A couple of years back, I photographed this old couple who make a living selling curry noodles. When I gave them their photos, they were overjoyed. They showed everyone in their little village. They said that they didn’t expect anyone to take their photo at all.

I guess this kind of feels like that. I don’t think I’d expect anyone to interview me at all! So I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked to be interviewed!

Click the photo if you’ve a Facebook Account to go to the Creative Asia Facebook page. Just unfortunate that I’m unable to make it to any of the workshops as the smaller class and hands-on learning is really worth it. I’m consoled by the fact that at least I’ll be there for the three days of the conference! See you there!

And if you’re not on Facebook, the interview is posted verbatim below :

1. Tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in Petaling Jaya and married to the most awesome person in the world. I did a Computer Science and Marketing course at a university in the US. Currently, I do business development for a Fortune 100 IT company and much of my weekends and free time are split between family, community service projects and photography. As a child, I dabbled with photography now and again using a 35mm point-and-shoot and my dad’s 8mm cine camera. My grandfather had a Leica M3 rangefinder and Contaflex SLR so you can say that photography is in my blood. Other than photography and my lovely wife, I also love cooking and a good cup of coffee.

2. How long you have been practicing photography?
I purchased my first SLR camera in 1999 which kick started my photography. It was primarily travel and landscapes initially. I shot my first wedding in 2001 on a Kodak Portra 160VC. Although I still love the film, my first digital SLR, a Canon 300D, purchased in 2004, sent me into the digital age.

3. What do you shoot?

Initially shooting mostly landscapes and travel, I now shoot mostly weddings and portraiture as I don’t travel as often as I used to. Occasionally, I do events and product shoots. For personal interest, I still shoot anything and everything from my dogs to my garden flowers and my own cooking. I also do pro-bono photography for a non-profit charity which I think really keeps me grounded. It’s an amazing feeling when you see people, who don’t even have a single photo of themselves, family or children, being grateful and overjoyed to receive their free portraiture shot.

4. What do you enjoy the most in photography?

I enjoy the entire process; from trying to capture the special moment (or waiting for that lovely light) to seeing the final results and sharing the results. My first attempt at making a photo book literally involved a lot of cutting and pasting. It’s all digital today. What I love most, though, is seeing the expression and reaction of people whom I’ve photographed when the photos are done well and appreciated.

5. Why are you attending Creative Asia?

It may sound cliche to say that you don’t get such an event with so much talent, so available and affordable in Malaysia; it is an opportunity not to be missed! It’s just going to be awesome to absorb all the inspiration saturating the place during the event!

6. Why is learning from other photographers important to you?

All the photographers I look up to have their own unique styles and personalities. I think it helps anybody to get challenged and inspired every now and then. It’s what drives me to do better. Sometimes you see something someone else has done that absolutely inspires you or challenges you to raise the bar. I’ve learnt so much from other photographers by just imitating or trying to imitate what they have done.

7. Can you share one tip that you have found useful to your photography? (This can be a business/marketing or a photography technique.)

Get out of your comfort zone. When we’re comfortable, it means we’re staying stagnant. Taking a 3-day photography workshop in 2008 was definitely out of my comfort zone but it did wonders for my photography.

8. What do you look forward most in Creative Asia?

Meeting fellow photographers and getting inspired of course!

9. What’s in your camera bag?

I’m a Canon user so for most events and weddings (and travel), I always have my 5D Mark II bodies and my two favorite lenses, a 16-35mm 2.8 and 70-200 IS 2.8. I also have an assortment of lenses (from 10mm to 300mm) and flash units (580EX IIs) along with my RadioPoppers. Furthermore, I carry my GPS, Leatherman wave tool (helped get a jammed door at a groom’s house open), and a compact flashlight. I also have a Panasonic GF1 compact camera (micro-four-thirds) with me most of the time. It’s mostly used for travel and personal snapshots.

10. Your favourite photography tool/equipment?

I tend to have favorites from time to time (perhaps I’m fickle minded) but right now, it has to be RadioPoppers. Ever since I’ve started with studio strobes, I’ve always wished to have TTL control with wireless flash. After shooting a couple of weddings recently, I’m definitely sold on their ease of use and reliability that they’re constantly in my camera bag.

I went to school in the US mid-west. Grain country or beef country and rolling fields in all directions and flat as a table. Besides the occasional tornado, you get scorching summers and frigid winters. When a whole bunch of tweeples on twitter went abuzz about this place called “Betty’s Mid-west kitchen”, I knew I gotta try it.

Knowing and wanting is a big difference from actually doing it. Doing it took about four months but finally I got there on a wet Friday evening where the roads were “car-parkifying”. Learnt that word on twitter. See you do learn something new everyday!

Anyways, I didn’t have any camera with me other than my iPhone for about a hundred reasons. I’ll be going back again anyways with a real camera so for now, here’s all you got. It was a work day and we wanted a nice simple dinner and then head home for a shower so we didn’t order that much. We had their roasted chicken and onion soup shared between us and for mains, we had a pork chop with country sauce and the meatloaf. Dessert was Apple crumble.

Our take; the soup’s pretty good but would be nicer if it was nice and creamy rather than looking rather “chinese” soup like with lots of chicken and onion bits floating about. My pork chop was very nicely done. Sauce is average and pretty much in line with expectations. Nothing special but still good solid food! The meatloaf was good though. Between the chops and the meatloaf, I’d probably order the meatloaf again. Apple crumble wasn’t up to snuff and it was probably the one thing I wouldn’t order again. Maybe I’m biased because I think I make a much better apple crumble but to Betty’s benefit, it’s a pretty generous serving with two large scoops of vanilla ice-cream. It’ll probably be good enough for some others but I guess not me.

Betty’s is definitely good enough to go back for and I’ll definitely be back. Good food, good value and pretty close to home. What’s not to like?

And yes, apologies for the lousy iPhone photos. Better photos to come next

Betty’s Midwest Kitchen
A-G-40, Jalan PJU 1/43,
Aman Suria, Damansara,
Petaling Jaya.
Tel:03-7880-0196

The Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Chinese: 九皇爺; Cantonese: Kow Wong Yeh) is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

It was a hot afternoon that we visited the Ampang temple on the 14th of October. According to many, it’s suppose to rain for nine days and nine nights but nary a drop of water was seen and it was literally a scorcher of a week. Arriving at four made it easier to get parking and of course avoid the times where there would be hundreds of people everywhere! That made it easier to shoot. We did bump into a couple of photographers, including Cheryl Hoffman who runs the 9 Emperor God’s blog here. It’s always fun to meet online friends in real life!

Anyways, here are my shots from that day. Sorry for the delay as my schedule got quite hectic after that. And, yes, today’s Diwali day so for my Hindu reader’s, Happy Diwali!