Paintings for Christmas 08

I know this is old stuff; but worth to mention. I spent some time in November 08 to paint two petite paintings for two purposes: One as a gift for the person that was in ballot I picked and a Lucky Draw gift for Multimedia Department Christmas Party 08. Here you go:

The Lucky Draw painting - A Vibrant Flower Pot

I wanted the person who happened to pick my Lucky Draw gift to feel happy and vibrant all the time with the aura of the painting to decorate his or her house or workplace. It was a great experience painted it. The lucky person was Joanne Ng. Now, this painting is located near our workplace. Ha ha!

The Lucky Draw painting - Shoes

Can anybody guess who's the person's name in my ballot? Of course her la! Joanne Kok! The first reaction when I saw that name was "Oh my God! What's on earth will be a good gift for her?" - I knew very clearly that I shall paint for her, and straight away I knew about my object in the painting - nothing but Shoes! Shoes! and Shoes!

I did research about it and found out about some issues: Painting about shoes is going to be quite risky : either it's really cheap looking, fail badly or .. hmm... it's going to be difficult. Then, suddenly in my mind, I remembered there's this period of time where Joanne did show us her childhood photos and that was it! I found it! I knew what to do!

It's my inspiration of painting a pair of shoes with socks, on older patterned tiles. I wanted the shoes to be more highlighted. I picked red to be the color. The painting was carefully painted in layers. I managed to paint gracefully - it was nice gift. I'm glad that she likes it.

That's all.

Sunday on Broga

" Yes. I have decided to go." ~ That was the answer given after second thought if I should go to Broga Hill for leisure and photography. Sunday is the only day that I can sleep late, but I've decided to make sacrifices for the trip.

It was yesterday: we started our journey at 5.15 am. So damn early! And, we reached Broga(near to Kajang) at about 6 something. And then, we started our climbing journey up to Broga Hill. It was moderately tough for a person like me who is having phobia of stability.

There were many obstacles.I remembered counting the obstacles. There were 3 big one for heart-pounding actions:

Two big cliffs - we have to pull the ropes to step up the steep sandy paths. Either we have to do it or ended up going into cliffs (I think those who fell down the cliff won't be able to die, but it must be hurt)

The Climb to the First Rock - it was kind of difficult to do it as I have to crawl with my hands on the grasses around for a better grip. My shoes disappointed me with weak grips at the side. I felt so insecured actually.

I couldn't climb up further after reaching the first rock. My hands were shaking - my phobia hits me quite alot. I have to calm down to climb more up to reach the peak.
Then, with guts and courage, I reached the peak. There were many photographers and families who happen to spend their morning there, appreciating the great view.

Done with grandmother stories, here's my photos. (Not taking good professional photos, but something alright la):

Late Valentine's Greeting

I had created a Valentine's greeting on Valentine's day but I forgot to upload it. I think it's ok to upload now. Maybe one week late. Better late than sorry:

Happy Valentine to Everybody! In fact, everyday should be Valentine!

CNY 09 - Penang Cultural and Heritage Festival 09

I didn't have any expectation about this Penang Cultural and Heritage Festival 09, that was held near Indian street. But it was a good walk around, although it was very hot. Penang government managed to pull out a great activities and it attracted alot of people, tourists and photographers (with high tech DSLR and LENS!!) to the festival. Take a look at some shots I managed to take down:

The stage purposely built for Chinese New Year's performances including veteran singers from Astro.

The interesting part was the Chinese customs and practices were introduced and displayed as exhibited booths to give a hints about how Chinese New Year cultures were practised until the modern day from the past.

Merchandises and traditional clay toys were created and some tourists managed to buy one or two to keep. Some of the merchandises were rare to be seen in the island.

Few of the UNESCO Heritage Sites were located around the streets. One of them was the Khoo Kongsi Temples (if I'm not mistaken). It was impressive. UNESCO was right about its heritage and restoration is surely needed for it.

I took some photographs of old buildings and just love the feeling of this Chinese Baba Nyonya Peranakan architecture of all these buildings. I think a lot of people feels the same as I'm: we wonder what's the old days looks like while walking around this streets?

Then I actually realised this building is so unique: it's kind of English but look Indian to me for the lower level. Or is it Portugese? Strange but really unique. I want to stay there for one night.

I ended up the whole walk around with this demonstration of Big Flag - is it called Chingeh? I didn't feel regret of visiting this Cultural Festival although I was sweaty and hot.

More photographs to come. It shall be Baba Nyonya House.

CNY09 - Natural Shots

Taking the privileges of my brand new Nikon DSLR D60 (hehe, actually bought it in Christmas last year) , I managed to take down shots of photographs about many things: process of CNY09, family photographs, reunion, preparation, Seremban friends, Penang friends gathering, Penang scenery and also nature.

But this time, I would just select some natural shots of some natural things such as flowers, textures from old tools and so on. Here you go!

Flowers:

I actually took many photographs of flowers earlier such as in Cameron Highlands, but this time I felt I did better because the camera is good enough! Haha. Not the skills.



The flowers above are the plants that I have spotted - that was just opposite Ah Gong (grandfather) 's house. I took them when me and my family visited him on the first day of CNY. It was warm and sunny. The red small flowers above is Ah Gong's plant. He bought it for the prosperous festivity and displayed proudly in the dining hall.

The flowers above here are a kind of Crysanthemums and in fact, there's nothing special about it. I was in Kik Lok Si temple when I took it. It just that I like the imperfection of some flowers.

Pineapple:

It was strange and surprising to see a tiny pineapple in the garden opposite Ah Gong's house. So I took one photograph on it.

Leaves:

Leaves - just love the shapes and volumes. It's ordinary and it forms a natural pattern.

Other Plants:

I do not know what is this. So, I took some photographs on it.

Old Tools:

Ah Gong used to work in construction site and there are alot of old tools left outside of his house. I took the opportunities to explore and took some photographs. Love the textures on it.



Papa's car:

Before CNY, I went back earlier to help out for the sake of the preparation for CNY. I did managed to get rest and in fact, I got bored. So, I brought my camera while walk around my house and took some interesting shots reflecting daily life of my parents in Seremban. The photograph that I loved most is about Papa's car. This is his car that he bought for the purpose of his daily plumbling & painting job. He is innovative because that car not only a vehicle, but a store room to store all the materials needed for job.


Vintage fountain in Penang:

While alot of people taking photographs of the beautiful Unesco Heritage's temple, I found myself curious about this vintage fountain in front of it. With the usage of higher shutter speed (hehe, as if I really know well), I did managed to take a photograph for the effects of water spraying out of the fish.

There shall be more photographs about scenery, temples and so on. And, that's all this time.