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Chasing Sunrise in Timah Tasoh Lake

July 25, 2016 In Landscape Photography 4 Comments

Hi everyone, how’s your weekend so far? So this post would be dedicated to my second outing when I was in my hometown during Raya break. The outing took place a few days after Raya celebrations, where originally I was invited by a friend to join him to shoot the sunrise at Timah Tasoh Lake.

I’ve been to this place before (this is my second time) but it was a total failure because the whole area was covered with thick fog which was quite unusual according to the local fisherman whom I met at the lake. That’s why I’m so eager to return to this place again hoping to see the “Malaysia’s Guilin“. Luck is with me on my second time to this location…

Panorama with my iPhone

Arriving to the spot, I notice that the lake is getting very shallow and parched compare to my last visit. Had to go slightly to the middle of the lake to reach the lake shore where it’s usually filled with water. Anyhow, it was a very promising morning. Check out some of behind the scene shots below taken with my iPhone.

The sun never rose, but the beautiful light behind those mountain lasted about 5 minutes and it’s more than enough for me. In landscape photography, you just have to be grateful and learn to appreciate whatever that you were granted with. Sometimes you don’t want to be too hopeful and put too much stress on your shoulder otherwise it will later disappoint yourself…

and last but not least, the result from that morning…

Sony A7R Mark II + FE 16-35 mm F/4 || 1/4 sec; f/16 ; ISO 50

Sony A7R Mark II + FE 16-35 mm F4 || © Fakrul Jamil Photography.

Thank you for your time. Until my next post, wassalam..

Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park

April 23, 2016 In Landscape Photography 4 Comments

A short trip of 4 days and 3 nights to Bromo Tengger Semeru National park, particularly to photograph the majestic Mount Bromo, an active volcano in the part of Tengger massif, East Java, Indonesia. It was an unplanned trip, a quick chat with Azmi, a friend of mine, then we realized there is an airfare promotion to this location. But we realized that we had to sacrifice the milky way due to full-moon period. Hey, that’s a reason to go back again yeah?

23/3 – Wednesday evening : Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2). Meeting up with the team. From left, Azmi, Jemang, Pak Zahar & yours truly.

While waiting for the departure, a close look of the FE 24-70 f/2.8 G-Master paired with Sony A7SM2. Ain’t she a beauty?

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.

A few hours later, we arrived to the national park just at around sunrise. We missed the blue hour but we were greeted with beautiful sea of clouds! Here’s my Sony A7RM2 and the FE 24-70 f2/.8 GM in action. The other camera was running on timelapse of the volcano mountains.

We wrapped our shooting at this first location with a group-photo-selfie and a cup of teh halia (ginger tea).

The remaining of sunrise colours that morning. The blanket of clouds partially covering Cemoro Lawang. 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.

Tripod Maintenance

September 26, 2015 In Miscellaneous No Comment

Hi everyone! So you probably know I just returned from a photo trip in Bali, Indonesia couple of weeks ago. During the trip, I’ve been using my tripod on various condition from saltwater, dust, submerged in mud, waterfall and etc.

Thus, after returning from the trip, giving a thorough cleaning to my tripod is necessary to ensure a longer lifetime and maintain the performance. And cleaning Really Right Stuff tripod is made easy by following tutorial on their Youtube channel!

So here you go, cleaned and clear. Looks as good as new!

My tripod setup:

Until my next post, cheers!

Experience 2015 – Sony A7RII, RX100IV & RX10II

August 16, 2015 In Event 2 Comments

Hi everyone! It’s been a busy month for me. Having a back to back event on last few weekends is really fun and the same time, tiring. Today, I just came back from another event with Sony Malaysia, Experience 2015 which is an exclusive digital imaging event made for consumer to experience the power of α7RII, RX100 IV & RX10 II in various shooting scenarios.

It feels great to be one of the key speaker to share my experience with the Sony A7rII among with few other great photographers and videographer by the names of Nick Ng, Alexis Fam and Baron Abas.

The event started with a lovely speech by Managing Director of Sony Malaysia, Mr. Satoshi Hatano and followed by product presentation by Mr. Kah Kit, also from Sony Malaysia. Then it continues with Alpha Pro Photographers sharing (my session) their hands-on experience with A7RII. Photo below is behind the scene of the A7RII at work in Sabah, Malaysia.

BTS of A7RII at work

I hope everyone had great time today and thanks for coming! Also, a special shout-out to my fellow landscape enthusiast, thank you so much for your continuos support towards my landscape photography. You guys rawk!

Enjoy the photos!

The Guardians of Glenorchy

June 13, 2015 In Landscape Photography No Comment

Being a landscape photographer, I used to sacrifice my bed time to chase the best light during sunrise. During my Autumn trip to South Island, New Zealand, I woke up at 4 in the morning and drove for about 30 minutes on a very tight and zig-zag road. Waking up at 4 in the morning and then continue driving can make you feel dizzy because your body is restarting. So it still need some time to reboot completely hence the dizziness. But everything was fine, we manage to arrive to the location safely. Arriving to the location, it was dark, gloomy and very foggy.

It’s very frustrating but being a landscape photographer also taught me to be very patience. I waited for almost 2 hours for the fog to clear up but the light was still not that great. And I just continue shooting and enjoying the morning breeze when suddenly a rainbow started to form just below the mountains in the back. I think it was a double-rainbow but only one had a strong glow.

The rainbow lasted for about 15-20 minutes before disappearing and the weather continues to get better. I couldn’t stop myself for a quick self-portrait with the willow trees!

Everyone seems to have a really good time despite the bad start. Here’s a series of our selfies from that morning.

The weather continues to get better and better. Here’s an image of sun shining through the famous Red hut in Glenorchy.

Check out my final images from this location here —> New-Zealand-Autumn-2015. Hope you guys enjoy reading this behind the scene story. Feel free to share and spread the love!