Australia Day 2009

Happy Australia Day! Happy Chinese New Year! Happy Birthday Yuski (my Maltese)!

This is a special year - CNY, Australia national day and my dog's birthday all rolled up together on the same day - 26th January, 2009. Finally (for once anyway), I get a public holiday for CNY. 恭喜發財 (Kung Hei Fat Choy)! Got to work hard this year. It is the year of the Ox!

This is Alexndra Valmorbida, a teen-idol, talented singer and song writer. Her voice is powerful and demonstrates skills and finesse beyond her years. Well done Alex!

Read her profile here or at MySpace. She performed the Australian National Anthem - Advance Australia Fair. Below is the lyrics.

The rubber-band covered part reads, "We've golden soil and wealth for toil."

Speaking was the youngest mayor, Cr Charles Pick, presenting citzen and young citizen of the year awards, introducing Australia Day Ambassador, Mark Mitchell (Con the Fruiterer in The Comedy Company, a little ad here), etc. What an achievement.

A few excited kids ran around during the celebration, proudly waving our Australian flag. A wonderful and beautiful scene. :)

My wife just uploaded some pics of our Yuski on her blog, check them out here. He is really cute!

For Sale

...but not by me... I don't own this beautiful house. :P

Took some real estate pictures today. A very interesting challenge and another first for me. Thank you very much Sandra and Russell. Hope you like them. Thank you very much for the nice chocolate and tea and company. :)

I would have liked to take some portrait (as opposed to landscape) shots as well, like this. However, the medium demands that pics are in landscape format.

I feel the need, the need for more.. graffiti

Had a good working week this week - although there is still a long road ahead, accomplished a fair bit this week, thank God. So, I thought I would reward myself and take a few more "street art" pics around the city before calling it a day (or week).

Melbourne is a really cool city, graffiti is recognised as art on some streets and there are permits to go with them.

I like this pic, she looks like she is looking out from behind a door frame.

It was a 32 degree celcius (°C) day, but it felt so hot and I was tired / dehydrated walking around for ~2 hours with my camera gear plus some work materials.

This has got to be the coolest sign for men's hairdresser.


I love this framed stencil art. Simple, but at the same time, very neat.

Ian and Kelly's Wedding

Helped as the videographer at a wedding over the weekend. A very challenging exercise indeed. Wasn't allowed to take any stills while the official photographer was there. Had to wait until he's left, which was around 9:15pm, before I can take out my camera and blast away! It was a great experience. Love the emotion, human engagement, fun, etc, etc. Sorry, can't share any of that good stuff without permission.

Fantastic choice of venues - ceremony at Rippon Lea and reception at the Langham
Hotel top floor + roof. Well done Ian and Kelly. Wish you two life-long happiness and ever growing love for one another.

Here are a few I will share with you for the time being (until I get permission). Pleeeaaase?

This photographer / cameraman is blinkered when he is on the job so I only found out little about this amazing lilies... They are new scientific research products named after Kelly. You won't find them any where else! Boy, I wish I paid more attention.

The wedding cake... what about the wedding cake?? It look completely wicked! The second or bottom tier was a collection of these little cakes, about 2.5-3cm in diameter each. I didn't get to eat any of it though... Too engrossed with the job again. This chocoholic will forever wonder how wonderful they taste.

Well, may be it is for the better... and you don't have to be jealous, because like you, I can only look... :P

Graffiti

I have been wanting to take pictures of graffiti in the Melbourne CBD for a while. Finally, found an opportunity to do it. Didn't have a lot of time though, just one and a half hours (isn't that enough??) so I only went to 3 streets or should I say 3 lanes. They did not disappoint. We have some talented street artists in Melbourne... Please don't get into a debate about vandalism vs art. So sad that some have been vandalised (an oxymoron?) so the original intended glory is tainted...

This is an interesting picture. Empty spray-paint can, handbag (probably of some poor lady), junk food, rubbish (and the smell to go with it)... Very iconic of the graffiti, metro, modern city culture I thought.

If you recognise this handbag, it is at Rutledge Lane. Well, it is probably not there any more... sorry. But at least you can put it behind and move forward now... You should be so glad that you can enjoy these pics without the foul smell. Urghhh!





Here are a few more, not strictly to do with graffiti but thought I would share them with you anyhow.

[Top-left]: Somehow makes me think of Taipei, not that I've ever been there... [Top-center]: Screaming torn poster. [Top-right]: I love those matte black bike helmet, very WWII.
[Bottom-left]: Smokers having a break... [Bottom-center]: Really cute kid. [Bottom-right]: It reads on the wall, "Hell's is open for lunch"

There are many more areas in the CBD and around Melbourne with amazing graffiti. Please let me know where they are. Thank you very much!

Delicious Foods

I was grounded over Christmas so no exciting pics to share with you. Sorry.

Heehee.. :P not quite (grounded), just didn't go away and worked every day... No new year fireworks pics from the Melbourne city. No crazy dance party (Sensation) pics from the Telstra Dome. Anyway, good time to catch up on work. So, I thought I would share some pics taken over the Christmas and new year at lunch and dinner parties.

My wife made a really nice Chiffon cake last week, but sorry, I didn't take any photo of it... it was really good though! Not too sweet, not heavy, excellent texture, great filling, did I say excellent texture? :) (ah, my wife has a pic of it in her blog. But it is before it is cut, so it is difficult to appreciate how good it is inside...)



Big mistake. It would taking too long to load all these pics to the browser if I uploaded them individually. The browser may time out and give up all together. So, I made a video instead. But that took a loooong time to upload. Would be OK if I didn't start it close to mid-night (and have to go to work on the following day). So, you better enjoy it. :)

BTW, what do you think is my favorite amongst all these food? Chinese Radish Cake? Loh Mai Zhi? Mini-cheese cake? Roast Pork? Chicken Rice? Malaysian Kueh like Kueh Lapis? Thai Fried Rice? Ice cold beer like Pure Blonde? Well, the answer is in the middle of the pic below. Yep, jelly, plain old jelly (orange jelly in this case)! What can I say, the simple things in life are often the best. Actually, I do enjoy and love all the rest, so saying jelly is my favorite may not be entirely true... I just have a weakness for jelly. I am so spoiled!

"I like aeroplane jelly, aeroplane jelly for me. I like it for dinner, I like it for tea. A little each day is a good recipe. I like aeroplane jelly, aeroplane jelly for me"**

Come on, sing along with this.


**No commission for this, just a very effective ad I can't get out of my head... :)

Happy New Year

I had intended that this blog only contains photos that I took. Here are two that I did not take and are photoshopped... Well, I couldn't take them because they are pictures of me I found, in The Age newspaper web site, of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. I hope this has not set a precedence for the future. :)


2008 was an amazing year. I had so many photo opportunities. I still can not believe it. God was indeed very kind to me. I worship you, my Lord. He has blessed me through many people. People who gave me opportunities to photograph events - thank you Emma, thank you Paul and Caz and friends at AEMA. Thank you Clint.

At NAB, I was able to mix business with pleasure, literally. Thank you very much Jill, Amanda, Jessica, Suzanne, Belinda, Nathalie, Craig and so many others. Many encouraged me and inspired me like Brett, Christine, Magdalena, Patrik, Wayne, Gary, Matt and David, I've learnt heaps from you.

Thank you very much John, your eagerness and dedication humbles me. Thank you Catherine, Marilyn and Boby for giving me opportunities to serve you. Hopefully, I can serve you again very soon.

All, thank you so much for your friendship, I wish you every success, happiness and good health in 2009. Looking forward to rubbing shoulders with you again in 2009.

To all who were in front of my camera, I thank you too. The pics were good because of you. There have been some amazing people I've come across - Wendy, Simon and Kerrie just to mention a few. You guys inspire me.

Lou, I am going to miss you in 2009, love to do a shoot together, of Taekwondo or whatever. I am going to miss Olivia. ;_;

A big thank you to my dear wife for your love, support and encouragement throughout my photography journey in 2008. Thank you for the many opportunities to photograph food (and get to eat them too). They look great and taste even better. Now that we are both armed with dSLR camera, I hope my role has not become redundant. Guys, you should check out her work here.. makes mine look like child's play...

Last but not least, thank you all for reading my blog. I hope you have enjoyed it. All the best for the year 2009. God bless.