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Photography
Photography
Itadakimasu, the Japanese menu
Feb 20th
Japanese appetiser
Towards the end of last year, I did a product shooting of Japanese food at a Japanese restaurant in Melaka Raya together with Jeff for the new menu he was designing. Jeff, a full time graphic designer gave me many tips in shooting products and it was a great pleasure working with him.
There were more than a hundred dishes we shot during the session and I couldn’t even remember the names. However, the dishes were looking fantastic just like a work of art, thanks to the chef, Shaun, and I tasted some of the dishes after captured the shots, and they were just great!
Below are some of the outcome of the shooting:
World Press Photo 11 Exhibition in Melaka
Feb 15th
heritage state Melaka hosts world's largest press photo exhibition, World Press Photo 11
visitor at the exhibition
Good news for all photo lovers in Melaka! From yesterday on, heritage state Melaka hosts world’s largest press photo exhibition, World Press Photo 11 for ten days. This most popular photo event in the world only happens in four locations in Malaysia and Melaka is one in the list.
The official opening day of World Press Photo 11 exhibition in Melaka was yesterday on the ValEEntine’s Day. I was glad to be there on its launching and witnessed the spectacular photos which have stunned thousands of readers in last year’s most shocking news events.
A good photo can tell a thousand words of a story. The photos in the exhibition share important stories including those of survival, global issues and cultural differences, acting as a platform for visitors to gain more knowledge about what is going on in the world. Each of the photos is unique and different yet all stunning.
I would recommend this exhibition to friends especially those who like photography to pay a visit. This is a good opportunity to learn and explore photojournalism which can also help with almost all types of photography. The exhibition really opened my eyes to so many new and different possibilities in photography.
So, to go to the exhibition, it is held at the Balai Seni Lukis Melaka building (next to the post office of Dutch Square Melaka) from the 14th February until the 23rd. Be quick and be there since the exhibition is in the town now, and after that it will move on to its final two locations which are Sabah and Penang.
Below are the selection of the winning photos and information obtained from the exhibition (WARNING: Some may find certain images disturbing). Click to continue viewing.
Hokkien New Year 2012
Jan 31st
Hokkien New Year eve (Bai Tian Gong) at Chris's place
Today, the 9th day of Chinese New Year is also the significant day to all Hokkien. It is the Hokkien New Year and yesterday the eve celebration known to the Hokkien as ‘Bai Tian Gong‘ (in Chinese, 拜天宫) was held in many places of Malaysia. Although I am not a Hokkien, I still share the joy and celebrate the festive and last night I was invited to Chris Baba’s place for the celebration.
Copy-and-paste the story behind the festive from the Bai Tian Gong‘s post published two years back:
During a Chinese New year of the Ming Dynasty, there was a bandit raid in the province of Hokkien. These intruders however robbed and burned down villages, attacked and killed the villagers. The people of the villages were in fear and escaped from their burnt villages during the night.
Some of the villagers then hid themselves among the sugarcane fields. Needless to say, those villagers prayed to Heaven God (Tian Gong) for salvation during their hideout. The pursuing intruders spent many days trying to locate and hunt them but to no avail. On the ninth day of that Chinese New Year, they finally gave up and returned to their region.
The Hokkiens then happily emerged from the sugar cane fields, and praising the blessings of the celestial deities and owing gratitude to the sugarcane plants for saving them from destruction. Thus, in all Hokkien celebrations, the sugarcane plant is given prominence.
Realizing that it was also the 9th Day of the Chinese New Year and coincidentally the birthday of Heaven God, they decided to make votive offerings and prayers to the Jade Emperor for their salvation. There are many version of the Hokkiens’ Bai Tian Gong stories. Whichever it is, the hokkiens believe that our life and prosperity are granted by the Heaven God.
On the eve of the 9th day, a pair of sugarcane plants are used by the Hokkiens usually placed one on each side of the offering table or the front door of the house. The pair of the sugarcane symbolises unity, cooperation and strength. The sugarcane itself is a symbol of harmony and a token which can bring good and ‘sweet’ results. The very straightness of the sugarcane stem also ensures that the Hokkiens can become a clan of honest and sincere people.
Chris is from the Baba-Nyonya family, and they always have their unique tradional sets of rites and rituals. Since many of the Baba-Nyonya are Hokkien and worship Ti Gong (天公), the Heaven God, the celebration of Bai Tian Gong to them is a great grant event and loaded with complex ceremonies. It would be difficult to see such a great preparation for celebration nowadays, due to modernization and exposure to western ideas, many of the younger Baba-Nyonya generation prefers to skip some the ceremonies.
Anyway, many of Chris’s relatives and friends gathered at his place for the great celebration. I met Henry my old friend over there. Then I was served with a bowl of delicious Hokkien noodle prepared by Chris’s mom and it was simply awesome! I managed to capture some photos of the little girl of Chris and the settings of Bai Tian Gong.
I didn’t wait for the countdown at Chris’s place but got back home at 11:30 p.m. On the 12:00 midnight, I stood at my house door and observed the Hokkiens ring in the New Year with extravagant firecrackers and fireworks.
Happy Chinese New Year to everyone especially our Hokkien friends. May the year of the dragon be prosperous and happy for everyone!
May all beings be happy.
delicious homemade Hokkien noodle by Chris's mom
old friend Henry
Chris's little baby, Abby
'Amma' and Abby
fly kiss
like dad like daughter
oil lamp (left); bamboo skewers of preserved papaya and cherries on top of the chanab as offering (right)
paper crafts, four of the Eight Immortals (Taoists' saints, in Chinese 八仙)
paper crafts, the other four of the Eight Immortals
complex table setting of offerings
skewers of offerings and each has a meaning
flowers offering
Enter the Dragon
Jan 21st
Happy Chinese New Year to all! (1Malaysia prosperity dragon at the entrance of Jonker Street)
Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐!
Sharing the shots captured for the past two days in Melaka, places like Dutch Square, Jonker Street, Jalan Hang Kasturi (also known as Tofu Street), Jalan Kampung Pantai and Melaka Raya. During the outing, I also tried to photograph the dragons in town as we are entering the year of dragon in two days time.
Thanks to all friends for your visits and comments here to make juesatta a better site. Hope that we will fill you always with sEErenity. Enjoy the year of dragon and wish you and family good wealth and health.
May all beings be happy.
Message from spring
Jan 9th
message of spring
Congratulation to our town Melaka, being among the 45 ‘must-visit’ places in year 2012, as listed by The New York Times!
“With its lantern-lighted canals and silent, narrow streets lined with decades-old ornate temples and shop houses, few places in Southeast Asia conjure romantic images of the past as effectively as Malacca, Malaysia’s oldest city. A former Portuguese, Dutch and British colony, this Unesco World Heritage site is now attracting record numbers of tourists lured by its unusual architecture and cuisine, which reflect centuries of foreign influences.
More than seven million visitors are expected in 2011, so the town, about 90 miles southeast of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is welcoming new hotels like the Casa del Rio, a Portuguese-inspired luxury boutique property with 66 rooms; and Courtyard@Heeren, a 100-year-old shop house converted into a 14-room hotel. When you’re not exploring places like the 17th-century former Dutch town hall or Jonker Street’s antiques shops, gorge on Malacca’s outstanding local specialties, like creamy, piquant nyonya laksa at the family-run Donald & Lily’s.”
by NAOMI LINDT
It’s a good news for all our dear friends. And we have to help to keep our town the clean, safe, friendly and happening place we all know and love.
Right, keeping the spring’s mood going! Sharing some shots of Melaka. While doing filming with Kenn-Wai and Fred these few weeks for our next coming video, I also collected a series of photos which I hope to deliver the atmosphere of Chinese New Year in town.
These shots were taken in a few location including Jalan Hang Kasturi, Jonker Street, Bemban and Jasin.
Happy Chinese New Year to all and may all beings be happy.
