Random Shots

Here are some totally random shots which I took last week. I am still in the midst of trying to learn how to use Photoshop to edit my photos. In the meantime, Picasa will have to be my temporary editing tool whilst in the midst of trying to read more online tutorials on basic photo editing.

Both of these shots were taken at Bukit Kiara park whilst the one below was at the Bandar Utama golf driving range. I was watching my friend Boon trying out his golf swing and managed to capture him in action.

And finally, a shot of the wonderful fried oyster with egg which I ate at Jalan Alor as well. Totally delicious!

Well from the theme, you could see that there were 3 black and white images and I was just merely trying to learn how to create those nice black and white shots. To be frank, I am not a "pro" photographer but everyone has to start somewhere right?

Completing the mark

Ok, the KL International Marathon ended a while back and I am glad to say that I managed to achieve my target of completing the 10km run within the qualifying time of 80minutes. Suffice to say, I did it in 80 minutes on the dot with a few seconds to spare. Of course it isn't the fastest but for an overweight guy, I think its a big achievement for me personally.

The last 10km run which I ran, which incidentally was my first run as well, I completed it in 95minutes with me walking most of the way and being completely left out from everyone. The sun was out and it was really hot that time. The route was interesting, I never thought that I would be running through Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail.

This time I made sure I could run within the qualifying time and at the same time be a little faster and complete it within the qualifying time of 80minutes. I am proud to say that I managed to do that as well as lose about 11kgs whilst training for it since January.

Only 12kgs more to go until I win my RM50 from Yee Seng this coming June.

Till the next time, my aching legs need some rest.

Noob shots!

Over the past couple of days I had so little sleep because I was attending a conference over the weekend. The workshop which I attended was on the subject of photography as I just purchased a Nikon D40 sometime over in January. Armed with my kit lens and an open mind, I was rather excited to learn more about the whole area of it. Only having the knowledge that I need to be "there" at the "right moment" and that photography is a hell of an expensive hobby, my mind was enlightened as if a bunch of midichlorians entered my brain.

Photo: Taken at Blaze City Damansara Utama

Cool things I've learned from the workshop is to always be thankful with what you have, no matter how lousy you think your camera is, you definitely need to know how to use it. I had trouble trying to learn the features of my camera and was constantly using it on "Auto mode" because everytime I moved to Aperture priority or Manual mode, I kind of sucked at it.

Photo: Taken at 1 Utama Driving Range

This weekend was the very first time I went on a photo-shoot assignment with the theme being based on Genesis 1 on how the Earth was created in 7 days. Of course that didn't stop me from going about and taking some random shots as well. I thought overall I managed to learn a thing or two about taking photos and I think .

Photo: Taken at Bukit Kiara park, TTDI

One of the things I enjoyed most was learning from people who has similar interests in photography and being able to just learn how their minds think and how they shoot some of their shots was just a blessing to me.

Photo: Taken at 1 Utama Driving Range

Of course the next step for me is to learn how to edit some of these shots which I took. Still have plenty of areas where I can really improve on but of course, it is a learning progress. Because I have been hanging around people who enjoyed photography, I think the worst thing that happened to me was that everyone was showing me their lenses!


So much for self control that I am actually searching around for a new 50mm F1.8 lens. Get the cheapest one first, that would be my first step and of course I need to get a couple of UV filters as well to protect that lens and my dad's 90-300mm Nikkor telephoto lens.

Anyway here are the photos which I submitted for my assignment.



A great thanks to the LiveWire team for organizing the conference as well as Louis Pang for being such a wonderful teacher.

Bleeding fingers

I think chords are flowing out of my ears, why? Because of all the chords and tabs I try to remember, I seem to forget all of them by the time I arrive at the jam studio. So much for a super memory. If only I was like Charlie from the TV series, Heroes.

This studio is definitely too small for us and there was barely enough space for all of us. Thank goodness this Sunday we managed to get a bigger studio. It was too small to even fit our drummer into the picture but no worries Hazlee, here is one just dedicated for you.

So many songs to learn and so little left. I think I am going bonkers. I definitely need an idea or maybe have a lightbulb like this over my head to indicate ideas popping in.

I really am going bonkers now....

My first experience

Last Sunday was the first time I was exposed to such an experience. It was totally unexpected but it was totally worth it. I've always heard about it and heard a lot of people talking about it enthusiastically but I've always been in the dark in that matter. I have to thank Boon for the initiative and actually getting me there early.

Upon arrival near Taman Jaya lake, I was shocked by the amount of traffic there was. Cars were parked on both sides of the road and volunteers were ushering cars through the heavy traffic.

I had to park at the nearby housing area and walk for about 5 minutes to the lake. The place was filled with people, young and old alike and plenty of food vendors were taking advantage of the festival/celebration to earn a hefty profit.

If you are wondering what I am talking about, this is the "Chap Goh Meh" festival which occurs every year and my mates were interested in picking up oranges with girl's names and numbers on them.

The occasion is marked by feasting and various festivities, including the consumption of Tangyuan. In traditional Chinese culture, it is also celebrated as the Lantern Festival or the Shang Yuan Festival. In Southeast Asia, however, it coincides with the Chinese Valentine's Day. It is also when young unmarried women gather to toss tangerines into the sea, in a hope that their future spouse will pick it up - a custom that originated in Penang, Malaysia. In the past, this is also the only day that unmarried ladies can be seen with their partners.

This was definitely an event to experience once in a lifetime for anyone, and it should definitely be more publicized and to attract more tourist to this special occasion. In case you didn't bring any oranges, there are stalls set up to sell oranges, flowers, small paper boats and even cold drinks.

Maneuvering through the crowd was tricky especially if you were carrying a camera and a camera stand at the same time. I reckon there were about almost a thousand people at the park celebrating the event.

Set amidst a wonderful backdrop of Amcorp mall wonderfully lighted up, I guess the main agenda on some people's mind is to find their other halves at this event or just enjoy the atmosphere or maybe you are there to have fun with your friends, laughing and finding interesting things to do. To others, love is definitely in the air with many couples clinging on to each other very closely.

Of course, one thing that me and Boon couldn't resist is doing something funny at the event. So lets go through it step by step.

Step 1: Bring some old oranges (expired ones)
Step 2: Write your friend's name and number on it with a permanent marker pen.

Step 3: Get into angle and try to warm up your hands a bit















Step 4: Throw it as far as you can into the lake and start laughing














Then of course to be even more prepared, you definitely need to bring a couple of fishing nets with a long pole in order to reach those oranges that are quite far in the lake. I guess this guy over here is no newbie in this sort of thing.

Then if you did forget your huge fishing net, you could always make use of some local resources there like this guy who took a branch from the ground.

Or maybe you could try using a basket to pull in those oranges. But believe me, it didn't work too well for that dude because I saw him try for about 15 minutes and failed every time. Hehehe

But nothing beats a good old fishing net I would think. Just throw it into the lake and start pulling in oranges. I would really be amazed if someone actually came in a wet suit or someone might rent a kayak and start rowing through the lake looking for oranges.

Amidst the hustling and bustling of the many people at the event, we started getting tired thanks to the high humidity and heat from so many people that I decided to head to the nearby mamak to chill out.

Of course, I wouldn't just leave without trying to take a nice picture of the scenery over there.

Man I definitely need to improve on my photography skills especially when shooting at low light conditions such as this.

Woah, thats huge!

When you expect about 20+ people to show up at your place for a Chinese New Year celebration, trying to get a huge enough "yee sang" for everyone to toss about is never easy. Well that was until I met Kevin and Jolene who came up with the idea of using the table as the plate.


Definitely a huge spread and by far the biggest I've seen in real life. Well of course you can't really compare to those which are used during MCA's open house events, but I would like to give my friends a big hand for getting all of the ingredients and also being the host for this fun event.


Now you would notice that the "plate" is just an aluminium foil so people who get overly excited need not try poking through the foil with their chopsticks.


So once everything gets a little crazy and everyone is just screaming and shouting phrases such as " Biiiiiigggggg boooonnnnnusssss this year!!!!!" or "Goooooooddddd healtttttthhhhh!!!", you know things might just get out of hand. What do you do next?


I just finish eating my own share. Buuuurrrrrppppp!