youth Hostel but it was already noon time. So we rushed our lunch and went up to the National Park that we expected highly of!

Seoraksan Cable Car and Gwongeumseong

For the first day, not many surprises, the cable car to some height and hike to one of the peak. It is the most populated path I believe. Let's not forget the group picture.

And it started to drizzle so we took out the ponchos that we bought at a bargain thanks to our Jeju taxi guide! Oh the yellow Poncho gang!

and Effy was screaming on top of her maximum volume.

And me, with the world beneath me.

Time is running out... We gotta rush rush rush to the next destination!!

Biryong (Flying Dragon) Waterfalls

The hike to the waterfalls is so far the most scenic in my life, and I am loving the Zen-ness of the forest and pathway!! It is like the scene of Kungfu movies in real life.

Marcus in the quest for the ultimate fat slashing grips of terror.

The waterfall itself, is quite disappointing. It was a small dragon...

We took some time to dip into the stream and had fun after some not-too-strenuous hike with MK nagging us behind for choosing the hike.

How we wished, we could just submerge ourselves into the icy cold water, to refresh ourselves in the cool forest.

Oh did I mention, I was on a pair of flip-flop? Wrong decision, slippery, risky... The funny thing is FV who dressed up most properly tripped at the end of the hike and hurt both her knees and knocked her out from action the following day...

Eastern Bohemian

2011-11-06T23:22:00.001+08:00

Given the hot weather in Singapore, it was really difficult to schedule a satisfying photography session out there under the sun!

Well, at least there are one or two nice outfits that made our day!

Only until the 2nd photoshoot I get to know that her name is Jolyn. Haha.

Shooting for a Blogshop, Wearhouse

2011-09-08T23:06:00.003+08:00

First time shooting for a blogshop, there are, definitely a few learning points throughout the shoot which I would like to document down for future reference. Every shoot is a practice to better photography.

Instead of going more of the artistic approach in taking the picture, it's more important to present the apparels in their accurate colours. Of course, the unique design of each apparel that potential buyers would like to see, such as the button, the lock, the sewing etc etc...

Before the shoot, the seller paid a lot of attention to match the accessories to different tone of the blouse, and also match with nice skirt or shorts. Even which blouse to go with which scene and background, such details had been taken care by the seller.

It's painful to bring out the accurate colour in every screen. Different viewer with different monitors will view the colours differently... Especially difficult colour like the Teal, which shifts significantly following the shift in colour temperature!

This might look like the actual teal that we want to reproduce on a warmer screen, or it will look bluish on colder monitor. In this monitor, it still look a bit blue instead of teal!

The Summer Resort Collection:

Head down and place your order if you are interested!

The collection is launched today on their website:
www.shopthewearhouse.com

Kuching: the Beaches

2011-08-12T23:04:00.000+08:00

Before I forget about the beaches of Kuching and head into another journey to the Far East.

It seems the beauty of places in Malaysia is always associated with beaches. Or is it us from the East Coast of Malaysia, who have to bear with the heavily polluted Straits of Malacca derive so much satisfaction from clean beaches like these.

A house in between the sea and mountain, a dream house of many? If I stay in such houses, how my life would change?

The slow pace of life, just seems so far away and almost impossible for the city folks. Would you give up your internet to go to the countryside and enjoy life?

Happy Hiking Sundays: KTM Railway

2011-07-19T23:46:00.000+08:00

It is like the curiousity of children, towards the little little things around the world. This is perhaps the greatest lesson taught by photography, which is to remind me of the beauty of curiousity, that makes me go and explore the world around me, and also treasure every possible opportunity to grasp what would be lost to the flow of time.

The previous hiking to add into my Sunday's hiking series, is to the KTM railways, the last day of the track being opened to public. I thought about going for a short walk at first, hence the flip-flops and camera. However, in the end, we ended up in Bukit Timah, following the track all the way from Bukit Panjang. The weather was perfect for a walk like this.

There are actually quite a number of nostalgic ones among the folks residing in Singapore. This became evident as crowds were seen along the KTM track.

People were taking pictures of the track, which will be removed in 6 months' time. Kinda sad, but this is the cost that comes with development.

Soon, I will miss the colour of the rusty railway track that ran like the spine of the island.

The scenes from the childhood memories: chasing after red dragonflies, yellow butterflies were so vivid along the track...

KTM Slideshow

I don't know how the corridor will look like after the tracks are removed, but aren't we glad that at least this trail of greenery is to be retained? Thanks to the Green Corridor.

古晋中华二小旧校

2011-07-14T23:15:00.000+08:00

All that remains here are rubbles, and memories of the old faces of Kuching town central.

The school was deemed too dangerous for primary school students. After taking a short walk around the school compound, we have to agree to the fact. Despite the prime location in the city center, the Chinese school students must had rejoiced over the new school environment to study in.

I wonder how long this school has been in Kuching city? more than 80 years?

Happy Hiking Sundays

2011-07-11T23:31:00.000+08:00

I think I am kind of addicted to Hiking, or maybe Bukit Timah did impress me for the first 3 visits with new findings each time. I did not blog about those as I do not have many photos that I think are nice to share out.

A good weekend trip to go with friends I would say. Not to worry about timing! As long as there is no rain, we can go anytime without worrying much about sun and heat. It's so shady and cool inside the forest! With that soft light penetrating through the canopy of trees, dancing sometimes to the wind.

Mr Fish, regretting over his decision not to bring along anything (his Lumix LX5) except his iPhone.

Miss Erica, forced herself to wake up in the early morning (well, 8am is not really that early) of Sunday, sacrificing the sleep.

And finally my beloved, who is always there for me!

More to update in future!

San Diego: La Jolla's first impression

2011-06-26T16:34:00.000+08:00

Accidentally recorded in a Reverse Chronology way, this should have been the first entry about La Jolla...

Perhaps, the memory of San Diego that got etched into my memory other than Qualcomm, is the beautiful La Jolla, which made me want to feature it for the 3rd time in my blog.

And up until the third post, I still haven't written about the most touristic side of the beach in La Jolla, the La Jolla Cove and Children's Pool.

It was late spring. I was lucky that flowers were still everywhere on the beach.

Views along the beach did not stop to amaze me. Especially when I came to the Children's Pool. Used to be a playground for children, due to the naturally formed shallow lagoon, now it had been overtaken by the army of seals. They came up to the shore to nap and to become the attention of tourists.

The arching walkway for tourists to get a better view of the seals, crowds and strong waves that splashed onto the wall of the walkway made this walk to stay dry a difficult stunt.

As if smiling in the dream, a white seal napped there on the beach along with its family.

Seagulls came to make friends with the seals too. Harmony in nature in display here. The envy of humans who cannot even live peacefully within their own social circles...

San Diegans were enjoying the beach, doing all kind of activity along the beach. Despite the cool weather, they could be seen wading half naked and with shorts, jogging along the beach, reading under the sun by the beach... What a seemingly carefree life! A contrast to typical Asians' way of living life.

San Diego: La Jolla again

2011-06-25T18:06:00.000+08:00

This beaches of San Diego is so beautiful, how can I not feature it once again?

From this cliff overlooking the city skyline of San Diego downtown, while the sea breeze

First week was usually the most exciting week of a travel. As I was on my own most of the time, the nearest scenic place to Qualcomm campus in Mira Mesa Boulevard is the Torrey Pines and La Jolla. This weekend, I decided to visit La Jolla again for the beauty that I have possibly missed.

* Taken using a Sony NEX5 + 16mm.

* the iPhone 4 version

A cliff where people could sit at the tip and swing their legs out in the air and let the breeze to hit the face softly.

Oh I was so lucky to have Xiaozhou here in San Diego to bring me around for a little!! Without him I won't know this amazing cliff to see the perfect marriage of San Diego downtown and Pacific Ocean.

It was late spring... Too bad... the flowers were starting to wither away, but I still manage to find flower field beside this high cliff. Just like what was imagined before about a field full of wild yellow flowers, and wild rabbits hopping out sometimes.

Pictures were taken using a Sony NEX5 and iPhone 4.

San Diego: the Beach of La Jolla

2011-06-25T00:14:00.001+08:00

La Jolla, the pearl of San Diego. This post is to showcase some of the pictures from the beautiful beach of La Jolla.

This was the first day I was using my new Sony NEX5 camera. I stumbled into the beach after some directionless driving on Torrey Pines North Avenue. First I saw the gliders in the sky,

realize that I was overlooking a beautiful beach down there from a cliff. Oh there was a way to get down!

A beautiful beach awaited me down there after the steep climb downwards (with trails of course!). I realized that, this is the Black's Beach that I had been told of by others. The nudists' favourite beach. Beautiful, is the word. Luckily it was in the afternoon during office hours, not many crowds. I was still with my camera, menacing and threatening the others who were naked, and I was too dumb to realize that.

The beach was so beautiful, my heart was like the kid in the picture, felt like just spring out from my clothes into my birthday suit (just like the others on the Black's Beach) and ran into the waves.

Firm sandy beach during the low tide is a perfect place for running too. Too bad I haven't had the mood to drive to the beach and run after that even though my heart wanted to go so much!

Sometimes my friends wondered, is San Diego all about walking along the beach and take in the sunlight and sea breeze like a plant? California simply has some of the best and beautiful beaches in the world! No wonder the Americans love California beaches, and I am glad that I was at some of the finest beaches of California!

Until someone approached me, told me I should not come here with a camera. I was lucky, he was telling me my rude and impolite behaviour on the beach. I felt so guilty but at least I could tell him that I did not try to take any picture of the nude. Pointless nudities are tasteless.

Not forgetting my beloved iPhone's shot before concluding this.

Morib Sunshine

2011-04-24T11:34:00.002+08:00

We went to Morib Beach and Tanjung Sepat, the last Christmas holiday. It was a journey of friendship, love and memory, simply because I went there with the best buddies and lover.

Children playing by the beach reminded me of the younger me running around the Sitiawan beach, throwing stones at the purple jellyfish so that I could penetrate a hole on their bodies and make them sink, the smell of the sea, sitting beside the grandfather on the first day of Chinese New Year sharing kopi (milk coffee) with him impatiently and the bicycle adventure around the rubber estate. Playing with cousin brothers, exploring the kampung with their bicycles are some of the fondest childhood memory that is in my possession.

I remember I used to draw patterns with stick like this boy did too. Those were the days.

The beach where all the boys and girls hopped around happily, rejoiced over the new and beautiful shells they found. Children get happy over little things like this, what happen to us, being contaminated by the world of desires? However, seeing them play around the beach did bring a smile to my face hidden behind the camera.

The fishing villages around Malaysia are always interesting to us. Shall explore more.

Shot with:
Olympus OM1n + Zuiko 28mm f/2.8
Fujifilm Superia

2XU Compression Run: 2011

2011-04-10T15:59:00.005+08:00

I gave my virgin run to the 12km 2XU Compression Run 2011!
(If I exclude my previous participation in the Seremban Half Marathon... which I walked just half of the journey... But still, the virgin run in Singapore!)

This time, I came as a newcomer to the running scene of Singapore. Fresh and new to the world just like a newborn, I was not sure what to prepare or what to do before the run, but i had the confidence that I could finish the run without pausing to catch my breath or slow walk. 12km may not mean much for seasoned runners, but I had never tried running such a length before. This event would prove whether I am able to make it. Some people may think that why torture yourself on a Sunday morning, waking up at 5am to take a cab to the town only to run that 12km, which will cause pain to your body. Well, everyone has their own reason of doing something. I joined in with the other few thousands who were sharing the same passion as me!

I did it, without stopping to rest at all, and maintained the pace of about 5km/min throughout the run! And I was faster than these guys who look much fitter than me, lol.

My time according to Runkeeper: 1:00:43 for 12.24km. Let's wait for an update from the official organizer. Hopefully they read my timing chip correctly.

Update from official website:
BIB Number: 5097
Kwan Hui SU
Gun Start Time: 06:56:33 (AM)
Chip Finish: 01:00:02
Gun Finish: 01:02:01

Rank: 451 / 5512

Top 10% !!!

The medal just smells so good after the conquering the run, beating my expectation! To me, this is one major transform in my life. You can officially call me a RUNNER!

Of course, not forgetting my helper... Denny! Just kidding, without him I think I would not have the motivation to sign up and run already!! He was keep complaining I should have told him earlier that we want to pose for a photo before we get changed!

Finally before wrapping up the whole event, of course a photo of everything! The medal, the bib, and the disposable timing chip.

”Do everything with passion. Run with passion.“
Some people like to whine about their life, and they always think that those who are smiling happily are the lucky ones, this world is unfair. Yes, this world is unfair, some people are born rich, some poor, some without a functioning limb, so what? Perhaps I haven't gone through much hardship in my life so I can talk about these happily but at least now I know that Life goes on! Life is short so live it happily everyday as best as we can!

Next run: Sundown Half Marathon. Progressively increasing the distance.

the amazing Olympus XZ1

2011-04-07T23:40:00.001+08:00

The Olympus XZ-1. Armed with the big f/1.8 aperture, beautiful award-winning camera design, and large sensor. Not many compact cameras can be as good as them. Even in the film era, the Fujifilm Natura Black, is up to f/1.9, and this model is still costing a big bang in the second hand industry. In the digital era, we have the new Moonlight Camera, which is the Olympus XZ-1!

My girl bought this camera, after comparisons with the other high end compacts such as Canon S95 and Lumix LX5. Well, I like the size of Canon S95, and the reputation of LX5. However, we could not resist the beauty of Olympus XZ-1, albeit the concern about image processing quality. Yes, the specs are the best in Olympus XZ-1, but image processing technology may not be as good as the others. The 100％ zoom is a bit disappointing at higher ISO... but well... We considered about Olympus PEN series and Lumix GF series but the size, and the price of the lens. Given the budget, this is the best one we couuld think of.

Eventually, we bought this piece of gem, the white XZ-1!

The shy girl will soon learn how to pose more naturally after gaining more and more confidence. Jia You! Of course, she will also learn how to get the best out of the XZ-1.

Getting lazier with DSLR and film. Perhaps in future I will get a high end compact like this too.

when we are enjoying life

2011-03-08T23:16:00.005+08:00

Labels in the pictures are created using the new hot app, the LabelBox.

Balik Kampung: Savouring Every Moment Outside the City

2011-02-12T23:35:00.000+08:00

It was that time of the year again! Our family's most important festival, the Chinese New Year!

Grand parents' house surrounded by palm oil trees. Used to be rubber trees but due to the transition of time... Everything changes.

We took more and more photos as compared to previous years. Good. We valued the memories and things around the Kampung more and more. More family photos, now I can start to plan for a photobook of our family. Yeah, possible, I still have 2 unused photobook vouchers... For better management, I decided to post only pictures with details that we tend to overlook in this post.

Such as the paddy field...

We finally stopped by the paddy field that we passed by every time when we go back to the Kampung, after few years of making the request to dad. Albeit the short time, we all took out each other's phone and snapped a lot of photos.

The next morning, Nian 30, as usual, I woke early and the sun and the clouds there always welcome me with beautiful light, so I went out to seek for the beautiful details...

The morning dews.

The newer house and the old zinc-roofed hut and the bougainvillea.

The organic vegetable, my grandma always can plant big fat vegetables.

and a bug on the vegetable to prove that no insecticide was used!

The old power switches in the old wooden house.

Finally, the bridge 5 min drive from the house that I don't feel bored going again and again every year.

Learn to appreciate every little details. That's the thing I learn from photography.

All photos were taken using iPhone 4. Post Processed using Camera+ / Photo FX.

me and my OM1n

2010-12-28T22:31:00.003+08:00

Time to develop the film from OM1n!!

First view, impressed and happy with the tone and colours. Thanks Titterington in eBay for the wonderful refurbished piece of gem!

Introducing my lovely colleagues...!

Lili the new film/digital photographer.

Leon the new digital photographer.

and me, the Olympus OM cult. (I hope to collect more and more OM lenses!!!)

The only complain... These scans are way too over-sharpened! How I wish to have my own film scanner!

Julmust, Glögg, Pepparkakor, The Santa Lucia day

2010-12-13T05:06:00.004+08:00

These things popped out and stayed on the shelf of market in Stockholm for the Christmas. Well, I wish the mood for Christmas is as good as when I was back in Stockholm.

Julmust
A carbonated soft drink that outsells Coca-cola in christmas... Nvm... I don't like carbonated water that much anyway... but seems like Europeans like them just like they like beer and alcohol.

Glögg
Or known as Hot Wine in France. This is nice!! You heat up the glögg and mix in some nuts and raisins then drink... Despite its alcoholic content, it tasted so good to me!

Pepparkakor
Or gingerbread cookie. Heard about gingerbread men and so long time ago, especially from the Shrek movie, and I got to bite on them and it actually was addictive...

This must be some magic, I was reading through the old unfinished blog entries and when I decided to edit this, I realized, yes, today is Santa Lucia!!

The most celebrated festival throughout the duration of my stay in Stockholm, on December 13, the Santa Lucia day, 2 years back.

There was a blast in Central Stockholm. I hope nothing much worse will happen after this incident.

instagram

2010-11-29T20:21:00.004+08:00

Finally, instagram has come to Singapore app store! 望穿秋水!

So what can this little app do? If you are familiar with Twitter, instagram can be described as the 'photo' version of Twitter, only with the additional function of applying filters on your photos to make it artsy-farsy(in other word, added innovative/creativity)!

The application is so fun that you can search your friends from your iPhone contact lists(if those instagram users key in their mobile number) or Facebook, Twitter users. So you can easily find those people that you want to follow! You will soon realize that there are so many talented phoneographers around.

About life...
Losing photography touch, as work life develops. Maybe that's an excuse.
Now that the new OM1n is here, glittering, I shouldn't let it go to the permanent state of hibernation. It's time to exercise its mechanical shutter!

Artists of Melaka

2010-10-29T23:37:00.002+08:00

While digging old film photos of mine, I realize I haven't blogged about this.

The Windpipe Player, St. Paul.

The Painter, St. Paul.

The Singer, Jonker.

the Library

2010-10-25T22:24:00.000+08:00

Olivia returned to my photography world 8 months after the Chinese New Year series, this time, dressed up as an English college chic tribute to the US drama "Gossip Girls". As for me, I returned to my digital photography world, using the Canon 35mm f/2 and 400D, leaving my film gears and Canon 50mm f/1.8 behind for a moment.

I want to feature some other people in the shoot as well, it's boring to always have only Olivia, isn't it? Ailin came with her killer fashion sense, and make this photo shoot much more interesting.

This white library is great, especially for portraits I believe. Why? The white paints on the wall act as reflector, to soften the shadow and since most of the backgrounds are white, it let the picture put more focus on your subject more!

Perhaps it's the age, I grow tired to play around with tones, and reckon the original tone is the best in this series. Especially after getting new monitor, I realize my previous edits are too warm, which kinda already let people brand it as my style...

Flickr set - The Library

a walk inside Singapore's supreme court

2010-10-18T22:58:00.001+08:00

wandered around the Rotunda Chamber.
the girl came down from the 2nd floor, descending the staircase covered by velvets.
only to find that, everything is not the same anymore and everything is still changing.
and tears rolled down her cheek helplessly.
she is alone, left behind by the ever-changing world.

*******************************************

I had never tried architecture or details of buildings. I was still looking for scenes like the above around the Supreme Court of Justice. I always rather not to waste my shutter for anything that I don't see worth taking, as I have to delete those pictures later.

Rare open house, by the old supreme court and old city hall, which will be closed for renovation and become museum 3 years later.

HM took quite some many photos of me in the supreme court. With someone in the picture, it gives life to the otherwise difficult to photograph picture. I don't know how Jevon fared with his love for old buildings. (He took a small piece of the broken tile, like always)

Well this is the only pic of me in my camera...

and photos from Huimin's camera:

Bobby's Affairs 2, with rambutan

2010-10-04T22:45:00.003+08:00

His hair, shiny and curly under the evening light. Can you resist not to go forward and stroke him?

These pictures were taken before Barnie was introduced to the Su family, and before Bobby got into accident that impacted one of his hind leg...

He is still as cute as ever! Despite now my dad's love is only about 40% on him and 60% on Barnie!

Olympus OM2n + Zuiko 50mm f/1.4
Kodak Gold 100

Analogue Hong Kong: 文武廟

2010-09-20T20:16:00.004+08:00

It's almost the end of September now, which means, I am already back from HK for more than a year. One of the reason why film is so great, I am only seeing the results now after more than 1 year!!!

The small temple is located in Central Hong Kong. Unique because of the smokes and lights that penetrate through the ceiling into the temple.

Finally Michael pretended to pray against the light and hazy smoke. The tone killed me... Ouch. I must shoot more film with my Olympus OM2n and his little gems.

Kodak E100VS, from more than a year ago

2010-09-17T22:46:00.002+08:00

Quite contradictory to the above pic, this slide film was actually only processed few months after finish the roll, and the scans take even longer time. More than a year?

The film stories range from the Changi Airport racing car vs plane, to the visit of 3 Pang sisters.

Shades of red in Blue.

NTU in green.

Jun almost consumed by red.

The colours with good scan, superb. Slides are great, to conclude. I have to find some labs which can scan good quality negatives! It's great that the local labs in Seremban add some unique flavour to the negatives. However, these surprises sometimes are not really that desirable. I want to get myself a film scanner! Tempted tempted.

All the reason to take out some spare time, to burn my photography interest up again.

All the surge in digital SLR photography recently...

iPhone 4: customized wallpapers!

2010-09-10T07:58:00.005+08:00

A great idea from Momo. Turn iPhone home screen into a notice-board-like home screen.

This is my current home screen and lock screen screenshots! For lock screen i forgot that I can actually snap a screenshot while it's locked! Therefore I just did one from the wallpaper setting.

I'm sure my sis will scream at me for being unfair to Bobby again! Not my fault, Barnie is too irresistible! Well, I will make another one for Bobby soon. Dog themed dog themed!!

Marcus and MK are coming!!

iPhone4 as a camera

2010-08-18T23:47:00.001+08:00

After some time getting used to my new iPhone4, something inside the iPhone4 lens urged me to write a review for it.

I couldn't wait to make a conclusion first, this amazing little gem that can be kept in my pocket, is the best camera phone that I have ever seen! Sony Ericsson's were great, but technology is always getting better and better.

Sharp and crisp, are the 2 words. iPhone4 really lives up the expectation. Didn't regret at all for buying it.

The camera interface is designed in such a way that you are able to point at your subject, and iPhone4 will adjust the exposure according to the subject. Handy feature but sometimes it will still pose as a problem... For example if the subject should be exposed 2 stops more than the grey level...

Under good light condition, the pictures appear sharp and with reasonable good contrast.

Low light, works good with noise, of course, but this is natural for every digital camera.

With edit done with PS Express, crop + some saturation/exposure adjustment. The post processing apps of course are not up to the standard of those in computer softwares.

With some edit (done in LightRoom) to spice up the pictures!

µ[mju:]-II & Kodak Gold 400

2010-07-27T22:51:00.001+08:00

Got this modern classic used camera at a reasonable price. I know it's now quite higly sought after by film enthusiasts, because it's really a gem! This little guy comes with fixed 35mm f/2.8 lens, which is quite a big aperture lens for a compact camera. Most likely you will spot another µ[mju:]-II with an "All Weather" sticker. Yeah, I'm not afraid of you splashing water towards my camera! I'm armed with this!

Didn't get to shoot many photos, only some photos meant for testing. This was the camera that was responsible for shooting Marcus's journey here in Singapore. I wonder why the colours of the film are off, the film is not expired?

Barnie is on film too, with my newly acquired Olympus mju II + Kodak Gold 400 film. She is just too cute, I couldn't resist not to quickly go and develop the film that contains her pictures. Argh!!! Her ears!!!

In a nutshell, the versatility and compactness of this camera, and most importantly, the big aperture 35mm lens, are what make this camera a modern classic. I still remember how the seller remarked, "why do you still need this film camera?", and my inner ego was laughing happily for getting this as a bargain! It's still in pristine condition! Ha ha ha.

Little Devil, Barnie the Beagle

2010-07-20T22:55:00.001+08:00

A chat in MSN in one ordinary afternoon, Marcus told me that his aunt had a puppy of Basset Hound aka "Hush Puppies" breed to give away. He asked, do you want? Of course I want but what about my dad and mum? So I asked dad for his opinion, surprisingly he agreed to adopt the puppy. I was like, are you sure? How about mum? He assured me that mum was consent about this. Go ahead, I told Marcus. On the same day, Marcus and his mum went to fetch the little puppy from his aunt, because aunt Connie said that she was afraid that her sister might give the puppy to others first so had to go and get it before others do. Thanks aunty and Marcus.

Now, my house has a new addition of member, and her name is... Barnie! Her original name was "Tuk Tuk" but mum dislikes the name. So, we gave her a new name that appeals to all of us.

Like any other new born babies, this little pup does get tired after hopping around us after some time too. My sis said that she looks cutest when she just woke up from her sleep and still blur blur.

She is the cutest ever being, when she fell asleep in the lap of daddy. She likes my dad, I'm sure. My mum told me today that she actually sat on the sofa quietly and watched TV!

Hmmm... Sorry Bobby, the attention will goes to this little pup first. I'm sure when she grows up, both you will get the same attention!

Morning Light, a giveback to NTU

2010-07-14T09:05:00.003+08:00

A simple picture of black and white print from 2 years back, was chosen as one of the complimentary pictures of a set of official notecards (well what's notecard?) by NTU officer of Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching. Surprisingly, I thought that they would have chosen the pictures from the Misty Campus series. Well, I like this picture too! The lecturer who taught me how to print from 2 years back had given some praises to this picture too!

It's yet another milestone for me in my photography journey. Albeit I got not much talent in arts and photography, I am learning step by step, to improve my senses.

*****************************

Welcome, the new puppy as our new family member! A female Beagle!
Thanks Marcus for bringing the puppy to our house, and I'm glad that dad and mum are willing and happy to accept this new member!

Indochina 1: The Cambodian Rangers

2010-07-11T19:42:00.002+08:00

the Indochina adventures

Once upon a time, 10 rangers, were set out from the Peninsular of Sweet Potato to explore the land of Wonders, the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia. Armed with nothing, but travel gears, Riels and cameras, we were bold, unexperienced adventurers in the land of Khmer.

Enough of the bedtime story kind of starting. This is about a graduation trip of 10 NTU students, from different states of Malaysia, in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Let's not describe how amazing is Angkor Wat and we hop to 4th day of the trip, where we took a 6 hours van to Phnom Penh. Fear that the van might crash into the traffic coming from opposite, Neo was unable to take a nap at all and just covered her eyes every time the driver made an abrupt slow down.

I wonder why, whenever we went, we were greeted by colours from the sky, be it rainbow or colours in between the clouds. Good sign, but an omen to Archer, who got allergy all over her bodies.

After putting down and checking in the hotels of Sinh Tourist (our agent who would arrange for transport and pick up from Phnom Penh to the Mekong Delta later), we were out of the hotel, to explore this town that was full of monks in orange robes, carrying bright yellow colour umbrellas.

Riding on the 'Duk-Duk' hired by us, we went to the town, saw some of the Phnom Penh landmark such as the Independence Monument, Golden Royal Palace, Wat Phnom and museum, took some photos, that was all for the day. As we got into headache about dinner (as compared to Siam Reap where we could find nice food so easily around our hostel), the Duk-Duk driver brought us to the night market.

Oh, there was a space, covered by floor mats, and was surrounded by food stalls. We saw locals sitting on the mats and enjoying food while chatting happily. So this is how the Cambodian people savour the local delicacy? Interesting, let's try out too! Among the exotic local delicacies, one which almost made us puke is the Fertilized Duck/Chicken Fetus Egg... Yap was the ranger who dared himself to try it. According to his feedback, he said he could feel the crunching of that poor little creature's little bones inside his mouth.

This was a journey of learning about Cambodia. We would move on to the pain of the Khmer's pasts in our next day in Phnom Penh.

Seremban Delicacy 2

2010-07-01T00:56:00.000+08:00

Continuing the food trail of Seremban. I want to promote Serembanese food, to the rest of the world who just happen to overlook the so-many and unique delicacies in my lovely hometown, that deserve better attention.

3. Old Street Chicken Rice （再豐雞飯）

This chicken rice shop is located at the junction near a popular main street that is called by us Serembanese as, the "Casket Street" or 棺材街. Tracing along a small street beside this shop will lead you to the cultural street of Seremban, where I had the second photoshoot session with Olivia.

The chicken rice here, is not cheap for Serembanese standard. That was why my mum and dad don't like the idea of coming here. However, their impression was because they ordered half of the chicken last time and rice individually. This time, I suggested to them to order each of us a set instead. Reasonable price for the taste and effort put in by the lady boss in making the chicken and rice tasty.

My dad made a remark that the rice was too salty for him. Hmm... This was because the lady boss infused the oil and gravy from the chicken into the rice. Repetitively. They also seemed to dislike this shop as they complained about the price and services. However, I actually saw that the lady boss and the staffs there were quite friendly when I requested to take a picture of the lady boss. She said she doesn't like her picture to be taken by others but she did suggest me to take picture of the shop, just not her, while smiling to me. Lifted my spirit up! Oh yea, people can be nice most of the times if we don't always think towards the negative side!

The chicken rice indeed lives up its reputation in the town of Seremban, albeit I think I would still prefer the highly popular chicken rice in Rasah Jaya first phase, used to be in 露天 (Lou Tin) restaurant. Definitely will write about their chicken rice next time when I am back to Seremban. Most of the time, if you go there to buy the chicken rice after 12.30pm, you will be told by the friendly boss, "Sorry please come again..."

4. Haji Sheriff Chendols and Rojak

The Haji Shariff is used to be known as "Lake Garden Cendol", as they were operating a small cendol stall next to lake of Seremban, beside Hotel Malaysia. After the hawker food center there was closed down, I was wondering for few years where had they already shifted to. Not possible that they ended their business at their peak, right?

The investigation went on, and finally after gathering feedbacks from friends, oh! The shop is now in Paul's street or next to the Golden Triangle. The green paint that they had chosen for their shop made them so distinctive from the other shops. As they serve halal food, we could see different races of Malaysians enjoying meals here.

Oh, think about the traditional cendol, but with the addition of either red beans or sticky rice! More choices even for cendols! Usually the cendol is coupled up with a serving of Rojak mee! Although according to feedbacks, many people prefer rojak in the Bukit Blossom hawker center, but the rojak over there is worth trying.

Going on going on...

Film: Kodak Profoto100 Roll 3

2010-06-25T14:44:00.000+08:00

Still objects around my lovely home. I am now back to Singapore, preparing to go into the new phase of my life.

I am not someone who can express emotions openly. But I'm going to write it here...
Dad mum, thanks so much for what you have done for me. Sorry for always raising voice and talked so impatiently...

OK OK, enough of the sentimental thingy!

So, what so great about Film? The mood of film is just something that cannot be reproduced by digital pictures, the grains of film appear to be more natural, and the cost of Full Frame camera for a digital one is so *$#&%$# expensive!! For me, I dun see the need to edit the colour photos scanned by the lab as the tone just seems perfectly fine and natural!

Almost all photos here were shot wide open. I want 'Bokehlicious' shots!

P/S: Flickr has changed their photo layout to a new one. Need some time to get used to it, but it's a great change as many functions can be accessed directly from the main page!

Bibi the Sugar Glider

2010-06-21T11:44:00.000+08:00

Bibi is a Sugar Glider whom his root can be traced back to the Tasmania, Australia and even Indonesia. If he has a wife, the wife would carry her babies in a pouch like the Kangaroos do. If he wants to hop to a spot quite a distance away from him, Bibi will open up his patagium, or membrane, that extends from the fifth finger to the first toe. I heard by doing this, Bibi can glide distances of 50–150 meters.

My bro started carrying Bibi around him since few months ago. This little guy likes to hide in dark corner. During daytime, he usually sleeps in his red pouch, which is carried by my bro most of the time.

Even Bibi loves rambutan, just like Bobby! My dad remarked, "only the pets, mum love my homegrown rambutans, u children don't treasure them!"

I love to see Bibi ran to a dark corner, and hide behind something. If you attempt to touch him with your hand he will really threaten to bite you, and he will stand on 2 feet instead of 4 which makes him look so cute and human-like! Reminds me of cartoon!

Finally, before giving back to my bro, have to take a photo together with this cute little devil!

Bubblelicious

2010-06-16T17:13:00.002+08:00

Last photoshoot before I go back to Singapore to start the new phase of my life... joining the working class people. Sad... T_T

Not really excited about the shoot actually, perhaps we were really running out of idea on how to source for a good location and no nice props. MK's idea of blowing bubbles came and in the end, it became the theme of this photoshoot.

We just simply chose a spot in our beautiful Seremban lake garden. There definitely are nicer locations than the one we chose but we were too lazy to move around after I parked the car in a nearby parking lot.

Just a simple toy that I believe every child of my age would have enjoyed when we were small, to create such fantasy in our young adulthood. Amazing, isn't it? The bubbles...

We forgot to have a group photo before concluding the photoshoot, ouch! Everyone was not in the mood, I guess.

All photos were shot using my newly acquired Canon's 35mm f/2 lens. A gift from my dad for my graduation!

The Bubblelicious flickr set.

wooden house, on film

2010-06-13T14:29:00.003+08:00

Shot using Canon EOS 100, on sigma 24mm f/2.8 lens and the canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.
Film: Kodak ProFoto 100 expired in 2008
ASA: 400 (film is pushed)

A failure, although it kinda creates another feeling of the series. I didn't realize that I actually used the ASA400 setting for the whole roll of ProFoto film which results in the whole roll being underexposed. As the results, grainssssssss and purplish tint for the whole set of photos!

Lesson of the day, will try not to use expired film if possible, and always take care of the ASA setting to avoid stupid exposure mistakes.

wooden house

2010-06-11T22:20:00.005+08:00

MK was itching to be featured in photo again. Of course, Marcus too, MK and me could see him trying to hide his excitement as he brought along so many props, lol.

Without much discussion, without much planning, but everyone did pay effort on this photo shoot. MK surveyed her house's surrounding for possible locations, Marcus the explorer, and me the driver and main photographer. This was why I enjoy photo shooting with these buddies! We can always fill the session with fun and laughter!

I was the least excited one among the 3 of us. I was... until I put on the shirt left by my eldest bro at home (which I brought along just in case I want to be inside the pictures too) ... Seems like I have certain potential too! wa ha ha.

Conclusion: Everyone went back home happily with nice photos of everyone. Ha ha ha.

Head over to see the Flickr set of this series!

Back from Indochina

2010-06-10T19:04:00.002+08:00

11 days 10 nights of Indochina adventure, from Khmer's proud Angkor Wat ruins, to the sand dunes of Mui Ne, seen the streets overcrowded with motorcycles, boat rowing, trapped in the Saigon-bound bus which was caught in traffic jam with an almost exploded bladder, we experienced so much.

Now it's time for everyone to run towards their new life. 10 of us.

Till then, Indochina travelogues!!

Let's Melt the Frozen Photobook

2010-06-09T10:08:00.003+08:00

Gotta melt the frozen photobook voucher away and use it now!

Europe photobook, here I come!!!

List of places to be included:
1. Iceland
2. Scotland
3. Prague and Cesky Krumlov
4. Budapest?
5. Vienna?
6. Turin, Milan, Florence, Pisa?

Fuzhou delights: Wine Chicken Mee Sua 福州红酒面线

2010-05-23T20:35:00.000+08:00

A traditional delicacy that all of us Fuzhou dialect folks come to appreciate when we grow older. It might not taste good in non-Fuzhou people's tongues though.

The fine noodle, or more commonly known as "MeeSua" in Malaysia and Singapore, or simply 面线, of this is different from those that you can find in your local supermarket. The texture, the different thickness of the noodles, all are giving you a hint that this noodle is pure handicraft, made by hands and not machine! I don't like the commercially available meesua but I love the handmade one from my dad's hometown, Sitiawan. 800 years of history, originated from China.

Every chinese new year, this delicacy will be prepared, especially on the First day. All of us, love it!

Read up about the Meesua in chinese here:
福州面线

Iceland: Falls, Journey into the city of Reykjavik

2010-05-20T21:30:00.002+08:00

Continuing as the final chapter of my Iceland Travelogue

Again, we were competing with time. The sun was hanging on the horizon, the visibility was getting worse as seconds ticked away. We had to leave the Black Beach.

Passing by Vellir, I took the last look at the Petur Hill and our cottage, and drove on, headed towards Reykjavik.

On our way, we saw old cottages like those I saw in Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit. Wow, really was like fairy tale. Couldn't find pictures though.

Skógafoss was an unintended encounter. We saw the Tourist's sign and we steered our car into that direction. Well, most of Iceland's natural wonders are just beside their Ring Road, which makes it so convenient!

The waterfall has a width of 25 meters and a drop of 60 meters. Imagine standing beside it. The spray that produced by the waterfall wets my camera, our clothes, therefore we didn't stay very long there.

Then we had to continue on, before the weather turned nasty again...

As for the city of Reykjavik, not much to be seen as when we reached there at around 5pm, the streets were lit with man-made lights and no more natural sun light at that hour. Worse still, the snow started to fall down, heavily. We wandered around the city, our downs covered with snow, searching for food and interesting stuffs.

The city of heavy snow, and fairy-tale like buildings... It must be wonderful to stroll in, during the summer.

Still, we went around to seek for the Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace Tower. I couldn't remember whether we found it, or just saw a trail of light being shone into the sky. Then we also drove to the Viking's monument, and the very unique church of Reykjavik which it was under construction...

Ahh... didn't realize the tower of light was across the sea, until I saw the pics... Else I would have focus more nicely on that pillar.

Meals? I love their meals even though those meals seem very simple, just burger and chips or fish etc but somehow both this last day's meals tasted so awesome! Most importantly, the price was not very steep. Bearable.

Lunch on the way back to Reykjavik from the Black Sands.

Dinner, every bite tasted so good...

Nothing much that I can think of getting as souvenirs but I think their coins were really interesting, worth collecting!

After the town slept, we went to return the car, and spent our night in the airport to conclude this trip.

Hopping around the Golden Mist

2010-05-05T20:15:00.003+08:00

Finally I am done with my 4 years of undergraduate study. Ended officially with the FYP presentation.

Thanks to Icho to start the initiative to go and have a morning walk around NTU. Now I realize that actually among Tzuchings there are many hidden talented photographers too.
Finally, I got to take pictures of the golden mist with my 400D!!

Cast of the day:

Icho Syu

Bernard

and Yanni. I believe all of us will be remembering that morning, as it was an really unforgettable morning.

Wake up at 6am

2010-04-25T14:45:00.007+08:00

Somehow, and don't know how, my biological clock is being set to wake me up every morning at 6am. In the first few days, this was causing me to feel uneasy all day, and constantly sleepy. Maybe I slept too late on the previous day too.

I have come to accept this fact. What I can do now, is to enjoy the early morning silence and coolness.

Suggestion for a Sunday morning routine in NTU:
1. Go for a walk around NTU when the sun is just dawning on the horizon.
2. Take pictures, although pictures are not good enough to reproduce the beautiful scenes that you see.
3. Have a breakfast set, with someone special.
4. Go and have fun with friends in sports. Perspire and welcome the heat of afternoon with a cold water shower.

The next few mornings, I saw it again. Shrouded in golden mist. It was like a dream.

The rays were so amazing, they left their traces on the mist particles, painted them with golden. Like some scenes from movies that describe memories.

More, the misty campus set in my flickr:

Kings of Convenience

2010-04-23T08:48:00.006+08:00

A Norwegian duo from the city of Bergen, consisting of members Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe. Strumming their classical guitars and sing with low voices. No handsome faces, just ordinary people that you might neglect if you happen to pass by them.

Quiet is the new loud, as their album's name implies, the quietness in their music really do grab my attention. Interesting album covers they have too, don't you agree? I was wondering whether the lady is part of Kings of Convenience, turns out she is Eirik's girlfriend.

Their music has a charm that will make you stop the work on your hand, and concentrate on the tunes generated by their fingers. With lyrics easy to be understood and simplistic melody, I would categorize them as minimalists!

Can't stop listening to them.
This final exam in NTU, I have their music accompanying me to study.

Misty Campus of NTU

2010-04-20T09:11:00.001+08:00

Whenever there are rainy evenings, or even afternoon, (well, rainy days) the campus will be filled with a sense of melancholic beauty. The fogs and mist come to take over the campus, the garden that I love so much.

Especially the mornings, before the afternoon heat waves hit, just when the sleepy sun starts to pour its generous yellow light and painted everything, everywhere with golden colour. Everything is a beauty to the eyes of the beholder, at least, to me.

Perhaps that is the reason why people like to go so far into NTU for cycling.

Or, even taking a walk will lift your spirits up for the day.

How does a morning of weekends feel like? Silence, peace of mind?
Take a stroll along Nanyang Crescent, and you will know.

Perhaps can go into the School of Art too before the 'artistic' students are there to distract you from staring into blankness.

Most of the undergraduates are still asleep in the morning. I guess this is the new lifestyle of the generation-Y?

I will have to say goodbye to this campus soon.
We are all going into the reality of life. Mists and unknowns lying ahead.

********

There is an eye in my pocket, which I feel more like taking snapshots with it, than my clumsy dSLR.

東方韻味: Eastern Charms

2010-04-03T01:20:00.001+08:00

Many Chinese from other countries, the Far East especially, do not know much about our Chinese culture here. We, actually have Cheongsam / 旗袍 too!

This Chinese New Year, the year of Tiger, yay, our zodiac animal! Olivia seemed to be very excited about her cheongsam after our photoshoot for July Hometown. And she bought a few of them, gold, black, pink, yellow, any colour, you name it (ok i exaggerated).

This photoshoot was actually quite random. We didn't do planning at all. So we met up, had breakfast, still felt lost, where to go? OK, go 蜈蚣山 (Centipedes Hill), considered one of the rare local tourist spots of Seremban. 4 photographers in total, Ailin, Sin Hui, Kee, and me.

We found it to be a bit too touristic for a temple. Well, a lot of status of god, not expertly crafted, lined along one of the best spot for photo. Hmm... I tried my best not to capture them into the frame. Luckily, there wasn't much people around yet, there is a reason why I like to shoot in the morning.

We even risked ourselves by trekking over to a big tree on top of the hill.

Towards the end of the photoshoot, we found the really nice spots for colours, framing, and well, architecture! The Taoist temple, not for tourists, full of interesting bright colours, reds, yellows, black! Look at the colours!

This photoshoot doesn't give any breakthrough like what the By the Weeds series or the July Hometown series gave me... Will aim for a breakthrough next time!

Flickr Set: CNY

Iceland: Black Sands

2010-03-31T21:00:00.001+08:00

Part of Travelogues of Iceland - the fourth day. Weather: Precipitation in the morning, drizzles.

Vík í Mýrdal, the village of Vík.

Waking up inside the dream-like Vellir guest house, which we had it to ourselves, we felt so reluctant to leave this lovely hut. As winter only has very short day time, we finished up our groceries by having a full and filling breakfast. It was almost 9am, and the light we longed for was still absent. We didn't feel like leaving this lovely hut. why we can only get to stay here for 2 nights? Why we were not there in the summer!? As a photographer, the winter was a great challenge in taking good photos.

Drizzling morning, not a good sign. Our rented car, was frozen... =.=

We hadn't got enough time, we had to move on. We went to return our keys, and set off for the Black Beach. The Black Beach, another remarkable landscape exclusive to Iceland, I believe.

While on our way there, finally we saw the legendary Icelandic horses, almost immobile and making minimum motion. There was no picturesque scenery like what I saw in the pictures, horses running amidst the green green field with emerald mountains in the background. Still, one of my wishes granted! I couldn't resist the temptation to stop and went forward to caress them, and the horses were welcoming our gestures.

Did they feel cold in this open air? I didn't see them trembling.

Moving on to our spotlight of the day, the Black sands, along with roaring sea. Wild and stormy. Wind blades were slicing our faces when we opened the door of our car. But we were excited, Iceland had not stopped giving us surprises.

Even stop anywhere in the middle of the road, was sceneries that could leave us gasping for breaths, how Iceland had been so artistically crafted by the hands of Nature!

We reached the destination finally... and we were the only car there. No other tourist, not even local. Well, I know Iceland has a very low population density.

We thought there wouldn't be any life here except us. The calls of the birds reminded us that we were not really alone.

Then the roaring sea... and the wind so strong, that we might be blown away like kites.

Camera lens getting misty as the drizzles hit on me. Had to RUN when the waves were coming in!!

People like us, from the countries of equator, will not be able to imagine that this was actually taken around noon...

In the distant, Reynisdrangar, the trolls that were caught outside in the sea, the mythical seastacks stood there. (Behind BS's butt, haha)

We missed the sights of Dyrhólaey (rocks with a hole in middle). Actually I think I captured the photo of Dyrhólaey, but I didn't actually notice it.

Basalts cliffs which has really interesting patterns. I didn't see the one where we could climb up and take pictures, Hmm...

Then, we set out again to continue our journey, waving goodbyes to the sands, towards the city of Reykjavik.

to be continued.

the old town

2010-03-12T23:41:00.001+08:00

Argh, time really flies! These photos are already more than 1 month old!

We have to try new things soon. Else... 又是她? 哈哈。

Photos taken in the new branch of Old Town Kopitiam in Seremban.

大年初一的渔村 Fishing Village

2010-03-04T00:30:00.000+08:00

Some interesting stories about Sitiawan, my dad's childhood place:

Once, there were two elephants who refused to leave each other as one of them got stuck in the muddy river and eventually both were perished in the rising water. The locals named this place "Setia Kawan" which means "loyal friend" to praise the elephant who refused to leave. Over time, this name became the Sitiawan known by us today.

In early 1900s, Chinese from the dialects of Kutian, Hockchiu, Hockcheng and Henghua which are collectively known as Fuzhou were settled in the area, including my great grandparents. Today, the Fuzhou people around Malaysia, including my father, traces their root back to Sitiawan.

Kampung Bahru, 新甘光 is a fishing village not far from my grandparents' house. It's a daily routine that grandpa will go to the only Chinese kopitiam in the main street of the village. I remember every year, he will ask us, his grandchildren to go to the street to have morning tea with his fellow kampung buddies. As I am always the earliest to wake up among all the grandchildren, naturally he asked me to go along with him. Albeit a bit reluctant, I followed grandpa, sitting on the backseat of his motorcycle, letting the hot wind whipped my face in the 34 deg Celcius heat.

每天清晨，新甘光沿岸都有一群人聚集。原來顧客們在海番經營的魚檔挑選著活海鮮。這裡原是個小漁村，奎龍處處，漁舟點點，還有一排排浮腳屋，是它昔日的面貌。

I always get to eat the fresh fishes from the market, according to dad. I understand that dad takes pride in himself as someone who grew up eating fresh seafood and had interesting childhood memories.

And I saw racial harmony, sincere and true.

The old and faded posters reminded me of how much I like soft drinks, especially from F&N when I was still young. This no longer applies to me now.

Continue to explore the street, I found that there were so many different forms of life beneath the piers.

As well as some dead horseshoe crabs, which are precious and well known for their blue blood!

That is why, I actually look forward to go back to Sitiawan every Chinese new year.

Read.
http://www.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/malaysia/sitiawan

All photos shot on a Sony Ericsson K770i.

Waiting for our Train

2010-02-24T21:06:00.001+08:00

The most satisfying MK's portrait photoshoot to date. Now we found her suitable style for photo taking, and we will definitely go towards this direction in the future.

Another buddy, Marcus, although he had always been telling people around him about his potential of a sunny-boy-gorgeous-smile and a self declared handsome, he did some great job as a first timer and an assistant. "Fan harder! Take that chair here!". Haha.

Well, this all-buddies photoshoot was so much fun. I let MK to have a taste of how an amateur photographer like me shoot, by changing the mounted Zuiko manual lens back to the Canon 50mm and let her have fun and at the same time satisfied my narcissism.

And finally a group photo on tripod, obviously.

Next time we will force the ever-busy Marcus to really concentrate on photoshoot and forbid him from having any other date after our event. I believe he will be more interested now to plan the next theme together with us.

A bit bored of the usual portrait-style pictures... Next time I want to do some more conceptual style of shooting! I know this is challenging but I also know that if the outcome is good, it would be much much satisfying than shooting only pretty objects. Perhaps the only problem is the lack of equipment, and suitable clothes.

For the slideshow of the full set, please click on the picture below.

Most photos were taken using this combination except a few last shots by MK with the 50mm:
Camera: Canon EOS400D
Lens: Olympus Zuiko 28mm f/2

Photoshoot Marathons

2010-02-21T09:31:00.004+08:00

There are at least 1000 photos inside my external HD waiting for me to filter and process. No time for those yet, will do slowly as entertainment... Foresee a very busy catch up to do as a consequence of skipping classes and relax too much for CNY.

Olivia in Cheongsam, shot in a touristic temple in Temiang:

MK and Marcus, shot at the abandoned railway(again):

Photo skill getting worse... T_T
Played too much of film?

春节快乐！

2010-02-17T12:14:00.001+08:00

Many photoshoots scheduled. We are just treasuring our time enjoying photography together.

新年快乐！
Happy Lunar New Year!

Intense Exploration of Singapore Cultures

2010-01-24T20:57:00.003+08:00

Of Little India, of Kampung Glam, of the HDB Flats in Bugis, of the Flea markets, in the short 2 days. This is truly the first time I explored Singapore so thoroughly.

Who said Singapore is not interesting? Just that the things are a bit too expensive for me to accept T_T

Can't wait to develop the photos and have some prints!!!

Seremban Weekend again

2009-12-28T20:52:00.004+08:00

I wonder why most of the time now I only did shooting back in Seremban?

Maybe, I have more friends here that I can shoot for, and there are more unexplored places. I enjoyed every little details that I think beautiful now. Well, my little cousin even asked me, why took a photo of the 'longkang', what so special about it?

1 roll of film in 3 days, well, when the feel comes I just couldn't resist to shoot more and more. Yintse and me went to this abandoned rail tracks near Rasah and wow, we found a new world.

As like before, I brought my OM2 out instead of the digital brother this time to meet Olivia, and haha it's her treat!

Posing with our photobooks! Too bad the one Olivia took for me is a shaky one due to my wrong setting and dim light condition. So I posted the one taken by my sis.

All the photos are shot in expired Kodak Profoto 100... The colours really... a bit... hmm... accidental. I hope it's the scanning problem.

My First Photobook: Sweden

2009-12-23T19:07:00.005+08:00

It's my second book actually, the first being Olivia's photobook, which I think is a success from her response, and from my sister's response when she saw the book.

My Sweden exchange photobook is a 15" x 11" Large Landscape Debossed Hardcover, it's going to be a very, very big photobook! I got to buy it at RM 170 instead of RM 304, which is crazily expensive if it's RM 304, I am sure that the book is going to worth the price!!!

Thanks to so many friends who helped me out, Ivy, Ailin for giving me advices on the design, Mingwei for correcting my grammar and Kiki for giving some guidelines on the grids.

Went through some troubles in the ordering process but the service by Photobook Malaysia was good, and I believe I will be getting the book soon, only i will not be the first one to see it as I have to go back to Singapore to settle some matters first.

Click the below picture, for the slideshow view of my photobook.

I hope they will revise their price again so I can make more in future!

Update:
I got the book, exactly one week later. Fast!

Turin by the Alps: Part 2

2009-11-15T09:50:00.000+08:00

Can you see the ALPS?
It's really amazing that there is such a big city under the shadow of Alps.
This was a view from the top of Mole Antonelliana.

We continued exploring the streets, trying to take in every detail that we could, after all, this was my first, FIRST Italian city! And Italy was nothing like what I had seen before in Germany, or Sweden, or Central Europe!

Empty streets of Turin. The people threw curious glances at us very frequently. Thank you Navan, for choosing Turin, I really love this place.

Learning outdoor... wow. I can see math equations which I dun feel like going to understand them at all.

Nutella nutella, and so many giant size nutellas!

Police? Not very sure.

We walked, and walked, and... TADA...

Mole Antonelliana:

A very 'out-of-the-place' structure in this city of Turin. Stands out so much among other buildings that it screamed, "Come and EXPLORE me!"

So as the landmark and icon of Turin, how could we miss? We wanted to go up to 160m high, and enjoy the view of Alps... So we paid, for a package price of entrance to the museum and upppp the elevator that simulated the experience of going into another dimension.

Mole Antonelliana has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, the National Museum of Film. This museum was definitely very worth visiting... Fun and interesting!

Exam... exam...

Bak Kut Teh

2009-10-30T08:59:00.005+08:00

Impressed by Boon Ming's effort. I think he has potential to be a really famous person in the future.

They had been featured in newspapers, both Chinese and English papers in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as radio programme! Great isn't it? Never imagine that! Those must be their effort to grab the attention of the medias!

Perhaps people who are going to Taiwan, you can take their itinerary as reference! I believe you will find the melody of Aborigines of Taiwan!
http://cforum1.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=1691179

How to Vote： http://3.ly/howtovote
Vote/ Travelogue： http://3.ly/vote
Bak Kut Teh Official website： http://taiwan.boonming.com

Wish them all the best in winning the 1000 0000 (I never deal with such big number, is it 10mil? I think it's in Taiwan New Dollar, but still... really a big sum!)

It's been a bit last minute, but vote before 31st Oct.

UPDATE:

They WON!!!
Read here!

Italy, Turin, Alps City: Part 1

2009-10-26T17:13:00.001+08:00

Right after the UK trip, BS and me flew back to Stockholm at 2pm, and my next flight from Stockholm to Italy is... 4pm! Parted with BS, I waited for Jevon, CK and Navan, to board another plane. In few hours time, we were in the Bergamo (Milan) airport! So we took shuttle bus to Milan train station first, and subsequently took a train to the city of Turin.

It was already almost midnight by the time we arrived in Turin. We didn't feel as safe as when we were in Stockholm, but nothing happened to us as we found our way to the hostel. Wow, it was a very local-style furnished hostel and we got to stay only for a night though... Too bad.

The next morning, we packed up, and left this lovely but eerie hotel with our luggage and backpacks to wander around this beautiful city shadowed by Alps, after the rain.

Tasting the famous Italian dessert, Gelato ice cream, after having a meal in McD. (Why would we even eat McD!?!?)

We saw soccer stars from Juventus!! Although I know none of them but clearly Navan and CK were very excited and I was secretly laughing at BS who had only seen the stadiums in London.

Continuing through the Via's in Turin, we followed Jevon's path of pilgrimage to Turin Cathedral, which has the Shroud of Turin.

Yeah, the shroud was at the end of this corridor, I think we were not supposed to take pictures here but I did, anyway.

Just few steps from the Duomo of Turin, a ruin which looks like castle wall was across the field, kinda symbolic for Turin (because when I searched in wiki, there is this picture about this ruin).

We wandered around the city of Turin and we happened to find this well-known (but we dunno) Caffè Al Bicerin.

Chocolate, Espresso, cream were served in these glasses called Bicerins. (And hence the name of this drink). Sipping slowly at the drink, wow, I must savour every drop as it costs me a 5 EUR for this small glass of drink!

Tradional Piedmontese: Bicerin means small cup.

All in all, Turin was a wonderful city, that really gave me lots of surprises, I liked Turin almost more than the other Italian cities that I went to.

Although this was just a short day in Turin, but there were so much things to blog about that I decided to write more about it!

Rediscovering Singapore: Little India

2009-10-19T10:24:00.004+08:00

Under the blazing sun, the Indians gathered in Little India of Singapore, for the festival of Diwali. This was my first time visiting Little India, albeit almost 3 full years of being here in Singapore. The purple line from Outram Park MRT to Little India MRT was never so crowded with people. This was the day of their biggest celebration, of course!

Women dressed up in beautiful + colourful sarees, tied their hair up with orchid flowers, elegantly strolled towards the temples and celebrations. It was really eye-catching and beautiful.

Street view that I found familiarity, isn't this street look just like the town in Malaysia? Well, at least I found such familiarity in Seremban.

Perhaps many people would have noticed an Indian culture, which the people here do not accept very much. The brotherhood among friends, is displayed by their gestures of holding hands together. This appears to be some gay-ish gestures to us but then this is their culture.

We visited the famous Mustafa shopping center too, which basically has EVERYTHING ranges from jeweleries, to toiletries! At a very much reasonable price and it's 24-hours!

Perhaps I should pay more attention to Singapore and re-discover Singapore, along with my passion for photography!

Oh, almost forget to mention my Singapore shooting mate, fashion adviser, and best friend, PandaLin! hahaha:

Thanks for the advices on my new pair of sneakers and the wonderful treat in White Dog Cafe! I believe BS and me, were very full and satisfied, and I believe you found great satisfaction in treating us too!

Heidelberg, Poets' Town

2009-10-10T21:15:00.004+08:00

After procrastinate for so long (just a few days over a year)... Finally I can update the travelogue with Heidelberg, the poets' town! (I noticed that I actually had written about Heidelberg after finish writing this...）

One of the October trip, the impulse to book cheap air ticket, the crowds in Munich for the Oktoberfest that manage to scare me off (sorry Navan... put you aeroplane), finally brought me to Heidelberg, a poet's old town in Germany's Baden-Württemberg state.

Touching down at Baden-Baden Airpark, we took a shuttle bus straight to Heidelberg, parting with Navan and his friend. Autumn sunlight shone through the bus window, and Tim, CK, Jason, Joker, Huimin and me, 3 from Hong Kong, 2 from Singapore and 1 from Malaysia. In fact, we have many different passports. Jason has Australian passport, Tim and Joker's passports are different type of HK passport too, but showing only the 3 passports that represent us.

Warm evening light. We strolled along the river of Nackar. Then we wandered into the old town area, for a short while looking for dinner.

In the end, we found nothing we want to eat in the town (either they looked too expensive or something we could find here). Dragging the luggage, we walked 30 minutes along the Neckar River at night, to find our hostel beside a zoo.

Woke up at the next morning from the comfortable sleep, oh yeah, every traveler's pray and wish, a sunny autumn day!

Since we were only staying a night, after the breakfast, we packed up and carried our luggage, and left the hostel with no regret (we regretted it after). With such backpack on our back, we trod another 30 minutes along the beautiful Neckar River (in sunny autumn) back to the Poets' Old Town. The view along the river was just... simply breathtaking! It was the European river side that I had imagined before I stepped on the continent!

Finally we wandered into old town, well, not much nice pictures here. Perhaps because of a lesson we had learnt, which was to find a place to settle the backpack or luggage. It was just too tiring to carry the burden and sight-seeing at the same time.

Although we missed Oktoberfest, we got to see another festival being celebrated inside the old town and people were all over the place. Musicians, beer, pork, candies, people with painted face, clowns, etc etc. Laughter, and smiles were hanging on almost everyone's face. The old town felt so lively and crowded.

As if we warped back to the past when we was these people performing and roaming about the street.

We had our lunch, a heavy one, in one of the restaurant, Vetter 33, which was just beside the famous bridge which I forgot the name, as recommended by a group of Malaysians we met at the castle. To savour the taste of the popular German Pork Knee, each of us ordered one for ourselves, and it was really a wrong decision.

Oh I really miss the Pork Knee I had in the old town of Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. It was not the pork knee that I like that I had in Heidelberg...

When it was about afternoon, we rushed to the train station, and continued our journey to Strasbourg.

P/S: Now only I realized that I wrote duplicate posts on Heidelberg! OMG.

Teatime with Olivia

2009-10-06T20:14:00.004+08:00

An afternoon in Seremban. One of my 3 days break back in my lovely hometown. It is always when I am back to my hometown that I can produce a lot of photos.

Morning was spent with MK in the photoshoot, and a afternoon tea time with Olivia, continued on with night's gathering with my Kuomin gang, and finally another yamcha session with Mewah guys. Well, my time was short in Seremban, especially weekends, of course I had to busy myself with these social activities to maintain a good relationship with my friends! As for family, haha, Sunday.

It was actually her birthday that day, no celebration for her by me though. Yes, I'm not a romantic guy and I don't know how to do these things. Perhaps in future when I have a gf then I might... haha. However, I promised her to give her something special, which she will definitely like! A Black and White PRINT! from FILM! OK, in future, in December.

Slideshow/Flickr set here:

P/S: Should I add some watermark/copyright information on my pictures (as suggested by my sis)? I feel lazy and worry that those things might spoil the overall feel of the pictures.

Changed the layout to accomodate bigger pictures of mine, no more jaggy edges in older browsers (because I did not have to resize the pics from flickr!)!

That Vintage Dress

2009-09-30T00:16:00.007+08:00

There was this mental picture, that she was walking barefooted on the rail track near the train station. Working towards this imagination, I drove MK to a small kampung beside KTM station. We saw the notice board saying OFFLIMIT TO OUTSIDERS. OK, so we just settled down outside, and do a simple photo shoot there.

Disappointment, disappointment... This time, I do not see many photos that I truly like, I couldn't see many nice ones too.

View On Black, the above photo.

Nevertheless, click below to see the slideshow of this set, That Vintage Dress feat. MK.

Pang sisters in Singapore, Episode 2

2009-09-14T19:20:00.007+08:00

2nd time, in the same year. Although just a short weekend, this time we went to tourist attractions that they missed the last time. Oh shit, I shouldn't had suggested East Coast Park!

Bobo aka Junny aka Jun Hui, so many nicks... She went through so much troubles to help me get my new(old) Zuiko 28mm f2 lens back from Japan, such as, went to bank in money for her mentor in the rain, on a bicycle. Well, of course with a treat to thank her (and her sisters... T_T).

Clarke Quay, Chinatown, Orchard, so many touristic places that they had never been to the last time.

Picture above was taken by Bobo aka Junny aka Jun Hui in Chinatown. Talented. Ailin rushed back to office for work, oh so damn busy her job. Pity.

We finished the last few instax films inside Ivy's instax 200 after such a long time.

Finally, not forgetting to wish Pandalin... a very happy birthday!

Update: I got the film!!! My first ever slide film! Can't wait to get it scanned!

Hong Kong: Of Heritage and City (2)

2009-09-08T23:17:00.003+08:00

A rainy Central, I forgot, whether it was a night after 9th Level Typhoon, the 莫拉菲颱風. Never mind the details, I slept soundly despite the typhoon and heavy rain hitting the rooftop and water leaking into Jason's guest room.

Saw the exact news report on the TV that morning. Really funny to see people really almost got blown away, I never know wind can be so strong. So, it's a good practice to go out with an umbrella.

Still drizzling, we arrived at the Central at exactly 9am, and waited 1 hour+ for Mr Jevon who overslept. So proceed on for "Yum Cha"! Dim Sum and Chinese Tea and HK culture! Yeah, the authentic HK Yum Cha place in Central of HK, the 蓮香樓. Finding a table to let all of us sit down was hard, but luckily we found a table with capacity high enough for us and we shared the table with a couple. 搭台 or table sharing is very very common in HK.

Experience the 'way of Dim Sum': 0, take a seat with other customers, 1, rush out when you see the dimsum trolley, push away the other people who are most likely there before you, and 3, "one Char Siew Pau, one Loh Mai Gai please!".

The rain still did not stop yet. We went on for some shopping in our favourite Swedish H&M, before continuing to the longest escalator system of the world, Central-Mid-Levels Escalators(中環至半山自動扶梯).

Continue on, to Hollywood Avenue(or street?) and Lan Kwai Fong in daylight. Central is definitely one of the most interesting place of Hong Kong. There is a temple, small but the presence is significance enough amidst this forest of steels and cement.

Thousands of burning spiraling incense is perhaps the most unique sight of 文武廟(Man Mo Temple).

There after, we had a light meal in one of the Char Can Teng (茶餐廳), just beside the famous 九記 which was closed on Sundays.

The 2 dollar tram "Ding Ding" was cheap and enjoyable. We sat in the tram all the way to Patterson avenue, the most crowded corner of HK but it was not so bad when I was there.

Then, we caught up with the ferry (the ferry fare was cheap as well, just had to tap it with Octopus card) and rushed across the sea from HK island to Kowloon Tsim Tsa Tsui to catch up with the most unique scene of HK, the HK night scene and the symphony of light!

Happy Birthday, Doraemon

2009-09-03T20:26:00.004+08:00

Happy birthday to Doraemon.

Our childhood hero.

UP and Pasta

2009-08-24T01:00:00.002+08:00

Another weekend with Ailin. This time the mission is to watch the long awaited "UP" in 3D and also to buy my Crumpler 7 million dollar!

The morning is spent running from Hall 13 to Hall 1， and then back, to claim my prize from Boon Ming!! Yes, the WARAKU SGD 50 voucher! Yeah, so we would have free meal! It was quite a surprise when he told me I won the voucher. So, good luck to your Taiwan itinerary planning competition!

First thing for the day, buying movie ticket for "UP" in Iluma.
Well the "UP" is so superb and I love all the characters! Dug, Kevin, Russell and Carl. Had a good laugh and wow, they did 'pop up' from the screen! 3D is the new trend eh?

I have finally bought the Crumpler 7 million dollar bag, which hurts my wallet so much... Hurt hurt... I hope I will make full use of this bag, put everything and bring all my film, digital gear out whenever I can.

Had some not-so-impressive desserts before heading for movie.

After movie, time to head for dinner after a short walk in Iluma. Yup, the Waraku Japanese Pasta in Orchard Heeren.

Some photos in this nice restaurant are indeed something that we should do.

Of course with some creativity from Ailin.

About the food, yes, taste good! Both us enjoyed the meal, haha. If it is not because of SGD50 voucher meal I don't think I would ever thought of entering such restaurant.

Afterward, walked more to discover Orchard which I did not really do although I am here for 3 years already!

Go visit BoonBox if you haven't!

Hong Kong: Walking on the past, 元朗 (1)

2009-08-20T21:47:00.005+08:00

A day after arriving from Macau, by Ferry. Been staying so comfortably in Jason's house and today we plan to walk around Yuen Long (元朗) since it's so near to Jason's house which is in 八鄉路 (Nearest MRT would be 錦上路).

Ping Shan Heritage Trail (屏山文物徑).
We started it after some walking around Yuen Long. Just in a few hours, I have tried Hong Kong's various rail systems, West Rail (西鐵), Light Rail (輕快鐵). Interesting, HK really has one of the world's most advanced transport system.

Back to the heritage trail, it's Jason's first time to explore the trail as well. This was when I felt the warmness of HK residents as opposed to what others who had commented that HK people are rude and rough. An uncle just invited us in to view the walled-village that is supposedly off limits to the tourists.

This is the head of the dragon boat that they placed in a small chapel of the walled-village. The uncle seemed to be proud of this artifact and asked me to take picture of it, so ok la, out of respect, must give face.

And, under the hot summer sky, we continued to walk following the trail, taking into memory every possible details that I can remember.

Doors.

Even funny notices.

We joined the others, Thony, To, Tim at 沙田圍 for dinner after the walk and a free movie with Jason, oh yeah 大排檔!

Introducing the dishes of the night... 雞粥章魚白菜肥豬肉... I heard the CUHK trios said that the CUHK students like to come to this place for meal. Wow and the chicken porridge, not bad.
The modern 大排檔 is something similar to our food court, so not really a surprise already.

P/S: Congrats Jason for you know what.!

Film Experience in Seremban Photoshop

2009-08-08T01:01:00.000+08:00

(Me, posing with Nikon F3HP, shot by Olympus OM2n on Kodak GOLD 200 and processed in T1 Fujifilm Seremban.)

A note serves as a reminder and experience to share the cost and quality of film processing and scanning.

1. Fujifilm Seremban - Terminal 1 Ground floor.

Should be easy to identify. A shop bearing a big FUJIFILM logo.

Price: Super CHEAP! RM 8 for a roll, and RM 3 for subsequent roll for processing and scanning. (Nowhere is cheaper than them already!)

Comment: Quality is in proportion with price. Water stain on the film... Bad! If you are lucky maybe you won't get any water stain? Bet with your film?

A sample photo with tones I like:

Film: Kodak Gold 200

2. New Century (新世纪) - Seremban Town Center, beside The Store

Recommended by Dato Hon, after I consulted his son's photography kaki Ivy which always chat with me.

Price: First time RM13 inclusive of processing + scanning. 2nd time let him do 4 rolls the boss quoted me higher price instead... really =.=|||

Quality: Satisfying quality.

Sample photo with tone I like too:

Film: Fujifilm Superia 400

3. International (国际) - Seremban Town Center, Opposite famous 德利 bookstore

A popular shop among the Seremban people. Quite well known as it has existed since my mother's generation?

Price: Can't remember, and quite pricey as the boss does not allow scanning and only allow photos to be printed... really =.=|||

Print: Reasonably good, from the print quality.

Sample soon after I brought the film to scan.

By the Weeds

2009-08-05T23:29:00.002+08:00

By the weeds, she smiled to the joy of gloomy hazy August Sunday morning.

Following the July's Hometown photo shoot, we had so much fun that we decided to do another one the following week.

This time, I invited Ailin's sis, Ivy to join us. Thanks to her yellow dress, Olivia looked really awesome and graceful!

Some after thoughts: props are very important to lift up the mood of the pictures. The bigger the better! Besides, always shoot in RAW to preserve the details! Finally I saw the importance of RAW format.

Click the below picture to go to the Flickr slide show of this series:

July Hometown 七月故鄉

2009-07-29T20:18:00.003+08:00

It's July again. After a year, Olivia and me finally successfully scheduled another photo shoot, which the previous one was done in her house along with Ailin.

Everyone's progressing into another stage of their life. Olivia, into an adult working life now. But still, she does not fail to come home once every week. This is the time when I can have the session with her but usually I am busy in the weekends. Thankful that we made it at last, and schedule for another shoot the following week!

This street of Seremban, my hometown, a small town of Malaysia, which I deemed boring and dull before I took up photography. Now I started to appreciate every little thing around me, the beauty just lies around Seremban for me to discover! And I found this street which had been in the town center all these while but I had never given much notice about it!

So I chose this place as the setting of this photo shoot. This street, is full of nice old wall textures and old Chinese merchant shops. The rainy morning did not stop us, in fact I was rejoiced to see the drizzles! Soft light and moody streets!

If not because of Olivia's ideas and her openness to pose, this series would not be as good. Thanks to her fashion sense too that the shots did not turn into some disaster. So she did her own make up, put on her own dress, post processing was easy as breeze, just need to fix some eyebags and occasionally some double chins.

A few photos were chosen to be post processed in a retro-film style and I guess that really suits the mode perfectly. Some other pictures will be posted soon with only retouch but original colours.

Head over to my Flickr Gallery for a slideshow of this 七月故鄉 series by clicking:

Great Hong Kong Trip

2009-07-24T11:30:00.005+08:00

Just back from the great Hong Kong trip which I did not expect very much from it.

Really feel very grateful to the hospitality that my HK friends had shown me, especially Jason! He accommodated me for days and even accompanied me everyday!

In the picture shown is my new toy I bought in HK! Won't be bringing along with me all the time as it should be my sister's present and I'm supposed to use only once in a while.

Seremban Delicacy 1

2009-07-14T23:26:00.004+08:00

Seremban, such a small town but full of delicacies. No other food can replace the uniqueness of the Seremban food that we grew up with.

These 2 are both located along the stretch of Lee Sam Road just behind both new and old The Store.

1. 和記魚丸粉 Fah Kee Fishball Noodle
First note about the food in Seremban. Pictured above, mum savouring the famous fried meat ball, the 乾撈老鼠粉 of 和記 (Fah Kee).

The stall is behind new The Store, beside the Chinese cemetery and Sheppard Boys' Club. It is hidden inside an ancient shopping complex building. I heard that the Ice Kacang is equally nice but a bit pricey.

Oh, the fried meat balls... I can down so many meat balls but to take care of the wallet so that it doesn't bleed too much, have to watch out a bit. Sorry Singapore's fried meat balls, in my opinion, they are nowhere near this one.

2. Bazaar Ice Kacang
Our favourite Ice Kacang after school when we were in Form 6.

Right beside the Methodist Church or ACS, at the 2nd floor of the Bazaar building. There are malay food on the same level and a few Chinese stalls selling chicken rice, wantan mee, the usual Serembanese Chinese food.

Not very expensive, the aunty gives a lot of jellys, nuts, and ice are just so finely blended. Other than ice kacang, try their Longan drink, which is a bit too sweet for me. I prefer ice kacang. Finally, have to mention this, I love the Thai style Fried Rice from the stall next to the ica kacang stall. So so so 'JENG'!! It's an usual combination, ice kacang + fried rice for those Serembanese having food here!

Seremban

2009-07-13T16:45:00.002+08:00

When I tried to explain to Singaporeans where is Seremban, the easiest way is usually "between KL and Melaka". Well, even Serembanese doubted my PM when I made some remark about Seremban being INTERESTING. But something I am quite sure already that the posting of my Facebook Seremban album had gotten some good responses among the Serembanese(at least we are still proud of Seremban!)

I don't care whether how famous are your Ipoh Chicken or Penang Laksa. They are good but not necessary better than my Seremban delicacies! You can say that my tongue grew up accustomed to those taste but I just LOVE Seremban and I am proud of being a Serembanese.

I embarked on the journey to rediscover Seremban, using my recently acquired Olympus OM2 and a roll of Kodak Gold 200 film to do some test shoot.

Do not be disturbed, the Chinese cemetery behind new the Store.

My happy snappy friend Mingwei, with the colour tone(which we love) that is almost unique only to film!

The green tone was so appealing that I asked Mingwei to help me take a picture of there.

I will start to write about delicacies in Seremban after I took a few pictures of it. Ann had been nudging me to do so and I think it is fun for Serembanese to read, and serves as a note for myself.

P/S: If you are from Seremban and happen to stumble upon this, do leave a comment to recommend some nice food.

New (Old) Toy: Olympus OM2

2009-07-08T08:42:00.001+08:00

Just like fashion, there comes a time when modernity is defined by reversing to the old, analogue age.

Mingwei brought back the camera to me after KEH delivered it to Singapore. Well, of course we couldn't wait and I mounted my Zuiko 50mm f1.4 lens on it, installed fresh SR44 batteries for the exposure metering, and loaded the film in the old mechanical way and started shooting around Seremban!

Can't wait to shoot a few more rolls and bring them to develop.

Both body and lens are purchased from KEH. Bargain (BGN) grade but work fine for me.

To date, I still do not own any new items for my photography-related equipment... Be it lens, be it DSLR, be it tripod, everything is second hand.

Magical Gunung Datuk

2009-07-05T17:16:00.005+08:00

The planned Penang trip was canceled. Instead, we went to the funeral of Chean Voon.

Since almost everyone has already graduated except Marc and me, it's getting more and more difficult to gather everyone. To make-up for the cancellation of Penang trip, we went to Gunung Datuk instead for a short morning trip.

Gunung Datuk is just about 20 minutes drive from Seremban. It is located in the district of Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. We prepared quite a lot food and had a picnic there. I don't know why but MK them seems to think that this is a place with green grass that we could sit beside the river or waterfall and enjoyed the food. Turned out it was the very "Malaysian" style small hut instead.

We later went down to the stream for some photo-taking and enjoying the cool fresh air of the Magic Rain Forest.

First time shooting photos with water and long exposure combination.

If there were more photo enthusiasts... I would have hiked to a higher place. Seems like I was the only one doing the rock hopping and willing to explore around the place whereas others were complaining instead. Marc the Machine Gun even fell asleep to the sound of gushing water and beeps of insects!

Then, MK was complaining again, that she hates my camera and she is not photogenic at all and 'yer' this, 'yer' that. Finally gave up asking me to take picture for her and flashed her cameraphone K770i around for pictures instead.

There are still nice pics (seems nice to me) being taken at least, but I personally like this one very much with the lens flare and magical backlight. Yay, finally I took one photo with beautiful lens flare and backlight!!

Gotta love these lights! And the green green forest too!

Add ons: On the way back, the girls were discussing the recipe and ingredients of Ribena with us... Well, jelly, cubes, concentrated extract. Kudos to Jess, Effy and MK for being such open-minded and joker that made this trip so full of laughter. However, we did endure some bad singing from Marc the Machine Gun and Lala Kuan.

More pictures are to be found in my Facebook(they degrade my photos' quality!) album here.

The Great Cancer Fighter

2009-07-03T15:53:00.002+08:00

Chean Voon, you had shown us that, life is full of uncertainties. You taught us to treasure our life.

You will always be remembered, the great cancer fighter, who had such strong will to survive despite so many sufferings were brought by it.

I really don't know what else to say here.

Hope you are fine there in the paradise. Goodbye forever.

Bobby's Affairs

2009-06-26T14:31:00.004+08:00

I think many people think Bobby is 'yongsui' because he is a black dog? Discrimination exists even in the dogs' world but from the perspective of human being.

A rambutan tree planted by my dad since years ago, bloom with fruits twice a year and Bobby will get very busy.

Especially when the harvesting of rambutans is done. He will take the crown, and become the Guardian of Rambutan to prevent us from getting near the rambutan.

He still prefer us to peel the rambutan skin for him despite he can do it himself, much slower.

Bobby, our rambutan loving pet dog.

Film and X-Process and Singapore

2009-05-29T18:43:00.003+08:00

Just love the feel of film that digital photos will not be able to produce.

Above.

Cross-processed slide films. All shot on 24mm Sigma lens given to me by my uncle on EOS 100, also my uncle's film camera.

I love 創作女歌手 the indie female singer songwriters

2009-05-25T23:57:00.003+08:00

From how I like 陳綺貞 (Cheer) I guess my taste is just biased towards more indie kinda music.

Number 1: 陳綺貞

Always is the number 1 in my heart.
Her voice, her singing, killing me softly. Although I have not much experience, but her lyrics just so simple and melancholy...
People gave her a nick of "Indie Diva" or "Indie Queen". Just a guitar and voice, that's all. Simple, yet meaningful and beautiful.

I am proud of her, secretly I am actually glad that I can have her songs to my own if she is not very popular among my friends.
I think I play her songs over and over, listen over and over. Everyday there are some new changes I found, I never get tired of her.

Number 2: 蔡健雅

Kinda almost totally different from Cheer. But Cheer still wrote her a song: 路口, which i like very very much.
Love the songs in "My Space" because of the unplugged versions of the songs she has been singing.
Of course, everyone loves her voice, which sings in a way that I feel she is tired out from the complexity of city life.

Number 3: 戴佩妮

A girl from Johor Bahru.
I think, I am really impressed by her talent in art. Photography, song writing, guitar, video direction.
I enjoy her ballads but I do not like her angst genre songs. There is this song 吹嗶嗶 in the new album which I will surely skip.

Number 4: 張懸

Scream... I'm screaming, I'm losing all of it.
My all time favourite song, "Scream". I guess many people would think that this is some angst-filled song but the song is but silent scream. Can listen to it repetitively for dunno how many times.
Another Taiwanese indie song writer. Love her lazy voice but again, not noisy songs.

The First Ever Award

2009-05-20T23:41:00.001+08:00

An entry I sent in to take part in "Speak Out for Red" contest.

The reason I chose this picture, which I like so much, is the terrific look and solitude of the lonely little flightless bird there, which really reflects patient with HIV.
If we accept how they are, well, the light of hope is there.

They are just the same with us.

Special thanks to Ivy for the edit and advices. Actually I was intending to use a crop version of this photo, but after her tweak I really do admire that her edit is so much more better!

Glósóli: Road Trip to seek the Glaciers

2009-05-14T21:05:00.001+08:00

It was still dark, reluctantly we woke up from our dream at 6.30am. Simple breakfast and we left Vellir Farmhouse with our luggages and set out with the red Toyota Yaris from Hertz, under the snow storm.

During the 3 to 4 hours ride to Jökulsárlón, the weather turned even nastier but for the first time in my life, I experienced the beauty of whiteness. Snow storm transported me to the world of whites. We were driving in near-nothingness, tracking the reflectors lining along the Icelandic Ring Road. I winded down the window, the wind was whipping, silence was dominating.

Despite we tried to accelerate, the wheel skid and we moved at a steady speed of 40 km/h. Due to the short December daylight, we were losing out a lot of time driving. The white panic continued until a point, where suddenly yellow and the beautiful rugged Icelandic mountains and landscape came into view and we were able to accelerate again. Guess it must be the walls of mountain range that blocked the wind from the North. Despite tempted by views outside the car window, we did not stop, because we were running out of time.

The effort paid off, when we finally saw the sign, yes, the infamous Jökulsárlón! The lagoon was still covered in whites and rain. Not many visitors, only a Spanish couple that we exchanged a few words with before parting. No one would want to come here on such dreaded days.

Treading carefully along the thick snow and along the lagoon, we uncover the secret of Glaciers, up close. The surprises that we found here were the playful seals family submerged in the water and occasionally popped their heads to check on the visitors. They were a bit shy... a bit difficult to capture them.

The infamous Jökulsárlón, glacier lagoon of Iceland. This was where one of James Bond movie, Die Another Day was filmed.

It was fun stepping on the frozen ice and into the clear lagoon with a pair of waterproof shoes.

Reluctantly, we left Jökulsárlón with Jevon catching up after his crazy stunts of stripping on a block of glacier. We still had about 2 hours of sunlight.

The intention of having a break along the beautiful roadside scenery was put behind because light was fading fast... and after about an hour from Jökulsárlón headed back towards Vik... Glacier mountains loomed in the distance... the Skaftafell National Park and Svartifoss.

We had some fun at the Skaftafell National Park. Well, no one was there when we were there. I could imagine how beautiful and how well visited this beautiful national park is. I believe no one would be interested to come here in such deadly winter?

Finally... another Sigur Rós classic that resembles a bit of our experience of seeking glaciers in Iceland:

Sigur Rós - Glósóli from sigur-ros.co.uk on Vimeo.

Jökulsárlón
Skaftafell National Park

All travelogues on this amazing country: Icelands

Reflect: Please be more Down to Earth

2009-04-26T17:09:00.003+08:00

Something to remind me a big mistake I always make.

Crouch down, down to earth, and take picture sometimes. The world will opens up in a different way.

The angle could be better, if I could stand at the same level as them.

Take last month's Chinese Garden for example.
Ailin's composition in the same set of photos are so very much differed from mine.

Remember, there is not an exact event that will repeat to let you do again.

Some reviews to last month's pictures. The Over-exposed Series...
Took a different approach to use high-key in these photos. I really love this walkway and the trees lining along it.

Overexposed

Grande Île de Strasbourg

2009-04-21T23:41:00.004+08:00

Munich was sacrificed, despite the Oktoberfest, when we chose Strasbourg.

We took the German Die Bahn from Heidelberg to Strasbourg, France! Late at night. Flash back to that night when we took the train from Germany, just like other strangers who first come to a new land without common language, anxiety. The train stopped for a short while at the suburb of Strasbourg, not Kehl. Lost, I stepped outside of the train to find some signs and soon after this the door closed after me, and separated CK, Jason, Tim, Huimin and Joker from me.

We woke up to a delightful autumn morning the next day. Cloudless blue sky, with warm autumn sunlight.

Huimin was going to embark on her adventure to Munich, so we revisited the impressive Gare de Strasbourg with its modern sky dome and old building first in our itinerary.

Jason and the exterior of Gare de Strasbourg. Jason is going to finish his final year in HK soon! All the best and looking forward to meet you guys in HK!

Gare de Strasbourg is a remarkable French architecture that combines the modern and traditional beauty.

Armed with nothing but map, we continued on to Grande Île, the Grand Island of Strasbourg. Flowers and rivers greeted us. At this time of the year, every leaf was a flower, the trees lined along the rivers blossomed with melancholy.

Strolling along the river I took in the scenes here with my camera. I never had any impression of France but Strasbourg really served as the great introduction to France. In fact, I much prefer this city over Paris.

After crossing the bridge to Grande Île, my imaginary Europe presented herself without drumrolls but my 'wows'. I used to imagine Europe would be places like this, and this definitely fitted the bill.

Medieval bridge Ponts Couverts:

As we walked further, Petite France district, dreamy European architectures.

Tim and CK. I believe Tim had had much more adventurous journey that this one.

Loom up against all the rest on the island... Cathédrale Notre Dame. Perhaps I really like Strasbourg more than Paris, and hate the overcrowded Paris's Notre Dame, The Notre Dame here was so much more gigantic and impressive. My lens' perspective could not convey how tall it was.

Holy light would shine on Him if you make a small donation. I didn't, ha ha but just nice someone did...

Then, another astronomical clock since the previous one I saw in Prague. Although I did not really know the significance of these clocks but couldn't help to admire the art work.

We saw landmarks of Strasbourg and while falling asleep inside the Batorama under the autumn sun. It was just too comfortable. I would want to lie on the grass bathing in the autumn sun. The boat trip that introduced us around Grande Île was a bit too long, hence the 3 or 4 EUR fare was really cheap.

Here comes Batorama.

Light and Shadow under a bridge.

Façade of European Parliament.

Another cathedral.

There are just too many things to write about this lovely French city. The french pastries, I would skip for now...

Just seconds ago before I clicked the shutter for this pic, a crazy guy was intimidating us while kicking a pigeon's dead body across the street.
Ignored him was what we all did.

Wikitravel: Strasbourg
Wikipedia: Strasbourg

Pertunangan Shadrini

2009-04-18T11:29:00.004+08:00

There is a saying, a woman looks the the best when she is dressed in her wedding gown.

I was invited, by MK(Singapore's) to join her in becoming one of the photographers for an engagement event. Well, both us are the only photographers. This would be my very first wedding-related event photoshoot!

To my surprise, a very positive surprise, it was a Malay's Pertunangan! I tried to search within my brain, no memories of Malay engagement, Perfect time to learn culture and photography!

About this adat pertunangan, the bride-to-be, which is Shadrini on this day, was not allowed to meet her fiancee and can only stay inside her own room until the ceremony ends. That was when we first went inside, anxiously, and found her sitting on a chair beside a big queen-size bed which took up 80% of the room's space. Shadrini was not allowed to see her fiancee according to adat resam Melayu on this day. The fiancee followed a traditional rule of Perminangan, where he had to ask family members and representative of him to come to Shadrini's house on behalf of him with a lot of beautifully decorated gifts. As for exchange, Shadrini's side would also have to prepare gifts to be brought back by the fiancee.

The gifts sitting on Shadrini's bed, waiting to be offered.

About 4pm, the atmosphere inside the house suddenly became merry and a lot of people came inside and sat on the carpet. Perminangan, this was the perminangan where the representative of the fiancee came offering their gifts to marry Shadrini.

In exchange, Shadrini's family would have to give the representatives gifts too if she agree to the representative's offer (if this is in the old days). Gifts offered by the fiance were so interesting and unique(at least I had never seen one of those before)! As usual, the gift was so well decorated by Malays' favourite green.

The most exciting moment, the ring was being put on to Shadrini, didn't manage a good one here.

And the moment of compassion and love... The gestures of love.

Everything happened too fast for me to have handshake-free pictures, even at ISO1600.

Time for feast, vegetable curry, chicken curry, mutton curry, rendang... and we were fully filled up and went back home, satisfied.

Condition of lighting: dim artificial pendafluor light plus window light diffused by the curtain.

Seriously, I did not do well... Portraits are hard. Perhaps I understand why they pay so much for wedding photographers.

Oriental Garden Lizard

2009-04-16T23:22:00.004+08:00

Are them the new exotic pets, the new addition to my family?
No, they are just the common Oriental Garden Lizard. They really live up to their name as Garden Lizard, I guess they inhabit some corners of my house's backyard or my neighbours'.

If Bobby knows about their presence, another endless barking and crying will be thrown to us. Bobby always like to chase after those house geckos. Those small creatures can already make him so agitated, imagine these two 15cm lizards?

"The Oriental Garden Lizard (Calotes versicolor) is an agamid lizard found widely distributed in Asia. It has also been introduced in many parts other parts of the world. It is an insectivore and the male gets a bright red throat in the breeding season leading to a common incorrect name of Bloodsucker."
- Quoted from Wikipedia.org

Recall about my encouter with them, I was holding my camera standing outside in the backyard trying to find some nice angle for my dad's Passion Fruit vines. Out of sudden I noticed this lizard was crawling out of the vines to greet me. I thought this was a very good chance so I point my dSLR's big eye towards it(even took my mum's metal mould for baking to reflect some light onto its face) and snapped a new photo of it. Another surprise next to my left ear, and this guy loomed up in pride and opened its mouth, to threaten me? Of course, I shot them both happily before they ran away into the bush.

Haha, this little cute guy sparked my interest in lizards! I thought it is an iguana, perhaps a smaller one but it is not. Iguana is so cool and cute!

奶油明蝦 Buttermilk Prawn

2009-04-13T22:22:00.006+08:00

A recipe from my mum. A Chinese delicacy that so many of us love, but hate at the same time because of the price if you order it outside.

Whenever before I leave home to catch a bus bound to Singapore, mum will just cook the best meal in the world for me. Best meal. Now that I do not really crave for delicacies of Seremban or anywhere, because mum's cooking is the best! Although I wanted to help out with the cooking but rarely I get the chance to show off, well the usual nagging and mum will ask me go out and wait instead of getting dirty in the kitchen.

What do you need? 需要的材料是?
- Fresh Prawns 新鮮的蝦
- Butter 牛油
- Milk 牛奶
- Curry Leaf 咖哩葉
- Chili Paddy 指天椒

Usually, I prefer to estimate than to put in the exact ingredient(irritated at having to get the exact amount everytime!)!

Before anything else, before the main steps...
Deep fry the prawns, with lots of lots of oil...
先把明蝦們放進去油讓他們游泳晒紅紅，然後撈上來讓他們休息。

Let's start with the main ingredients.

1. Melt the butter with sauce pan.
鍋子熱了後把牛油塊丟進去溶成液體狀。
2. Pour the milk into the melted butter.
把牛奶倒進去溶了的牛油。
3. Stir the mixture while heating until it's reduced.
一直攪拌, 直至干,油開始變得明顯
4. Throw in the curry leaves, sliced chili paddy and prawns and stir fry.
把咖哩葉，指天椒，還有明蝦都丟下去鍋裡炒香。

Then, that's all! 上桌！

當我決定擁抱自己, 世界就開始擁抱我

2009-04-05T11:47:00.005+08:00

*Photos credit to nailbell.

深深體會, 樂極生悲的感受...

Yesterday's concert was really awesome, we enjoyed it so much so much. We didn't notice that Seng's camera was no longer in SL's bag after the concert.

Counted the songs that she sang yesterday, omg, 33 songs! 11 of them were from the ENCOREs.

Opening with beautiful background, as if an angel rising toward the Sun... The visuals of the screen behind sync so perfectly with the mood and sound of hers.

Perhaps it is difficult to imagine how her concert could be so high, but I experienced it, yes... every fan just stand up and sing along!

Most memorable moments being her coming down from the stage, singing 1234567, and the fans knew it was time for shutter! Soon, the flashes and screaming, and also when she sang Guitarist with all of us together.

Messages about 太陽 being displayed on the background. 父母是我心中的太陽, 綺貞是大太陽, 太陽就是希望與愛.

During the encore, when she wore her classic helmet when she sang her 旅行的意義.

This time, I got no photos taken by myself...

A video recorded by some other fan from YouTube. It still feels so good to watch these videos. Just will not get tired of recalling the scenes back yesterday night.

I am proud of myself that I am one of the long time fan of hers, despite this is the first live concert and 2 weeks ago was my first time seeing her in real life. Despite I had headache and I vomitted 4 times on my way to the stadium, despite partly responsible for the lost of my friend's camera.

I was quite surprised that I appeared in a few of the videos of interview, but they wrote wrongly, the birthday was not last year's present!!! It was already 8 years ago!!! Read here.

就算和別人享有你精彩的假動作

2009-04-05T00:57:00.008+08:00

歌單 of the night

開場VCR + 手的預言
太陽
腐朽
躺在你的衣櫃-Guitar
天使
Self
尚未命名(孤獨)
嫉妒
華麗的冒險
下個星期去英國
倔強愛情的勝利
失敗者的飛翔
一首歌，讓你帶回去
煙火
Sentimental Kills
我親愛的偏執狂
等待
1234567
吉他手
讓我想一想
還是會寂寞
靈感

ENCORE1
魚
孤島

ENCORE2
旅行的意義
告訴我
距離

ENCORE3
小步舞曲
After 17

ENCORE4
九份的咖啡店
太聰明

ENCORE5
會不會

ENCORE6
每天都是一種練習

******************************

在去到演唱會場地的巴士還有 MRT 的途中, 在每一個找到廁所的地方都嘔了一次,一共四次.
但是, 老師一出現, 心情真的好了很多...
而且最棒的是, 演唱會高潮我都不覺得想嘔了, 頭痛阻止不了我和老師一起隨著音樂跳動扭擺身子!

這是我第一次看老師的演唱會. 相信以後你在來, 我一定不顧一切都要再一次融入你

如果老師你會再來東南亞, 我希望至少到馬來西亞開一次演唱會. 讓那里的歌迷比較有機會看你. 畢竟我還未來新加坡上大學之前也經歷了類似的心情.
這次有滿多馬來西亞的朋友專程從馬來西亞來新加坡. (很幸運的, 我現在是長期在新加坡的)

晚安!

******************************

An Assignment: NTU Buddhist Society

2009-03-30T21:51:00.003+08:00

Continue to the hectic Sunday's log.

Went unprepared to the Student Activities' Center, armed with minimum knowledge of studio lighting and my 400D + 50mm f/1.8 lens, I felt really directionless. Luckily hours before I asked Ming Wei along, and how delighted to hear the positive answer! Without his help I wouldn't know how to set up the lighting even I had 2 spotlights!

Smart Ming Wei, out of desperateness for a diffuser, and reflector, got a big white poster from Student Union room, oh with this the lighting looks so much softer on the face!

We actually wasted a lot of time due to the lack of experience. The group of Buddhists had to wait patiently beside and one by one came forward to be shot. Luckily they were not just a bunch of boring people, they would entertain themselves by doing their own shots too, while I was shooting.

People who do not know about photography and white balance, sure will be amazed by why the orangey warm halogen light will finally become the more 'natural' light as seen below!

Above photos were taken by Ming Wei with his Nikon D40 and a manual 50mm f/1.4. Hope to have one such good sharp lens too!

My favourite shots, actually are the group shots...

Here's the full set with the Guest Pass:
NTU Buddhist Main Comms

The Pang Sisters

2009-03-28T21:53:00.002+08:00

It was a very busy Sunday, just one day after my 23rd birthday.

Morning - Chinese Garden with the 3 sisters.
Afternoon - Zhou's Kitchen with the EVOLVE committees, yes thanks for the cake and surprise celebration!
Night - Buddhist Society's main committee photo-shoot (studio-style)

Focus on the 3 sisters first. Thanks to them I got to satisfy a bit of hunger for a casual photoshoot session.

Ai Lin - My long time friend since Bukit Mewah's time. Let's count the years, 8 years already? Famous for her friendly attitude to everyone and currently making a living by design. My favourite fashion adviser, I trust her taste! To make myself look better, 靠晒你!

Ai Wei - The eldest sister of AiLin. Didn't know much about her and last time I couldn't always recognize her because she seemed to always change her style and look, like the Chinese "變臉" show! Another adviser of me in general stuffs when I retouch photos, or post process or website. Nice to chat to in MSN ha ha.

Jun - The youngest of the siblings, and perhaps the smartest and most introvert(as compared to the elder 2)(內涵派). My junior in Bukit Mewah but didn't really know much about her. Now she can converse fluently in Japanese like a native speaker and dress like a Japanese too!

Spot the common point in the above 3 pictures and you will find that, the transparent umbrella was the "PROP of THE DAY".

Although Chinese Garden is too fake like any other Singapore monuments, but we like some of the places. The tea house for example, and where we shot the above 3 pictures. I like the trees and the shades.

Met up with them for 2 days berturut-turut and Ai Lin kept treating me... until I felt very bad. Luckily 3 of them were so understanding. Poor student who doesn't have fixed income yet, please forgive me! I paid back by trying my best to make the photos look good!

Obsession

2009-03-22T07:43:00.000+08:00

The story began, since her Groupies 吉他手. Radio was playing her 躺在你的衣櫃, rare, but I was lucky enough to be captivated instantly...

Time flies, 7 years, I had been listening to her songs, reading her words, updates and paying attention at her photos, and seeing her changes.

She is my photography inspiration. Yes, it was her interest in Lomo, that sparked my interest in photography. From looking at others' work in Lomography, I thought about buying a Lomo LCA and shoot the beautiful high contrast and colour-off photos, but realized that films are too expensive. She had published a book on her lomography, 不厭其煩 and is still sought after by me, but I still yet to have chance to get my hand on it.

My poetic inspiration as well.

Her popularity raised so much recently. My selfish little self felt happy for her sometimes, but the fact that she will be shared by so many people... and I ended up being pushed to the back row when I thought I would be able to get closer to her.

The dream materialized a bit with the autograph. I imagined myself giving her the flickr Moo cards I made but damn it, I forgot about bringing along! A longer glance from her, was enough to satisfy me, yes I think she paid me another smiling glance when I told her 辛苦了...

I finally got to see her in live, strumming her Gibson and singing my favourite songs. All my doubts about her were gone instantly, she is still my goddess, my teacher of life.

Yes, this is a confession. I admire you, I always do, 陳綺貞.

Update on my birthday: I took up my courage and made a bet, and yes, I AM GOING TO HER CONCERT!!! After telling Cheer's Singapore's organizer my stories of liking her, and impressed them!

Flash back to that day... (Not recorded by me of course...)

As usual, my favourites of her have been just guitar and her clean voice.

Golden Circle

2009-03-01T16:09:00.004+08:00

Explosion of geysers, fissure of continents, waterfalls, all in a day. This is none other than the classic Golden Circle route which first timers in Iceland will take. The route lives up its name as the route that showcase the many different faces of Iceland, or the best of Iceland! Yet, I think Iceland still has much more to offer than these.

After a good night's sleep in the comfy-homey Laugarvatn Youth Hostel (highly recommended, I wished I could spend another night here), we set off in dark morning, seeing the snow, sighed but what could we do with the weather?

Left look, right look, Laugarvatn, in between Þingvellir and Geysir, Gullfoss. No shortest path here. Luckily they are all within 1 hour's drive.

First stop, Þingvellir National Park. Another UNESCO-listed world heritage. The mountain shortcut to Þingvellir National Park was closed in winter, hence our journey became 1 hour, from the summer's 10 minutes' drive.

A shot taken in Þingvellir National Park. Nikulásargjá, or better known as Peningagjá, Coin Fissure in English. Can you see the glittering coins littered up at the bottom of the fissure?

A significant fact about this fissure, besides the magnificent view of it. By crossing this rift, literally you traversed through Europe and America continents! So I can tell others that I had stepped foot on American continent too! Haha.

Time was running short, the daylight was short. We lingered too long time here and had to rush to the legendary Geysir! Before that we made a short stop to Kerio, but nothing interesting about the dead volcano mouth here, because everything was white...

After about another half an hour, we came to a place covered in mists, passing by landscape that I only can dream of now. Sound of water sprouting could be heard, that told us, we were now in Geysir!

Strokkur Geyser, now being the main attraction here, instead of Geysir, the original geyser where 'geyser' derived the name from, exploded once in about 10 minutes.

Everyone was being patient here, waiting for Strokkur to put out its rage against us from the earth, then at the moment of its explosion snapped happily like no tomorrow.

Beautiful colour, mysteriously turquoise water boiling from the earth and as if already a norm, I could see coins littering on the bottom.

Next stop, the final, ok, the last place we got to see in daylight. Golden Waterfalls!

Gullfoss, Half Frozen

Just a few kilometers away from Geysir, there lies the majestic Golden Waterfalls or Gullfoss. The waterfalls, might not look as impressive as the Niagara Falls or the Queens fall, it is still carrying the name of the "most visited" and "most popular" waterfall of Iceland. No rainbows in the winter to be seen, neither crowds, perhaps to be optimistic, this is one of a better time to visit the fall?

We further wasted a bit more time here by waiting Jevon to trip and fall so many times that BS decided to video his miserable experience so that it can become a laughstock for us in future.

More Iceland!

Fettisdagen the Fat Tuesday!

2009-02-24T00:20:00.008+08:00

The special Fat Tuesday was celebrated earlier in IKEA, where I could still find traces of Sweden. Yes, they have Semla available here!!

Well, should thank Min for the information!

Really impressed by IKEA effort to bring in this traditional food from Scandinavia. With a whip of fatty cream, it really lives up its name. Imagine the almond scent that seep into your nose and makes u crave for more! That must be the reason why this dessert killed a Swedish King!

Martin and Liv, doing exchange here in Singapore.

We are all related by... yeah, Sweden!

And what is the typical effect the Semla has on us? We who have nose with high bridge?

*camera and photos credit to Min!

Far North: Wilderness

2009-02-19T21:27:00.002+08:00

Part 3 of the Far North Travelogue. Which continued after conquering the Ice Hotel.

Been anticipating this, dog sledging, snow mobile riding, cross-country skiing and staying in harsh winter's wilderness cabin. Although a bit expensive, but it was really once-in-a-lifetime experience, who will think of going so far into that cold hell in winter anyway? The summer is really beautiful, from what I saw in the pictures.

The group of six, 5 Malaysians and a Japanese.

So what I did first? After Henrik fetched us to his "base" which it seems he could pull out tricks of getting everyone a pair of winter boots and winter clothing. Here came my first Cold Hell Survival Tip, wear a pair of boots that is bigger than your feet. Run around, the air that is trapped between your soles, toes and the wall of the shoes, get heated and keep you warm. The artic light was glowing beautifully in the distance horizon while we were running like some lunatics, just to shake the cold off.

Getting impatient, finally Henrik the old called upon us to give us instructions. Didn't pay much attention though. My, the dogs were barking inside the boxes, before we were taught to hold on to their neck collar and dragged them to their post, ready for their day's only 2 hours activity. Of course they got hyped up and couldn't stop barking, crying and shitting, pissing all over the white snow.

After they did their job, the dogs curled up in their nest. I wondered, weren't they afraid of cold? Henrik threw the dog food like feeding chicken. They were so skinny, as if getting some mistreat... Blame us, the tourists.

Besides, we did snow mobile too... yay at least driving a different kind of motor despite we were not allowed to speed.

Later we went up onto a hill and oh, this was where we were going to spend a night in! Interesting!!

When the night falls, we went for cross country skiing, not the conventional type of skiing, on the frozen river and its bank. Kinda boring, the only excitement, the small hill where the wooden huts were, down to the river bank. Despite no artificial light, I could see the surrounding clearly, thanks to the full moon. I never knew full moon is so magical and faint though, the entire northern landscape was lit up. Galaxies could be seen up on the sky, clear and each star was so bright. Many of us did hope for the dancing lights to appear especially in this clear sky but the sky was as still as the night. Rumours had it that someone from the same tour saw the white wolf wandering around the cabins and we were warned to be extra cautious of surrounding.

Cross-country skiing, have you tried?

It was well past midnight, and we went for the sauna, which was heated by the wood chopped by us, by our hands. Nothing so special except we could go out to roll on the snow naked after getting all sweaty. Actually I didn't do that, the most daring move by me was just out to the cold to scoop up snows and carried into the sauna room so that the ice could be melted to warm water by the heat and we could bath.

That was the misty river which we had drink the water from, refreshingly cool and sweet water, although I did not know whether the water was clean enough to be consumed. We drilled a hole on the ground, scooped up the water from below.

As for meals, Henrik's chef, which me, no, everyone thought that he was a bastard that harass the girls sexually. Some people might say that this is normal to Europeans, but I did not think it was to this extent! I was suppose to talk about reindeer. Well the chef made us food, which he admitted that he got most of the groceries from ICA. Luckily some exoticness still could be tasted, the reindeer meat! They had some reindeers right outside their wooden huts so I wonder those animal were for display or they will be killed for food?

Did I mention ice fishing too? We drilled a hole similarly and no one was patient enough to get a catch.

See the frozen strands of hair?

There, we met so many new friends and kind of happy! Specially introduce my shooting partner of the north, Apple Ping!

This trip, which was my last Europe trip before departing back to Singapore kind of give my exchange travel experience a beautiful epilogue.

Far North 1: Northern Lights in Abisko

Far North 2: Ice Hotel

A very detailed Travelogue (Chinese) from a friend that I met in the tour, He Hua:
North

This Chinese New Year

2009-02-03T22:58:00.003+08:00

No reds... but blue skies.

Half a year, I never set foot into the land of Malaysia, where I was born and raised. I think a few years ago, I could never imagine I would leave Seremban and flowed into another phase of my life. Yea, adulthood.

My parents, who sacrificed so much so much, for me, for my sis, for my brothers. I love them. I felt like hugging them, but I halted, I blame our culture, and I am going to let them feel closer to me the next time I see them.

This Chinese New Year, I went back to Sitiawan, or more precisely, a small place beside Sitiawan, Ayer Tawar. We did that every Chinese New Year. My dad's family bond is very strong. No one felt reluctant for that long journey back, I look forward to the family reunion dinner, the beach, the monkeys, the kampung calmness, and they look forward to... I don't know.

This Chinese New Year, short break, but in some ways, I like it.
See you next year.
My aunt said that to me, I did not know how to respond but smiled.

Happy Chinese New Year. Am I homesick?

Far North: Northern Lights in Abisko

2009-01-29T23:15:00.001+08:00

1400km north of Stockholm, 17 hours train ride, I was anxious, but nonetheless felt excited about the coming body freezing experience. Where we got the negative of our equator temperature, meaning we have a negative sign, for instance, -24 deg C...

Layers and layers of winter clothing... just to prevent us dying in the cold.

What we saw there? What was it that we were dying to see? I never realize the phenomenon is actually one of Nature's Seven Wonders! Dancers in the northern night sky, but the one we saw was rather calm...

It's entirely up to your luck, whether the dancers in the dark are in the good mood to show you the wonder.

Another memorable experience, getting lost in national park? In this kinda temperature? To add salt to the wound, the sun set at 2.30pm here in the north. BS and me just lost the sight of the sign that should guide us back, and using only my phone's torch light to lit the footprints which was hardly visible in the snow. No sign of life at all was around us in the wilderness, not in this frozen forest...

Battery was running out soon, the torch would die out, and the light would fade away soon. Where were the others? Did they inform the turistation that we could not make it back? I thought it was impossible for us, to get lost here. My heart started to beat faster, using the dim torch, following the trails of ski or snow mobile, believing that they must lead us to the main trail. Soon I heard voice, calling my name, but no, it wasn't BS, it was surreal. Never mind and I got no mood to be bothered by it.

About 5 minutes later, we saw sources of light from 200m away. Promptly, I waved my last bit of handphone torch, but I forgot how to use SOS. 2 Spanish came to our rescue, so that we wouldn't have to starve inside the forest, wouldn't have to freeze, and wouldn't have to die.

Thank god we found you guys!!!

Far North: Ice Hotel

2009-01-17T10:26:00.006+08:00

Artic light, aurora borealis, Mother of Pearl, so lucky to see them all.

Got a few requests, about Ice Hotel. Ice Hotel was one of the reasons Kiruna visitors must take a day off their dog-sledging, skiing, aurora-hunting, and take a bus to nearby town of Jukkasjärvi. Beautiful small town, or should I call it a village?

Built from ground every year from the ice of Torne River of Jukkasjärvi. Yea, this is the river where they got you the Ice Glass in the infamous Absolut Ice Bar! Yea, Absolut, the alcohol of Swedes plus the world-famous art piece Ice Hotel!

Refill a few times and it'll melt away. Smart strategy and heard from the guide that the glasses are being produced in the count of millions here from Torne River and distribute to the Ice Bars of the whole world.

Entrance fee was 150 SEK, or RM75 or SGD 30. Expensive but definitely worth the price. The hotel opens phase by phase, when we were there half of the ice hotel was already completed. The art suites(too beautiful to sleep inside) like the one I posted above are gems to the eye but not all are completed. Therefore the best time to visit Ice Hotel should be around March to May where there are more sunlight and more complete structure.

To elaborate more on the art suites, every year they invite or rather, the artists apply to come and after some selection process, the selected artists gather around and start working, carving on the ice and let their imagination and creativity run wild. Each art suite bears a title and theme by a single artist. For example, the heading picture of the art suite is "Hoshi to Tsuki", or "Stars and Moon" by a Japanese artist.

Lost Paradise

Apple Tree (I forgot the exact name)

The Queen

Exploding Sun

Untitled (I can't remember the name of this one)

Time for prayer? Get closer to God in this ephemeral Ice Hotel Church which is a disjointed structure from the Ice Hotel here. Many people crowd over here to have their eternal vows heard by the god. Cold it is, but the warmth of the prayers shall keep them warm. Imagine, having a marriage here in the temperature of minus 20 to minus 0.

Some art pieces of Ice Hotel art suites, taken by my humble little 400D and kit lens.

Feed your curiousity on how they build the Ice Hotel from scratch every year, go to How Stuff Works - Ice Hotel!

So, before concluding our one short day enjoying the views of Ice Hotel, we were actually surprised by another natural phenomenon when we came out of Ice Hotel... The Mother of Pearl! Min must have hated me very much because she couldn't see Northern Lights when she came and she thought seeing this Mother of Pearl was great enough but we had both... ha ha.

Mother of Pearl - Not just beautiful sunset! Too bad my skill and lens not so good. Notice the colour of pearl, the pink bordering the whites and purple... I don't know how to describe...

I wish I am a Swede

2009-01-15T22:32:00.005+08:00

Haven't bid a proper goodbye to Sweden here. 10 hours flight from Stockholm Arlanda, the weather was so good, as usual, golden sun rays and evening directional light poured over the beautiful city.

Below, photos dedicated to the nice, but introvert(?according to other Europeans?) Swedes. Although I did not get to know many of them but they are definitely those that give me the best impression among Europeans.

Definitely, will go back again, if there is any chance.

Yea, I wish I am a Swede, but still, it's good to be Asian, a Malaysian too!

P/S: I have learnt some valuable lessons here, be appreciative, I am already very lucky, very lucky indeed.

Chapter New, Reluctant

2009-01-14T22:47:00.002+08:00

Yea... the new chapter in my life, began on 12th January, or 10th?

Internship in Agilent (welcome to ask me what it is).

Luckily the weather is not so hot and I did not feel like I am in an oven despite staying in a fridge for a long time.

Bye bye Sweden.

White and Boring Xmas

2008-12-28T08:31:00.003+08:00

Back from Paris and Geneva to Stockholm.

Had a really terrible xmas in Geneva... No white Xmas, and met a thief trying to pick my pocket on boxing day in the presumably safe Geneva?

Hope to enjoy more in the remaining days of Europe exchange here in Stockholm.

Update on the terribly long Paris stay and terribly boring but beautiful Geneva.

Seeing this inside the Norwegian plane back from Geneva to Stockholm, finally I understood why Switzerland is so sought after by tourists...

My heart is still with Iceland. :)