Bao Tian Kong 宝天宫

Last week I took a motorcycle ride up the hill traveling from Balik Pulau to Air Itam on an unusual route.

Talking about the route, it is usually taken by me and my friends during the 九王爷 festive week (falls on 9th month of Chinese lunar calender) by foot to a Chinese temple called 清觀寺. It is usually a 2 hours journey on foot from Balik Pulau up till the temple. I will try to post up photos taken around that temple later.

I have google-ed abit on 九王爷, If you would like to know more about this festive event, check it at http://forum.photopintu.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5873

And here’s some brief description about 清觀寺 temple found in Wikimapia

A Taoism Temple for the god of “Nine Emperors”. It was built on a hill top in 1890 (this hill is known locally as ‘Cheng Jee Chan’- literally meaning 1200 steps of stone stairways leading to the hill shrine). A festival / praying ceremony is held consecutively on the first nine days of the 9th Month in Lunar / Chinese Calendar every year. The climax is on the midnight of the 9th day where the worshipers send the deities back to heaven…

宝天宫 Bao Tian Gong Chinese Temple (HDR)

宝天宫 Bao Tian Gong Chinese Temple (HDR)

Going back to the topic itself, I went to another temple called 宝天宫. It is located somewhere 2km away from 清觀寺 measured in straight line (Obviously, it is not that near as you can imagine in real life up the hill). I don’t know much about this temple but for one thing I’m freaking sure. It offers great view of Balik Pulau from there! :D

Read more

Popularity: 4% [?]

Kuala Lumpur skyline

I took this photo below with Sigma 18-200 with 15 seconds shutter and at around f/11 with 4 degrees apart for each photo. Combined with PTGui later on. If you can check from the map below. The camera is looking down south.

HINT: Click on the photo to get super duper big resolution. :D:D

Panorama of Kuala Lumpur. Overlooking gombak, setapak, wangsa maju

For this, I decided to use Canon 10-22mm set around 15mm with 30 seconds shutter at Tv Mode. With such long shutter, I expected the camera will use small aperture thus I did not need to be worry about the depth of field achieved. From the map, it is actually looking at North-West

Panorama of Kuala Lumpur. Overlooking Setapak, Wangsa Maju and surrounding area

The map below shows where I took the panorama from. It’s taken from a high-rise residential building along Jalan Genting Klang near Tasik Danau.

What you need to take these panorama?

A tripod is needed, vital! Camera with lens is needed too, obviously. Technically, overlap at least 60% is good to ensure you won’t lose linkage between each set later to produce a good panorama. And…. a stool!

I was shooting from the emergency staircase and the wall is quite high. I needed a stool to stand on it in order to get enough height to control the camera. Life is more fun and better with this little but important tool. Thanks Wendy for that!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Buying first DSLR

I spent hours discussing with XW giving him opinions in buying his first DSLR today. Here’s some complication that may be useful for you! :)

Sony is hot now!

The big three? Okay, maybe I should say The Big Two. Canon and Nikon.

The next best possible player that bite up the juicy DSLR market would be Sony. Sony is new young aggressive player in the emerging hot DSLR competition lately. Sony is being aggressive in pumping features into its body like Image Stabilization built-in to their bodies.

If you ask me, well it depends on what level you are in now. Too much of variables, read on!

Read more

Popularity: 2% [?]