Interview by AFA Channel

I was featured on AFA in the past~

Still trying to get more free time to update everything! My Facebook Page's more updated than here.

2013 END

Let's move on, and stay positive.

Happiness is a choice.

Everything is connected

Happy 2013, everyone~

2012 has been a very busy year for myself, mainly due to my personal life. Apologies for the lack of updates on this blog, will get it up to speed soon enough.

Posted a collage of some favourite shots taken in 2012, hope you guys like it. 

Onwards, to the future!

Testimonial

"We want to thank you for capturing our wedding day so beautifully. Our pictures will be a lasting reminder of how special the day was and how wonderful it was to work with u. We are so grateful for all of the extra things you did for us to make the day complete, and we just wanted to tell you how much we love everything you have done. We loved all of the photos taken. For us you are a great person and we're glad we had the opportunity to get work with such a nice person. Everyone who saw the photos were so impressed with your photography. You are truly talented and wonderful at what you do and it has been a pleasure meeting you and working with you.

Good luck to you in the future."

Best Regards,
Khairul Efisyam & Atiqah Husna

My first proper testimonial (for paid assignments), I am glad the couple enjoyed my works. :)

Life in 5 minutes

Enjoy~

Interviews

I was recently interviewed by 3 very different groups of people (photographer, cosplayer, online magazine) for their websites, and I am thankful for the chance to be featured. Answering interview questions was never my forte, so I hope this time I did a better job.

CosplayPhotographers.com

The first interview was conducted by Richard T. Bui, a friendly cosplay and wedding photographer from San Francisco, California. You can view his site, it is new but already looks good! :)

Cosplay Blog... with a Brain!

The second interview was conducted by Yunie, a friend of another cosplayer that I know of (Etaru). Her blog is different compared to a lot of other cosplay blogs around (which is good), so check her site out! :)

The third one will be out soon, and I have been asked to do some articles for the magazine... hope I have the time when the opportunities appear. Okay, end of update. Back to my books...

5 more days to AFA... See you there!

Exhibition

I am one of the 39 photographers whose works are exhibited at the PhotoMalaysia 4th Annual Photography exhibition, held at the Nikon Centre in Berjaya Times Square. To be honest I am happy to be selected for this, as it would be my fourth time my photos have been on display to the public.

During the recent official opening ceremony, I had the chance to interact with the other photographers who came from various backgrounds. We shared ideas and thoughts, and I learnt a great deal about how the rest approach their photography. I always believe that in order to do well in your chosen field, you have to diversify and pick up a few things here and there.

So here are the photos which I submitted for the exhibition. The Sengoku Basara shot was awarded the "Honourable Mentions" category (I won a Marten camera strap) and printed on display, while some of the rest were placed on a digital slideshow. You can check them out if you drop by the area, the exhibition will run until the end of October.

In other news, I also went for the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival event held at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre. I met a few of my friends there, as well as bought myself a few new things including a Lastolite TriGrip reflector. There's a good offer for it so why not? XD

I have to say I made a few new business contacts from this event, maybe some new friends too. I guess that's ultimately better than trying to nail the perfect shots from the bevy of beautiful models promoting the camera wares there.

Till next update, folks! :)

Indonesia

Only one word can describe my recent trip to the country of Indonesia. Amazing.

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Day 1 - So the moment the plane left KLIA for Jakarta, I had a ride of my life. Okay, it was rather bumpy (even more so than my flight to Manila last year) but everyone on board was rather nonchalant about it. Eventually I got used to the ups and downs of the plane.

I arrived at the airport with none of my friends waiting for me (they were actually late) so I went around hoping to find a wifi hotspot. No such luck, so I got myself a pre-paid card and sat at a corner to wait for my friends after calling them up. The airport's really crowded with tons of tourists, police and taxi drivers milling around even though its a weekday.

Soon enough, my friends (Orochi and Vienni) found me and we happily went along our way to my hotel. The trip took around 2.5 hours due to the heavy traffic so we spent time catching up on things. Luckily the hotel's very decent despite its age, the staff gave me a free room upgrade and threw in a few extra incentives. All's well and good!

Ended the first day with 'supper', met with some of my Indonesian friends at Grand Indonesia. Didn't stay up that late due to my tiredness, I was already snoring in bed the moment I arrived back at the hotel after the gathering...

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Day 2 - Woke up, had a really nice buffet breakfast at the cafe. A bunch of Partai Demokrat people mingled around, seems like they had booked a good part of the hotel for some event over the weekend. Everyone (hotel staff, taxi drivers, etc) were very polite and accommodating so far.

Decided to check out Plaza Senayan while waiting to meet up with another group of friends. So I took a Blue Bird cab to the shopping mall, a really comfortable ride although the traffic can be a bit scary in comparison to Singapore or Malaysia. The mall has metal detectors like those you see at the airport, and coincidentally I discovered Kinokuniya there! I ended up buying a book.

After an hour or so, my friends show up and we headed to a nearby stadium for the GARO photoshoot. Finally get to meet Richfield again, as it's been a while since our photoshoot during AFA last year. I was then introduced to the cosplayers, photographers, helpers, and Mark Musashi. Mark is well known in the tokusatsu community for his various movie/game/television roles, so initially I was feeling a bit stressed working with him. He proved to be a very down to earth and friendly person, so the stress went away pretty quick!

In addition, I get to meet Naoki Drachen in person as she dropped by for the photoshoot. She's friendly and cute!

After the photoshoot, we went for dinner at Blok M. The dinner's held at a Japanese restaurant where I was introduced to some of the CLAS:H crew members/organizers and the remaining judges for the event. The only judge left that I was not introduced to was Kaname so I greeted him and presented him my name card. In return he asked me to try some sweet delicacy that he brought along from Japan... everyone has tried it except for me!

Dinner ended late, with a lot of chit-chats and laughters. It was soon time for me to head back to the hotel, but I am already looking forward to CLAS:H itself...

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Day 3 - Woke up early again as I was meeting a friend for breakfast. Spent the time catching up before heading to Balai Kartini, the designated venue for CLAS:H.

The place seriously reminds me of the venue for Comic Fiesta last year. Same kind of lighting, same size too! But thankfully the crowd is smaller, so I was able to roam around easily and meet up with the local cosplayers to trade name cards.

Most of the action took place within the performance area though, so I covered the stage together with a few other official photographers. The stage was well lit so I had no problem with getting the exposure right, but the fast and furious action sequences by the cosplayers proved to be a challenge. When they say some of the props will get broken due to the stunts performed, they are not joking!

The emcee's great. His name is Choky Sitohang and he's really good at engaging the crowd, drawing laughs at all the right moments. Just pure wow. And Mark also engages the crowd in his own charismatic ways.

In conclusion the event's really fun, so well done to the organisers for a good job. After saying goodbye to the winners and the other participants of the cosplay competition, I head off for dinner with another group of friends and thought "Well, that's about it. Just a short shoot with Naoki tomorrow and off I go back to Kuala Lumpur."

Well, it's not that simple I guess. :P

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Day 4 - Naoki asked me if Kaname and Team Drachen can join in the shoot. I was like "ok!" and pretty soon the shoot involved a few more photographer friends with other cosplayers joining in as well.

I reached the location early in the morning. Called Kota Tua, this classic looking part of the city was actually Old Jakarta aka Batavia itself! Wow, talk about past history lessons being useful here. I befriended a few of the locals there and took some photos of them, then wandered around before settling at Kantin Mega Rasa, a haven for Jakarta photographers.

Long story short we had some delay in getting the shoot started, and I was left with only an hour or so before I had to take a cab to go to the airport. But Lady Luck smiled upon me as both Naoki and Kaname were ready in the nick of time. Lots of funny moments, too bad all good things come to an end as I bade farewell to everyone...

... and here's the end of the long entry of the trip. I really love the food there (buffet rocks) and my friends there have been hospitable to me. Photos at the respective links below.

CLAS:H - Here

GARO: II - Here

Final Fantasy: Advent Children (Special) - Here

Coming up next... pretty much nothing apart from a few shoots, so stay tuned!

CLAS:H - Cosplay Live Action Show Hybrid

Official link: http://www.clashcosplay.com/

I will be attending CLAS:H, deemed as Indonesia's first International Cosplay Show
& Japanese Idol Music Concert, next weekend. It's going to be my first time visiting the country, and I look forward to it as I have made quite a few Indonesian friends over the past few years.

Apart from seeing first hand how the local events there are like, I hope to try some of their speciality food as well. Maybe it's time to put my macro lens to some good use, haha!

Anyway that's all for now, so if you are going for the event let's trade name cards. See you there!

PS. For once, I am not attending an overseas event as a VIP... :P

April Update

Had an awesome time last weekend, visiting for the first time the nation called the Philippines. Good food, great friends, awesome locations, the positive things seem to be endless. Of course there are negative points but that's no different from Kuala Lumpur or even Singapore, so overall I had fun.

I also attended Ozine Fest 2010, an ACG event held at the SM Megamall in Manila. The event was very similar to the ones in both Malaysia and Singapore, so I didn't feel out of place at all. I was also asked to be one of the judges for the individual cosplay competition as well as to give out prizes, so it felt pretty surreal in a way. :P

A full blog coverage of the trip to come soon on DeviantArt, as I am still in the midst of clearing the backlogs, emails and online messages. Apologies if my replies seem rather slow lately.

In other news, here's a sneak layout preview of my article on CosplayGen:



More previews at http://www.cosplaygen.com