Latté Caramel

F-fest

2010-05-03T23:55:00.000+02:00

Foliage, Roots and Trees

2009-10-10T12:51:00.000+02:00

all of the images were taken while i was in Melaka.

Melaka

2009-10-07T10:43:00.000+02:00

Portraits at Bucher Stausee

2009-08-17T01:28:00.000+02:00

The Journey

2009-08-14T00:20:00.000+02:00

two shots from my recent journey to and fro the Bucher Stausee (reservoir/artificial lake). no pictures of the lake itself, but that's for some other time :)

Running Away

2009-08-10T10:50:00.000+02:00

I want to run away,
Just be gone – check out
I long to hide away
And bury my head in my hands
To just cry until I am all cried out
Done - no tears left
Cry till all the sad is gone

I wish for long, long hours to sleep
To rise only to return and slip back
between sheets that never cooled
I desire the sleep of no interruption
Till all the exhaustion has lifted
From my heavily laden eyes

But… none of this will I do
I will get up each day the crack of dawn
I will continue the endless motions
That make this life of mine work
Putting one foot in front of the other
Over and over again

~ Karen C Vanderlaan ~

Wedding

2009-08-03T13:50:00.000+02:00

First off, i would like to congratulate both the bride and bridegroom :) Both of them are one of the most loving couple i have came across and i am very honoured to be given the opportunity to photograph their wedding day :) which was on the 18th of July 2009.

This being my first time ever attending a wedding in Germany, i really didn't know what to expect. Well, that's not entirely true, i did expect a lot of food :) The wedding was for me, by far, the longest that i ever attended and also the most entertaining :) and i am not just saying that because i was one the photographers (beside sugin and heetat)

The whole wedding lasted for approx. 12 hours, from ceremony until the last person dancing. But it was fun, because in between the 12 hours there were:

- 20 plus cakes to be consumed
- seriously a lot of food, appetizers until dessert
- there was a continuous supply of coffee *very important*
- a band filling the air with music all day long
- a magician/comedian performing
- dancing

The latter two were the highlights for me. It was a really good idea for the couple to hire the magician, he was amazingly good. And the dance, people were dancing from the evening until late night, with few pauses in between. You might think that it would be boring to watch people dancing. But everyone were really having a good time, you can't help feeling the same thing :)

In the end, i really enjoyed myself and it was definitely a refreshing experience. A huge thank you to the couple again, for choosing me as one of their photographers, despite of my inexperience :)

Landschaft

2009-07-28T11:25:00.000+02:00

Einkaufsnacht

2009-06-23T04:45:00.000+02:00

BBQ

2009-06-14T03:25:00.000+02:00

Straw and Berries

2009-06-11T23:54:00.000+02:00

Budapest

2009-06-08T14:57:00.000+02:00

Around Castle Hill

below: a view of the Parliament from Castle Hill.

Around Heroes Square

Metro

In and Out of the Hostel

The Central Market

Church

The city and it's people

totally unrelated video, i just like the song, that's all :)

Rentap Abend

2009-06-05T02:21:00.000+02:00

Some pictures from last week's Rentap 09. Thanks to the people of heilbronn for organizing such a great event. I had fun. Only during such events could i meet my friends and curse them in their face :)

Not very good at taking pictures at events, especially the ones done in the night with dim lights. But i tried nonetheless, these few images are the fruit of my 'labour'.

my favourite band performing, C&A :)

this image below was taken with a nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens, which belongs to dira, a girl from france who came to meet/help/support her bf during rentap :) - thanks dira (really need to find her flickr or multiply or something). i really like the lens, if only it wasn't too darn expensive :(

Morning

2009-05-23T18:21:00.000+02:00

in love with this song atm :)

note to self: the obvious isn't necessarily the prettiest :)

Konstanz

2009-04-19T23:27:00.000+02:00

Just came back to Aalen this evening. Spent the whole weekend at konstanz, getting to know the couple who are getting married soon, sometime in july. I was given the opportunity to take pictures during the whole wedding :) - going to be my first time taking any wedding pics, hehe - kinda excited, really really hope i could go. On the wedding date, my exams should have ended, but i can't say for sure, have to wait for the exam timetable to come out.

Anyhow, i took some pictures of both of them during my stay there. I have to say, it was really easy to take their pics. They were just natural in front of the camera. Plus, both of them were super friendly. Suffice to say, i just made two new good friends.

Konstanz is tremendously beautiful this time of the year :) With the blue skies, beautiful yellow sunset, lush green grass and not forgetting the flowers and colourful trees. The first six images here, including the one above, were actually taken at Kreuzlingen, a city in Switzerland that share the same border with Konstanz. And then, the other four were taken at the backyard of the couple's house. Ain't that bad,right! to have a super nice meadow just behind your house :)

I was at Konstanz together with Sugin, he will also be one of the photographers for the big day, together with Hee Tat from Karlsruhe :) Hee Tat didn't join us until Sunday, so it was only me,sugin and couple hanging out and discussing about the wedding at their house, eating pizzas from Joey's Pizza, while watching Schlag den Raab on TV :) The couples were really hospitable, making us feeling comfortable and like home for our whole stay there. Thanks a lot guys, i really had a good time :)

The shot above is my favourite among them all. Been wanting to take this kind of pictures for a long time, finally got the chance to do it :) will sleep smiling tonight.

Hey Ya Cover

2009-04-16T16:19:00.001+02:00

End song of the latest romantic episode of Scrubs :)

Sunday

2009-04-12T14:54:00.000+02:00

My Easter Sunday :)

Aalbäumle

2009-04-11T02:31:00.000+02:00

This time around, minus the tragedy :)

Short Stroll

2009-04-10T02:05:00.000+02:00

picture above was taken by hilmi, the guy in the first image :)

and this picture too was taken by him :) some people just have the talent to take nice pictures eh :)

April Fool

2009-04-01T15:59:00.000+02:00

excuse me for the mediocre pictures, was too freaking hungry, snap snap snap, then begin to nom

original recipe: Seafood Pasta

i added chili flakes,basil,parmesan,a squeeze of lime juice and topped with mozarella :)

Keep Me Awake

2009-03-31T18:55:00.000+02:00

A little late to the party, but who cares..

Yuna! Yuna! Yuna! :)

B.W.P.L

2009-03-29T21:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday B.W.P.L was held at Fellbach, which elegantly stands for, Baden Wuerttemberg Premier League :) A seriously vogue name, if i may say :) But it is first of it's kind organized by the Malaysian in Germany Student Socienty (did i get the name right?) with each state having their own league to handle. A fitting name for such a feat (by no means, organizing an event is an easy job)

The whole event was a really fast paced one, therefore, I've decided before hand to concentrate my whole attention photographing my fellow team mates :) Trying to photograph the whole event with all the teams, wouldn't be very wise for me to do. It would have required too much of my focus which i couldn't give, plus, being hungry throughout the game, made the decision easier to make :) (dunno about the other teams, but Team Aalen played with an empty stomach, didn't have breakfast)

B.W.P.L concluded with Team Mannheim taking the trophy back home. A heartily congratulation from me :) They didn't lose even a game, i think. Didn't pay attention to the scoreboard, though i probably should have. Below are 26 pics, some with captions, some without.

I am not sure, but is that dude playing in his boxers? :)

Najikhin(buet) on the ground after an attempt to save the ball.

Firdhause(sabah)

Team Aalen after a not very fruitful game :(

Bruno's leg.

Syamsul as the goal keeper, substituting for buet.

Hanafi.

From right, Hilmi, Acap, Syamsul and Dilan(dylan?).

Hilmi and Syamsul trying to save the ball.

Acap gripping the net enclosing the court.

Fuad, waiting in line to join the game.

Dilan again.

Daskin, standing at far left, with Zainal(macha) from team Heilbronn on the floor.

Team Aalen chilling at the bench after playing their last game. In total, every team played 8 games.

Munk.

Almost everyone was at KFC after the game. The whole outlet was full with Malaysian students. There were so many of us ordering bucket after bucket of chicken, that it was on back order. Some have to wait for 30 minutes, including a few unfortunate german customers that came to the place after it was filled.

Definitely the best way to end our day at Stuttgart, by eating our heart out at KFC like some kind of Mob :)

London::Tube

2009-03-10T18:06:00.000+01:00

Third and the last of the series :) This entry is all about the London tube and it's commuters. Nothing fancy to be seen here. The images are dark, grainy, blur, badly exposed and not visually stimulating. That's what you get for being clumsy :)

London::Museums

2009-03-06T17:17:00.000+01:00

This the second part of my London trip entries :) during my stay there, i spent most of my time on the bed, traveling the tube and hanging around in the museums with dead people and animals :)

First off, is the Science Museum. In the picture above, the big red round thing is a sculpture of the earth, made out of steel and people going in and out of it. Kinda symbolic of life, if you ask me :) either that or a lolipop.

A Dead Neanderthal Dude or was it chick, can't remember:

Next stop was the Natural History Museum. Somewhere down the list of the things i wanna do in life, is seeing skeleton of a dinosaur, i can check that out now :)

Down here is a life size sculpture of Mr Darwin.

A cross section cut of a tree, which was already around a few hundred years before Prophet Muhammad was born, and continued living for about 1.5k years in total. You guys couldn't see from this picture, but on top of it, there is a list of major events that happened during that span of time, sorted chronologically.

The last museum i went to, the British Museum.

Tourists? and some kids on a field trip. There were a whole bunch of them, from different schools running around, taking notes and drawing the things that interest them. Their teachers tried explaining to them about the history of the things there, about pharaohs, roman empires, etc - i am sure that all they heard was white noise :) who wants to listen to a boring history lecture, when u can play hide seek.

Lewis chess set, if i am not mistaken, made out of ivory.

This machine used to make plates for printing money.

The Rosetta Stone.

A crooked panorama of the Museum - i really suck at this :(

London::Random

2009-03-05T11:35:00.000+01:00

No words, just pictures for now :) and a new layout too :)

Mini Outing

2009-01-04T02:54:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it!!! I am still sane, after all of the crazy things i have done, horrific experiences i gone through and stupid mistakes that i keep repeating in 2008 - this is definitely a surprise :) and for that, i am thankful to Him, for the healthy body and mind He gave for the whole year, and will pray, that i would earn the same this year too :)

Glad 2008 has ended, now i hope to have a fresh start, trash everything from 2008 in the bin and try to carve a new me - not to change totally, that would be silly! but i really wish i could be fully resolute to achieve my goals and keep improving myself as a person :)

Anyway, to motivate myself(more like bribe actually), i went out for a mini outing yesterday. Spent about one hour in Ulm and then went further down to Konstanz and hang around there from 2.30 till 7.40 in the evening. But out of the approx. 5 hours i was in Konstanz, i only walked around to take pictures for 1 and a half hours or so. Lame, i know :) As usual, i always have a travel companion, for me to torture. This time, it's Khud.

To honest, the initial plan was to go to bamberg, a city in bayern claimed by many to be superbly beautiful. Thought of going there and evaluate it for myself, but then something happened - we freaking missed the train - shouldn't have went back to my room to take the flash!!! The next train that came after that was due to Ulm and that was how the trip began :)

Nothing to regret though, all in all, it was still a good trip, although it had it's ups and downs - still i enjoyed it - haven't took any pics for a month you know, my hand were shaking and i was going through withdrawal.

Below are the *very* few shots from the trip :)

this was taken in Ulm, the tallest Cathedral in the world, you could see it for yourself in the shot, it's humongous.

bored of Cathedral (just seems like everytime i see a Cathedral, i just have to take pictures of it) i start cam whoring. Took portrait shots of khud then asked him to take the same shot of me, hehe :)

next was konstanz - i am definitely going back to this place, just love waterscapes :)

the dark things floating on the water aren't rubbish, but are actually ducks

that's a revolving gigantic nude sculpture behind me

guess who is he imitating? *hint* austin powers

That's all - finally, to everyone in Germany, happy enjoying the negative degrees winter - take care of your fingers and always check your nose for unexpected warm flowing fluid :)

p/s: added a vclip that i totally adore, it is sexy and addictive - Love can damage your health (and heart and head) from Telepopmusik

Futsal

2008-12-01T00:28:00.000+01:00

29th November 2008. Futsal Tournament organized by the Malaysian students in Nuremberg, Germany. 20 Teams participated, fighting for 1 title. The winner was, surprise!... team KAHN.

Girls Day Out was held somewhere nearby, on the same day. Everything has a cause and effect. The effect: An unlimited supply of sausages at our event. A staggering 3 ladies came, 2 of them were married, the status of the the other one was unknown - Single, Not Available, It's Complicated, Pending - can't tell for sure.

Team Aalen Legends played awesomely well, that was before they all ate the 4 euros Turkish Rice with 1 whole chicken leg. After that, it's suffice to say, they got massacred. Blame the chicken. Team KAHN got lucky this time :)

This is a short entry with short descriptions of the event which was made short for team Aalen Legends by the chicken.

There is a repetitive nature in sports, swimmers and runners doing rounds till they reach the finish line. Jumpers taking turns to jump and footballers kicking and stopping the ball. A few things that i saw repetitively on the previous day :)

-Tying shoes-

-Drop like it's hot-

-Swimming-

A lot of players fell that day, either due to the slippery floor or collision between players. Either way, the players showed us how to play with honour. Everytime a player falls, another will offer a hand to pick him up, despite being a stranger to each other.

I manage to record one incident, where bruno silva presumably hit the guy unintentionally, but it was so hard that the poor dude hit the wall. But bruno, being a gentleman, helped the guy up.

At the end, bruno silva earned a few karma points, scored one goal and Aalen Legends won against the Nike®-dude's team :)

The futsal hall lack one important feature, space for spectators and photographers. No matter where you sit in the hall, chances are, the ball is gonna hit you hard!!! I tried barricading myself behind one of the goal post. Even with all my efforts to shield myself, i got hit 3 times. I grew a new level of appreciation towards football/soccer photographers since then :)

-ball gymnast-

-Team Aalen-

All of the shots in this entry(except for the one above and below)was taken with a Canon 400D + 70-200mm f/4 lens, belonging to this fellow:

He asked me to take pictures of the game as a favor, because he was playing for one the teams. But he managed to take a few shots while i was absent, below are a couple from him :)

-Wrong Goal-

Somehow, his shots were far better than mine, arghhhh - dimming with low self-esteem. Final image of the entry, a personal favourite of mine. It's a rare thing that any of my images includes expression or emotion, so this will be among the handful :)

-Heads over Heels-

Expression of the spectators on the bench after witnessing a guy who fell in front of them and another guy who got a side kick from the previous guy :)

To wrap up, i would just like to congratulate the tournament grand winner, team KAHN and also thanks to the organizers, for making the event possible :) you guys did awesome.

p/s: 1)all images were edited in Adobe Lightroom, yea, no Photoshop
2)just in case anyone is offended by this post, i am sorry. Please contact me if you want any of your images to be removed, thanks :)

Sunset

2008-10-26T14:42:00.000+01:00

by: Nitin Sawhney :)

And here is the rest of it.

Boy Meets Gurl

2008-10-26T00:23:00.000+02:00

Say hi! to boy :) or Zulhelmi (not sure about the spelling) a friend of mine from the GMI days. Met him in Augsburg, at a Raya gathering organized for MARA students in Germany. A little bit about the event, it was held at the FH Augsburg's cafeteria by the good Malaysian students there - have to say, me first time being in their FH, it was beautiful - honestly! Especially now during Autumn, with the yellow/red leaves all over the places. Plus, they even have a river flowing through the FH. Argh! what a great FH with multiple choice of places for me take pictures :) The person who designed the place must be a really artistic one.

With all the great spots for a photoshoot that FH Augsburg has to offer - i really can't afford to miss the opportunity - i mean, it has been only what, twice, the number on times i came to Augsburg in 2 years plus? Definitely not planning to wait for the next time to come. Since boy was a photographer himself, it didn't took a lot to convince him to stand in front of the camera :) and while i was at it, i even dragged his fiancee to join in the fun :) but most the time, it was boy who was posing for me :)

Tried doing some engagement style photography, not sure if i achieved what i want, but i would say, i most definitely improved a little in a few corners - if not in the shooting skill, then in the PP section :)

I began by shooting a few portrait shots of boy and then,later continued taking some shots of them as a couple :) wanted to take some portrait shots of his fiancee too, but she was kinda, hurm, let say, busy posing for another 'photographer' who also around at the time :)

That's all, eight pieces all together, nothing grand,nothing much, but i am kinda excited, cause it seems like, i am probably deviating a little from my normal way of photographing people, either that or i am simply excited cause i finally get to take some serious pictures in weeks :)

Raya

2008-10-22T13:36:00.001+02:00

A bit late into the party, but i guess, it's better late than never :) Just wanna share some raya pics that i took while in Malaysia. There were suppose to be two parts to this post. First chapter for the time i celebrated raya with the family on my father's side in Seremban and Part Deux for the pics i took while celebrating raya with my family on my mother's side in Kedah. But unfortunately, there wasn't much celebration mood in the pics i took during my time in Kedah - probably because, the climax of Aidilfitri is indeed on the first day of it - and the days that follow after that, the celebration mood declines exponentially (i celebrated first day of Aidilfitri in Seremban)

Coming from a multiracial country, it shouldn't be much of a surprise, if i am myself in fact from a multiracial family :) My mom is of Chinese plus Malay descend and my father, he is a Malayalee Muslim, or Indian in General :) That may explain why i may look different from other members of my family, but don't be fooled :) that's just the appearance, optical illusion if you may. I am just as chinese, just as malay and just as Malayalee as any members of my family :)

Now that you guys have been briefly educated about my family, it's time to get to know some of them :) All the shots in this post were taken in Seremban, so you are only seeing my father's side of the big family :)

As any other average Muslim family that i know, we also kicked off the first day of Raya (after completing the Aidilfitri Prayer of course) with the children asking forgiveness from their parents. Being in my parents house, i have to start first, asking my parents to forgive all the sins i have made to them the past year and promise to be a better person in the future (such a good boy i am) - then it was followed by my brother and little sis.

The atmosphere during that short period of time, was intensely emotional - not that i cried or anything, though both of my mom and little sis did shed a few drops of tears - but emotional nonetheless. Through the simple act of being on your knees, holding your parents hands and trying to be as honest as possible when you are asking for their forgiveness - makes you appreciate for having a family. Not everyone have the privilege being embraced in a family, moreover to still being able to hold and kiss their parents hands :) A stone age ritual for some, but a priceless one for me.

After me and my siblings were done, came one of my cousins, who was somehow 'lost' in my house. He, after seeing what my siblings and i did, decided join us, and repeated the same thing, except he was smiling all along :) funny little guy

As soon as we were finished at our home, the all of us immediately drove to my granny's house. There i met the remainder of my family - all the uncles,aunts and long-time-no-see cousins :) not forgetting my grandma too :)

We ate, we talked, served food to all of the invited guess - it was fun, especially the food part. I can't tell you how much i enjoyed the food, it was delicious. The enjoyment i had was being catalyzed even further by the fact that it has been almost a whole year since i last devoured perfectly cooked Indian dishes. Was too busy eating, totally forgot where i left my camera, plus my hand were, well, occupied :) so, no pics of the foods, sorry.

In the picture above, that's Shania, my 7 years old cousin sister, and below here is her 1 years old little sis :)

in the two double pics below, the first is Nurul and below her, is her elder brother, Rahul

In between time that i had a plate full of food in front of me, i will give my stomach a rest and snaps some pics - all the little kids you see in here, they are all my cousins, small little devils :) My father is the eldest son, so, it make sense that his children are the oldest, biggest, strongest and fairest among them all :) That leaves only the 'Cutest' title to be shared among the others, hehe.

above are my bro, my little cousin sister and my father, below are my aunt and her husband :)

And finally, a picture of the whole family :) it is not every year that we get a chance to gather like this, thank God that i had and opportunity to capture it :)

Awesomeness, i guess that would be all. Before i stop and make myself a cup of latte caramel, i just wanna take this opportunity to wish all of the Muslim that i know or reading this entry right now, a belated Happy Hari Raya Aidilfitri :) raya pon de belated skrg :)

My Mom's Birthday

2008-10-15T18:37:00.000+02:00

Last friday was my mom's birthday, and it has been a family tradition to celebrate one's birthday during midnight the day before. Since it was a rare occasion that we, one whole family get to celebrate birthdays together, my father thought it would be a good idea to make it a little out of the ordinary (for us at least).

So, we went to have supper (midnight remember) at our favourite hotel, it was a buffet - but the food was not very hotel material in my opinion, it is understandable though, because there weren't a lot of crowd at the place. That particular night, we were the only ones there for the buffet, not sure how the hotel could make any profit from the supper buffet. Anyhow, i did enjoy the mutton/beef curry and teh tarik in a tank.

Because there weren't much crowd around, i wasn't too shy to take out my cam and snap some family photos. I have to say, my little sis was the one excited the most to see the camera. So we took turn to camwhore during the time span we were there. The pics turned out to be better than i would expect, despite the whole place being lit only by some breed of tungsten light, really yellow and dim.

In the picture above is my mom and brother and below is my mom with my father :)

Yes, resemblance wise, i am more like my mom and my other two sibling are like my father - owh that reminds me, i haven't introduce my little sis yet, there she is below, cuddling me at my neck while i am checking out the chick at the front desk (kidding)

Don't be fooled by the serious face put on by my brother, he is anything but serious - always know how to make me laugh. Anyway, after the supper at the hotel, we went back to our home sweet home and had our mom blew up some candles, cut the cake and feed it to all of us :) Due to the occasion being in our house, most of the pics were personal in nature, so i couldn't possibly show all of them to you guys, except the the few below, which managed to pass my super strict censorship :p

That's my bro again, fooling around with the cake, before we present it to our mom, told ya he wasn't the serious type :)

And that's the super delicious cheese cake, official cake of the family - there weren't any typos, we call our mom 'mak rose' :) legend has it that i came up with the name - can't really confirm that. I really wish i could share more of the pics, but i really can't, restricted for family members only :)

These were probably, the best pics i took during my 6 weeks stay in Malaysia. Most probably due to its sentimental value :)

Welcome Back to Me

2008-10-13T14:24:00.001+02:00

Hello everybahdy! :) (my little sis likes to say that). It's been quite a while since i last updated. Not that i have lost interest in photography or gave up the 'tiring' job of updating the blog. I was just busy spending my summer holidays in Malaysia with my family. This summer break was super special than normal, because i got to spent a whole month fasting with my family and on top of that, my family and i got to celebrate hari raya aidilfitri as whole for the first time in 3 years. Super awesome, super fun and i was so super happy, that i gained a few kilograms on the way :) Look kinda plump right now to be honest.

So, being in Malaysia for almost 6 weeks, i have quite a few stories/pictures to share, not a lot though, i was spending most of my time in my parents house - but one could expect around 3 new entries in the coming days, not including this one :)

For your info, i just arrived in Aalen about 13 hours ago, after a mixed feeling +-26 hours journey from Kuala Lumpur - 13 hours in plane, 10 hours transit time in bahrain & 3 hours in the train. Why mixed? well, it was pretty sad to leave my family yet again - after spending such a good time together, could still hear the sound of their tears lingering my ears, sob3x.

But then, felt happy for a while, cause, for some unknown reason(more like didn't bother to know), my flight got promoted to business class for the kuala lumpur-bahrain journey (wished it was for the whole journey). it's my first time flying in business class. So, what would u guess a guy, first time being in a business class with a camera in his hand luggage,would do? hurm.

Because it was my first time, i tried to document the experience a little - don't really know when will the next time be, if there will be any next time to get an opportunity like that again :). While i wanted to capture the experience, i also didn't want to appear like some kampung boy - u know, one needs to keep his cool :)

Therefore, i decided to only take pictures of the food, since food could portray levels of luxury pretty well in my opinion. For example, in the economy class, we normal people, will have our main course served in an aluminum pack - while people in the business class seems to enjoy their food on a heavy clay plates :). You get the picture. So, please allow me to start with the appetizers :)

I ordered mushroom soup, but kinda got a piece of satay as well, probably a complimentary of the house. The mushroom soup was kinda weird, cause it had french beans in it as well (the floating green things) - still, it was yummy nonetheless.

Next, for the entree, i got a beef tenderloin in black peppercorn sauce (probably my first time savouring a beef tenderloin, that piece of meat ain't cheap i tell ya)

Then, for dessert, i had mixed fruits as well as pineapple pie - the pie, to describe it in words, was a pineapple jam filled pastry topped with custard sugar (i am sure there is a different name for it, but it's still basically just a lump of sugar). highly NOT recommended for diabetes patients.

After that, about one and a half hour before the plane landed in bahrain, i also ate a turkey sandwich, but unfortunately, didn't take any shots of it, was eating in the dark.

There you go, a few pics of the food from the business class, which hopefully could propagate the luxurious feeling of flying in one. As you can see in couple of the pics, i only had water and juice for drinks - but for the non-Muslims, they were also offered champagne and wine. And, there were a couple who asked for ice cream, and they got two small tubes of Häagen Dazs - i don't think i even got ice cream in the economy class, though you could probably ask for it :)

Khud

2008-08-25T03:39:00.001+02:00

Going back to Malaysia this coming Saturday, yuhuuu - can't wait. Still haven't bought any souvenirs for my family yet. Buying something for my mother,brother and sister is pretty easy, but not for my dad. Having serious problem thinking of something he would like - going to stuttgart tomorrow to shop :)

Anyway, let me introduce to you guys - khud, my senior here in aalen :) What?Another guy??!!! i know, i know. But it can't be helped, i am after all, among engineering students, which common sense will tell, very very little females :(

It was pretty fun taking picture of khud, he is one the kind that throws ideas at me while taking pics. Not only that, there were also times where he will suggests to me how to set-up my lighting. har3

To me, yesterday's photoshoot was more like a learning session than a practice :) Because me and khud had some ideas of the image that i should make, i was spending a lot of time adjusting the lights rather than taking the pics (although i did end up taking load of pics, just not the one i was aiming for).

that's a chocolate actually, not a cigar :) khud doesn't smoke

In the end, i got what i want and learn a few new tricks too in the process of achieving it. Danke khud, who was cool enough to waste time together with me yesterday :)

Sabah

2008-08-06T23:17:00.001+02:00

Suppose to go to Reutlingen this evening to redo the portraiture for Taufiq Shariff, the one i messed up previously. But due to some unforeseen event, i had to cancel the trip,again - was my mistake, not his.

And there i was, in front of my room looking all fine and dandy, even had my deodorant on me, my photography equipments at my side and nothing to do at all. So i went down (i live in the eight floor) to see if my magazine has finally arrived, that way, i could probably waste the spare time i had in hand. But it hadn't arrived yet, even though it has been more than 6 weeks now, schnitt!!!

But only then, from where i stood, i saw the magnificent golden evening light pouring into the reading room - it was cool. I needed a model fast - called Daskin, he was sleeping. So, the other one available left, was pdos a.k.a sabah. I prefer to call him sabah though - will be addressing him that from now on :)

Went to his room and asked if he was willing to be my model again, after last night - he agreed and immediately changed to something decent, while i went down back again and set up the light, had only one, so, not much had to be done. After that and 236 frames later, here was what i got :) All the b&w were taken with natural light and the coloured ones, well, i used a strobe through a white umbrella.

All but one of the b&w shots were taken in the reading room and all of the coloured one was taken at a bar just next to the room (bar for any parties that the student wish to hold at the reading room)

That's all for now, been updating unusually frequent lately, hurm.

Trio

2008-08-06T02:07:00.000+02:00

Just a few night shots i made yesterday together with the help of Daskin,Bruno and Pdos a.k.a sabah. Would say that this was my first night shots i ever made using flash. Normally, i would avoid using flash during the night cause i can't control the spill very well. But sooner or later, i will have to take some night shots too, so, better sooner i guess :).

As usual, i never had a photoshoot free from problems. This time around, its the lack of light (duh!!!) which causes focusing issues and blurriness. But the good thing about shooting with strobes during the night, i don't have to drain a lot of juice from the flash. There were times where i only utilize 1/64 power, which is darn low.

Didn't take a lot of shots though. It was late and we just had dinner,thus making us very sleepy very fast, especially during my setup process - i could hear the 'models' yawn like they were breathing, hehe. But they maintained their coolness at times when i wasn't, which i appreciate really much :) thanks guys

All the shot above was made at a nearby parking lot :) and by the way, that's my bicycle he's abusing

This shot here, was taken at one of the stairs heading up to the University's Old Building :)

Lastly, this was shot at the bicycle garage at my hostel :) That's all -- full.stop.

An Evening with Daskin

2008-08-02T01:05:00.000+02:00

What better way to waste your time other than to do something you really enjoy - time moves faster that way, i am sure all of you procrastinator out there agree with me :)

Being almost bored to death yesterday, i immediately called Daskin, my on call model, he is always ready for any photoshoot session. He likes to have his pics taken and i in turn like to practice taking pics - and everyone is happy :)

Since the session was a spontaneous one - i didn't have much idea in my mind. All i did was, just walk somewhere, find something cool to work with, takes some initial shots with available light,then put up a strobe, shoot again, then move to the next place.

All together, i was shooting for about 2 hours yesterday. We took shots at two places, the first one was along a dog path in the forest and the other at the side of Aalen Wald Stadion.

Yesterday's photoshoot was totally different compared to the one on last Monday. First being, i took all the shots seen in this entry with only my 50mm lens. Next was,these pictures had only minor post processing, mainly colour and tonality correction, sharpening and noise reduction - and for the b&w, i also add vignette and burned the edges - seems like a lot, but believe me, this is very minimal for me :) And thats not all, i also took 245 pics i think, within the 2 hours yesterday, compared to 300 shots within +/- 5 hours on Monday, hehe :)

Anyway, as a side note, i learnt something valuable today. Actually, i knew about it for quite sometime now. NEVER ever trust the freaking LCD at the back of your cam. At least i can't trust mine - it always show my pics brighter than it's actually is. I am not sure what i am doing wrong, but from now on, i am only gonna look at the Histogram, that's it, nothing else *except for when checking the light in the shot*

Reutlingen

2008-08-01T16:18:00.000+02:00

Nothing much to write in this entry except just to share a few pictures i made last monday when i was in Reulingen. Was there to do a few portraiture shots for a friend of mine, Taufiq Shariff. But as ambitious i was, it didn't turned out the way i wanted it too - kinda upset about it the whole week. Planning to redo the whole thing next week. Hopefully it will turn out better since there are a few things changed since last monday (one being, i have seen all of the shots and kinda know what worked and what didn't and what can be improved)

So for time being, just as a fill before the next session, i would like to showcase a few of the shots that came out decent.

the picture above was taken by Taufiq Shariff :)

Aalen Stadtlauf

2008-07-20T15:23:00.000+02:00

Woot! Another entry,with only 1 day apart from the previous one :) A rare occasion indeed. Anyway, Aalen had a City Marathon yesterday, or Stadtlauf, as they say it in german. It was my first to attend such an event. If i have to describe the whole thing with just one word, it would definitely be 'Awesome', can't think of any other :)

I just love everything about the marathon. The energy, the colours, the spirit, the participation of the whole city and when everyone seems to know everyone just makes the event even more interesting. The way the crowds give their continuous support to the runners just blows my mind away. I mean, it doesn't matter if you are handicaped, crying (kids) or the last guy/girl running 1km behind the closest flock, the crowd will still cheer for you. It gave a big boost to the whole excitement and i am pretty sure the runners could feel the energy flowing endlessly from the side audience.

The marathon was divided to 3 main parts, Kids, Students and Main Marathon (my guess, it's for anyone who has the balls to run 10km straight). I skipped the ones for students, big mistake!!! Because that is the one with a lot of girls running in it. Well, there is always next year :)

Opto Party

2008-07-19T04:02:00.000+02:00

If this blog was a book, it would be fully coated with dust by now and probably has some spider webs on top of it too,as a bonus.It is almost a month since i last updated the blog, crazy. Nothing interesting to shoot, so thats why.

But yesterday, something finally came up, fuhh! Daskin, being the bearer of the good news, asked me if i could take some pictures at a party that he and his course mates are holding. I wanted to immediately say yes to the offer, but then it spontaneously came trembling down my mind - party==(loads of strangers) - and yours truly here, doesn't blend with strangers really fast. Especially, when they don't speak english or malay, it gonna take super long for me to get acquainted.

All the issues apart, i did take up the offer and miraculously, managed to capture some decent shots as well, considering my problem above. Daskin told me that the event will begin at 5pm, i got there 5.30, still nothing, at 6pm, they finally started, but by then, i was already wandering away from the party, looking for a good spot for a photoshoot, came back 10 minutes later though.

When i came back, they already started with the games, games that are only to be played by the professors. It was amazing that in 10 mins, almost all of the profs had already played the games,and only 3-4 left,still waiting for their turn.

Apart from making their profs lugging around a coconut in front of their schlong (which i was seriously amazed,how did they persuade their profs to do that!)
and playing a 'Survivor' style bowling - they also had a limbo game, but the profs ran through the limbo stick so fast (they even cheated) that i didn't get a single shot of it at all.

Funny enough, the winners of the whole game had to wear something that was, IMO, equally embarassing outfit as the game itself. But the profs were a bunch of good sports. The students had a good laugh and i got my shot :)

And if you guys wanna know the 'devils' behind all of the suffering that the profs had to go through yesterday, i took a shot of them as well (previously was scouting a spot for this group shot)

Zen

2008-06-25T02:27:00.000+02:00

Was browsing the internet yesterday (main activity for most procrastinators, especially me) and suddenly had the urge to read what my horoscope has to say (not that i believe in it). The exact quote: 'It's a good day to rediscover an old part of your life. Dig through some old photos'

So i did. And surprise surprise - found a few photos that i really liked but didn't know what to do with them before. Well, i had a few ideas, but kinda lack the will power to execute it. Half of the photos fell into the minimalism category, not a very strong point of mine.

To be honest, i really like minimalism in photography. I envy people who could see beauty in simple things. Unfortunately for me, I seem to have 'excessive of everything' imprinted into my gene.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - will try to remember that the next time i press the shutter =)

~ fin ~

Berrylicious

2008-06-15T02:39:00.000+02:00

Strawberries... not one the fruits that i am very fond of, can't explain why. But somehow, a few of my friends and i went to a nearby strawberry field yesterday. The reason? For them, it is to eat strawberries, of course. But for me, i just wanted to snap some pics. It has been three whole weeks since i took some serious pics and as silly as it may sound, it's a mental torture.

The trip was a new experience for me. Normally, the only place i would see strawberries are in supermarkets, in plastic packages. So it was a totally new thing - being in a strawberry field, plucking the strawberries myself and eating them fresh. Though i said that i don't really like strawberries, but the strawberries that i ate yesterday tasted almost like candies - juicy wholesome candies from the ground. So i confess, they are not all that bad and i could now understand why a lot of people like them.

Anyway, i took a lot of pics yesterday (couldn't say the same for the amount of strawberries i ate, was more busy shooting than eating). Went to the field with loads of ideas, failed to execute all of them - but still ended up with shots that i like (i have too, i took them). Hope you guys will enjoy browsing the pics =)

Yellow

2008-05-25T00:33:00.000+02:00

Have you ever wanted to take pictures in a field full of flowers? I know it sounds and even looks cheesy to begin with, but to be honest, it is one of the theme photo that i really wanted to shoot for quite sometime now.

A few days back, i have spotted this, what i believe to be, a Rapeseed field - basically, a field full of yellow flowers. Since then, i couldn't stop thinking of going there, dragging a few of my friends together and have some fun camwhoring. So, yesterday (it was already past midnight when i started typing this entry) i finally did - tricking a few of my friends to join the adventure (it is quite a distance away from our hostel). And ouh, that's bruno banani again at left =)

I don't have much to elaborate about this trip except that it was fun, i did a lot of experiments while taking the pictures and also made a few of the typical shots that everyone would take if they are in such a place =)

In all of the images, the sky wasn't really being in my favour, it was cloudy and i could catch next to nothing in terms of details for the sky. If it was just bright blue, it would have been a perfect day. But one could only ask for so much, we have to live with what we have, i guess =)

Ah, if you are wondering, all of the images were taken with my brand new broken lens from last week's entry - it is performing pretty well i would say, for a lens that just had an accident =) (haven't send it for repairs yet, have to wait for next month)

The Aalbäumle Tragedy

2008-05-17T17:19:00.000+02:00

For you guys who never met me, that's not me in the left, that's bruno banani. He is from sabah and currently studying electronics here in aalen. Sometimes i like to call him 'kuda' or horse - because that's the only animal came into my mind when i was trying to make a relative comparison of his stamina.

But, this blog isn't about him and his relation to a horse. It is about me and my account of things that i find interesting =) Most of it will be accompanied by loads of images, because i kinda like taking pictures.

Anyway, i thought it would be a really good idea to start off my first entry showing a few images i took yesterday about the trip that bruno, daskin and i made to Aalbäumle.

It was friday morning, sometime about 7.30 when started our journey. We initially planned to cycle all the way up to the top of the hill, but it proven to be too challenging, tiring and well, slow. There was one point, where i was cyling uphill and bruno overtook me while pushing his bike. So, we ended up carrying our bike all the way up and made a few stops on the way to enjoy the scenery (excuse used to rest a little).

That is daskin (top) and me pretending to carry our bike while being photographed (bruno was also guilty of this).

I don't really know how long it took us to reach the top - but when we finally did, it had a good feeling to it - at least i felt something, it is probably the feeling of relieve *finally all the suffering is over*

At the top of Aalbäumle, there is a tower which you could climb up and have a 360° view of Aalen. But to be honest, we didn't care much at all about the view, probably because it was not the best time to enjoy such scenery (not sunset or sunrise). So we ended up taking a lot of pictures up there and then, when we were done, each of us hid something up at the tower - just something for us to look forward to the next time we decide to climb Aalbäumle back again.

And then, before we cycle downhill - we took the compulsory shot of all Aaleners (only apply to malaysian studying in Aalen) - the jumping-with-style shot. Below are two of jumping shots i took that day.

There was also a few shots of me jumping, but i prefer not to post it in here due to personal reasons =) After that, since we were already at the top, the only way left was going down - and it was a really really fast and furious journey towards the bottom of the hill. I felt like i was on a rollercoaster except that i didn't do the 360° or cork screw move. But the story didn't end there. Though we have left Aalbäumle, we were still moving downhill - FAST. And...... i had a small accident - colllided with daskin to be exact, on the road.

Don't even ask why i was smiling while being examined at the hospital - i am still trying to think for a plausible explanation. I was aching from head to hip and i was happily smiling at the hospital!

Daskin also had a minor injury from the accident. But we weren't the only casualties, there is one other.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

let me introduce to you, my less-than-a-week old lens =) but luckily, the damage wasn't anything serious, only the filter thread was broken. Amazingly, there wasn't a single scratch on the front element and the lens retained all of its functions. I still need to send it off for repairs though *sad*