Pekan Semporna : Day 2

The usual scene early in the afternoon at Pekan Semporna, the kids are happy doing the jump dive to the open water. They smiles to people passing by, and it shows how grateful they are. In this photo, the kids getting ready to dive in the clear water in front of Dragon Inn, Semporna.

Omadal Island : Day 3

Semporna : Maiga Island (Day-4)

Typical view of Bajau Laut women preparing things to transfer to other house. Most of the daily house chores is done by the women, while the man are busy with fishing and harvesting at the sea.

Women Of Maiga Island, Semporna

The palla'o women looking at the sea.

Traditional Life : Kampung Bangau-Bangau ,Semporna

Automotive

Panorama : Labuan Commonwealth War Memorial

The picture is a result of 12 photos stitch to create a panorama view. Using manual exposure to get the balance of lighting and perhaps in future ,should consider shooting vertical to get more space and leaving more head room in the final photo. Every year during the first sunday in November, there will be a ceremony to honor those who have fought during the war in 1945. Locals and foriegn visitors, mostly the war veteran groups would gather and mark the remembrance day.

Photo Game - Fill Light

In this photograph im trying to capture the subject using available lights and with the setup of home made reflector ; to fill in the shadow area falls from the main lights. Im facing the difficulty to obtain the perfect lighting angle and to position the reflector(Must buy one). 

Ramadhan-The Month Of Fasting

King's Visit To Labuan F.T.

DYMM Al Wathiqu Billah, Al-Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Ibni Almarhum Al-Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah Al-Haj ; the 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or King, of Malaysia. The King is in Labuan for working visit till 2nd August 2009. Daulat Tuanku.

Mount Kinabalu

The view of Mount Kinabalu from Kundasang valley

Time lapse of Kinabalu from Kundasang Valley

Labuan Rugby Open 2009

A player is trying hard to loose from his opponents. Its an adrenaline pumping games played by 15 players for each side and usually divided into forward and backs. The objective of this game is to pursue the opponent end of line by touching, grounding, kicking to get score. It may looks harmful and risk being injured. Though its a formally known main sports event. Rucks and maul, the end line invasion, tackle, scrum and line-out just to name a few words used in rugby sports. 

Kuraman Island

Sometimes people need a breaks from daily routine. Even a professional photographer does take a break and try new experience and it can be done in so many ways. Make the life around us as subject from as little as macro. Its not a bad idea to shoot activities done and capture those life meaningful moment and share with everyone. Here's what i did with my peer colleague. A trip to Kuraman Island, developed by Perbadanan Labuan on 2005 as one of the tourist attraction with a beautiful and open clear water. The island measure about 5.2 hectare and also famous home to several bird species. Some of the spotted famili are egret and kingfisher. Not to mention its a favorite spot for fishing activities. A short 20 minutes trip by boat could cost around 40 per each person. For travelers, chalet accommodation is available upon request. I would strongly recommend people to visit this island. 

The catch : ( Pari, Kerapu, Londu, Luping, Yu batik , Ikan Putih, Jenahak, Ikan Tanda, Ikan Pisang-pisang ) in local name.

How To : Online Apple Store

Do we still remember the last time spending hours of time looking for an item in shopping mall just to ended up being confused and frustrated. What if the item we need is available through online store. Is it safe and reliable? Nowadays mode of payment in online stores have developed to make the ease of payment. Using credit cards, bank transfer and paypal is some of the popular services offered. In theses recent years, Malaysian people have been going through new method of shopping and thanks to the development of ICT infrastructure with more advance technologies. There are lots of merchant store in the internet that offers wide variety of shopping item. Bare in mind to check the security of transaction before making any payment. Here's the example of local online transaction from the Apple Store. The key feature of most online purchase will be a step-by-step guide to complete the order. 

1) Choose item from online catalog

2) Creates customer account and login to secure connection 

3) Billing and shipping information

4) Payment verification

5) Order summary

Most of the online store provide order tracking number for customer to keep track of the shipment. Online store like e-bay is different in terms and conditions. The seller and the buyer meet at online e-bay listing. Buyer will agree to purchase the item from seller and the transaction of payment is made. One of the interesting feature from online store such as customer wishlist (eg: www.shashinki.com) is quite useful. People can browse through the item and add them into cart ( sometimes call basket), saved item can be review for future changes. Customer may click on the wishlist button for as many as they want and keep it for sometimes before deciding to buy them. The pros and cons of online purchasing is well known, nevertheless the trends of shopping will continues.  

Rezeki

Sembilang

Kayak LISC' 09

Beach Rugby

A rugby player picks the ball for the throw.

Over Exposed

Long exposure sometimes lead to overexposed subject. To make sure the foreground and star trails appear is quite hard especially when there is a source light coming from the subject. It is a little bit over exposed but still maintain its shapes and so reveal the subject with the star trail as background. This photo is a result of 10 stack photos with approximately 1 minutes exposure for each take. 

Yellow-vented-Bulbul

Water Supply Interruption

Well its kind of a news at Labuan recently when most of the places are shortage of water supply. Rumours said the in charge person of developing piping in Labuan have difficulties. Well as for today (this post) its been a week and the problem has been resolved. No matter what happens, the birding and photography must continue. 

Kingfisher

The Gazing Sundbird

There are moments when i feel shooting small subject is hectic and tiring but it pays to wait. Some of the regular basis i learned so far through capturing wild and nature. 

1. Be at the place before the subject appear; so that we are prepared.

2. Keep low profile to animal; don't wear striking attire.

3. Don't wait too long; but the longer the better.

4. Bean bag, monopod, tripod, just name it ; could be packing kilo's to backpack.

5. Be patient to wait for the right moment and click the shutter.

6. Keep on hiding ; keep your eyes open , alert for nature sounds.

  

Star Trail

My attempt to photograph the star trail with the pine tree as foreground subject is near a failure due to small movement of the tree branches. I should find something more stable but looks nature. The polluted skies makes it even harder to get a good lighting and perfect ambient. Camera setting is ISO100, F3.5 ;18mm focused at infinity. 

X-Trail Marks The Trail

The Hidden Valley

 

Sunbirds

It is about time to venture into new area of photography. A wise word of wisdom "think out of the box". So its finally here at Labuan  , i started photographing birds. Its kind of passion and compliments at the end of the day. Some of my early experience in this arena; get bitten by bunch of bad mosquito, get stuck in the mud, not enough focal length and even no bird to shoot. Its like making a day in action for bird's photography. However its really a nice moment to capture especially when it comes to sunbird families.  

 

The Animal Kingdom

Star Trail Photography

I still recall the time during light trail photo shoot. The longer the light trails the better it is. Its time to shoot something similar to it. As basic understanding ,star is one of such huge subject that is close to billion light years distance from the earth.  The famous "Polaris" or known as Northern Star is  430 km light-years from earth. It is used during ancient time as navigation purpose and continues till today with more sophisticated mechanics. There are some tips to get started for Star Trail photo shoot. What i did was to make sure the equipment is fully charged , a stable tripod and determine the exposure time. I Chooses the lowest possible ISO100 and turn on the camera Noise Reduction function to avoid unnecessary grains. Making sure the camera is set to shoot using 'bulb' and if i have those remote buddy to control the shutter release it would be much easier. A tips from my experience; get some foreground subject into composition to support the star trails. Have fun trying out.

My Friend's Wedding

 

Portraiture

H5T34 MAC or PC

Guess where is MAC ?

Labuan Paintball

Seconds before being shot...

You can run and you shouldn't hide too long or risk ended the game being shoot. Thats the fast and heart pumping adrenalin game, introduced recently in Labuan. During 14&15 february 2009, the tournament of Labuan Open 2009 will begin and it marks the first ever tournament being organize by professional paintballer in this province. 

Going Natural

What you see is what you get. In this photo outing, going out to shoot natural life is not as easy as one thinks. Im feeling lucky during that day when the bird or known as "Burung Pipit Uban" is just warming up for the day. I grab the DSLR pack with 200mm lense and shot it from within close range about 2m. I call it the day.

Water Village

Bebuloh Laut village scenery after the sun is below the horizon. It is one of the water village made famous known for its 'belacan' among the local people. Its is about 10 minute ride from the main town to reach Bebuloh Laut water village. 

Light Trails

Capturing light trails is always being part of the excitement in photography. If one were to decide for a photo session of this kind, i recommend to choose the busiest road in town. The purpose of this shoot is to capture lights from moving vehicle and as long as it goes and along the way it leaves the mark as lines created. I choose the lowest ISO and with manual mode on DSLR set to capture at exposure time more than 15 seconds. To add some point of interest , the rule of third may applies to non-moving subject. Its really a great experience to tryout. 

Twilight Zone

Capturing scene ini low light condition is something worth the experience for every photographer. Me and my friends gather for the photo shoot "twilight". Some of us forgot to bring along tripod. Here's the tool we need for low light shooting. Be prepared for the session and check the backpack for items like types of lense (wide or medium) depends on the final image desired. I was lucky to have a steady tripod in handy for the shoot. What we did is to be at the scene ten minutes earlier before sunset. Its a good practice and makes us prepared. During the shooting, sunset is around 6.15 pm at Labuan and for most of the twilight photography, 20 to 25 minutes after sunset will produce the considered twilight. As the founder of Digital Photography School quoted "Dont shoot the sunset instead take the pictures long after the sun has set"( source : Darren Rowse, The Twilight Photography Tips). This photo was taken by using ISO 100 , f11 with exposure time range from 15 to 25 seconds. With some raw editing i get this picture. There are things to consider for future shoot. Distractor like trees and moving object should be out of the composition as they get blurred for sure. That is what i learned from Sifoo Syed Nasir. Nevertheless i enjoyed the day. 

The Wedding Of Erna & Ikhram