An Amateur's Point of View

November 28, 2012 marks the day where Thais go to the temple to pray to their gods to offer of respect to the water spirits. Loi Krathong  takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional  Thai lunar calendar . In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Loi  means 'to float', while  krathong  refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which floats on the water. The traditional krathong are made of the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a  spider lily  plant. Modern krathongs are more often made of  bread  or  styrofoam . A bread krathong will disintegrate after a few days and can be eaten by fish. Banana stalk krathong are also biodegradable, but styrofoam krathongs are sometimes banned, as they pollute the rivers and may take years to decompose. A krathong is decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, incense sticks, and a candle. A small coin is sometimes included as an offe...

About a few weeks ago my faculty had their Integration Party together with all Thai and International students. This is also to introduce the new students who joined the faculty early this semester. The program starts with traditional dances by the Thai students and then we had our dinner together. The food was good as usual. After that we had the International students perform some songs as well as some games by the faculty members.

This is how lovely the weather and the surroundings in my university. I never thought that during the summer time the flowers would actually turn very nice. I think it's because of globalization. Haha... Oh well. I shot this HDR image and edited them in the newest Photoshop CS6. The interface looks really good. I never actually got any good quality image to post up in my blog but when I go out and take photos I'll try my best to put up some images here.

One morning I was walking to a friend's house. Since early mornings are my favorite time to take pictures I brought my camera wondering there'll be some photos that I can actually take. I was passing some flowers and trees and I got to see how the sun rays was passing through the trees and flowers. At that point, I switched my camera to take 5 exposures so I can make it into HDR image. However, just as I was about the complete the last 2 exposures, my camera's battery went dead. Oh man... Now I can't make those photos into HDR. When I came back and checked them on the computer, the looked kind of nice. I immediately edited them in Lightroom since it's faster with using the presets I've done before. I changed the colors into black and white to give it a more classic look.

Being an artist sure is a good thing when it comes to creating something unique and creative. The things that made people 'wow' gives us a wonderful feeling. For me, I call myself an artist when I'm behind the camera taking photos of people and landscapes. I try to follow rules and sometimes try to break them so I can capture amazing effects. Of course sometimes creativity comes when we see other people draw and color up their artwork and showcase them to us the readers and visitors looking at images being shown. My best place to see artwork is online where I just type the keywords of selected things that come to my mind. Whether its landscapes or portraiture I'll send the finish images of other people. Being one of the yearbook staff in my university allows me to show my abilities in creating effects of the photos I took or maybe designs of certain things. I recently made a yearbook photo advertisement since I always asked my friend who is good at doing visual effect...

During my last holiday in July I had the chance to visit a beautiful place in Hua Hin, Thailand. Hua Hin is a popular attraction among Thai and foreign visitors. There are many interesting landmarks that are built in this place. One of the landmarks is the Klai Kangwon Palace or the Summer Palace. If you are an avid traveler who is interested in Thai culture and its history, you might want to visit this palace.  Built in 1926, soon after King Rama VII was crowned, the palace consists of three Spanish-style mansions overlooking the sea. Besides the beautiful ornamental gardens, the palace also features a shell museum. Their Majesties the King and Queen of Thailand still stay at Klai Kangwon Palace when on trips to Prachuab Khiri Khan and surrounding areas. It takes about 3-hour journey from the city of Bangkok in order to reach this place.   Map of the palace  Entrance My 2 friends   Entrance  Inside the palace compound ...

OK. I know my blog should be a photography related blog. You must be thinking why I'm suddenly talking about fashion. Just to put it simple, I love fashion. Ever since stepping on the Land of Smiles I've been influenced by my friends into fashion. Before, I would put my hairstyle to the classic hairstyle of bola tengah or middle line hairstyle (I'm not sure what the call it) and wear clothes that kind of look nice. I never even ventured myself into putting on the cool outfits the Korean, Japanese or British fashion. I only know I was going to wear what looks nice back then. Ever since Korean drama and pop music hit the world, I was still going through lives not knowing about them. I don't really know much about them until I came to university. That's like close to 2 years ago. I kind of know a few Korean actors and singers but not really into them. Since downloading dramas and listening to Korean songs on Youtube was quite hard because of the slow Internet connectio...

What's nice when the weather is hot is to eat something nice. Do you think so? Oh yes, I have a new love right now. That's right. It's ice-cream. I know it's full of sugar and sweets in it but then I can't resist the temptation of eating one. At my university's cafeteria, I'm able to purchase some Wall's ice-creams just for about 13 Baht each. It would probably cost about RM1.30 or $0.40 in US Dollars. Quite cheap right? One of the flavor that I like the most is vanilla mixed with chocolate. I wonder if anyone who would refuse to at least try it once. While browsing through the photos of Wall's ice-cream, I can see a lot of selection, taste and style. So I'm actually done eating those ice-creams while blogging this. My favorite flavor... Vanilla chocolate.  BTW, Happy Tuesday all.

I've been missing home too much right now. Blogging was not one of them though. Although I had access to the Internet 24 hours a day I just don't feel the need to write something here. I personally feel that this is where I can fully express myself in writing besides doing Facebook-ing, Tweeting, Tumblr-ing, etc. However, there's just too much apps online that doing blogging was not already one of the interest. But still, I feel I want to write something in here. Last weekend I was invited to my lecturer's house for lunch. He told me they were serving Malaysian food which I know I can't resist. We had nasi lemak and Sarawakian laksa. It was super delicious only if you know how to prepare them. We had Malaysian friends coming to enjoy the food. One of the delicacies was a tempoyak (is that the right spelling?). Well it's a durian paste usually mixed with anchovies or chili. If you like to eat durian, you'll know how the smell and taste. For me, I love those ...

This is my friend, Felicia, who was a senior at my university. She is from Sabah, Malaysia, the same place where I'm from.  EDIT (2013) Currently she's a Master degree student at a university in UK. Here's a sneek peek to my first model for an outdoor photography session. 

Yes.. That's a Thai language which means Hello. You must be guessing why I say that. Well, actually I'm learning Thai and that's because I'm in Thailand already. I was busy doing things here and there and just couldn't do blogging. I'm now furthering my studies to one of the international universities called Asia-Pacific International University (APIU). The place where I am right now is in Muak Lek, Saraburi, Thailand. It's a countryside town. I've been here once back in 2007 for an international youth camp meeting. That was 3 years ago and now I'm here again to do my bachelor degree. The university is a beautiful place. I got to enjoy the greenery as well as the people of which most of them come from all over Thailand and also some other countries such as Japan and South Africa. So you can say it's an international university because you can see many people from different places that come to study here. I can just say, it's good to be here...

Took this one during our last day at Muak Lek, Saraburi, Thailand before going back to Bangkok that afternoon.

As I mention during my two previous post, I was in Thailand two years ago. I didn't know yet about blogging as well as posting photos in Facebook or some other social network. I think I posted them in my Friendster. That was quite some time already. That day, we have just finish our camping at Chimkul Camp. We stopped by a big sunflower farm. Some people were selling their products of kuaci or Sunflower seeds. We did bought some things as gifts and decorations. The best thing about the whole things is that I got to see a real sunflower. Not only one but the whole farm!

My very first abseiling was done in an adventure camp. Not sure whether It's called. It has to do with scouts I guess. I remembered the only safety rope was only one and the only rope for me to go down the tower. It was terrifying at first but as I went down, it felt better. See for yourself how it was done.

2 years ago, I was travelling in Thailand for a Pathfinder Camporee. We held it in Chimkul Camp, Muak Lek, Saraburi, Thailand. The place is really beautiful. The place is a big camp site. It was December. The weather was hot because I guess it was summer time. The second last day we were there, we went to a park called  Namtok Chet Sao Noi National Park. It is really a nice place to go. The waterfall is just beautiful. Although I'm sure whether there is really a big tall one. By the way, here's a photo of me during that Camporee. In the background are people getting baptize.