Wesak Day (Part 3) - the Parade

After the morning shoot at Brickfields and the afternoon shoot at Wat Chetawan, I was home for a cold shower. After shower, I was already so tired until almost fell asleep on my chair, but I know I wouldn't want to miss the Parade at night so then I drove all the way down to KL again, this time, the Dataran Merdeka, one of the landmark in Malaysia as their passing point.



I reached there at about 7:30pm, the street were too quiet as like the parade will only begin few hours after. The people were almost too little for my expectation. I started wondering if I was too earlier...



Luckily we didn't have to wait too long until we saw the parade passing by. About 8pm+, we can see the "flowery cars" and a crowd of devotees started to walk towards us, most of them were carrying the lotus flower with burning candles.


















Some monks were sitting on the "flowery cars" sprinkling the holy waters to the people walked by.




Some were entertaining the people by presenting a more contemporary songs.




Kids leading the team by singing the song of Lord Buddha.



The parade ended around 10pm, also ended my one whole day shoot of Wesak.

It was extremely tired but I really enjoy that feeling, somehow it reminded me of the days shooting "the Roots" year ago, non-stop running, shooting and sweating all day long in order to catch, observe and learning every new things appear infront of my eyes. I love that feeling, because after the cold shower at night, it felt like I had gone through a complete and meaningful day.

Wesak Day (Part 2) - Wat Chetawan

Continued from the last post, after the shoot at Brickfields, we had our lunch at A&W Taman Jaya and then headed to Wat Chetawan Temple at Jalan Gasing, PJ. Wat Chetawan Temple is a Thai temple, it has a very beautiful architectures. The crowds at that time wasn't as packed as at Brickfields.


The main gate.


The main hall (The Bot).


The area where you get to go one round donating coins and ringing the bells.


Here goes Xiang ringing the bell.


Devotees used the golden papers to paint on the Lord Buddha's statue.




The blessing area in the main hall. The monks will so some chanting and then they will sprinkle you with the holy water.




What is this? Blessing for wealth?


The young monk.






The little prayer.




Back to the ringing bells area.








......

Then I saw a very long line, I walked forward and realized it was for bathing the Buddha statue. I was so excited because I didn't manage to shoot one from Brickfields that morning. Me and Xiang lined up and waiting for our turn too. After that I stayed and shoot for some times until I get the right shots I want.











A little girl offering donations to a group of Buddha statues.



In that evening, we did some prayers, donations and lots of photographs; although it was very hot and tiring, but it sure is a worth visiting experience. We left there around 5pm, went home to take bath and ready to go Dataran Merdeka for the next shoot - the parade.

Wesak Day (Part 1) - Buddhist Maha Vihara

Wesak Day (Vesak Day) is celebrated as the birthdate, as well as to commemorate Him reaching Enlightenment and His death.

Franky say, I had never celebrated Wesak Day, at least that's what I remember.
So this year, I ask people around for the best place/temple to shoot photos. Since most of them were suggesting about Brickfield, so I decided to go there this year.

I am glad that I could finally had an outing with Ah Lick, a best friend of mine who works now as a fulltime photographer.


We reach the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields around 10pm. The temple is very crowded, you get to see all sort of people, black white yellow brown coming to this place to celebrate Wesak.


The road leading to the temple. There were stalls selling flowers, books, and some donation booths. You can see there were many beggars along the road too.


The main gate known as the Sanchi Gate. We walked in and started taking photos around.




















They kept refill the oil lamps to make sure that the flames do not go out.






Volunteers for the blood donation.




Children art competition.




Devotees from different races.






The Bodhi Tree, the same species which Gautama Buddha meditated under and achieved Enlightenment.








Lotus fountain used as a wishing well.


Throwing coins into the well wishing for good lucks.




A kid was donating money to the beggars.


We left the place around 1pm. It wasn't like what I expected, I realized there actually has not much of interesting things to shoot. I ended up shooting hundreds of pictures but there aren't many that I really satisfied.

After had our lunch at A&W, I decided to visit another temple, the Wat Chetawan, which is a Thai temple to hunt for more interesting shots. I will share the photos here after this.

Pinholes BnW

I imagined shooting black & white with pinhole will gives a greater effect of old school photography but I guess I had failed this roll. It's probably because some of the contents are not suitable. From there I learned sometimes somethings are not meant to shoot in black & white.

Hope you don't mind...










All the shots taken indoor were exposed approx 2 minutes.

Gakken Pinhole | Kodak BW400CN

.

Teddy

Well guys, he is not my pet... unfortunately. hehe! :P

My boss brings him to our office sometimes this week.
He really cheers us by his every moves, laughters filled every corner in the office.
He is SOOOO CUTE!
He can stands up with 2 legs and walk like a human for some duration of time, so incredible!

His name is Teddy. You sure will love him!













That's my favorite one! haha! :D

.

不开心都难

因为母亲节那天，我回了家。

妈妈应该很开心。
不开心也几难一下，因为那一晚我们一起看了<老师嫁老大> 。

外婆自从开始洗肾后，整个人显然瘦了很多。
但不见是个坏事，因为洗肾排掉身体里多余的水份后，整个人也就健康了很多。

记得那天我拿着相机，道：“婆，笑一个”，然后照片慢慢呈现画面的那一刻，
我们都不禁大笑了起来。。。
不开心都难，因为你看，外婆笑得多么的灿烂！
我很开心，妈妈心里也一定感到很欣慰。



这两位都是世上最伟大的母亲。
母亲节快乐，天天皆快乐。
她们快乐，我也快乐！

D1 PRODUCTION turns 1

Happy Birthday! D1 PRODUCTION is 1-year-old now!

I started this blog at 11th of May 2007, that was not long after I purchased my Canon G7 and wanted to get on more serious in learning photography. I never expected, from the begining that I could hold, or write this blog for such a long period. I always believed I am a "3-minutes-warm" person. :)

I think the reason behind was that, I am taking photograph to blog, and I am blogging to share photographs, so it's a win win situation! :P Guess that's what really pushing me, and kept D1 Production alive for a year.

But after all, my biggest motivation really came from the supports of you guys throughout the year. Now after a year, my blog already has more than 10k visitors. I don't say it is huge number but looking at the visitors grown from month to month, I really feel happy and all worth it.

Below shows the traffic report from June 2007, the first month after I started this blog:



And the traffic report from last month, April 2008:



Thank You. For making this happened.
Please accept the deepest appreciation from my heart.

As in return, I will work harder to improve my skills, I will shoot more and share more with you guys. And I promised to make here a better place. :)


.

漂亮妈妈

五月一号那天接到了这一个job，去录影一个叫漂亮妈妈的选美比赛，这个比赛也是趁着母亲节来临所举办的。反正有眼福看着台上这些年轻又漂亮的妈妈们，虽然是劳动节，工作也是值得的。:P

因为是录影工作的关系，我也只能趁比赛结束了，才赶紧到台上拍下了前三名佳丽的照片。在这里和大家分享分享！

冠军佳丽：


亚军佳丽：


季军佳丽（也是我最喜欢的）：



今天是母亲节，我在这里祝我的妈妈，也祝天下所有的妈妈，母亲节快乐！

谢谢您妈，我爱您！:)

KL Fashoin Week - Quiksilver & Roxy

Checked the list, my favorite Quiksilver & Roxy is on Sunday 2pm, great! Because it's on the weekend, or else I couldn't afford to miss it! :P

Since it was on the afternoon, the big sunlight lite from their top and it created some extras and unwanted shadows, in that case I used flash to fill in almost all the shots, I think it really helped alot! That is the reason why I said I (as a flash-no person) finally realized how useful is the flash. I guess my next wish list should be the Speedlite 580EX flashgun... hehe~

Enjoy the show! Let me know what you think. :)

KL Fashion Week - Part 1

It was the Fashion Week last week and some of the shopping malls were having a series of fashion shows. I didn't know about it until I visited Midvalley mall...

This is my first experience on shooting fashion show, first time realized that the flash is actually very useful. It was also a new feeling shooting stills surrounded with all the pro photographers with their big and long weapons!

Midvalley shopping mall:




















1 Utama shopping mall:



The Garden shopping mall:

the Pinholes from WPPD

Here goes the pinholes taken at Ulu Yam during the 2008 World Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD).

From the end of roll Kodak T400CN:



From the Solaris 100 film given by Kelvin:
It's my first time trying out this film, I thought it gives more orange tone but somehow they are more violet. Not a bad film! I think from here it does helps to enhance the feel of old school photography.









To see the scenes behind and other digital photographs from that day, please go back to:
http://d1production.blogspot.com/2008/05/wolrd-pinhole-photography-day.html

World Pinhole Photography Day '08

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD) is a global event celebrating the fantasy, art, fun and experience of lens less photography. It is a day to take some time off from the increasingly technological world we live in and to participate in the simple act of making a pinhole photograph. It is a day for us to remember the beauty of this historical photographic process.

The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is held each year on the last Sunday in April. So during the last weekend, me together with Xiang and Kelvin, along with Gakken Pinhole and friends, we were out to Ulu Yam to celebrate this special event.

Before I show you the pinhole photographs, lets see what I've caught from my canon.



Who says the stars only appear at night?


Thanks to Kelvin for sharing with me this cool bokeh's effect!

Pinhole in action.

Yeah, it's all about the timing.


Then we started taking some portrait shots, you know who would be the model... :)














I used the star mask but somehow I accidentally put it further out so the picture turned like this... Pinhole effect? :P







So tiring...

We left the waterfall around 7pm, head to the lake to catch the magic hour. Believe me, it was beautiful, we had never expected to see this kind of view specially in a polluted capital of KL.





Mountains, waterfalls, fresh air, cameras, friends, and an incredibly beautiful sunset. It was more than a Pinhole Day to be remembered. Thanks to Cathy for telling me about this place. :)






Wait a minute! Where are the pinholes?

Ops...

What!?

Coming up on next post... hehe~ :P

.