Monthly Archives: March 2009

Rock The World 8: Part 2

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And now, for another set of pictures from Rock The World 8!


Dance To The Radio asserts that they are not the Arctic Monkeys of Malaya. They even have a song for it!


Emcee Fadhil, on stage!

Hmmm, I got the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 so I could get a shot that doesn’t always look like I’m upskirting the performers. This was, of course, before I found the spot…


Every now and then, a lucky fella would step inside and try to collect as many coupons in exchange for money, while a fan blew from below.


Sharpshooter, whose genre is self-explanatory.


Ayu!


Harvesting Space Sounds, who didn’t quite get the crowd. I got their music, though. There were dark influences of electronica ala Depeche Mode.


Upon Arrival, whose genre is self-explanatory.


Then it was Zip Zieller, with kickass hard rock riffs. Here, it was time to say goodbye to the guitar…


No, he did not set it on fire. I can’t tell if he tried…


…and so, he threw it to the crowd!


There was still much sound to be worked out from the effects pedals alone.


We now break from all this rock star action with some sweet singing from Liyana of Estrella!


This Dutch/Chinese/Malay mix is a crowd favorite. The same crowd which was skanking to reggae and moshing to hardcore was now singing along!


It was then time for Republic Of Brickfields…


…whose genre is self-explanatory.


Bunkface, a fresh revival of young punk the way Billy Joe Armstrong intended it!


Komplot ramps up the disco!


AAARRRGGGHHH! They Will Kill Us All!


They do indie.


At this point, the stage lights started kicking in…


Purevibracion, which makes the third reggae act.


Rock stars should wear sunglasses, if only to look extra photogenic.


Fadhil gets ready to enter the portal to riches!


Radhi of OAG is enthralled by the crowd.


Same ol, same ol…


Somewhere halfway he forgets to button up his shirt. Perhaps he was parodying a certain Superman-underwear-wearing star. Only Radhi could pull off this, yo!

The barricades were far stronger this year, compared to previous Rock The Worlds where OAG had a record for making barricades break.


The Otherside Orchestra…


…with a touch of disco and indie.


More to come soon!

More here:
Rock The Crowd 8

Rock The Crowd 8

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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!

New Sony lenses announced at PMA!

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(disregard the EXIF data; this was obviously a photograph of a slideshow at PMA. Credit to CNET News.)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10186271-39.html

This doesn’t quite match what I’ve heard, but they apparently are:

Full frame:
1) super telephoto
2) 28-75mm F2.8

APS-C only:
1) 50mm F1.8 DT
2) 30mm F2.8 DT Macro
3) 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT (probably restyled)
4) 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT

Of course, I’d rather there be a 30mm or 35mm F1.8 DT lens to give the same angle of view as a 50mm lens on full-frame… quite like the Nikkor AF-S 35mm F1.8G. The only downside to that lens is its minimum focus distance of 30cm – the previous Nikkor AF-D 35mm F2.0 had a minimum focus distance of 25cm and a maximum magnification of 1:4.2x, the biggest of any Nikkor “normal” prime which was not a macro! Of course, the Nikkor AF-D 35mm F2.0 doesn’t autofocus for the Nikon D40/D40x/D60…

Oh, and…
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM and 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC OS HSM for Sony!

This is what DPReview says:
“This lens features a new Optical Stabilization unit which Sigma claims will work on Sony and Pentax bodies with in-body stabilization systems.”

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030304sigma18mm50mm.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030303sigma50mm200mm.asp

The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM is also internal focus and internal zoom!

Both aren’t as spectacular in minimum focus distance (MFD), though, with the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM having a plain 30cm MFD instead of the fantastic 20cm MFD of the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC and Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC. Even the Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT bests the Sigma equivalent at a 95cm MFD.

Oh, and the Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM is the brightest ultra-wide DT lens we’ve ever had. Sigma seems to be going back to 82mm filter sizes though.

X-Gigged

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Xfresh X-Gig, 23rd August 2008, at Zouk – the finale for the first round of the X-Gig series! This is Emir of Throne Away, making an appearance with Stereo Socket.


They play shoegazer music. Though I think this guitar isn’t post-rock enough, it needs to be pimped with a few switches!


The crowd.


Robot Asmara. Ya saya ingin berasmara!


For some reason, when there is a big band with a keyboardist and female singer, it tends to be disco-type indie. Which it was!


Then, it was Brit-type indie, with The Times. It was also the time to start pushing barricades!


The vocalist hopped on above the barricades anyway, and surfed away…


Then it was time for Duan of Seven Collar T-Shirt to break out classic singalongs like Faith.


Ham, Xfresh DJ and effects master (Summary is always fun to watch.)


Smek, with Killer Calculateur, delivers many many more songs, but each song is short – it could only be hardcore. Bang bang double bass double bass riff riff shout shout next song.


Minority Against Radio Oppression. At least they can get on radio, as MARO!


Meng of Love Me Butch got on top of a gig hard case to do this.


I love how they position themselves all over the stage – the bassist is gaining elevation by stepping on the monitor.


It’s almost as if Syahrul knew where to stand, to get the backlight.


Did somebody say Barricade? Yep, the metal joints broke…


Another elevated shot. Gotta love their attention to performance details; they are easily the most photogenic band I’ve seen! (Besides their solid nu-metal/emo tendencies.)


“Psst… we’re back.” whispers Loque to Emmett. The Butterfingers then rip out some classics (the violin tells you exactly what song he is going to play.)


Dude, come back and rock alright?


I finally met Kenchill and discovered that he had the same beard I had, which grew towards my right no matter what I did.