so i finally got it

i know its been an uber long time since i last made a blog entry. blogging doesnt seem to appeal to me that much anymore.


many things has happened, holidays are over, new semmester has started, and life goes on as usual.

so here is what this blog entry is all about.

i finally got the LC-A+!!

all thanks to the combined effort between my sister and i in monetary terms to purchase the camera.

so here is what it looks like.

now just to let you guys know what this camera does. its an old school film camera.

yes it uses that little rolls of photographic film. no silicon sensors in this camera. you even have to manually wind the film after each photo is taken, and once you've spent all the pictures, you gotta manually rewind it back into the roll too!

besides that, this camera has a minitar 1 32mm f2.8 lens. this lens suposedly gives super high saturation and contrast, which i have no idea how true that is. the lever on the right of the lens is the manual focus setting. this camera has 4 zones for focusing which are 0.8m, 1.5m, 3m and infinity.

the LC-A+ also has a hotshoe, so you are able to attach an external flash onto it.

some of the things that makes the LC-A+ different from the original LC-A is that it doesnt have an aperture setting and the LC-A+ has an added lever for chreating multiple exposures on one frame.

oh and it also has an expanded ASA setting to 1600 and can take the wire release and some other acessories like the fisheye adaptor.

all in all its quite a cool camera. it was originally a russian camera created by the soviet union. well actually it was a copy of a japanese camera, the cosina CX-1. but now production has been moved to china becuase the LOMO company in russia shut down their camera division a number of years ago.

so this camera like all cameras being sold by the lomographic society international, has super inflated prices.

anyway i think you guys are super confused and dont understand what im thinking. if you want to know more, look up LOMO LC-A+ on google.

btw, i would show you some of the shots that i took, but i'd have to get the film scanned into the computer, which costs money, so forget that.

cya

19 going on 18

well its the 27th of december which basicly means that on paper im 20 years and 2 days old.

gone are the days when i can still be called a teenager,
gone are the days when the age group i belong in would be an explanation of crazy stupid things i do,
gone are the days when responsiblity is just another word in the dictionary,
and gone are the days when i can still think of what to put in this senseless rant which would cause it to become a super long senseless rant which looks ultimately cool becuase it makes my blog look like ive got loads to talk about.

but you know what i think, im still 18 dammit! 18!!

18 is the age when highschool was over (well for me, being born late in the year, i was still 17 then),
18 is the age when all i basicly did for 6 months after finishing highschool was work and climb,
18 is the age when i had a carefree time,
and i cant think of anything else anymore to put in here as im 20 and 3 days on paper.

but i mean think about it, when everyone was younger, i bet you always had this thing in the back of your mind saying "if only i was older". i mean why not be older? when you are older, you can do so much things that other younggens cant.

but when you do get older, reality kicks in. you start to realise that you arent as energetic as before. you are able to do everything that you arent able to do when you were younger but are probably sick of doing it as you have done it so many times that it has started to become a bore. this is when you finally start to think of "if only i was younger".

i mena think about it, when you were younger, even though you are not able to do certian things or go to certian places, you still try your best to do things that you arent supposed to, and when you accomplish it you would be like hell yeah that was fun.

gone are the days when i used to be kicked out of bars and clubs and what-ever-you-call-its becuase i looked young. gone are the days when being able to beat the system was a fun thing to do as teenage rebelion was a fun thing. but not anymore.

its kinda boring now.

but oh well. life goes on. meet new people, try new things, see new places.

go listen to 18 till i die by bryan adams.

out.

looks like this christmas is going to be another boring one.... off to johor again this year. nuff said...

Moonshine 3rd Aniversary

so something totally unrelated to the post title. looks like ive finished moving into my new place. there are boxes everywhere, my room still looks like a store room as there are boxes lying around. still waiting for new furniture to put my things in them. oh, and i just got the internet connection yesterday. so no more going up to the balcony to steal the wifi from the neighbours :D


anyway, back to the title. went for moonshine's 3rd aniversary in laundry almost a month ago. and as i do in most gigs i attend, i got some pictures. here are what i took. ill start with the mono tone pictures first.


this one if a guitarist from forty winks. i think they are a cool band. they have trumpets!!





this one is from tempered mental i think.





this is tempered mental.




and yet another one.





oh the concentration.





i have no idea what else to put as a caption.





he looks like he is enjoying it.



now on to the shots with colour!




this one is one of my favourites from the session. i like how only the hand is in focus and everything else is a blur. but then again, it could still be better.






i kinda like this one too. alittle editing with one of my lightroom presets to make the picture look better.





decided to try something new this time with my shots. that explains the headless musicians.





not sure if this silhouette worked.





another headless picture.





this ones not too bad too.




a violinist!



and lastly.



two artist at work. well thats if you classify photography as art.



well thats it for this set.

if you wanna look at a bigger picture, do click on the picture and you should be able to view a larger one. sometimes i hate it when i upload pictures from flickr onto blogger. like the second picture, everything becomes pixelated. gahhh!! oh well. till next time.

christmas is around the corner :D

the big move

well im busy moving house now. the old house which i am currently in, is in a huge mess. everything is everywhere!!

whats worst is that there is only another 7 days more before we have to hand over this house to the land owner.

that means we have about 5 days to move!!! GAHH!! good thing im moving about 50 meters away :D

it just struck me.

christmas is just around the corner!

the day that i look forward to every year. not only because its my birthday, but because its just christmas. so hang on thight, christmas carrols and christmas trees will be heard and seen soon :D

An Article

no idea if i have posted it before, but this is an article which was writen quite a while ago in the star newspaper. me and boss jeremy took some of the camp5 memebrs for climbing, i took some photos and they were used in the article. quite crappy photos if you ask me. anyway here goes.

Saturday July 12, 2008
Climbing at Batu Caves
By LEONG SIOK HUI


Bored of the climbing gym? Go for nature’s own at Batu Caves.

Clammy, my hand thrashes desperately about to find a hold. The other one is jammed into a crack and clinging on for dear life, and my legs are beginning to wobble like jelly on the tiny ledge.

Suddenly, I lose my balance and — whoa!— I’m airborne and falling.

Luckily, I am tethered. Sitting on my harness and swinging like a pendulum, I take in the hills yonder which are like dots on the horizon. Yeah, it’s great to be outdoors again.

My friends and I are at the Nyamuk climbing site near Batu Caves, Selangor. Camp5, the largest climbing gym in Asia, runs an outdoor climb every third Sunday of the month for members.

Regular Camp5 climbers at Nyamuk climbing site.

A mere 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre will take you to these craggy limestone hills in Kg Melayu Wira Damai, Gombak. On weekends, you’ll see human spiders clinging onto the rock faces 30m high. The cliffs are popular with local and Singaporean climbers.

Camp5 director Jeremy Peet and staff Noel Yung set up the routes for us on the day of our climb. Today, there are 11 climbers, most of whom are familiar faces from the gym. It is like a picnic outing with time enough for socialising and lunch breaks in between climbing.

There are more than 60 climbing routes in Nyamuk, ranging from beginner-friendly 5B to expert-level 8A — the hardest route found in West Malaysia. This is based on the French grading system, which starts at 4 (beginner’s level) to 9B+, currently the world’s most difficult routes, located in Spain and Mexico.

The Camp5 pioneers make it a point to preserve the rocks and natural environment as well as respect the rocks’ natural lines. That was why we had to scramble over rocks and lush vegetation just to get to the climbing site.

Nyamuk’s long, steep routes vary between 12m and 33m. You get a good blend of jagged edges, cracks, overhangs and big rock slabs.

“The outdoor climb is an extension of Camp5 and gives our members an opportunity to enjoy the natural climbing sites in KL,” says Peet, 35, a climbing instructor and outdoor guide from New Zealand.

The climb here is free for term members while “casual” members pay RM24 a day (general entrance rate at Camp5).

“It’s more like a social club’s atmosphere as opposed to an instructional course or guided climb. We expect the climbers to have the prerequisite skills to look after themselves,” says Peet.

Since Camp5 opened about three years ago, the gym has trained thousands of beginner climbers.

Jeremy Peet, operations director of Camp5.

“You get a more well-rounded climbing ability by combining indoor and outdoor climbing,” explains Peet, who has more than a decade of mountaineering experience behind him.

“The techniques differ. For indoor walls, the holds stick out from the wall. On an outdoor rock face, it’s the opposite — the crack or ledge goes into the wall. You can easily tell if a person is an indoor or outdoor climber from his climbing style.’’

If the popularity of the outdoor climb increases, Peet says, Camp5 will consider doing it a couple of times a month.

A family affair

On our climb, we meet a family of Dutch expatriates, the Latours. Though the family are regulars at Camp5, this is the first outdoor climb for Marc, 13, his sister, Sophie, 11 and their mom, Ineke. Father, Henk, is an experienced climber who has scaled Mont Blanc in France.

“It’s a pity there weren’t many children climbing, it would have been more encouraging for our kids,” says Ineke, 48.

“Yeah, it’s boring because I had no one to talk to,” Marc agrees. Despite his first time on a rock wall, Marc found it “pretty easy.”

“You don’t always have to find the same colour footholds (like in a climbing wall); you can choose from hundreds of possibilities,” says Marc who also surfs, scuba-dives, plays golf, baseball, soccer and softball.

“It challenges you to do more with your strength and tactics. I have to find the easiest ways to get to the top without tiring myself out. I guess you have to have the right people in the group to make it fun, but overall I like it because I get to be very strong,” he adds.

“It was tricky finding the holds and scary to climb a real rock,” his mother chips in. “But I felt safe because the route was set up by Camp5 staff, and my husband was belaying me.”

Yup, for those of us who have yet to learn lead climbing and how to set up our own routes, Camp5’s outdoor jaunt is the next best thing for now.

o Camp5’s next outdoor climb is on July 20. Early reservation is advised as space is limited to 20 people.

-End-

kinda sucky that they didnt credit me. damn...