Landscape Spot - Sunrise @Pantai Cermin, Port Dickson

last weekend, have few good discover.. few good spots for sunset... and another wonderful sunrise spots found beach @Port Dickson (west coast of Malaysia) think many people will ask why can shoot the sun rise from the horizon ... :D

so the simple answer is as for now, the sun rise from east south so as the beach location it face east south and a river on east if we move ourselves along the beach ........

not only the sunrise surprise me but the reflection of the beach ..... I wonder why it call Mirror Lake (Pantai Cermin) while I was there few times .. but now I may know why it call such name ... the beach itself is nature mirror of the beautiful sky/sunrise, while I look for better foreground (sorry not much foreground can be found here especially high tide), I found the beach itself will become reflective after ~2-3 s after the wave hit the beach and it will disappear in few seconds too (after the water dissolve/penetrate into the ground).... the sunrise not really beautiful but I still share few pictures of this outing due to the nature beauty of this beach ....




and a series of pictures show how's the reflection come and go




I will definite will re-visit this place ...and share more soon....

 
location
- 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
- before reach Tanjung Tuan
it is a right turn to famous Tanjung Biru (Blue Lagoon) and Pantai Cermin is on yours' left instead

Travel - Pulau Pinang , Malaysia

I had spent 3d2n at one of the northeast state of Malaysia. a non stop photo shooting with my gang (thanks to all of you - Shunfa, Jason, Wee, Suzanne, Phooi Teng, Lio, SP, Sky & Seethoe [special thanks for the accommodation]  )

travel from Kuala Lumpur ~3.5hours to arrive to the Island with non-stop ... (hmm think not too far but between the journey few speed traps were set :D )...

day1 - arrive in the afternoon, went to Seethoe & Sky extra apartment and rest
        - Sg Batu for sunset
        - dinner with Lou Lou ... ohhhhhh a wonderful meal
[image pending]

day2 - woke up 4am to Jelutong Expressway for sunrise
        - bit too early as sunrise should be ~7am
        - rain  ... so no sunrise shots :(
        - simple breakfast
        - Canon Marathon ....
[images pending (my submitted pictures)]
        - lunch ... sister fried kuey teoh
        - after submitted the pictures rush to Sg Burung for sunset
        - dinner - hou chian , satay, lobak .......

day3 - tired but still woke up for Jelutong Expressway for sunrise
       - town round trip and some biscuit buying ......


beside have a wonderful sun chasing (we had go for 2 sunset and 2 sunrise outing in total), we had wonderful foods, Canon Marathon event ....

day2 sunrise


day3




and 3 of my marathon pictures .. :D sorry for bad picture

eye on EOS

 Humanity














 Delicious ....



















while I am tired......

more pictures will share @
Pulau Pinang series

Landscape Spot - Kuala Abang, Terengganu

sunrise is not common for me especially seascape sunrise, as I stay @west coast of Malaysia. I had plan east coast to look for sunrise spot since early of the year 2010 .. but I was too busy to work out one ....

Last weekend, I had a chance to stay there 3d 2 nights... (a wonderful weekend I had), finally I can spent my time slowly to look for spots for the days and future. the time pass fast so I manage to spend time for
Kuantan -> Kemasik --> Kuala Abang --> Pantai Chendering --> Kuala Terengganu --> Kuala Abang --> Paka .... (and some beaches in between....)

back to the days... I was lucky , managed to
i. 2 sunrise
ii. 1 beautiful sunset @ Floating Mosque
iii. beautiful night sky .. but too tired to have star trail


for this I am sharing a place call Kuala Abang, it locate ~1.5 hour (normal speed) drive from Kuantan, Pahang. this place full with beaches, homestay, inn , hotel..... so no worry for the accommodation. even you can't find one, it is not far to Kemasik or Kuala Terengganu.

I spend one of the morning near (few steps away) Kuala Abang Guest House, it have a beautiful Island opposite , big rocks near by , coconut tree ...... sunrise for sure (if you lucky enough) .



few thing to remember ...
i. not much food variety ....and have to drive out to look for
ii. beaches are dangerous to swim ...
iii. many sharp rock ..


some fisherman and cleaner wil pass by the sea in the morning ...



will go again for sure ..........................

Landscape - the waiting

not too sure what is my feeling on the waiting moment for the sun to be out or disappear.. because every time it happen just too fast and I never able to record down my feel of the moment ....

one of the e.g.
the sky show it going to be beautiful day for sunrise but the mist full cover the dam/lake ... it going to be confuse feeling where I hate to mist but I could love it too as it make make a wonderful misty feel sunrise ........(what am I saying !!!!)

so do you enjoy the waiting or hate it.?


and I am sure I enjoy the moment to wait ........................


updated 22 Sept 2010...

Landscape - a Cold Sunrise

While I have my US trip April 2010, I managed to capture few beautiful and cold sunrise which discuss before @ Coldest landscape outing I ever have 

beside the good experience to feel the cold sunrise (while I am talking about cold mean it was ~<10C). I did capture few 2010 Landscape favorite .... and one of it publish and won a challenge in a local Photography magazine challenge (July 2010 Challenge HDR, Digital Camera Malaysia, DCM)




and it publish

and yesterday one of my gang request me to re-work the picture without HDR ... so I just did a simple exposure mapping from 2 pictures ... did some contrast, saturation



*** could be different by few minutes of both picture but same angle, time and setup used.


More @
US 2010 series
2010 liewwk Landscape
liewwk Sunrise series

other - happy week ...

I had wonderful friday dinner ... my gang celebrate my birthday (aiksss am one year older now) ... we laugh non stop , delicious food (seafood) and we have long never gather like this dinner ... think we should have this once every 2-3 month .. (man the food little pricey lah but good)

after the wonderful dinner (we reach home >12am today) and then most of us woke up 4am to hike to Bukit Tabur again (my Bukit Tabur collection) for sunrise ... even it was a disappointment's weather which make me have ZERO worth landscape/sunrise picture (again ... the forecast say whole day clear but we have whole day cloudy now !!!!) .... but I would say today is another happiest photography outing day I had for 2010 ... 

but we (KD, Lio, Real, Shunfa, Phooi Teng, Jason ... miss out a girl FFK) were enjoy the moment while we rest on the area we normally capture sunrise shot ... and have some funny shot with the new toy ...

-- handsome Lio
-- look at his handsome face with the beautiful view

-- fit Real Ho
-- he spent <30 minutes to hike uo to Bukit Tabur
   (I spent ~60minutes today)

-- this gentleman very famous ... almost every trip to here.. some girls will pass phone number or fb contact to him !!!!
-- he is Hero today, he safe a girl fall into a hole (on this picture right of the orange color girl stand position). the girl fall into deep ~10feet, he safe/bring her up

*** please hike with experience hiker for few trip before lead or hike to this mountain .... it is quite dangerous and need experience hiker for guidance ...

--- this is me .... :D
--- handsome ? cute ? leave some comments lah :D














miss out Jason on :(  aikssss but let me share who is Jason

--- this cute, handsome.... funny looking guy call Jason or Xiao Ming (小明)
- the other lady call Phooi Teng, who don't want to appear in my FB or blog ... (may be ... hmmm :D )












a group picture .. miss out
KD & Phooi Teng

more Bukit Tabur Pictures

Travel - National Park Endau Rompin, Johor, Malaysia 2

continue from previous post
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/08/travel-national-park-endau-rompin-johor.html

not a very good picture but still prefer to share this picture (show off how I shoot this :D )


we are at the Pantai Burung of Endau Rompin (Peta) , while we shooting the beautiful reflection ...

and I also busy to check out where will Sun raise .. and found out it will raise behind us .. then how ? so ...

 --- cross the river to the other side ....















and this is how I shoot the sunrise ....with the travel tripod !!!! (I love my new tripod alot .. and ohh forgot to give some report on the tripod.....)

how I shoot ... the "Dreamy Path"









more Endau Rompin pictures click liewwk Endau Rompin Series

Landscape Spot - Bukit Tabur

this beautiful water dam locate @ Gombak, Selangor.... 20 minutes drive from Kuala Lumpur center city

###############
this place may not be available after 3-4 years from now .. as the planned KL Outer Ring Road (KLORR) will cut through this Klang Gates Quartz Ridge dragon backbone citing this option has the minimum cost compared to other alternative.  which report by theStar here

###############


a not really a tough hike (from west), it should be ~45-60minutes hike to the spot to shoot beautiful sunrise. And it should be ~90-120minutes for the total hike ...

this hill is not tough but little dangerous or challenge, especially after rain...
i. the sharp rock
ii. deep hike, might need to use hand to hike up .. so please tight yours' tripod on the beg
iii. initial hike is deep , so slow on 1st 10 minute
iv. many hiker or visitors so be careful while moving yours' tripod
v. not advice to go raining season for non experience hiker or rock climber :D

today is my 4th or 5th times for 2010 up there and today is most beautiful so far ....

but I almost failed to hike up, ......
little too old to hike ? almost fail to repeat to climb this mountain and late for the star trail shooting (but still early for sunrise) ... not too sure why, could be not feeling well after knowing a jealous guy that can do any thing on you and I am not sure what happen ??? and what make him do so ??? ... or do I feel sad ? nope ... I am happy while with my gang ... my Jie Xi ... wife .. family ... and important thing is I still enjoy my hobby .....

life still go on for me no matter what happen .. so just ignore people that selfish, jealous ...  world still full with good peoples with right altitudes .....

I was late for the stars but still alright for the sunrise ... thanks for the friend support ... I really appreciate ... what you do for me


this moment make me forgot almost everything ....



add on


added 6th Sept 2010



more pictures will be sharing @

Bukit Tabur Series

Landscape Spot 5 - Bukit Panaroma (Sungai Lembing)

again, I was stop sharing this due to my work and family commitment... but today I wish I will be in one of the place I went few months back Bukit Panorama locate SG Lembing (or Chinese name  林明山 )

this place locate near Kuantan, Pahang , Malaysia

direction 
i. drive from Kuala Lumpur toward Kuantan Direction (it is ~3++ hours drive)
ii. while before Kuantan, you should see Sungai (sg) Lembing sign board and it is only single way to there.. drive ~30minutes and please drive slow here as many cows will passing by
iii. reach to the small village (only one direction) and reach Market on left (Pasar)just immediate the market turn left on to the little up hill . then the stair case to climb up to the Bukit Panorama is there
iv. climb up to ~400m form sea level and it should take ~1hour max (for poor little photographer like me)


few things to take note,
- many hiker in the weekend and  at the initial part is very steep and small so please walk slow for the 1st initial part especially raining day
- just single stair case trek, won;t easy to get lost
- very easy hike
- not many spot for this beautiful view and you may need 30-150mm range for the sunrise (it is little far from where we look for)
- it face east .. so it is good spot for sunrise but again it have the other direction face west which I never explored ..


more picture from this beautiful place
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liewwk/sets/72157623557997201/with/4743851929/

Travel Report - Taiwan May 2010 (1)

I was invited to go Taiwan to have a Nature Photography Trip by 大鬍子 [Director of http://www.chiuhua.com.tw/] ...within 5 days we travel from Taipei --> Wulai --> Syueshan (台北 --> 乌来 http://travel.network.com.tw/tourguide/twnmap/taipeicountry/Wulia.asp --> 大雪山 http://tsfs.forest.gov.tw/DM1/index.asp)

We meet quite a lot of Nature photographer & book writer (from all over the Taiwan , south, east....) and all of them are good nature lover and photographer...from the discussion and conversation , I do learn a lot from them ... not only on photography but how to appreciate the nature ....

There are a lot of hit and miss (photography) e.g. I got plenty of endemic birds and wild life from Taiwan which I do not expect ...... but I do missed out some of the creatures that I able to see but failed to capture ... :(
i. plenty of Scorpion flies around ...easily >10 among Wulai & Syueshan 乌来 --> 大雪山
ii. green metallic Giraffe Weevil .... it is still as shy as Malaysia GW
iii. a bird call Doraemon (小叮噹)
iv. lophura swinhoii (藍腹鷴) .... a endemic bird from Taiwan ...according to them ... it is most easy bird ever but then we still miss it due to the bad weather on last day in the Syueshan (大雪山)
v. Star ... even good weather but the star are not really bright due the bright moon

But again this was a wonderful trip and thanks Mr Chai [大鬍子] for the accommodation , time spend , nice foods ....

I may too busy to process all the pictures capture in 1-2 weeks time so let me share the view from 大鬍子 house @ Wulai (乌来) peak (this is a place locate at far high from the common tourist area and not all people allow to go out to this area as it do have a road block by police 7 x 24 @ entrance ... (Location map @ Flickr map)

Landscape - Coldest landscape outing I ever have

for weeks. and here is still cold for me while waiting for the spring coming .. (range from 38F - 62F or 3C - 17C)

for the very first few days , while I still having my jet lag and I woke up 3-4 am to go out and find sunrise spot with google earth assistant ... I got 2 spots locate not far from my hotel and managed to capture some pictures (but not really able to process those pictures as my notebook screen is not calibrate correctly.. so have to wait till I back to MALAYSIA)

but I do shoot RAW + JPEG and let's share 2 coldest sunrise shot (for me) to you all

1. a sunrise that really cold ... it is so tough to press the shutter .... but great experience for me


2. the next day ... where the weather was better (not so cold) but not really shoot a lot as I park my car road side and got warning form Police where I shouldn't park my car at the road side ... (hmmmm and had looking for near by parking after this but can't find one so this will be my last chance here :( )

*** a reflection ... picture non crop, non rotate, non edit .. so any one can guess how I get this ?

Natural Outing - Chiling Fall, Selangor, Malaysia

An outing arrange by local FLickr group @KLNO

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 ...


... pano View - Chiling Fall ...


a 360 x 180 degree view for Chiling Fall
http://www.liewwkphoto.com/360pano/ChilingFall-small/chiling%20fall-small.htm

then we leave Chiling Fall then Sunset
... this picture was after sunset and last picture I snap before leave DQ Mosque