Tag Archives: Photography

Canon EOS Experience Seminar

Ok, I know, I know… The event was on 21st of Sep. Kind of late to blog about it. This was the first time I saw nearly 200 Sabah photographers at a time, and there were many familiar faces (of photographers and bloggers). Besides being introduced the new Canon SLRs and being told Canon was better than Nikon, there was a model shooting session in the morning. The organiser hired 3 BIKINI models for us to play with.

Just divide 200 photographers by 3 models, each model will need to entertain over 60 photographers in average. So you can imagine how crowded it was and many was overexcited with the sexy bikini models. We pushed one another. During the shooting, I kept on cursing coz the heads and hands of other photographers spoiled the shot. To be frank, I am not good at portrait photography. I shot for sendiri syok only, but this time I wanted to photograph their personality and characteristics (not only figure).

Nicole was undoubtedly the favourite of most photographers. Can tell that she is very experienced in modeling. Not only she knew how to pose, she seemed to be aware of the surrounding light and tried to adjust her poses for the best lighting angle. I tried to capture her sexy and “dreamy” look in my photos. Her fair skin radiated under the sunlight, causing some of my initial shots “exploded” (overexposed).

The next model I forgot her name. Very flexible and did whatever the photographers asked, even laid on the dirty ground. I like her warm and friendly expression, the feeling is like taking the pictures of your friend.

Madona is the sister of Madelynn (Unduk Ngadau 2005 and Miss Sabah 2007). I think she is new in modeling. Though less experience, she is photogenic. She got sweet smile and nice black hair. It was tricky to get good photos of her, coz she stood under the shade or at a spot with backlight. I hope the organiser will provide reflectors for photo shooting next time. I know KL did, but don’t know they didn’t prepare it here.

Overall, it was an interesting experience. What feel better than turning the beautiful models into slaves under our lens? Everyone who got camera was like a king that day. Some photographers even made funny requests such as asking two models to act kiss kiss like lesbian. Frankly, I am not fond of shooting those action-action show-off poses. Personally I prefer something more natural.

What I learnt in this seminar was we needed a lot of $$$ to pursuit for excellent photo quality, and I also learnt that I was not rich enough to pay for it. OK lah, more photos below. Just click them to see bigger photos:

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Underwater Photography

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I completed and passed my PADI Open Water Diver course in early April. I didn’t blog about it coz I didn’t have any photos. The one-time-use water-proof camera works only up to 15 Metres deep, but our dive could go up to 18M and I also wanted to keep my hand free during the training.

Sabah has some of the most beautiful underwater spots in the world. Being a Sabahan, it is such a sin not to appreciate and photograph it. Besides, there are less people doing underwater photography in KK. Underwater Photography is extremely challenging. After I took the Digital Underwater Photography specialty course last month, I agree that the underwater photographers really deserve a few thousands dollars for a good photo, it is not as easy as you think.

My Underwater Photography training took only 1 day near Gaya Island base station. In the morning, we were doing shore diving, taking photos in shallower water. Below is the photo of clown fishes, which are the cousin species of Nemo. The coral looked like white noodles being surrounded by “Ikan Bilis”, yummy… There is one female clown fish in each group. If it dies, the biggest male clown fish in the group will “turn into” female and take over her place. Amazing huh?

The diving experience would be far more interesting if I knew what I looked at. When comes to underwater world, I am really MCC (blur) and can’t even tell the difference between seahorse and pipefish. I am so glad to have Richard as my “Sifu” (instructor). You will be dearly impressed by his underwater photos at his Downbelow web site. He is also very nice and positive.

The camera that I used for this course was Canon Powershot A640 IS (rented) with the underwater housing. It is not as good (expensive) as a professional SLR camera but can do a reasonable good job with proper setting (and with plastic casing a lot more lighter than the aluminum casing for SLR). The light loses its red and orange colors under deeper water, so we need to set the white balance in your camera to compensate the colors. Otherwise your photos will look overly blue or green.

Then we moved on to boat diving at Extenstion Reef (12M-18M deep) off Gaya Island in the afternoon. To do well in underwater photography, an excellent skill in buoyancy (sink & float level) control is a must. I knew my buoyancy control really sucked when it came to 2 most important techniques: (1) Fin pivot method (keep upper half of the body floated a few inches above the sea floor), and (2) Hovering (hold-on at a fixed spot motionless, without sinking and floating). See the photo at the right below, do you believe that it is an animal, not a plant?

With poor control in buoyancy, I would have problem to keep my body (and camera) still to take photo without touching the sea floor. Touching the bottom would damage the fragile corals or stir the sandy bottom, then photography becomes “photo-bombing.” Richard demo the correct photo-taking approach in the water and showed me some interesting subjects for photo-shooting.

Another challenge is the backscatters (reflection from the tiny particles). Under low light, I was tempted to use camera flash to light up the subject. However, if the water is not clear, the small particles would reflect the light, making many those small and blur white dots in my photos. If you don’t know what I mean, try to take picture under very misty or dusty environment.

The last highlight in our dive is the big cuttlefish (see photo below) that can change colors to communicate with others. It was hiding under a big “umbrella” coral. Richard had to hold my legs to let me photograph it in upside down position. So funny… if he didn’t do that, I would bump into the hundred-year-old coral and crushed it.

Now I can call myself an Underwater Photographer. Haha… may be not that soon. Looking at my photos here, most can see that they are not good enough. The course only teaches me the right methods to photograph. I really need a lot of practices to master the skills. If possible, I will try to dive regularly. Hai… need to “raise fund” to get my underwater camera first. The compact camera and housing kit will coast RM2,000, and plus additional RM1,000+ if I also get an external strobe/ flash (for better colors and lighting). Sigh… RM3,000+ will be a long way…

Photos taken in Gaya Island, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Helicopter Joyride

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Whenever I was on a plane, I would always try to get a few aerial shots (and end with disappointing result). Finally I had the chance to try aerial photography from a helicopter with a few photographers, about a thousand feet above the ground. Though the joyride was short, it was an exciting experience.

We gathered at the Sabah Air helicopter terminal about 7:30am at Tanjung Aru. The weather was good and the sky was clear. After weighting our bodies and photography equipments, we were presented a 10-minute video about safety briefing and onboard procedures. We met the pilot, then we started flying at 8:09am.

The helicopter flied at very high speed (higher force of gravity). My ears felt the air pressure and I got a bit of motion sickness. But very soon my body was adapted to the change. The window at the side was open, so I could hold the camera a bit outside the window to take the aerial photos. It was hard… The wind was so strong that my len was like being pressed by strong hand, and had difficulty to auto-focus. If I am not mistaken, the speed was 90 Mile/Hour (Note: not KM/Hour).

The flight was only 15 minutes, we started from Tanjung Aru, then passing by STAR Hotel, Sutera Harbour, Tunku Abdul Rahman Islands,
Kota Kinabalu city, Likas Mosque, Yayasan Sabah, Penampang, etc. High in the sky, everything was so small on the ground.. the buildings looked like toy houses, traffic looked like running ants.. KK city is so beautiful..

We were so busy shooting photos. We only had a few seconds to shoot decision. Due to the vibration of the helipcopter, I use Shutter Priority and take the pictures in JPG+RAW format. Every scene passed so fast, we really had no time to adjust camera setting and preview the photos on LCD. The flight ended at 8:25am. “AH! Return to base so soon?!” We all wished it could be longer. I like the photo below coz it looks like a typical scene from 007 movie (James being attacked by enemy from helicopter).

Now I can call myself an “Aerial Photographer.” Since Sheikh Muszaphar also can call himself an “Angkasawan,” I don’t see any problem here. Below are more photos. Click each of them to see bigger photo. Some places I have no idea where they are (the photos between Likas Mosque and STAR Hotel). Probably someone could tell me.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Sabah Fest 2008

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The friendly smiles, the rich colours and the interesting display of our cultures will bring you back to Sabah Fest every year. “Harmony in Diversity” is the theme for Sabah Fest 2008. Diversity? Guess how many ethnic groups we have in Sabah? Even Sabah Cultural Board is trying to figure out. We have about 30 ethnic groups. Each ethnic groups also have 2 or more “sub-ethnic”. So… if all adds up, we have over 100 tribes!

Below are two costumes that my camera likes to lock-on. Left is a Dusun Tindal girl. In case you are curious about the two balls at her chest (I mean the silver ones lah). They are small containers that can store small stuffs such as tobacco and betel nut. The right is a Dusun Ranau girl, cute right?

Click Here to see more photos of Sabah Fest 2008 >>

The ticket to watch the 1.5 hours cultural show is only RM30 (less than USD10), which I think is really undervalued. There are lot of beautiful things to photograph. Just press the shutter then you will capture something nice. Many bloggers were there too, most of them gathered at the left side of the stage. I carried a tripod and didn’t want to accidentally step on their bodies, so I was at the right side.

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Besides Tagal Murut people from Ulu Berkuku and Ulu Tomani, very interior and remote area of Sabah, another “rare” guest was Cocos people (photo above) from Lahad Datu. They are of Scottish and Malay descent, originated from Keeling Islands (where is it huh?). They are so different from other indigenous groups. Not only their costumes, their Dansa dance and music are like something totally from Europe.

Click Here to see more photos of Sabah Fest 2008 >>

The Igal Tabawan by Sea Bajau was also a pleasure surprise. It is cool to see hundreds of long tin foil nails moving, though I wish they could do interesting formation like thousand-hand Buddha.

Click Here to see more photos of Sabah Fest 2008 >>

The most impressive and creative dance was the Pangkulian by children from Kiawaian school of Tambunan town. They look so… cute in Murut costume. They used bamboo to create various types of interesting performance, dances and moves. Even the drum players
were the school boys, amazing… I was also so happy to see involvement of young blood in local culture.

Click Here to see more photos of Sabah Fest 2008 >>

The performers have done their part on stage. Now I am trying to show the beauty of our cultures online. FYI, the high quality photos are in my photo gallery. To make my blog loads faster, I use low quality setting for my photos in write-up here. I took most of the stage photos without flash, but with the aid of tripod and image stabilizer len. I used ISO 800 instead of 1600. Unlike Canon 40D, I find the noise level in ISO 1600 photos of my Canon 400D is not acceptable. Overall the outcome is quite ok. I hope you like the photos. After seeing the excellent photos from other bloggers, I think I can retire liao..

Related Posts
Sabah Fest 2007
Sabah Fest 2006

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Say Cheese, Not Wee-Wee

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Finally, after month of waiting, I got a new telephoto len (EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, roughly equal to 14x optical zoom) for my Canon 400D. Happily I tried to take some pictures of bird-bird. In fact, it is better to have at least a 400mm++ len (something that can cost more than my whole year salary) to photograph birds. The photos below are after big cropping, only good for identification and web graphic. I might be better off using digiscoping…

If you go to KK Wetland Centre (formerly KK City Bird Sanctuary), you have almost 100% chance seeing the bird-bird below. Unlike the friendly sparrows and pigeons who like to shit on your cars, these wild birds flee before we can get close enough to ask them to say cheese.

1. White Collared Kingfisher (Halcyon chloris)

Don’t know why. Kingfisher is always the favourite subject of photographers. This one was about 25 feet away from me, so the shot is quite ok.

2. Ashy Tailorbird (Orthotomus cuculatus)

Sometimes I feel like throwing stone at this bird (just kidding). I have been trying very hard to take its picture, but it was almost impossible with my compact camera that needs 2, 3 seconds to focus. Ashy Tailorbird never stops. They fly from one tree to another, jump from branch to branch quickly.

3. Great Egret (Egretta alba)

This is not the egret you always see in longkang. It is bigger and has a distinct “S” neck. Too bad the detail of its feather is lost in the highlight area. Probably this is caused by what they call dispersion, a common problem of a cheap telephoto len at high zoom.

4. Green Imperial Pigeon (Ducula aenea)

Not sure if I got its name right coz it was 100 feet away from me. It is 2 to 3 times bigger than normal pigeon. I was using maximum zoom. Without a tripod, IS (Image Stabilizer) also cannot help much to prevent blur image.

5. Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

According to book, Common Greenshank is migratory bird. We only can see them between Sep and Apr. But I see them in the park all year around. Probably some of them have become the permanent resident of Sabah.

6. Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia)

Beautiful bird… They are quiet and hide among the leaves. Not common to see them in open space. I got this shot from the observatory tower.

Overall, the performance of my new len is so-so. Canon claims its IS (Image Stabilizer) works as good as other models, but I think a monopod or tripod is highly recommended for use in higher zoom. The len got a plastic look. Without USM (UltraSonic Motor), the focusing is slightly noisy. Due to its small aperture, it only performs under good lighting condition. It costs me RM900, which is considered very cheap if compare with another model that I wanted to get earlier (300mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom len with IS, RM2,300+). Well, with a price tag lower than RM1K, it does an adequate job, though not impressive but not too bad either.

Photos taken in KK Wetland Centre, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Tuaran Cultural Carnival

You Jump I Shoot

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Menara Tun Mustafa, the tallest building in Kota Kinabalu city, is the office for Yayasan Sabah, a government group which promotes the education and socio-economy of Sabah people. In fact, it is more commonly known as Yayasan Sabah building by the locals. If you are old enough, probably you could remember the free milk and school uniform from them in old days. Yayasan Sabah is one of the four building in the world that with outer layer mostly covered by glass. It is a must-go destination in city tour. Every day you can see buses of overseas tourists come and see it. Personally, I don’t understand why they are so excited with this 30-floor mirror tower, even “Spiderman” (a world famous climber) wanted to conquer it. Finally last week I saw one good use of it. Yes, you guess it right, base jumping.

Click Here to see more photos of Parachute Jump >>

With a height of over 120 Metres, if you fall from top of it, it will turn you into dead meat within 5 seconds. On Aug 11-12, a group of ten international jumpers (from UK, USA, Canada, Australia, German, Belgium, Italy…) did a parachuting from 8.30am to 5pm. After this, they will challenge the highest tower in KL, Penang, Alor Star… This is part of the warm-up celebration for the approaching of our 50th Malaysia National Day (Hari Merdeka) on Aug 31st.

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At first I thought only kids love this and I would leave after taking a few shots. I was wrong. It was so fun to watch. I couldn’t stop taking photos. I came back on second day for more. Many visitors and students gathered for the launching, and the spirit was high. Everyone looked up to the sky, waiting enthusiastically for each show. My neck got cramp after hours of photo-shooting. If you were not there, rugi lah you.

The jumpers are very friendly and sporting. Amanda, from USA, was the one got the most attention coz she is the only female jumper in the group. Whenever she showed up, hundred of “fans” wanted to take photo with her, like ants seeing sugar. While parachuting, she looks like a beautiful and big butterfly in the sky, oh… how I wish she will land on my face, heheh..

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Jumping with such low height disallows any error margin and requires expert skill to maneuver the parachute. The wind direction can change in second, sometimes they end up landing out of the intended spot. Everything ran smoothly. I think only one case that the jumper did a “butt landing”, so painful that he sat still for quite a while. Fortunately nobody got injured.

Click Here to see more photos of Parachute Jump >>

Talking about Yayasan Sabah, I recalled a joke told by my sister. Just to share with you…
One day, a tourist hired a taxi driver for a KK city tour. Being a patriot, the taxi driver tried to impress the tourist with nice landmark building of Sabah. He showed Wisma Merdeka to the tourist, “Here is our shopping mall.” The tourist asked, “How many years did Sabah take to build this?” The taxi driver replied, “About 2 year.” The tourist sneezed, “My country takes only 1 year to build this!” Later the taxi driver introduced Sutera Harbour to him, “This is our 5-star hotel.” The tourist asked again, “How many years to build this?” Trying to impress again, the driver answered, “1 year.” The proud tourist teased, “So slow ah? My country takes 6 months only!” The taxi driver has gotten angry already. When they arrived Yayasan Sabah, the tourist said, “Hey! That’s a nice tower. How many years to build?” This time the taxi driver replied aloud, “I DON’T KNOW! I DIDN’T EVEN SEE IT THERE YESTERDAY!!!”

Click Here to see more photos of Parachute Jump >>

Funny? Don’t forget to see my photo gallery for more colourful and interesting photos.

Related Post
“Base Jumping in Sabah” by Julian

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

My New Wife

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After saying I want it, I want it for years, finally I got my first DSLR! This babe costs me over RM3K, burning a big hole in my pocket, but it also opens a new hole to better photography. The moment it became mine, my heart was beating so fast that like I have became a father, so exciting. It is solid and heavier than my old wives (other camera). It is a 10 Megalpixel camera. To me, Megapixel is like susu, the Bigger, the Better. But I have many other reasons to go for a SLR. If you are interested, you can read my love stories below to see how I changed my mindset.

1st Wife: Olympus CAMEDIA C-860L

She only supported up to 1 MP (Megalpixel). I married her in year 2001 (cost RM800, 2nd-hand price). The photo printout only looks ok in 3R size. She is very slow and looked like a brick. The picture took 5 seconds to load in LCD playback preview. Everyone laughed at me when they saw her, so I decided to dump her. Later I would fly her on a kite to experiment aerial photography. At least she can die with glory. I am not kidding.

2nd Wife: Sony Cybershot DSC-S40

After 4 years, in year 2005, I found my second wife in a promotion in Centre Point Sabah. I took a long time to switch to 2nd camera coz I was totally not interested in photography that time. The main reason I bought it was because I planned to travel the “whole” Sabah, so I needed it to record my trip. This little RM699 camera changed my life. My interest grew when she helped me to win 5 photography contest. Then I started to share my photos online, the start of MySabah.com. Very soon I found that she could not satisfy me anymore bcoz of her limitation. For example, her 4.1MP photos also didn’t look good on A4 (8R) size printout. The WORST thing was – she didn’t have any image stabilizer, making most of my photos blur, extremely annoying and depressing to see this after whole day of hardwork. Her focusing started to shock shock liao, after taking over 30,000 photos.

3rd Wife: Sony Cybershot DSC-H1

Photography has became part of my life. Being an ignorant beginner, I thought photos taken by low-end camera can match SLR quality (coz I won a few competition). Due to limited budget, I decided to go for prosumer camera in 2006. The RM1,800 Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 attracted me coz it was one of the first camera with built-in 12x optical zoom, very useful for me to take photos of stage show from far away. Another reason was – I already stucked with Sony Memory Sticks. Disappointedly, this camera only helped me to win 1 consolation prize. It could fulfill my needs most of the time. But I could not stand that her excessive noise appeared in photo taken with ISO400. She is also very slow in focusing and flash recharge (6 seconds waiting time), causing a big frustration in photo-shooting beauty pageant and model show. I got serious with photography and studied more about it. At last I realised that I needed a SLR for better photo quality and performance. However, if coupled with a close-up len, DSC-H1 does a marvelous job in photography small objects. Its outcome can even beat SLR that with only basic kit. So I will spare her life. I estimated she has taken over 50,000 photos. She is on MC now.

4th Wife: Canon EOS 400D

My true love, purchased on July 21. At first I worried that it would be too advance, coz SLR needs you to make more decision. But I find its interface very user-friendly and easy to operate. All the important setting such as ISO, Exposure, WB, metering, AF point, etc. can be accessed quickly, and loads of other features. It is also OK to know nothing, just use the auto-mode and it will choose the right setting for you most of the time. Its speed and performance are many times better than all my old camera, which are more like toys. 3 photos per second normally and 1 photo per second with flash. The shutter sound of SLR is the greatest music of the world. I regret I didn’t buy it earlier. The only complaint is I have to use viewfinder to take photo coz it has no preview screen. Its metering doesn’t work very well for subject with backlight.

Just to list one of the things I like. In the past, there were a few friends who requested me to take their wedding photos. I didn’t dare to take the job coz I knew my old “half-blind” camera would produce something like above at the left. See the problem? The front is clear, but behind is all dark, due to the ISO400 limit. With such outcome, the wedding photos would look like funeral. The picture at the right, taken by D400 under same light condition, looks closer to what our eyes see, coz of better light sensitivity. Well, now is still our “honey moon” period, everything seems good. Hopefully no more issue later.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo