Star Chasing at Bidor

This is my first time doing Astrophotography with my photography friends.

Well this is certainly a new thing for me although I had tried shooting Star Trails in Bali before. We traveled from KL to Bidor during midnight and we did not sleep after that. The sky was stunningly beautiful (although occasionally some clouds blocks the stars).

(The Milky Way)

My 8mm lens failed to capture the Milky Way due to its small maximum aperture of only f/4.5
A large aperture lens (minimum of f/2.8) is essential for capturing Milky Way. Luckily Liew lend me his 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens to me.

(My 8mm f/4.5 lens is struggling to capture the Milky Way)

Basic rule for shooting stars or star trails:

- High ISO (800-1600)
- Moderate shutter speed (20-40 second)
- Largest Aperture possible
- Prefer Wide Angle Lens

We waited til sunrise and tried to capture some shots as well










Both shots are 7-exposures blended HDR.

Putrajaya 02

Went to Putrajaya with JH. Putrajaya has no excitement for me now.

i-City Revisited

Just re-visited this place with a friend. The last time was too crowded, so we decided to come on weekdays night. The traffic is a lot better.

Anyway, its a beautiful night with full moon.

Shah Alam i-City

This was my first visit to this spectacular place. The LED lights here are awesome! However, I think I picked a wrong day to come here. It was Labour Day and it is crowded like nobody's business.

So I decided to focus more on my friends rather than the scene.














I will return to this place some day in the future, perhaps weekdays.

Happy New Year 2010

I was so excited to shoot some fireworks today. However, luck is not on my side. This was the first time I shoot fireworks and we picked a wrong spot. The firework is so pathetic that we cant even see clearly.

(Look at the tiny little firework blocked by some building)

(This was my initial composition, I was expecting the firework to come between the KLCC & KL Tower)

It was a mess after I saw the first firework came out from the wrong place. I quickly re-composed my picture without having anytime to re-adjust my focus and shoot right away. The result is? Bad composition, bad focusing and I forgot to shoot in RAW.

Luckily we arrived that place earlier, so we decided to shoot some night scene of KLCC. Well, this is much more better than my firework pictures.

(Shot this hand held)


(Same, hand held)

Look Out Point

This is my second visit to Look Out Point in Ampang.




I will only post 1 picure as every picture looks the same. I added some colour to the light so it will not look so dull.

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.

Putrajaya

This was a planned trip, it was supposed to be last weekend but due to some reason, it was postponed to this week.

Putrajaya is a famous place known for its unique building and bridges. It can be consider as a tourist attraction.

Here are the shots (click image to enlarge):

Seri Wawasan Bridge

Perdana Putra

Perbadanan Putrajaya

Perbadanan Putrajaya Closeup


Another one

The view from Putrajaya Square (Note: The far-center building is actually Perdana Putra)

Palace of Justice

It was quite late when we finish, we were exhausted and couldn't continue anymore. But in fact, there are still a lot buildings and bridges we haven't photograph. We will come again...

Thanks clown, jay, chong & kawaiii for joining. This is my first night scene photoshoot.

Look Out Point - Ampang

Few days ago, I received an email from my colleague, she invited whole Merchandise Team to have a dinner together with our Merchandise Director on Friday after work. The Location is Look Out Point in Ampang.

I knew that place is a good spot for nice scenery, so I decided to take my camera along with me to work.

we get out of the office around 6pm, the traffic was a mess. It took us 1 and a half hour to reach Ampang from Subang.

The theme was "Top On Nite", we have to wear something fancy on our head, but too bad, most of us forgot about it when we reach there.




This is the KL night scenery taken using 5 second exposure, I have no tripod so I happened to put my camera on top of a rounded-top pillar, it was pretty unstable.

(Sometimes, blurred image can be beautiful too)

I have lack of another important element - the External Flash
This thing is very useful for indoor events especially a dinner like this!
The built-in pop-up flash is just too harsh:

(Merchandise Director - Laurent Piazza & my colleagues)


(It's not often that you can see your boss dress like this!)

I even snapped some pics of the decorations on fire!



Overall, the night is enjoyable, I only downfall is lack of external flash and a sturdy tripod =(
What a waste....