This is my 3rd consecutive year heading to Kuantan with my family for the long Hari Raya break. Kuantan is about 3 hours taking a comfortable drive from Kuala Lumpur and I personally have not met any traffic jam during my travels here. The drive is picturesque and taking it slow is simply refreshing.
The beach is the main attraction and the hotel provides plenty of space for my family & I to spend time together and rejuvenate ourselves. Hyatt Regency Kuantan is almost perfect for all the different needs that the whole family has…. daughter get the beach and pool, wife gets the spa and I get to shoot awesome photos of the sunrise and beach. Oh not to mention the awesome food the hotel provides… the Kampung Restaurant and Italian Bistro is simply amazing… one must not miss the sumptuous Ramadhan Buffet served at the Kampung Restaurant and my favorite Seafood Grill at the Italian Bistro. The Hari Raya Eve has this beautiful firework that is managed by the hotel and it is something the while family looks forward to every year.
This year I took very minimal gear for my photography and the only lens I had was the UWA Canon EFs 10-22 mm USM and my trusty Manfrotto tripod. After a lot of photography assignments lately, I spend my time with my loved ones ond only on the last day of my stay, I got up early and ventured with my gears on photographing the lovely scenery around me.
Without wasting time, here are some of the photos I took on the last day…. I selected the theme of Postcard and here are my photos…
Early morning at the beach…
Watching the sunrise…
Damn early beach volleyball 
….
On the way to Kemaman…. a postcard photo…
On the way to Kemaman… another postcard photo…
Somewhere near Maran…
A very dreamy sunset while driving back home…
I enjoyed the holidays and hope you enjoy the photos I have posted.
Here are some photos from my recent lens, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. I have been using this lens for a slightly over a month now and shot two major event with it and this lens has allowed me to produce images to my great delight.
On my Canon 40D, this baby has a focal length of 80 mm and DOF at largest aperture equivalent to f/2.2 taking the full frame 35mm format camera as the baseline. I love the bokeh, perspective, the ability to shoot at available natural light even at night indoor events, the size & weight (for travel especially), image quality, the super fast and accurate focusing and the list goes on. Now that I am blogging about this lens, there is literally nothing I dislike about this lens. This is one lens I cannot live without and it is such a joy to use in my photography.
Oh yea… here are the photos. These photos below are all taken in natural available light, handheld and at the environment of events where there is no time for a photographer to think and shoot… these photos are taken intuitively so to speak.
I have travel photos taken with this awesome lens and will be posting them soon. My advice to any Canon DSLR user… this lens is a MUST HAVE.
After much research on the UWA (Ultra Wide Angle) lens, I came down to two choices… either the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM or Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X.
I want to shoot landscapes and events with this UWA baby. For landscapes, I wanted ultra wide vistas and for events I wanted to tell the drama. Asian weddings that I shoot often are done on a big and impressive scales and I wanted the UWA lens to get the wow photo that shows the grandness of the event.
The Tokina was cheaper and gave better constant aperture when compared to Canon. On the other hand Canon had better range and USM will make focusing faster and accurate. Of course a constant fast aperture would be on the top of the list for anyone buying lens especially when the cost is real good. For me it was a balancing act and I traded off the fast aperture to wider range and faster and accurate focusing and bought the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM has range 35 mm equivalent focal length of 16-35mm. All reviews that I read in the net points very positively to this lens. Ken Rockwell mentioned in his review of the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM… “If I shot with Canon 1.6x cameras, this would be the lens I’d use most often. I’d get one pronto!” < http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/1022.htm>
I used this beauty to cover a wedding cum reception and I am truly impressed with this lens. Its focusing speed and the USM is damn accurate. The bokeh is marvelous and sharpness is awesome. It was not love at first sight, but love after first date.
Here are some shots from this awesome lens, from Prem & Renuka’s wedding & reception…
I know I am gonna be shooting with this beauty for a very long time … capturing memories with my photography.
Sneak peak of a beautiful event that I shot on the eve of Merdaka Day at the Bankers Club.
I’ll posting more photos soon.
Finally I sold my fav lens the Canon EF 50mm f1/8 II to my partner in crime Guna and bought myself the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM.
The EF 50mm f1/8 II was one wonderful lens for it gave such sharp images for a very low cost investment. This was my fav lens for night shots, travel and portraits. With my EOS 40D and EF 50mm f1/8 II duo, I was able to shoot images at night handheld at ISO 800 to ISO 1600. Many are not comfortable shooting at high ISO but I always had super usable images with my EOS 40D.
Oh back to the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, this baby cost me MYR1.5k. I needed this lens for an upcoming event at the Bankers Club Kuala Lumpur, an engagement in the evening / night. I wanted a super fast lens to shoot using the available light without spilling flash everywhere.
Using this beauty for a day now, I am truly impressed with its focusing speed and the USM gives such silent focusing. The bokeh is marvelous and sharpness is awesome.
Love at first sight, I know I am gonna be shooting with this beauty for a very long time … capturing memories with my photography.
I’ll be posting photos from this baby soon.
Links to reviews on the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
I have been doing stock photography for sometime now and work exclusively for www.Dreamstime.com.
From Wikipedia “Stock photography consists of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Publishers, advertising agencies, graphic artists, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments.” One can earn money from selling stock photos. More infor is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_photography.
Though it was a pursuit when I first started photography, lately I have not been disciplined enough to post my stock photos regularly.
To my surprise, of all my stock photos in Dreamstime http://www.dreamstime.com/Vikneshn_info , my bestseller has been…
© Photographer: Vikneshn | Agency: Dreamstime.com
I think it is high time I started to load up more stock photos and make some money
Woke up early on a Sunday and took my camera along with me for a drive. Without purpose or reason I just drove to Mutiara Damansara which is just minutes away from my home and as I was passing by Courts Megastore, I saw groups of people waiting outside the store. It was about 9.15 in the morning and the store only open at 10.00.
I was curious and parked my car nearby. Walked away from my car carrying my camera and I approached an individual who was among the group of people there and asking him on why so many people are here waiting, he enlightened me that the first 50 people who enter the store get to buy item at RM1 and everybody here is for this purpose.
It was so interesting watching the crowd waiting there… small groups here and there, some families and some just merely a congregation of people with a common purpose of being the first 50 people to enter the store.
I first blended with the people there and stood there with my camera. Many noticed me with my gear and smiled… some even came and asked me if I was from the local newspaper. I took my time to feel the scene, the location and the human drama unfolding. Slowly I started to capture the moments there and people were comfortable with my presence and action. It felt like I was part of the whole fabric of events there and it was like it was meant to be; my being there photographing the people and the events that took place.
It was a beautiful experience for me, part reportage, part photojournalism, part without any reason; it was street photography.
Here I present some of the photos from that wonderful day. Hope you enjoy it.
Please click the images for bigger view.
I and my partner in crime, Guna, had the lovely opportunity to photograph the beautiful engagement of Vicknesh & Pereveena at the bride’s home in Kuala Kubu Bahru.
Vicknesh is a dashing engineer and Pereveena is a beautiful medical doctor and their journey into matrimony started off with the holy blessings and well wishes of parents, relatives and fiends that was witnessed through the engagement ceremony held following the Hindu ways.
Here below are some teaser photos … I’ll be posting more in a separate URL soon.
Street photography is something that was a shocked and awe when I was in New York. I was stunned when a guy just snapped my picture without any warning when I was walking near the iconic Empire State building.
This incident stayed in my mind and as I started my photography, there was this strong curiousity on street photography. I searched a lot on this and read all that I could. A good introduction on street photography will be http://www.in-public.com/information/what_is. Street photography is about people in their surrounding and their daily lives; their stories… sometimes meaningful to the observer and just sometimes a capture of a slice of time.
When I started street photography, it was not at all easy. It was very difficult to be there in the thick of crowd and to start photographing people, almost all strangers. I actually became more aware of myself, my presence in the environment and these questions pop out on what is my intention to do street photography… my inner voice also starts this dialogue on considerations for me not to undertake the action of photography in the street.
I persevered, gave myself more time to observe, to start seeing for the first time. Funny was the feeling of actually observing people. I guess we all go through the our daily walk in life just by looking and looking is always a third party involvement. Here I was seeing and seeing makes me to be part of the environment, the people and the actions and drama that unfolds. Seeing made me participate and I experienced something very different and I could start to understand the human fabric of life there in the environment that I stood on better. With this I start my action of telling the story in the environment and about the people there.
I am truly very fond of street photography and am venturing more into this discipline of photography. Here attached are some of my early attempts in street photography. I developed the photos in Black & White mostly for my presentation.
Please click the images for larger view. These photos were taken at TTDI Kiara Park in Kuala Lumpur.
Took this shot when I was in Singapore late last year. Stayed in the wonderful Mandarin Marina and my room overlooked the Singapore Esplanade. Of the many I took, the one below is my fav. Hope you love it too.
