A rainbow, a river and the rain

We went on a camping trip a week ago at Lorne, along the Great Ocean Road.  There are times when I yearn to be out of the city, at the very least be amongst the vast landscape, with scenic hills, grass and trees, and water... and Lorne has bits of these.  The 2 hour roadtrip to Lorne was as much enjoyable as being there in Lorne itself.  The weekend that we went it was expected to rain - but we went anyway.  Yes, it was drizzling most of the times, but the rain on that Friday afternoon brought out a beautiful rainbow.  And if I'm seeing this correctly, there was another rainbow there as well.

 

Despite the rain, I think all of us that went truly enjoyed being there... setting up the tents in the rain, cooked and ate in the 'undecided' weather pattern of rain and shine alternating like very five minutes, and we made sure we made the best of it all.  With hot drinks, hot food, chairs and mats, umbrellas and raincoats, card and board games, and hanging out with great companies was all that we probably needed (and also the fact that I brought a long my laptop and we ended up watching a movie in the tent while it was raining and made caramel popcorn using the electric pan!).  And with all that, I am pretty sure everyone had a one-of-a-kind camping experience.

Even our breakfast was somewhat luxurious, don't you think? :)

Brighton Beach, Victoria

 Photo | Diana Mini, Fuji Sensia 100, xpro

Bathing Boxes, as they call it.  This is one of Melbourne's colourful sights located in Brighton.  The bathing boxes are all in similar form and size, but with variety of bold colours.  People use them as shed to change, put their belonging, and as shelter from the sun or wind when they come for a swim.  But most of us just wanted to go there and get a snapshot of this postcard scenery.

It finally feels like Autumn

Last week, it felt like winter.  It was raining and it was cold.  We all thought winter had come early to Melbourne this year.  Even the highlands have started to get snow.  This week however, it felt more like Autumn.  It wasn't so cold anymore and we got a bit of sun, Alhamdulillah.  So today, we decided to visit a park not far from where we live.  We've walked by the park once before but have never walked through it.  MashaAllah, the trees and the leaves are just beautiful.  It's definitely one of my favourite parks now.

Photos | Olympus PEN E-PL1 in Pin Hole Art Filter
Fawkner Park, Toorak

And then season changes...

Photos were shot from Diana Mini, using Expired Fuji Sensia 100, Xpro

It's true that people say in Melbourne you can get four seasons in one day.  Especially in Spring and Autumn, it can get from warm and sunny to cold and cloudy in few hours.  In the first photo, I was trying to capture the rain, which made the photo somewhat overexposed, or maybe it did rain as heavily as that.  The second photo is State Library of Victoria during one of those sunny yet cool day.  It's definitely one of my favourite kinds of weather: sunny, breezy and cool.  The last photo is somewhere near where we live, and you can already see visible signs of Autumn with the leaves changing colours, while some are already falling to the ground.  Coming from a country that is generally warm or wet all year-round, we can't help but to just be amazed by the changing season here.  But even so, in Malaysia you can notice some trees blooming beautifully during that time of the year when it feels a bit hotter than usual.  Then, you can notice some trees like Tecoma and Lagerstroemia to start flowering, and it looks just gorgeous.  I'm definitely looking forward to capture some of that when I get back.

Some Bits of Vernacular Malaysia

We were back in Malaysia for 2 weeks recently.  The first week was hot (which got me sick for a week), and thankfully, the second week was a lot better with a bit of rain and clouds.  One of the highlights of our activities this time that was out of the norm was visiting my sis-in-law's family farm.  Now when I say 'farm', I'm sure an image of lush green grass, fences, vegetable patches, chicken and goats and small hut would come to mind.  Well, most of those stuff were present at the farm, except for the lush green grass which is still in the process of growing.  The farm is located on a land surrounded by oil palm plantations, so you can probably imagine the heat during mid-day.

“Pondok” (in Bahasa Malaysia) is what we call a small chalet or hut at the farm.  It actually has three rooms, kitchen and bathroom.  It’s quite nice to have something like a traditional house to visit from time to time now that even our “kampung” or family’s hometowns are mostly suburbs.

The farm is surrounded by fish ponds, where two of the brothers went in to catch some fish for my husband to grill.  Then there are some patches of lime trees, pucuk ubi, some chickens and four goats.  Going there, we brought some Durians that my husband's brother bought from Ipoh.  Malaysians love Durian, while others not familiar with it may refer to Durian as stinky or smelly fruit.  I wouldn’t describe it as stinky.  It just has a very strong, distinctive smell.  The fruit is fleshy and rich, and there’s no other fruit or food that taste like it.  What does it taste like?  It’s somewhere between sweet, a tiny bit bitter sometimes, and thick in taste.  I find it funny that in shows like Fear Factor or food travel, people would be willing to eat bugs and creepy crawlers, but would squirm at the sight of Durian!  It’s a fruit and it’s pretty good.  If you have a chance, you MUST give Durian a try!

And for the grilled fish (which was forgotten to be photographed!), we squeezed some fresh small limes or "Limau Kasturi" right off the tree.  These limes taste really good in iced tea, over noodles and on seafood.

Once in a while, it's definitely really great to be out in the farm or kampung or the more vernacular environment, don't you think?

MelbFlowerShow2011: Artificial Ornaments

 

Photos | Olympus PEN

MelbFlowerShow2011: Dreamy Gardens

Look-Up Monday: This Week Photo Theme - "Look Up"

Last week I gave myself a photo task which was to post photos in black and white.  It's just for the fun of it and if you want to join, do so! It'll be great to see same themes of photos across different blogs.  So this week, it's about "looking up".  So here's Look-Up Monday.

 Photo | Flinders St Station, Cnr Swanston St & Flinders St

Camera | iPhone3GS on LomoLomo

I rarely look up above the buildings when I’m walking on the street. There’s just so much life on the street that things above are often left to be seen from far. That, with the exception of clouds, of course. How we all love clouds… So this week, I’ll be looking up. It’s fun to see that when you look up to take photos of mundane places, some people get curious to look up too :)

Photo | (I don't know this one, so I'll need to find out), Cnr of Swanston St and Collins St

Camera | iPhone3GS on LomoLomo

*the last time I looked up to take photos sometimes a year back I saw a red shirt on a tree! You never know what you might find in places that you rarely look...

Diana Mini

The last time I put film inside a camera must have been in 2003, before I graduated from uni and right before we (the family) purchased an Olympus Mju 300 digital camera which we share.  I had learned photojournalism for one semester back when I was in the 9th grade in high school.  Now that was such a great experience on learning how to take photographs and process the films manually in the dark room.  Yes, we processed our own photos.  Visually in my mind, I can still recall some of the steps that we had to do, but frankly, I don't even remember the names of the chemicals and even that small machine that we use to put the negatives, paper and light - for it to then become a photograph.

From my visit to the Diana Lomo exhibition last week, I decided to give film and lomo a try.  Introducing... Diana Mini.

My younger sister has explored lomography long before I even knew what it was (we siblings even 'questioned' the Colour Splash lomo camera that she first bought five or six years back because we really didn't know what lomography was).  But thanks to her, right after I purchased Diana Mini, I got an express tutorial of Lomo101 from her, having her explained to me about what films to use and about cross-processing.  She says that those effect which I like to use from my iPhone apps are effects similar to films which have been cross-processed.  I was thrilled.  It's never to late to try something new, right? Now one thing about shooting with film that's different from using digital camera - is patience.  Not being able to see the results instantly on the screen feels like waiting to open up a present!

As for cross-processing films, I came to know that the effect happens when slide films are processed as regular films.  In another way, it's processing the film in the wrong chemical.  That's why the processed photos would have really wacky, vibrant and highly contrasting colours.  Interesting, right?  But as it turns out, slide films are expensive! Fortunately, I went to the camera shop and was recommended an expired Fuji Sensia 100 film for AUD5.50, which is still a slide film.  Cheap enough for my first ever lomo roll.  And luckily, cross-processed images from Fuji Sensia using lomo cameras do turn out amazing!  Now I just hope that my Diana Mini will give me nice surprises... but that we'll only be able to see that in another month or so when the 36 exposures are finished.

 If you want to know more about what lomography is about, click here.

Camera Review: Olympus Pen E-PL1

A couple of people have asked me about using Olympus Pen E-PL1, as that's the camera that I'm using at the moment.

I must say, I LOVE my Olympus E-PL1 :) It's like a mini dSLR (it is a mini dslr) that fits snugly in my bag, and so easy to take it everywhere I go. I love the art filters, especially pinhole and grains, and sometimes I like using the pop art and diorama modes.  And I love the fact that the camera has different lenses too, and shoots HD videos. I currently have the 14-42mm and 17mm pancake lens, which you should definitely include in your E-PL1 starter pack.  At least you can play around with two different lenses.  And another thing to love is the "old-school" camera look. If those things that I mention are things that you also like, then you should definitely get an Olympus Pen :)

Here are two of my shots to share:

[Port Melbourne in grains]

[St Kilda Rd in pinhole]