Shots of the crowd, of Rock The World 8, 20th December 2008 (always very near to my birthday as tradition!)

Shot, of course, with my birthday present to myself, the Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 on the A900, at F1.8.

I also borrowed smashpOp‘s Minolta 28mm F2.8 – it would be the widest lens I’d bring, next to the Minolta 50mm F1.4. Much smaller than my Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (which already was tiny!) The next few pictures are from the 28mm…

25 and a day old. Thanks Ahmad Saiful for taking this picture! (Er, why slanted ah boss?)

I was the sole representative from Xfresh that day. No Street Surfers, no nothing. Xfresh was one of the big logos on the Rock The World 8 logo! Thus, by association, I was one of the big logos…

Jambu, or guava. I love this!

Jambu is also a colloquial term for a guy who is so good-looking he attracts guys.

Ramly Burgers, the staple diet of concert goers in Malaysia. I love this, too!

Somebody in this picture has eyes on the back of his head.

Girls leaving, after finding out that Coldplay is not playing.

That’s alright, us guys will stay to rock! Next few shots are with the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8… at F1.8.

Minor CA was apparent in this shot, but easily remedied with a duplicated layer, Gaussian blurred with a small radius, then merged with Color blending mode.

The Zeiss is so blistering sharp wide open, on the original shot I can make out what time it is on his watch.

Gotta love the separation! See the Xfresh logo in the top-right corner? That was apparently just me, heh!

More crowds at F1.8.

I then put on the Kenko 2x teleconverter, to get a 280mm F3.5 lens.

Eh cool ‘fro, bro! 280mm F6.3.

Then I whipped out the 50mm at F11 for a crowd-surfing shot. I pity the guy who just went down. Look for his shoe!

Now you see it? I pity the guy who got uh… kicked in the groin.

Moving on!

Wide open, the 135mm F1.8 + 2x teleconverter = 280mm F3.5 wields passable results, with some minor artifacts, like the spherical distortion at the bottom. It’s alright for portraits though!

Back without the teleconverter and just the Zeiss 135mm at F1.8, we have Aru of Republic Of Brickfields and the crowd!

I was denied access to the stage at first, with ROTTW photographers getting full priority. But hey, I represented one entire part of the logo!

Fadhil the emcee, lost in the crowd.

Remember when you were a kid, and getting lost in a crowd would make you cry?

Sometimes, we never find the way.

Haha just kidding but Fat Boys Records should pay the soundman more! (He’s not a random bum, spot his tag!)

Getting up on stage was no big deal – the angle wasn’t great anyway. I expect to see a lot of side shots since the photographers could not move to the front or risk tripping on sound monitors and lights.

The real keepers were from the front, on a raised platform to the side.

Kids these days love posing.

They also love not finishing their drinks, and leaving them on random tables.

Guess who I spotted! Yes, Ted tapes up his camera identification too…

Let the pictures do the bragging, not the label on your camera.

And soon, it was night!

We continued to rock on!

28mm F2.8 1/13s ISO6400. I love how the plastic cups glowed in the light!