A thousand smiles

Figure 1: View at the Tip of Borneo.

Last weekend was a blast, it is a great opportunity for me to get-away from my workplace just for a moment of rest. I am just like a pressure cooker ready to release the steam out at the right moment and I am glad I chose to leave the island just for the weekends.

Figure 2: Not so hi-key.

I admit that portrait photography is not my staple shots but I decided to do try it out with a few friends. I do not have much experience in shooting people and I have to admit that I myself do not know how to pose nor how to direct people to pose. I can say that I suck in posing.

Figure 3: Sweet smile.

For me, in the model point of view, most important is the eyes, facial expression and also pose. I am also not used to composition. For these portrait series, I am using the Canon 40mm f2.8 pancake lens coupled with the Canon 20D crop sensored camera. No flash and shoot all in RAW format.

Figure 4: Water is the essence of life.

However, during this trip I have the opportunity to photograph people in different situations both controlled and uncontrolled. I learn a few tips too on how to shoot portrait from my fellow friends, still with these results I believe I am still far-away and need to learn more.

Figure 5: Eyes of an angel.

Shooting outdoors it is important to see where the light is and where it is reflected. This so that harsh dark shadows which may cause the model's face to have dark patches which in some situations is quite desirable. As I am working without a flash and in uncontrolled environment, natural light placement is important.

Figure 6: Red riding hood.

My preferences for my images are that the white balance must be as neutral as possible reflecting the surroundings as much as possible. That is why I shoot in RAW and always calibrate my monitor to ensure it is as white as possible. This is my habit for my landscape photography.

Figure 7: A smile makes all the difference.

I am not so good in portrait photos composition, I always cut some of the limbs here and there and mess up my background. I need guidance from my fellow photographers in this and even in controlled situations I can't seem to get my compo right. I need help in this.

Figure 8: Beautiful lighting.

I enjoyed taking portraits after just focusing on landscape photography. There is a certain magic which makes photographing people special and that is why I believe that, this kind of photography have a certain something to my heart.

Figure 9: Waves and wind.

Here and there I always try to incorporate people into landscapes which is my number one photography path. It seems like adding people always introduce more colour and meaning to the images I take. I love to capture those beautiful smiles and put them in beautiful places.

Figure 9: She's a tough lady.

Taking pictures of people will show the personality and these pictures will speak out for themselves. Pictures of them will last and there is a special memory within those images which will spell a tale. I believe that this is the special something which makes people images pop out.

Figure 11: What a beautiful world.

Lastly, I am so happy to be able to have the opportunity to spend time with these beautiful individuals. I am sure that God has blessed each one of them with talent and most importantly His words. It has been quite a tiring but fruitful and enjoyable weekend. Looking forward for more. Thank God.

Figure 12: God is love.

Love of my life

Just a simple post today, can't write much with all those flu running and my body heat radiating. Not a comfortable feeling but I felt satisfied and happy.

I am so blessed to be able to see her again, it is indeed a fruitful weekend and full of fun and activities, I am still in the process of healing my self from the heatwave and get some rest.

Figure 1: Just you and me.

I would like to give credits to the photographer who took a picture of me with her. Will blog more soon after I have post-processed the images. Need to rest now, for work comes tomorrow.

4-hour memories

Last week I was blessed with a brief but memorable encounter with my good friend, Mr.Rynn. We used to work at the same company and have been good friends since then. While he is a very outgoing and enjoyable person, I respect his character the most.

Figure 1: Handsome guy.

My first job was a very challenging job, where I work 12 hours and only have 4 rest days per month. Since then I have moved to a normal 5-day job, but my friend is still there and going strong. He is a very patient and humble guy. Those are his strong characters.

Figure 2: An excellent bowl.

When I arrived around 9am in the morning, we had a simple Sarawakian mee for breakfast. We exchanged quite a long conversation, especially regarding his recent travel to Ho Chi Minh city at Vietnam which he recommended me to go if I have the chance.

Figure 3: Two to strike.

Rynn, is a very frugal person and always keeps a healthy lifestyle. He also gave me tips on how to be healthy and I believe for someone with an unhealthy lifestyle it is quite tough to change it. I will try my best to shift from unhealthy food to healthier alternatives.

Figure 4: Lost to Rynn by one point.

After breakfast, we went for a bowl, Rynn got some free tickets and we have just enough time to play a game. I never played bowling before and today I decided to try it out. Picking the right bowl and the correct stance to bowl is quite tough. A few bowl of mine went straight into the gutter.

Figure 5: Typical japanese conveyor style servings.

One of Rynn's specialties is that he organizes events very well, especially travel events. His friends are very lucky as from the tickets, guides, places to go until the hotels is researched and organized by himself. So, they only have to apply for leave, pay and attend. I'm signing up for next year's travel if he organizes.

Figure 6: Attentively choosing wisely.

We share a lot of similar way for thinking and ideas. He is a very smart person and a graduate from a reputable university. About an hour left, we decide to get lunch and we chose this healthy looking steam-boat based restaurant where you can eat all you want for an hour.

Figure 7: Eating a lot of greens won't make you too full.

The tips to not getting full is to not consume too much, rice, flour or fried items. So, I take as much vegetables, mushrooms and fish as I could. I have discovered that I have problems with my liver due to high intake of carbohydrate. I reduce my intake ever since and take liver tonic.

Figure 8: Sushi King.

I can't resist eating the sushi though, but I limit it due to its starchy carbohydrate nature. It is important to learn to eat wasabi with sushi if you can stand the heat. The taste of wasabi is like an explosion of heat in your mouth. Not recommended to chew until wasabi fully dilute in the mouth.

Figure 9: Chicken and tom-yam sides.

I had memorable times during the short four hours with my friend and I hope to meet up again. I am supposed to meet up with a few Indonesian friends but they aren't able to make it due to the security tightening at the township.

My first trip to KT

Figure 1: Sunset on the first day.

I have been away from the island since early September and have been busy attending training. It is my first time going for training since I joined the organization and it is also my first time to the place which is situated North-east side of the Peninsular.

Figure 2: My friend's hometown.

I haven't have the chance to travel much around the area as I said, my time is occupied with training. I still make the best of my time to go and explore. The first place I ventured is predictable and most probable place I would explore, which is the beach.

Figure 3: KT's old street still alive. 

The beach is different from the island I came from, it is rough, deep and filled with bits and pieces of white crustaceans and corals. The water of the South China sea is warm and the beach goes deep into the sea by just going 4-5 meters from the shore.

Figure 4: The incense pot for prayers.

The Chinatown area is a very old area situated in the township. It has a small temple which has interesting artifacts of history about this area. The sculpture and age of the engravings seems old to me even though there are a lot of new renovated structures there.

Figure 5: The Shaolin temple.

Everyday, I went to the beach, for the sunrise and sunsets. As it is facing the Eastern direction, I can only see the sunrise. During the whole week, the horizon is cloudy and only the reddish and yellowish light escapes through the sides. 

Figure 6: Me at the Chinese village.

The people here, speak their dialect which sounds foreign to me but understandable. They are very friendly people and they love the beach. It is hard not to see people going around the beach during evenings, flying their kites or known as "Wau". 

Figure 7: My friend, Ray at the old Chinatown.

The food is also unique, there is the Lekor, which I consumed everyday when I was there. It is made of fish and it is either fried or boiled. I enjoy the fried version and don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested to go there.  

Figure 8: Premium silks and woven songkets.

I wanted to go to the islands but there isn't sufficient time, my friend, Ray, who is a local at the area, manage to spend some time with me and bring me around. There's so much to explore yet so less time. In this post I share some pictures of the places located in town.

Figure 9: Sunrise from the balcony.

The sunset on figure 1, shows the mouth of the river, where an old man was fixing his fishing net for a night's catch. Accompanying him is his wife, sitting on a matt while watching her husband work. The old folks are very friendly and when met with the right topic they talk a lot about their personal thoughts.

Figure 10: A cloudy sunrise every morn.

This place is a must go and I thoroughly enjoy it, I will go there for the islands next time.

Me & her

I am missing her, even before and while I am typing this log, every time we spent together was enjoyable to the most. I especially love hanging out with her and each time was different, even through the bad or good times, we need each other.

Figure 1: Me & Koyong.

I can't say I complete her, I am imperfect, especially I get annoyed so fast if situations get hasty and at times I get angry and flame out. She's a cool girl and she knows me well enough to let me cool down and helps me vent out this anger by her soft kindness.

Figure 2: Enjoy going out for trips.

She teaches me when I don't know or have no idea at all. She guides me to what she likes at the same time too. I don't like everything she likes, as I am me, and she's her but I take time to tolerate it and she takes her time to tolerate mine. We're unique that way, in a sense.

Figure 3: She spark interest in photography.

What I like about her the most is that despite her feelings, she sticks to her roots and her principles she holds on tight too. That makes me rest assured that one day, when I am weak or have sudden loss of wealth, she won't pack up and leave. 

Figure 4: Beside me she's perfect.

I won't too, beauty changes as we grow older, it is no longer such a precious as it is revered. So if she loss her hair one day, her skin tone changes, she get weak and needs my help, rest assured. She's the one I choose, after all she choose me too. 

A short one

Will be going to another country soon and won't be able to blog for the time being. I hope I will achieve my goals during this time abroad. However, I'll just do my best and let God do the rest. A lot of events came rushing in to me these days. It really rained on me.

I'll take it lightly, slowly and enjoy the experience this time.

Till then take care and be blessed..

Touchdown

Finally, my short break alone ended, it was intended to be alone but I met up with various people who are also alone and out of the blue sparked out some conversations with them, even though we started as total strangers, I don't mind that deep conversation and sharing my experiences especially.

When I talk to someone I am comfortable with, my eye contact will be great and my expressions will come out as natural, no forced out expressions and tones which I normally convey during work. My mind is focused on such conversation when I am in my comfort zone.

However during work, my mind is focusing on a few things which makes the communication quite shaped up. Especially with the workload as well as the confusion created by chaotic people I get tense with my tone, and I don't like it as it stresses me to release it.

When I am away from work, I get so relaxed and occasionally laze out that I finally felt free and happy just for this short amount of time. I don't mind being alone as I gather myself together and focus on what's important in life. 

As I scanned through the greenery, I noticed this small bunch of flowers which colors I really liked, soft and pleasing to the eyes, these colors would really make a beautiful gift for a sweet lady. I stared at these pale indigo colors for quite some time and it relaxes me.

A quote from that beautiful stranger I met,

"Our life can be simple if we wanted it to be, it can be complicated if we wanted it to be, I'll just be as humble as I can be so that no matter what I lose or gain in this world won't make me regret decisions I made in life."

Being alone has its credits too and I earned mine in these few days of rest away from urbanization. I am back home and ready for work.

Figure 1: Velvet colors.

Offday

After such a long course away from work, I finally went back home and after office today, I'll be away for a few days on leave. Work has been challenging and since I just returned back from a company sponsored course I will have more responsibilities to hold.

I'm thinking what to do during my off day, I don't have a date and my friends are busy with their ongoing projects, while I have already completed mine last month, it will be sometime before I'll be handed another one. Looks like after all the busy-ness, I found my hands empty.

Maybe I should try fishing, that will really waste my time and should take the whole day off. I remember the times when I used to go fishing with my dad, it was a bitter experience when the hook got hooked on my hand which tore off bits of my skin and flesh. So, no.

Figure 1: Greens releases my stress.

I don't really hang out at the club these days as I am past my alcohol days which reminds me of a lot of bad experiences too. Another, no. I decide to go online and check out the cheapest two way air ticket tomorrow and just take the flight for the remainder of my off-day. 

My destination will be to the somewhere where it's greener. Away from the busy-ness of life and if possible less people. Sometimes its best to be alone and doing things my way until I'm ready.

Back from the Pearl

Been sometime away from work and home due to business deal regarding my work equipment. The deal is to be made at the Pearl of the South China Sea, I guess I'm going to enjoy these few days of free time so I bring my sister to tag along.

Since I'm with my sister, there will not be anyone of the opposite sex disturbing me and she'll learn how is it like to be in a real meeting with potential vendor and also how to deal with them. This is also a bit of an introductory travel course to her about engineering work.

After the meeting is done, we decide to go to the beach which we used to play since we're small, and reminiscing the old times we still manage to find some seashells to add to my sister's shell collection. This island's beach is very special as it is full of crustacean shells which consists of different shapes, sizes and unique designs.

These are the few pictures of the sea shells taken using the Nikon D90 with kit lenses. The camera is great and easy for me to use but not so good if it is handed to a point and shoot usual user. So I'll hand over my Sony NEX-5 to my sister and hold on to the Nikon.

Figure 1: Her shell collections.

Figure 2: Her shell collections.

Figure 3: More of her shell collections.

Just like me, besides being left-handed and have similar interest, we love to collect. She loves things which are colourful, rare and also abstract art. Memories are also collectibles which are  treasured for life. So being able to spend time together will be rarer as she is going off to study at a renowned university soon.