Photos has emerged online of the upcoming Nikon D3x and they are floating about. Apparently these photos were obtained from the Nikon site itself but they have long but taken down these images.



The camera itself is expected to sport the same frame as the D3 but I am curious indeed especially with the lens it is sporting. There are no markings on the lens to give us any clue what it might be. It could be the new 35mm or 135mm lens.



The interesting bit is that the Nikon site has already set a page for the camera itself. Click on the link below.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25442/D3x.html

In any other websites, if the html file does not exist, you would get an error message. This time, I just get a blank white page. Suspicious ain't it? I guess everyone expects it to arrive but by next week? I want one of these babies for Christmas!

Image and news source: NikonRumors

Something big is approaching, really really big. Rumours has it that a launch by Nikon is eminent but that is nothing new as companies are constantly launching new products, new services or just launching some new campaign. This time, rumours are floating about would be a new Nikon DSLR and three new Nikon lenses.

What can we expect?

1. Nikon D3x


2. AF-S 35mm f/1.8


3. AF-S 135mm f/1.8


4. AF-S 80-400mm

Now the D3x rumours has been floating about for a while already (yes its sporting a 24MP sensor) and several leaks has substantiated these rumours. Leaks such as the prices of the D3 has dropped, dealers can't seem to get ahold of stock (although that could be due to the production slowdown?), vendors creating entries in their inventory or websites creating subfolders just for the D3x.

The D3X will definitely be used by a niche market but the appeal of being able to shoot at 24MP (3MP more than the Canon 1Ds Mk3 and the 5D Mk2) would definitely attract the likes of stock phographers as well as commercial photographers. Being able to shoot at that high resolution without going for medium format cameras is amazing as well. I am already awed by the amount of detail captured by other rivals such as the Canon 1Ds Mk3 and the Sony A900, so I am very keen to see one from Nikon as well.

To me, I guess I would be craving more for the 135mm f/1.8 as well as the 35mm f/1.8. Both are AF-S versions and both show extreme potential for excellent portraiture use (for me la that is :P).

Its only 5 more days to go before the big event. Until then, keeping my fingers crossed!

About a month back, I shot Lian Hoy & Ivy's wedding here in KL. Although the both of them are based off in New Zealand, they decided to have their special day here in Malaysia which was awesome! I knew Lian Hoy way back from my old high school days and only met Ivy when I was touring about Sydney and Melbourne back in 2003. I remember the time when Lian Hoy was sliding down Mt. Buller mowing everyone down on his snowboard but now, he is an ace when it comes to riding on a snowboard.

I wish to both Lian Hoy & Ivy a successful marriage and may God continue to bless the two of you in your new journey of your life.

Here are some of the photos I took on the actual day of the wedding.



The wedding gown was really really long!









I wanted to capture the intricacies of the beautiful wedding gown and decided to process them in black & white.





The funny thing about the games was that all of "heng tais" or brothers-in-arms were all "bananas" so we couldn't understand the meaning of the Chinese characters above.



The girls made sure the doors were securely locked!



Of course the best man has to endure some of the torture, from the looks of it, he seems rather happy with it.





Of course no games is without the "test of strength" challenge.



As well as test of stomach strength!







After the tea pouring ceremony, we decided on some impromptu portrait shots in Renaissance hotel.

















These photos were the ones I used for the express slideshow and I have plenty more photos to be processed!

It has been a while since I last came back to my hometown of Malacca. I think I can barely remember the last time but I know that I haven't been back the whole of 2008  (not counting the times I drove past Malacca on the way down to Singapore and Segamat). Anyway I am back here over the weekend to attend my cousin's wedding. Will be waking up pretty early tomorrow to help him out by being his photographer.

One of the things I miss the most about Malacca is the food. I managed to get my parents to bring me to a food court so that I could taste different dishes and I wasn't really in a mood for "sate celup" so they brought me to the Newton food court. The Newton food court originated near the old jailhouse but they have setup a similar looking food court that reminds me of Ming Tien back in PJ.

Here are some of the photos I took of the food we ordered.



My aunts decided to order a very famous "hakka" dish which I really think it is just tortoise food.



My parents went for something more traditional, claypot chicken rice.



My sister stuck with her usual Uncle Bob fried chicken.



I went for an upgraded version of the claypot chicken rice with an additional egg and an extra chinese sausage.



Of course I wouldn't sit down at a food court without ordering fried oysters.



And to top everything off, Portugese "Ikan bakar" or burnt manta ray (its not really burnt!).

I am still full from dinner and I did wish I had more time to try out my other favourites such as "sate celup", "cendol", chicken rice balls and other delicacies. My only dissapointment is that my all-time favourite coffee shop has closed down due to newer development and all of the stalls have split up to other locations in Malacca.

Time to head back to get a good nights rest before tomorrow's shoot. I am still in awe of the recent development in this area.

I guess after having shot around 15 weddings, each time I look at my photos and think to myself, how can I improve on my work and how can I constantly deliver better images to my clients? Well, I am still asking myself that at the moment and I still pray that I continue asking myself that. A couple of weeks ago I was shooting at a wedding together with WeddingStory and I managed to pull off a shot which I really liked. Check it out here below.



It was during Ken & Cynthia's wedding on the 8th of November that I took the shot above and man, did I have a ball of a time shooting the wedding. For the next upcoming wedding shoots, I would definitely want to improve even more and capture even more beautiful shots for the couple.

Of course leading up from my first ever wedding shoot until now, I have managed to learn quite a fair bit from the masters themselves, through many many workshops (I think I attended more than 10 workshops so far on photography). I will be attending another workshop again in January, this time in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Do check out the rest of Ken & Cynthia's wedding photos here at WeddingStory's blog.

I have got more photos to post! They are already in my draft posts awaiting for me to press on the publish button!

Gosh, I can't believe that it has been almost 4 years since I last step foot in the UK, namely Sheffield. It has been that long since I remember living life as a student in a quaint little town/city/village where things moved slower and there are shopping complexes with 3 Starbucks in them. Note that in the UK, there aren't that many shopping complexes around and having one in Sheffield was considered a miracle considering the size of the place.

Another part of my life at that time was attending Hope City Church. At that time I was totally blown away by the culture there where it was ever so vibrant and it was ever so meaningful. Word and worship were superb and being able to play on the worship team at that time was even better.



And here they have had something very interesting, a spanking new website which I am proud to spread the word about. Do check it out as they have plenty of features and downloads available. If anyone here in Malaysia is heading towards Sheffield to study, I would definitely recommend that you pop over at Hope City and you will definitely have a life changing experience there.

I know I did.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I would post up more photos that I took of Nadia at Putrajaya. Not to dissapoint you all, here are some more of my shots.



The shot above was taken before we moved to a shadier area. The lighting was extremely harsh at this location.



A more serious look pose from Nadia.



Close up shot of Nadia, man, I just love shooting with the 85mm f/1.8 lens!



Tried a clean-look post processing for the image above, a feel of serenity.



A more grunge tone of post processing to show the seriousness of her eyes and yet portraying a soft feel with the presence of the rose.



Of course, who wouldn't want to see the model smiling a bit, right?



And finally, enough of close ups. Lets get a full body shoot.

The photos are also available on my Flickr set.

Sometime back I shot Nadia at a workshop conducted by Jay at Bukit Jalil. This time, she is back again. I would like to share a couple of shots of Nadia I took together with some of the Lowyat forum members in the early hours of the morning. Well there are only two shots here because I managed to find some time to post process them yesterday. Hope you enjoy the photos.



Have to thank Wyluxx for waking up so early in the morning to drive down to Petaling Street and getting a bouquet of roses for the shoot.



In the end, we ended asking Nadia to use just a single stalk of rose.

Frankly, I only post processed these two shots mainly to create an automated watermark action on Photoshop. Hence the reason for a vertical and horizontal shot.

A big thanks to Xandman for organising the event, Wyluxx for the awesome planning and the amount of props brought and Zio for being the dedicated lighting guy for the rest. Keep on shooting guys!

I was trying to free up some space on my hard disk the other day and came across some portraits which I took a while back and it has been sitting in my folder all this while.

A little history about this shot, my friends, the pioneer of the ever popular Reptiles Malaysia, were in the midst of setting up their business and asked me if I could do them a favour and shoot for them. Of course these were the ones that I took for the fun of it. Right now, wished that I had shot more photos at that time and played around with the lighting. Although time was rather tight but at least I managed to pull off a couple of shots within 30-45minutes.

Here are some of those shots.



I took individual portraits first in my house using a single strobe with a softbox attached.



From the photos, judging from then and now, I can truly say that I learned a little bit more in regards to lighting as the more I look at them, the more I feel that I could have done a better job. Note that minimal post processing was done on the two shots above.



Frankly, if I were to shoot the portraits now, I would have added a backlight and side lighting to create a more nicer 3 dimensional feel to the image. Anyway I got to prepare for a shoot this Saturday and I am really gearing up for it. Time to try and improve by another 5% in this shoot from the previous shoots.

This is what typically happens almost on a daily basis at 12pm here at the office. First we would all gather at the lifts to make sure that we have enough people going for lunch. Then while waiting for all to arrive, we would definitely spot some people playing about (I guess they are trying to break the monotonous strain of everyday work).



Once we have all gathered around and come to a consensus of where to eat, we end up eating at the same place again and again. Well for the sake of those of you who have never step foot into Cyberjaya, this place has really nothing great to offer. Food is practically the same everywhere with a few emerging "mamaks" and the ever hopeful food court which seems to close down every year or so (even with new tenants) which is located in the colourful building.

Another choice that we might have is a place called, "Streetmall", a quaint place where CUCMS is located and it has a number of restaurants there serving food ranging from "mamak" food, to Italian food to Kebabs. It doesn't take long before we have tried all restaurants and realised that the food just wants to drive us out of Cyberjaya. We settled for the restaurant called Penang House which is a halal restaurant located in Streemall.

The next lunchtime ritual would be to take our orders and then wait very very very very long for our food. Here is Ryan's expression after his order was taken.



Here is Ryan's expression, 20 minutes after his food has not arrived.



He looks rather suspicious I would say. I think he is getting a little hungrier.



And when the food finally arrives, there are only a couple of dishes which I really like. One of the as shown above is their "Sambal fried rice" which comes with an egg (ordered separately). Another favourite dish of mine is the "Sweet and sour chicken with two eggs" dish. Specially ordered with two eggs for the win!



Man, typing this post has made me hungry. I can't wait to try out the new restaurant later today during lunch!