X-Gigii
Xfresh X-Gig, Zouk (the original Mainroom, before the crampnovation), 2nd of August 2008.
They Will Kill Us All.
However, I can't tell if he's counting to 4 or 8 or 6 or 12, for the band named...
How to win an Xfresh T-shirt.
Alright, fine, so it's called XFM now, and the deejays made sure to cut off the fresh, though the crowd reflexively added the fresh.
I absolutely loved their set. Reggae, and a whole lotta James Brown hard-hitting funk!
Are you enjoy?"
Pesawat!
Hey... she's not... whatshername? But cool guitar nevertheless!
Bittersweet! He really does look like someone out of a (Datuk) Lat cartoon.
Classic sound, classic guitars. Looks like something salvaged out of Peterson's old guitar repair shop.
Emcee Haniff gets on stage...
Replies: 0
People Of The World!
Wish you were here.
This is why Rainforest World Music Festival 2008 was called a mudfest. It was not fun to walk in this gooey mess at all! Nearest to the stage your feet would sink in, and the mud would wrestle your slippers out of your toes (so leave them behind) and you'd sink calf-deep until your feet land on hard rocks and other treasures found in the mud bed.
Su Ann does the "I'm not looking here!" pose.
 and Bianca (right), who claim to be sisters. No shiiit!<br><br>Yes, that's Liyana the cute vocalist from Estrella.<br><br><img src=)
Then I bumped into Ted Adnan and his then newly bought Nikon D3 and his ol' Nikkor AF-S 300mm F2.8 VR.
This was the first time I'd touched a D3 and a Nikkor AF-S 300mm F2.8 VR. I bumped up ISO, expecting an epiphany - I didn't get it. It's not exactly clean but it's cleaner and has a different noise look. And I swung the 300mm around, sniped some people and got their ears in focus instead despite having approximately aimed at their faces. Operator error, apparently. And I still prefer all my relevant controls to be easily accessible by the right hand alone especially when wielding such an unwieldly lens with my left hand.
Obligatory slow-shutter-flash with Kenny Sia and Ing Hui!
I thought he was asleep. He was actually taking a picture.
Kid was not posed. Street!
Yep, they still make them handmade.
Yep, they dumped more sand into the mud pit. Supposedly, this helped...
Replies: 5
Rain For Us
...taking the bus down to Sarawak Cultural Village in Santubong...
 settled!<br><br><img src=)
First act - Kan'id from Sarawak. Holy shit that's Emir of Throne Away, shredding away! I never knew!
I didn't notice it was him until I bumped into him at the beach the next day.
Emir: Hey man, did you get any pictures of me performing?
Me: Uh, when?
Emir: We were the first band.
Me: Uhhh... no? I don't remember seeing you.
Later I went through the pictures and realized it was him up there!
Hiroshi Motofuji in a quieter session in one of the big houses.
New Rope String Quartet, a visceral music/comedy act.
It gets hot in here sometimes.
Ross Daly Quartet from Greece.
They alternated between two stages - the big one and small one, plus more small performances in the different houses.
<br><br><img src=)
Sheldon Blackman & The Love Circle from Trinidad and Tobago.
 So, <b>Beltaine</b> from Poland, with their Celtic progressive sounds, really wiped my feet. (Ironically, feet-wiping was what everybody needed in the crazy mudfest that was the venue.)<br><br>Honestly though, would I pay how much I did to go to another Rainforest World Music Festival? Not really... I could get a similiar eclectic feeling out of hearing international bands at the good ol' Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz Fest. Plus we wouldn't all have to huddle and queue for hours for a bus to take us out on the only route out of the Sarawak Cultural Village to Kuching town. With the Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz Fest I could just cross the road and head to Burger King or the various mamaks in Desa Sri Hartamas!<br><br>Of course, the experience of <a href=)
sunny Kuching and the Sarawak Cultural Village is another thing altogether. And that's a story for another blog entry!Replies: 0
11 12
Moonshine: A Homemade Music Show, 11th December 2008, at Laundry Bar KL. This is Deb Fung!
Some originals, some covers, well done.
 The only way I could correct this was to get a Custom WB reading off their faces, where it would read 9900 Kelvin, Green +9. Even then it would say )
If I set the Kelvin WB to 9900 Kelvin, Green +9, I would get a different color altogether - that meant that when it said "Error" it was really beyond 9900K G9 on the camera.
This duo came down from Australia!
For the record, I didn't intentionally change the second picture to a black-and-white shot; I was fiddling around with the color settings.
So this is what 9900K G9 looks like. Not so pronounced, and you can see the purple lights wreaking havoc on the skintones. But I like the color in the rest of this picture so I'll let it pass.
Dax on acoustic bass.
For who else but Jack...
I think he really, really looks like Paul McCartney here.
I hate the lights". He went "ha-ha." I don't think he knew what I meant - those darn LED lights!
Then, it was time for L-Mo from the UK to blow my mind. He was making bird noises when I took this picture.
Then he did the amazing vocal trumpet - something I'd only have seen live from Raul Midon. Madness! I would put his quirky level up there with Dave Matthews Band... but with a barrel of coffee.
Oh and Happy Belated Birthday Level 9 Wrapper! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the rest of you!
Replies: 2
22 11
Saxy time...
I brought my Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5. What a surprisingly contrasty lens wide open!
In the audience was a member of 98 Degrees. Don't you think so?
I usually don't do this", she said. As in, play all the riffs and progressions and fills and everything that makes her progressive uh... band kick ass.
Then, Mia Palencia performed, with some guest appearances by Reza Salleh and beatbox man Darren Ashley Thomas.
D-Ash the multi-talented! He's always seen in white, which I guess helped with the metering of this shot.
Mia then called Reza to the front to just... stand there while the lights turned off.
whoa it's here!"<br><br><img src=)
A "This is going to go on Youtube" moment. Ooo, somebody in this picture has her birthday coming reaaal soon!
<br><br><img src=)
Of course, Reza was asked to perform. Which he foresaw, seeing that he brought his guitar.
<br><br><img src=)
Then the D-Ash pumps some beats.
Replies: 2
Quarter-century Crisis and the Zeiss 135mm F1.8
Handsome tapering lens this is, especially with the solid metal hood. The hood is so solid I could use it for a cowbell!
Its minimum focusing distance is 72cm; it uses internal focus, which is why despite focusing closer than the Minolta/Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus (which gets 87cm close) it shares the same 1:4 maximum magnification - internal focus causes the lens angle to widen when focusing closer.
72cm need I remind you is an amazing close-focusing distance beaten only by true macro lenses and superzooms that start wide - the Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT focuses to 95cm close which is a record for a tele zoom in itself.
Yes, 1:1.33x. This is with the APS-C mode of the A900. 405mm F8 1/400s ISO1600 in APS-C mode.
405mm F5 1/400s ISO200, 100% crop.
That's just prime. Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42-mount circular fisheye, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 DIY tilt-shift, Minolta 28mm F2.8 Crossed-XX, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8
So how about some daytime separation? 135mm F1.8 without teleconverters. Superb!
KJ does a Barack Obama smile. Shot at F1.8.
Eddy Han at F1.8 1/13s ISO1600. I was sitting in the rear left side of his car and he was in the driver seat (not driving when he looked back, fortunately.) The minimum focus distance of this lens continues to astound!
Rames' Domo-kun. Good match!
This, or rather a careful crop of this, is now Rames' profile picture. Note how nearby people are smudged into a blurry mess while the out-of-focus highlights pop out. That's a Zeiss for you.
Shelley Leong holds amazingly still. 135mm F1.8 1/5s ISO6400, to be exact! I shot this handheld through some bars.
Alright, so here's one from the Minolta 28mm F2.8. 28mm F11 20s ISO200, white balance set to 6200K to give it that richness.
Anyway, back to my birthday. This time around, there will be no surprises as I've already planned something. The best surprise was in 2006 when everybody wished me and asked if I was having a nice dinner with my friends. Funny, nobody actually invited, they all presumed I already had plans! So I ate at a mamak by myself.
Replies: 20
Midnight Cowboy
No entry sir, but that does not stop a creature of the night.
Still there is space for truckin'.
All with the Sony A700 and Minolta 50mm F1.4.
Replies: 4
Flash Connect
The problem has two reasons - firstly, the metal pins on top tend to oxidize if exposed, especially in humid Malaysia. The oxidized layer is scratched away by the flash's pins, leaving small tracks where there is contact.
The second reason is that the plastic on the flash mount and the body's mount is looser to allow for quick mounting and dismounting of the flash. The slight play and wobble is fine but the problem happens because the wobble makes the pins move onto the oxidized area, off the clean tracks.
Or, in the worse case scenario, you can rub it with your fingernails! This is perfectly fine; it will not electrocute you (the circuit to be shorted is on the flash itself.)
Finally, test it by turning it sideways. Some HVL-F58AM flash owners have reported that the flash might not be detected in portrait orientation before cleaning, so test it in this position as well.
Replies: 9
Thirdniversary
<br><br><img src=)
And this is Stephanie who played in 2 bands that night. Gotta love the translucent orange snare drum (and how it projects orange onto the carpet!)
"I'll play my part, and you'll play yours."
But really, this was an awesome, awesome battle between the sax and guitar.
I love it whenever I catch the rare triangular light on cheekbones.
At gigs I always bring my Minolta 50mm F1.4; the other lens is often a quandary. That night I picked the Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX and I love how it scales and distorts. This is a crop from my Sony A900!
Why so serious?
Yeah, this was a severely underexposed F1.4 ISO6400 image which I attempted to pull up. It's a severe crop, too.
He's not Adlin Rosli, he claims.
Replies: 8
Delayed Loop
R.I.P. (Rock In Peace) Gene Simmons!
Yes, they were still in the mood for Halloween. If you saw how much they decked out the place, you wouldn't want to take them down, either.
The Theory Of Change. They had an angry song, Killing Anna. Wow.
George, meanwhile, was emo with a capital E.
Reza Salleh, Melina William, and their FANS!
Ferns, who has a really nifty CD cover. Go check it out.
Left, Haziq; right, Anuar. Anuar asked us what we wanted - another sad song, or the blues. I voted for the blues and was the majority.
Videographers!
Petrina was doing a hilarious  dance to anything. That's why they call it the white guy dance. Because they don't have to listen to cool music to dance. Not that Lynyrd Skynyrd is not cool. After years of shouting <b>FREEBIRD!</b> at every performer who takes a pause between songs, I still have not seen it happen.<br><br><img src=)
And whoa, he has long fingers. I tried to replicate the same position. What a stretch!
Replies: 4
Downstairs, Downtown
Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show, October 18th 2008!
Reza Salleh, organizer.
Soft Touch, long time no see! Songs about peace and the polar bear never get old.
Man, was metering tricky! Gotta push DRO+ the next time; the frames behind keep getting blown out. But the lights look like wings.
Szetoo is the real gangster, yo!
He's a lecturer, too!
Szetoo doesn't look as funny as some people do when she looks through the viewfinder and closes the other eye.
Replies: 9
Time Out, No?
Apologies for the hiatus, I've been busy. Here's Time Out KL's On The Up, one 15th of October 2008 at No Black Tie.
Tony Leo Selvaraj. Usually I do not fancy tilted pictures unless there is an element that is grounded to the 90 degree angles of the picture (in this case, the microphone.)
Thing One, fantastic instrumental band. Expect no less from ICOM!
Nish on keyboards with an expression pedal makes funky Keytar-like sounds!
Four Letter Story, modern rock. The music sounds uncannily like Broken Scar's! The vocalist even sings like him and has the same slightly gruff voice!
And finally, the amazing Adil JohanQuartet Quintet.
Le fans.
<br><br><img src=)
One of...
I doze 2! (Or at least look emo.)
I didn't catch his name.
Tony Leo Selvaraj. Usually I do not fancy tilted pictures unless there is an element that is grounded to the 90 degree angles of the picture (in this case, the microphone.)
Thing One, fantastic instrumental band. Expect no less from ICOM!
Nish on keyboards with an expression pedal makes funky Keytar-like sounds!
Four Letter Story, modern rock. The music sounds uncannily like Broken Scar's! The vocalist even sings like him and has the same slightly gruff voice!
And finally, the amazing Adil Johan
Le fans.
One of...
I doze 2! (Or at least look emo.)
I didn't catch his name.
Replies: 5
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