Decisive Moment... The Plane! The Plane!!

Sometime, before a "BIG" news job, your intuition tells you there bound to be a "decisive moment opp" during the unfolding of the event. What do you do? What any good photojournalist will do, plan and more planning before the job!

Case History: "The plane! The plane!" How many of you remember this phrase at "Fantasy Island" on TV? :)

My brief was EIGHT super-duper Mirage fighters are going to fly pass Fort Conwallis, Penang to mark Adelaide becoming the "twin city" with Penang Island; the event is real big deal!

The planes were flown by pilots from Adelaide, Australia. They were based at Butterworth, Malaysia. The display was to mark the Adelaide Week celebration also, thus the "A" formation.

The first thing I did when I was told about this job was to call the officer in charge at RAAF, Butterworth to find out more details like, from which direction the Mirages will zap by; then I went to the spot where I THINK the planes will cross and check out the best angle. Please take note young photogs! The successful photo coverage involved planning, planning and MORE planning!

The Decisive Moment!

As a photographer I am always searching for what French-born photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson called the "decisive moment."

Henri wrote in 1957, "A velvet hand, a hawk's eye -- these we should all have. If the shutter was released at the decisive moment, you have instinctively fixed a geometric pattern without which the photograph would have been both formless and lifeless."

Autumn You Cold Beauty!

I love photographing Wellington cityscape whenever I am not too lazy or too tired :)

Autumn is in the air, the wind is getting colder and I do not look forward to a freezing Wellington winter day! But even on a "bad day", Wellington can look stunning too!

This shot was taken from the Queen's Wharf car park with my Nikon D300 digital wonder and the lens, a 1989 Nikkor 85 mm f2 "short tele" manual focus prime!

Wellington you beauty! Nikkor 85 you beauty!

Great Old Glass! Nikkor 80-200 f4 zoom

After posting "Dr.M and His Words" I get many enquirers about the Nikkor 80-200 zoom lens I used to shoot that Decisive photo!

Before I start, a little history about that Nikon gem of a lens!

To learn more about any Nikkor lenses, the best place to go gotta be here!

Extensive Nikon resources at your finger tips!!

Déjà vu 3 - Dr. M and His Words

The old man is at it again, first he quit UMNO and now he is rejoining the ruling Malay party.

Fast rewind to November 2003, after 22 years; Dr Mahathir spend his last day as Malaysian Prime Minister. On the same day I arrived back to Wellington with my wife after an eventful 29 days stay.

Of my "short" visits, I spend a night in KL and finally got to meet up with Jeff Ooi! "A THIRTY years wait!" Jeff exclaimed... not bad, considered Dr M "DID IT" in 22! :-)

It was a most memorable day in KL indeed, Jeff took me to the National Art Gallery to see the "1,000 faces of Dr Mahathir" where I saw my "famous" shot of young M walking past his famous slogan... it was a HUGE print, if not the largest but arguably, my friends told me; was the most memorable picture of Dr M, EVER! I leave the judgment to you.

Fast forward to Thursday August 19, 1982... I was a young Photo Editor for The Star, waiting patiently for Dr M to come out from his meeting at the Second Army Division at Northam Road in Penang.

Déjà vu 2 - Shah Alam By Night

(Click for larger view!)

Sometime photographer will go all out to get the shot they wanted, take this night shot of Shah Alam for example...

New Canon Lens!

Got this in my mail today!