Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

This is what it look like outside our house in Karori at 5.15 pm!

We settle down in Karori in 1988 and this is the first time it snow like this :)

This is our sloppy garden on the side of our house... Christmas come early ;)

World Press Photo in town again!

WPP 2011 winning picture. You can see all the winning pictures here.

The World Press Photo 11 exhibition is in Wellington again.

Last year we did not go to the opening but decided to attend this year.

The invitation card say the opening is from 5.30 pm to 7 pm, not wanting to be late; I left work early and pick up Le General at 5 pm and we were at the entrance of the Academy of Fine Arts by 5.10 pm.

Imagine our surprise that we just walk straight into the gallery hall without being stop or welcome!

Rollei 35 - father of Point & Shoot

Going through my pile of photographic accessories in the week end, at the corner of my old Zero Halliburton aluminum case lie a inconspicuous, tiny black pouch.

Unzipping the pouch open the floodgate of my memory...

Inside the pouch is a super compact 35 mm FULL FRAME point and shoot camera I bought in 1975! A little gem I just about forgotten!

The tiny "Father of Point & Shoot", my Rollie 35S was hibernating since 1988 but accompanying our stuff from Penang to Wellington; then to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and back again to Wellington!

Pictures of Devotion

Winter is truly here! It is so bleeding COLD! As a matter of fact, they told us it is the coldest in 25 years!

I was going through my collection of images, trying to get some organisation out of all these megabytes ; here is a folder filed under "devotion"... may be you would like to take a look :)

Sia Boi Offering

Down memory lane... this was taken in the late 70s at Sia Boi Market in Penang during a "Hungry Ghost Festival".

I remember fondly, during those days; the rather dirty market was a very popular place to eat "economy rice". The market was operated 24 hours a day too!

Photo Printed More Than A Million Time!

The highest circulated Malaysian English daily, The Star; is rushing to complete their 40th anniversary book on what us pioneers contributed to "The People's Paper".

This time round, photographers are being honored; about bloody time too!

The book, hopefully; will feature some of the BEST pictures that made The Star famous.

Among the thousands of pictures taken is a Decisive Moment shot that has been printed more than a MILLION times ;)

I am proud that yours truly took that picture!

1986, Pulau Tikus; Penang...

After a two year stint with The New Straits Times, I rejoined The Star; the second time.

I was covering the Malaysian general election in Penang, at the Pulau Tikus polling center I spotted this boy waiting for his mother to cast her vote.

There were two issues here, you spotted the boy; you realised it is a decisive moment; the next FIVE seconds will decide how FAST and how well PREPARED you are with your camera!

Within seconds the boy left, the moment was; decisive after all!

When Is It My Turn?

Great Old Glass - Nikkor 35-70 f3.5 zoom

I told you about my Nikkor 80-200 f4 zoom lens that I used to capture the famous Dr Mahathir and his three little words, this "great old glass" have a little brother which I used in "Paparazzi Tale" and captured a decisive shot that was used all over the world!

The lens I am talking about is the Nikkor 35-70 f3.5 AI-s zoom.
I have this lens since 1988, prior to this I had the none "s" version which look similar but had a totally optical and mechanical system.

This twenty two year old lens is still working faultlessly, for an early zoom lens it is SHARP! The picture of the G12 and E-P2 in my last post was shot with this lens on my Nikon D300 and a bounced flash.

Take a look at the detail of that picture!Goodness, you can even see all the dust on the G12! It is that sharp!

But how good is it on the D300, shooting in the real world; not just bounced flash table top shots ;)

Sunday, July 17, 2011.

I decided to take the 35-70 to our Sunday open market for a spin.The Nikon D300 with my 22 year old 35-70 zoom, this full of detail; back lit picture was shot with my Canon G12! Mind boggles!

On Sunday there are three "open vege market" around Wellington area. The one we go to is at Victoria Street, right smack in the CBD.

WC-E75 G12 V 7-14 E-P2

In my post on my G12 with the Nikon WC-E75 I raved how good this set up is! As good as it is; can it ever come near to the quality of my favorite ultra-wide zoom, the incredible Lumix 7-14?

Time for a face-off!

Saturday, 9 July 2011; Wellington...

Weeks of cold, damp and depressing weather disappeared overnight! A cool and sunny weather beckon!

I packed the two cameras with their test lenses and head for our Civic Square in town.

Left, the Olympus E-P2 with the Panasonic LUMIX
G VARIO 7-14 mm F4.0 ASPH and the Canon G12
with the add-on lens, the Nikon WC-E75.

It is a real pain trying to find a week end parking lot in town! The free two hours week end parking allowance seems ineffective!

Took me twenty minutes of city strolling in my VRX Sportback to find a park near our Central Library. Yippee :)

A quick glance at my GMT-Master tell me that I have an hour of free time before picking up Le General, not a lot of time for a lens test but I came prepared ;)

Since I have preset both of my test cameras in their aperture priority (A) mode, I am able to shoot both lens at f5.6 and because I was prepared; I was able to start shooting immediately after I parked!