UPM Dogathon 2011 : Doggies in Wonderland

Woofing, wagging and we’re off to the whimsical wonderland.

And that was the tagline for this year’s dogathon. The 15th Dogathon to be organized by the VETERNAK & Zoologico Club of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM. Aside from being a meeting of all dogs, and a fun filled day for both dogs and owners and visitors alike, it also functions as a charity platform to generate funds for ProKasih in order to provide better stray animal welfare & to promote responsible pet ownership. Even though the weather during the event was gloomy and it looked as if it could have rained at any moment, it didn’t prevent gathering of the dogs and the games to be carried out. Here are some shots of the day:

~Dogs are still Men’s best friend~

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~Alice and her deck of cards~

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~A Pomeranian~

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~An assortment of dogs~

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~I think this is a Shih Tzu~

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~A variety of competition for the dogs. E.g: The obstacle course~

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~A Schnauzer going through the hoop~

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~A Chow Chow chilling out being massaged by its owner~

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~A tiny Chihuahua~

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~Go go go!!! The female category dog race~

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~Followed by the men’s category dog race~

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~And they’re off (Men’s category dog race)~

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~I think this Doberman was one of the winners for the Men’s category~

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~There were huskies running in the race as well ~

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~A Dalmatian followed by a German Shepherd~

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~You’re almost at the finish line… Lets keep going~

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~Tired but still in the race… Lets slow down a bit~

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~I may look tiny but I’m faster than the whole lot of them ~

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~A very lovely husky in the race~

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~Go get the ball, boy~

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~SIT!!!~

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~This beagle is staring at the food in the handler’s hands~

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~Huskies galore!!!~

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~Looking attentive ~

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~Fetching the stick ~

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~Saving the best for last Isn’t it the cutest thing ever?? ~

Kudos to the Vet students for another successful Dogathon event. Will be looking forward for next year’s Dogathon .

For more photos of this year’s Dogathon: Please visit my Flickr

Interested in seeing the previous years Dogathon photos: Please click on the following link: 2010, 2009, 2008 .

P/S: Lack of blog post recently… Was a bit busy… Might post a bit more from now on.

Photo: The isle of Pangkor

I’ve mentioned that I will be talking a bit about how to take this type of photo previously. First off lets start by having a look at the EXIF information.

F-stop: f/10

Could have been smaller to make sure that the whole field was sharp… Perhaps f/16 or something. I used the hyperfocal distance rule by which is defined as:

When the lens is focused on the hyperfocal distance, the depth of field extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity. Photography, Phil Davis, 1972.

This way I will be sure that the photo will be sharp at from 2-3 feet in front of me till infinity. Have a read about hyperfocal distance.

Exposure time: 6.7 seconds

The sea water is silky because of the longer exposure time it took for this photo. Having the shutter opens for 6 seconds allow the camera to record the movement of water. Of course to achieve this, you’ll need a tripod to keep the camera steady so that the only movement you’ll be tracking is the movement of water (and possibly the movement of clouds). I placed my tripod in the water for this shot (Which is not a good thing to do because the sand will get into the joint and it takes a long long time to clean it @@).

ISO: 200

I used a low ISO to keep noise out and to make sure that the quality of the photo is at it’s best.

Focal length: 11mm

Just wanted to take it more details.

That’s not all though. It was around 4-5pm when this photo was taken, and it was quite bright at the time. It would have been hard to get a 6 seconds exposure time at that condition so I used a ND8 (Neutral Density 8-stop) filter. This is basically a heavily ‘shaded’ filter which prevent light from entering and since less light were to enter I can use a longer exposure time to make the water silky.

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Another important thing to keep in mind when taking landscape photos will be to have points of interest which directs the eyes of the viewer to explore the whole foreground and background of the photo. One can easily achieve this by placing something of interest in the foreground, midground and the background. In this photo I placed the rock in the foreground, and the tree trunk brings the eyes from the foreground to the midground and eventually towards the rocks and the island on the background. Of course, to be honest I didn’t plan it out this way as what was on my mind when taking this photo was to keep the rock at the foreground. But this shot works because to its ability to draw the viewer’s eyes throughout the whole photo.

It was a cloudy day so some white balance changes had to be done in post processing. Also… It was quite a hazy day by which I had to do a bit of ‘burning’ to darken the island in the background. I didn’t bring my graduated filter and the highlights of the original photo was a bit washed out at the sky but since I took the photo in RAW, I managed to darken it and made the clouds more prominent.

All in all, I believe the photo turned out quite well.

Happy shooting ^^

 

Some photos of the Super Moon

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It doesn’t really looked too ‘Super’ though @@

Making a difference this Lent 2011 (Compassion Walk)

I was part of the Compassion Walk team who ‘walked’ in downtown KL, on the 12th of March 2011 (3.30pm to 4.30pm), to spread awareness that there were still people in need of love and compassion. And these people are the addicts, the alcoholics, the HIV positives, and those with AIDS.

~Roughly 350 youths walking to downtown KL.~

Some people today seemed to be unable to accept and to love these people who are living amidst them. They have prejudice towards these people just because they are ‘problematic’ and different. And they’ll have nothing to do with these people.

And I would say part of our objective is to make them aware that these people are still human, not much different from who we are. They are capable of feeling hurt, unwanted, lonely, and depressed.

The mission was simple, to put on the shirt, and ask people to HUG us. But the message to me, to the youth who followed the walk… was a powerful one. For to put on the shirt was to admit that, I am an addict, I am HIV-positive, I have AIDS, or I am an alcoholic. We, who donned the shirt, was to be in the position of these people. I’d approached total strangers, said this to them: ‘I am an addict, can you give me a hug?’’ and wait for them to give me that hug.

And for much of the time, they just walked away. And it struck me. The people we are portraying were experiencing the same thing. People shunned them off/despise them/avoid them because they are different. How would you feel if no one were to love you, to care for you, to show compassion to you? How would you feel if you approached someone for help and that person just walked away, much like how many of those whom we approached that afternoon did?

I’ve learnt (first-hand) that afternoon that the world could really use more love and compassion. I’ve learnt that I can no longer feel indifferent towards the sufferings of other people. There are tonnes of other people in need of help out there, the people we have portrayed, the homeless, the orphans but what have we done to help them.

~Preparing food and drinks, feeding the poor and homeless~

I gave food to the homeless earlier that day, watch them eat and listened to their stories of how they lived each day taking one step at a time. And their day can be a blessing or a curse for them, depending on how that day turned out. They might be having a warm night sleep by the roadside or they could be soaking wet when it rains. Yet, I realized they are as human as the rest of us. They have parents, siblings and friends. They still have hope and dreams for a better life. Some managed to maintain their dignity by which they really didn’t like to be termed ‘homeless’ or to be found scraping food and materials out of trash. They didn’t like to feel ‘sympathy’ from others because of their dignity and yet they don’t have a choice most of the time. Sometimes they were even taken advantage of, when their employers refused to pay them for the work they’ve done. The world that they lived in was a world that I could have never imagine being in. And yet they are still optimistic about their life. The homeless guy my group talked with was cheerful and even sang bits of songs for us.

Some of the participants from my group did a short sharing session a week after the ‘Walk’ and the facilitator mentioned that they had visited these the HIV-positive/AIDS patients in the hospitals and some of these patients were actually reluctant to talk with them. It was as if they had accepted the reality that they will be shunned by society and that to me is just a sad case.

I think its really about time we start to accept these people for who they are and to welcome them into society with open arms. To show them the love and compassion they seek. Because the world could use more of it.

Will you be making a difference this lent?

Euthanasia–Unethical or misunderstood

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I’m quite sure that there will be a lot of conflicting opinions and ideas on this topic. However whatever I’m going to type here are solely my opinions so please respect them.

First off, I believe that life is sacred, even though most of us don’t appreciate it. We’re alive each and every day for a reason and any purpose to end our life or any other’s life is totally wrong. Even when you might think that you’re being merciful.

Secondly, I do believe that none of us hold authority over another person’s life, even if that person is on the brink of death or is in pain. There’s a reason why death comes if by age naturally, if by illness, mostly because that person didn’t treasure the sacredness of life, or by accidents, by which is just fate. Any act of ending a person life without consent is no different from murder.

Lastly even if it’s with consent, it’s no different from acknowledging that suicide is ‘ok’.

I wouldn’t want to touch too much on this topic because its a fiercely debated topic… But I’m with euthanasia being unethical and unjustifiable