International Tattoo 2011

Thanks to Esther, I actually got the chances to visit International Tattoo Brunei 2011. If you don’t know what International Tattoo Brunei is about, you can visit the official site HERE. Basically is an event organized by Ministry of Defense where various international military band come together and perform.

It consist of various nation like Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, USA, Indonesia and some other countries. If you think military band performance is boring, I can beg that your perspective will change after watching the show perform by various band. Every single band just bring different thing onto the table, and Brunei as a host nation have perform marvelously. There is also booth that display some of the various military equipment where they allow the public to touch and feel about it.

Here is me got a chance to held a M4A1 and pose >w<

It was also a chance for me to try out my black rapid DS1 by dual wielding my Canon 30D and Canon 7D, and I am completely satisfy with it. Bringing 2 camera with ease and able to cover 2 range (17-50mm & 70-200mm) within sec just make shooting this kind of event that much enjoyable.

Overall, International Tattoo is really an entertaining, enjoyable events that shouldn’t be missed! If you missed this one, then just have to hope that they will organize another one next year. I will definitely attend it if they host it again, hopefully I can get a media pass when it happen >w<

Endry & LuLu wedding

For those know me, will know that I went to Jakarta for a 9 days holiday, and one of the main reason is to attend one of my best friend Endry wedding, and I also have the honor of being his best man.

I didn’t really have a lot of chances to take photo through out the day since I have to juggle my duty as a best man during the ceremony. So Endry literate give me a nick name called “3in1” for being “Best man, Best friend, Photographer” for the day. My! What a bargain he have XD

It was my first time to attend a chinese wedding in Indonesia, and I was pleasantly surprise with how the flow go. For once, they don’t do door knocking like the chinese in Brunei or Malaysia do, basically We just went in and take the bride, not need to go through suffering and torture for the bride bridesmaid or friends. Then we went back to bridegroom house for tea ceremony, after that we went to the chinese temple for the rest of the ceremony. The one thing that surprised me the most is that even Buddhism ceremony they actually go through the marriage vow like the christain did. You know? The speech where you mention in sickness and in health, in richness and poorness you will not break this vow? Even though they are speaking in Indo, but fundamentally it is still the same.

Finally, after the ceremony and headed to hotel, that was the only time I get the chances to take some photograph of them during the rest time and the dinner reception.

Here is a group photo of some of the friends we meet when we are in Perth, Australia.

Best man & Bridesmaid, they took the moment when I wasn’t smiling :\

And Kevin! You are suppose to be in here!!!

I was dead tire after the whole wedding is over, but indeed it is a privilege to be part of Endry wedding event, so when next time come when I get marriage, both Franki & Endry have no excuse but to come to Brunei to attend my wedding. But their favorite phrase now is “Boon, get an Indonesia wife! So we don’t have to fly to Brunei!” Hmmm… by then I think I will said “I don’t care, you are coming to Brunei for my wedding like it or not!” >w<

Joyful Kids JK Montessori School Fun with Rhymes & Stories

I have the privilege to help Joyful Kids JK Montessori School to cover their Fun with Rhymes & Stories event which happened at Berakas indoor stadium. It was an event to help to build up kid confident to stand in front of everyone and share a stories, performance, songs, or rhymes.

The kids are so CUTE!!! And to see them able to stand on stage together without feeling nervousness I think by itself is such an encouragement, and hooray to Joyful Kids Montessori School for hosting such an event. Here are some of the image that I took during the event.

Looking forward for their next event, pretty sure it will be interesting.

Rounding out Feb

It seem like time just fly like no body business and now I already in March!!! Febuary is definitely is event and fun filled month for me. First we have chinese new year celebration, then we go for a over night stay at Mangrove resort!

Then thanks to Jane Kok, I was invited to AFC 9th anniversary at Emperors court to enjoy a night with foods & stellar performance by various performers. Everytime I am in this kind of event always make me want to have a fast telephone zoom lens or prime lens, my EFS 55-250mm really cannot cope with the situation and environment :\

Caught this one day while I was on my way to client office, shoot this while I still driving!

 

 

Then I was helping out as one of the photographer to take the mother & daughter connection. The main objective for such event is to promote mother & daughter relationship by understanding each other better through communication. It is a program originated by Focus on the family, while we only got 5 pairs to participant due to short notice, but we believe that such event will help both the parent & children to build a stronger tie with one another.

That’s about it for the 2nd month for year 2011. We will see what March will unfold ^w^

Creative Asia Conference 2011

Part of my 7days in KL is to attempt Creative Asia Conference, it is one of the first international photography conference that hosted in Malaysia which invite various big name photographers. Joe McNally, Michael Greenberg, Dane Sanders, Jason Magbanua, Manny Librodo, Daniel Capobianco, Louis Pang and Mike Langford, those name will link you to creative asia website which contain their portfolio information and link to their site, have a check on them if you like.

Basically this is a 3days conference which consist of photo judging, speech by various speakers, shootout within 3 photographers and award given night. It was intensive, inspirational and highly educating. But it also wasn’t for the faint hearted or for those have a DSLR but do not have any understanding with ISO, shutter speed, F-Stop etc.

Why I said that?

First and foremost, I actually submitted some of my photo to the competition, while hoping to win (which highly unlikely) but more on wanting to see where my photography skill stand, how well I am doing regard photography and how is it compare to other photographers.

 

And I was surprise to see all my photo won Bronze award! Especially if you look through all the top 125 finalist photo in real size, those photo will make you drop your jaws and may even make some of you drop photography altogether. It is that good! By the way, those photo entries doesn’t just limit to Malaysia, there are competitors from USA, Australia and some other countries, so the photo is really international standard. Go check the link if you can:

http://awards.creativeasia.tv/

The photo judging is delivered by the inviting speakers, sometime can be quiet discouraging in a way that all those photo that amazed you and wow you in so many ways only getting a score around 82 83, hardly any above 85 (silver award) and those photos that got a gold award is only a handful. But on other hand, the judge able to point out the strength and the flaws of the photo and let you know what it need to deliver a world class standard. So after the session, I learn to see photo in a more analyse way but on a flip side, all my photo sucks! XD

Speech by various speakers

All of the speakers during the conference is giving their top notch, informative, inspiration and challenging speech and some of their work is like out of this world. What I really like about them is that they don’t just share about their success, but also their failure and struggle while being humble and personnel; so photography as a profession wasn’t just about sunrise or flowery all the way. I particularly like Joe McNally, Jason Magbanua and Dane Sanders.

Joe McNally life as a photographer is really really amazing, and seeing him talk about his career as a Life Magazine Photographers, National Geography photographer and the inside story is really amazing stuffs.

 

Jason Magbanua is one of the top videographer base on Philippine, one of his trademark skill is capable to broadcast his wedding photography within a day, to be more precise is within a few hours while still producing top quality works. He talk a lot about his work, branding and marketing for videographer business.

Dane Sanders, it is a waste that he cannot make it to KL to deliver the speech. He is one of the speakers that I really like to meet, I have read his book and also some of his education video. What I can said is that he is the same person through the book, video and during the speech. So during his session he is basically having a live web seminar with us and answering question through twitter. He delivered a really inspiration speech about being unique, authentic and how to standout in a market that is really saturated.

Michael Greenberg, easily my flavour among the togs, attending his 2days workshop give him a unfair advantages among other speakers in term of impact and inspiration to me. Through the 2 days workshop, we get to know him better, the amount of knowledge and information that he gave to us is just mind blowing! He delivered a workshop not just good for you for the 2days and it will continue to linger in you for the rest of your life (provided you do what he told you) And his style of photographing his wedding is truly unique, orthodox yet classical and artistic (what a contradiction statement you may said). he is like the only photographer that don’t need to look into the viewfinder and yet able to capture amazing photo.

What I will wish or complaint regarding the conference will be having more booth regarding photographing stuffs. For whatever reason it is, the only company that is displaying is Epson with their Epson printing products. I really love to see some other products like lighting equipments, camera equipments or even books, album and etc. Then the 2nd thing is to have refreshment during the break, which will be easier for the participants to network with one another. Both of this points was also raised by other participants when I chit chat with them so hopefully CreativeAsia can look into this if they are planning their next conference.

Finally, I really like to thanks Louis Pang and his team for taking such responsibility and burden to host such an event. It wasn’t easy, it is tough and challenging, but the result is well worth the cost. While it is really tiring through out the conference, but I truly enjoyed my time through and I know many other participants shared the same views as me.

THANK YOU!!!

Merry Christmas to you all ^w^

Maybe kind of late, but I wanna wish all my family, friends, and my readers a happy blessed Merry Christmas! I been pretty busy for the last 2 week with works + preparation & practice for the Christmas Carolling. Also wanna post minor update.

Birthday Celebration for Majorie Tan + her friend

Majorie & KennethMy favorite for the day. I title it   人小鬼大For the last few days we been going around houses to houses and singing Christmas Carol, which the main purpose is to bless the family and to strip up some Christmas atmosphere and spirit. The practice itself is like a nightmare, thanks God the end result was alright >w<

Then 25th itself we have lunch at Orchid Garden Hotel for Christmas celebration. I didn’t took photo of the turkey, but IMO Orchid garden serve one of the best turkey in town; tasty and juicy without the dryness that usually associate with turkey. Great stuffs!

 Since all the major event has been cleared, now I starting to go into cruise mode for a while, and year 2010 going to come to an end. As the time draw close, I also have to get ready for what is going to unfold next year. But as for now, I’m looking forward to 28th since I gonna take a 3 and a half day leave, that’s mean that hopefully I can relax til the year end and get ready to kick my gear for year 2011.

November Round up

For me November is really one of my busiest month for the year, both socially and in work. First and foremost is my birthday celebration with my family members, which I have already blogged about it.

This is a photo of us went to Tasek Lama for hiking.

A family carnival organized by La Vida

Jackson and his family came and visited us all the way from USA

Thanks to Betty for the invitation to attend the AIA seminar for Importance of Financial Planning, very informative and educating.

Then I have company lunch with the colleagues

A outdoor activity with the youth at Berakas Foresty

Then there are Smarter charity events and Let’s drive organized by Telbru and lot’s of other. It was a shame that I didn’t have the opportunity to go and participants. The other event I really missed is the BTclick photography meet up that I unable to attend due to commitment, hopefully I will be able to attend their next gathering.

Then this morning I attended an Open forum hosted by Asia Inc regarding IT security at ICC. A really short session, I wouldn’t said I learn a lot from there, but it is pretty interesting to know how much awareness the local field inregrading IT security.

I also watched “The Social Network”, real interesting drama that base on true story about Facebook founder. No special effect, no gun shooting, no action, just pure talk; yet the script is brilliantly scripted and acted. I can happily give it 8.5/10

Thanks to Gadong mall to make 3D cinema available in Brunei with a cheap price, I have rewatch Avatar 3D which came with extra footage. Even it is the 2nd time I watched Avatar, due to the 3D effect and great story, I was captivated through out the movie without boredom. Great stuffs! 9/10

I also watched Megamind 3D, great family cartoon with a interesting turn of event. 8/10

December I believe gonna be another busy month, especially need to plan and arrange for the Christmas event, activity and of coz GIFT!!! Yet gonna look forward to it. ^w^

ThinkBig Technology Forum 2010

Thanks to Tiger Lim for getting me a ticket to attend ThinkBig Technology Forum organized by Asia Inc & iCenter. I was pretty excited to attend this event in hoping to learn and get inspired by the speakers.

They invited people like:

• Dr Grahaeme Henderson (Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum)
• Ken Wye Saw ( Vice president, Public Sector, (Asia) Microsoft)
• Brian Koh (Deputy Director, NUS Enterprise)
• Khoong Hock Yun  (Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure and Services Development Group, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore)
• Kevin Walsh (Chief Technology Officer, Oracle Asia Research and Developments Centers)

The topic and discussion consist of:

• BSP Technical Innovation: The story of Champion
• Embracing The Future: Global Trends and Challenges
• e-Government: Connecting with the Citizens
• Globalization of Technology Innovation
• At the Heart of Innovation: “Delivering World Class Technology in Brunei”

The Indera Kayangan Ballroom This is mainly where all the session was hosted.

The Empire Threatre

This is where we have lunch and the luncheon session.

Kevin Walsh in action

How I find the whole event? I like the venue, the program layout, and the opportunity to hear peoples participant with asking questions, opinion and ideas. Some of the question that been raised up is top notch and bringing awareness of the issues.

However I feel that keynote that address by the speakers is too generalisations and constantly bringing China/ Singapore into the pictures and quite a lots of marketing talk. While I can understand it is their expertise and the venue they working at, instead of talking about 1 Data Center with over thousands server in one node, big server, big info structure, big network, big cooperation. I am more interested on how to think BIG!

But I can see that some of the ideas that’s been brought forward is new to some of the participants. Overall I can said the event is a success, it is just that I go with the wrong expectations.

So did I learn anything from here? Definitely YES, just not as much as I expect it to be >w<

HSBC Seri Branch Hari Raya Open House

Time & times again I just want to thank God for provision, today we are invited to attend HSBC Seri Branch for their Hari Raya Open house, of coz we gladly accepted XD

They have nasi lemak with chicken, various type of cake & drinks, btw the samba taste fabulous! One of the nicest I have try, should have asked them where they cater this.

Thanks for the HSBC ladies for happily allow me to take a few shoot of them. Lovely aren’t there? ^w^