Fiesta Malaysia Celebrations!

From reading this flyer, that was how I got to know about the Fiesta Malaysia event.

Being a Malaysian at heart, I was surely very excited about it!

Right after church, Christine and myself headed towards Southbank where the Fiesta was held.

For those who don't know what "Fiesta" means, it basically means a big party!

We got distracted halfway at the Southbank Sunday Art Market and decided to camwhore a little.

Sadly, however, it was drizzling the entire time and everyone was getting wetter by the minute.

The most exciting thing about reaching the place was... of course, meeting my friends!

Here is Yvonne posing with me at the camera.

We were treated to a huge range of performances at the Fiesta.

Some of my favourites were the Shaolin Kung Fu Performance by the Kung Fu Club at The University of Melbourne.

Their moves really kicked ass.

Each time they kicked it was so powerful that the audience could not get their eyes off their legs.

Here two Kung Fu Masters preparing for a showdown.

The weather was really erratic that day.

Most of us were half drenched by the time the drizzle went on for about over an hour.

Chin and me, however, decided that camwhoring was still important despite the rain. I kind of look fat in this photo, right?

We were also treated to a Lion Dance Performance.

It was a whole show of two big lions and one baby lion, and they were trying to take off some Mandarin oranges off the ground and then throw it at the audience.

It was quite impressive really.

The funny thing was that the baby lion after awhile stopped moving at all and started sleeping on the ground the entire time the performance was on.

People thought the baby lion was sleeping.

The two big lions, however, continued to impress us.

I also noticed that most of the Lion Dance members were mainly guys and so few girls!

Why is this so? Is it because Lions are meant to be guys?

I demand a more unisex Lion Dance team! Besides one of the girls there is quite cute, however, sadly I didn't get her number.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Trip out with 101 Cell Group & Friends

Going out with cell group friends has and always been enjoyable.

So when I got the email from Kathleen, our cell group leader, organising a trip out for the night for our cell (since 101 meeting was on break that night) I was utterly excited.

We were supposed to head to Hu Tong Chinese Dumpling Restaurant but apparently it was fully booked.

So our next best alternative was MyCube cafe at 122 Lygon Street.

The same cafe where I had my annual partnership dinner is a lively cafe full of friendly staff (not to mention hot too), fun board games and delicious Malaysian food.

Since most of us are on holidays, we were quite happy to meet up.

Many of us were quite happy to pose for the camera.

I still got to admit, there was a lot more I have to learn from my camera, especially with lighting and the best scenes for certain places.

MyCube is unique in the sense that it is truly the only Malaysian Board Games cafe in Melbourne.

The best food there I have to say would be the Char Kuay Teow, for anyone that wants to go visit the cafe.

I ordered a lovely Hot Milo for myself.

It's been awhile since I tasted Hot Milo like this for awhile. It reminds me of my beloved hometown.

Not only Malaysian delicacies, but they also serve White Wine in MyCube.

It's been the third time in this cafe and I would definitely still come back for more!

Not full after dinner, we decided to head down to Freddo's to grab some delicious lovely ice-cream.

There were so many yummy ice-creams there, but in the end I didn't take any ice-cream.

Being the camera man, I didn't want to dirty my camera with ice cream plus I wanted to take shots.

We were supposed to head down to the Yarra River after that.

Since there were not enough drivers, we all walked all the way to Flinders.

On the way, we were taking some group photo shots.

It was a beautiful night for photos and if only I knew how to take more powerful shots, we could have produced some really awesome photos.

So I decided to do some pointing at the stars with my friend.

After walking for about an hour or so, we were tired. So we headed inside of Crowns and sat down at a table and chatted.

This is the black&white version of my friends taken using the Olympus E-P1.

Hopefully, after this experience, I am closer to my friends and have became a better photographer.

This is me trying to pretend I am looking through Sandy's Canon SLR camera where you usually have to look through the lens to take the photo.

Geelong Trip with 3/4 of my family

Today I went to Geelong with my step-mom, dad and excluding my sis because she had work to do.

It was the first real trip I have been on with my parents since about 8 months this year.

I haven't actually been to Geelong since I stepped foot into this country, so now I am bloody excited!

Already excited that I am going to test out my camera, I decided to take some pics whilst inside the car.

I was busily looking at the camera's instruction manual and figuring out how to use this beautiful-looking thing (being my camera).

Not long after, we reached the great town of Geelong where people here are mostly crazy about football, and for 2009 the Geelong Cats are in the AFL finals!

The scenery in Geelong is unmatched. Comparing this with other places in Melbourne is hard, especially when you are awe stunned looking at such a beautiful piece of sea.

Of course I was more excited taking those pictures using my camera.

I usually don't like being inside pictures lately because it makes me look fat.

I would rather like to take pictures of my Dad.

He loves to pose for the camera.

But there are always times that he insists that I pose for the camera too.

He took a picture of me in black & white, and I agree I look more cool in this photo.

Makes me feel like I am from the 1920s.

My dad and my step mom posing whilst we wait for delicious sea-side food to come.

The food at the restaurant was actually quite good, despite it being a little pricey for tourists. Expect about AU$20 for a main course.

I saw this picture of a merry-go-round for children next to the sea.

With my camera being the Olympus E-P1, I decided to have some fun with it.

Since my camera is able to use Art Filters and take the same picture using different modes, I decided to test it out on this merry-go-round.

Too bad in the last photo some stranger had to walk into my photo and add a person element to it.

The scenery in Geelong continues to stun me.

What is most surprising is that houses by the beach here are just AU$400,000.

That is considered cheap in Australia considering the suburb I stay in has house prices 50% more expensive on average.

And with a small town, and people crazy about football, how much better can it be?

All the photos here have been taken by yours truly and also my Dad using the Olympus E-P1.

What an enjoyable trip to Geelong it has been, and I will definitely come back for more the next time!

Sadly, halfway my camera died because I have not been charging it for awhile, so the rest of my trip I couldn't get photos!

My new Olympus E-P1

For quite some time, I have been dreaming of getting the new Olympus E-P1. It is an awesome camera because it is the marriage between SLRs and compact cameras. Big cameras usually have good photos but are too bulky. Small cameras usually have good compact sizes but their photos aren't the best.

Olympus was like "Screw it, lets make a new type of camera that has the best of both worlds!"

So, using the Micro Four-Thirds technology, they finally created the Olympus PEN E-P1.

It is truly a unique camera in the sense that it is revolutionary.

It looks like a compact, but it is actually an SLR.

For camera professionals, the lens are interchangeable, the ISO captures from something like 200 to 6400, optical zoom up to 7x and has 12.3 Megapixels.

So, getting such a unique camera of course I would go out and test my new camera!

Clicking the photos will enlarge them and you can see the fine details.

A test photo of my laptop.

Picture taken at my friend Jeremy's house.

Picture taken at Box Hill Budget.
The camera also has 6 art filters. So being creative, I decided to test out the "Pop Art" filter, which makes everything look cartoon-ish.

Coles, more colourful than usual.

My Dad looking like he's from a colourful world.

There is also the "Pale Gray" art filter which makes things look like the 1900s.

A similar scene using the "Pop Art" filter again.

How about something more?

My dad decided to test out the camera on the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

The camera manages to capture a lot of the detail.

How about flowers?

Here is a test shot of flowers. Clicking the image will actually enlarge it.

Being new to the Olympus E-P1, I feel that I have a whole lot to learn about the camera.

I just recently figured out that I could use manual focus for the lens and find a better focus than AutoFocus would give me.

And also they offer a lot of different scenes for different kind of situations.

However, if you are just about taking the photos, you can always set the camera to Intelligent Auto where it will select the best settings for you.

It can also play music whilst you are looking through the photos you have taken!

Hopefully over time I will produce even more superior photos using this camera!