Le Tour de Langkawi 07

This year Le Tour de Langkawi was held from 2nd February to 10th February 2007. This annual bicycle race start from Langkawi island in the north and takes participants throughout almost the whole of the peninsular Malaysia and ends in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia.

Stage 10, which was the last stage of the race was held right smack in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. I took this opportunity to try out some photography techniques that I learned from a photography magazine. These techniques were to freeze the motion of the subject to a certain extend while still maintain some sense of motion. They are pretty simple. First, set the camera speed to a relatively slow speed. Then capture the subject while panning the camera along with the subject when it passes by. For a better freeze effect, use the camera built-in flash or an external flashgun.

By the way, stage 10 race was won by Alberto Loddo, second was Nikolai Trusov, and Maximiliano Richeze came in third. The overall champion of the entire tour was Anthony Charteau.

All the pictures were captured using my Fujifilm Finepix S9500 and a Vivitar 728 external flash. Click on a picture to view a larger version.

ISO: 100, Speed: 1/28, Aperture: F4.7

ISO: 100, Speed: 1/80, Aperture: F3.9

ISO: 100, Speed: 1/80, Aperture: F5.6

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Written by Ken on February 26th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Happening and Photography.

Best of Show Get Together

Hobby HQ organized a Best of Show get together for local modelers on 10 February 2007 where modelers would bring their best kit for a small-scale competition. It was opened for all models in any scale except for gunpla (gundam plastic model).

The main purpose however was not the competition but as a gathering for local modelers. There were quite a number of modelers turned up at the gathering including yours truly. And at hand to help at the gathering were none other than the Selangor and Federal Territory Plastic Modeling Society (SFTPMS). It was quite an enjoyable gathering where modelers from different backgrounds exchanged ideas and techniques.

Below are pictures taken at $the gathering. All pictures were taken with my Fujifilm Finepix S9500 and a Vivitar 728 external flashlight. Click on a picture to view a larger version.

These are display only kits as they were winners at other competitions and hence cannot enter this competition.

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Written by Ken on February 12th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Blog and Happening and Model Kit.

Floral Parade 07

Floral Fest is a monthly event held in January 2007 in conjunction with visit Malaysia Year 2007. The Floral Fest consists of numerous events including a photography contest, a florathon, and a floral parade. The floral parade is an annual event and this year event was held on 27th January 2007 in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital.

There were 19 floats decorated with fresh and colourful flowers and 18 marching bands in the parade and reports had put the number of spectators in the 50,000 range.

The atmosphere was joyous and children and grown ups were visibly excited of the whole affair but I guess some are a bit too excited and had become an annoyance. During the parade, these overly excited people started to get over the barricades. They would craw, climb, jump, roll, and do whatever is necessary to cross the barricades to be as close to the floats as possible and this has annoyed other rules abiding spectators like yours truly and not to mention they also hindered the movement of the marching bands and floats.

Another unpleasant encounter at the parade was the invasion of photography enthusiasts. They, like the other overly excited spectators, would get as close to the floats as possible to take pictures and in the process block the view and shots of other rules abiding spectators. They do not have the common courtesy to at least get out of the way after taking their shots but would instead just hang around the floats and continue to block others’ views. These people might be professional photographers (probably self-proclaimed), they were surely using some professional gears, and the pictures they captured could very well be of professional quality but their ethnics were far from one of a professional’s.

Below are the pictures I tool at the parade. Don’t be surprise to see these ‘professional’ photographers in some of the shots.

There are 40 pictures in this post. All pictures were taken with my Fujifilm Finepix S9500.