Monthly Archives: September 2011

Moonshine In May

27th May 2011: Moonshine, A Homemade Music Show, down at Laundry Bar!


DJ Reza! (Also the organizer.) No I kid, that is a sound engineer’s panel.


Awi Rafael, singer-songwriter with a big rock band!


A smiley shredder.


A space-staring Markiza.


What is going on?


Then it was time for the hippie-rock musings of Markiza, Peter Hassan Brown and Wong. Wong looks all shroudy.


Markiza sings songs to save the environment…


…and Peter has more activist words.


Hannah Howes from New Zealand was next.


Her voice was gentle and spacey…


…and her guitar folksy. Or at least I remember it – I don’t want to be too specific as I don’t remember, and it seems you could generally categorize them in the bigger buckets of indie, folk, blues, alternative, metal, hardcore, emo, etc.

Many, many years ago I’d carry a pen and paper and actually write these things down while writing an article for Xfresh. Do former journalists (or rather, web programmers who also write articles to get free entry to gigs) lose their impetus to write long summaries? Has Twitter and the Internet reduced the relevance of long-spanning verbiage?


Ronnie of Furniture.


Fender Jaguar gang!


It has been a long time since I’d seen this classic space/post-rock indie band!


Alang who is yet another drum slut.


Wong looks out.


Reza, Ella (Malaysia’s rock queen!) and Jeffry.

Also, there’s Moonshine this end of the month! Come check it out:

What: Moonshine, A Homemade Music Show
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara
When: 9:30 PM Thursday, 29th September 2011
Who: Liyana Fizi, Zalila Lee, Rashdan Harith, Dzamira Dzafri
How Much: “Admission is free with a minimum purchase of drinks at the door.” – from its Facebook event page.

Moonshine, April 2011


14th April 2011: Moonshine, A Homemade Music Show, at Laundry Bar!


Here’s Asmidar who is brandishing a Kiddy-cord accordion!


I still can’t figure out what her band plays though it sounds like world music to me when you feel like you’re teleported to a hut next to a waterfall somewhere.


Reza Salleh, gig organizer who just finished a month-long tour of Japan. Wow!


Kien Lim, all by himself.


He brings some brooding folk to the stage.


Narmi, whose real name is Imran. Somehow his vocal stylings remind me of Tracy Chapman.


Closing the show – Liyana Fizi!


She (in current tense) just launched her solo album, Between The Lines.


I have to say I like this series of shots of her most, compared to previous series.


Perhaps it’s a photographer thing – when revisiting a subject you attempt to capture the essence of what you see. It frustrates me when what I’ve shot isn’t anything like what I see.

Revisiting makes me sound like a ghost. This may be fitting due to how photographers often step out of the frame, out of what is happening, and become a floating observer.


And yet, my perception of one’s image may not match what the subject sees in the mirror.


But hey, while we indulge half a post for the lovely Miss Liyana, I shall break the seriousness by saying…


eeeee batuk pun kiut! *cubit*

The Experience, Live!


From the Twin Towers @Live 2011, 9th April 2011, down at the front of KLCC…


Colby O’Donis! (I came later and missed Joe Flizzow and Mizz Nina.)


Asha Gill, one of the emcees…


Joey G., the other emcee.


He… was to introduce a special guest.


Our Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Najib Razak! (And of course, his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor…)


He launched the Petronas PRIMAX95 Xtra fuel.


After pouring the fuel in, the stage was lit in green.


A flat surface suddenly became a petrol pump!


Dato’ Sri Najib Razak was presented with a Formula 1 helmet.


Meanwhile, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was presented with a bouquet of flowers. Hey why doesn’t she get a helmet?


They also donated USD 2.5 million to The Japanese Red Cross Society.


And then, for the act we’d all been waiting for…


The Earth, Wind And Fire Experience featuring Al McKay!


This is Devere Duckett, who sang for Stevie Wonder and Barry White!


All telephoto shots with the Sony Alpha 55 and Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA.


Al McKay was an original member of the Earth, Wind And Fire funk band.


So was Michael Harris (on the right).


Ben Dowling on keyboard.


Tim Woods, who sang with KC and JoJo.


Ed Wynne (from Doobie Brothers) on saxophone.


Left to right: Claude Woods, Tim Owens and Devere Duckett.


Some of these pictures also appeared in JonYKT‘s blog – thanks dude for the media pass!


Freddy Fluellen on bass (of Paul Jackson Jr., and The Emotions).


Aaron Haggerty on drums. They played all the classic hits!


Skeletor closed the show.


After everyone was gone, I spotted a Samsung Galaxy Tab – a 7″ 3 megapixel camera!

Malays And Rajas

“From this condition it is that none of the Malay rajas ever expose their Malay subjects to disgrace or shame; they never bind them, nor hang them, not give them opprobrious language; for whenever a raja exposes his subjects to disgrace, it is the certain token of the destruction of his country: hence also it is, that none of the Malay race ever engage in rebellion, or turn their faces from their own rajas, even though their conduct be bad, and their proceedings tyrannical.”

From page 26-27, Malay Annals (SAJARAH MELAYU). Explains a lot!

Transfandom


The first Transformer I bought in a long time! Transformers Generations Wheeljack.


My colleagues have some way cool FansProject toys – here’s Springer!


Prime turret.


Optimus Prime and the whipping boy Hot Rod.


Transformers Animated in front, and a Transformers Energon Superion decked out with FansProject accessories.


The large gun and add-on plates are awesome! I have the original Transformers Energon Superion, all bought separately.


Foot plates that also transform into vehicle-mode accessories.


More Transformers Animated figures. I have to say they reached a new level of toy design with these!


And here is my like for Wheeljack – left to right: Transformers Generations Wheeljack, Transformers Energon Powerlink Downshift and Transformers Cybertron Downshift.


One of my favorite Angry Birds. (Thank you Waifon!)


Amateurs may prefer the black explosive bird, but as a 3-star Angry Bird athlete, I highly regard the white bomber bird as well.


A 1x3x3 Rubik’s Cube. Not mine. 🙁


The Androski kits. Assemble your own using tiny, easy-to-lose pins. Annoying to build, and looks better on the box cover.


On the plus side, the ski dude holds my Android phone up!


The glue for the base gave way, sadly, so this little bugdroid fell off my office cubicle. 🙁

Yes, they aren’t called little Andys – Google employees refer to the Android mascot as the bugdroid!

Lemonade, CX6230, Earth Hour And Mines


Rewind to 25th November 2007: Lemonade!


A Western musical. Literally.


All shots with the Minolta 50mm F1.4 with 2x teleconverter, to give a handy 100mm F2.8 on the A700.


Plot twist!


Dang these kids can sing.


Tracy in the back.


Outside, Eujinn grooves the bass.


Skip to another random point in history, when Yin passed me an old Kodak CX6230 that didn’t work anymore because the battery cover was broken. I fixed it with epoxy!


It’s alive!


1/26th of a second, ISO100, F2.7.


1/2th of a second, ISO200, F2.7, through a Hoya R72 filter.


That makes a difference of 4.67 stops only. Them old cameras have weak infrared-blocking filters!


Earth Hour, 28th March 2009, 8:30pm to 9:30pm, at Gardens Midvalley.


Starbucks honored it.


All darkness down at Carrefour.


So let there be light! Teleport to Mines Wonderland.


We used a Y-shaped formation – camera at the base of the Y, flashes from both tips of the Y.


Nic, in less eyebagged days.


Mike’s energy blast.


KJ won the camwhoring competition…


…and so, he won a chance to camwhore with Szetoo!


White umbrellas are a classic off-camera-flash accessory.


Suspiciously white lamps.


KJ was his happiest, though, when he finally got his hands on the umbrella.


This is what happens when you steal aforementioned umbrella.

Ein


This is my friend, Ein. He is prone to uh, thrashing his camera equipment.


The cause? Crocs. Crocs on muddy ground, at the National Zoo. Don’t wear Crocs on unstable surfaces no matter how comfy they may seem!


The damage? His Sony A100 had its mount ripped off…


…while the lens on it, the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, survived.


Bad dents everywhere.


The other time I hung out with him, his car got a flat tire.


Nevertheless, he’s got a cool car with an NGV tank. Forget the increasing petrol prices, fight the blues by going for natural gas!

M.O.G.


More camera geeking time! Here’s the Canon 24-105mm F4L IS USM (with a filter thread size of 77mm) next to the Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D) (with a filter thread size of 62mm). The Minolta then got rebadged as a Sony while retaining the same size.

As you can see, in-lens image stabilization, an ultrasonic motor and a constant brightest aperture take its toll on the size of the lens.


A rare 100mm F1.5 lens.


The output. Not quite optimized yet.


The Canon Speedlite 270EX next to the Sony HVL-F20AM.


It’s a fair bit primitive compared to the Sony – there’s an On/Off switch where on the Sony, just flipping it up turns it on. It’s also bigger. At least both do bounce.


What happens when you put an opaque plastic sheet behind a lens?


You get… an image!


This is the same concept that Khai used to make his SLR-depth-of-field-wielding video camera. Back before video-recording dSLRs were the rage.


The Lomography Spinner 360°.


KLCC, through my Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye.


Rosly, through my Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA.


This same lens had a rattling sound in the back, so I sent it in and got the rear part changed for free under warranty. The logo was also replaced – its paint was easily chipped!


Me, through a Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, with an F-mount to E-mount adapter on my Sony NEX-5. Thanks Ijan for this shot!


Zoey through the same setup.


I don’t remember how to get to this secret menu in the HVL-F58AM.


This is why I am not a fan of the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro optically.


Too much brightline bokeh and sharp donuts.


People have always complained about the Sony A100 being noisy at ISO1600. Well it really is because the A100 (like all Alphas) are prone to underexposing when there are bright lights in the picture, like so.


When I spot metered on his face, everything was correctly exposed. This is an unedited JPG from the camera, also at ISO1600!


Left column: KJ’s A700’s mirror dropped out when its mirror retainer clip broke.
Right column: My A900’s mirror dropped out when its glue gave way.

Both incidents happened after more than a year of heavy usage. I am glad that mine was still under warranty though!


Left to right: Sony HVL-F58AM, Sony HVL-F56AM, Sony HVL-F43AM, Sony HVL-F42AM, Sony HVL-F20AM. Only flash missing was the Sony HVL-F36AM!


My mirrorless, interchangeable lens, interchangeable mount, infrared-modded Fujifilm Q1 Digital!


The Opteka 85mm F1.4 is sometimes a hassle when it can only focus to 1 meter close. Reversing the lens however fixes this!


Two Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG lenses!


This is how I usually judge the viewfinder size, by putting them to one eye each.


Speaking of viewfinders, here is a beautiful viewfinder, from the Nikon F6! Note that the viewfinder is a custom one, as the regular F6 is an AF camera and thus does not come with a split prism viewfinder.


This is the only Nikon film SLR still made by Nikon. It has a very clean back!


Another rarity – a Contax G1, an auto-focusing film rangefinder camera!


The Sony Survival Kit did not survive one day with my heavy gear in it. Here, the hand strap broke. 🙁


Who says professional cameras do not have pop-up flashes? Here’s the Hasselblad H4D-50! This picture was also taken with a pop-up flash.


This camera was used to take some shots from here: Hair Hair


This is why I like the Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM – optically, it is more contrasty wide open and has much cleaner bokeh than the…


…Sony 50mm F1.4. Note how the Sony (as well as its predecessor the Minolta 50mm F1.4) draws the out-of-focus highlights – with a harsh border. This is known as brightline bokeh.

The only benefit then that the Sony/Minolta 50mm F1.4 offers, is that it allows a full-frame angle of view while the Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM does not. Both shots were taken at the same distance on the A900.

Intan, Over And Out


4th December 2009: Intan’s farewell party, at a dance space somewhere in Ampang.


Intan is a classic – she has one and a half quarter of a brain!


Left to right: Kimberley, me and Ali, camwhoring with strong directional light.


Kim unveils her inner rockstar.


I don’t remember the band’s name but they were a bunch of international school teachers.


The entrance had a glass window.


Mac, outside, in the smoking area.


Kim does a John Frusciante.


Kim also does the pole.


Yes as you can tell from the cake, she turns one, five, ten or twenty. I think.