Before I post my next post I would like to share with you the joy of looking at nature from close up. I didn't have to go far to find the objects to be my subject as there were plenty of them in the vicinity of the house.
Using the point and shoot AZ1 3.2 megapixel Olympus camera with a 5.8 -17.4 mm lens, this is what I get. Beside some croppings, no further editing was done. How I wish I can get my hands on my dream Sony Alpha 350. With a better camera I can play around with the depth of field and the lighting.
I may put in some words later but for the moment just enjoy the pictures.
The pitcher plants I bought from Cameron Highlands is doing well with just some watering. It gets its shade from the rambutan tree.
This solitary rose grows in the neighbours garden next door.
The birdnest fern is the dominant plant in my wife's garden. I only help when it needs repotting. Its her love for them that keep them growing.
The fruit of cekur manis can be mistaken as the mangosteen fruit from this distance.
The flowers of the coconut tree are protected in the sheath of the spadix.
Once it blooms the bees will be attracted to it to pollinate it. Since coconut trees produce flowers all year round. For this reason a coconut grove is the best place to keep bee hives.
Once pollinated, the young coconut will start to emerge.
Can you imagine the sweet coconut water contained inside this fruit? Add some sugar solution and some ice cubes to a glass of its water, you will be transported to heaven on a hot sunny day.
Dew or rain drops are still visible on this flower.
An unopened pumpkin flower and see how yellow is the flower petal once it opened up. Remember to wear a yellow ribbon on every Saturdays.
The red ixoras up close.
The heliconias with ants feasting on its nectar.
Offcourse only the bougainvillas can produce such colours.
Without the kesom, nasi kerabu, gulai asam pedas, the Kelantan laksa won't taste like one. Kesom produces one of the sweetest smelling volatile oil for the perfume industry. Dior will be your client if you have a filed of kesom and the knowhow to extract it's oil.
69 comments:
Pak Zawi,
Thank you for sharing.I love flowers.Here is my own facourite shot:http://www.flickr.com/photos/adib/513171625/in/set-72057594092684921/
Salam Pak Zawi
Looking at these pictures, I think the time has come for me to invest in a good camera. I don't have any.
All my pix are taken using the N95.
I haven't fully utilised the capabilities of the N95 camera yet. I wonder if I can pictures as good as yours.
Pak Zawi, Lovely pictures! I like them!
Salam Zawi,
Simply beautiful, beauty in diversity, it simply for us to appreciate and think about the mighty Creator of the universe.
Salaam Pak Zawi.
Nice shots.
I don't know if this apply to everyone, but I found out that close-up photography is an addictive art, especially flowers. That is another reason my friends over here call me 'jambu' haha.
My public album here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/wiseup88/ForceOfNature
Mostly is of course flowers and greenery. Like berisman, I use Flickr too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseup88/sets/72157604118517356/
Most of it of course is the product of my cheap Kodak C613. Now, who say that cheap camera don't work well?
Pak Adib,
Thanks for the link. I will go there immediately.
Fauziah,
Mine is just a simple pont and shoot digital camera with some settings for macro photography. Just ensure that the lighting is correct and use a tripod whenever you can. Take as many pictures as you can and then choose the best. With such objects, you have all the time in the world to get it right. Of course a good camera with a good photographer will make the best combination.
Get a good one soon and you will enjoy photography even more.
alang,
This seems to be your first comment on my site and the warmest welcome is due to you.
Just by saying you like them makes me very happy already.
D.Jaff,
The creator create so many beautiful things. All we need to do is to give some effort to get close enough to appreciate them.
Akmal,
I am learning alot from you young man. They have been requesting me to join flickr for so long never knowing what it was for. I will just follow you and Pak Adib la.
Actually I am using this excuse of taking photographs of nature to justify the purchase of a better camera. My other two SLRs (both Asahi Pentax) are considered Jurassic as they use the 35 mm film. Do they make films for such cameras anymore?
Ayoh Awi
Beautiful shots. I really enjoy the beautiful colours and lighting composition of flora and of course its produced from the high capable photographer. Thank you for sharing with us.
mamadou,
It was all a lucky shot as I use a simple camera without much control over it. So I just pick only the good ones to post and delete all the bad ones or not post them.
Anyway thanks for the compliment.
Pak Zawi,
Baru saya tahu bagaimana rupanya buah cekur manis.
Pak Zawi,
Beauty is out there for us to pause and discover.
Agree with Jaflam. The wonders of His creation awed us.
Well, coconut is nature's best electrolytes.
Salam Pak Zawi,
Hmm...nice pictures! Hope you don't mind I downloaded 2 :)
By the way, akak's birdnest fern, its also my emak's favourite.
salam brother zawi
thanks for leaving a comment in my blog. im not much of a blogger really. I always admire those who are in love with nature. your pics remind me of some slides and pics on the belum forest which i worked on a couple of years back. the flower (5th from below), reminds me of my childhood days. mom used to plant a few in our little garden.
drbubbles,
Pucuk cekur manis muda enak di goreng dengan sos tiram. Daun muda pula enak di goreng dengan telur atau masak sayur air campur cendawan dan keledek. Masak lemak juga menyelerakan. Inilah sayur kampung bagi kami.
Propagation of cekur manis is easier done from cuttings. The seeds may take a longer time to come to maturity.
hi&low,
Pray tell us about its use as being the best electrolytes.
I know it helps reduce the pain of my gout. It did save some members of a family from food poisoning. Ofcourse it satiates your thirst on a hot day.
Shah,
Help yourself to any of my pictures. What is mine is yours bro.
Birdnest ferns are easy to propagate. When they are small and when grown in pots, they make a nice gift to visiting friends. They make a nice landscape plant.
shirzad,
Thanks for the reciprocal visit.
Been passing thru Temenggor Dam very often but havent had the chance to stop and venture into Belum Forest. I guess everyone of us should go there at least once in our lifetime as it may not be there forever. Human greed may rob our future generations of natures greatest gift to mankind.
Salam Zawi,
Nice photographs. Imagine what you can do with the dream Sony Alpha 350. May you get what you had wished, soon.
Pak Zawi, nice shots.
Ini kali pertama saya komen di sini. Cuma nak minta link blog ini ke blog saya jah. Any way saya impress.
Terima kasih.
Salam Pak Zawi,
I"m not on line lately due to some problem with modem(still under repair in KL)I'm now in cybercafe.Wow!!! you see nice shot from Olympus & the man behind(you)must have the feeling of how wonderfull is yr art work with photography.Don't worry you get yr Sony Alpha soon and by just looking at yr super shoot everyday than Sony Alpha will come to you but kena beli lah..ha! ha! nampak nya kena racun tangkap gambar .Anyway once again very nice photo I like it very much.Have a nice day
you have beautiful flowers in your garden Pak Zawi :o) it must so relaxing & calming watching them grow & bloom :o)
have a good week, Pak Zawi :o)
zabs,
I am still doing my best to coax my Second Finance Minister to agree on the investment of a new camera as the previous cameras were supposed to be the last purchase hahahahaha. Our funds are jointly managed and both must agree before it can be expended on something considered substantial. I find the arrangement to be very prudent as it saved us a couple of times from being duped into investing into a silly sheme before.
The new digital SLR may give us some extra possibilities to control the aperture and the shutter speed to give certain effects and above all to be able to act like a prefessional photographer like zabs and mat salo hahahahaha.
nik baharum,
Terima kasih kerana sudi membuat komentar dan buat link ke blogsite saya.
Selamat berkenalan.
awang,
Buat apa nak repair modem beli saja yang baru. Modem dah murah sekarang walaupun modem streamyx. Kadang kala saya juga ke Cyber Cafe bab printer saya rosak so kena print kat luar.
If you look at Pak Adib's pictures on his site http://www.flickr.com/photos/adib/513171625/in/set-72057594092684921/
bunga sama juga dan angle pun sama hahaha. Macam kami ni seguru sahaja. Cuma Akmal ada gaya tersendiri http://picasaweb.google.com/wiseup88/ForceOfNature
Alpha tu memang akan beli cuma sedang kenen anak supaya Hari Bapa nanti (bila ya?) akan terberi hadiah yang di hajati hahahahaha. Jawapan sebenar adalah seperti saya berikan pada zabs diatas.
syana,
Some flowers are withing the house compound while others are from the neighbours compound. The pumpkin flowers come from the rubbish dump. I will blog about my garden one day to let you feel the ambience around the house.
Have a good week yourself.
Assalaam'alaikum Pok Zawi,
Ted Adnan Asmadi of Ted Adnan Photography, a Kajang boy, is a pro SONY DSLR α700 user, promoter, and trainer/consultant. He has a studio in Saujana Impian. His blog here.
He's a great guy, too.
Mazle,
Waalaikummussalam. Thanx for the info. Anyway the spcs of Alpha 700 is too high for me and the price is of course double. On the other hanf Alpha 200 doesnt have the features that I want. I will consult him for advise about my intended purchase. Alpha 350 is the poor man's version of alpha 700.
Cantik gambar bang..Bang, ini bukan nak racun..heh.. angkat D40 laa macam saya dan Pak Zabs... murah pun murah.
Ini masalah internet kat kapal. Terpaksa curi line client. Kena lie low kejap.
Oh, thanks for the birthday wishes for my daughter..
Mat Salo,
Mimpi nak beli alpha 700 tapi tak mampu jadi next best is alpha 350 separuh harga dari alpha 700. Yang mustahak ialah battery dia could be interchangeable with my sonyvideo camera so less equipment to lug around when on a trip. Another reason is I love the live view for overhead shots. Tengoklah bila tiba masa nanti. Nikon pun glamer juga.
zawi, Thanks for sharing those wonderful images for us to enjoy.
You did great in photography and I am sure we would get to see more of those wonder of nature. It is this kind of posting that would made living so wonderful.
Actually in photography, it is not the camera that made great images; it is the person behind it that did it. Have a nice day.
Pak Idrus,
We should be appreciating nature more. The best way to enjoy nature is to look at it from various perspectives. The same thing may look different to different people.
When I visited Pak Adibs photo library I was surprised that we photographed almost the same thing hahahahaha. I guess limiting it to just things around the house doesn't bring us much possibilities. Anyway this is my first try and I have been doing it over a period of time. Time to look for more varieties.
Thanks for the good words.
Wow, you take real good pictures. I have an Olympus 3.2 too though I don;t know if it is point and shoot or tie and C4, but I can't take good pictures. My compositions are always out.
Chegu,
Tie and C4 or tie n dye which may sound like tie n die.
Give yourself some practise and you will be good in no time. Except for Adi Putra nobody else is born with a talent that dont have to be polished.
hi.... beautiful pics you have there....
WOW! Zawi ... I agree with Pak Idrus on the photographer capturing great images and not the camera doing so. Viewing your photos is like looking at the pictures featured in a Master Gardener publication - good angles and very appealing to the eyes.
Also, if you hadn't mention that you took these pictures at home, I would have thought you visited a botanical garden. Your plants and flowers are so healthy, especially those elephant ears!
Nicely done, Zawi.
helena,
I can't recall seeing your comment on my earlier blog so I presume this is your first comment. A warm welcome is ofcourse due to you. Thank you for the nice words. It will motivate me to try and be better next time.
Rita,
Coming from you and Pak Idrus, they are compliments of the highest order. I am gloating with joy hehehehe.
Frankly I didn't go far from the house to do the shoot.
Ignorant me that I don't even know which is the elephant ears. I just shoot at anything beautiful.
Pak Zawi,
Coconut is a wonder food. After a vigourous exercise, it replenishes our body fluids lost thru peluh. Isotonic drinks such as 100-plus is not as healthy.
I heard the natives of Sabah believed coconut might help child delivery. In what way I am not too sure, and whether it should be fresh coconut or few days' old.
In fact latest scientific findings, virgin coconut oil is more superior than olive oil. Very expensive in the pharmacy.
I read Azmi's blog, she made her own virgin coconut oil. The process is very painstaking.
Raden Galoh has link to Azmi blog.
hi&lo,
I agree coconut is a complete food. There is juice to drink and flesh to eat. Though some people associate coconut milk (santan) as a major contributor to the heart disease, taking them in the young stage is a different thing altogether.
I will hop on to Raden Galoh's blogsite to see what is on Azmi's. Thank you for the info.
Good evening, Pak Zawi.
Ha, now I know where Lis got her artistic talent.. Yes, from the Grandfather of course, who sees beauty in little things around us. :)
Pak Zawi, to be honest, I have not seen any coconut flowers before (probably because they are grown too high up ) nor many of the species which you have uploaded here. Perhaps, I might have passed through them but not seeing them.
Thanks again for sharing. :)
Best regards to you and your family.
mrs. lim
Great shots Zawi. I've always fascinated by Pitcher Plants or we on northern part refer it as Periok Kera. When my family moved to Taiping in late 60's, there was plenty of Pitcher Plants in the wood not far from our house. My mother took us to the wood and carefully picked up the pitchers. She cleaned the pitchers and stuffed glutinous rice and boiled them as ketupat. We had them with rendang or serikaya pandan. Boy....I'm longing for that.
The heliconias cost $12.00 a stem here.
Zawi,
Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures with your readers.
mrs.lim,
There are talents within everyone of us, all we need to do is recognize and polish them. Try to look at your children. Observe them and you will know what talents that they have.
There are many small things that we didn't look at close enough and thus we dont see the beauty in them. Macro photography gives us the chance to look at them closely in the convenience of our living room when we display them on our computers. The colors are more vivid and the details clearer. That is the way to appreciate them.
Wow...Memang memukau.
Zawi ... The elephant ear plant is in the photo #6 (I think) from bottom, above the spider plant. Dark green leaf with white stripes. Simply refreshing. :)
ana,
We saw the Sarawakians along the road to Sarikin near the borders of Indonesia using the pitcher plants to cook glutinous rice and they taste superb. Unfortunately we didnt have anything else to go with it. Some serunding daging would be heavenly.
Shall I export heliconias to the US? I guess the bird of paradise flower would cost even more.
I am glad you enjoy the pictures. I will make more attempts another time.
Take care.
cikgu panji,
Terima kasih atas kunjungan dan komen cikgu.
Rita,
Thanks for making an effort to point it out to me. I am learning.
Hi Zawi
Those are some nice pictures you took. I have tried taking close ups. I am still working on getting some nice shots. As Akmal mentioned, "close-up photography is an addictive art, especially flowers."
Thanks for sharing. :)
gambar buah kelapa itu sangat meliurkan la pak zawi, :P anyway, very nice shots, i think its about time I join you and akmal but i didn't got any camera. Only my 2MP Motorola v3x nye camera la yang mengubat hati. Any recommendations?
jt,
Thank you for the heart warming compliments. With still objects it is easy. My trick with such photography is to shoot alot and discard alot. Only the best will be used. You too will do well especially when I know you have some great cameras with u.
Akmal has shown me some original angles to shoot from. He is definitely much more creative.
Mueiz,
Buah kelapa tu sedap dipandang kerana airnya yang walaupun tidah dapat dilihat adalah jelas dalam mata hati kita.
Saya pun guna simple camera je. Nasib baik ianya dapat memberkan gambar yang dikira bagus. Kini teringin juga nak beli sebuah DSLR.
Mat Salo Rekomen Nokon D40. Saya ada mimpi saya hehehehe.
at the first glance, i thought the first pic was a rambutan. very interesting pak Z.
*any faunas for a change?
kerpov,
Faunas will be shot after I received my delivery of Sony Alpha 350 tomorrow. Present camera don't have the range to catch them. The alpha 350 comes with the 50 - 200 mm telephoto lens as well as the std lens. Anyway I am doing my post on The Bird 2. The new chicks flew off the nest today. It will be quite a story to tell.
Pak Zawi,
These are lovely photos...thanks for sharing it.
Its nature at its best...:)
nightwing,
I am so happy if you like it. Today I just gave myself a present in the form of a DSLR from Sony. Its the alpha 350. Let us see if I can improve on my performance given a better tool to it do with. As kerp suggested, I will attempt the faunas. It will still be difficult as I didn't buy the telephoto lens. All I have is the standard lens with a wide angle converter.
These are interesting shots of nature. I am inspired. Thanks Pak Zawi for illustrating the beauty at their best.
hilmi hamzah,
I am honoured for my amateur work to be appreciated by people like you.
Nature is meant to be enjoyed by all. Let us spare abit of time to enjoy it.
Cantiknya! Some of the most ordinary plants make great pictures when shot up close. My husband has a thing about shooting pics of bunga rumput.
Dear Zawi,
These are a great start in your career as a botanist! You don't need a high end DSLR for this kind of work. You may want to isolate the plant say with a black or white card for the background and you are half way there! You will need a good sturdy tripod also.
I am so happy that your daughter's tumours have been classed as non-malignant. Ppls send her my greetings n prayers.
queen,
Your husband must be an avid photographer. Does he publish his work anywhere on the net? Would be very nice to see them as he may have special objects that he took.
I am just a beginner.
svllee,
Thanks for the tip. I will carry some black and white card around to isolate the object. I am taking the pictures for its beauty than anything else.
I just bought a Sony alpha 350K with a Sony DT18-70 mm F3.5-5.6 lens and an Octagon Digital lens converter plus RGG 55 mm UV Filter.
For the tripod I bought the DIGIeye TR 288 Professional Tripod which seems to be quite good and should serve me well. I wish I could afford the 50 - 200 mm Sony telephoto lens as I love to shoot birds and other moving animals. I may buy them later when finance permit.
My daughter say thank you for the regards.
Wowee...what a mouthful of equipment you have acquired...! what is the Octagon Digital thingy? Is it a macro lens converter?
I met up with Ted Adnan during my last trip also, yes, he is a good guy for Sony DSLRS.
svllee,
Yes the Octagon thing is a wide angle converter. Its an add on to the standard lens so I dont have to change lens to take a wide angle shot. I opt for it over the telephoto though I want the telephoto just as much.
Gurindam Jiwa informed me about Ted Adnan who is on the top end alpha 700. Maybe I will enroll in one of his class one day.
Having a good camera is useless unless I satrt using it as much and as often as possible. Thanks to modern technology, having hard prints isn't the necessity anymore thus saving us some money. I will put my pictures on flickr soon.
salaam
i like photography & gaderning too
I do not know much about photography, still beginner. from what i see your photo is good even though you capture from 3.++ MP Camera. but olympus camera is good also!
Rusdi,
I am self taught and dont know much myself. I am picking up tips from books and masters like svllee. Using a fixed focus camera like mine is an amateurish but that is all that I have till I got my DSLR on the 15th of May. Now the standard lens need to be replaced with a few other lenses and they will cost more than the original camera itself. Photography is expensive in the initial setup but you can recoup some money if you care to shoot pictures for Bersanding like this coming school holidays.
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