it is not my 1st time visit this place .. but last week we make final decision to drop by and spent a wonderful evening with my gang [shunfa, Lio, Xiao Yi & Ken]....
it is locate almost end of famous beach Port Dickson where almost reach Melaka.
direction
- from Kuala Lumpur, South (Melaka, Johor, Singapore) from North south Highway
- look for Port Dickson out
- then look for Port Dickson (highway will be much easier/faster to access this beach) so follow Port Dickson (green board)
- follow the highway, you should reach to a roundabout ... don't worry look for Tanjung Tuan lighthouse direction
- then look for Pantai Pasir Panjang (which is ~12km to the destination)
- this place locate near Ikan Bakar Pantai Pasir Panjang
this place facing sunset so this is a good sunset spot with Tanjung Tuan Light house locate at far (but after dark you still view the light house lihgt)
e.g.
few advice .
1. take note of yours' tripod .. many fisherman walk around .. so may accident "kick" yours' tripod into sea
2. do not look for 2nd seafood store (the center one).. it took hours to serve even not much customer (ouckesssssssss, we are 2nd table and wait ~1.15 hours for our dishes to server)
3. mosquitoes after dark
4. plan with tide level if you want different view of the pier
5. beach is further in the ikan bakar store so if bring family have to plan for this as this spot do not have beach
......
As mentioned, slowly discuss all my equipments so I can't remember what I use after years later :D
from 3++ years ago, Sony a200, a700, 50d... all previous experience I did minimum own 3-4 batteries but until I own Canon EOS 5dm2, I still own 2 as today .. why .. this battery is so expensive .. ~RM330 (USD100) per pcs .. wow .......and there is no proven real good oem battery so far ... hmmm but recently someone told me another brand (OEM), and I just ordered online and hope it is real good and then I will share it here again....
so what so great of this battery ? the % .... it tell truth ,mean it tell you 5% mean you only have 5% to use not like previous battery even you see 1/3 bar but then it could just turn off your camera in 30s, you won;t know yours' actual remaining capacity. but for this .. it is so accurate ..
and how lasting ? hmmm if I shoot macro (non Liveview) with moderate preview .. it can easily shoot up to ~400-500 pictures ..... but while I shoot landscape, where I 95% use liveview and preview moderate, it only can last ~150-200 pictures and depend on the places I shoot (highland ... cold season .. all count too) ....
and why suddenly I want to share this before other accessories, because to let other know ... don't save xx dollar and you may already spent xxxxx dollar on gears .. it is so important ... and let's me share an experience (yesterday)...
I was went out for a discussion, and we decided to choose a place where I shoot a ok ok picture ... (as my client would like to shoot too)
but then, while I reach .... I have my tripod, lee filters , lenses ready .. and spot ready ... while I turn on my battery .. my battery sign blinking .. aikssssssssssss.. goiks .. and I went check .. it left 4% ........................................... and the sunset look great ... so I can';t resist to shoot few .. but the sky just turn amazing ... and I know I left last chance, may be last shot or even less than 5 ............and the SKY keep turn so dramatic , and I ask where is ALEX as he use to be here everyday and he is my the only hope . but he didn't turn up as busy with work .....and I use my last battery available to capture a video to share
so look at this view , do you still want to save $ on yours' battery ????
we having real bad weather recently .. either cloudy, hazy ... or rain almost everyday ... but again and again , we never give up and we managed to enjoy beautiful sunrise and sunset for last weekend ....
Every time rain, I telling my friend .. "no worry, canon weather proof mah .." so do I shoot under rain? Yes and no ... I never know how to verify how many ml/m or ml/feet .. :D so I judge myself every time... is it worth to shoot even rain ? and I continue shoot most of the time if the rain do not hit on to my len :D
so when I 1st meet horn-frog in wild
it was heavy rain in the jungle ... I saw it ... how I resist to have few shot .. :D
last Saturday, I went out for a sunset outing and most of my gang never give up even raining. We setup our gear and wait for the light to appear ....
so how I call weather proof :D
haha .. normally I use rain coat for my camera so I will be all wet while waiting for the moment .. but this time I use umbrella .. thanks Suzanne Chew for the umbrella (think it was for me but end up I use it for my camera)...
both pictures above also capture using Canon :D (Canon Ixus :D )
so what I waiting for ?
... never give up ...
worth the wait ?
some of my "crazy gang waiting shot (different date) and thanks Alexander Poh for the lake location and the capture ....
*** please do not follow their action .. if you love yours; camera :D
################ brief description from wiki ######################## Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) is a lake and supervolcano, 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesianisland of Sumatra with a surface elevation of about 900 metres (2,953 ft), the lake stretches from 2°53′N98°31′E / 2.88°N 98.52°E / 2.88; 98.52 to 2°21′N99°06′E / 2.35°N 99.1°E / 2.35; 99.1. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world.[1]
Lake Toba is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 69,000-77,000 years ago,[2][3][4] a massive climate-changing event. The eruption is believed to have had a VEI intensity of 8. It is believed to be the largest explosive eruption anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory to which some anthropologists and archeologists subscribe, it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today.[5] This theory however, has been largely debated as there is no evidence for any other animal decline or extinction, even in environmentally sensitive species.[6] However, it has been accepted that the eruption of Toba led to a volcanic winter with a worldwide decline in temperatures between 3-5 degrees C, and up to 15 degrees C in higher latitudes.
#######################################################
4days3night spend as below
Day1
1. arrived Medan
- driver is ready for us
- the driver skill must be really good, the road are small, but they are like driving F1!!!
2. Shooting cows with Mt. Sinabung (another Volcano recently erupts) as background
- so close to the Volcano ... we were late for the sunset as day light end bit early
- not really good weather
- but the experience look at the volcano is different
[reserve pic]
Day2
1. Sunrise at Mt Sibayak
- 45minutes hike...
- hiking on volcano is real good experience
- the sound of the pressure from the ground just amazing
- the sulfuk smell ...
- not a perfect sunrise but the experience let me vote this as best of the trip....and I think I fall in love with volcano
2. driving from North Toba Lake
- meet up Indonesia Photographers
- the lake just amazing
- again, driving here is not fun ... if you plan to drive. Please get ready of it
3. great sunset at Balige.
- a bad weather
- no one expect to have good sunset
- but sky change dramatically... every like WOW ...
- most beautiful sky among the trip
- people here very much depend on the lake even water source.....
4. great dinner at Toba Art
- meeting Indonesia photographers, media, artist ...
- they are all here celebrate Pesta Toba
- the dinner was GREAT .. the fish is delicious
Day 3
1. Sunrise Tara Bunga & Dolok Tolong in the morning
- but again weather was bad
- the view make me decide , I will go again !!!
2. the ferry ride to Samosir
- good experience , ~45minutes on a lake ... with car on the ferri .. wow
- to park yours' car while in the ferry... judge yourselve rather listen to the guide :D
3. shooting human interest near Pangururan
- weather is not good
- but here is another place , make be say "I will be coming back again !"
- people here peace, friendly, they play without worry .....
I am not a fan of black & white but do enjoy viewing other beautiful black & white pictures ..
am busy for week and not really process my picture or choose a good one to share so siply convert 2 pictures of mine to black and white to reflect my view/mood of this week ...
it depend on the location , some place I can order "Ikana Bakar" (Grill fish) , some I need to bring my own coffee ......
last weekend, I spend 2 places (Tg Bidara @Melaka & Jelatek @Kuala Lumpur) to spend my evening for sunset .....
so what I did .....
Saturday @Tg Bidara.. this place full with this Tiger beetle
Sunday, @Jelatek ... nothing much I can do at the corridor .. and forgot my coffee .. so
patient is important and the wait may not give you any worthy shots .. but we still chasing, waiting ... every weeks.......... this is Photographer patient ...
last friday, it was a cloudy day and rain in some area too... but I still drive ~40KM to meet up few friends for sunset shooting .... and I had plan for worst, which mean I will shoot nothing or press the shutter ......
but while I reach there, even the tide is high.... the cloud look bad ... no color on the sky but I still trying to look for a spot to get some "no so" sunset feel pictures ......
Just before the sunset, the sun did appear (20-30%) out from the thick clouds ..... and I manage to get some orange color over the dull color look sky ... and with the high tide ... I would say few worthy pictures are capture .... and I keep this with me, "it is depend how we shoot the moment but the moment show us what we should shoot"
thanks ... a busy and tired morning .. just want to share this before I forgot :D
this is for those need some momentum to continue to their patient (for work, hobby, wish ....)
while I was shooting beautiful sunrise/sunset for pass, I experience while we had give up and almost leave the place .. and the sky just have dramatic change make the normal view become a WOW .......
and while me spend my time with my wife and Daughter @KK park in the evening (~6:30pm) the sky look just normal. while almost everyone give happy with the "ok" sunset shots ....... all a sudden the sky change dramatically ... it is like flaming red with blue ... purple .. and every is like WOW and taking picture of the beautiful view non-stop but it only appear within few minutes and get dark .....
~625pm
and we(me, my wife, Jie Xi and other visitors) almost leaving ~640pm... the sky change dramatically
and everyone then busy again with the beautiful magic hour view (which only last few minutes)
This is not really far from Kuala Lumpur, but it is slight north drive toward Fraser Hill. from Kuala Lumpur either way to reach Path A i. direct toward Rawang (~30minutes) ii. after Rawang, toward Kuala Kubu Bahru or Fraser Hill (~1 hour) iii. it is on way up to Fraser Hill from Kuala Kubu Bahru and look for signboard (~20minutes)
Path B i. from North South Highway ii. toward North iii. look for exist Tg Malim or Kuala Kubu Bahru (45minutes) iv. toward Kuala Kubu Bahru (from Toll Exist ~30minutes) v. it is on way up to Fraser Hill from Kuala Kubu Bahru and look for signboard (all times are estimated based on some traffic slow down by traffic, dark road...)
This outing actually have 3 sessions where we start travel from KL ~4:45am and arrived Kuala Kubu Bahru and went to DQ Mosque for sunrise & breakfast ... then toward to Chiling Fall for slow shutter shooting, macro and playing with water :D after the Chiling Fall, we back to DQ Mosque to wait for sunset session ...
for start let's me share few picture
... a late sunrise ...
then we toward Chiling Falls ... Spherical View - Chiling Fall ...
I love wide view .. that's why I have my 5dm2 with SIGMA12-24mm and the len almost 99% @12mm .... but after a while I still found some spot 12mm may not wide enough so I trying to do some manual Panorama but the result look bad for last few try ... and now with the help of Nodal Ninja 5L , I finally managed to finish my "not so good" panorama sunset
this picture outcome from 6 captures 1. use smaller angle to get more cross point locate as center as possible as side view of 12mm normally distort badly 2. output picture size 12548 x 9398 3. my new windows7 64bit 8GB PC still having problem to fully edit this picture so minimum PP done 4. the actual JPEG is ~110MB so I resize to 1000 @ longer size just to share the view 5. not sure how many mega pix I will get but am sure >50M pix
both picture below show from same standpoint, same gear, same focal length
and one of the main focus frame
hope I am not doing too bad but will trying to get better shot
think I stop sharing landscape spot few months back ... due to busy period and family stuff ...
decided to make a search for new spot after see some shots from my flickr friend ..
after a family lunch on yesterday, decided drive to Banting to look for Pantai Kelanang, which a beach never mentioned in map .. hmmm so just a try .... with really hot weather
direction 1. drive from any where toward KLIA/Sepang/Klang or refer to Morib beach 2. then look for Banting sign board 3. after reach Banting , Pantai Kelanang sign will be direct you to a beach ~4-6 KM from town 4. after reach, do not park your car but turn left just before the car park ...it is a big roundabout for the beach but it is one way on the other way toward back to car park
a place not many people, full with dead tree, mangrove, death fish... some fisherman ... direct to west so sunset :D
1. last friday 15 Jan 2010 from 3am -6pm then went for a Canon - Photomalaysia.com talk for videography + 1dm4 2. on next morning ~730am, we went to Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia for paddyy field shooting and was plan this for long as would like to see the brown + blue contrast color instead of common green + blue (but then I still want to shoot that) ... 3. we left Sekinchan ~4pm and drive toward to Pantai Jeram where ~1 hour drive from Sekinchan. and leave the place ~8pm then arrive house ~11pm
and I am leaving Malaysia to Singapore early of the morning next day ....
I would say .. WOW .. but my body just can't follow my brain .. so I comment myself 20++ brain but 40++ body :D
but with 2 pictures (many of them but simply choose 2 to fast process out) ... I am happy with the tired outing ....
am in Singapore , a beautiful city but just feel difficult to get my camera to shoot as not sure how to present city ... (think i need more effort on this) ... may be you all should tell me how I improve .. I will post few pictures from my few days trip here...
a beach or fishing village not far from Kuala Lumpur (~1-1.5 hours drive from city), and this is good for sunset and it direct facing west... you may need to check on the tide level as it give different view and capture mood ...(pictures will share below)
Direction - from Sungai Buloh toward Kuala Selangor - after pass by Ijok - arrive to a T junction - turn right to Kuala Selangor, Sekinchan ... - but we going to turn left toward klang - keep ~5-6KM there is a signboard show Pantai Jeram with "Ikan Bakar" on your right
- a easy sunset spot where drive there and walk less than 10m - but not much foreground ... while high tide
this is after the sun went down and the beautiful sky just appear ... and I fall down to got my "800mm" swap to 12mm :( but luckily still ok to stand up to get this shot
and I like to capture this type of view by widest possible where is my 12mm @Full Frame ...
@Tanjung Bidara, Melaka, Malaysia
Canon 5dm2 + SIGMA1224@12mm + tripod # Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/1 second ===> 1 second # Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 16/1 ===> ƒ/16 # ISO Speed Ratings = 50 # Original Date/Time = 2009:11:27 19:05:09
saw this opportunity, after my gang left me behind due to rain.... I just don;t care about the rain and swap my macro len to 400mm and it still too far and decide to add on 2x tc on my 400mm L ... and consider lucky where the boat was stop for fishing......
I am slow recently, due to need to spend more time on family and work (aikssss preparing for exam now).... but I think it is good to start share some of the Landscape spots that I visit before I forget the details ...
This is going to be same as MACRO spot ... I will share some picture from the spot, how to be there, what need to be take note ... etc
Tanjung Tuan is located down south from Port Dickson Town, a popular beach destination for city folks. Also known as Cape Rachado, this place is essentially a coastal forest gazetted for a park for bird watching, especially for raptors, as well as being a tourist attraction (lighthouse at the peak). The forest is composed of both rainforest and mangrove swamps.
Direction - Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan - from North-South Highway toward South (Singapore, Johor) Direction from Kuala Lumpur - drive ~1hour to Port Dickson exist - follow sign board, it will lead you to Port Dickson near a place call Teluk Kemang - toward the end of the highway, you will reach a roundabout turn 9 o'clock - follow the main road you will reach Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan Or "Tanjung Tuan Light House" ... this will take ~10-15minutes - make right turn from the main road after see the signboard Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan - will pass by Tanjung Biru (Blue Lagoon), Tajung Mirror.... - ~1km will reach Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan Entrance - walk into the Hutan Rimab (reserve jungle) toward the end ~30-40minutes walk - light house will be at the end - it will be a down hill path which lead to sea side (will discover next visit) - this post only share the view from the hill
Difficulty - need to pass by a Hutan Rimba (reserve jungle) - no drive up - not really tough as it only need ~30-40minutes walk
Why - this is located @west coast of MALAYSIA so sunset ... from hill - people come here also for raptors .... but not me :D
![... bath ... [18sx]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/5117140517_a93f67fdca.jpg)
