I had a superb weekend end of May photocamping with Kai and when I say camping, I meant we REALLY camped. With tents and all. We 'checked in' very early Saturday morning (got a little lost on our way there) and 'checked out' late afternoon on Sunday. It was super fun, super cheap, food was aplenty and we learned a lot practical wise! There were a lot of guys though as compared to girls but Kai and I did make some new friends although there really wasn't much time for that.
Everyone came fully equipped with their DSLR/compact cameras; no age nor gender barrier. Almost 60 people participated with ages ranged between 13-40 I believe. Fireman, students, officers semua ada. All came with just one mission; to learn as much as possible. After a brief introduction by the organizers and being placed into groups, we were demonstrated on how to set up the tents. Knowing me, I almost always find something amusing and Kai was constantly telling me to shut up and behave although not always verbally. I couldn't help it, I mean the dude kept making lame jokes that was totally unnecessary... but oh well, anything for cheap entertainment no?
The theme of the camp was 'Flora & Fauna' as well as 'Night' photography. That Saturday afternoon, we set off on what was supposed to be a group excursion 'into the wild' thing but everyone just scrambled off doing their own business and busy snapping whatever flowers and animals/insects they could. Group pun tah kemana. People were just literally scattered everywhere and the place is huuugggeeeeee! We also lost one person. He didn't exactly get lost, he just returned to base for whatever reason it is that he did.
This picture was hard to capture, I desperately wanted to get the spider and the ant in one shot.
The funny thing is that the picture was top 5 in the Fauna category. Woot woot! I could've gotten a better shot had my camera been tilted from the top to get a more focused picture of the darn spider and not so much of all the greenery but in the moment, I was just frantically trying to get a shot before the spider moved again. I guess the judges saw something in it? Kai also bagged top 5 but in the Flora category. We did well woman!
Mademoiselle Kai blending in with the background. Hehe. Those rocks were a pain to hurdle. They went on for quite a good few hundred meters-- at least that's what it felt like.
This is a shot I'm proudest of.
Why? Because I was balancing on rocks trying not to move, having my camera ready in action and waiting in the horrible humid weather for the beautiful red dragonfly to come to me all at the same time! Not exactly the best of angles but if you saw how I struggled to balance on one foot and juggling the big ass camera, I was lucky I even got a shot that close.
I was pretty disappointed when we got to the flamingo sanctuary. The flamingos were far off and people like me who didn't have telephoto lens had a clear disadvantage. I did have a look through a fellow participant's telephoto lens and oohhh myyy... bestnya lah kalau ada. This was the best and closest I could get.
We got back to base by sunset and snapped a couple more pics on our way back, this time of each other. Screw all the flowers and animals! Hahah!
One of my favourite shots of Kai. I was telling her how pictures that catch you off guard always make the best ones. They capture moments and not poses =)
After Maghrib that night, two buses took a bunch of 'photographers' for our night photography. This session was disappointing too because I didn't realize how hard it'd be to capture pictures on DSLR at night without a tripod! Almost none of my pictures turned out the way I wanted it to. These are among the okay ones.
We then went off for a nice place to have supper.
Picture courtesy of Mr. Nik of Appl3mint Studio.
The group of photographers =)
It was a superb weekend of knowledge and fun. Being there with Kai who shares the same interest was definitely a plus point although her skills are wayyy better than mine. Thanks for a great weekend babe... as always ;) For Kai's version, you may read it here.
I'm also ending this with a disclaimer, "I am in no position to capture wedding photography, portraits, landscapings, graduation photos etc. I am only but an amateur who is still learning so please don't ask me to take professional photographs of you because honestly, I still suck so don't make me bring down your photos with me!"
Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner. --Author Unknown
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