A Photography Obsession...

Zoo Melaka.. such an amazing zoo, in comparison to others around Malaysia. I went there last time with the Zoo Raiders (Nicholas, Joseph, Liew) and said that I have to visit this place again..

Well, there I am, at the Zoo Melaka entrance again, this time accompanied by my wife since she never been there. She was playing around with my 350D paired with my 24-105L. I of course, had my trusted 40D with the 100-400L. Only 2 worthy shots this time from me.. pretty sure Nicholas gonna like it :D


'Wishful Thinking' - Chimpanzee

"Chimpanzees are an endangered species; their population in the wild has been reduced by hunting (primarily for meat), destruction of habitat from logging or farming, and commercial exportation for use in zoos and research laboratories. Lions and leopards also prey upon chimpanzees." - excerpt from www.Brittanica.com

... of it's freedom, it's survival and it's fate in this cruel world.



We then moved to the tiger section :D Lady luck is on my side, a Malayan tiger is having steak for lunch!


'A Tiger's Menu' - Malayan Tiger

"In addition to its usual menu of boar and deer, the tiger has been known to feast on the occasional monkey. While it cannot climb trees with the agility of monkeys, it has been known, in Malaysia anyway, that a tiger would work its way stealthily under a tree of monkeys and roar! A roar so loud that frightened monkeys would fall off their perches down to the waiting tiger." - www.malayantiger.org

Went to take fellow Shutterstock friends from Surabaya (Eman and fiancee) around KL and Putrajaya recently. Didn't shoot much, but wanted to see if there's any shot a little bit different that the common ones.

Guess it's too early to design a Hari Raya card, but seems like I have a candidate shot for a Hari Raya card design. Putrajaya Mosque, with the sun behind it, creates a nice silhouette. This was shot at around 4pm. The skies were dull, but enhanced in CS2 to create the sunset feel to it. I like the shots as it creates a sense calmness and peacefulness to my eyes when looking at the final product.

Senjakala

After eagerly waiting for several weeks, the anticipated trip has come.. Perhentian Island. We reached there Thursday morning and spent 4 days there. It was a long drive up to Kuala Besut, Terengganu, but it sure was worth the wait!

Here are some of my Perhentian Island landscape series..


#1 - Landscape reflection


#2 - See thru


#3 - State of Tranquility


#4 - Untitled 1


#5 - Exiting ray


#6 - Conflicting path



I still need to work on my 'landscape eyes'. Lucky did some practice on landscape shots during my Penang trip. Will I come again? Without any hesitation.. YES!!

Next up.. will be sharing the faces of those who have joined the trip. Interesting shoot where direct flash was used to compensate harsh backlight from the sun creating an interesting effect..

In conjunction with the ShutterAsia 2nd Anniversary celebration, a photo trip to the charcoal factory in Kuala Sepetang, Perak was organized. A group of 15-20 members came in from the Northern, Central region and KL. Despite of the coming in from different places, we managed to meet up at the charcoal factory in between 9-10am. One of the factory managers was kind enough to give us a briefing on the process of producing charcoal.

I have set in mind that I'll be producing black and whites, so most of the shots are in B&W to add a historic/nostalgic mood to it. However, some shots are left in color as it was best to do so..


#1 - Boats are used to transport the woods from the mangrove forest nearby to the factory.


#2 - The barks are skinned off before being put in the chamber.


#3 - Hardworking villagers been doing this job for generations.


#4- A hardworking villager


#5 - An old school transporter


#6 - The burning chamber



It really was an interesting and memorable photo trip. I wouldn't mind visiting this place again..

There's a bunch of guys/gals celebrating ShutterAsia's 2nd anniversary in Penang over last weekend. Plenty of shooting involved. Went to Shamrock Beach nearby Batu Ferringhi with wife and Capix to shoot the sunrise.. A little rusty, especially with landscape, but it's a good practice for the upcoming Perhentian Island trip, scheduled third week of March.

Well, here's some sunrise shots.


#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6