New Prices

Well, rates are going up. That's the bad news.
Now the good news.

Ever fancied one of these Slick Silver Lacie portable hdd drives? Yup. I'm including one of those with the new rates and a full HD 720p widescreen (1280x720) slideshow in there together with your high resolution images. These (the video) are between 5gb - 12gb in size hence the reason I'm scrapping these dvds. By 2008, you'll also get your images archived on Blu-Ray DVDs. These DVDs are about $40-50 each for a 25Gb version and $60+ for a 50gb version. If Blu-Ray becomes the new standard and is easily affordable by then, I'll also burn the slideshow on a blu-ray disc to play on the home players (at cost). Yup.. Wedding photography has just gone high-tech. Reason why I'm scrapping the DVDs now is because DVDs arent so versatile for copying images in and out when you want to print them. Now, all u do is attach this HDD to your PC, copy the images you want out and burn on a dvd to be given to the lab for printing whereas previously, you first had to copy them out on your PC and store them there whilst selecting them. Reading big files from DVDs are just too slow and inconvenient. The HDD included will be a 60GB version and the images and video will likely take 20gb. So you have space for your own stuff. e.g. movies, music etc..

IMPORTANT

I've just created a very important poll on my site under the polls page. I'd appreciate it very much if the ladies could respond to the poll asap. I'm planning to make a very substantial investment that's gonna takes years off my life to pay off and I need to see if I should take that risk. Its an investment that would benefit wedding photography and give me the ability to get you better pictures. Your response is crucial and I'd very much appreciate it if you could kindly vote. Thank you!

2007 - new package option

2008. New rates. Maybe.. dunno if I am going to continue shooting yet. Most likely but will start taking bookings only in June.

Now 2007. The add on.
With the usual album...

and the usual events covered...

BUT.. with




Why? Coz instead of burning 480p DVDs for the slideshow, I can pass you the 720p version on the silverscreen. Then, I can also put in all your high resolution images in there too so you can copy them out and burn to whatever for printing by hooking it up to your computer. Once its hooked up, you can copy in your latest movies and then watch them all on TV at night (instead of on your computer). Hehehe. All in once go. No.. forget comparing it with an iPod. This is not quite the same thing. For one, this has a digital output so you can connect it up to a high-end DAC (digital-analog-converter) to listen to your music and watch your Motion Picture Slideshow and if you pass it to your videographer, he can download your full resolution 720p wedding videoclip and footage in there. Quite handy dont you think?

Just add $449.

Update: Scrap this idea. I cannot source the component cables required for the high resolution output. Apparently its discontinued by Lacie.

Chargrilled and mouthwatering

A few selected people from the press and me had the privilege to try out some of Charcoal BBQ and Grill's new menu. Some 80-100+ new chargrilled lamb, beef and chicken flavours. Today, we had to go through about 25 dishes. Man, we were stuffed!

I'll let the pics speak for itself.

Welcome to Parenthood :)

My warmest congratulations to Prince Billah and Princess Sarah!

Its been years since last we met and talked... think it was UK some years ago.. Today, both of you are parents and I wish thee the warmest of wishes and may Allah SWT lead three of you on the path of happiness and show thee the joys of family.

Just because we're not in the same circle doesn't mean I don't care :) Always looking out for both (now three) of you :D
Take care of yourselves and each other.

Rgds,

David

QQestore - Canon Products Price Hike

Has anyone of you seen the latest prices of QQestore? All the prices have gone up.
Seems like the supplier in Singapore is controlling prices. When will they ever learn that this is the new internet world.
Prices are transparent. If they maintain this, we'd just order from the US or HK.

SIlly people.

Wide angles from the Sigma 10-20

The Photographers' Guild

A local forum for local photographers from beginners to industry leaders. A place to discuss issues related to our field and improve the level of photography for both service providers and clients.

Also coming up. AkadNikah. An online magazine servicing the local wedding scene to be administered and maintained by Kim Raub et al. We'll be looking for contributors soon. If you are interested, please email me or talk to Kim.

What matters more?

The qualifications behind the photographer or the end-product of the photographer?
A question that needs to be answered today. A fellow photographer told me of an incident where the decision to pick a photographer ended up in a debate over formal qualifications. Here is my two cents on this.

I have a degree in International Business and Global Marketing, not photography. Does that mean I can't take pictures as well or better than a person with? I had been accepted into the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) and a year later decided not to continue membership. Does that mean now I cannot take pictures as well as I did then? What matters most to you? The pride in showing off your mediocre wedding pictures taken by a highly accredited photographer with dozens of memberships in photography associations OR showing off your beautiful moments by a photographer who does what he does best without all the paper backing. Sorry, this is not to fown upon these associations but instead is to highlight that point that it is THE photographer that takes the pictures and NOT the association, the diploma or the degree that he or she holds. The purpose of such association is only that of kinship and marketing and nothing more. The purpose of a diploma or degree is to show that the holder has attended formal studies in the field and nothing more. Most of the top WPJA photojournalists out there do not hold such formal qualifications but instead are comprised of those who share a common passion.. photography and a common goal, the pursuit of the ultimate picture.

Most photographers evolve and improve with time. Those that improve fastest and evolve are those that learn through passion for the art.. that's why over time and with experience, the quality of work and rates they command improve and rise accordingly.

I can share with you this.. Wedding photojournalism is not about knowing how to take a picture that is technically correct.. its about knowing when to take the picture that captures or evokes emotion. The best ones do this instinctively. They never have to ponder too much about a shot. They just do it as second nature. Your story should be one that is yours and yours alone and NOT one that is molded and staged out by your photographer.

Never judge a book by its cover.

300

Overall a great movie. The cinematography is good.. the storyline is historic.. in fact, I remember reading about this in my school days. The way the movie was shown reminded me of ISO1600/3200 film. Very coarse grained and warm toned. I loved the way the red cloak of the spartans stood out from the rest of the scene. The action were superb. Worth watching a 2nd time.. except not at the Kiulap Mall. Yeah.. bad. The movie started abruptly.. the screen jumped from off to on.. then off.. then to Pan-Scan 4:3 format.. then letter box then finally 16:9. Obviously, the projector guys were very inexperienced. The ending was cut short.. the last I saw was the spartan army running off against the persians and blank. No ending titles. Hahahaha. Believe me.. that was absolutely laughable and I did laugh. My wife wanted to try out the reclining chairs.. so we did.. I wasnt impressed. Just like any chair. The Mall's cinemas were better.. The sound was too loud until my ears were ringing at certain parts of the movie.

Verdict: Movie was great. Venue was horrible.

Steak and Models

Clik pic for open gallery (48 pics)


Clik pic for private gallery (99 pics - userid/pw required)


A meet up with fellow photographers for an evening with steak and beautiful ladies.

The french sauce for the salad was Mmm... lovely...

The steak was mouth watering.. yeah.. $12 per plate.. really enjoyable.

And lastly but not least.. two beautiful young ladies who graciously volunteered to complete the evening with their presence.

Pictures are in the private galleries and some on the front page.

See also the sites of:

AnakBrunei, Shai, Bandar360, Zadm, Ucinghitam for more (sorry Rena.. no idea if u have a site).

Windows Vista

Things I've been called

1) Know it all/Kambang/Timing

When you are one who understands that knowledge is what God has given you and you read, learn and understand everything you get involved with, when you are pressed to be in the top of your form.. this is what people call you. Presumeably because you know more than them Then, they ask you to teach them. When you do, this is what they call you. When you don't see below.

2) Timing/Kambang/Karit

This is what people call you when you are Mr Know-it-all or Think-he-knows-i-all, then they ask you to teach them and you don't.

Either way, to these people, there is never any pleasing them. Belok kiri pun salah, belok kanan pun salah, kedapan pun salah, undur ke belakang pun salah. When you have intelligence, you are alienated from the norm, when you don't, people think you are a fool. When you are successful, you are targeted, when you are not, you are looked down upon.

I'm dead certain there are people out there, friends and family included, who thinks like this. People who think friends are there for you to bitch and backstab about. People who know me know me for who I am. Those who do not, well, they don't.

Confucious said," Share your knowledge with those who are worthy." What this means is one shares with those who are allies and are your friends.. sharing your knowledge with those who are your false friends will only turn them against you. This are wise words...

Allah SWT is an all-knowing-entity of eternal knowledge and wisdom. The Al-mighty sets our path and our choices in front of us. We follow these paths making these choices so we become a better person so that we too may become enlightened and wise.

Lessons in Photography

I've frequently been asked to start classes in photography. I think its about time I start.
This is what I have proposed.

1) Understanding Photography - the essence

Part 1) A one hour lesson on the fundamentals of photography covering everything you need to know and understand about it. By the end of this lesson, you will have an understanding on how the essential elements of photography works together to produce an image.
Part 2) A one hour practical lesson outdoors on an outing where you will test out what you've learnt in part 1 and iron out all the queries related to part 1.

Minimum requirements: A digital camera capable of manual settings. Can be dSLR or Point and Shoot or Prosumer.
Fee: $300
Maximum enrolment per class: 5
Number of classes per quarter: 1
Maximum intake per year: 20
Based on first come first served

Objectives of Understanding Photography
By the end of the programme, the student will be able to look at a scene, decide what necessary settings is required in order to capture the scene as intended.

This is the prime pre-requisite for further advanced lessons. Students are not allowed to proceed to Stage 2 classes without this.

2) Understanding flash photography - Basics and Advanced Modules

Details will be provided in due time.

3) Understanding professional events photography - Basics and Advanced Modules

Includes on location training and development.
Details will be provided in due time.

4) Understanding workflow and advanced processing techniques - Basic and Advanced Modules

Details will be provided in due time.

Please list your names in the comments and email me to book. I will require your email and telephone number to schedule the class. Full payment required for booking positions.

Pro-level processing on Sigma glass

Click on image for full view (1200x800).
What do you think?

A place to work

Most of you have never seen where I work. A good test for the width of a new lens. This is where I spend most of my time sitting in front of these. Pack of Sampoerna for when I feel sleepy and need to work. Toilet roll for any clean up. Big ass ash tray on the left by the Dell. Supersized mousepad (actually a table mat reversed from Haus). Oh and 40 point power points drawing power direct from circuit breaker. Behind the Dell are 2 1.2KVA UPS protecting the monitors, hdd and G5 from power impurities.

Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

Today, I collected my new Sigma Ultrawide. Yeah, I know. Banyak jua lens dibelinya. I didnt have a choice. My EF16-35mm was sent to Canon for some repairs and servicing and I've got weddings all lined up till April. This lens cost me $898. Sigh. Well, at least I have a new lens for the job. Optical quality is quite good. Not quite L standard but for that price, I can't complain. Sorry, ain't gonna buy another L. I think I've had enough of this L fever. Its beginning to cost more than my EVO.



Anyway, some reviews.. well.. not quite reviews but some thoughts on this new lens. Its wide. Very very wide. Especially on my mk2 its the equivalent of 13mm. This lens are designed for 1.5 crop and above. So on my body, it produces a super heavy vignette. More like circular crop than vignette. Hehehe.

Build wise its excellent. Pretty tough.. not plasticky.. comes with a useless hood (for my body). The Zoom ring is built the reverse of Canon's in that zooming in and out requires turning it in the opposite direction to what I'm used to. Did i mention its superwide?

Some pics from just now.

Espeed II revisited

Well.. I've migrated to Espeed II finally.. I was told my Espeed One line was the only one left in the whole exchange in my area :) Hehhe.. Sorry.. if something aint broke, dont fix it. Well.. my Espeed One line broke. Hahahaa. Ok.. now the experience of moving to Espeed II.

In short, I'm kinda impressed. Surprisingly.. but two espeed two technicians.. who were, for lack of a better word, superb. Their speed and efficiency where astonishing. A far cry from the old days where it used to take weeks for even a phone call. These two were very helpful and pretty knowledgeable. New blood. Fresh enthusiasm. Good stuff. My commendations. This is how it went.

I called up technical support for Esp1 when my line went down. I got redirected to Esp2 and was asked to migrate as no support for Esp1 was left. So I agreed. Fingers crossed. Expecting the worst. However, I got a call soon after from these two fellas. They ascertained importance for internet connection for someone like me and immediately got to work. My Esp2 modem was brought to me the next day. They installed it and found a problem. I was only getting a throughput of around 190 kbits. So they immediately went to the exchange and troubleshot from there. They moved section to section along the telephone wire and found that the exchange outside was fine giving me about 480+ kbits. Finally, these two together with a fellow (also commendable TelBru serviceman) isolated the problem to bad telephone cable from the box to my 'office." They brought out a spare cable to hook my line up and bingo.. 480+ kbits into my network. They immediately called their cabling contractor and got them to come in to prepare a new extension in. Not bad for a day's work.

Two days later, however, my modem died. Seriously. These Hua Wei modems are crap and this happened on the National Day weekend. What luck! Hence I had to upload pics from Red Chilli in Kiulap. I borrowed my brother's modem and installed it in the meantime. Monday morning, I got a call in the morning from these techs and a new modem was brought in that same afternoon. Customer satisfied.

These two people AND the Telbru serviceman for my area should be promoted. They are a credit to Telbru. If it weren't for them, this post would have been bad publicity for Telbru. To those three Telbru fellas.. keep it up, guys.

Looking for birds, found the truth

Today, I was in the mood to do some shooting.. birds actually.. the feathered type.. so I called up a couple of so-called friends and there was no answer from any of their phones. Strange. So I went down to our usual spot and found all of them together ready to shoot. I knew my answer then. Oh well. Same story, different day.

So I decided to shoot alone. Life of a photographer is apparently like that. The initial days of photography, everyone goes out together and have fun. After a certain time, if one shoots better pictures or is more successful than the others, the group splits up usually alienating the more successful one. Same story in life. Looking at all the top photogs around the world.. the NatGeo photogs, the top wedding photogs, the top news photojournalists etc.. the situation is the same. Sigh.. human nature. A wise old man once told me a long long long time ago, at a time when we were all rebellious and friends were everything, "there two types of friends in this world.. the real friends and the false friends. Real friends are few and far inbetween. False friends are plenty. Real friends are honest, truthful and loyal. False friends are deceitful, jealous and backstabbing. Real friends will stay with you through anything, false friends will dump you the moment anything better comes along." I guess this is very true for photographers. Anyway, those of you thinking of getting good at photography.. be prepared to lose a couple of friends. That said, with friends like these, who needs enemies? But then again, why go out in a group to shoot? So you can see who took better pics? Sigh.. vicious cycle all over again. Kiasuism in human nature.

Anyway, enough of the rambling. Here are the pics from today. I didnt manage to get the birds as planned because I think they went on holiday. They didnt travel their usual route today :) Instead I shot other things.

Fly me to the moon!

There is a beautiful bright full moon tonight..

Are you?

I was actually online doing some reading into autism and googled up Autism and computer usage when I came across these articles. Not quite on Autism but on the internet addict. This got me thinking.. there are many of us who are information gatherers who find pleasure in 'surfing' the net, reading up on this and that.. there is always something out there that we can use the computer and the internet for. However, do what extend do we do this? Have you asked yourself how much time you spend in front of the PC and online?







Just some thoughts to ponder upon.

1) We know the net is wonderful in that there is so much we can do and accomplish there. From communications to information and even 'social communications' per se. However, what effect is this having on our lives and the lives of those around us?

2) Has the internet made our world smaller or actually made us more distant from each other?

3) Can we now live without the WWW if we wanted to?

Sports-shooter

Today, I got a bit inspired to shoot some sporting events so I called up our resident oracle of what's happening (Rano!) and inquired on the subject.. got two places named.. i.e. Ong Sum Ping & Stadium. At the Ong Sum Ping Padang, we saw students playing Cricket.. Lady's Cricket to be exact and at the National Stadium were some youths from Japan and locally playing and training for the upcoming International Tennis Tournament starting this Sunday.