Last year, I started my photography journey when I attended my very first photography workshop at Jalan Tandang. Prior to that, I had just recently purchased my Nikon D40 and was playing with the camera for about a month before. Little did I know that attending Charge Up 2007 would leave an impact so great until now.

One year down the road and it's here again, Charge Up 2008!  Of course I will be taking up the photography workshop as usual and I can't wait to learn more from Louis Pang again. I have been to many photography workshops and I loved his teachings and lessons. Given that it was extremely new to me the last time (I couldn't understand what he meant when he said SB-800 or 17-35mm f/2.8). All I knew was that he takes amazing photos and it was then that I realised I wanted more from my camera.

One year ago during the Charge Up conference, I took these 5 shots to be submitted.











This year, if there is an opportunity again for this, I will definitely benchmark myself, not to beat last year's photos but to be more on the creative side. A pro wedding photog did mention to me once that I was too technical and not artistic enough. I find that very true and I blame my interest for technical stuff and my engineering background. Actually, I do know a lot of engineers who are extremely artistic as well. This year I hope to awaken my artistic side of things.

So what are you waiting for? Head over here and sign up now!

Here is the final installation of my "getting back on track" plan. Well it is not really a full blown workshop but more of like a gathering of photographers from the Lowyat.Net forum early on a Sunday morning to learn from one another shooting 3 models. After all of these workshops and outings, I still feel there is much to learn and much more to explore as I feel that I have yet to achieve what I plan to gain. Nevertheless, the learning experience was just incredible.

A group of 15 photographers met up at Taman Tasik Permaisuri (opposite HUKM) together with 3 models and began our shooting at 9.00am. We split into 3 groups and the models went to each of the group so everyone had the chance to shoot all of the models. By noon time everyone was getting tired and weary but it was a healthy bunch, mainly armed with Nikon and Canon cameras.

Here are some of the photos I took over last weekend. Do leave some comments, especially what you think of the photos. Whether I can shoot them better or my post processing was off or the entire picture sucks. Don't worry, I take criticism (good or bad) positively as I am striving myself to improve.









To be quite frank, after all of this, I still want to learn more and I have already signed up for two more workshops with Louis Pang. Now that is something I am truly looking forward to and will be paying 200% attention to what he has to teach and be exactly like a sponge and absorb everything. Until then, I got about close to two months before the first one and about 4 months before the second one. Hopefully I would have more jobs between then and be able to afford to get myself a laptop (praying hard for that).

I guess learning is always a lifelong process and I will definitely do my bit to learn as much as I can as well as teach what I have learned to others.

Sometimes I wondered why I signed up for a workshop which was something I most probably knew everything that was going to be thought. Really, the very first 30-40minutes I was just flabbergastered because I really knew what the trainers were teaching to the rest of the students.

Then it hit me, absolute pride. I began to think again, where was my meekness especially the time when I was down? What happened to that? Just because I took a few "good" photos (note the quotes, "", at good) doesn't mean that I am the best? Not really, I am totally far from being called a "good photographer" and ever lightyears away from being called "the best".

Anyway, the workshop with the trainers (Andrew and Mohd Haidar) over at the Nikonian Academy brought a new light to me. There are far more people with so much more experience that I can learn and absorb from. I need to be a sponge and absorb all of it. There were plenty of tips I picked up along the way and definitely shooting under such bright sunlight was a pain (I realised so many hotspots or overexposed areas on my shots!).



Part of my homework is to choose the best three but frankly, I haven't found them yet. I took two which I liked and posted them here but I haven't found my favourite 3 yet. I need to go back home, sit down in front of my PC and start post processing them.



Lastly I would like to take the time to thank the trainers, Andrew and Haidar for teaching us the fundamentals of shooting outdoor portaits as well as Nicole who was our model for the day. Thanks so much, an afternoon with you guys made me realise that I have got a lot more to learn.

I got a little side tracked from my workshops as I have two back to back events to shoot (one was last night in Cyberjaya, thank God I work there) and another one tonight in Sunway. Tonight will be a little tough as traffic might be a problem but I am praying to God that everything would be fine and traffic would be clear. But with all things, there are some obstacles which I faced tonight. But there isn't anything God can't do. In the mean time, I need to get in the right frame of mind for tonight.

Getting back on track? A question I was asking myself previously in regards to the whole area of photography. Sometime in January, I assisted another wedding photographer to shoot a wedding and after a long and tiring day, I noticed that my photos didn't turn out as well as I would hoped for. Then it really hit me that I have plenty more to learn and it really got me down.

It was a tough time for me as I was rather demoralised and instead of just sitting there and sulking, I decided to get back to basics, start afresh and re-discover my style. With that in mind, I signed up for 4 workshops simultaneously with the hope of learning as much as I can and gaining more experience.

Last week, I attended my first workshop and here are the results from it. The workshop was conducted by Jayhan and it was a strobist style workshop where one would work with portable flash whilst shooting outdoors. There were only two participants that day, me and Saiful a.k.a Xandman, travelled to Bukit Jalil on a hot Sunday afternoon.

We started off by shooting in a hut using Jay's portable flashes but in the end we had to resolve to our Nikon's CLS system and two SB-800s because the triggers were not working. Although we did manage to use Jay's more powerfull portable strobe light for the outdoor shoots.


Jayhan teaching Saiful and Nadia who was our model for the day


Saiful shooting with his 70-200mm f/2.8. Now that is one lens I would love to have!

And here are some of the results from the "indoor" shots.




Frankly I didn't have the time to post process the other shots I took in the hut as I feel that the whole strobist style which I wanted to learn was more of that taken outdoors. When I have the time, I will definitely post them up here.

The next bit of course would be for us to go outside. And this time, I had more fun shooting, not with my 50mm portrait lens but with my 10-20mm wide angle lens.


Jay call's himself the human lightstand

And here are my results from that session.









Ok, this shot was taken using natural light though

At the end of the workshop, or shoot I would say, I felt that perhaps I have improved a little or perhaps I am still a little lost looking for that style of mine. Prior to this, I had a chat with Shaolintiger and he gave me some very good advice and I still keep it in my head everytime I go for a shoot.

Patience is the key and I will definitely think a lot more before firing away at my shutter. With that in mind, I would also like to thank Louis Pang who has been a great inspiration to me and for helping me with my queries.

I got another workshop lined up this weekend with the Nikonians Academy and an outdoor shoot with the guys over at Lowyat.net on Sunday.  Looking forward to a productive weekend and putting what I learned into real practice.

A while back I wrote a piece on "Smooth Interfaces" describing a user interface which works with any Windows Mobile 5/6 device which allows you to have a smooth navigation of your usual options and programs. The exciting thing about this was that the interface was so smooth and flawless that it rivals that of the iPhone. Since this application is a freeware and I am sure we are always hoping for more eye candy to appear and better functionality, Sony on the other hand has announced a new experience in the form of Experia.



Well from the image above it looks like any other smartphone but coming into the forray of smartphones and PDA phones, Sony has decided to enter in with a big bang. With much hype from the many many many first looks and reviews, this phone is the next most anticipated item on the mobile market. Why is that? Look at the video below and it should answer your queries.



Now, doesn't that interface look sweet? I just pray that it doesn't crash as much as it would be. With all of these newer front end applications replacing the standard Windows Mobile UI, I hope Microsoft might just take a wee bit more time concentrating on aspects like this. But I guess since WM has already sold 14.3 million worldwide, Microsoft would probably be busy trying to relaunch their bid again on Yahoo.Related links:

• Sony Ericsson Experia Site


• Neowin

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the Rat be one that is joyous, fun filled and exciting for you. May God continue to bless you and your loved ones as you begin this festive year with a festive celebration with friends and family. Cheers!

Today, I turn 26 and I am not jumping around having fun but cooped up in the office like any other day. What makes today a little bit special is that it has been a slow day at work with just a couple of meetings and some important decisions I have to make. One of them being a new role which I am to take up at work which I can quote what the client said to me, "If you take this role up, I can guarantee that it will take up so much of your time and you might not have enough time to spend on your hobby for the next six months".

Definitely not something one would like to hear but the aspect of the role is fantastic because I get to learn so much more and I get to manage a larger scope of things. But with a role like this comes more responsibilities. Apart from that, I will still be juggling my other work and to make sure that I can get everything complete and delivered. Not easy but its a strong challenge from me.



I am thankful for my family, Mun Tzin and my friends whom I have celebrated my birthday with over the weekend, it was a great weekend starting from a Chinese New Year dinner on Friday night although there was a fiasco over the location. Who names their restaurant Overseas Restaurant Amcorp mall when it isn't even in Amcorp mall?? Saturday again was filled with more eating as we ate at the Bavarian Bierhaus and later at night at Momo in Centrepoint. Looks like I have to start running again after the food binge over the weekend.

Anyway, as I look back over the past couple of years I would say that perhaps I have achieved something but perhaps I could have achieved more. I did pick up photography as a new hobby, got promoted at work and had some ups and downs but hey, what is life without all this excitement?

Before I end, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year!