Seeing things in Black and White

I am one of those people who just loves B+W photos or even sephia or anything in monotone. There is something classic about the way a photo looks in B+W provided it is shot properly and given proper treatment. In fact, most times, I tend to look at a scene in B+W before I start shooting just in case I want to convert it to B+W later. The monotone gives the photo a timeless feel and it really does help in creating a certain mood to the images. It helps to lessen the distractions of colours and makes our eyes focus on what needs to be observed in the images such forms, shapes, faces, emotions, etc. I wonder is there is anybody out there who would want the photos of their portrait session or even better wedding photos to be fully in B+W? You will be my favourite client!!! ;D

A row of luxury taxi parked at The Gardens Mall.



Self-portrait. Camera triggered by Marcus.


Girlie our dog being given a bath. Look at the face. It's pretty obvious she don't like her baths kan??


Anybody can guess where is this building, I will belanja makan Maggi Kari + telur... heheheheh...


Olie

Joanna

Fharelynne


Ashlin


Sona


Ashlin & Ashvin

CSP Mini Photography Workshop

About a month ago, my mentor (I say this because he is a mentor to me), George Yong of Jofanna Bridal, asked me to assist him with a mini photography workshop for beginners which was held last Sunday. The venue of the workshop was at Jofanna Bridal, Millennium Plaza just off the Penampang-KK Bypass. The turnout was very good and some of the participants are bloggers that I instantly recognised such as Massy and Edgar!! I just knew that it was gonna be a fun day. Besides assisting George with the workshop, he also tasked me to photographically record the day's progress. I happily agreed (anything that gets me clicking away on a camera makes me happy) :D.

The participants got lots of information about handling and using the functions of their cameras, hot tips from the pro (George), posing techniques, lighting techniques, fun, laughter, etc. In fact, I myself learnt some pretty useful techniques from this workshop and it was also a great refresher course for me. Thanks very much George for asking me to assist you for this workshop. I even got a special prize from him, my "Potret Mistik" which is now my Facebook profile pic!! I super love it!!! Below are some photos from the workshop.

Learning lighting techniques.


Our Nikon group model, Serena.


How to pose a female subject.


Concentration and a tad confusion... hehehehe...


The lovely Jofanna @ Nana


Radzie was assisting as well.


Learning to pose a male subject


Lotsa fun and laughter :D



My super-duper "Potret Mistik"!! Total coolness!! Thanks a million George!!

It was a great workshop!! Had a fun day!!

Family Portraiture: Dr Paream and Family

What a sweet family!!! I just love them to bits. Dr Paream called me the week before telling me how she loved the family portraiture I did for Deana and her family. She asked whether I would be able to do a portraiture session for her and her family as well. But it had to be done as soon as possible because next week, the whole family would be flying to KL. Usually, I would hesitate shooting on such a short notice especially when I have not had the chance to meet my clients personally and discuss the details with them. On this occasion, I decided 'Oh.. why not, it might be fun'. We made a brief discussion about the details of the shoot over the phone and immediately set a date for the shoot. I must admit I was quite nervous about the shoot but the moment we got together everything just fell into place and the session was such a joy!! I also had the good fortune of having my cuzzie Perry (thanks a million bro!) assisting me on this shoot since the Wifey is off the the World Rainforest Music Festival in Kuching. Below are a selection of our fave images of the day.

Ashlin is such an adorable sweetie!!


Handsome and energetic Ashvin


I just love watching them together. There is always this feelgood feeling...



Check out the Koi fishes in the pond where we were shooting. Isn't it totally awesome!? It was a totally good omen for me. :D

A change of dressing

**WARNING: Possible gross-out and 'bikin geli' inducing image below. Reader's discretion advised. **

Here's a quick update of my finger injury. Last night, I was looking at my bandaged finger and I felt that the bandage looked pretty roughed up due to the excessive bleeding combined with the iodine solution used to disinfect the wound. So I decided to change the dressing and I got a pair of scissors, some fresh bandage, dressing tape and some antiseptic gel.

The first thing I did was to cut the bandage open using the scissors. As I was peeling, the bandages away, I did feel a little sting from the wound. Other than that, there was virtually no pain. Upon completely removing the bandage, I finally got my first look of the wound with sutures since it was wrapped up by the Doctor. My first thought was, "Wow.. that is definitely gonna leave a nasty scar.." It looked decent enough without looking too gross so I took a photo of it for this blog entry, just in case, there are any of you who are interested enough to see a photo of a mangled finger.

It's not as bad as it looks... really...

I then took the bandage, measured it, wrapped the wound with it and kept the bandage in place securely with the dressing tape. I felt so much better after that. The finger looked 'cleaner'. I popped some prescribed antibiotics and watched MJ's memorial on TV. Lots of touching moments and felt very sad for MJ's children but hey, at least I feel so much better for my finger. :D

Aaaahh.. clean + fresh = happiness

A bloody end to a happy day...

Today happened to be a very good day for me because I've got a lot of work done and the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens that Wifey ordered has arrived. I was in such a good mood that I have a planned a pretty good dinner for Dad and I this evening.

The new prime lens. I am turning into a prime lens freak.

That's when the bloody end of the day happened. I was closing the jar of cornflour with its airtight lid when suddenly the top of the jar broke (more likely burst) and the outside of my right middle finger got caught on the sharp shards. Blood squirted everywhere as the glass shredded - I repeat - shredded the flesh and blood vessel under my finger. The only thing I could think about was rinsing the wound under running water and getting a kitchen towel to tie tightly around the wound to stem the bleeding. It seemed that the wound is about 1.5 inches long with a pretty good view of the inner workings of my middle finger.

After that, I went to get a mop and cleaned the mess on the floor (cornflour and big drops of blood all over) and wiped the table and sink. I stored whatever raw foodstuff not spattered with any blood and that's when I noticed that the wound is still bleeding very badly. Ok.. so it is worse than I thought. So I went to my room and changed clothes then called my dad from his room to ask him to drive me to the clinic. He was shocked to see the blood-soaked towel around my finger and quickly got me to the nearest clinic in Donggongon.

At the clinic, the Doctor looked at the wound and decided immediately that the wound would need sutures. In fact, it got four stitches. It was still bleeding even after it got sutured and the Doctor confirmed my assumption that a blood vessel was damaged somewhere in the finger. So now, I stuck with a big-ass bandage on my middle finger. This must be my karma for making fun of my bro-in-law in my post about my one day visit to KL.

This shot is taken with my new 35mm f1.8 lens using my left hand. How did I take this shot? With great difficulty... heheheheh...

All is not too bad; my finger could still move though a little uncomfortable because of the bandage, its not as painful as it looks and most importantly, I could still hold a camera!! :D
I got a shoot this Saturday morning and it would be shame if I had to cancel that gig. What a bloody end to a happy day...

p.s. I don't have any photos of the bloody finger before medical treatment because it would seem ridiculous to photograph your own bloody finger while it's bleeding profusely. Besides, I don't want any of my readers to throw up. ;)

Fharelynne: Black Series

Hi folks, here is that last instalment of the Fharelynne series. As mentioned in the title, this is the Black Series. Thank you very much again to Fharelynne for giving me the opportunity to work with you and helping me create such wonderful portraits. You are such a trooper!!! :D

The photos below are some of my personal favourites and I know for certain that one of them is Fharelynne's fave as well... betul ka Von?? (Click photos for larger view)

A nice candid shot...


Does she look like Jennifer Aniston in this photo?? ;D


One of my top favourite images. The wall textures are incredible (don't ask what wall it is.. LOL) and the soft light just makes her glow

Travel: One Day in KL

*This is a long post with more photos than usual, so thanks in advance for taking the time to read this posting. :D*

Last Wednesday, the Boss told me we had to go for an overnight trip to KL for a business meeting. Everything was arranged by the company so all I had to do was show up and go with the planned itinerary. If you like picture stories like I do, then I hope you'll like my story here... :)

Arrived at LCCT around 9.30am from KK. Outside the terminal we saw a signboard for free shuttle service. WOW!! FREE!! Hmm... despite the signpost, we decided maybe we should just take the Aerobus/Skybus which cost between RM8-9 per pax one way. Besides, we wanted to go to KL Sentral, not to the Pos Malaysia carpark (...weird place for a shuttle to go).


...or else we could end up like this guy. I think he was waiting for the 'free' shuttle... poor guy. So, I guess it's the 'non-free but low-cost' shuttle bus to KL Sentral.


Talking about 'cheap-ass' shuttle bus, it was creaking all the way to KL Sentral. It sounded like somebody humping on a creaky bed and it was annoying the heck out of me. But my boss, he is the embodiment of Zen. He was not the least bothered about creaky noises, in fact, he even manage to read his book all the way from LCCT to KL Sentral without much trouble.


From KL Sentral, we took the KTM Komuter to MidValley and checked in to Cititel MidValley. The room is okay la I guess. Tempat mau tidur saja mah. So after unpacking, we decided to go jalan-jalan and find something to makan.


Managed to do some 'posing-posing' while waiting for the elevator. Buli tahan bah juga boss sia nih...


While jalan-jalan in MidValley, we saw this Lancome booth. Beauty is big business. Everybody wants to look beautiful whether you're a woman or even a man.


Talking about beauty, here is the plastic model of beauty, Barbie herself. A jewelery booth was doing some sort of promotion on some jewelery pieces and rings. They have this gimmick of using Barbie dolls and have their rings used as necklace for the dolls as a way to promote the pieces. Not bad la juga... it did attract a lot of curious people, including me.


Here is another view of the Lancome booth. Something that the booths in the KK shopping mall haven't emulated, which is, to make their booths look presentable not only at eye level but also when being viewed from the higher floors.


Somebody getting a make-over in the Lancome booth. Hope she'll get the results that she desires.


After makan-makan, we went to IKEA at Ikano. Boss mau beli picture frames, so I followed him there. Turned out, I myself bought some 10R size photo frames as well as two plastic dispensers.


This bathrobe on display freaked the hell out of me when I first saw it. I thought somebody was hanging from the wall like in the horror movies. This was compounded with the dramatic lighting that they used for the display but it really works well for the photo.. LOL..!!


Hmm... wall clocks for RM3.50. Mimi informed me that they used to be priced at RM5.00 each. It was very tempting to 'pajak' everything but susah mau transport bah. We thought of courier or package mail but that would defeat the purpose of the "cheap-ass price for the reason of buying". So, we didn't buy any. Biar la... we'll get them next time... (if still got laa...)


We got back to the hotel, then my sisters and my bro-in-law called to bring me out for supper. So I met them at the hotel lobby and we went to Finnegan's. As usual, when siblings gather, all craziness erupt and we started laughing before even any alcohol was introduced to our bloodstreams. (Pic: Amanda, my younger sister)


Here's Kenneth, my bro-in-law. See that bandaged finger?? Nobody would tell me what happened to that finger. Younger sis told me that his daughter bit the finger but I don't buy it. Hmmm... according to my observation, the affected finger is the middle finger of the right hand. I think he probably showed the finger to the wrong person perhaps?? LOL...!!!


In contrast, Leanne my elder sister's finger is perfectly fine. And I know the ladies are only looking at the absolutely, ridiculously enormous ring she has on her finger... an NO, I don't know where she got it.. heheheh...


Our drinks arrived. The boys had beer while the ladies had their cocktails. The photo is Amanda's drink, the Cosmopolitan. I just like the cherry garnish.


Woke up early the next morning for breakfast before going for our meeting. The photo is a self-portrait with the help of the boss. I adjusted the camera settings and let him shoot. FYI, the photo is actually my image from a mirror near our table. Buli tahan juga bah my boss this.. can pose like model and can take photos also.


After the meeting, we decided to jalan-jalan some more just to kill time. We checked out from our hotel and stashed the luggages with the concierge. We went to The Gardens just so the 'tagas' (me) can see what's all the fuss about. My first impression: empty. I mean, compared to MidValley, The Gardens seemed empty of people/shoppers. I do like the architecture though. Lots of natural lights and I love looking at the walkways criss-crossing across the floors. They look like the swinging staircases in Hogwarts from the Harry Potter story.


Rows of 'teksi mewah'. Apparently too 'mewah' since they don't seem to see much action. They're just parked there looking like pretty ornaments for the building.


This is the last view that I captured before leaving for the airport for our flight home. Photo was taken from the pedestrian walkway linking The Gardens with MidValley. Somehow, I can imagine Spiderman swinging from building to building when I took this photo.