2012 F1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

It was a great moment when I had the chance to attend my first ever Formula 1 race at Sepang International Circuit after the fact that I had been here before for the Super GT as well as MotoGP. As with all racing sports, it is another great way to test panning photography. This time though, the challenge was much higher with such great vehicles like F1 race cars. They go much faster and more agile than other types of racing vehicles.

Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Racing

The race, as expected, was a wet one. This is what makes Formula 1 races in Malaysia much more interesting. It was havoc! Armed with a weather-sealed Olympus E-3 camera and ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 lens, the weather was of no issue. Let the rain drop and there is no need to hide the equipment.

Lewis Hamilton - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

The sound of 24 F1 cars accelerating from the grid at the start of the race is pure adrenaline and utterly awesome! Just don't forget the earplugs or it will be a real painful experience.

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

Fans from all over the world were cheering for their favourite driver and team, with Ferrari being the dominant fan force in Malaysia. The fans were not to be disappointed as Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the race.

Fernando Alonso - Scuderia Ferrari

And for my case, I left SIC with a big smile on my face. Finally able to cover all 3 major motor sporting events held there. But as with all motor sport events, I leave you with a little bit of eye candy.

The rest of the images can be viewed here. All panning images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 lens. Models image taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 35-100 f2 lens. A big thanks to Olympus Malaysia for loaning me the ZD 35-100 f2 lens.

Angel T @ Thean Hou Temple

Sorry for the delayed posting as I was in the transition of being posted overseas for an assignment. However, please find below the introduction of Angel T.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the pics can be viewed here. All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 Mk I lens and FL-50 external flash.

Ice T @ Thean Hou Temple

As Chinese New Year (CNY) approaches, out goes the ferocious Tiger and let's welcome the cute Rabbit, I would like to post a recent portrait shoot I took at Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur with the rest of the MyChiaroscuro members. Every year during CNY, it will be lighted up with lots of lanterns and for this year some nice miniature landmarks.

There were 2 models for the photoshoot. First up I would like to introduce to you the cool Ice T (pun intended) while I will introduce the other in the next blog post. The photoshoot was conducted in the morning but the sky was cloudy and gloomy that day. Enough talk, let's get on with the pictures...

The rest of the pics can be viewed here. All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 Mk I lens and FL-50 external flash.

Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show (KLIMS) 2010 - The Show Part 1

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to attend this event. It was supposed to be held last year but somehow its frequency was changed from 3 years to 4 years. The last event was on 2009, which I had also attended. Luckily, the ticket price remained the same. However, this year's show seems to lack quite a number of continental manufacturers such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz to name a few.

The highlight of this motor show were a real size replica of Bumblebee from the Transformers movie and also the Tumbler batmobile from the Dark Knight movie. However, the batmobile was a HUGE disappointment as it's a FAKE, not even a replica. Those to purposely went to the show for it had been duped big time!

The exhibition starts at Hall 1 & 2 after a long walk from the ticketing booth and across a river. There, you will not miss Perodua's booth on the right with the display of its concept car code named Bezza.

Sharing the same location with Perodua is Proton, which I think had the biggest booth area of this year's KLIMS. Proton showcased existing, rally, upcoming as well as concept cars. Inside Proton's area is also its subsidiary, Lotus which showcased its latest sports cars.

Proton Saga EV's engine compartment

Proton Lekir

Proton Tuah

Proton Jebat

Proton EMAS

Proton Kasturi

Proton Saga EV

Lotus Esprit

It is quite a fair performance from Proton by showing off the most number of new cars in this event. Kudos to them and the design of their booth is also well done. More will be shown in the next installment of this series as I don't want to bog down the bandwidth with too many pictures in a single blog entry.

All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 14-54 f2.8-3.5 Mk II and ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 Mk I lens with FL-50 external flash.

Mei Yan @ The Aperture Studio

Did a promotional shoot for a beautiful part-time model at The Aperture Studio. The shoot is lighted by 2 strobes with soft box on the left and right.

The Aperture Studio is located at Bandar Saujana Putra and is available for rental. Do contact me for details.

The rest of the pics can be viewed here. All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 Mk I lens.

MyChiaroscuro Hutan Lipur Gunung Ledang Outing

On the 17th of October 2010, MyChiaroscuro had its biggest outing yet. The destination was Hutan Lipur Gunung Ledang at the Melaka-Johor border in Malaysia. There was about 30 of us from all parts of Malaysia and Singapore as well. We even have a member who flew in from Sabah just to join this event!

Everyone was armed and prepared for the challenge posed by the location. Weather-sealed camera bodies and lenses, tripods and macro paraphernalia. During the trip, it was a great opportunity to enjoy what 100 million year old nature had to offer. Wonderful lush green jungles with beautiful and majestic waterfalls on the side of a mountain.

The outing started early in the morning and ended in late afternoon as most need to travel back to their respective homes. Breakfast was great with ice-breaking activities and it continued during lunch as well as this outing was huge compared to previous others. Everyone had fun, which was the most important factor, as well as picking up photography skills, poisoning each other with gears and not forgetting the wonderful natural surroundings.

And one last thing, there were 2 units of E-5 on test during the trip...

 

 

 

The rest can be found here. All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 14-54 f2.8-3.5 Mk II lens, ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 lens and off shoe FL-50 flash via FL-CB05 flash cable.

2010 Shell Advance Malaysian MotoGP

I managed to attend the 20th Malaysian MotoGP year at Sepang International Circuit last Sunday. It was my first time attending a MotoGP event. I missed the Japan GT this year so I told myself I shouldn't miss this one! It was a grand affair attended by the tens of thousands.

The deafening sounds from the super bikes were like classical music to the ears. Each pull of the accelerator gives out a roar of approval from the engine via the exhaust system. The acceleration, speed and maneuver from each rider executed flawlessly and gracefully on the track.

The crowd themselves were immersed into the action. Chanting, shouting and cheering the rider they supported. Some were blowing vuvuzela like devices while some were waving flags and t-shirts. And lest not forget the throngs of photographers that day, who I am one of them.

The MotoGP race was won by #46 Valentino Rossi in a Yamaha while second place went to #4 Andrea Dovisiozo in a Honda and third place went to eventual 2010 MotoGP Champion #99 Jorge Lorenzo also in a Yamaha.

One regret I had attending this event is the absence of the going to launch Olympus E-5 which I hope to have a chance to test out. However, I armed myself with the Olympus E-3, its predecessor, and am able to capture the following photos below. I wonder how the Olympus E-5 will fare if I'm able to take these kind of photos with the Olympus E-3?

The rest can be found here. All images taken using Olympus E-3 with ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 lens.

Suicide of a Fair Maiden

This series was actually taken more than one year ago but I can only finish processing them now. Yeah, I know, I'm a very lazy bum! Sorry about that.

This series deals with the case of being dumped by a boyfriend after being impregnated by him. Sadly, the victim chose suicide which is the easy way out. More sadly is that this type of scenario is not uncommon.

Pictorial is cut short so as not to bombard the thread with too many photos.

This series has a green cast to the pictures and there is nothing wrong with your monitor. :p It is just to add an ambiance to the sad theme, maybe a bit ghastly too. I would like to apologise should the colours don't suit your taste.

#1 Preparing the meet up

#2 He promised to come in his text

#3 What will be his reaction?

#4 This wait is killing me...

#5 I need to take a rest

#6 I've been waiting for so long

#7 Is he gonna come?

#8 This is unbearable

#9 What am I gonna do?

#10 Why is he still not here?

#11 The decision

#12 There is no turning back

#13 The anguish

#14 The end

Thanks for spending so much time and bandwidth in viewing. The full pictorial can be viewed here. All images taken using E-510 with ZD 14-54 f2.8-3.5 Mk I and ZD 50-200 f2.8-3.5 Mk I lenses and FL-50 flash.