July 23, 2009

55-250mm Sold

Remember the EF-S 55-250mm I bought? It was sold this afternoon to a guy, who is buying it on behalf of his brother. This is the first time I sell a second-hand item to other people.

There are 2 main reasons I sell it:

1) Underutilized. 99% of my pics are taken with my kit lens & the EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. I bought the 55-250mm off a guy who is selling it quite cheap for an item aged 1 month at that time. I'm selling it now (3 months after I bought it) at the price I bought it. That means I am using a free lens for few months.

2) Funding for a flashgun. I have decided to buy Speedlite 580EX II as my flashgun. It ain't cheap anyway.

So here goes with my calculation:


Selling Price: RM750
Discount: RM50
Net: RM700

Total spending to date: RM 3,967.75 - RM700
..........................= RM 3,267.75

July 19, 2009

My First Photonian Gathering

I joined this group 1 month+ ago and haven't meet any of its members until today. There are 5 people (Avex, Charlotte, Ben, Yen Sheng & me!) attending the gathering.

Surprisingly, Avex live so near to me at SS2 Jasmine Tower. My another photography friend ("photokaki") - Clown (a.k.a. Frankie) live there too. And Avex is just living a unit below Clown. What a small world. So I fetched Avex and his friend to Putrajaya to meet up with Charlotte & Ben.

We arrived a bit early than expected. So we started to shoot around. The weather was bad as its too hazy and the timing (5pm) is just not right. Most of my pics come out flat and lack of contrast.










Moments later, Charlotte & Ben has arrived. We continued to shoot around and we finally decided to have our dinner at Nando's in Alamanda Putrajaya.


(Charlotte with her SB-900!)

Didn't expect Charlotte likes to eat hot & spicy food to the extreme extent. She even introduced me some places to have very very hot & spicy food.

After dinner, the sky is completely dark, and this is the perfect time for shooting essence of Putrajaya. We started from the another end of Perdana Putra which is the PICC.

Shooting night scene takes time as each photo takes you at least 20 seconds. So we can easily waste 30 mins.


(Seri Gemilang Bridge)









(PICC - Putrajaya International Convention Centre)



(Seri Saujana Bridge)



(The abandoned bridge beside Seri Saujana Bridge)



We ended our session around 11pm as today is Sunday and most of us have to work/study on the next day. There are still many buildings we have yet to photograph. So that means this will not be the last time of us shooting Putrajaya.

July 14, 2009

Post-Processing

Frankly speaking, I hate it.

It's not that I anti-post processing of photography, as you can see here. I just don't like the time and effort you need to spend. For example, each time I'm back from a vacation, my memory card is packed with over 200 photo that need to be processed.

If you shoot RAW, its even worse. So the best way for me in this time being is to reduce the shots I taken per trip. And try to get it right in the first time in the camera, instead of sitting in front of my laptop whole day just to process my pictures.

"Shoot less, think more"

July 12, 2009

Cameron Highland Trip

I believe this is my first time going Cameron Highlands, or perhaps I'm too small to remember I have been there before. It was a self-organized company trip which I spent 3 days 2 nights with my colleagues.

We left KL at 6pm on Friday, immediately after work. One of my colleague hired a van as our transportation throughout the whole trip. The driver (Mr. Phua, referred as "Uncle") is a friend of my colleague's mother. We stopped at the Sg. Buloh Flyover Bridge Restaurant to have a quick bite of food before we proceed to Cameron Highlands.

The road was quite narrow, we reach there around 10pm. Although Uncle was quite familiar and skillful, some of my colleagues still vomit after they have reached the destination. Click here for the map.




We had steamboat in one of the restaurant up there for our dinner.



(This was shot after dinner)





Quickly after dinner, we head back to our accommodation, somewhere between Brinchang & Tringkap.




After bath, we had poker games before going to bed. Girls had all the rooms, guys have to sleep in the living room....how pity~

The night was cold. It rained throughout the whole day with periodically breaks in between. I felt like I was in the UK last year.








We left our apartment 9am, had breakfast and go to our first destination - Strawberry Farm.








(Can you see the tiny seedling?)



(According to the workers, it needs 45 days to grow them and ready to be harvested)







(2 workers harvesting the vegetable, according to one of the worker at the counter, this farm can generate RM500-RM1,500 of walk-in sales of this vegetable per day, excluding exports)


The strawberry that day was not so beautiful, as you can notice I did not post any photo about strawberry.

There are few things that one must do when they visit Cameron Highlands, one of them is - buy fruits & vegetables. They are so fresh and free from any pesticide. I bought some corn (they are the sweetest that I've ever taste) to bring back to KL.

After some shopping, we proceed to our next destination - Rose Garden. The entrance is not free though, it costs RM4 for adult and RM2 for kids.











I bought 2 packets of sweet potato balls (番薯丸), they taste awesome and only cost RM2 for 10 pcs.




After spending 1 whole morning walking and taking pictures, we are hungry. Uncle brought us to a famous restaurant in Tringkap to take our lunch. The food was OK overall, but we waited 1 and a half hour for them to serve us. Thumbs down for this.

Due to the time wasted, we head to our next destination immediately, the BOH Tea Shop & Factory. The place is located in Brinchang. When we arrived, the place is packed with tourists around the world. Everyone wanted to take pictures from the balcony of the Tea Shop. I had some too but the weather was bad (mentioned earlier - raining the whole day). But I still managed to get some pictures:








We wanted to go down to the tea plantation, but it was not allowed there. So, Uncle took us further into the Mount. Brinchang (the benefit to have a tour guide), where no guards or workers of BOH company was there with their watchful eyes.

We even jumped down and lie on the tea plants and took some crazy shots (I'm not going to show them here).

After a gruesome day, we are all wet and tired. So we decided to head back to our apartment and take a shower and prepare for our BBQ dinner.

Few of my colleagues went downstairs to the BBQ pit and start the fire. Others preparing food for the BBQ. When the fire is almost lit, it rained so heavily that we have to take our umbrella and stand beside the BBQ pit and cook our food.





This is the first time I do BBQ under heavy rain. My back was totally wet (and cold) and my front was very hot (I'm facing the BBQ pit). We managed to cook some food using BBQ and we decided to cook most of the food in out apartment by frying them. What a waste for that night.

We even prepared games for that night, but everyone was so tired. we slept at 12am. The next day, we rushed back to KL at 9am because some of my colleagues have to catch a flight.

The rain ruined all our mood and we ended our trip just like that.

July 06, 2009

New Gears in the House V

I think this should fall under the gear & equipment category.

Today I'm off for work, so I went Mid Valley to look for a raincoat for my camera bag.

Lowepro Flipside 300 do not have the built in All Weather Cover™. Only Lowepro Flipside 400 AW has it (Flipside series I mean).

Finally found it in one of the bags & camping equipment shop.



Because it was not designed exclusively for my bag, thus the raincoat is a bit bigger. But it is still perfectly usable.








Price: RM37
Discount: RM 9.25 (25% discount)
Net: RM27.75

Total spending to date: RM 3,967.75
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