Jarren Tham's 1st Birthday

I was invited to Victoria's son 1st birthday party celebration on the 9th January 2010. The party took place at McDonalds Restaurant, Center Point Damansara. Of course, Andrew was invited as well as the photographer for the event. I was there to help out Andrew a little and also to earn some experience in shooting a party.

Jarren & Victoria

Knowing that the majority of the crowds would be parents with their child of less than two year old, I try to restrict myself from using flash. Here are some of my picks.

Give the kid a balloon, you'll get a series of nice shots.

Playing with balloon #1

Playing with balloon #2

Playing with balloon #3

Playing with balloon #4

It's a father and son moment.

Slide...

In mom's comfort hands when things go wrong... why?

Because of one naughty big bully friend

Some friend isolates themselves enjoying Happy Meal

While some are shy to say 'Hi'

It's your Birthday!

Confused super hero... Ultra-Spidey?

Of course, it all happens here

One of his favorite cartoon character

The Thams

Punching the air

Reserve for party

Believe it or not, all shots are done with just the Minolta 50mm f/1.7 on a APS-C camera body throughout the event. Anything wider than a 50mm focal length, Andrew got it covered:)

Dance Charity Concert 2009 @ MaTiC

About a month ago, I was invited by Andrew to join him for a children dance concert shoot. Little did I know, it turn out to be a huge production. It was conveyed to me that the dance concert is going to be the parents coming by to watch their children performed. We were wrong and surprised by the event simplicity yet professionally organized.

[ the main hall in Malaysia Tourism Center ]

There are a number of professional photographer present as well whom lend their hand to capture memories of the events. I was pretty much worried that I might be an obstacle to the pros but in the end I enjoyed myself. It pains me that I didn't have the proper equipment and my best low lighting lens (the Konica Minolta 28-75 f/2.8) gave AF focus hunting when zoomed out to 60mm and above. Tsk tsk tsk... my bad. Yet, I'm quite happy that I managed to capture some sharp shots with manual focusing.

Without much prior experience in Dance Concert Photography, here are some of my favorites; and yes, they coincidentally have a column of Belly Dancers with Traffic Light colors!

The HP mini 311-1002TU

Finally got myself a Netbook after searching for the right one which took me quite sometime. For months I am looking for a suitable Netbook and decided to go with the HP mini 311-1002TU. I do not own a Notebook nor a Desktop, hence this Netbook will be my primary machine.

Those who knows me may wonder, for a power hungry person like me; why did I choose to purchase a Netbook? My answers: Size, weight, and portability.

Look at the size compare to it's sibling, the HP Compaq6910p.

Not much difference in thickness, though I wish it could be as slim as the Asus Aspire Timeline.

Why did I choose the HP mini 311-1002TU? The specification of course! If not mistaken, this is the very first Netbook in the market powered by nVidia ION, which makes graphic performance on this Netbook superior compare to the other Netbook in the market. Apart from that, this Netbook runs on DDR3 RAM while the rest still runs on DDR2 RAM. It has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 on 11.6" HD BrightView screen, and there's a HDMI Port as well!

The package of this notebook comes with a HP External DVD Lightscribe burner. So you wouldn't need to make a separate purchase for a external drive.

Full specification :-

• Intel Atom Processor N280 1.66Ghz
• 11.6" Diagonal LED HD BrightView
• 250GB 5400RPM Hard Disk
• 2048MB DDR3 SDRAM
• 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
• LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVDRW with Double Layer Support
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
• Genuine Windows 7 Starter
• nVidia ION with shared graphic memory
• HP Webcam

On a Windows 7 Experience Index calculation, this Netbook scores :-

• Processor - 2.4
• Memory (RAM) - 4.7
• Graphics - 4.8
• Gaming Graphics - 5.4
• Primary Hard Disk - 5.9

Hence, the base score is 2.4 due to Intel Atom Processor.

The Netbook is priced at RM 1799, which is quite costly but because it comes with 2GB DDR3 RAM, NVidia ION Graphic Chipset, and an External DVD Lightscribe Burner. I think it's quite okay, however I would prefer not to have the external drive for a RM 200 discount if possible. Too bad the sales person doesn't allow me to do so :(. Besides, it comes with few freebies on this purchase such as the Notebook Lock, Cleaning Kit, Headset, Mouse, Notebook Cooler, and a Notebook sleeve.

** Updated 4th January 2009 **
Replace some image with a better photo quality and there's a dead pixel on my screen! Luckily it's on the edge and not at the center of the screen. Not noticeable when browsing but visible when watching movies.