DP | @ekhoophotography

Children in some ways are easier to shoot that adults. Of course, there's a different set of challenges and also not everyone's the same. Like adults, some are more comfortable in front of the camera. Recently, I was at Camerons and while relaxing and also planning out some big changes ahead as well as a lot of calendar packing events -- including a large photo seminar for university students as well as the upcoming Shoot4Charity fund raiser. My niece Julia was there and she's a gregarious kid and rather happy to be in front of the camera. She proudly exclaims "I'm shooting pictures!". Best part is she's able to tell my 5D Mark II, battery grip, 70-200 f2.8 compared to daddy's 500D and 18-200, "Your camera is much bigger than daddy's!" Size does matter?

The OMF bungalow has a nice open area for kids to run around. It's also a good time to think, reflect and plan for the future. Change is definitely on the horizon. Most of the shots were flash assisted with my RadioPoppers, even some of the daylight ones as I wanted more directional lighting.

Julia found the older kids (another group who was also staying in the bungalow with us) playing football (soccer) but they didn't want her to play plus also they were kicking much harder. The only time we had was later in the evening about dinner time (around 7pm) when the kids went in for their dinner. I kinda of like those shots where I had to drag the shutter down quite a bit. You can see the slow shutter in the shots -- I was going down to 1/30 at f/4.5, ISO 1250 in those shots. Some shots had 3 580EX IIs going off to provide enough light but as I didn't move my lights around, some shots had to make do with a single flash (the others were off position).

A lot of my life seems to revolve around Cameron Highlands. No reason why but it's been the place for a lot of interesting and life-changing events in my life. One reason could be that I'm kind of a winter person. Anything above twenty-one degrees celcius is warm and I think the sweet spot is a lovely fifteen. Camerons, being at an altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level makes for a more pleasant temperature for me.

Anyways, this time round, we returned to my favorite place to stay, the OMF bungalow just outside Tanah Rata (flat-ground in Malay). OMF trumps every hotel I've stayed in Camerons mainly due to it's lovely caretaker and surrounds. The old bungalow still has charm and Mrs Chye, the current caretaker serves up good old plain home cooking and unbeatable scones. Don't waste your money on those pathetic scones at Ye Olde Smokehouse. This one's made with love and freshly baked. The only other scone worth spending money for in Camerons (my opinion anyways) is at T-Cafe in Tanah Rata. T-Cafe is going to be renamed to Lord's Cafe soon. All the best Terese!

Secondly, this is a great place to unwind from the hustle and bustle of any city. There's only 8 rooms and the nearest neighbor is about two miles down the road. Being on an isolated outcrop, it does get windy and cold but get yourself a mug of steaming hot chocolate, a good book and you can enjoy the great outdoors.

It was a good getaway and as usual, was filled with quite a lot of good food. Probably overdid it but don't you always overeat on holiday anyways? The Sungai Palas Tea plantation has now been upgraded and it looks fantastic. It looks awesome but I didn't take any photos of the exterior because the excitement has now been spoiled by stupid drivers who don't know how to drive on single lane roads. I mean if you see an approaching car and you're at a section which permits passing, stop the car and let the incoming car pass. Seems like all the good drivers are long gone and we have city folk who think that giving way is a weakness. Pure stupidity which results in a fifteen minute journey taking over half-an-hour. Not recommended if you're not a good driver! Looks like all that off-road driving on even narrower trails had some benefit after all!

That's it for now, more photos to come...

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Here's more after a tiring day at the pool with my nephew. Looks like the blog pages just got even heavier! I'm sorry to those who are using anything slower than a 256k connection. It takes my lousy Nokia N80 four minutes on 3G before it crashes out with insufficient memory! Oh well, my iPhone's coming in four weeks -- I can't wait!

Just love the shadows and highlights on the Yi-Ann's face but I had my 24-105 and not my 70-200 this is as tight as I can get!

The giant Cat of Cameron Highlands!

Boring group shot -- the exciting version later tomorrow!

The yummy scones - absolutely delicious with home-made fresh strawberry jam for tea!

Here's a small selection of Kok Leong's shots from his D50. A light touch of Photoshop in the mix. Just a little touch-up here and there but mostly the JPEGs were quite nicely done so mostly a little bit of dodging and burning was enough. Of course, my favorite curves and masks too!

Sorry everyone that these took some time. There were about 500 shots (not including KL's & KW's which I will also batch except for a few more selected for hand-processing) and while most were going to be batch-processed, these few however, I felt would need a bit of hand-processing. Most shot with my lovely 70-200 f2.8 lens or my wife's 100mm 2.8 macro. Individually tweaked, fixed, cleaned-up and processed.

All shots manual exposure, manual white-balance (daylight or cloudy) - Thanks Louis - it's actually faster. Yup, less is more, manual is faster and all that! Lots more use of highlight and shadows (in terms of light angles) and back-light!

My favorite of the action series!

Sorry, I got back at 8:30pm, worked on two proposals, one pricing and eight emails. Cooked dinner and did the laundry. Still lagged from the activities of the past two weeks. More photos will be posted in due time. I still have SEMOA Pastor Edwin's wedding PhotoBook to do!

To see a full screen version, click here.
Yes, it's a panoramic view of the Bungalow stitched from four separate frames.

There's been no updates during the past couple of days as we had our 2008 Cell Group retreat at the lovely OMF Bungalow in Cameron Highlands. There's also this big tender process thing going on and I'm awfully tired. There's also the silly flu bug going about the office and I happen to catch it. Insufficient firewalls there!

Had a couple of hundred pix over the lovely weekend with SS4 and the Hsu's at Camerons but with the work week's tight schedule and the personal need to rest, please be patient. This evening, when I returned to my little box in the sky condo, I had a slight feeling of Deja Vu... yup, exactly one week ago, I did the same thing when I returned from Louis' workshop in Penang. After two weekends away, it really does drain you physically although you do get energized in many ways.

Louis energized my vision to see light and shadow and to believe I can do it. The last weekend, Peter energized us to see evangelism as an integral part of everything we do; our lives, our actions, our words and our deeds. Also, for me I think our Group needs to return to the center of it all, the Cross at Calvary. Acceptance. So what of schedules, punctuality, expectations and needs. Christ accepted us for who we are and what we are. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God�s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.
He loves.
He gave.
We believe.
We live.

For God
so loved
the world
that he
gave his
O N E   A N D   O N L Y   S O N
that
whoever
believes
in him
shall not
perish
but have
eternal
LIFE.

Been busy with a lot of work and more work and other types of work... so here's some photos from my Cameron's trip in January with my Nokia N80.