Happy Birthday Ayu!

I just got back from Sheffield Malaysian Games. My wife invited me to join her friend's birthday party at Shere Khan Restaurant, here in the Curry Mile of Manchester. Yes, along the road you will get the taste of curry and halal foods with affordable price. A place for Malaysian not to be missed when travel to Manchester. (Postcode M14 XXX for those who wants to install the map in the Satellite Navigator lah).

I got load of pictures from Sheffield to upload but I got to publish this first since these ladies love their pictures to be taken, I gave them the go first. Anyway, it's her birthday!!

Let's see what did we have for the party

It looks like similar thing that we have with Chapati, Rot Chai etc..but it's not. It's for the salad.

The Birthday cake..apa lagi!

The wishes..

the blow

and beautiful friends last but not least

after 5 frames..I got them loosen up. That's why I need to take couple of exposures for you guys. :)

I got no problem with Jannah & Zaid :)

Now, for the modelling session pulak..Syura (paymaster that nite..)

Wan..

we went outside the busy road. Saturday nite in Rusholme is packed with hungry people and traffic jam. Doesn't stop the girl away from the camera. Sportinglah.

Gambar-gambar lain korang boleh download kat sini okay.

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Piala Perantau 2009

Piala Perantau organized by Kelab Umno Salford & Manchester. Held in Brookhouse Playing Field, Buckthorn Lane, Peel Green Eccles. (Panjangnya alamat!)

I guess sports photography is not everybody cup of tea. This will test your equipment limitation and experience handling the camera parameters. Viewing the subject through the viewfinder is a dissappointing event where the ball move across the field faster than the autofocus motor. All I wanted to do is tight shot with the ball in the frame. Wide shot easier but not that compelling. Somebody who has been long enough in sports photography told one need to learn to use both eyes, one to frame the shot and the other one to predict the movement. Hail to sports photographers!

Playing football in cold winter must be very exciting to the boys. They need to keep running to manage the cold weather. Wearing gloves while playing must have been their dream like sports figure in EPL.

Sharing some pictures..I thought it's the shot of the day.

Unfortunately, that's not the opponent goalkeeper but the referee. Chit! Hampeh! Or else must have been dramatic.

more pics after the jump..

Action...close but cropped ball & slanted horizon. dang!

Another cropped one :(

Penalty shoot out..kacang je I thought. That meshed net confuse my autofocus. Sharp net but out of focus subject.

Manual focus saves the day however.

Goal!

Berbetov spend some time with the boys..

He must be a dangerous striker. 3 orang jaga.

Celebration

Credit given where is due. Kudos to volunteers

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Group Shots

I went to watch the football game - Piala Perantau organized by Kelab UMNO Manchester & Salford. The weather a bit muddy and hardly to see sun shines through the cloud. Well, I came there a litte bit later, that's why lah. I'm going to blog the so called sports picture soon although I didn't really excel at those type of action photography :).

Everywhere I go out w my camera, I'll try bring a long my speedlights. Even without this lighting device, I can still use my trusty built in flash on my camera. (The results not as pleasing as using the speedlights though). Inspired by Joe McNally works from Nikon CLS DVD, I give it a try to rely on the speedlights TTL.

With the help from the single ladies, I meter the background and prefer the sky like this. Yes, I can increase the ISO senstivity to brighten my subject but I think the noise might ruin those pretty faces. I set my flash to TTL and dial down 1 stop. I like my speedlights because I can turn the picture from this..

to this..

a little harsh but better than the above. A slight error is the shadow overcast to another person far right. This can be fix by rearranging them carefully. Overlooked problem, but it's a valuable lesson. Another tips is to get to know your subject first rather than ask them carelessly to pose for you. Who wants to pose and receive direction from stranger eh? Having a huge camera didn't give us a ticket to ask anybody to pose the way you want it. Except those models in automotive roadshow. heehe

..and last but not least, Thaqif with his new fan.

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Newcastle & Edinburgh Travel Photos.

Two days to Newcastle & Edinburgh. I didn't bring anything except some photos for my family collection. We didn't really cover the whole city but went to few significant places.

Really huge monument called Angel of North in Newcastle. It was erected back in 1998.

It was a perfect timing as I was waiting for the crowd to clear at the back.

smooching by the ray of light

Rock kapak pose for cover album near millenium bridge Gateshead,Newcastle. The illumination will change its colour after certain time.

Near Meadows Park in Edinsburgh. Looks like the winter is going to end soon. My wife really lovesssss those colurful flower. I guess they are wild flower..or maybe the city council plant the seed with specific pattern. I know nuts about flower but these are beautiful.

Low angle shot to make the grass look flooded with flowers.

Not really well prepared for this trip to Edinburgh. We came across this ancient building inside University of Edinburgh. The weather was beautiful and perfect, not much post processing being done to get this picture.

We found our way to view Edinburgh city of Scotland from above at Calton Hill Holyrood Park. We can see the old town and the castle here. From time to time I need to polish my location portraiture technique.

I believe a lot of beautiful postcard of Edinburgh were taken in Holyrood Park. It was freezing cold and I couldn't spend time long enough to capture the whole view.

He didn't remember it but he will know that he loves when his father do the superman to him.

My lense got really dirty and condensation from the cold weather smears the view. Taken near the city. I'll load a couple more pics soon.

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