iso [i, saw] siblings

iso [i, saw] this in duotone, the challenge #3

I was taking a break while taking pictures of the sea and surrounding when these two siblings sat not far from me. And I saw another entry coming up. And here it is.

iso [i, saw] haunted trees

iso [i, saw] this in duotone, the challenge #2

I saw this menacing looking tree, shot it, put it in black and white and 'voila' I have another entry.

iso [i, saw] two damsels at the window

iso [i, saw] this in duotone, the challenge

"Rapunzel, rapunzel, let down your hair so I may climb the golden stair."

I saw these two girls at the window and I took their pictures while they posed for me. And I now have a picture for iso's duotone challenge.

Dark Night!

Last night, as I parked in the garage right after softball practice (around 6ish) , I saw the trees went swaying around like crazy. I know a storm is brewing as the clouds look really ominous. Just as soon I entered the house, the wind started to gain speed and the rain turned into a storm in just 10 seconds. A minute after the whole block of houses at our area blacked out. Just like Friday. So we lit the candles and waited.

Hours passed by, still no electricity. It was 10pm and the storm has subsided but it was still drizzling. I was feeling really hot and agitated, so my mom suggested that I go to the hotel nearby to hang out at the lounge and go on-line just to cool off. As I ordered tea and connect to the internet, I didn't have any idea what to write on. Then I got a call and twas old that the "Arch" at the Kiulap round-about fell and trees were uprooted along Jalan Kumbang Pasang just outside Ashara (I think that's the spelling). And there were the Police Patrol and Rescue Team there and the road to town was not accessible as no one was allowed to go though by the police.

I wanted to go straight away to take pictures, then our order came and my cousin suddenly showed up. So we stayed. So I decided to tweak on my blogspot settings. Still can't as I had a "blogger block". (as my mind wandered to the scene, if I could go there right away to take photos)



Around 1am (god, I need to sleep, got work the next day!), I dragged "Dinosaur" and Nong along as we left the hotel and made our way to the Berakas round-about. I could see a couple of the giant billboards fell, torn and broken to pieces. Then we made our way to Jalan Kumbang Pasang, the trees were no longer on the road as they were cleared away to the side but we could see the debris from the Edinburgh Palace all the way to Riverview Hotel. Tried to take photo of it but there weren't enough lighting, even with my flash.



Then we entered Kiulap I saw an uprooted tree, fallen banners (behind Jame' Asr'), the scaffolding of a giant banner bent, broken and the banner itself torn (before BIBD HQ).

Billboard ruined

Banner pole broken and bent

I see lots of these

And the "Arch" in the middle of Kiulap round-about was no longer there. There were around more than a dozen men working in the centre, collecting debris and they had to use two trucks with cranes to pick them up.

Before

After

The trucks and cranes with the debris

When I look at my watch, it was 2am, I went in the car and sped home. And to my dismay, still no electricity. Went in and forced myself to sleep. (I think I slept after 3am) And I woke up around 4am as my TV turned on by itself after the electricity went back up. Almost 12 hours of no electricity and good thing I managed to wake up as usual to work. But I was dead sleepy at the office.

Didn't go training today as my arm injury came back, so I went to JAG Therapy instead to fix my arm. Then here I am blogging about last night.

Think I'll turn in early tonight as I really didn't have enough sleep. (Oh wait! There's WWE Wrestling tonight!)

Sushi Marathon!

After Friday I have 2 days of rest (Saturday and Sunday, which is usually training and softball match). After taking pictures of Bandar, I was thinking of taking photos of the palace, Jame', Kiulap or Gadong area. Saturday night came and Sab called, she was bored and hungry. Told us to pick her up and bring her to Misato for Sushi. We met her cousins in the other room upstairs and Reeda was there too. I guess we ordered a lot. Our table was full (considering there was only 3 of us).

But we managed to finish all of it and we were pretty full. So to walk it off, I decided to go to Jame' Asr'. We parked at the side and walked around the pathway as I took pictures of the mosque at different angles. Sab asked me to shoot some flowers, ferns and signs as well.

I was really tired today and stayed home the whole day. Wanted to take pictures of sunset but it started to rain. So I canceled. Sab called again and invited us to eat sushi at Excapade.
Our order was also crowding the table but this time there were 4 of us, with Muiz (friend of Sab). As I was taking pictures of the food and Excapade's surroundings, the staffs asked to be photographed and when I agreed, they happily posed for me. They asked how do they get to see the pictures, told them they can see it here. (I guess they'll be happy after this).

Staffs of Excapade

After sushi, Sab wanted to go online so we went to Coffee Bean at Centrepoint but we didn't bring the lappy. So we went home early and here I am blogging about it.


Thanks for the sushi Sab. (2 nights in a row. Maybe Sushi Tei or Kaizen tomorrow? heheh...)

No Flash Photography for a week!

After another week of waiting (after my camera came), my flash finally came. I picked it up after work, and put in batteries. Went home and it started to rain at first, then storm. The whole row of houses at my village blacked out. Then on my way to Kebajikan Field, I saw the Fire Department Rescue Squad, apparently the roof of the house (front half of it) was blown off to the other house during the storm and I saw my chance of testing my new flash.

It was the Men's Final and Closing Ceremony for the BSM Brunei National Softball Tournament 2007 last night. But I was on duty beind the back-stop and it was raining. Then I drove around the town taking pictures.

Even tried a special effect, manually. I read about it in a book my uncle gave me.

The Start Of Something New!

The title sounds like a song from the movie in High School Musical. Heheh.... Guess I've been watching too much Disney Channel. (Can't help it if I still do watch cartoons)

I first joined blogspot on Thursday evening and said to myself, I'll do my first post after I got my new toy. And last Friday morning, I got a text message from a local online retail shop and told me my order are "Partially ready for collection" I was very surprised as they are 4 days early and I felt very excited that I left office immediately to collect them.



It was my new toys. The Nikon D40X with double zoom kit (Nikon 18-55mm F3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens and Nikon 55-200mm F4-5.6G IF AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens). I ordered extra battery and since they didn't supply me with a free memory card, I ordered a Kingston 40X 2GB SD Card, an All-Weather Lowepro SlingShot 100 AW Camera Bag and the Nikon SB-600 AF Speedlight Flash (the flash is delayed, it will arrive tomorrow, I hope.)

I was really excited about my new toy, that I put on everything and started taking photos n my room. "King Kong" (Aiman) was really excited and posed for me.

When I brought it to our playing field to test on my shutter speeds on sports photography, "Untitled" was very jealous of it. She kept saying, "Benci!" Sorry.... NOT! I'm so loving it!

I've been playing around with the camera and when "Uda" showed me his flash and using his Lightsphere and dome, I said to myself, "Man, I need a lot to learn!". Aperatures, Shutters, Exposures, etc...

When Rano and Pg. Jeff saw me with the camera they all said, "Hey, it came." congratulated me and welcomed me to the world of photography.

From now on this will be my main site but Softball blogs and albums of every game will still be at my multiply.

This is my very first post with blogspot and I'll do more from time to time. I wanted to post last week after I got my camera but the wi-fi at my house just went ka-put!

More to come!.... Cheers!... ;)