sungai congkak, hulu langat, selangor. streams of slow shutter...

salam and hi to all,

i just got back from sungai congkak, hulu langat, selangor. we joined an activity set up my wife's colleagues for their students. the events were lively and i had captured almost all of them through my trusted canon eos 60d.

i had planned for this capture before we even reached sungai congkak. i knew this was an opportunity not to be missed.

the water was cool and refreshing. using my tripod, i set up my gear near one of the streams. the camera settings are watermarked on the photos for you to see.

the first photo was the original scene while the second one was the same scene with slow-shutter technique being applied (and zoomed a bit too). the third and final photo was taken a different stream.

below are the photos :

as always, thank you for reading and viewing my photo blog and maybe leaving some comments at the end of it all. your comments are welcomed and appreciated. until next time, happy capturing great photos and have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

bukit kayu hitam and its sunset...

salam and hi to all,

on my way back from hatyai, thailand, we stopped by a petrol station for an asar prayer. it was already a bit late for us to perform the prayer but the responsibility needed to be carried out.

while waiting for the rest of us praying, i noticed the sun was setting and colours were remarkably yellow and orange. without haste, i took out my trusted camera and set it up on the tripod. I managed to capture these photos as the sun was setting down the horizon. the sun's rays can be clearly seen in the photos.

God creates, we appreciates. Below are the photos captured on that beautiful early evening.

as always, thank you for reading and viewing my photo blog and maybe leaving some comments at the end of it all. your comments are welcomed and appreciated. until next time, happy capturing great photos and have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

light trails on the streets of hatyai, thailand...

salam and a nice day to all,

this is yet another example of trails of lights are captured using the slow-shutter technique. slowing down the shutter close can create excellent effects especially during the nights where lights are amplified and captured with all its glory.

this time the subject was the streets of hatyai city in thailand. a family excursion and the scene was right in front of me. well, not in front actually but more of below me as i was at level 4 of the hotel.

using my tripod, i managed a stabilized capture of the streets below.

now i present to you the photos :

as always, thank you for reading and viewing my photo blog and maybe leaving some comments at the end of it all. your comments are welcomed and appreciated. until next time, happy capturing great photos and have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

kellie's castle. a short encounter...

salam and hi to all,

the kellie's castle is one of the famous tourist attractions in perak. it is situated near batu gajah town and about 26km from ipoh city (capital city of the state of perak).

on my way home to putrajaya, i stopped by there and captured this photo. i used a nd filter for this shot as i needed more practice on how to apply the nd filter better.

unfortunately, the result was not impressive enough. the capture was a bit shaky as the tripod was set-up on soft sand instead on a hard ground (such cemented platform or the tarmac). thus a slight variation of movement (ie from the shutter trying to focus or from me) caused the tripod to slightly shake and pretty much blurred details of the photo being taken.

a lesson is learnt here. below is the photo of kellie's castle in perak :

as always, thank you for reading and viewing my photo blog and maybe leaving some comments at the end of it all. your comments are welcomed and appreciated. until next time, happy capturing great photos and have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

reflections on a pool...

salam and a nice day to all,

as promised in one of my recent blog entry, i will post some photo captures of a pool and its surrounding at one of the famous resorts in port dickson, negeri sembilan.

using the slow-shutter technique (and my trusted tripod), i managed to capture these photos. i really the reflections seen on the water and lightings near the pool had helped clarify the details even more. thanks to my wife and son for their understanding as they had waited for me during the whole 30 minutes photography session.

without further ado, here i present to you the photos that i had promised you :

the second photo however, seemed a bit over-exposed. there seemed to be a bit too much white reflected on the water surface. i had applied the same shutter speed for both photos. what i should have done was to shorten the shutter speed a bit to limit little bit of lights coming into the lens.

thank you for reading and viewing my photo blog and maybe leaving some comments at the end of it all. your comments are welcomed and appreciated. until next time, happy capturing great photos and have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

waves of slow-shutter..

salam and a nice day to all,

when i had the chance to stay in port dickson, negeri sembilan i took the liberty to capture waves along its famous shores.

although i had taken literally almost 30 shots, just one of them is considered (by me, sorry) as worthy to be posted here. this was second (or third, i can't remember. sorry) attempt at using a nd filter to block too much light coming into my lens when i had the shutter slowed down quite long. and the photo was taken during day time thus blocking the light would be more rigorous.

below is the photo mentioned above :

as i had not got the chance to explore the shores more (as much as i would like to), i had to be contented with this shoreline instead. the waves were 'small' and there were no rock formations to show splashes or any other interesting features you would expect from a sea-shore landscape photos.

i will explore this type of landscape or nature photography more in the future when i have the opportunity.

thank you for reading my photo blog. until next time, have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

A few close-ups...

salam and nice day to all,

how is everything been going on with all of you? hope the best things come to you many different directions. and i do hope that the love and passion for photography has not died down or even worst, completely dead on its tracks.

a few weeks ago i had been given the opportunity to stay at one of the best resorts in port dickson, negeri sembilan. the stay was enjoyable and i had fun there. the fun part i meant was the times given to me to play around with my camera yet again.

i took a few shots at some of the flowers decorated around the pool area of the resort. i'll post some shots of the pool side (at night) later to show reflections on water and lights surrounding it.

at this time, i had not had the pleasure of a prime lens to capture photos with commendable bokeh effects yet. i will also post photos captured using 50mm F1.8 prime lens when i have the chance.

thus, with my trusted canon eos 60D and its kit lens 18-135mm IS, i shot the photos below for your viewing eyes. please comment them as i am learning by doing, experiencing the rights and wrongs of photography every time i have the chance.

happy capturing great photos people, till next time, have a pleasant day ahead. wassalam and bye bye.

Higher contrast in images...

Salam and hi to all,

After a few days without shooting any images using my trusted camera, I finally resorted to capture images around my workplace. The buildings may look dull to some but, it is where I work and earn my living. A place of gratitude and love for work and friendships.

Thus some images were captured and edited in Adobe Lightroom to more interest to the colours. Using a HDR preset in Lightroom and after some tweaking of my own, the results are the images below. By increasing some of the prominent colours, hopefully I can push the images a bit closer to beauty and greatness.

by pushing the colours' intensity, I am able to add more details to each images. However, I would like to remind you not to over-do-it as it may backfires and caused the images more harm than good. Having said that, to leverage the need to increase or not to increase the colour intensity will depend on your experience and perhaps opinions of colleagues and friends.

Till next time, have a wonderful times with you beloved camera and continue capturing the world and its splendour. Bye and wassalam.

Light Trails...

Salam and hi to all,

An opportunity has presented itself. While I was resting at my in-laws house somewhere in Seri Iskandar, Perak I saw a window of opportunity to shoot light trails left by vehicles on the road. The night was quiet and a bit lighted (due to quite a few street lights nearby). Quite a few vehicles passed through the roads in front of the house and this was perfect for this sort of shots.

I set up my tripod and attached my trusted camera to it. A trigger was also connected to the body of the camera to ensure steady and sharper images. The produced images were quite alright after a few tries.

I chose Manual Mode with settings slow shutter speed and ISO remained at 100.

Below are some of the shots taken on that night :

Try it out and see the results. Happy photo shooting people. Wassalam and good night.

Danga Bay and some shots...

Salam and hi to all,

After some times, I have been given the opportunity to go to Johor Bahru, Johor. I have been to Johor Bahru a few times before, however those times were quite long time ago. I was given a ride around the Johor Bahru town by a few colleagues and we had dinner together. Thank you to En. Johari and En. Daing for their hospitality and kindness. Without them, my friend and I would not have gone out and see Johor Bahru and its glory at night. Special thanks to En. Nordin for facilitating us in our work. Essentially, without him, the work would have been harder to complete.

We stopped by the famous Danga Bay, one of the famous attractions in Johor Bahru. Danga Bay, during its infancy, was quite mundane and less attractive. There were a few rides for the children and a paid ferry service was available as visitors and their families. Stalls with some delicacies were there for tourist and locals to enjoy and some of dishes were quite tasty.

Now Danga Bay is livelier with more permanent restaurants, fun-fares and rides for children and adults alike and a pier for boats and yachts. However, I missed the stalls and the laid-back coziness they bring with them. The food-stalls were replaced with a hall designated for in-door functions. I guess prosperity is given heavier weightage on the place than the cozy and relaxing environment which I had the pleasure of experiencing quite a few years ago. How time has change. I sure hope the hawkers find better and more profitable places to continue their food-stall business.

Below are some of the photos that I managed to capture on the night. I forgot to bring my trusted tripod thus some of the captures were a bit shaky and less focused. I am sorry. I will try to do better next time.

Thank you for your time. I hope to see you all soon. Happy capturing great moments and scenes people. Bye and Wassalam.

A bit slow lately...

Assalamu'alaikum and hi to all,

My personal times for photography kind of slows down a little bit nowadays. I have other priorities to take care off. Every now and then, I saw some great opportunities to capture good scenes along the ways to my home from work. The three towers in Putrajaya are beckoning me, almost inviting me to stop and compose my shots. But I know, once I am in the 'zone', it is quite hard for me to let go.

Thus, finding the right times is first hurdle I have to jump over. Will keep on looking...

Until next time, wassalam and good day to all.

Saw promising future...

Assalamu'alaikum and hi to all,

Tonight my family went to Alamanda, Putrajaya to buy groceries. Along the way to the Carrefour Alamanda, we stopped by RASA Food Court and had dinner together.

While we were walking towards RASA, I saw two girls scrutinizing photo shots through the DSLRs' LCD panel. The way they looked at those photos told me that not all their shots were 'good'. But this also told me that they will continue to capture more photos, honing their skill and multiplying their experiences in their photo taking techniques.

The more people become better in taking photos, the more descriptive and colourful the world would be. And I like that.

Until next time, take care, wassalam and good to all.