Financial planning is your own business. You do not need to pay money to have someone else tell you things that you already know. Like, watch your expenditure and credit cards, buy stock low, and sell high, strike when iron is hot.. etc etc. Plus, I will tell you somewhich which financial seminars will NEVER tell you; for every successful stock market player, there’s 50 who have failed have are now in tremendous financial debt.

And about Positive Motivation…. I have this friend of mine whose sister’s boyfriend was a very simple man who rode a motorbike around town and rides to work. Then he got conned into ’setting up his own business’ and dumped a good deal of money into buying stocks from the company. Stocks as in goods. Something you burn then out come magical healing scents. Anyways, as if it was not enough that he emptied his bank account and piled up a huge amount in credit cards, his ‘upline’ then told him that since he is in ‘business’ he should look the part; with new fancier clothes and fancier cars like a BMW. So he went and upgraded himself from a simple kapchai to a BMW. Fine, he can always reject, but these fellas have a way of pushing you to a corner and making what seems to be a guaranteed way of loosing money, seems ok and a very good idea at that time. Needless to say, when things start to go south, his up-line turn a blind eye and left him to himself. Good thing my friend and her sister are very supportive and he is now back on his feet.

About wedding photography; One of the things which I struck a chord for me during a recent photography seminar I attended was this statement

“..you have spent so much money and efforts on your wedding day, why stinge on the one thing which will immortalise it forever?..“

Think about it while I show a photograph…. a blog post without photos is boring

image by Daphne Gan.. thanks girl

.. .and this is my own saying…

“.. to be a good photographer, one must be comfortable to be in front of the camera..”

And this…

.. is his new monster, the Canon EOS 5D MarkII

Seen here coupled with his Canon EF85mm f1.2L.. bokeh king..

Check it out..

oh.. the handsome model here is Unker Long.

hehe.

Totally random

Take a look back at what you did last year. Yes, it’s a way into 2009 to be thinking of 2008. But if it means a better half of 2009, or a better 2010, why not? Has 2008 been good? If it’s bad, why is it bad. Was it something you did not do? Or was it something you did, but did it in a wrong way? Did you trust the wrong person? Did someone play you out? Or are you the person someone should not have trusted? Was it you who played someone else out?

Can this get any more random?

Lunch today is just some swiss roll. I have been working here in IT central of Malaysia. The food is sickening. The place is depressing. Some people might love this place. But not me. There are so many things which I am not able to do. For example, should I need to do some banking, I would have to take at least half day leave. Yes, there’s a bank here. Maybank. BUt I do not use maybank. Back in civilisation, I can drive out during lunch, do my  banking stuff and still have time for a quick bite before heading back to office. Same with getting my car serviced. Sad. Some people adapted and accepted the hash life here. I have yet to.

So what has Proton been up to? Well, to me it’s basically nothing. New MPV with an underpowered 1.6L engine? Please lar. Lame excuses. Can you imagine if Proton never existed? A Honda Civic will only be RM60-70k, same price range with a Waja. Bah!! Dun get me wrong. I drive a proton. It’s not bad. What is bad is the price. Local car.. costs so much. *sigh* Quality also quite bad, but at least improving.

Windows also another sad story. Everyday crash. Kena virus. Memory problems. Microsoft being such a HUGE company, can’t they just take windows’ platform and throw it out the window and start a new, with a completely new base.. and get things right once and for all. YEah, that will cost them too much money. Sad isn’t? It’s called investment. Apple did it. Why can’t Bill?

See… apple. Design nice, stable OS. Only thing is it’s cost. If they drop their pricing a bit, a lot of people would jump over. I am sure Apple can afford a 30% drop in price to achieve 100% up in sales. Their old stock, they should drop 50% then we will see a suddenly increase in mac users.

Times up.

LUnch time.

Jason and I were asked to cover Sunny and Patricia’s engagement last Saturday in Singapore. Since both Jason and I both do not know Singapore well, we decided to spend the night in Johor and then catch a cab into Singapore. Our initial plan was to head down south after work on Friday. Which was also why we decided again driving into Singapore, especially at night. Anyways, to cut the story short, it was a financial disaster. The next round, we will drive directly into Singapore.

Sunny and Patricia were great to work with. They had great friends who were also wonderful in front of the camera. I think it is important that subjects are comfortable in front of the camera. This paves the way to even greater photos. Of course a good photographer makes the subject feels comfortable, but only if you have the luxury of time. In our case, or rather in most actual day weddings or engagements, time is usually not a luxury that we have.

Here are some of the teaser photos taken during that Saturday. More will come later.

See.. friendly people. Very eager to be in front of the camera.

All photos were shot with the AF-S 50mm f1.4G lens wide open @ f1.4, except for the last one which was shot at f2.8.

After the registration, they headed off to a nice cruise in a yatch. Everything was completed by lunch time and the happy couple ensured that we had a full tummy before letting us off. How considerate of them.

Jason and I then wondered Singapore for a bit before deciding that we were a little too tired to wonder anymore and thus headed back to Johor in preparation of our long drive home. So that Saturday, I had my shower at 5am. The next shower I had was almost midnight. I was smelly, sticky and extremely tired. My nice comfortable bed never felt nicer.

and it does not matter if you are shooting from your hips…

This is so fun.. tee he he he

Anyways… the day started very early. I was out of the house before the sun rose over the horizon. And the hills were misty and all that as we were approaching the location. Sg. Congkak is about 45 minutes drive from the city. Quite a good get away.

at the car park..

jasonw suggesting poses..

and away the snapped..

and snapped…

The trees provided much shade.. which proved to be a welcome treat as it stayed cool through out the shoot

Some streaks of sun managed to sneaked in, which was still a good thing because if casted some illumination for the shoot

see the model ‘lighted’ up by beams of sunlight which managed to sneaked through the canopy of leaves

snipers..

and of course, a shoot in sg. congkak will not be complete without the model getting wet.. hehe..

And lastly… the group photo…

PS - the ‘gila’ group shot…

and…

last lastly….

probably the only nice shot I got from the whole trip. waahahaha….

March 08 (Sunday) - Sg Congkak Bikini Shoot
March 15 (Sunday) - Bagan Lalang Bikini Shoot
March 22 (Sunday) - CLS Workshop Part 2 of 4 @ DailyLifestyles Studio
March 29 (Sunday) - Heritage Station Hotel Bikini Shoot

Cost? Fuah.. you be very interested. Prices range from only RM50 to only RM60.

It’s gonna be a fun time wahaha..

Sg. Congkak is a very nice place to bring the family, have a picnic or even BBQ and dip yourself into the cool clear waters of the river. And with it’s lush greeneries.. its a very nice spot for photography.

This was last year’s outing.

It was a very intersting outing since it was one of the VERY few times that models out number photographer. Wahaha… hey… let’s not talk about last time shoot.

This time around it’s going to be a bikini shoot. Dun miss out on this opportunity ok? Beautiful model, fancy bikini, lush greens and flowing river.

So stay tuned for more details ok? But if I were you, I would sign up anyhow. hahaha..

How to sign up? Well… for now, just email me at kamkuey at gmail dot com.

It’s 7.30am then. I thought to myself.. good.. ample time. Able to take a nice leisurely drive to the breakfast meeting point. Just as I opened the front door, my tummy rumbled. Darn it!! So I rushed back to the toilet. After that I rush out and got into the car, drove off and found out that I left my wallet. Darn it!!

I arrived for breakfast 40 minutes late. *sigh*

We arrived at the park sharp at 9am. The humidity was unbearable. And I was sweating like a pig just standing there. And to make matters worse, they had sometime kind of a marathon in the city and a lot of roads were closed. So some participants were late. But’s its all good. We proceeded to make full use of the remaining time available to us.

Tommy putting some mozzie repellent, then our model for the day.. Andrea came running asking for some. hahaha

Preparing to shoot…

Some of the participants

Second location..

Then those fellas left for a couple more location which I did not follow.. it was extremely humid.

The final location.. Jason posing the model.

Then he struck a pose .. wahaha… poser!!

and finally…

The mandatory group photo