The "Colours" of Black & White

I always like black & white photos. Back in old days when I was still using film camera, monochrome film was always expensive to me. Thanks to the model technologies, shooting black & white photos becomes a cheap and easy job. Just adjust your digital camera setting to Black & White mode...walah! monochrome photos in no time! So, you might say that black & white photo is just as simple as that? Just photo without colours? The truth is, in between black and white, there are many layers of grayscale. It is not easy to capture a really good monochrome photo directly from your digital camera. Post precessing need to be done in order to make your digital monochrome photo comes alive. Or else, it is just an ordinary "colourless" digital photo. But of course, no matter how well you post processed your digital monochrome photo, it still can't beat the true colour of film monochrome photo. Any how, I am on my way, achieving that level. My journey begins here. It is now almost end of 2008, I have selected a few photos and converted into monochrome photos.

Loving What You Hate

"Hatred can be irrational, and it has a greater impact on the individual who hates than the person or object being hated. Yet overcoming hatred is difficult because hatred reinforces itself and causes greater enmity to come into being. The most powerful tool one can use to combat hatred is love. Deciding to love what you hate, whether this is a person, situation, or a part of yourself, can create a profound change in your feelings and your experience. There is little room for anger, dislike, bitterness, or resentment when you are busy loving what you hate. The practice of loving what you hate can transform and shift your emotions from hatred to love, because there is no room for hatred in a space occupied by love.

Granted, it is difficult to forgo judging someone, love your enemy, and seek the good in situations that seem orchestrated to cause you pain or anger. But in deciding to love what you hate, you become one less person adding negativity to the universe. On a simple level, loving what you hate can help you enjoy your life more. On a more complex level, loving what you hate sets you free because you disengage yourself from the hatred that can weigh down the soul. Responding with love to people radiating hatred transmutes their negative energy. You also empower yourself by not letting their negativity enter your personal space. Rather than lowering yourself to the level of their hatred, you give the other person an opportunity to rise above their feelings and meet you on the field of love.

Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Loving what you hate sends a positive, beautiful energy to people while spreading peace and harmony throughout the planet. Instead of reinforcing hatred, you become an advocate for love. Hatred responds to hate by causing anguish. But hatred responds to love by transforming into blissful peace."

Guess this is what I should learn...Merry Christmas everyone!!

Caroline in Action

A simple portraiture session at a few places in Penang town area. Easy, relax and casual shooting without any complicated setup and concept. The initial concept was the sporty sunshine girl and we woke up very early in the morning hoping to catch the nice, shiny sunbeam and blue sky but it turned out to be a cloudy day. :(





Caroline has a very sweet smile and she was very professional, did all the "stuns" that I asked. :P Unfortunately the actions that I took were not many. Must be the cloudy sky affected my mood. :P Maybe a serious shooting in the near future I perhaps? Take a peep at not much actions' Caroline in Action.

A Walk In Queensbay Mall

A well known shopping spot in Penang and claimed to be the largest shopping mall in South East Asia. I think 99.9% of the Penangites know this place. The other 0.1% might be living in a cave or something. Nothing much to talk about this mall and it happened that last Sunday my camera was with me during my visit here with Doris and her best buddy from KL, Joanne. We spent about 3 hours for window shopping, talking craps and photo shooting in the mall.

It is nearly Christmas and the mall is filled with seasonal decoration. Strange that I forgot to add in a Christmas tree in this photo's composition. :P

After a while, we took a bite at Paddington. Not a bad choice I should say, pancake, banana, ice cream, coconut...yummy!

While we continued our window shopping, something happened at ground floor so I raised my 50mm and took a few shots.

The cat walk lasted for about 15 minutes and we visited the last place in the mall.

Well, time to go home and the last shot for a walk in Queensbay mall was in the lift.

Sounds boring right? Not quite. With Doris and Joanne's company, the walk was relaxing and filled with laughter. :)