Fire razed house

I was on my journey back to Tawau on Sunday 3pm when i saw this big pile of smoke coming from somewhere ahead. At once I recognized it as a house on fire as nothing as big as this could appear in noon time.

This happened somewhere within the Mengaris Village. Upon reaching, it was confirmed that a house made by "papan" or "wood" is in a huge inferno.

I quickly grabbed my camera out of my ThinkThank waist bag and went out to record the event. According to witness, there were no casualties reported. They also managed to save the owners pinky second lorry. The owner was told to be outstation with the family. (lucky them).

One quite dramatic happening I should say happened when in the midst of the watching the fire burning down every single object thats "fire edible", I saw something very miraculous in sight. It was a CAT that suddenly appeared after 3/5 of the house structure was destroyed. I was so amazed to see how the cat managed to CHEAT DEATH and escaped to life. I was unable to capture the scene where the cat jumped down the breaking house because it happened very fast.

Yes, the cat is still alive. You should see the picture to believe... 

 

Regatta Lepa-Lepa 2009

The distinctive lifestyle of the Bajaus in Sabah’s East Coast is characterized by their living on Lepa—as they would only be on land for food, water supply and funerals. Lepa is Bajau for single masted sailing boat which is usually made of Ubar Suluk or Red Seraya Wood in. A typical Lepa is 5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. However, in competitions the Lepa sizes may vary. To get more on "LEPA-LEPA", go HERE.

Madai Leech

The last time I remembered got bitten by a leech was, 2 years ago while hiking at Crocker Range. But hey,I remembered I only got single leech stuck on my leg while others got at least 2 or 3 of them. The best tips in avoiding leech is buy a tobacco dried leaves, soak them in half a cup of water (take something like 2-3 roll of cigar) and squeze it to get the juice out. Often the juice will be red-ish in color. Next step, get that juice and make it your body lotion. Just to remind, don't do this if you have allergic syndrome to tobacco juice... test it way ahead of your hiking schedule. By the way, this is the traditional way of "Avoiding" leeches. There are ofcourse lots of modern options available in your outdoor store, just find one.

 

Anyway back to the story, these leech was found sneaking its way to one of the girls sitting just next to me during our visit last Saturday to the Madai waterfall (you can check out my previous shoot of the waterfall on suny day HERE and HERE. It was raining, but we insisted on staying for a break to relax and get out of our busy student life. All of a sudden, we saw this tiny creature bending itself towards us. Heeeyaaa... the girls went shouting and... they left me alone with my camera..

Well you know this noughty guy always like to do something others wont do. I took it an took some picture of it. Unfortunately I lost my macro conversion ring for my 50mm f1.4, or otherwise I would have taken a macro shot of it.

Just something to share from my diary:)

New Family Member Added

I am very happy to share with everyone the new addition of my camera back pack. After purchasing D700, I really experienced new height in Digital Photography World. The new capabilities of shooting at super low noise values a lot in my photography world.

Yet what worth is a pen without a paper, or printer without ink... My body without proper lens is a waste of tech expenses. So either you dump it, or you strive to find a way to afford it, you must fill in the gap. I chosed to fill in the gap. Remembering I can't afford it all at a time, I planned my time well. bitter by bitter I add sweetness, like mixing a bits and bits of suggar into a mixture of dark coffee... Now thats how I felt while waiting for enough fund to afford it. Time and endurance was the keyword.

 

Nikon 24-70 (equivalent to 16-49mm in DX format) 2.8 Nano Crystal.

First lens used was a 50mm f/1.4, my first purchase with D700 along with SB900. Its apparently hard for me to control extra wide aperture with fixed wide. I have to move a lot to get the right framing. Shooting that I can last a days wedding reduced to just half a day due to exhaustion. But my first task with D700 was very inspiring...

Weeks after, I got my 24-70mm from a local shop in Kota Kinabalu and shoot for Charles' wedding reception at Keningau. Everything went right, with lots of great scene's captured, not until 3 days after, I found out some of the photo's was lost from my storage. Not even my memory card or my hardisk. I was VERY dissapointed afterwards that I couldn't sleep well for days just remembering I dissapointed Charles. I never expected that would happen as it never happened. I was about to do the backup the next day after I transfered everything that night when suddenly, it was lost.

I guess it might have been due to my ACER laptop that performed slow. So I made another EXTREME decission to purchase MacBookPro 15". customized its processor to 2.8ghz dual core from 2.6ghz and cost me exact price of the D700. Phew!

Nikon 70-200 (equivalent to 49mm-132mm DX format) 2.8 with Vibration Reduction.

Later, last week after fully utilizing all what I have for wedding photography and event photography, I decided without much hesitation (while window shooping at Centre Point and saw the 70-200 in box) to get the much admired and dreamed of item- Nikon 70-200 VR 2.8. With this lens, I will be able to capture a much intimate and portray closeness and warmness in their candid faces. Pluss, I love its damn good bokeh that I should say is perfect than my 24-70, yet not surpassing my f1.4.

VR? well I dont really need it as this lens is much stable when handheld due to its weight. I remembered some unfamiliar dslr first timer who got hold of my equipments was VERY surprised on how weighty my kit was, knowing that its carried on all the time on events. its like an endurance 2kg dumbell carry for 10hours.. 

From this onwards, I'm expecting to get new capabilities in my photography works. Aside from the items stated, I do have my 44" wide reflector too handy for outdoors. 1 Benro tripod, a think thank waist pack and a Kata backpack for my MacBook Pro.

To end this, I would like to thank everyone who trusted my works and hired me for the past assignments and for those who confirmed their bookings for future brighter possibilities on their works. What I can promise is, my full effort and performance on that special task you appointed me...

ohw, to my MUM who has always been supporting my works, admiring me on how I manage to improve and overcome every obstacle.. and My sister who is always watching my back. The two kids back home... and Everyone... yes EVERYONE who has been in good contact with me... God Bless us ALL....