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Nagen doing some DIY on his photosCertainly it had been a cracker of a weekend for my 7D. Yesterday with the boys’ concert and today - Sunday - the scouting for the upcoming photowalk and then the trip over to the Curve to meet up with my fellow KLickers at the Laundry Bar. A couple of the KLickers were invited to talk about environmental photography as a theme for n event organised by Aesthetics online magazine and the Malaysian Nature Society.

The two speakers, Javad and Prakash - the boys from BombayOne of the six exhibitors was my cousin, AdiI wonder what Ripi was up to?More discussionsGetting the remote to work - it was all high tech stuff!We also had six of the photographers exhibiting their work at the venue. This was followed by a talk by Prakash Daniel, a fellow KLickr. He talked mainly about the effect of nature to our surrounding urban environment, and the pictures he exhibited were simply amazing. Unfortunately this was let down by the AV equipment they had at the venue. It was out of focus and just simply cannot cope with the contrast of the photographs being projected. This was made worst by the fact that the second speaker - Jaavad, the original Prince of Persia - he was from Iraq - had most of his photos in black and white.

Prakash - "It's showtime!"Javad - the original Prince of PersiaMinus his slippersJaav talked about his recent trip to Sri Lanka and how the interaction between the people and environment were a lot more direct there compared to here in Malaysia. He noted that since there were no refrigerators, food were cooked fresh and produce were bought and consumed on the same day. He also pointed out that since the country was in the process of rebuilding themselves after the bloody civil war, they were very happy to have tourists and photographers going around taking photographs of their country and the people. They were very willing to pose, and then will thank the photographer. For them, it was an opportunity to make the beauty of their country known to the whole world. I don’t think you can have any of that here! Look at Pavilion for a start. The moment they see a group of photographers lurking around, the security - who were mostly foreigners - will usher them away! Confusing wasn’t it?

The photographers about to introduce their workAfter the talk, the photographers who had their work on display had the opportunity to introduce the photos and ask for critique. We also introduced our group, KLickrs and our upcoming activities - to include the 1000 portraits of Kuala Lumpur for the upcoming Urbanscapes. Unfortunately I will be giving a lecture in Lumut that very day! We also had representatives both from Aesthetics and Nature Society making their appearances as well.

We then adjourned to .....This was how the photos would have looked like without the projector making a mess of themThe talk adjourned by half past 5 and the KLickrs then headed for ‘Waroeng Penyet’ for a quick tea and further chat. I also had the chance to get some take about the upcoming photowalk I was trying to organise. I had to leave early after some drinks as it was already getting late.

Slideshow for the event can be seen here. More info on KLickrs here.

Gearing up

Since I was still technically on MC, I decided to stay at home this morning. After full day at the office yesterday, I was really drained. I decided to do some paperwork at home, but will need to get to UMMC this afternoon to see some trial patients. I spent some time modifying the website to accommodate photos to be uploaded for the upcoming Malaysian Society of Haematology (MSH) meeting. I will be the conference photographer and was just tweaking my workflow so that post-processing and uploading will be simple later. I was not really sure which website should be the platform, but after much deliberation, I decided to use the hematologiPPUM.com site. It will help to promote that site as well as increase traffic. The main host would still be my SmugMug account, via harisphotography.com.

I thought it might be a good idea to upload the pictures I took from the previous meeting into the site and open it to public. Therefore, it will be bandwidth galore this morning uploading all those photos. The photos from the last meeting can be seen here.

Update on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 9:58PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Story of my life - now SmugMug was down! Hopefully that doesn't happen on the day of the conference. If so, then I will need to use either MobileMe or Squarespace to host my pics!

Thinking about ..... Teluk Kemang

Can't help but thinking of the beach when I got to work today. Maybe it was reverse psychology thinking about the amount of work to look forward to, I instead focused on relaxing thoughts. For some reason it reminded me of the walk I had in Teluk Kemang during my recent visit to Port Dickson. Imagining how crowded it will be come this weekend, the long Chinese New Year weekend. I honestly can't imaging the rows of cars snaking towards the beach front with the narrow roads leading up to it, taking hours to drive the stretch of road.

The soon-to-be-crowded beachfront during quiet times.Rows of deck chairs to lay on ..... under the shade of courseLast year, we spent the CNY weekend in PD and the queue along the beach road was about 5 miles long. We turned back as soon as we hit the tail end of it and changed our plan. The beach was not really fantastic when compared to say Bayu Beach Resort where our apartment is located. The sand was not as good and fluffy. The beachfront was rather narrow and cramped. Anyone can get in - if you can find a parking space of course, unlike Bayu Beach where excess can be a problem as only hotel patrons and apartment owner had easy excess in. Hence it can get too crowded for a family holiday. 

Good clean fun but can be expansive during holiday weekends. The operators were known to charge through the nose. Negotiating skills essential here.Alternatively you can bring your own gearHowever, I like crowd. More to the point I like to observe crowd with a camera in hand. Unfortunately in Malaysia people get suspicious when you got long lenses in your hands unlike in Paris and London, or Kuala Lumpur for that matter. Even though you were taking pictures of buildings rather than people. Another feature that I love about the Teluk Kemang beachfront was the rows of colourful shops they have there, selling local artwork and gifts. Food was never a problem as there were many stalls nearby. Another pus thing is the public toilet there was very clean - at least it was when I was there, not during peak hours of course.

I don't think I will ever be keen to stay here, but this converted beach villa now offers toilet and shower facilities for a small fee.For all my apprehension, the day went without much drama. Day Care was busy but as many of the patients deferred their chemo until after the Chinese New Year, the ward duty was rather light. I was occupied with some Departmental and teaching duties in the afternoon, so the day just breezed by. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same. And I can look forward to another weekend break in PD in the not too distant future. My usual excuse is our apartment needed cleaning again ......

Walkabout with my 400D

Idlan unfortunately developed temperature this morning. The initial plan was to go up the hill to Colmar Tropicale for a spot of sightseeing. We therefore spend the morning at home. I had the chance to watch the Grammies. Quite a glittering affair. Black Eyed Peas really rocked the house with 'I got a feeling'. The flop was definitely Taylor Swift. If she were to sing like that in front of Simon Cowell, she would've been booted out. Where was Kanye when you really needed him. I couldn't believe she won 'Album of the Year'!

The now legendary fake blossomI also woke up with a spot of glee. United comprehensively schooled the Arsenal at their backyard last night. An important win. We were now only a point behind Chelsea who will be traveling to Hull midweek to play their game in hand. I started Idlan on antibiotics and by late morning he was much better. But not after puking his breakfast out. After lunch, I decided to take my 400D out and head out to Bukit Bintang area to take pics. I also had to settle the credit card bill at a branch of UOB there - unfortunately the teller machine broke down, so I can't pay. I fully expect to hear from one of their telephone operator tomorrow to remind me to pay, during which I will remind them to fix their machine.

Heading towards Starbucks for some mochaThe main foyerI started off at the main entrance of Pavilion and around the fountain. The weather was very sunny and the lighting was rather tricky. The photos looked washed out and flat. I decided to head indoors. I soon got bored since I took some photograph of the interior already last week. I then made my way to Low Yat. It was pretty deserted for a weekday. The main foyer which used to be buzzing with vendors and stalls was empty. It was empty space. Something I was not used to. I walked around to look for photo printer since the current one I have was five years-old and the refills were hard to come by nowadays. The current prize for dedicated photo printers were already very cheap. Compared to the RM2500 I spend for my last printer, I can get an A4 printer for less than RM250 complete with ink-tank modification. That's important to cut maintenance down. The printers were to heavy to carry though as I park at Pavilion. Maybe next time.

By the time I came back to Pavilion, the lighting was better, and I started snapping away. I put up the slideshow here.

More Updates in my PhotoBlog

I have been encouraged by the positive feedback I am getting so far on my photoblog at harisphotoblog.com. I have added on another tab or segment called 'theme'. This is basically a project-based series of photographs conforming to a theme. The theme will be added from time to time, and the one I am building up to at the moment is concerning the Eid. The Eid 2009 theme menu in the site can be accessed here.

As you can see, it is further divided into four to five sub-segments and over the next week or so, there will be separate slideshows on each of the segments. So please check them out. If you have not visited the photoblog please do so. I trust you will see that the photos will be decently presented, and please enjoy them Should you wish to use them for any purpose, please drop me a line. I am more than happy to accommodate your requests. Happy Puasa - or the coming few days and 'puasa enam' at least.