Yeah baby! Just bought me self a PSP slim last week. As you can see from the pic, I bought the recently released Mint Green PSP. Sweet ain't it? >o< It has that 'minty' feel to it alright. Makes me wanna bite it like a chewing gum or something, lol.

The 'colour-ed' PSP is part of the aptly named 'BLUME' series introduced by Sony which consist of several soft pastel colour. These colour include 'Felicia Blue', 'Rose Pink', 'Lavender Purple' and also 'Mint Green'. I guess Sony is trying to project a 'flowery' feel to these PSPs coz BLUME somes same to BLOOM. You know, like flower blooming? Okay, nevermind =_=", so now instead of the 'Piano Black', 'Ceramic White' and 'Ice Silver', people have a wider choice. I guess if you have enough money, you can buy all colours and do match-n-mix with your clothes.

Sony's signature console buttons Triangle, Square, Circle and Cross are reincarnated on the PSP. The top L/R buttons are cool transparent!


Here you have your digital movement keys and the analog joystick. Oh, and notice the glittery-sparkly finishing.


Green body, green theme. (But can set to other colour also lah.)

Actually I was poisioned by Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. It's a PSP game focusing on the prologue of the PS One Final Fantasy VII. But now, I'm playing Monster Hunter Freedom 2 more than FFVII:CC. Here is a pic of a in-game real-time cut scene of MHF2. I have to say, I am dam impressed that a small device like this can churn out real-time 3D graphics like that.

Now I bring this baby wherever I go. In my morning trips on the LRT, I'll be staring at the 480x272 wide screen slashing dinos and collecting ores. Dam, makes me miss checking-out the babes on the LRT, lol.

Well, as I've mentioned in my previous post, I planned to go into the mountains again. This time, me and my buddies are tackling Gunung Angsi, which is located in Negeri Sembilan. This mountain is 825 meters above sea level. Not very tall, but still provides some challenges.

Reaching there is rather simple. Just get into Seremban, then head to Kuala Pilah road. This will lead you to a winding road like Initial-D. Drive along the road and soon you will see Ulu Bendol. Ulu Bendol is one tourist location which consist of rivers and small water falls. I used to camp there when I was in the Scouts, ahh, memories.

Our journey begins from here. There is another route up to the summit though. It is a hidden track 3 to 4 kilometers before the main 'Ulu Bendol' entrance. We only found this out when we met a bunch of climbers at the summit who pointed it out. By the way, if you plan to ascend from Ulu Bendol, don't get duped by the lousy 'staff' at the offices there who claim a certain fee from you. Dam bastards probly used it to drink teh or eat nasi lemak.

Anyway, the climb is suitable for beginners or even intermediates. Since it's not very tall, one can tackle the summit and still have plenty of time to spare. We started our climb around 8 or 9am. And was just about 3 to 4pm when we reached back at the car park.

Expect the normal tropical forest foliage, monkey howls and small streams along the path. I still remembered when I was in the scouts the slopes seemed impossible for me. They are quite bearable now... maybe I've grown stronger, wahaha.

Holy mackerel! Saw these streams of ants along the path. I guess their 'nest' were blown down by the wind and they had to move or something. I had a few shots dam geli one. Macro pics of thse ants... which has big 'butts'. Haha, better not bah. I remember seeing some geli pics on the net... which stuck to my mind till now... curse those people who post those pics... =_="


Yup, I like the shade under the forest canopy. When the weather is good, being in the trees feel just so gud. Warmth from the sun is toned down from cool breeze; fresh air and bird chirps. Need I say moar? (Hah, of course when things go bad in the forest, it goes real bad).


My friend TeeHu saw this lil' critter worming around on the floor. Damn unique caterpillar! Little bugger kept wiggling around, so hard to shoot it. Doesn't it look like a tooth brush? Lol.


Woots, dam likes how the mountains fade away into the horizons. Reminds me of how my father used to teach me how to draw mountains - the colors get lighter as the mountains are further away.


This shot was taken on the summit of Angsi. TeeHu pointed out a red colored tree amongts the greeneries. Had to mess around with the tweaking... ended up with this... bleh...


JK ah... =P On the left is Tiong's wife, who joined us on several occasions on mountain hikes n stuff. Middle is Teehu and right is Tiong.


Shot courtesy of TeeHu. He was going for those 'Depth of Field' shots. Hah, S5 has limited DOF.


I mean it!


Forest + clear skies + forest ambient = win!

"I should've bought this wayyy earlier!". That's what I told myself when I plugged in the Canon LA-DC58E lens adapter and Canon LH-DC40 lens hood. I don't know about you but DAM, my S5 IS just grew more fierce! That's Rawrrr for you!!

Why I dint get this baby earlier? That's cause I was waiting for my credit card to order this online: Lensmate METAL adapters. (btw, didn't know S5 had a silver colour...) Yeah, Lensmate adapters are metal while the Canon one is tadaaa - plastic. Ugh... what gadget still uses plastic nowadays?

But luckily it still looks dam yeng and dam cool. Lol. Check out the comparison pics below. Dam, I'm loving my Canon S5 IS even moar. *Hugzzz Canon S5 IS*

And why did I suddenly bought it? Coz I was goin into the mountains again, so wanted protection for the S5 prime lens. The adapter allows a filter to be applied, thus protecting the prime lens.

Oh and btw, I'm taking these shots using my Nokia 6260 VGA cam. =_=" So yeah lots of noise n stuff. LOLx! Unbearable photo quality!

 

It's all about the looks

Canon S5 IS before and after 'facelift'. Dam, I thought those were two DIFFERENT cameras, lol. Right pic... now that's what I call mean! Notice in the left pic, the prime lens is exposed COMPLETELY! No protection what so ever. But with the adapter, filter and hood, the prime lens is now under some pretty good defense.


Top view and side view. Haha, when I showed it to my friend TeeHu he thought it was a lens at first glance, then only he knew "it's just a piece of glass", Lol.


This is how the baby looks like mounted on a (cheapo) tripod. Quite yeng also.

 

Feel and function

Well, this is the overall look of the S5 on a tripod. The tripod seems to spoil the canggih-ness of the canon S5 now... let's see how it will look like once I get my hands on the Manfrotto Modo tripod. Hiaks hiaks.

Well, looks aside, the adapter do add quite a lot of 'functionality' to the S5. The first thing I noticed is that the grip is now wayyy better. The elongated nozzle now allows my left hand something to 'hold on' to while shooting. Really helps when I have a big hand.

Then of course there's the versatility of filter lenses to be used. All the UV, ND, Polarizing and what not. For me it's just a plain UV protective lens. May probably go into those other lenses in the future ;).

The S5 has become moar 'durable' and +50 confidence to the user while taking photos. Definitely a must-have for S5 users. ( Why am I writing like I'm doing a review? Wait... am I? ) We'll see how this gadget effects my shooting. Till next time, cheerio!


Hood skrews onto Filter> Filter Skrews onto Adapter> Adapter snaps onto body. Voila!

Every chinese new year my family would 'go back' to my grandparents house in Pahang. It's located in Jerkoh, a small idyllic town just further down Raub. We've been going there for CNYs and holiday visits since I was like borned. Lol.

It's your typical Malaysia 'kampung', which I really like. Why? Coz of the trees, the ultra-low density and firendly peeps. All of my cousins and relatives are super friendly and generous lol. Just gotta lov em'.

I brought me trusty S5 for some shots this trip. I was hoping to shoot a lot, considering there is so much 'content' in the place which I was about to visit. But surprisingly, I wasn't able to shoot much! Meaning... I have to work on my ability to visualize a good shot?

Panaroma of my grandparents house, click to enlarge. (They have both passed away though, so now my uncle and aunty lives there. Freakin huge compound, they even have an orchard at the back of the house, sheet, me wants).

Anyway, as usual, here are some of the more, ahem, interesting shots I've taken... imho... =_=" K then, take it away.

Haha, even I wish a bug can stay put in such a nice position. The bugger was already dead, I posed it on the branch for this shot. Lol.

This bugger creeped my cousin sisters out. Lol, he keeps comin into the house and buzzed around. My cousin sisters were running all over the house lolx. Being the cool wolf as I am, I stayed put, along with my cousin bros. Found him dead the next mornin'. Hope he was able to, ahem, do his stuff b4 dying =P.

The mysterious garage was filled with all sorts of 'junk'. Go berserk with B&W again.

When I was a kid, everytime I visit, I always explore the old 'smoke house' with my cousins (I guess they called it 'smoke house' coz it was used to smoke cocoa beans b4, not sure though). That old garage was full of mysteries and fear for me that time. But now, as I grew more fearless, the mysteries seem to have disappeared. Now, it just seemed like an old insignificant bland boring abandon building which is used to keep stuff. Ahh, pity pity.

Argh, wrong focus shot. Was suppose to aim at the head, but ended up focus on the butt. (It was TOO sunny that morning, dun have the patience to adjust =P ) =_=" Argh, just spoil it with some corny captions bah... muahaha

Trying to shoot some dragon flies dancing on the small stream. Dam these things fly fast. Bet its singing 'Can't touch this' from MC Hammer...

Finally the buggers stay put. One of the more satisfactory shots.

Caught this guy hiding under the car window's visor. My friend Chee's dam 'favorite' creepy crawlies, lolx.

Ahh, it's always good to be able to gather with relatives during the festive seasons. We'd all exchange intel' n stories. This year we even had a surprise visit from a cousin sis which we've not seen in so long, lol.

Oh, and nature photography is so f*ckin' addictive. It would be the best thing to do... if minus the damn mosquitoes. =_="

Rawwrrr!

"Aiyah, no catch today argh..."

Went to Klang with the usual gang and ate seafood there. In my definition, seafood = fish only. I'm allergic to shell-type seafood like prawns and crabs. =(

Photo taken by Chee, he wanted to snap the name of the shop. But my head 'pop-in'. Though an 'accidental' shot, I liked it. I like Eason Chan too.

This post have excessive Photoshop filter effects, viewer discretion is advised

Yup, it's what the titles says. 2 major locale visits during the day; and 1 major 'workout' at night, all in one single day. It was fun, but exhausting (the fact that I was still recuperating from seasonal influenza didn't help too).

Me, Chee, Jane(Chee's gf), Chua and Beh headed off to Bukit Tinggi in the early mornin. Upon arrival, we visited the French Town. I'll spare you the more generic photos I took there and post some more, ahem, 'interesting' shots. I hope. Here's some (post edited) pic's. My my, I went Photoshop filter crazy this time. Do comments... if you hav any ;).

"No-where"


"Clocks"


"Pine conezzzz"


I call this "Hidden picture". Observe =). Would it be better if I had not added that line-art-guy? I think so.


"In silence we wait" I kinda liked the original composition of this photo. 3 of my friends was seated seperately (You can see the head of the middle chair). I guess the effects kinda messed with the lights (left side too dark). And the shot seemed kinda 'cramped', dam, wish I had a wide angle lens. =_=

Wokeh, so after the French Town, we headed to the nearby Japan Gardens. We walked around and went to a 'jungle walk' which leads to an observation deck near the Japan Gardens. Again, I'll spare you the flora shots I took there and present you with some 'alternatives'.

"Wapanese Garden". Nuff said.


"Crowd"


"Thirst"


The 'end' of the jungle walk. Not one of the 'artsy' shots, just kinda like how the side canopies reveal the far scene.

Well, it was near noon when we left Bukit Tinggi and headed off to Genting.

Leaving Bukit Tinggi

Went to Gotong Jaya (foothills of Genting) to taste some special treats. You guys can go try out next time when you go to Genting.

Heh, my camera stayed inside my bag from there on. Since we are going into the casino, I left my camera in the car. Basically I just 'looked around' in the casino. I don't gamble in there. =P

At night, we went to Mid-Valley to bohling. There I bought my bohling shoes. No more wearing those 'public toilet' shoes, wahaha. Me hav own shuz. Me scorez 150++.

A very fulfilling day-out. Dam, I can do this 24*7*365. If only.