Good Bye Penang and Moving Along the Dotted lines

I've been home for 4 and a half months. Indeed, never had I expected that it would be the most eventful 4 months of my life.

Yet, it is undeniably weird to say good bye to Penang after being away for so long. Was I in denial? Gosh, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I missed Penang terribly. The friends, the food, the favorite spots and places, the traffic, the shopping, the air, the insanely early morning Dim-sum, the church, the adventist hospital, Desa U, N-Park, USM, the ferry, the bridge, campus life, the beaches, pulau jerejak, working at Dell, roti jon, Maggie goreng, roti tiga rasa, taking 2 hr bus rides everyday for 4 months to teach rich kids english, falling in and out of love and then in again, teaching Sadat how to swim, cheap juice in USM, bloody expensive fruit juices elsewhere, involved in an accident for the first time, learning to like Jazz music, going all the way to Jerejak just to ride a bike, the talks with jon, standing under the artificial waterfall in Desa U when I'm sad and stressed, cell group, shooting weddings, PKA..... I can go on, believe me I can.
The Lord is good. Sure it wasn't perfect, but life was full, absolutely full indeed. I am forever indebted to the friends and acquaintances that came and went at any one point of my life while i was there. The island itself was the most amazing 'playground' i'll ever be in. No wonder, no wonder some decide to live and die there. The beautiful hills, beaches and walks in town, gives you no choice but to remember the impressions and feelings that you had just by being there. Sadly, there were moments too when I saw development took a toll on what used to be natural and beautiful. I was reminded of my childhood and seeing the favorite tree i used to climb being cut down and seeing the pond I used to catch the prettiest fishes pumped dry and how much it hurts. I do hope that Penangites will know when to say enough is enough, before it turns into a large piece of concrete in the sea.
Thank you Penang for being that home away from home. I am what I am today because of what you are.

Hello Kuching.... now where is that post office again?

Going really WIDE

Okay, why I'm going to Miss Penang is that there's not many places in Malaysia that when you buy a new gear for your camera or perhaps a new camera itself, where you get out of the camera shop and Tadda!!, you're smack in the middle of a place where there's so many things to shoot! So I took it for a nice Urban Shooting session and found some really nice spots in Penang street.

That's exactly what I did. Went to the Shop, got out of it VERY poor but happy and shutter-friendly. I bought myself the Sigma 10-20mm F4.0-5.6 EX DC HSM. I got a sharp copy and absolutely happy with it. You know, there's just no wider lens in the Nikkor line up except for the fisheye of course. The Nikkor 12-24 costs about 2.5 times more, not as wide, so go figure.


Stay tuned for more blogs this year guys.

Images from Chirstmas Eve and Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008 was truly a year of change, and I have no doubt that 2009 will bring life changing experiences to a whole new level! Anyway, I had the chance to return to my hometown, Kuching on Christmas eve and celebrated Chrismas, then returned to Penang on the 26th, and in another twist, went back to Kuching on the 31st dec for My cousin's Wedding. Here's a compilation of images taken on my trip back. I bought a Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Ai-S lens and from what you'll see, is light years away from the f1.8 version. Christmas is also the anniversary of my photography! I started taking pics when I was 12, But I got my first film SLR on Christmas 2000. Things have truly changed hasn't it?