In Search of Peace and Serenity VI - Au Revoir

Au Revoir

The sun says goodbye for the day, the other one says goodbye forever.



High tide, Pantai Jeram, Feb 2011

Cambo Legend 8x10, Caltar S-II 300mm
Ilford Delta 100, Hc110 Dil E (1:47) 7mins @ 20C

In Search of Peace and Serenity V - Still I Rise

STILL I RISE



You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
I'll rise, eventually.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of regret and fear
I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise

Bringing the gifts that my faith gave,
I am the dream and the hope of His slave.
I rise. I rise. I rise.

-Maya Angelou-

*Special thanks to Nazaruddin @ Damak for recommending this poem for this shot

High tide, Pantai Jeram, Jan 2011

Hasselblad 553ELX, CZ 120 makro planar
Fuji Acros 100, Hc110 Dil E (1:47) 7mins @ 20C

In Search of Peace and Serenity IV - Resemblance

I found myself again at the same spot. This place has been presenting me with massive photographing opportunities but I would like to take my time to digest and capture the content of what this place can bring to me. Here's another shot called Resemblance. If you look closely, you'll notice that the shape of the tree on the foreground is about the same as the shape of the island at the back.

Resemblance

High tide, Pantai Jeram, Jan 2011
Hasselblad 553ELX, CZ 120 makro planar
Fuji Acros 100, Hc110 Dil E (1:47) 7mins @ 20C

In Search of Peace and Serenity III - The Journey of Life

The journey of life is an adventure into the unknown. The lifespan varies. This applies to nature, human and even the invention of mankind.

"To some, life is a very long journey,
To some others, it never even started.."

Dead trees pond, near Pantai Remis, Jan 2011

What attracted me to this shot was the 2 different elements of nature and manmade structure. The massive curls and bends of the trees symbolizes the long life lived, and the winding path thru life. The absence of leaves shows the presence of death or 'end of the road' for the trees. On the other hand, there's this small piece of concrete that was meant to be an architectural structure of some sort, perhaps a hut, small building, etc. that was left abandoned. For the structure, life was very short, in fact it's life ended prematurely.. in contrast to the life lived by the trees.

Shot on Hasselblad 553ELX with CZ 120 Makro Planar, on Fuji Acros 100. Developed with Kodak HC110 Dilution E (1:49) 7 mins @ 20C

In Search of Peace and Serenity II - The Struggle for Life

Continuing the "In Search of Peach and Serenity", me and wife together with another friend, Malee, ventured to Klang for another quick trip there. One particular tree caught my attention there..

The Struggle for Life

It really caught my attention to see how the tree sort of balanced itself to gain a strong grasp of the Earth.. to live. It was an overcast day, but for a very short time frame, the sun shines giving the tree its glow, enhancing the details of the tree with beautiful highlights and shadows. Sort of like a blessing. If you look further into the photo, you'll see a fishing boat symbolizing the struggles of human for life as well, against the vast sea.

Shot with Hasselblad 553elx, Zeiss 120 Makro Planar CF on Fuji Acros 100. Developed with Kodak HC110 Dilution E (1:49) 7mins @ 20C.

In Search of Peace and Serenity - Kg Telok, Port Dickson

It has been so long since I last do landscape works. Last weekend, wifey suggested that we went for a drive to Port Dickson. After all that happened to us in the past few weeks, we needed search for calmness and sense of serenity. A short roadtrip to a calm seaside would do the trick.

I remembered a shot from a good friend, Liewwk at this spot. I asked him for the directions, checked out the tides schedule for Port Dickson and off we went in the morning.

Here's some shots during the high tide when we were there.. This is just the first trip. We will revisit this place again, during low tide, for sure ;)

Untitled

A Path to Paradise - A long and winding journey to happiness. Sometimes it's smooth, sometimes there a detour filled with obstacles and sometimes it seems to be an impossible task to reach eternal happiness. Determination ensure the success to achieve that rewarding end.

A State of Perseverance - Life can be very challenging at times. Series of continuous waves of obstacles and tests hits at you at all times to test how strong your character is. Patience is a virtue. The patience to withstand those waves renders a much more soothing and calm outcome, silky smooth.

The One that Got Away -The toughest test by far me and my wife have ever experienced. He will remain in both our memories forever. The storyline has been written beforehand, we can only put our efforts and hope for the best. By far the best 20 weeks EVER experienced.. but shortlived. May you rest in peace, "anak ayah"...

Life surely goes on.. what happened has brought us closer together. It's for the best.. we're sure of that. There will be more of these works from me.. "In search of peace and serenity"...

*Photos shot using Hasselblad 553ELX with CZ 50mm Distagon and 120mm Makro Planar with Hoya ND400 on Fuji Acros 100. Developed using HC110 Dilution F.

Perhentian Island IV - Serenity

My trip to Perhentian (Kecil) Island this year proved to be a fruitful one. Having shot both in film (mainly) and digital medium, I have managed (my personal view) to capture the essence of beauty, serenity and tranquility of the island. For those who haven't gone to Perhentian, you need to go at least once in your lifetime. It's a beautiful place, a place where it's exactly the opposite of bustling city atmosphere. Take a break, go on a short holiday, head off to Perhentian. I know I'll be going there again in 2011.

Serenity, Perhentian Kecil, July 2010
Hasselblad 553ELX | CZ 50mm Distagon
Fuji Acros 100 | Rodinal (1:50) 13mins @ 20C

This shot was done on film medium, on a long exposure (~8-10secs), low tide, sunset (more like a hidden set, the sun decided to descend behind the clouds). I loved this shot. I've printed it and framed it.

Perhentian Island II - Fuji Velvia 50

Aside from the Canon EOS5D, I've also brought along my Hasselblad 553ELX to the island together with a bunch of color positive films and B&W films. Here's some shots taken with Fuji Velvia 50, which used to be one of the most preferred films by most photographers. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever shot with this film, and oh boy, I really did fell in love with it.

Hasselblad 553ELX | CZ 50mm Distagon
Fuji Velvia 50
Lab developed

Amazing colors, don't you agree?

Perhentian Island - July 2010

After being mesmerized by the beauty of Perhentian Island during my trip in 2009, I have decided to head down there again with my wife to meet up with a good friend who's running business there. Accompanied by another good friend, Nik Fariz, we went there again in July 2010. For those who haven't been to Perhentian, please do so. This island is simply gorgeous!

I brought along my Canon 5D and my Hasselblad on this trip. Her are some landscape shots of the island.. these ones are shot using the 24-105mm lens on my 5D. Most shots are with CPL, the sunset shot was done with Cokin grad filters.

A view from the top of the hill.



The Hidden (Sun)Set.



One of the small islands nearby, Tokong Burung Island.

Sekinchan landscape.

ShutterAsia organized an photo outing to Sekinchan. For those who don't know, Sekinchan is a beautiful place full of paddy fields in Selangor. I took my 5D, 350D(IR) and Yashica together with me to have fun shooting landscapes there. Here are some shots from my 5D and my 350D(IR).


Valley of the Snow Beasts


To the Rescue!


A Halted Climb


The Colors of Nature



For those who haven't visited Sekinchan.. don't waste your time, go quickly as the skies have been sooo blue the past few weeks (especially if it rains the night before your trip!)

Tip of Borneo - Stunning!

The Tip of Borneo is located at Simpang Mengayau, Kudat about 190km North from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The journey takes about 2-3 hours, depending on the drive. For those who aren't used to the small and winding roads, you might get a little bit dizzy, but overall, the journey should be manageable.

There hasn't been any development done at the Tip, and hopefully it stays that way. The Tip is such a beautiful place. All the exhaustion suddenly went away the moment you feel the windy breeze and the breathtaking view of the place.

Here are some shots I have managed to shoot on my day trip to the Tip. I know one thing for sure, I'm going back to this place, and spend more days for more photographic opportunities there... soon!




The Tip on a high tide. As the tide goes lower, more of the Tip can be seen, up to another ~50m.




Beautiful colors.. simply magnificent!


Yes, dear. You're at the Tip of Borneo :D

[KK trip] A beautiful Sunset

I recently went for a quick getaway trip with wifey just to get ourselves out of the hectic life in KL. It's a 4d3n vacation in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. On the day of arrival, we were greeting with a couple of my schoolmates, who are 'locals' there.

On the first day there, we were taken to Third beach in Tanjung Aru, a usual spot for people to view the sunset. The sunset seen from there was probably one of the best that I've ever seen. Magnificent view!

Here's some of my fav. sunset shots from that trip.


"Touchdown"


"Romantic Sunset"


"The Afterglow"


Do click on the images for larger size. :D
More on KK to come, soon ;)

3 different versions of 'The Lone Tree'

I don't know why, but I've been getting this urge of shooting something that has element of emptiness, darkness, eeriness, gothic, scary or horror. Maybe it's because my mind has been clogged with ideas on a gothic shooting theme that I was supposed to do with Steph. The session got canceled because Steph had an accident. Steph, hope you recover from your injuries soon. Take good care of yourself. Once you're back in your hyperactive mode, lets get some unfinished business done. :D I need to get this gothic theme out of my head :P

Anyway, there I was at UPM's Farm, with a friend whom just started his photography hobby, another friend and my wife. We went inside, shot a silhouette of the tree on top of the hill.. for the post processing of this shot, I decided to give several different treatments to it.

Here's one with the sunset (that I normally do) look,



Here's on with a twilight or midnight with moonlit (this is experimental) look,



Here's another one in B&W, but to get this, I had to combine 7-exposures of the same shot, injected with HDR treatment to get the tones, and converted to B&W plus some dodge and burns.



I love all three versions of this. Don't know what to do with the threesome. Maybe I should do a triptych, print it large and hang it on my wall.

An Urban Sunset with EF100-400L

Went to the Ampang Lookout Point with Zamrud recently. Had a blast waiting for the sunset to come. Since the subject in mind is a few kilometers away, I decided to mount my EF100-400L on the 5D. For those who have never or rarely shoot sunsets, make sure you reach there early, set up your tripod, etc.. and wait for the moment. The 'sun setting' timeframe is very short! So, once you can see that round ball of light starts coming down, its time to shoot, shoot and shoot! Remember to vary the shutter speed to get different effects.

Here's my take.. I like it so much! This shot definitely ranks up there among my top 10 shots of 2009.

'An Urban Sunset'



View it large here.


Thanks Zamrud for the guidance :)

Putrajaya Mosque in Silhouette

Went to take fellow Shutterstock friends from Surabaya (Eman and fiancee) around KL and Putrajaya recently. Didn't shoot much, but wanted to see if there's any shot a little bit different that the common ones.

Guess it's too early to design a Hari Raya card, but seems like I have a candidate shot for a Hari Raya card design. Putrajaya Mosque, with the sun behind it, creates a nice silhouette. This was shot at around 4pm. The skies were dull, but enhanced in CS2 to create the sunset feel to it. I like the shots as it creates a sense calmness and peacefulness to my eyes when looking at the final product.

Senjakala

Perhentian Island - Simply Magnificent!

After eagerly waiting for several weeks, the anticipated trip has come.. Perhentian Island. We reached there Thursday morning and spent 4 days there. It was a long drive up to Kuala Besut, Terengganu, but it sure was worth the wait!

Here are some of my Perhentian Island landscape series..


#1 - Landscape reflection


#2 - See thru


#3 - State of Tranquility


#4 - Untitled 1


#5 - Exiting ray


#6 - Conflicting path



I still need to work on my 'landscape eyes'. Lucky did some practice on landscape shots during my Penang trip. Will I come again? Without any hesitation.. YES!!

Next up.. will be sharing the faces of those who have joined the trip. Interesting shoot where direct flash was used to compensate harsh backlight from the sun creating an interesting effect..

Sunrise in Penang

There's a bunch of guys/gals celebrating ShutterAsia's 2nd anniversary in Penang over last weekend. Plenty of shooting involved. Went to Shamrock Beach nearby Batu Ferringhi with wife and Capix to shoot the sunrise.. A little rusty, especially with landscape, but it's a good practice for the upcoming Perhentian Island trip, scheduled third week of March.

Well, here's some sunrise shots.


#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6

My dad used to live here..

My father grew up in this house in Perlis. I believe that this house was built since the 1930s, if not earlier. Now, there's only the kitchen portion that remains. It'll be there for the next couple years before it bows down to earth..


I'm very sure my father has a lot of fond memories of this house.

PP-info - Multiple exposure shot (-2,0,2) HDR, converted into BW, then tons of selective curve adjustment plus selective sharpening on house details (thanks to Zamrudku for sharing his knowledge).

Shot with a 17-40 f4L on 40D.