the last day of autumn 09

Autumn has finally come to an end. Today is the last day of Autumn 09. It mean it has been 3 Autumn so far for me. Towards the end of my study, it seems that the time gone by very fast. Today is another sunny Autumn but with low temperature. It is a sign of chilly winter ahead.

I went out for a short stroll. Went to Aldi for weekly groceries as I haven't done any groceries for the past 2 week. This time I bought more canned and dried stuff for Winter as I am lazy to go out in a chilly condition. Luckily my Uni is just around the corner so I don't have to travel far.

Also today, I baked some orange cake. :)

As usual.. morning breakfast with Green Tea Latte and Butter Croissant


Finally Autumn has ended. And tomorrow another Winter season greet us


The last day of Autumn at Yarra River


Sunny but a bit windy and cold with the temperature around 8 degree

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko Digital 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 ED and Zuiko 14-54mm 2.8-3.5 MKII

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naked watch

I thought that I am not going to buy more watch, but with the price that I get it is ridiculous if I didn't buy. From almost 300AUD down to 99bucks is definitely a real bargain. This is my first naked watch, my 4th mechanical type of watch and my 50th watch added to my growing collection. With this price even Nahar too can't resist the temptation :) So both of us end up buying one each. I choose a black dial while Nahar settled for white.

This is going to be one of my day to day watch

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko Digital 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 Mark II

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i received a free lens

I received this legacy Olympus OM lens from Adam 2 weeks ago. It was a broken lens and he challenged me to fix this lens.

As I am very busy over the week, I took time to try to fix this lens last night before went to bed. After so many trial and error I finally managed to fix this lens and now it work perfectly.

As I already have the adapter which I bought from eBay couple weeks ago, I give this lens a simple test. The result is astonishing.. I like the bokeh and I will try to use it as a portrait lens when I got time. Actually I am looking for 50mm f1.4 but it's kind of difficult to find that lens nowdays.

Broken lens.... gigih nih betulkan lens


Finally I managed to fix this lens as how it is..


Very impressed with it performance... I guess the 50mm f1.2 or f1.4 might be better


I like the bokeh.. very clean

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Olympus OM-System 50mm F1.8 attached with OM to 4/3 adapter

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early morning walk

Decided to have an early morning walk last Saturday. It has been a while I didn't do the morning walk. This time I went to Yarra Bend. The whole walk took me to various places. I think I walked almost 5km. This activity provide me a bit of stress relief. The view was amazing in this part of Melbourne. I can see the city scape beautifully nested surrounded by the greenery.

The weather was good and breezy


Melbourne City from far


Beautiful winter shrub.. and if you lucky enough you will see lizzrds, frogs and other small creatures


I am so surprised with what I found....


Winter flower


I walked along this river till I reached the Boat House


Autumn scene


The Boat House.....


Hot coffee and muffin under the autumn sun


The bridge to the Boat House


The last destination...


Used to be a volcanic area


Conservation.. conservation and conservation....


Water and plant... the source of oxigen

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko 14-54mm 2.8-3.5 Mark II and Zuiko Digital 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 ED

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when a little finger show their talent

They might be very young but they full with talent. As young as this, they already know how to prepare a tasty Chinese green tea. I had a sip and it is is heaven. I always have a cup of tea at least once a day. Just plain tea without sugar is my favorite.

Look at her expression.. she is very into it


Young and talented


It is an art of Chinese tea making


Last drop


Tea everyone?

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko Digital 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 ED

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stimulus package

There are so many ways business premises want to have a slice of stimulus package that has been announce by the government recently. Some by having an extended midyear sales, others offering rebates and so on. This is one way to attract customers to come to their shop, by creating a unique signage, signboard, beautiful window dresser etc. With it, come an offer that surely hard to resist. E.g: A cup of coffee and a slice of cake for 5 bucks or probably we should say it "Secawan kopi dan sepotong kek hanya 5MYR". That would be appropriate. * can't buy this kalau di Starbucks or Coffee Beans KL.

I like this bottle holder.. very unique indeed


I took this photos at the same spot last Spring with different flower arrangement


The weather is cloudy and the dynamic range is difficult to be captured

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko Digital 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 Mark II

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melbourne celebrating buddha festival.. can you believe that?

Melbourne is such a diverse city just like our own beloved city Kuala Lumpur. Almost every month this city will celebrating some sort of celebration for almost every race and religious. Last weekend Buddhist follower was celebrating what they called Bathing The Buddha ceremony.

What is the significance of this ceremony. It says that:

"One of the main activities of the festival is the "bathing Buddha" ritual. Legend records that when Prince Siddhartha was born, there were extraordinary and auspicious signs heralding his birth.

They describe the sky as being clear with brilliant sunshine, flowers blooming and birds singing - dragons appeared in the sky spurting two streams of purified water (one cool and one warm), that gently cascaded down to bathe him.

At his birth, seven lotus flowers sprung up beneath his feet as he walked - pointing one hand to the sky and ground he said "in the heaven above and earth below, I vow to liberate all who suffer in these three realms".

That is actually when this ritual started. Looking at all those painting that they depict the history of the Buddha, now I realized that this religious is actually have a connection with the Hinduism. As I google more about this religion I finally I found some information relating to Buddhism and Hinduism here especially about their similarities.

The monks... surprisingly all are women

Giving an orchids with a bit of donation

Buddha Statue

Now I know how they bathe the Buddha... :)

There is a resemblence between the Buddha statue with Hindu statue

Testing my Art Filters at the same time

Dragon element is significant to differentiate between Buddhism and Hinduism in their depiction

This is the leaf where they believe Buddha sit under it tree and get his enlightenment.. correct me if I am wrong...

Gears: Olympus E-620 DSLR with Zuiko Digital 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 ED lens

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mari menari

Do you believe that dancing also is one of a good form of an exercise? I used to have friend who is a dancer and their training is second to none. They have to practice almost everyday to perfect their step. I wish I know how to dance but unfortunately I am not. I rather watch. :)

Merak dance they called it

Young and talented

Hindu influence in their dance quite prominent

This dance look like Sunda dance

The Indonesian community are very active in Melbourne. They participate in lots of activities

Beautiful step...

Malim: As I am very busy lately so most of the entry will be very short with pictures only

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learn how to make origami

Today there was a celebration of bathing the Buddha by Buddhist people. In conjunction with that they also have a stalls and exhibitions set up along the Yarra River. I went to one of the booth where you can learn how to make origami. This lady invited me to try to make lotus from paper. I thought I should give it a try.

To my surprise the outcome was so good. Its not that complicated as I first thought. Probably if I have time I will try to make a bigger one.

Finally I made it. Not bad actually for the first time...

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short test: sigma 30mm f1.4 ex dc

Last weekend I had an opportunity to test this prime lens from Sigma. Camera House Camera Action lend me this lens for half and hour. First impression when I saw this lens was, it built quality was quite good. It feels sturdy and solid with usual Sigma velvet kind of finish. The size was just right when I matched it with my E620. The focusing was spot on. It fast and silent. Wide aperture lens was not easy to handle but with a bit of practice I guess everyone would love this type of lens.

IMHO, this type of lens was a bit short for my liking. The DOF was not what I like. I prefer more shallow DOF with this kind of lens. The focal length was ok but I rather had a longer such as 50mm f1/4.

I will wait for Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DC HSM to give it a try before I decided which lens I should get next.

Colour was good, sharpness good too

DOF was not shallow enough at this range for my taste

Bokeh was a bit messy.. can't isolate the subject effectively at this range

At this range the subject look sharp an nice blurry effect around it

Close focusing capability was good

Malim: Why we tend to be more stressfull nowdays then before?... next entry

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