Condolences to Pr Lawrence and Family

Yesterday was a painful day to endure for Pr Lawrence, Aunt Nelly, Larry and Lorna and many of us who knew his son. Pr Lawrence is the pastor who baptized me back in 97. He lost his eldest son, Lownell to cancer. He was one of the youths that we grew up with at church. I was not personally close to him in any way but, we sang together in a choir quite a number of times. Our last conversation was at a burger stall, near his family's apartment, waiting for our orders, strangely, that simple meet was so strong in my mind. I'm 26 yrs old, and still incapable of rationalizing, describing or simply perceiving death. It simply felt awful. I was there to attend the funeral at church and spent the previous 2 nights before for the wake service. During the funeral service, his family and friends said their final good-byes. What truly hit all of us that day, was when his friend, also a patient in the same ward where he spend much of his days came up and spoke. He was steady, calm, eloquent, simply nothing even close to the stereotype that we've all imagined a cancer patient would appear to be. He describe briskly about their days together doing Chemo, the countless blood testing and hoping all that will be over and that they can live that normal life they used to know. He then questioned why he was let to live and not Lownell, not knowing the answer. He then defended that he was not asking for simpathy on the late Lownell's behalf, instead to be an encouragement for the rest of us who are living this difficult journey of life, to be right with God and truly bless every waking days we are alive. For we know very little if it is our last. At the end of the speech, I now understood in a very new and powerful conviction, what a fighter he was. I was told that he was the only surviving person in the ward he, Lownell and the rest of their late friends were in. At that moment, I was reminded of what death is. In fact, I was reminded of being a believer, a Christian, and why I became one. It was hope. Hope that out of all the beautiful joy and sickening nonsenses I've gone through being alive would be worth it, and when I die it aint too bad coz there really is something to look for to. Why? Death without the assurance from Jesus is truly the hopeless end that we are tying to distract ourselves from, through endless materialism and entertainment. Good bye Lownel, rest in peace.

Eye opener

I've reached the end of my 7 days off, which came with my night shift prior to that. Back in Penang and absolutely not it the mood to work later.

I was in Kuching from the 29th to the 2nd. I was actually scheduled to be in Miri, but my sis and I was informed that my grand dad was gravely ill. I was told to provide pictures of him to prepare for the obituary.

Upon arriving in Kuching, we hurried to the hospital and found out, gladly, that his condition improved. Apparently my aunts and uncles called up some church member and their catholic priests to come over to pray for him. He was able to sleep and eat with the least of difficulties.

I knew that he was all right after the prayer thingy, but what I didn't know was what happened during the session. Apparently my grand father was not able to sleep. He was there due to a weak heart, something congenital that he only knew few yrs ago. My aunts noticed that he kept getting up fully awake and asking some people to go away, but obviously no one was there la. He pointed at them and asked them not to stand near the bed and to ask them to stop disturbing him as he was sick. He kept naming people/ friends that were already, well, dead. Even the dude that just died in the hospital. So things got spooky, and my aunt did the thing that scared people do, to call the priests.

They managed to "shoo" them away somehow. I mean, I grand father somehow slept better and had this huge sigh of relief. I mean he's not senile elderly and all that, U can't pin point that he was 'nyanyuk' and all. Well, maybe it was due to his sickness that he was at his weakest point, that his brain matter got so messed up that he started to see things. Speak to any nurses out there and they can tell u that the dying normally starts to see and hear things.

Well, other than that, my own eyes were opened too. My grand ma was the 24x7 with him by his side. She's not too healthy herself but she was there, sitting on a plastic chair beside him, just watching over him and talking to him whenever she can. Her eyes glowed whenever anyone of the kids and grand kids came. This has been happening for almost a month. Love they call it. If I had to lose everything and have only one thing to keep, I'd say I want my family and love itself. I thank God that I witness things such as these in my life time. My eyes were opened, not at the LCD screen every 9hrs in a day, but to act of love and what it does to our life and of course, death.

Picture of Youth

Kids. They're always in their own sweet world. Where ever I go, I'll never miss the chance of capturing their moments. Childhood reminds many of us of discovery, innocence and most of all, the meaning of simple joy. I've compiled some photos of kids, most of them candidly taken. As a comparison and a reminder, send over your childhood pics and I'll post it in another blog. I'll start with mine. in the meantime have a look at the kids in this collection. Cheers.

Fung Fung's Wedding

Nothing to say for today, but would like to display some pics taken a week ago. What do you guys think? More to come..

Can Love truly endure all?

I admit, I do have the tendency to be a pessimist. I can brag about how hard life was, bla bla bla, yadda yadda yadda, and how I came to be who I am today. Recently I've had quiet a tight timetable, from my daily work routine at Dell, then followed by house chores, 'pak toh-ing' (dating), the 3 weeks in a row of wedding shoots, entertaining some requests from friends and neighbours to fix their computers, I felt truly lost in all the tasks I ended up holding. Looking back again, I felt like I've lost my time with the Lord. Additionally, heard about people and friends losing the grip on faith etc, didn't actually help. So I decided to not sit there and wait for my faith to germinate. I took a step forward to find some encouragement in a very GREY adult world. Already tired from work and another round chores, I pushed myself for Friday night meeting at church, it was just so easssy to not go la. But I did, and boy I'm glad I did.

I was late as usual, and ended up sitting close to the speaker that evening, a pastor from Korea, whom I knew the model of his camera and not his name. Gosh, I STILL don't know his name and his camera a was Samsung GX-10 digital SLR camera, a UNidentical twin to the Pentax K10D. Sure call me crazy. Since I was half way in the talk, it was about God's goodness. Yeah, yeah yeah, God is good all the time... same good ol boring stuff i've heard in church camps and meetings. My eyes started to work on autopilot, my breathing steadied and i was about to be Zombified, tempting to grab another chance to doze off with my eyes opened.

Then he started to share something important, perhaps. I was de-zombified. He took a really really deep breath, which means he's collecting his guts, so to speak lah. He asked, if anyone of us, actually felt hungry. I tried to reason lah, but I ended up realising that I've never truly been in hunger. Yup, the kind of hunger because you don't have the money to buy food. I actually never had. Well, he was in Cambodia, church wasn't able to reach them to send money, so he had to live on Rm150 for 3 months. To survive, he just drank water. And then we went "God is good?" and answered to himself "All the time". Despite starvation and lack of support, many lives were changed. To me, yes I knew, being a pastor and all, it's part and parcel of life, so great on him to depend on God to provide for him, but like I said, it's not something I've nver heard of.

Just 2 weeks ago, his borrowed car was broken into. Happened in Tesco Penang. He hurriedly went to the toilet, then came back with the car windows broken. Yes, his pricey Digital SLR was gone, 2 laptops and his wallet was gone. He was especially sad that his camera was gone. Well, it was silly the point was that he had nothing with him again, no wallet mean, no cash for a while. He's in penang on his own wallet, so it's quite a hastle to lose your passport and wallet in a foreign land. Of course, I beleive he had the support he needed after that. And he the audience in the hall 'God is good?" and we all replied, "all the time".

Still in the topic about 'God is good' he started to mention that many have asked him why he's in Penang. That's when he took in a deep breath. He said because he lost something precious in his life. He lost his wife. In fact, he was barely married for a year when she passed away. Sadly, she was also pregnant with their first child. I was just baffled la. Silence flooded the hall. He cried out WHY, why did the God that he suffered so much for, has taken his world from him? Honestly, I don't blame him, I'd probably be worse off. Anyway, he described the moments he had to face and his unwillingness to live. Well, he lived on. Seeing life the way many of us dont. He then understands how terrifying losing a loved one is, and how to relate to people with similiar experiences. I've learnt that he's in Penang because he just went to buy a ticket as long as it was away from home, for a while, to heal. And then he cried out again, "God is good??"... "all the time!", except that this time, this time it took on a whole new meaning. He's still standing there, in front of us, a pastor, a believer... and yet a man. I guess I had an idea about what he had, Faith and an amazing one at that.

Yes, Love for whatever is it, to a loved one... to God, can endure all things. Can mine and really, can yours?

World Rainforest Music Festival 2008

Yeah,

As usual, I'm at one of those blue moons where I'm here updating my blog. Heck, A LOT has happened since the last time I added anything here. So what happened? 2 great weddings and a booth opening, that's what happened.

Business truly is a tricky thing. Randy Jabeng, Sadat Foster and I found exactly that. We had out first 'toe-dipping' into business making and we started off with Zero_One Photography booth at the annual Sarawak World Rainforest Music Festival 2008, a worldwide music festival that I'm proud to say being copied by Penang and KL organizers alike. Well, both the latter weren't even close compared to the original one of course.

We did for it exposure, a reminder of reality and maybe even profit from it. All photos were taken back in July when the event was held.

I'd like to thank Randy Jabeng for the front-end work or liasing with the organizers, Sadat my long-suffering partner, my only sister Eva, my sweetheart Ruth, Sadat's sweetheart, Sze Hwei and what would we do without Danny Jabeng!

Besides taking pics of tourists and locals dressed in traditional outfits, we spent our time watching people go by (other than trying to pull them in for a shoot of course), drinking red with with half cut mineral water bottles, taking silly photos of ourselves, cat napping on the mat and occasional food during work.

Everything was improvised! It was my first try at studio-like shooting, we literally hand-made the dressing room and white background. One thing i've learnt, personally of course, is that, anything's possible, with a little help from God, great and patient friends and encouragement from your loved ones.

Glass Galore

Picked up my new glass, and in M'sian ringgits, it's about 3+++. You know what's the most ironic and annoying thing? I broke my own pair of glasses almost a month ago and I still haven't bought a replacement. I'm seriously in need of re-tuning in regards to my priorities in life. I'm over-using my contact lenses and I think I should get a new pair at the end of this silly blog.

So, what about this bunch of glass, packed in a metal and plastic barrel? Well, it weighs 1.38kg, and it's a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 HSM Macro mk II. It's an investment that I've made for the upcoming photography coming within the second half of this year. Simple reason of purchase was that I cannot afford the Nikon version of the same variant. Why? It costs double the money. Truly bang-for-the-buck.

I'm really excited to bring it out in the playing fields and see how good this lens is. There are bookings for a wedding in July, August, November and Feb next year, and hopefully, more in between. There'll be indian, chinese and 'dan lain-lain' weddings, so expect to see variety in the products soon.

Oh, I think there's this Sale at focus point for a pair of glasses in Perangin Mall for RM160 with frame and multicoated lens. Sigh, you're so cheap Dan..

Been really busy with work lately, so I'll be a little slow with my replies, but don't stop leaving all your comments ya?

God bless u.

Never Spent so much on a bunch of glass before

Kean Loong and Grace Oo

Sunday- 7:00AM, Sadat and I are still asleep and the couple were equally no ready. Malaysian time kicked in. Regardless, we still ended up with good light and weather and produced a numbr of images that we personally loved.


We did attracted quite an amount of attention, but that's just because they're such a beautiful couple. To look at the exclusive Kean and Grace's Pre-Weding shots, have a look at the Albums.

Scott and Anne's HITCHED!!! Part 1

Hey,

It's monday, I took a day off today (MC) due to the Flu. Scott and Anne, sorry that I couldn't make it for the reception that night, was sick as I slept for 3 hour per day for the past 3 days. Heard stories about Scott's special song. You're the man la scott!! I was supposed to be one of the 'Heng Tai' for Scott, but due to the holiday traffic, Jon, Flo and I were half hour late for it. we were the first few to arrive at the church as we went directly there, while most of the crowed were at Anne's place. Took the chance to start out my photoshoot without my partner Sadat as he took the palce to be one of the 'heng Tai'. Way to go la Dat!! Eating wasabi buscuit was rediculuosly painful, was the only I could recall from him. Since I was the NON-Official photographer, *tsk Tsk!!*, I had all the time in the to absorb all that wedding feeling LAH. Jon immediately went into practicing the drums with COMPLETE Strangers. That was the sort of bravery that blows my mind away LAH. But Jon being Jon.... he was right into it. I knew there was some funk and jazz somewhere in the beats... and from the hints I got from him, I was for from wrong. Florence on the other hand was completely lost. No ushers in sight. So, she just sat there watching the musicians and wished she had better things to do.

I'd better stop here and hey, Scott, Anne, I hope you both loved the following images taken of you both. Look out for part II. I have a very different view, understanding perspective from your official photographer, especially as one of the spectators. I liked it. He's great, but Sadat and I are... different... enjoy.




Look out for Kean and Grace's Stunning Pre-Wed Shots! Right after Scott's and Anne's Part II. BTW, all images were taken by NIKON!

My Simple Nikon D300 review

Hi guys and gals,

Enough is enough. It's time to bring about some results from this monster. All that metal and electronics put together means absolutely nothing if it doesn't perform as mentioned in their brochures. Hey, we all know brochures are meant to glorify in a God-like manner the product that it advertises and sadly most of them end up too good to be true.

Suffice to say, I wasn't too disappointed with the D300. This review will not discuss much on the technicalities of the camera, rather more to the qualitative character of the camera. All the specs in a camera makes the camera, but the images are altogether a result of the communication between you and your tool. Yes yes, the photos are all about the photographer, but heck, the equipment helps a great deal LAH.

Most shots were taken with the all popular 50mm 1.8D, and it was no surprise that it was. I took some experimental shots using the Monochrome Mode, with Toning effects. The rest of the pics were under Standard mode. All this can be found under the Picture Control Menu. Very very comprehensive to the point that it shows your settings in a X vs Y axis of sharpness and contrast. Excellent. Simply put, you just have to know what you're doing when using this camera. Did I tell you that the manual was more than 400 pages? Yes, all those pages are in good english.
Pardon for most of the pics are made up of half naked men. What do you expect to shoot in a 'bujang' house at 9am in the morning! You're right, a heck load of other things. LOL. Well, this is just the beginning. Look out for more colourful pics coming up in my next few posts, especially of Scott's and Anne's wedding. I'm excited.

This is a picture of Stan. Say 'hi' to Stan the man. His story is that he lost approx 12kgs in a month. He improved his looks and most importantly, his self confidence. How did he do that? Well, ask him yourself, and good luck trying.

Nikkor 50mm, F2, 1/15 Sec, iso 320

My bro, Jon. Holding the all too familiar Nikon Fm. Reminds me of the days when cameras were made so finely despite using crude materials like steel and has the potential to save your life when a bullet hits you on your camera. Shot using a >20 year old Tamron 28mm F2.5, full metal jacket. When the lens was placed on the camera, it metered perfectly, but of course on manual focus and the camera weighed a tonne. Results? Speaks for itself. Shot at 28mm (duhh), 1/50 sec F2.5, iso 200.

No, he doesn't play the guitar, but at least you were tricked thinking that he does. Nikkor 50mm, 1/20, f2.2 iso 500.


Windows lit shot of Jon, waking up from sleep. He sleeps with his glasses on. He's myopic (shot sighted) even in his dreams. Nikkor 50mm 1/40, f3.2, iso 500
While my girlfriend was cooking in the kitchen, took the chance to grab a shot of this faucet. Notice how the tone is sooooo buttery and realistic and colours don't overblast themselves to death.

Sony Ericsson Cybershot K810i- Camera Wannabe Phone

Hey, to make the story short, I ditched Motorola Phones and Nokia was too expensive and slow, so I bought the sony ericsson.

It's so unlike me LAH to review camera phones. I cannot deny the fact that I was kinda amazed by it.

Shessshh, it IS a camera, and a pretty darn good phone too. Don't take my word for it.

I jumped boat again, bought a 5K camera, and it's a NIKON!! Call me nuts

Box Opening Ceremony

The electronic contacts looks untouched.

The first power up!!

Before calling me crazy, consider the following explanations,

It was a long and gruelling 4-5 months using Canon equipments. I realised that the canon eos 40D was far below my expectations. In fact, I wouldn't dare to say that, to avoid a drive-by shooting by Canon fans out there. In case someone took that seriously, that was meant to be a joke, *chuckle Chuckle*. Yes, I'd rather sell all equipments that I have if i figured that it didn't work with my style of shooting and start over if i had to, so i did exactly that. Let me explain.

The real story is that I just can't shoot with Canon cameras LAH. To those who understand some photography terms out there, there were a few mechanism/ paradigm that Canon digital Slrs have that I just could work with, namely the WB (White Balance), the light metering, Focusing. Just cannot LAH.

Yes, Canon cameras suck at choosing the correct white balance. To make is plain and simple, that simply pissed me off. Why? I started out shooting using a point and shoot, then a zoom/ Bridge camera, of which both had more White Balance accuracy. And what in the world is White Balance, Dan? Simple, it's how the camera perceives the colour white, in different light conditions. In other words, it about how the camera understands if it's looking at a Sunny day, or cloud day, or indoor of a house. Now, canon digital slrs, especially my late eos 40D, didn't even know if I was shooting on a cloudy day or if i was shooting a sunset. Let's just say that during sun rise or sunset, the picture was BLUEISSHHHHH. Yes yes yes, having an SLR means u have control over the WB settings, hence we must use the correct one according to the real scene. BUT, i'm shooting weddings and that's a crappy excuse if I'd missed a good moment. Sorry Steve, the pic of you kissing your wife had to be processed so it looks like the original lighting and moment, so I'll need forever to do that since I took 20 shots in a row. Cheap cheap excuse. Nikons, especially the D200 and the D300 that I now own, never had that issue. You see, it was so good, I barely pressed the WB(white Balance) settings button. I'm not over-stating this, it's just a fact.

Light metering? It's how your camera measures light, according to the sensor pattern, regardless if it's matrix, collective, spot or center weighted. In other words, how your camera understands what the correct exposure is. The Canon 40d is fine, but not good enough. If there was a slight hint of highlight, say lamp post or a bright window, the camera UNDEREXPOSES the photo mercilessly, without considering the entire scene. I'd have to measure the light on the subject, focus then recompose and then shoot. And normally you'll fail the first try. Nikons work based on a database of scenes, so I guess that's why it works so much better. I point to a subject, there's a bright window at the extreme corner and camera would normally decides that, hey, I know that dude is sitting there, let me balance out the brightness between them. Tadddaa, correct exposure at the first try. Oh, did I mentioned that I just keep shooting and not miss another moment? Thanks.

The Canon 40D supposedly came with all 9 Cross-type sensors. Wow, absolutely useless. Even when using one center focusing point, 40% (a rough estimate) the focusing was not tack sharp and with SEVERAL focusing and refocusing tries. The rather grainy viewfinder didn't help too and the camera's beeping Auto Focus confirmation sound keep lying to me. The 3inch LCD screen has inaccurate colours and not sufficiently sharp enough.

So, is this a bad camera, NO. It just makes it harder for me to do what I intended to do, possibly causing me to miss important moments. Suffice to say, if you shoot events and weddings alike, this is unacceptable LAH. Despite what I said, the camera had excellent detail and colour rendition among all the other manufacturers. But then again, Nikon progressed so much that I dare to say that Canon's aren't the top anymore in that measure.

Hey, so what happened was, I sold my lenses, flash, camera, battery packs all in 3 days and bought a Nikon d300. It came with a price, but at least I know that the depreciation rate is MUCH slower that of canons. HAHAHA. Buy a Canon now, and check out the price just after 5 months, in a split second, you'll notice yourself banging ur head on the wall. If you really need to buy a canon camera in the future, wait for a few months after lauching. It's not wrong to buy it early, but the way canon priced it so much lower just a few months after that is so so saddening la. In less than 6 months, the cash price to by a 40D was a good 600 ringgit cheaper. Go figure. You wanna sell it as a second hand? Think Proton cars. HAHAHAHA


Do have a look at my Fadalini.multiply.com account for my favorite shots with the canon 40D. Good riddens. I'm back on the dark side.