Shelley Leong and Az Samad were back in town for two intimate gigs.

10th January 2007, No Black Tie

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Az: Aku main dulu. Harap tak pancit.

He played some new shit. Some old shit. Some refashioned shit. All good shit. Az is Malaysia's violent acoustic fingerstyle guitarist with a penchant for alternate tunings, gentle guitar dynamics, and medleys of Beatles songs (all on one guitar, like Daytripper with both vocal lines and basslines!)

Oh, and I think it was his first public performance of Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit.

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Shelley meanwhile, upped her performance photogenicness. :D All that raw emotion oozing from her face, I felt like crying too. (This was before the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, shot using smashpOp's Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 at 120mm, F6.3, 1/15s, ISO1600.)

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Wah, pedal!

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Open mike, and it's awesome fingerstyle guitarist Dave Yoong! He had a few tricks up his sleeves, too.

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Rozhan joins Az to jam some jazz standards. I didn't know if it was a jazz thing for both of them to take audible breaths at the same time, and sometimes take turns taking breaths, but not related to who was playing or taking turns.

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Emoticus maximus.

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Now, with Alda on bass and Zalila Lee on percussions!

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Zalila aspires to be a hip candid shooter while playing the percussions with the other hand. Ah, the days when I slinged my Canon Powershot A520 on its belt pouch snapping everything as proof of something.

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Reza Salleh, soul/rock crooner and Moonshine and Feedback gig organizer, gets an epiphany.

Fast forward to 17th January 2007, same place, right after I got the beercan lens.

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Crispness at the 210mm F4 1/60s end!

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Same, but at 1/8th of a second.

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It's like they teach looking emo in Berkley. Hmmm, maybe they do.

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Guess that chord! (This is a 600x898 crop shrunk in half to 300x449 to show the power of the beercan. Beer goggles beercan makes it look good!)

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I've been meaning to catch Az do this. (No, he's not shielding himself from the bright spotlights.)

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Knock on wood.

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I've never seen anyone so happy to be tuning his guitar.

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Two plugs - one for the guitar pickup, the other to pick up the sound of knocking on the guitar!

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Zach Tay plays alternative rock and shreds the blues madly.

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Finally, some flare! 50mm, F1.4, 1/3s (the main factors being overexposure, wide-open aperture and having a bright light somewhat out of the frame.)

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This was not combined from two pictures.

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Az tunes. Everyone is happy.

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More extreme closeup goodness at 210mm F4. For once Az plays the blues without going all jazzy and haram on us. Yay!

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A most massive Chumbawamba-esque jam fest. From left: Two guitarists (Az and Shelley), two bassists (Loon and Alda), two percussionists (Stephanie and Zalila).

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Oh, and Zarul the blowing the blues!

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Yep, we've all seen him with Isaac Entry. Interesting change of pace, this.

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Another surprise came in what Shelley called her happy blues song - Az sings the blues!

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Argh I forgot her name, and her friend's name too. She had a beautiful, slightly fragile-yet-chin-up voice. I think I've been exposed to too much of that unidentified Laundry Bar blogger, hence my decreasing captioning abilities.

Many things I have obtained, in the horrific financially-draining hobby of photography. This is part 1.

Nikon SB-28 flash

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Thanks Xian Jin for this belated birthday present! Batteries not included. Battery cover not included, either. (Uh, I hope the battery cover comes before my next birthday.)

Being resourceful, I taped coins to keep batteries in. The flash zapped me once when I touched the coins by accident.

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I can use it on my Olympus OM-2000 film SLR safely because it just triggers a mechanical switch to trigger the flash. :D Of course, TTL information is not passed to the lens, so I had to use it in full power all the time. That's when you'd have to know some basic flash math. The SB-28 has a guide number of 36 (zoom head at 35mm, ISO 100).

So I'd set my shutter speed to the flash sync speed (1/125th of a second, marked in red on my OM-2000), focus on the subject, note the focused distance on the lens, and note the film ISO.

Multiply the guide number by the film ISO, then divide it by 100. Divide that number by the focused distance in meters, and viola! You now know what aperture to set.

For example, if the distance was 2 meters, ISO 400, guide number 36:

36 * 400 / 100 / 2 = 72

Your lens probably won't have F72, so decrease the flash power to say 1/16, so you can use F72/16 = F4.5.

Of course, if you point the flash upwards for bounce flash, you'd have to choose an aperture 1 stop brighter, e.g. F3.2.

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Sony A100 at 18mm, 4 second exposure, F18, ISO100. 4 seconds gave me enough time to try to press the recessed rubber test-flash-fire button on the SB-28. I find those recessed soft rubber buttons annoying; they're hard to access and hard to press. (They also remind me of little pocket LCD games.) Of course, they made it recessed rubber since the SB-28 to provide better water resistance or something. However, if that is the case, why doesn't the SLR have those annoying rubber buttons too?

Unfortunately, I could not set the flash power; whenever I tried to, the flash would switch itself off.

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Sony A100 at 18mm, 4 seconds, F22, ISO100, with the Sony's pop-up flash, set at -2 flash power. This gives enough flash to fill in the otherwise harsh shadows and nothing else.

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I couldn't position the flash behind me and trigger it easily. :( In retrospect, I should've mounted it on my Olympus OM-2000.

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An alternative way to trigger the flash - short-circuiting the PC Sync connector. This was an unused USB cable, not connected on the other end (you do not want to zap anything!) The center pin and outermost ring triggers it.

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Sony A100 at 18mm, 2 seconds, F3.5, ISO200. I used the flash to illuminate this slow exposure.

Minolta Maxxum AF Zoom 70-210mm F4 "beercan" lens

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Sweetness.

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From left to right: The Minolta 70-210mm F4 lens, Sony A100 (with Minolta 50mm F1.4 pre-RS lens), Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens

This is the legendary, constant-aperture zoom lens of the 80's. It is solid, heavy metal (just like the good music of the 80's heh). Made in a time before they invented plastic. Heavy metal, but well-balanced, with a rubber grip and plenty of space after that to hold the lens while you fiddle with the focus. This lens was designed in conjunction with Leica.

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0.8 seconds, 210mm, F4, ISO1600. This was shot right after I bought it from a guy who had a Konica Minolta 7D with Tokina 80-200mm F2.8 (thus, the beercan was sitting in his dry cabinet for a while.) I stood with elbows against a railing. What, do you think I carry a tripod around?

Do you carry a tripod around?

The practical merits of CCD-shift stabilization show itself when you travel with only the lightweight plastic lens and a bright prime.

Oh, and it is great and crisp at F4. You'd buy a bright lens to use it at bright apertures anyway.

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I think I got a really good copy (they were handmade then) as I find it hard to get chromatic aberration with this. This beercan lens was reputed for bad CA (from the time before they invented multicoating and apochromatic glass?)

It's built like a tank. Solid, and defends yourself from rabid dogs.

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1/60th of a second, 210mm, F4. It has great bokeh, which some have described as creamy, and high contrast.

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1/30th of a second, 75mm, F4. Its minimum focusing distance is 1.1 meters. 1.1 meters meant that I had to point at the next table to find something I could focus on! However, back then, that was the shiznit, focusing closer than most other lenses.

A 55mm +4 close up filter would allow it to focus as far as 25cm.

(In other news, I find the new KFC Alaskan burger pretty alright. Nice funky sauce.)

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I put my Seagull 50mm F1.8 MC lens on reverse in front of the lens (which is equivalent to a +25 close up) and got the top-left picture at 210mm, F4. Top-right is at 210mm, F32. Bottom-left is at 70mm, F32, while bottom-right is at 70mm, F4.

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Macro champions: On the left, the Sony A100 with Minolta 70-210mm F4 lens and Seagull 50mm F1.8 MC lens on reverse (up to 4.2:1 magnification); on the right, the Olympus OM-2000 with Vivitar 2x teleconverter and Olympus Zuiko 70-210 F4.5-5.6 lens and Fujica 50mm F1.4 lens on reverse (up to 8.4:1 magnification).

It has internal zoom (but not internal focus). This means that it's less obvious when you zoom in to snipe someone! I love the clear space beyond the zoom ring.

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1/25th of a second, 210mm. I was elated to manage to get mirrored ghost images with bright highlights at F4! I couldn't get that with my new-generation Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. :( The gradient to the left is a severely out-of-focus pillar.

Yes, I love the ghost effect and enjoy trying to coax it out of this lens. I first saw it on the Nikkor 50mm F1.8D (when wide open, regardless of flare hood as the highlight is in the frame).

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1/15th of a second, 70mm, F4. Despite being at 70mm, the EXIF data reads 75mm, a rather common bug with the beercan.

Nikon's 70-210mm F4 was discontinued after 3 years; the Canon 70-200mm F4 L USM is pricey, at RM2500 or so, while the 70-200mm F4 IS L USM is RM4200 or so.

I got the Minolta 70-210mm F4 for RM1000. This is considered expensive since they go for USD150 on eBay (which was the same price when it started selling).

Of course, the Canon 70-200mm F4 L USM has a speedy, quiet ultrasonic motor for focusing. However, I find the Minolta 70-210mm F4 much faster to focus than the 70-300mm F4-5.6 lenses I've tested.

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At 210mm, the Super Steady Shot lets me use 1/20th of a second with no visible motion blur. That's close to 4 stops!

Thanks Ed for sending me these!

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A smiley Rubik's Cube. (Obviously, shooting with a 50mm at F1.4 won't have enough depth-of-field.)

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Properly done. (It's as easy as a 3x3x3; just watch out for the center face alignment.)

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Thanks also for the Rubik's World! (I have trouble with the parity of the last two corners, as with all even-numbered-divisor cubes.)

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Tumpang glamor.

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Yes, I've figured this out! How?

I cheated by examining before jumbling it up; noted that if you spin it on one of the axises, all the numbers on the sides are the right way up. Based on this discovery, I positioned the corners.

I then checked with the pictures I took, and yay my corners were correct!

The edges were designed in such a way you'd know if they belonged to the top or bottom face, or on the middle layer (if they were both facing up or down) and then through simple Sudoku rules, I could tell where they went.

I then did non-destructive edge flips where needed. I'd then be left with middle faces that weren't aligned. I'd put a correctly aligned middle face downwards. To correct misaligned middle faces on the middle layer, I'd pull out the edge cube below it, put in another edge cube, and finally return the original edge cube such that the middle face is aligned. After aligning all middle faces, the top face would be aligned automatically.

The top layer would have misaligned edges, so non-destructive edge swaps and non-destructive edge flips would solve the cube.

More Cubic pr0n here:
Rubik Cubism
Professor Erno's Revenge

I was surfing/scrolling Wikimapia when I came about this in Section 17, Petaling Jaya, covering the Rothmans roundabout:

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This is a full-screen screenshot, scaled down and auto-levelled.

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What if I zoomed out and took a crop instead, so you could see my tooltip and see who's causing all that smoke?

Yep, it's those buggers who "provide better quality cigarettes to consumers who are aware of the risks and consciously make the decision to smoke" (quoted from Kuzco.)

What? Butters & Friends at Zouk KL, 13th January 2007.

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Damn Dirty Apes have turned... reggae! Pedram thankfully is still on sound-effect guitar. (Shot at F1.4.)

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Guess whose style this reminds me of!

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C'mon man, gimme the Jaguar. You know I want it.

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No color tweaking on this one. I love how it turned out so film-like on my Sony A100.

Thankfully, after a few reggae-singalong songs (with DDA background music) they went back to their classic shoegazing, with lush soundscapes, beautiful arpeggios, haunting basslines and intense walls of noise. Space-rock/post-rock never sounded this good.

Now if only these guys would come down from Penang more often. Worth the RM35 entrance fee alone.

(They were also the only band to play new songs. Their new non-reggae stuff rocked as much as the day I first heard them, falling into a hypnotic trance, then enjoying the roaring volume-11 feedback.)

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Republic Of Brickfields! (I went in as media since Xfresh FM was part of the event anyway.)

They're finally coming up with an album after years of otai-ness. Ganja-ran, they call it.

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Another vantage point (which would've been awesome with a telephoto lens.)

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OAG's guitarist. Focused on it by accident. At F1.7 the out-of-focus spots were still bright-lined bokeh (which, some people say, is displeasing) so I used the Blur Tool in Adobe Photoshop, with the Mode set to Darken, to give the circles less donut-like borders.

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Despite being mostly out-of-focus, I like this.

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OAG played their English stuff! Yes, I must admit that I liked their English songs more, because they had a simpler pop rock sound.

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As you can tell, it got harder with more photographers creeping in to the sides. The exclusivity of media tags had been lost!

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Radhi was a boom mike operator in a past life.

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The Minolta 50mm at F2.0 really sparkles. I loved it when I captured other photographers' flashes, illuminating the fog.

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This, at F2.5. I love having a 50mm F1.4 not just for the F1.4, but for all the apertures in between that and F4.

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Butterfingers are on! Loque tries to locate his pedals with the sudden influx of people.

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They played their classics. Again, I prefer their English grunge rock with Malay-or-Celtic-traditional-riff (I don't mean A-minor glam rock) stuff, before they went Malay and added Radiohead influences.

...I don't like Radiohead much.

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Many songs I didn't know the titles to, I found out that day. Fire Is A Curse? E! Stolen! Skew! Love! Delirium! Garden City Of Lights! (Okay, so I had Butter Worth Pushful sitting on Winamp, but I never committed the song titles to memory.)

Emmett can still scream like he came out of his momma's womb in Seattle.

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There you go. This would probably be grabbed by a fan.

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Loque, for the synth-y bits.

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Needless to say, they blew me away. I haven't felt such a fresh rush of grunge since... 2002?

On a side note, I figured out a Celtic version of Vio-pipe for guitar using E-A-C#-G#-B-E tuning. Yeeeaaahhh!

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Moshpit in Zouk. You'd better believe it.

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I spotted Xfresh FM DJ Rex crowdsurfing! Congratulations man, you've kept it real and have transcended beyond your socializing days in Laundry Bar. You now really rock after getting kicked in the face a few times and coming out of the crowd smelling like a thousand Mat Rockers.

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Emmett ends his set neck-to-guitar-neck.

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He jumps, and is met with a most supportive crowd.

To think, I only came because I heard that Damn Dirty Apes were playing. I forgot what a national treasure Butterfingers were. Plus, for RM35, all four bands played one-hour-long sets! Usual gigs only have half-hour sets at most.

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Outside, I bumped into Linda Onn! (I'd link you babe but where?)

After the gig, I bumped into Ahmad Saiful, a friendly photographer. I got to play with his Olympus E-500. His Zuiko Digital 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 in particular, had very cool flare, with an obvious double-line outline, a quarter-circle filling up half the frame. I think it's a characteristic of having such wide focal lengths (despite the view crop.)

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This shot was to demonstrate black-and-white with high contrast color mode on my camera; I just stretched out my arm without aiming and got this random shot. Some people like it for some reason. I just find the bokeh reflected in the window to be rather odd for its position.

The first Moonshine of 2007 on the 11th of January had many greeting me "Happy New Year!" although my happiness subsided 10 days ago.

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Who the heck is Paolo Delfino, and why are girls speaking lushly of this acoustic singer-songwriter?

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Oddstars, oo la la.

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Hehe the drummer smiles too!

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Guest vocalist.

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Karen Nunis Blackstone. Folk rocker.

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Who has rather otai-looking members...

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...like the great bluesman Julian Mokhtar.

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Funk/jazz rockers Seven will always be recognizeable by afroed Bobo...

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...who is also a member of Cosmic Space Munkys.

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And not forgetting the saxophone.

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Random shots; top-left and top-right: Rachel; bottom-left: Athira who looks cool; bottom-right: the Laundry Bar blogger (what, you thought she really wanted to take your picture because you were sitting around looking cute?) and Eddy the hard rocker.

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The next day I headed to Jamasia for its relaunching.

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The Epiphone SG guitar that once hung from the ceiling now had a grander spot.

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The bar relocated to the back. Debbie makes AWESOME cocktails, with interesting names like Naughty Chocs, Twist And Dip, Electric Berries and Do The Haka. There's also something that blows the McDonalds McFlurry - the Snickers Pimp. Like melted Snickers!

If you tire of mamak drinks in Desa Sri Hartamas, come over to Jamasia for funky fruity/sweet alcoholic delights.

Where is Jamasia anyway?

Behind the Maybank in Desa Sri Hartamas.

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Guitar!

Jamasia is now open 6 days a week, closing only on Monday. Tuesdays are jam nights, where anybody can bring an instrument and play. There's a gig every other night, including Reza Salleh's new Feedback series.

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Speaking of which, his band played for the relaunch.

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Melina!

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Reza and gang. Finally got to flash Jamasia with my digital SLR!

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One Buck Short also did a short punk rock set.

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Something I rarely blog about in Jamasia gigs (but is tradition) is the drinking game, where the winner gets a jug of beer. Adam, the usually malevolent-looking screamer of Dragon Red, looks so cute with emo glasses!

Oh, and the best thing about Jamasia is that it is now non-smoking, like The New Paul's Place. Smokers will have to sit at the stairway.

Camera geeking time!

Did you know:

The hotshoe mount you'd use to attach an external flash to your camera wasn't originally meant for flash units; it was meant to attach accessory viewfinders! I first spotted one on Kingsley's Yashica Electro GSN 35, which was all metal, without at least one pin in the middle (to allow a signal.)

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The top of a FED-2, a Russian rangefinder.

In 1988, Minolta created a new mount for the Maxxum 7000i film SLR, the iISO hotshoe. This was inherited by Konica Minolta, and then Sony.

But why, Minolta, why change? The standard ISO hotshoe tended to be overtightened or loose (hence slipping out sometimes.) The iISO hotshoe mount had a button for quick release.

Okay, so I found a great photogeeking blog. Herbert Keppler talks of shoes.

Minolta was also first with wireless flash (so Nikon CLS proponents, quit asking me "does yours have wireless flash?") though I cannot tell you which is better, as I'm not into flash photography.

Even more interesting is from his insight on brands:
"Tokina had the greatest multiple brand triumph a few years ago, simultaneously marketing a decent 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5 autofocus under four different brand names: Phoenix, Tamron, Tokina, and Vivitar."

From this post, I suspect that my Cosina 19-35mm F3.5-4.5 Pentax KAF mount lens was in that list too, because it looked just like the Vivitar.

Whoa.

If Vivitar is Cosina, then my Olympus OM-2000 (actually designed and made by Cosina) with Vivitar 24mm F2.0 lens (or Cosina) could've come out of the same factory!

And now, for a slightly off-tangent ponderance: If Hoya bought Pentax (now Hoya Pentax HD), does this mean they're likely to be bought by a consumer giant? (e.g. Sony buying Konica Minolta) Hmmm. Which consumer giant doesn't have a digital SLR out?

Microsoft! :D

I eagerly await the day, if it happens, but pity the shallow "I will hate this camera because it's Microsoft" and totally disregarding the Pentax legacy.

Imagine being able to hack into the firmware and making your own exposure algorithm, your own continuous auto-focus tracking, your own noise reduction, making every button customizable, and even playing Solitaire on it using the keypad!

I don't think of my Sony A100 as a Sony product. I think of it as having the genetics of those great Minoltas of yore, with some cult-like Minolta lenses (of yore), which I will divulge in, in another post. Also, the Konica Minolta 7D is very well regarded among those who have it.

Now, for more camera pr0n.

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This M39 screw mount lens was on the FED-2; back then they'd measure lens focal length in centimeters! So yes, it's a 50mm F2.8. Turning the focus ring to infinity would move the rear element's holder into the camera mount, pushing a lever on the camera, and adjusting the rangefinder image.

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Side-by-side with my Olympus OM-2000.

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The bottom of a Rollei 35 TE, found in Ampang Park. Petite collapsible-non-interchangeable-lens rangefinder! Aperture and shutter speed dials were to the side of the lens, and working ISO hotshoe underneath.

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The Rollei, ready to roll. Note the 24mm screw thread on that 40mm F3.5 lens!

I Googled the cameras and found Erik Fiss, who has an unbelieveable list of rangefinders, SLRs and TLRs, complete with detailed reviews! (Though not every article has an English translation.)

And then somemore kickass reading:

"A revolution within the revolution. When used with the OM-2, the T-32 doesn?t have to rely on a sensor built into the electronic flash. The camera reads the light that hits the film and turns the electronic flash (or flashes) off when enough of that light has reached the film.

Since only the light entering the lens - no matter what focal length lens you?re using - is read, this camera-regulated automatic off-the-film exposure control provides far more accurate exposures than the conventional flash-dependent types. No matter how many flashes you?re using."

Taken from Maitani's Advertisement. He makes me wanna drill an air damper into my Olympus OM-2000 for quieter shots! Also check out TTL Direct (OTF) Light Measuring and the 1-inch-thick 50mm F2 lens!

And now, for part three; on top of it all. Yes, on the rooftop of the abandoned 16-storey Pekeliling flats. Kids don't do this at home! It's illegal and DBKL is just next door!

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Jenifur eats until she grows into a giant. Ultrajen!

She is now ready to take on rubber-suited monsters.

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Grace is a major camwhore. (Using the infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1.)

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Xian Jin rocks!

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Using my Sony A100 digital SLR at 200mm with smashpOp's Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens.

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Using my Olympus OM-2000 film SLR with Vivitar 2x teleconverter and Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6, zoomed all the way in to get a 420mm F11 image.

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Xian Jin's fan is a flasher! (Shot at 24mm on the Olympus OM-2000.)

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Asyraf frames with his elbow. (Shot using same lens.)

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Elmo the slave flasher. (Back to digital shots.)

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Kingsley also uses Elmo as a guitar pick.

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Grace wonders what lies beyond. Spot the eye on the world!

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smashpOp jumps on the 17th floor.

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Xian Jin dares look over, but trips and falls!

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Grace rocking on rocking chair. (Note vignetting due to Vivitar 24mm F2.0 lens.)

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smashpOp rocks.

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Rames has infrared-absorbing pants. Cool.

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So cuuute!

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Asyraf telling her how to pose.

You'd also wanna check out part two, Abandoned Grounds and part one, Zoom To 2007.

This is one of the places I was at for New Year's Eve 2006 (and then New Year's 2007):


(Click for bigger image, shot with the panorama function of my Canon Powershot A520.)

It's also where I shot fireworks from.

As you can tell, this is filler. The half-written blog entry that was supposed to come is at home! :(

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Guess what's wrong with this taxi stand. Yes, that's Pertama Complex, where I got my Vivitar 2x teleconverter for Olympus Zuiko mount.

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The first subject I managed to snap at 1/500th of a second and 420mm at F11, was Grace, using the Olympus OM-2000 with the 2x teleconverter and Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 (effectively a 140-420mm F9-F11.) Interesting what the teleconverter does to bokeh. Even more interesting is how little chromatic aberration there is (I left her shoulder untouched.)

Oh, and the Olympus OM-2000 was loaded with standard Kodak ISO 400 film.

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With the Vivitar 24mm F2.0, I could fill up my full frame with 16 floors!

This abandoned place is the Pekeliling flats near the Titiwangsa Monorail (and Titiwangsa STAR LRT.) Reeks of all sorts of smells, but the wind takes it out. Once in a while.

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With the same wide lens, my hand kept making a guest appearance. Asyraf disapproves. When manual focus is tack on at F2.0, images just pop!

And now, for digital photography.

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Where's Raymond?

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Asyraf, proponent of Nikon's Creative Lighting System, shooting Kingsley. Spot the slave flasher Xian Jin!

...I don't think I'd want to take more than 10 minutes to compose the lighting for a shot, though.

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Jenifur wonders how to work my infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 with 2x teleconverter and 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens (which gives a 840-2520mm equivalent crop.)

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"Ma our apartment has been broken into!"

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Xian Jin, shot with the Q1 in infrared. I'm not sure who shot this because I don't remember shooting it. I reckon it was using the Vivitar 24mm F2.0 lens (144mm equivalent crop).

At this point, you might be wondering - hey, wasn't the Vivitar 24mm F2.0 on the Olympus OM-2000 film SLR?

Well, the Q1 has a homemade adapter to support Olympus Zuiko lenses. :D

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Grace on the Q1, in infrared.

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The ghost of Rames!

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"Aiya, don't flash me anymore lah." - smashpOp

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Kingsley is more than happy to bask in available light.

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Rooftop jam.

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Grace eyes on, looking rather... pigeonly.

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There's something about Grace.

I now end this second part with film pictures.

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What happens when you underexpose, at 1/500th of a second although the meter tells you you should shoot at 1/30th of a second? You can salvage this much detail (after noise reduction!)

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smashpOp tells stories. Check out everybody's expressions! (Colors retained because there's something magical about the exposure.)

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Hey, that looks like Asyraf's style! Not exactly rule of thirds. Oh waitaminute, Asyraf did take this shot.

Those of you who were there will probably figure out what is next in this series. Part three, yo. Part one was intentionally devoid of people.

So smashpOp and I swapped lenses; I borrowed his Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens and he borrowed my Minolta 50mm F1.4 and Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. 18-200mm lenses are amazing travel companions, despite having dark apertures. It's a good friend to have on a trip where the sun shines brightly.

I managed to consistently get crisp shots at 1/30th of a second at 200mm (300mm crop equivalent). This translated to over 3.5 stops! As long as the Super Steady Shot indicator went down to 1 (meaning I was steady as well) I was guaranteed a crisp shot. People who do not understand the function of the indicator would probably end up with blur shots and dismiss in-body stabilization on the telephoto end. However, I'm damn sure it works. In fact, I think it's better at the telephoto end than at the wide end (since getting a 1/2 second shot is more prone to huge body movement than minor tremble.) I'll write more in detail on my findings later, with shots.

I found a Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 lens for Sony Alpha mount at Bintang Maju, Maju Junction for an amazing price of RM657! It also had the brightest aperture at every focal length compared to every other cheap telephoto lens available for the Sony Alpha mount.

Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 apertures:
70mm onwards F4.0
135mm onwards F4.5
210mm onwards F5.0
300mm onwards F5.6

It also allowed 1:2 macro, and a switch allowed you to enable macro from 180-300mm. The Sigma's switch enables macro at 200-300mm only.

Unfortunately, it was plasticky, slow and worse, when I slowly zoomed the lens to see if the aperture would change, it would sometimes disconnect and report an aperture of "--" and a shutter speed of 1/4000! That means the loose lens could cause quite a few blank black shots!

So yeah, Sigma will be my choice for cheap telephoto lens.

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And now, guess my latest addition to my Olympus family! (No, it's not a 50mm F1.4 lens. I wish.)

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From left: Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens; Vivitar 24mm F2.0 MC lens; Vivitar 2x teleconverter for Olympus Zuiko mount; Olympus Zuiko 35-70mm F3.5-4.8 lens. I bought it from Foto Selangor in Pertama Complex; quite an old-timer shop with a Vivitar 2x teleconverter for Canon FD mount as well!

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I could also attach it to my infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 with my homemade Olympus adapter. When the 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens is attached to a 2x teleconverter, it becomes a 140-420mm F9-F11 lens! Of course, with the Q1's 6x crop factor it would work a 840-2520mm lens.

The 420mm is truly 420mm in perspective. Even when I get a 70-300mm for my Sony A100 (which translates to 105-450mm equivalent crop) I would not get the same perspective as a true 420mm lens would.

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The moon, resized (but not cropped)! This was difficult to focus as my homemade Olympus adapter didn't have the correct distance from the lens to sensor; hence, I had difficulty setting the lens to infinity. I later found out that the shot was at 1/15th of a second (the Q1 has no manual controls other than being able to set the EV compensation to -2.)

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My Olympus OM-2000 with Vivitar 2x Olympus Zuiko teleconverter and Olympus Zuiko 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 lens and my Sony A100 with Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens.

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Shot with the Olympus OM-2000 on the only 24mm lens I have.

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The Sony A100 with the Sony 18-200mm at 18mm finally shows some distortion. I found it hard to coax obvious distortion out of this lens too.

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Accidental geometry.

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Sideways is about right.

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Light at the end of the tunnel.

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This is the other end of it. An elevator shaft with a pool to catch your fall.

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My ball. My awesome ball. (Remember Monster House?)

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My painting. My awesome painting.

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Look ma no distortion! 24mm using hyperfocal focusing for landscapes. It gives a surreal evenness to focus, with just a bit of uncrispness.

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I picked F16, the darkest aperture, then turned the focus from infinity to touch the depth-of-field mark for F16. This means that everything from infinity to somewhere after 2 meters will be in focus, at F16.

Unfortunately, lens makers stopped putting depth-of-field scales on zoom lenses ever since auto-focus was invented, for some reason.

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The Eye On Malaysia, shot with the Fujifilm Digital Q1 with 2x teleconverter and Olympus 70-210mm zoomed at 210mm, for 2520mm equivalent crop. Yep, at F11 all the dust on the sensor shows.

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Titiwangsa LRT station, shot with the Sony A100 with Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens and Hoya R72 filter. Amazingly, at F2.8, it was quite in focus.

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Eye (are) in IR (infrared film is supposed to be noisy as heck, and I kept the noise for this look.) Does this picture look shorter than the previous one? What a strange optical illusion.

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KLCC, washed out.

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Classic solid rear-wheel-drive Datsun 120Y. Durifto!

What did I do on December 31st, 2006?

I went to two parties.

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One had a view which spanned three fireworks launches, like this one in front of the National Museum.

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(Okay, so the same spot was the best; KLCC was too smoky and the other one was quite beyond and not as frequent.)

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Tilted sideways. Nothing fancy here because I only brought my little Canon Powershot A520, and it's not as steady as shooting fireworks with the camera pointed upwards. :(

At the second party, already January 1st, 2007, the party had died down, and I sat down on a couch. This chick next to me asked me to sign the guestbook.

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She didn't quite recognize it. "Is it a robot?"

I don't have to be cool (or uncool) to know it's definitely not organic.

This Iranian dude came up to her, sat next to her, and continued a previous conversation.

"So you're a lawyer? I saw you and thought you were a writer! Somebody in the creative line. You know, you have really nice hands. Hands of a writer."

He then examines her hands gently.

"You know, creative people have longer, slender fingers."

I looked over, and her fingers were much shorter than her palm! Not only that, she was sitting somewhat rigidly, fitting her lawyer occupation. Pickup line fail brader.

He left to get a drink, and she turned to me and asked if I was alright. "You were so still, I thought your friend was drawing your sketch!" (My friend was facing me, scribbling in the guestbook.)

"No, I was just staring into space."

"...okay, actually, I was eavesdropping. Heh. It's always amusing to hear a guy pick up a girl. Did it work?"

"No... but he was interesting."

He returned with more lines. "You know, I like that look of yours. It's like slightly annoyed. I think you'd look very sexy when you're angry. If I saw you in a bar, you know, I'd just go up to you, kiss you, and then talk."

They then talked about politics, and travelling in the Middle East. I dozed off.

I'm not sure if he leaned over to kiss her, as turning would blow my cover.

She then left, as her transport was leaving.

Chapter Two

The Iranian dude then chats up my friend. At this point I wasn't in earshot and didn't bother, but the friend I came with and I gossipped about it. I quickly gave her the 411 on his attempt on the lawyer, to see if he'd repeat the same things.

Soon, his hand reached over her back.

We went across the hall to sit elsewhere, out of earshot but still able to see them.

"Are they kissing, Albert?"
"No, you can see his head is at that angle... and she's nodding."
"Are they kissing now, Albert?"
"No, not yet... I can still hear him talking somewhat."

"OOO! Now they're kissing! See her head's like tilted. Oh now they're talking. Okay now they're kissing."

He then examined her hands. Aha! He did use that trick after all.

We then left the hall to leave them to have fun.

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I found this rather disturbing view from a room window.

Morning came, and they were cuddled up on the couch, all lovey-dovey and holding hands. "Let's go for breakfast!"

As we sat in a mamak in daylight, it was then that we saw the Iranian dude in his full uh... glory. Unibrow, bushy chest, big nose, and ugly, cavity-full yellowed teeth! He looked alright in the dark, cool and suave even, but in daylight we got quite a shock.

Me and my two female friends all looked at each other, sharing the same expression. This was something we could make fun of her for years!

I never quite believed in beer goggles until this experience.

She was, however, still putting her hand on his lap.

In the middle of a conversation, he pulled out a green wine bottle from under the table and drank it. That was a most comical moment indeed.

"So I'll send you back to your apartment?" my friend asked.

"Nah it's cool, I'll take a cab back." he said.

We got in the car.

"AIYEE! OH MY GOD! I can't believe I made out with that guy!"
"Yeah, but you were all so lovey-dovey right?"
"Yeah, he so thinks I'm gonna call. He gave me his number but I didn't give him mine."
"Wow, that's smart."
"Yeah, lucky I did that. You know, in the morning lying beside him, I realized that hey, I didn't even know his name!"

I'm glad for her and that little plot twist. :D

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As I walked home after it all, my road was sprinkled beautifully. Welcome 2007! (I'm not that lagged; I bumped into a lot of people at Laundry Bar on the 11th of January but everybody wished me Happy New Year anyway.)

30th December 2006 was the New Year's Eve's Eve show at No Black Tie, featuring many acts that played there the whole year.

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Rhapsody in a post-chorus pose.

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Melina to Stephanie: So, you've finally crawled out from behind the drums to a more visible spot.

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Ywenna-cute-ears!

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Jangan tak rock.

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The Sofa Sessions. Yeah, I'm bootlegging them performing Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here!

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No bassist this time, but featuring Aznan Ali of Blues Gang! (Last seen over two years ago at what was then Titus Blues Avenue and is now The Wall.)

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shanon shah
Next up: Engineer turned lounge-singer Shanon Shah. He now writes beautiful songs about love and Star Wars. One of the most fun, and funny, performers that night. And hello there thanks for reading my blog! :D

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Zalila Lee (not in picture) featuring Jerral Khor and Zack Kim (that once-long-haired shredder for Cosmic Funk Express!)

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I had to rush out for some errands. On the way out I snapped a crane.

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Hishamuddin Rais was next. Who? He sounded like some minister or someone important. His stand-up skit was initially funny, but turned ugly when he starting saying, "You know what I hate about Nigerians?" He then turned into a shouting political crowd-riser.

Yeah, he got a rise from the crowd indeed, sounding like, "Get off the stage!"

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Jasiminne prays: Finish your speech already!

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No creative lighting system was used in this picture. Place model, frame shot, and shoot.

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What was all that about?

A quick Google search on my phone revealed that he was the director of "Dari Jemapoh Ke Manchestee", who was detained under ISA (strangely not associated with any party, calling himself a NGI (Non-Governmental Individual)). Apparently, quite the exile, too.

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Back to the music with organizer Reza Salleh, the dude with the sexy voice and soulful rock ballads.

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Stephanie relegates back to the drumset.

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Isaac Entry, blues meister.

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His fellow blues harpist.

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(I don't know why they call a blues harp a harmonica. Or why they call a harmonica a blues harp.)

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Silent Scream, ending the show with some rock that night.

Apparently there's Moonshine this Thursday at Laundry Bar, but I can't find the lineup anywhere just yet. Hurry up Reza!

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Ah, smells wood doesn't it? (Credits to smashpOp for this shot.)

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Shaz prides himself for this shot of me.

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However, his two-handed technique is illegal.

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And for a greater challenge, stack them 5 pieces per level.

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It takes longer to grow the tower, and having one piece in a level is more challenging.

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Orange (not her real name) topples it rather cutely.

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Thanks Jack the aspiring architect for this Christmas present, Pavilion's Tumbling Tower!

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This post is brought to you by the wonderful local-scene-supporting Xfresh. Crossborders at Laundry Bar!

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Featuring Sina aka Mailer Daemon, emcee and guest rapper for funk-reggae-metal band Prana!

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Then in a gust of wind... Love Me Butch took over with emo/nu-metal ferocity.

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Heavy chugging riffs (and yet interestingly progressive). These guys, and Dragon Red, probably were the loudest you'd hear in Laundry Bar.

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Watch out for the ill-meaning mike stand!

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Syarul has a most powerful scream. I thought the sunnies killed some of his stage persona though.

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Rear-sync/second-curtain slow-shutter flash.

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Standard flash.

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*cuts outside, to a waiter preparing what appears to be The Chinese Acrobat*

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Oh, right. A Flaming Lamborghini.

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Back inside, emo-core band from The Philippines, Chicosci. So intense, they had two drummers.

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There's a laptop somewhere back there and a keyboard for this guitarist to play more indie-pop-themed solos. But nothing beats the guitar.

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This is for the many girls who asked if he was cute (as they sat outside watching the screen.)

It looks like we have time for a few more pictures, so here goes:

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Circular fisheye! Eat that!

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KL Tower, by chance, in scale to the moon.

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I caught this with a tripod on a 3.2 second exposure. (Usually, shooting a bright moon uses a very fast shutter speed, making a tripod pointless.) The moving clouds provided a cool effect.

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A full, unresized crop.

Remember when I pimped The Breakfast Club? (Yes, it's showing until Sunday 7th January 2007... which is amazing for my blog-updating speed.)

Anyway, The Breakfast Club was one of the more famous 80's teen movies, made into a play. Five kids are in detention, all of them very different.

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You got the goth (The Basketcase), played by Krystle Wong (who once again says about nothing at the start, like in Showers Of Flowers, one of the plays in fiftynineminutes.)

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Then there's the hot chick (okay, technically she's The Princess), played by Christine Ellis (who, this time, gets loads of conversation unlike in fiftynineminutes.)

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Reuben W.J. Kang (in front) plays The Athlete, with Kelvin Wong as John Bender (The Criminal).

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The Brain is played by comedic genius Branavan Aruljothi, a nerd who got himself a fake ID so he could vote! (Don't get the caption? Check out my Rojak! review.)

Yep, all of them were in fiftynineminutes. Yay to more youth-oriented plays without brain-stressing abstract themes!

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Oh and there's also the principal, which Matt Groening admits to basing Principal Seymour Skinner on. Yep. The movie influenced the creator of The Simpsons!

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John Bender the foul-mouthed miscreant brings them into trouble. Yep, Bender's the cursing robot from Futurama, also created by Matt Groening.

There's also a scene where John Bender tells the principal to "Eat my shorts." :D

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Would they be friends after spending a few hours in detention?

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...or maybe more?

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(To that thought.)

The Goth: I'll do anything sexual. I don't need a million dollars to do it either.
The Princess: You're lying.
The Goth: I already have. I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal. I'm a nymphomaniac.
The Princess: Lie.
The Brain: Are your parents aware of this?
The Goth: The only person I told was my shrink.
The Athlete: And what did he do when you told him?
The Goth: He nailed me.
The Princess: Very nice.
The Goth: I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape, since I paid him.

(Stolen from IMDB's Quotes. The Matt Groening references were also spotted in Wikipedia.)

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Thanks to Click Chick! for letting me take pictures. That preview night had four distinct clicks; Kok Keong's Olympus E-500 in the background with focus confirmation beep; Asyraf Lee's Nikon D70s which could still be heard from across the hall (and had a mirror slapping sound similiar to my Olympus OM-2000 and Sony A100); my Sony A100, on manual focus; and Grace on her Canon EOS 350D (with distinct whizzing shutter sound). Oh, and my completely silent infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 with Olympus 35-70 F3.5-4.8 lens (to cover the 210-420mm equivalent). :D

Pictures! Project Bazooka at Laundry Bar, last 21st December 2006, right after I got the Minolta 50mm F1.4 lens for my Sony Alpha 100.

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Haaarooon the emcee for Rock The World! (Okay, so this time he's actually singing. But not rocking though; he's singing soul and funk with IG Collective.)

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They got some funky riffs.

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...and guest stars Malaysian Idol finalist Ash, and Dragon Red's Adam.

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Next up: Harmonica-playing blues folkster Azmyl Yunor.

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His hair looked like a watered-down version of his old afro.

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I love it when Keng of Furniture plays for Azmyl Yunor and the Sigarettes (or however you spell his many bands). He rips a powerful blues shred.

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Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Loo, indie pop darlings. Tried to zoom and flash at the same time but got a different result this time.

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The next day, I headed to Alexis Bistro, Great Eastern Mall with some Ampangites out of boredom, and caught Noryn Aziz the hothothot songstress! (Last spotted at the Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz & Rhythm Fest.)

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Blow my horn.

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We then... (well excluding me) rode the inner rail express.

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Picture quality intentionally decreased to reduce possible identification.

What's worse than a young fart who thinks he/she knows everything?

An old fart who thinks he/she knows everything.

What's worse than someone who says that something is wrong and then tells you why? (Okay, this isn't bad at all. Constructive criticism rocks.)

Someone who tells you something is wrong, and doesn't tell you why, but instead tells you to refer to something which is barely related.

Okay, even worse is when the person cannot or won't tell you.

(Heck, I'd rather debate with a twenty-something who at least tells you why your argument is flawed.)

I hate those Chinese aunties in queues and on the LRT (or in BMWs) who think they have right-of-way and cut all of us. All age has given them is an excuse to "tssk" people like they did nothing wrong. And these same people have the cheek to call people rude.

Thank God my mother is not like that. *hugs mum proudly*

I really believe that maturity and age aren't always connected. Sure, there are some things everyone will learn at the age of 15 in school. There are other things that you might not have experienced even at 25, which some other 15 year old is experiencing right now.

I know so many people my age who have achieved and know so many things; I also know a lot of people who haven't done or learned anything much on that same scale.

30-year-olds now are not 20-year-olds now, evolved 10 years later.

They're 20-year-olds from 10 years ago, evolved 10 years later. Different generation, different mindsets.

Pimpage!

What: The Breakfast Club (a play based on the 1985 hit movie of the same name)
Who: Krystle W. (who is sooo cute but look hot in the poster), Reuben W.J. Kang, Branavan Aruljothi, Christine Ellis and Kelvin Wong. Yep, the dudes and dudettes from Rojak! and fiftynineminutes.
When: 8:30pm on 4-6th January 2007; 3pm on 7th January 2007
Where: KR Soma Auditorium, Wisma Tun Sambathan, 2 Jln Sultan Sulaiman (Off Jln Syed Putra)
How Much: RM20 (students and senior citizens), RM30, RM40. Book with Sheikh Faisal (019-2990279) or email alms.breakfast@gmail.com.

Click for the map. (It seems to be closest to the Maharajalela Monorail station.)

Click for the official site.

Oh and here's a random picture from last year.

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Mannequins feel the cold, too.

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So I was at Rudy's Christmas party, and he had the XBOX 360 on one side, playing Fight Night Round 3...

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...and the much more fun Wii Sports for Nintendo Wii on the other side. They're playing boxing here with two connected controllers per person. Yes, it actually works! They can block by just putting their hands up.

It works as you've seen on ads. Imagine you're using the real thing. For example, you have to really throw force on the controller to play bowling. I got mostly spares, not strikes. :(

Of course, there's always a risk of endangering your safety with such a fun console as the Nintendo Wii, so remember to check out:

The Japanese Super Safe Wii Safety Manual

There's also Wii Safety: The Missing Pages.