Back in May this year, I attempted my first night shoot on the Volkswagen Golf. Only recently did I attempt my second shoot. This time it was done within 45 minutes and the location was extremely impromptu. Let's just say that I was driving back from Putrajaya and I made a detour towards an industrial area.

Here are the results of the shoot. Shot completely in natural light mainly because it was an impromptu shoot and I didn't have anyone to help me to carry my speed-lights.

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Sometimes the weather in Malaysia has always been rather predictable especially now during the monsoon season but there are times where I would be praying very hard for nice weather and bright sunlight. Unfortunately, the sun wasn't up that day but although the sky was rather gloomy in some ways, we still managed to have some fun and enjoy ourselves in the park.

Yvonne contacted me via email after hearing about my promotion which I posted on my blog and after a couple of email exchanges, we agreed on the date and time where we will meet for me to photograph both her and Weng Jou.

Here are some of the photos I liked from Yvonne & Weng Jou's portraiture shoot.



I took this shot below as we were walking to our next location :)









Having a little bit of fun during the shoot.











Thanks a lot to Yvonne and Weng Jou for being such a wonderful couple and being such great models during the shoot.

By the way, there is going to be a big announcement on the 1st of January. Stay tuned for it.

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.