As I sat down here close to 1am, my mind suddenly did a quick re-cap of amount of events which have happened in recent months! Although accomplishment have been met till now, however, I got a strange feeling that I began to turn into a hermit.. Yeah.. Hermit!!

Just a couple of days, endless amount of time have been put into our company web development. Its not perfect yet, but challenges have been met. Still, there is no one in Brunei who does web development!! Strange huh.

Before that, camera roadshow.. but before this, was planning for 2010… ohh…plus.. several other interesting situation have arised and gone.

Oh yeah, no thanks to those bunch of turd in Kota Kinabalu who turned my peaceful home upside down… Yeah.. you guys, sitting behind a desk. Ever consider sitting behind the rubbish bin?

All these seems to happen as we gradually move on in time. But I do notice though, that have never wait for anyone but instead, it teaches us lessons if you really focus and see it properly.

So here I am, feeling a teeny wee bit of achievement and re-capping my lessons learn and still sleepless, still thinking (too much) about nothing but time! Strange isn’t it.. I gotta stop drinking coffee and tea at the same time in Dafu Restaurant!!

Tags: Kota Kinabalu, Sleepless, Time, turd, Wierd

Being born and bred in Brunei, it can be tough to find Photography Subjects to shoot that relates to Brunei Culture and lifestyle. No doubt, we ONCE were pretty rich in Traditions. So rich that, you almost see it every weekend.

I remember that during His Majesty’s birthday, we would see traditional dances and songs in our padang at Brunei Town. Unfortunately, I lost all those negatives. There were lots of Kuih, Satay, Pulut Pangang and those bamboo rice (yum yum) with daging rendang!.. Those were the young days where we really celebrate with culture and style.

As my hobby in Photography took hold, I tried looking for these favorite past time from the past during these 2 months. Looking hard for these subjects, but, found nothing. Worst, the closest I find was a kid playing Playstation Portable close by the longkang! eerrr…. that’s hardly a subject at all!

A few phone calls out came nothing. Shockingly, no one knows where all these have gone?  Through the years, we have seen changes but each day, did we lose our identity. Once, in Kampong Mabohai or Ong Sum Ping, there is so many kids (me included) climbing coconut trees, riding bicycles, playing kites or sitting behind a corner makan Nasi Katok behind a rubbish bin (added ingredient, I guess).

Still these were signs of our culture where we coated the string with glass powder trying to cut our opponent’s string in Kite Competition. Sadly, the days are lost.

So far, I found some Fishermen. Life sure hasn’t change for them, landscape, definately have changed a lot!

Everyday, I made a deliberate drive to Kampong Ayer every 4-6pm, looking for kids flying a Kite. But what I get,  ziltch!.. Where have the past gone? Culture or dances? Have we gone so complacent that we have finally lose our culture? Traditions? Where’s our cultural dance? Perhaps one day, when dust settles, will be see our cultural dances and Traditions in its true form.

Trying to revive some of those past, through the eyes of a camera, in Print ? Our Daily life, our identity? Have we really lost it?

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Tags: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Brunei Culture, Dance, Food, Photography, Tradition

GONG XI FA CAI TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND COLLEGUES.. AND THOSE FAR AWAY PLACES TOO.

As fourth day of CNY have pass and gone, it was one of the first fruitful and cheeerful days which will stuck into memories. We got Kheong to call up the troupe since he’s part of the organisation.

Our office was opened for half day pending the arrival of Lion Troupe. Normally, I would expect one of two lions but three in a day came as a surprise!

Fireworks, dances and second ang pows… ahh… I miss those ang pows days! hehehe…

But best of all, I get to polish my camera skills. And to have one lions in my office, who wouldn’t find it an opportunity to make lots of shots.

And guess what he left me? A nicely decor mandarin orange. Seriously, I dont mind it left it on my stock report.

It’s sure no easy task for these people under the sun beating on the drums. These days, I am surprise how hot it can be in the morning. Don’t even recall Brunei was ever this hot. But weather these days have gone nuts.

Well, at least Brunei is not that quiet today! Finally, at least some noise, firecrackers and dances! aaaaaahhh….. How I miss this kind of noise. Festive and satisfying… I wonder if I would see more of these around! Come to think of it, what happen to my neighbour? He’s awfully quiet this year.

Again, GONG XI FA CAI and have GREAT FORTUNE, WEALTH and HEALTH in 2010.

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Tags: Chinese New Year 2010, Festive, Firecrackers, Interhouse Company, Lion Dance, Mandarin Orange

It was a busy CNY at my end. While my wife kept asking me to go to bed at 12am plus, I was still busy creating my little pet project. Its a portable lighting system for flash.

What really spun me off was the fact that I was looking for something of the following:

1.) Can be set up and carry by one person
2.) Do not require complex ity.
3.) Extremely Affordable
4.) Doesnt look strange like a pile of crap
5.) Give great lighting that grabs the subject.
6.) Does not compromise colour saturation/Temp
7.) Battery Operated
8.) Lightweight
9.) Efficiency

I had a look around in the market (all the way to Singapore) onlyto find out, they have one thing in common, bulky. Even some of those which I found in Brunei, tend to be fakes or absolutely doesn’t help at all! SO DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY.

Being a huge sucker, I tested these item and notice that there are strong shadows. The lights simply doesnt grab hold of the subject or person. Not to mention, I lost some colour and contrast too!

So back to square one, ticker toeing what materials to use. Purchase a pile of textile material and sewing kit (YEAH… I SEW!!). Further material were search throughout from the kitchenwares and store room..

After 3-4 days of trial and test… Viola… Some samples for your to look at. Set up only took 3 minutes, Portable and easy to use. Materials are extremely affordable and can be found at home!

So here are some of the test shots that was done yesterday at Jerudong Beach. Since I couldn’t find a model in such short notice and never spend time at the beach with wifey, might as well share some of my hobbies/interest & spending time together.

Both of these pictures are used with 2x Canon Speedlite 580Ex, Canon EOS 50D, ST-E2 and camera tripod for the flashes.

I was pretty please with the outcome. Colours are exactly what I got from the actual material with no shadows. Both pictures are used with modifies on the Canon Speedlite 580EX & II with ST-E2 wireless Transmitter.

The only part which I need now is to increase the quality of the material from prototype.

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Tags: Canon Speedlite 580ex, Homemade, Homemade Lighting, Jerudong Beach, Photography, Potraiture, Prototype, Speedlite 580ex

There are times whenI am very tempted in writing about some of my dissatisfaction of daily of every day life. Sadly, these “road block” are experience by most of us but we put it inside us.

I questioned myself today, about my values and responsibilities. Asking myself should I or shouldn’t I,put these details in my personal blog. My original intention for this blog was to share some of my outlook, events, hobbies and new things that came into my “personal life“.

It was never intended to go into politics nor writing about policy. Especially, politics are never my forte. I tend to leave dead bodies around if I share my ideas and opinions.

But knowing some of these Head of Departments, in most cases, any write ups in Web 2.0, they definately won’t look “GOOD“. Rather taking it as constructive criticism, they would take it “Personal“.

My life in Brunei, is indeed peaceful, too peaceful to the point of pause/still in a video/dvd player. But there is so much a person can see and take on the amount of deterioration in our rich Culture, Ecology, commercial and life in the abode of peace, that we are virtually at a standstill.

Today, I ask myself if I should continue to turn a blind eye?

Perhaps it was a mistake yesterday when I took a picture of people, places and time. Yes, I can photoshop it to look better or change the whole story of the picture. Out of 200 shots, nearly 90% – 95% tells me a story. Lets not go into details of these pictures. It might turn any person into depression.

Once, a good friend who works in a bank told me, “I should go with the flow.” If the water stop flowing, what then? Let the water grow algae or let it stink? Any barriers or mentality must be broken in order for new ideas to grow. If there’s no vision or goals to work forward to, then we have stop growing a long time ago.

Tags: Abode of Peace, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Brunei Town

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If you ever wonder what I have been eating, here’s some of the variety of food which shall I say, have been enlarging size horizontally… Taste good but side effect is better! Who says my wife don’t feed me well?

Tags: Dinner, Hawker Food, La Mee, Otak Otak, Penang, Rojak