My day always begin with me getting ready for work (on weekdays of course) followed by my ever none changing routine of driving 50 kilometers to Cyberjaya. The drive might be boring to some but I have gotten used to the long drive (albeit not as long as those who get stuck in KL traffic!). During this long drive, one can either be completely immersed with the musings of the morning crews of various radio stations. Other forms of entertainment could be listening to CD's, iPod's or even counting the cars that over take you on the ELITE highway.

Yes, that is my typical morning on my way to work on almost a daily work-day basis. Then work will continue throughout the day with several meetings in between time at my desk and scooting about to the pantry for a coffee refill and rushing in for meetings with several clients. Balancing several portfolios is never an easy task and constantly I tend to rely heavily on collaboration tools such as my Office Communicator and Live Meeting sessions. In this economic downturn, virtual meetings have slowly begun to replace teleconferences.

By the time I am done going through all of that, light has almost fallen and by the time I reach back in the neighbourhood, two options arise. Either I head over to the gym which I did yesterday and finished by 11pm, mostly the remaining option is to hang out with some of my gym mates or head back for some early snooze. Apparently either one can happen but it does take a drain on me (especially the gym part because it is meant to tire me out :P)

One thing I really wanted to do was to process some photos and post them up on the blog but most of the time when I do process my photos is it would be usually done when I am in the office between the time of 7-8pm where I can use a meeting room to slowly process my photos. Now it gets harder because I am trying to live a little bit healthier hence the need for me to go to the gym.

I guess I began to realise that I had to make time for my photos and photography. At the same time to also spend time developing myself as a photographer in both skills and the way I work. Never an easy task because most of the time I want to relax but there is this bit in me that wants to drive me to achieve more, to achieve a whole lot more. One of the first steps I took would be this recent promotion which I launched last week. I am so encouraged by the number of respondents so far that I am also excited to plan out these portrait sessions.

My point is that life gets hectic and sometimes we also do miss out on the main thing. This got me thinking to myself, what is the main thing? Ask me that 5 years ago and I will give you a very textbook answer but it wasn't the answer which came from myself. It came from the textbook. Ask me this question now, you might get an answer closer to my heart. It is also so ironic that as I am writing this post, Zack Arias then posted this post on his blog.

My favourite quote from there mentioned,

You are standing on the dock and you can always stand on that dock. Always. Or you can get in a boat and push off. A well known photographer once said that they dove in over their heads and swam for the top. That’s pretty inspirational. I’ve done the same thing. However… I don’t think they said anything about how many dead bodies that they had to swim by to get to the surface again.

I think I definitely need to get out from sitting all day on my butt!

To be honest, after being to islands like Phuket, Bali and even Singapore (no, I am not talking about people with an island mentality), I have come to realise the vast difference between Langkawi and these other tourist destinations. Seriously, the place could definitely use something to spruce it up but then, what does Langkawi really have to offer?



No, I don't think the escaped Ian is always there in Langkawi as captured above!



No, there aren't that many escaped jumping humans about. Perhaps you might catch a glimpse of some other interesting life forms there.



No, there aren't that many beggars sitting by the sidewalk waiting for their other halves while they shop for 4 hours. (ok I was just kidding about the 4 hours).



I don't think people usually come to visit the water bottle carrying man from Penang who hides in the deepest of alleys in the streets of Langkawi as well.



Like every other island, the relaxing sound of waves hitting the shores whilst the cool breeze skims through your hair is enough to melt away all of our tensions. Perhaps that is what people might head to Langkawi, to catch a little rest and relaxation. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Langkawi for a shoot and then for a little bit of R&R with the WeddingStory team. After a very very tiring first day, I totally overslept and skipped breakfast. That aside, I woke up definitely in time for lunch :)

After lunch, we all decided to walk along the beach and after several sessions of banana boat rides and watching Nigel and Lai Yeen defy gravity and got dragged across the ocean on a para-sail. It just took me 15 minutes standing under the bright sun to note that I was being cooked alive! Yes it was that hot so our time on the beach was cut short because we were heading out for our own photo shoot!

Yes, Grace and Alex planned that we needed to all dress up for a private shoot and did I really come unprepared. Whilst Munz brought a nice dress, I wore a polo shirt and shorts which she definitely made me change into something a little more formal. Oh well, I guess I had to suffer in the hot sun with slacks and a long sleeved shirt. After the whole fiasco with my clothes, we arrived at our destination.



We started off shooting and shooting and trying out various types of shots with various techniques. Personally, I was trying to utilize the natural lighting as much as I can and to use it to my advantage as well. Here are some of my shots from the session.





Took a couple of photos with Munz for a while whilst trying to figure out how to pose her for a couple of those shots. Not easy trying to pose your girlfriend especially when I am sweating like mad and my sweat was stinging my eyes! I must bring a towel on my next portrait shoots.



I liked this photo of both Alex and Grace because of Grace's expression.



Now who says you can't do some serious shots in padi fields?

After taking even more photos of the rest there, the sun was setting and we quickly headed back to our hotel (which was conveniently next to the beach). Since we were on the west coast of the island, we wanted to capture some sunset shots by the beach. This was when I could change back to my shirt and shorts which was much cooler!





Ok, we arrived there a little too early and it was still extremely bright. Good time to shoot a couple more portraits on the beach while waiting for light to diminish.



The sunset was totally awesome. One of the nicest I have seen around Malaysia. The other occasion was when I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, atending Louis Pang's workshop.



I even managed to get the sunset as well as the crescent moon as well. Was a tough shot to take because I had my 50mm attached with me at the moment.

After spending two days in Langkawi and eating overpriced food which was still good, I guess the main attraction over here was the statues on the beach. Some say that orcs erected them up to celebrate the crescent moon, or maybe elves wanted to erect landmarks to guide their ships correctly.



All I know is that, these statues have a story to tell.

Now try and guess what they are saying,