Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Mesilau Nature Resort

After a nice and informative photoshoot event at Taburan, we decided to have another one but at a different location. A place that is isolated, not so hot and provides breathtaking views. What a better place to have it at Mesilau.

It is located near Kundasang, a small town just after Kinabalu Park. People usually flock here to buy fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers. On a nice day you can have a nice view of the majestic Mount Kinabalu. To get to the resort, you have to drive another 30 minutes through the town, where you will pass the dairy farm and golf course.

The resort actually rests on the foothills of the mountain, and from here you're given another view of it. The surrounding areas of the resort is quite cold and provides fresh and relaxing air. We paid for the dormitory, which costs us RM400 inclusive of breakfast for four.


The reception


Lobby. Free coffee and tea served here. You'll be grateful for that due to the cold weather.


Going to the chalets and restaurant.


To our dorm. Quite a steep walkway.






RM1k chalet. :D

Our dorm houses two double-decker beds and cupboards for you to store your stuffs. As with the other dorms elsewhere, the bathroom, common area and kitchen are shared. Eight bathrooms are provided in a dorm, plus some sofas and a dining table. Basic utensils and kitchen equipments except the wok are provided too. If you want to cook, better bring your own pan or wok here. The rooms are not provided with heater, only the bathroom. It can be very cold at night, and the blanket doesn't help either.











So what can you do here? For photographers, you can do lanscape, potraiture or even macro. I saw some nice floras and faunas ready to pose for you shooting pleasure. For the active, there are some trails for you to explore. Besides, the second trail to Mount Kinabalu is here, albeit more challenging and farther than the one at Kinabalu Park.


My Nikonian friend.


Going this way to a stream and try shooting this...






The water will wake you up in an instant!

Some shots I took there.







If you're lucky enough, you can find the Red-leaf monkey.





Pardon me for the blur shots. I just woke up and looking outside when I saw them. Didn't manage to set up the cam properly.

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Mask

They call me Cuban Pete,
I'm the king of the Rumba beat,
When I play the Maracas I go
Chick chicky boom
Chick chicky boom

Yes, sir, I'm Cuban Pete
I'm the craze, of my native street
When I start to dance, everything goes
Chick chicky boom
Chick chicky boom

Yeah! Love that song for it's cuteness and the way Jim Carey sang it in the movie The Mask. Speaking of mask...























Tadaaaa!!!! I'm wearing a mask too. Lately I find myself liking how the mask feels when it's on my face. The cooling effect and the softness it provides really soothing. I made myself one just now, and being a first timer, I poured in more water than needed. In the end I wasted more mask powder than I should. Haiya.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A sad day...





I want to dedicate all my macro shots to a dear friend...Ryzan from Kudat who passed away suddenly yesterday. For without his poison, tips and persuasion, I wouldn't improve and enjoy this piece of photography.


Ryzan during our last TT at Salim(17 Sep 09).


Never stop sharing infos and tips to other users.

Thanks a lot friend. We KK Alpharian and the whole Alphanatics members will surely miss you. May God bless.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Kampung Taburan, Kota Belud and the pre-wedding photoshoot



Where is Kampung Taburan you may ask. And what's so special about it that I had a short pre-wedding photoshoot there. The kampung is located around 2 hours drive from Kota Belud town. The road is really bad at times and you'll need a 4WD to get there easily. You can use Kancil or a Wira, but be prepared to meet these...




This is just the beginning.


Don't play-play, there's a plaza over here too!

After some butt-shaking and head-hitting journey, you will be rewarded with these...





The untouched beach offered some nice views, clean sands with clear blue waters. Just perfect for photoshoot session. So my Nikonian friend and me prepared our stuffs while waiting for our models to get ready.


11 year old Christianabelle.


16-year old Zila.




Annabelle and Roy.













Siblings.

Let's zoom out a bit...






Personally I love this shot the most, but sadly I cropped the hand too much.



After that, we had another shoot at a hilly side on our way back to Kota Belud. This is the place where I got the mishap. Sigh... Tried some different editings here.







Definitely I enjoyed the session at Taburan. Coupled with nice views and sporting 'models'(they are actually my friend's daughter and in-laws), I managed to practice and implement some techniques especially the fill-flash. I just came back from a night at Mesilau Nature Resort and we had a wonderful photoshoot session there too at avery cold stream. Will blog that one after I finished editing the photos.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

One miserable day...sort of.

What did I get after I went through this...

Shove my friend's kitlens in sands...thus making the zoom action very, very rough.

Had a fall. My palms swollen, with cuts and bruises.



My camera fell too. The Tamron tripod collar got scratch marks on it.



It left some marks and cracks on the body too. Sigh...











I got these! It's the best portrait session that I ever had. Finally I had some decent shots that I'm proud of. My previous attempts were not as nice as these.





Both photos taken with Tamron 70200, and F58 fired wirelessly for fill light. Here's some 'behind the scene' actions.





I will blog more about this later. As for now, I really need some good rest and getting my things ready for another photoshoot session at...Mesilau. Nice!