Weeks ago, I went to Berjaya Times Square. They held Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival there.

I didn’t bring my trusty DLSR. Too bulky. Instead, I brought my camera phone, which incidentally, happens to go wherever I go.

Nothing much to say, except for the above photograph.

How, in the goodness of Earth, did this type of picture get to be shown at an exhibition?!

Didn’t they have Quality Control or something?

IMAGE EDITED FROM DPREVIEW.COM

What in the world was the Sony designers thinking? I bet a freshman in Arts & Design could design it better. I mean, yeah, it packs quite a powerful punch, but hey, who wants to drive around a Ferrari-engine, Juara-body car? (no offence to all Juara owners out there)

This Sony A900 is the latest offer from Sony. Featuring a full frame sensor (for those uninitiated, full-frame sensor have the same size as a single frame of 35mm film strip, which is 36mm x 24mm in size, different from those APS-C-sized sensors, which are usually found on entry-level and semi-pro DSLRs), this fella is expected to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Nikon D700, and Canon EOS 5D, which also have full-frame sensors.

How many megapixels this camera have? It looks like Sony is pushing for dominance here, because the 24 MP surely makes D700 and 5D’s 12 MP looks pale by comparison.

But don’t start to look for your D700 and 5D buyers yet. Megapixels has nothing to do with your image quality. I’ll explain it to you in later posts.

Meanwhile, if you really must grab a hold of one of these babies, rumors have it that it will be priced in the range of USD 2999 to USD 3000 (Hahaha! Only 1 dollar of difference) body-only. And it will be available from November 2008 onwards (hey, my birthday is on November. Feel like buying it for me as a birthday present? I’ll retract my words from the 1st para and change the title. LOL)

But last Saturday, when I was driving home from Alamanda, Putrajaya (the central administration of Malaysia’s government), my eyes were locked upon this particular quote from the back of a dusty Mitsubishi Storm (which, I believed, have seen better times).

“WORK IS FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO FISH”

Well said, eh?

And I think it will be my favourite quote for the time being.

P/S: Check out Irfan Khairi, Malaysia’s famous online millionaire. He is my current inspiration. But his blog is in Bahasa Malaysia, mind you.

Where have I been?

Simple. I took time off to devote myself to photography. To date, I have been shooting various events, like new students intake, a martial-art tournament, a few events here and there, and a wedding.

Whew, that was my first wedding shot since 2005. To date, I’ve only officially shot three weddings, but tagged for numerous others. And this coming 9th of August, my friend asks me to tag along with him to an outdoor portraiture session in Tanjung Karang. Tanjung Karang folks, here I come!

Wait for the pictures, and quite a few from other events as well.

Peace Yo!

During 14th & 15th of June 2008 (last weekend), me & several of my friends from SDAF Pictures Sdn Bhd were doing a casting for wannabe models.

I’m not the official photographer. Reez was. I just helped the management thingies, like sorting out forms, welcoming the wannabe models, holding the fan & the flash stand, and photographing behind the scenes.

This is our first model, Bong Cheng Tzun. FYI, he’s a martial artist. Tai Chi, to be exact (I think so).

Two of the models are registering. Actually, the left lady was only accompanying the right lady. But after some persuasion from us, we managed to get her to fill in the form and pose for a photoshoot.

This is Yana, our own version of Paula Abdul for the casting. Not for the photoshoot, but for the catwalk session.

Reez showing some pictures that were taken to this model, Adibah. She have a pair of eyes as wide and round as a cat.

Reez instructing Adibah on how to pose.

This is another model, Julianis. She was in the same case as Adibah, merely accompanying her sister. After some smooth talking from us, presto, there she is, posing!

Talk about perfect timing! I clicked my shutter just as Reez clicked his.

Reez showing Julianis some of his work.

Some of the models. This shot was taken nearing the end of the session on 15th. A few of the models in this picture were still waiting for their catwalk sessions.

Oh, by the way, if you are interested in doing a photo shoot, come to the studio. Don’t worry. We don’t eat people.

De’ FANTASY STUDIO

No.5-13, Lorong 6E/91, Taman Shamelin Perkasa,

56100 Cheras,

Kuala Lumpur

Tel/ Fax : 03-92844244

Check out the profile photos here. All photographs were captured and edited by Reez (a few of the pictures have me responsible for holding the fan and the flash stand. Hehe..)

]]> http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/model-casting-photo-shoot/feed/ http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/firefox3-download-day/ http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/firefox3-download-day/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:04:06 +0000 Jehan http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/?p=67 Hey guys. Today is the official download day for Firefox 3! What the heck is that day, you might ask? Well, it is the day when the Mozilla team officially releases the much-awaited latest version of the greatest web browser on this galaxy, Mozilla Firefox 3. In an attempt to create a Guinness World Record for the most [...]]]>

Hey guys. Today is the official download day for Firefox 3!

What the heck is that day, you might ask?

Well, it is the day when the Mozilla team officially releases the much-awaited latest version of the greatest web browser on this galaxy, Mozilla Firefox 3.

In an attempt to create a Guinness World Record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours, they have pledged citizens of the Net to download & install the browser.

As I typed this entry, there have been 2 608 061 downloads. That’s two millions yo!

Oh, in order to be able to enter the world record, for Malaysians, you have to download it before 2.16 a.m, June 19, 2008.

Go for it!

P/S: I typed this entry from my new browser. I have to say, it rendered the favicon.ico file for my other web FotoBudaya.org much more better! (hehe, super duper lative.)

P/S2: You can get your very own personalized certificate just like me too. All you have to to is click here, put your name in the box, and hit submit.

P/S3: By downloading this Holy Grail of the Net, you’ll also help the campaign to save the web by SaveTheDevelopers.org. Now that’s what we call killing two birds with one stone!

Go for it again!

Okey, kita sambung!

Ah…dah pagi pun. Hari ni dah bermula khidmat pendidikan, selama 2 hari kat Sekolah Kebangsaan Panching, Kuantan (tempat kami tido la). Fokus kepada budak UPSR, sebab UPSR start dalam bulan 9. Bulan 9? Huih, awal tu. Budak IPTA pun aku ingat belum cuti Mid-Sem lagi.

Ha..program dimulakan dengan pendaftaran pelajar-pelajar. Ehem, pelajar darjah 6, bukan pelajar UTM.

Menyambut adik-adik tersayang di pagar sekolah (padahal kena paksa. Hahaha!)

Membelek-belek dokumen yang dibekalkan kepada setiap pelajar. Macam-macam modul ada. Bertuah mereka. Aku dulu, cikgu tak buat apa pun (maybe ada, tapi aku lupa. Ampun cikgu!)

Salah seorang penceramah menerangkan tentang cara-cara menjawab kertas soalan UPSR dengan betul. Kalau perkataan habis dengan imbuhan ‘kan’, tak perlu letak ‘tentang’ lepas perkataan tu, kecuali ‘makan’. (Duh..) Hehe. Aku pun belajar sesuatu juga tau.

Lan mengisi ruang sela masa antara ceramah dengan sedikit acara ‘mengenakan’ adik-adik. Untuk pengetahuan yang tidak mengetahui, Lan ni adalah mantan Majlis Perwakilan Mahasiswa UTMKL. Baru je tamat belajar (kira junior kepada junior aku la. Ye ke? Entah, aku pun lost track of count..)

Salah seorang mangsa. Suka hati kau la Lan, jangan sampai menangis budak tu sudah.

Ha…anda tau kenapa aku letak gambar budak ni? Sebab dia chumil sangat! Walaupun aku ni berjiwa yang agak kasar (orang cakap le..), tapi budak ni memang chumil sangat. Hehe. Nama dia, well, kalau tak nampak, maknanya tempoh hayat anda adalah lagi 2 Jumaat (hehe…jangan marah). Lepas je habis kenakan adik-adik, kami rehat untuk makan tengahari dan solat.

Lepas rehat dan mengenyangkan mana yang patut, para fasilitator buat game yang dinamakan ‘Pulau Impian’. Apa benda game ni? Aneh betul nama.

Basically, setiap group yang dipantau oleh 2 orang fasilitator akan diberi beberapa batang pen ‘marker’, sekeping kertas mahjong (siapa la bagi nama kertas ni..?), dan sebiji otak yang memang sudah terpasang dalam kepala masing-masing, untuk melukis sebuah pulau impian. Letak la apa pun yang mereka nak dalam pulau tu. Hatta sekolah memandu sekalipun. Kira anggap diri mereka persis Donald Trump.

Adik-adik mula melukis. Kat sini, macam-macam tahap kekreatifan boleh dilihat. Ada yang melukis macam seorang arkitek, perlukan pembaris dan segala macam alat ukuran ketepatan (boleh pulak mereka minta aku punya penutup lens untuk buat bulatan? Banyak cantik…). Ada pula melukis persis Picasso, yang mana aku lagi faham pabila seekor ayam yang melukis daripada mereka yang lukis.

Pelbagai premis juga yang mereka letak. Rumah banglo, shopping complex, restoran, hotel, malah sekolah pun ada. Sekolah? Hehe, siapa yang impikan sekolah di pulau mereka kalau gadis ala Angelina Jolie duduk sebelah rumah?

Ini adalah hasil daripada salah satu kumpulan. Ha…lupa nak cerita. Aku ada tanya seorang adik ni, “Adik, ni bangunan apa?”

Adik: Ni la bank, abang.

Aku: Kenapa letak bank kat pulau adik?

Adik: Apa la abang ni. Kalau nak shopping, mesti la pakai duit. Bank tu untuk keluarkan duit la.

Aku: … (terkesima sebentar)

Nasib baik mereka masih darjah 6, belum mengerti apa-apa tentang institusi kewangan negara. Jikalau tandatangan kau sekalipun pada setiap wang kertas Malaysia, apa kau fikir duit itu semua kau punya?

Game habis kira-kira jam 5 petang, kerana kami ingin membuat persiapan untuk majlis perasmian di waktu malam. Ha…inilah akibatnya aku tak menggunakan ‘lens hood’. Habis gambar dicemari oleh ‘flare’.

Okey, nanti bersambung untuk majlis perasmian pada malam hari pula. Stay tuned!

]]> http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/mbm-second-day/feed/ http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/camera-phone-tips-1/ http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/camera-phone-tips-1/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:53:05 +0000 Jehan http://bloggerism.jezzrite.com/?p=65 These days, if you don’t have a camera phone, you are pretty much a Stone Age guy. No, taping your digicam to your cordless home telephone does not work it. A camera phone is defined by a camera integrated in a cellphone, or a cellphone integrated in a camera (heck, I don’t know if there’s [...]]]>

These days, if you don’t have a camera phone, you are pretty much a Stone Age guy. No, taping your digicam to your cordless home telephone does not work it. A camera phone is defined by a camera integrated in a cellphone, or a cellphone integrated in a camera (heck, I don’t know if there’s any of it ever invented). And for the sake of simplicity and practicality, no, you’ll never find a camera phone that uses Polaroid. Get it, Einstein?

For the benefits of the majority that find DSLRs too cumbersome (and didn’t fit in their purses), and prefer to use their camera phones for everyday, below I lay down several tips to enhance your photos. Remember, when in doubt, Photoshop it!

Hold it steady

Camera phones are smaller than a jumbo jet, obviously. Therefore, they are prone to shaky-shaky conditions that can resulted in blurry photos. The bad part is, there is no existing camera phone that has tripod mount on it. How to get crispy looking pictures, then? Two ways: take pictures only in brightly lit areas, and use your body as a substitute to a tripod. Lean against something rock-hard and solid, or better yet, one of your big friends. Treat them a lunch later.

Beware of light

Watch the lighting condition of the area. Better an over-exposed background than an under-exposed friend. Put it simply, make sure any sources of light in that area illuminate your subject. Stand with your back behind the light sauce source, and your friend in front of you. This trick is especially useful to camera phones that don’t have built-in flash (most camera phones don’t have it anyway)

Up, close, and personal

Whenever possible, shove the camera phone right under the nose of the subject you are taking picture of. Don’t use the digital zoom provided, or you’ll curse the manufacturer of your phone when you see the result. Because of low resolution of camera phones (this is due to the sensor’s size, which is smaller than your thumb print), it will always be a bad idea to use digital zoom (who invented this useless function, anyway?). Furthermore, it will make your picture look nicer.

More of it later!

“I need a PC.”

“Okaayyy…what kind?”

“A personal computer.”

“Yeah, I know a PC is a personal computer. What do you wanna do with it?”

“Things. And you don’t need know what things.”

“Well, sir, I NEED to know ‘things‘ that you gonna do to recommend you the best bang for your buck. What’s your budget?”

“What’s the best you got?”

“(Feeling somewhat annoyed) Well, we got one that can run Vista and Linux while downloading Star Trek on the background and you can play Starcraft 7 on it too at the same time. Oh, and did I say that it can unfreeze your turkey on Thanksgiving? I bet even the CIA supercomputers couldn’t do that.”

“Wow, how much does it cost?”

“Twelve thousand dollars. And we accept cash only.”

“NO! That’s waayyy too much for my blood!”

“Well sir, you indeed asked me what we have here.”

“Gimme something that can run Photoshop and burn CD.”

“….”

This is a real conversation that I overheard at a PC store some time ago. And the buyer carried a Canon EOS 1D Mark II on his shoulder, a 2-kg professional DSLR with a price tag comparable to a 1976 Chevrolet Camarro.

The point is, if you are a photographer, you SHOULD at least be competent in IT and multimedia as well. In this digital age, everything is connected to computers in many ways (What do you mean the pictures are gone? I formatted the card, not deleted the pictures.)

Okay, you don’t need to know how to write a program that can reduce fuel consumption of a car by 80%. You just need to know the basics of computer, and the requirements of programs that you wanna use in editing pictures. That’s it. Don’t put a shame to yourself. And don’t tell me that you can handle the most sotphistaced complex DSLR in the world, and yet you don’t know how to burn a CD (Uhh…do I need Zippo?).

Oh, hey, you need a DVD writer to burn a CD;) Start searching for one now.

That phrase is what major manufacturers of DSLR had given birth to. Thanks (or no?) to them, wannabe photographers sprung out from the ground faster than you can spell P.H.O.T.O.G.R.A.P.H.E.R. Hey, what’s there not to like? DSLRs are cheap, weddings are everywhere, Fotopages is free, photography forums are as quick as Googling, and all you need is a free e-mail from the pig Big G or Yahoo. Suddenly, everyone becomes a photographer.

Or not?

I’m not a professional photographer. But I know from my little 5 years of experience, it takes more than a DSLR, an external flash unit, and an account with Fotopages to become a full-fledged photographer. I’m not saying that those who don’t have these values are not photographers. In fact, I hold a deep respect for every ladies and gentlemen who contributed to the vast artistic world of photography.

But a line has to be drawn somewhere. It is to preserve the profession of photography, so that people can distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Passion

If you have to debate whether that 12 MP camera is better than the 10 MP one in terms of producing picture quality, I’m sorry to say, you are nothing more than an equipment measurbator. I mean, come on, do you really have to compare the pictures taken by professional reviewers at their lab just so that you can buy that particular camera that you feel “powerful”, and ended up just taking pictures of you shoe-string, guitar, or deodorant? And when the pictures don’t turn out good, you blame the camera, saying “This camera is useless! I should buy the one that have the all-powerful 5D Matrix Metering that can analyze the color composition of anti-matter.”

My advice: Get a decent camera, and then practice, practice, and practice. There’s a reason why they call this art “Photography”. So that you can produce Photos. Not “Cameragraphy”. Your camera doesn’t matter. Get it, Einstein?

Time Management & Discipline

I’ve seen these traits are lacking in some photographers, old or new. If you are assigned to cover an event that start at 10 in the morning, it doesn’t hurt to arrive AT LEAST one hour earlier. That way, you can survey around for any places that might help improving your shots, or enable you to get a different angle of the same shot.

Same said for weddings. I have covered ONLY 2 weddings (at the time of this writing), but have attended countless others, as a guest. Most of the time, however, the couple have some problems with their photographers. Either their photographer was late, left off early, or simply rushed from their wedding place to another.

Impression & Self-Presentation

As photographers, we deal with people. Even food photographers deal with Chefs (in case you don’t know, Chefs are people.) I’ve seen in many events that involved corporate figures and/or politicians, the photographer only wear round neck T-Shirt, a worn-out jeans, and a pair of sandal.

Dress accordingly! Wear a shirt, a slack, and a pair of black leather shoes. Or if you are not comfortable with leather shoes, find some motorcycle boots or a pair of safety shoes. Throw in a jacket if you have it. Being a photographer doesn’t mean that you are excluded from wearing suits. If you have one, you might as well wear them. If you must wear jeans, wear the black colored one. When I say ‘black’, I mean the ‘black’ with color code of #000000. Not some dull gray like dog feces.

Same goes for weddings. Better yet, ask the couple about their color schemes for their wedding dresses (For those uninformed, Malay weddings are colorful!) Then find a shirt with the same color. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your new love for your own wedding there!

What do you have to say? Are you a professional photographer? Share with us a piece of your mind!