When I was in Bangkok a few weeks ago, I posted a post on the pictures I took. I also did a series of photos with my iPhone using an app that just blows me away. Yes, I am talking about the Hipstamatic. Digital photography never looked so analog. The Hipstamatic brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past! The Hipstamatic keeps the the quirks of shooting old school but gives you the ability to swap lenses, film, and flash settings all with the swipe of a finger.
Pictures taken with the Hipstamatic have their very own look and unique character. Artistic and painted with light and quirk, Hipstamatic images are sometimes surprising and offer a delicate beauty turning any iPhone into an instant art making machine. The Hipstamatic camera was created by two brothers in America. For more information on the history of the camera, click HERE.
Here are the shots I took with my Hipstamatic app on Bangkok :
Last week the office sent a few of my colleagues and me for this event. It is an important event as it showcased many interesting topics regarding the Social Media scene as a whole.
Why Social Media?
With the advent of social media in the world today it is not supprising then that both individuals and businesses are looking for ways to fully take advantage of it, especially keeping in mind that their capabilities are not entirely tapped yet and they still possesses huge potentials for future development.
Consider the fact that there are now well over 1500 publicly traded companies and even smaller firms that maintain an active Blog, Twitter feed, Facebook fan page, and YouTube channel. Facebook alone boasts additional 50 millions of people adopting social networking, businesses are keen to participate and are increasing their social media budgets accordingly.
What Are The Benefits?
For businesses, the social media also offers huge potential benefits from reduced costs and enhanced performance. To a certain extent, businesses have started to utilize social media for the purpose or marketing, building brand, engaging customers, and knowledge sharing. However, these practices are relatively new, and many other businesses are still growing in the dark when it comes to utilizing the social media for their benefit.
So that was the gist of the whole conference and the keynote speaker was none other than our former minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is also is a blogger himself, addressed the delegates in his own style. There was also Dato Tony Fernandes of Air Asia. Dato Tony, also explained how he built Air Asia from scratch with the advent of social media. Here are pictures from the event and also a short descriptions of the speakers who spoke during the conference:
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
The former premier was clear of one thing, the issue of freedom of speech in Malaysia and how it has evolved. Do we have freedom of speech? Is this press free to write about anything? Well, he mentioned the laws in our country are strict but it is good to have such guidelines. He also expressed his feeling of how he is vocal when pointing issues that are real and in the moment to him. A good example he gave was the invitation of former British prime minister, Tony Blair and his visit.
Tun Mahathir is a man of vision and strong opinions and he pointed that when it comes to voicing out his opinions, he is vocal thus in the matter of Tony Blair. For those who of you who wants to read his blog, click HERE
Tony Fernandes
The man behind the tagline “Everyone can Fly” spoke with confidence and he was very inspirational. His success story was well said and he is also a man who dares to challenge and dreams big. He started with two planes and now Air Asia is one the best low cost air carriers in the world. He also blogs and explained how social media has helped the company to soar and be where it is now. To read his blog, click HERE
Ahmad Nazuwan aka Abang Nara
This dude is the BOMB ! His blog www.beautifulnara.com has hits more than a million. He is a well know blogger who higlights the Malaysian entertainment scene. To be exact the Malay entertainment scene, as his fans know him as Abang Nara, he is one hardworking and passionate blogger who has taken the paparazzi style blog posts a hit among his fans. He also explained how to get more hits with your blog and how to look at the simple details that makes a blog credible. He also stressed at the need for being transparent and truthful when writing something out of passion.
Olivier "Bloggie" Robillo
Olivier “Bloggie” Robillo from the Philippines is a wordpress evangelist cum citizen journalist. He also leads a few blogs in his repertoire. His main passion is spreading the good news on the WordPress blog site and how it changes the way people blog and does everything for their sites. He blogs at http://www.robilloblog.com/
Avit Varma
Avit Varma was one of the straight to the point speakers. His blog India Uncut is a testament of his views and thoughts of how India and the world is. He also has published a book. As for me Avit was an inspiring person as he speaks his mind and not afraid of his writings. He believes in freedom of speech at its purest form just how he pointed he loves the 1st Amendment of USA. He admits that he is a freedom of speech absolutist and his not afraid of saying that boldly. His talk was titled “The Big Deal of Blogging” , can be read HERE
Niki Cheong
Niki is one of my favorite Malaysian bloggers. His job as a journalist and a blogger gives reader a good view on how the social media works as he works in a mainstream newspaper. His blog nikicheong.com is a blog that is easy and simple to read. He writes of the simple joys in life and how his work evolves around it. Being trained a journalist, his style of writing is in depth and yet captures the essence of life of being a Malaysian. He also has a column in the Star newspaper, named The Bangsar Boy. So people out there, do check out his blog as it is very insightful and heartwarming as well.
Well, those were some of the speakers that I liked during the conference and also I met my good friend back from uni days who also used to work with Niki. She is none other than my mentor, teacher and friend, Lina Latif :
Lina & me
Lina & Niki
Well that is my post on this conference. My personal view on the conference was good. It is a good way of meeting people in the media who are using the avenue of Social Media and blogging for a good purpose. The blogsphere is becoming a booming trend in Malaysia and many young people are turning to it to express their views on so many facades of life including politics, religion, sports and many more.
The proper usage of this avenues determines the idea of being advanced in a society and the wrong usage brings down a community. As we know the Internet is a window to the world and we can be connected instantly with people. What more with the mobile devices thats offers mobile browsing makes social media a powerful tool in the world.
I have been very dormant on my blog posts recently and it is not because I am ignoring it but I am super duper busy with my work. Yes, its been a new environment for me and working with the nations number one daily has its challenges. To be specific working in the advertising department and writing advertorial is another new thing that I am still learning.
Well, leaving that aside, the new year has come and I hope to meet my resolutions that I have set for this year. Ranging from personal to work, hopefully it will come true. Anyway, this blog post is going to be about Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) and over the years I have been listening to lots of bands that has shaped my musical genre towards the CWP scene.
Since my high school days I have been listening to bands like Delirious, Sonic Flood, Jars of Clay, and not forgetting all the wonderful songs that come from Australia. Churches in Australia such as Hillsongs, Paradise and others. This is an excerpt from Wikipedia on CWM:
Contemporary worship music (CWM) is a loosely defined genre of Christian music which has developed over the past sixty years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are frequently referred to as ‘praise songs’ or ‘worship songs’, and are typically led by a worship band, with a guitarist leading. Today it is arguably the most common genre of music sung in churches — particularly in Protestant churches, both denominational and nondenominational. Some songs are even featured in more traditional hymnals
Well, that sums it up in a nutshell what CWM is all about. Recently there are new styles of CWM that has arise from different parts of the world. Lots of various styles that are explored in creating beautiful songs for worship. Song writers such as Michael W Smith, Paul Baloche, Don Moen, has stepped up in creating new styles from the traditional that they been writing songs. Gone are the days of Hosanna and Integrity Music styles. I mean the songs are being sung in churches but rarely you hear younger musicians playing such songs as its totally different to what is being written now. No matter what those songs from that time has inspired many new songwriters to come out and try new things.
Nowadays we rarely see chord progressions that are hard and complicated to play. Songs are written and composed to be simple yet meaningful. Worship bands such as Soul Survivor from UK and Passion from USA has redefined CWM in my humble opinion. But like I mentioned earlier, all these lead to one thing that is “To worship GOD in spirit and truth”.
Recently I was really glad to discover a few bands and songwriters that are phenomenal. Their style of songwriting has touched my life in many ways even after listening to their music in a short span of time. Firstly I would like to speak about Glen Packiam.
I heard of Glen when I was in high school and he was in KL with his band BAREFOOT. It was then I was so in love with the “Undignified” by Delirious. His songs are just simple yet speaks so much. Not only that he is also part of the Desperation Band. Here are some videos of Glen :
Next up is the husband and wife team that I had the privilege of meeting them during the Asia Pacific Youth Alive Conference (APYAC) that was held last year in Glad Tidings, PJ. The songs they write are just purely down to earth and speaks of giving praise to God in the simplest words.
The songs they sang during the conference were just amazing, not only the crowd’s responses were amazing but the spirit of God was just felt throughout the worship time. Here are some shots that I took of them during APYAC 2009:
Brad
Rebekah
Tim
Rob
Rebekah
That were some shots of them from the conference, they have a new album out which is called THE ONE WE LOVE which is a full band accompanied album. My favorite song from this album is the single same as title. It starts of with a cool guitar reef and it goes into a very rock style and the chorus just is majestic and is full of impact as declaration of God’s love is heard. The other song that I really love is THANK YOU LORD. You all have to listen it to experience the wonder of this song.
Besides that album they also have a beautifully crafted acoustic project called ACOUSTICALLY INCLINED. This album is perfect for devotion times and easy listening. All in all, I was blessed by them as they were really down to earth people and to me personally think if you put your heart to songwriting, such songs from Brad & Rebekah are created for people of God to enjoy it.
For more information on their music, please click on their links below:
Well, that is my blog post on some of my thoughts on worship music. These two artist that I have written about are people that need to be known by our generation. Singer songwriters in the secular get so much exposure and people who serve GOD should be known even more. So do promote Glenn, BRAD & REBEKAH after listening to their music. It has touched my heart and I hope it will do the same for you too.. GOD BLESS
At times I only blog about my pictures and my street photography stuff. Amdist all of this, I am very in touch with the local music scene, not as much as some people I know. I have been in touch with it for a while and I am very much blessed to be in Malaysia and to see all these wonderful talent. New talents who just blow ur mind away and the seasoned ones who still proves that we in Malaysia have really good musicians around.
I want to talk about a good friend, who is a singer songwriter and she is unique in her own way. The first time I met her was during the OMG sessions at Food Foundry, Petaling Jaya. Her rendition of “Falling Slowly” from the Academy Award winning movie for BEST SONG “ONCE” just blew me away. Her laid back and suave voice just spoke to me that people who sing doesnt need to be right on your face to send a message through songs but just singing from the heart matters. So, I give to you WANI ARDY .
WANI ARDY
Her small stature and sweet looks may give people the thought that this young girl is your girl next door but when she sings, that is the thing that makes you wonder “WHERE on earth she writes like that ? “During the OMG session, she sang her song titled ” Teori Lucu”... which means ‘Funny Theory’ direct translation from Malay. I was really overjoyed with the down to earth lyrics that speaks about life around her… Here is the song :
Dunia hari ini, semua mengaku seni
Lebih baik jadi diri sendiri
Negara hari ini, kurang lelaki kualiti
Jangan salahkan skeptikal mentaliti
Kau apa kurangnya? Hip tapi sempit
Siapa kata lelaki dan perempuan tak bisa menjadi kawan karib?
Lucu!
Nananana nananana cukup, cukup
Nananana nananana cukup, cukup
Ada apa dengan Valentine?
Bila ku ada teman-teman, cita-cita, masa depan
Kau mungkin fikir ku “in denial” atau ku suka yang sejenis
Oh tak mungkin, hak ku memilih
Jadi aku solo, tak bermakna bolos
Memang ku sendiri, tak bermaksud aku mahu kau punya kekasih
Lucu!
Nananana nananana cukup, cukup
Nananana nananana cukup, cukup
Aku selesa menjadi aku
Dan engkau bukannya aku
Aku tak perlu teori lucumu
Cuma buat sakit perut
And the other song that she performed was “Orang Kecil” which means “Litte People”. It basically says about be thankful and grateful for the things around you even though you may think you are small in things you do :
ORANG KECIL
Hari ini ku lihat awan biru dan hijaunya dedaun
Ku lupa betapa indahnya kehidupan yang sebenar
Tersesak dalam cita, diuji dan diduga
Namun aku ini hanya orang kecil
Jauhnya cinta, jauhnya bahagia
Lelah gelita, kosongnya jiwa
Ku impikan bulan, ku terjatuh di bintang
Bersyukur apa ada, ku ‘kan sampai ke sana
Hari ini ku lihat teman ku dan separuhnya bersatu
Ku lupa betapa indahnya kehidupan yang sebenar
Tersungkur bangun lagi, komplikasi duniawi
Namun aku ini hanya orang kecil
One of my favorite songs from her is called “Knock Knock Wonderment” and as usual there must be a song on love, and I totallty love the whole melancholic feel of the guitar riffs and lyrics in this song :
KNOCK KNOCK WONDERMENT
Knock, knock, who’s there?
Are you love? Are you lust?
Knock, knock, who’s there?
Are you a poison? Are you a cure?
You see, I have a love-and-hate relationship with love itself
I don’t intend to make it worse or change my orientation
The world is too spontaneous for declaration, whatsoever
Maybe we should just go back to the days of secret admirers
Where love letters and chocolates were slipped into lucky lockers
Life was full excitement
But soon you’ll get tired, soon you’ll get tired
Knock, knock, who’s there?
Are you the one? Or, are you like, number ten?
Knock, knock, who’s there?
Why did you come in?
I… don’t think I invited you in
You see, I have a love-and-hate relationship with love itself
I don’t intend to make it worse or good lord, change my orientation??
The world is too spontaneous for confirmation, whatsoever
Maybe we should just go back to the days of secret admirers
Where love letters and chocolates were slipped into lucky lockers
Life was full excitement
But soon you’ll get tired, soon you’ll get tired
Soon you’ll get tired
Soon you’ll get tired
Soon you’ll get tired
Soon you’ll get tired
Soon you’ll get tired
Of wonderment
These are some of the songs that really spoke to me and I would recommend it to all of you and for more information Wani Ardy, please check out her MySpace account of go to her WEBSITE or even just YOUTUBE her name and you will find a long array of videos of her performing in various places around Kuala Lumpur. I am very privilleged of knowing her and taking pictures during her gigs once in a while.
So, people out ther dont forget always remember to support the local music scene and listen to Wani’s stuff who is one of the many great talents that are around Kuala Lumpur.
Oh my god, its been a while….Yes, finally I had some time after all the roadshows and events that has been happening at my workplace, I wonder at times what are the reason behind the road shows anyway but yet I am working just enough to milk the cash and finding for better offers that comes along the way.
Anyway after the pictures from the previous post that showcases some pictures of my old film picture, I was there for the Java Jazz Festival 09 (JJF) and the pictures I took from the shows turned out pretty OK but as I said I was there to enjoy the music and it was indeed an awesome time to shoot pictures for the show…Here are some of them :
Jason Mraz
Jason Mraz
Glenn Fredly
Matt Bianco
Matt Bianco
SOIL & PIMP
SOIL & PIMP
Grant Anthony
These are some of my favorites shot I took during the JJF 09….besides I have been really reading up and practicing my street photography and also my portrait taking, and I am hoping that I will excel in this line…just wish and pray that everything will be awesome !
~Later Days ~
“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. “ – Ansel Adams
Photography has been really something that I have been looking at for the past few years as a way of expressing myself in a creative way. After graduating with a degree in Film & TV, working in the industry for almost one and half years has made to look at the Film & TV medium in a different light and then I switched to photography, I have been working on a few projects now and also this year there are some more wedding jobs that are coming in for me. I hope that it would be fruitful…
I also have been reading a lot on street photography and also meeting people like Vig from KL Flickr has made me realize that things around you are the best subjects to be photographed, and I am looking at things in a different way. Simplicity, uniqueness and message behind the photograph is what I am looking when I shoot on the streets nowadays. There are so many ways of doing street photography, the best part is there is no Right or Wrong in executing a photograph thus making it very subjective to the photographer, also have a look at THIS for more information on street photography . Anyway these some shots that I took when I was out with Vig around KL :
Yes, its that time of that year again and the usual greetings and wishes are given out to eveyone, and every blog will be filled with wishes as well, and as for me I wanna do the same and let my pictures speak, anyway a Blessed Christmas to all that I know…you all have been an inspiration to me, you know who I am speaking about yea…. :
Yes, I know….no matter I say at times just wont make sense to some people but I think life goes on….anyway its been more than 2 weeks I guess since I posted something and as you know I love photography and last week I down south to Johor with my colleague to give a workshop on iPhoto and after that we went around the area to take some pictures and these are the 3 images that I like from there:
Yes, a big shoutout to all my Muslim friends and my favorite people from KLickr group, wishing you all the best and Selamat Hari Raya from me and Maaf Zahir dan Batin. God bles…
