Because the EOS M is Canon’s first mirrorless we had this odd situation where all invitees who came with their mirrored Canon cameras (including my PowerShot G11) all aimed at this tiny little thing called the “M”. As soon as Guest of Honour, Mr Seisuke Shimitzu, Japan’s Acting Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam lifted the cover, history was made! Congratulations Interhouse Company for yet another successful event.

The unveiling of the Canon’s first mirrorless camera, the EOS-M, by Mr Seisuke Shimitzu, Japan’s Acting Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam.

An EOS-M with a removable 18-55mm lens attached.

An EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS attached to the EOS-M body via an EF-EOS M Mount Adapter

Interhouse staff Jo Verzola (left) giving invitees a hands-on demo of an EOS-M.

Heng Ting Guan of Canon Singapore holding the newly announced EOS 6D for a Brunei Times video footage.

I photograph food a lot and goes without saying, I tether my EOS 5D Mark II to a 17 inch Dell Studio laptop. There’s really no other way when critical review is key to decisive, quality results. Thing is, working with any sort of exposed cable comes with an inherent risk that requires no explanation. Last week, during a routine shoot, I accidentally stepped on the cable closest to the camera and there was no slack, resulted in a good tug that fortunately didn’t cause any damage to either connectors. I may not be so lucky next time.

Tripping hazard: working with exposed cable comes with inherent risk.

A quick search on the web revealed several kinds of brackets designed for HDSLR videographers to hold HDMI cables securely. This one in particular is designed to interface all 6 cables on EOS 5D Mark II/III and 7D bodies.

This CoolProtector is designed to protect the 6 cable interfaces of your DSLR CANON 7D 5D-2 5D-3(Super expensive to repair your DSLR’s cable interface such as HDMI Cable interfaces).

It’s not my style to buy gadgets online or spend time searching for stores that carry them. So I put on my thinking cap, looked around the studio room for ideas and came up with a perfect instantly available solution that does the same thing — using a HONL velcro Speed Strap. It’s rubber lining provides sufficient traction that when securely fastened around the tripod leg, it offers plenty of protection against a repeat accident.

Using a HONL Speed Strap I’m able to secure my 5M long USB cable to the tripod. This effectively stops the cable from being pulled out of its socket reducing the risk of damage to delicate pins.

While messing with a Windows 7 tweak a few days ago, I came across one on the web that I hadn’t tried before. It looked promising and I was convinced that increasing FileSystem Memory Cache Size to twice its default value would make a difference. This tweak, in theory, speeds up file operations in situations where there’s an increased amount of read write operations. After a reboot, the OS seemed a tad more responsive so I concluded the tweak was justifiable applied. Everything was OK until last night when I needed to batch convert over a hundred Canon RAW files to JPEG and DPP kept shutting down the laptop after about 10 to 20 conversions. This symptom remained persistent until I restored the default value to 1. For what it’s worth, it was educational and I will most certainly attempt this when I get a new 64-bit system with a ton of RAM to play with.

My Dell Studio 1735 laptop specs: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32-bits, 4GB RAM with 3.5GB usable.

While shopping for a SanDisk 64GB MicroSD card at Changi Airport last night, I came across a super wide lens accessory produced by ib-F40. Instead of the popular magnetic case design they released for the Apple iPhone 4 this design clips the lens firmly to any compatible camera phone. I couldn’t resist the staff’s suggestion to give it a go on my S3 seeing how incredibly difficult it is to find a decent wide angle lens that’s made for this phone.

Below are before and after examples of how wide a perspective this lens gives you including one additional photo of my son shot from across the aisle (you know just how tight seats are on a plane).

It’s that time of the year, after the smoke has cleared, to sit down and reflect on the accomplishments and setbacks the last 365 days (2012 is a leap year) have brought. November 3, 2012 marked the 6th anniversary since my first post on Nov 3 2006. Shimworld also received the highest ever number of page views recently surpassing the 1.5 million mark.

2012 has been a crazy year — 16 hotel photography assignments in Brunei and Singapore, 20 days of food photography for Excapade Sushi, Funshabu-shi, All Seasons, Pastamania, Shinobu Sushi, Fish & Co., The Empire Hotel & Country Club, Tasek Brasserie, Deals, Mr Baker’s Bakeshop, Mr Baker’s Cafeteria including two cookbooks for The Empire Hotel and Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Industry & Primary Resources — crazy hours, countless commutes but who’s counting? :)

The large amount of computing resource intensive digital files I have accumulated over the years finally took its toll and I could no longer postpone the inevitable — a new, custom built personal computer with enough horsepower to effortless chew through post-processing for some years to come. Those of you in Brunei looking for an experienced builder, I’m happy to recommend Johnny.

Many thanks to the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys for preparing a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 390,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 7 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

Yes, you read that right. Your Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone just got smarter with the help of a free app called AirDroid. You can now very easily download large number of high resolution images stored on the phone, stream MP3 and HD videos to your Windows PC browser. I’ll spare you the introduction to the App itself and jump right into the app’s screenshots — nothing more convincing than a visual tease.

“The AirDroid Android app should be compatible with most Android devices running Android 2.1 or later. The Web Desktop should be compatible with most modern web browsers, including IE 8 or later, Chrome 12 or later, Firefox 3.6 or later, Safari 5.0 or later. Support for mobile browsers, like Safari on iPad, is experimental.” — AirDroid

Along with some nice configurable settings, I particularly like how you can predefine a password instead of having to enter a randomly generated especially if you’re going to use this app several times a day.

You can use AirDroid to send/receive SMS (text messages, if supported by the device), install/uninstall apps, transfer files between Android device and computer/tablet, and manage contacts, photos, music, videos, and ringtones, etc., all in a web browser.

Here’s a actual screenshot of my desktop with user friendly interface to manage my phone’s picture Gallery – choose a single image or batch download many (multiple images are automatically zipped)

Just for kicks, I streamed a HD Gangnam Style Live Concert video from the phone to my Dell 27-inch LCD and the QuickTime playback was buttery smooth. While the video was playing I attempted to multi-task by playing an MP3 track and viewing the photo gallery simultaneously – all possible.

SINGAPORE, 7 December 2012 – Singapore’s first integrated resort Resorts World Sentosa marked its Grand Opening today with a forecast of 17 million visitors for 2013.

The S$7 billion resort has welcomed more than 45 million guests since opening in January 2010. It opened the second of its two anchor attractions a fortnight ago; The Marine Life Park, which is also the world’s largest oceanarium with 100,000 fishes from 800 species, is expected to draw at least 1 million more visitors to the resort in 2013. The resort’s other major key attraction is Universal Studios Singapore.

Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, Chairman of the Genting Group which owns Resorts World Sentosa, said: “In 2006, we began with a vision to build a destination resort like no other. Six years on, we have taken our vision into reality, and turned the page for Singapore’s tourism story. The resort has built itself into one of the most desired destinations for families in Asia. Even as the global economy teeters on uncertainty, we remain confident of surpassing our 2012 attendance of 16 million visitors for next year. ”

RWS’s Grand Opening begins with a ceremony officiated by the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. Mr Lee will unveil an 8-meter sculpture commissioned for the event, Infinity, at a center spot of the Resort, symbolising the Resort’s infinite moments of family fun and excitement.

A gala dinner follows where 1,600 guests will dine on a banquet prepared by 28 Michelin-star chef Joël Robuchon and Singapore’s own celebrity chef Sam Leong. Entertainment for the evening includes performances by soprano Sarah Brightman and China artist Sun Nan at the Resorts World Convention Centre’s Compass Ballroom.

Among the guests will be beneficiaries from the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled (MINDS), who are also the craftsmen behind the evening’s souvenirs.

Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) aims to provide employment training and development opportunities for Persons with Intellectual Disability (PWIDs).

For public guests, the highlight for the evening is a 12-minute firework display synchronised with the world’s largest animatronics performance – Crane Dance – at the Resort’s waterfront. Public performances by local bands and a capella groups will take place across the Resort over the weekend.

Image courtesy of Resorts World Sentosa

Tan Sri Lim added: “Today’s Grand Opening marks a momentous chapter in our journey. We stay committed in ensuring that Resorts World Sentosa continues to be an exceptional destination.” Over the next three months, Universal Studios Singapore will launch a new attraction, the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. This will be the world’s first Sesame Street indoor theme park ride specifically designed for the entire family.

At Marine Life Park, new immersive experiences such as ray-feeding, shark and dolphin interaction programmes, as well as sea trek diving and new education and conservation programmes will be progressively rolled out. New entertainment, including a new resident show at its Festive Grand theatre, will be introduced in 2013.From today onwards, RWS will introduce discounted bundled day passes to its anchor attractions – Universal Studios Singapore and Marine Life Park (Refer to Annex B).

Pictures from Press Conference:

ABOUT RESORTS WORLD SENTOSA
Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), Singapore’s first integrated resort is located on the resort island of Sentosa. Spanning 49 hectares, the resort opened in January 2010 and welcomed over 30 million visitors in its first two years of opening. RWS is home to the region’s first-and-only Universal Studios theme park, the world’s largest oceanarium – Marine Life Park, the Maritime Experiential Museum, a casino, luxurious accommodation in six unique hotels, the Resorts World Convention Centre, celebrity chef restaurants, a world-class spa as well as specialty retail outlets. The resort also offers entertainment including a resident magical spectacular – Incanto, and public attractions such as the Crane Dance and the Lake of Dreams. Resorts World Sentosa is wholly owned by Genting Singapore, a company of the Genting Group. For more information, please visit www.rwsentosa.com.

For a few years now, I took great risks shooting in close proximity to exploding fire crackers – thinking back, it may have been too close for comfort and not something I want repeated. So this year while my dad continued the tradition of lighting the long string of firecrackers, to entertain the kids, I stayed on the first floor appreciating what’s happening downstairs from the balcony. And, each year my immediate neighbour would light the first blast and what followed simply dwarfed every other fireworks in our area — Gong Xi Fa Cai and happy holidays everyone! :)

See reactions and comments on Facebook (click on image to view larger size)

Fireworks lights up like a constellation on steroids completely canopying the midnight sky.

Best wishes and congratulations from Butra Home Concept Magazine and Jan Shim Photography to all Bruneians here and abroad celebrating Brunei Darussalam’s 29th National Day.

Image from Butra Home Concept magazine February 2013 Edition. See reactions on Facebook.

My favourite portrait of His Majesty from my first and only National Day celebration coverage

His Majesty, the Sultan of Brunei, dressed in a white military outfit and a maroon beret, saluted as the national anthem was played, before headed down to the field to inspect the guard of honour.

February 2013 edition of

I have in recent years photographed great number of corporate offices including hotels and their business centres. An example from 2012 is Radisson Hotel Brunei’s Business Centre and Boardroom. It’s not everyday I get an assignment to photograph a boardroom that features a 180 degree panoramic view of its surrounding and from the first floor. Trouble is, beyond the windows is a landscape of concrete buildings, workshops and general conditions of surrounding that are still under development — not quite the breathtaking views I’d imagined. Instead of the usual brightly lit pictures of the boardroom, I chose and waited for direct light at sunset to pierce through the blinds casting light rays and shadows for a dramatic finish.

Click on image to view larger version © Jan Shim Photography

It should be noted that I use Canon Digital Photo Professional as my RAW batch processor. I have dabbled with Lightroom more than once or twice but never found the encouragement to switch especially when I had been computing on under powered hardware that would only make the whole experience excruciatingly painful. To  cut a long story short, I got a new custom-built Windows 7 64-bit PC last December moving up from two generation old 32-bit processing platform — a project that began with me nearly committing to an Alienware Aurora gaming rig but something else much better persuaded me otherwise!

Machine Specs: ASUS Republic of Gamers Maximus V GENE, unlocked Intel Core i7-3770K 4.6GHz liquid cooled by Corsair H80 cooler, Corsair Vengeance™ DDR3 OC Edition 1866MHz 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB, Crucial M4 128GB + 256GB SSDs housed in a SilverStone Fortress FT03 chassis.

My photo-editing studio: Asus Maximus V Gene with dual Dell 27″ and 24″ UltraSharp monitors

Curious and better equipped than ever before I installed a trial copy of Lightroom 4.3 64-bit and imported 1,634 5D Mark II/III RAW files from the 2013 Lexus Golf Classic shoot. I first learnt of Lightroom’s parallel processing capability from ScottKelby.com who got the info from  MacPerformanceGuide.com and that was enough of a push to see how my investment fared. What happened next blew my mind, and I quote from the observation I posted on Facebook. I also shared this post on DPreview.com and Flickr.com

In the interest of benchmarking, I exported 1,634 Large RAW files to JPEG (Quality: 100) in batches of 400 images per operation in 4 operations (pictured above) and timed how long it would take to complete. Note that this is purely an export with no adjustments made to the images. Estimating the time it took me to separate 4 batches of 400 images each to be 1 minute in total, the entire export processes completed in under 15 minutes – impressive! Batching the same number of images in a single process took twice as long. — Facebook, January 21 2013

I ran the tests several times and on one occasion I had Canon Digital Photo Professional export 296 images from the same batch of RAW files with Lightroom this time running  not 4 but 5 parallel processes. The result was nothing short of amazing!

One hot weekend of Lexus Golf Classic shoot, 3 thousand images, several shades darker and 2 itchy sand fly bites later, this morning I decided there’s no better time to push the ASUS ROG 4.7GHz to export Cyril‘s 1600 RAW files in Lightroom and DPP simultaneously. The setup: Lightroom to handle 1600 files in 5 parallel operations and DPP exporting just 296 of the same RAW files (parallel tasking of DPP not tested here). The result is nothing short of mind blowing – my quick CPU tweak to 4.7GHz remained stable, LR finished exporting 1600 RAW to JPEGs in times I’ve never seen before (see top left image “5 operations in progress”. — Facebook, January 21, 2013

A completely unplanned road trip from Seria to Bandar Seri Begawan I made yesterday led me to the photo of the magnificent and historic Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which is quite possibly the most photographed landmark of Brunei Darussalam. Leaving the house, I grabbed the Canon PowerShot G11 from the dry cabinet not realizing then that there wasn’t much battery power left. This photo is one of a series I managed to capture before battery power went out for good.

A view of SOAS Mosque from the Edinburgh Bridge on Jalan Tutong

Excerpt from The Brunei Times …

“POSITIONED majestically on an artificial lagoon near the banks of the Brunei River, the Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien (SOAS) Mosque stands as among the most magnificent mosques ever built in the world.

With its golden dome and soaring white minarets, the mosque is often pictured as an oasis of serenity amidst the hustle and bustle of downtown Bandar Seri Begawan. The celebration of its golden anniversary heralds the mosque’s unique long-standing status as the heart of the capital and the symbol of Brunei’s deeply-rooted Islamic faith.

The mosque also incorporates Italian and Renaissance architectural styles, but with craftsmanship that reflects classical Islamic architecture. This makes the mosque as one of the most unique Islamic places of worship across the world. The mosque took four years to complete, from 4 February 1954 until 26 September 1958. His Highness Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien is remembered as the “Architect of Modern Brunei”. During his reign from 1950 until his abdication in 1967, the Sultan steered Brunei safely through the turbulent years following WWII, establishing the foundation for the nation’s independence and sovereignty. Through his determination and dedication, he had implemented the foundation to build the infrastructure, society and economy of modern Brunei and also ensuring the preservation of an independent Malay Muslim Monarchy in the modern world.”

A reader in Canada who stumbled upon my blog post a couple of years back responded with a postcard photo of Canada’s deadliest rockslide — Frank Slide. Of all the senders who have taken the trouble to mail me a postcard, some a series, this sender is the only one who said she would like one from Brunei too. After looking around for a nice postcard and failing to find one I really like, I decided to create one online via Postagram service. Excited at creating my first digital postcard, I overlooked a typo prinstine when it should be pristine (to mean ‘in its original state’).

Please Send Me A Postcard

“The Souq provides a perfect opportunity for any entrepreneur to start and own a retail business. Since a majority of the renovation costs have been covered and prepared in the Souq, business owners just need to spend on a very minimal set up cost. The Souq provides its tenants with ready-to-move-in shop units equipped with all the necessities from power supply, individual airconditioning, phone line and up-to-the-business signage. Tenants will only need to set up proper display units or furniture and a very low renovation cost if necessary, then bring in the products and their shop is ready for operation.” — The Brunei Times

A photography assignment at Muffins & Co. took me to Level One of the Airport Mall where it’s located at the Main Street Unit right next door to The Souq’s management office. Muffins & Co. is owned by the same team behind established bakery, Mr Baker’s Bakershop at Batu Besurat and Mr Baker’s Cafe at Gadong Central.

Very first order of the afternoon — selecting a face for Muffins & Co. — positioning and lighting Jong wasn’t the easiest and straightforward of task considering the space constraint and constant battle with tungsten bias ambient lighting, with the shadow behind subject intentionally left untouched.

10 varieties of freshly baked muffins from the kitchen of Mr Baker’s Bakeshop were brought here for the shoot and for the lucky few to sample. Check out Muffins & Co. on Facebook

My kitchen balcony has all the elements of good feng shui. How do I know this? Quite simply, the term feng shui literally translates as “wind-water” in English and in that respect, the balcony gets plenty of wind, and rain water, sometimes both :). I’m an early riser, a habit that has followed me since school days and on more than a few occasions I had been blessed with picturesque sunrises especially when you factor in addition of the seasonal flock of white egrets flying in formation over my house.

Pay attention to where the sun is at the bottom of the picture in between the roofs and you’ll see where the following photo was photographed. I donated this framed and mounted piece to help raise money for the earthquake victims of Haiti and Chile.

If you have just bought a Dell wide gamut U2711 LCD and have tried calibrating it over and over with a Spyder4Pro but you’re just not getting the results you had hoped — white doesn’t look quite white — try the method that works for me. I have found the factory tuned sRGB to be slightly cool (a tinge of blue). I have read through a dozen web sites  to get a better understanding of what Gamma, White Point and the rest of the jargon mean.

Straight to the point, if you have a Spyder4Pro and you’re not seeing proper white, try setting White Point to Native and do a Full Cal. I leave the monitor in AdobeRGB mode and Brightness at 20, Contrast at 50 (factory default). Using Datacolor’s recommended White Point of 6500K just doesn’t turn out right for me, and because white isn’t right, grays appeared with a very slight greenish tinge.

I’m overwhelmed by the wealth of information available on colour management and in particularly, calibrating with the  Sypder3 hardware. I’m particularly interested to hear from owners of Spyder4Pro who have successfully calibrated their U2711 in a Microsoft Windows 7 environment, and the settings used.

Some years back my daughter Jewel ran her first long distance event — a 6 km run starting from and finishing at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in the Brunei capital, an event she was neither trained nor had much preparation for other than the occasional school practice. Back then I wasn’t very much involved with her running as I am today in her athletic training and competition. Cut a long story short, she completed the event and was among the top 30-something students out of what appeared to be a large number of participants from all schools in the country.

Last Sunday, Jewel participated in her second run this time a kilometer shorter which was held right in our home town, Seria. The difference this time she has had eleven months of athletic coaching, having earned several medals in 400m, 200m and 4x100m events, she’s in way better shape than she ever was. The transformation from the weak, migraine-prone asthmatic little girl to the determined athlete she is today, is nothing short of amazing. She is 13, and finished 5th in the Under 17 category.

See more images on Facebook
July 25, 2011: Overcoming all odds to triumph: Jewel’s first 400m event.
Feb 23, 2009: Growing Up With Asthma and Allergies

Jewel stretching before her 5 km run.

All images: Canon PowerShot G11

On days when I am not sweating buckets at badminton, I’m doing the same here inside the humid Sungai Liang forest reserve, though not nearly as much. The club where I play is a 10 minutes drive while the green outdoors sets me back 20-25 minutes depending on traffic — I once considered driving half an hour to spend another half an hour in the forest a silly thing to do. This photo, captured with the Galaxy S3, is the beginning of a rather steep climb that pumps the heart good by the time you get up there. Make this spot the beginning of the trek and the journey gets easier as you finish on concrete steps rather than the other way round.

Have you ever wanted to scan a document be it a photograph or a page off a magazine and have it transferred to your  iPad immediately (or an iPhone if you prefer working with small devices)? No? Well, neither have I — at least not something that I have a need for very much. If on the other hand you had wanted to print from your iOS device you can with one of a number of Canon’s wireless AirPrint compatible photo printers. I recently upgraded from the already amazing photo lab quality PIXMA iP6700D to a PIXMA MG6370 you see here.

I installed Canon’s mobile printing app on my second generation iPad and wireless AirPrint communication is established within seconds. Because I work with very large image files, I have the printer connected to my desktop PC (or laptop) via USB for speedy transfers and leave wireless turned on for the two iPads in the house. The upside of this is that either my family can now easily scan documents when I (their go-to tech guy at home) am not around. Never thought wireless scanning can be this cool.