A morning at Broga Hill....

Broga Hill is a famous place for Malaysian photographers to have a session of photo shooting. It is located in Semenyih, Selangor and offering a nice view of landscape. I was going there with a few friends, in a morning after my working hours.

It was my first time to the place and early objective was to 'click' sun rise in a morning day at Broga Hill but because of nice panorama view with blue sky, we changed it to portraiture outing (haha, weird but that true! - i will tell the reason later in this post). We arrived there a lil bit late, somewhere around 7++ because we lost while finding the entrance.

Without spending much time, we took our gears out of the car and started our steps heading to the look-out points. We went there with no proper preparation - no drink, no food, I wore jeans with a shirt and crocs - because I tot, it would be easy as 123 but I was wrong. Half way walking, we started to feel exhausted. Nothing to drink, so we slowed down our speed.

After a few stops, roughly about 45 minutes walking, we finally arrived at first look up point. Without think much, I putted my right hand on a700's body, left hand on its lens, Sony Carl Zeiss 1680 and my finger was clicking on shutter release. Click! Click! Click!!! Damn, I realized that we were late, no more sun rise except for blue sky equally exposed with the land. Nothing interesting to shoot from my eyes, so I decided to do portrait, and yeah my friends were the model on that day. Haha.

I amazed with the first click on my friend's face, it was nicely exposed with a green background from 'pokok lalang' and blue blue blue sky! Thanks God for good weather. We took turn to be the model and I was not thinking about landscape, sun rise, etc anymore. The reason is simple, it is because I couldn't get the sun rise. So, I rather change to portrait shoot. In my head was "it would be enough if I can come back home with an outstanding picture".

These are the output of the day:







A question just came to my head a minute ago when I said "... an outstanding picture", do I get an outstanding picture? My answer will be NO but these are good and I like them all. To be outstanding, they are not up to it. I compared my pictures with those Pros like Ted Adnan's, I feel that mine is lacking something - something that I can't tell the weaknesses of it - if you have the answers, please do let me know. :).

I am planning to go there again with better preparation for portrait shoot - flashes, softbox, umbrella, tripod, reflector and not to forget, food and drink. Ah, thats a lot and who will carry them all? :(. Another problem is the model. :(. Whatever it is, I will remain positive, positive because I love photography so much. There will be a light at the end of tunnel - oh I repeat this phase again. Haha. :p.

Ok la guys, I feel tired - I just finished my night shift a couple of hours ago. See you again in next post - Faiz & Zie wedding!

Oh I almost forget. As usual, feel free to visit my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/afhamaziz.

Thanks and have a great day!!!


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LIMA 2009: Day 3 - Dec 2, 2009

As previous 2 days, I started my life with taking bath, prayer and preparing gears before heading to the destination, Mahsuri International Exhibition Center (MIEC). Oh by the way, I am pretty free in the office now, able to complete 2 posts. Hehe.

Let start with my day 3's journey, the last day of my service. There were nothing much different from previous days, same airshow, same agendas except for government delegates' visit and MOU.

The pictures taken of the day are similar as two days before. So, I have nothing else to share anymore except for these post-process version:







It was a boring day. I keep shooting the same thing for the 3rd day in a row. It was a shorter day for me because I had to catch a flight later at 8pm. Apart from airshow and candid, the only main agenda of the day was MOU signing ceremony. It was attended by our Prime Minister - Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, our 4th Prime Minister - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed, NGO representatives, etc.

Nothing more I can share on day 3. Let rollback to the day 2, at night. My friend and I were going to Pekan Kuah to shopping for our love ones. By the way, I bought nothing for myself. :(. As for loves one, I bought chocolates for my girl, a gift for my dad's birthday, a set of 'pinggang-mangkuk' for my mom, and souvenirs for my housemates.

Ahh shoesss!! .. I don't know what to write anymore. Haha. It is 8pm in the office and my head is thinking about home - photobook, ps3, guitar, etc to be played later tonight. :P. Haha.

Let me stop here and see you again in next posts - about Broga Hill photo outing, Faiz&Zie's wedding. Do not forget to visit my flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/afhamaziz ) and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any comment, opinion, etc.

I hope I am not too late to wish you Merry Christmas to those who celebrates and Happy New Year to all of us. Hope 2010 will be a better year. :).

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LIMA 2009: Day 2 - Dec 1, 2009

Day 2 started as early as 8am. We woke up about 30 to 7 in the morning to get bath, prayer, and get our gears ready. We straight headed to the location after took breakfast at the hotel's cafe.

Nov 1, 2009 was official kick-off day of LIMA 2009. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was done by our beloved ex-prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed at Mahsuri International Exhibition Center (MIEC) at 9:10 am. Sorry, I did not upload the picture of Tun cutting the ribbon. :(.

Day 2 was something different from a day before. I changed the objective from aircraft to candid shot at MIEC and warship at Porto Malai. Here are candid while waiting for Tun for opening ceremony:













After the opening ceremony, I went to Air show again. Oh crap, the air show was so bored. It just same as the previous day. :(. This was my first time to LIMA, so I am not sure about previous years but they kept repeating the same show, made me feel bored.

In the afternoon, I was heading to Porto Malai, for a "Fleet Review for Press". The event will be started at 5pm but guess what, Navy boat was leaving me behind again. Oh shoess!! I was so frustrating. I was there as early as 4:40pm but they did not follow the original schedule which is suppose to be started at 5pm. :(.

With patient, I waited the chance if there any 2nd boat for the fleet review. After waiting for about half an hour, I can see the light at the end of tunnel. I saw Tun drove a Mitsubishi's car to Porta Malai for a Fleet Review. Yeeehaa! Ops! we were not allowed to share the boat with Tun, but at least, there another Navy's boat for Press followed behind Tun's.

Sorry again guys. I did not upload pictures taken from the fleet review session. I do not have enough time to spend on my hobby. :(. If you guys really want to see the outcome of fleet review, please do not hesitate to contact me. :). I would love to share it.

As usual, for a better view pleasure, please visit my flickr gallery at:

www.flickr.com/afhamaziz

Thanks for your reading and wait for the 3rd and last day of my LIMA 2009 journey. [READ MORE]

5

It has been awhile I didn't post anything. :P. Ok. Let me start blogging again. The reason why I put 5 in the title is because in Malay, we call number five (#5) as Lima but I am not talking about lima but LIMA. It sounds complicated right? haha. :P.

Ok, a lil brief intro of LIMA:
"The Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition is the premier destination for aerospace and maritime manufacturers targeting the Asia Pacific growth markets. For nearly 20 years, LIMA has been serving exhibitor needs by assembling key decision makers from the defence, enforcement and civil sectors." - www.lima.com.my

Now, you guys know what is LIMA all about. I was there for 3 days - Nov 30 to Dec 2 2009 - as photographer for an official publication of the event, Asian Defence and Diplomacy. Thanks to my office colleagues who giving me opportunity to involve in such big event. I was going there with a friend of mine, Meor.

Let start with the Day 1, November 30, 2009.

Nothing much happen on the day one, we arrived at Langkawi Airport around 9am but we only started our job after lunch, around 3pm. It was because of miscommunication between me and Siva. We started our day to shoot aircraft at Mahsuri International Exhibition Center (MIEC), Langkawi.

Here are the pictures of mine:













After shooting aircraft, we were heading to Porto Malai Resort to have Fleet Review for Press but we were late 5 minutes. Police boat was leaving us behind. :(. Nothing I can shoot with my Sony a700 with Sony 70-300G. Our day just stopped there. We were having dinner at Jai Seafood in Pekan Kuah before heading to our room to have a rest. Let wait the story on the day 2 at Porto Malai Resort. :).

kindly visit My Flickr Gallery for more photos.
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