Summer in Kangasala,Helsinki 2010

Sunset in Port Dickson, Malaysia

HDR version on sunset taken from a water chalet in Port Dickson, Malaysia. Although the noise is bad, its till gives good result overall in the processing. My Nikon D50 have since retired fro a 5 years service. I just got myself a new NIkon D300s. SO keep a lookout of more HDR images from it. Cheers

Railway Station in Helsinki, Finland

When I shot this picture, it was really dull with overcast clouds and dull toned. Lucky had it bracket and in raw. Another post process using Qtpfsgui and GIMP software. Love this two open source software. Helsinki railway station is one of their main attraction since most commuters will end up here either for work or leisure.

other related post. click on the links below

• Notre Dame
• Gimp Software
• Qtpfsgui Dowloads
• Qtpfsgui Tutorial

It is alway good to backup, backup, backup

After returning from Europe recently was a tremendous expreience for me especially looking forward to post edit those thousand of images and upload on my facebook and even uploading to my Istockphoto. Didnt realised that recently my harddrive start to fail. Cold sweat running in as for few hours it keep saying "error on I/O device". All my photos inside!!!!

Scramble thru the net looking for answer and only get the answer is, it's toasted! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! A couple of years ago, I had the same problems and those data were all gone. With this new harddrive that is failing, I am not gonna let another thousands of photos gone "kaput". But nothing is all failed. It got started back yesterday and immediately I start transferring to a new harddrive. Well first to save are those Euro photos and stock value images. Now slowly tranferring the rest of the data. I read an article about this guys and he has about 3 harddrive of backups. SO investing a couple of hundred on a few harddrive is better than losing those hard work photos.

Crossing my finger and hoping to take all the data out. So goodbye Maxtor Touch4 and hello Samsung HD...

Travel Blog: Paris-Helsinki-Interlaken

Just got back from a two weeks break and it took me awhile to settle in to reality. Anyway I try to blog while I was away and face quite a few problems with the net. A few years ago I read an article about always not getting enough images on your travel. Regretting on getting that certain images will leave you scars for awhile since it be quite awhile before you go travel again. So I did follow that advice and end up with 2400 shots to be processed. To me that is huge especially with the amount of time I have to juggle between work, my Istockphoto business and family. But when I look at the photos, I do still have some regrets on certain photos which I should have shot better. So it is never enough isnt it. Will be posting some photos I took to share here. And if anyone wants to find out about the locations that go or other inquiries, do give me a pop.

This are the list of upcoming photos that will be posted

• Paris, France
• Helsinki, Finland
• Tempere, Finland
• Kangasala, Finland
• Interlaken, Switzerland
• Berne, Switzerland
• Zurich, Switzerland

Dubai International Airport Transit

This is the first day of my two weeks holiday in Europe.. All the long hours research booking and cancelling of hotels, flights and train; finally I am here.. First stop is dubai interantional airport.. My flight from Singapore is at 0140hrs, reach at 0450hrs and my next flight will be at 1500hrs. Thats about 7 hrs of transit in Dubai International Airport.

Right now I am in a cafe called The Hub which is the only cafe that has a smoking area. Which means it is not free to smoke here. You got to pay for drink firsts before you smoke. They do have two smokinng area which is abedroom size room with no ventilation. Seriously I cant even breathe inside let alone smoke in it. That smoking rooms is about 1 km away from my gate. Yes the airport is huge!!! The terminal three (mainly use for Emirates Europe transit) is amazinly awesome.. Lots of shops, cafe, duty free shops and etc showers and prayer rooms are abundant but they need more toilets. Especially during the morning flights.

So for now need to get much needed rest before continuing the next flight for 7 hours. Next destination.... Paris!

Outdoor Wedding Photoshoot

Ok this is the first day of the photoshoots. My 5th wedding assignment. We are making a coofeetable album in monochrome. Initial plan was at Lower Pierce Reservoir with a sunset background. But it was raining heavily so we decide to go to Singapore old high court situated in town. Here are some of behind the scene shots. The photographer uses trigger sensor for a single flash with umbrella.

The Big 5 wedding photography

This weekend will be the 5^th time I be taking an assignment as a wedding photographer. A lot of people would say, “Wow, that’s wonderful. You must have been earning quite well for your hobby?” Well....If I list down the statistic, is actually no. You see... it’s been 5 years since taking up photography and to put into perspectives, it’s a year each for a wedding assignment. If this is my main source of income, I’ll be left high and dry long ago...

Wedding photography is one of the most common lucrative photography assignments that one would jump into. But doesn’t mean you have a dslr camera and a flash you can take a paid wedding assignment. That would be suicidal for you and disastrous for the bride and groom if the outcome look like a typical snap away series...Although this is my fifth wedding assignment, I would call this the BIG 5. The reason I call it the BIG 5 because this would be my first assignment where the bride and groom is a total stranger. The last four assignments I have taken are my relatives. And it was quite a success since all of them love their wedding albums I took for them. And for this up and coming, I’ll be doing with another photography buddy of mine. I’ll be at the groom side and my partner will be at the bride’s. If most of you are not too sure about a Malay/Asian wedding in Singapore or Malaysia, well it’s a huge occasion. When I say huge, I mean really huge. There will be close to 1000 to 2000 thousand invited guests. Most would come and go after their meal (buffet style). And the event would be chaotic most of the time. A Canadian buddy of mine laughs at me when I told him about this. So I invite him to my wedding. Well I have the last laugh of course. Everyone will try to shake hands and congratulate the wedding couple. By the end of the day, the couple would have a sore hand after all the handshakes. LOL..If you really want to see these typical Asian weddings, well just wait and I show you in the next up and coming posts.

So the next few posts will be more of Asians wedding and my final result in this wedding assignment.

CriCatwalk Official Launch brochure

Do or die!!

Do yourself a favour..Your kids wants to see you back home today

Vertical Life

Singapore is getting bigger and bigger vertically. I wonder if 10 years down the road...Will it be a good place to live in

Family Portrait Eid Mubarak 2009

Still learning this technique.. My d50 is giving way to many noise so it is not as clean as I wanted..

Hope the D300 would come into my life soon. Click on the image to see in full size

Crossover Band with HDR effects

How to create Dave Hill's effects using a Gimp Photo editor

No photoshops? Under budget? Use open source Gimp to create stunning images.

A lot of us wonder how those images in magazines or cd covers of celebrity seems to pop out or has that 3D visuals. Well onefamous photographer has create quite a stir in the photgraphy industry that it has been a challenge for a of photographer to try a create the same effect. The artist is Dave Hill. The technique is called Dave Hill's effects. His website has behind the scene video. So check them out.

I found this website http://gimpology.com/submission/view/fake_hdr_look_in_gimp/

that can gives you amazing effects. Of course there are other simpler ways in doing it. HDR images requires a differant software where you to take 3 same images with different exposure to create this stunning effects. Check this out 

http://gimper.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2088

Want to try those professional post processed images that look amazingly alive. 

There are a lot of tutorials in websites on doing this effects. Mostly in Photoshops. Being an amatuer photographer and has a VERY small budget, purchasing photoshops can break our wallets. So Gimp software offers a great alternatives and yes its free. you can download them atwww.Gimp.org.

More links for you likings

Creating Dave Hill Look using Photoshops

Creating Dave Hill Look in Gimp

HDR tutorial

Video Tutorial of Dave Hill looks

Crossover Band 2009

Suprisingly, was invited to shoot their gig during a music marathon. Assignment was given. My first music concert photo assignment. Can't believe it went well. Anyway, some of the images are experimental post-process. Not too sure its good or not. If you dig it, let me know. It definitely will help my progress.

SaraFalisha says, "That's mine!!!".

All grown up. 1½ years old. An the antics starts. Right now my daughter, her name is SaraFalisha btw, is learning way to much in growing up. Curiousity has always in her characteristics. Whatever she sees, is hers. I like this image as it shows her demand to have all the things she wants. She was actually trying to grab my camera. Anyway. the shot taken defy all the rules. lens flare, burnt-out sky, blurred, dull stauration, less contrast. I don't know I just love it. And My daughter.

Leaf Background Ep 2

Most recently I have been posting some images that doesn't comply to Istock regulations. I stop posting since while waiting further clarification with regards to watermarks. It went well and I finally got the answer on using Istock watermarks. Now all my photos here will be my own watermarks. Most of the images here will be Royalty-Free and Managed Rights and will be indicated in every post
Anyway, as I was saying my trip to Singapore Botanical Garden recently. This images was approved recently in Istockphoto.com
You can check the images in different resolution by clicking the link image from my previous post.













All images are © 2009 sohfimages
Royalty-free images from

Singapore Botanical Garden

12 April 2009...Mark this day as this is the first time my wife and I brought our daughter to Singapore Botanical Garden. Of Course not without my fuul gear... It was a very fine day and manage to get a lot of images for my websites....This are some of the images in my Istockphoto

To see more of my full-frame leaf surface, click the image below

Sepang Formula One 2009

Its been awhile since I update this blog. Been very busy with Istock and work. But recently went to Sepang GP1 last weekend and had a blast!! The race was stopped due to bad weather. I managed to get this images and all I can say is that quality wise is bad if you are using low grade lens especially when lighting is poor.