Alien Kavan

Alien Kavan

The series from Stanley's alien collection. This is Kavan (pronounced as Kevin). I had climbed onto a plastic fence barrier to get an even more distorted picture of him. This addition of his thick black rim spectacles add the fun to the picture. The picture makes his Nikon D200 to looks like a Nikon D2H.

Alien Fei

Alien Fei

My model, Fei, shot with another unflattering angle. This was shot with Fei's Canon EF-S 10- 22mm Lens @ 10mm. The depth of field of such a wide lens is deep and the distortion is very fun to play with. Maybe a drawing of his caricature can watch with the distortion of this lens.

Solar Farm

Solar Farm

Another picture taken with an extension tube. This time even more macro than before. Amazingly, this shot was hand held. Thanks to the strong sunlight, but also, thanks to it, it blown the details on the tip of the flower. The title is not referring to how much this little flower amazingly needs to absorb the sunlight to produce this picture. Rather, it's reminds me again of a solar farm where all the little "leaves" acts as the mirror to shine the sunlight to the center core where water is heated into steam in Spain.

Europe's first commercial concentrating PS10 solar power tower is operating near the sunny southern Spanish city of Seville. The 11 megawatt solar power tower produces electricity with 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats.^[1] The mirrors were delivered by Abengoa, the solar receiver was designed and built by Tecnical-Tecnicas Reunidas, a Spanish Engineering Company; and the Solar Tower was designed and built by ALTAC ^[2], another Spanish Engineering and Construction Company.

Each of the mirrors has a surface measuring 120 square meters (1,292 square feet) that concentrates the Sun's rays to the top of a 115 meter (377 foot) high, 35-story tower where a solar receiver and a steam turbine are located. The turbine drives a generator, producing electricity.^[1] This power is three times more expensive than power from conventional sources, but prices will fall, as they have with wind power, as the technologies develop. ^[3]

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Bottle Brush

Bottle Brush

A flower, not a tulip that I can be very sure off. This photo was taken with an extension tube. Reason was to introduce the power of that simple hollow tube can do to over the physical design of that lens. The flower reminds me of a brush that my maid used to use when I was small to clean the water bottle. Using nature as a daily application.

Keriting Dog

Keriting Dog

Keriting means curly in Bahasa Indonesia. Not meaning a curly dog however. I'm referring to it's curly fur. the sideway blue strap on it gives a sense of constrain and a pull of the dog from any of it's freedom.

Holland Rouge

Holland Rouge

Little Miss Holland smiling away as I take this shot. Many of the workers and their children in the tulip farm wear the traditional dutch outfit. I got the name from a movie titled "Moulin Rouge". However, "Moulin Rouge" is a Paris production.

Little Jack

Little Jack

Another shot of a toddler with his mouth still dirty with food. I do not know his name, but any chubby Caucasian kid will be called Jack in the movie. This one even has a little red pimple.



Jack (pronounced^[help] /ˈdʒæk/) is a common male given name, although in very rare cases it can be used as a female given name, and sometimes as a surname. In English it is the diminutive form of the name John. ^[1]

It is the 53rd most common male name in the USA, with 385875 Americans being named Jack (0.315%), and 1275 females named Jack. 17500 people have the surname Jack in the USA.^[1]

It is believed that "Jack" is the result of adding the French diminutive suffix "-kin" (much like the German "-chen") to the name "Jean," which is the French form of the English "John", or "Jan," which is a shortening of the German "Johann." This formed the name "Jankin" which eventually became "Jackin", a medieval pet form of John and eventually "Jack".^[2]

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

A Look of Despair

A Look of Despair

A continuation of the same boy from the picture "Raincoat Boy". This time, the boy had turned around and of course so had I. I had chosen this picture from all the other picture because of two things. One is his expression, and another, because of his upward looking face, it causes the light to fall on his nose bridge and a little on his eyes. All the other picture that had his face looking ahead makes the shadow to fall very awkwardly.

Raincoat Boy

Raincoat Boy

What a cute little boy. The mum just left him on the grounds while people take photo of him. She even said that her boy likes to be in front of a camera. I had cropped the picture to take away other distracting background. If I were given another chance, I will think twice about composition again before snapping.

Turn Away From Me

Turn Away From Me

What will you do when someone points a lens at you? Turn around. Great.

Despair Be Not

Despair Be Not

While I was strolling back reluctantly for lunch, I saw this young Chinese boy. What interest me was also his sad expression. Almost everyone else there is happy, enjoying the beautiful flowers, but not him.



Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social and philosophical dimensions. Common to human experience is the death of a loved one, whether it be a friend, family, or other close companion. While the terms are often used interchangeably, bereavement often refers to the state of loss, and grief to the reaction to loss. Losses can range from loss of employment, pets, status, a sense of safety, order or possessions to the loss of the people nearest to us. Our response to loss is varied and researchers have moved away from conventional views of grief (that is, that people move through an orderly and predictable series of responses to loss) to one that considers the wide variety of responses that are influenced by personality, family, culture, and spiritual and religious beliefs and practices.

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Shining Among The Yellows

Shining Among The Yellows

Maybe it's the irony of the title that makes me wonder more about photography. Is taking a picture of someone dark in a brightly lit scene hard? I guess the answer is yes. Either you get the face exposure right and blow out the other parts of the picture or underexposed face in a just-nice-exposed scenery.

Look At The Picture

Look At The Picture

Taken at the tulip farm again. This time as a spy... I saw a boy, maybe Philippines, learning to take pictures. He will take a few and then show it to his mum, getting some comments must be. Seeing other people so willing to learn photography, is a joy.

Among The Flowers

Among The Flowers

I love the idea of taking a group photo but not standing shoulder to shoulder. It was one of us (I can't remember who) who suggested this idea. The picture turns out great. It seems that people can have more freedom to express themselves.

Where is Mummy

Where is Mummy

Inspired by Glenn Tan's photo of the little girl running among the tulip flowers. However, results differ by much of course. Especially the mood of the photo. This girl seems to be lost and looking for her parents, maybe she had wondered off to another part of the farm.

Pluck A Petal

Pluck A Petal

One of the petal of this flower had been plucked. How do I know? Cause I am the one who plucked it. I then aligned my camera right above the flower to take the photo. Well, I am a photographer, not a botanist.

The Unlucky One

The Unlucky One

This yellow tulip fell on the cold soil. So alone, so dead. I had processed the picture and made it black and white leaving only the flower in colour to purposely show the dirt and the rotting that has just began.



Tulips cannot be grown in the open in tropical climates, as they require a cold winter season to grow successfully. Manipulation of the tulip's growing temperature can, however, allow growers to "force" tulips to flower earlier than they normally would.

Tulips can be grown in either of two ways: through offsets or seed. Being genetic clones of the parent plant, offsets are the only way to enlarge the stock of a given tulip cultivar. By contrast, tulips do not come true from seed; the mixing of genes between parent tulips is very unpredictable. A tulip grown from seed will usually bear only a passing resemblance to the flower from which the seeds were taken. This makes for great potential in breeding new tulip flowers, and great variation in the wild. However, tulip growers must be patient: offsets often take at least a year to grow to sufficient size to flower, and a tulip grown from seed will not flower for anywhere between five and seven years after planting.

(courtesy of wikipedia.c0m)

Soon To Follow

Soon To Follow

Tulip oh tulip... You sister will bloom as beautiful as you do. What I really like about tulips are the "scratches" of colours on it's petal. It just makes the flower a class above the rest.



They are perennial bulbous plants growing to 10–70 centimetres (4–27 in) tall, with a small number of strap-shaped, waxy-textured, usually glaucous green leaves and large flowers with six petals. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous flat disc-shaped seeds.

Although tulips are associated with Holland, both the flower and its name originated in the Persian Empire. The tulip is actually not a Dutch flower as many people tend to believe. The tulip, or "Laleh" as it's called in Persian, is a flower indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and other parts of Central Asia.

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Chee Man

Chee Man

My model, Chee Man. My course mate and my friend's friend. What I love about this photo is that the tulip cover the whole background of the picture. Her way of kneel, helps to balance the photo and the double line running over her shoulder nicely sets a frame for ehrself.

As I Gain Another Look

As I Gain Another Look

That's Russell with his cyclopes eyewear feeling Alvin. One side of Russell's sunglasses pops out of the frame when we were heading to the Tulip festival. At least it's not as bad as when one side of my sunglasses pops out twice this year. Notice that the reflection on his sunglasses is also Alvin's reflection.



In Greek mythology a Cyclops , or Kyklops (Greek Κύκλωψ), is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single round eye in the middle of its forehead. The plural is Cyclopes or Kyklopes (Greek Κύκλωπες). The name means "round-" or "wheel-eyed".

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Fei

Fei

This is Fei, also our new Fotoholics's Vice-President as Alvin left for New York. This shot was taken casually in a train. Well, I like the expression, his deep black eyebrows and the large eyes.

Horror of Banana Man

Horror of Banana Man

That banana man belongs to my brother. Added it as part of a "decoration". Valencia was actually swallowing some air not terrified by the banana man as what was suggested in the title. Therefore, if you notice from he picture, I had chosen an exposure more towards high key.

The Unchanging Eyeball

The Unchanging Eyeball

Valencia's eye while she's sleeping. Do you know that our eyeball will not grows as we grow? That's why baby's eyes always looks so big.

Wake Up My Darling

Wake Up My Darling

This photo was shot with a shallow depth of field allowing a blurring of her Mum. Such tightly cropped photo of Valencia and her Mum (even though blurred), brings the feeling of mother and baby love which otherwise would not be so easily achieved.The hand in the photo not only stresses the love of the mum, but it just shows the care and bridge both of the human being possess.

Our Future

Our Future

That's my sister-in-law, Novita Chandra. Yes, that of course her baby Valencia... Motherly love + a little of itchy mouth to disturb the little one in her peaceful sleep.

My Tiny Feets

My Tiny Feets

Valencia's tiny feet. Her skin was shedding at that time and some photoshopping was done to clean it up. The tiny chubby feet, with the deep valley of lines, wrapped under the clothes for most of her two weeks life.

Boxing Me

Boxing Me

This is my niece, Valencia Elora Chandra. She was born on 20th of November 2007 at Family Hospital. Well same hospital as where I was born last time. Her weight was 3.75kg, with a length (Not height) of 50 cm. Surely weight more than me last time.

Fork of Timber

Fork of Timber

A dried wood which had been logged showing weathering. Thi photo was taken at the back of the Hedgend Maze in healesville.

Cutlery

Cutlery

The whole tray of cutlery that had just been washed in the Beechworth Bakery. I had though that a black and white, messy cutlery will be quite provoking.

Cutlery has been made in many places. In England, the industry became concentrated by the late 16th century in and around Birmingham and Sheffield. However, the Birmingham industry increasingly concentrated on swords, made by 'long cutlers' and on other edged tools, whereas the Sheffield industry concentrated on knives.

At Sheffield, the trade of cutler became divided with allied trades emerging such as razormaker, awlbladesmith, shearsmith, and forkmakers becoming distinct trades by the 18th century.
Before the mid 19th century when cheap mild steel became available due to new methods of steelmaking, knives (and other edged tools) were made by welding a strip of steel on to the piece of iron that was to be formed into a knife or sandwiching a strip of steel between two pieces of iron. This was done because steel was then a much more expensive commodity than iron.

After fabrication, the knife had to be sharpened, originally on a grindstone, but from the late medieval period in a blade mill or (as they were known in the Sheffield region) a cutlers wheel.

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)

Apple Custard

Apple Custard

Another food of the Beechworth Bakery. Taken just beside the window to grab more lights accompanied with the shallow depth of field to isolate the custard and blurring out the background. Maybe it's a little too shallow this time.

Ingredients for Apple Custard

Into a pudding pan put 1½ quarts of pared, quartered, and cored apples. Sprinkle over them three-fourths cup sugar and one-fourth teaspoon salt. Bake till tender. While the apples are baking, prepare a custard from the following ingredients:
¾ quart milk
½ cup sugar
2 whole eggs and two yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Warm the milk.
Beat the eggs and yolks together, then beat the sugar into them.
Stir into them the hot milk, vanilla, and salt, and beat well together.
This should be ready when the apples are done.
Pour this custard over the hot apples, and return to the oven to bake just long enough for the custard to set.
A meringue may then be put over the pudding, if desired, by beating the two egg whites and folding into them three level tablespoons sugar, spreading this on the pudding, and setting it on the grate of the oven long enough to color the meringue a light brown

(courtesy of recipes.lovetoknow.com)

I Want My Food

I Want My Food

The brownies cake is so so irrisistable. I believe that that hand belongs to Jonathan (presuming that it's a guy's hand). The use of shallow depth of field helps to seperate the cake from the rest of the image. It easily blurs the person's body out, more than I can even still remember who's it was.