Starting my vintage camera collection

I started fooling around with photography around 1992-93 and had real gung-ho aspirations to be a photographer since then. I inherited an old Yashica SLR from my father and went shooting with my buddies Romeo, Disney and Kelly.

*Not the exact Yashica but a photo from Wikipedia

I remember we all had old cameras and mine would always jam up, and finally on a climb to Mt. Kinabalu, it finally gave up on me and the mirror never came down..it was stuck for good.

So I requested, I think for my birthday, for a camera from my sister, who gave me a 2nd hand Canon SLR.

*again, not the exact Canon. Mine had an all black body.

I think I only managed to use it once for a body-building competition at Kiulu, then the same problem happened, the mirror got jammed. This time it was sent to a technician to be fixed but it really conked out.

I was without a SLR camera for a long long time, till I got my first DSLR in 2008, a Nikon D200.


Coming to Australia has it downs for me, not being able to work in my chosen field of Photojournalism. The pros is, however, endless. I can now shoot without pressure to deliver to my editor or client.

I was chatting online with fellow Sabahan, Flanegan Bainon, who is in Melbourne studying Photography and he told he had started collecting vintage cameras. I found that really interesting and kept an eye out for old cameras at thrift stores and garage sales.

This is my first vintage camera I bought at the Salvation Army store. It cost me AUS$15.00. The Minolta Hi-Matic G was made in 1974, the year I was born, and still works. There was still a roll of film inside when I got it. I changed the battery and the meters went 'alive'! I think I got a good buy.

Indonesia Trip, July 13-25, 2008

I was honored to invited by the United Nations Developement Program (UNDP) to a training for trainers workshop for community media practitioners, in Porong, Indonesia . I am back to two of my other passions, videography and community work.

The villagers of Porong, amounting to around 15,000 people have been almost permanently displaced from their homes because of a mudflow that was triggered by a gas mining company called Lapindo in 2006. The mudflow has not stop flowing since then, overflowing into the villager's rice fields and homes, hence losing their homes and livelihood. Communities were resettled in temporary shelters like market places and in tents. Their demands, so far, has not been met or compensated fairly. We empowered members of the community to make their own documentary to tell their story, which was later shown to the Indonesian media and other NGOs

Sze Ning and me at Pasar Baru, one of the bigger resettlements.



At Kaliandra Sejati, the resort that hosted us. This was taken at a lookout where we did our morning Yoga, yep I'm into that now.



Lunch was all organic, plus these glasses of water on every table.




View of Kaliandra Sejati, where culture meets nature. 850 meters above sea level on the slopes of Mt. Arjuna.




Ime, one of the most articulate woman I know.



Me meditating after our yoga session.



Street food...heavenly food. Bakso.


Kids fooling around in front of my camera.


Caught this photo of this small boy while waiting to do an interview.


Mamak and me. Mamak is a master video editor with plenty of shortcuts up his sleeves.




Trip back to the mudflow site with the community. A lot of emotions.











SUPOR FM (Suara Porong) with DJ Abid. Community radio with 5 kilometer radius.




Introducing video to the community




2nd Screening to community




With the other trainers after the 3rd screening of the communities video.




Jakarta Photos

This is with Kiki, an old college mate.



Series of photos taken at a very nice restaurant, forgot the name but should be the one on the Menu. Thats Dwi in the background, Nikon D80 user.

Boys will be boys!

Had a chance to go out of town this week with my good friend, videographer Paul Masudal. He had to do a short shoot in Kota Belud, so I joined in for the ride, since I kinda knew my way around there. While in the kampung, we passed a primary school and I spotted 4 boys with their books on their heads, obviously being punished. I whipped out my camera, switched my 17-50mm to a 70-200mm and snapped a frame as the boy was smiling at us.


Yes, boys with their expensive toys. Paul with his Canon XH-A1 HD.

Everil and Jackson's Wedding - Sneak Preview

Everil and Jackson got married amidst the flood scare in Penampang. There were fears of flooding around the Everil's house that day but thank God, it instead was a very clear and sunny day.

As a career photographer, I accept challenges that come and try to understand it. The main challenge for me was 'too much light'. The sun was very bright and thus I had very bright backgrounds (outside shot), but I still had to control my shutter to be able to catch faces of subjects. This also gave me the opportunity to take my ISO levels to its best. This was a blessing cos I was able to crop the photos and still get good resolution.

Here is a sneak preview of their wedding photos. Enjoy!

Becks Promo at Rumba

Becks, the beer, had a two night event at Rumba, Le Meridian, together with the Kinabalu Sportcar Club. Supercars were parked outside the club to showcase the beer. My collegemate, Ah Hung, was the organizer and he called me in to take some photos. It was dark where the cars were parked so i just did some closeups.

D'Junction's Miss Kaamatan 1st Heat

It's quite sad that for this competition, it does not lead to a spot in the State Level Unduk Ngadau on May 31st at the KDCA. The girls are beautiful and talented. I hope that some of them will join their district level Unduk Ngadau pageants to get into the State Level one. These are some belated photos of the girls that made it into the grand finals of D'Junction's Miss Kaamatan 2008.