First few days in NZ

First few days in Christchurch is not really pleasing.. I hope this condition will go better day by day as i'm trying to get the internet. It's very expensive to online here, about NZD5 for 50MB.. i rather call for that money! It's cheap to call with BBH card at 9c per minute to mobiles in Malaysia.

Bank, IRD are all done, view a car this evening and planning to buy it tomorrow. It's a Nissan Bluebird, which will cost me NZD1500 :( bt i need car to travel around looking for jobs and accomodation. I think im old already, it's tiring to carry bag loads of over 30kgs on me everytime i move to another place. It's a good exercise but, dang, it's freaking heavy and tiring at some point. Especially on the hilly road.

Im currently staying at Drifter Backpackers for NZD20 per night using BBH card, a NZD3 savings per night. Food stuff is not cheap here.. money running out fast if i dont find a job soon. Got my phone number working again, with 2 Degree. Sim card placement cost NZD5 and i loaded NZD20 on it so i can make calls home.

Anyway, my megabytes is running out soon... will update when i got my free wireless (still looking!!)

New phase, New chapter

It's going to be another phase, another chapter of my life going to begin soon.. Flying to New Zealand this sunday morning for my working holiday permits which i applied few months ago. It's actually quite hectic and rush to fly so soon.. struggled to sell most of my stuffs, which i almost did. Life was just began to take forms in Penang, and i have to leave again to pursue my travel and photography. It's all about the future, like most said, No Pain No Gain.

Since i were back from NZ last November, things changed alot.. fish breeding is going downhill (well, it's halted by now), dog breeding is doing pretty well.. good enough to fund my current unemployed status :P, photography is getting better and better! I guess i'm one step closer to my goal. We finally set up a company called Light Feather Studios (click to go to the website) but sadly, i got to leave it to few of my friends as i'm heading down south in few days time.

Plan A was to work, save some money for travel and future, and if possible, a permanent job for few years in NZ. That's what i hope for, but i do have plans to travel to Europe and USA first. I have no idea at all from this stage. Finger crossed and wish me luck!

Plan B was to come back, get a tour guide licensing, and start another company called Max Photo Tour
I really enjoyed taking oversea friends traveling around Penang island, get them to explore Penang the local way and tried as many local foods as well. The idea was given by a friend, who took this tour, and felt that i can do this pretty well. Thank you for your encouragement and support! Besides that, hopefully i'm still able to shoot for Light Feather Studios and be a professional photographer. It will be a dream come true to be a photographer in any part of the world if it's needed.

Seriously don't know when i will be back, but since few days ago.. there's something that will make me come back. Kinda heavy hearted to leave now... What i can do now is to leave it to faith and with the right moves, i'm sure it will work out one day. Just gotta have a lot of faith and patience. It's for our brighter future.

Signing off... and hopefully the next post will be from New Zealand! Take care guys, thank you to all who had farewell dinner with me, to someone who have been such a big influence to my life in such a short time, to my family, to my cute doggies, to FF gangs, to Dream Wanderers and all the photographers for the support, to all my oversea friends and backpackers, a big THANK YOU! Wish my luck in New Zealand (and hope to see some of you soon! :P)

Michael & Ann

Few weeks back, i was given a chance to shoot the wedding of Michael & Ann, from Penang island and Tambun respectively. There are such a lovely couple, and great to work with. It was also my first wedding shoot with my newly purchased Nikon D700 and it serves me really well! The new (new to me, old to the world.. haha.. i was using Nikon D200 for years) technology, ergonomic, eq, noise controls, it is amazing. Cut short, it makes my job alot easier and faster (compared to Nikon D200, which is still amazing with it's CCD sensor, and will continue to serve me as my second body)

Anyway, i had fun shooting that evening, and was very very happy with the results as well. The noise control of Nikon D700 is amazing, with up to usable shots at ISO3200 (ISO800 with my D200). The location of the shoots are at Taman Tambun Indah, where the bride's house is.

Here's some shots that were taken on the evening, i hope you guys love it and as always, C&C are highly appreciated :)
The wedding gown


The bride's heels


Make-up time


Gentle giant getting ready for the cart


The kids are cute! Very photogenic :)


Almost ready for the dinner!


Cinderella style :P


Marching in


Champagne session




Kissing the bride


By the way, did you notice the new watermark? Ha! We finally decided to go more official and formal this time (last few years was more to freelancing). Introducing our newly set up company, called Light Feather Studios. More of our works can be view at Light Feather Studios website, which will be updated regularly as we continue to produce wonderful photos and videos for our clients.

Angkor what? Angkor Wat la..

Sorry guys for such a late late update. Been busy with some wedding shoots recently and tour. So here it is, Siam Reap & Angkor Wat!

Waking up for sunrise at 4.30am and reach Angkor around 5am. Getting ready to view the sunrise like a movie show with thousands of tourist.


Angkor Wat, such a magnificent wonder of the world! Kinda cant believe my eyes that i've finally here at Angkor. During the school ages, i still remember reading about it in history books and now, finally step my foot here at Angkor! Amazing! We took a tour van and guide there (which is kinda expensive) i dont recommend that at all to all the backpackers. It cost us USD40 for the transport and USD35 for the guide. Nahh.. u can skip that and take a tut-tut for USD7/day ONLY! When we reach the entrance, you have to buy your tickets at the ticketing office where they took your photo via web cam and printed it on the ticket. Cool!

The lotus pond that greet us as we walk into Angkor Wat


My first sunrise of Angkor Wat


My second take on sunrise at Angkor Wat


Carvings,




Some interesting statue
 



and we were lucky to stumble upon a group of monks who came from somewhere else to visit the temple, managed to get a shot of them..

We went to few different temples, and another magnificient one were the Bayon, the temple with many faces! It was really cool to be there and amazed by the carvings and build of the temple.

Bayon Temple


and the many faces of Bayon
 



Another shot of Bayon Temple during sunset


Lastly, we hike up Bakheng Hill to watch the sunset of Angkor Wat. Sadly, there's no great sunset at all.. the only thing we are able to see were the Angkor Wat temple. It's an amazing sight, worth hiking up there. There's a catch, just leave you're tripod at the hotel or car, cause you're not allowed to use tripod up there.