Big Furry Cats.....

I was on a trip to Thailand with my lovely wife to cheer her up. (I did nothing wrong!!!) So I thought of animal theraphy. With my Thai Brother Alex and Sister Hatsh off we went on a road trip from Bangkok. 210 minutes later we arrived at the destination. We bought our tickets and waited for the gates to be open. The gates will open about 12.30 hrs. While walking into the sanctuary, we were concern where the Tigers were, while walking in we saw some boars, deers around the compound. about 10 minutes walk later, we saw the keepers walking the Big Furry Cats out on a dog leash!!! errrr, is that safe ... anyways the lay the tigers under the trees , shaded areas and asked us to go near and they will take our picture with our cameras.

Here is one of the Big Furry Cat ... resting so peaceful... how I wish I can be like them.

Another Big Furry Cat on duty with the official cap.... very sleepy eyes, just after a heavy meal (very like me!)

Most of the Tigers are resting because they have just had their heavy lunches and mid-day sun is not helping either. I was quite wet by now showered with my own sweat. A good place to be for a workout and sweat. Sometimes I wonder why people pay money to get to a gym to sweat it out.

"That's the correct spot, scratch more....."  One of the few cats lying around being photographed.

Now comes the mischievious little cat........

An Korr .. 3 months baby nosy-ing at what I was doing with all the clicking going on. Such a cute cat....

This is how peaceful and serene the cubs are, it really give you a good healing environment when youare next to them.

The cub is so sleepy but enjoys the some company. It did not matter how I pose together with him he was just snoozing away.

Make-Up Course...Week 3

As promised my 3rd week on my make-up course by my 'sifu' Lee Kuen. We got around to play with airbrushing .. my favourite tool and of course spending a big dent in my wallet buying Bobbi Brown make ups. anyways that shopping experience will relate soon enough when I can rcover and breath.

My Coursemate Sophia did a natural make up on me, not so natural wha you first see the picture. That's because most of you will start to laugh or be speechless. My experince in this is priceless. To be a good make-up artist one must be able to let other artist make up on ownself. This will gain a lot of experience in terms of how it will be felt when we are doing the make-up on others.

I respect the samll percentage of male make-up artist as this industry is mainly dominated by female in the profession.

Well 1 more added to the male statistics of male make-up artist soon :)

well here goes :



I know , I know, jaws dropping, speechless, rolling on the floor laughing, rice spitted out, rice spraying on your LCD screen now.

I had my experience , anyone brave enough to try........

Make-Up Course...

As a hobby and personal development, I took up a make-up course with hairdo. My second class was last night. I had to be the model for my course mate Elvira and also me the make up artist on her as well.

Last night was beginning stages of colourful, fun and eyes make up. This was the result of Elvira on me..


I guess I had to be make-up upon to know the feeling of fingers blending foundation on my face, feeling of the hair on the tip of the brush, and sponges in a rotating motion to blend in the foundations.

It was a newer experience for me to be doing a full make-up on my course mate or putting a full make-up on anyone for the matter!!

Most of the time I just did some minor touch ups during my model shoots.

The topic : Smokey eyes... actually I wanted to do the Japanese Geisha but I spared her the agony of her walking back to office at 10 in the night with a white face and a small red lips.... next session I would have the chance.



One the contrary, when one side was done by my Instructor Lee Kuen, with the camera angle corrected, it looked like she was punched in the eye. So we did this for fun ....



' A report was made because I was punched in my right eye - domestic violence. '
What a story it would create. Hmmmm.. now I understand make-up and photography can do some wonders in story telling via pictures.

Voila my first make up on my course mate - smokey eyes with the help of my Instructor Lee Kuen....



Back to practicing on more faces.... lab coat on and seeking for more 'lab rats' ....
just kidding.... anyone willing to allow me to mess errr... errrr .. I mean allowing me to practice and make up on the face..... till then...next week for my 3rd and 4th class...

How to get this shot......

I was doing a few of shot where the model swings the dress to get a fabric dancing effect. I was looking at some magazines and pictures posted some of it are blurred shots and can't seem to freeze the motion. This is a very easy trick to the shot... here goes...

The Camera Settings : Shutter Speed of 1/250, between f/8-f/16 depending on your lighting set up.
The shots were done with 2 x Nikon SB-800 and 1 x SB-600 - Creative Lighting System. There are many more settings that you can experiment with. Be daring just test it out. You will learn faster that way, that how I did it via trail & error method.

A Moment Like This......

The song goes...

A Moment like this... some people wait a life time, some people search forever...... some people wait a life time for a moment like this......."

I guess most can sing to this lyrics. Hmmmmm, I think I am going thru the 'moment' at the moment (pun intended) Haiz... I don't know where to start.

I guess the moment will pass and another waiting game again... Well I seized the moment , but then what am I going to do with it.

My brain is working ever faster than I can write down the ideas. My body is failing me in a lot of ways. But part of the blame also is my Panda nature, can't stop eating.

to be cont.....

Anything is Possible....

Long ago I've always been fascinated with Fashion Shows especially the designers to think and put up a show. A crew that put many hours into the presentation of a walkway.

Whenever I'm in Thailand, I always tune to FTV ala Fashion TV. I will watch it till I doze off and wake up to FTV.

Come this December , the word Impossible , I guess will be out of my dictionary. My company participated in the Kuala Lumpur International Batik exhibition & convention. While I was with the organiser I just casually ask if they have a time slot for me to use on the stage.

He came back yes! 45mins for a fashion show. I was happy for the few moment.... now comes the stress and headache.

Planning for the show and also preparing for the booth and all marketing materials. Well I would think after this event I will really sit down and write a book since I'm not a fashion designer, not an artist nor a fashion show organiser. All I have is ideas and the determination.

Finger crossed it all goes well in less than 40 days. That will be 960 hours... not a lot of time left...
I will need all the help I can get and afford. Working on a limited budget as well....

After all these I will need a rest to re-charge but knowing me I will be on my toes again for some other crazy business ideas.....

ImPossible = I'm Possible ...........

Dun you hate it !!!!

Aaarrrrrgh.... Don't you hate it when you were the one that did all the research and testing and someone else claiims glory and say rubbish of thier hard work......

What a shock!!!!

Malaysia - The heart of South East Asia, with some iconic buildings in Kuala Lumpur one would find it fascinated to visit all these places being a tourist. The Petronas Twin towers , The KL Tower, etc.....

My friend came from Thailand for his first time and obviously I became the local tour guide and ambassador of Kuala Lumpur to him.

1st stop - KL Tower, 400 + meter high - 4th tallest building in the world. One would open your jaw in awe standing dwarfed under the tower as you walk into the entrance. I look sooooo tiny......

Anyways bringing my friend up to the entrace and buying the tickets..... I think you would FAINT just to know how much it cost to take a lift to the observation deck and have a view of our hazy KL skyline.

A whopping RM38.00 , I asked the cashier if there is any Local prices ? She bluntly reply NO!....

Normal circumstances , if I was a family of 5 on a Sunday bringing the family to visit local tourist attraction I would made a very HUGE dent in my wallet.

RM38 x 5 pax = RM190.00

For the average household it could have been a week groceries. Hmmmmm opportunity cost which shall I choose... innie , minnie, miney , moe..... I choose (drum rolls) a bit hard to decide here... hmmmmmm

OBVIOUSLY I would choose not to go !!............

Tourism Malaysia encourages us to go local tours...... How are they going to achieve this when there is no Local Malaysia prices for local Malaysians!!!

Gee I wonder why Air Asia has been doing so well promoting to us Malaysians to travel Asean countries.

I sincerely hope all the Tourism Authority in Malaysia can get their act together and say what they mean..... and not come up with an excuse that it is affordable comparing to other countries.

Updates

It has been a while since I updated my blog....

A lot has happen since my last post. Hmm where to start....

There is a lot in the pipeline for the next 5 months or before the end of 2009 (Wow that's fast, I lost counted this year) 5 months = 20 + weeks equals SCARY........

What it takes to tell a LIE!

Well, it came to my attention on this topic. It's funny how we tell lies be it a white lie, blatantly a stupid lie, a lie to cover some other lies the list goes on and on.

A perfect example we use daily.... if we are late to an appointment the waiting party calls very confidently we say 'On the way'; 'very near'; 'traffic jam' and lots more :)

We use it enough times it just comes out of our mouth ever so smoothly like going to toilet on an easy day.

Well it was so funny when you know someone is telling you a lie, I'm sure most of you have been through the situation beofre.

Mine happened , oh oh I mean a friend of a friends story......

The news actually got to a friend of a friend's (fof) well before they tell them the news. so this fof of mine just listen in and listen to what they have to say. The story they tell you is funny.
Not going inot the specifiecs of the whole story but will reveal it in a much later time.

Well looking at the whole senario they would have to live with thier lies the whole of the life I guess most people can live with it. It a 'norm' thing I guess. The best part is they are not covering it lolz..... how brave can we get these days. I hope the new generation will not be like this.

Well what our teachers taught us in school 'honesty is the best policy' that went down the drain preety quick just like me downing my coke on a hot day......

haaaa.. the thought of coke now relates me to food and I'm hungry now. I guess I will stop here to top up my stomach.

Rescue Rescue !!!! Woof woof ........

There is a lot of publicity on this issue, also there is a lot of finger pointing. All in the mist of us listing to third party's information. We start getting the wrong conclusions.......

I've organised a shoot this Sunday May 24, 2009 and the proceeds of the photoshoot will be used to purchase dog food for the Furry Friend's Farm.

For those who have not been to Pulau Ketam, join me if you have the time. I have been visiting this island since I was a young boy. I do not wish that the name of this community to be tarnished by us all who have not read the facts correctly and information manipulated. Come and see the community for your first hand news and see what great people with simple minds they have lived on this island way way before we were born (for some of us)

Contact me if you are interested to help out, visit the island etc.
my e-mail tommy@0123827733.com and the numbers in the e-mail address is my handphone number as well.
I guarantee you that pan8a will not sleep on this help mission .......

Body Painting Part II

This is the continuation of the Body Painting series. This round I had the help of Alison to help paint and Michelle for standing more than 7 hours to let us paint.

Body Painting

My Lastest works for my photography project - Body Painting. I have been always enviuos of the artisan who can draw and design very beautifully. I tried to brush up on my drawing skills but nothing compared to the gurus' around.

All out of passion in my photography and fun, I just studied how the Body Painting artist do thier works and tried to learn by looking at thier finished works. This is my current first try.

Some said it's not body painting because it is a dress... hmmm for your viewing pleasure

Suppliers Secrets

As we are into photography these days, we all want to earn some form of income from investing in the camera and lenses that we have. I will give you sine insights to how some pictures are done, how they are made and where to get props, where to buy stuffs and suppliers who has the items.

Stay tuned...................

Blank !!!

There comes a time where our brains just refuse to work and there are times where our brains are working full speed not able to stop. I guess I have been in both the modes since the beginning of the year. Mentally and physically the body is not able to cope. What happens next?

The body will shut down even if you are still conscious. Anyways enough about my rantings.....

I'm to set a personal challange, a challange of 10,000 hours. It says 10,000 hours to perfection. Currently I have done over a period of 5 years in photography most likely minus off all the eat, sleep, sh*t.. that does not leave me much productive time.

I am hoping by the end of this year I can come out with a series of pictures that concepts I have thought of out of a box. Not the conventional pretty model pictures...........

My endavour now starts for me to crack my brains in location , theme, techniques, time, and most importantly cost $$$......



This was something thought of when I was doing some homework for a shoot. What will happen next ......

A lost to the Arts world - IB

February 20, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: Renowned world icon artist Datuk Ibrahim Hussein, affectionately known as Ib, died of a heart attack at the Pantai Medical Centre here at 3.50am on Thursday.

He was 22 days short of his 73rd birthday on March 13. He leaves behind his wife of 35 years Sim Hussein@Aisyah Abdullah and daughter Alia, 30.

(Source : The Star newspaper)

Indeed was shocking news to the Arts world including myself. I was just chatting with him not too long ago. He still jokes and we still laughed about some daily affairs.

On my last visit, I brought my friend and collague Michelle to his home and we met up with Sim as well. After we chatted, Ib & Sim brought us down to his home studio and showed us some of his latest works.

I was to get back to him on a silk-screen pattern as he wanted to do a piece on Barrack Obama. It was really shocking news to me that he is gone.

Chinese New Year and I became a millionaire

It's the Third day of Chinese New Year. I welcomed the golden OX and bid farewell to the rat. (Rats!, (no pun intended) I forgot to ask the rat for his great cooking recipe)

I became a millionaire overnight (literally). The story goes like this, I'm preparing for a trip to Jogjarkarta thus I had to exchange some currency to Indonesian Rupiah. RM800 gets me 2.3 million Indonesian Rupiah. I'm a millionaire overnight!!

I will try to spend it wisely and keep to become a millionaire ...

Happy Chinese New Year.... Year of the OX

In less than 50,000 seconds(+8 GMT) the Chinese community around the globe will usher in the year of the OX and we say farewell to the rat and we'll meet again in the next 11 years.

Happy Chinese New year ... eat more , rest more, get more ang pow....... be more prosperous.

2009... aiks

With a blink of an eye, I did not notice that 2009 has gone more than 23,000 minutes.
A new start for 2009, lots of exciting changes and challenges to look forward to.
7 days of work and endless hours of juicing my brain cells.

I will update my blog more frequently for 2009 as it is in my plans.....