Web News…..

Hi guys, finally I had finished uploading the photos from my old gallery located at SmugMug to flickr. For your information, the gallery at SmugMug will be removed on 1st of January 2008. From today onwards, the latest photos will be placed in my flickr. It has been our greatest effort to serve you all with the best service that we can provide.

Finally…..

Hi again, the blog update process is kinda slow at the moment due to the fact of the sleepless night that I am encountering now… Well at least I know my friends weren’t kidding about this when the baby was still in the tummy of the mummy.

 

Finally, I got the final name to be printed on the Birth Certificate of my daughter… jeng jeng jeng…. Well it’s not really that fancy but it kind of have that Malay and English (that was my thought though) name, which is…. Siti Nur Hannah. It does meant something (in which I found through the net just looking for a simple yet easy to remember) but I let you find it out yourself hehehe….

Here are some of the photos taken when the baby is 2 and 3 days old at the hospital.

More photos are available here and more photos are to come.

The family would also like to say thank you for all the presents and wishes received on the birth of Siti Nur Hannah and may Allah repay you all.

Thank You…..

Yesterday, Monday, November 19th 2007 at 8.40pm marks another history for me when the Mrs and I got our first daughter into this world. The 2.720 Kg daughter was delivered at the Delivery Suite of the RIPAS Hospital after an approximate of 11 hours and 40 minutes of waiting and praying.

I would like to say thank you to everyone for their prayers and wishes before and after the delivery of the little and cute “like me, hehehe” baby girl. The name is yet to be announced, so do keep up in coming to this site.

 

More photos to be uploaded as soon as possible.

…..

Just got home from the hospital. As usual, the missus had been admitted again after she finished her work at the ICC for the Brunei Health Expo. Hopefully she will be alright and we’re still waiting for the doctor to give us on the future plan for the baby…

For today’s post, here are the photos taken during the Brunei Health Expo 2007 located at the ICC.

 

More photos are available here.

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I am quite stressed out since I found out that my Manfrotto Monopod is missing…. Urgghhhhhh…. Hope I just misplaced it somewhere at either one of the houses….. If not, gonna spend again on buying another one, grrrrrrrrrrrrr…..

 

HELP WANTED…..

This is a public service announcement.

A 14 year old local girl, Nursyairah, has been missing since 10th November 2007 from her father’s house at Jalan Sinarubai-Masin and to all the public who has seen her or know where her recent whereabouts are requested to contact :

 

Tok Mat (8647390)
Royal Brunei Police (CID Section) or your local police station
Mrs Saadiah of the Jabatan Pembangunan Masyarakat, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports at 2380667
8816601 or 8638129

 

Let us pray for the safety of Nursyairah.

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I have updated my flickr with GoD’s Gift Open House photos… click here for more.

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Today is the beginning of the first Brunei Health Expo 2007 and was conducted in conjunction of the 100 Years of the Brunei Ministry of Health  caring for the people. The event will be conducted on 15th to 18th of November 2007 and the registration is free. The public are welcomed to check out the latest technologies in medicinal services and also a chance to have their medical checks on spot.

 

levels…

Got this article, posted by this guy here and originally from there.

The Seven Levels of Photographers

Artist: Top Level 7

This is the highest level.

An artist fixes his imagination in a tangible form called a photograph. He captures the spirit of place or person, real or imagined, in this photograph and the viewer responds to this.

An artist is a complete master of his tools. When creating art an artist transcends common existence as his spirit flies up to meet that which he is capturing. He may practice and learn his tools while he is not creating, however when creating the camera becomes an extension of his mind. No conscious thought is expended on the technical issues with which he is a virtuoso while creating photographs.

To make a musical analogy, a musician may woodshed his scales, but when he’s jamming he’s not even thinking about fingerings. He’s lost in the passion of the moment.

Just like professional surfers who have a dozen boards or pro guitarists who have 23 axes, an artist may have a slew of cameras, each for a different purpose.

Likewise, other artists may only have one camera, or none at all. It just doesn’t matter.

Artists sometimes dress funny and tend to stay up late. They usually prefer to photograph attractive young women and are proud of it.

No one ever sees their work since they have crummy ability to promote themselves, and sadly, usually don’t even appreciate their own excellent work. Those that do drop down to Whore, which sadly and paradoxically means you will never see the work of a true artist unless you know one personally. Good artists are usually too embarrassed to show their work to anyone unless you are intimate with them, since their work is their soul.

Artists use any sort of camera, including pinholes and disposables, or 8 x 10s. They use whatever instrument they need to create what they want.

Whore: Level 6

A whore is an artist who sells his soul by accepting money or drugs for his art.

By lowering himself to this level his vision is compromised.

Why? Because when one depends on selling one’s soul to pay for one’s food and pad one does not screw with the program, which means that one does not try new styles.

If a whore’s work pays his bills after years of trying, it’s unlikely any whore will be open to trying new styles while he still needs the dough.

Artists with representation (meaning they are represented by a gallery or an artists’ representatives just as pimps do in the sex trade) may lose that representation if they change their style.

Therefore, art for sale from one person rarely gets better or different.

The style that sells is all a whore’s johns and pimps (representatives) want to see. See Barnbaum’s book on artistry. It is extraordinarily difficult for a successful whore to change styles once one has been accepted.

More about the whore class at level 10 here.

Amateur: Level 5

People who earn less than half of their income from photography are amateurs. This has nothing to do with the quality of their photography.

This person loves to create photographs. Good amateurs of pure spirit can transcend the other levels directly to being an artist.

People who shoot weddings and etc. on weekends as a side line from their day jobs are still amateurs; they just charge for their photos. And as you read here they may also charge a lot for their snaps.

Amateurs who think that better cameras will improve their photos are at risk of descending to the lowest level of equipment measurbator. Too many amateurs have been misled by camera makers into thinking that they need good cameras for good images. This thought is poison to creating art.

Amateurs who lose themselves in creating great images are set for a path of enlightenment.

Being an amateur is a good thing; from this level one can rise to the level of artist rather easily.

Amateurs almost always shoot Canon SLRs.

Snapshooter: Level 4

This is my mom and most people. These people want memories, as opposed to photographs or cameras.

Snapshooters who are graphic artists or otherwise visually literate people often make fantastic images that impress everyone. These snapshooters are artists and don’t even realize it. They usually dress better than the artists who think they really are artists.

Believe it: it’s the photographer who makes an image, not a camera.

Snapshooters use point-and-shoot and disposable cameras, which give the same excellent results as the Leicas, Nikons, Canons and Contaxes used by everyone else.

Professional: Level 3

A professional photographer is a person who earns his entire living (100%) from the sale of photographs.

Professionals do not create art for a living; they create images for commerce. They usually have some familiarity with the tools and can get out decent images, however they may or may not be able to capture imagination.

Of course professionals may create great images, but that’s on their own time.

Professionals spend very little time worrying about cameras, except when they need to get them repaired. They spend most of their time looking for work and pissing about how all the other photographers in town are dropping their prices.

Professionals spend more on film and lab fees each month than they spend on camera gear in a year.

There are no professional nature photographers. They all either have day jobs or make their wives support them.

Professionals shoot Nikon SLRs, Mamiya medium format and Calumet 4×5″ cameras. They cannot afford gear as good as most serious amateurs.

Unless you are a commercial photography buyer or know one as a friend you have not heard of professional photographers. The ones you may have seen in camera ads proclaiming that they use this or that camera are just spokesmodels.

Professionals don’t have websites and don’t put out technical newsletters. Those people are usually amateurs.

Rich Amateur: Level 2

These are amateurs who, by having too much money, buy lots of equipment which can fetter their freedom of expression. They are mostly men, and many are old or retired.

Rich amateurs shoot Leicas, Contaxes, Alpas, Hasselblads and Linhof 4×5s. These are great cameras, but the results are the same as the Zenits, Pentaxes, Bronicas and Tachiharas.

Today they mostly shoot Canon 1Ds-Mk IIs, 5Ds or Nikon D2X.

These are the same idiots who bought the first 2.7 Megapixel digital SLRs designed for newspapers like the Nikon D1 back in 2000 just because they cost $5,000. They gave technically poorer results than the film cameras used by snapshooters. All because it’s expensive doesn’t make it good.

Bad rich amateurs think fuzzy B/W images of poor people are art.

Some rich amateurs fall into the bottom spiritual level easily because they worry too much about equipment, others go straight on to create great art since they don’t have any worries about equipment since they think they own the best. Oddly, few rich amateurs produce ordinary work. It either rules or sucks.

Equipment Measurbator: Bottom Level 1

These men (and they are all men) have no interest in art or photography because they have no souls. Lacking souls they cannot express imagination or feeling, which is why their images, if they ever bother to make any, suck.

These folks have analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything.

Does poring over a microscope analyzing test images have anything to do with photographing a Joshua tree at dawn? Of course not. Even worse, time wasted concentrating on tests is time not spent learning useful aspects of photography and certainly time that could have been better spent actually photographing. Test just enough to know what your gear can do, and then get on with real photography.

They are interested solely in equipment for its own sake. They will talk your ear off for hours if you let them, but as soon as you ask to see their portfolio their bravado scurries away, or they think you want to see their cameras or stocks. You can read why cameras simply don’t matter here.

Most seem to come from technical avocations, like engineering, computers and sciences. These people worry so much about trying to put numerical ratings on things that they are completely oblivious to the fact that cameras or test charts have nothing to do with the spirit of an image. Because they worry so much about measuring camera performance we have dubbed them “Measurbators.” Unfortunately, many of them wander into KenRockwell.com looking for information on camera performance.

Many of them also play with audio equipment, computers or automobiles. They enjoy these toys just like their cameras for their own sake, but rarely if ever actually use them for the intended purposes.

Younger ones play video games or engage in chat rooms and web surfing. Older ones join “camera” clubs. (You should join photography clubs, but never camera clubs or any clubs that try to score art, since art is entirely subjective and cannot be scored numerically.) Likewise, these people never create anything notable with any of this other gear either, but they sure get excited by just having, getting or talking to you about it.

The one type of gear these people ignore is the only type of gear that actually helps: lighting.

Someone with a decent portfolio is not an equipment measurbator. Someone with more cameras than decent photos just may be. People with websites teeming with technical articles but few interesting photographs probably are.

Do not under any circumstances deal with these people, talk to them, read their websites or especially ask them for photography advice. To the innocent they seem like founts of knowledge, however their sick, lifeless souls would love to drag you into their own personal Hells and have your spirit forever mired in worrying about how sharp your lens is. If you start worrying about this and you’ll never photograph anything again except brick walls and test charts.

These people are easy to identify. If you’ve read this far you’ve probably seen their websites. They always have lots of info about equipment, but very few real photographs. Beware of any information from any website not loaded with photography you admire.

Other people have other words for these people. This article here adds some more perspective.

I had to pull most of the photos of equipment off my site because these people were spending more time looking at my equipment than my art! The bandwidth for which I pay was being eaten up by these idiots looking at my lenses, instead of looking at the photos in my gallery which is the whole point of this site. That’s why all the stupid pages like this one are in yellow, so that their eyes hurt too much to waste too much time on the nuts and bolts.

Most people who waste my time e-mailing me with technical and equipment questions through this site unfortunately belong to this unenlightened bottom group. Almost anyone who actually worries about the level they occupy belong to the bottom. Many of these folks stalk the Internet, and spend hours getting off “contributing” to technical websites and photography chat rooms like Photo.net, www.dpreview.com and photocritique.net instead of making photos. The guys here aren’t too bad, and most of the Leica people here are just equipment collectors.

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I’m currently in the process of editing Edah and Joe’s Nikah ceremony photos… Hope to be able to finish soon…. Btw to both of you, enjoy Langkawi and KL

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Aku, is currently selling photos during the HSBC Charity Grand Prix which were taken by him. The details of the sale is located here in which all proceeds taken during the sale will be given to SMARTER Brunei. I think this is a very good initiative and most probably I will be joining him in this matter. Will try to look at the photos in my collection first before I will be able to make up my mind. But if any of you are interested in purchasing any of the photos in my collection, please feel free to e-mail me at contact@cpsbrunei.com with details of the filename(s) and the quantity of CD. The charge will be $1.00 per high resolution and edited photo.

Tired…..

Another day and another update for the blog and for you readers out there… Well today I went to the HSBC Charity Grand Prix 2007 with some members of the BruneiForever.com Forum i.e. Reeda, Ripin, Aku, Izad, Ber, Rano, Souljah, GoD’s Gift and Mac. We were suppose to help in getting “clients” during the event but unfortunately, due to a last minute preparation and no publicity at all, we cancelled the idea and just do our normal outing.

 

More photos here.

Reeda’s version is located precisely around here.

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Before I forgot, I would like to say Thank You to Zali and the management of the Empire Cineplex for making me as one of the winner for the photo competition themed ” Anything Related To Hari Raya. My winning entry is as below and more details can be read here.

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Photos for God’s Gift Open House will be uploaded as soon as possible.

Tagged…

First of all, I would like to say Happy Nikah Day to both Edah and Juni on Friday, 09/11/2007 and sorry I can’t make it to your Bersanding ceremony on Sunday, 11/11/2007 cos of other functions.

Here’s a photo taken during the Nikah ceremony and more to come on my gallery soon… btw nice meeting you Mizi, and the bump on the head gonna cost you a Sigma 10-20mm lens

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Was officially been tagged by Zadm, well here it goes….

Three things about yourself:
Married, Wake up late and Sleeps late.

What’s in your playlist:
None…

Your favourite music:
Sentimental songs

Favourite food:
Indomee, Chicken, and most of all, Halal foods.

Define love:
Well I got married, ain’t I?

Any celebrity crushes:
Fasha Sandha

The last person you hugged:
My Wife, Aziek

The last person you talked to:
My wife, regarding my lunch…

The last time you cried:
Can’t seem to remember

The last time you had sex:
What a busybody are u…

The last time you made out:
Grrrrr……

The last person you dated:
My wife, before and after marriage ehehehe

The last time you went out:
For work

What’s on your mind now?:
Work and answers to this questions.

What’s bothering you?:
Fear of my wife delivering our first baby.

This year’s resolutions:
There are lots.

Your MSN nick:
check it out at aries848@hotmail.com

What’s your MSN nick about?:
My Nick, current updates and my web link

What do you miss the most?:
The new Nikon D300 eventhough I don’t really own it

Current mood:
Stressed

What are you thinking?:
Work

Best childhood memory:
Can’t seem to remember…..again…

3 of your biggest fears:
Can’t pay my cars, Can’t pay my credit cards and can’t pay my bills

Who do you love?:
Wife, future son/daughter and family and also my camera gears

3 of the things you hate:
Mis-interpretation of words, Not detailed information and Bills

Do you blog?:
Yes, if not, why am i being tagged and you reading it?

Tag 5 people:
Shichi Rae128 Mizi She-Shoots Pause By Bald

Another Day…..

It’s another day of the year…. Now, it’s past my work time and I had been updating some stuffs on the new web since I hardly meet my webmaster. But I guess the web could be up sometime this week (actually it’s done but I dunno why I haven’t released it yet).

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The missus is out from the ward and she was veryyyyy happy about that *grins*… She is happy to be home and I’m happy that she is in a healthy condition (still wondering when the baby wanna go out tho).

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I just realised that I haven’t posted the photos during my trip to the MV Doulos on 01/11/2007 yet, hehehe… Well here are some of the previews…

 

 

 

more photos are available here

 

 

Admitted…..

I have been quite busy since last weekend in which the missus was admitted to the hospital due to the “tightening” of her belly…. At first, we thought it it “the time” but unfortunately we had to wait more.. As for today, the missus was suppose to be removed from the ward but the specialist was quite busy in the OT, which makes her have to wait another day since the non-specialist was not able to make a decision on asking the missus to leave. But fortunately, the missus was approved to leave the ward for a few hours so that she can attend the open house that was being held at the Main House for her dad’s friends, on agreement that she have to be back at the ward by 10 pm (in which we did make it and she had 15 minutes to spare hehehe)….

Well, I would be quite busy this weekend for a few photo shoot and I really hope that it won’t collide with the baby wanna go out of the belly. I would like to say Selamat Menyambut Hari Pernikahan dan Persandingan to Edah and Juni who will be having their Nikah on Friday and Sanding on Sunday (I would be covering her Nikah ceremony and Eyan for the rest of the events).

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I would also like to say Happy Birthday for November to Maira, mum-in-law, brother-in-law, sister, Edin and Haza (I hope I didn’t miss anybody).

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That’s all for my current post and will try to come back again soon…

p/s : the new web will be up soon..