"Its a seasonal thing!"

Yesterday I had drinks with a couple of friends in ttdi.. And was surprised to see this group of people suddenly arriving is the masses.

I'm talking 20-30 of them suddenly arriving .. On bicycles!

They were on "fixie" bikes or bikes with a fixed gear in laymans terms.

The best bit about these people is that they often will be dressed in clothes which you'll find in topshop. A very stylish group indeed.. Cept their on bikes and all sweaty.

These fixie fascination has been around for some time already and I believe it started in japan.. Our beloved country.. As usual, will soon start to follow trend and voila..

20-30 masses of cyclist in the middle of the night.

The bad bit about us in general is that we tend to mimic others and go overboard with it.

We are all sheep. Mmbbeeekkk..

Btw sorry for the bad pic, its from my phone and had to sneakily snap the picture.

Anyways. Will be going to MTV worldstage later.. Yippieee tata!

more hdr

Haha, with techbology,its no longer that a hard to do hdr..

Putrajaya Sailing Competition

So 2 weeks back there was a sailing competition and coinside with the sailing competition, a friend of mine organized a photography competition. Though I arrived fashionably late, with the sun glaring right smack above our heads, we had good fun.

When we arrived, apparently there was no wind, therefore the race couldn't start. All the sailors were just waiting in the middle of the lake waiting for some good wind to sail on.

It was a challenge to actually get good shots as my arsenal of lenses weren't enough to zoom onto the sailors in the middle of the lake, probably a 400mm lense wouldve been sweet.
Non the less, what you cannot zoom into, you just move closer.. So we drove around the lake looking for a good spot and found one near the buoy (which the sailors will later make a u-turn = good shots)

below are some of the pictures taken for the event.. And submitted for the competition.







I guess it was my luck or my apparent photography skill has improved, but I got 3rd place !!
A sweet victory indeed..

Anyways below are some pictures I edited on hdr.. First attempt and turned out quite nice. Off to work now





Tata!

Don't sell if you don't want to

I was up in stitches yesterday.

 

Caused by some idiot. Story goes;

 

I was walking down to the LRT station yesterday when I walked past a camera store. Wondering about the price of a spare D90 battery, I decided to walk in and inquire.

 

So I walked in and asked the person behind the counter, "Do you have the D90 Battery? How much is it?".  

 

"You want original or other brands?", asked the sales person. "Original please", I replied.

 

Unsure of the price, the sales person glanced around for this price sheet. Unable to find it, he looked for his superior to enquire on the price.

 

I guess his superior was a lil pissed that this salesperson didn't know the price. So he quickly got behind the counter and opened a drawer filled with batteries.

 

He asked again for my preference, "You want original one or other brands?". Again I answered, "How much is the original?"

 

Looking in his stash of batteries in the drawer, he quickly pulled one out.  I could see that this one wasn't the original Nikon battery from its plastic transparent packaging.

 

Not wanting to hurt his feelings, I asked, "How much is this?".

 

Obnoxiously he replied, "RM270". Having done my homework on the price's of the original battery (RM150-250 depending on which cutthroat store). Clearly he was trying to pull a fast one on me.

 

Sensing that I didn't seem interested with the price, he quickly mention, "This battery is better then the original one, lasts longer." As he points onto the back of the battery which states "1500mAH". Which is actually the same current specification as the standard Original Battery.

 

After noticing that the current value is the same, he opened his drawer again and started looking for a different pack. This time, the back of the battery did show "2500mAH".

 

Already feeling not interested on the matter, I said, "thank you" and wanted to leave.

 

A sudden change of expression, he pulled a calculator by his side and punched in the digits of "RM170" and said, "How about I give you this price?".

 

Even this price I didn't find too appealing for a 3

rd party Battery. So I said, "its ok. I'm just browsing, I don't have cash on me right now."

 

The superior salesperson then said, "If got no money say earlier la, no need to trouble me ..*grumble-grumble*".

 

I replied, "OK" and just walked off.

 

Now I understand that some people haggle and haggle but in the end walk off because they don't get their ideal price. But this guy really struck a nerve. Its not as though I made him walk 2 blocks just to find the battery. I just enquired and he was the one who wanted to do the show and tell. I asked specifically for the original battery, but instead he showed me a 3

rd party brand. The price given was already cutthroat and expects me to buy just because the one he proposed lasts longer. Best of all, when I said I was just browsing, he whines about troubling him.

 

I guess his other transactions are all easily struck ones. Show item, give price, take money. Kinda deal.

 

But in reality who actually does that anymore. Consumers are all smarter these days having done their homework and all.

 

Blargh.. tq for reading my rant. Ta ! :p