Category Archives: Pictures

Two Bars

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17th February 2009 – Broken Scar, at Groove Junction! But first, here’s brother Darren as An Honest Mistake. Really, literally, he is brother to Kevin Teh, frontman and Broken Scar represent.


Finally, I got to see the Chad Blondel (and Ben) who had been in my Facebook inviting me to gigs across the seas.


Then comes the rockstar! You know they’re rockstars when they have guitar picks adorning the mike stand.


Kevin makes his best Ozzy Osbourne impersonation.


Alex Ang always makes an Ozzy Osbourne impersonation. Kidding!


Alda is resident bassman for the Malaysian lineup of Broken Scar.


Rohnie Tan and Ywenna add some flavor to Broken Scar’s rocking mix.


Paul did a bluesy intro to Shooting Star. Whatever happened to Qings & Kueens, his other hard-rocking band, I wonder?


Kevin is, as always, doing the Yngwie guitar-swing-around-body thing.


The crowd is amused.


Hot chick photographers!


Sorry Kevin, your guitar doesn’t shoot spaceship-destroying lasers like Dave Mustaine’s does.


Ywenna shows us who the boss is.


Fast forward to two days later, at Cloth And Clef, for Feedback: Open Mike a particular Thursday 19th February 2009.


There was a rather empty crowd, but Greg Ramanado still rocked like he was in the company of millions.

And that is exactly how he will later, rock in the company of millions.

Gotta dig his inflections that day – I think he was groovin’ Jamaican or country but not quite. Everything he sang had a twang in it.


The cool Justin Wong.


So cool, the usual standing tiger smiles, and Sarah Fathallah sings along.


Organizer Reza Salleh then went up for a bar or two, with some covers, which he’d rarely perform (no more Stan Bush – The Touch?)


And of course, the bartender stood by.

27.7777mm

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I tried the new Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM (Smooth Autofocus Motor) lens today! Here it is, on a Sony Alpha 330 digital SLR.


Left: Minolta 50mm F1.4 (Original); right: Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM.

The Sony is fatter but somewhat lighter. It comes with the standard black lens cap (not the cheap plastic cap that comes with the Alpha 330 with kit lens package!)

Note that the Minolta has a built-in retractable lens hood which is so short that it’s quite useless. The Sony however has no built-in retractable lens hood; what you see, is two tubes when extending out to focus closer. It seems that the lens simply does not have any provision for a bayonet-mount lens hood; however you can buy a third-party screw-on hood.


Bokeh is nice at F1.8, and the lens is rather contrasty even at F1.8! Note that the depth of field is shallow with a F1.8 lens, and so her nose is already out-of-focus in the picture.


The lens can focus to 34cm close (measured from the sensor plane.) This makes for an impressive maximum magnification of 1:5x!


Another close-up shot at F1.8!


Again, at F1.8 – the collar is in focus but his shirt is not.


So how does it look like on the A900, on full-frame? Normally, the A900 would automatically enable APS-C crop mode and not allow you to disable it. Unless, of course, you press the lens release button to trick the camera, and shoot in M mode to let the A900 shoot despite it not detecting a lens.

Vignetting really isn’t that bad, amazingly… many suspect that this is a full-frame lens made into APS-C format.


Vignetting only shows when you focus at further distances – here, the lens is focused at infinity. The corners get dark real quick.


The 50mm F1.8 (again, on full-frame hack mode) exhibits very good out-of-focus disc rendition; no harsh bright-line bokeh. It is also contrasty wide open, in fact a bit more than I’d have liked!


This is my Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original. Pardon the person blocking my view. Depending on the background lights I could get a lot of bright-line bokeh from this lens. (The Minolta 50mm F1.7 also has this.) Also note the classic lower contrast at F1.4.

Note that I have edited my previous blog entry about the A330, after another round of trying it with the SAM lenses.

More on the new Alpha bodies here:
The A330 Has Landed
Alpha 3-0 Trio

The A330 Has Landed

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I tried a production copy of the brand new Sony Alpha 330!

Its box is amazingly small; you could come home with it in a paper bag and nobody would know that you bought something big.


The DSLR-A330L package, with the new Sony 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT SAM lens, goes for RM2

Rhymenosaurus

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Ever noticed that rappers don’t ever, ever sing? It’s like a major Doo Not.

So today I discovered a rapper who does sing! *

That’s Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance. Wow, rap, soul and new wave all in one! Why have I not discovered her earlier?

I think it’s funny how often, a certain song that doesn’t fit the usual genre of an artiste, makes you appreciate other artistes. Faith No More – Stripsearch, for example, is a brooding electronic piece – because I liked it, I enjoyed Neneh Cherry – Manchild!

That’s not to say that it would be uncharacteristic of Faith No More to have schizophrenic genres… their cover of Black Sabbath – War Pigs is what got me hooked onto Ozzy’s classic lineup at first. Sorry Dio, you know I went to see you in Singapore, but I still prefer the croaking geezer. No, not Geezer Butler though I did see him too!

I didn’t get Auburn‘s music at first, but after a few times it got in my randomizer, I got it, and enjoyed it! Just recently I discovered Silverchair and realized the resemblance. If I didn’t like Auburn I probably wouldn’t have liked Silverchair. I couldn’t rock to Love Me Butch‘s This Is The New Pop album at first, but a few listens to Funeral For A Friend and then I understood.

* Okay so technically Hunny Madu sings and raps too. Hello if you are reading this see I remember yo multi-colored friend!

A Little Less Sixteen Candles

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(Click on any picture to view a bigger version.)


Zoe is sad because we were chased by security guards. “Can you make me taller?”


With a wide-angle lens and shooting at a sharp angle, I can!


Yes, we relocated to the Kelana Jaya Park.


Zoe is sad because she missed her garden wedding.


There are things you can do to amuse yourself and be happy.


For example, tying your hair up releases some heat from the back of your head. I know this!


Extreme closeup before I take on the role of hairstylist!


I forgot to ask if she had an older sister.

Part One here.

Sweet Sixteen… Year Old

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(Click on any picture to view a bigger version.)


Zoe! (Or is it your domain? I am confused.)


Zoe Yve is a smiley 16-year-old lass.


I pointed out that she wasn’t making a heart, but rather a heart-shaped hole. In other words, an anti-heart.


And so, she turned emo.


Alvan tries to cheer her up. “Let’s go to the waterfall!“, he says.


“Why yes I like that idea, and some ice-cream!”


And so, we have the cliche shot.


However, she takes it one step cuter!


Thanks Kenny for taking this shot though I would’ve composed it where the red dotted lines are; the man on the left with the walkie talkie was the security guard who pestered us off Jaya One.

Oh and thanks to Wingz for organizing this shoot and inviting me!

More to come, from our next location, after this!

Big Gs

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White twins! The Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM on the Sony Alpha 700 with a VG-C70AM battery grip and HVL-F58AM flash attached… times two!


Not so twins – left, the Konica Minolta 17-35mm F2.8-4, right, the Konica Minolta 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT. Both are Tamron rebadges with Minolta’s secret sauce marinated in.


I used the KM 17-35mm at F2.8 and its closest focusing distance of 30cm, to get this!


You know what they say about big hands… (the Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 is dwarfed!)


The cheapest G, the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM.


FOCUS!

(This idea was taken from a shot that Siddiq took.)

I used the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM for this, shot at 70mm F2.8.


The Sony 70-200mm excels at bokeh – this is a shot at 200mm F2.8, cropped a bit.


The KM 17-35mm at 35mm does a respectable close-up – here’s the Konica Minolta Dynax 7 Digital, a great body of its time. On it is a classic Minolta 20mm F2.8 Original!


Signither with his Kabuto!


Razlan shows us how to focus my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 DIY tilt-shift lens.

Archicapture

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More than a year ago, May 19th 2008 to be exact, I went with Lex, Chong Wai Kong and AhMike for a photo outing to capture… architecture. I don’t remember the exact theme, though I think it had to do with light and shadow, and boy was there plenty of light and shadow!


Chong strikes a pose.


150mm F4 with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan. Delicious bokeh! The green lateral chromatic aberration actually accentuates out-of-focus greens pleasantly.


Thirst!


70mm F16 on the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT kit lens. I like this film-ish color.


120mm F8 on the beercan. Wish I noticed I’d tilted it to the right slightly!


75mm F4 on the beercan.


Obviously, too wide to be the beercan.


So this was the Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 18mm. Not too wide due to the crop factor of my (then) Sony Alpha 700.


130mm F4 on the beercan. A smidgen of DRO applied.


On the way back from Wangsa Maju LRT.


It actually is “WIPE LEFT” and “RANDOM ON” in transition.


Glorious light and shadow!


Chong strikes a pose (again.)

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch!

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(Image resized.)

I went back to the clinic today and got my stitches removed. The doctor also said I should leave it open. Ouch! So this is what anybody who sees me, will see. Just a visual preparation yo.

I might as well stick my hands out and do a Frankenstein walk.

Also, DJ Bunga (of Twilight Action Girl) called me to ask how I was doing. He also said I should’ve told them on the spot that I was hit, and they would have stopped the music and got the security to check everybody for sharp objects. Dang, I did not evade the hit, but I evaded common sense.

The stitch and scar would apparently take 3-4 months to clear. So supposing it takes on average 3.5 months which is 105 days, which is 2520 hours, which is 151200 minutes.

Wolverine, as seen in movies, takes on average 5 minutes to get a cut, maybe 4.75 minutes for him to be knocked down before his rapid healing kicks in, and 15 seconds of screen time for it to heal. So, dividing 151200 minutes by 5 minutes, we can gather that Wolverine’s rapid healing is 30