Category: Photography

Categories
Photography

[651] Of Kuala Lumpur sunset

One luxury of living on a hill facing Kuala Lumpur is the chance to witness the city skyline during sunset. This was taken yesterday, around sunset, if it isn’t apparent enough.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

In the middle is a silhouette of Menara Celcom (I think), a building that stands near the intersection of Jalan Gurney and Jalan Tun Razak. The photo was taken from the northwestern side of the city, looking southeasterly.Menara Celcom, perhaps, marks the transformation of my area – Titiwangsa and Kampung Datuk Keramat – from a medium density residential area into high density. The composition has also changed – more Arabs now here than there was five or six years ago.

Talking about Jalan Gurney (aka less famous Gurney Road), overzealous nationalists renamed it to Jalan Semarak in the 1990s if my memory serves me.

Digressing, oi Penangnites, Kuala Lumpur had Gurney Road too. Stop thinking of Penang, Penang, Penang whenever you hear Gurney Road. The universe doesn’t evolve around the Earth, much less around Penang. Bah!

It does however, ahem, evoles around __earth. I know, that’s lame.

I have another version of the pix – well, several others in fact. Though some of them are sharper than this one, the colors somehow ran amok and inaccurate. The navish sky for instance was shown as grey while the reddish cloud was overly bright.

p/s – hey dreamstate, would love to see that ps’d shot. =)

Categories
Environment History & heritage Photography Society

[647] Of traditional Malay lamp

With Eid coming up, many Muslim Malays are taking the initiative to lighten up their home compound. My family is no exception – they’re placing traditional Malay lamps at the edges of our compound. Pretty but I rather not have them. To me, it’s a waste of energy and serves no practical purpose.

Not to mention, unnecessary release of carbon dioxide too. And climate change and the sky is falling. Run!

Still, I can only object but its my parents’ money and they may choose however they want to spend it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

I like the blurring of the background but I somewhat had hoped that the whole lamp would have been sharper.p/s – pyramid in Bosnia? (via)

pp/s – Greenpeace fined for reef damage. Oh, the irony.

p3/s – by spaghetti monster in the sky’s name, this DDOI’s is indescribable. No word can do justice to this picture. Any word uttered to even praise this photo will be an understatement. Even more remarkable, the photo was taken from a moving platform. Impressed? I know I am.

This kind of photo is why DDOI is my favorite – numero uno – right since the beginning of the photoblog.

Categories
Environment Photography

[664] Of erosion

I was a little bit bored yesterday. So, I wandered around with a camera by my side.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

This one was taken somewhere near my home. It’s an old stone staircase and some part of it suffers minor erosion while moss covers the stair’s cracks.

I’m not sure whether this is a good photo – maybe I should have lowered the lense by a few degrees more – but I personally like it due to the photo’s noticeable depth of field.

p/s – This person deserves a harsh punishment for what he has done to the cats. Unfortunately, due to our pathetic law and partly to inflation, I have a feeling that the accused will get away with a mere RM200 fine. If he is unlucky, maybe a few days in lockup, no more than that. If you feel such act deserves severer punishment, please sign SPCA sponsored petition.

Categories
Books, essays and others Economics Photography

[642] Of RM132 will get you only three paperbacks

Remember my entry about wanting to read Burgess’ Malayan Trilogy?

Immediately after posting the entry, I left my desktop and headed straight for a bookstore at the base of Petronas Twin Towers to look for it. The books weren’t in store however and I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t find it. Right now, the internet and some obscure second-hand bookstores in Kuala Lumpur are my best bet.

However, instead of getting the trilogy, I went on a minor spending spree, spending, quite unbelievable, RM132 on three paperbacks – Burgess’ The Wanting Seed, Lewis’ Liar’s Poker and Stiglitz’s (I attended his lecture back in Michigan! w00t!) The Roaring Nineties – while I had only brought RM50 with me. Given the situation, I was forced to use my debit card.

On debit card, might I add that Malaysia really needs to upgrade its financial system, urgently. I don’t know how it’s like in Thailand or Singapore but the US is far, far up there and it makes me feels that all the economics I learned at Michigan is part of an elaborate science-fiction. No kidding.

Anyway, I used to remember that imported paperback on average cost merely RM25 back in the early 1990s. After 1997, it cost around RM30 each and now, on average, it’s RM40++.

I wasn’t familiar with Malaysian pricing at first and you could imagine that I was in shock. But then, after I silently converted MYR into USD in my mind, the prices didn’t seem to be too outrageous. In fact, this case actually almost conforms to Law of One Price. After realizing that, that shock turned into a sigh.

Still, I couldn’t quite believe that three paperbacks cost me more than a hundred buck.

After the disappointment and the shock that became a sigh, I strolled from the Twin Towers towards Jalan Ampang. To my delight, there are patches of green here and there right before the interception of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Yap Kwan Seng (I think).

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

At least, I don’t have to pay to enjoy a bit of green amidst Kuala Lumpur’s smog.

When I saw the fire hydrant in the middle of a green patch, I became attracted to it at once. The contrast is just remarkable, at least to my untrained eyes. And before you keep wondering why I never keep the object of interest in the middle of the photo, suffice to say that I prefer non-conventional style, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Categories
Photography Sports

[633] Of Thun in Amsterdam

Well, it’s part of the time again when some of us will be able to watch the Champions League live while others could only hope that they could have the luxury of camping in front of the idiot’s box. I’m somewhere in the middle. I really want to watch Ajax – Thun game. However, no thanks to ESPN, the nearest thing to an Ajax match is Arsenal – Sparta.

As such, I’m not sure whether I’m blessed or not. The soccer god can’t seem to decide whether I deserve hell or heaven. So, he gave me a satellite dish.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

But I suppose soccer god does reserve some love for me because one of my neighbors has only some sort of antenna.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

The sky was exceptionally blue today. Only now do I know why blue is associated with freedom. After all these years, it had never occured to me until today. I’m loving the color blue even more. Heh. Go Blue!Thank heavens that the Wolverines beat the Nittany Lions. Maybe next year Paterno. Next year.

Anyway, back to soccer.

Really, I shouldn’t be too apprehensive about Ajax – Thun match. First of all, it’s a game in Amsterdam. It’s a home match. Secondly, though Ajax is not a superpower anymore, it’s Thun! It originates from a country that produces watch! And cheese. With holes! And also home of neutrality. In fact, Thun should be neutral whenever Ajax abuses Thun’s defense! Too many exclamation marks make this awkward! Don’t you think so! I mean, don’t you think so?

Then again, comparing Ajax performance against Thun, I and indeed Ajax have every reason to not take Thun lightly. Arsenal got lucky at Highbury while Sparta Prague, of which almost beat Ajax, got beaten by Thun!

In league action, Ajax several days was held scoreless against Heracles while Thun had a goal feast – they won 5 – 1 against other obscure team.

When I expressed my thoughts at Ajaxtalk.nl, a person replied, approximately, “…relax. We are Ajax and they are Thun”. One of them even replied in Dutch, “…’Holy sh**, it’s cold’, sprak een Amerikaanse toeriste toen zij het strand van Noordwijk af kwam lopen.” I’m not sure what it means since the translator doesn’t seem to be doing a good work. But it sounds sarcastic and I do think he don’t quite realize that I’m not an American.

Whatever it is, the ideal results from Group B would be Arsenal and Ajax’s win. This will increase Ajax’s chance of progressing to the next stage via second place.

Also, I hope all Italians lose. Nuff said.