Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of the Internet where I found a great deal of photography resources with regards to making my own mini studio and the ways to get them up and running in no time. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m looking to setup a non-expensive mini studio and since I don’t have an extra flash kit with me for the proper lighting setup, I had to resort to using high powered lamps. I bought 2 lamps from IKEA and mounted them with a 20W energy saving fluorescent light bulbs. That went well I suppose considering that a normal flash kit would’ve been in the thousands range where as the lamps and the bulbs together were only hundred plus ringgit.

After that, I got excited and followed a tutorial I saw on the Internet and built my own makeshift light tent. How did I do it you might say? I just scourge for an unused empty box (a Dell Computer box for that matter) and started cutting and taping here and there with tracing paper and duct tape. Eventually the light tent was completed. It was a work of art. To me at least.

So, I started setting up the lamps as well as the cameras on the tripod. Everything went well and I couldn’t wait any longer to try some of the shoots. I used almost anything I could get in my bedroom as my shooting subject. There were small little cosmetic stuff like a toner, moisturizer, aluminum water bottle and etc.

Anyways, here’s the result of those shots. After some post processing done with Photoshop of course. By the way, the last two shots of the moisturizer (the Nivea Aqua Sensation Day Cream) was me experimenting on having just one light source, meaning one from the left and one from the right.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

The first photo you see here is actually the left wing of the small but elegant Airbus A320, an AirAsia flight. The plane was cozy enough even though it was a little bit cramped up inside. It was definitely much better than a Boeing 737 in my opinion. Furthermore, the plane was relatively new and the seats, the walls as well as the interior was looking perfectly fine. No weird chewing gums on the seat handles or the windows. Also, just to highlight how the plane looked like on the inside. Here are two photos of the interior, the first being the front of the plane whilst the second being the rear of the plane.

Alrighty then, enough with the plane. Let’s move on the the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport. Here’s a photo of how the outside looks like. I snapped this shot while on a bus that was taking us to our hotel. Please forgive me for the tiny reflections you see on the transparent windows.

Whilst on our way towards our hotel, I took a lot of shots of the traffic around us because China’s traffic are left-handed traffic and this was something new to me. It was a little bit weird for me to be on the right side of the road when I’m so used to the left side of the road back in Malaysia. I also took the liberty to snap a shot of their Toll Plaza. It was huge and full of Chinese Characters (obviously o.o~).

Also, Shenzhen really lived up to its name of being a city with a novel and modern cityscape because throughout our journey to our hotel, I was mesmerized by the myriads of tall modern buildings and skyscrapers. There were many high rise towers, office buildings as well as residential apartments and condominiums along the stretch of highway our bus drove us through. I bet we can’t see that many tall buildings back in Malaysia. Here’s an example of what I meant. Look at this architectural wonder. The Motorola Tower in Shenzhen. All glassy and new and modern!

There were many more architectural designs and I took so many of them that I don’t think I can simply post them all up here. There were just too many of them. Words simply couldn’t explain them so here are a few shots of those nice looking skyscrapers and tall buildings.

Upon arrival at our hotel, we checked in and off loaded our luggage and stuffs and started off our first day in Shenzhen! I was excited and I brought along my gears (DSLR camera) and started snapping away at every opportunity I get. Well, I was getting carried away while I was on the bus earlier but anyhow I continued to snap away like a hungry beast. I snap at stuff that I thought weird or nice to look at. I snap at stuff that I thought I would never see again and there were shots of Shenzhen’s streets, the pedestrian walks, the people and their culture. Some of them shown below.

I know that China’s cities have loads of bicycles or tricycles and etc but I never would have thought that Shenzhen didn’t have as much bicycles as the other cities like Shanghai or Beijing. There were bicycles but not as many. Oh well, doesn’t matter anyways. We walked along the pedestrian sidewalk and we started getting hungry and my dad said “Let’s go look for some food”. Eventually, we chanced upon an odd looking building that looks like a restaurant. The usual chinese restaurant that resembles Overseas restaurant back in Malaysia. We went inside and were surprised to see the locals, having some sort of crazy meal. There was this huge plates of brown colored meat and bones. My dad instantly became interested and asked the waiter for information regarding that dish and he went ahead and ordered some for us. It was actually, a gigantic pork bone with a lot of meat and fats. It might not look healthy but it sure does makes me hungry and crave for more of that dish. Here’s a shot of what that stuff looks like.

Two hungry dudes, munching on a very big bone

There were other dishes ordered and this was how they look like.

Oh and by the way, China’s dumplings are probably the best in the world. The succulent juicy meat was so mesmerizing. I just cant stand it. If you want to have some superb dumplings, China is the only place to get them.

Super dumplings

After the satisfying meal, we continued walking around and I found out that KFC and Starbucks have both made their mark here in Shenzhen.

Oh and China, is a modern city right? Wait till you see this.

An automated car parking facility! In China! It feels as though I’m in Japan when I snap this shot. It’s weird, I know but it was definitely an experience not to be missed. Anyways, we continued walking and decided to go have a look at their subway stations. The stations looks very much like the ones in Singapore (MRT Stations).

I took the liberty to snap a shot of their “Single Journey Ticket”. It’s a greenish colored plastic token as illustrated here.

Anyways, we commuted with the subway train towards a place my sister had marked as “Bu Xing Jie” and once we arrived there, we were instantly hungry again. It was already late in the evening and the day was getting darker. So, we went towards Ajisen Ramen that was just around the corner and had our stomach filled to the brim there.

After our sumptuous dinner at Ajisen Ramen, we walked around “Bu Xing Jie” and I took a lot of shots there. Here are some of the shots for your viewing pleasure.

My sister begged me to snap this shot because of an artist she admired, “Show Luo”

There were many people out on “Bu Xing Jie” and it was simply crowded. We can hardly walk. The locals were there as well, probably out for some Christmas shopping.

I liked the colors and the oriental feel of this building

There’s no surprise that even here, at “Bu Xing Jie” there was a Starbucks and even a Pizza Hut .

And again, my sister begged me to take another shot of her idol, a close up instead.

Whilst we were walking around, I noticed there were these metallic things embedded on the ground and I thought, they look kinda unique and so I snap some shots of it.

We walked across this long stretch of “Bu Xing Jie” and eventually everyone was tired and just wanted to go back to our hotel rooms and rest. However, right before we all went back, we noticed these weird little cubes (there were about 12 of them) sticking out of the sidewalk of a shopping mall. Little did we know that there were words and texts printed on it, and that each of them represented something! Zodiac signs! I ran around each cube hoping to find my zodiac sign and finally found it (Aries) and snap a shot of it.

And after that. We took our journey back to the hotel and ended our first day at Shenzhen! I hope I didn’t bore you guys/gals with my ramblings and photos. Not all of the photos were posted and because of that, I have made a slide show of all the photos taken on the first day at Shenzhen for your viewing pleasure. Have fun looking (admire I hope ) at the photos and please do comment on this post ya? Because I shamelessly loves comments .

The slideshow below:

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Michael Jackson arrives at UCLA Medical Center on Thursday.
Photo & caption courtesy of x17online.com & CNN.com

True enough, this morning when I woke up and drove my car to work that I heard from the radio the reality of the rumors. Michael Jackson has been pronounced dead at the age of 50 and that he had suffered a cardiac arrest at his home and was brought to the UCLA Medical Center. Throughout the journey, he was reported as not breathing and paramedics tried all sorts of resuscitation methods and to no avail, he fell into a comma and died after shortly after at around 5.26 AM (GMT +8). Well I guess I do not have to be so detailed on this as the news has been spread across the world like a wildfire and all news site are much better at delivering such news.

Fans gather at Vine and Sunset in Hollywood, California,
on Thursday evening to mark Michael Jackson’s death.
Photo & caption courtesy of CNN.com

Anyways, I felt sad and cold in my heart because he was such a dear singer to me. I could remember when I was younger, his songs were the ones that made me feel safer and closer to heart. Songs like ‘Beat It’, ‘You Are Not Alone’ and ‘Billie Jean’ were my favorites from his treasure trove of songs. I believe he is the only singer that had probably broken so many records and won so many Grammy Awards. Especially during the 1984 installment of Grammy Awards where he had actually won a record eight Grammy Awards. That’s a mesmerizing number. Other than those superb awards, he has probably revolutionize the music dancing scene. Why did I say so? It’s because of his super cool robot style dance moves and his famous ‘Moonwalk’ which was probably the founding fathers of today’s street dance. It is has also been widely coined as Michael’s signature move.

It is such a sad news and such a sad thing to see the legend, the ‘King of Pop’ leave our world. I hope that he will rest in peace and that all of us, will remember him and the legacy that he left behind. You go MJ!

I was feeling sleepy right before both me and Marcus went into the cinema hall as it was 11:50 PM at night and I didn’t really had a good sleep the night before. I thought I might fall asleep when I’m watching the movie but to the contrary, the movie really woke me up and sort of increased my adrenaline levels. The movie made my heart beats like there’s no tomorrow, one second it soars high with a speedy beating rate and a second later it calms down and not long after when the actions picks up again, it beats as if my life depends on it. It wasn’t just any type of action/thriller movie because it incorporates many different genres in it. For example, there were slices of comedy in it and there were some lovey dovey romance to go along with it.

Other than that, there were some patriotic feel to the movie (although it meant that I had to be an American to feel patriotic though) but still, it was successful in the sense that it can make everyone in the cinema hall goes like “ooooh” and “aaaah”. The has some touching scenes too and that almost made me cry too especially when… Alright, I won’t spoil for you readers Go ahead and watch the movie! That’s what I would recommend!

However, there was 1 small little problem with the movie which we can overlook. Me and Marcus discussed about it after the movie and realized that both of us couldn’t really see who was hitting who (especially when 2 big robots fight it out with close body contact). The 2 biggies would just seem like 1 big lump of metallic stuff having some sort of malfunction and was jumping, flying, rolling and many other actions which we didn’t really know whether which parts belongs to which robot. Oh well, who cares about that anyways? The movie is just superb and awesome!

Oh last but not least, the movie has some great actors and actresses too! Especially Megan Fox! My is she hot and sexy! I think she played her part superbly well and with the way she talks and act. It is basically just awesome. Well, what can I say? This movie has it all: action, thriller, romance, comedy, hot girls (Megan Fox), superb background music/ambiance and superb sound effects! I would give it a 4.5/5

And here’s some photos of the super hot Megan Fox from the movie Enjoy!
Just look at those curves! Aren’t they awesome?

Isn’t she pretty and cute?

I thought that things might be getting better now that I have something to look forward to and I was so eager in getting the movie tickets that I had to rush to the cinema to try and buy the tickets and to my dismay, the cashier promptly told me that sneak preview movies are only purchasable on the day it is release (meaning I had to buy it on Tuesday itself). My heart sank and I felt so alone. I walked along the shopping alley of Tropicana City Mall and thought, what a crappy day it is. Just then I turned my head up and I saw 1 word (Borders) and thought, I might as well walk around a bookstore for a while before I head home and get ready for another routine weekday life.

And so I walked along the bookshelves aimlessly wondering what I am doing there and what should I be looking for. Little did I know that deep down in my heart, there was still something that can always change and improve how I feel and that something is reading novels. Before I knew what I was doing, I was already walking briskly towards a row of bookshelf with a small plastic tag stating “Fantasy/Science Fiction” genre. I was rummaging the books that were lined up row by row and within five minutes, I found what I was looking for.

• The Dark Tower, Volume V (Wolves of the Calla)
• The Dark Tower, Volume VI (Song of Susannah)
• The Dark Tower, Volume VII

I have been a fond favorite of Stephen King’s novels and I have actually bought and read the first four volumes of ‘The Dark Tower’ series. I didn’t buy the rest of the volumes because volume vii was not out yet and I thought, I might as well wait till the author finishes the last volume before I grab it all at once. To my wonder, today must be my lucky day as I never knew that the last volume was already out and I didn’t even had to take long to make my decision on whether to buy. I rammed the books down in front of the cashier just before they were closing the shop and purchased these novels right on the spot. I was so excited about these novels that I had to take my Sony DSLR and snap some shots on it. Have fun looking at these photos!

Just thought the position of the novels against the plastic bag might look nice

All three novels stacked randomly

The Dark Tower Volume V (Wolves of the Calla)

The Dark Tower Volume VI (Song of Susannah)

The Dark Tower Volume VII