Bazooka is back

I just came back from watching The Expendables at Suria Sabah. What can I say about the movie? It was nice, with terrific fight sequence and few jokes slotted in between. It's enjoyable to see most of my 'old' heroes came back in a movie(Lundgren and Arnie). Where is Van Damme? Anyway, it's RM18(two tickets) well spent. Wifey loved it. Saw a few movie posters there and I'm really sure going to the cinemas will be more frequent than ever.

Speaking of coming back, I received my Tamron 70200 from CPL today. It almost took two months for it to be serviced in KL. It looked just like new, with clear, unstained glass and smooth mechanisms. I wonder how it would perform on the Nex once I buy the adapter.









Nevertheless, I'm going to sell it off in preparation for new projects as I'm expecting a used Sunpak PF20XD soon. Gotta shop for rechargable AAA batteries tomorrow.

Strobist with Sony Nex

I ADMIT it! I actually do miss the joy of wireless flash that all the Alpha DSLR possess with Alpha flashes. When I attended the 1 Light Creative workshop, it came to my mind that I really need to do something with my Nex. Nex bodies cannot trigger Sony flashes(why Sony why?), but it can do so via optical trigger. To test this theory I bought the Sunblitz ADi628. I bought this because it supports slave trigger and it's cheap. Just in case it could not be triggered, I wouldn't lose much.



Settings : Red-eye reduction is diabled at the Settings menu. First try, it fired prematurely. Damn. Although it is almost cannot be seen through the naked eye, the pop-up flash fired two flash before a photo is taken. One is the pre-flash, and the other is the real flash when the shutter is open. Okay, don't panic. I browsed various forums and found another solution. Self timer, 10 seconds 3 shots via the Drive menu on the round dial. Tried and it worked, but only for the second shot and sometimes the third shot. As the first shot triggered the Sunblitz, the light output was reduced significantly for the second and third.


Kame-Hame-Ha!


This is from the second shot. Not much light power emitted.

The other problem is that it's a self timer, and you or your subject have to wait. Another hassle. So I browsed the web and finally found a solution. The Seagull SYK-5 Wireless Slave Flash Trigger with timer. This small thing enables the flash to skip the pre-flash with its flash delay timer.






The optical trigger.






Yeah baby!


Portraits anyone? For this, I apply some tissue paper on the pop-up to prevent it from overexposing the whole photo.

By the way, got some information from Albnok from alphantics.com that the Sunpak PF20XD, Nikon SB-26, Nikon SB-800 and Nikon SB-900 comes with slave-trigger and able to skip the pre-flash. The Sunpak unit is quite cheap, less than RM300. I'm thinking of getting that one soon.

Naza Blade 250

I'm down with a flu today. Went to school but came back early to see the doctor and get my medicines. Gosh I hate being like this. The stuffy nose, itchy throat and the weak body. I'm still processing my sister's wedding and reception photos which took days to finish but there's only one thing that got me excited today. I'm able to fire that Sunblitz flash unit wirelessly now without doing 'timed' bracket shots like before. How? I will blog about that soon.



Just want to show you guys some photos of the Naza Blade 250. It's a rebadge from Hyosung GT250R, powered by a V-twin engine. This bike is the 'naked' version, and there's another one with full fairings.

A colleague of mine bought this baby RM16+++ cash(phew...wish I have that money). When I sat on the bike, only my front soles touched the ground. The seating position is kinda high for a 1.70cm person like me. That didn't stop me for a sh0rt spin though. Must poison oneself with good things hehe.

Busy weekend

What a busy weekend I had last week. I went back to Kuching to attend my sister's wedding. The reception at a local restaurant was fun. Met with my relatives, some whom I did not meet for years.


Steph and her husband Diuk. The ceremony was held at St. Stephen's Church in Bau.


Did some 10-minutes outdoor portraits.


Speaking of her wedding, I have hundreds of raw shots yet to be processed. Thing will get slower using my netbook.

My favourite subject lately.



Still, I find some time to take some portrait shots of my friend Daniel and his family.








He's the lead guitarist of the band Ethnic Transmissions and Stoic.


Beercan mounted on A300(borrowed from my friend).


Lovely family.

Me, the T-shirt designer?

Being the only Nex user among my photography friends in Kota Kinabalu, I always tried to make them 'envious' and in the same time 'poisoning' them into getting a unit for themselves. I have been active in uploading my photos lately for them to see and judge what this little Nex can do.

Then came an idea of designing how my Nex T-shirt would be. It would be a great idea to create that 'havoc' amongst them, as I initially thought. I designed a simple one and uploaded it to my facebook page. To my surprise they liked the design, which led me creating a few more different designs with different Alpha camera models. Then, I uploaded the latest design which became very popular.


Shakira, is just a name on that T-shirt. What's with the hidden Alpha dslr you may asked. It was made that way so that it will appeal to all Alpha dslr users, regardless of models.

In a sudden, I received lots of friends request just to see and comment of this T-shirt. They proposed that the T-shirt be made a reality. Being a first-timer, I was a bit reluctant, but help came from friends. We sourced out a supplier from KL and now waiting for the final price for it. I started an ordering page in my facebook page and in Alphanatics.com. In just three days, more than 60 orders have been placed.

I never thought that my simple design could create a lot of interest. After this sale is done, I'm planning for a new, Polo-tee.


How it would look like on you, created using my lousy photoshop skills.

Suunset at Sipitang, Sabah

It was raining when I made my way back to Lawas from Kota Kinabalu last Sunday. Just before I reached Sipitang however, I spotted a bright area,which is not covered with the dark clouds and I knew I had to stop there for its sunset.






It was still raining, so I couldn't take as much photos of the esplanade.

Sipitang town is blessed for having one of the best place to watch sunsets. The newly-completed esplanade provided visitors with seats, a small jetty and recreation area for the families and childrens.


The newly-built jetty.


You can see big container ships at the horizon.






The old man walked away just as I'm about to take a better silhouette of him.

I'm gonna stop by for its sunset again one of these day.

Sony's 1 Light Creative Workshop

Last Saturday I attended the 1 Light Creative workshop at Marina Court organised by Sony Malaysia and conducted by Mr. Wesley from Lightroom Studio and Academy based in KL. More than 20 Alpha users around KK came to learn about producing better and creative photos by using just one flash unit.


Mr. Wesley. He's a good instructor who knows how to crack some jokes thus making the workshop enjoyable.

Even though I have played with the wireless system before, I did learn more tips and tricks during the workshop. Each participants have to pay RM49 but it was a money well-spent judging by the photos taken by them. As for me, I can't participate much as Nex cannot trigger external flashes wirelessly.



We were taught on the usage of umbrellas, softboxes and difussers in photography especially for portraits.




Using hard light to bring out the curves on the violin.


To show this kind of curves, its often better to use soft light. Our model is Caroline Chung.

Participants taking turns to practice what has been taught.


Using the whiteboard to bounce the light.






Here's my try using Nex's pop up flash in vertical mode.


Not bad eh...eventhough I have to use a slower shutter due to the smaller light power emitted by the flash.


Umbrella.


Creative lighting.

Owh, the RM49 includes tea-break as well.

A mini-competition was held during the workshop whereby the winner will get a handsome Sony camera-messenger back just like in the photo above. What did I do after learning new things from the workshop? I bought a small flash for my Nex which triggers it using slave mode.


Sunblitz Digi A628i bought from my favourite shop, CPL photo in KK plaza.


The switches for Off/Slave/Normal and Auto/Manual.




Can be used in bounce mode.



Did it work?


Definitely but sometimes the flash is having problems to sync with the camera because of the pre-flash fired during each shots. I'm going to buy the digital slave trigger which is able to delay the Sunblitz from firing, just enough to skip the pre-flash from the pop-up.