Inter-cultural Mooncake Festival 2008 @ Carpenter Street ~ Part II

Had actually been there for both nights of last weekend ~ on saturday with Vell & Loi, for the finale on sunday with Louis...

Played around with the custom WB & tweaked the user-defined picture style to get a slightly over-saturated & warmer color scheme for the photos...

on the 2nd night..









*could have gone there earlier; backdrop of the sunset skies looked great in Pazuzu's shot... =)

Inter-cultural Mooncake Festival 2008 @ Carpenter Street ~ Part I

Yet another procrastinated post by yours truly... Held in conjunction with the mooncake festival which falls on last sunday, this week-long colorful cultural event has been been growing in scale since the last couple of years. It is one of those events not to be missed, especially you've got a sweet tooth for old-school snack goodies like gula kapas, ice-kantong, ice-cream puffs... & mooncakes of course ~ a sea of variety to be found on stalls lining up the whole street. Having an dSLR just gives me yet another good reason to go. =)
Here are some shots in monochrome mode...

Supposedly, shooting in B&W gives better performance in terms of noise, especially when shooting in low lighting condition at night using very high ISO. Shot in jpeg format with ISO800....

spot any significant difference? nothing significant (noise) enough for me to make out...

Toilet Shots: Jenny's B'day

Here are the long awaited photos, taken by mrtoilet's (Sony Cybershot) during last friday's little bash @ Silhoutte & the Core... dim lighting conditions rendered most of the shots blurry... Had given the photos a little photoshop touch, but to bring out some 'drama' ... =)

yummy-licious strawberry shortcake... =p

happy burstday to pretty miss long-eye-lashes!... lol



merry making continues at the Core...

thanks to Keith for his generous whisky treat! =)




bradas foreva!

the only shot of all the fellas that night... *got too tipsy to pose 'properly'...

santalouis will be bringing his dance moves to Taiwan soon...
That's all folks... =)

4 Reasons why i need a faster lens

1...... 2...... 3...... 4.....

Even when shooting in continuous mode at 3.5fps, at ISO800 & at the widest allowable aperture, i can't seem to be able to 'freeze' the action. No way i could shoot faster than 1/10 in that lighting condition (no flash) without ending up with severe under-expose... so i had be contented with those ghost-motion shots. On the other hand, my buddy Louis had a much easier life, having had a much 'optically faster' lens (50mm F/1.8) at his disposal; me envious of your shots, bro...
*Those are some snapshots of the Hip-Hop Invasion B-boy Battle held in conjunction with the Inter-cultural Mooncake Festival at Carpenter Street the on Sunday night... more to come soon... =)

Hmm... i should consider getting something like this:

LEICA NOCTILUX-M 50mm F/0.95 ASPH ~ the worlds' fastest aspherical lens!!
Will be available next February, at a price tag of £6290 only.... Yeaps... i'll be sure to get those if i strike the $20million tomorrow.... xp

It's a SHOWDOWN!


MG RX-0 Unicorn Gundam


MG Strike Freedom Gundam


In full psycho frame Destroy mode, the Unicorn towers over most standard-size MGs... *watcha looking at, shorty?*

~ back to the earlier post on the CR2 transfer glitch, i'm going to try out via a card reader next... hopefully that's going to work.

1-09-08 Siong & Chew Yien's Wedding ~ i had my very first taste of wedding photoshoot recently; of a bubbly pair whom i've known since my upper secondary schooldays. Of course i was not the qualified official photographer of the day, just trying to play one... =P Brought my partner-in-crime loi-kiss along, & he's shot some impressive angle shots on the detailing; *checkout his facebook portfolio...* Now i understand why professional wedding photographers are paid handsomely... coz it ain't easy AT ALL, to cover an event like this ~ having to get the setting on your camera right, on the dime; not to mention indoor lighting conditions can be a photographers nightmare ~ resorting to built-in flash when shooting under dim condition is a no-no for me, coz it tends to spoil the natural lighting composition of the shot. Wonder why event photographers invest in expensive superior performing external flash? now i know. And then, there also the talent & instinct factor which comes into play ~ of knowing how to compose a shot, getting the right angle that brings out the dramatic-ness of the photo... & where's the sweet spot to shoot from, always one step ahead to capture 'the moment', before it is gone with the wind. ~ It is almost like a mesmerizing art form that requires a lot of hardwork (shoot, shoot, shoot...& keep shooting til you get the perfect shot), patience & some creativity to master. In all, out of the many hundreds (over 300+) i photos i shot for the day, only a handful turned out okay (presentable lah)... Here are some of the shots i would like to share with you all, & to my fellow ET coursemates, especially Patsda, Colina, Hui Phin, Kino & Pei who weren't around to attend the ceremony. To Siong & Emily, it has been truly a unique experience for me to be part of your Big Happy Occasion ~ Thank you, congrats & all the best! =)
*from photography point of view, it is still a steep learning curve ahead for me*

The update on this project is long overdue... it had actually been completed at about the same time when i got my new toy, the EOS405D a couple of weeks back. Had intended to post some of its showdown pixes taken earlier today. Shot them in raw format for the 1st time, but when i attempted to transfer the pixes from the SD card to my PC, the memory card was read as blank/blank empty? Took some sample shots using raw-jpeg format split & tried again ~ only the .jpg ones were successfully read? I'm using bundled EOS Digital Solution software, it should be equipped to detect the raw format.... *dunno what's the problem here... arrgggh! xp ... anyone care to enlighten this noob? thanks in advance!

060908 Sunrise Photoshoot ~ That was how it we had intended it to be, but unfortunately the skies had other plans. Dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly early hour, took awhile for me to snap out of my zombie mode before starting to wake-up-SMSed the others, but it started to rain at the very moment i was about to set out from home. -_- That's how we all ended up in an old kopitiam at 3rd mile, just slightly past 6am. *even on a normal working day, i'd still be dozing in bed at this time*

Enjoying Kuching's favourite breaksfast ~ kolo mee with the usual suspects, Jen, Charissa & Loi... though Louis did not make it, but had the courtesy to reply my wake-up call before going back to zzz...

Loitered around for an hour or so, before the weather got a little better & we decided to press forth with our initial plan to shoot at Friendship Park, since we had brought along our photo-arsenals anyway... but alas, the morning sky lit up to a monotone shade of grey...

Nevertheless, it's a great start for a weekend. Picture perfect sunrise yet to come, for me... =)