April 29, 2008

My Father

Last Wednesday, my father told me that he needs to submit his latest picture at work to the department.

I told him, why not we do some photoshoot in your office tomorrow?

The next day, I went to his office and photoshoot these kick ass photos! He loves all of them!

All pictures were taken using Nikon CLS. The group photos were also having great light from the side, which was also created using the CLS.




April 22, 2008

Economy or Popularity?

A lot of issues is going on. Plus, Dr. Khir Toyo is becoming a blogger himself and his writings are even featured in MyKMU.net, a forum that is discussing the political scenarios in Malaysia, by specializing in UMNO movement.

It's very obvious now that the local political scenario has becoming realy awkward. People urging for changes due to the last general election result of which certain result has been said to be faked.

To make it weirder, one of the opposition party leader (in specific is Karpal Singh) is supporting Pak Lah to become the prime minister.

Haji Hadi is telling UMNO to keep the conflicts within the house.

AAB is seen trying to gain more popularity among the people rather than to improve on the current sick season of economy. What is wrong with you eh? It's not all abot youlah AAB. It's the economy! Can't you see? Come on! Don't you know that a lot of people is suffering from the inflation that is not being reported properly?

Can u come up with any solution?

No he didn't! Eh no, he just can't! Sorry, he's not capable even though he's the Finance Minister.

Sheesh!

*sigh for long and loud*

Latest, Mahathir is going a lil bit off board by calling Najib a coward.

Coward is actually the word that failed my 1119 paper. If you can still remember (those who had taken the 1119 paper in 1994), the 2nd essay was to ask us to write a anything from the word coward. I didn't remember what I wrote that I failed the paper. What I remember was, I do not know what coward was... hehehe

I believe, now is not a good time for calling Najib a coward. Najib should have been called a coward a very long time ago. Not obviously now. Najib is a coward when he supported AAB's decision to call the Project of Jambatan Bengkok off. Once he supported and now he didn't even though he knew what it takes to let the project off.

Calling Najib a coward now will only result more sympathy from people with 'agendas' towards supporting Najib. People would say that Najib would prefer a peaceful power hand over from AAB.

What I could say, sometimes people has always misinterpreting what other people were saying. Frustrated mind would also tend to say things inappropriately.

TDM, as I believe is trying to correct his mistakes by appointing AAB as his successor by saying a lot of things, things that made quite a good sense to my ears but for some people, he's trying to regain his power. Forming a presidential council is seen as a platform to rule the country from behind the scene, no matter who would become the next PM, name it Najib, or Muhyiddin or Rais Yatim maybe? Hehehe.

Rais Yatim is trying to deny the fact that he aimed for something better. Come on la Datuk! Sampai bila mau jadi kuli sahaja?

I was hoping that the political awkwardness that we're facing now is not just another battle of gaining power for self, but as I'm reading and listening in every single sense, I hope TDM is doing the right thing. Do not let the word coward fail him as once it did to me.

At this particular point, the involvement of DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Mizan is essential. In the name of Unity, we should now together build up our economy rather than just politicking endlessly.

I'm just afraid that may be one day, the whole country would be just like one Malay saying,

"Gajah sama gajah bergaduh, Pelanduk mati di tengah-tengah"

as a result from their endless catfights.

* Gajah as for politicians.
** Pelanduk as for rakyats.

April 19, 2008

My long comment at Dr Khir's Blog

Below are my long comment in 'Bahasa Melayu' at Dr. Khir's blog and it's up to him to approve it or not.

I really hope he does!

Pak Lah memang sangat lemah dan hanya tahu menjaga periuk nasi sendiri sahaja.

Banyak tindak tanduk beliau yang jelas menampakkan beliau hanya ingin menjaga kedudukannya.

Dalam menjaga kedudukannya, tindakannya dilihat sebagai sangat berfikiran sempit di mana beliau hanya dilihat memfokus kepada segelintir manusia dan issue tanpa melihat kesannya secara am.

Kesan daripada tindak tanduk Pak Lah lebih ke arah 'destructive' daripada 'constructive'. Tindak-tanduknya yang terlalu 'insensical' tidaklah perlu diperbincangkan lagi. Hanya menambah Aib Pak Lah sahaja.

Setelah rakyat mengesahkan ketidak-penerimaan tindak-tanduk beliau dalam PRU12, beliau masih lagi bertindak demi menjaga periuk nasinya dengan pembelaan kehakiman dan sebagainya.

Nampak seperti kebudak-budakan sangat! Adakah hanya itu yang mampu difikirkan oleh seorang Perdana Menteri?

Jelas sekali, tiada kesinambungan idea dan hala-tuju pemerintahan dalam pentadbiran Pak Lah yang dilihat oleh rakyat sebagai sesuatu yang bukan sahaja merugikan bahkan merosakkan negara.

Pada saya, apa yang rakyat mahukan ialah ekonomi yang baik dan 'life sustainability'. Banyak yang boleh dilakukan selain cerita mesyuarat politik dari negeri ke negeri yang tak berkesudahan.

Pada pengamatan saya, kebanyakan rakyat tidak pernah endahkan kepolitikan negara semasa zaman TDM melainkan semasa zaman kejatuhan DSAI. Ini adalah kerana kehidupan rakyat sebenarnya bertambah selesa dari semasa ke semasa. Dari tidak pernah menaiki kereta, kemudian mampu memiliki kereta dan memandu dari JB ke KL pula. Perkembangan ekonomi dan taraf hidup sangat ketara dari tahun 1990-2003.

Negara mengalami banyak perubahan dan pembinaan prasarana sangat memuncak. Rakyat mendapat peluang untuk memajukan ekonomi diri dengan peluang-peluang yang diwujudkan.

Selepas 2003, perkembangan ini dilihat hambar dengan pembatalan projek-projek besar, kenaikan petrol, inflasi yang ketara dan yang lebih menyedihkan lagi, ekonomi negara sentiasa dilaporkan sihat walaupun negara-negara lain yang lebih maju dan baik ekonominya melaporkan ekonomi yang merudum jatuh.

Sudah tentu rakyat cerdik pandai yang mana kebanyakannya sudah lulus universiti tak kira di dalam dan di luar negara berasakan sesuatu yang tidak betul. Adakah 'economist' negara sudah hilang akal atau perkara ini disengajakan?

Jika ada pun tindakan yang dilihat seperti menguntungkan rakyat, sebenarnya, lebih kepada tindakan yang merugikan orang lain, dan tampak membazir.

Contoh 1: LCCT untuk Air Asia

Kenapa perlu dibangunkan sebuah lagi lapangan terbang padahal KLIA pun masih belum digunakan sepenuhnya? Jika sewa KLIA mahal, adakah Kerajaan tidak boleh campur tangan untuk meminta sewanya dikurangkan demi kebaikan semua pihak?

Contoh 2: Air Asia

Kenapa perlu sebuah lagi syarikat penerbangan. Kenapa tidak dirombak sahaja MAS dan diperlakukan seperti Air Asia? Kerajaan berkuasa melakukan segalanya.

Itu hanya antara 2 contoh yang dapat dilihat sebagai satu pembaziran. Apa yang saya lihat di sini adalah, adanya pihak yang mendapat keuntungan daripada kelemahan daripada sesuatu issue.

Banyak lagi pembaziran seperti rancangan masjid besi putrajaya, masjid kristal, pembinaan segala jenis koridor di negeri-negeri lain. Perlukah semuanya ini?

Kenapa tidak ditumpukan kepada Cyberjaya untuk menjadikannya sebagai 'Silicon Valley' yang terunggul di Asia tenggara?

Cyberjaya yang sememangnya sudah pesat membangun akan lebih menjanjikan sumber ekonomi yang sangat luar biasa sekiranya cyberjaya diperunggulkan lagi.

Kenapa tidak berusaha bersungguh2 untuk membina jambatan bengkok menggantikan Tambak Johor? Tahukah anda betapa makmurnya Pelabuhan Pasir Gudang dan Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas selepas ini sekiranya Jambatan Bengkok itu berjaya dibina? Itu sahaja sudah mampu menyumbang berbilion-bilion ringgit untuk negara.

Kita boleh lihat betapa Tun sudah menyediakan laluan yang cukup mudah untuk Pok Lah meneruskan kesinambungan ekonomi negara. I bet, jika anda seekor monyet pun sudah tentu anda mampu memerintah negara ni dengan legacy ekonomi yang ditinggalkan oleh Tun Dr. Mahathir.

Tapi apakah yang berlaku?

Pok Lah hanya mementingkan agendanya yang tersendiri. Dia nak memahat namanya sendiri dengan idea-ideanya sendiri yang dilihat tidak ke mana-mana dan hanya menguntungkan sesetengah pihak sahaja.

BN tidak boleh marah dengan rakyat sekiranya rakyat sudah mula berblogging dan mengambil-kira pandangan-pandangan liar menerusi Internet kerana ketidakpuasan hati rakyat berkenaan ekonomi telah merangsang rakyat untuk terus mencungkil maklumat-maklumat lain yang menjurus ke arah pendedahan kelemahan-kelemahan kerajaan satu persatu.

Adalah salah untuk membuat tanggapan yang rakyat masih bodoh. Sudah terlalu ramai graduasi yang tidak ada pekerjaan lalu mereka terlalu banyak masa untuk menghadap internet untuk membaca perkara-perkara berkaitan kepolitikan.

Saya juga berpendapat ramai lagi rakyat-rakyat lain yang seperti saya, sudah boleh menjangkakan banyak komplikasi buruk yang bakal menjelma kesan tindakan dan keputusan buruk oleh kerajaan yang ada sekarang ini tanpa perlu banyak merujuk kepada sumber-sumber lain di Internet.

Ini adalah kerana kebanyakan tindakan dan keputusan yang dibuat tampak sangat tidak jelas dan kabur, tidak firm, tidak transparent dan yang paling penting, not result-driven. Ianya lebih kepada kepentingan satu-satu pihak sahaja.

Pada sayalah, ekonomi tetap menjadi teras penting dalam kestabilan politik negara.

Percayalah, sekiranya pembangkang di 5 negeri berjaya memberikan nafas baru dalam ekonomi negeri mereka, tidak mustahil mereka akan menumbangkan kerajaan BN dalam Pilihan raya akan datang.

Rakyat hanya mahukan kehidupan yang selesa.

Perlu diingatkan juga bahawa rakyat semakin bijak!

April 16, 2008

I'm not alone. Are you with me?

More than words can say.

I think these pictures speak themselves better! It's obvious that everyone wants the No.1 to step down.

Enjoy!














April 10, 2008

That's clearly why...

I've been telling some people that I'm always being uneasy if there's a police road block on the streets. The development of the anxiety feeling was a result of my own bad history of owning a seriously illegal car and getting involved in some unhealthy night activities (not rempit la).

I'm also a serious honda fanatic. I have never get into serious car fanaticism until a friend of mine, Romdzi, a friend who shared the same birthday with me and remember that we went to singapore earlier this year together, who the father just bought a honda civic EG3 converted to EG6, which means with the B16A engine inside it, but it's an automatic car.

At that point of time, Me, Omen & Romdzi were at Romdzi's house and Romdzi is yet to have his own driving license and Omen needed to go to Subang Airport. The father offered me,

"Bai, bawaklah kereta pakcik. Takpe pakcik percaya kat kau"

"Kereta apa pakcik?"

"Honda lah!"

Amused and not believing, i took the keys and started the car. Romdzi sat beside me and Omen at the back. Up to my surprise, I drove the car at 160km/h on ordinary roads without realising it. It felt so smooth.

So I need not to explain everything in details as that was how actually I get to fall in love with the most powerful 1.6 engine in the world, naturally aspirated. I was getting obsessed with Honda. For me, nothing can ever beat that engine, I mean in NA form lah. If you talk about Turbo, of course, it's out of the context already.

So in the year of 2001, after my Satria GTi was stolen, I was eyeing for a Honda Civic EK as it was a hottie at that point of time. I've got this one car at RM40k cash and drove it around.

To cut it short, the car was actually an illegal car brought in from Singapore! Damn it! I was conned!

So I was still driving my car around, in fear and everytime I saw a road block, I'll be scared like hell, like I'm gonna shit in my pants! And in that car also, I used to be fooling around with other people on the highways and the cops as well.

So now you know eh? Even though the car was then has been confiscated by the custom, the phobia feeling was still there, until today.

But I'm still driving a Honda now. It's a legal one but it's a full fledged car. Hahaha.. What ever lah! I admit that, sometimes, it attracts too much attention, especially by the police.

The story was, last Sunday night, when I was driving around, I saw cars were slowly queueing up to pass a road block. I've got nervous for nothing and winded the screen down so that the policemen can see me clearly.

When it was my turn to pass the barrier, the policeman take a look at his paper but he seems to find nothing. He took a second look at my car and saying it out loud,

"Lampu"

and asked me to pull over. I was like, WTF? What lampu? I thought it must be my not so yellow headlights. My headlight is an boosted normal light that it turns to be a lil bit whitish but not that Xenon white that turns out to be blueish.

So I pulled over, and the policeman fiercely and snobbishly asked my for my ID and driving license. I hand it over to him and asked,

"Apa salah saya inche?"

Means what have I done wrong? Without any manner of being a human, he told me that I hit the traffic light when it was red. I said no, I swear to god that I haven't!

He didn't believe me at first as he thought I was trying to escape. I keep telling him that I swear to god that it was a merely blind accusation. Then, he pulled out his walkie talkie and asked the watching officer, what have I done wrong, of which is I can hear so crystal clear.

"2662, apa salah dia?"

"Err... Kereta apa tu?"

"Honda Civic warna putih"

"Apa eh, exhaust kot. Kau bagitau ajelah dia exhaust dia salah"

Damn! Boleh kot kot eh? It was my headlight at first, then I hit the traffic light and lastly my exhaust.

Come on, even Puspakom let my exhaust go through without any hassle.

Then he asked me to drive on as actually my exhaust is not allowable. Why not he just give me ticket for my exhaust eh?

Because he knows there's actually nothing wrong with my exhaust, and actually nothing is wrong with my car. If he give me tickets pun, I'm not gonna bribe him as it is not a big deal.

Langgar Lampu Merah is a big deal so that's why he'll only gimme ticket if I really hit the red light, hoping that I'll bribe him to escape the summon.

This maybe an accusation by me, but that was what I can think of. If my exhaust is illegal, why don't you just gimme ticket for using an illegal exhaust?

Maybe he just want to cover up his friend's mistake. He said sorry and asked me to drive on without giving my ID and driver's license.

"Enche, boleh saya dapatkan IC dan lesen saya semula?"

"Owh sorry," passing me back my ID and driver's license.

I reversed my car, make a turn and rushed off.

Pissed off!

Is this how the malaysian police work? Come on lah Musa Hasan. You brought nothing new to the force lah.

April 7, 2008

One tiring but nice weekend.

I've just got back from Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia, going there with my cousin, Hafizh, attending a relative's wedding. The relative was once the member of DPR of Indonesia and I guess that he would be doing his daughter's wedding not in a small scale.

I asked him, how many would be coming.

He told me he invited almost 4000 people.

What? 4000? In Malaysia, a 1000 guest is already a headache.

Anyway, on that particular wedding day, I guess the guest is not even 4k but maybe more. I guessed it maybe around 8k to 10k, based on what I was seeing that day.

So, a photographer like me will of course get really interested to shoot. I've been to one wedding in Tg. Pinang and it was colourful! I bet this one would be doubly colourful.

The wedding in Tanjung Pinang is of course, more 'Malayish' that what we are having. I bet Malaysian Wedding are a lot simpler and for some people the wedding processes should not be getting more complicated as the process of pre-marriage is already a burden and hassleful.

As I arrived there, the mom of the bride had asked me to shoot some photos as the assigned photographers is not there yet.

The wedding is started with the 'berandam' or 'bercukur' ceremony. It's a ritual that signing the initiation of the 'Berandam' proses. The process was just a mere shaving of the hairs here and there. It's a lil bit orthodox. The room was a bit dark so I decided to use the CLS for this picture. Nothing to be proud of, I mean the cls but good enough to light the room for that shot.

Then, we went to a relative's place and stayed there until 8 PM for the next occasion, which is called berinai.

In Malaysia, the so called berinai night has got nothing to do with 'Berinai', of which to apply henna powder to the fingers and toes, purposely to decorate the bride's fingers and toes. In Malaysia, the berinai night is done before the solemnization.

In Tg. Pinang, it's done the night before the solemnization. More special, the occasion does include special dances of which later the dancers will invite the members of the floor (I mean the guests) to come and dance with them.

One guest after another will do the 'menepung tawar'. The Master of the Ceremony will call them up one by one. Once finished, the father of the bride recites the Doa and the bride will later brought down and will be asked to lay down on a matress. The mak andam and someone else will apply the henna powder.

Once finished, the bride will be asked to stay on that matress all the way, till the henna is dried. Then I actually went back home as it's getting really late then.

Early morning the day after, I woke up early just to get all battery to be properly charged. As I have only one battery for my Nikon D200, I have to make sure it's fully charged everytime before a job or an assignment.

There's already a lot of people coming when I arrived there. Inside of the house, people has already gathered to witness the solemnization.

The most beautiful thing about the wedding in Tanjung Pinang is that, every conversation is done by rhyming the sentences. The malays call it, 'Pantun'. It is very surprising that these people can really Berpantun like nobody's business. There's no single thing that is not being rhymed in the pantun form.

The solemnization aqad was successfully completed only at one attempt. The father of the bride wishes to execute the aqad himself.

After the aqad, the groom went into the room on the bride to present the dowry to the bride himself.

Then the ceremony proceed as usual. There are more dances. More people coming till 7PM and I left at around 7730PM to check in to the hotel and get my rest.

The bersiram Occassion is on the next day of which I didn't attend as I was rushing back to Malaysia. I guess it's gonna be much more fun. Everybody has got to get wet!

Who says kid chan is the expert of malay weddings? :p

April 4, 2008

Waddap guyce?

I'm shrinking all my blogs as I'll also be managing my own website at http://www.izham-miyake.com

As you can see, I've already incorporated all my old (& lame) entries from my old blog (slash.tblog.com) to here. All the archive entries from February 2004 to September 2005 are the entries from the previous blog.

More mergers will be coming soon. I might be merging this blog with the my pojok blog as well.

It was purposely done that this blog is having a new look. Basically i was just changed the background, of which before I was using someone else's picture but this time, I'm using mine, which was taken using my previous Canon 400D.

Now I'm shooting more with my Nikon D200 even though I'm still keeping my Canon 40D. With Nikon, it is much easier for me to do the Nikon CLS, a lighting system that can be established using the flashes, which made the life so much easier.

And the pictures are super marvellous too!

Oh yeah, what's with the Nikon?

Nikon kick ASS! Here are some picture with the Nikon CLS!




And further, I've been appointed as the Assistant Pro Trainer for the Nikonian Academy. The academy has the role to become the Nikon Product Evangelist other than to educate in terms of providing training classes to people to find the best way of making use of the cameras.

Classes are rolling, and as for the time being, we are only providing classes for the DSLR users, the classes for the compact cameras are in the finalized stage, and will be in the rolling soon.

And for reference, the website is www.nikonian.com.my.

Please not that the classes in JB is selling like hot goreng pisang now! You may not be able to enrol so don;t waste your time to wait!

Call me and reserve your seats, no matter who and where you are. Nikonian Certs will be provided to all completing attendees.

***************************************

As for the time being, The nation is said to be unstable, caused by the effort by some people to make things right.

If things are right, it won't ignite such chaotic political scene as it has always been aired on the news, on TV.

I'm supporting anything that will get things right, as I know there's nothing left 'right' in the government now.

I've been waiting for that wrong person to do the right thing, then everything will get back to normal.

And we photographers can do job in more confidence. The economy is good, everybody makes money and be willing to pay your high price of good photography service!

April 1, 2008

Khir Toyo changed Profession after Botox

After the terrible opposition winning over the Barisan Nasional in the recent PRU12 (the 12th National Election), Dr. Khir Toyo was not only lost his Menteri Besar position, he was also passing on a few UMNO positions at the state level.

Being dentist by profession, I hope he can return to be a dentist and check out how hard it is to make a living nowadays. Then, experience how hard people had to deal with the officials. More about him can be found at Wikipedia

"QUOTE"

"Our bloggers are really not up to standard. When they put up something, it’s not something that they want to discuss in a very intellectual way. It’s more because of their anger - the language they use. Why should I read all this rubbish? When the standard of our bloggers is upgraded, then probably I will look at what is written. But anyway, they are a minority. My concern is for the majority." - Nazri Aziz, NST, October 28, 2007


Who are the majority now? What majority are you talking about?

So now they've seen it happen. The bloggers has changed the world, why not Malaysia? And now even Dr Khir has his own blog. Maybe Dr Khir was thinking that blog can really make a living then. Yalah, after losing the election, of course jatuh miskin aight?

FYI, Dr Khir Toyo's blog is drkhir.blogspot.com

Recently I met him and I find out something!

THE BOTOX WORKS REALLY WELL!

He has grown taller and bigger. No more white hairs and look so young and energetic as ever! The face looks so different nowadays and he even changed profession. He looks very much handsome too!

The botox even changed his career. He is now a photographer! And giving talks at the Photography Roadshows as in the picture below.

Believe it or not @ life.izham-miyake.com!

:P

Well, It's April Fool and of course it's a joke! Hahahaha!

Someone has mistakenly acknowledged Noorsham as the former Menteri Besar during having our dinner at the Pan Bakery Cafe, PJ. The street musician was asking money from me when he said this,

"Dah tak jadi Menteri Besar ke?"

I was wondering what the hell this fella was trying to tell me. When he turned to Noorsham, he again ask,

"Dah tak jadi Menteri Besar ke?"

And i burst with laughs! Now only I realized that Noorsham looks like Dr. Khir Toyo.

Of course that handsome guy is Mr. Noorsham, my sifu, who was giving talk at the Photography Roadshow in Plaza Pudu KL. More about it at my Website.

* So boss, jangan marah eh. Hehehe.. gurau je..

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