单反镜头 (DSLR Lenses)

四眼的我，自从爱上单反相机后不到两年时间，竟然前后为相机物色了四副镜头。单反相机好玩的原因之一是不同的镜头能拍出不同的效果，让摄影者沉醉其中。

Ever since I bought my first DSLR camera, in less than two years, I have added four lenses so far. I think one of the main advantages of DSLR camera is its ability to use different types of lenses for different photographic needs.

佳能 EF 100mm f/2.8L 微距镜头除了能拍微距，也能拍摄人像。

Canon EF 100mm f.2.8L macro lens is my favorite for macro photography, but is equally wonderful for portrait.

佳能 EF 50mm f/1.8 II 镜头是轻巧及经济实用的标准镜头，除了人像，也适合拍摄静物。

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II standard lens is a lightweight and cheap lens but yield superb image quality. I like to use it for portrait and still object photography.

佳能 EF-S 10-22mm F/3.5-4.5超广角变焦镜头能拍出视觉有异于标准镜头效果，相当有趣。

Canon EF-S 10-22mm F/3.5-4.5 ultra-wide lens is a crazy lens for landscape as well as to produce images with exaggerated perspective. Everything looks longer and wider with this lens.

Sigma 18-250mm 13.8倍变焦镜头让拥有者一镜走天涯，拍出来的品质也不赖。

Sigma 18-250mm lens has a generous zoom range of 13.8 times. This is a good general purpose walk-around lens.

若经济情况允许，我希望能在未来添加一枝长镜头。

As long as I can afford, I wish to add a super-telephoto lens in the future.

一日一生 （One-Day Life）

生命是神奇的，却又一点也不神奇。

生命好比一颗铁螺栓，铁螺栓的一生从制作，服务直到腐蚀被更换的过程，就像我们的一生可以分成学习阶段，服务或工作阶段，以及退休阶段直到终老。

也许我们能活到七十，八十或九十岁。许多人一生奋斗储蓄，退休后却顽疾缠身，没能如愿享受退休后的生活。有些人如愿储到可观积蓄，快活旅游享受了一段日子，却又顿觉人生失去目标而郁郁寡欢。

几天前收到友人一封电邮，提到一日一生的观念。这概念说到没人能知晓自己能活到几岁，因此建议把每一天都当成一生来生活，每一天都要学习新事物，每一天也要服务社会做些有意义的事，每一天也留点时间享乐。 这样，就算明天就走也不会有太大遗憾。

Life is a miracle, yet it is so ordinary and fragile.

Life is just like a set of bolt and nut. The lifespan of a pair of bolt and may be a few weeks, a few months or a few years depending on the environment. Likewise, our life expectancy may be seventy, eighty or ninety years depending on our lifestyle and other factors.

I read an article a few days ago, in the article the writer suggests that we should live each day as though we only have a days’ life. Hence every day we should spend some time acquiring new knowledge, spend some time contributing to the society and also set aside some time for things that we love to do.

This concept of living our life seems to make sense, let’s share it with our friends…

茅盾 (Game Plan)

有时候，深深觉得自己是个矛盾的父亲。即想孩子们能发奋读书名列前茅，又不想太剥夺他们身为孩童所爱做的事。

看着女儿每天一堆学校功课，加上拜一直拜五的课外补习，可算相当忙碌，到了周末也就不强制禁止她上网或玩游戏。不过女儿的学业成绩却停留在中等阶段，父母亲期望她能更加进步。

儿子虽然只有五岁，却精通各种电脑与手提游戏机，虽然每天都有准时做完功课，学业成绩却也只算是中等。

美国华裔虎妈蔡美儿的新闻让我觉得身为孩子的父亲，也许因为自己不够严厉，以致孩子们的学业中庸。

寻找万全的育儿方针，是做父母的最大考验。。。

Sometimes, I feel that as a parent, I have not been stringent and demanding enough to the children in terms of their academic result.

Seeing the amount of schoolwork they need to do daily and the additional tuition classes after school, I do not impose additional restrictions (such as watching television & playing games) and do not stress them to be exceptional academically. Incidentally, both the children only have mediocre result so far.

Contrary to the parenting style of the controversial American Chinese, Amy Chua, I am more inclined to allowing the kids to have a more balance childhood life, but I am doubtful whether this is contributing to their academic result being mediocre.

Too much game may not be a good game plan. I will need to figure out properly….

Photographing Birds

I like to take photos of birds, however, it is extremely difficult to get close to the birds in the wild without scaring them away.

In the absence of super long telephoto lens, I resorted to visiting Jurong Bird Park where all the birds were waiting for me and surprisingly I could get in very close to them to take proper photographs.

I ended up taking many photographs of birds including a few that capture the moment of interaction between the birds. I pick a few for sharing here. The rest of the photos are here.

The first photo shows as if the bird was getting to know each other, the second photo captured the joy of the birds playing with each other, whereas the last one shows that it was time to part, probably to meet again in the near future.

乡情 (Homesickness)

家乡是个朴素的小镇，几十年来，变化不大。

也许我的性格简单，不会眷念城市的繁华，却对乡下的一草一木，当然还有熟悉的乡音年味，原汁原味的街边小食，以及对同乡人独有的，特别深厚的感觉。

新年期间在家乡拍摄的一些作品，都很简单，却藏着心中的一份乡情。

My hometown is a small town with slow pace of development.

Every time when I visited my little hometown, I was drawn to each small detail so ordinary but yet the sense of belonging was so strong.

The images here were taken during my last trip back to my hometown. They may be simple, but contain my deep feeling inside.

四十不惑生日 (Birthday of A 40 Something)

前几天，孩子们的老爸生日，做姐姐的和弟弟串通买了个他们最喜爱的卡通蛋糕回来庆祝。

A few days ago, it was supposed to be daddy’s birthday. My little girl and little boy conspired to buy home a cartoon themed cake for celebration.

姐姐首先让她的蘑菇小可爱和蛋糕拍了张合照，弟弟也不甘落后，让他的小熊和蛋糕拍张照留念。

The elder sister first posed for a photograph with her beloved mushroom cutie (instead of with her dad), then the younger brother posed for a photograph with his beloved little bear (instead of with his dad).

之后，姐弟俩开开心心的插蜡烛点火唱生日歌，天经地义的让老爸为他们和他们可爱的蘑菇与小熊摄影。这就是四十不惑年龄之后的老爸生日状况，你们快乐所以我快乐。。。

Both the sister and the brother then happily decorated the cake with candles, sang song and let daddy naturally took memorable photos of them with their cuties.

This was how, as a 40 something daddy, celebrated his birthday. As long as the kids are happy, I guess the parents will be happy, too.

Lion and Kids

This Lunar New Year, as usual I drove back to my home town with my spouse and my kids. The journey was a long ones from the southern tip of Penisular Malaysia to almost the extreme north of the country. Furtunately this year the traffic was smooth throughout probably because I went back on Tuesday morning when most of the people must have gone back during the preceding weekend.

I love the feeling of being in the home town with my mother and siblings eventhough the house is normally quite messy during chinese new year due to the large number of relatives and kids who were all around interacting with each other.

My kids also love going back to my home town so much that my daughter shed tears when we were on the way back, not feeling like leaving her "gang" there.

Lion dance is always the kids' favorite and this year was no exception.

I took some photos during my stay there and posted some onto my Flickr account. Surprisingly, one of the photos (posted here above) appeared on the Flickr Explore page on 10-Feb-2011 at position no. 18. However today it slides down to position no. 93, and I realise that the position will change over time subject to some criterion unknown to the public that are set by Flickr.

This is my first photo that appears on Flickr's most interesting photos page and I hope this will motivate me to explore further in the area of photography and throughout the process of continuous learning.