Monthly Archives: April 2008

How To Be A Red Ninja


Come, son, I will teach you the ways…


…to be in perfect harmony with nature.


Only at the KL Performing Arts Centre Open Day, 27th January 2008.


Let the heat of the ground make your feet alight.


And you will travel nimbly knowing the world is round.


Take a stroll through the greenery.


For we shall gather flowers.


Augh! I am attacked by the unharmonious bokeh of Albert’s Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 1:2.5x Macro lens! He should’ve brought his Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan.


This is how one shall divert unharmonious aura.


Toss flowers into it to balance bad chi.


Fight, with my tanto, fight!


Oh, but my opponents keep shooting me…


…from all directions!


When the peaceful wanderer finds oneself in undue persecution, the Stone Of Retribution shall give the necessary leverage.

Performing at KL Performing Arts Centre

More from the KL Performing Arts Centre Open Day, 27th January 2008 – this time, performers!


Nick on keyboards with something melancholic.


Amma don’t worry!


Like, whoa.


Tony, singing his gospel.


Otam, the blackest blues cat we could find.


Party in the… studio!


Reading of a play.


Belly dancers!


Through the glass.


How I wish I could belly dance like them…


Peter Hassan Brown of Soft Touch.


Broken Scar on a break.


Markiza of Soft Touch, them peppy hippie folksters. 🙂


Acapella!


Strings!


Kimonos… and headscarves!

Not Performing at KL Performing Arts Centre

KL Performing Arts Centre Open Day, 27th January 2008. Now for some non-performer shots!


Finally, cheap food and drinks in KLPAC!


The factory, viewed through a glass room.


That way!


Wood work.


Two Pentax bodies at the Shashin Photography Club!


Stalking with the Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 1:2.5x Macro lens.


Props! This was for Tunku, and some parts Aladdin.


The fake genie that flew into the stage each time before the real genie came on stage. Amazing prop, this.


Fake birds from The Fastest Clock In The Universe.


Mushroom.


Do you know where your kids are?


Do you know where your kids are?


Tracy and uh, not her kid.


Start them young.

Flash, Bang?

Sony HVL-F42AM mass order TT session part 2 – night scenes at the mamak! Click for part 1.


The poisonous Minolta 35mm F1.4 shot Ranceed.


35mm F1.4. Seen is MR.Shiney‘s Sony Alpha 350 with his newly bought Sony HVL-F42AM flash.


35mm F1.4. AhMike. A very normal shot with a very normal 35mm.


35mm F1.4. MR.Shiney. The dude in the background was distracting to the picture, and yet is separated due to the backlight on MR.Shiney’s shoulder. Lucky shot, I’d say!


35mm F1.4. zaharizal yo!


35mm F1.4. Thanks to thisiskj for holding the flash.


35mm F1.6. Thanks to thisiskj for holding the flash, and our smoke machines ihsan_29 and guladansusu.


I prefer this shot, too bad it was windy.

F42 Is A Flash


Sony HVL-F42AM mass order TT session at Tarita Low Yat. 15 out of 30 units already bought! Great success!

Somewhere along the line, somebody came with a poisonous item.


80mm F2.8. Somebody is happy to see a white lens!


200mm F2.8. Yeah it’s the Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO.


80mm F2.8. Poisonously 3D-ish lens which feels better balanced than any other F2.8 tele you’ve ever tried (except the Minolta 200mm F2.8G HS APO.)


80mm F2.8. “This is how you adjust your eye’s diopter…


35mm F1.4. This was shot with another hazardously poisonous lens, the Minolta 35mm F1.4 (Original).


Left to right are three Minoltas: Minolta 70-210mm F4 “beercan”, Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO, Minolta 35mm F1.4 Original.


Left to right are three Original-era Minoltas: Minolta 50mm F1.4, Minolta 70-210mm F4 “beercan”, Minolta 35mm F1.4.

I love how they all looked very, very consistent. They all looked like miniature versions of the beercan!


The Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 felt heavier than the Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO, surprisingly.

KLFU and FWED


KL Freeze in Unison, 13th April 2008!


The instructions we got from waiting around Lot 10. I synchronized my phone with true Malaysian time as instructed by RandomAlphabets.

I went to pee, knowing it was about 3:28pm, and when I came back, I saw this!!!

The HORROR!

Everyone had frozen!

At 3:31pm!

I went around searching for (identity withheld) because I was supposed to freeze with her.


I couldn’t find her, but I found a lot of prematurely frozen people. Hello, did you not synchronize your watches? They were also too packed tightly in the center. DAMN FAIL!

Nevertheless, I went around taking pictures although my plan was to freeze.


I found familiar dudes, but not my freezemate.


Her fingers must’ve been numb. Serves everybody right for freezing early.


…at least some people read the note to bring umbrellas.


This was much much better – further out, as people were supposed to span the area. At least their poses were distinct and people walking past could make out what they were doing.


Orchestrated, cute.


It was around then that the reminder I set on my phone vibrated (it was on silent mode). It was time to freeze! But I had not found my freezemate and neither did she find me! So I frantically went around the crowd looking.


Davina! We used to freeze in the fishtank remember?


Have a KLue.


After the freeze, Su Ann finds herself the victim of her icecream.

I finally found my freezemate after it was over, who apparently did not make any effort to look for me and froze when everybody else did even though she was on the phone with her sister who went, “Hey why is everybody freezing? It’s not time yet!” Well, that made my effort to look around for her kind of dumb, maybe I should’ve froze instead when it was time.

No wait, all these Malaysians who followed somebody with the wrong time, are dumb. If you know it’s early, don’t freeze lah!

Reminds me of cars who go down the wrong way in a parking lot because they’re following other cars… and then they all have to reverse because the fella ended up at an entry lane. Or people who just queue up (and shift lanes) without knowing what they’re queuing up for.

Oh, and of course, the other category would be Malaysians who cannot follow instructions to set their watches or phones to international-standards Malaysian time.

So what ran through my head? Anger! Sadness! Feeling left out because I thought I was good at freezing but I didn’t get to do it!

Oh, and frustration at how Malaysians can be very blind followers. Also frustration because my friends were included in that category. I like to think I have smart friends, y’know. Or at least that I rub off on them somewhat.

…and some complained of cramps from holding a position too long. Of course lah they did 9 minutes instead of 4. I just wish I was there to see the cascade happen.

I was very tak puas.


A post-freeze pose for her own camera. (Not in picture.)

Anyway, there was another one, this time it was for Freeze for World Earth Day 20th April 2008. Freeze time was 8:00pm to 8:04pm but they froze until 8:05pm! They even had a countdown (which killed the sudden freeze effect… but at least you don’t get early/late people.)

I don’t have any pictures of this freeze when it happened because… yes, I froze! Yay!

So the rest are post-freeze pictures, or defrosted shots, if you may:


Waifon the champion of non-plastic bags and holding them up for 5 minutes!


We found the bag useful on KJ, too.


We know now what ad Shaz will be in, next, from where everybody is looking…


A true tree-hugger.

I also spotted some proper activism going around, in some green-colored signs, but I didn’t get to snap those.

I like this post that Ziyan Chong posted on the Freeze for World Earth Day’s Facebook wall:

“Imagine if we could Freeze the daily activities of as many people as we can for 5 minutes. That’s a looooottt of power we’re saving for the future generations.”

Imagine the number of people who purposely drove all the way to Sunway Pyramid to participate in this event. imaagine the amount of petrol/resources spent. That’s a looott of power we’re wasting, you hypocrites.

Take part in the freeze for fun, but if you say you’re doing it for the future of the earth etc., instead stop using plastic, use public transport/carpool/walk, stop leaving your computer on the whole night downloading, don’t turn your aircon to 16 degrees then buy a comforter cos it’s now too cold. All better ways to save power.

Do all this before going for a freeze to “save power”.

Gotta love the air-con bit. Not just because I don’t have one and can’t sleep with air-con, but hey, 23 degrees (or a ceiling fan and an airy cotton blanket) is enough for everybody! Comforters are inventions from countries with colder climates which really don’t apply here.

Wow, I’m feeling so worked up being all activist. By just refusing to buy a car (which is one of the biggest ways one human can waste a lot of stored energy) I already feel like I’m protesting against 90% of people who drive in Malaysia (in some places, 50% drive and 50% take public transport.)

My office has an open air car park and every employee gets his/her own space. That’s a big overhead per employee, when our cubicles are about the same surface area, just square. At least my old office was always lacking parking, which I hope encouraged car pooling somewhat.

I’d hate to have a car and then get accustomed to the idea of moving a large body of personal space (and personal music) around. I find it far, far too selfish.

17 Hours Ago


Fast forward to Project Bazooka, 17th April 2008. Yes, just 17 hours ago! This is an unnatural skip in the sequence.


Emcee Hayley ponders whether to sing along to shoegazing Witherspoon. They rock, by the way.


Melodic Dreamy Art Rock, they call it.


I’ve seen this guitar somewhere I swear.


Next up – Throne Away with the ever charismatic Emir dancing about.


A shot of Rudy, for the crazed blog readers who want to have his babies.


I love my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 tilt-shift lens. Please pardon the insane bright-line bokeh in some out-of-focus discs, though.


I also love Kelvin White Balance, which gets me these colors out of the camera.


Emir’s on a roll.


I’ve been wasting time inside your hollow head…


I love the random progressive bits and jazzy chords off their new song Goldfinger (Hey Girl)!


Ian Koren has lost that Jesus look, and looks like he did when I first met him like, 6 years ago?


Then there was Couple, one of Rolling Stone’s 25 best bands on Myspace. Hayley looks in admiration.


Check out the shot I got!


Rock and roll, rock and roll, kick some ass before I go!” Great power pop.


Check out my drum sticks, yo.


Rock and roll solo!


Ooo, photographers are cute.


Flipped rightie, strings intact. COOL!

Nine Inch. Nails Hurt.

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

(Half that, and half a David Carson.)

Married Scar-rung!


Kevin a.k.a. Broken Scar at the KL Performing Arts Centre Open Day, 27th January 2008.


Check out his red sunnies! (Shot with the Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 at 210mm F7.1; one of the rare occasions where its bokeh turns out nicely.)


Jangan tak rock!


150mm F5.


210mm F5.6 versus…


…50mm F1.4.

Dude, you didn’t tell me that you got married! Congratulations (though I wouldn’t have been able to make it for the Melbourne one hehe.)


Oh well, at least there was a wedding next to the gig that I could crash!


Ooo, who’s getting hitched?


Where’s my date?


Where’s our pianist?


Where’s our bridegroom?


Inside, I spotted a Leica M8 digital rangefinder. Whoa.


White. Sweet.


And don’t go around breaking young boys’ hearts.


What a reception.

KLPAC OD 1

27th January 2008 – Balletbase at the KL Performing Arts Centre Open Day.


Yep, it was scorching hot that day.


I love healthy ponytails!


Emmm-iii-lyyy! I forgot what this act was called but they were using rings to make chimes on the metal bars.


Bilqis Hijjas leads…


…and follows.


Had the light been different it might look like a kick.


MMMphhh.


Now where is the secret switch?


Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s less punchy treatment and slightly cooler colors.


I think somebody went to the toilet.


I can do this too!

All shot with the lesser-exercised Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 1:2.5 Macro lens on my Sony Alpha 700. Color is different, still very contrasty, but I’d say a tad more likely to burn highlights.