Drama @ Times Square

Yesterday or should it be day before yesterday cause its 12:50am of Wednesday now...anyway, it was on Monday, Dec 29. A lady fell to her death at Berjaya Times Square. She fell from the 10th floor and landing on the 3rd floor. I was there at Times Square today...or should it be yesterday, cause its 12:52am now of Wednesday now.

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Anyway, here is the news article copied from NST Online :

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Shoppers at a shopping centre were shocked when they heard a loud sound and saw that a 35-year old woman had fallen to her death.

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The woman, Tan Lay Hown, from Serendah, is believed to have fallen from the 10th floor and landed among shops on the third floor.A witness, who only wanted to be known as Nga Yuen, said the incident happened at about 4pm while she and a friend were busy buying ladies’ accessories on the third floor. “We heard a loud sound. We thought some object had dropped but soon heard people screaming.“It was then we realised that a woman had fallen. She had fallen outside a nearby accessories shop.She said several people upon seeing the woman was unconcious tried to help her but failed.

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Nga Yuen said police confirmed that she died 30 minutes after falling due to serious head and body injuries.Police said the incident was being investigated and that Tan’s body was taken to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for post-mortem.

WATV Go Go Club Promo Tour

China's boys group singing sensation, Go Go Club. Anyone?

The promo tour was yesterday at Berjaya Times Square. The sang some songs, played some games and melted the hearts of many fans, mainly females. After the stage performance, they had a press interview at Starbucks. Somehow, the coffee served that evening was nothing like those you get when you pay RM12 a cup! Damn!

After the interview with the medias, the boys, together with 8 lucky fans, went up to Times Square's Cosmo World for some fun rides! I bet the girls couldn't sleep that night! LOL.

I Still Like The BMW 335i Coupe

Hmm...was chatting online with a 17-year old friend (a Form 5 girl) and she told me her uncle just bought and gotten delivery of a brand new BMW 335i Coupe! He gave away his Mercedes Benz sports car to the grandmother. I was like WHAT!!! Sports mama?

Then came another blow. She told me her classmate from school, has a 17-year old boyfriend who drives another coupe (2-door) BMW. I was instantly referred to her friend's blog site and there it was...the boyfriend's BMW 630i Coupe!!! 17 years old is under age lar...gimme the damn car lar! And this lucky girlfriend has shoes enough to start a high class pasar malam stall selling expensive shoes! She has a whole wardrobe filled with shoes! How come my dad never got me stuffs like that wan ah? Sigh...

On another note, I was having dinner just a few days ago and when I walked back to my car, I saw this beautiful silver sporty looking car parked just a few cars away from mine. I walked over to it and it was a Jaguar XF. Simply beautiful. The back design resembles the Aston Martin DB9. Very sleek looking. A check on the website shows that the Jaguar XF, just like its counterpart, the Aston Martin DBS and DB9 range, costs way over a million Ringgit!!! I still like my BMW 335i Coupe. Apparently now, it seems like this BMW 335i Coupe at almost half a million bucks, is just an "entry level" into luxury sports cars!

The Jaguar XF (4-Door)

The Jaguar XK Coupe (2-Door)

BMW 335i Coupe

It was a few months ago when I started to have a liking for sports cars. I thought the Porsche series was my number one favourite but the price tag was hovering around RM1,000,000 a piece! Then a friend of mine got a Nissan Fairlady 350Z (RM385,000 brand new, fully imported) and it was really a damn cool sports car. But another friend suggested that the Nissan GT-R is a far better sports performance car than the Fairlady.

Last week, while shooting a wedding dinner with Babyboss photographer Brian Lee, he suggested why not consider the BMW 3-series coupe range! I went to the website and checked out the BMW 335i Coupe and instantly fell in deep love with it. I even dashed over to the Auto Bavaria Bukit Bintang branch to see the car and to touch and smell its interior. Simply awesome. Felt so at home...a BMW.

I have always liked a BMW and have had two BMWs (a 318i and a 520i) in the last 10 over years. But somehow a BMW sports car never came to mind. Now, I am all set and aiming for the BMW 335i Coupe...a 2-door sports car.

6-cylinder in-line twin turbo engine with double-Vanos. 6-speed automatic transmission with Steptronic. Displacement at 2,979cc. Acceleration 0-100km/hr at 5.5 secs with top speed of 250km/hr. Light allow wheels Star Spoke 189 with mixed runflat tyres, front : 8J x 18", 225/40 R18, rear : 8.5J x 18", 255/35 R18.

On the road price at RM469,800 (brand new, fully imported from Germany, excluding insurance). Add another RM30,000 more for the "M-Sports" package, inclusive of 19" sports rims, "M-Sports" steering wheel and body kit.

Noble Banquet

I was commissioned to shoot a wedding dinner event lat night at this beautiful Chinese restaurant called Noble Banquet in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Nice place, well decorated, ample parking space with jockey service. Most importantly, the food...it was awesome! I had one of the best sharks fin soup in my life.

Babybyboss junior photographer Brian Lee and videographer Yee Teng was shooting along with me. Here are some pics.

Noble Banquet's outer gate.

Noble Banquet's grand entrance...a Chinese imperial door.

The stage backrop.

The babes at the registration front desk.

A "picture-in-picture" effect.

The wedding couple, Alfred and Christine.

A picture here with Yee Teng.

Here with Brian Lee.

Say Yes

I was looking through my "picture folder" in my laptop and found these pics that was taken (I think) early this year....or was it late last year(?). Anyway, I was commissioned to shoot a private party event at this "Say Yes" club at 11pm. "Say Yes" club is located behind Park Royal Hotel. It was a special occassion because singing sensation "Lily Montana" was the special guest.

By the way, Lily Montana is a man. Everybody in the pictures above are all men. Yes, "Say Yes" club is a gay club. Welcome to "Say Yes"!

Nikon SB900 "Thermal Cut-Off"

I finally got the chance to officially shoot using my new SB900. I have not actually used it since I bought it like a few weeks ago. So far, I had only done some test shots here and there but not an actual event shoot.

Last Sunday, I covered a music school's annual concert at The Ballroom of Flamingo Hotel (somewhere in Ampang...and yes, very near the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide...the actual day itself). The SB900 performed very well, very intelligent in making flash exposure outputs. Pictures were very nice and well lit. The flash zoom at 200mm was awesome. Perfect exposures! It definitely is a better flash unit than the SB800.

But one thing really turned me off...the auto "thermal cut-off" feature in the SB900. The flash unit disables itself when the temperature gets high after several continuous bursts. I was shooting half way when suddenly I realise the unit ain't firing! A check on the unit's LCD panel shows that the temperature was "high" and auto "thermal cut-off" has kicked in! Char tou! I couldn't fire anymore!!! I was literally paralysed and had to wait for the flash unit to "cool down" before operations can be resumed again.

I waited for about a minute but the unit was still in "cut off" mode! So, I switched back to my old SB800 and continued my shoot. After a while, I returned back to the SB900 but this time, I kept a close watch on the temperature readings. I finished the rest of the concert with the SB900.

Came home, checked the user's manual on how to disable the auto "thermal cut-off" in case I need to switch it off in future! Well, for all SB900 users, watch out for your unit's temperature!

PIDM Annual Dinner Event

Last Saturday, I had the privilege to single-handedly manage a corporate event...Perbadanan Insurance Deposit Malaysia's (PIDM) annual dinner. This is the first time I am running an event on my own with absolutely no external assistance. Of course, I had my suppliers and sub-contractors working with me. But the planning and management was all done alone. Pretty stressed, I must say. But working alone also means no miscommunication. Everything was between me and the client's organising committee. Overall, it was fun.

The stage construction, backdrop and hall decor started work at 1am of Saturday (Nov 29, 2008) morning at the Diamond Ballroom of Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. I was there for the setup at 1:30am and only left the place arond 5am. Went home for a quick nap, woke up again at 9:30am and dashed back to MO by 10:30am. The sound & lighting systems supplier's turn to do his setup at the ballroom. By 2pm, everything was done. Technical briefing with hotel banquet staff at 3:30pm. I had over an hour of free time, so I walked over to KLCC for a dose of my favourite Coffee Bean's Iced Latte.

4pm, confetti guys came to install the confetti canons. 4:30pm, PIDM's in-house "acoustic guitars" did their sound check. 5pm, emcee Kenneth Soh arrived for his sound check. Also, our Babyboss photograhers arrived and setup the instant printer booth. 5:30pm, the dancers arrived and did their rehearsal. 6pm, DJ Mike came. By 6:30pm, everything was done. Ready for showtime!

At 7pm, guests started arriving. Show started punctually at 8pm. Everything went smoothly and according to time. MC Kenneth did a great job getting the people out onto the dance floor towards the end.

The first test shot at the photo backdrop. Here with Babyboss Angie, whose duty was to make the instant prints on the Canon ES2 printers.

Next test shot with PIDM organising committee, Lydia Soo.

Babyboss photograher, Brian Lee in action!

The instant print counter. The printed photos were inserted into photo frames for the guests.

A picture here with part of the PIDM's organising committee.

The stage and backrop decor.

Here with the dancers dressed in their opening outfit.

A group picture here with the CEO of PIDM and also the Governor of Malaysia's Bank Negara.

The acoustic boys, The Blankets.

Christmas For Payatas

I get so irritated when people try to act like a saint on one side but a total opposite on the other. Recently, I have the unpleasant privilege of meeting one such company who, on the front side, talks and acts like a saint but on the back side, behaves like some china-man crook. This company I am referring to is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company or commonly known as a direct selling company. Their latest community project they embarked onto is the "Christmas For Payatas" in Phillipines.

The landfill in Payatas, The Philippines, is notoriously known the world over as Smokey Mountain. For over 35 years, the smoking dump site has grown to become a stark and heart-tugging reminder of the desperate conditions of humanity. On a daily basis, children pick through newly arrived garbage to collect material to sell. The earnings made by one child is not enough to even buy food for the day. Hence, entire families are forced to climb the mountain each day, hoping to earn enough to feed everyone. Children as young as four years old are forced to work in this daily struggle for survival.

The Lighthouse Center For Children Foundation currently provides food to these underprivileged children, now numbering over 500 children daily. This figure used to be 2000 children per day but support and donations have been getting harder and harder to obtain. The foundation hopes to be able to feed 5000-10,000 children every day if it can raise additional funds. There are over 20,000 children living on Smokey Mountain. Intending to function as more than a soup kitchen, the foundation embarked on a Literacy Program for the Payatas children. Most of the children are not attending school, but helping, at their tender age, to support families. Nevertheless, most of the children dream of becoming teachers, nurses or doctors. Sadly, their dreams are hindered by the reality of poverty and its vicious cycles. Through the educational component of the project, the Foundation hopes to break the cycle.

In response to the plight of these children, this particular MLM company, with a few million US dollars turnover every month, pledges...USD5,000 to the foundation, towards bringing a little cheer to the children of Payatas this Christmas. USD5,000 man!!! That is not even 1% of what the company makes every month! Sigh!!! Why bother to appear on headlines and make announcements as though you are such a saint!!!

I have a personal friend, a Bumiputera, who pledged USD5,000,000,000 (that's five billion US dollars) towards rebulding the devastated province of Sichuan, China. And he wants to remain anonymous and absolutey no mention of his name. He just want to help. To me, that's a real hero!