MIFC 2008 Team China

Team China letting it go!










The first shot was using ISO100 which I found to be not bright enough. Thus the rest of the fotos were made with ISO200, 17mm (widest I could go), f/16, bulb.

As you can see, this is why I ended up being happy with the spot I got. Any more to the right, I would not have been able to fit most of the fireworks display into a frame.

The next event, I'll be using the black card technique. Stay tuned!

More shot at my flickr account.

MIFC 2008 Team China.. before it started..

Last year's traffic was horrendous, in a nut shell, last year the organizers were either terribly unprepared or had little experience organizing an event with such a massive crowd. This time around we arrived an hour and a half earlier, just to be safe. To my surprise, although traffic was heavy but it wasn't choked.

Made our way to the pre-decided area and was surprised to see a lot of tripods already standing strong. Found a spot which I thought wasn't too good, but turned out to be just right. My location 2.901874,101.670957.

The launch pad..


PICC diagonally behind us.. although we can't see the crowd in the dark, boy there was a huge crowd. Should've used my flashgun for this.

MIFC 2008 Team Malaysia

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition kicked off last night, with the host's array of magical colors!






Full set available on flickr.

Pavlova at The Apartment, Downtown.

I've got a blardy weak spot for Pavlova..

The Strawberry Peach Pavlova served at 'the apartment' KLCC was.. mmm hmmm..



Strawberry Peach Pavlova

Lights Within Concrete..

8 vertical shots.. manual focus, 30 sec at f/16, ISO 100, 35mm..

I tried using Canon's PhotoStitch finding myself to favor PTGui. PTGui's intuitive interface coupled with it's vast advance features simply puts it to the top.

Generated using PTGui, resized to 1280 pixels on the long side..


Did ya notice the streaks of lights? Luv em!

MIFC is back!

w00t! MIFC is back again! Because of this I had to expedite my plans to get a sturdy tripod. As what is preached all over, get a good one, use it for life.

Made my purchase again from Shashinki, since 1st of August Shashinki introduced a new points system where you'd earn some points with every purchase. These points of course could be converted to cash and used with ya next purchase.

I was contemplating if I should go for the smaller carbon fiber 190XPROB at double the price or get the 6 footer 055XPROB which only had the aluminum version. So I figured it wouldn't harm to carry a lil more weight and have a 6 footer.

Package arrived as promised..




There's a comprehensive user review here.

Boy.. I tell ya.. both tripod and ballhead together makes it one heavy setup! Somewhere around 3.4KGs. Not exactly heavy if you'd lift it up for short periods of time. But let's think of a hiking trip ;-). So... if you don't mind forking out the extra moolah, carbon fiber's definitely the way to go peeps.

Kuala Gandah Fav!

Fav shot from Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary

Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary

www.myelephants.org

Another hidden treasure u'd find in Malaysia. Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary, is exactly what it's name says. You'd find out that not a lot of Malaysian know this place. I was fortunate to have visited this place with gr8 company!


I found it not too straight forward in getting information to visit the place. Here's what I got from a good friend who has been there, pretty precise information :-).

• Make reservations +609 2790391 for the amount of people in the group.
• A certain number will be allocated with yellow stickers, while the rest with red stickers. It's the way it's done, not all receive the almighty yellows. There were 9 of us and 5 were awarded the yellows.
  
• It's a 1 1/2 hours drive from Gombak toll plaza.
• 13:30 arrival for registration.
• Fill up the form, and you'll be given yellow and red stickers.
• Fee? It's FREE! Please donate after the activities on ya way out. After all I'm sure u'd have had a blast of a time n tht'll b the very least u cud do :-)
  

Inside the registration office, you'd see some information on the elephants and what not..


A video on trans location, very interesting story.. tells us how wild elephants are tracked and moved.. why are the elephants moved? Well u gotta watch the video ;-)


Red stickers.. visiting only, no activities.. well feeding is allowed..


The almighty yellows.. everything.. feeding, riding, flip and bathing..


Just after 14:00.. out come the elephants marching!


Some headed for a dip in the river, while some headed for a more personalized shower..


Right after, feeding time! Reds are also allowed to feed the mammals..


Then comes the rides.. Look at the patient queue.. under the hot sun..


Visitors anxiously board our dear eles, you could tell everyone was excited..


The flers take you on a very short walk.. you could understand seeing the number of people with only a few eles..


What next after the ride? The river of course! Yes that's a river, a typical milky river..


Watch ya steps!


Ok for this, there's no escaping.. the ele is trained to lay to it's side.. thus.. throwing ya into the river! If this wasn't expected, it would've been so much more thrilling!


While the big ele's busy flipping people into the river, the smaller ones are on the left.. having fun! All well loved! This is the bathing-with-the-eles-in-the-river part.. also the last activity..


I wore the red sticker.. I enjoyed myself equally seeing friends with all smiles.. of course I was toasted having been under the sun most of the time, snapping away..

n.. of course we donated!

National Geographic NG 2475 Medium Shoulder Bag Part II

There were quite a few comments on the NG 2475 when it came to the laptop compartment. Here's my brief stuffing-the-laptop-into-the-bag actions.

The subject.. a Sony VAIO VGN-C13G 13.3" and a HP Compaq nc6400 14.1", both wide screens.


The HP nc6400 placed vertically, it couldn't fit horizontally..


Zipped the hippo's tongue and closed the flap.. buckled and buttoned.. A bit tight but still manageable. The internal compartment to house the camera is in the bag, thus the camera will fit in just nice.


The VAIO also didn't fit horizontally..


Horizontally or not, vertical fit works just fine. If you opt to not use the padded laptop compartment (which I would have no idea why not), both laptops would've fit horizontally.