So after checking about and mucking about, one fine day after a training session, I decided to pop by over Vista at The Curve to have a check. Mind you that about 4 years prior to this, I also went to Vista to have a check and they gave me the go ahead to get the surgery. So why was it after 4 years that I only decided to go for the surgery. Well I can say that finances is definitely one of the main reason because it wasn’t cheap!

The procedure for LASIK surgery is very straight forward and easy! First, go for a round of tests. Lots of them. If you pass the test, the doctor will then recommend which surgery you should go for (this is all based on the conditions of your eye). Once you have decided which surgery you want, you can then proceed to either think about it or just schedule your surgery. Secondly, you go for the surgery and after the surgery, get 4 hours of sleep and voila! You can see clearly without your specs/contact lenses.

The first round of checks included a series of tests to determine the condition of my eye, to see if it is thick enough so that if LASIK was done, would there be enough space. There were so many tests that I completed, I couldn’t remember how long it took but the after effects of these tests was that since they dilated your pupils, driving back was not going to be possible at all! Yup, so remember to plan your transportation home after your test.

As mentioned earlier, after receiving the results of your initial tests, the doctor would then explain to you which of the procedures would be more suitable for you. Luckily for me, my test results were good and I could go for any of the surgery. Unluckily for me, that means also the most expensive ones! So I was deciding to go for either the best or 2nd best. The price difference was a few thousand so the decision was quite tough! I kept asking myself, is the extra few thousand all worth it or not?

Then my mum said the most brilliant thing (I tell myself that to convince myself ). She said, “since you only have 1 pair of eyes, you better get the best”. Yup, that prompted me to unwillingly say to the doctor, I will take the best procedure out there.

So here I was sitting in the room informing them which surgery I opted for. I quickly set my appointment date and planned in my leave at work. The surgery would commence on Friday morning and they promised that after a good sleep (4 hours minimum) after the surgery, I would be able to see clearly. So me being extremely “kiasu”, I stayed up as late as I could on Thursday night in order to be able to easily sleep after my surgery.

That didn’t work too well because on my day of my surgery, there were a few other people who were there as well. Good thing was that a lot of people had faith in LASIK surgery but the bad thing was that I had to wait about 20 minutes for my turn and while waiting I fell asleep.

By the time it was my turn, I lied down on the chair/bed/surgery thingy and the doctor used a clamp to ensure that my eyes were open throughout the surgery. When the nurse was applying the clamp, I did feel a bit of pain an uneasiness. I was extremely nervous and I kept moving, so much so that the doctor gave me a pillow to hug in order to release some of the tension.

The first bit of the procedure after the prep would be to cut a flap on my eye using lasers. How this is done is that the lasers create a small air bubble in a circle and once that is done, the flap is removed (manually from my eye). It took the machine about half a minute to create this flap for each eye. So technically that took only a minute.

Now that the flap has been created, I moved to another chair/surgery bed and lied down there. This was when the doctor manually opened the flap to my eyes (one flap at a time). Once the flap was removed, another machine would then correct my eyes using a laser. This took about 45 seconds and it also depends on how still you can remain (it takes time for the machine to track your eye movements). So in total, the procedure for both eyes took about 2-3 minutes.

Once the machine has corrected your eyes, the doctor would then put the flap back into the correct position over your eye and voila, that is the end of the procedure. The doctor then proceeded to ask to me read the time which I could do immediately (although not 100 perfectly clear because it takes a while to get the “mist” out and also at that time my pupils were fully dilated hence not everything was perfectly clear.

After taking a quick photo with the doctor, I was checked out (took less than 5 minutes) and the nurse gave me a bag containing a pair of sunglasses, loads of eye drops (natural tears and antibiotics), surgical tape and eye protectors. I got my dad to send me home and once I was home, I put on my eye protectors and slept for about 4-5 hours.

The moment I woke up, I could see everything quite clearly except for the small side effects of halo or ring around lights. That cleared up after about a month. My eyes looked bloodshot but that was one of the side effects as well and that cleared up after 2 weeks. Every time I went to sleep I had to put on my eye protectors (this lasted 2 weeks) and every time I went out I had to use sun glasses.

Some things to note after procedures are:

• You need to wear sunglasses outside especially during the day. This helps reduce the glare as well as dust from getting into your eyes
• You need to refrain from rubbing your eyes!
• You can’t play sports for a month (especially contact sports, poker games are fine )
• You can’t swim for a month
• You need to wear eye protectors when you sleep at night (quite uncomfortable initially but you will get used to it)
• You need to apply eye drops on your eyes (side effect after the surgery is dry eyes). The eye drops come in the form of both antibiotics and natural tears

Frankly I am extremely satisfied with the whole procedure and how everything turned out very well. I now have good vision and I noticed that I see less glaring lights especially when I drive at night. To me, it was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. So much so that after I told two of my colleagues about it, they went and had LASIK surgery as well. Now one is very happy with her new vision and another colleague of mine is planning his surgery soon.

For more information, I would suggest you schedule an appointment with your nearest LASIK centre. I went to Vista at The Curve at Mutiara Damansara and the procedure I took was the NASA iLasik procedure.

Disclaimer: The opinions and story here only accounts for my own personal experience with LASIK at Vista. With every other type of surgeries, not all results and experiences are the same.

The showcase area wasn’t exactly ginormous or anything but it displayed quite a fair bit of Nikon’s equipment as well as had some 300mm, 400mm and 500mm lens mounted on tripods available to be tested out. I could spy on several taxi drivers sitting by their cars having a smoke and they never suspected a thing. It’s a pity the lenses didn’t reach any of the adjacent buildings but hey, I guess this is one of the few times I ever get to touch one of those huge lenses.

Anyway, back to my purpose of heading to the new centre was to inquire on how long is the current queue it would take to service my cameras which I intend to send them in as well as send in my D700 to have it’s sensor cleaned. Now you must be asking me why would I need to have it cleaned since it had a sensor cleaner in it as well. Well I kept seeing spots in my viewfinder and hence that sort of annoyed the hell out of me.

Upon arrival at the service desk, I was asked to pick a queue number. Now that was a surprise as I was the only person in line. But processes are there for a reason, I know, I implement processes in IT organizations so I do know how effective it might be. The moment I picked the number, it was already my turn so I brought my cameras to the desk and informed the agent that I wanted to have my sensor cleaned and inquired how long it would take to have my cameras serviced.

At that time, she informed me that it could take 7-10 working days so I needed to plan in my time so that I don’t have any shoots at that time and send in my cameras for a thorough servicing. Back to cleaning my sensor, I saw a notice there in regards to the charges and at first I saw a price of RM20 charged. Upon further inspection, I noticed that RM20 was to be charged for cameras which are still under warranty. All I know that, in order to clean the sensor for my D700, it would cost me RM80. That was the price I paid.

Oh well, I guess ever since Nikon has outsourced their services to Futuromic, there has been definitely a lot of good praises about their quality of service. Good things don’t come cheap. Not too annoyed by it, frankly I was glad it took them only 20 minutes to clean it. Now I can really consider getting a sensor cleaner myself and clean my own sensor the next time!

p.s. Even after getting my sensor cleaned, I kept seeing dust in my viewfinder only to find out that the dust is located in the viewfinder and not on my sensor. Just a point to note, the Nikon Center at Berjaya Times square can’t clean the viewfinder and they asked me to go to the Nikon Service Center at PJ State.

Warning, more images to come

As a continuation from my previous blog post, after a heavy buffet lunch at Shangri-La (believe me, the food there was so good that it was so difficult not to want to try everything!), we all proceeded with our own individual assignments. Individual means that we split up into various groups and each group consisted of 4 team members. Each team would have a model assigned to them and we had to split our time to photograph the model.

Both Shen and Hafiz were in my group and I was the 3rd person to have a go. Part of our assignment was that we were able to borrow any of the equipment available there. From the image below, you would know that we took an Ezybox softbox with an SB-900 and an external battery pack together with another SB-900. We also made used of our own equipment as well. Since we only had an hour, we had to decide on our location as soon as we could. We had the beautiful Melissa first.

Here was Shen attempting his shot with us helping out by carrying the C-Stand

This was my attempt within 10 minutes. Wished I had more time to get the lighting set up a little bit more elaborately

After the hour was up, we moved back into the workshop room where we were assigned another model to work with and we again had the usual 15 minutes. Our next model was Shirlyn who was a professional dancer (you can guess that Joe really likes dancers especially if you have read through both “The Moment it Clicks” and “The Hot Shoe Diaries”).

My first attempt to begin with one light first before adding in additional lights. The first idea that came into my mind was to try out a multiple exposure shot but with movement but after consulting Joe, that setup would have taken me more than 15 minutes of my allotted time. I then decided that I would stick with the simple double exposure and the results are shown below.

Double exposure, courtesy of a Nikon technology

Since I managed to set things up pretty quickly, we then experimented with a few other shots with a simple two lighting system. Again still sticking to small flashes.

After the assignments were over, we gathered downstairs for Joe to show us a little bit more of his concept and his ideas and how he actually came up with the shot.

Joe took out the big gun for this, the 200mm f/2 lens which is a huge lens and cost a bomb!

After the workshop ended and Joe had to rush over to Business.FM for a radio interview, we quickly had our books signed as well as took photos with Joe.

Not forgetting Drew as well

Ok, I definitely need to lose lots of weight. Totally put on too much recently.

After the workshop, I had to stay back a while for a secret performance practice which was due to be showcased the day after at Joe’s Seminar. This portion was for Louis’ talk on guerrilla lighting. Whilst waiting for Joe to get back from his interview, Ian was toying around playing with his Alien Bees and while he was still setting up his lights, I took this shot of Melissa using available light.

After a brief and expensive juice at the cafe, practice started and I somehow managed to spy this guy in the ballroom taking shots of the practice using an unmarked camera. Some say that it could be a Sony Alpha but others might say that its actually a new Canon. I don’t think it was a Nikon because of shape of it but before I start to speculate, we can’t really really tell what camera is that.

An unknown person with a Sony Alpha 5D Mk2

And of course Johan was assisting out the whole day that after almost 16 hours of carrying light stands and small flashes, it seems that he has really gone bonkers

This was how I spent my birthday this year with those crazy photographers as well as the honour and pleasure of meeting Joe and Drew as well as learning from him. I must practice what I learned so do drop me an email if you are interested in having your personal portraiture done.

In case you do not know who Joe McNally is, Joe is the most amazing photographer I have met and you might have probably seen most of his work on the cover of the National Geographic magazine. He is also the author of two amazing books, “The Moment it Clicks” and the more recent “The Hot Shoe Diaries“.

When I got wind that Joe was coming to KL, I was quite excited but a little hesitant as well as I thought that the workshops were going to cost a bomb. Frankly, it was a big sum for me but it was an investment for me. The best part was that I managed to schedule the workshop on the same day as my birthday! (Joe had five 1-day workshops here spanning from the 1st of Feb till the 5th of Feb).

Here is Louis introducing himself as well as Wedshooter.TV before introducing the man of the day.

Joe started off the session with some quick introduction about himself as well as his assistance, Drew Gurian. He then went on to get to know each of us and asked us what are our expectations for this workshop. This was good start I felt as I managed to see who the other participants were. There were of course familiar faces in the group as well.

Friends in the photography industry such as Ian, Shen, Edwin, Hafiz and Gabriel were also attendees of the workshop. Funnily, Joe mentioned that our group was the only all guy group. I can see the testosterone levels shooting up, I guess the mix and the environment was a lot more different compared to this workshop. Look at all the female participants there!

Louis, listening intently to the participants as they introduced themselves

That’s Drew over there!

After the rounds of introduction, Joe shared with us some of his videos as well as showed some of his latest work which was absolutely incredible and amazing. What made me smile was that he also had a couple of photos in his portfolio which was shot using available light which was what I normally do. Joe then mentioned that he himself also continued to learn by attending workshops such as the recent one where he attended Jay Maisel’s workshop in NY.

At every workshop which Joe teaches, he carries with him lots of gears. And when I mean lots, I really mean lots! Frankly I didn’t take the rest as there are way too many equipment about to capture it all. But what he had prepared for us included around 16 flashes for us to use, an array of Justin clamps and battery packs, Lastolite softboxes and many many more.

I spy the Twin Towers in the LCD screen of Joe’s Nikon D3s

The workshop began with Joe showing us the various equipment that were about in the workshop and then teaching us on how to use them and what the effects of using these equipment would do to an image. After trying out several shots indoor using both a white and black background, we proceeded outdoors to learn more about light shaping tools there.

We also had a journalist in our midst, Jan Shim, hailing from Brunei who was covering the workshop

Then we moved indoors for another shoot again. This time it was in a service corridor where Joe showed us how to use our surroundings to create an amazing shot. Of course Ian had to pose for the shot as he would normally do.

Then we headed out again. Here we have Joe’s camera setup to tether on his MacBook Pro which was very helpful for us participants.

We even had fantastic props to use as backdrops and for our models to pose with. I wish!

After an intense session of learning how to use various light shaping tools as well as understand various light placements, the group adjourned for lunch.

More photos from the workshop as well as our own personal shoots coming soon!

For those who are traveling, I bid you all a safe journey to your hometowns. Its times like this where caution is the utmost importance.

I am here in Malacca as usual celebrating the Chinese New Year so if you all are about the Malacca area, do let me know and we can catch up

So let’s look at each lens one by one. I think I shall start with the zoom lens first and perhaps save the best for last.

AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR

When Nikon discontinued the older 17-35mm f/2.8 lens, I thought that they sort of made a mistake or perhaps was thinking of a replacement lens that is within the 17-35mm focal length. Nikon already at that time had the 14-24mm lens so that was one of the ways moving forward I guess but since Canon had the cheaper 17-40mm f/4 lens which is the younger brother of the more expensive 16-35mm f/2.8 lens, then I guess this must be Nikon’s answer to that as well.

The specs does look impressive, but the biggest surprise to me was the inclusion of VR in the lens. Yes, this lens has VR (Vibration Reduction) which is the same VR system used in the newer 70-200mm VRII lens. This system allows you to shoot at 4 stops below what you might normally shoot without VR. I ask myself, “why would anyone place VR for such a short focal length lens?“. But hey, after 20 seconds of thinking, VR rocks!

On top of that, it has AF-S meaning it uses Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor which sums up to “super duper focusing speeds with vibration reduction”. The lens is coated with Nikon’s Nano treatment and it has a minimum focal distance of 0.29m which is 0.01m more than the 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. Who gives a damn about this kind of shit?

Anyway, what is interesting to me is the focal length. If I were to shoot with two FX bodies (full frame DSLR cameras), this lens would definitely be extremely useful. One of my shooting styles is to shoot with either a 50mm/85mm prime on my FX body and the 14-24mm on my DX body so that I get a slightly different range so that when I do take group shots, the group isn’t too distorted. Now if I were to shoot with two FX bodies, this style would be quite tough because the 14-24mm might be too wide on a FX body and I have to get real close to my subjects hence the 16-35mm definitely comes in very very handy.

Price for this camera is currently set at USD$1259.95 which translates to about RM4330.35.

Expected release date for this lens is end February 2010, maybe later for us here in Malaysia.

AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED

Now I am very fond of prime lenses and I definitely love shooting with them and keeping them wide open to enjoy nice crisp images as well as feel the extensive bokeh out of them due to its ability to photograph things at very very shallow depth of fields. After releasing the DX 35mm f/1.8G lens and the 50mm FX f/1.4G lens, it seems that Nikon is on a roll here with the 24mm f/1.4G lens. Note, the G means that these are the digital versions of these lenses where there is no aperture ring control on them.

The big difference with these lenses is with the AF-S motor on the lens allowing the lower end models such as the D40, D60, D5000 and others to be able to enjoy autofocusing using these prime lenses. The lens is coated with the same nano treatment and it has a minimum focusing distance of 0.25m.

Frankly, I definitely see myself using this lens for my portraiture and wedding work but I am still a little sceptical on whether I really need one. You see, I have been having an epiphany lately especially when it comes to purchasing more photography equipment. The ever lasting battle of “needs” versus “wants” still prevail in my thoughts and of course the price tag is helping me decide whether I should get it or not.

Price for this lens is currently set at USD$2199.95 which translates to about RM7561.23.

This is an insane amount and I think I would rather replace my older 80-200mm lens with the newer 70-200mm f/2.8 lens first before considering getting this prime. Although I know it would definitely make a lot of difference in my work, I am still learning how to use more of my wide angle lenses. At 24mm, I already have my 14-24mm as well as 24-70mm lenses but I don’t get to enjoy anything less than f/2.8 at those ranges. Perhaps I might need to try it out first, so if anyone of you are rushing to get one, do let me try playing with it

So aside from being an extreme gear head and avoid all forms of temptation, as how energy cannot be destroyed but only converted, I shall now convert my extreme temptations into a blog post so that I can tempt my readers out there instead.

Have a great day ahead, stop drooling over those lenses

The iPad was announced by Apple a week ago and with every new product that Apple announces and produces, there will be a plethora of blog posts and newspaper columns which creates a lot of buzz in the industry. First one I read was when Scott Kelby wrote about the iPad being launched and where he would like to get one for himself and for his wife. This sparked quite a fair bit of debate in his comments section (yes that guy gets loads of comments in his blog! I wonder why no one writes any comments here on my blog ). Take a slow read at the comments and you would find that there will always be 3 camps. One which is pro-apple, one that is anti-apple and one that is the neutral camp.

Of course, after the heated comment debate, Scott wrote a post to reply all of the questions that have been posted up in his comments section which was rather lengthy and also yet entertaining to read. Then this morning I was greeted with a post by another guy saying that why the iPad is not for him as well.

So being ever so curious, I went about asking questions to some of my colleagues and clients as well as some of my friends about what they thought about the iPad. Of course I got the usual cracks about it being named after a sanitary pad but after the jokes and laughs, most of them decided that they are not going to get it now or when it launches. A lot more of them would prefer to get it when the 2nd generation model is out. I guess this was one of the responses from previous experience when the iPhone was launched (the 1st model wasn’t available in Malaysia and only the 3G version was launched much later).

Anyway, I do see myself getting one but of course there are a lot of functionality that most Malaysians can’t get with iTunes such as the ability to purchase music, videos and movies online via the iTunes store and with the iBook store going to be limited to the US only, that would just mean that this product is gonna be a large iPod touch.

But I do see myself buying it in the sometime future depending on some of my assumptions below.

1) As a photographer

I can definitely see the usefulness of the iPad as a photographer. This means that when meeting potential clients, we can display our portfolio on a much larger screen as well as show them previously made slideshows which are definitely very useful. The iPad also means that we don’t have to carry a large laptop (I am getting tired of the weight of my 15″ MacbookPro) out for quick catch-ups and meetings.

2) As a consultant

I love the fact that iWorks is going to be available on the iPad as well as it’s ability to read MS Office documents and PDF files. Great to bring into meetings (aside from lugging around a laptop or if you work in an organization that requires you to work on a desktop) without the need to print out documents for reference. This equates to you saving the environment, well sort of, because you are not printing any unwanted documents.

I can also see it being used as I present presentations, that is if there is a way for the iPad to transmit via Wi-Fi to the project, that would be an even bigger advantage.

3) When I am travelling

No doubt that I constantly watch movies on my iPod video and when the battery does run out, I switch over to my iPhone (has not enough memory space!), whenever I travel. The life span of my iPod is about to reach it’s end as it has now been relegated to staying in my car, so the iPad would prove to be a good traveling companion. I can easily transfer all of the movies I already converted for my iPod video for the iPad via iTunes.

All in all, these decisions are just some of the factors for me deciding to get one but I guess the biggest factor of all would be the price of the iPad. Hopefully the conversion rate doesn’t kill us over here and perhaps be within the range where I can claim the iPad via tax.

Only time can tell.

The slideshow contains some of the portraiture sessions which I shot whether it may be a couple portraiture, to a personal profile image as well as behind the scenes shoot.

p.s. Make sure that the video has fully loaded before playing it to enjoy the full experience

Portrait Collection

Do let me know what you think of the slideshow in the comments section, thanks!

There are a couple of ways to actually see the Statue of Liberty, you can take a helicopter tour where the Statue would be extremely small. Of course that would cost you quite a fair bit but you get to enjoy the view of New York. If money is of a concern of you, then you can also take the Staten Island Ferry which is free! Only thing is that you need a 300mm lens to get a good view of the Statue of Liberty.

The last option, which was the option I took, was that I bought a City Pass (USD$79) that allows me to go to various tourist attractions around New York at a cheaper rate. The pass provided a tour which visits the Statue of Liberty as well as Ellis Island.

Statue of Liberty

Above were some of the shots that were taken from the ferry before docking on the island. I was amongst everyone else trying to get a view of the Statue and trust me, there were plenty of people pulling out their cameras and video cameras capturing the spectacular sight of a huge statue before us.

The first thing we did after we landed on the island was to get some lunch and walk around the park enjoying the cool New York breeze. It was a tad bit cold that day (I was wearing shorts at the time!) but it was still bearable thanks to my natural insulation

There is also a museum located at the back of the Statue of Liberty but note that the City Pass does not cover the cost of going into the museum nor does it allow you to enter the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately at that time we were there, they hadn’t open the entrance or the section which allowed visitors to climb all the way to the torch of the statue.

All we could do was to admire the statue from the base. Of course besides just the statue, there is a gift shop and a restaurant which serves fish and chips.

The park was also filled with mini statues of various guys, I think they were the architects who build the statue. I think.

After debarking from Liberty Island, the ferry wouldn’t head back to Manhattan Island but it brings everyone to Ellis Island. Now you might have heard about Ellis Island from one of the popular movies, Hitch, starring Will Smith. In the show, his first date with Sara Melas (played by Eva Mendes) was at Ellis Island. So it was pretty cool to actually walk around the huge museum.

There were many tours about including live shows where actors would act out the reenactment of the people who traveled from around the world to head to New York to find a better life.

Talking about the number of immigrants, it sort of also reminded me of the old show, Gangs of New York where there were plenty of Irish immigrants in New York at that time.

So if you are in the New York area, these are one of the must go to places.

Yup, been totally poisoned by this car lately and I have been doing tonnes of research on the car as well as check out some of the cars that have been offered at some of the dealers nearby. I am actually not even sure why I suddenly got hooked on this car but the fact that I keep seeing it more often on the road (perhaps I am just a little more observant nowadays) reminds me that I really like how sporty it looks as well as the amount of horsepower and crazy widgetry it has.

I guess it can be due to the test drive I went for last month at the FA Wagen outlet at Jalan 222 where I drove the Golf GTI Mk6 (just launched in Nov 2009) around and I fell absolutely in love with the car. The smooth handling and drive as well as the super quick DSG gearbox (the salesman kept on emphasising that the DSG gearbox changes gears faster than a Ferrari Enzo), the car totally blew me away. One of my favourite novelties about this new version (compared to the older Mk5), is the variable suspension setting, and by variable I mean the ability to switch from sports mode to comfort mode or set it in auto mode.

One of the key differences between the Mk5 and the Mk6 is the steering wheel, I prefer the newer more sportier look of the Mk6 steering wheel design compared to the Mk5.

Even with this obsession, I decided to go about and check the current prices of the 2nd hand market of the Golf GTI Mk5 and found quite a fair number of them on the market. Prices are still a little steep especially since when Naza Italia sold quite a bunch of Golf GTI Mk5 previously after the Tour De Langkawi at a lower price but price ranges are around in the RM150k-175k range depending on the year of the car (05, 07 and 08 models) and the mileage. I checked out a couple of our local forums and found several members there selling their cars there as well, prices are a lot more competitive compared to car dealers.

Anyway this car will still be a dream for me, still pretty much have other priorities I have to take care off (mainly paying for my wedding this year and buying furniture before moving into my new place) hence this car will not be a priority yet. At the moment, I heard there will be new models coming in soon from Volkswagen so who knows the price might drop even further.

p.s. I also heard that a couple of guys are waiting till end March for their Mk6 to be delivered as well

If you are looking for a 2nd hand Golf GTI Mk5, do contact me as I have a friend who is selling off his Mk5 (2007 model at 51k milleage) at a good and reasonable price.

Image source: Volkswagen Malaysia Website