.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

So May 10th came faster than expected and everything seemed to come together just in time, World Lupus Day was here!

The first part was getting the Anything Butterfly Photography Competition running, which we got going with the help of the large member base on Shutter Asia, fellow bloggers giving it a mention and adverts donated by Nuffnang!

Plenty of entries came in, Thursday night was reserved for judging, how we did so is explained here:

Winners of the Anything Butterfly Contest

You can also view the winning pictures there.

Friday night was sticking the winning picks on the mounting boards along with the Lupus posters and information for the exhibition.

The exhibition is on until the 18th of May so please do check it out in 1-Utama near the Oval in the new wing on the 1st floor (You can also buy one of my framed pics for charity!).

Saturday was the event itself, after a late night out at Starbucks it was up and out to 1-Utama, the others had been there since earlllyyyy setting up the panels, carpets and so on.

Freaky was the main organiser + sponsor seeker + everything else + emcee for the day!

Along with the runners up and consellation prize winners we also had stories of lupus displayed.

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No pictures for once

Quite a weekend...I think I need another weekend to rest from this one! Last week was busy work wise too as we rushing for a tender...Friday was spent doing that and calling vendors.

Then Friday night rushed to James place to help stick/cut arrange the stuff for World Lupus Day on Saturday. Friday night at Starbucks until late...then Saturday morning up too early to head to 1-Utama to help with the final setup and start of the event.

The event was a great success mostly thanks to James! He did an awesome job and did almost everything, second would be Kim with her great PR coverage.

YB Dato’ Liow Tiong Lai was a great sport and really seems to care about the Lupus cause, which is the whole point of us doing the event in the first place - to raise awareness about the issue in the long-term.

Then straight after that - home, shower and out again to nearby KYs place for a quick dinner then off to PD for Freedom 08 with Cosmic Gate and DJ Tiesto!

It was freaking awesome! Cosmic Gate got things up and going - they have some classic trance tracks so they know what to drop.

And then Tiesto really rammed it starting out with tunes from Elements of Life (obviously as it's his Elements of Life tour) then playing all the classics from Just Be, Parade of Athletes and In My Memory).

Got back to PJ about 5am had some food and passed out until about 6pm the next day.

Lots to catch up with, so expect pictures soon...I tried to upload one of the videos to Youtube for this post but it kept failing - no idea why.

Handmade Oyster Mee Sua!

The place is a bit cramped - but the food is good.

More here:

Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks - Oyster Mee Sua & XXL Chicken - 1-Utama Old Wing

Please comment over at We Ate This!

So last week a couple of friends and I headed off to the new club at 1-Utama (Mardi Gras) to check out a private live session from our local star Hannah Tan commemorating her new album launch apparently.

The place was pretty packed, and we got there a bit late, but thankfully I managed to sneak to the front and get some shots in. I started out with a wide lens (17-50mm f/2.8) but it was too wide and not fast enough even open all the way at f/2.8.

So I switched to my 50mm f/1.4 which gave me enough light at f/1.8 and was about the right focal length!

She had back-up dancers, vocalists and a full band (with Alda on bass), it was pretty cool!

This guy was rapping too.

The lights were tough for photography, changing every second or so to a completely different colour...sometimes the same picture would have 2-3 colour casts. It surely made for interesting ambiance though.

I chose to use the available light rather than blasting it all away with high powered flashwork.

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Album launch, will post properly soon.

Hmm.

For those not interested in the GayPOP saga, here's back to normal programming for a post

The Shong Lee Contest, a behind the scenes look and the 1st prize winner!

These were taken with a super wide angle zoom at 10mm, who else shoots catwalk with 10mm, just me!

The contestants! There were quite a lot, but most of the pros didn't enter, if not we'd stand no chance, respect to them for that.

Quite a lot of spectators too.

A lot were just there for practise too or to get some more portfolio shots in a stress free situation.

Fighting for space.

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This would be part one I guess, seen as though I got less than 10 comments when I use only words it must mean I'm a lousy writer, I better stick to pictures! Hahah.

As I mentioned, I went off to 1-Utama on Saturday afternoon to shoot some catwalk pictures of some lovely young girls holding all the latest cameras. It was a fairly informal contest, you could only enter 1 picture per person, no post processing allowed, you had to print it there on site on one of the provided Canon printers.

The rules were to shoot the girls WITH the cameras, the cam had to be in the shot.

I had a quick triple play and a beer at Chili's then headed down to shoot the contest.

From a photography point of view I think I did ok, pretty well without flash and shooting with a f/2.8 macro lens with no stabiliser

Compositions could be a little more adventerous, but just need to learn the basics first..

Anyway, enough of that, what you want to see is the GIRLS right?

Well here you go..

Christina Ng with a new Sony DV Cam.

The infamous Rose Chin with the Leica D-Lux

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I wonder if I'll get any comments with no pictures only words

It's become such a habit to post picture, maybe I've overdosed on pictures this weekend, pictures of females anyway.

Let's just talk about what I did instead of looking at the results for once.

Was back to the office on Thursday and Friday...definately not enjoying the blue skies whilst stuck in my cubicle!

Friday night went for some good Indian food in Bangsar One at Sagar, then onto a local photography magazine TT (DCM), a TT for the uninitiated is a Teh Tarik or Technical Talk session, there are loads of groups that have these kind of meetings.

Basically it's for a group of ______ geeks to get together and talk about their hobby, equipment, techniques, upcoming events and so on (______ can be car/camera/fishing/bird watching/diving etc).

After that a coffee at Starbucks with Paul Tan for his birthday, happy birthday Paul and hope you are enjoying the D80

Saturday morning was off to 1-Utama for a quick lunch and then a chance to shoot catwalk models for the Photogenic contest sponsored by Shong Lee.

This was my first try at shooting catwalk and my first competition.

It was quite fun and quite easy although my compositions were not very creative my technique was decent, I'll post more and some tips on DigiSniper.

Saturday night was a light dinner with KY at the Mee Sua place, then off home to process some pics and sleep early..

Early because Sunday morning..I got up at 8.30am! For an outdoor model shoot, again another first for me, I'm not really good at portrait/model shooting and it's something I really need to work on. So I'm practising and trying to improve.

After that it was off to 1-Utama again for the competition prize ceremony and to collection my consellation prize (I came 10th out of 21 entrants), which is not bad for my first try and I shot without flash..

Got horribly lost in KL after that picking something up, then there was a downpour and the roads flooded...so I got stuck and stressed, by the time I got home it was too late to go to a BBQ I was invited for..so I chilled at home, processed a few of the model shoot pics from the morning, I did ok Need some work on posing the models though.

So that's two firsts this weekend, popped my cherry twice in one weekend!

And today, back to work zz..

After my falling in love with Siu Loong Pau in Penang, I've been looking for good ones in KL eversince.

This is part one, my first try. Siu Loong Pau in Dragon-I @ 1-Utama.

It's quite a posh looking restaurant, and there's a little glass cubicle in the front corner where you can see the chefs actually making the buns.

Quite interesting, even if you don't eat there.

This was what I wanted of course, Shanghai Siu Loong Pau.

The place has pretty classical decor, quite nice, and is usually pretty busy with a lot of Chinese families having lunch/dinner there.

I also ordered a Fried Sauce Noodle, it was ok, I have to say the one at Esquire Kitchen is much better.

Then came the Siu Loong Pau, the quality is ok, they should really serve them on a bed of lettuce though, to stop them sticking to the paper and breaking when you lift them up, ruins the whole concept.

I also found the pastry a little dry on the outside, like it had been oversteamed. I would give it a 5/10.

I also ordered the Spicy Wan Tan, I have to say these are really good, nice and tasty and cooked to perfection, this was the only dish that was actually good and is worth going back for. The rest were firmly wedged in mediocrity.

Alltogether I'd say, I'm not a great fan of Dragon-I, and won't be going back for the Siu Loong Pau unless I'm really desperate.