one fine morning at the beach

I'm not sure if the style works for you or not, but it sure does for me. Location is at Serasa beach.

kota batu sunrise

Kota Batu was once the site for the capital city of Brunei way back in history, though not much signs are left of those old days. Kota literally translates into city, and batu means rock or stone in English.

Visible in the picture is the Malay Technology Museum which is the white building down by the river. The big roof-like structure situated at the river bank is where they 'preserved' an old gun-boat, apparently from World War II, but of which I don't quite know the history of since the place is not quite as well-maintained as it used to be. Just outside the frame towards the bottom right is the tomb of Sultan Bolkiah, the fifth Sultan of Brunei, but only part of the site is visible in the picture. My bad. Heh.

Now if only someone would sponsor me a wide-angle lens...

powered paragliding

Here's what seems to be an exciting sport. I wonder if they rent out the equipment. Photo was taken at Pantai Seri Kenangan when I went there for some friends' birthday party. You know who you are.

hidden beauty

I've got to admit, I'm starting to become creatively challenged when it comes to giving a good name for my photos. At any rate, this little flower here was found along a small path across a vast tea plantation in Bandung, Indonesia. So yeah, that's where the name comes from. :)

blue

How's the post-processing done on this pic? Like it? No?

choices

food stalker part II

EDIT: I posted up this pic earlier without saying a word. Just wanted to point a link to food stalker part I. The post can be found here.

wasai kandal revised

This is almost the same picture as this one with the exception that I re-did the HDR using this program that I finally managed to get my hands on called Photomatix.

The original might arguably look more dramatic, but here I just wanted to share how much of a difference a good HDR program makes.

ok

diablo versus mr. tonberry

Just trying out my newly-made DIY light tent. :)

green

food stalker

We were on a visit to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah back then, and while there we also had a picnic. As cats are wont to do, this one comes along and starts to sniff around and beg for food. I gave it food on the one condition that it allowed me to shoot some photos. The cat agreed and both parties were satisfied.

unexpected treasure

The photo is titled as such because I initially overlooked the photo in my search for suitable picks for this blog. After I gained enough experience points to level up in my photoshop skills, I looked over my old photos again and came across this one which I took on the same day as the morning routine pic.

It turned out better than I expected so I decided to post it up. Of course, it's not as good as a photo taken using a graduated ND filter; which is why it's next on my to-buy list of photographic equipment.

abandoned

leaf necklace

I'm going to start cutting down on words for photos which I feel don't need any explanation. So in future posts, there will most likely be instances like that. Just thought I'd warn you guys. :)

wasai kandal

After a bit of a long trek yesterday through perilous jungle by myself (and hundreds of mosquito bites later), I finally managed to reach this hidden gem called Wasai Kandal in Kampong Kilanas. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's Kandal or Kendal as both appear to be used frequently from what little info there is of this place on the 'net.

At any rate, the place feels quite abandoned now. The tracks were overgrown and at times fallen logs also blocked the path, forcing you to go over or even under them. There were disappearing traces of bridges once used to cross streams as well as a collapsed picnic bench/table. As it was I had to rough everything out while carrying thousand dollar equipment.

In other news, I think I did say I was going to post photos of my Indonesia trip. Let me just revise what I said. It'll come when I feel like posting them. :)

exhausted

My first try at abstract photos. What do you think?

swan

Just an ornamental piece which I found interesting in Puri Indah Mall, Jakarta, Indonesia. It's one of the smaller malls I went to there, just slightly larger than The Mall here.

There's supposed to be no photo-taking inside malls unless there are certain events going on. But the security guard wasn't around so I decided to snap a quick one.

orphaned

These four little kittens just lost their mother today due to a serious illness. Here's to hoping I can take care of them well enough until they can better take care of themselves.

jakarta shopping spree

Finally an update! I'm still a bit busy processing pics for my family these days, especially since we just had a new year's barbeque celebration going on the eve of the new year. Naturally, I became the de-facto photographer.

Anyway, if you're a Bruneian traveling to Jakarta, there is really only one thing you can do: shop. My two weeks plus trip to Jakarta turned out as I expected; most of the days were spent shopping and only two or three days were dedicated to sightseeing. Well no use crying over spilt milk.

Apart from family photos, I didn't get much chance to take photos worth putting up on this blog. But I'll share whatever I have over the course of the next few days anyway.

About the photo:
This particular shopping mall is called Taman Anggerek Mall. Quite a big place, much bigger than The Mall here in Brunei, but not the biggest there is over there. If you look carefully, there's even an ice skating rink in the upper floors - also much larger than what we have here. Christmas shopping season is, as you can see, in full swing in shopping malls across the city.