iPhone 4

I received an email from Apple this morning.. with the newly launch iPhone 4! What can i say, after few leaked 'iphone 4g' surfaced, finally Steve Jobs officially announced the killer iPhone 4!

isnt this tempting? with such a thinner and sleeker design, high resolution screen - Retina display, glass cover, 5mpx LED flash, HD video, 1gb CPU, and the new iOS4, it's crazy! Oh ya, video call is also finally available with the new iphone, but limited to iphone 4 users over wifi. Anyway, i dont use video call that much though.. :D

Apple always create something that poisoned me.. with my first Apple purchases, the Macbook Pro 13 (2009), i'm deeply poisoned! Then the iPad came.. and now, iPhone 4! I was about to purchases the iPod nano too..bad Apple..bad bad Apple.. emptying my pockets... haha

Let's wait for the announcement from our local telcos.. Maxis to sell it here in Malaysia and hopefully, i can afford one.. it's time for my Nokia N95 to retired and go for full range Apple!

Head over to http://www.apple.com/iphone for more information and start drooling!!! hehehe...

* photos are taken from Apple website

Elise Choo & Tanya Teh

Last sunday, we had the opportunity to shoot 2 gorgeous girl, Elise Choo and Tanya Teh.. Our location were somewhere around the jetty of Pulau Jerejak and the weather seems to be on our side, as we were lucky to have the after-rain skies, nice and clear.. no haze at all!

In this shoot, we does some experimenting with video lights, thanks to Geoffry and Shone, and yeah, we learned something new. Had fun as usual and the models are friendly and sweet, easy to work with. Here's some photos of the lovely Elise Choo;

and here's Tanya Teh, with the effects of video light.. something new, and needs more practice and shoot for this technique :P

Thank you very much to Elise and Tanya for coming, and thanks to all photographers for having so much fun, laughters and learning at the same time! Hope to see you guys again!

For more photos, please feel free to view and comment at www.flickr.com/photos/harnsheng. Thanks!

Alor Setar short trip... one word, HOT!

Wow.. cant believe Alor Setar can be that hot and humid! It's been quite some time i didnt visit the town, the town where my great grandparents stay, a place where my grandparents grows before moved to a small little town called Penanti :) It was a mixed feeling, going back there.. and im eager to explore the town again.

Reached there pretty early, at around 5.30am for a delivery work, and had my breakfast with Pang, at the mamak nearby chatting fish stuff.. Was actually preparing to drive to Kuala Kedah jetty for sunrise shooting but well, the chats were simply too long and by the time we finished, it was already 7.15am.. gone, plan B next!

So, i called up my coursemate, to be my tour guide for the day. We went to a temple-turned-dimsum/restaurant and had our dimsum breakfast (yeah, 2nd round.. getting fatter and fatter since the day i've graduated, came back from Sabah, and then KL, and now, finally settled in Penang.. fat Khor...)

After that, i parked my car at his place, and we went sight seeing, started with Gunung Keriang. Another nostalgic memories.. especially with granma. We used to collect crystals here, just for fun.. oh btw, it became a hit too, where crystal stores growing like mushrooms after the rain. The remaining were still there, although the park, sadly, was filled with rubbish! Thanks to the you-know-who.. truly Malaysian. It was a sad sight.. :( Anyway, took some shots of the Gunung Keriang..here's a pano, from 6 shots merged into one.. This is the other side of the hill, where active mining of crystals situated.. it was now, safe and sound..

Next, we ride around town, shooting some scenes, ate ais kacang, laksa.. and had Nasi Lemak Ong for lunch. IMO, it was just a so-so dish, overated i could say..

and of course, the famous Telekom Tower, at different perspective :p looks like the alien from Tom Cruise's movie

After that, there's actually nothing much to do and we head to Chang Lun, to the Lye Huat Garden. Im amazed by the collections of antiques and art stuff over there, as well as a vast collection of animals.. a nice place to visit, IF the weather were better..

Some ancient music instrument

Terra cotta warrior

and lotsa animals shots..

so, thats basically sumps up my short trip to Alor Setar, which also partially affected by the hot weather.. and i still havent ate that famous fish dishes! Next time..next time... oh, before signing off, THANKS! to Zi Yang for being my tour guide for the day, taking off from work.. thanks alot!

Orchids @ Michael Ooi Nursery

I visited his nursery again, taking my friend, Elsa and her family for some orchid shopping at Michael Ooi's nursery, one of the best orchid nursery in Malaysia. Recent addition were a new greenhouse, air-conditioned for the highland and cold temperate orchids. I saw some Paph. rothchildianum blooming inside.. Took some photos of the orchids blooming there, here's some to share;

Beside orchids, he also keep parrots, fantail pigeons, iguanas, hill mynahs, and 2 huge Giant Guoramy. Both are real grumpy and aggressive!

KL KL again! hehe..

Last weekend was fantastic, able to take a few days off to visit KL again, my favourite place for meet up, and shopping! Stayed in my boss place at Subang Jaya, and very thankful to be able to borrow his wife's car for 2 days! THANKS JOE!

Went to watch "Kick Ass" with Jit, Chong and Tommy at Tropicana City Mall, a nice mall with less crowds, unlike 1U or Midvalley. Next was having a visit to Ikano and The Curve, with Dylan, GGming and his HM. We had a drink at the Theobroma Chocolate Lounge @ The Curve. Another nice place to enjoy great drink and snacks while chit-chatting :P

Here's what we ordered:

Snow White Frappe

Strawberry Waffles

Here's an interesting unique ideas from Ggming, the original strawberry waffles were... less strawberries., something like this: drab, dull and lifeless.. so far away from the photos in the menu.

Haha.. so, my friend went out to get a boxes of strawberry to add the oomphh.. Here's what happen? Isnt it look much more delicious?

* Sorry about the white balance though.. i got problem getting the one i like, tweaking also failed me :(

Campoma guppy

latest fish in my collection, the Campoma guppy!

Another uncommon fish in the hobby, which share similarities with endlers, for it's bright metallic color and less variation. Very active and somehow, slight jumpy and shy. The males are finally sexually active and i hope can get some fries soon! :)

Sexy Office Lady

It was a themed outing organized by DSLR Penang group from Facebook. There were 3 models, Jesslynn, Wan Diana and Punitha. The location was at Standard Chartered Bank @ Lebuh Pantai, Penang. The building and architecture were unique and im quite impress, and ashamed, being a Penangnites not having a shoot here before.. haha..

We started out at 4pm, waiting for everyone to come before the real photoshoot starts at 4.30pm and there's about 20++ photographers, divided into 3 groups. It was a fun session, lots of learning and laughters.. Thanks to the organizer and models for all the hard works, and hope to see you guys again! :)

Here's some shot taken:

Wan Diana

Jesslynn

Punitha

For more photos, please feel free to visit my Flickr album, www.flickr.com/photos/harnsheng

Thanks for viewing! :p

HDR Lebuh Pantai, Penang island

The buildings along Lebuh Pantai has a distinct look and feel. I dont really noticed the amazing structures until yesterday, and managed to capture some HDR shots.

Now this looks like in Egypt.. haha..

Mating scenes

My male Starlet fish is finally sexually active and now, trying hard to mate with the females. This gives me a good opportunity to shoot fish in action. Here's some action shot of one of my favourite fish in the collection! Enjoy!

The male's color is really so intense and bright.. never seen such a nicely colored Poecilid fish before, the orange covered over 75% of the body and even reaching out to the tip of it's caudal fin. Superb coloration, totally contrasted with the females, drab looking fish similar to the endlers or wild guppies..