Photo of the day - 16th August

Crossing over the border from Victoria to South Australia, I had to stop at the quarantine roadblock for vehicle inspection. Noticing in the distance field across the road, 5 trees stood in a neat row. I soon parked my car at the roadhouse just beside the quarantine station and crossed the road to snap this.

Photo of the day - 11th August

It has been more than a year since my last blog post. I have been too busy with both family life and my newly established photography business.

God has been gracious to us and we are truly blessed with things that are both good and bad. A healthy, stable and happy family, and time to enjoy family life and pursue a bit of my passion, what more can I ask?

Well, I am trying to recommit blogging more, perhaps putting up more photos and sharing a bit of my thoughts and latest happenings.

Here a photo to share. This was taken on two Saturdays ago. Woke up on a foggy morning to drop my sister in law to the airport, I saw beautiful scenes all along the highway to and back from the airport. I grabbed my camera and headed down to the river near my house to capture this awesome photo. The sun was just rising above the distant hills, piercing through the thick layer of cloud and fog. Alas, I was a touch too late to capture the purplish hue in the sky when I finally parked my car and got my cameras out of my bag, but nevertheless, a beautiful sight of the rising sun over the bridge still to behold.

Thank you God your for your lovingkindness as it indeed never cease, for Thy compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Fraser Motorcycles' Ducati Launch Party in Perth

Fraser Motorcycles is one of the biggest motorcycle retail chain in Australia. They carry some of the biggest motorcycle brands like BMW, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Yamaha and Buell.

Last week, Frasers held a party at the Llama Bar in Subiaco, Perth for the official launch of the Ducati StreetFighter bikes in Perth.

I was hired as the official event photographer by Frasers. Taking along my trusty second shooter friend, Charlene, I also invited another bike-crazy photographer friend, Geoff, to assist me and join us for the shoot.

Here are some of the photos we took at that party:

The excellent Fraser Motorcycles staff


The bike still under the cover
(Photographer: Geoff)


Ian Blackley from the local radio station Mix 94.5 was the MC for the night




(Photographer: Geoff)




(Photographer: Charlene)




..and obviously the media and the press were there too for the event

Here are some of the static display of the a red Ducati and a white one




(Photographer: Geoff)






(Photographer: Charlene)

For all the Perth Ducati bike lovers, you can visit Fraser's Ducati website here.

Love that bokehToo!

Charlene and I have this friendly competition about shooting the the best bokeh picture. She recently wrote something about our friendly competition in her blog post. We were scouting the Caversham house compound for an upcoming wedding shoot when we spotted this beautiful, well lit vine with gorgeous red leaves. You know, I have this thing about autumn leaves. I am crazy about the bright red, yellow, orange and brown colours in the leaves during autumn. I just love the beauty of this particular season. This is also why I create this nickname "autumnleaf" for myself, and named my photography business Autumnleaf Photography.

Each year, I would attempt to snap a few photos of some autumn leaves. Here are some of the ones that I have done over the years:

2009:


2008:


2007:


Charlene has some really beautiful autumnleaf images with great bokeh. Do visit her blog site to see for yourself.

The Cape Le Grand National Park - An Amazing Experience

I recently took a trip down to the Southern Coast of Western Australia for a week after the Easter break with my family and some friends. We basically stayed around two the town of Albany and Esperance.

The highlight of the trip was the half-day trip to the Cape Le Grand National Park. The National Park is located 50 kilometres south east of Esperance. It is named after Le Grand, an officer of the L'Esperance, one of the ships in a French expedition commanded by Admiral D'Entrecasteaux in 1792.

This national park is pristine and is known for its stunning scenery and idyllic white sandy beaches.

Due to time constraint, we were restricted in the number of areas in the park we could visit. We arrived first at Lucky Bay, then proceeded to Thistle Cove after spending a couple of hours beach walking (and photo taking - on my part) and letting the children in our mist play on the white sandy beach. We had a quick look around the Le Grand Bay before heading back to Esperance.

Though the time we spent in the park was relative short, it definitely left a great impression on me. We witnessed the beautiful vast landscape, the tall Frenchmen peak (one can actually track all the way to the top of the peak) and enjoyed the clean, white sandy beach and clear blue waters on the bays. This is one place I would rate as one of my favourite holiday and sightseeing spots in Western Australia.

In the coming days, I hope to share some of the beauties of the park with you. I also hope that you will also be able to witness its beauty personally as my photos will definitely do it no justice.

Some images of the Thistle Cove

A tribute to Ansel Adams and Earth Day

I didn't realise that April 22nd is both the Earth Day and the 25th years to the day of Ansel Adams death until a Flickr user told me this.


I have always admired the works of Ansel Adams. Adams was one of the greatest landscape photographer in the world. His works have influenced many photographers around the world even till today. He inspired me to wanting to draw a similar experience like his; travelling to the beautiful country side to admire and to capture the beautiful landscapes God has so graciously given to us. Fittingly the passion for the beautiful landscapes also remind us that we human must strive to protect our Earth, our only planet, the home to all of us. It is also to my amazement that Earth Day happens to be on the day of the passing of Adams.

My tribute to Adams is a photo I have taken recently at the Cape Le Grand National Park near the town of Esperance in Western Australia. The photo was taken at a place called the "Thistle Cove" in that national park.

Cape Le Grand is a national park in Western Australia, 631km south-east of Perth and 56km east of Esperance. The park covers an area of 318 km² at Coordinates: 33°56′49″S 122°09′20″E / 33.94694°S 122.15556°E / -33.94694; 122.15556

Established in 1966, the park is managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation.

The largely granite shoreline and white sand beaches is a picturesque feature of the area. The park is a used for fishing, off-roading, tourism, and hiking.

Beaches within the Park include those at Lucky Bay, Rossiter Bay, Hellfire Bay, Le Grande Beach and Thistle Cove.

Information: From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Le_Grand_National_Park)

One can still view or even buy Ansel Adams works through a website run by his family. The web address is: http://www.anseladams.com/

Finally, I wish everybody a Happy Earth Day. Let us all do our little part to save our planet.

Beautiful Butterflies at Changi Airport

Singapore Changi Airport has many unqiue features. One of which being having a Butterfly Garden inside the airport. Claimed to be the world first, it is rather special to be able to unwind or kill some time in this garden. Although the garden is rather small (in fact some may not even call it a garden as it has some potted plants and a small man made waterfall), to be able to see the butterflies up close, or even letting some come to rest on your shoulder or fingers are indeed a unique and wonderful experience. The Butterfly garden is located at the Terminal 3.

I had the opportunity to spend some time at the Changi Airport earlier this year while transitting through Singapore. Here are some of the photos that I took.

Some random thoughts on Christmas 2008

Christmas day has just passed. People around the world would have seen this day in different lights. Christmas often means different things to different people. Some people celebrate Christmas purely a holiday season, some people like to spend their time with their love ones while others celebrate this day as a religious day.

Being different from many other Christians, I do not celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible never stated that Christ was born on Christmas day. Far from it, the Bible indicated that it could not have been on Christmas day. Some historians reckon that Christ was probably born sometime between March, April or May. Without going too deeply into discussion this, I would simply like to point out that the Bible emphasised on Christ's death and resurrection, but never His birth.

But while the world celebrated, it also gave me the opportunity to think about what has become of this world and humanity in general. Christ came to bring us hope and salvation. He also came to teach us about love one another and yet what we see today are wars and rumours of wars. What we constantly witness on news and current affairs are often filled with reports of crimes, misdemeanors and misadventures. Human morality and humanity have sunk to all time low. I think we have truly disappointed our Lord Jesus. His teachings were utterly forgotten and abandoned.

Christmas is a good time to reflect what we have done throughout the year. Perhaps part of Christmas is truly to share some precious moments with our love ones, to right some wrongs, to ask for forgiveness and to set new course of direction in our lives.

Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, as usual, delivered her message to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth during this Christmas.

One part of her message gelled with my thoughts:

The Queen said of the current financial crisis and what is happening around the globe, "in such times as these we can all learn some lessons from the past. We might begin to see things in a new perspective and certainly we being to ask ourselves we it is that we can find lasting happiness. Over the years those who have have seemed to me to be the most happy, contented and fulfilled have always been the people who have lived the most outgoing and unselfish lives. The kind of people who are generous with their talents or their times."

Strangely enough, the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also delivered an alternate message to rival Queen Elizabeth II's annual address. It is easy to dismiss his message altogether, but interestingly I have found some small truth (yes, some, but not a lot) in his message, the part where he mentioned what Christ would like us to do - to love one another, to take care rather than to oppress the less fortunate.

This year has been an interesting year. As the financial crisis deepens, the world spirals into more conflicts in the middle east, South Asia between India and Pakistan, the ongoing conflict and violence in Afghanistan, I truly hope and pray that we Christian would step up and live a life that is different from the world. We must show God's love to other. We must go forth and be the light and the salt of this world. Let us pray that we will be found worthy of God's use for His work in 2009 and beyond till Jesus returns.

May you have a blessed New Year and a fruitful 2009.

The World of Macro Photography on Bugs

Russell Falls - the highlight of my recent trip to Tasmania

Russell Falls is one of Tasmania’s most treasured places. Located in Mt Field National Park, it can be reached by following a path from the Mt Field National Park Visitor centre. The walk path will take you through a mixed forest comprising towering swamp gums, the tallest flowering plant on Earth, and species typical of wet forests and cool temperate rainforests, such as dogwood, musk and myrtle. Towards the falls, the track is framed by stunning tall tree ferns. The falls themselves are impossibly picturesque.

I always love being in the nature, being able to witness the beauty of God's handiwork and at the same time find the peace and quiet that nature offers. I was able to take some time off last July and I took my family to Tasmania for a week of relaxation. Tasmania is well known for its nature beauty and I have heard too many praises from past visitors and thus I was eager to see it for myself.

Russell Falls are simply breath-taking. They may not be famous like the Niagara Falls but nevertheless they are just as beautiful and one of the better known waterfalls in Tasmania. Recently the Australia Post has issued a waterfall series of stamps and stationary and the Russell Falls were one of the featured waterfalls.



It was certainly rewarding for me to be able to witness the beauty and to immerse myself in the surrounding of the falls. I could stay at the falls whole day had it not been the fact that I was with my family and the sky wasn't exactly that bright that day. Having only arrived at the Falls in the afternoon, we were only able to stay for some half an hour before having to make the journey back.

Nevertheless, the short visit to this beautiful place yielded me some great images that I will always treasure and look upon with smiles and fond memories.





Having just witnessed the Russell Falls, I was thirsting for more. The Horseshoe Falls were just some 100 metres upstream from the Russell Falls. Naturally, I couldn't leave that place without giving them a visit. Unfortunately, the short path from Russell Falls to the Horseshoe Falls was closed for repair. I ended up having to drive a few kilometers deeper into the National Park and walked some over 1 km to the Falls. The reward was great as I was yet again treated with some magnificent scene to behold.



It was an awesome feeling to witness such beautiful work of the Lord. As the sky was growing dark, I hurried back to my car to meet up with my family. You see, I was alone all this while as I figured that it would be must faster for me to "mini jog" my way to the waterfalls site alone with a camera and a tripod... not the smartest thing to do I know. Looking back, I should not have attempted such silly "feat" as I would be in a bad situation had I met an accident or some unfortunate circumstances (which I shall elaborate no more). I think sometimes photographers do silly things and take unnecessary risks in an attempt to capture the "wow" shots.

That beside, these places left a deep and sweet memory for me. I would love to go back there sometime soon and attempt to capture more beautiful pictures.