An Interesting Penang Trip

As would most folks in KL, the quest for local delights will bring one around the country in search for the ultimate fare and Penang is one state all too familiar with their local dishes. So, on one fine long weekend, me and my colleagues decided to head up to Penang for 4 days to get fat by stuffing ourselves silly. So silly that we planned every single itinerary in order to maximize our time there efficiently. Talk about being kiasu!

Our journey began at 5am in the morning only to be greeted with thousands of other folks who thought that traveling in the wee hours of the day would be convenient. You see, we decided that the Raya weekend was the best time to head up north. Sad to say, it took me 3 hours to reach Ipoh where we stopped by at “Foh San” for some dim sum.  

Getting a table at Foh San was not easy and we had to split everyone up around the entire restaurant to stand next to tables where people were about to finish eating. After a good 30 minutes, we managed to find a table where my cell member was having breakfast. Talk about a small world indeed. But because it was so packed, although my cell member and his family vacated their seats, there was an elderly couple who had joined them. They weren’t exactly done yet with their food so while waiting for them to finish eating, I decided to take a couple of photos.

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If you see the image above closer (at a 100% zoom), you can actually see all of us having breakfast icon smile An Interesting Penang Trip

After a long a hearty meal, I got Ivan to drive the rest of the way towards Penang. It took us another 4 hours before we reached our hotel and after a quick 30 minute rest we headed out to try some of the “Sister’s Char Koay Teow“. We were in luck, they were just about to close when we arrived so we quickly ordered 13 plates and other dishes to munch on while waiting for our food. 

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The otak-otak was quite nice in fact! It tasted a little different compared to the usual nonya ones which I always eat when I am back in Malacca.

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The dried shrimp on top of the yam cake was also delicious although without the thick black sweet sauce, it turned out to be a little dry for my taste.

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Of course, when the main course arrived, everyone was busy eating! The unique thing about this “char koay teow” was the crab meat that was served together with it. Frankly, I still prefer the other one where the uncle cooking the CKT wears goggles! I now call him, Uncle Goggles.

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And what is Penang without it’s Penang Lobak.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed to Little India in search of this super duper famous cendol stall only to be dissapointed that it was closed.

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So instead, Kit decided to get his eyebrow’s threaded which became such a point of interest to the rest of the guys that every guy in our group decided to get their eyebrow’s threaded as well. In fact, I joined in as well and I have to say that it is way less painful compared to pulling out each individual hair!

We then decided to head to more touristy areas to eat some food at McCallister Road.

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Yes, this was another round of more food and by the time we were done, I was so stuffed!

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Next on the itinerary was to visit Kek Lok Si temple. 

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Took a couple of shots of my colleagues while we were at the top.

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After the visit to the temple, we had dinner along Batu Ferringhi and that was the beginning of the “interesting” bit in my title. Apparently all of us gotten food poisoning so we spent the next 2 days either hibernating or resting in bed. I was one of the few who didn’t get it as bad as the rest so I ended up being the driver, driving them to the hospital and buy dinner back for everyone.

Turned out pretty interesting after all. By the time we reached back to KL, everyone ended up taking MC the next day,

At least now, I will definitely stay away from food at Batu Ferringhi!

p.s. I have to thank my colleague Chiaw Yin for saving my laptop from the rain! Apparently at the place where we were staying, whenever it rains, if the windows were not closed, rain water gets in. My laptop was half drenched!

Charge Up 2009 Day 1

Yes I am here now in Penang attending the Charge Up 2009 Conference and this time not as a participant but rather as one of the coaches for the Photography Stream. Every year Livewire Media organizes a conference for the AV folks and this year it is held at the Penang Christian Centre (PCC). There are 3 available streams for all conference delegates, video, audio and photography and all of these streams are taught by experts from the industry themselves.

Here is Choon Ean giving her opening speech about how she fractured her fibula while trying to take photos while paragliding. I won’t say what that gesture was icon wink Charge Up 2009 Day 1

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Ps. Victor Wong is our pastor who will be preaching during all the Power Up sessions.

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Every day after the Power up sessions in the morning, we will all proceed to individual workshops. Here is Grace teaching the first workshop on exposure.

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Ke Wynn who is our head honcho for the photography stream teaches about posing and portraiture as well as lighting.

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Ke Wynn was awesome and he is really down to earth. Each time to constantly reminds the participants that you don’t need great gear to take great photos. It takes great photographers to take great photos.

Of course during the course of the workshop, Ian decides to have some fun with Joseph’s funky stuff.

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Here are some of the participants being shot and shooting with a technique using video lights.

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My group which I am helping out with on their practical shoot and trying to practice what they have learned in the earlier workshops.

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Joseph assisting the rest with the video light and reflector.

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And of course, a quick candid of our wonderful bag seller, Jonathan. Jonathan has the most outstanding portfolio that I have seen I am still trying to get him to share with me his thoughts and thinking process behind his shoots.

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Ok, I got to get back to class and begin to capture more photos of the participants.

More Photos from Penang

Its Saturday and I am completely worn out from the week. I completed my training at IBM at Bandar Utama and on Friday I was completely surprised when I received a certificate for completing the course, DB2 LUW for SAP, and on top of that, the trainer, Jeremy from the IBM Development Centre in Toronto gave me a 1Gb thumbdrive for being able to answer the most questions during the Thursday session.

So now you know that I was busy at a workshop and then needing to log online to my client’s VPN and check my emails. Hence the delay in getting some of these photos out. I hope you enjoy viewing them. Here are more of the shots I took in Penang during the “From Ordinary to Extraordinary” workshop.

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Here is a shot of Reynaldo indoors before we headed out to our on location shoot. He wasn’t looking at me as he was looking at Louis at the time but I do like his suit. Stripe suits are slimming!

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From the shot above I know that I needed to step a little more to the left to capture them with a completely blue background.

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I thought that this shot was a little more on the funky side. I find it difficult to try to get the shot with my 85mm lens when everyone else was using their 70-200mm lens. It was only after this shoot that I learned the term “Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness”. Next time I shall be moving my big butt in front of those with the 70-200mm and get my shot and then tell them, “Aiyah, so sorry icon razz More Photos from Penang ”.

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To me at the moment in time it was just another shot with someone posing with interesting props. Now as I posted this up, it came to me as a good representation of how Malaysian drivers are. Constantly waiting in “No waiting” zones and constantly parking at “No parking” zones. How ironic.

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An attempt of a glamor shot with a touch of macho-ness. Notice that the tie was caught in the wind. Thank God for the wind as it was rather hot that day. Yup, this was shot outdoors as with the other photos taken here.

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Max and Vicky spending a little intimate time together with at least 15 photographers breathing down their necks. Well not literally but I really wonder how it would feel at the other end of the camera. The shot can be improved of course with a little better composition.

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Managed to execute this shot with the motion blur I wanted but I was so engrossed with the effect that I totally forgot about the background. Funnily, I was reading about this in a blog post, about how an amateur and a veteran shoots and how the newbies would miss out some areas like the background and the framing and concentrate on the subject while veterans would take everything into account. Yup, I totally fall into the amateur category.

Thats it for today folks. As I find the time to run my other errands, I will post up more photos up here soon.

The One with the First Session

Having flown all the way from KL to Penang just to attend the “From Ordinary to Extraordinary workshop”, I was totally psyched out because I couldn’t control the joy and excitement within myself. Why was I excited? I wanted to reach to newer levels of photography and having just started photography from scratch a little over a year ago, I just wanted to improve myself not just as a photographer but as a wedding photographer.

The first session started at 5.30pm, Friday evening and it was awesome! Although I wished that we had more time (of course I wanted more time to absorb), I had to make sure that I was a sponge and took plenty of notes. Hours just flew by and I didn’t even noticed that the time passed so fast. I met some pretty amazing people in the workshop as well.

Initially I really thought that I might be one of the only participant to come from another state, but there were 4 others from other states! Eugene and Stevie drove up from KL on Friday (this really made me wonder why did I take a flight??) whilst Clement flew in from Sandakan, Sabah and Bernard flew in from Kuching. I was totally blown away by the level of enthusiasm the other participants showed.

By the time the first session ended, the local guys brought us to New Lane to eat some delicious local cuisine. I did as what every other tourist would have done, I ordered “char koay teow”, ate some oysters fried in egg and feasted on some awesome “satay”. Not only was the food delicious, but Sehu voluntarily paid for our dinner. Sehu, thank you so much for the treat. If you ever drop by in PJ/KL area, I will gladly return the favour.

George, who is another participant of the workshop also did me a kind favour and gave me a lift back to the apartments I am staying in. I knew he really went out of his way to give me a lift home and it wasn’t a quick drive but a 20 minute drive. George, thank you so much for the lift and I really appreciate it. Whenever you are down in PJ/KL, give me a buzz and I will buy you a meal!

Frankly, I wondered if I did shoot some photos of the session and of what conspired throughout my day, it would tell a better story, no? As what I learned in this session about photography, I also want to bring my writing to a higher level. No, I will not become a fantastic writer overnight as well but if I take baby steps, the same baby steps which I want to achieve in my next shoot, I would be overjoyed.

So yes, no photos will be posted up with this post as I try to paint a picture of what happened throughout the day using just words. Also you might notice that I am not mentioning much of the contents of the workshop. If you really want to know more about it, I strongly suggest that you sign up for the workshop. It is truly worth all the money it costs and on top of that, I am paying even more by flying to Penang, travelling around by taxi and incurring more and more costs (also taking into account that I am getting poisoned by the rest to get a Nikon 70-200mm lens).

I fully agree with what Louis told me, I will not put a price tag on education because learning is lifelong and I cherish every little bit of knowledge and experience I can absorb.

Until the next post, I need to get some rest. Ok, I am sitting at the local Starbucks here in Penang sipping on some apple juice while churning this post up. I promise that my next post will have more pictures in it.

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