Symphony of Lights – in Malaysia!

People who have visited Hong Kong must be familiar with the show known as Symphony of Lights. The show is played at Victoria Habour at 8 o’clock every evening.

In conjunction with Lunar New Year 2012, Thien Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur had staged a similar show. Though on a much smaller scale, the show was no less interesting…

The temple…

Playing with zoom…

Here you go, the show of lights…

As in the past years, Thien Hou Temple was decorated with large number of lanterns…

One thing I like about Thien Hou Temple is that devotees are told to burn just 4 joss sticks – one for the Deity of Haven, and one for each of the three in-house deities. Traditionally, Chinese burn 3 joss sticks for every deity. By burning fewer joss sticks, Thien Hou Temple is considerably less smoky. This is good for the health of the people and the environment…

My Hong Kong Trip (IV)

Ngong Ping Village

In my last post, I wrote about the cable car ride from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping.

After getting off the cable car, we arrived at Ngong Ping Village. This was a theme village with traditional Chinese architecture. There were shops selling souvenirs and eateries. Ngong Ping Village was very touristy, but I must say that it was quite interesting.

The square...

Bubbles!

Distances to the world, with the Giant Buddha at the background...

Po Lin Monastery

Next to Ngong Ping Village was Po Lin Monastery (寶蓮禪寺). The monastery was famous for the Giant Buddha, the world’s largest outdoor bronze statue. The Giant Buddha sat atop a hill. Surrounding the statue was several smaller statues in the shape of fairies (?) A stair of 268 steps led one to the complex. If you don’t feel like making the climb, you can still appreciate the view from below.

268 steps...

Fairies?

The Buddha & the flags...

Joss sticks...

My Hong Kong Trip - Preview

Shot taken at Causeway Bay (銅鑼灣), Hong Kong...

For high-resolution pictures, please check out my Flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kamera-otoko

Thien Hou Temple at Night

Chinese New Year is just over. Thien Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, as usual, was decorated with loads of lanterns during the festival. Last year, I visited the temple during the day. This year, I decided to go there at night. Here are a few night shots taken there…

This is an “out-of-focus” shot. I focused at the far-away lanterns. The nearer ones are rendered out-of-focus…

In this shot, I focused on the statue inside the temple hall…

This is yet another out-of-focus shot. Manual focusing was used to achieve such effect…

An Attempt on Food Photography

As a shutterbug, my interests are in landscape and portrait. Food photography is an area I am weak in. To be fair, my gears aren’t so great for this type of shooting – no macro lens, no image stabilization (IS). Anyway, having come across so many mouth-watering food photos on the Web, I decided to give it a try…

The first three pictures below were shot next to the window of a restaurant. Due to the ample sunlight, I managed to take these pictures without firing the flash:

The next picture was shot away from the window, and flash was fired:

How do I rate my own photos? 5 out of 10. I need to try harder, maybe getting a lens with IS.

All shots were taken at Fun Taipei Café （趣台北）in SS2, Petaling Jaya…

It’s Festive Season again

Santa Girl wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

Bonus pic – four-eyed beauty…

More picture on my Flickr.

KL International Motor Show 2010

Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show 2010 (KLIMS ’10) was held from Dec 3 to Dec 12. For those who had not been able to visit the fair, here are some pictures for sharing…

One of the star attractions of in KLIMS was Chevrolet Camaro. This is the car which appears in the movie Transformers as Bumblebee:

Many car makers showcased ‘green vehicles’ in the show. One was them was Insight, Honda’s entry level hybrid vehicle:

Mitsubishi, on the other hand, presented the kawaii (cute) iMiev:

Even Proton, Malaysia’s car maker, displayed a few green vehicles. Shown below are an electric vehicle and a charging station:

Perodua, another Malaysian car maker, displayed a concept car code-named Bezza. I was more interested in the beautiful model though...

Some gorgeous booth babes in the show:

One of the most intriguing thing on display was Honda’s unicycle – code-named U3-X. It could move on smooth surface without tumbling:

A hot girl demonstrating the use of U3-X. Do you think the photographers at the background were more interested in the gadget or the girl?

Many photographers who visited KLIMS were disappointed, as they were expecting to see sport cars. Instead, they were presented with green vehicles. I wonder if I were the only Malaysian excited by clean tech. It looks like the Earth Hour observed in this country every year has failed to instill environmentalism among Malaysians.

Loy Krathong in Malaysia

Loy (“to float”) Krathong (“a leaf cup”) – the most charming festival in Thailand – honors both Buddhist traditions and the ancient water spirit of Mae Kong Ka, the Mother Waters of the Ganges River. Loy Krathong perhaps dates back to Hindu India, but the present form was developed by the Thais at Sukhothai to honor the rains which had watered the earth and to wash away the sins of the previous year.

Loy Krathong begins with a full-day parade of beauty queens, floral floats, and hundreds of participants dressed in historical costumes. As the sun falls, pilgrims launch thousands of tiny banana-leaf boats, each carrying a single candle, onto the rivers and lakes throughout the kingdom – a wonderful, delicate illusion enhanced by the light of the full moon.

(Carl Parkes, Thailand Handbook)

I didn’t go to Thailand, but a Thai temple in Malaysia, Wat Chetawan, celebrated this festival on Nov 20, 2010. Out of curiosity, I went there for a look. As I had sent my DSLR to Canon for service, all my pictures were taken with Panasonic Lumix…

Playing with Focus

Teddy & Renee

One oft-used technique in portrait photography is to focus on the subject(s), but make the background out-of-focus. By ‘blurring’ the background, we make sure that the viewers will fix their eyes on the subject(s).

However, in shooting the picture shown above, I purposely did the reverse – focus and the soft toy and make the pretty model out-of-focus. But you probably need to enlarge the picture to see the difference. Ideally, I would like the model to be more blurry, but there were limitations to my gears.

Photography is about creativity. All rules can be broken…

A bite of sweet Apple

Back in July, I had a chance to photograph a model in kimono & yukata. Recently, I joined another photo session whereby the model was dressed in yukata. It was a different model though, and at another location. Here are some shots for sharing…

By the way, can you guess the name of the model?

Girl in Cheongsam

One week after I photography a model in kimono, I took part in another similar event. This time, the model wore cheongsam (a.k.a. qipao 旗袍). The organizer even brought a guzheng (古筝), a type of music instrument originated in China. The venue was Sau Seng Lum Exhibition Centre in Puchong. Here are a few shots for sharing…

This is a challenging shot: The hall was slightly dark, but it was sunny outside the window. I was unable to get the exposure right. The model is “playing” guzheng in this picture…

Can you spot her name?