Category ∝ Photography
If you are staying in Ye Olde Smokehouse, make sure you have a telephoto lens. It’s perfect for the entire trip. There are birds that you can photograph unobstructively during breakfast. However, to enjoy their beautiful garden, a macro lens is essential.
Finding insects is a challenge, unless you consider flies to be a good subject. The wind sways the plants, making it difficult to hunt the insects with your lens as they keep moving about.
I think I need to seek another perspective to photograph flowers, I keep using the same angles and it’s so common. I love those misty, faded ones that we can find in tumblr shares.
I am also abit particular about my bokeh shapes now. They are abit fringy and not creamy enough. When it comes to composition, I find that following rules too strictly restricts creativity.
Am so bothered with the direction and lines in the composition, all the rules and I forget about what I am trying to shoot in the first place :p I love those photos with beautiful color schemes but everywhere I look, I just can’t see things the way they see it. Could be the inability to summarize getting in the way. tsk.
Anyway, I am thinking of converting my Sony Nex 5 to either an infrared only camera or an underwater camera. It can only go one way or the other. The underwater housing for the Nex 5 is really cheap, less than 400 ringgit. Converting it to infrared will means I can only use it rarely. But I so so love infrared photography.
I adore vines.. always wanted them to go with berries, flowers and leaves on a cottage. This is a direct result of reading too much Enid Blyton as a child.
I have gotten good response with this photo. Not sure why.. I don’t really have a special attachment to it. It could be it’s wallpaper quality?
This was a staple flower that grows everywhere. Back in university, we love to take shots of this.
Chicken pox. 
When Erin and I were at Cameron Highlands, we stayed at Smokehouse Hotel. It is the most beautiful place ever! Have you been there? The ambience is amazing. I will share more review and photos later. I think I am gonna do more accommodation reviews from now on. Is love travelling!!
Today, it’s all about their food.
All accommodation includes breakfast. We chose the muffin and big breakfast set. The menu is kinda confusing, cuz it states the price and they ask us to choose a set from the menu. Turns out the price is not applicable to guests. It would be better if they just omit the price entirely when it comes to serving guests.
Anyway, despite the color of the muffin, it is actually a wonderfully baked soft muffin. You get to eat breakfast while the local birds join in the chatter and fly in to provide entertainment. They rustle about the tables and fly away whenever someone walks near them. It is a peaceful and beautiful sight to behold.
The rest of the menu is very english and you can expect your food to be very well cooked.
This is my dinner during our stay. I basically ordered the most exuberant item on the menu, which is the Beef Wellington. Homemade and freshly rolled puff pastry encase the finest tenderloin of beef. The tenderloin is rolled with liver pate and mushroom pate before it is stuffed into the pastry. I took a good long 2 hours to finish my meal with their red wine. The dish comes with garden vegetables and mushroom sauce.
The beef is cooked just right and the combination of pate made this meal a very heavy one, especially when there paired with root vegetables. Definitely suited for the hearty eater.
You do not have to stay there to enjoy their good food, I heard they serve the best scones in town. That is available after 11 am and their kitchen is open til late. More on the stay there in my next post!
No. 64, Jalan 59 Off Jalan Pekeliling Tun Abdul Razak,
39000, Tanah Rata, Pahang
05-491 1215
smokehousehotel.com
Recently, Erin and I went on a super rush trip. In just 3 days, we drove to Singapore, back to Malacca and then up to Cameron Highlands. I didn’t have the opportunity to take any photographs in Singapore or Malacca, so I waited til we were in Camerons to do that.
The drive up started relatively fast, but after passing by the third landslide we drove really conservatively, and honked at every turn. There were about 20 or more landslides.. and this was at the end of November, when the bouts of rain in Malaysia was crazy.
The roads up to Camerons are one lane in each direction. The landslide took up one lane and blocked the vision entirely. One has to honk and go really slow, cuz you can’t see if there are cars coming at you. And usually, right after the landslide the roads are dented with pit holes. Accelerating out of the landslide is a bad idea for your tyres and suspensions.
We started to regret driving up and then we saw the view. Breathtaking isn’t it. i think this is the Cameron Tea Valley view. They now have a few rest stops along Camerons for you to enjoy the sights of their plantation.
My photos were all taken using the Sony Nex f3, 18-200mm telephoto. I used blue and green GND filters to enhance the color of the landscape. Filters can really bring out the beauty of a landscape.
And this is the panorama view of the valley.. love it. I am gonna put all these shots up in Red Bubble for sale.
That’s Erin there taking photos of the landscape.
It’s a pity that our parks are not well taken care off compared to this place. We, Malaysians are known for our notorious littering and because of that..strict regulations guard this place and any parks beautiful enough for a picnic is turned into a littered park. Putting a “do not litter” sign creates the opposite effect usually.
I think this is a dam. I wouldn’t mind having a tree house here. #justsaying.
Please paint the roof brown provencal style. It will make this view even more awesome. Trust me, I do color coordinations for a living. Ceh. cis.
Dunno what flower is this but I like the shape of the leaves.
Please do Overtime and pluck the leaves it said.
Rows and rows of tea bunches that looked like scabs to Erin. So she says. To me I just wanna roll down the hill and up again. and down again…
We recently celebrated Lantern Festival and KY’s birthday at Eelaine’s place. There were alot of hustle and bustle before the party as we shop for food, drinks and also secretly get ready for KY’s birthday.
I made some bokeh filters for my camera specially for that night. #uselessgirlfriend but I got drunk before I took out the cake and there’s no chance to take photos of KY’s cake. #superuselessgirlfriend
Lance and his BBQ pit
The filter was super difficult to use with my slow macro lens. After rounds and rounds of taming this new animal, managed to get a small selection of photos to share. Sacrificed lots of bacon and meat for photography that night. #noobphotog
The crazy thing about this filter is when its on my macro lens, my lens can actually FOCUS on the damn filter (since its a macro lens). It caused the lens to perform slower and with alot less light.
Peek through the love filter to see Yuki’s slipper. Eelaine’s porch was full of cockles, added a lovely texture to photographs.
Carol and her love for bbq
Nothing can stop this girl from eating pork.
Yuki and Eelaine’s sister spent her night by lighting up lanterns and putting them all over the house. I took Ikea candles and lit them all over the garden.
Do you remember how to light a lantern? I’ve forgotten and nearly burnt my finger.
One of the highlights of the night was when Terence was given a mission to light a bonfire. This fire is made from leaves and leftover charcoal from Lance’s BBQ pit. Eelaine’s chopsticks almost became food for the fire. #pleaseonegod
I have forgotten what this fire was for. I am thinking it was for photography. Most of the lanterns that fell to the ground lit up the leaves, the people nearest to the fire was taking photos, including me! #hopelessbloggers
Michael and his entourage of alcohol kept us alive that night. and me drunk and tipsy.
This was the last point of my sobriety. After which I staggered to Eelaine’s grand piano and gave out of tune renditions of Jim Brickman. And not forgetting the cake for KY’s birthday, which I feel so accomplished walking with a lit up cake without stumbling.
Recently went to alot of photography trips. Love photography max!! This time around, we went to Taman Pertanian for a cycling trip slash photography trip. As usual before going, I MUST pack EVERYTHING into my bag. I am also convinced I can cycle for at least 2 hours.
Horng and Yuki cycling
I was wrong. After 15 minutes of cycling, I want to go home already. A 2 degrees inclination uphill is enough to break my thighs into crispy nuggets. Most of the time, KY and Horng were coaxing Yuki and I to go on. They were also trying to solve our countless problems.
You see, Yuki insisted that she wanted the pink bicycle, which has a romantic little basket in front. After 20 minutes, due to the broken gear and unbalanced basket.. the bicycle and her bag changed ownership to Horng.
Meanwhile, my specs keep sliding down my sweaty face and I did stupid things like pushing my bicycle up the stairs.
80% of the time were spent cycling and managing laughter. The only times we get to take photos was when we chanced upon this Rumah Iklim which was simulating Autumn season that time.
I finally got the change to try out my graduated color filters. This time I used pink, blue and yellow filters. I just slide them around to different positions each time I shoot. I usually use 2 filters for each photo. Like the one above, I used blue for the bottom and yellow for the top.
Horng taking photos with his Sony Nex
Despite being very enthusiastic in the herb garden, all my other macro attempts that day were rubbish, leaving only this to show you. Its the feeling of shooting a subject and then seeing the same thing in another photographer’s portfolio. Then you realize how shit your photo is.
Cheat Autumn room with wallpaper on the left and plaster ceiling on top. It was cold and slightly windy in there.
Hopeless ugly bokeh in useless photo. Looks weird with some lens spinning blade curvature. #mustbuynewcamera
KY and Yuki both holding bags never worn before. KY’s messenger bag is something like the bags they used in the Premium Rush movie.
A scatter of tiny buds?
At times I think I have an OK photo only to open it in Photoshop and find out there’s an ugly refraction glare. #killmenao
Ok bais! Is write later.
This trip to Penang was a sombre one. KY’s sister and her family is migrating to US. It is not easy for a kid to handle an influx of emotions especially when it means leaving a comfort zone to a foreign place.
That’s Taasha, KY’s niece. You might remember that I’ve done a manicure for her sometime ago. She has like 200% energy at all times and it depletes to 0 only when she sleeps. Super active.
So this time around, we went over to see if there are anything we can help out. In the end, we were just taking all the stuff that they don’t want. And slotting in some photography time in between. Oh, and not to forget.. we went to eat as much as we can as well.
I spotted this lucky spot for photography just a minute too late. KY was already there trying to take photos thru the little hole in that pillar. Oh well.
Being brought up in the city, I often starve myself cuz the food street in Taman Cheras sucks. I would be really depressed whenever my parents wanted to head there for dinner. Lacking the experience of good street food, when KY brought me to Penang it took me a few tries to figure out what is so good about the food there.
The first thing I noticed is there is nothing spectacular about the food there. But when I head back to PJ or KL, I realized I could no longer enjoy the same food here. Then the cravings and complains would start. Klang Valley food are full of carbs, they put in lots of noodles and rice with very little meat or fillings. I would leave plates of food here uneaten with an urge to return to Penang.
In Penang, the food portion are significantly smaller and guarantees a well balanced spoonful of noodles and meat.
The beach along the Gurney drive is bare when it is low tide. I love to walk in Penang, there’s wind and it smells of island, food and musky old shops.
There are a few Apom variants in Penang. The one above is the Indian variant with egg fillings on a crispy layer of sweet flour served on banana leaf. There is also the chinese version, which is smaller and softer. Those have banana slices inside them.
Some parts of the beach were dry and cracked..making it an interesting angle for photography.
What I love most about this island is the mix of really old buildings which contrasts with some of the more modern buildings. There are also heritage shop lots with a modern interior.
The main difference in the Curry Mee from Penang is the broth and seafood. The broth comes milky clear with a savory taste. Not spicy at all. However, you will be given a spoonful of charred chilli paste. Once you mixed that into the soup, you get your typical curry soup with a slight charred after taste. It is really addictive once you’ve tried this.
There are also plenty of fillings in this meal. You get fishballs, cockles, some long beans, spongy tofu and pork blood. Every spoonful is a delight.
Street photography is a double edged sword with a kit lens. You feel intrusive and the people are aware of your camera getting right in their face. I want a telephoto lens for times like this, but then I would imagine the trouble I would have with obstructions in the way once I use that lens.
Ok time for me to go but I leave you with this window shot overlooking towards the mainland.
