ninth sunn

happy holiday everyone!

2009-12-19T00:00:00.009Z

...& farewell my friends

as some of you may already know, i have decided to cease blogging and this will be my last post. my sincere apologise to those of you who had recently joined in my blog for my decision to leave blogger.

my thanks to:

...14th bird for flew over the ninth sunn & kept returning back ever since. i just hope i didn't turn you into a coo coo bird (lol, only jogging dude). 14th bird was my first passer to leave his kind comments on my blog. not only that, you're recommended all your visitors to check out my blog. that was most kind of you to do that. thank you.
btw guys, check out his new blog site, 14th birds eye. there're some serious great photos & i'm sure, there's yet many to follow.

also among my first visitors were jess & framing images and memories. thank you both for all your encouraging messages ever since.
...jess, i can't thank you enough for nominated me twice on your blog. it was nice gestures of you to have done that. i'm well chuffed. your photography is going from strength to strength. keep it up, jess. i wish you every success on your study & your future in photography world of which i'm sure you will.

...fi&m, for put up with all my dry sense of humour comments on your blog. i hope you didn't get offended by it all & see the funny side of it. i enjoyed visiting your blog because you always came up with interesting & creatives work each time i visited. they are most inspiring & good to see you back.

...i was lucky to have linda & bridget as followers. ever since you discovered my blog, especially linda, you returned back without failed, each time i posted new blogs. you gave me encouragements & motivations to keep on blogging for the past months. what's more, i felt like as if i was living in america through your blogs. i got to know of your culture, your environment & your way of good family living. thank you both for sharing!

...trojan, andrei paul, veredit & the rest of my followers...thanks everyone for stop by & found interest on what i had to share with you all. it's been a great experience & i've learned so much from each individual of you from many different part of the world. thanks again for sharing all your wonderful work to the rest of the world to see & learn from one & another. it's been most inspiring to all of us!

thank you guys...

...and have a great festive celebration
best wishes to everyone for the new coming year
& stay safe!

the last journey

2009-11-15T00:00:00.009Z

angkor thom

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

bayon

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

phnom kulen

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

bantey srey

________________________________________________

angkor thom, the great city, was the third & the last capital city of khmer empire. at the centre of the city found the prasat bayon. jayavarman VII dedicated the bayon to the buddha and on the tower consisted four faces looking out to the north, east, south & west. it was believed that the faces were based on jayavarman himself.
the top three photos are of the gate to the city. each side of the gate lies a row of statues pulling a tug of war with nagas (dragons) as rope. on the right hand side represented the good god fellows & the other side are the big bad giants.
where as the three photos of phnom kulen, this was built buy king jayavarman II, the founder of khmer empire. throughout the surface of the river bed were carved with shapes of hindu sacred symbols where supposedly one would wash off one sin. while we were there we were pointed out by the local that there's a large statue of visnu in the middle of the river. but the water was quite high & the current was strong. we never got to see the statue but take their word for it.
this will be my last post on my hometown. it's just a fraction of the city i've shown you here. i hope someday you'll be able to visit & see it yourself in true forms. it's really worth the trip.

sleeping city

2009-11-08T00:00:00.012Z

preah khan

____________________________________

____________________________________

ta som

____________________________________

____________________________________

bantey kdei

____________________________________

all temples shown here were built by king jayavarman VII. the first top five were from preah khan site. and from what i was told, this temple was originally built as victory over the invading chams but he later dedicated it to his father in 1191 as he did with ta som.

enigma

2009-11-01T05:00:00.005Z

_____________________________________________________

ta prohm

recently, best known for tomb raiders of lara croft. the temple was badly disrupted during the thai invasion at the end of khmer empire in 1431. the citizen abandoned angkor. and forest trees took over and embedded the city that became known as the lost city.

this temple is called ta prohm and was built by king jayavarman VII in 1186 dedicated to his mother. for us, he was our greatest king of all time. also known as preah ang thom, the great king.

king jayavarman VII didn't get the throne not until in his early 60s. only when the cham (vietnamese) invaded the country, between 1177 & 1178, that he came into historical prominence by leading the army & ousted out the invaders. as a result he claimed himself the next king of khmer empire and ruled as a brilliant king for over 30 years. the cham persisted & returned back during his early reign but he repelled the attack right back to the north & took control of champa (vietnam).

with the influence of his wife, he became religious & devoted to buddhism. he built a large number of new buddhist temples. such as the above ta prohm, preah khan, angkor thom, bayon & many few others (see my next posts). In addition, he constructed rest houses, roads, hospitals & reservoirs.

jayavarman VII remains a potent symbol of national pride for the present day cambodians. as a buddhist king in a now buddhist country he is regarded with great respect. during his lifetime he succeeded in creating a legacy that no other leaders in our history have been able to equal. he died at the age of over 90 in 1218. ever since, cambodia became from bad to worst and the country's been successfully destroyed by its late successors to this day.

the rise & fall of angkor

2009-10-23T23:36:00.037+01:00

___________________________________________

angkor

i thought i give you a quick history about cambodia so you know a bit of its past. let's go back from 802ad. when the khmer king jayavarman II, the founder of angkor, pronounced himself as a universal monarch & declared independence from java. back then, cambodia was known as the Khmer empire. thailand, laos , malaysia &, later, vietnam were all once part of khmer empire. right up until 1431ad when the thai invaded & sacked angkor & caused the khmer elite to migrate to phnom penh what is now the capital of cambodia.

above are from the famous angkor vat. means the city temple. it was built by king suryavarman II in the early 12th century (1113) to honour the hindu god “visnu”. it took over 37 years to completed. though he never lived to see the finish temple. he died just before it was completed. the design itself was based from the hindu architecture and it was to represent the mount meru. a sacred mountain in hindu, buddhist cosmology. it is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. it is the largest religious architecture in the world. it was in this region, angkor, the original capital of cambodia.

quite honestly i don’t think my photos do justice to the real thing. the scale of these temples are phenomenal (another must see if you can). the walls are covered with bas reliefs telling stories of its era. above are some the carved sculptures of dancers known the apsara dance. it's where our tradition classical dance was originated. influenced by the indian hindu forms & inspiration from the mythological court of the gods and from its celestial dancers. thoughout its rulers, the dance took on its own unique form adding movements and meaning & made into khmer identity.

prior to the angkor era, cambodia, was the java invasion (8th century), before that was chenla (550ad - 8th century) and even before that was funan (1st century – 613ad).

trading place

2009-10-15T00:00:00.001+01:00

the borough market

____________________________________

time passes by like there’s no tomorrow. so far i managed to show you a handful of my collection from places i visited & came across. but if there’s one place i want to show you most and that is my own homeland, cambodia. fortunately, i’m able to do just that. needed to say not for one minute if i ever thought that any of us would be able to go back & see our country again. just goes to show. never give up hopes. life is filled with surprises.

early this year, our family decided to go back to our hometown & meet up for the first time since we left the country over 30 years ago. now that it’s been open back to the rest of the world & allow visitors back in.

well what can i say, there isn’t a word that came closer to describe the feelings we had. they said “there’s no place like home” and you don’t appreciate the meaning of it until you encountered one. it was the best family holiday we’d ever had. It was so surreal. i can’t say it enough how great it was. up till this day, the feelings are still staying in me.

so for the next few posts will be about places of where i was from cambodia. nothing that you might not already see but if you’re interested please check it out.

but hey, for now, hope you like the above serie. they are from one of london several famous markets, the borough market. i love market. the early start, the smells, the noise & tones of great produce. all packed up in one place.

let me race you

2009-10-05T00:00:00.003+01:00

gumball rally 3000

a cannonball runs racing style started from london

_____________________________________________________________

notting hill

2009-09-15T00:00:00.004+01:00

the carnival
we missed out big time this year for the notting hill carnival due to the move. here's some great moments from previous year. notting hill is renouned for its carnival. it's the biggest caribbean street festival held in europe. i believe, this was going back since 1966 and it seems to be still going strong despite the controversy of safety aspect and what the rest of it. it's just hard to relate notting hill without the carnival to my mind.

_____________________________________________________________

dreamscape

2009-09-01T18:42:00.001+01:00

...and so we moved...omg, if only you knew what a nightmare we had. so often, i wish i could fast forward this moving part. it's amazingly tedious. for the last few weekends, we did nothing but clearing out. get ready for the move. it went on & on & on. i never realised how much junk we're stocking. there's more junk in our house than the dump yard. so glad that was over. i suppose our consolation was we can now start things fresh & look forward to the next chapter. most likely be collecting new junk but hey. what else do we do?
so anyway, let's chill out a little. here's something good for mind theoropy? it was called the "dreamscape". i tell ya, you couldn't be more dreaming if you tried once inside. it was like as if you were walking through a spaceship in another world or in a differ century. what with the humming sound music like on the background. it was quite surreal but great imagination...oh we had to wear this overcoat poncho like? so that we all became part of the environmentscape if you like. space out!

_____________________________________________________________

graffiti

2009-08-09T17:23:00.044+01:00

i came across these amazing graffiti work. i thought it's an opportunity for me to have another go with some more photos stitching. it's my second attempt & am quite pleased how they all came out this time. what's more it's the longest i ever tried. i originally stitched the picture 2 & 3 together but it was too long for this blog so i separated them into 2.
the location itself perhaps is not where you want to hang out with all your camera gears but i just couldn't resist with these amazing drawings. i thought they needed to be seen. somehow i ended up in a very isolate & unfamiliar environment. i really shouldn't be here. i was concerned for split seconds if i 'm honest but glad i was there & got these images. as i said, the level of skills involved with some of these are phenomenal. well deserve a credit.

_____________________________________________________________

they came, they saw & they conquered

2009-08-01T09:00:00.109+01:00

the fa cup final

the football association cup, one of the biggest challenge cup of the season. a knockout cup competition for all english football premier league & football league. it begins round about november & finishes in may. with a total of 14 rounds. the final is usually taken place on saturday at wembley stadium soon after the premier league games finish. winner of the competition will then automatically qualify for the uefa cup (union of european football associations). the second most important european competition.
this year final is chelsea v everton & the final score is 2 - 1 to chelsea. official attendance was 89,826.

________________________________________________________________________

venise, venise...

2009-07-12T12:59:00.027+01:00

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

masquerade

2009-07-01T19:46:00.024+01:00

the venice mask festival

To all keen photographers out there. If you want something exiting & vibrant city to photograph while on holiday, Venice is one of a Must Do place. Especially during this Mask Carnival. I promise you that you won't regret it. It's like one paradise holiday for all kind photographers. The city is filled with photos opportunities. Every corners of the streets you'll find something that would inspire you. The festival itself is normally taking place for 2 weeks during the month of February (but please check online for exact date as it varied for each year).
The celebration has been known to date back to the 13th century so I was told. It revives the colourful masquerade balls of the period back then. Anyone can join in. In fact, most of the people who I met & took part weren't many Venetian if any. They were generally tourist. some were designed & made their own outfits & some were hired from the local. Not a cheap city though I must warn you. But it's truely a phenomenal place to visit.

________________________________________________________________________

one late late spring...

2009-06-14T09:00:00.000+01:00

I'm SO backlogged with all my pictures. By now, most of them are a little out of season. I wasn't sure whether I should post them or not since it's June now. But hey, I took them so I might as well, Eh?
________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

running with pride

2009-06-05T09:00:00.000+01:00

the london marathon

men's winners
1 wanjiru (kenya) 2 kebede (ethiopia) 3 gharib (morocco)
________________________________________________________________________

women's winners
1 mikitenko (germany) 2 yamauchi (great britain) 3 shobukova (russia)
________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

...finally, making it

2009-05-22T09:00:00.001+01:00

backstage

________________________________________________________________________

the marche goes on...

2009-05-15T09:00:00.000+01:00

catwalk
2 of 2

________________________________________________________________________

the great walk

2009-05-08T12:00:00.000+01:00

catwalk
1 of 2

________________________________________________________________________

how do i look

2009-05-02T08:19:00.001+01:00

Alternative Fashion

Hi guys. For the next few posts, I thought, I post you the fashion show that I attended last month. The event took place once a year & sponsored by the Rescue Cream for post graduate designers to make their names. It's also an opportunity for the new models (young & older)...and photographers even. They too are starting up their careers. it's one awesome event for all new comers in fashion art. Recently I spotted a model on a TV ad for a big cosmetic name and she was from last year show. It was so cool to see that she made it. As we all know, in this field it's not easy to make that first step. I was well pleased for her.
Anyway, I thought I post them in 3 categories. First The models (below). Then, the catwalk & finally the backstage. Hope you'll like them. Oh BTW, some of these, It's better to see in large size.

________________________________________________________________________

built to impress

2009-04-20T21:24:00.000+01:00

selfridges building
This building is actually based in birmingham city at the bull ring centre. It belongs to a well known retail store in the uk known as selfridges & co. The exterior architecture of this building is absolutely phenomenal! It's one those buildings that you either love it or hate it as the st mary axe building aka the guerkin building. I love it!. Though having said that, I was most disappointed with its interior. It was a bit of let down in comparison.
________________________________________________________________________

london eye pod
________________________________________________________________________

london eye
This was taken on a clear deep blue sky day. It's great when it's like this because when you want to convert it to black & white, you'll get a much better sky backdrop than a white wash one. Most of my photos are converted to BW with shots like this. Also here, I was lucky enough to have the sun lite up all the pipework which give a greater contrast.
________________________________________________________________________

liverpool street
________________________________________________________________________

selfridges shields

________________________________________________________________________

reflected buildings
________________________________________________________________________

Lloyds
Here, during summer there's a building event called "open house". Meaning for that weekend you can visit most buildings in london that listed on the guide book. That's how I managed to get all these pictures. This building belongs to the Lloyds insurance Company. Designed by sir richard rogers. well... & his team, I should add. Anyhow, the building is just absolutely stunning!
________________________________________________________________________

eye supports
For safety reason, this section is now blocked as protestors kept tried to climb up & tied themselves up there. I believe the last one was dressed up as spiderman or some sort.
________________________________________________________________________

british museum
This was designed by one of my favourite architect, sir norman foster. He designed most of the london todays landmarks ie the city hall below, the millennium bridge, the guerkin, wembley stadium and so on. That triangular mesh shapes is pretty much his trademark. Great inspiration for his continuous standard of achievement.
________________________________________________________________________

city hall stairway
________________________________________________________________________

new or old
________________________________________________________________________

tate modern
________________________________________________________________________

city hall stairway

random

2009-04-01T17:00:00.000+01:00

________________________________________________________________________

and us

2009-03-14T18:45:00.001Z

cat's eyes

________________________________________________________________________

siesta
________________________________________________________________________

dozy
________________________________________________________________________

prrr
________________________________________________________________________

bird watch
________________________________________________________________________

white swan
________________________________________________________________________

untitle
________________________________________________________________________

ducking about
________________________________________________________________________

us

2009-03-11T14:50:00.000Z

________________________________________________________________________

not texas nor hilton

2009-02-28T12:33:00.000Z

eiffel lights
________________________________________________________________________

autumn in paris
________________________________________________________________________

eiffel climb
________________________________________________________________________

cyclist
________________________________________________________________________

garçon
________________________________________________________________________

crossroad
________________________________________________________________________

la pluie
________________________________________________________________________

l'homme et ses oiseaux
________________________________________________________________________

stairway to sacré coeur
________________________________________________________________________

rue du faubourg saint-antoine
________________________________________________________________________

opera square

________________________________________________________________________

a walk in new york

2009-02-03T06:30:00.000Z

Wall Street Bull

________________________________________________________________________

Manhattan Bridge

________________________________________________________________________

Chrysler

________________________________________________________________________

Greenwich Village

________________________________________________________________________

Justice Court

________________________________________________________________________

Wall Street
I was fascinating with these street lights dangling in the middle of the road.
We were on a sightseeing bus, at one point, we were told to duck as it was so low. I felt, in its own right, It's a form of art.

________________________________________________________________________

Sample Sale

________________________________________________________________________

Yellow Cab
The thing I noticed about photographing NY was the lack of lights.
I just couldn't keep the ISO below 400 & that was Mid of June.

________________________________________________________________________

Broadway Ride
I'm quite pleased with this shot. I had trouble about taking another Broadway shot. But when I spotted a couple ladies about to get into a cab, I thought It would be a good subject. I quickly approached their cab as closely as I could so that when you're looking at the picture, you feel as if you're part of the scene (...that was the intention anyway).

________________________________________________________________________

Soho

________________________________________________________________________

Refuse
Actually, I recreated this from my day dream. It was late afternoon-early evening, 5.30-6pm, after a long day sightseeing NY. We ended up in this starbuck at the 5th Avenue (you might just see our reflection on the picture).
For a good long while, I found myself gazed at these refuse bags. I was so relaxed & chilled out. Everything's happening surround me was just a blurred of noises. When I came around, I thought, I could try to recapture what was just happened.

________________________________________________________________________

Guggenheim
Each time I visited the Guggenheim Galleries, I found myself looking at the buildings more than the exhibitions. It seemed to disrupting me from the displayed Art.

________________________________________________________________________

london lights

2009-01-26T22:20:00.000Z

The Rise of Wembley

________________________________________________________________________

City Hall

________________________________________________________________________

City Art (P)

________________________________________________________________________

Bankers

________________________________________________________________________

Moonlight
This wasn't like any ordinary full moon. It was the largest full moon of the year. If you look closely, you can see its size, is almost a quarter size of the wheel. It was huge. We were watching it from the Primrose Rose Hill. People cheered & some chanted as it rose up. It was quite a spiritual evening that night.

________________________________________________________________________

City Storm
________________________________________________________________________

The Golden Eagle

________________________________________________________________________

The Invader

________________________________________________________________________

City Art (L)

________________________________________________________________________

Westminster

________________________________________________________________________

Sunrise

________________________________________________________________________

Night Call

________________________________________________________________________

Early Birds

________________________________________________________________________

Bishopgate
________________________________________________________________________

gormley

2009-01-24T09:10:00.000Z

Above The Eye

________________________________________________________________________

By The Eye

________________________________________________________________________

Follow Me

________________________________________________________________________

Something Out There

________________________________________________________________________

Up On The Roof

________________________________________________________________________

Carmen vs Gormley

________________________________________________________________________

Halt

________________________________________________________________________

Gormley at Sunset

________________________________________________________________________

picture these

2009-01-23T19:09:00.000Z

St Mary Axe's View

________________________________________________________________________

The Brick Lane

________________________________________________________________________

Amen

________________________________________________________________________

We were there

________________________________________________________________________

Lunch

________________________________________________________________________

The Bourgeois Pet

________________________________________________________________________

There
This was taken during the Chinese New Year Celebration in Trafalgar Square, London. Crowd was building up. I was waiting by the front stage & noticed a few people stop by, above the banner. From where I was, they looked quite animated with the graphic below them so I took a few shots for humor. This one works best.

________________________________________________________________________

The Mural Art

________________________________________________________________________

The Spectators

________________________________________________________________________

Street Artist

________________________________________________________________________

Ballerina
This was taken during the Masquerade Festival in Venice in 2006. For those of you whose keen in photography & haven't been to the festival, I advise you to pack your gear & head it that way. It's the Photographers Paradise. The event is taking place for 2-4 weeks? around end of February (check online for exact date). OMG! Go there. You won't regret it. You need to experience it yourself. I will post you more of this later date.
________________________________________________________________________

The Mayor's Thames Festival - London

________________________________________________________________________

first thing first

2009-01-16T17:00:00.000Z

Hey, thank you for visiting my blog.

My aim was to set up a website for showing all my photography work but never managed to get around it. Instead, I decided to use this blog space for a quick fix until later. Please feel free to add any comments. I'll be more than happy to hear your views. I hope that you will enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy capturing the pictures.

My favorite subjects are People & Architecture. I love capturing people, doing things on the spur of the moment when they don't pay attention to their everyday life.
In my pictures, partically on the subject of"People", I want to show 3 key elements "Moment, Time & Space". I will try to explain you more what I mean by this on my pictures. I hope it shows what I'm trying to achieve. Some work better than the others.

But first let me give you a quick tour & history of the Cameras equipment I'm currently using so it gives you an ideas about how I started it.

It wasn't until 2002 that I revisited my interest in photography, when | purchased my first digital camera from my work colleague with the 3MP Fuji FinePix 6900 Zoom. I was intrigued by the new technology of digital cameras which allowed me to re-establish my knowledge and skill of photography which I learnt from my Foundation Art course back in the 80s.
6-8 months on, I familiarized myself with the digital camera and have been passionate about it ever since. By then Canon had launched the first affordable Digital SLR Camera with a 6MP The Rebel Canon 300D. I was so ready for that. They couldn't have launched it at a better time. I quickly traded in my Fuji for the camera. A year later, I ebayed my 300D for a later model, the Canon 20D. A Semi Professional SLR Camera. I bought it in America during my visit to Chicago & New York & got it for a great price at the time in Chicago. The pound then was high. So I was well pleased. The camera itself gave me some stunning results. Anyway...

About a year ago, I upgraded it again to a 5D. Love this camera.
It never let me down.
...and guest what? I've just learned about the new 5D Mrk2 a few weeks ago. OMG, the more I hear about it, the more I want it. But I can't so let's not go there.

________________________________________________________________________

Canon wide lens 17-40mm f4
My first lens. I am so impressed with the clarity of this lens. It's extremely sharp, quick & quiet focus. Highly distorted, though, when widely open but Hey...it's a wide lens what do you expect. Highly recommended.

________________________________________________________________________

Canon 24-105mm f4
This lens became quickly my prime lens. It goes wherever I go. I use it for most occasion. It just allows me to get that much closer to the subject without barging in. A must have lens for every beginners (professionals even).

________________________________________________________________________

Canon 70-200mm f2.8
Awesome lens! For portrait, the depth of field & sharpness is just phenomenal.
The downside is the weight & the price tag but it worth every pennies. My favorite!

________________________________________________________________________

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
Superb for a close up shot. A tag softer image in comparison with the 70-200mm, but by far it's still a sharp lens for its kind.

________________________________________________________________________

Canon 70-300mm DO f/4.5-5.6
Last but not least, this is my OD 70-300mm zoom lens for traveling. The image quality is reasonably sharp. It gives a haze look at full stretch. But this can be easily adjusted by boost up the contrast afterward. Like I said, It's extremely handy for lightweight travel.

Other equipped items:
A Canon 50mm F1.4 USM EF lens (another superb Fix lens for portrait). A Canon Speedlite 580EX Flash, A Flash diffuser cap. A 40Gb Epson P2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer. 2x1Gb Compact Flash Memory Cards, 1x4Gb Compact Flash Memory Cards, 4set of 511 Lithium Batteries. A 640 Velbon Tripod. A Velbon Monopod & few other small accessories.

So there you have it! you now have some ideas of what tools I use when looking at my pictures.
Again, thanks for dropping by. I hope you will revisit my blog from time to time. I will try to keep you posted with my later work. See you soon & watch this space!