HoKC Images

Diana Liu @ No Black Tie

2010-11-22T20:38:00.002+08:00

24th September

I first heard her songs on One FM.. A Malaysian girl with an amazing voice singing jazz infused songs which is something rare i think.. Later I heard some songs from her album "最美好的" and absolutely loved it, especially the song titled "鱼".

So when I heard that she was going to perform at No Black Tie, I made my way down to KL after work. Backed by a 3 piece band, her live vocal was superb. It was a great show indeed.

Sa Ding Ding: Live in KLCC

2010-11-22T20:07:00.002+08:00

11th September

In conjunction with the Popular Book Fair held in KLCC, Universal Music brought in Sa Ding Ding for a one-off live performance. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the official crew to cover her performance.

Born in Inner Mongolia, Sa Ding Ding's music is an unique mix of Buddhism chant, Tibetan music and Sanskrit language fused with thumping electronica beats.

Her vocal performance was impressive although I have to admit that most of the time, I can't really make out the words. Maybe it's the Sanskrit....

On stage, her performance was energetic; dancing from one end of the stage to the other..

Coupled with her colorful costume, it was really a visual feast...

After the end of the performance, there was a open dialog session with the fans where she talked about her experience in making music, especially the hardship when making alternative music that goes again the popular and commercially acceptable genre.

If you have never heard her songs, I strongly recommend you give it a try!!

A girl, a car and the empty basement

2010-10-10T12:30:00.004+08:00

5th September

This is something that a group of us had tried to put together for some time. Our very own "Hypertune" type shots.. So finally, we gather all the main players and went to an empty basement parking lot..

The Car: Toyota Celica owned by Wingz

The Girl: Kiiwii See

With a mixture of Sony and Nikon system, it took us sometime to get all flash unit working together, but all in all, it was a fun session..

At the end of the session, we ask Wingz to go around in circles so that we can take some of these. Thanks Wingz!!

Random shots

2010-10-10T12:23:00.002+08:00

29th August

Some random shots of sports car on display at NZX. The place was practically a ghost town so we had time to strobe around without interference..

This Evo and the RX7 in the background obviously got it's design cues from Tokyo Drift..

A nicely done old school M3..

Walking the streets

2010-10-10T11:12:00.004+08:00

22nd August

Street shooting has always been one of my biggest weakness. Finding something interesting out of the everyday scene. Things that I see, places I walked by; all these could have been a great subject but most of the times it passes me by..

Well on this particular day, a group of friends went around downtown KL and I joined in.

Some shots from the day's walk..

Happy times..

People's cry..

Ray of faith..

The Reluctant Saint

2010-09-10T12:52:00.002+08:00

11th Aug

Had the opportunity to tag along with RL to cover a theater performance at KL Pac. I have shoot concerts and live shows but soon discovers that theater is another ballgame altogether.

Some background on the performance: The Redemptorists are celebrating 75 years of their presence in Malaysia and Singapore. In conjunction with the celebrations is the production of the musical - The Reluctant Saint. It was first performed 13 years ago as part of the 300 year celebration for Saint Alphonsus Liguori and very well received.

The cast before showtime..

The musical is based on the life of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists Congregation. Born into a noble family in Naples, Alphonsus' life as a young hotshot lawyer takes a turn when he answers God's call to serve.

It is a story that tugs your heartstrings and a musical that entertains. Performing in the musical is a talented cast made up of young and old members backed by crew members who have come together from different backgrounds to tell this story.

The musical is also being performed in order to raise funds for the Redemptorists Congregation in Haiti. The Congregation there suffered tremendous loss and destruction of their buildings in the major earthquake in January this year.

All donations from the performance will go to the Haiti Disaster Relief Effort for the Redemptorist Mission.

Time to Attack

2010-08-15T23:11:00.003+08:00

25th July

Zero To Hundred, a popular Malaysian auto forum held their second Time To Attack track session at Sepang. A friend was doing some coverage for Team Revo and I tag along for some fun.

The event was held in a time attack format, where cars were divided into sub-categories and allocated track time to set their fastest laps.

The brand new Lotus Evora was there to join in the fun..

Didn't spend too much time at track side this time around. I guess after Super GT, it's kinda hard to get excited over road cars. Anyway, back at the pit, I tried shooting other stuffs instead..

Also tried out some slow shutter shots and new editing style..

Of all the cars participating, I was particularly interested with the Audi R8. The engine note was sweet music.. I didn't get any shots of it on tack, bad timing I guess, so the next best thing was to take some shoots of it in the pit..

For the event itself, the results are as below..

Supercars
Abu Bakar – Lamborghini Gallardo – 2:34:314
Jason Wong – Nissan GTR R35 – 2:34.957
Mohd Azmil – Porsche 997 Carrera 2S – 2:37.875

GT Cars
Shedden Ed – Porsche Cayman S – 2:36.501
Adam Muza – BMW M3 CSL – 2:36:568
Nick Tan – BMW M3 – 2:46.118

Race Cars/Time Attack Machines
Ee Yoong Chern – Nissan Silvia S13 – 2:31.813
Reuben Wong – Proton Satria Neo Clubsport – 2:43.618
Yani Madewnus – Honda Prelude BA5- 2:52.282

Turbo 4WD
Gerald Tan – Mitsubishi Evo 9 – 2:32.279
Jon Teo – Mitsubishi Evo 6 – 2:32.664
Kelvin Teo – Mitubishi Evo X – 2:32.736

Naturally Aspirated – Front-Engine Front-Wheel-Drive (FF)
Colin Chow – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:36.991
Ari 7474 Team 2:40′s – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:38.567
Ng Tiam Lai – Honda Civic Type R FD2R – 2:39.127

Ee Yoong Chern recorded the fastest overall time in his Nissan Silvia S13 for the 2nd round of the Time to Attack challenge.

Escape to Paradise

2010-08-14T09:19:00.006+08:00

9th July

It's has been ages since my last proper vacation. For the past year, all my trips has been work related and sometimes if I'm lucky I can squeeze in a day of walk around. So I was pretty excited about this trip to Sipadan.

To get to Sipadan, you need to take a flight to Tawau and then transit by road to the coastal town of Semporna. The road trip took about 1 hour. The Semporna town itself is nothing to shout about as it's key role is as transit point for visitors going out to Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai, Mataking and others. The Semporna coastline however is lined with Bajau ethnic houses on stilts by the jetty and around the town's mosque.

and being a coastal town, there are boats everywhere...

Our 1st stop was the Mabul island where we will spend the night. From a fishing island, Mabul was transformed into a tourist's stop over when all resorts on Sipadan was closed in order to preserve the island in a pristine state. What you get is an intresting mixture. Instead of a typical resort setting, you live among the locals in a converted homestay hostel.

An interesting sight as we approached Mabul was the Seaventures Dive Resort which was converted from an old accomodation barge to a dive resort, just off the north shore of Mabul. From far it looked like an used oil rig.

Our accommodation for the night. Twin sharing room powered by an electric fan that can only be turned on after 6pm to conserve electricity.

But then again, you don't come to Mabul for it's world class facilities. You come for these beautiful sunsets that you will never get in KL..

The next day, I woke up at 5am and have a walk around the island,hoping to get a glismpe of sunrise..

Some shots from the shore during the early hours..

Our activities for the day was a snorkeling trip to the Ligitan Reefs at Kapalai. The island of Kapalai is situated just 15mins off Sipadan. Next to our snorkeling spot is the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort, built on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reefs.

Oblivious to the tourists and vistors, local boys paddle their boat for their fun under the sun..

For the 2nd night, we switch over to Singamata Resort as it just a quick 10 minute boat ride away from the Semporna town. We had to be at Semporna by 7am the next day for our trip to Sipadan so this was the most suitable place for us to spend the night. As a proper resort, it has much better facilities compared to the homestay in Mabul.

Surrounded by the open seas and sitting on top a large reef formations, you can just walk down the wooden platform and dive into the sea. It also has a lot of photo ops...

The most beautiful sunset I ever saw..

A new day...

The main course for this trip...Sipadan island. As one of the world’s best top dive destinations, Sipadan needs no further introduction amongst divers. Due to conservation reasons, the Sipadan Marine Park authority imposed a restriction of 120 visitors per day to the island. The island is literally a turtle and shark haven. Green turtles, hawksbill, white tipped sharks, reef sharks and black tip sharks seemed to appear everywhere a diver chooses to look! More than 3,000 species of fish and hundreds of coral genera can be found there, making it a most diverse and beautiful diving site.

Approaching the island..

The main jetty..

taken with the Diana F lens..

sandy beach, clear blue sky, crystal clear waters...

paradise on earth..

We were taken out for 3 snorkeling / diving trips for the day. Besides the vast numbers and fishes and corals, there were A LOT of sea turtles!!

An underwater MTV for the trip...

All good things come to an end, time to go back to the real world..

Up close & personal

2010-07-27T21:30:00.003+08:00

4th July

I'm nuts about cars. Especially fast and furious super cars.. That probably explains why I'm willing to spend my weekends under the hot sun shooting all kind of motorsports stuffs.

On this weekend, Mercedes held their Driving Experience event at the Sepang track. Originally I had wanted to give it a miss especially since I had covered it just a few months back. But my contact told me that a very special "guest" will be there and I shouldn't miss it..

That special "guest" turned out to be the new supercar from Mercedes Benz: The SLS AMG...
A V8, 6208cc, 572hp beauty capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds, and can reach an electronically limited top speed of 317 km/h. To own one, just pay RM1,999,999, without insurance.

The SLS AMG replaced the SLR Mclaren as it's flagship supercar and take it's design cues from the legendary 300SL Gullwing.

It retains the familiar wing doors that will swing open upwards on gas struts. The new car has a long bonnet, the passenger compartment is close to the rear axle and the rear of the car is short. An interesting fact about the doors: in case of a roll-over, the doors can be fully detached to allow the occupants to leave the vehicle.

With it's RM2 million price tag, you can be sure the interior will be top notch. Lucky owner will enjoy creature comforts like heated seat, 6 disc DVD changer, Bang & Olufsen sound system, 11 speakers, auto climate and all the other bells and whistles..

After the rain had stop, the car was driven out onto the main straight for some photo session. On the track, with the pit wall as backdrop, this car looked magnificent.

Once the photo session was over, the car was fired up. The growl of the V8 engine was stunning..

I didn't get to ride in it and I don't think I'm gonna be able to afford it anytime soon.. so the next best thing was to take a photo..

Super GT 2010: Race Day

2010-07-17T19:48:00.002+08:00

20th June

Race Day!!!

I'm all pumped up!! This is the first time I'm going to shoot a GT race from track side. Sure beats the hell of shooting track day cars. It was still early when I reach the track so walked around the pit area.

Familiar sights at team garage; seems the hot weather really gets to them..

Bright morning sun; good for doing the laundry..

"When I grow up, I wanna be a race queen...."

"....like them"

Time for GT warm up session and I made my way to Turn 2. Decided not to venture too far out today as I have covered most of the key spots yesterday. 10.45am and the cars hit the track..

Just before Turn 2, the Lexus tends to spit fire during their downshifts..

The exhaust of the R-35 lights up but was nowhere as dramatics as the Lexus..

The pit safari was next and it was kinda amusing watching these tour buses tip-toeing along the track while the GT cars tried to navigate around them. At the same time, the people inside the buses are trying to take pictures of the cars. I wonder what kind of pictures you can get from inside a bus..

The next activity was the Pit Walkabout. This time the situation was chaotic; there were just too many people down there in the pit. Decided to hang out inside the Media Centre while observing what goes down below..

Decided to head over to the mall area instead and check out what's happening there. Here we have some Malaysian race queen..

Some cool cars on display..

But once the GT queens appears, everybody's attention was fixed on them..

After lunch, I headed back to the pit to wait for the GT grid formation. 1 hour before race and the team are busy with their preparation..

This fella was however busy working on his tan..

"Gotta look good out there. The girls are watching.."

Counting down to race. The pit crew hovers around the car..

This is it.. I can hear the growl of the GT cars and they started to make their way out for grid formation..

Once the cars were lined up on the grid, the mechanics, race queens and flag bearer made their way out on track and finally, the photographers were allowed on track. It was an amazing atmosphere with all the people and the cars..

not forgetting the girls..

Final countdown and everyone was ushered out from track as the cars prepare for warm up lap. I returned to Turn 2 hoping that there's gonna be some sort of incidents during the start. Sure enough right at the start, cars bumped into each other as they jostled for position going into Turn 1 and 2..

After a few laps, the cars were still bunched up together..

Too close..

The Weider HSV-010 did very well to came home 3rd despite the 1st lap incident..

The MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was leading much of the race until an accident towards the end dropped it down to 2nd..

The CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R took race victory for Round 4, benefiting from it's tangle with the Motul Autech GT-R..

For GT300 class, M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 took the race win, crossing the line 27 seconds ahead of field..

There's rumors that this is the last time the Super GT series will be staged in Malaysia. I sure hope that's not the case as their departure will be sorely missed by the Malaysian motorsport scene. If they really are not coming back, then at least I can be glad that I have lived through the Super GT experience..

Super GT 2010: Day 1

2010-07-14T21:55:00.004+08:00

19th June

There are some motorsports events that I wished to be able to cover at least once in my lifetime: F1, D1, MotoGP, WRC and Super GT. Thanks to some help and arrangement from friends, I manage to finally tick 1 off that list. Round 4 of the Super GT series took place from 18th to 20th June at the Sepang Circuit and I was there with a media pass.

Skipped the 18th as it was mostly practice session for the support races while the GT cars only went out on Saturday. So that's officially Day 1 for me. I arrived late at the the track with just minutes before the start of Practice 1 so I walked over to Turn 4 and Turn 5 from the parking lot and started shooting.

The new Honda HSV 010: A beautiful car indeed. It also marks the end of NSX in the Super GT series.

After the end of Practice 1, we hitched a ride on the Media Shuttle back to the Paddock and pay the pit a visit. I was surprised to see this logo on the pit board. EVA rocks!!

Matching color scheme on the bodywork on the GT car.

A well known name in the GT series..

Crew members hard at work, oblivious to the crowd outside..

Highlights of the Super GT: Appearance of the GT Queens!!

Hey, that's a Sony!!

After the pit session, it was time for a quick lunch followed by the Qualifying session. Went over to Turn 14 where a friend served me some heavy duty gear poison: D2Xs, D3s, 70~200mm f2.8 and the superb 300mm f2.8... I absolutely fell in the love with the 300mm. The speed and the sharpness was mouth watering!! Luckily I can't afford the thing so I'm gonna just put in there in my wishlist..

After Q1, it was a 1 hour break before the Q2 Super Laps were the 8 fastest cars from each class go out for another run to determine their starting grid position.

CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R driven by Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli took pole for GT500 class with a best lap of 01:57.409

For GT300 class, JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP F430 took pole with a best time of 02:09.167

With the end of Q2, it was time to call it a day and prepare for Race Day..

Goodyear International Drift Series

2010-06-24T23:49:00.005+08:00

12th & 13th June

After the recent FX Open drift event, I was itching to get another chance to shot some drift action. The Goodyear International Drift Series took place in Putrajaya during the weekend and I wasn't going to miss it. However, when I arrived at the venue, I was dissapointed by the track layout and the spectator viewing arrangement. Unless you're paying for the grandstand tickets, there's really no point of going. There were fences surrounding the track and lot's of the good spots were off limits. If it was bad for a spectator, it was even worse for a photographer.

I went to the Media tent and ask around for a photographer pass. Luckily, the nice folks from Goodyear was willing to accomodate my request and gave me media access. Hooray!!! GO GOODYEAR!!!

The rain had just stopped and the track was still quite damp. The cars were going around for their practice runs.

Hashiguti Anderson from Brazil, smooth driving style..

Michael Gan in his Skyfiro..

Fanga Dan in his RB26 powered Holden from New Zealand was the crowd fav with his superb car control and smoke show...

Due to the slippery track conditions, lot's of drivers were caught out and spun on the 1st corner. The biggest casualty was from Team Touge Motorsport , crashing heavily on his 1st run on track..

The force of the impact was so strong that 2 concrete blocks were knocked down..

New hatchback design..

For the rest of the session, more cars fell victim at that same spot..

Day 2 started at 10am with another practice session..

Turn 1 continued to be a tricky spot as more drivers failed to clear it safely..

"Ooopppsss!!!!"

"I wonder how much this is going to cost..."

Seconds to impact..

Fanga Dan continued his superb form..

while local fav. Tengku Djan lost out early in the competition. Fresh from winning the FX Open, this was indeed a huge upset. Maybe it's his new car..

Another local fav. Ah Fai was also in superb form all weekend but was no match for the Holden in the semi final..

The other semi was between 2 AE86 driven by Tan Tat Wei and Ivan Lau...

Ivan Lau took victory to set up a final clash against Fanga Dan..

Before the final, Ah Fai and Tan Tat Wei went head to head for the 3rd / 4th placing shootout. It ended when Tan crashed his car in to the barrier in dramatic fashion..

The final run turned out to be a rather low key affair. Ivan Lau overtook Fanga Dan and was penalized for it. (Formula Drift rules does not encourage overtaking unlike other drift competition)

For the 2nd run, Fanga Dan kept his cool and completed his run safetly. The win was in the bag..

Winniy @ Studio

2010-06-15T00:24:00.004+08:00

6th June

After 2 consecutive weekend shooting motorsports, I needed something else that does not requires standing under the hot sun and getting my myself burned to roasted condition. So it was a welcomed relief when RL Photography invited me for a photoshoot at his studio. We have the beautiful Winniy Sen as our model and the talented Cindy as our make up artist.

It was a fun session as we played with different lighting setup. Add to the fact that Winniy was a complete natural on set!! She can pulled off some killer poses without us having to instruct her!!

The first set..

My fav. from this set.... Winniy and her killer eyes!!

The 2nd set with her in a lighter and more playful tone. For this set, we used available lights from the windows..

For the 3rd set, I tried to recreate the lighting setup for Shelby Lynne's album cover..

What I got was this.. hhmmmm, not excatly what I was hoping for..

I kinda liked this though... the lights and the shadow blended to create just a hint of sensuality..

Cold tone editing in Lightroom..

Final set for the day.. using only a beauty dish

Great session. Kinda impressed with the Nikon 18~55mm lens. Kit lens rockkksss!!!

GRA Round 2: Sepang

2010-06-15T00:05:00.002+08:00

5th June

Another motorsports outing after last week's FX Open drift event..

Round 2 of the GRA championship took place at SIC where the main Carpark A was turned into one huge race course. As usual, GRA is a bit different from your average track racing. Drivers have to negotiate a series of tight bend, hairpin turns and fast straights to clock their best time. Control rather than speed is the key for GRA..

Some of the action shots from the day's event...

The obligatory shots of the race queen and their sponsors..

This time the event ran until almost 10pm. Alas my night shots suckssss big time..

Need to be more prepared next time another night event comes around.. Need to work on my skills ASAP!!!

FX Open 1Malaysia Drift - Day 2

2010-06-05T11:46:00.005+08:00

30th May

Day 2 of the competition. Managed to applied for a media pass and just got hold of a 2nd hand D300. Alas didn't have any lens to go with it. Luckily managed to borrow a 18-55mm kit lens. Kinda felt intimidated standing at the press areas with all the D3s, 1D and their big bazookas..

But let the pictures do the talking..

So far so good.. Standing close to the apex means I wasn't limited by the shorter focal range. Plus I was able to go wide to cover both cars when they had the tandem battle..

Standing so close however had it's share of hairy moments.. like when this 350Z oversteer into the turn and spun so close to the photographer's area..

As usual, there were brushes against the safety cones and the tires wall. But this was the most dramatic moments..

War wounds..

The RX7 was crowd favorite with it's aggressive style but was dissapointed when mechanical problems put it out of the competition..

Winner for the day was Tengku Djan. No calls for "One More Time" during the final round as he stamped his authority and outdrove his competitors.

Went home with some serious sunburn and tire dust all over my face.
Thanks Ethan for the lens.

Kit lens rocks......

FX Open 1Malaysia Drift - Day 1

2010-06-05T11:08:00.005+08:00

29th May

Talk about drift and the first thing I remember is Initial D.... yup, that classic anime about a kid driving an old AE86 in an insane sideways action...while delivering taufo for his father. Fast forward a couple of years and drifting is now a well known motorsports genre, right up there with track racing and rallying. And it's big business too with movies, video games and top notch competitions bringing with it sponsorships money, product endorsements and celebrity-like drivers.

We had the Formula Drift competition in MEAPS few months back and this time it's FX Open, held at PLUS Speedway. Day 1 saw 40 drifters competing to qualify for the final 32 slots.

The competitors were on the limit even during the practice session.. some had close calls with the cones and tires wall..

Seconds to impact..

Going...going...gone..

New trend in aero design..

The track marshals had a pretty busy day...

Not enough horsepower? Add manpower..

When I grow up, I wanna be a drift car...

Special thanks to Wingz for lending me lenses for the day...

The Flag

2010-05-23T18:11:00.003+08:00

22nd May

Today was the KL Photo Essay workshop organized by Sony for the Alpha users. The task was quite straightforward: go in a group of 3, take 6 photos that best describe the title "Uniquely KL".

Alas, I sucked pretty bad when asked to shoot free style. I don't know... I just need to have a defined target when I shoot. That's why I can pretty much shoot anything; portrait, macro, concert, cars etc but not free style. I have zero ideas for a compelling storyline..

Instead, me and a few friends ended up having lunch and drinking Teh Ais. On the way back though, spotted this sorry looking flag hanging out a window.

In one of the busiest street of KL, with the DBKL HQ just less than 1km away. As we walked back towards the workshop venue, there were more flags in such conditions. In plain view of the thousand of Malaysians passing by everyday.

It really makes you wonder: what's the meaning of the flag? A symbol of our nation, a source of pride and inspiration or just another piece of decoration we put up in August but never bother to take back down....

AFOS 2010

2010-05-22T15:23:00.005+08:00

15th & 16th May

The Asian Festival of Speed returned to the Sepang circuit for the 2010 season opener. The event brought back great memories as the 2009 edition was the 1st time I had the chance to go in as a media photographer. This year, a good friend managed to secure media pass again for us and there was no way I'm gonna pass this up.

The day started earrly on the 15th as we had to collect our pass by 9am. After getting the paper work, I started the day with a quick tour around the pit garage..

The GT3 Asia practice session was under way and cars were going in and out off the pit..

In the mean time, the Formula BMW Pacific drivers were getting ready for their turn to go out on track..

Catching a little Zen time before things get hectic..

Wished I had a ND filter with me so I could have used a even slower shutter speed. Really wanted to capture the energy, actions and movements during the pit stop...

It was time to head out to the track after the pit session. The GT3 qualifying session was just getting started. Time for some action shots..

Next up was the GT4 series comprising of the Aston Martins cars..

A handheld slow shutter attempt at 1/20sec speed..

An interesting category this time is the classic car series. It's not often that we see these classics going all out on the track..

GT3 Race 1 was up next.

Another slow shutter attempt. This time tried using 1/10 sec to get that dreamy look..

Final race of the day was for the Formula BMW Pacific series. By now, half of our group had already left and I myself was dead tired..

Finally something happened. The Petronas car spun under braking and was tagged..

A little push to get it back on the road..

Day 2 started at 10am. By the time we reached Turn 1, the cars were just exiting the pit for the formation lap..

Race start and it's a mad dash to Turn 1..

Couple of near misses as cars fight for positions going into Turn 2..

Trying to find a way pass through Turn 1 on the outside line..

Outbraking into Turn 1 and nearly collected the Petronas car..

After the race, it was time to head back into pit for the pre-race ceremony. The grid girls were already lining up with the team flags..

The drivers in the waiting area before making their way out for the drivers parade..

GT4 drivers posing for the photo session..

In the meantime, had a photo taken with Alex Yoong..

One of the key attraction in any racing events: The race queens..

I was shooting the car... really...

This is how popular the girls were with the crowd..

A brief rest in the media center while waiting for the main race to start..

After half an hour, it was back on track for the GT3 main race grid formation..

Car 33 from Team PCS Racing was in great form as it dominated the race.

The top 3 finishers for the race..

Delighted with his podium finish..

And the winners...

Up next was another round of Formula BMW race. Took some photos of the grid formation before calling it a day...

Frantic discussion still going on on the grid..

Final countdown..

Parting shot from AFOS 2010..

GRA Autocross Championships 2010

2010-05-11T22:34:00.003+08:00

2nd May

Grass Racing Autosports or GRA is a community comprising of Malaysian grassroot drivers who strive for the spirit of driving in a competitive environment. GRA was established in November 2005, and was founded by Ian Khong and Jian Nin. GRA is a close knitted community with its drivers and community sharing thoughts and ideas constantly on the GRA forum.

Today was the 1st round of the 2010 championship. Held at the Metro Driving school in Puchong, the race course requires drivers to negotiate a series of tight bends while avoiding the curbs. It a balance between outright speed and car control.

The first portion of the course has the driver coming in hot at high speed and then doing a figure 8 turn around a safety cone. During the Pro session, you can see some cool drift moves..

Ivan Khong..

Ray Leong

A very cool looking MRS driven by Mickey Teoh..

The 2nd half of the track involves some tricky maneuvering. Go in too hot and you might kiss the curb, go in too conservative and you lose time. It about finding the balance here..

Too bad I was rushing to settle some errands and had to leave the session halfway.
But there's always Round 2...

Tokio Hotel Live

2010-05-10T21:53:00.002+08:00

1st May

April was a pretty busy month with some work related traveling and the PC Fair, leaving very little time to go out for a shoot. Fortunately, I got this opportunity to assist in the coverage of Tokio Hotel live concert in Malaysia on behalf of Universal Music.

Hailing from Germany, the band comprise of lead singer Bill Kaulitz, his twin brother / guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. After a few German language albums, the band released their 1st English album "Scream" before hitting it big with their 2nd English album "Humanoid". The 2nd single "World Behind My Wall" became a smash hit and has been getting some heavy airplay.

The day started early with a meet the fan and autograph session at The Oval, One Utama. The crowd was already lining up since early morning. When the band finally made their way to the stage, the crowd went crazy.

The session lasted almost an hour before the band went for the press conference. It was a long extended break for us as we waited for the evening session to start. Around 5pm, we went down to the concert venue and it was packed. Despite the drizzle, the fans were lining up at the gate waiting to go in.

This is not the KL Marathon;

Within minutes, the crowd has filled up the concert area.

You can be sure who she's here for...

The concert kicked off with DJ Face spinning some dance tracks to get the crowd off their feet..

Next up was local band Pop Shuvit. The weather didn't help as the rain strated again..

Lead singer Moots working the crowd...

Next up was another local band; Bunkface. I have seen them performed during the Artistry event and I liked it. They didn't dissapoint this time..

Guitar heroes...

Hitz.FM DJ Jin getting cosy with the crowd during the break..

And finally the main act..

The crowd went into overdrive..

A great learning experience for me. And thanks to RL, Vodka, Michael, Philip and Paul for the great fun.

2010 F1 @ Sepang

2010-04-04T14:23:00.003+08:00

2nd April

The F1 circus hits Malaysia!!

And this year holds so much promise.. 4 world champion on the grid, hordes of GP2 guys making it into the big league and of course, the return of Malaysian backed Lotus Racing..

As usual, Friday practice session is open to all and it's free access .You don't even have to pay for parking. I reach the track around 9.30am and I can already hear the engines being fired up. It took another 20mins to walk from the main gate to Turn 15 tower. By the time I readied my gears, the 1st practice session begins.. perfect timing..

1st appearance of the Lotus car on home soil as local boy Fairuz Fauzy took over testing duties from regular driver Heikki Kovalainen. Here he is testing the new aero package.

Notice the different engine cover and fin design compared to Jarno Trulli's car.

The Ferrari cars of Alonso and Massa were crowd favourites as usual.

Another "home team" so to speak.. The legend returns after a 3 year absence..

But it's his younger team mate that is delivering the results for the past 2 races..

Another newcomer to the track, the Virgin F1. We now have 3 airlines boys playing in the F1 field..

The "Yellow Teapot" livery returns to the grid..

2 British world champ in the same team. However, I don't think we will see another explosive relationship like the Prost / Senna or Hamilton / Alonso episodes. Unless if Button is able to mop the floor with Hamilton..

3rd time lucky? Blindingly fast but shitty reliability has gifted 2 victories to Ferrari and McLaren.

Ohhh.... how I wished I had the chance to shoot from that spot...

The session ended at 11.30am and was soon followed by the Formula BMW. Lost interest in less than 15 minutes and we made our way back to grandstand to take some shots of the main paddock. Came across this bunch of Ferrari fans..

And also these lovely fans.. Go Prancing Horse!!

The Paddock Club Pit Walk was in progress and these rich and lucky people had the chance to go up close to the garage. Quite a large crowd was hanging around the Mercedes pit, waiting for Schumacher perhaps?

Obviously she is not a big fan of Hamilton..

After a brief rest and a RM25 nasi lemak, we got ready for 2nd practice session. As usual, my fav spot is the Turn 9 hairpin where you usually can get some good shots.

The Senna name lives on in F1..

The most improved team for 2009. No longer the smallest fish in the pond..

This is the first year where Toro Rosso are building their own chasis instead of using the Red Bull's. They must be relived there are other teams occupying the bottoom of the tables.

The reliability demons of Red Bull continues to haunt them. Webber's engine let go during the session.

Memorable quote from Ron Dennis "To finish first, you must first finish"

Maybe Mark should consider a change to MotoGP..

Another team desperate for a good show this year.

Will that "No 1" still be there come 2011?

Never a huge fan of him, but really hoping he can regain his form and shows these young guys how it used to be done...

And also hoping they will make it to the podium at least once this year....

Full of hot air

2010-03-30T22:23:00.002+08:00

20th March

The 2nd Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon festival was held from 18th to 21st March. Compared to the 1st edition, this time the event was super packed. Last year I had no problem finding a parking spot and moving around the event ground. This year the traffic, parking and the crowd was frightening. While looking for a place to park, somehow I ended up under the bridge, overlooking the event ground from across the river.

I decided to stay at the spot and avoid going over to the event area. Not in the mood to get crushed that day..

From the spot, I was able to use the Gov. buildings as a backdrop against the large balloon, which I thought was interesting compared to the dull, white and hazy sky

At about 5.30pm, the balloon started taking off. To my dismay, they flew AWAY from me!!! Damn the wind!!! Damn the grey boring sky!!!

To make it worse, Darth Vader decided to take a rest during the evening. The Force was definitely not with him that day...

Well at least from my spot, I get to take some awesome reflections over the river when the balloon did the night glow session..

The highlight for the night was the fireworks session. The only regret was I didn't managed to frame the fireworks, buildings and the balloon together.

The fireworks was over in under 5mins, after waiting 4 hours....

Final shot of the mosque as I pack up and call it a day...

H-Artistry @ Opera

2010-03-25T02:08:00.002+08:00

19th March

The 1st Artistry event of 2010 kicked off in the spanking new Opera, Sunway Pyramid. This time I had some help getting in with a media invite and had access to the pre-show press conference.

Before the press con started, drinks and finger food was flowing around so at least all the waiting was more bearable.

Our host of the night, Joey G, kicked things off by introducing the various acts performing that night..

The press con was a pretty short affair with the usual Q&A before wrapping up with a toast..

After the press con was over, I went down to the entrance to take some pics of the arriving guests. DJ Sarasa from Japan was obliging enough to pose for photos..

One of the highlights of Artistry is of course the lovely ladies..

I opened the flood gates by asking her to pose at the photo wall..

Within seconds, other photographers were swarming the photo area...

By 9pm, the gates opened and the registered guests started coming in..

Before the crowd starts moving into the main hall, I quickly went in and grab a table at the front of the stage..

I've never been to Opera before so I was quite surprised at how small the place was. The stage was so tiny!! The last one in Quattro was way bigger.

After waiting for more than 30mins, the pre-show begins with some acrobatic performance..

Then it was another long wait before the real show starts. To make it worse, the drinks stopped flowing. Something bout running out of clean glass. WT#...

When the stage finally lights up, it was a welcomed diversion from the packed crowd and cramped space. Bunkface took the stage and wasted no time bringing the house down with some solid rocking..

After Bunkface ended their set, it's was time to call it day and went out with friends for some food and drinks. Hope the next event will be better..

Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience

2010-03-10T01:21:00.003+08:00

6th March

The Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience is a day long course aimed at promoting the finer aspect of defensive driving. Trainers guide the participant through a series of exercise, showing them how to correctly respond to and handle difficult situations as they present themselves.

Participants also get to try their hands on different variants of Mercedes cars, from the C-class up to the top line S-class. Such pleasures doesn't come cheap though.. Mercedes owner pays RM1800 while non-owner needs to cough up RM3800. That's one expensive test drive session..

I was there to do some coverage on behalf of Continental tires, which was the sponsor for this event. The heat was horrible, barely 15mins on track and I'm on the verge of collapse. Luckily the organizer arranged for a buggy to take us around the track, or else I would spend most of my time in the hospitality lounge enjoying ice cold Coke..

The course is divided into few segments. One of them is the Slalom. The objective of this intensive exercise is not to speed but to complete the course as smoothly as possible. Other exercises include steering manoeuvres, correct handling and driving positions.

The next segment is Braking/Single Lane Change. This portion teaches the art of emergency braking and changing lanes, perfect deceleration techniques and how to brake safely on dry asphalt at speeds of approximately 100 km/h!

Participants also learn how to drive and brake in on bends. This training recreates real-life traffic situations. Trainers teach about what causes understeering and oversteering plus their effects, as well as the pitfalls of extreme behavior when cornering.

The most interesting part of the course has to be the skidpad. Participants worked on braking and swerving on different types of road surfaces (half asphalt/half skidpad). Using two different road surfaces, participants will experience how a vehicle behaves in an emergency braking situation on a surface that is slippery on one side – with and without the aid of ABS.

It was fun watching cars doing a full 360 degree turn when too much throttle was applied. And if you think a huge size E and S-class can't pull of a power-steer, you'll be surprised..

Graffiti

2010-03-10T00:26:00.003+08:00

28th Feb

It's been a hectic week. MotoGP on Friday, visiting the temple on Saturday and a portrait session early Sunday morning. By 9am, we arrived at our shoot location which is an abandoned building near Maluri. What's interesting about this place is some of the walls were covered with amazing graffiti..

It would be a terrible waste not to incorporate these artwork into my shoot. And it helps that the models were wearing casual street clothes instead of gowns or dresses.

I metered the background while using wireless flash to illuminate the models.. The results are some very contrasty shots with both the graffiti and the model fighting for attention..

The building also had some interesting spots. This stairwell had some red bricks that helps to add character to the scene..

The same stairwell, this time underexposing with just using the flash to light up the subject..

Another fav. of mine.... Applied a green cast using PS4 and adjusted the levels. This helped to bring out the pattern on the wall and producing a slightly "moody" feel..

FGS Dong Zen

2010-03-04T22:42:00.003+08:00

27th Feb

Located in Jenjarom, Banting, FGS Dong Zen is one of the most visited place during CNY. Operated by the Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Malaysia Chapter, the Buddhist and charitable organization has its roots in Taiwan. Founded by Master Hsing Yun, the monastic order has chapters around the world and millions of followers.

During CNY you can see floral show, beautiful lanterns and lots of colorful decorations all over the vast premise of the temple. Lots of visitors and lots of people taking photos. Oh... and lots of cars as well. Getting into the temple from KESAS took us 1 hour.

Compared to last year, the crowd level this time round were much lesser. At least I can still find a spot to setup my tripod..

This giant light statue was a pain to shoot. Had to stop down to retain details..

Inside the main prayer hall..

Living on a prayer..

Amitabha..

MotoGP Test session

2010-03-01T21:59:00.002+08:00

26th Feb

The MotoGP entourage made their stop at Sepang circuit for their 2nd test session before the new season kick off in April 11th at Qatar.Top riders such as Rossi, Stoner, Hayden etc were all there. Since it is a public holiday, me and a couple of friends drove down to take some shoots. I'm still pretty pissed that I missed shooting Rossi during the Oct 09 GP. So I'm going all out this time!!

The 7 Time Champ

Casey Stoner, Ducati

Nicky Hayden, Ducati

Ben Spies, Yamaha

Marco Melandri, Honda

I have no idea who this is..

Mika Kallio, Pramac Ducati

Dani Pedrosa, Honda

Alvaro Bautista, Suzuki

Valentino Rossi broke the circuit’s fastest lap record with 2minutes 0.271seconds on his 12 lap today. No wonder he's so happy...

Back on Track

2010-02-21T22:27:00.002+08:00

21st Feb

I have seriously shoot too many portraits lately. The last time I went down to Sepang for motorsports shooting was already more than 2 months ago. Time to get back on track..

MotoGP testing and F1 will be coming soon and the next track day will probably be after April. So time to give the 70~300mm G some time under the hot sun..

The rest of the photos from today's session can be viewed here.

@ Heritage

2010-02-21T22:13:00.002+08:00

20th Feb

Tagged along with the guys from Studio Taffeta as they did a pre-wed shot at Heritage Hotel. Personally didn't took too many photos as I was more interested to observe how the pros work.

It was however a beautiful morning with superb blue skies..

We also shot inside the KTM terminal. Instead of shooting the couple, I ended up with a panning shot of the train. Old habits die hard....

I did however managed to get a few shots of the lovely couple..

After more than 7 hours, the session came to an end.
A tiring but enjoyable experience indeed....

新年快樂 / 情人节快樂

2010-02-13T21:38:00.002+08:00

13th Feb

Wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year and also a lovely Valentine's Day....

Be my Valentine

2010-02-10T21:40:00.002+08:00

6th Feb,

Since the day of shameless commercialism AKA Valentine's Day is just around the corner, we decided to do a couples themed photo shoot.

Off we went to Putrajaya park with Coco and Eva and their temp. boyfriends...
Shot all with wireless flash..

Sony World Photography Awards

2010-02-10T21:12:00.003+08:00

4th Feb

The Sony World Photography Awards Global Tour opened at Petronas Galeri KLCC on the 4th Feb. The tour has made it's rounds in cities such as New York, Paris, Hong Kong and London before making it's way to KL for the 1st time.

Shown in the exhibition are the winners and finalists in various categories such as fashion, advertising, sport, music and many more.

By Dustin Humphrey - USA, winner for Commercial Advertising. An amazing series of underwater shots.

A favorite of mine: Giulio Di Sturco - Italy. 1st prize winner for Photojounalism & Documentary.

CNY mission

2010-01-31T16:20:00.002+08:00

30th Jan

The mission was simple: shot some CNY themed pics. So we got 2 models in "cheong sam", we gathered the team and arrived at the location by 8am.

The problem: There's practically no CNY spirit in Petaling Street. Other than some deco in front of the few shops and the faded lanterns hanging around; all we saw was fake Man U t-shirts, bootleg Rolex and knock-off LV. The usual stuff...

We practically closed down this road when we started doing wireless strobing. Thanks Kysham for the pointers...

We stumbled upon this temple along Jalan Tun HS Lee. The guards were happy to let us go in for a shoot...

By this time, the sun was high up and it was uncomfortable to walk around under the heat. So off we go Heritage Hotel to continue shooting..

There's this flight of stairs inside the hotel that captivates me. The sunlight came in from the roof and produces a streak of lights that illuminates the stairs nicely. We spent quite some time trying to get the look and feel we wanted.

With wireless flash from the upper left direction..

No flash, just available light..

Also using available light. PP for that nostalgic feel..

Bintang Walk

2010-01-25T20:43:00.002+08:00

23rd Jan

Jalan Bukit Bintang..... probably the busiest street in Kuala Lumpur. Dubbed the Golden Triangle, it's an unique mix of different cultures and clashing personalities. On one end, you have the high-class hotels and chic new shopping malls while at the other end; you have budget hotels, massage parlours, run-down shops and street hustler promising you a good time..

It's a place where your senses are bombarded with images, brands and the illusions of a spectacular life..... provided you fall in line and succumb to the power of commercialism...

It's a street constantly in motion; the peoples, the cars, the invincible force of money & commerce..

Admist the hustle and bustle, there are thoese that opted to stay still..

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Will they be the future of our nation?

Putrajaya... again

2010-01-23T00:44:00.002+08:00

17th Jan

Another portrait session organize by a fellow Alpharian. This time, we had 4 girls as model and 8 photographers making it an evenly spread 2:1 ratio. Few locations were bounced around during planning but in the end, we decided for Putrajaya again as we can't think of a place large enough to accommodate our large group. 3 times in a month is really too much... no more Putrajaya for the next few months!!

@ Heritage

2010-01-15T22:50:00.002+08:00

10th Jan

2nd weekend of the new year and I'm already doing my 3rd portrait session. This time we have 3 girls as our model and 5 photographers to split the load so it wasn't as hectic as the last shot. We choose to shoot at Heritage Hotel as we wanted to try some indoor shots.

Located at the KL KTM Station, the hotel itself is quite old and rundown but it's design and structure provides some interesting backdrop for our shots. For just RM50, we get to shot for 4 hours plus a room for the model to change.

All shots with Sony Alpha A700 + SAL16~105mm.

Getting ready. Seriously, the amount of accessories and gears the girls brought were enough for a day long shot...

Wireless flash from the top right for some harsh shadow effect..

Outside the hotel, I saw the puddle of water & had the idea for this shot.
My fav of the day..

I had her running towards me just as the train was approaching and zoom in, creating this zoom effect... I would like to try this again with her in a bridal gown... more drama!!

After time's up at Heritage, we decided to go to Fullhouse, Jln Yap Kwan Seng for lunch and continue shooting.

Studio Zaloon

2010-01-11T23:19:00.011+08:00

9th Jan

If you are a Sony Alpha DSLR user and a frequent visitor to the community forum Alphanatics, there's no way that you have never heard of Studio Zaloon. Owned by the friendly Mr. Chin, this is the shop you go to if you're having trouble finding gears for your Alpha. I myself have lost count on how much of my salary was lost inside his shop. And to make things worse, Mr. Chin's fav quote is "This lens is very good!! Come try 1st, don't buy nevermind!!". You need to have one heck of a poison shield if you wanna avoid financial disaster...

And now Studio Zaloon has gone 1 step further by becoming the first Alpha Pro Shop. The idea of this Pro Shop is to have everything Alpha under 1 roof. Camera bodies, various lenses and accessories from Alpha line will be readily available in the shop for you to try and of coz..BUY!!

By 10am, Alpharians were already gathering at Pudu Plaza for the official opening..

Sneak peek inside the shop before it was opened..

Large print out were displayed inside the shop for customers to view the details up close. The Bravia LCD in the middle does not only plays Alpha promo videos; you can also plug in your camera through it's HDMI connection and view your pictures using the LCD.

Photo corner.....

Imagine this is your own personal dry box... Gearhead's wet dream come true!!

The poison chamber: Those with big wallets, impulsive buying behavior and weak self control, enter at your own risk. You have been warned.......

"Mine...Mine....It's all mine!!!"

"So you must get this lens in other to capture pics like this" Mr. Chin doing his thang...

Over 100++ Alpharians came down for the launch event.

Just in case you wanna drop by, here's the map and address..

A Stellar Night Out

2010-01-11T22:41:00.003+08:00

8th Jan

DJ Axwell from Sweden is one of the top house music DJ in the world. In Oct 09, DJ Magazine released their annual Top 100 DJ list and Axwell was placed #14, up 6 from '08.

"A Stellar Night Out" presented by Stellar Entertainment brought Axwell down to KL to play in KL Live (known as Warp and RUUMS in it's previous guise).

It was a kaleidescopic night of thumping music, bright lights and beautiful ladies..

Shots were taken using the Sony A700 + Tamron 10~24mm Ultra Wide.

Friends

2010-01-11T22:20:00.003+08:00

3rd Jan

Barely into the 1st weekend of 2010, we have bitten off more than we can chew. Here we are, 2 photographers, against 5 girls who wanted to have some shots taken. While this may sound like a dream come true to you, I can assure you that the reality is anything but...

We had planned to kick off the shot by 9am and wrap up at 12noon before the sun and heat gets uncomfortable. The early morning rain threw a spanner into our plans and we only started by 10am. At this point, we were practically racing against time to get in as much shots as possible for each girls.

The session itself was fun and the girls were amazing. But after reviewing the shots back home, the pictures were a case of hit and miss. In this case, there were more misses..

Memo to self: Don't rush a shot next time!!!!

Chilly + Shan

2010-01-03T21:13:00.002+08:00

01st Jan

1st photo session for the year. Together with 4 more photographers, we had a fun morning shooting Chilly and Shan in Putrajaya.

For PP, I'm trying to emulate some desaturated look like in film images... results were less than satisfying....
I guess more reading up on CS tricks...

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL70~300G + SAL50mm f1.8

Welcome 2010

2010-01-01T02:42:00.002+08:00

1st Jan

A new year, a new decade....

10 years ago, I spent New Year's Eve at Bintang Walk, squashed by thousand of peoples, can't see a thing and then spent 3 hours just to exit the car park.

10 years later, I'm miles away from the city, with a bunch of photogs friends as we wait patiently for the countdown and the fireworks display.

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL70~300mm G

Minutes to midnite..

A new year arrived...

Happy New Year: May you live long & prosper...

Night Owls

2009-12-31T20:00:00.002+08:00

30th Dec

Went around Ampang area with a few photogs friends, checking out good spots for us to shoot fireworks on NY Eve. I'm too old to be stuck in a 3 hours traffic jam and too stingy to pay $100 for a stinking beer in an overcrowded disco.

Learned a new trick....

Formula Drift 2009

2009-12-22T01:33:00.002+08:00

19th Dec

Drifting is a high-skilled, high-powered motor sport where drivers intentionally maneuver their cars into well executed, controlled sideways slides at high speeds through a marked course. Originating from Japan and made popular by the Initial D anime, drifting is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and is often compared to the freestyle nature of skateboarding and motocross.

This is the 1st time that this event is held in Malaysia and the location was the sprawling MAEPS complex in Serdang. Over 50 drivers competed over 2 the days to get to the top spot as they were judged on execution and style, rather than who finishes the course in the fastest time,

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL70~300mm G

A motorsports events would not be complete without them..

All the way from Taiwan...

AE86.... legend among the drift movement..

Tengku Djan with his Nissan 180SX in action..

Proton Waja R3 from Indonesia in action..

Kiki from Team PTT, Thailand..

Ryuji Miki from Japan......

Team TRC from China with the Toyota Soarer..

Nattapol from Team TRC, Thailand...

Team Federal..

Crowd favorite "Mad" Mike from New Zealand..

The battles were held in tandem; 2 drivers going head to head. The lead car needs to be able to run the course without error while being pressured by the following car. The following car is to try and “out drive” the lead car. In the event there is no clear majority, a “One More Time” will be granted, and the competitors will begin another 2-run head-to-head battle until a winner is declared..

W + W

2009-12-22T01:16:00.002+08:00

18th Dec

Wedding assignment together with Studio Taffeta. Great learning experience for me especially in terms of co-ordination and coverage planning.

It was a tiring job as we had to arrive in Klang by 7am, finish off the ceremony by 2pm, rush to PP the pictures for slideshow and finally dinner coverage. But it was satisfying feeling when we saw the guests enjoying the slideshow that we came up with....

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16~105mm + F58

A little portrait before things get busy..

When a motorhead do wedding... zoom effect on the bridal car..

During the ceremony in SGM Klang..

Who's the next lucky gal..

Congratulations to the newly wed!!

Bike Day

2009-12-13T19:07:00.002+08:00

13th Dec

My 1st love... motorsports @ Sepang.

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL70~300G

Showoff...

When you fall, pick yourself up....

and ride again..

"Hey, this is actually a good spot for a picnic......"

Crazy shots

2009-12-13T19:02:00.002+08:00

12th Dec

A girl at a casting shot... with me taking some crazy shots at the background..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + Phoenix 100mm + a lot of messing around in CS4

carven ong

2009-12-12T10:59:00.002+08:00

11th Nov

Attended a private show held at Prince Hotel KL. It was the graduation show for the students of Carven Academy plus it's 18th anniversary. Had a great time shooting with fellow Alpharian and also shared some nice jokes with other pros on duty.

Not my best effort I have to admit. Struggled to get the correct exposure and white balance during the entire event. The easy way out would be to blame the venue's lighting setup..... but I think I still need more practice..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16~105mm + F58

Judging the graduate's work..

Bored before the show starts..

The show begins..

I salute the guy who have the guts to wear this out in the streets..

Old habits... panning shots when feeling bored in the middle of the show..

The Ugly Truth

2009-12-10T23:24:00.001+08:00

10th Dec

Somewhere out there, a wedding photographer is having this conversation....

Wedding Bliss

2009-12-08T20:29:00.002+08:00

6th Dec

Different stages of a wedding ceremony..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16-105mm + SAL50mm 1.8 +F58

Preparation..

Concentration..

Reflection..

Anticipation..

Acceptance..

Bliss.

Congratulations..

Bugs: Continued...

2009-12-08T20:20:00.002+08:00

5th Dec

2nd macro outing with some fellow photographers to Bukit Cahaya, Shah Alam. More prepared this time round and celebrated it with my 1st leech bite....

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + Phoenix 100mm + Tamron SP90 + F58

Not so macro..

(18SX) Peeping Tom shot..

ReNee: Chapter II

2009-12-08T20:14:00.002+08:00

29th Nov

2nd portrait session with Renee. This time using available light and just 1 strobe to light up the shadowed area around her face..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL50mm 1.8

BAKUC 2009

2009-11-28T11:14:00.004+08:00

27th Nov

BAKUC is the most awaited event for any Gundam fans; for the modelers to showcase their masterpiece and for fans to admire them. And this year being the 30th Anniversary of the Gundam phenomenon, it makes the competition feels extra special.

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL 16-105mm

The one that started it all....

Over the years, many different variations of the Gundam anime has appeared. The latest being the Gundam 00 series. And not surprisingly, a lot of this year's entries used the model kits from this series.

Gundam 00 Raiser

Gundam Exia: Battle damaged version

The old school favorites however will always have their presence. The original 0079 anime still holds a special place in the hearts of Gundam fans; and so does the kits.

Guncannon

MS-18E Kampfer

Perfect Grade RX-78-2

A kick-ass Gundam Astray. I loved the amount of details and the finishing..

HGUC FA-93HWS Nu Gundam from the top modeler in Malaysia: erix93.

Another unique customized kit..

Support the local PLAMO movement!!
Visit some of the sites below if you're interested in the world of modeling!!
Zero-G
Scale Models Malaysia

Bug's Life

2009-11-26T20:22:00.002+08:00

22nd Nov

I have always been curious about macro photography. Every time I see some macro pics on the web, I'll be thinking to myself: "How the heck did he took that pic?" Luckily, I got to know some fellow Alpha photographers who are quite active in macro so I tag along during their outing to Genting.

Original plan was to catch the sunrise before going to Awana for some macro work. So, at 5am in the morning, we drove up to Genting only to be greeted with strong freezing wind and thick fog. What a refreshing way to spend the Sunday morning..

After a hearty brunch, we drove down to Awana where I was officially inducted into the world of macro photography..

My first ever macro shoot..

Trying to get the hang of it by shooting still subject..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL 16-105mm + F58 + Kenko extension tube

D + A

2009-11-26T20:05:00.002+08:00

21st Nov

Took up an assignment as backup photographer for a church wedding. It's a first try for me to shoot in a church..

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16-105mm + Sigma APO 70-210mm f2.8

I love wedding pics.. especially the expression of those involved..

I think I paid too much attention to the bridesmaids..

Sleaze or Art

2009-11-17T21:51:00.002+08:00

14th Nov

Sexy dance..... a norm in discos and pubs.
Is it just sleazy thrill or can it be an arty experiment?

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16-105mm, no flash

Ms Hypertune Final

2009-11-17T21:20:00.003+08:00

14th Nov

Final round of the Ms Hypertune 2009...

This time, I took up position in front of the stage to get some better shots compared to last week. Again, the numbers of photographers crowding in front of the stage was huge. A lot of my shots were blocked by somebody else arm, elbow, flash unit, diffuser and what-not. Then again, I supposed the guys standing behind me were saying the same about me...

Gear used: Sony Alpha a700 + SAL16-105mm + SAL70-300mm G + F58

The bikini round....

The casual wear round...

Ethan Yap from Sony EV with the winner of Ms Sony subsidiary title...

Eventual winner for the night.... Mizuki from Japan

Towards the end, emcee Sarah throwing out some freebies to the crowd...

Ms Hypertune

2009-11-09T22:19:00.002+08:00

7th Nov

The semi final leg was held at Mist Club Bangsar where 30+ girls compete for a chance to move on to the final round on 14th Nov.

Thanks to Sony Entertainment Vehicle dept. for arranging the entry and passes.

Some of the ICE system on display during the night..

Mist Club in itself is not exactly huge. With the extended catwalk platform and the guests tables, the place was packed. And with more than 2 dozens photographers cramming for a spot in front of the stage, I decided to give it a pass and move to the 1st floor for a less ideal but more comfortable sniper position. No eye contact but got some frontal view..

Gear used: Sony alpha a700 + Sigma 70~200mm f2.8 + Sony F58

How close were the photographers to the stage? It's that close..

I wonder if her belly got burned by the flash fire..

Parting shot.. I quite liked this wallpaper in the club

Studio shot: Verna

2009-11-09T21:54:00.002+08:00

7th Nov

Model: Verna
Origin: South Africa
Location: photics production
Make Up: Sueann Chan
Gear: Sony Alpha a700 + Sigma 70~200mm f2.8 + Sony 50mm f1.8

Special thanks to RL Photography for the opportunity to join in the fun.

1st set: Make-up test shot

2nd set: Bling Bling dress

3rd set: The lion's mane

Bubba Gump Shrimp @ The Curve

2009-10-26T15:14:00.002+08:00

24th Oct

After the success of the movie “Forrest Gump”, Paramount Pictures approached Rusty Pelican Restaurants Inc. with their desire to open a casual family restaurant with a theme based on Forrest Gump’s life, philosophy and love of shrimp. In 1996, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. opened its first restaurant on Cannery Row in Monterey, Calif.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. captures the charm that made “Forrest Gump” a smash hit, featuring décor reminiscent of the movie’s setting in Alabama. The restaurant showcases memorabilia and still-photos from the movie, along with reproductions of script pages, storyboards and even some costumes. Scrawled “Gumpisms” grace the varnished tabletops inside and guests can try on plaster casts of Forrest’s running shoes at the famed bus bench in front of each restaurant location.

When I walked past the Bubba Gump outlet in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, I stopped dead in my tracks and spent several minutes going throught the various souvenirs items on sales. And then i found myself seated inside, taking in the decor and movie memorabilia.

The decor has a Southern warmth and charm to it; just like one of those diners we always see in movies..

Along the wall, items from the Forrest Gump movie were used as decoration. Here we have a replica of the dress little Jenny wore..

And a picture of the adult Jenny (played by Robin Wright Penn)..

The dining table itself is full of lines and quotes from the movie.. Great for you to play a bit of movie trivia while waiting for your food..

And speaking about food, there's shrimp, more shrimp and so much more shrimp you'll be lucky if you don't get into a gastronomic overdose..

Some cool drinks to help you washed it all down..

Tried it, loved it and can't wait to go back...

MotoGP

2009-10-26T01:15:00.004+08:00

23rd October

The MotoGP race will be the last major motorsports event in SIC for 2009. With the A1GP in limbo, it's unlikely the Nov Malaysian round will take place.

Despite much planning, shit happened and I arrived in Sepang with only 15mins to go for MotoGP practice session. I took up position in the grandstand facing Turn 9 to get as much shot as I can.

Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizios..

The Doc....

Last shot for the MotoGP series..

Moved over to the Turn 15 tower to catch the last practice session for the day: the 250cc..
As usual, the tower was crowded with photographers. This is a good spot to get good coverage especially if you do not have a long tele. 200mm is more than enough to fill the frame..

You get shots of the bikes entering Turn 15..

You get shots of the bikes in mid-corner...

And sometimes you get some overtaking moves..

And sometimes, the rider will check us out instead...

Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Championship Round 3

2009-10-19T18:04:00.003+08:00

17th Oct

Round 3 of the Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Championship took place in Putrajaya Water Sports Complex at Presint 6 last weekend on 17th and 18th Oct 2009.

This is my 3rd time attending this event at Presint 6. The first time in May was a blast as I was able to get some great shots. As a bonus, I was able to get onto the tow boat during Padiwat Jaemjan "Bomb" performance. Bomb is listed at World's Top 10 in WWA World Series.
(Pictures from May championship)

The June championship was a disappointment as there were some dragon boat and canoe events which pushed the wakeboarding run to take place very far away from the shore, limiting photo ops.

Thankfully, this time the event was held closer to the shore. Surprisingly, the numbers of photographers present was lesser compared to the previous 2 rounds. Maybe it's because of the Nikon show and DG Color event. And this time, I was able to get back onto the boat for the wakeboard event.

Some of the pictures I manage to took on Saturday...

Wakeboarding is not always about cool poses and spectacular moves. Sometimes pain comes into the picture.. Oouucchh!!

One of the contestant, Sasha Christian from Singapore, took up extra responsibility as performer for the support event. She is currently one of the top wakeboarder in Singapore.

The next event will be the IWSF Putrajaya Waterski World Cup to be held from 5th to 7th Nov '09. One of the must see event will the jump event; something not seen in the last 3 local championship.

Visit the official website for updates!!

Thunderbirds are GO!!!

2009-10-07T00:13:00.002+08:00

3rd October

Despite the hangover from Friday night thanks to too much Hennessy, I woke up early and made my way to TUDM Subang for the Thunderbirds..

Apparently, lots of other Malaysian had the same idea...
After 30mins of traffic gridlock and a long detour, finally made it to the base..

Once inside the base, I can see the huge crowd already gathered. On the left side of the base, was this magnificent beauty...the Sukhoi Su-30MKM..

On the other end was the USAF Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Fighting Falcon "Thunderbirds"..

And the huge transporter plane, the C17..

Close-up on the F-16...
A bit of a trivia: note the up-side down "5" marking on the plane. This indicates that this plane handles all the upside-down stunts during the show...

Immediately after take off, the Thunderbirds are already performing their the signature Diamond formation..

There are 6 planes in the squad but 2 will break off after take off and do a sneak pass, catching the crowd by surprise..

The first 4 planes will be in tight formation maneuvers such as formation loops and rolls or transitions from one formation to another....

Thunderbirds 5 and 6 meanwhile will perform solo maneuver such as fast passes, slow passes, fast rolls, slow rolls, and very tight turns.

The signature move by the solos are the 2 mirror formation: calypso pass and belly-to-belly..

The 2 solos will then join the main group in formation..

Another signature maneuver: The "bomb burst"..

The show comes to an end. Safe landing and return to base..

Artistry: Global Art of Mixing

2009-10-06T23:01:00.003+08:00

2nd October

The final Artistry event for 2009 was held at Quattro, Avenue K. Although the venue was smaller than the previous one in Bukit Kiara, this time it's more special for me coz I'm here as an Official Photographer. Yeah baby....

As always, Artistry is about mixing together beautiful people, great music, amazing party and of course, Hennessy...

As the Official Photographer, I get to take unlimited pictures of the beautiful girls; all in the name of work...

Our host for the evening...

The main highlights for Artistry are the artiste that performed during each event. Before the show started, the crowd had already gathered in front of the stage. I only managed to squeeze in at the right side of the stage, getting all sideways shots of the performers..

Up first is Hsiao Hung Jen. He may be a newcomer from Taiwan but he is quite impressive; having worked with some big names in Taiwan such as F.I.R.'s guitarist/keyboardist Ian Chen and pop prince Jay Chou.

Next was Paul Freeman. Another unknown for me but after watching him played live, I believed the story that the legendary Clive Davis signed him on the strength of his demo EP and a transcendent live audition. This guy has so much energy on stage..

"I want my money back.... I want my money back...." the adorable Lenka..

Main act for the night: Boys Like Girls

Despite some technical problems with the mike and the sound system, the boys braved on and put on one heck of a show..

Bryan having a drink midway through the set.. the crowd was so worked up one of them asked for his glass after he was done...

Midway during the last song "Great Escape", Martin made his way up to the DJ deck and proceeded to do a crowd surf..

PS: Heard 1 unlucky photographer had his flash hotshoe broken when Martin landed on it...

Track Day

2009-09-30T22:19:00.002+08:00

27th Sept

Another track day event at Sepang.

As usual, shoot some superbikes during the morning session while training for the up-coming MotoGP.

In the afternoon, the sun was blazing hot so decided to hang around the pit area instead.

Moon Shine

2009-09-30T22:03:00.003+08:00

26th Sept

Had a casual potrait session with the lovely Ms. Ainura Moon Shine at the Sony Style in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara.

Together with a few other Alpha users, it was a fun afternoon indeed...

Super Import Nights

2009-09-23T19:45:00.002+08:00

20th Sept

Made a trip down to Singapore for the Super Imports Nights during the Raya weekends.
SIN is an annual event that features tuned cars, performance parts, ICE equipments, body styling and everything else about cars. And of course the Import Models...

We arrived at the Singapore Expo early in the morning to avoid the crowd. This turned out to be a good move as the Import Models were not out yet and with minimal visitors, we had enough time and space to go around the venue to take pictures of the cars.

Here you have some common Jap performance models...

S2000...

RX-8...

350Z...

Evo...

WRX...

GTR-35...

And you have some European models in the mix..

Lotus...

Lambo...

And then you have some very unusual looking cars. This is actually a mutated Myvi....

Police car on steroids. Imagine this monster pulling you over.......

or this...

Providing some entertainment to your fellow motorist...

And some took it to another level..

Besides the cars, there were drift demo outside the expo hall. Unfortunately, I was too busy checking out the other sights and I missed their performance.

Subaru had their stunt team there as well, offering rides to the public. Check out the girl in the rear seat..

I registered to take a ride and was joined by 3 babes from the SIN Model Search competition..

The stunt driver doing his thing..

and the girls hanging on for dear life...

And what kind of car show would this be without the girls?

Besides the Singaporean girls, they were also models from Taiwan...

from Thailand...

and from USA, KT Soo. She was so popular that everytime she appears, riot broke out in the expo hall..

And to drive the guys even crazier, the organizer throws in a bikini babe search..

But my personal fav. for the day are the Hankook girls..

And here's me and them doing the Wonder Girls dance song "Nobody"...

Made in Malaysia

2009-09-14T11:13:00.002+08:00

12th Sept

The first time I saw One Buck Short was at the Artistry event a couple of months back and I have to say they were awesome. As luck has it, a friend was doing the photo shooting for the group and I tag along to visit them on the set for their music video.

Vocalist Mooky and guitarist Rahul on set..

Bass guitarist Izal...

and drummer Imran.

Got some interesting shoots...

One of the sequence in the MV with the bunch of extras..

Support Malaysian music.. visit OBS atheir official website

Sony Alpha A850 Hands-On

2009-08-31T20:35:00.010+08:00

31st August

Rumors have been circulating in the forums and internet about the slew of new Alpha models for the past few months. When some Sony website in the Euro region updated their product list with new models about 2 months ago, the speculation became more intense. Everybody was discussing about the possibilities of a new budget Full Frame to complement the Alpha A900 while some were speculating on a successor to the Alpha A700 model.

An interesting discussion point among the current Sony users was regarding the physical design for the new model. Many (me included) kept their fingers crossed, hoping the A850 will not follow the design cue of new entry level models A230, A330 and A380.

On 27th August, Sony issued an official press release announcing the new Alpha A850. Virtually identical to the A900, it has the same 24.6MP CMOS sensor, 3.0 inch 921k LCD, SteadyShot INSIDE™ image-stabilization and Dual Bionz processors. The only differences is a 98% viewfinder coverage against A900's 100% and slower continuous shooting (3FPS for A850 vs 5FPS for A900). Both shared the same battery and grip.

Physically, the A850 and A900 looked almost the same. From the buttons layout, the grip, the overall feel when it's in your hand; it's hard to tell one from the other. Fortunately, there is no tacky 2-tone colour scheme or ridiculous grip design from the other new series. At least the A850 feels and looked serious for a DSLR of this price and specs range.

I honestly can't tell the difference between the 98% viewfinder coverage of the A850 compared to 100% for A900. What I can tell however, is the difference between 3FPS versus 5FPS. As an avid fan of motorsports and action photography, I rely a lot on the 5FPS capabilities on my A700. Mounting my SAL70300G onto the A850, I tried out some panning shot.

The AF was fast and accurate. I had no problem getting a clean shot even at 1/30sec shutter speed handheld. However, I sorely miss the 5FPS burst mode. While it can be argued that it's not often that we will need this function, I believed it's the link between getting the shot and missing the moment.

At a speculated street price of RM6XXX, the A850 will be almost RM1k ~ Rm1.5k cheaper than the A900, making it one of the most affordable FF DSLR in the market.

For me, I will stay happily where I am with my beloved A700. Besides the slower FPS, I don't think I can live with the huge size of it's RAW file. 1 RAW file from the A850 takes up 35.7MB of hard disk space. I'm gonna end up spending more on storage than camera gear......

Sepang Track Day

2009-08-31T10:33:00.025+08:00

30th August

Had too many portrait session lately and I felt the need to go back to my first love: Motorsports photography..

Today was an open track day at Sepang where you basically drive down to the track, register yourself, paid the entrance fee and then go crazy on the track. In the morning, the bikers came out to play.

All shots taken at Turn 1 and Turn 2.

Continued my training at slow shutter, these 2 were taken at 1/20sec.

The bike session ended at 1pm for a lunch break. The car session were scheduled for 2pm. In the meantime, some Formula BMW cars came out for their practice run.

Car session started promptly at 2pm. The Subaru guys were out in force, there's some EVOs in the mix, flanked by the usual Civic, Satria Neo and other usual (@ boring) suspects. However, there were lots of other different makes and models that are seldom seen during track days.

A couple of R34.. (my fav Jap supercar)

meets their new sibling..

Rotary power..

The legend lives on: Honda NSX (the pearl white paint is a pain in the a$$ to shoot under the bright sun)

On to some really really rare cars to appear on the race track...

The lion....

and the cat..

Forget everything you ever heard about weight distribution, low center of gravity and aerodynamics.. Big guy can really run

A Volkswagen.....

A very old Volkswagen..

The Mark Wahlberg version..

and the Michael Caine version..

My current fav car...

And for the finale... taking the term "Sunday leisure drive" to another whole level.

Overheard the marshal's walkie describing them as "makan angin"....

Studio session - ReNee

2009-08-31T02:21:00.014+08:00

29th August

After the warm up session a week earlier, today was my first proper studio session with the guidance from sifu Ricky of Photics Production. Our model for the day is the lovely Sook Wen ReNee.

The first session is basically learning different lighting positioning, camera setting and the common practices for studio photography.

The second session after lunch touched on posing, angle and composition.

All shots were adjusted in Photoshop by experimenting with different hue, temperature and color adjustment.

Studio session

2009-08-24T02:23:00.002+08:00

23rd August

Tried out some portrait shoots in a studio with some guidance and pointers from a pro.
The lovely Yvonne Yong was our test subject for the day. All shots taken at Photics Production.

The first set was taken using available light coming in from the window.

The 2nd set used strobe lights to illuminate the model.

Note to self: The shadow made her looked pregnant. No No!!

Note to self: Pay more attention to details. What the heck is that hole on the floor?!?!

Plane spotting with MAS

2009-08-24T01:49:00.002+08:00

22nd August

The friendly folks at Malaysian Airlines organized an outing for bloggers and photographers where we get to take pictures of planes without playing hide and seek with the police. I'm not sure which laws prohibits you from taking pictures of a plane near the vicinity of an airport but a patrol car did came up to our group halfway through the session. Luckily the MAS peoples got it all sorted out.

Already blurry and dizzy due to lack of sleep, not to mention a substantial amount of alcohol intake just hours before, I reached the meeting spot at 7.30am. That's way earlier than going to work.

Our first shooting spot was a hill overlooking the runway.

Unfortunately, it was not the perfect spot as all the MAS planes taxi off into the other runway after landing and did not pass our way. The only plane that did was......

We switched to another spot where we can see the planes take off. Too bad we couldn't get over the fence.. it would have been awesome!!

The harsh morning sun provided us with a good opportunity for some silhouette shots..

I've panned bikes, cars, boats and humans...... this is the first time I took panning shots of planes..

(Aaarrggghh!!!! The fence spoiled the shot!!!)

Thanks again to MAS for the outing.
Hoping for a repeat in the near future...

Night out

2009-08-24T01:43:00.002+08:00

21st Aug

Night out with friends.
Alcohol, girls and some crazy shots...

KL Photography Festival 09

2009-08-15T21:55:00.003+08:00

15th August,

KLPF is back!!

Dropped by for a quick look at the gears and of course...the girls..
First stop, visited some old friends..

Nikon 400mm f2.8; try using it handheld, better than lifting weights..

What kind of photography event will it be if there's no models for photo shoot?
Too bad i reached there very late and missed out on the Nikonian Academy, Fujifilm and Nissin shooting. But the Tamron girls ain't bad either..