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It was a boring 2010 Chinese New Year. Zybisko14 and I decided to do something wild and impromptu, which involved driving all the way to the East Coast on a 2-day trip.

From Klang, I drove to Seremban to pick my friend. Then, we headed towards Perak and had a short rest near the Lake Temenggor Lake. Interestingly, we saw two pillboxes at each end of the bridge. The night sky was filled with stars and pity that we did not bring along a tripod to shoot star trails.

In the morning, we travelled along the East-West Highway to Kelantan.

1. The Titiwangsa mountains or mountain range.

2. An open air tunnel. Not too sure why it’s not fully enclosed.

3. At an open field in Kelantan.

The young jockey was training a young stallion. Notice that he rode the horse without a saddle.

The training was pretty brutal as there were more punishments than rewards, and punishments involve flying kicks!

4. Another jockey-stallion pair.

5. Pasar Siti Khadijah, Kota Bharu

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7. She was having her lunch, and at the same time feeding the cat.

8. Salted fish/dried fish.

9. The steam corn seller on the way to Pantai Cinta Berahi or the “Passionate Love Beach”.

We met 2 years ago, when I stopped by for some corns. She remembered me, and this time I had a picture of her taken. Too bad, she blinked and I was not given a second chance for a retake.

10. At Duyong Island, Terengganu. Reputable for its traditional boat makers, but we could not find any that were active during our visit.

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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A long overdue post. 

Together with Zybisko14, we celebrated liyin‘s birthday recently at TGIF, PJ. All of us brought our own film cameras (mostly FM2ns), a variety of lenses, films, and a SB 900 flash (mine).

I was pleasantly surprised and frankly quite impressed when our films had been developed and scanned. Apparently, our guesstimates and manual settings of the SB 900 turned out to be correct, and the exposures were right on the spot. Of course the Fujifilm NPH 400 helped a lot too. Most of the time, we shot with our lenses wide open.

Some of these images may have ben shot by either zybisko14, liyin, or me. Can’t remember much on the details as we were really much into our craziness and zaniness, courtesy of our willing model. 

1. Zybisko14, intending to torture his dinner.

2. Look at the table! It’s practically full with our gears. 

Liyin was holding the only digital camera that day.

3. A feast of camera gears.

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5. With added salt and pepper.

6. This was worse than prying open an oyster or a clam. 

7. Yikes, only now remember to put on napkin.

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No cameras or lenses were harmed during our shot. Our next door tables and staffs of TGIF must have been bewildered by our crazy antics.

For more pictures:

1. http://zybisko14.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!60E1553A429B104!2036.entry

2. http://designerinpajamas.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/my-birthday-celebration-at-tgif/

What was supposed to be another long year-end road trip turned out to be only a day trip to the Cameron Highlands.

It was a long journey, stopped by at Teluk Intan for breakfast but the Chee Cheong Fun stall was closed. Then, I accidentally took the old windy road up the Highlands because my phone’s GPS couldn’t lock on to proper satellite reception. On the way back closed to midnight, Hilux was kissed from behind, by an idiotic drunkard who drove a Harrier. What an uneventful day, almost 24 hours on the road with my students by the time I reached home! 

Film: Fujiflim Superia X-TRA 400, expired.

1. Socks, testing out the Diana F+, which I strongly opined to be just a toy camera.

2. Flower close-up at a bee farm. Not too bad on a manual focusing lens on the FM2n.

3. Bharat Boh Tea plantation. Stopped by the roadside, and took a few landscapes.

The weather was chilling due to slight drizzle every now and then, and the air was so fresh!

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5. Everyone had a camera to play with.

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7. Taken at the look-out point at Boh Tea Plantation. It was extremely misty as the rain had just stopped.

Another plan that we were forced to improvise. We had initially wanted to shoot sunrise at a lake near Bandar Menjalara, but somehow I slept through my alarm. By the time I had woken up (thanks to my friends who finally remembered that I was missing), there was a slight drizzle.

While I was on the way, I made a few phone calls to confirm our new rendezvous point, and my friend was unable to confirm which Kepong Train station they were currently at. Apparently, there are 2 train stations in Kepong, both within 1 km apart: Kepong Sentral railway station and Kepong Komuter station. Talk about plan gone wrong.

By then, we decided to visit the old section of Kepong for a walk-about, and ended spending most of the time shooting around an unoccupied newly built apartment and its playground.

1. A view from the ground. Just testing how perspective vanishes, focal length = 10mm.

2. Triptych of Jellyikan, testing out zybisko14‘s review unit of Blackbird, Fly.

3. Personally, it’s more of a toy than a camera.

It has such limited settings (only 1 shutter speed and 2 aperture modes) and no focusing through the viewfinder (only composition), that one is only limited to sheer fun and lucky shots.

4. Posing my own Nikon Fm2n in front of a flower scrub.

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6. Spotted a co-operative hoverfly, and decided to chase it around for more shots.

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8. Frontal shot.

9. Seeds readily to be dispersed by passing animals or winds.

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Note to self: Lomo film shot with indoor lighting = sickly yellow colours.

Oh well, at least it was still fun to obtain such funky tones and saturations.

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7. Boys Like Girls vs All-American Rejects.

8. Zybisko14 and liyin.

9. Dusk afterglow.

10. Eerie full moon. The tall building is Centro Klang.

Karheng donated me 2 rolls of very expired Kodak Gold 400, and I gave it a try during a shootout in Klang on one Sunday morning.

The colours were very washed out, and reminiscence of old coloured pictures in our school textbooks.

I just realised that the year in my signature is wrong. It should be 2009. LOL!

1. Connaught Bridge Power Station, the oldest power station in Malaysia!

2. The few blocks with bright colours within the power station.

3. An abandoned pylon.

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5. The famous Chong Kok Kopitiam, along Jalan Stesen. They serve good Hainanese coffee and steamed buttered bread.

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7. The old master that mixes your coffee and other drinks.

8. The 2 generations of owners.

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10. An old man by the street.

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12. Tinkerbell (the dog on the right) is seriously one huge dog!

13. The sushi chef of U-Sen, Bandar Baru Klang. I frequently get my discounts and free sushi dishes from him. 

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ILFORD PAN 400 film + FM2n

1. Somewhere in Pekan while on a road trip.

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5. Starbucks at Jusco Bandar Baru Klang.

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7. karheng

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9. And we met up over a pint of Guinness

A continuation of my previous digital series.

These were shot using ILFORD PAN 400 film + FM2n. As this was my first roll of B&W film, I was still taking some time getting used to the film’s characteristics and settings, which are definitely different from shooting digitally.

1. The  railway station. It was a blue sunny day, and how I wished I had loaded colour films instead. 

2. The impatient crowd. The train seemed to take forever to reach this destination.

3. Cropped from a wide angle shot.

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12. Abandoned coach.

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15. The flare made this image washed out.

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18. Back lane in Kluang town.

19.  Food preparation at the back of a mamak restaurant.

A solo outing with both digital and film cameras. Supposed to shoot with another buddy but his alarmed clock failed him.

Film: FUJICOLOR SUPERIA 400

Lens: AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D

1. Cargo lorries, all fully unloaded in the wee hours in the morning.

2. The fish/seafood section,

3. which is next to the non-halal section.

4. As I walked pass by the mutton section, a very sporting Indian seller immediately came forward, started to pose, and requested for his picture to be taken. Together with his assistant.

He supplemented his mutton business by selling crabs too.

Afterwards, he came over to have a look at his picture. But he was bound for disappointment, for I had taken this image with my film camera.

5. However, after making another round, I approached the seller again to pose in front of my digital camera. Of course, he was agreeable to it again.

6. The main market facade.

7. The back portion of the market

8. Proves that you can read and study at any place, even on a trishaw.

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10. A pedlar selling local honey.

11. Huge tank of congee.

12. And lastly, an Indian man in front of his sundry stall.