![Photoblog [2005/09]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o5BryIISbr8/SaAZj2gyL6I/AAAAAAAAFZI/UBo4WGiJmSc/S1600-R/banner2009-2.png)
I'll do the review when I have the chance to fully utilize it in the real world.
for larger images, please click here
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sony SAL-1118 | DT 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Ms. Hypertune @ Mist Club, Bangsar
My media pass sponsored by Sony Xplod Car audio system and Sony Alpha brought me to Mist Club last Saturday for the Ms. Hypertune semi-finals. But since I had to leave early (read: 22:30), I didn't stay for the main stage event where the casual wear and more racy outfits were donned.
Coming weekend (Saturday) will be the finale and if nothing comes in the way, I will be there to get it all down for you people to enjoy! *wink*
"Less talk, more pics" I hear?
The entire Beemer's body is carbon fiber!
More hot stuffs after the jump!
She's one of the judges. A hottie all by herself as well.
Coming weekend (Saturday) will be the finale and if nothing comes in the way, I will be there to get it all down for you people to enjoy! *wink*
"Less talk, more pics" I hear?
The entire Beemer's body is carbon fiber!
More hot stuffs after the jump!
She's one of the judges. A hottie all by herself as well.
Continue reading ...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
5 and a half days in Bangkok
Been to Thailand for work related training recently for a little less than a week. Arrived at airport 2 hours before the departure time for the prerequisite check-in. Since we had time to spare, my colleague and I decided to take the shuttle train to the satellite building for a little stroll - looking out for the price of the liquors in duty free stores.
Stopped by Coffee Bean for a quick coffee break with their daily brew and a scone.
Having the A and B seats and flying North in the evening means you'll have a full view of the setting sun at 35,000 ft above sea level.
On the 110 minutes flight, light refreshments were given - to us, dinner was served. With a choice of chicken or beef, I opted for beef to go with an order of red wine. Portion's not what you would call large either. Just enough for me with still quite a bit of space for more, but not wanting to make use of the puke bag later on should the ride get bumpy, I call it a pretty decent meal.
Accommodation was pre-arranged by the Thai engineers @ All Seasons Gold Orchid, 375 Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Bangkok.
After unpacking and quick freshing up, we went down for a bit of local tour on our own. We had dinner at a hawker stall right in front of the hotel - which turns out to have the best tom yam fish soup we've had the entire trip this time. 2 of us, tom yam soup with lots of fish slices, boiled fish fillet with fried garlic, thai sambal vege, rice and a big bottle of LEO beer only costs us 220 Baht. That's only about RM11 for a meal with 2 dishes of fish and a resulting stuffed gut, absolutely nice!
We continued walking down to see what's around the corner. Small sellers on motorbikes and trishaws selling more food along the road. Grabbed a grilled minced meat stuffed into a sausage jacket for 5 Baht each. Tasty sh*t!
Not being able to find a normal convenience store, we walked into 7-11 to get beer and chips. Beers for 25 Baht a can and big bags of chips for 20 Baht. I smiled.
Headed back to hotel (seen in picture above with green and blue neon lights) and called it a night.
Stopped by Coffee Bean for a quick coffee break with their daily brew and a scone.
Having the A and B seats and flying North in the evening means you'll have a full view of the setting sun at 35,000 ft above sea level.
On the 110 minutes flight, light refreshments were given - to us, dinner was served. With a choice of chicken or beef, I opted for beef to go with an order of red wine. Portion's not what you would call large either. Just enough for me with still quite a bit of space for more, but not wanting to make use of the puke bag later on should the ride get bumpy, I call it a pretty decent meal.
Accommodation was pre-arranged by the Thai engineers @ All Seasons Gold Orchid, 375 Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Bangkok.
After unpacking and quick freshing up, we went down for a bit of local tour on our own. We had dinner at a hawker stall right in front of the hotel - which turns out to have the best tom yam fish soup we've had the entire trip this time. 2 of us, tom yam soup with lots of fish slices, boiled fish fillet with fried garlic, thai sambal vege, rice and a big bottle of LEO beer only costs us 220 Baht. That's only about RM11 for a meal with 2 dishes of fish and a resulting stuffed gut, absolutely nice!
We continued walking down to see what's around the corner. Small sellers on motorbikes and trishaws selling more food along the road. Grabbed a grilled minced meat stuffed into a sausage jacket for 5 Baht each. Tasty sh*t!
Not being able to find a normal convenience store, we walked into 7-11 to get beer and chips. Beers for 25 Baht a can and big bags of chips for 20 Baht. I smiled.
Headed back to hotel (seen in picture above with green and blue neon lights) and called it a night.
Continue reading ...
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Birds in the sky
It so happened that I brought my gears to work.
Tip: When planes are not in view, don't aim your camera at where the sound is coming from!
All images captured in RAW for maximum flexibility.
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Saturday, September 05, 2009
Sony Service Center service dissatisfaction
My A700 is barely 3 months old, but due to frequent lens changes, a couple of dust spots are visible on my images even at mid aperture ranges. So, I decided to bring it to Sony's Service Center at North Point, Midvalley for a sensor cleaning since it's free of charge within warranty periods.
Sending it there was ok, the person at the counter was friendly to talk with, apart from my A700, I even asked if the rubber grip on my A100 could be replaced for free as well. She wasn't sure of it but assured me that she will ask the technician the next day since it was 18:30 by the time I reach there after work.
The problem was when I went for collection. A different person served me. I asked if Ginny (not real name) was there as I wanted know on the status of the A100. Ting (not real name) went to the back after keying in my details and got Ginny out to talk to me. After clarifying that the A100 need to be charged for the rubber grip, I told her that I refused to get it done and thanked her for the effort.
From then on, I dealt with Ting on the collection of my A700. After getting back my body, I tested it on the spot, to my horror, there was this much LARGER piece of dust stuck to my sensor! Nearly 1mm big I assure you (to those less tech-savy, a 1 mm dust on a 12 megapixel sensor is like the size of a car in a football field). Near-furious, I showed her proof that its a job NOT done and demanded a rectification. Ting disappeared to the back of the office, appearing a while later saying that all the technicians have all went back and I would need to leave my camera there if I want to get it cleaned again. They could have checked it thoroughly before informing me that it is cleaned/fixed and ready for collection. By the way, it was nearly 5 working days since I sent it in. But while she was at the back, I took my blower, tried pumping some air towards the sensor hoping to dislodge the piece of dust. Thankfully, it helped and there isn't any dust left.
So ok, fine, I let that go. I asked again if I could have a flashgun to test on my A700 as I also requested them to check and tighten on the hotshoe. To my disappointment, Ting, without a moment's hesitation immediately said no. I then asked again if there's any test unit that they use to test fixed units around at the back. She still insisted not having any. Well, I'm not asking for much, the very least you could do is make an effort to look for one or ACT you're trying to help as much as you could.
Given up hope on Ting, I packed my gears into my bag and left, not before I gave her a stare and telling her that to make sure she inform her technical department that they DID NOT do a good job in a simple task.
Furious I tell you, furious!
Sending it there was ok, the person at the counter was friendly to talk with, apart from my A700, I even asked if the rubber grip on my A100 could be replaced for free as well. She wasn't sure of it but assured me that she will ask the technician the next day since it was 18:30 by the time I reach there after work.
The problem was when I went for collection. A different person served me. I asked if Ginny (not real name) was there as I wanted know on the status of the A100. Ting (not real name) went to the back after keying in my details and got Ginny out to talk to me. After clarifying that the A100 need to be charged for the rubber grip, I told her that I refused to get it done and thanked her for the effort.
From then on, I dealt with Ting on the collection of my A700. After getting back my body, I tested it on the spot, to my horror, there was this much LARGER piece of dust stuck to my sensor! Nearly 1mm big I assure you (to those less tech-savy, a 1 mm dust on a 12 megapixel sensor is like the size of a car in a football field). Near-furious, I showed her proof that its a job NOT done and demanded a rectification. Ting disappeared to the back of the office, appearing a while later saying that all the technicians have all went back and I would need to leave my camera there if I want to get it cleaned again. They could have checked it thoroughly before informing me that it is cleaned/fixed and ready for collection. By the way, it was nearly 5 working days since I sent it in. But while she was at the back, I took my blower, tried pumping some air towards the sensor hoping to dislodge the piece of dust. Thankfully, it helped and there isn't any dust left.
So ok, fine, I let that go. I asked again if I could have a flashgun to test on my A700 as I also requested them to check and tighten on the hotshoe. To my disappointment, Ting, without a moment's hesitation immediately said no. I then asked again if there's any test unit that they use to test fixed units around at the back. She still insisted not having any. Well, I'm not asking for much, the very least you could do is make an effort to look for one or ACT you're trying to help as much as you could.
Given up hope on Ting, I packed my gears into my bag and left, not before I gave her a stare and telling her that to make sure she inform her technical department that they DID NOT do a good job in a simple task.
Furious I tell you, furious!
To be sure that it is not a mark on the table or on the lens, I use 2 different lenses and focused at different ranges using small apertures. Both dust spots appear on the same exact spot.
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Langkawi Day 2 [end]
Waking the next morning wasn't easy, all because of the cold air conditioned room. Took me a while to be able to lift my butt out from the warmth of the blanket (however small piece which is left of it) and step onto the cold cold tiles. Everyone's still soundly asleep - either in the room or camping out in the living room; which of course is at a much cozier temperature.
Quickly washed my face and don my jacket, gave David a bit of a nudge to wake him up; and off we went down the nearby shore to get some dawn shots. Too bad the weather wasn't good that morning. Looming clouds over the horizon blocked most of the sun's view.
We were due of an island hopping session later that morning. After having cup noodles for breakfast and preparing some sandwiches for later, we headed out to Awana Porto Malai for a quick walk along the famed boardwalk. With all honesty, I feel it looks much nicer in photos by comparison. After a bit of monkeying around, we headed out to wait for our tour guide to go catch a glimpse of some real life monkey action.
Pulau Dayang Bunting - roughly translated as Pregnant Maiden's Island; was our 1st stop. Upon docking, we could already see herd of primates running around looking for opportunities to grab food from any unsuspecting tourist foolish enough to leave their food lying around in plain sight.
After a quick dip in the fresh water lake at the middle of the island, we hiked back down the hill to our awaiting boat-ride to the next point.
Eagle spotting. Somehow I think the eagles are already accustomed to boatmen throwing food at the archipelago at certain hours of the day, so they would congregate for the benefit of bird watchers. With the boat bobbing up and down - although the waves weren't that strong - its quite hard to get a sharp image of the soaring raptors in the sky.
Taxied for 20 minutes or so, we left for a beach where we all got into the water for a bit of splashing around. Also took my 1st bath ever using water pulled out from a well. Pure underground water, which kinda smells funny - lets hope there's no nearby drainage pipe supplying water to it.
Finished our island hopping around 1pm, took a drive around town to have our lunch which took us more than 2 hours due to shortage of kitchen helpers and then we went for a little bit of shopping... Langkawi-style!
Headed to the beach for a cuppa and waited for sunset. Eventually, we had our dinner there as well. Pardon me for not mentioning the names of the places that we went, as I forgot to jot down the names, hence the misnomers.
I stayed back at the cafe watching after their bags while they stood by the water's edge. Armed with my 300mm, I'm pretty sure I could snipe in a bit tighter than a couple of them using kitties standing 500 meters further away ^^
When some of them headed back to the table, I went out. Seeing this, I quickly asked to borrow Aaron's attached kitty to swap with my 28mm prime so that I could take it all in.
Hung around had some beer till 9-ish, and we took a drive around the island, burning off whatever fuel we've got left. So we decided to go to 'Eagle's Square' to pop off some night shots since we won't be having ample time to do it the following morning - we've got an early flight to catch back to LCCT.
And that's all folks! My maiden trip to Langkawi! Definitely a recommended place to go to get piss drunk! ^^
Quickly washed my face and don my jacket, gave David a bit of a nudge to wake him up; and off we went down the nearby shore to get some dawn shots. Too bad the weather wasn't good that morning. Looming clouds over the horizon blocked most of the sun's view.
We were due of an island hopping session later that morning. After having cup noodles for breakfast and preparing some sandwiches for later, we headed out to Awana Porto Malai for a quick walk along the famed boardwalk. With all honesty, I feel it looks much nicer in photos by comparison. After a bit of monkeying around, we headed out to wait for our tour guide to go catch a glimpse of some real life monkey action.
Pulau Dayang Bunting - roughly translated as Pregnant Maiden's Island; was our 1st stop. Upon docking, we could already see herd of primates running around looking for opportunities to grab food from any unsuspecting tourist foolish enough to leave their food lying around in plain sight.
After a quick dip in the fresh water lake at the middle of the island, we hiked back down the hill to our awaiting boat-ride to the next point.
Eagle spotting. Somehow I think the eagles are already accustomed to boatmen throwing food at the archipelago at certain hours of the day, so they would congregate for the benefit of bird watchers. With the boat bobbing up and down - although the waves weren't that strong - its quite hard to get a sharp image of the soaring raptors in the sky.
Taxied for 20 minutes or so, we left for a beach where we all got into the water for a bit of splashing around. Also took my 1st bath ever using water pulled out from a well. Pure underground water, which kinda smells funny - lets hope there's no nearby drainage pipe supplying water to it.
Finished our island hopping around 1pm, took a drive around town to have our lunch which took us more than 2 hours due to shortage of kitchen helpers and then we went for a little bit of shopping... Langkawi-style!
Headed to the beach for a cuppa and waited for sunset. Eventually, we had our dinner there as well. Pardon me for not mentioning the names of the places that we went, as I forgot to jot down the names, hence the misnomers.
I stayed back at the cafe watching after their bags while they stood by the water's edge. Armed with my 300mm, I'm pretty sure I could snipe in a bit tighter than a couple of them using kitties standing 500 meters further away ^^
When some of them headed back to the table, I went out. Seeing this, I quickly asked to borrow Aaron's attached kitty to swap with my 28mm prime so that I could take it all in.
Hung around had some beer till 9-ish, and we took a drive around the island, burning off whatever fuel we've got left. So we decided to go to 'Eagle's Square' to pop off some night shots since we won't be having ample time to do it the following morning - we've got an early flight to catch back to LCCT.
And that's all folks! My maiden trip to Langkawi! Definitely a recommended place to go to get piss drunk! ^^
Continue reading ...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Primarily Prime
Primes, known for their sharpness due to the simplicity of glass structures. Second piece of prime, gotta love it!
Ok, so I cheated, the first 2 photos were not taken by my primes, but with my kit lens.
But all the following shots are by primes.
Now, to go find for more detail shots!
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