Landscape Photography

Oh Iceland 2019!

February 2, 2019 In Landscape Photography No Comment

Date: 6th – 15th September 2019
Length: 10 days 9 nights
Group Size: Maximum 6 pax
Skill Level: Suitable for photographer of all levels

This guided photography tour will span over 10 days and will take you to some of the most amazing locations around Iceland. On this tour, my aim is for you to not only experience the beauty of this country but also to go home with incredible memories, skills and photos that will last a life time. From sunrise to sunset as well as shooting the elusive Aurora Borealis, I will ensure we are at the right places when it matters most. With a small group size of just 6 participants, we have a personal sharing environment, allowing you to get the most out of this unforgettable experience.

A big part of outdoor photography is being able to read and adapt to the conditions at hand and as a result, I believe some of the best images are unplanned, reacting to a unique moment that suddenly presents itself. So although an itinerary with locations is pre-fixed, I always allow for the unforeseen situations that have a way of regularly occurring in a place like Iceland.

If you’re interested to join, do contact me at +6012-4968727. I will share further details about this trip.

Thanks!

Best of 2018

December 30, 2018 In Landscape Photography No Comment

We are at the end of another year, so here are my top 2018 photos.

A mesmerizing sunrise at Masjid Putra (Putra Mosque) which is the principal mosque of Putrajaya, Malaysia. I have been to this location many times and it is considered as one of my photography playgrounds.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro with Landscape CPL

Pantai Walakiri is a beach located in Watumbaka Village, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It is famous for its amusing sunset and serene nuance. The most distinct characteristic of this beach is the presence of mangroves that grow on the shore. These plants make the beach more beautiful and unique, which is perfect for photography. Moreover, the silhouette of those mangroves looks hypnotizing when the sunset appears!

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro with Landscape CPL + 2 Stops GND

On the month of May, I got the chance to visit Stockholm in Sweden for work. The weather in Stockholm in May was really nice and pleasant. The best part is the daylight is longer during this month. Check out this sunset shot at almost 9pm!

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

I did not have much time to shoot due to a fully packed schedule while I was there, but I glad I still managed to sneak out and take a few shots for my record.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

On a random weekend in June this year, I decided to go to this new spot (I never been before) which turns out not too far from where I live. It’s located at Tanjung Harapan near the North Port of Port Klang, which is around 30 minutes drive from Setia Alam. The sunset was brilliant on that day!

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro + 3 Stops GND Soft + NiSi 10 Stops ND

In August, I was invited by a good friend of mine, Abang Zakies to join his trip to Sabah for some photography getaway. It was a short 3-days 2-night trip but a good catch up session with him and another friend. The photo below is taken in Simpang Mengayau, a beautiful location for photography activities. The optical phenomenon of sun halo attracts my attention here.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

Our next photo stops were this stunning river of Melangkap near Kota Belud with the majestic Mount Kinabalu in the backdrop.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro + 3 Stops GND Soft + NiSi 10 Stops ND

ODEC UMS is our final photo stop for sunset before flying back to KL. This is a classic location where my first visit was back in April 2012. The sunset was fine and the tide condition is great for long exposure photography.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro + 3 Stops GND Soft

In September, I visited Mt Bromo for my second time in hoping to catch another sea of clouds but to no avail.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

However, when the nightfall, the Milky Way was not disappointing. During September, they can be seen right after the sunset and you can shoot them until midnight.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

A naked yet colorful sunrise near Seruni viewpoint without the sea of clouds.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master

The breathtaking Madakaripura waterfalls near Mt Bromo. You would want to visit this location super early in the morning to beat the massive tourist.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + NiSi V5 Pro Landscape CPL + NiSi 10 Stops ND

Burning sunrise when least expected at Masjid Besi, Putrajaya, Malaysia. I’ve been to this spot many many times, but only managed to get such a great light a few times.

Sony A7RIII + Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 G Master + Nisi V5 Pro with 3 stops GND

I am blessed to have such amazing partners, friends & followers. Thank you to Sony Malaysia, NiSi Filters, F-Stop Gear & Lee Photo Sdn Bhd. Thank you to my fellow followers for the endless support and love. Here’s a toss to more adventures, photography trips and workshop next year! Happy holidays and Happy New Year!

A Trip to Tumpak Sewu Waterfalls

December 22, 2018 In Landscape Photography No Comment

So I stumbled upon this majestic waterfalls while I was surfing the internet called Tumpak Sewu, located in Lumajang Indonesia. I was blown away with it and I knew I had to take a trip up there. After a short research, I packed my camera and ended up on a plane with a friend heading towards Surabaya.

The trip commences from 8th – 12th September 2018. We took a Lion Air flight JT164 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and around 2 hours later, we arrived at Juanda International Airport which is the third busiest airport in Indonesia. We were greeted by our driver and then took off straight to Lumajang which is a 6 hours drive from Surabaya. A tip worthy to take note – best to arrive Surabaya in the evening if you plan to head directly towards Lumajang due to lesser traffic in the night and you can sleep during the long drive. We arrive at our accommodation around 1 am and after a quick unpacking, we retired the night. For your information, there is no resort or hotel in the area due to the location is not developed with tourism just yet. We slept in the local villagers’ place (paid).

Tumpak Sewu Entrance

The next morning, we tried to enter the waterfall as earliest as we can. I’m not sure about the exact price but the entrance ticket shall cost you around IDR 10k /pax. From the entrance, the descend started right away. The trekking path is quite an exhausting one because it was very steep.

For most of the trails, you will be walking on a small-narrow bamboo staircase and sometimes you need to pass some slippery wet stones and crossing several small rivers along the way. You need to be very careful and ensure that you have proper trekking sandals or shoes for your own safety. Depending on your speed, the descent would take around 30-45 minutes and perhaps it will be doubled when you ascend.

Once you reached the base, it is another few hundred meters and you will reach the majestic falls. These greenies complex really worth the effort going down!

Unfortunately, the condition wasn’t that good. The lighting was uneven while we were there to shoot. The sun is already too high but not high enough to light the whole area causing part of the area to be underexposed. I guess this is a good reason for me to back again in future.

After spending almost 2 hours at Tumpak Sewu, we started our ascent and it took us almost an hour to reach the car park. We returned to our accommodation where our host had prepared a nice lunch for us. We then doze off for a couple of hours before proceeding to our next waterfall which is Air Terjun Kabut Pelangi. By this time, me and Faisal are having a crucial muscle cramp on both of our legs. It’s another descend to get to the Kabut Pelangi waterfall and this time the distance felt farther. Anyhow, we made it to fall. The 100m+ Kabut Pelangi is an incredible sight. The force it generates when it hits the pool below is incredible and this is definitely not a place you want to go swimming!

Air Terjun Kabut Pelangi

Dealing with Burnout

December 15, 2018 In Blog Landscape Photography 2 Comments

I’ve been dealing with burnout lately. I don’t feel like doing anything when it comes to photography. The month of November was really hectic with work and it adds up to the burnout that I’m dealing with. I tried to edit some photos but it’s not working and it is depressing. I’m not in control of how things are carried out. So I turned to the internet on how to overcome the problem.

I’m beginning to rethink the purpose of why I do photography. The answer to this is I love being out with the nature but now, I’m not going out anywhere. I spend most of my week at work and then on weekend just resting and do absolutely nothing at home. I started to feel the pressure of not creating and post anything. It felt like my followers are anticipating something great from me and I’m letting them down.

I’m taking a step at a time now, I don’t want to push myself too hard. I have to set a clear mind that I’m doing this not to impress people, but to inspire them. Photography supposes to be fun. I made tons of friends with photography and surprisingly, I also losses some of them along the way without any reason. Well, people do come and go.

I hope to start inspires people again with my photography and I’m hoping for a better year ahead of me. I have a bunch of unfinished tasks related to photography and I hope I can complete them before the end of this year. Until my next post, wassalam.

Lofoten X Iceland Instagram Stories Collection

August 18, 2018 In Landscape Photography Video No Comment

Random Instagram moments captured from behind the scenes photographing Lofoten Islands and Iceland. Follow me on Instagram: @fakruljamil

Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS Lens Review

October 29, 2017 In Landscape Photography Review No Comment

When Sony release this lens, I got the chance to take it with me for my trip to Lofoten and Iceland last year. This lens is part of the G Master series, which not only makes you sound kind of like a rapper but also represents the best quality that Sony has to offer. While the first round of FE lenses were designed to be compact and portable at the expense of aperture capability, these GM lenses make no compromises: they are designed to be the best of the best.

The Sony FE 70-200 GM 2.8 includes optical image stabilization (Optical SteadyShot, OSS), which allows you to work at longer shutter speeds. As a landscape photographer, I found the OSS really useful when shooting handheld (sometimes I stumble upon a great view, but I don’t have time to set my tripod).

This lens produces images with excellent color and contrast at every setting. Color is rich and vibrant and contrast is excellent as shown in above image where I shot this in Iceland during Autumn season. I was extremely pleased with the contrast profile of the lens right out of camera.

In landscape photography, sometimes I have to change my point of view from wide to something little closer. In image above, I was at atop of Reinebringen mountain in Lofoten, Norway where I switched from my wide angle lens to the Sony FE 70-200 GM 2.8 and shot this at 70mm focal length. It is a very sharp lens. Right from wide open, the lens maintains very high sharpness in the central 2/3 of the image, and still very good sharpness at the edges. This is true both at the wide end and the telephoto end, which is great. Stopping down a touch brings the edges to excellent territory, with even sharper corners.

Image above was shot at slightly wider aperture of f/4, handheld. The out-of-focus-area look smooth and eye-pleasing. That eleven-bladed diaphragm certainly seems to be plus for this lens, and this tele-zoom can often capture images that could be mistaken for those shot with a prime lens. The smooth character is most pronounced up close, but while backgrounds maintain high contrast, things still look fairly smooth even at further focus distances throughout the focal range.

The Sony FE 70-200 GM 2.8 is a perfect combination with my Sony A7R Mark II for creating high quality images. The weather seals on this lens also a bonus where it can handle quite a bit of dust and moisture which I encounter during my trip to the Arctic circle. While I’m pretty sure this lens is a definite choice for wedding/portrait photographers, no doubt it is an excellent choice for landscape/nature photographer as well.

Ladakh Instagram Stories Collection

October 16, 2017 In Landscape Photography Video No Comment

Random Instagram moments captured from behind the scenes photographing Ladakh on a 9 day road trip, August 2017. Good times indeed!

Video: Landscape Photography in Mount Bromo, Indonesia

June 18, 2017 In Landscape Photography No Comment

A short video of my trip to Mount Bromo National Park in East Java, Indonesia. Such a great place for landscape photography!

Top 5 Location for Landscape Photography in Sabah

May 16, 2017 In Landscape Photography 2 Comments

Sabah is truly a magical place for landscape photography or even sightseeing activities. It’s nicknamed Negeri Di Bawah Bayu (“Land Below The Wind”), Sabah is one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo and they are richly blessed with nature diversity, unique cultures, fun adventure, beautiful beaches, and many more.

As a landscape photographer myself, I have been to Sabah for more than five times now and it never fails to amaze me. There are so many beautiful locations for landscape photography lovers up here. So on this post, I would like to share 5 places to do landscape photography in the Land Below The Wind .

1. Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu is the capital city Sabah state in northwestern Borneo, is often referred to as “KK” in short. In KK city itself, there’s a few good spots for landscape photography. Masjid Bandaraya Likas is a great spot to shoot sunrise or even sunset. The mosque is surrounded by a man-made lake which produce a tranquil reflection usually between dawn to sunrise. If you lucky, you might catch the reflection during sunset as well. There’s also few other spots like ODEC which located inside University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) compound where you can shoot sunset with rocky shoreline on the foreground. But I must warned you, the scattered rock is very slippery! Tanjung Aru beach is also good for sunset, but there is barely any good foreground here, just a plain beach with sands. There might be some drift woods laying on the shore though. Click at each photos below to reveal their location.

2. Kuala Penyu

Kuala Penyu is a town located in Interior Division of Sabah and is famous for its beaches, especially the Tempurung Beach, Sawangan Beach, Kampung Vietnam and few more. At Tempurung beach, during low tide, you will see most part of the shore is covered with green-mossy pebble stones and at Sawangan beach, there is an old jetty that leads straight into the sea where it can be a good subject for landscape photography. Kampung Vietnam, there is a few abandoned ships stranded just off the shore. You can walk to get near to the ships and the water is about knee-deep, not too shallow. It is best to photograph them during sunrise.

3. Tip of Borneo,Tanjung Simpang Mengayau

This dramatic headland is situated in the northern-most tip of BORNEO. “Simpang Mengayau” means ‘lingering junction‘ as it is here that the South China Sea lingers and meets the Sulu Seas flowing from the east. Isn’t that amazing?! It is located in the Kudat Peninsula, about three to four hours (215km) drive from Kota Kinabalu City. My first visit to this location was 5 years ago which was in 2012. Back then, there was an abandoned boat, stranded just off the shore (see photo below) which makes an interesting subject to photograph. I took that shot at sunrise where I had to wade into the low tide sea to get near to that boat and ended up blessed with beautiful sunrise. It was a great memories, but sadly, I was informed that the particular boat has been destroyed by the waves.

4. Tindakon Dazang Beach

Located about 30km from Kudat town, Tindakon Dazang is a must visit location for seascape photography lovers! This place has a beautiful rocky coastline covered with vivid green seaweed-moss. To get to this beach, you need to cross a small gravel road inside of a palm oil plantation and it can be a bumpy ride depending on what type of vehicle you are driving. 4×4 is highly recommended, although you can still reach with normal car. Entry/parking fee is required and you can pay to the local villagers who took care of the place.

5. Mabul Island

Mabul is a small island off the south-eastern coast of Sabah in Malaysia. The island has been a fishing village since the 1970s. The island itself is just a 20-hectare piece of land surfaces which you can cover the entire island by just walking around on foot. The local people here is mainly from “Bajau Laut” of Sea Gypsies. You can do a few type of photography in this island like, landscape, human interest or even underwater photography.

This is the top 5 places that I have visited and I can say they offers great opportunity for landscape photographers.

Until my next post then!

2016 Highlights

December 28, 2016 In Landscape Photography No Comment

It’s that time of the year again..2016 is ending very soon. Photographically, as a freelance-hobbyist photographer, this year has been one of my favourite year as a photographer. The reason is 2016 is the year that I managed to tick-off the top two places on my bucket list – Iceland and Lofoten Islands, Norway.

But before we get to that, lets start from the beginning of the year. In March, I traveled to Mount Bromo National Park in East Java of Indonesia with few of my comrades. None of us been there before so we was pretty excited to see the famous sea of clouds in the park.

24/4 – Thursday morning : Our flight delayed for over an hour so we arrived in Surabaya airport around 1am. We met Pak Irsam, our local guide for this trip. It was then a long 4-5 hours drive from Surabaya city to Bromo Tengger Semeru National park. Our eyes couldn’t take it anymore so everyone fell asleep except for Pak Irsam himself because he got to drive.

Yours truly with the blanket of clouds

We wrapped our shooting at this first location with a nice cup of teh halia (ginger tea)

Cemoro Lawang is a very small hamlet north-east of Mount Bromo (East Java), Indonesia with the altitude of 2,217 meters above sea level.This hamlet is a part of Ngadisari Village, Sukapura in the Probolinggo Regency.

Misty Morning in Cemoro Lawang

Frame-grab from my timelapse sequence. Absolutely magnificent view when the stormy clouds came into the scene.

Our next location is the crater of Mt. Bromo. To be honest, I didn’t expect a horse ride which was arranged by Pak Irsam. It’s around 1 km distance from the car park up to the crater so a horse ride definitely ease the journey. Photo below is a courtesy from Pak Zahar’s camera. 🙂

Anyway, I thought the horse ride would take us all the way up to the crater, but I was wrong. The ride stops at the stairways then we had to climb it ourself and it was a pretty steep climb. Had to stop few times to catch some breath!

Here’s the stairways and abam Jemang at one of the many pit-stop we had to make before reaching the peak.

The crater of Mt. Bromo and its constantly belches white sulfurous smoke.

A quick selfie with Jemang and Azmi. Too bad Pak Zahar didn’t make it to the top because he could not stand the heavy sulfur smoke.

24/3 – Thursday morning : Our second day starts as early as 2.00am. Our next location is Penanjakan 1, which happens to be the most famous viewpoint in the national park. It’s located approximately about 1 hour drive but its not your ordinary drive. It was a really bumpy drive even on a 4×4 vehicle. Not recommended for those who suffers back-pain etc. We reached Penanjakan 1 around 3.00am and the parking area is already looks like a night market. The place is filled with lots of tourist!

So after got dropped by our driver, we then hike up to the viewpoint which located around 500 meters from the parking area. Pak Irsam showed us where to set our tripod and luckily the front seat is not yet taken. We then setup all our gears and waited patiently for the sunrise. It gets pretty cold sometimes but thanks to down jacket and a neck-warmer, I’m all covered.

Here’s a photo taken around 3.30am. As you can see, the light trails down in the caldera is from all the 4×4 vehicle, transporting tourist from Ngadisari village to Penanjakan 1. Better be early to grab the front seat!

After few hours waiting and shivering in the cold weather, the sun is about to rise. Here’s a panorama of the blue hour taken with Sony A7RM2 + FE 24-70 f/2.8 GM lens. Click on the photo to view in large.

When I saw the blue hour, I thought to myself, this could be a pretty amazing sunrise and as the sun progressed higher, the mesmerizing colours starts to appear. We, landscape photographers express this moment as “the magic hour”. Check out behind the scenes photo below taken with Sony A5100.

As you can see, the sun rose slightly to left of Mt. Bromo. But the strong colours did reflects all the way to the volcano hence the final result below. I present to you….”When Earth Meets Sky” a panoramic image generated from 8 vertical shots taken with Sony A7RM2 + FE 24-70 f/2.8 GM lens. I just had to take panos because I wanted to capture everything for this shot. Final resolution for this pano is 12,600px wide!

My other camera, Sony A7SM2 was running on timelapse mode and managed to capture the beautiful sunrise display changing rapidly. We waited for quite sometimes and I when I was about to pack all my gears, I saw this view of “The Great Mountain” of Mahameru standing tall behind Mt. Bromo.

Our next destination is to the Savannah Field. The place is actually a field of grass surrounded by the hills and is also one of the attraction when visiting the national park. But we encounter some problem when we are on our way to the location. It rained the night before so the track road gets a bit wet and muddy. Our 4×4 driver gets a bit clever and thought he could get through the muddy road. But in the end, he got us all stucked!

We had to abandoned our 4×4 and wait for another truck to pass by to get help. Turns out there were few other trucks that got stucked too.

After that, we continue our journey to Savannah Field. Its just a short drive to reach there. But we did not go all the way in as Pak Irsam took us to one of the best viewpoint (I guess) available in the park. It looks a little bit like the famous Dolomites in Italy. Except there is no huge mountains in the background. But I guess I can call this as Asia’s Dolomites…

And of course, a compulsory group shot. Credit goes to our guide, Pak Irsam. 🙂

After spending a few hours in the field, we head back to our hotel, Cemara Indah for breakfast and rest. The best thing about our hotel is, the view itself is facing Mt. Bromo. We had our sunset shooting just from the hotel lookout point. Here’s my camera running on timelapse mode.

Jemang and Pak Zahar admiring our hotel view. Azmi is out of the frame as he was standing slightly to the left of this photo. I guess he gets the best composition, or same.

This session wrapped our short visit to Mt. Bromo. The next day before checking out, we went out in the morning for quick shoot in Ngadisari Village. But, nothing much to share so I just skipped that. 🙂

Thank Sony Malaysia for the opportunity to shoot with the new FE 24-70 f/2.8 G-Master lens on this trip. The new lens has successfully kept my ultra wide angle in the bag most of the time. 🙂

I hope everyone enjoy this post and hopefully it will inspire you to get out and shoot. Feel free to share and spread the love for landscape photography!

Until my next post, assalamualaikum wr wbt. 🙂

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Oh Iceland 2019!

Best of 2018

A Trip to Tumpak Sewu Waterfalls

Dealing with Burnout

Lofoten X Iceland Instagram Stories Collection

Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS Lens Review

Ladakh Instagram Stories Collection

Video: Landscape Photography in Mount Bromo, Indonesia

Top 5 Location for Landscape Photography in Sabah

2016 Highlights

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