Sun Kept Yawning

Self Potrait

2008-06-30T00:28:00.004+08:00

It is very difficult for a photographer to do a decent potrait of themselves. It is true. Well, at least it is for me. I can have a million ideas to direct models to pose, but I can never get a decent pose of myself! Isn't that an oxymoron?

Anyway, I was playing around with my Sony A700 dslr last night and decided to experiment with the wireless flash feature of this camera. It came built-in the A700 and the only other element it required is the external flash, which I have (HVL-F56AM). Fired a few shots to tweak the settings and finally got a shot that I liked. And it is this shot. Finally managed to get a self-potrait! OK, so it is not a photo of my face, but it is still a photo of me. Hehehe...

I think it came out quite nice eh?

Jesselton Point @ 08 May 2008

2008-05-08T21:00:00.000+08:00

I wanted to go for a recital by Syafinaz Selamat that was supposed to be held at Jesselton Point. Unfortunately, this event never materialized... But three of us (xcaliber, JACQ & myself) decided to meet up at Jesselton Point anyway for some TT session. :) Jesselton Point is such a great place to hang out & take photos. Great location.

We met Leili, who was at Jesselton Point for the not-materialized recital as well. Leili is also a avid photographer and she brought along her friend, Ann. Ann is quite a natural model. Took a couple of shots of Ann just to see how good is she as a model. Turns out that she is pretty good with it! She got a great smile.

After the day had turned dark and it becomes rather difficult to take photos, we decided to look for a nice place to sit our tired bums down for some drinks - and hence the Teh Tarik (TT) session began....

Another new lens in my collection - yippeeeee!!!!!

2008-05-03T09:18:00.003+08:00

Yay! I had always wanted to venture into the realm of M42 lenses ever since I saw the photos from an 8mm Peleng lens more than a year ago. But I decided to introduce myself gently into this format (meaning not spend too much money on it). At the end, I purchased this nice Vivitar Auto 135mm f2.8 M42 mount lens. It was in very, very good condition. The aperture blades and focusing ring works exceptionally smooth. I'm ecstatic with it! Here are some photos of the lens attached to my Sony A100 dslr:

Well, after the hype of seeing how this thing looked like in flesh, what else can I do? Well, shoot some sample photos with this new lens of course! Here are some sample photos from around the house. Look at the bokeh from this lens! One thing though, since this M42 mount was created ages ago before the invention of Autofocus, everything is manual on this lens. The focusing and aperture setting had to be done manually. For me, who came from the manual slr film days (I started of with a Canon AV-1 slr), this is indeed a refreshing return back to basic photography technique.

I'm surprised really at how good the picture quality from this lens is. Considering the fact that I paid USD 21.00 for this lens, I think I have every reason to be satisfied with this lens. Now I have one more toy to play with. :)

Self Potrait Competition

2008-04-24T22:27:00.003+08:00

One of the photography forum that I'm more active in (Alpha Malaysia Club: http://www.amc.com.my/) is holdng a weekly challenge photography competition. Decided to enter it with the above entry. Done using 3 separate shots combined together. Shot using the Sony HVL-F56AM flash gun set on a tripod, and firing wirelessly from my left. One good thing about Sony's Alpha flash system is that you only need to buy the external flash, ANY Sony Alpha flash, and straigh away you have wireless flash capability. No adapters, no wireless commaander to buy. Great for novices like me to learn and strobist ways.... You think this photo is nice?

New update: Nope, I didn't win the self potrait competition. :( But some of the entries are reaaaally good. You should go and check it out!

My Beercan is Here!

2008-04-23T16:42:00.007+08:00

No... I'm not turning into an alcoholic. By "Beercan", I meant the venerable Minolta's legendary telephoto zoom lens. The actual name of this lens is Minolta AF 70-210 f4 (32) - quite a mouthful, I have to admit. But why the nickname "Beercan"? Well, because it literally looks like a can of beer! This is the lens mounted on my Sony A100 dslr:

You can see just how big this lens is, by comparison to my Sony A100 dslr. They really made it huge back then. A lot of metal & glass for the money.

Why all the fuss about this lens? Well, for one, the bokeh (blurr out effect) created by this lens is simply mind-blowing. It is very smooth. Here are some fast & simple shots to demonstrate the nice bokeh from this lens. I had only resized these photos and had not done any other post-processing to them at all.

Kota Kinabalu @ Night

2008-03-16T23:01:00.002+08:00

After taking the sunset photos, I spontaneously suggested we go up to the Observatory at Bukit Bendera for some night shots. It had been a while since I last went up there. It is now rather neglected with no lighting inside the Observatory at all. Great place for lovers to hang out though :P by evidence of at least 4 to 5 couples there. Anyway, some shots from the Observatory on the Kota Kinabalu street @ Night.

Sunset & More in Kota Kinabalu. Man! I love it here.

2008-03-16T22:50:00.002+08:00

OK! So I finally managed to take some photos from the Sutera Harbour Resort jetty. I had wanted to take some sunset photos from this location since 2 weeks ago but the weather in Kota Kinabalu was really being a b*tch for raining almost every evening. Had a great time taking photos with my friend Japrin & George. All 3 of us are photo-nuts you see...

Shooting Photos at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

2008-03-09T08:53:00.006+08:00

What a great day! For once the Sabah weather was kind on me and gave me a chance to take some photos. So happened I have a friend over from West Malaysia (xcaliber, from the amc.com.my forum) who is also a photography nut like me. I had never been to the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park so it was basically a blind leading a blind. :P But we got there eventually. Once there, we proceeded to do our photo-shooting mission. Ha! Did manage to take quite a few photos that I'm quite pleased with. All photos were taken with my Sony A100 DSLR.

This little guy is just sitting there pretty waiting for me to take the photo. How can I resist such a cutie? :) This was taken with an old Minolta 50mm f1.7 lens.

Now the owl was spooky. He was just sitting there staring at me. Gave me the chill. This shot was also taken with my Minolta 50mm f1.7 lens.

Asian Elephants. Elephants love water. This guy is so playful. He wll dive in to the water and grapple around for food. A total joy to watch, especially for the kids. This shot was taken with the Sony SAL75300 lens.

It was a great day with lotsa great photo opportunities. For more photos, please visit my flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/kysham. Leave a post or comment there. Thanks.

Election Day!

2008-03-08T10:59:00.002+08:00

OK, so today I went to do my bit to determine in some small part, the future of the country I so loved. Since the polling station for me is very near, I just walked there together with my sister. We walked for about 15 minutes. These 15 minutes I had used to reflect which political party I want to vote for. I looked around my housing area and ponder upon what had been done by the current government to make MY life more comfortable. It was a very interesting walk, and thank goodness the sun was not very hot this morning! So it was a relatively leisurely walk.

I looked at the road leading to my house is in good condition. Many years ago, this was not the case. It once was littered with potholes and we have to swerve left and right to avoid these holes. Our neighbourhood has a house break-in problem that is difficult to counter at the moment. Many people suspected that it is caused by the workers working in a construction site nearby but this cannot be confirmed since we do not have any evidence. Who is their right mind would want to go and confront the burglars when they are doing their deeds?! That is almost like suicide in a world where life is so fragile. When the police was called, they came, but of course, like in the movies, they always come after all the action is over. :)

I am actually pleased the main road outside our housing area had finally been converted from bi-way to four lanes! This project had been in progress for the longest of years but now that it is done, the traffic jams and road accidents had been reduced tremendously. Now, you can't say the government is doing nothing.

If you are wondering who did I vote for in the election, don't. Because I'm not going to tell. I can tell you this much though: the current government had done good, but not great. Gripes will always exists regardless of which government is in power. That is a way of life I had came to realise and live with. So who did I choose? The road I walked from my house to the polling station revealed that to me. :)

It rained! AGAIN!

2008-03-05T18:31:00.002+08:00

We are supposed to have a TT session (i.e. a Teh Tarik session) where all the Sony Alpha DSLR system users that I know will meet at Sutera Harbour Resort for a nice sunset photo shoot. Also planned it in coincidence with a fellow amc.com.my member from Terengganu (xcaliber) who is in Kota Kinabalu for a short working trip. Oh well, the weather is one thing we cannot control. :(

First post!

2008-03-05T16:28:00.001+08:00

Finally figured I may want to try my hands at blogging. Yes, I think I'm getting old and want to write down my mind somewhere so that I can recall (and also for the world to know) what I was thinking at that particular time in my life. Well, this is what I think blogging is all about anyway. Sue me!

It will be interesting to know how far I can go with this blogging thingy.