Digital Photo Tips

This cannon ball tree is an interesting plant. It has these cute little pink flowers which look very exotic. Those petals will fall on the ground and the pink petals look breathtaking beautiful all over the green grass.

If you click on the photo, you can view the 1600 pixel and note the intricate details of the flower. I have taken photos of the cannon ball tree and the cannon ball flowers back in 2005 and posted them in my food blog. But every time I see them, I just love the macro shots.

The middle part looks like corals, don’t they? This is a flower which has dropped to the ground. If the flower is still on the plant, usually there are lots of insects sipping the nectar.

So, do hop over to the Penang Botanical Gardens and shoot some of these flowers while it is still blooming.

This is the cannon ball plant. It has long branches and the fruits look like bald heads. I tell you, if you suddenly grope in the dark and found those fruits, you will think they are bald heads hanging from the tree.

PLEASE WATCH OUT FOR SNATCH THIEVES WITH TAILS! If you are at the Botanical Gardens, do not bring anything that looks like foods. Do not leave your bags around. Be alert for monkeys who snatch your bags. I was squatting down on the grass, carrying a backpack and concentrating on the flower when I suddenly realised there are grunting sounds behind me. A pack of 5 monkeys were aiming at my backpack.

Maybe you can tell the monkeys, “HOI! Balik lah, ini negeri Pakatan Rakyat lah!”

Dew drop on grass is a rarity to me because I don’t always wake early enough to catch them. Moreover, I don’t have huge, green fields to roam around. But dew drops on grass is really romantic, beautiful and that fragile droplets of dew hanging precariously on blades of grass are such precious sights, aren’t they?

These are grasses on top of a grave. Yeap, morbid huh? I took these photos when I went to clear my parent’s grave during Ching Ming. The grave next to my parent has a nice layer of green grass and these dew drops were sparkling in the sun.

BTW, I have just changed my blog theme again. I am tired of the margin alignment of the previous blog theme.

One of the most interesting subjects to take photos are fishing boats bobbing with the waves, at the beach. Normally, these tiny fishing boats are very colourful. They are colourful for easy identification when they are out in the big sea.

Different time of the day brings out different moods. Above are fishing boat at sunset in very muddy water. The sky is not helping because rain clouds are above. So, I get these sad, forlorn looking boats.

At another stretch of beach nearby, the mood is much livelier because it was sunny when I took this photo. I am so happy to see the PKR and PAS flags (political parties who just won the election) flapping proudly on these fishing boats.

Though fishing villages and fishing boats by the beach look very picturesque, the sad fact is the lives of these fishermen and their families are very hard. They are at the mercy of the harsh weather and risky sea. I hope their support for these political parties will bring them a better life. Previously, if I am not mistaken Teluk Kumbar, Penang was under UMNO.

I know it is about photos but when I look at those tired, weather beaten faces of those fishermen who return after a day’s catch, you cannot but help wanting to see a better life for them.

My area here has some Chinese god’s birthday. So, the residents normally hold a concert to ‘entertain the god’. These are the joss-sticks offered by the residents.

They will hire some sexy, scantily clad girls to sing and rock. The gods must be very happy.

Many of the girls dressed just like cabaret dancers or MTV stars. I suppose all the gods are grinning like these dragons.

Taking picture of lamps is quite fun because we can get many different moods just by focusing on different parts of the lamps. Normally, I use the program (P) mode to shoot and my camera will automatically adjust the white balance, shutter speed and aperture.

So, if I point the focus to the bright lamp, I get very dark photos as it adjusts automatically. If I point to the darker side of the lampshades, I get brighter picture.

Then, there are those shadow plays that I love.

I haven’t got a chance to go to the Kek Lok Si temple to take photos of those lanterns. By the time I got there, they have switched off the lanterns. WTF! I got stucked in a bad jam and was delayed.

I don’t care about putting nice lampshades at home because these lamps are just nice to see but the light they emit are horribly dark and annoying. Give me fluorescent tubes anytime!