Photography Field Day in Oxford

For the past several weeks, yours truly and other Fotopages members Arep, Rosli and Alynn had been planning a photography meet up. Arep and Alynn are new friends I had made through the internet, and both are also very enthusiastic about photography. I was at first introduced to Arep by Alynn, but being the small world that it is, I came to learn that Arep is my neighbour here in Coventry, we practically live next door to each other (and it only took me 2 years to realise it!)

The meet up was originally planned for Coventry and I had been scouting interesting places around this city for photography. Unfortunately, the trip to Coventry was cancelled right at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances which in other words mean Kaoru was too busy with assignments to come (more on Kaoru later).

Instead, we changed the meeting to Sunday, and the venue to Oxford. Unfortunately Rosli still could not make it (but is still visiting us several weeks from now).

We drove together with Arep and Dina along the one hour trip to Oxford. The journey was uneventfully calm and uncomplicated. Upon arrival to Alynn's I was surprised that there was no awkwardness in meeting these people in real life for the first time despite only knowing them through the internet for several weeks. Conversation flowed naturally, and naturally there were lots to discuss. I was also surprised that Alynn and her housemates spent so much effort in making us feel comfortable and preparing delicious food to fuel our day in the field. We even got to sample their famous biskut cornflakes!

Barely 10 minutes after we set foot in the house, everyone started taking out their various different types and brands of cameras (above is Puan Mama Sarah taking out her camera phone). We were suddenly drowned in a cacophony of various clicks, whirs and chimes (in the case of PMS' camera phone) as all the photographers in the house started taking pictures of everything and everyone. It was exactly that moment when I felt I was right at home among these people!


After enjoying the delightful breakfast prepared by Alynn and housemates, we took off to the Oxford University Park. The day was sunny and warm, and the park was aglow in Autumn colours - much to Amar and Sarah's delight as they were running freely in the open expanse...
with Kak Dina chasing after them.


Where are my manners? I should introduced everyone much earlier: above is Dina and Arep. Dina uses a really sleek Sony DSC T-series camera, and Arep uses a Canon 350D. He came complete with various accessories including 5 different lenses, and one of those lenses was the Canon 70-200 F2.8 L. That is NOT a cheap lens, readers.


In the above picture, on the left, is Alynn and her Nikon D50 nicknamed "Yume" which means "dream" in Japanese. Arep and yours truly being in the Canon camp remarked how silent and civilised the Nikon's shutter speed sounded compared to our more "macho" (read: loud) click & whir. Above is Arep lecturing Alynn on exposure and metering. You see, Alynn knows almost diddley squat about DSLRs. She was pointing to Arep's flash unit innocently asking, "What's that?". She doesn't know what the ISO is for, she doesn't know how to change lenses and she shoots only using the point-and-shoot "P" mode.

Despite all that, she takes brilliant photos. After yesterday, I've finally realised it's true that it's not about the camera - it's the artistic eye of the photographer that makes the picture.


Above are Alynn's friends, our Oxford hosts. From the left is Amer, Kaoru and Fakhrul. They were all really sporting, friendly, funny and accommodating. They were perfect hosts. Amer and Fakhrul were supposed to leave for London at 3pm, but they left very late in order to keep us company. Thank you so much!

Sarah and Amar were immediately comfortable with everyone; Sarah and Amer were throwing leaves at each other, and Amar was silently contented as Fakhrul carried him hither thither.



Alynn has told us how funny her Japanese friend Kaoru is, but believe it or not, she's even funnier in person! The two little ones were immediately comfortable with Kaoru too and above is a picture of all three burying themselves with leaves.


Above all, it was an excellent photography trip. We took photos to our heart's content and showed pictures to each other for critique and suggestions. I have learnt a lot from just watching these guys in action.


I think, even Puan Mama Sarah enjoyed the day watching Sarah and Amar rolling on the ground and playing with their new-found friends.


Lastly, a group photo of all of us yesterday. Puan Mama Sarah and I would like to thank all our hosts and Arep and Dina for an excellent, wonderful Autumn day in Oxford. Thank you for finding time in your busy schedules to entertain us and the cooking was gorgeous. We're looking forward to seeing you guys again in the future and please do visit us in Coventry as well one of these days. It was really nice getting to know all of you!

1. For more pictures from yesterday, please visit my Picasa Web Album: Link
2. Also more here: Link

The Hidden Beauty of Coventry: The Coventry Canal

We were originally expecting several guests this weekend, and we had been planning various activities. More specifically, I had been waiting a photography meet up in Coventry, and had been planning to go to several places where we could take photos together. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problems they all had to cancel.

Despite the meet up being cancelled, I had always planned an Autumn photography session. This weekend, the weather was forecasted to be excellent.

I set up my alarm clock for 6am in the hopes of catching the sunrise. Unfortunately, I snoozed right through the cacophony and missed sunrise (7.30am)! Undeterred, I voraciously devoured PMS' carefully prepared breakfast and made a packed lunch for myself - tea in a Thermos flask, bread, apples and chocolate. I made my way on foot with full photography gear in tow...

It was a nice autumn day, the sky was bright and blue (unfortunately devoid of interesting cloud formations) and the temperature was a pleasant 11 degrees Celsius. Most of the foliage has turned nice shades of red and ochre (a colour I'm only pretending to know) and I made my way down the path of the Coventry Canal.

The Coventry Canal was built around 200 years ago to transport coal from Coventry to other places in the Midlands. I am ashamed to say that I have been staying in Coventry for almost 2 years now and I only started to know about the existence of the canals 2 weeks ago! My destination was Hawkesbury Junction, also known as the Sutton Soup which is where the Coventry Canal junctions with the Oxford Canal. The distance I had to walk was 5 1/2 miles, one way!

Ask anyone about Coventry, and rarely will you hear anything positive. Coventry is a small city with many industrial estates. The city centre is small and dull because most of the city has been destroyed in the Blitz.

This morning when I first saw the canals, I was astounded by its beauty. The canal was serene, and quietly beautiful in glorious autumn. Apples littered the walkway and the water was mirror-like in its stillness.

Boats could be seen populating the canal landscape, occasionally trudging along at a slow pace scaring away the ducks and swans.

I was surprised to discover as I walked along to see industrial estates dumping water into the canal. The estates seemed a garish contrast to the serenity of the canals, but the reflections they produced in the still waters still caught my eye.





Occasionally, other people could be seen walking along the walkway. Many people were jogging, walking their dogs and seen taking a leisurely family stroll.

Another popular activity seemed to be fishing. Most of the people I met were extremely friendly and would greet me and engage in conversation. Most were happy for their pictures to be taken and would pose accordingly.

Not many people know that the Coventry Canal is host to Britain's longest outdoor art gallery. The award winning trail houses 39 artworks produced by artists and professionals working with the local communities (for example schools and clubs in Coventry). The seat adorned with carvings of fish seen above is one such artwork and is known as the Hawkesbury Lock Seat.

The 5 1/2 mile trail was interspersed with interesting artworks, factoids and exits to local cafe, pubs, parks and places of interest.

After several hours walk, I finally arrived at the Hawkesbury Junction. The junction was much smaller than I had imagined but seemed to be the ganglia where boats gather and leave.

At this junction, I finally had a chance to sit down, and enjoy a quiet picnic alone in a small celebration of my discovery of this place.

All in all, I managed to shoot 500 pictures along the canal and it was a great morning of interesting photographic and self-discovery. All the above pictures were taken using the new circular polarizer, to help control reflections and darken the skies.

I started the 5 1/2 walk back towards home grateful to Allah for my youth, energy, time and being born with adequate facilities that I was able to endure such an arduous physical test yet still being able to enjoy every second of the adventure!

Further reading :
1. The history of the Canal on the BBC website.
2. A list of the various artworks lining the trail including pictures.
3. A detailed history of the Canal by the Coventry Canal Society.
4. A map of the trail (I started at station 5 and finished at 12).
5. How did other photographers see the canal and how do my pictures compare? Photos on Flickr tagged "Coventry Canal". Interesting.

Amar

For fairness' sake (demi KEADILAN) and not to disappoint our friendly Uncle Pycno, here's a montage of Amar, from his birth to last night:









From these experiments there's one thing I realised: Goodness, children grow and change SO quickly. Blink and they change. To me DITH, that's why it's worth spending on an expensive camera, to catch milestones of their life at the best fidelity possible.

I truly recommend this project to other people out there; on photos of your children or photos of yourself. It's fascinating to see how one changes from moment to moment.

PS
1. ALL the photos I've ever taken using my digital cameras are on my hard disk(s)
2. If my hard disks die ... there'll be crying grown up men!
3. I do back up to disc and other hard disks regularly
4. KKL, alamak, it's abit late now but I dedicate this song to you. By your FAVOURITE singer. Enjoy! and thanks for the pictures.

Have a good weekend everyone, many plans?

Sarah

A montage of Sarah from day 1 to today: See how she's grown!









Notice the various hairstyles.

Flood of Pictures: Wales, a Nostalgic Visit

I've meant to write this post for ages, but I have only had the chance now. I'm still in post-oncall mode and still very tired and recovering. So no long updates from me today (I think). I feel really punctured from the oncalls, and so I feel even more less eloquent than usual tonight. Very sorry for the short-ish entry.

Our visit to Wales recently was full of nostalgia. It has been 2 years since we have left Wales and one of the things I was most surprised about was that I've already forgotten the routes around Cardiff, even though I used to traverse the same roads almost every day to work. It took us some time before we remembered everything again.

One of the places we visited was our old home, which brought back lots of memories. Our small house on Smeaton Street.

At first I started writing about everything on the house but there are simply too many stories to tell. So I deleted the paragraphs I was typing.

Concisely put though, in this house Sarah had spent her first few months, and we have enjoyed the company of many precious friends including Uncle and Auntie De, Rosli & Hila etc2222222222.








This is the Asda close to our house we used to go to every weekend for groceries and across Asda is Grangemore Park:

This series of pictures around Grangemore Park is also a tribute to Amirah: I saw pictures of this place on her blog and I had since planned to visit the park and take pictures at the same spot. While we were in Cardiff, we had passed the park every time we shopped in Asda but we had never thought to pay a visit. Squint at the picture above and you could see the Macdonalds Amirah and family ate at in her blog.

Thanks to Amirah, I found this beautiful, almost secret place:

Right at the top of the hill is this structure. I'm not quite sure what it does.

The Millenium Stadium and Auntie De's favourite Ikea is visible easily from atop the hill.

The Millenium Stadium and Ikea from Grangemore Park.

Of the 10 years I have so far been in the UK, living in Wales were some of the best moments I had shared with my family and friends. Here's Auntie and Uncle De's version of their own nostalgic visit to Cardiff.

That's it, I felt a bit tongue tied typing the above probably due to fatigue I think at this point it's probably best if I catch up on some sleep.

ZZZ