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Another family gathering at my place.
As usual, I pulled out all the stops for this one since my gears were close at hand. :D
Experimented with several lighting setups and camera placement and as usual, the low light caused the camera's auto-focus to misbehave. I'll probably have to find a permanent solution to this but for now, I'm stuck with having to pre-focus before shooting.



Defying gravity.



Power punch!



Power split!



Ryan putting on his cute face.

After putting up with driving at night with dim head lights, I decided that I couldn't take it anymore. Something had to give. So I turned to the interweb and found three solutions: i) Change the bulbs to aftermarket ones which are brighter but have a shorter lifespan (RM120) ii) Replace the halogen bulbs with HID ones which are waaay brighter (RM160) iii) Retrofit projectors into the headlamps (RM480) Now, the first option is the cheapest but for a wee bit more, I can get a HID kit which is brighter than the any of the aftermarket halogen bulbs. But there is a problem. HID kits which are fitted into normal headlamps are glaring to oncoming traffic and it is a known fact that the local enforcement (JPJ) are on the lookout for this type of modification as it is illegal. So the only feasible option is to retrofit the headlamps with projectors.


CCFL in action.

After more hours of research, I decided to go with EA Autowork's retrofit due to the competitive pricing and their reputation. Similar retrofits can go as high as RM850 and although they use a higher quality projector, in my books, the price gap does not justify the difference. Plus their projectors are bi-xenon with CCFL lights and the price is inclusive of the HID kit.

The whole process was pretty simple. Dropped Howie of EA Autowork a personal message, set up an appointment and rolled in to get it retrofitted. The whole process took about 1.5 hours as the headlamps needed to be opened. No modifications was done to the stock headlamps so I can return it to normal if there is a need to.

By the time the retrofit was done, it was already nightfall. The best time to test out the new projectors then. :D The lights now are significantly brighter and with the high light on, I can see even further than before. Perfect for those dark roads and annoying pikeys with glaring headlamps breathing down my neck. I'll just let them overtake, switch on my high light and follow behind them.
Have a taste of your own medicine!

p.s. Workmanship was top notch. Everything was sealed back perfectly as there was no condensation in the lamp on cold mornings.

After driving the Iswara for a almost a year, someone pointed out to me that the tyres were over 6 years old. (!) Although the tyres still had thread on them (about 70% left), rubber hardens with age which reduces grip. Not wanting to find out the effect of driving with old tyres, I went to the a trustworthy tyre shop along Jalan Ipoh (Kean Lee Hin) to get them changed.
New tyres and rims. I had initially wanted to upsize my wheels to 14 inchers but at the spur of the moment, I went with 15". I paired the new rims with Kumho KU31 195/50/R15 tyres. At RM190 a pop, they weren't cheap but the performance isn't too shabby either. Dry grip was good although it doesn't perform as well in the wet while road noise is minimal. Overall, the performance was substantially better than my old tyres. The whole process took almost 2 hours from the time I got there to the time the car was ready to go. Overall I'm please with the car's new look as well as the service provided by Kent.
Another angle.

Not that this is a review of sorts but I love this machine!
But don't get me wrong, I'm no coffee addict. I drink coffee whenever the mood takes me so having this at home is easier than me having to drive out to the nearest Starbucks to get a cuppa.

The only downside is that it doesn't do iced beverages and the choices of beverages are limited to 4; Latte Mocchiato, Cuppuccino, Espresso and Mocha. We now have more varieties (!).

I guess the guys Nestle has finally decided to add several other flavours to their lineup (What took them?). Best part is, we now have iced cappuccino although all the other drinks need to be served hot. Oh well, maybe next time we'll have what the Americans have eh? 

A new toy dropped into my lap the other day courtesy of Canon Malaysia (Thanks Canon!). :D



Took it for for a quick spin around the house and from the initial impression is pretty good. The flash output is probably one stop less as compared to the 430 EX II but it loses out in terms of the flexibility in rotating the head.

Another gripe is that the settings cannot be adjusted on the flash itself but must be controlled via the camera's in built menu. On the plus side, it offers ETTL or manual control on the power but again, one mus go through the menu to set it although I've read that the newer bodies (ie. 60D & 7D) can control the flash remotely.



Also, the AF assist isn't the red grid, it's the retina searing flash burst (great way to annoy those who you don't really like because you can blame the camera for it :P). Not very discreet and definitely not subject friendly unless your subject is impervious to flashing bright lights in which case, they'd ought to be seeing a optician.



As for now, I'll probably use it off camera rather than having it sit on my camera as the 430 EX II allows me more flexibility even though the 270 EX II is lighter.

Entering 2012 with an attitude.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy 2012.

Had an amazing BBQ at Vincent's place last week. Rang up the usual suspects as well as some friends whom we haven't seen in a while. Everyone was very polite and mild manner during the evening but all hell broke out as the night progressed. Throw some beer into the fray and watch the party come to life. :)

Usually the bane of BBQ's are the lack of food but not this one. Food was aplenty with no less than 100 chicken wings in a bucket and ready to be grilled by our sous chef; Richard. I myself had a good time by getting into everyone's faces and taking their mugshots. :D


The main course.


Our sous chef.


David getting 'high'.


Our 'Bersih 2.0' couple.


Candid shot.

A few days back we were having a family gathering at my place and as usual, I was the un-official family photographer. Not that that minded though because I could finally test out my new gears (an umbrella and light stand) on my family members. (Cue the evil laughter).

Teenagers are pretty easy to work with as they don't really mind having their pictures taken. Some of them even relish having their pictures taken. The older generation were adamant of not having their photos as they were worried about their wrinkles and crow eyes showing up in the photo. The only consolation they had was that the pictures were digital so if they didn't like it, they had to liberty to delete it.

Working with off camera lighting was rather challenging especially when you are using two strobes. Gravity nearly killed my 430EXII as the silly umbrella was too busy being seduced by the light breeze to care about the poor speedlite. Thankfully, my cousin managed to grab the light stand in the nick of time. Otherwise, I'd be looking at a pretty hefty repair bill.

Since I only had one light stand, grabbed another cousin to hold the other strobe while pointing in the general direction of the subject. So with one cousin taking care of the light stand while the other was holding the strobe, I set about increasing my shutter count.

On hindsight I should have bought the lens hood as flare was appearing everywhere in my photos. But then again, the lens flare was the least of my problems as the camera was an absolute pig at focusing in near darkness. In fairness, I wasn't terribly great at manual focus but having the lens hunting for focus was driving me up the wall. So I had to shift the subject to somewhere brighter.

A new body might solve the problem but then again, I'll probably get a Canon ST-E2 to solve the issue. The other alternative would be to pack an portable light source to light the subject so that the camera can focus accurately.

I finally bit the bullet and got myself some correction gels for my strobe.
All I have to do now is figure out when to use which gel... =S

My lil' cousins paid me a visit over the weekend and went about emptying the pool in my house! Fished out my camera and got my uncle (who is also a shutter bug) to become my VAL (Voice Activated Lighstand). Shot over 160 frames, whittled it down to 60 and selected three of them to be posted here.

Although the hit rate is low, but I deem it as a success as the kids were too fast to adjust the strobe. Rules such as angle, power and distance gets thrown out of the window the minute they start to hit the water. Half the challenge is getting close and while staying dry!