Studio 23 Dinner & Dance 2009 ~ the alternative shots

On my recent home trip, i had the opportunity to attend Studio 23's highly anticipated inaugural Dinner & Dance held at the newly opened Borneo Convention Centre in Kuching on the 14th, September to snap some pictures. It was a glam & glitz fun-filled event with plenty of stellar showcase of dance performances namely Belly Dance, Jazz & Flamenco among the popular few, by the instructor-student community of the studio itself. Just a day before, i made a timely acquisition of a much sought after lens, a 2nd had unit of the Tamron SP AF90mm Di lens from my good colleague, which i've subjected to heavy use during the event; despite being unfamiliar using the new addition & having to move about constantly to get good composition adjustment, *since it's a fixed-focal length lens, i'm very suprised by how well the shots turned out to be ~ very sharp & crisp, though for most instances due to the dimmed lighting during performances, i had to boost the ISO settings to max of 1600 *very noisy already for 450D* just maintain a high enough shutter speed *above 1/100 to reduce handshake*. Nevermind that i wasn't able to use my external speedlite i brought along coz my Eneloop batteries shipment is still on the way from Shashinki, as i type this -_- *my Sunpak P42Zx Speedlite is still a virgin!*
By staying on the larger aperture setting of the SP90 *shot mostly between f/2.8 - f/3.5 setting*, i was able the capture the creative ambient lighting of the stage while maintaining sufficient shutter speed to capture the on-stage actions. *i dig the ambient lighting!* =)
Here are some alternative shots from that night:

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The stage shot photos can be found in my FB. Do enjoy!
Also had the priviledge to cover the event together with a few seasoned photographers namely Jaysen, Frankie & Phillip from Philart *i hope i got your name correct* Looking forward to see your shots, guys! =)
*It was unfortunate that Frankie had to leave early due to an emergency. I hope your mom is resting & recovering well =)

Random Vids: UNIMAS Alumni Gathering '08

~ taken by my buddy Louis, on a trip back to my alma mater from sometime ago back when he just bought a brand new 350400D; thanks for the nice compilation! =)

~ this was the place where i received my tertiary education *literally, though we were still using the older & less grand facility during my uni years from '01 to '05*. An Electronics & Telecommunications engineer by training, i journeyed to the Pearl of Orient to join a multinational corporation as a R&D intern for a good 1/2 year, returned for my final year, got my degree & joined a wafer foundry as a Photolithography process engineer for another good 4 years. Today i've just begun to step into the role of a business planner in the O&G industry. It's interesting to see where the journey of life takes you. It's that unpredictable element that makes life exciting yet scary at the same time. You'll have to learn to count your blessings; i feel blessed to be where i am right now... Got to learn how to embrace changes; they make you move out of your comfort zone & make that extra push to establish yourself in a different way; having to adapt to new working & social environment, learn & pick-up new skills helps keep your mind sharp. That's the only way I feel, I can move forward from this point on...

Events: Spring & Summer Fashion Show 2009 @ the Spring, Kuching

The past weekend had been an eventful one, *in terms of my 450D utilization*. First up was the gospel concert the night before, then we went to catch the 3rd-day action of the fashion week held at the Spring over the weekend, on Sunday. Being a normal guy, naturally anything that gets my adrenaline pumping *fast cars* & heartbeat pulsating *hot babes*, is reason enough for me to whip out my camera to fire away... =p

Day3 Session#1: The Executive / Charles Jourdan collection

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Day4 Session#2: Xixili collection *this is what we're here for~! =D

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Kuching being a small & peaceful little town, you're bound to bump into most, if not all of your fellow bloggers & kaki-photo friends whenever there's an event.
A few of us actually went home feeling more 'uplifted'... ~ my baby ~m~, & irene...

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& Allen too??! =p

Events: SIB Grace N.O.W. @ Crowne Towers ~ 2nd May 2009

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Tagged along with my good fellow kaki-photo, Louis to help Frankie of frankie c. photography cover a gospel concert ~ SIB Grace Night Of Worship last Saturday night. I may have missed the recent Sarawak Rock Party, but this one's just as good for me; enjoyed myself thoroughly througout the event shoot ~ splendid & uplifting performance & the crowd was just great! =)
Here are some of the few shots of i've taken for the event ~ all shot using EF50mm f1.8 lens courtesy of brada Louis + w/o flash. I liked how the stage lighting effects turn out to be in the pictures; but had to live with the increased noise, as i had to dial up the ISO speed to 800 or higher, to retain the ambience for most of the time during the concert. Enjoy!

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Capping off with a wacky one (groupie) for the album xp

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* Thanks to Frankie for enlisting us to be your sidekicks; appreciate it, bro! =D

* pass the rest of the edited pichas to you soon!

More shots from my mates, cheers~!
Frankie
Louis

Work-In-Progress ~ next up...

2nd May, 2009 8.00 ~ 10.00pm ~ SIB Grace NOW (Night of Worship) @ Crowne Tower, Kuching

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3rd May, 2009 2.00 ~ 4:00pm ~ Spring Fashion Week @ the Spring, Kuching

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~ events that have kept me happily occupied this past weekend. Working diligently on the pichas... full update soon to follow. Have patience, ya =p

Events: Breeze model search S'wak ~ Test Shots @ Spring

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~ co-organized with Lim Kok Wing institute, this event is a modelling competition for both photographic (means shortie like me is eligible to enter too... =p) & catwalk models in which, the selected most eligible male & female models will be featured on the only entertainment/lifestyle magazine from the East, Breeze Magazine cover & fashions spreads ~ plus there are more than Rm50,000 worth of prizes up for grabs!
Me & my mate went to check out the event this afternoon, with our photo gear on-tow this time round in anticipation of the plethora of eye-candies to shoot... =p (went there with my baby yesterday only to look-see, look-see). Here are some of the shots...

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Tried out some photo-editing effectson the first few pictures to soften & mask out the noise from using too high of an ISO to shoot in auto mode initially... switched to manual mode from here onwards...

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Now look who's here too... Son Goku ~ Mr. Dragonball entertaining the kids with his trademark Kamehameha move... ~ part of some Acer promotion thingy; thanks to them, i received my freebie Dragonball Evolution mouse pad, hehe =)

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My photo-kaki mate, busy getting an upskirt shot of some sort... hehe. He's actually qualified to be a model & has had some experience doing modelling gigs, but he's just contented playing the role of a shutter bug this time round. Somebody talk to him & get him to sign up to contend for the Official @ Lim Kok Wing come next weekend: 24 ~ 26th April. *you stand a great chance, bro! *

What's Next: Breeze Launch Party @ Victoria Arms on 30th April. Details here. I'll be joining a group of bloggers to cover the event, thanks to fahriee for the invitation!

PIKOM PC Fair 2009 ~ the loot

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Okie, this should entitle me for a sufficient amount of tax relief so i will not run into a similar episode of this year's income tax saga... =p
Got myself a new toy which, i'm going to need sometime soon. Tada!! ~ a HP Pavilion DV4-1302TX plus a ton of freebies which includes a wireless Microsoft Arc mouse, carrying case, UCB sling bag, an AMB multimedia headset + 4GB USB drive with embedded antivirus, & HP Halloween Treat Box containing a HP pumpkin plush toy, an England liveried towel, themed-playing cards, a t-shirt and a magnatic photoframe ~ courtesy of my uncle who runs a computer dealership =D
The spec reads: Intel Centrino2 Core Duo Pro ~ 3MB L2 cache, 2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, runs a Windows Vista OS, has HDD of 320GB, runs a NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS, built-in TV tuner, and has the usual DVD/R/RW integrated webcam + finger print reader, Bluetooth & wireless 802.11a/g/n connectivity.
Dimensions: 14.1 WXGA HD anti-glare display, all in a package that weighs over 2.3kg which, is a tad too heavy for my liking.
But other than that, the package should be sufficient for my multimedia & photo-editing needs? (i'm not very tech savvy when it comes to PC stuff)

Random Shots: Sarawak Bridal Fair 2009

Tagged along with Louis, Allen & Irene for a visit to a fair held at Crowne Towers last night; neh, the type of fair that most gals would drag their boyfriends to... =p Was excited at the prospect of having subjects category: eye candies to shoot, tapi mana tau ~ the show ended abruptly as i was just getting the feel of the shoot & had my settings done. damn potong stim aje... -_-
Here are some of the very few so-so shots i've managed to shoot.

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*i wonder what's up with the awkward lighting settings of the stage? *

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This is also the venue to spot some of your familiar couple friends ~so you can start saving up some ang pow money for that soon-to-come 'red bomb'... *i see one coming already... =p *

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Not much great pichas shot, but one of us went home with a buffet lunch voucher for 2 courtesy of 4-Points Sheraton =D