Amidst all the rush and dash through the long weekend, it was definitely worth all the effort and hard work put into it. From running about doing a photoshoot for a website, to rushing for a wedding in Subang and planning a surprise party for munZ as well as shooting in church on Christmas morning, I can say that it was a terribly hectic 5 days.

Because of that, I totally forgot to wish everyone a very BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

Oh yeah, and don't forget, Happy New Year! (in case I forget next week :P)

A normal weekend usually starts off on Saturday, for me it was a rush all the way from Friday till early Sunday morning. It all began with my department dinner being held on the same night I was to drive down to Muar to shoot a wedding the very next day. Things started to become hectic when I left work at 4.30pm (the managers literally chased everyone out so that they wouldn’t be late for dinner) and rushed back home to pack. I had to pack all of my gear including my laptop for on the fly video editing as well as my clothes for the night in Muar.

One problem I faced was that I had to shoot the same dinner event as well but thank God that I wasn’t the main photographer but one of the backup and runners.

The night before…

 

 

Client: “Hey Mark, can you be one of the photographers for the dinner event tomorrow night?”

 

 

 

Me (attending the wedding photography workshop busy toying with my camera): “Er, yeah, sure thing!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moral of the story, pay attention to calls to avoid jamming up your time and session. Anyway, back to the story.

Dinner was held that the KL Hilton which is one of the craziest places to get parking. Because KL Hilton shares the same basement as Le Meridien, it is practically impossible to find a space and after going around for 30minutes, I finally decide to park via valet parking which costs a bomb but also split 4 ways since I had three passengers with me.

Dinner was fun and interesting especially since the organizing committee hired in JJ and Rudy, two local DJs from the Hitz.fm morning crew to be the night’s emcee. It was interesting to actually see them in person but most of the time I hear their voices in the morning, especially the “gotcha” prank calls. Many fun things occurred throughout the night including several impromptu performances where I had to play the guitar for Ramon and also for the 2^nd placed winning team for the Jingle Shell caroling competition.

Sadly because of the photoshoot the next morning, I had to leave the dinner early and rushed down to Muar. By the time I arrived at Muar, it was already 1.30am and I was totally worn out. By the time I actually laid down on the bed, it was already past 2.00am!

The next morning started extremely early, I was bunking in with the other photographer, Daryl, and there was a loud knock and scream at the door at 5.45am asking us to get ready! Dragging myself out of bed, I got up, packed my gear and began preparing for the shoot. This time it was a little different than the usual shoots because none of the photographers could be at the bride’s house so both of us started off at the groom’s place. We left Muar at 6.30am to arrive in Malacca by 7.00am.

Of course the usual course of events of a typical Chinese wedding occurred and I was busy shooting away. After picking up the bride from Malacca, the entourages made their way back to Muar in time for the church wedding. In fact, everything went so smoothly that the group of us arrived too early (30mins to be exact)! The bride had to make a detour and wait while everyone could prepare the church and usher guests into the hall.

It was a Chinese speaking church so being an absolute banana didn’t help. Was totally lost and I had to rely on the program to find my cues of when to take the “special moments” photos. Interestingly enough, the ring bearer who brought the two rings before the pastor blessed it was a remote control car. Totally different!

By the time church was done, everyone made headed for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. At that time I was already looking at the time and made sure that I had enough time to prepare the morning’s pictures to be put into a slideshow, which will be shown on the night itself.

Of course with every Windows OS, you get Windows Movie Maker, which definitely was my main tool, but it kept on crashing! After many hours of frustrations and redo, I realized that the stupid audio codecs were crashing the software and I had to uninstall all of them to get Windows Movie Maker to work properly.

By 5pm, the slideshow was ready and completed and tested. I took a quick 30minute nap and headed to the dinner place and started taking photos. The dinner itself was held at a school hall (Chung Hwa) but this is no ordinary school hall. It was huge, much like the Octagon Hall at where I studied back in my university days and of course, air-conditioned.

The biggest challenge for me was shooting in such low light conditions as I have limited gear and I really had to make do with what I had, shooting away at ISO 800 – ISO 1000. The night was definitely exciting and fun, even the food tasted superbly great! One of the best suckling pigs I ate in my life, honestly!

At the end, the event ended at about 11pm where people slowly started going home. I decided to drive back that night so I drank a couple of tins of Nescafe and headed up to KL, leaving Muar at about 11.45pm. By the time I reached home, the only thing on my mind was sleep.

Coming soon, photos of the event (that is if I can balance my time to post process the photos!)

Edit: Corrections made!

Its always refreshing to be able to take a break from the continuous strain of work and pressure and yesterday was a good example as the diversity and cultural group held an inter department carolling competition in the office yesterday. There were 7 teams in total and there were 7 teams singing their hearts out to win the grand prize of RM800 worth of vouchers.

Teams brought guitars, shakers, and many more whilst others brought their entire departments for support. Creativity filled the air as some teams sang the traditional Christmas songs while others came up with their own creation. My department was one that did just that. Check out the lyrics below, we started off by saying to the judges that these were our "demands".

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my Blueprint sent to me
A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the second day of Christmas, my Blueprint sent to me
Two Parking Lots
and A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the third day of Christmas, my Blueprint sent to me
Three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the fourth day of Christmas, my Blueprint sent to me
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the fifth day of Christmas, my Blueprint sent to me
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the sixth day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the seventh day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Seven Hours of Working, six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the eighth day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Eight Users Screaming, seven Hours of Working, six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the ninth day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Nine Lines are Ringing, eight Users Screaming, seven Hours of Working, six
Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the tenth day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Ten Bosses Sleeping, nine Lines are Ringing, eight Users Screaming, seven swans
a-swimming, six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Eleven Team Leads Surfing, ten Bosses Sleeping, nine Lines are Ringing, eight maids
a-milking, seven Hours of Working, six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days, three Off Days, two Parking Lots

And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my Blueprint gave to me
Twelve Months of Bonus,
eleven Team Leads Surfing, ten Bosses Sleeping,
nine Lines are Ringing, eight Users Screaming,
seven Hours of Working, six Weeks of Resting,
Five Percent Rebate.
Four Working Days,
three Off Days,
two Parking Lots
And A Lifetime Petrol for Free

Now why don't you try singing it for yourself? :)

Today mark's the UN's celebration of the World Human Rights day. In effect, many people today lack the very knowledge of the rights that one might hold, whether it may be their own personal rights as a consumer, a voter or just as a normal citizen.  But truth be hold, amidst many of what some might consider a "drivel" of misguided information put forward to unsuspecting people, many of them are clouded by a mist of twisting and spinning stories to lure them further away from the truth.

Quote from the UN's website:

The promotion and protection of human rights has been a major preoccupation for the United Nations since 1945, when the Organization's founding nations resolved that the horrors of The Second World War should never be allowed to recur. 

Respect for human rights and human dignity "is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world", the General Assembly declared three years later in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, all States and interested organizations were invited by the General Assembly to observe 10 December as Human Rights Day (resolution 423(V)). 

The Day marks the anniversary of the Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Over the years, a whole network of human rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of human rights and to confront human rights violations wherever they occur.

Respect for human rights and dignity is of the essence but unfortunately it isn't practiced so much around here with statements such as "balik tongsan" coming from the very people charged to helping us preserve our rights.

Too much has happened over the weekend and too much has been reported on the media. Of course everyone wants to know what is going on and with the Internet being so easily available nowadays, who ever believes what they read in the newspapers. How much so can we trust these so called "credible" sources of the media?

I rather read my news online because I believe that the level of trust I have for these spin doctors have reached an all time low and as someone once told me that it only takes a minute to destroy a lifetime built reputation.

Anyhow, let us not stray from the fact that today is the World Human Rights day so let's celebrate the fact that we are still in a democratic state but yet mourn for the things that are happening around us. Perhaps these photos might tell a better story indeed.

My first ever DSLR was the Nikon D40 which I purchased in January. Since then, I started my interest in the area of photography. Being a relatively middle income earner and knowing the exorbitant prices that revolves around this new hobby of mine, I faced a problem.

The Nikon D40 didn't have the autofocus motor built in the body. I guess this was Nikon's way of reducing costs but it came as a problem for D40/D40x owners, they had to buy either Nikon's AF-S type lenses or perhaps a cheaper alternative would be the Sigma HSM type lens.

But, I am not here to talk about the D40 shortcomings.

Tamron, another 3rd party lens maker has finally decided to jump onto that bandwagon to manufacture a lens capable of having the autofocus function with the Nikon D40. In any sense, this is a good business move by Tamron because they are catering for a large market (the D40 has a huge market because of its price worldwide) of consumers.

AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II

"The AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro is the ultimate high power zoom lens boasting the world’s greatest zoom ratio(*1) of 13.9X, a milestone that Tamron, the pioneer of high power zoom lenses, has achieved by commanding its technologies to further expand the capabilities of high power zoom lenses."

With this in mind, I think Tamron has a winner provided that the price of this lens is priced well as it is definitely a good travel lens. It gives a nice wide 18mm as well as a long telephoto (compared against the usual 18-200mm lenses). Let's see how this will fare against Sigma's travel lenses.

Back on the other spectrum of the price range would be something which many people have been waiting for, the Nikon D3. The first full frame DSLR for Nikon, the D3 marks an important milestone for Nikon and I am sure many people would be more than happy to jump on the new bandwagon.

Well, if you are still clueless about the Nikon D3, don't fret. Head over here to see how the D3 would look unboxed!

Related links:

• Engadget


• Tamron Press Release


• ShutterAsia's Nikon D40/D40x supported lenses


• Nikon D300 high ISO performance at ShutterAsia

If any of you budding photography enthusiasts out there require a need of a good fast telephoto lens but don't have the budget to fork out large sums of money, well Sigma has the answer for you.

Sigma today announced the launch of two new telephoto lens, the APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC lens and the APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM lens.

APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM

 

 

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM lens.
This large aperture telephoto zoom lens is designed exclusively for digital SLR cameras with APS-C size sensors and its compact, lightweight body provides freedom of movement and versatility. The minimum focusing distance of 100cm/39.4in. and the high-resolution power layout have improved the strength of the lens in close-up photography. This lens offers a large aperture of F2.8 and its large depth of field offers greater freedom of creative expression. It has a maximum aperture of F2.8. Four SLD glass elements are used for maximum correction of chromatic aberrations. The super multi-layer lens coating reduce flare and ghosting and ensure sharp images throughout the entire zoom range. The lens design incorporates an inner focusing and inner zooming system. As the overall length of the lens does not change during focusing and zooming, convenient handling is ensured. The HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) system allows quiet and high-speed auto focusing with full time manual focus override by just rotating the focusing ring. The addition of the optional 1.4x EX DG APO or 2x EX DG APO Tele Converters produce a 70-210mm F4 AF tele-zoom lens and a 100-300mm F5.6 AF ultra-telephoto zoom lens respectively.

* Vignetting will occur if the lens is used with digital cameras with image sensors larger than APS-C size or 35mm SLR cameras.

 

APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new APO 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG MACRO HSM.This large aperture zoom lens has improved optical performance and retains close-up ability with a minimum focusing distance of 100cm/39.4in and maximum magnification ration of 1:3.5. This lens is suitable for taking all type of subjects such as portraits, landscape, and close-up pictures. Two SLD (Special Low Dispersion) and three ELD (Extraordinary Low Dispersion) glass elements provide excellent correction for all types of aberrations. High image quality is assured throughout the entire zoom range. The super multi-layer coating reduces flare and ghosting. This lens incorporates HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), which ensures a quiet and high-speed AF as well as full-time manual focusing capability. The lens design incorporates an inner focusing and inner zooming systems. The overall length of the lens does not change during focusing and zooming, ensuring convenient handling. A removable tripod collar (TS-21) is included as a standard component. When this lens is used with the optional 1.4x EX DG APO or 2x EX DG APO Tele Converters, it becomes a 98-280mm F4 AF telephoto zoom lens or a 140-400mm F5.6 AF telephoto zoom lens respectively.

For a while now, I always contemplated whether getting a telephoto lens is actually worth its pric. I guess that with the new upcoming 3rd party lens from Sigma, the expected prices for these lens should be in the range of RM3k+ and above.

What makes these lens a Christmas item wish list is that, for budding photagraphy enthusiasts (like me), who want to shoot weddings (also like me), would want a cheap alternative to shoot those up-close portrait shots of those moments under low light. The f/2.8 will definitely offer good performance without maximizing one's ISO setting.

Now that I have hinted, it is only 21 more days till Christmas and I would be more than happy to accept this *grins*.

Related links:

• Sigma Corporate website


• Dpreview's post

From my last post, you would have guessed that I attended another workshop. This time the workshop was free. But to be completely honest, it wasn't a workshop. It was a talk by Zung of The Photoz. When I say it was a talk, I could be wrong in some areas whereby there were some sharing but mainly most of the time, he showed his collection of his work.

Some comments I have heard about Zung from some of my friends was that his work was good but not extraordinary. Other comments were favourable on the other hand, with people complementing his style and his artistic talents.

Well back to the workshop cum talk cum slideshow viewing session. The event started late because everyone was stuck in the huge traffic jam from KL thanks to heavy rain. I had a tough time travelling straight from work, the Elite highway was pretty congested as well.

It was pretty pleasant to sit in front (being a little kiasu that night) as compared to the other workshop with Ulf Recher and I couldn't even see much at the front. Zung, came in a little late but he recognized me as I met him and introduced myself during David's wedding in Penang a couple weeks back.

Anyhow, how this relates to the title was that in the course of the workshop cum talk cum slideshow viewing session, there was a workshop being offered. A proper proper workshop which costs a bomb and it lasts for 6 weeks and includes two on-site photoshoots. I knew that if I did take it up it will definitely be a large investment for me but I guess that I would rather spend the money on the workshop than get myself a lens.

What made me take the plunge was that I saw some of his previous student's work and they were quite good and interesting.

Check them out here.

• Eug & Yin


• Korean Couple


• From this moment on


• Mien & Simon


• ROM on Putrajaya Cruise

All of these photos belong to one of Zung's student. You can check out his website here.

In preparation for a wedding I got to shoot on the 14th-16th of December, lets see how much I can motivate and hone my skills in time for that shoot.