Munz managed to convince me to go for the DCIM event at Midvalley over the weekend on Saturday evening by bribing me that she will pay for dinner. To be honest, I didn't really have much expectations for it because whilst I was at a workshop with Munz on Saturday afternoon, I left some comments on Facebook and most of them were quite negative with friends mentioning that it was quite dissapointing. Hence the reason why I didn't want to raise any hopes and just head over there and check it out.

Upon arrival, I managed to catch Zung finishing up his talk on Wedding Photography and also saw Jon, Joseph and Peter at the event. I guess all the Kwannon users were there previously giving their talk on their experience using the 5D Mk2. After having a quick chat in the seminar room as well as wishing Zung a very happy birthday, Munz and I headed in to the main exhibition hall and was greeted by this.



There was a huge Nikon booth in the middle of the area, next to the stage where there was a fashion show or something.



Canon also had a huge site with an area where you can test out some big guns.

The first place I actually stopped by was neither of those booths but more towards that of DG Color and Direct Photo as Jon had very smartly poisoned Munz into getting a monopod. It was very cheap hence I know that it was a great bargain.

The next booth I stopped at was of course the Nikon booth because they had the D3x for display and we could actually test it out. Check out the prices below!



Now that is definitely the amount you can put for a downpayment to get your latest BMW 3 Series. I tried shooting some test shots with the D3x using the new 50mm f/1.4 AF-S lens but I wasn't that impressed with the sharpness. I guess perhaps with the sheer number of people trying it out, it could have been damaged or perhaps shooting at wide open @ f/1.4 will always give you soft images. But then I see the Canon's 50mm f/1.2 shots at f/1.2 to be crisp and sharp, that really makes me wonder a lot!



Don't ask me what that crack is, I think it was a piece of stuff that was on the lens of my iPhone camera.



Of course I also couldn't resist checking out some huge ass lenses which were also on display. It is definitely not everyday that I can molest a 400mm f/2.8 lens as well.

By the time we headed out of DCIM and towards Gardens for dinner, I realised that it was almost time for Earth Hour. Fortunately we managed to finish our dinner in time but a little way past the 8.30pm mark and behold, Gardens was totally lit up and the lights were bright! Then of course I spied this poster here which was supposed to bring awareness and here you go, decorative lights were brightly shining as well.



On a more positive note, most of the food shops around me had their lights turned off and that most of their customers were eating with candlelights which sort of made it romantic in a way.

Last night I had the pleasure of enjoying one of my first few drinks in the UK whilst I was a student there and that drink is called a SnakeBite Black. I was over at Sid's together with a bunch of friends who where chugging away on their drinks when I headed over to the bartender and ordered a snakebite black. He made one within minutes and I paid for my drink and joined my friends.

The drink tasted good and I continued enjoying it until my friends saw this.



(image taken with my iPhone in the dark)

D: What the heck, you ordered a soft snake?

Me: What? What is a soft snake la?

B: OMG Mark's got a soft snake

The joke went on and on and on. So apparently I ended up with a drink that I have to order as hard snakebite next time. Either that I can always tell the bartender to make me a soft snakebite but make it hard on the bill ^^

I really think that time is really an essence that we cannot waste. Then again there are a lot of things that we do waste that might affect us in a subtle but yet realistic way.

• This is what you should do if you have about 22-25 million pound sterling sitting in your bank account, buy a village!


• If you are a new iPhone user or you are considering getting an iPhone sometime in the near future, do note that iPhone's can't be tethered at the moment, but this may be of some good news. What is tethering? Well tethering is basically hooking up your phone with your laptop/PC and using the phone's 3G connection, surf the web.


• Another bit of Apple related news, as crazy as it seems, I thought stupid things like this only happen in Malaysia.


• Ok, your friend in the US gives you a DVD for your birthday and you realised you can't play it on your DVD player because of the DVD region. I bet you must be cursing your lucky stars. Well apparently Gordon Brown must have done something similar when Obama gave him a set of DVDs as a gift.


• Here is a great post on 20 tips for better conference speaking.


• Check out this site about 5 minutes before lunch, it will definitely help you build an appetite!

Last but not least, there has been so much hype about Earth Hour and all the Earth Hour parties this coming Saturday. Yes I do support the notion of everyone turning off the lights for an hour but I feel that the only way this will make an impact is that if people could take one thing away from this event is that they learn to conserve energy. A simple gesture like turning off lights when there is no one in the room or talking a short walk to your grocery store instead of driving 2 minutes down the road, every little small thing adds up.

Now the funny part about Earth Hour is a question I would definitely like to post up, how much extra energy has already been consumed/used to promote Earth Hour? I see a huge ass billboard with LIGHTS on it running along the highways. So you turn off your lights for an hour, versus the 1 month of electricity usage to power those billboards? The irony of it all right?

My take is, yes, celebrate Earth Hour and turn off your lights. Then go to what ever party that you may be attending consuming your normal amount of electricity powering those huge ass amplifiers and disco lights. But take home a small fact about energy consumption. Remember, turning off the lights for a room overnight is also equivalent to heating up 10,000 cups of tea.

Ok, I totally forgot to blog about this especially since it was held way back in January but hey, I am just a couple of months late. Anyway, back in January, I took a trip over to Kota Kinabalu (which was my very first time!) to attend a photography workshop held by Louis Pang. It was a great opportunity to brush up on my photography skills as well as learn again from a wonderful and talented photographer (he is Malaysia's most awarded wedding photographer after all). Speaking of awards, I definitely need to start shooting more and sending photos in for competitions, or else how will I ever overtake the number of awards that Louis has! *wink*

Anyway here are some of the photos that I took whilst I was at the workshop. If you definitely want to know more about his workshops, I really encourage you all to participate in them.


The class was split into 3 teams where each team will be guided by coaches as well as have a model to shoot. I think to me, the one thing that stood out differently this time round is that I got a male model!



There was a time where each person would have a quick 1 to 1 shoot with the model for an exact duration of 3 minutes and it was during those times that I took these shots.









After a classroom style teaching, we moved on to outdoor shooting. Here is Louis teaching us how to shoot with what we have outdoors.



I have to admit that KK has one of the most beautiful sunsets in Malaysia, just look at how awesome it is!



Anyway its about time I get back to work and finish post processing photos! I have two shoots tomorrow so I am looking forward to that!

The story behind this quick slideshow I made begins a couple weeks ago during the Charge Up Conference. I was one of the coaches during the workshop time for the photography stream and the delegates had to complete a project based on themes. The coaches decided to give the delegates themes based on human expression and the team I was overseeing chose the theme, Joy. What the delegates had to do was to shoot as a team, come out with a story and create a slideshow with the photos they took which depict joy.

How they want to depict "Joy" can be anyway they want. It could have been a story of a person who found joy or even things that bring us joy. The group then proceeded to head to New World in Penang (I am from KL by the way so I was being led around by the Penangites) where they thought might be a good place to take photos and get some interesting shots. So while the group was running about shooting, I decided to take some shots as well of the surroundings.

By the time the delegates had finished shooting, they were busy hustling and bustling through their photos as well as trying to pick the ones to be able to form a proper storyboard. Trust me, it is during these times you wouldn't want to get into their way. Tension was really building up, it was getting late and everyone was trying to complete it before the showcase tomorrow (the showcase is where each team from the photography stream and video streams show their project work which they completed in just one day).

Anyway, noticing that they were getting tense and nervous as well as trying to overdo the other teams, I quickly put together the photos I shot and produced the slideshow below.



Well I managed to get some of their attention and hopefully, made them feel a little bit more relaxed after that. Thought I would like to share this with everyone as well :)

This week has been a miserable week for me as I am down with a flu and thanks to the flu, a fever as well. And to make things even worse, because I am sick, my immune system is low hence germs decided to attack my gums and here I am with swollen infected gums, barely being able to eat anything without feeling any pain.

Anyway it is a good thing I decided to slowly collect links over the past week in order that I don't miss out this week's Wednesday clicks.

• Ever wondered how Air Force One looks like? Well, look no further.


• This blog post shows Air Force One and it's rich history as a usual transport for the president of the United States.


• An interesting video which depicts Sex, Lies and Photoshop, tag line for the day, why editors should reveal which photos are photoshopped!


• 25 of the best photography websites, link courtesy of Anna!


• An interesting blog about life.


• I have been hooked on Zack Arias' critique episodes and they are just totally mind blowing. Critique is very important for a photographer and it sometimes take other people to help us look at things we may tend to overlook. Check them out here. There are already 6 episodes on his blog already but there are only 4 episodes on YouTube. I wrote on his blog (comment section) to request that he could also upload his episodes on YouTube because our crappy Malaysian lines had trouble streaming from Blip.Tv. I am just so glad that he obliged, thanks Zack!


• Here is a cool site for you to just insert your name and get a list of cool facts about your name.


• The latest Nikon rumour is that a new 35mm f/1.4 AF-S lens (FX) is about to appear sometime mid year?


• Here is a very good example of how reporters can take your words and twist it around. Check out this which was published and the article rebuttal over here.


• Ever since Maxis has launched the Apple iPhone 3G here in Malaysia, here is something for all of us iPhone owners to look forward to, namely the new copy and paste function! Only thing I am sad that was missed out was Flash support as well as tethering.

Until next week, see you all soon. Hope to get better!

I tagged along with Grace the other day to shoot Warren and Amy's portraiture photos together with Karen. I have known Amy since when I was a small little boy (I think I was 6 years old) and her mum even has videos of me and the other kids back in Sunday school where we were taking part in a play. Anyway many many years have passed since then and here I am taking her portraiture photos before their big day in May.

The weather that day was a little more on the gloomy side and there wasn't much sun about. And to also top it all, there was rain and it got heavier by the minute but I am sure that didn't stop any of us (I got soaked quite a fair bit). Here are some of my favourite photos, a little different style of post processing but I just wanted to try something different.



I simply love train stations, ever since I was a boy, I loved playing with model train sets!



Isn't her stare just mesmerizing?





I like the feel of this shot especially with the rain drops in the background. No rain is gonna stop me from taking photos!



This shot was really inspired by my awesome teacher at numerous workshops, Louis Pang.



Did anyone say Korean drama series?



After the shoot, Warren and Amy were so kind enough to buy us lunch at Carat Club in Pavillion. Ironically I am also writing this blog post in Pavillion as well and of course my wonderful boo-boo of updating my Twitter and Facebook status, saying that I ate at "Carrot" club instead of "Carat". I blame the auto correction on my iPhone :P



Of course that didn't prevent us from sneaking a couple of shots as well.



This shot was also posed by Grace. She has a wonderful eye for reflections!

Below are some behind the scenes shots which I sneaked in. I was shooting some portraits, behind the scenes shots, carrying the monopod as well as taking care of the bags. Not too shabby eh?



The iconic stool!



Grace shooting with her new birthday present!



The umbrellas do tell a story, it reminds us to always bring it when we go on a shoot! I think we had like 4 umbrellas all between us and this does not include the ones we use for lighting. Haha.

Update: Maxis in Malaysia has finally released their iPhone 3G plans but the pricing is just ultimately plain ridiculous. Note that the plans in the site (http://www.maxis.com.my/iphone/rateplan1.asp) does not include the 3G plan!

This week begins another busy week and I do really hope that I can find the time to post process photos. I definitely need to be more disciplined! Anyway here is a thought, its Wednesday and I have not forgotten my weekly Wednesday Clicks!

• After having been in the UK for 3 years, I sort of growned accustomed to their usual ritual of having sandwiches for lunch. The sad thing about Malaysia is that, we aren't really much into the sandwich scene hence even the Subway sandwiches here are a tad boring. Don't even get me started on O'Briens. Anyway, I found this site which scans sandwiches, yes, SCANS sandwiches. If you feel that you want to be hungry, head over to scanwiches.com now.


• Do men and women photographers take different photos? Well, I do shoot with women photographers and have shot with them. Personally in my experience, I would have to definitely say a huge YES! But do check out this article instead.


• Disasters with Photoshop? Look no further, check out this blog.


• Microsoft, the ever famous software giant has decided to manufacture laptop cooling pads?

Alright thats all for this week. The more I look at those scanwiches, the hungrier I get and I definitely need to sleep! Goodnight everyone!

I was reading Scott Kelby's blog the other day and this week's guest speaker was Tim Mantoani. To be completely frank, I never knew who Tim Mantoani was and what was his forte in the area of photography. After having followed Scott's blog for a while now, I do know that whoever he gets to guest blog, definitely do have a certain quality to them. Kelby's guest bloggers have seen the likes of Zack Arias (of the One Light fame), Joey Lawrence, David Hobby of Strobist, Tim Wallace, Brad Moore, Matt Kloskowski (Lightroom dude) and many many more.

Anyway, back to what Tim Mantoani wrote, after reading his post at Scott's blog, the words that hit me the most were that of this.

BE WHO YOU IS
Ian Summers is a great business coach in our industry. He loves the quote, “Be who you is, cuz if you ain’t who you is, then you is who you ain’t.” As a photographer it is easy to try to imitate another shooter’s work and to try to be all things to all people. I am based in a smaller photo market in San Diego and often have to shoot a variety of styles to satisfy my clients. However, when it comes down to the work, I always try to give them what they want, then shoot something they way I see it. At least at the end of the shoot, you have something YOU are happy that you created. Put YOU into your work. It is important to sing in your own voice. Think of yourself as a musician. You can place a guitar in the hands of any person and it is just a box with a hole in it, the same is true of a camera. What is the sound of your photography? U2 does not sing Rap, Folk, R&B, etc… They don’t sound like another band, they sound like U2. Be YOU too!

There are people that shop for “photography” and people that shop for a “photographer”. If you are just selling photography, then the cheapest price will get the job. Make your clients buy YOU. Find time to shoot personal work and promote it.

The words just hit me on every different level and the truth of it is so real that I am completely flabbergasted. After picking up photography for almost two years now, I realized that I still have a lot to learn and I see so much more from people who started photography way later than I did and sometimes I feel that everyone else seems to be better than I do.

It could be an inferior complex that I feel but still it isn't as easy as I would hope. I still get completely lost at "portraiture" sessions and I still find myself wondering what to shoot or even perhaps shooting the same things over and over again.

As a photographer it is easy to try to imitate another shooter’s work and to try to be all things...

Yes, I read a lot of photographer's blog and yes I do keep sample photos in my phone as a reference. Some might call it as a source of inspiration but the tendency to overstep that boundary is also very high. Doing this, I am definitely not going to be in the category where people "shop for a photographer" but rather being able to do the same things as what others can do and be just another photographer selling "photography business".

There definitely is a need to change the way I do things and it definitely starts from within. I learned over the weekend that "success can be a setback" and that "failure is never the destination" but just a process. But the most important thing so far which I definitely need to learn is that "character always come before competency". So I thought to myself, what is my character? Is mine one that is very lazy and just shoots, hoping for the best or am I one who is constantly and diligently trying to learn from others, reinvent myself and be just myself? I must aim for the latter.

So from today onwards, I am giving myself about 2 months to accomplish certain goals and constantly strive to improve my character as well as my competence.

• Being disciplined and head to the gym to work out


• Being disciplined and work hard on post processing photos


• Complete my personal portfolio for 2008 so that I can gauge myself on a yearly basis. This portfolio will basically be a 10R sized album with photos that I have captured in 2008


• Reinvent myself and think of new ways to shoot


• Shoot in smaller apertures, my mind has always been that if I shoot in F/1.4, everything will turn out nice. Of course not all of my lenses can shoot at f/1.4 but I will definitely try different styles of shooting


• Work on creating a trolley bag to haul my photography equipment (I can't afford those Think Tank trolley bags). I took the idea from both Alex and Grace, thanks you two!

Also in order to build myself as a better photographer, I am constantly looking for opportunities to shoot. If you are a couple and would love to have photos taken, do contact me at mark.leo [at] gmail.com and we can discuss more about it. This is of course limited to the Klang Valley area only as I do not think that I have the time to travel about. I will elaborate about this a little more in another post as well.

So do check back for more updates!

This week on Wednesday Clicks I am proud to give you a new word to learn, "Boudoir". What is it you ask me? Well it has something to do with this style of photography which I am unsure if many male photographers get to shoot. Most of the ones posted on the web were usually taken by famous female photographers. Anyway, just an interesting point to note. If you are still clueless about what "Boudoir" means, just click on the first link.

• Jasmine Star's recent Boudoir shoot


• Last week both Scott Kelby and Matt Klowk...er...that Lightroom guy, anyway, they are part of this new online web resource/TV called D-Town TV where they had their premier episode last week. Check it out here.


• Check out this competition, it's called "Name your dream assignment" which is organised by Lenovo and Microsoft. Huge prizes to be won.


• Learn how to shoot rock concerts here.


• Apple has released their new line of Macs on Tuesday, "new" Macs include the ever elusive Mac Mini, new iMacs, a bumped up Macbook Pro and the Mac Pro.


• PSP2 is underway? Images do look fantastic though.

That's it for this week. Back to the rat race!

It's the last day of Charge Up and after working through the night to compile everyone's photos to be included in the DVD, I am just dead tired. Anyway the final screening is about to be shown soon and for Ps. Victor's last PowerUp Session. I was really touched by all of the delegate's work from both the videography and photography stream. You guys are absolutely awesome!

Here are the group shots that we took on Friday.



I took a couple shots of this angle with various exposures and layered them to get the background and foreground correctly exposed.

This next group shot was taken by Grace.



Traveling back to KL after the last PowerUp Session and I can't wait for Ps. Victor's last sermon. Awesome stuff!

p.s. Super tired from collecting and sorting through all the photos taken by loads of people during the conference, got back to my room at 4am.