Fever

Just when I'm about to get things going(updating blog often, take lots of nice photos), I was down with high fever last Friday. I'm still recovering from it but braved myself to go out to update this blog and my facebook. What do I have in store? There's the 1Malaysia Tuaran festival, my cousins wedding and a model photoshoot last Friday. Hopefully I will get better tomorrow. Cheers and take care everyone.

Coming Home

Christmas is just around the corner and as always, I'm back home to celebrate it with my family. My wife couldn't join us because she finished up her leave that was used for our wedding last month. Anyway, I couldn't update this blog as much as I could because I don't have fast internet access at home. Been persuading my mom to install one but my reasons wasn't strong enough. :D My wireless broadband? Damn it's still GPRS here. Slow as a snail.

But I'm really surprise that some coffee shops in Bau are providing free internet access for its customers. Just what I need when I go out to have my evening coffee. I have been busy painting the bathroom and the kitchen of the house since I got back. Nothing much to write today. Just some update on our Alpha mini gathering and my cousins weeding. I was their photographer for their big day.

Zooming effect first try during our gathering.





John and Georgina's big day last Tuesday. Unedited photos here using a borrowed 16-105mm. Their reception will be on the 27th this month.





Aite, that's all for today. :D Will be having a 'model' shoot tomorrow here with some friends so stay tune!

Spiky the naughty monkey

Two days ago I went back to my wife's village to visit her grandmother. There, I met one interesting monkey, very playful and naughty. But its reactions were the funniest. Can't stop laughing and smiling at its tactics in getting some foods from us.

Time to test some shots using the Omnibounce diffuser with the F58. All shots taken with Tokina 28-70mm, most on f5.6. The ceiling inside the house was a bit red so I used white balance of 3600k.


A bit shy at first. Or was he thinking of ways to get foods from us?




Eh...what is that?


More food???


Sob...just rambutans for me.


I better do some acrobatics stuffs to impress these visitors.


Hey, what are you doing?


Hey stop! It's monkey business only here!

Pacific Sutera room 1157

So how does a two-day, Rm700++ for two days room looked like?


Super soft, comfy bed.


A nice lazy chair. Notice the brown window on the left side? Open that to view the bathroom.


The TV cabinet and study table. Big room, lots of amenities but the TV is still CRT. How about a LCD TV there and guest will have more space inside the room.




The study/work table. There's three telephones in this room alone. Internet access is provided via Lan cable.


Coffee making facilities provided. The freezer is located underneath, inside the cabinet.


The bathroom. No water outlet near the toilet area but the dryer is better-placed than the other hotel I slept before this.


View from inside the bathroom. Notice the window earlier on.


Toothbrush, shaver is provided don't worry.


The basic stuffs.


Aarrkk!!! What that inside the bathtub? A small peel-off. Luckily it didn't scratch my bum-bum.


Soaking in the bathtub while watching TV/posing for the camera. Now that explains the usage of the window. :D

Oh by the way, the window has air strips to let air out from the bathroom. Do close the lid of the toilet bowl after you are done with your 'thing', or else it will pollute the air outside. The air outlet fan doesn't do much help either. Just a reminder ya!

Good Morning Sutera Harbour!

On my last day there, I said to myself I really have to get up early to catch the sunrise. So there I was, standing outside the balcony at 5 am puffing a cigarette with a coffee in my hand while waiting for the nice sun to shine. The skies wasn't clear though, and once more Mount Kinabalu did not make an appearance.




Love these shot for its colours. No wonder some people say the best time to shoot is early morning and late evening.

Then I head outside the hotel to capture some perspective shots while utilizing the UWA lens to the max.


























I head back to the room, and to my surprise, there it is! Majestic Mount Kinabalu.



Changed to the Tamron 70200 for some closeup. About 10 minutes later, the mountain was covered with clouds again.



Anyway, I found brochures of the water activities that you can enjoy here. I don't know if the rates are reasonable, but for my second trip next time I will try any one of those. Might have to get a waterproof compact beforehand.





Later that night, I met with fellow Alpha users to give back the UWA lens which has given me so much joy for the past three days. The wideness it provides and the small minimum focusing distance(MFD) does help in capturing lots of great moments during this trip. Definitely I will get one as I love shooting landscapes.

By the way, did you know that my Tamron SP90mm macro and my F42 is up for sale? Hehe.

Second day at Pacific Sutera

What did I do today? Woke up early only to see that the clouds covered the mountains. Couldn't capture good sunrise so went back to sleep. After breakfast I went out to buy new tyres to fit in my wife's new rims for her car.


PIAA FR7 15" super lightweight.

Went back to Sutera, it's time for some sports!


Preparations before getting into action.












Waiting for a spare.

Then we head out to the jetty to do some wireless sunset shots.



Some slow shutter shots.


Pacific Sutera


Magellan Sutera

We thought to trying the dinner buffet here, but it costs RM100 ++ per person, so we had a very delicious, satisfying and cheaper one at Promenade Hotel. RM69 nett! After dinner, my brother and his girlfriend came over and we had another round of bowling. Went back to the room afterwards but then we decided to have some drinks at the lobby while listening to live music. Very entertaining.









Once again the UWA lens really helped a lot for this trip. I love how I can get close to the subject especially during the bowling game. It's a decent low-light performer too, maintains good sharpness even at iso1600.

Once again, I do hope I could catch a nice sunrise tomorrow. Till then, good night!