His childhood

This is my nephew Daryl. He's so cute and playful that it's hard for me not to take photos of him. I remembered camera was quite expensive back then. Not everyone could afford one, thus, most of us do not have our 'younger', 'cuter' photos to look at when we are older now. Life is so much fun when we were young. We don't have to worry so much. My wish, when he is older, he will enjoy and remembered all the good things about his childhood through the photos I took. Even I couldn't remember a lot about my childhood and I only had a handful of photos in my photo album.

Cooking lobsters with Chef Ehwan

Recently I bought some medium-sized lobster from villagers near my school. Those two-kilograms fresh lobster cost me just Rm20 which is very, very cheap. My housemates and I aren't used to cook it, so we asked one of our colleagues to help us out.


Our 'chef' taught us how to cut and clean the lobster properly.


This should be around one kilogram in weight.


Awesome sweetness!


He can't wait!


Future 'chef' of the house observing the process.


Our chef, Ehwan.


Fry the usual stuffs : onions, garlic,ginger and lemon-grass.


Then add in ground chili, a little bit of coconut milk and tamarind for that extra kick!


Put the lobster into the wok.


Before serving, add an egg to thicken the sauce.


Serve it hot!





Outcome : One full stomach and some allergies before I went to sleep. Luckily it subsides the next morning. Hehe.

Kota Kinabalu Alphanatics day trip to Lawas

Hmm...it's been more than a week since my last update. School work kept coming in which hindered me from this blog and my camera.

Anyway, last Sunday I received a SMS around 5 am from my fellow Alpha user, Maha informing that they are on their way to Lawas.

Woah! Great! I mean it's been more than a week I didn't touch the cam. With them coming at least I have friends to go outing. But then, where can I take them to? The few places I could think of would be the beach at Punang and Awat-Awat. Or just maybe some street shooting.

They reached Lawas at noon, I brought them to buy some local rice before we visited Punang.


Shukrie on the prowl with his Sony UWA and CPL filter.


Villagers drying anchovies.


There's always time to pose for Maha and Faris.




The jetty here looks nice for potraits.


Group shots!

Our next stop, Awat-Awat which is quite near to my school. It's located around 30 km from Lawas town.






Someone caught this at the riverbank.


His bait.

Tamron 17-50 f2.8 tryout

Ah...another poison came after Sony 50mm. This time in the form of Tamron 17-50mm f2.8. It's a popular range for budget photographers as it offers excellent sharpness, weight and price. The f2.8 aperture produces nice bokeh, really suitable for weddings and potraits.

A friend just bought his at CPL Photo, KK plaza for RM1500. As far as I'm concern, it's only about RM50 more than in west Malaysia.


When mounted on Sony A330



Let the pictures do the talking...


50mm, f2.8, 1/30 iso 1600


50mm, f2.8, 1/30 iso 1600


20mm, f2.8, 1/30 iso 1600


50mm, f2.8, 1/30 iso 1600


50mm, f2.8, 1/30 iso 1600

Now...I'm torn between three lenses now. I might have the budget for only one lens.

SAL 16-105, Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm or this Tamron 17-50mm. From these four lens, only the Tamron comes with the constant f2.8. Should I go for length, or should I go for bokeh.

Sony 50mm f1.8 first try

During a recent gathering with other Alpha users, I managed to try the Sony 5omm f1.8 prime lens. In my hands, the plastic is better than the 18-70mm kit and almost the same thing used for the new kitty 18-55mm lens. On the other hand, I would prefer the plastic finish of the Minolta 50mm f1.7. Looks shinier.

I quickly mount in on my cam, took some shots and I think I'm in love again!


1/30, f2, iso 1600.


1/15, f2.5, iso 1600


1/10, f2.8, iso1600


1/5, f2.8, iso 1600


1/5, f2.8, iso1600


1/20, f1.8, iso 1600


1/80, f4, iso 1600, f58 on top bounced


1/80, f4, iso 1600, f58 bounced


1/40, f4, iso 800, f58 bounced

Just a shot and I'm very much impressed. More shots and I'm speechless with the sharpness at f4 and above. This lens made me miss my ex-Minolta more. But then, as much as I would love to have it, 50mm would be a bit tight on with the crop factor in my cam. The Minolta 28mm or the new Sony 30mm macro SAM lens would be a better choice for me. Bokeh wise, I couldn't ask for more from this 50mm. It would fit nicely for future wedding shots.

It is retailed at Rm599 at Sony Center. Street price would be much cheaper.

Father in-law and his buffalo

After the annual fishing activities on the 1st Jan, my father in-law suddenly asked me to take some photos of him with his buffalo. As a 'good' son in-law, I happily obliged. :D I get the chance to do some practice shots as my Tamron 70-200 seems to have some problems in focusing.

Here's some info about him. He's a retired headmaster, and spends most of his free time working on his land.

New year, new chapter begins

It's already the seventh day of the year 2010. So what have changed since last year? Erm...this year I'm teaching English again. Majoring in Science though. It's something about language lessons that you need to do more than just teaching to make your students understand and master them. I taught it before and I don't think I did well. Maybe a lot of humour in the class? Some say the when you love the teacher, you will likely do well in his/her class? Is it?


Taken at Kpg Taburan, Kota Belud. The beach here is simply...'heaven'

Next, I'm driving a new car. Not exactly new as my dad passed his rarely-used Isuzu D-Max to me. "Your wedding present" he said, "and don't forget the monthly payment". Rarely-used as he has his Proton Waja and Perodua Viva parked under the house. I sometimes wonder how it feels to have three cars to choose when you are the sole driver. I do need it actually as my 7-year old Perodua Kenari need to be rested. It has served me so well these past years and the mileage it covered almost equal to an 11 or even a 12-year old car. The reliability that the D-max possesses ensures lots of safe trips from Lawas to KK and vice versa.

Camera wise, I don't see myself having any new gears this year(crossing fingers). What's left in the bag are the Tokina and Tamron 70-200. I'm still having a wide angle lens in my wishlist though. Just that the need is not there yet. I better off utilising my current gears to the fullest.

This will be my last post about photos taken in 2009. It's my cousin John and her wife Georgina's wedding reception at Kuching Park hotel. All taken with the 'borrowed' 16-105, F58 on body using the built-in flip-out card. Come to think of it, I haven't mailed them the photos yet. Huhu.








The '10-sec' smooching came after this.




John's dad in blue, Georgina's in white.