Finally, it’s time to say ‘Goodbye’ to 2011, and stepping into a brand new year – 2012!  Happy New Year everyone!

2011 has been a really important year for me, as there were a lot of life-changing events come and go; Thanks god they are mostly in the good side!

As starter,  I am glad that it has been a great year for my career as a wedding cinematographer at Motion In Style,  it was also my first trip travelling to Perth, Australia to cover a wedding.  It was a totally difference experience shooting there and it certainly has taught me something new throughout the assignment.

As part of the work requirements,  I also acquired a new unit of Nikon D7000, a fantastic camera that are now one of my main choice of camera!  I love this camera’s exposure accuracy, color and sharpness!  Along with this camera, I also purchased a new carbon fiber tripod and a new tracking system for dolly scenes.

At the same time this year, I was also engaged as a state liaison by Nikon Club Malaysia, in the club, I hope to learn new skills,  meet new friends and to share my passion of photography!

btw, I am ‘married‘ finally,  in front of relatives and friends actually.  Me and Angelina actually got engaged last year on Nov 2010.  I hope to stay healthy so I can take care of my lovely wife and our future kids.

and btw… stepping into 2012 also mark the end of my 20s, and I am now 30 and I should be ‘wiser’ now and makes better decision, I hope.

and finally, my long list of resolutions & wish-list for 2012 begins with…

• Stay healthy by living a healthier lifestyle… pretty difficult for me without all the tasty food, midnight food-crave and etc
• Go honey-moon with my wife, some-where nice and cozy.
• Get myself a HD projector for those HD movie-lah…  size really does matters to me.
• Fewer works, more profit.
• Try for baby…  *wink* at my wife.

As part of the on going after sales support from Nikon Malaysia, I am proud to share with all of you that I am now one of the appointed Penang state liaisons for the official Nikon Club Malaysia.  Nikon Club Malaysia, or NCM will be introducing a series of workshops & activities exclusively for all Nikon users every month!

It is our great pleasure to invite all of you who love photography,  come and join us today!  Registration is very simple, what you’ll need is any serial number from a legitimate Nikon Malaysia’s product, it can be a coolpix, a DSLR or even a speedlight.

To jump start the club activities,  we had planned a series of workshops, get-together and walk-about activities for many states in the coming months.  Do check them out and feel free to join us!

If you need further help in this,  please feel free to drop me an email, or ask me in facebook.

& btw, check out the video promo shot and edited by Motion In Style crew on one of my previous workshop for Nikon D7000 & D90 held on June 2011.

& & btw, I will be sharing in a seminar in UTAR Setapak on 20th Aug 2011,  if you are interested to participate,  please check out the details here.

Dusk is one of the most amazing moment for photography and to get a good picture at this moment is pretty easy if you know your basic.  First you’ll need a steady tripod, then make sure you are familiar with your camera &  system, the more you know the better your chance at getting beautiful photos as dawn fade away very fast, especially the best duration of ‘golden hour‘ is only about 10minutes at most;  You really do not want to be wasting your time finding a feature or setting of our camera.  So,  study your manual and understand your camera before you go out and shoot!

Generally, your will be shooting with a relatively long shutter speed to get the nice colors from the horizon.  In order to get the longer shutter speed we preferred,  we will be using low ISO together with a small aperture.  In this series of photos,  I used mainly Nikon 24-120VR, Nikon 18-35 and Nikon 50 f/1.4 on a Nikon D700.  Generally I used aperture smaller than f/5.6 to f/22 on some cases.   I’ve adjusted the ISO from 100 – 1600 depend on my subjects and the motion blur effects I wanted to archive.

Attached here with some of the photos I shot from a local theme park at Queensbay, Penang, there are edited with Adobe Lightroom 3.  Please feel free to comment or share them to your friends.

&. btw,  I am planning for an intensive class of Adobe Lightroom 3 for intermediate users,  do send me an email if you are interested.

&.&. btw,  if you are looking to turn your hobby into profession, please check this out.

Thanks to Freezed.asia, I had a chance to share on Time Lapse photography with the members on 19th Nov 2010.
It was a short sharing session, and I managed to pull it through with some slides and time-lapse videos I liked.

Many thanks to all that come and support and I hope you learn something from the session.

Please check this one of the best Time Lapse video I found and shared during the sharing session,

Want to do your own time lapse but have no idea where to start?
Download my PDF guide of Time lapse photography and have a read and feel free to comment.

The club members will also be having an outing on 30th Nov 2010 for a time-lapse try out at Fly ver bridge near Komtar Penang.  For now, enjoy and stay tuned!

Updates:
The outing with the club members is a big success! I can see many videos floating in from the participants already in facebook.

Finally I visited Hard Rock Hotel Penang for the 1st time last month!  We were asked to cover a small engagement party there at Pizzeria by the pool!

It was truly a fun experience working with a bunch of party peoples!  They have rented a few rooms with an attached balcony,  you were able to access to the pool directly from the room’s balcony!  When I was there, the weather was wonderful and the timing was right on for the sun to set!

We quickly take the chance to shoot a few shots for the host on the beach!

The buffet dinner started with a touching vows from the host!  As I mentioned, the host and guests were a group of care-free peoples!  There’s non stop jokes and laughter everywhere!

And if you noticed, this was the biggest ‘diamond’ ring I ever shot till date!   Everyone went crazy and laugh non-stop when the groom proposed and shown it to his wife-to-be! While the host were kissing in the background, there’s something going on…

The buddy of the groom suddenly proposed to his girl-friend!  It was a surprise proposal plan that were carried out secretly within the band of brothers and no doubt it was a great success!  We have the second lovely couple in one party!

The wedding rings of the soon-to-be married couple!

Not forgetting the largest ‘diamond’ I ever shot!

They have also ordered a lot of funny cupcakes that features topless girl figurine and willies!  And everyone went crazy again when the host distribute the cakes to them!  Next they were having fun playing some games prepared by the emcee of the night.

And the losers get free drinks…!

Right when everyone taught the party was almost finish… there is the another surprise of the party!

The emcee was having his birthday on the next day, and they decided to do it earlier!  Look at how surprise the emcee was when the cake was brought out and shown to him!

and before we call it a day, we did a few of a informal group shots around hotel swimming pool…

I hope you enjoy these photos and if you would like to view more, I have selected and compiled them into a slideshow,

>> Click here to view the slideshow <<

The cinematic video taken by my partner will be ready soon and feel free to comments and share this to your friends on Facebook and twitter!

I took a short 2D1N trip to Cameron Highland with family last weekend.  As titled, I had a ‘bowlful’ of strawberries there!   Sadly though it was raining cats & dogs over there, so I din’t get the chance to go capture some regular tea-farm scenic; instead, I visited a few indoor farms and had fun shooting/eating/hanging there!

We stayed at Titiwangsa Hotel,  a twin king-sized bed at a super duper low price of RM 218 a night!  And best of all, the price includes a buffet breakfast & a steamboat dinner for everyone!  A step into the room, we were amazed by how spacious it is for such a good deal!  Will I be visiting the same hotel again?  Definitely yes!

A look of the delicious steamboat!  A treat for the freezing night!  After the great meal, we went for a traditional body massage right at the main entrance of the hotel for a cost of RM 60 an hour.  The massage was so-so and you can forget about it if you wish.

I’ve selected 80photos to share with you, for your convenience, the exposure info is included this round so that you have a rough idea on how I captured those.
Please feel free to comments and ask if you need further details!

>> Please click here for the flash album <<

For your info, the photos were captured with a Nikon D700, I swap between a 18-35 ultra wide angle, a 50mm, and a 135mm short tele lens.  The photos were then edited with Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta.