Mr Kuala Lumpur

This is not the one. Someone beat him to it. I had to leave before the winner was picked. Well, with luck and maybe quite a bit of work, will be back next year for the full coverage.

If you were at the competition site, you will realise that it is not easy to sculpt a body. With the many 'mamak stalls' that open 24 hours, it is rather difficult not to over-indulge in tons of carbohydrates and of course the often too-sweet tea that comes with your order of roti canai.

This is a sampling of the contestants before they appear and when competing on stage.

Just cannot image myself being a body builder, or as one senior body builder Mr Henry Lim puts in his card, "turn your body into a fat burning machine" - machine they look!

Last but not least, a very pretty lass who is also a body builder. Won't you like to see her ripling muscles. Did not quite get her name. Kimberly, I think. The secretary of the Kuala Lumpur Body Building Federation, Mr Vincent Ho in the picture, also did not show off his muscles as he has to make sure the event runs smoothly.

Dragonboat competition at Putrajaya

Time really waits for no man. Gosh, did not realise that I had not posted anything for such a long time.

This shot was taken in the morning.The sun was hiding, and the air was kind of hazy. Nevertheless had a couple of ok shots. Thos friends of mine who will be there tomorrow, do pay for better weather.

Wedding shoot

Had a blast covering the wedding of Edwin and Debra last week. Lovely couple, and of course, lovely wedding, reception, etc, etc. Since they have not seen the photographs, will not post until later (maybe...). But since this car, a Jag, that was used as the bridal car, was one of those that I had ever thought of buying, I cannot resist posting an image. Will write a little about wedding photography later.

Panning Shot - Easy rider

Panning is easy. But to get the right picture with 'oomph', it takes lots and lots of practise. Try by setting your shutter speed to 1/30 second on a relatively fast moving object.

In this photo, I snapped the photo of the motor cyclist from a moving car. The motor cyclist was travelling at about the same speed as the car I was travelling in. Not so interesting an image, but will do as a practise shot.

Don't forget to crop your photograph, if that helps to make it a better picture. As in most photographs of moving objects, ensure that there is more space where the object is travelling towards. It shows movement. Does that make sense to you? Take a look at the photo above and below and make your own judgement.

Shooting up!

Shooting up - I meant the angle in which a photo is taken (very low angle)

Many a times, we find that a building that we want to snap, or a statue that we want as our background object, are just too high that we cannot have both our subjects and the background objects in the picture.

Sometimes, for a different effect, we do that too. Otherwise, all your photographs will not be any different from those taken by any other tourist or photographer.

Just like these two photographers. One lying on his back, and the other squatting and shooting 'blind'. Forgot to check with them how their photographs turn out. Probably pretty good, if they had used their flash (or they want to have silhouttes).

Two photographers taking photo of anchovies being fanned out to dry, in Pangkor Island

Show jumping

Now that my website has some semblance of a functional website, I guess I can afford to spend some time uploading some images.

Received quite a few emails about giving some pointers and tips at this blog. Although I am still a novice in front of some masters, I will try to do that starting next week. As one of my good friend relate to me his experiences, it is not always the technically strong photographer that captures the best picture, for the best picture is akin to the phrase, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". The best image is the one that evokes some emotion from the person seeing the picture.

Am I right or am I right.

This guy was almost knocked down by the horse. Heard that he designs the jumps. Must have been sleepwalking.

Revisiting prints on canvas

I am surprised that there are still quite a lot of people who does not know that they can print on canvas the photographs that they had snapped. In fact, have just created the following montage that I rather like. If my client likes it, you can see it being displayed at her restaurant somewhere in Mont Kiara.

By the way, it is not too expensive, at approximately RM0.20sen to RM0.30sen per square inch, depending on the size of the print. Stretching the print would cost around RM6 per foot run.

Website and programming

I tried to tidy up my website, http://www.yongcs.com/ and made a mess of it. Had been working on it for about a week now. Well, some improvements, in my opinion, but the Homepage is still 'work-in-progress'. A huge black box staring at you where it was the slideshow - and I have problems removing it.

Hope to get it back on its feet in a couple of days. Yes, hope...

Birds - fighting for a mate

Very fortunate to be at the right place and the right time, equipped with the right camera. A point-and-shoot will not do for this sequence of pictures. Fast shutter speed and rather high ISO.

We chanced upon a cluster of feathers. Upon closer examination, we saw three birds, apparently having a discussion!

Then the action started. Looked like three birds having a free-for-all. Wings fluttering, chirping, and beaks locked for the longest time I have ever seen.

Then one of the birds, apparently the female, took a break and the two male had a beak-fight.

The loser stayed for a while, then stepped away when the noisy pairs seemed to be chasing it away

Quiet moment!!! Bliss?

An afternoon at the races in Ipoh

A good friend managed to secure for us an entry to the race in Ipoh. Not very often do we get a chance to be about 10 feet or so from the horses during a race.

The weather was not very encouraging as there were scattered drizzles occassional lightning and thuner. To top that off, the sky was a featureless grey. Nevertheless, we had a great time 'shooting' the horses and riders. Some of the images to share with you:

Riders and horses going round a corner. Just love the speed and gait of the horses (and riders)

Right off the bend

... and coming towards us.

before heading for the finishing line. A photo finish!

Here's the winner (from a different race)

Saluting the photographer?

Shot most of the above on rather high ISO setting (1600) and shutter priority (1/2000s)

Fill Flash and fun at Sunway Lagoon

Most of the time, I would find flash photography casting shadows that look very harsh. As such, I hardly use them. For this occassion, however, if I had not used the flash, the subjects (happy school kids) would probably just appear as silhouttes against the bright sky.

Had fun asking them to be themselves. Happily spending a wonderful afternoon at Sunway.

... and who would not want to catch such a lovely kid

Portraiture - Iveta

Finally found some time to review some photographs that I took a couple of months ago. Here's one of the images. A couple of others can be found at this site

She's happy, he's happy

Love her smile, and his too

Always expect the unexpected

I was on an assignment last week, taking photographs of a cathedral, when I chanced upon this beautiful bird. A 'cross' that is all natural, and really beautiful.

and the cathedral?

Here it is. Sorry that I cannot showcase the best image - that goes to the cathedral.

Clouds and sky

These photographs are reasons that I normally lug a camera with me where ever I go. Would have missed these photo opportunities if my camera was not on me.

early morning at the church

looks like a ring of rainbow at the side of KLCC twin towers

before a heavy rain, light striking the Telekoms Tower

and what have we here, a silver lining.

Artistic Photo - Iveta

Living in Malaysia, it is really difficult to decide what to post, or rather what can be posted without alerting offending some people. Anyway, I believe these are 'safe' to post.

I wonder how the other photographers fared. Beautiful silhoutte, but rather unfortunate that there are just too many distracting objects in the background. Never mind, will find a better spot for the next shoot, if there is any. Understand Iveta will be in Malaysia again soon.

Was going to write about not using wide angle lens as the hands were huge, being closer to the camera, while the legs were really small, being much further away from the camera. Will leave the image to your imagination!

A totally selfless man

Thought this image will encourage more good deeds.

The temporary barriers set up by the road construction team fell due to the heavy rain and wind. This caused a major traffic congestion that stretched out to about 2km.

This motor cyclist (my hero) stopped his machine by the side of the road, and risking his life and limb, proceeded to push the barriers out of the way. He single-handedly cleared the road and went on his way. While he was helping, many impatient motorist just honked at him. Felt guilty that I did not step out to help. Would you?

Right after I posted this, I read this article, "Do unto others quietly …" in MalaysiaInsider. How touching. I hope I too had touched and helped someone in the past.

More Chinese New Year Gymnastics (slow shutter)

you may want to try this out. stabilise your camera against a wall, and set shutter speed to 1/30 second or slower.

Happy Chinese New Year

A very Happy New Year to my Chinese friends and for my non-Chinese friends, do enjoy this festive occassion together with us.

Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition @ Petronas Gallery

An exhibition not to be missed.

You can find more information about the exhibition here and here.

The organisers were kind enough to allow me to take some photographs. Not very clear, I am afraid, but I hope it is enough to encourage you to make a trip to the Twin Towers before the exhibition moves on to the next city.

The number of entrys is a mind-boggling 60,000 plus. I guess if I had submitted my photo, it would probably be buried somewhere deeeeeep.

My new model, Vincent Foong. During his short speech, he shared with us that he had been taking photographs for 30 years. And that when he changed to DSLR, he took photographs every morning before he goes to work. What dedication!

While we were there, I saw a number of Malaysian greats - artists and photographers. Among them are Jeff Lim, Yeoh Kian Thye, and Yusuf Gajah. Too bad I could not stay to chat, and take some bites from the sumptuous cocktail they have laid out.