Ridha and Jenny Akad Nikah

Today I had the privilege to cover the Akad Nikah ceremony of a friend of mine, Ridha who tied the knot with one of Brunei's prominent voice and face in the media industry, Jenny Malai Ali. We went a long way back. I knew him since we were the same batch who joined the teaching force back in 2003. His brother was also my ex-classmate in SOAS. Congratulations Ridha and Jenny!! Here are some pics:

Other pics can be viewed at Bruneiforever and Ranoadidas

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Food Bazaar

There was a food bazaar held by the Business Studies Dept to give the students the opportunity to apply their learnings on business in the real world. The bazaar forced the canteen to halt operations during the break time because most students prefer to buy food from the bazaar. Sounded like this bazaar was a success, I wish I had something like this when I learned economics back in school.

23rd National Day 2007 Series: The Wonderful Colours of National Day Part 2

More pics can be viewed from here.

23rd National Day 2007 Series: The Wonderful Colours of National Day Part 1

23rd National Day 2007 Series: Young and Old Unite

Happy Chinese New Year - Gong Xi Fa Cai

I went down to BSB around 6 am to see the Chinese New Year celebration assuming that Bruneian, Anakbrunei and Ucingitam will be there too. I had to wait about two hours, went to check Jien Chiew but it was closed. I finally decided to stop by at Ignatius Stephen's cafe for breakfast. This was my first outing, a solo outing, after two weeks absence from the group and my first for Chinese New Year. When I arrived at the scene, I was not alone. They were scores of shutterbugs with big zoom lens, some I recognised, whom one of them was my wedding photographer three years ago. One shutterbug I spotted was holding a Hasselblad, a medium format camera. Now what happened when there were lots of us in one area? Everyone wants to take this angle, this shot and I tried my best to avoid that. Imagine this during a bigger event like the upcoming National Day. Anyway I will post up more pics in my slideshow in the next entry. Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai !!

Tang Soo Do Photoshoot

I went down to Mabohai Sports Complex to shoot a Tang Soo Do training session together with Bruneian, Ber and it was also first time meeting Souljah. Tang Soo Do, I understand is another form of Korean martial arts besides Tae Kwon Do. Being in the training session, reminds me of my Karate stint while I was in UK. The last belt I remember was yellow, I didn't pursue it further since it required a lot of commitments especially in training. Anyway, the photoshoot was a drag since it was at night, this means low light = blurry shots. I only had few good shots which is shown below. The others had brought their monopod, I guess they had more better shots. More details and pics about Tang Soo Do can be found here, here and here.

Gearing Up for National Day 2007

The National Day practice has kicked off last week. Schools, government departments and business organisations are gearing up for the glorious annual event held at 23rd February. These pictures show part of the preparation involving Menengah 1 and 4. Last year, I had to go through this type of preparation where I was involved with the Ministry of Education. The good thing about it, we got free full tracksuits and few goodies and of course a first-time experience being part of the celebration. This year, I want to be involved as a photographer.

On A Typical Sunday

A different story from the busy routines that go on in the lower floor of the Gadong's Wet Market. The business here has not been good, you can barely see shoppers walking around.

Pasar Gadong 50mm Tour

Last Sunday, an outing with the usual fellow shutterbugs, Anakbrunei and Bruneian. The theme was to use ONLY 50mm lens and the target destination was Pasar Gadong, Brunei's main wet market. The 50mm is a lens that needs several practices to master. Bruneian suggested that we use manual focus. At first few shots I used manual focus but after that I couldn't help myself flickering to auto focus mode. Next, a 50mm is a prime lens, its no zoom lens that we all rely so much. I found this lens do help improve your interaction with the subject, you tend to get closer. Its a first time that I really talked to the people after I got my shots. That day I learned a different level of photography and I still remember the quote I read from the internet, "Shoot first, then talk". Thats what we all did. In fact everywhere we went, people kept asking us who we were and we kept on replying we were not from press, we are hobbyist into photography. Here are some behind the scene, the normal routines of the Pasar Gadong.

New Year, New School, New Faces

Korban 2007

The first family event marking the new year 2007 and Hari Raya Aidiladha celebration. My house yesterday turned into a temporary butcher shop as this was the first time in our family history organising a korban. The event started in the wee morning for the slaughtering of three buffaloes at the abattoir, which made the way then to our house. This was follow up by processing and packaging the meat. The house was dividied into two. The front end, cutting the cow and the other end processing and packaging the meat neatly into a container. The event ended in the afternoon with a doa selamat where the containers are distributed to the guests.

The custom made cutting boards

The cutting utensils

Unloading the meat

Ready for cutting

Cutting the meat

Weighing up the meat for each container






The Packaging