Anita, the model at the Lisbon Hotel of Portuguese Settlement

Two weeks ago, I received a call from Anita, a good friend of Henry and Jaron. She was the model for a portraiture shooting on the next day, and invited me to join the session with another two photographers. Since it took place at Portuguese Settlement where near to my house, I’d decided to come round.

Anita, the model

Next evening when arriving at Portuguese Settlement, I was surprise to see the other two photographers being Loo-Wei and Max, the two friends from photonian. Max is one of the founders and also the one who introduced me to group. He takes photography seriously but always willing to share his knowledge with others. He is probably one of the friendliest yet craziest guys I know from the group.

It had been quite some time since Max and I had a shooting together, therefore we were so excited. We began the shooting session with Anita at the jetty area then moved to the sea front of Lisbon Hotel. With the patience and tolerance of Anita, Max and I were trying on shots from different angles and settings. Sadly it was cloudy and sunset was hardly being seen. What we could get was the soft light of the cloudy sky instead the mixture of lighting from the sunset.

After an hour of shooting, it was getting darker when we had to stop. While walking our way through the Lisbon Hotel to the car park, we passed by a large patio with a beautiful fountain. The fountain is illuminated with lights and it just came to our thoughts to shoot with these lights. Besides, Anita was ready to get soaked. By blending the motion of water and natural lighting available, we got some nice shots. Spending a few minutes at the fountain, we then headed off.

After sharing some of the shots I took, Max gave me some comments which were valuable and constructive to me. I really enjoyed shooting with Max and definately looking forward for another outing with him. And many thanks to Anita too for inviting me and also being nice and patience throughout the whole session. Luckily she didn’t get sick after getting wet that evening.

May all beings be happy. Share some shots I took.

Max, the photographer

Henry and Becky who dropped by for a visit

The post Portrait photography – Anita appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Two weeks ago when I met Perry again, he shared some underwater photos he took during scuba diving. Those shots are really fascinating. So I made a request to post his photos sharing with other friends and he agreed. More to that, he also shared with me this tale of the two sites (Bunaken and Lembeh) in northern Sulawesi of Indonesia which he experienced. This is the story of a wonderful marine park, some interesting people and a remarkable adventure:

Surface Interval: 3rd Row: See Hian and Greg 2nd Row: Tee, Lee, Helen, Siong, Teng, Perry, Jack. 1st Row: Lily, Ginn and Loy

North Sulawesi has long been hailed as one of the finest dive destinations our world has to offer. Being a rookie I had come to this place with a brimful of dreamy images conjured up from the centerfolds of diving magazines. Wanting nothing more than to bookmark the flora and fauna; and to put ticks next to images in fish ID books, I ended up getting much more than what I had hoped for. I returned with a very different outlook on the reefs and the sea and now consider myself a convert as well as a macro aficionado.

Spinecheek Anemone fish

Bunaken and Lembeh, are definitely more than meet the eyes. These are places where the incredible and unusal come together. It is perhaps premature and presumptuous for a newbie to crown this place with such superlatives, not having been to that many dive destinations around the world. I, however, found it simply impossible not to be in awe of the grace and diversity of the sea. What I saw and experienced had enriched me as a diver, as well as made me a human being much more appreciative of the world he lives in. Here is an account of my “fun-tabulous” and “muck-elicious” trip…

Back in May 2008 when I confirmed going on this trip, I had only logged about 50 dives. While in Redang, Tee took me to Sandy Bottom to do my first muck dive. That particular dive yielded many surprises. Apart from the sighting of a pretty sea horse, there was also a tiny painted frog fish, apparently a first in Redang. I was also made acutely aware that buoyancy skill was the determining factor to a good muck dive. A good “honing” session with Tee during that trip proved invaluable.

I later found out that I was actually going with a bunch of “old salts” with an average of 300 dives under their belts. Although a little concerned about how I would measure up, this bunch of “EAD”s proved my worries unfounded and were in fact lots of fun to be with. (EAD: an acronym only known to this particular group, should hopefully be explained to me on my next trip to Anilao.)

Coral life of North Sulawesi

Bunaken beakoned….

Dining area

Reception area

So I packed my bag, jumped on the Silk Air’s 737 with my dive buddies and arrived at the hustle bustle town of Manado. The town immediately reminded me of “Kampung Jawa”: an old (and vanished) fishing town in Melaka which constantly smelled of fish and salt. The busy roads were lined with shops and surprisingly
many chapels. Minibuses and horse drawn carriages shared these congested and narrow streets. A forty minute boat ride at the end of our road journey took us to Bastianos, a Balinese inspired and cozy resort. Although there were no airconditioners in our rooms, the breeze and cool mornings made it bearable.

The food was delicious and the very tasty Spaghetti Bolognese and Ayam Percik were simply unforgettable. The staff were friendly and in particular Richard. We were also very well looked after by the attentive dive crew. The night sky was amazingly clear and starry and the orange sunset had me gazing until it all but disappeared behind Mount Manado Tua. The real surprise at Bunaken however, lies beneath the sea. The underwater flora of Bunaken especially, was not only luxuriant, but strange and awe inspiring. We did 5 dives on our 3 day and 2 night’s stay, which was regrettably too few. Returning to Bunaken thus requires no excuse, since we had only sampled a very small part of the entire terrain.

The highlights were many and here are the ones that stood out:

Bunaken Timur One: Our boat traveled to the south-east of the crescent-shaped Bunaken Island, took a U-turn and moved up north, finally stopping at a site less than 300 meters away from the shore. I confirmed this as the destination of our check out dive and looked overboard to find our boat floating at the edge of the slopping sand. On the left was a large expanse of sea grass and the shallow sand bank, to the right was a deep blue hue. I took a deep breath and back rolled……

Gigantic Elephant Ear Sponge

When the bubbles cleared and I was done with equalizing and making sure my camera and gears were Ok, I found myself hovering next to a wall of lush orange and yellow soft corals and was greeted by clouds of Pyramid Butterfly Fish and Blue Streak Fusiliers. The visibility was excellent but I could not see the bottom as the wall was almost vertical. Swimming along the precipitous wall I marveled at how healthy the reef was. There was an abundant of sponges. Barrel sponges, rope sponges, elephant ear (fan) sponges and tube sponges intermingled with myriads of sea squirts of different shades and shapes: the blues, the pinks, the yellows, the “cauliflowers” and the black “grenades”….

Paper Fan Sponge (??)

Hard and soft corals, sprinkles of feather stars adorned all space unoccupied in this vast and resplendent garden. Surgeonfish, Moorish Idols, Damselfish, Pennant Bannerfish and a bunch of unidentified Anthias darted in and out of the cracks and fissures. Venturing closer, I spied my first Long Nose Hawfish peering out of the Gorgonian branches along with 2 dozen of Razorfish. We also saw a Reef Stonefish, a pea sized Elegant Squat Lobster, a Trumpetfish, a few Blue Spotted Lionfish and some nudibranch (Chromodoris Willani). The strangest formation was a 3 feet “paper fan” sponge (??) with tassels growing at the rim fanning up and down with the currents. I completed this memorable first wall dive in 57 minutes and concluded that had there not been a single fish, I would have been content just drifting along with the vista of “mega flora”. Such was the awe and wonder felt by the wide-eyed rookie in me……..

Next was Muka Kampung, another wall dive. One memorable moment was an improvised birthday celebration at 3 meter upon descending. You see, buddy Teng was THE GAL. Led by Siong, her major sweetheart, we had earlier prepared an impromptu banner (well.. more like a dive sausage with cut up duct-tapes pasted on it to form greeting words) as a surprise for her. We unrolled the ceremonious sausage, gestured frantically to catch her attention and “expressed” our love and greetings. Along with some of Lee’s rather creative underwater hand signals, this little presentation was hastily captured on video and stills. I am certain we were all praying for a high quality close up of the mandatory no-regulator kiss which was wet in every sense of the word, but it did not happen.

(Dive) time was of the essence so it quickly resumed. Currents were swift and much “schooling actions” took place in this dive; One large school of Long Jawed Mackerels followed by various sightings of big fish like a giant Grouper and a Napoleon Wrasse, capped off with a shoal of Snappers towards the end. Hiding within the wall was a very cute Orang Utan Crab inside a Bubble Coral. We could not resist the temptation to toy with a blue Painted Rock Lobster which bravely brandished its antennae in furious protest. Glinting and glistering on the surfaces of some odd shaped sponges were the even odder looking Sailor Eyeballs, which looked more like steel balls than living algea to me. The focus on a ball of Striped Catfish undulated back and forth above a sponge quickly transferred to a very pretty Nembrotha Cristata (the black Nudi with Green spots) and the translucent Coral Shrimp among the coral bubbles…….. whoever said a sore neck is only an occupational health hazard probably never dived.

Long jawed Mackerels

Nembrotha Cristata

Sailor Eyeball

Orang Utan Crab

Enter Lekuan 3, the Tinsel Town of Bunaken. Only five minutes in the boat took us to a spot so vast and borderless that it had to be sliced into 3 subsites, namely Lekuan 1, 2 and 3. Prominent features included the “Divalets” the miniature Squat Lobster, the Slender Pipefish, the Gomphia Starfish (??), the Chromodoris Wiallni and Lochi (Nudies) and the Orang Utan Crab. The “A list Divas” that our lenses spied on include a Gilded Triggerfish, a Horned Flathead (crocodile fish), a large Green Turtle, some Lowfin Drummers and a Wedgedtail Triggerfish, not forgetting the “Prima Donna Divas”: our very own Lily, Helen, Ginn, Teng and Lee. There were numerous supporting roles like the Fairy Basslets, Anthias, Sweepers, Batfishs and occasional Butterflyfish including the Emporers and Regals.

At one point all eyes were on the Candy Crabs among the red and white soft corals. See Hian spotted the first, Ginn the second and Tee the third strutting their stuff on the catwalk (of the coral branches) as they put on sprigs of live soft coral atop their shells for the show. Blizzards of flash lights caused these petite beauties to dodge and disappear, but with a bit of patience they reemerged to reclaim their fifteen minutes of fame. Decorating the entire site once again were beautiful fields of carols, sponges, hydroids, ascidians and yellow Whip Corals which spiraled their ways out to the open sea.

Gilded Triggerfish

Translucent Coral Shrimp

Candy (Decorator) Crab

Fu Kui is named after its discoverer and also means “Prosperity” in Chinese. This too was a richly endowed reef and for a change we could see the sloping sea floor which was covered by a plethora of stony and hard corals. Although this essentially was not a wall dive we constantly swam along the edge of the reef which was overlooking a deep slope that extended to the open sea. Here we sighted a massive belt of Blue Streak Fusiliers, and beyond them in the deep blue, a lone Napoleon Wrasse.

Emporors

Napoleon Wrasse

Apart from the elusive Napoleon, we were lucky enough to witness a school of Bigeye Barracudas, an even bigger school of Emperors, a ball of Batfish and some very inquisitive and tailgating Pinnate Spadefish. All of these amazing scenes were captured on HD videos as Greg got creative and sat his newly bought video cam in a modified case, and boldly tested the gizmo here. Just how interesting are the resulting clips? Find out in Youtube soon.

We took a detour at the Clam farm, a sandy patch that featured five giant Tridacna Clams in a row where Jack nearly stepped onto one of the clam’s mantle. The sea was calm and visibility was great, so we took pictures, poked fun and simulated obscene signs and gestures. From spot to spot we found many good lookers; the Spinecheek Nemos, the Nembrotha Kubaryana (Nudi with green and red streaks instead of dots) and possibly their offspring (the ribbon eggs), and the Bignose Unicorn Fish. Another magic moment came at twenty two meter, kneeling on a sandy patch we saw hundreds of spaghetti-like spotted garden eels swaying in the gentle currents. Some of them measured up to 3 feet with part of their bodies still burrowed in the sand. As they were very shy, the slightest movement in the water column had them darting back to their hiding place only to reappear to feed on plankton when the coast was deemed clear. Hundreds of artificial steel structures were laid haphazardly where we ended our dive. Perhaps these structures were recently laid therefore not much coral growth was observed. The optimistic diver in me however, predicts a fish and coral wonderland in ten years or so.

Spotted Garden Eels

Spade/Batfish

Last but not least was Along Banua, another wall site five minutes away from the resort. It was here I saw the strange red and gourd-like Ascidians and the colonies of Mat Sea Squirts, proved that there was something new even though the flora looked similar to the other earlier sites. Every species of hard and soft coral that I had seen in my diving experience collided here. The gorgonians, the black coral trees, the staghorns, the porites, the lettuce, the moon and star column corals, the cup corals, the leather, and the tree corals…….

After descending to yet another steep cliff, we were met with swim-throughs, caves and overhangs. The many protrusions here might have entangled the unwary Loy as he somehow managed to lose one of his FINs mid dive! Delaying the chance to ridicule an otherwise hilarious non-stunt, I marveled instead at the
Trumpetfish (white bodied with green stripes), the marvelous Helgerda Malesso (Cream and Orange coloured nudibranch with pretty ribbons for eggs), an electric Blue Spider Crab, the Devil Scorpionfish and many other usual suspects. Alas this dive ended with a huge upswell that was impossible to swim
against. So I cut short my safety stop and resurfaced predictably to listen to stories of yet more creatures that I had missed.

Chromodoris Nudie

The "Gourd" Ascidian

Bright Orange Sponge

"Matted" Sea Squirt

Sitting in the dining hall with eleven others that night, I took a gulp of Bintang and gazed at the distant sky reliving the underwater scenes I had experienced so far.

This was truly a Tour de Marvel thus far. My eyes and senses were constantly feasted on with so many new treats and wonders. My mind was perpetually occupied with the images and flashbacks from the visits to the realm of this “Fantasea”. There were too numerous the occasions to remember, and too much the mysteries of the undersea to learn about, always resulting in the tendency to fill my log book to the edges.

"Granade" Tunicates

Helgerda Nudie

Horned Flathead (Crocodilefish)

It is clear that Bunaken’s beauty rests on the reefs and the walls. Although to some seasoned divers this place offers limited novel sightings, they would no doubt still concur that its flora and fauna is astonishingly vast and healthy. Far above that exists in many parts of the underwater world. I had no regrets here, only the urge to moan about the Eager Ray, Giant Barracudas and Bumphead Parrotfish that I allegedly missed out on…..

Parting Shot: See what divings in Bunaken had done to us!

Text: Perry Gan
Additional text: Ginn Chin
Photos: Helen Kang, Greg Leong, See Hian, Chin Teng and Perry Gan

The post Perry’s journey – a tale of two sites appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Adelyn Purple

紫色是介于红色和蓝色的色彩, 在光谱中是人类可见光所能看到波长最短的光。Adelyn Purple 大家都是这么叫她的。她喜欢紫色、喜欢阳光、喜欢自由、喜欢自然… 认识她在KL Photonian的第一次聚会里，觉得她很开朗很阳光。她很男友Avex是很衬的情侣。Avex也是我在Photonian认识的。他们对朋友都很好。创意和摄影都是他们的爱好。

上几个星期和Avex，还有他表弟Alphonse约好了要去淡边(Tampin)摄影。这次的摄影我们邀请了Adelyn Purple。她的自然她的快乐能带给人很窝心很舒服的感觉。其实快乐和钱并没有太大的关系，快乐不贵还很便宜。就好像Adelyn Purple拥有一颗快乐美好的心去好好生活，好好对生活，快乐其实随处可得。因为快乐就在你心里。

摄影很成功！

特别谢谢：模特儿Adelyn Purple / 摄影师Avex Lim / 助手兼未来摄影师Alphonse

以下是当天摄下的照片:-

台湾作家林清玄有句很精彩的话：“清静心看世界，欢喜心过生活，平常心有情味，柔软心无怨尤。”就让我们拥有这样的一颗心，去过简单的生活，拥抱无限的快乐！

愿大家，快乐！

The post 快乐紫天使。Adelyn Purple appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

"Hi there. May I take your order please?"

It had been a while since I had an outing with photonian. Two weeks ago on a Sunday, Max invited me to join a street photography outing at the Jonker Street of Melaka. There were 15 of us taking part in this event and each was required to shoot with only 50mm lens which was a challenge to shoot with a fixed range lens.

Angel Wee (left) and Angela Gan - street photography outing

We started at 4pm, a hot afternoon and spent about 3 hours at Jonker Street and the other streets near to it, such as Tukang Besi Street, Heeren Street, Tokong Street and others. It was amazing and interesting to see how fellow friends could use a variety of different angles of a subject and created unique and creative pictures. Everyone could be a teacher for me.

This photography outing was a great fun experience seeing that we had spent a precious time together and could share our photography experience with each other. Some of the shots I took of the photonians:

Angela Gan in a library at Jonker Street

"Dude, look! Someone's here! Hide!"

the two angels: Angel Wee (left) and Angela Gan

chopsticks with chinese horoscopes

handicraft wooden masks

a window

a cool girl stood at the street

"Caught you stalking, Chau-Kian!"

~dazzling

marriage = handicapped?

little lanterns

a dummy of the Orangutan House at Tukang Besi Street

"Jom! Let's go shooting" (Hanne Lim)

Hanne Lim was shooting traffic signs

Andrew Gan was sharing the shots he took with Hanne Lim

an uncle staying at the Tukang Besi Street was reading a Chinese newspaper

Fred in the bush

after squabble: Angel Wee (left) and Angela Gan

Chinese offerings in a shop at Tokong Street

Paper-man, a decoration of paper offerings

souvenir magnets of traditional Chinese clogs

souvenir magnets of Chinese opera masks

picture of a flower of clogs which Angel Wee took

white beard friendly uncle sitting at Jonker Street

The post 50mm at the Jonker Street appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Before the event-shooting for the blood donation in Bukit Beruang last Sunday, Cinda invited Wee-Peng and I for a photography outing at the Jonker Street of Melaka in the morning. She needed a photo of “window” topic for the KL photonian‘s presentation thus asked for our company.

We started early in the morning to avoid the hot weather. Walking along Tokong Street, we were looking for inspiration which could bring back the nostalgic old days, especially with the windows of Cheng Hoon Teng Temple and Xiang Lin Temple. At the same, we were also looking for gaps, holes, cracks, and frames which she could use as a form substitution for windows. After the temples at Tokong Street, we moved to Jonker Street and continued our search of the heritage buildings.

It would be my first photography outing with Cinda. Thanks to Cinda as I really enjoyed the shooting session and also my morning walk in the heritage town of Melaka with Cinda and Wee-Peng’s company. May everyone be happy.

Sharing some photos I took that morning:

The post Looking through the window with Cinda and Wee-Peng appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

上星期六约了Photonian的朋友Derrick, Chong 与友人到马六甲的A’Famosa 牛仔村摄影去。模特儿在马六甲是相当出名的。感谢她抽空来配合我们的时间。
第一次摄模特儿、第一次拍摄Potrait、第一次与友人结伴去摄影、第一次拿到了很多和灵感很多的摄影模特儿小贴士。

以下是当天摄下的照片。如有再能进步的地方，希望能留言让我有更大的发展空间。

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A week before Chinese New Year, I went for a studio shooting together with Nick, James and other photonians to the Hananica Studio. It’s a photography studio located in Taman Kota Laksamana and well equipped with lighting equipment. Celine was the model invited and showed her expertise in modelling. She posed well and gave us so much cooperation with her happy smile all the time.

We would have to thank Nick and James, who were teaching us to setup the background and the lighting for the shooting. They are more experience in studio shooting than anyone of us; however they were willing to share their knowledge with us and telling us the importance of communication between the photographer and the model.

Post-processing would be another hard part to work out since most photos were taken in RAW format. Below are some of my shots after processing:

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Photonian's Andrew and the ostrich

Leopard: What's that?

Last sunday, photonian organised a shooting at the Zoo of Melaka, Air Keroh. Nine of us went there for 2 hours during the evening. It was really a good time to shoot the animals because the slumberous animals became active during evening. 

Telephoto lens are essential for shooting wildlife. In this case, I had to stand as close as possible to the animals to have a better shot with my kit lens.

Below are some of my shots to share with:

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On the 2nd of January, Photonian organised an event shooting to a fashion show, The Fantasyland 2010 from Brush Up Academy at the Aloha fashion bar in Melaka. The fashion show was lovely with brilliant make-up artists and their art-work.  

The difficulty in this shooting was the lighting and smoke used in this event. Because it was in a club, the venue was dark and the show was flashed with spot lights and laser-like beams. From point to point, smoke effect was used to enhance the mysterious atmosphere, however gave us a little of difficulty to the sharpness and colors of our photos.

We managed to took some shots. Here are some samples of my shots:

The post Event photography for Fantasyland 2010 at Aloha appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Few weeks ago, I was lucky to be able to go for an outing with photonians together with four models, Yovi, Pohling, Crystal, and Agnes.

We went to a rubber estate in Krubong, where it took us about 30 minutes drive from the central town of Melaka. The road was tough but we managed to reach there by 3 MPVs. Every photographers had a chance to shoot with each of the models and we spent 3-4 hours over there shooting until the sunset. Everyone was exhausted.

I have to thank all the moderators from photonian.com to organise this great shooting event for the enthusiasts  and also the four sweet models who gave us full cooperation.

It was a wonderful outing and below are some of my sample shooting:

Yovi:

Pohling:

Crystal:

Agnes:

The post Model photography – meet Yovi, Pohling, Crystal, and Agnes appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

These are some of the photos I took:

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