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.

宠物 (Hamster)

工作越来越忙碌，上网时间难免少了许多，部落格更新几乎零。忙里偷闲的机会只在周末，和家人共度悠闲时刻，享受天伦之乐。

女儿一直以来都很渴望养宠物，不久前终于答应她买了两只仓鼠，成为宠物的主人，全权负责仓鼠的起居饮食。

每隔几天彤就为仓鼠洗笼子换木屑，身为弟弟的衡就兴致勃勃的帮姐姐抹干器具。两姐弟分工合作，之前斗嘴之事烟消云散，这是养宠物后最让爸妈欣慰的事。

仓鼠体积极小，且柔若无骨，好几次竟在夜里从笼子铁条之间的隙缝钻出来，幸好没溜出屋外被野猫吃掉。

最近也买了一支新镜头，就把姐弟俩清洗宠物屋的光景拍摄下来，也把小仓鼠的可爱模样摄入镜头里。。。。

Our little girl had been persuading us to buy her pets. After turning down her request numerous times, we recently bought her two hamsters from the neighborhood pet shop.

As the owner of her new pets, our little girl is responsible to look after the daily life of the hamsters. This includes changing the food, the water, the sawdust and washing up the entire home of the hamsters. Whenever she carried this out, her little brother would happily help her out.

I recently bought a new 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, the images here were the test shots using the new lens. I wish to capture more images with this new lens in the new future.

家乡 (Sunset By the River)

也许从小在米乡这小镇长大的原因，我对朴实的乡村景色特别偏爱。每趟回来家乡，我总爱来到这静寂的河边，看着小河里的流水，望着那随风摇摆的椰子树，心里有说不出的宁静平和，我所眷念的，正是这与世无争的生活。

发呆了良久，太阳开始缓缓的降落在树丛里，有备而来的我从容的把落日余晖拍摄入镜头中。

在外工作多年，回到家乡，朋友们已不像以往那样多，也都有了各自的家庭，各忙各的。除了和家人在一起的时候，单独一个人的时间反而多了。除了拜年和一些小聚会，在家乡的农历新年竟是最清闲的一段日子。

母亲今年已七十八，除了膝盖偶尔会酸痛，所幸身体尚无大碍，依旧有一斑朋友定时练功强身。也庆幸从事保健产品的姐姐长期供应给母亲服用养生。

兄姐们都生活得很融洽，孩子们都能打成一片，今年唯独少了嫁到狮城的妹妹太过忙碌没能回来。

家乡的新年，清闲中带有热闹，又不失和谐欢欣的气氛。唯一恼人的，是那酷热的天气。。。

Whenever I come back to my hometown, I like to wander around just to look at the places where I grew up as a child. Equipped with a camera, I would try to capture images of places appealing to me.

This small river is located at the back of my sister’s residence. I would never miss visiting this place whenever I visited my sister. The simple view of the ordinary wooden houses, coconut trees by the river and its serenity are enough to have me captivated. I would sink into deep mental meditation state.

When the sun started to set, I would be awoken from the meditation. Came prepared, I shot the sunset scene of this tranquil place to be used on my desktop wallpaper.

随性 (CNY)

年幼的儿子从小就爱看舞狮，买了个小舞狮头给他，他就随着舞狮录像的节奏似模似样的舞起来。和所有小朋友们一样，爱玩，爱闹，爱模仿的天性不需大人们的启发，它就在体内流着的血液里，也在每个人与生俱来的基因里。

回到乡下过年，除了和家人们的团圆饭，和朋友们聚一聚，一些民间习俗如放鞭炮，舞龙舞狮，烧香接财神等虽然都是春节惯例，却让春节的气氛更加浓郁，也让那几乎忘了玩乐的心灵又活跃起来。

没有了民间传统艺术，没有了信念，生活会是如何呢？只有工作生产赚钱的生活，和行尸走肉没甚分别，也必定不是完整的。因此朋友，兴起爱玩的时候就请尽情玩乐吧。平衡永远比失衡好得多。

随缘随心随意，是我向往的生活。如何在为生活奔波的同时，能做到随缘随心随意，是我在龙年的小展望。。。

During my stay in my hometown for CNY (Chinese New Year) celebration, I had an infection on my lip, but that did not stop me much from having good times with my family and enjoying the usual lovely atmosphere of the Spring Festival.

The traditional Chinese cultural art and practices such as the lion dance, the firecracker and the prayers for the God of Fortune made the children as well as the grown-ups cheery and delighted.

I did not miss the opportunity to capture some images of the lion dance, the firecracker and the incense sticks used for the prayers.

Every Lunar New Year celebration may be more or less the same, but I never fail to enjoy the joy through these simple activities and atmosphere they created, as well as through the opportunity to reunite with family members and meeting some old friends.