I previously blogged about my trip to Chicago here and here. Actually I was on training for a week before spending the weekend in Chicago. Right after spending a couple of days in the windy city, I journeyed towards east together with my mate, Jamie. I learned a lot about flying in the US. First of all, when it is stated that you need to be at the airport an hour earlier before your flight, that really means you need to actually check-in at the counter an hour earlier. This doesn't include the time it takes you to line up (it took us about 45minutes, so we kinda missed out flight).

Anyway, by the time we landed in New York, we both took a cab towards Manhattan Island only to be greeted by what some people might call a New York cab experience. We didn't get conned but the experience was somewhat disheartening. The cab driver did get cut off but he didn't have to wind down his window and started cursing non-stop for 15 minutes. He didn't get a tip from me.

By the time we reached our hotel (we stayed at Sheraton Manhattan), there was a street fair going on.



From all of the movies I have seen, I always had the mental image of how New York would look in either sephia or black and white.

The fair was in full force with plenty of vendors selling trinkets and souveniers as well as plenty of food.





This was my lunch, a mixed version of a kebab with plenty of filling and vegetables. It tasted fantastic, maybe because I was a little hungry at that time hence that could have been an added bonus factor.



The corn dog was really calling out to me and they had like 1 foot sausages. Jamie could tell that I was drooling all over them!



And what is New York without the guys handing out flyers or street baskers.



Times Square was extremely packed. The queue to get theater tickets were extremely long. We wanted to catch the new play called "Shrek". The hotel wanted to sell us tickets at USD$175 but if we spent about 2 hours queuing up,  we could have bought it at a much cheaper price.

After walking about for a bit and enjoying the view of the city, the two of us felt sick and it probably was that we might have been too worned out. But with the current crisis of swine flu, we were a little paranoid and after checking into the hospital, we ended up all bandaged up as shown below.



Ok, I was lying about the bandage thing.

Find out more in my next post :)

* Apologies for the confusion, I am trying out a new desktop publishing tool and it seemed to have screwed up the entire post and I have lost everything! *

The one thing I really hate to do is to retype an entire blog post which I have spent quite a fair bit of time writing. It saddens me that a simple mistake or being totally oblivious to the new tool which I am trying out can cause about 30 minutes of work down the drain. Nevertheless, the post must go up! Let me try to recapture what I have written in my earlier post.

I wonder how many people out there get up on a Monday morning, feeling worn out and said to themselves,"Wow, its going to be a great week ahead!". Most of the time I hear from my desk is that people are either feeling the Monday blues or they are updating their Facebook status about what a wonderful weekend they had recently. Personally, my weekend was the bomb!

Together with the WeddingStory team, we headed to a part of Malaysia I have not been in over 10 years, and that was the island, Langkawi. Feeling excited about Stuart & Amy's wedding, I took the 8am flight to Langkawi on Friday and I can safely say is that, don't fly so early in the morning. Why? Think about it, if your flight is at 8am, then you would probably need to be at the airport by 6.30am to check-in. Which means you have to leave your house at 5.30am by taxi. Hence you need to be up at 4 something in order to get ready.

And that was what happened and I have to thank Alex and Grace for hosting me and Mun Tzin the night before so that I didn't have to take account the time needed to travel from my house to their place. Also I have to thank Mun Tzin for waking me up in the morning by rubbing her wet fingers against my face. That really didn't give me a shock at all.

By the time we arrived in Langkawi, rented two cars, checked into the hotel, the first thing I did was sleep! Yes, sleep was the first thing in my mind and after a quick nap, whilst Alex and Mun Tzin went to pick Kee Sitt and Sharon up from the ferry dock, I felt hungry. A quick walk along the main road where our hotel was located, we found ourselves in a cosy restaurant ordering some dishes and eagerly waiting for our food to arrive



Kee Sitt then decided to try out Nigel's camera while we were waiting for our food to arrive.



By the time the first dish arrived (fried rice in case you were wondering if this was some special Langkawi grown rice), we were all too hungry to take more photos of the rest of the food. Ok, I admitted that once I started eating, I didn't stop until the food was gone!



The one thing I remembered about Langkawi was that it was a duty free island, meaning that all alcohol, chocolates and cigarettes were very cheap. It was so dirt cheap that they even served my chinese tea in a beer mug.



After lunch we decided to walk about and check out some of the stalls across the street from the restaurant. Apparently Alex and Nigel found a new toy, Langkawi Poken!



Kee Sitt loved playing with his new toy so much so that he took loads of pictures and videos with it. Can't wait to see all of them when he is done with it.

After lunch, the team got ready and drove about 45 minutes up north of the Island to the famed Andaman resort. There we were to shoot Stuart & Amy's beach wedding. I will leave more details about the shoot in a separate post. :)



This was the view from the bride's room. Look how lovely the scenery is.



And last but not least a view of the beach side where the ceremony is to take place. The decoration and the lovely sea breeze was just amazing, makes everything feel so romantic. The wedding lasted from 4pm all the way till past midnight and it was just so much fun!

I was totally wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel which means only one thing for me. I need more exercise!

Stay tuned for day 2 of the Langkawi trip.

Before I announce the official press release below, the quick update is that there has already been 65 participants who have already signed up for ShootFest, hence there are only 15 spaces left people!

Anyway, I have been a little busy this entire week and I started packing last night for my trip to the US which begins tomorrow! Woohoo! Yes, I will be flying off to sunny Chicago on Saturday and then over to New York the week after. After trying to remember what I need to bring, I definitely have a huge packing list including some of my camera gear and 20Gb of memory cards. In the event that 20Gb is not enough, my contingency plan is that if I do use all 20Gb of memory, I would probably buy a 8Gb CF card there.

If you are wondering what I am doing in the US, its part business and part holiday (I've never been to the eastern seaboard). Definitely looking forward to photographing New York and checking out some of the fantastic landmarks there. Tweeting will still continue and hopefully, I can find some free wifi spots about NYC.

Official Press Release

ShootFest: The Wedding Unconference

Date: 6th & 7th June 2009 (Saturday & Sunday). Registration starts at 9am.
Venue: Integricity office, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, PJ
Fees: RM50

So what is ShootFest: The Wedding all about? And what is an unconference?

An unconference is an informal gathering of likeminded people with a common interest. It’s a participant-driven conference, meaning everyone must participate in some way or another. Everyone is encouraged to present a topic or engage in a discussion during the 2-day sessions.

Each ShootFest is a media unconference primarily for photographers and videographers. This first one that is organised is themed The Wedding and is meant for professionals, freelancers and anyone interested in wedding photography and videography.

The benefits of ShootFests are knowledge-sharing, networking and raising the bar for the industry. The idea is to breed improvement for everyone in a friendly environment.

Our sharing slots are open to everyone who is interested to speak. Participants can choose to speak about anything… from technical know-how, to marketing your photography business, to sharing your experience about how you left your full time job to be a wedding photographer. Other interesting things that will be happening are like Pecha Kucha sessions, where you share 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, or a buy-sell session where everyone brings their second hand gear to sell.

How it All Started

Inspired by a techies gathering called Barcamp, Alex Lam (www.integricity.com) and Grace Tan (www.weddingstory.com.my) gathered a group of wedding professionals and shared the idea of an unconference with them. The first ShootFest meeting was held at a coffee outlet and 5 people met up to discuss ideas. Those who were present were Zach Chin (www.zachchin.com), Jon Low (www.idealwedding.net), Mark Leo (www.markleo.net/blog) and of course, Alex and Grace.

Everyone was really excited about the idea of sharing knowledge and networking with others. It was at this first meeting that the name ShootFest was determined, and that night itself the domain was purchased, and a Wordpress site set up. Others who couldn’t make it for the meeting due to geographical constraints were Ian Chong (www.eeyern.com/blog) and Lim Kee Sitt (www.weddingstory.com.my).

Latest Updates

From that first meeting, we have gathered a group of volunteers who have willingly availed themselves to help in any way. Word about ShootFest went out informally through forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Over a short period of 2 weeks, we had 65 registrations. The cap on the total number of people would be around 80 due to venue restrictions.

Visit the ShootFest website: www.shootfest.org to get the latest updates, view the schedule, register and sign up for a speaking session. If you’d like to help out in any way, do email admin@shootfest.org. We gladly welcome volunteers

Before I announce the official press release below, the quick update is that there has already been 65 participants who have already signed up for ShootFest, hence there are only 15 spaces left people!

Anyway, I have been a little busy this entire week and I started packing last night for my trip to the US which begins tomorrow! Woohoo! Yes, I will be flying off to sunny Chicago on Saturday and then over to New York the week after. After trying to remember what I need to bring, I definitely have a huge packing list including some of my camera gear and 20Gb of memory cards. In the event that 20Gb is not enough, my contingency plan is that if I do use all 20Gb of memory, I would probably buy a 8Gb CF card there.

If you are wondering what I am doing in the US, its part business and part holiday (I've never been to the eastern seaboard). Definitely looking forward to photographing New York and checking out some of the fantastic landmarks there. Tweeting will still continue and hopefully, I can find some free wifi spots about NYC.

Official Press Release

ShootFest: The Wedding Unconference

Date: 6th & 7th June 2009 (Saturday & Sunday). Registration starts at 9am.
Venue: Integricity office, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, PJ
Fees: RM50

So what is ShootFest: The Wedding all about? And what is an unconference?

An unconference is an informal gathering of likeminded people with a common interest. It’s a participant-driven conference, meaning everyone must participate in some way or another. Everyone is encouraged to present a topic or engage in a discussion during the 2-day sessions.

Each ShootFest is a media unconference primarily for photographers and videographers. This first one that is organised is themed The Wedding and is meant for professionals, freelancers and anyone interested in wedding photography and videography.

The benefits of ShootFests are knowledge-sharing, networking and raising the bar for the industry. The idea is to breed improvement for everyone in a friendly environment.

Our sharing slots are open to everyone who is interested to speak. Participants can choose to speak about anything… from technical know-how, to marketing your photography business, to sharing your experience about how you left your full time job to be a wedding photographer. Other interesting things that will be happening are like Pecha Kucha sessions, where you share 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, or a buy-sell session where everyone brings their second hand gear to sell.

How it All Started

Inspired by a techies gathering called Barcamp, Alex Lam (www.integricity.com) and Grace Tan (www.weddingstory.com.my) gathered a group of wedding professionals and shared the idea of an unconference with them. The first ShootFest meeting was held at a coffee outlet and 5 people met up to discuss ideas. Those who were present were Zach Chin (www.zachchin.com), Jon Low (www.idealwedding.net), Mark Leo (www.markleo.net/blog) and of course, Alex and Grace.

Everyone was really excited about the idea of sharing knowledge and networking with others. It was at this first meeting that the name ShootFest was determined, and that night itself the domain was purchased, and a Wordpress site set up. Others who couldn’t make it for the meeting due to geographical constraints were Ian Chong (www.eeyern.com/blog) and Lim Kee Sitt (www.weddingstory.com.my).

Latest Updates

From that first meeting, we have gathered a group of volunteers who have willingly availed themselves to help in any way. Word about ShootFest went out informally through forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Over a short period of 2 weeks, we had 65 registrations. The cap on the total number of people would be around 80 due to venue restrictions.

Visit the ShootFest website: www.shootfest.org to get the latest updates, view the schedule, register and sign up for a speaking session. If you’d like to help out in any way, do email admin@shootfest.org. We gladly welcome volunteers

I wanted to post these photos up on Tuesday initially but a high fever got the better of me. So instead of working and getting my changes into production this weekend, I ended up lying in bed, resting and resorting to loads of medicine to cure my fever and flu and headaches.

The few days I was in Perth was really good. Weather-wise it was near perfect except for the 2 days where it rained but other than that, the sky was just so awesome. The air was so fresh and the temperature was perfect!

Thanks Munz who brought me around and became my tourist guide, I headed over to Fremantle on my first day to see the sea and also the markets about.



Over there I tasted some of their famous "fish and chips" at Cicerello's and it did taste nice but honestly, I thought the ones in the UK were nicer. It was about the same as the ones that I had in Sydney previously though.



The sea seemed so calming and there were so much activity about the pier with loads of people lining up to get their food and they had this fantastic system where once you ordered your food they hand you a buzzer. Once your food was ready, the buzzer would buzz and prompt you to collect your food. I guess you can't really have it here in Malaysia because everyone would just nick it.



The one thing I admired about Perth was that the public transport system was so efficient and we travelled about easily without a hitch except for that one occassion where I had drive a friend's car down south to find this secluded macadamia nut factory. Wait, was it walnut? Can't really remember because the ones that I brought back was quickly gobbled up by my dad who thoroughly enjoyed them.



One interesting point I would like to make was that I saw this street basker who was rather unique. First of all, he is playing the bagpipes. Scotland is way off but here is this guy playing it with his lung's full capacity but not only that, he plays it to the background of ROCK music.





Of course after looking at those photos above, it makes a lot more sense now, right?





For more photos from my Perth trip, do visit my Flickr set for higher resolution photos as well.