The Magical Pixel

The City of Melbourne

Well, everything was confirmed. me and Flex a.k.a Badang will be gone abroad crossing continent straight to Melbourne Australia. I dont know.. I have no money, I just follow Badang. We have some work to be done there. Perhaps it will give us a big return. The work can be settled within one day. So the 9 day trip is more to photo-taking trip.

I will be off to Melbourne on 25th of April. I really hope that I can bring my family too. But this is my first time there, I will not jeopardize anything on my family. So, for my wife.. “sabar la.. nanti next time kita gi pulak eh” and for my children.. “korang cari la duit sendiri nak gi mana mana..” hahaha because you will only appreciate when you have to spent for it.

I have contacted a few friends there. I hope they can be with me. if not, I might need to know where is the Malaysian hall hehehe.. People said that, if you going backpacking, you can always hook a night or two at Malaysian Hall for free.  Is it true? I dont have anyone from Malaysian Hall.. sigh.

T-Shirt for the trip as usual will be printed. 2 for me and 2 for Badang. It will have our trip logo on it. This is our trip logo.

Our Logo for the trip

So what else… hmmm.. Melbourne, here we come!

Opening 2009 travelling story with a trip to Jogjakarta located in Central Java, Indonesia.  Its a photographer trip planned since July last year. This time I bring my beloved wife together. So, me and Jue (my wife) start the journey a bit early by planning to leave the kids at her mother. Hehe.. pitty Najma and her brothers. So we head to Purun and leave the kids there. The very same day we head to Kajang to get my new 80-200 f/2.8 nikkor which I already aggreed to buy from a guy grom FTZ a night before.

The meeting went ok, nice guy, very friendly and I got a lense with hood.  It makes mine a bit “longer” then other 80-200 that I met before hahahah. Compared to a new 70-200 VR with hood, I still like 80-200 with hood because of its “fatness” although 70-200VR will be longer.. well, for me, a bit short and fat has more satisfaction than long but thin.. errr why does this sounded like double meaning.. hahahahahaha.

So, that lens I bring to Jogja. My D70 was carried by Jue and I carry the D200 with all the lenses. at LCCT, as usual AirAsia is a bit late. flight took us almost 3 hour and we reach Adisucipto Airport 5:00 in the evening. On the Immigration line, we has been separated from other passanger.. Malaysians should make one line which has no counter in front of us and the rest of the passangers make three more line in front of three counter. Time goes by, we just have to see one by one passangers passing through the Immigration. I dont know why this happen, but I think they just treat us badly for a revenge. Maybe our Immigration are treating the Indonesian the same.. we dont know. As far as I know, our Immigration are polite and helpful even to illegal immigrant.

At last, we make a move. we just crash into the other 3 line by just ignoring the instruction. Outside of the airport, Mas Mukti has waited for us with our bus. Small bus like a mini bus but enough and confortable. Drivers are kind and informative.  We straight away go to our next destination “Mess Menjaskini” a bungalow house near Borobudur. On the way, we make a stop for our first welcoming meal.. a Bakso in a “I dont know why you come here” restaurant. hahahahaha.

I call the restaurant that way because the worker looks like blur, fuzzy and they dont preapred for such a crowd. Maybe that day is the first and only day where their restaurant occupied that much. A lot of order, everybody is tired and hungry. From making order to the waitress until up to “go take whatever you want yourself” level. We conquer the restaurant and that is the first time I found Marlboro “Kretek” version. Pehhh.. yuck!. I gave the box full of cigarete to the driver who seems enjoying the “kretek” very much.

We move in to our house later on. A nice house with 3 room. got air-cond.. no mosquito and there is where we meet Mas Peribadi, the house keeper. Very very nice person, soft spoken, stuttering when try to answer in indonesian language but very fluent in javanese. He fetch me my “Mie Ayam” that night.. ahhh thank you Pak Peribadi.. pengen sekali aku sama Mie Ayam and happen to be it was the best Mie Ayam I ever enjoyed ever in Indonesia.. Pehhh! Sorry guys, I have to eat it alone hahahaha because I think you all have a lot of Bakso and nasi before. It’s not because of hunger but because of I “rindu” mie ayam very much ahaks.

The next morning we have to wake-up early for the sunrise. At 4:00am we woke-up and I found that I’m the last person woke-up. why? because everybody sets their alarm using Malaysia time which is one hour earlier.. ahahahahaha. If it’s not every body, then it’s my wife hehe. she woke up at 3:00am. Then we all get into the bus and headed to the Tok Stubo hill. Dr. Jamal already told us that there will be a bit walking uphill. Yes, night before was raining, so the path was muddy and slippery.. my Crocs sandal doesnt do any good. You should not wear Beach Crocs on jungle tracking. Better use Asadi or Amporlo sandal like Dr.Ali.. hehe (Puas puas puasss la dia dapat ngutuk Crocs).

When  we arrive at the top of Tok Stobu Hill.. the view was magnificent. The mist, the view, the sound of panting Wanoridz.. all blend together. you can see from the photo. I quickly mount my new 80-200 and start shooting. 1st snap.. ok, 2nd snap… over-exposed, 3rd snap.. over exposed. I re-calibrate and 4th snap.. over exposed. I look at the LCD and see… ERR. Fuck! my D200 is doing it again. And the sad thing is my “kain pelikat” is at the house.. arghhhhh!

I try to wipe the lens CPU contact with my shirt, still not working and that is the time where my old faithfull D70 come to the rescue. the D200 owes the D70 a lot for rescuing her from been throw out from the top of the hill. If not, it will be in the history, the 1st D200 thrown from Tok Stobu Hill. So, be very carefull to all my future D700.. dont mess with me.. cheeewah!.

to be continued…

I have a huge problem.. one more week before I embark on a journey to central Java, indonesia.. My Nikon D200 start giving me trouble.  It’s started on last week. I found that a few picture that I shoot is over-exposed (too bright). Then there’s an error coming out on the aperture area on the LCD, telling me that something is wrong with the aperture control.

Ok, I still can shoot, but I have to switch it off and on again then it will recover. But then after I snap a pic, the problem returns. I try changing the lens, problem still there. I dont know what to do. I try calling 9 people and do you know what they told me? “you need to change the body.. it’s time for D700″.

D700 is RM9,000 including a 50mm f/1.4 and a battery grip. Of course it’s good to upgrade my system but I dont think it’s neccessary. I still can shoot with my D200.. or my D70. But going for FX is a huge step for my pocket. The main problem for me now is the trip to Dieng.. Where can I get a body to replace my D200 in 1 week? arghhh!

So, last night I decided to give seriuos damage to my D200 before I sent it to Nikon. I dont have any tools..  I again, try to rub the body lens cpu contact point but this time I use my “kain Pelikat” and I give a fast 24 stroke/sec rub on the contact point.. voila! no more error… kambing betul..

so I hope his healthiness will stay… at least for another month.. before I spend too much on something that I might not need now.

First time touching borrowed D700..

Family having quality time

Nice eh.. good family.. hehehe I got this shot when I was with my wife on photo hunting expidition with her skutter around our neighbourhood.

New vision after removing the catarac

Today I was involved in one of the most hi-tech surgery I ever witnesses. It’s called LASIK.. i dont know the full name or what its stand for but what I know is this surgery will make you loose your glasess. Yep, no more glasses. The machine was product of ZEISS and it cost about RM3mil.. wow.. 3mil just to make sure not to blind you forever..

I was asked by the specialist to cover the surgery from start to end. Well, everything went ok.. looks good and the patient keep on smiling during the procedure.

Here some of the photo.