Our 1st angkasawan

I saw our first angkasawan (cosmonaut) blasting off to the ISS during the Hari Raya shopping at the Giant hypermarket. My feeling were a mixture of exited, proud, jealous, nervous and relief. I never took a serious attention about our space mission but once I saw it blast off, I took a look on www.angkasawan.com.my and other reading material about Soyuz space craft and the International Space Station ISS.


From the www.angkasawan.com.my I straight read through the blog entry made by the Dr SMS and Dr Faiz and all the comment made by the visitor (mostly Malaysian). Most of them saying farewell and other patriotic encouragement but toward the end there are a few condemning comment, something to do with space tourist or not truly Malaysia own space program and so on. Some said we spend like RM100 millions for this space program , which I don't know is it true or not. But for me, if I had the opportunity to be selected as one of the candidate I'll be damn proud. I mean this is a chance of a life time. Go for it.

The Adventure Begins

Last week, me and my Elegan buddies were successful completing a coastal cruising bike trip all the way to Port Dickson, Melaka and back to KL. I thought I'm too old for this kind of activity, but I'm not alone.



More trip photo here

Travellers Ride

Most people do not decide to make a big change out of the blue. As for me I never thought that I will ever ride a motorcycle again after the last accident 4 years ago (in 2003). At that time my wife was 4 months in pregnancy. Luckily the fall was not that bad, my wife and our baby unharmed.

But early this month we decided to ride a bike again due to some changes in our work place. We sold our old bike, the 1st edition Honda Wave and after looking for a while, we choose Modenas Elegan 150 CC maxi scooter (Originally branded as SYM Joyride) with analog RPM and speedo meters. It's bigger with a lot of storage space, comfy rider's and pillion's seat with back-rest and much more. However manuevering this bike in jam-packed Kuala Lumpur city road is a little bit tricky. All and all I feel lot's more adventurous owning this bike so I joined the Eleganeers club.



The Eleganeers member were originated from Malaysia Bikers Community forum (MBC). It's a good start for an Elegan newbie like myself to learn more about this bike. They discuss everything from service center to every detail parts. I occasionally meet them in a small TT gathering and was surprised how friendly they are. Most of them are married so we don't hangout so often.

We planned a coastal cruise trip (KL-PD-Melaka-KL) this weekend and hopefully everything goes well. I set this trip as a benchmark how well the Elegan scooter perform on a long trip.

Malaysia Flora Fest 2007

This is my long awaited event that I'd plan for month. It was really grand. The ceremony was held in Putrajaya at the front of Palace of Justice, Persiarana Putra street. I never had a chance to really take photo shoot in any parade before. I missed the launch of "Eye on Malaysia" and VMY 2007 so I can't afford to miss this one.

There are few things that I'd learn from this event photo shot. I never thought that the parade car would move so fast. I only managed to frame a few front shots, a single car element shot and again a few rear car shots. I need to think, react and relocate very fast before the car comes by.

This event attract a huge crowd and I swear this is the most number of photographer on single event that I ever saw. I wonder how their photo looks like.

Kuala Lumpur Sight

Wow, I actually had time to wander around Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and take several shots of the Sultan Abdul Samad building. I always admire the building since my early childhood. It stood there long before I even born into this world.


It was designed by A.C. Norman and built in 1894-1896 to house several important government departments during the British administration. A.C. Norman spent time in Africa and saw Muslim temples in India which led him to use Moorish architecture in the building's design, not realizing that the Malays already had a highly developed South-East Asian form of their own.

In 1971, Kuala Lumpur suffered a huge flood after a heavy rainfall. Part of the building was not spared. In 1978, a massive renovation was undertaken. The renovation took six years to complete with a total cost of RM 17.2 million. That's really big money during that time.

The Historic City Melaka

Bandar Hilir

It’s school holiday again. We plan to take our kids to some cool places. After all I can’t remember when was our last “out of the state” family trip. We list out some places that we think might be suitable for a family activity.

Now what are family activities? Kids love to play and discover new experience. So we just need to find any playground and they would be happy enough. Or perhaps a zoo or a science exhibition might be interesting. And then I thought Melaka would be a great place to visit. It has variety places of interest for the whole family to discover. Beside its just 1 hour journey from Kuala Lumpur and we even has relatives living in Melaka. That’s just perfect.

Despite being the second smallest State in Peninsular Malaysia (after Perlis), Melaka is crowded with tourist especially on weekend. Infact, Melaka attracts the westerners such as Portuguese, Dutch and British since 1511.

I counted that Melaka has around 60++ places of interest:

• A’Famosa (Porta de Santiago)
• Aborgines (orang Asli Village)
• Aborgines Museum
• Ayer Keroh Cultural Village
• Bee Farm
• Bukit China
• Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary
• Casuarinal Park
• Cheng Hoon Teng Temple
• Christ Church
• Clock Tower
• Crocodile Farm (Taman Buaya)
• Dataran Padang Pahlawan Melaka
• Dataran Sejarah
• Ekspo Melaka
• Gallery of Admiral Cheng Ho
• Handicrafts
• Hang Jebat’s Mausoleum
• Hang Kasturi’s Mausoleum
• Hang Li Poh’s Well
• Hang Tuah Hall
• Hang Tuah Walk
• Hang Tuah Well
• Hang Tuah Mausoleum
• Jonker Street
• Jonker Walk
• Kampung Kling’s Mosque
• Light & Sound Spectacular
• Malacca Fish World
• Malacca River
• Malacca Sultanate Palace (Cultural Museum)
• Malaysia Youth Museum
• Maritime Museum
• Medan Ikan Bakar Pernu
• Melaka Africa Ostrich Park
• Melaka Agropark (sungai Udang)
• Melaka Islamic Museum
• Melaka Raya Walk
• Melaka Tropical Fruit Farm
• Melaka Zoo
• Mini Malaysia & Mini ASEAN
• Peacock Paradise
• People’s Museum
• Poh San Teng Temple
• Portugese Square
• Proclamation of Independence Memorial
• Recreational Forest
• Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple
• St. Francis Xavier’s Church
• St. John’s Fort
• St. Paul’s Church
• St. Peter’s Church
• Taman Budaya Seri Malaysia
• Taman Merdeka
• Taman Rekreasi Durian Tunggal
• Taman Ular
• Tapak Sejarah Nsan Acheh
• Tasik Ayer Keroh
• The Baba and Nyonya Heritage
• The Dutch Graveyard
• The Stadhuys
• Villa Sentosa

We choose several places like Melaka Zoo, Bandar Hilir (the area which the Portuguese and Dutch relics concentrated) and Maritime Museum.

Melaka Zoo

Melaka Zoo

Bandar Hilir

Maritime Museum

High dynamic range (HDR) Photography

If you visit flickr regularly, you've probably noticed that a lot of High Dynamic Range, or HDR, stuff posted these days. Even if you don't, you've likely seen HDR photos all around the net as photographers both pro and amateur experiment with this emerging artistic format.


In Wikipedia definition - High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large difference between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows.

Personally HDR gives a new perspective in my shots. Most of my HDR photo set produced by Photomatix, a standalone HDR image processor. But you can also use the Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Bridge to get the HDR photo. I can't wait to try the HDR feature in CS but with the price tag USD649 I think I'm going to buy it from Low Yatt.

There are a lot of tutorial on the net regarding hoe to create HDR image but I think these 2 had fairly enough information to start the ball rolling.

How to Create High Dynamic Range Images by Jack Howard (showing both Photomatix and Photoshop CS2 method) and How to Create Professional HDR Images by Ryan McGinnis (uses Photoshop CS method).

To get some good sample of HDR images, checkout this HDR group.

Jakarta - Shopping Heaven

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

It was a really short trip but worth every penny or should I say worth every Rupiah. Jakarta reported to had a visit by George Bush and university students having several picket sessions. But when I arrived, everything seems calm and the road is busy, I mean really really busy. Twice as much busier than Kuala Lumpur.

I manage to check in to Santika Hotel located in Pertaburan road. A little shock at the counter as there is no reservation under my name. The rate is far expensive than I planned earlier (around USD81 per night rather than USD49) but time is running out, I just pay the deposit, RP 1600000. I tried to call my boss, darn I just couldn't get through the roaming network. I thought Hotlink should to guide me better.

The next task is to find the meeting place somewhere in Palmerah road stretch. I decided to take a taxi just by the hotel lobby. "This is easy" I said but the driver seems had no idea of the place and later on he simply drop me in the middle of no where. Crap... with no map and no exact address, I wander of by the street and off to some large market.

I walked until I find the main entrance of the office and I thought I was finally there. But it was not. The guard help me stop a taxi (there call it mini bus or something), a Toyota Unser with no. 9 on the windscreen and ask me the driver to send me to the exact place. And again I thought I would be there in no time. I'm wrong again, when the last passenger get down and I'm the only one left I ask the driver, "are we there yet ?" the driver was shocked and he is completely forgotten to drop me. He quickly apologize and send me to the exact place.

By the time I arrived at the meeting place, my boss called and ask me to get back to the hotel as there is no one at the office by this hour. Crap, all this sweat is out for nothing. But at least I already know the place. This whole mess is just because I can't use the Hotlink's roaming facility. The next day onwards, I simply direct the taxi driver to the exact place.

With 3 days 2 nights trip in a foreign country what would you do? The best I could imagine is shopping. That is exactly what I do, I ask the bell boy where is the best place for souvernier, textile, electronic and so on, he gave this list

1. Sarinah Plaza (Souvernier stuff)
2. Semanggi Plaza (Famous local mall)
3. Sogo (Only the elits goes there)
4. Mangga Dua (Get your DVD here for only RP6000)
5. Majestik (Famous textile street - Like Jalan TAR in Kuala Lumpur)
6. Roxy Mall (The whole mall selling cellphone - nuts)

One thing about Jakarta (currently) every vehicle entering mall or hotel must go through the security post equipped with bomb/explosive detector. What do you think, feel scared or secured?

Generally Jakarta still a save place to travel especially for shoppers and the people here had a great hospitality attitude.

DIY - How to build a humidity free container

I was searching for a special container for my camera kits and I realized that I can make my own with far cheaper. All you have to do is go to the nearest hypermarket and get this item.

What you need is a container box (mine Toyogo brand – RM9) and a bag of dehumidifying bag (Ele brand, 4 bags – RM3). Put a bag of dehumidifying stuff in your container and it will last 3 month or more. You can choose to have a tight seal container from top brand like Tupperwear or dehumidifying brand like Thirsty Hyppo it’s your choice.

So now you don’t have to worry about those annoying fungus.

Preventing fungus from developing on your camera

Unless you are living in the hot and dry area, you shouldn’t be worrying about fungus. But if you live in high humidity places like Malaysia, the chances of fungus developing in your camera body or even inside your precious lens are pretty high.
Once it’s in there, nothing much you can do. It’s either you send it for a cleaning service at the professional service centre or of course you can do it yourself. I’m not sure how much it will cost you if you want to get the professional service, but you don’t have to worry much on the result.

If you find the fungus just started to develop on the external camera body, like mine, you can treat it yourself by using vinegar. Dip a hard cotton swab with the vinegar, and rub it gently on the effected area. Acidity in the vinegar is very mild so it is quite save to use it as the removing agent.

As for the lens, you can spot the fungus at the connector ring inside the lens. If you want to do it yourself, get a watch screw driver and remove the glass from the housing tube one by one. Cross your finger and hope you can remember each glass position.

Wiseman always said “preventing is better than searching a cure”. To stop fungus, store your camera in a humidity free container. You can get it from your special camera store or even on the internet. But do you know that you can make yourself a decent humidity free container? Coming up next, “How to build a humidity free container”.