Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas Feel?

Christmas is getting nearer. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm not a Christian but I still celebrate Christmas, even my family members are. I think Christmas celebration gives heart-felt wish and warmth. Gifts exchanged. For kids, they are happily to jump around though they are smart enough to understand there is no real Santa around. :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my blog followers, drop-by, and my friends. Have a prosperous and fruitful year ahead :-)

开怀篇 (8) - 歪打正着 - Multiple shot accidentally

PCK-2

老王是个高头大马的老师。他有一个怪现象,一紧张就即刻口吃。

月尾,老王和几位老师被选为监考员,大礼堂里排了整整十行。老王监考其中几行。
当他正准备打捆时,看到其中后面的学生作弊。
他气急败坏地手指指,口吃地喊:
“你你你。。。你。。。你。。。你在。。。在作弊!”
急忙地吞了口水,清了嗓子,不再口吃,食指指向后排的那位学生。
“作弊的,给我站起来!”
后排的那位学生站了起来,谁知另外两行的六位学生也一起站得老直。

Senior Wang is tall guy, works as teacher. He has a bad habit. Whenever he is anxious, he speaks with stutter.

During month end, senior Wang and a few teachers are selected as invigilator. Inside the big hall, there are 10 long rows arranged. Senior Wang is responsible for several rows. When he feels sleepy and bored, he suddenly saw one of the student from back start cheating.He is furious and points his index finger to that student, speaks with stutter,

"You you you... you... you... you're... are cheating!"

Without hesitation, clear his throat, speak without stutter anymore. Index finger still points to last row of that specific student.

"Stand up! You cheating fellow!"

That last row of specific student stands up. Then the other two rows of six students also stand up straight simultaneously.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Home Made Pizza

I'm a fan of Italian thin crush pizza with extra cheese. Big conflict! I'm in the progress of slimming down. Well, I have a bad habit - loose rational thought for good food first, then workout heavily later. Please don't imitate this method. If you are on diet plan, please stop viewing the pictures below. If you fail, please join me - let's get FAT... little bit! Evil evil evil!

Well, I broke my own record on shooting unbelievable extreme low shutter speed (for me, it is 1/5 secs in handheld mode!)

Delicious Pizza (Tuna & Sausage)

Delicious Pizza (Sausage, Mushroom & Sliced Tomatoes)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Chia Wei & Chiong Weng Wedding

First time entered Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the architectural design indeed to make me drop my jaw. Very antique-feel and well-maintained. I was lucky indeed to involve in one of the photo-shooting assignment team. Including the raw setup and thanks a lot to my team who have shown understanding on my leaving half-way when I received my daughter was sick. Below are some shots from my eyes.

Living Room
Living Room

Double Happiness
Double Happiness

Preparation
Preparation

Joy
Hidden joy

Promising Moment
The promosing moment

Lifetime Ring
Ring of lifetime promise

Friday, October 15, 2010

Thanks, my old C. Steinberg buddy!

Would you like to have a drink? :-)

Dare not reveal my previous formal training in piano study as I no longer technically fit enough to play the old C. Steinberg buddy. I feel indeed shamed. The dark brown upright piano accompanied me for 25 years and able to recall those insane 13 hours of nonstop playing to prepare for exam.

Now, every time I sit down to touch on the black and white keyboard, I hesitate to press. The sound that keyboard hammered those 3-strings no longer meet my expectation anymore. Not sad. To get a beautiful music, it is indeed to have a self-discipline to practice, practice and practice. Distraction and other interests took away the old passion. For this moment, I choose not to allow music appreciation to fade away like that. I'm still appreciating the formal knowledge gained, the grateful heart to enjoy every musical instrument that performs, especially piano.

If you are interested in music appreciation, I suggest you enjoy Baroque composer such as Bach. Air on G string indeed move me at all time. A look-like-simple binary form able to touch your heart emotionally. Pachelbel's Canon in D is another master piece that you should not miss.

If you are a fan of Chopin, I bet you love his Nocturne! A talented young composer who died in his 30s. His Nocturne composition did calm me down when I previously faced insomnia.

Not to mention Beethoven's famous For Elise and his emotional Moonlight Sonata. Every time listens to his composition, I need a while to bring back my calmness. Hardly imagine how Beethoven fought against his deafness while composing great composition via ear to feel the vibration of piano sound.

Thanks, my old C. Steinberg buddy! You helped me opening up my heart to music world. Appreciate those great masterpieces that inspired. Without you, my younger life will not be enriched with those treble and bass clefs, major and minor chords, scales, arpeggios and so on. Thanks from bottom of my heart.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Learn to let go

Imperfect

A realistic life indeed realistic! Keep on telling myself not to drop tear or cry though 三姑 just passed away peacefully during her sleep. Eventually I decided to jot down some words to remember during my rare insomnia.

Deep inside, I refused to accept this occurred unexpectedly and too sudden. My emotional barrier finally collapsed completely.

It was joyful during the Genting trip together and celebrate family gathering. The most painful moment when I edited the photos of 三姑 and I couldn't say directly how much I'm going to miss her. I'm weak! Reminded wife not to cry while on the way to Alor Setar to attend 三姑 funeral ceremony. Saw 三姑 in her coffin, I was the first one broken into tears uncontrollably.

Final night of funeral ceremony, felt heavy heart to say goodbye to 三姑. During driving, I nonstop talking to brother-in-law to avoid silence dragging me into possible chance to drop tear. Reached home safely. Confirmed my kids slept soundly, I stared on the ceiling with total emptiness even room was completely dark. In order to make myself sleep - I mumbled - time to learn to let go.

Rest In Peace, 三姑...

Monday, September 6, 2010

开怀篇 (7) - 笑的后果

 durian_session-8-2

有一天.. 甲和乙坐飛機要去玩..

結果飛機失事 兩人跳傘.結果掉到有大批食人族的小島上

猶長說:[你們兩個去找100個同樣的水果來,我就饒你們一命!!
...
他們兩個就去找了...

甲先帶了100個草莓回來

猶長說:[把他們全部塞到屁眼裡就饒你一命]

甲就開始塞...

塞到98個的時候沒有事

可是塞到99個時候他"笑"了(哈哈哈) 結果草莓通通噴出來了...

他就被殺掉了 到了天堂

天使問他說:[你差一個就免死,為什麼笑了呢?]

甲說:[因為我看見乙帶了100個榴槤回來]

Thursday, September 2, 2010

小管家 (9) - I love you four!

Smile!

One night before sleep, Ying said to me...
"I love you,"
"Good night, love you too (two),"
Ying did some calculation from her heart then said: "I love you three, I love you four!"
"???" I'm stunned and felt funny.

Ying showed me her palm and fingers to calculate.
"Papa, mama, Ying Ying and Yang Yang, so I love you four!"
"hmmm... this young girl really logical" I burst into laugh before sleep.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Negative

Negative does not mean the opposite of affirmative in Special Ops Unit. Sticks with me if you read my previous post on cross processing. The story does not end there. Negative film suppose to be the whole term, I purposely put it in vague meaning to extend possible imagination.

This round, with Eu-Jeen and Chui Kim permission. I'm allowed to post up the photos using Fujicolor Pro400H negative film to write crappy statement over here. It's 18SX range in short if you are not ready.

Please note that the photos here totally fresh output from negative film scanned. No editing at all.

Eu-Jeen's shot on sunrise
Fujicolor_Pro400H-1

Bear in mind that the mainland details still there. The colour tone already killed me (ok, I know some of you may conclude me insane - what the heck with that kind of purple-ish and orange-ish so special. Hey let me release the tension ok? please!). Checked with Eu-Jeen on digital shot - the colour unable to match at all.

My friend - Chui Kim. Thanks for her permission on show off her portrait.
Fujicolor_Pro400H-2

The natural colour skintone already taken my breathe away. The bokeh behind her - just like popped up 3D (it means 3-dimension, dude!) feeling from background. Check out the little grainy feel again. Of course this is not cross-processing. It's C41 chemical! Oh no, not again to use bombastic term here. Period!

Finally - I can't show you my real face in tack-sharp. Being a victim of free model for Ektarcolor (not Eu-Jeen's pak-ciao-eyes to focus wrongly, right buddy?), the colour is very natural again under office light. Oppsss... don't tell my boss please.
Fujicolor_Pro400H-3

Nice negative colour? Alright, time to jump into negative film wagon. Have confident dude, it's nothing so difficult to press the film SLR shutter. This requires your bravery little. Have fun then!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Clive & Karen - Wedding Dinner

Recapture one of my previous coverage on wedding dinner with my friend, Chen Meng. Thanks for his invitation to assist him.

Both Clive and Karen were very helpful during our request for help in terms of people. The overall coverage session was indeed cheerful and not much stress.

The dinner to enjoy
clive_karen_dinner-1

Entering the show
clive_karen_dinner-6

The proud moment for parents. Trust me - ask them directly - they will pay you a proud grin :-)
clive_karen_dinner-2

Happy family
clive_karen_dinner-3

Yum-cha! (means drink tea) - the Chinese culture to pay respect to the elder one
clive_karen_dinner-13

Inexpressible happiness that shown on elder face
clive_karen_dinner-14

Cake-cutting session
clive_karen_dinner-16

Champagne time!
clive_karen_dinner-17

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Gathering with "kaki"

Not easy to retain friendship and connection as time flew for 2 years. This also proves that time proves your friendship level with someone whom you knew previously.  I always feel grateful - I still able to find that kind of connection.

Had supper as usual - let's get fat little. The most interesting moment is talking on photography and gears, especially film. Beside that, of course adult topic continue to fuel on laugh, without this - this reduces the momentum to move on in various kind of topics :-)

All shots done using Samsung NV24 camera :-)

Our favourite Jalan Tengah Burger stall
gathering-7

Jack
gathering-1

Rob
gathering-2

Who is this handsome? Looks like PMS!
gathering-4


gathering-8

Till we have another session to meet up and talk "birdy" topics :-P
gathering-9

Nikon FE

NikonFE-1

First, thanks for Eu-Jeen's model and Chui Kim's help to use iphone on capturing FE :-)

I'm sure someone will start cursing me again or kiss my jaw with fist. Wait-lar, let me finish the paragraph then you action-lar!

Disclaimer: I hold NO responsibility on whether you are influenced or affected-decision-to-enter-film-pool. If your heart beat unable to handle with the continuous passion sharing, please stop reading and close your browser. Thanks for understanding.

Nikon FE. FE stands for? Film Exaggeration. What the heck with this acronym? Don't ask. My own definition! Why FE in specific? For film enthusiast who intends to try out what is meant by manual mode, FE is the model to starts with. Don't tell me you are using DSLR with manual mode. Check out the real manual mode.

Basically FE has two different mode - both Manual and Aperture-priority autofocus exposure (A-mode in Nikonian language). Built with rugged copper aluminum alloy body that enable the chassis last for years! Uses metal blade with speed range of 8-1/1000 second, ah... I'm not asking you to shoot plane, dude. Manual focusing of course with internal split windows screen to confirm your focus. This ease a lot of difficulties for easily "pak-ciao" (shoot-bird) fellow :-P

Don't think too much and too long while to decide. I'm not asking you to completely jump-ship to film insane to satisfy your client request. Treat this as artistic interest. Who knows - you may hook with the real physical darkroom to develop film. Hmm... suddenly I think of the chemical smell :-) Have fun then!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

小管家 (8) - 岁数问题

Love

驾车回家半途中,看反后镜,颖突然在吮手指。
老婆和我同时反应地问:“几岁啦?还吮手指?”
“四岁囖,不害羞嘛!” 红灯,停下车子,我不放过机会地追问。

“我四岁了!一,二,三,四...” 以为女儿妥协地回答,谁知道...
“...五,六岁了!”
“哈?什么六岁了” 我措手不及地反问。
“One, two, three, four, five and six! 我已经six了!” 颖用英语来反驳。

绿灯,正想要反攻,后面车子的喇叭声催人了,我惟有抛下一句结语:我晕!~

On the way back home, suddenly saw Ying sucking her finger from rear mirror. Me and wife reacted the same time to question. "Still sucking finger? How old are you now?"

After stopped in front of red light, I continued to push her with little stress.
"You are four-year-old now, aren't you feeling shy?"

"I'm four years old! One, two, three, four..." Thought Ying compromised to answer accordingly but who knows she continued the so-called counting.
"...five, six years old!"
"Huh? What six-year-old?" Didn't expect she has another way of counting arithmetically.

"One, two, three, four, five and six! I already six years old!" Ying suddenly changed to English language to re-count.

Light turned green, behind the car started to honk me to go, I only concluded - I feel terribly sick!~

Friday, July 23, 2010

开怀篇 (6) - 火烧阿房宫

Cicak (my friend called this as lizard)

督学到一所高中视察,来了解该校的学生素质如何。走廊里碰到一位学生来问:“阿房宫是谁烧的?” 学生即刻紧张地说:“不是我烧的!”

听到这种答案,督学顿时觉得实在太糟糕了,便问校长:“校长,我刚刚问这个学生,阿房宫是谁烧的,他竟然回答不是他烧的,你们是怎么教的?”

校长更紧张地说:“我们向来都确实教导学生要诚实! 他如果说不是他烧的,就一定不是他烧的,这一点我敢向您保证!”

督学听了十分气愤,回到教育厅后提出报告,要求惩罚该校的校长办学不力!没想到厅长看了以后狠批:“烧了就烧了嘛,不用太在意,本厅拨款协助重建!”

<后注>资料来自百度
从后来的考古发掘中得到证实,项羽火烧的是秦咸阳宫,秦咸阳宫遗址曾发现大片的红烧土遗迹。秦阿房宫考古队副领队孙福喜说:阿房宫之所以没有被烧的解释是,阿房宫14平方公里内有六十余处夯土基址,一些地方建成了,一些地方尚未建成,包括这个前殿是否建成也属存疑之事。

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

E6 to C41 - Cross Processing

Don't get mad with the title first. I admit this is mumbo-jumbo clause. It's the photographic processing jargon to describe the reversal of slide film processed in C41 chemical (huh, C41 again?!). You may find the weird kinda feeling on colour tone. If you fall in love with this kind of colour tone, congratulation! You are currently with me on the same train!!!

There are 3 things that make me mad - colour tone, grainy feeling (which DSLR intended noise spot unable to match at all) and the 3D look!

Expired Kodak Ektachrome 100 36 exposure... but with little help from expert, managed to have 40 exposures in total. Stay cool - I won't show all to slow down your loading connection.

All the film captures using Nikon FE attached Nikkor AiS 50mm f/1.8 len.

Rob
1/40s | f/1.8

Hong Kit
1/50s | f/1.8

Tze Chin
1/30s | f/1.8

Kia Nee
1/40s | f/1.8

Happy Yang
1/30s | f/1.8

Having good time in Coffee Bean
1/30s | f/2.8

Who said film is dead? :-P Dare to enter this poisonous pool? You will appreciate the joy and excitement of capturing images with more passion :-) Please note - I don't ask you to take for your client, please-larrrrrr!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

小顽皮 (2) - 走出一小步

Yang

阳不到一岁,开始摇摇摆摆地学走路。当我看到这一幕,眼泪不知觉地流下来。不是哭包啦!或许是感动吧。现在已经放手走四五步,阳还兴奋地看过来。从走出一小步,我知道这小瓜已经开始步向属于他的未来。

Not until 12 months, Yang started to walk in shakiness. When I encounter this, tear drop uncontrollably. I'm not a crying man. Probably this touches my heart. Let him walk four or five steps without holding my hands, Yang started to feel extremely happy for his achievement through his cheerful eyes. From this small step, I realize this little guy started to walk towards his own future.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Hooi Yen & Wooi Huang Family Outing

Capturing family photo never an easy job. This requires mutual understanding and synchronized thought to connect with the photographer and subjects. Luckily during the process, everything was smooth. The sweat, timing and effort were wisely spent. Indeed worthful to spend to see the outcome that may move my heart (I'm not sure whether this moves your heart or not :-p).

It was long while I hardly went to Penang Youth Park. The renovated scene in fact opened my eyes. While waiting for client to reach destination, I captured leisurely the greener environment. Hope you like this!
Penang Youth Park

The not-yet-ready group photo always caught my attention. I prefer most beautiful & unofficially moment :-)
The laugh is always there

I'm not good to command people to pose. Another candid capture which you may oppose my way of capturing :-) Complain later dude!
Group photo is ready?

My pleasure to have good chat with friendly uncle Chuah - a cheerful grandparent, thanks for your time indeed!
Proud uncle Chuah

Kids normally over-excited with various kind of adventurous activities though they are still learning to walk or run. Parents normally get over-nervous. I'm bad!
Getting excited

Yeeehhaaaaa... cowboy is coming! Where's my cowboy hat anyway? flying away?
Yeeeehhaaaaaa!

Monday, June 28, 2010

开怀篇 (5) - 射我的门 (Shoot my goal post)

Outstanding (6)

夫妻俩看世界杯,妻子兴奋不己,抱着老公撒娇
“老公,今晚你也要射我的门哦?”
丈夫一把推开妻子说:“你懂个屁,射自家的门算输,射别人的门才算赢!”

A pair of husband and wife watch World Cup, wife is extremely high, hug her hubby to show tenderness.

"Tonight, you must shoot my goal post, ok?"
Hubby pushed her away. "What do you know about the goal post?"
Shooting own goal post is considered lose, shoot other goal post only is considered win!" hubby gets impatiently.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Film desire

Close Up (Nikon D40 front)


I'm sick. The title indicates the topic of photography - of course, not technical. I say myself sick, does not mean I'm technical freak. No F-stop nor how much EV setting raised in this post. Enough. Let me release little desire of writing addict.

Always have the need to get a real manual film camera to re-touch my excitement on composing image and those waiting moments. Of course I'm not saying that to switch back since I went digital. Rationally, this is quite costly to play with film to go for each and every shutter click you press. Film feeling consists of your real careful calculation and angle to plan creatively. There is no delete button like digital single len reflex (DSLR). You no longer shoot like machine gun to test out. Experiment no longer able to fully extend in film unless you are rich enough to spend readily.

In fact, I did own a Minolta Dynax 505i AF film SLR. What I intend to experience is to have total control on setting the exposure and everything. In older days, photographer used reaction to set the exposure based on instinct (you can call this as experience).

Film feeling provides entire different experience on viewing the end result. This is not something like you able to achieve in photoshop (PS) editing. I love particularly in positive slide capturing and processing it crossly. The colour output will give me the mood! Ummppphhhh - I called.

I'm exciting to await the slide film roll in my FE. Of course, will share out when the film gets processed. Stay tuned! :-)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

开怀篇 (4) - 陆陆续续

Instructions

看一篇名人访问,谈起儿子在学校被老师打,起因是造句。

名人感性地说,有事请好好说嘛,干吗要打呢?
名人带着孩子去了学校一趟,拜访老师来了解儿子为什么被打。
老师拿起簿子给名人看,名人看完即刻把身旁的孩子也扁了一顿。

造句是陆陆续续

孩子的造句是 - 下班了,我的爸爸陆陆续续地回家。