Melbourne Open House

MOH was a fantastic event!

One day in the year, 32 buildings in the CBD open to the public for free, most accompanied with guided tours. More than 50,000 people turned up for the event and God was kind and gave us amazing sunny weather on the day.

I love architecture so I wasn't going to miss this!


Yes, the queues were very long... But, my wife and her girlfriend later joined me which certainly made the day even more pleasurable. They saved a good two hours as well. To top it off, we had a fab lunch after that. Although it was kind of small. Loved the risotto and the company. I am hungry just thinking about it... :O...

This is the roof top view from MU.


I was lazy or perhaps just being realistic on the day... left my tripod at home... was going to bring it... it went as far as the door. Sorry tripod...

Tripod could have been useful at the St. Paul Cathedral. Anyway, had to do with handheld on the day. A wider angle lens would be nice too. I do love this cathedral, a wonderful house of God.



This is CH2. CH2 is the first purpose-built office building in Australia to achieve the six Green Star certified rating. A truly fasinating and innovative building albeit it took a long wait to get in also.

Love those infamous wooden louvers, yellow roof top turbines (also called wind crowls) and cooling through heat absorption into the concrete, etc... Magnificant!

After a long day of walking, met up with friends at Shanghai Village for dinner. The chicken dish was so nice! We are definitely going back again. Good choice Rumi/Yoshi. :)

A Sydney-sider told me buildings are even prettier in Sydney. Oh, I certainly love the Sydney Habour Bridge, the Opera House and I like The Circular Quay also. But this Melbourian is more than happy with what Melbourne has to offer.

Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne! =3=

The Light in Winter

Wanted to photograph the light shows at Federation Square for sometime. Tonight is the night! It was indeed very nice. Federation Square has officially became one of my favorite place! :)

The whole exhibit is called The Light in Winter which is all part an enlightenment theme. This first picture is The Gift of Light. Visit here for more details.
This exhibit is called Volume, LED light columns that reacts to human movements. I love all the colours of the exhibit and also the rich colours of the buildings near by. Beautiful!
Lets see it from ground level.

The next one, called Context, is a really interesting one. It is a real fire. You probably guessed it, it relates to the indigenous people of Australia.

Indeed, it was deigned by Vicki Couzens with the elders of the indigenous communities.

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.

Ballet School

Photographed for Mount Eliza and Peninsula Ballet School, MEPBS, for the second time. Great experience, lots of fun and I feel I have improved over the last 12 months - Results are better technically - sharper, more accurate white balance, better exposure, but I still know little what is a good technical pose.. need to do some homework for next time. This photographer is too lazy. :P All the costumes were so pretty, especially the blue ones! :)

Thank you very much John and Cathy for the opportunity. John, I admire your enthusiasm and dedication. Hope you'll master the lighting kit quickly and effectively. I have learnt heaps from you - what great work can be done with a 17-55mm kit lens and a skilled practitioner.

All, if you have a good link about how to hook up, trigger and use studio flash kit and umbrellas, please send me a comment. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

sshhhh....

Taking picture at ballet performance is not allowed. Wink Wink. Don't fool yourself thinking that flashless photography is permitted.

Well, I can't tell you anything about these pictures - who, where, when, what, etc and please don't ask. Just enjoy the pictures if you think they are any good. They were taken about half way down the theatre (or about 8 metres from the stage), couldn't cover the whole stage with 70mm lens and difficult to avoid the back of peoples' heads without standing up with the camera... The first picture is slightly cropped and the second is heavily cropped. Technical details: Manual, Custom (soft), AWB, 1/180, f/3.3, iso200, no flash, handheld.