面纱（The Veil）

炎热的午后，她轻轻地来到院子里，显得异常孤单。

我正玩着相机，随即被这不请自来的访客吸引，其披在身上的纱布，更是精致至极，不像出自人间工匠之手。

我开始摄影，她也不甚避忌，只稍微含羞以纱布半遮俏脸，任我为所欲拍。

拍毕，她挥挥衣袖离去，不留半点曾经到来的痕迹。

留下的，唯独这张“面纱”。。。。

On this hot afternoon, I was running out of subject to shoot.

Out of a sudden, a dragonfly landed on a plant in my little garden. I was attracted by its translucent wings and the interesting patterns on the wings. I tried out a few shots to make the wings the main subject but failed to capture them satisfactorily.

Instead, this shot of the translucent wing half covering the face of the dragonfly like a veil of a woman became my shot of the day.

Luck sometimes does play a role in getting a good shot.

I shall try again on a close-up shot of the translucent wing the next time I come across the dragonfly…

太平湖 (Taiping Lake)

除了小时候课本里曾经读过， 太平湖在太平以外并非闻名遐迩。途经太平到此一游，却意外地发现她不施脂粉天生丽质的魅力。

风和日丽的清晨，不需要特殊摄影技术，太平湖清秀脱俗的容貌自然而然地展现在摄影机里。

太平湖路边的大树，听说叫做雨树。一棵棵雨树粗壮的树枝，从路的一边延伸至另一边，再延伸到湖水绿波上，虽然年岁已不小，却仍然雄赳赳，且万分神气的流露出那不拘又带点稚气的好看样子。

摄影，它总就是能够让我看见世间不朽的美丽。

I passed by Taiping and visited Taiping Lake recently. The unspoilt scenery here is a dream place for photography enthusiast like me.

A few snap shots with my basic but trusted DSLR and its lenses are enough to bring out the beauty of this scenic place and share with all these images here.

A picture is worth a thousand words. You can have your own judgement whether this place is worth a visit if you pass by this small town…

Note: For those who may be not from this region, Taiping Lake is located in Taiping, a small town in the state of Perak, Malaysia, and is north of Ipoh.

人间天堂 (Beautiful Dusk Hour)

虽然工作非常忙碌，下班后的生活也平凡，但不复年轻的心像静止的水无欲无求，却也觉得踏实且完美。

无求与随缘的心，让我感觉到俗世间的美丽。当然不幸的事也时常发生，但纵观整个局势，世界仍旧算得上是极其美丽的，天堂其实就在人间，只要你用心去体会一切。

从微小的昆虫世界，到亲人小孩们的欢乐，到日出与日落的灿烂，甚至是穷乡僻壤，也成为了我这好摄者的天堂。

在此分享两张日落的作品，希望各位也能看得见人间的美丽。

I like to shoot landscape during and after sunset. At this hour, the color of the sky is in transition from bright to orange glow to bluish to dark, and we can get images of different mood and feel.

For these types of shots, I always try to use a tripod if there is one. With the tripod, I can set the ISO to the lowest which is ISO 100 in this case. Small aperture is selected to have slow shutter speed. With slow shutter speed, the surface of the water would turn into a mirror like finish that I always like to look at.

Some particulars/parameters of the photos here:

First photo:
ISO: 100; Aperture: f/22.0; Shutter speed: 5 seconds lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm

Second photo:
ISO: 100; Aperture: f/16.0; Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm

Hope you will find our world beautiful as I do.

庭院摄影 （Backyard Photography）

邻居们在庭院周围种了许多花花草草，引来了不少小生命在此寻花问柳。

小蝴蝶不请自来，在内子栽种的花丛中自助享用各种花汁，与生俱来的吸管，轻易的随意品尝甘甜花蜜。

小蚂蚁不甘落后，也学着在花芯里寻觅蜜糖，无奈先天不足，吸不着蜜糖，反被花粉缠身，弄得狼狈万分。小蚂蚁呀小蚂蚁，还是安守本分，回地库里和同伴们分工合作，分享食物吧!

太阳花明艳照人，蚱蜢情侣在此缠绵了一夜，留下了刚脱壳的小蚱蜢在此，没看清楚之下，我还把小蚱蜢错当为一片落叶呢。

庭院微距摄影，在小小生命中寻获大大乐趣。。。

Backyard photography is one of the most convenient ways to explore photography. What you need to do is to have many plants and flowers in your backyard or front garden, every weekend you’ll be able to observe diverse forms of life activities here.

With a basic dslr body and a macro lens, the opportunity to explore life in your backyard is endless.

Over this weekend, I accompanied a Small Branded Swift butterfly around who was sipping the afternoon nectar with its natural straw. I then followed a black ant that was trying to make some Nyonya kuih with natural ingredient from the garden, but ended up with its body covered with pollen. Finally I visited the sunflower home and found a newly born grasshopper baby that had just emerged from the white shell.

山城怡保 (Ipoh’s Mountainous Scene)

怡保是岳父的故乡。除了美食之外，最爱这里的山峦。

暮色低垂时，薄雾笼罩着远方的山脉，望着窗外的树木与民居，与远方的山脉有层次的重叠着，这宁静的山城景色，对山城人来说也许再普通不过，对于不居住在这里的人却有点不食人间烟火的感觉。

在横街海鲜饭店用晚餐，爆炒烧肉，马来占炒野菜与炒蚌等家乡菜肴都美味得不得了。之后，在路边停车之处发现天泛红霞，昏暗的街灯，远方的山的灰暗影子，与一排不甚起眼的店屋，即带出了小镇独有的浪漫感觉。

把不起眼的事物与景象用心观察，就会发现不起眼其中的特别。。。

Ipoh is the hometown of my father in law. Other than the tasty food it is famous for, I especially like the mountainous landscape here.

Both the images here were shot with the mountain in the background, which adds interest to a minimalist composition. The foggy weather also added some mood in the otherwise boring looking scene.

One of the interestingness of photography is one has to explore for beauty in the daily life scene which may not be readily noticeable if we do not feel and see the surrounding with our heart….  

裕廊飞禽公园 (Jurong Bird Park)

买了一支佳能70-200mm新镜头后，又和家人们重游裕廊飞禽公园。

裕廊飞禽公园里的鸟类和旅客接触多了，都相当温顺且不惧怕人们靠近，因此对于想拍摄鸟儿的朋友们，是事半功倍的选择。

佳能70-200mm f/2.8L镜头拥有大光圈，不仅在光线不佳的情况下可以拍出清晰的效果，而且也有效的虚化背景，以突出主题。

有朝一日，也许我会回到深山野林里寻觅大自然的鸟儿生态。。。

Because of the purchase of the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens, I visited Jurong Bird Park again. This was my second visit ever since I picked up DSLR photography.

One key advantage of Jurong Bird Park is that the photographer can go near to the birds as compared to birds in the wild. Shooting the birds here was almost effortless.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8l IS II is a superb lens. Because of the large aperture, not only it is possible to capture images under dim lighting condition, it also produces visually appealing background blur. The built-in 4-stop image stabilization makes hand holding at the telephoto end possible.   

After two visits to Jurong Bird Park, I have an urge to try out wild bird photography in their natural habitats…..  

追焦摄影 (Panning Photography)

周末是和家人小孩们户外活动的好时刻，小孩们骑铁马时，亦是我练习追焦的好机会。

追焦摄影是极其有趣的摄影技术，拍摄效果与一般凝固动作的手法不同，拍摄时必须跟着拍摄物一起移动，以达到清晰与模糊混杂充满动感的画面，是我个人非常喜欢的一种手法。

摄影的乐趣，除了不同镜头拍摄不同效果，也有千变万化的手法与技巧，让摄影发烧友之热忱冷切不下来，不断学习追求以达到另一种境界。

忙碌的工作，必须抽空用摄影来平衡，以免变成城市里的机器人。。。。

On this day when my kids were cycling in the park, it was a good opportunity for me to practice some panning shots of my kids cycling.

I switched my camera to shutter priority and set the shutter speed to as low as 1/5 second and started trying out the panning shot without much success. I then slowly increase the shutter speed to 1/10, 1/15, 1/20 and 1/25. Eventually out of close to 100 shots, there were only a couple of shots with reasonable result. The most suitable shutter speed for this case turned out to be around 1/20s.

Panning yields interesting result but it requires some patience and practice to achieve nice shots.