Madrid

Just wanna share some pictures I took yesterday while walking in the streets of Madrid. I reached Madrid yesterday and first thing that struck me is that the weather here is as warm as Brunei which is a contrast to Aberdeen. It's not as humid as Brunei though.
Anyway, hope you'll like the pictures I took.

The exterior view of the hotel I stay.

The room I stay in. It's quite nice.

First thing I had once I left the hotel is a cup of tea.

After tea and some food, I went to Puerta del Sol area and this group of musicians were playing some classical tunes. They are really good.

While I walked on, I came across this couple, who were performing in the street. They were sitting still but what's interesting is that they were covered with mud all over their body. Everytime someone puts a coin in their jar, which is placed in front of them, they will robot move for a few seconds and then go back to being still again. I wonder how much they earn a day like that.

Some snapshots of the buildings. Look at the cloudless sky.

These two guys must be trying to make some special effects with their photos. I just assumed that because the subject is posing in front of green papers that they put on the wall prior to taking the photos.

Cinema. All the hollywood movies are translated to Spanish

I came across this lady who was floating. All the time she was posed with a buddha stance and clinging on to the bamboo next to her. She looked like she was floating or supporting herself with just one arm. Curious onlookers intrigued by this, approached her and she'd introduce them to whatever she's trying to promote. There's a lady behind her video recording all the curious faces around. It looked really real but of course it's fake.

Later, I came to an area where there's a promotion being held. Free shandy were handed to the public. Very refreshing.

There were artists doing graffiti on the wall too. Look at the many cans of spray paint they need.

The artists at work.

There will be some more pictures which I'll post over the next few days. In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Portrait of Myself

Happy Father's Day to all dads and of course especially to my dad. I could only greet and wish him on the phone, but he sounded happy anyway.
Ok...weekend was quite quiet for me. I went out to get some stuff in town and stayed in my flat most times. I'll be leaving Aberdeen and travelling home to Brunei in three weeks time...hooray to all the food and getting to see my family I miss but boooo to going back to work. I dread to think about work but....life without work commitment is quite boring and demotivating as well. Challenge in life is to keep ourselves happy no matter what the situation is like. Easier said than done :)
Enough of that. Photo I have here is a portrait of myself. I browse through a photography website sometime ago and came across a picture which I think is interesting. In that picture, there are other pictures in it and they were presented such a way that they visually 'pop' out of the picture.
I decided to try that on my picture, something I feel is different from the norm. I am quite satisfied with the result.


The picture on the wall is an actual picture that is hanging on my flat but the other three on the floor are pictures taken by me and digitally put in. Notice I'm wearing my new shoes and dressed up for the shot (wink). Proper right?? I like it!
The shot was taken with a bouce flash from my camera, 18mm f/4.0, ISO 400, some warm ceiling light (that's why there are some yellowish and reddish tone) and some light from a nearby window.

Dinner Special II

Yup this is a sequel to my post dated 17th March 2008, Dinner Special. Well, it is because miss Yap TL again invited Alex and myself to her house for dinner on Saturday night. She was away in Glasgow for a 2weeks work assignment and only got back on Friday. Still, she could prepare dinner for us the next day.

Well, this dinner is actually to celebrate Alex's belated birthday. Look at the food in the picture...nice. She made curry beef, fried noodles and spring onion pancake. We took our meal with some wine. It was a great night.

Food prepared by T Lin. Tasty!

Alex with his cake.

Puff.....
Trying to get an artistic shot...brrr....

New Pair of Shoes

Last week after going into a few shoe stores in Aberdeen, I bought a new pair of shoes for myself. I chose this one as it kinda look old-school to me. It's been a long time since I bought a pair (one I wear now) and I have to say, I like this one.
So here, I've taken photos of it. Fabulous right?

Sunny Day Out

It was another sunny weekend. Was out at Culloden Battlefield. It's an interesting venue but a little bit flat for me (my own opinion!) to take any landscape pictures with my 50mm lens.
However, I did take some portrait photos outside the Memorial Centre.

Stuart, Alex and John.


Stuart


Alex