the Art of Complaining

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

Tinggal 4 hari sahaja lagi kita akan berpuasa semula.. semoga Ramadhan kali ini benar-benar bermakna kepada kita semua.. sila doakan saya juga supaya dapat menjadi blogger yang lebih beriman ya.. Amin

Antara tabiat tak baik yang selalu kita lakukan adalah Merungut.. semoga tabiat ni berjaya kita tinggalkan dalam tarbiah Ramadhan Al-Mubarak..

so jum kita sama-sama menonton video berkenaan Seni dalam Merungut.. enjoy & take notes of the lesson ya :)

Yes! I know what I want

sy percaya bahawa jodoh itu rahsia Allah.. apapun yang kita cuba kejar atau yang kita cuba elak, dan yang nampak mustahil untuk kita miliki atau yang sudahpun terlewati..
akan tetap terjadi jika telah ditakdirkan untuk kita..

setelah 2 tahun bergelumang dengan dilemma, saya sudah tahu apa yang saya mahukan, apa yang saya benar-benar perlukan!!!   (!!! = tanda sy betul-betul SERIUS)... lens Tokina AT-X 124 AF Pro DX II, bersabarlah lah semoga kita akan dapat bersama sebelum tahun 2011.. Amin..

Becoming a good photographer (part 1)

Today, photography as a hobby has become even more popular than ever. Significant portion of the result might be due to rapid blooming of technology in digital camera. Competition between manufacturer has made photography more affordable & making good photos are easier than sending a text message or posting a blog post.

But what does it takes than to be a good photographer & how to differentiate professional work from the abundant normal? Well, the answer is very subjective  but I try to outline a few things that I myself went through in my journey learning photography.

(I'm not a pros & I don't produce professional photos, but I am an enthusiast who still learn from experience)

Before you can become a good photographer it is important to know what 'photography' really is?
In simple answer it is the art & science of light painting (sorry if its doesn't sound that simple). The keyword here is light. The most essential skill of a good photographer is how well they can read & manipulate the light, not how expensive their cameras are. Good photographer know how to used available light or a setup light to get good balance of light & shadow for example. Without light you'll simply get black photo, too much you'll get all white & bad light produce bad photo.. Well I think you've got my point here, so do remember this formula [ light = photo ] (literary & practically). Anyway because this part would be too long to elaborate, we'll skip this part & save it for another day :)
now lets get back to the tips shall we..

Tips 1- start from below

Nowadays, I see a lot of people buying new DSLR but put them in the 'Auto' or 'Program' mode. Yes, their photo still look nice, but it is the camera that does most of the job. It is not wrong but it's not a good practice either, it will make you become dependent on the camera & not a good photographer yourself instead.

Me & my friends (eg: Hus, http://xofj.blogspot.com) start our photography hobby with point & shoot camera and I don't think we'll become this good if we had never use one. Why? Simply because point & shoot are simple camera with lots of limitation (eg: the noise performance is sucks, the dynamic range is poor, the flash is limited, focusing speed resemble a snail on GP racing track & the list goes on). But because of all this 'camera' limitation, the only way to make better photo is by improving your self. Soon you'll notice that your pictures only getting better when the lighting is on your side (the noise become less, dynamic range increases, awful flash gone, & focusing speed now at least as good as a bicycle on a GP track). This is not the part where you can learn simply by reading (because you can't take photos just by talking either), but by experiencing. 

I love my point & shoot but the main reason I'm upgrading to DSLR was because I knew there is nothing more I can do to improve my knowledge unless I move toward a more complex camera (where I can take  more control over the camera) & not because I want make great photos the easy way. So for anyone who just about to board in photography world, don't keep worrying yourself for an advance camera if budget is an issue but go now to experiment lighting with your point & shoot.

Below are samples of my photo taken with BenQ point & Shoot. These aren't great photo but bare in mind this was taken using low spec point & shoot without editing when I was just started (this was as much as I can afford back then, today camera phone has gone much better than this).

For beginner who already step in with a DSLR, start experiencing your self to control exposure by using 'Manual' mode. This mode will really help you to improve your light reading skill, and not the 'Auto' or 'Program' mode. I owed my photography teacher (En. Ra'ai, www.ukm.my/raai/) for teaching us by using analog (film) SLR. We only get to take 2 or 4 shoot in a week, and the photos can only be viewed on the following week (you also need to pay for the processing service). So we'll took forever just to take 1 photo because we can only afford a perfect shot or we'll have to wait for another week,.. just like En. Ra'i used to say '1 shoot, 1 kill'. The SLR that we use also doesn't have exposure meter to help calculate shutter speed & aperture so we learn to estimate available light by using our eyes. You can go to this link (http://motivationhijacked.blogspot.com/2009/12/p-s-m.html) to read more on Exposure.

 

picture above: My friend, Mitch taking her photo of the week

(will be continue)

rumah nenek

hee, saya terjumpa 2 gambar rumah nenek saya yang saya pernah upload ke sebuah web beberapa tahun lepas. Gambar ni sebenarnya termasuk dalam koleksi gambar-gambar saya yang hilang selepas harddisk sy jatuh sakit dan tak dapat direcover (sy masih simpan n xnak format sebab terlalu banyak kenangan dalam tu).

Masa ni tengah main mode black&white untuk nampak lebih klasik.. sayang 2 ni je yang masih ada.. gambar macam ni sesuai untuk masuk dalam kategori photojournalism.

Twilight : Breaking Dawn

Maaf.. tajuk diatas tiada kaitan langsung dgn topik dibawah, cm utk mnipu anda spya terbaca post ini..
dan ya.. tiada satupn gmbr robert pattinson jd jgn mharap k..
post ini sbenarnya kaitan antara flashlight & wildlife fotografi waktu malam..
tp bunyi agak pelik jd sy xtau nk letak tajuk apa
 
kepada ssiapa yg suka mengambil gambar wildlife waktu malam, flashlight adlh salah satu equipment yg sgt penting.

bagi yg baru hendak mcuba, haiwan spt katak & cicak mrupakan subjek yg sgt sesuai utk permulaan.
p/s: Jgn mmasuki trail hutan sorg diri takut gmbr lain plk yg dpt.. nauzubillah

antara fungsi flashlight selain dr menyuluh jalan & hidup anda adlh utk menyilaukn mata haiwan supaya ia mjadi blur & terpegun. Ini mbolehkn anda mdekati haiwan dgn mudah agar cahaya flash (speedlight/strobe) sampai kpd subjek dgn cukup kuat.

cahaya dr flashlight jg sgt sgt sgt sgt penting utk mbantu kamera anda fokus dgn baik.. tlg jgn harapkn autofocus assist light (lampu merah, kuning atau strob flash dr kamera) utk mbantu anda fokus dlm hutan gelap gelita kerana insyaAllah anda akan kecewa.
Sy biasanya meletakkan extra headlamp pd flash yg dedicated bg tujuan focusing.

flashlight apakh yg bgs utk d guna? semua jenis flashlight yg mempunyai cahaya kuat. Antara jenama2 yg bgs adlh Nitecore, Fenix, Zebralight, Petzl, Princeton Tec dan yg sewaktu dgnnya.

contoh flashlight: Nitecore D11
(Peringatan: ini bukan sekadar flashlight, ia merupakan engineering masterpiece).

berikut adalah contoh gambar haiwan berlainan jenis yg sy amik waktu malam

Lumix LX-5

setelah 2 tahun lumix lx-3 mengusai pasaran kamera kompak pro, sekarang pengganti yg ditunggu telah tiba..
silalh tengok sampai air liur meleleh.. 

'The eye of a Leica, the heart of a Panasonic'

hati manusianya

mencari erti kehidupan dr hati yg kekosongan,
mencuba menghidupkan kesyukuran  dgn jiwa yg sarat keinginan,
masih mengimpikan gunung emas kedua dlm mcari kedamaian rohani,
aku manusia.. aku manusia.. kamu jg manusia..

memeluk erat kbahagiaan dr hati yg penuh rasa cinta,
menjiwai kesyukuran dgn rasa hidup yg penuh makna,
Ahh, kedamaian duniawilah kedamaian rohani,
kamu manusia.. kamu manusia.. kamu manusia..