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Our good friend from our undergraduate days has graduated successfully, and now we have to address him as Dr. JW Chai.

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to him, a fitting and deserving recognition for his years of labour and hard work.

Somehow he obtained quite a few invitation cards, so a small group of us manage to attend the convocation ceremony along with his family members.

We arrived early in anticipation of the crowd but the situation was alright. The first day is only limited to Ph.D graduates, and there are not many of them per year.

1. Members of the Navy Palapes drilling before the U.M. Chancellor (HRH Sultan of Perak) arrives.

2. We purchased a bouquet of sunflowers, and added the customary toy bear that resembles a graduate.

3. Dr. JW Chai received his scroll from the Chancellor. The pink scarf indicates the colour of the Faculty of Medicine.

No hand shakes or palace gestures, just a simple bow before accepting the scroll.

4.Group photo with all the fresh Ph. Ds.

The official photographers were at a distance on an upper level of the hall.

I wonder how did they manage to fit everyone’s face and still be recognisable.

Perhaps it’s time for medium format and print out in super size dimension.

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6. Group photo with family and fellow laboratory mates. It’s a tradition to have the UM logo and date stamp as backdrop in every convocation events.

Lending a hand to a friend, I covered a dinner event and help out photographing the actual traditional Chinese wedding aka tea ceremony the very next morning.

The house function was held in Eng Ann, Klang. And the part being a local is that I met a lot of guests that have known me from somewhere else. Most were surprised to see me photographing and covering an event, as they have thought I held a different permanent day job. Oh well!  

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4. I’m impressed with the low-light capability of my aging D300. I had to shoot without flash in order to avoid red colour cast from the red tent, so I boost up my ISO levels.

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This is a continuation of the previous post that celebrated Liyin‘s birthday.

Just realised another roll of scanned film sitting quietly somewhere in one of the picture folders. No wonder Liyin asked me the other day why only so few pictures. The exposure was a bit dull as I had accidentally narrow the lens aperture, no it’s not that wide opened. Besides, Liyin hates the Kodak 400 with a vengeance.

1. Fine dining. Delicious!

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3. Film entanglement

4. Spaghetti film

5. Death by film

6. The 20mm as chawanmushi

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10. I was amazed when she managed to blow the candle from such a distance! She must have pretty strong lungs!!!

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My good friend offered me an opportunity to cover a very special event (baby shower) for her expecting sister, Pushpa. This event was held to celebrate and bless her seventh month of her first pregnancy.

It was a very colourful event and many rites were completely unknown to me previously. Indeed, I learned the various traditional rites when google-ing for more information while writing this blog.

Being my first time, I was less familiar with certain key events, but it was a good learning experience.

Most of the pictures below were shot with prime lenses, particularly the 35 mm. The tremendous difficulty in using only prime lenses to cover a fast event made me purchase the 24-70mm f/2.8 lens a few weeks later.

1. Tying of jasmine flower gland.

2. A wide angle view of the living hall where the ceremony was held. More and more relatives began to arrive.

The women folk were dressed with their best sarees.

3. On the floor were trays of offerings, consisting of fruits, bangles & bracelets (lots of them),  sweets, jasmine flowers, and spices (betel nut and leaves).

4. The ceremony kicked off when Muttu (husband) blessed his wife by sprinkling fragrant water. This was then followed by the rest of the relatives.

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8. Slipping of bangles.

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11. Haldi-kumkum (vermillion) was put on her forehead.

12. Elaborate mehendi (henna) pattern on her hands.

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14. The savouring of sweets.

15. Fed by her mother.

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17. Now we understand why this event is also known as Valaikaappu. It literally means bangles and bracelets, and here the expecting mother was adorned till arms length.

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19. The ceremony ends with Mutukupal, a traditional Hindu rite that is practised commonly in the region of Tamil Nadu.

Mutuku means the back part of the body, and pal means milk.

The milk was first poured from a metal cup onto a shell and betel leaf.

20. Then, the milk was poured down her back, and collected onto a tray.

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More pictures: here.

Bringing a bag full of camera gears, I was able to shoot this year’s Thaipusam in both film and digital.

One advantage of shooting digital is the ability to change ISO at your whims, and to able to use TTL flash exposure. With films, I had to wait for the Sun to rise.

1. Once we had arrived, we began to head towards Batu River to capture the initiation rites. However, it was a bit chaotic this year due to change of route and some new constructions. We ended up taking the longer route, which was to cross the commuter station, headed towards the main road before going towards the usual site.

2. If only I had a zoom lens, I could have better composed this shot to include more of the devotee on the right. At this point of time, my longest reach was the 105mm VR and it was impossible to walk a few steps backward from my position. 

3. Dawn, and it’s time to bring out my film camera.

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5. Unfortunately, I was forced back to shooting digital as a newly loaded film seemed to be stuck and would not progress to the next frame when wind. Oh gosh, look at the morning sky, it was so easily blown out!

Such is the limitation in digital’s dynamic range.

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11. The following pictures where shot from a make-shift stage meant for press photographers. The press were not around, so we took the opportunity and the perspective from higher ground was certainly different.

Mind you, the make-shift stage was quite flimsy and shaky. We dared not stay for too long. 

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14. Lord Murugan, with a touch of digital lomo.

My fourth Thaipusam event. WOW! I have been covering Thaipusam at Batu Caves year after year ever since 2007.

This time, I was the tour guide for Jellyikan, Zybisko14 and the gangs. However, I was a bit lost at Batu Caves especially early in the morning as the site had changed a lot due to some extra constructions: with the new commuter station and an overhead bridge.

Equipped with the FM2n and Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 50mm f/1.4 and a Kodak 400, I had to wait for the Sun to rise before began shooting. I’m just not courageous enough to shoot film with flash set on manual settings. 

Oh film, I just love the colours and tonality. 

1. When the Sun had risen, I started to shoot around the newly built overhead bridge, where the initiation rites for many began.

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13. Flight of the pigeons, as I looked up above.

14. From the series below, I was using the AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D, in order to get nearer to where the actions were.

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Ha, this is my very first time attending a Merdeka Parade in Kuala Lumpur.

When I was a kid, I used to get very excited seeing the army marching down the lane. That’s the time when you see the tanks and the canons.

But as years passed by, I resort to catching the live telecast on the TV or most of the time, I just gave it a missed for the extra sleep on a holiday.

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2. Some sat on a water tank to get a better view.

3. A royal guard of the Malay Regiment.

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7. Fire-ladies

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9. Looked like toy soldiers, and the rifle looked kinda out-dated.

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15. Dato’ Hishammuddin Hussein, as the Education Minister at that time, mingling with the student crowd.

Was very difficult to take a clear shot as he was always surrounded by his over-zealous bodyguards.

It was all done in a hurry. Picked up my second-hand film camera (FM2n) at Shah Alam in the evening, went to J-One to purchase a Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 AF-D lens, then headed directly to Wat Chetawan for some test shot.

First, images from film.

Location: Wat Chetawan, Petaling Jaya

Lens: AF-D 20mm f/2.8

Film: FUJICOLOR SUPERIA 200

1. Applying gold leaf on a statue of Phra Phrom.

2. Row of oil lamps. The heat was unbearable if you stayed too long.

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4. Alms giving.

And now, images from dSLR.

5. Holy water blessing.

6. Scene on the temple ground. On the right were the oil lamps.

7. Renewal of charms and talismans.

8. Money does grow on trees.

9. Monks.

10. Fireworks display.

11. On a full moon night.

12. Coin donation.

There was a monk beside me at that point of time. He was holding a dSLR and was photographing this girl. I joined in for the photoshoot.

I’m spamming my own blog with archived pictures since 2007.

This is part of my own documentation process. 

The first time owning a dSLR (D40), I was eager to shoot and document an event. And what better major event than Thaipusam?

1. On the night when the silver chariot [transporting  Lord Muruga and his consorts (Valli and Teivayanni)] was moved to Batu Caves, there was a mini sent off at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Petaling Street.

2. Let’s smash coconuts! 

3. You smash, you clean the road yourself.

4. Kali, Goddess of Destruction

5. Henna body art

6. A devotee who rolled all the way from Petaling Streets to Batu Caves. 

7. Within Batu Cave.

8. Sweet stall, specialising in Indian sweets.

9. Ritual initiation before bearing the kavadi.

10. Brrrrrrrrrr…….. 

Cold shower in the early morning, by the Batu River.

11. More group shower

12. Painful insertion. Not for the weak-hearted.

13. Through the cheeks.

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15. Swaying from side to side

16. Huge drama when he accidentally dropped his fire pot.

17. He must have forgotten to remove the price tags. 

18. Some Chinese devotees.

Thaipusam’s appeal is not only limited to the Indians.

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21. Uncomfortable footwear.

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24. Taking a break, the burden up the flight of stairs should be very heavy.

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26. Statue of Hanuman

27. Hare Krishna group

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30. Lastly, the barbers made a brisk business on that day.

1. Back to the smaller tents, and the fans were enjoying themselves.

2. Naturally 7. Primarily a vocal group, they belted out strong performance without any instrumental backups.

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7. KoRn was about to begin, so I hurried back to the main stage.

8. Spectral birds above the singer?

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10. Hardcore head-banging!

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12. And he wore a very nice skirt!

13. Didn’t shoot much afterwards.
Was chased away by the securities after KoRn’s third song.

Overall, I did enjoy myself very much at the 2009 Sunburst. It was such a nise expoure to various music bands other than boring pop songs.

However, the absence of Erykah Badu showed the poor planning part by the organisers. In addition, certain untowards incidents related to N.E.R.D and Agrikulture (Indonesia) may jeopardised the future of Sunburst Kuala Lumpur. Link

The present organiser did not properly process the above performers’ permits to hold performance here, but a the same time the Malaysian authorities were too restrictive when determining the necessary criteria. In this case, refusal of granting permits was said to be due to moral concern, which is quite a subjective matter.

Hopefully, another better organiser will be willing to put up next year’s Sunburst. Else, it would be such a pity if such a great event is cancelled forever. 

More images here: Link