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JustStuff by Juaini
People, Places, Images and Words
By: Juaini Shamsul
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[<< < 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 8 > >>] [Archive]
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| Monday, 1-Jan-2007 17:27 |
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Happy New Year.
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With a new year come new beginnings which we must face, not with fear or apprehension, but with courage and hope.
Congratulations Wawan and Diya. Semoga panjang umur dan mudah rezeki.
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| Sunday, 24-Dec-2006 13:32 |
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I went again this weekend to shoot a wedding with Bob and his roomie Fezol, this time in Shah Alam. I'm just too damn lazy to arrange all this nicely in a little montage like I did previously, but I would still like to share a few of the shots that I liked.
  
 
Somehow a few of the pics seem a bit dull and gray when I see them in Firefox than when I looked at them in Photoshop... Is it just my imagination?
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| Saturday, 23-Dec-2006 13:01 |
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Limau Ais@Syed Abu
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Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "mug shot".
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| Thursday, 21-Dec-2006 15:02 |
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Home, sweet home; part II.
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I woke up past noon today, as I have every day for the past, er, three weeks, ha ha. After the usual bathroom rituals (and Internet rituals, and Photoshop rituals), I made my merry way downstairs for a drink of water and a bite to eat. I bounced down the stairs and through the kitchen door, then something stopped me. I leaned backwards out the kitchen doorway and peeked into the living room.
Flowers!! There were not one, but two vases in my living room, each filled with gorgeous white flowers, their scent wafting through the air. Forget food! I ran back upstairs, packed my camera bag (because my gear is always strewn all over my room), grabbed my tripod and hurried on down. It was almost 5 p.m. and soon the light would begin to fade.
This pic is flipped horizontally: the white blossom (which looks a little green, maybe I'll fix that later in PS) was originally at the bottom right of the frame. I just liked it better like this. The primary light was window light coming directly from the front, and I bounced a flash from the ceiling just next to the stalk to get a bit of light onto the stalk and the top of the flower buds. The backdrop, as with the previous "Home, sweet home" entry, was just a pashmina we use as a throw on the couch.
Personally I prefer the pic from the previous HSH entry. This pic lacks the softly luminous quality that I got with the other flower (that I still don't know the name of). That one was done with only window light, coming from the side.
I asked my mom later that evening what these flowers were. Guess what? These are called sundal malam. That's night queen, in bahasa omputih. Now the movie title makes more sense. I know Maya Karin is hot and all, but so far I haven't seen her as a spectacular actor. I'm sure she can show me something better than that.
I'm going to try this again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll also have something better to show.
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| Tuesday, 19-Dec-2006 19:25 |
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A New York state of mind.
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I don't have any reasons
I've left them all behind
I'm in a New York state of mind.
- Billy Joel, New York State Of Mind
Lately I've been feeling so nostalgic for the way I learned photography. Creating that black-and-white image (loosely speaking) in my previous post really made me remember how much I enjoyed shooting when I was first learning. I didn't start out really old skool or anything... my first "serious" SLR was a Nikon N65, which was so automatic it didn't even have a spot meter. I shot a roll of Tri-X somewhere in my first ten rolls with that, but when I realized I didn't have any means to get proper, consistent and practical development on it I ditched silver b&w films. I turned instead to Kodak T400CN, which I got for 10 rolls/USD11 on eBay, always past its expiry date.
After about a year-long love triangle with my N65 and 50/1.8, I broke my N65. Totally smashed. The film door wouldn't close, the latch on the popup flash was broken and the reflex mirror was dangling by a thread. I ditched it, and got an N80. Yippee, spot meter! If only I really cared.
Anyway, the summer that I broke my N65, I went back home to KL on vacation. I was flying out from Newark Airport so I decided to come to New York early to hang out with my brother for a few days. He lived on the 28th floor of an apartment building a couple of blocks from Harlem that, nonetheless, had a doorman. If you looked straight out his bedroom window you could catch the tiniest glimpse of Central Park:
Look out the window to the street down below and you could practically see for miles all up and down 3rd Avenue. I remember one particular photo I shot when it was raining. I hung precariously out the window of his 28th storey apartment with my N80 and telephoto around my neck, shooting the little black dots that were umbrellas over the heads of those passing on the sidewalk below. My fingers froze because it was winter. Of course, even in winter New York is a walking city. Everybody walks. So I did. And one day, walking on 5th Avenue, I caught this:
This one was worth uploading a big size. This remains one of my favorite images of New York, and practically my one successful street photo. Look, it even has a NY Yellow Cab passing in the background, under the horse's chin. I think there's one thing that would have made it a perfect photo: if the horse was looking right into the lens.
I only had one shot. The driver shook his fist at me and yelled expletives. I walked on as if nothing had happened. Classically New York.
Both images were shot on Kodak T400CN at ISO 400. These photos don't do justice to the luminescent tones this film was capable of. Forgive me. It was almost a year later that I learned it looked better overexposed by 2/3 stop.
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| Monday, 18-Dec-2006 17:12 |
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I said, Happy Birthday!!
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I went to shoot a wedding with Bob on Saturday. I didn't concentrate that well on my shooting because I was busy watching him shoot. I came to look and learn (which I really did. Thanks Bob!). As a result, my own photos were an unqualified disaster and I care so little for them that I didn't even go through them until this afternoon. Maybe if I feel like it I'll upload some of them. But what I did was, I went into Photoshop to play, and suddenly now I remembered that during my old film days (heh) I used to shoot more black-and-white than color.
No, I didn't do any of the pics from the wedding. What I did instead was this:
It's the exact same shot from my Dec 3rd post but given a different treatment. Personally I'm thrilled at the result! I think it looks 350% better in black-and-white. I mean, brown-and-white. You see textures much better in monochrome: the hair, the skin, the pillow. And I don't have spectacular skin, when I go out in public most of the time I wear foundation, concealer and powder to cover up my blotchy red cheeks. I had to do some pretty heavy duty Photoshopping to get rid of that in color, since I did this photo au naturel. I didn't even do anything to my skin in this version. Makes life simple, doesn't it?
In other news: I would love to get a superwide zoom for my D70. I'm looking at the Sigma 10-20mm and the Tokina 12-24mm. Most likely I won't be getting these in KL, I'll probably ask my brother to get it for me from New York. From what I read, the Tokina would be the good choice overall in the things I consider important (re: mechanics, build quality, distortion, etc; plus it has constant max aperture), but I'm really tempted by Sigma's 10mm. Now that is what I call superwide. Anybody have an opinion on this issue?
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| Sunday, 10-Dec-2006 07:24 |
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Aishah's Aqiqah
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Yesterday I had planned to go shoot Digi's street party whatever thing in Bukit Bintang, but I forewent that option to go to the aqiqah ceremony my cousin was having for his new daughter, Aishah. We arrived in time to witness the potong jambul bit and the succeeding doa...
 
...after which came the artery-clogging, insulin-crashing, sleep-inducing meal of beriyani kambing and sirap bandung, Johor style.
 
mijn: *hands me the glass* cuba rasa.
me: hmmm... i think it needs more soda.
mijn: *dumps large bottle of ice cream soda into periuk while mak mah whips it with a whisk*
nah, rasa.
me: mmmmm... there's that zing!
But what is an aqiqah without the kids, eh? An aqiqah is a celebration of life, acknowledgement of the miracle of birth, to give thanks to God for bringing another insan safely into this world. Mak Mah's house was overrun with little kids that day, and there's plenty of life to celebrate, give thanks for, and be absolutely geram about.
Adam, Umar and Yusuf...
... and again...
... Girly girl Mariam...
 
... and of course, last but not least, baby Aishah.
 
Congratulations to Abang Dat and Kak Has. Alhamdulillah and God bless.
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| Monday, 4-Dec-2006 08:03 |
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I went to KLCC yesterday to get my boyfriend a birthday present. I took the train and brought my camera in my bag, and I made a quick round to Parkson's and Isetan, quick enough so that I won't need a visit to the chiropractor afterwards (ouch!). At about 5 pm my boyfriend picked me up from KLCC, but while waiting for him I sat on the promenade by the Philharmonic and fooled around with my camera for a bit.
I've never really come to KLCC specifically to shoot. I should probably do that one day... pretend I'm a tourist. Hehe.
We were going to go for a bite to eat, but he wanted to go home to take a shower first. He left me in the courtyard of his condo complex to play with my camera some more. There was a pool (not for swimming, just a non-swimming kind of pool) in the center of the courtyard with a fountain at each end, which I'd always thought of shooting if only I wasn't so lazy that I always leave my camera at home... but since this time I had brought my camera, I set it to ISO 400, flipped the aperture on my trusty 50mm to wide open, and snapped these in the failing light. In the first photo, you can actually see the second fountain in the background, through the cascading water:
 
When I first starting doing photography, the only equipment I had was one body and one lens: my 50/1.8 normal lens. For a whole year I shot with these two pieces of gear, at one focal length. I'm still nostalgic for those days. I love the normal focal length, and I love shallow DOF. I love the normal focal length so much that I'm considering getting 35mm so that I can have a normal lens for my digital body.
I'm hoping to use this semester break to rekindle my previous all-consuming obsession with photography. Stay tuned to see if things go according to plan. As always, feedback is much appreciated  Thank you to all the good people who left comments.
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| Sunday, 3-Dec-2006 16:16 |
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Happy Birthday, Darling.
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| Friday, 1-Dec-2006 14:08 |
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The lady leads a life of leisure
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Something I've been waiting to get enough of.
And, something I've been meaning to do for a long time, but just never got around to it till now. or is it just a cheap attempt to up my ratings by re-posting old news? heh heh.. Click here to view.
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