Sport Photography - Part 2

Getting the subject in focus in a big challenge. This is due to the subject keeps on moving unless you use a wide angle view. Zooming makes the pix more dramatic and causes more blur to the background. But one big problem is keeping the subject at the centre. Or I should say this is called "framing" problem. All we need to do is just be more focused. Here are some more pix...

Sport Photography - Part 1

As an amateur photographer, I try to explore different types of photography. I managed to take some pix on sport photography. All I can say...its not as easy as it seems. Its not just about shutter speed. We might want to freeze the moment but there are things which do not allow us to do so.

There won't be much problems if the subject is under The Sun especially in the afternoon. But what if the subject is in a low light situation? Maybe indoor or almost dark (near sunset)? Increase the ISO and increase the Aperture size.

The pic below was taken with ISO 3200, f/4.0 and 1/250 s. I did not fire flash since doing that might have caused disturbance to the players. Using shutter speed 1/200 s or lower would show a blurry motion. Plus my shaking hand, the pic would be useless.



The next pic was taken with the same settings but with f/4.5 and the widest is 4.0 for my lens. Its Canon 70-300mm. I still can't afford an L lens. Not yet hehe.

Dubai Holiday

Now, let me share some pix I took during my last trip... to Dubai, U.A.E. It was in June and Summer. All I can say its hotter than Brunei, well... during summertime.

Unfortunately, I didn't take many good pix :( and I spent my time mostly indoors except when going to souks. The weather didn't motivate me to take pix of the seceneries and it seemed like shopping was much a better option hehe. I brought my videocam too. Arrgghh, It was hard to balance the jobs. But I did took some pix below..


Left: Burj Dubai under construction, Right: Burj Al Arab


At Souk Madinat Jumeirah


Sunset/Camel @ Desert Safari


At Ski Dubai

I think thats all I can post for now. There are many pix to post for the past few months but since my life has been really busy & hard on me at the moment and lately bad luck always come after me (???). This makes me feel lazy to update or upload any pix and even to take good pix.

Naruto & Bleach

Of all the anime, I've never miss to watch Naruto and Bleach. These two anime are my favourite. I download them every week and never miss an episode. I also read the manga. I never download the manga but instead I read them online. For those who are big fans of Naruto and also Bleach, You can read the manga at http://www.onemanga.com which also contains other manga.


Naruto


Bleach

Filters

I just bought a new filter recently. Its a graduated filter (grey) or widely known as ND grad filter. It simply filters out light at the upper part of the lens and reduces its effect to zero at about halfway or middle of the lens.

Why do we need this kind of filter? Well, it is essential if you are a landscape photographer. I'm not a landscape photographer...maybe not yet. Soon to be? hehehe (lets say i'm a 'jack of all trades' haha) . The filter is usually used to make the burnt out sky darker and the darker land brighter. OK let me put it like this. When we take a landscape photo, the result looks like this (see below):


The camera assumes that it is too bright (overexposed due to the sky). So the camera uses a faster shutter speed which causes the land to look darker (underexposed)

The photo below is the result of using ND grad filter:


As you can see, the sky is much pleasant to look at and the land is brighter and has much more details than the previous photo. (I used a circular polarizer at the same time)

And another photo...

I haven't got time to go out for taking landscape pix. All the above pix were taken from my house. I will post if I have new pix.

Hiding from the Sun

Another old shot. I was experimenting on my new camera and got this.

Spying on Grasshoppers

These photos were taken about 2 years ago when I first bought my new DSLR camera. My house was surrounded by various types of flora and fauna. I was so eager to experiment my camera on these little creatures. So I followed them and took several shots. Now life is different cause I have moved to a new house and I can't really seem to find anything like this at my new house.


We're being followed, let's separate now!


Emm...why do I feel like I'm being watched?


Gotcha!! It was you all along.

Portrait of a child

I took this photo of my niece about a month ago. One thing I know about taking a portrait is to focus on the eye(s). I'm not good at taking a portrait, maybe not yet. I just need to improve my skills slowly, learn one thing at a time. Long way to go.....

Bukit Saeh

Bukit Saeh (or Saeh Hill) is located somewhere in Mukim Lumapas. And its one of the tallest in Brunei. Its a good place for hiking and sightseeing. Once you've reached the peak, you can see Istana Nurul Iman, BSB, Kampong Bolkiah and even DST HQ building.

I went there on the 23rd of March in a group. I thought I couldn't make it to the peak but I did. The hardest part is to reach the peak and to go down from the peak. Well, it wasn't that hard unless you carry a lot of things.


Taking pic of a plant on the way to the peak


Left: Istana Nurul Iman, Right: Kampong Ayer and some parts of BSB

Maulidur Rasul

This was actually held on the 20th of march. A yearly event to celebrate Prophet Mohammad's birthday (12th day of Rabiulawal). Let's say the precession is just like a walkathon and this only happens in Brunei. Well, its because His Majesty is there with us leading the precession. I'm not sure about the distance. Could it be around 2 km??

An early morning scenery before going to Taman Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien

Left: A cat posing for the camera, Right: His Majesty


Left: Kids waiting for the precession, His Majesty leading the precession


Left: Still under renovation, Right: Water Taxis ready to pick up

Holiday in Thailand

A five-day holiday spent in Thailand was quite interesting. I've been there before. This time, we stayed at Baiyoke Boutique Hotel which is very near to Pratunam market. The first day was for shopping at Pratunam area.

We spent our second day in the morning at the Ocean World, in Siam Paragon. Then we moved to National Stadium area and MBK. We then went back to our hotel rooms and spent our nights at Pratunam market.

The third day was our "tour day" coz we had booked a private tour using a shuttle van for the whole day. First, we went to the Floating Market at Kanchanaburi province. And then went to the War Memorial Cemetery. There we met our tour guide named Jang. After that we moved to
see River Kwai, she explained to us about the history of War Memorial Cemetery and the bridge at River Kwai.

And then we went to see elephants at Elephant Camp. Riding an elephant costs 300 baht per person so we grabbed our chances to ride them. Finally we went to see tigers at Tiger Temple. At first, we saw boars, deers and some other animals moving around in that area. Then
everyone had their own chances to take photos with a tiger cub. Then we walked to the Tiger Canyon, where adult tigers can be touched by visitors for real. Some of us did and me too hehe.

Then we went back to Bangkok which took about three hours.

The fourth day was to shop at Central world and MBK, all day. And the last day was to buy some fruits at a fruit market (Ta Lad Khay Pol La Mai). Then we went back to our hotel and finally checked out.

Fly High

I took the above pic yesterday and the featured 'model' is none other than one of my colleagues. Since a few days ago I was into this 'flying' mood when it came to taking pix. It started with me asking them to jump. And yes! they followed what I told them to do (as long as they are vain) hehehe. Then it evolved into something what I should call 'running in the air'. It means you need to jump from, let's say, a chair and pretend like you are running so hard that eventually you will be able to fly.

Actually I took some pix and edited one of them and got the above result. The idea of writing the quote came into my mind shortly after I took some of the pix. One reason was because of a large empty space on the left side. Another reason was that I found it kind of inspiring if I put a quote because some posters put some words or quotes to motivate people who read them. And the quotes must also be 'synchronised' with the pix.

Anyway I will post some other pix soon. At the moment I need to rest a bit. Tomorrow I need to attend Maulir Rasul at Padang SOAS. And I might post some pix of that too.

Another Panorama

This time I used pix I took during MV Doulos visit to Brunei. That was last year.



As usual, I used Photoshop to stitch about 5 pix to obtain the above panoramic view of MV Doulos.

Panorama

I took this panoramic view of Padang SOAS during the 24th National Day. I took about 10 pix and then joined them together using Photoshop.

Actually when I took these photos, I realized there was a big lump of black spot on the pictures...that is after the second shot. It was so big that it ruined most of other pix. Yea that can be erased using Photoshop but still I didn't like it. I didn't even open or change the lens. After cleaning the sensor, I found it was a fragment of something made of plastic...sort of. It was about 1x3 mm in size. No wonder it appeared big in the photos. But in this panoramic photo, I erased the spots and here is the result:

Smile

I've finnalllly posted a new pic. This time I just wanna share a pic of my brother-in-law's nephew.

Cute!! Isn't he?