Nothing energizes like the morning sun, and nothing is more satisfying a workout than hiking the “9 hills” trail at Bukit Shahbandar. The time it takes to complete the course is anywhere between 41 minutes (my current best time) to 2 hours when I prefer to take things real slow — logic dictates that longer hikes burn more calories, great for days when torching fat is on the plate.

To get me through the hills: high protein from greens, eggs and fish including a shot of black CBTL espresso without cream, milk or sugar. For fluids while hiking I normally carry a litre of Scivation Xtend or GNC Accelerade.

I don’t always have smoked salmon in the fridge but when I do this is how I have them along with the greens.

Broccoli flowerets, hard boiled eggs and tukey cold cuts with tomato and oyster dressing.

I take my coffee black with no creamer, milk or sugar conveniently dispensed using my Caffitaly machine.

I drove to Kuala Belait town on a whim this sunny morning not for the usual coffee meet-ups with my friends but with one purpose in mind — to capture an aerial view of my “KB” from the top of the V Plaza Hotel. I brought along my EOS 5D Mark III, EF 17-40mm, EF 24-70mm and EF 70-200mm, the widest and the longest lens had their share of sunshine on this almost windless day. The end result is a 3-piece stitched panoramic shot that required a fair bit of intelligence on the part of the software to align the elements.

Click on image to view large version (2100 x 1105 pixels, 1MB)

More pictures on Facebook …

It’s been three weeks since I last driven to Bandar Seri Begawan. That also means it’s been the longest time I’ve stayed away from my favourite hills — Bukit Shahbandar. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working out. In fact, this week alone I exceeded my cardio workout with a record 13 sets of badminton and a few runs in the Sungai Liang forest. Yesterday afternoon, I returned to the Sungai Liang hills this time with my wife and we covered five hills to reach the peak that overlooks both Brunei LNG and Brunei Methanol Company plants. Previously I had only my S3 and images lacked details so this time I brought the G11 along this time, maybe 5D Mark III and a tele lens next time just to add some weight to the workout.

Click on image to view larger version.

3.6 kilometers is a good stretch to run several times a week to build and maintain stamina. The time recorded below reflects our slow hike stopping occasionally to admire the views and also a short chat with four mountain bikers we met on the same trail.

It’s a well established fact that inkjet printers are far superior than their laser counterparts when it comes to critical photo printing. Those of you who have just recently discovered this blog, I am a freelance photographer who runs a small photo editing studio from home. I have two Canon A4 inkjet printers that are one or two generations apart. The PIXMA iP6700D is a few years old, quickly heading into obsolescence but still produces brilliant photos though I limit its use to DVD printing. Last year I added a Canon PIXMA MG6370 All-in-One for the other features the iP6700D can’t do notably high quality document scanning.

A few months ago, my 12 years old HP LaserJet 1200 laser printer died :’( and I found myself in the market for a replacement and an upgrade. Colour laser printers are a lot more affordable today compared to a decade back — I went all out to look for a unit that handled not just colour but also supported network and duplex printing at a price range I could afford. Sounded like a tall order except it’s not, and I found everything I needed in the Canon Laser Shot LBP7200Cdn and more. Yes, more — photo quality blew me away. Laser printers aren’t exactly known for handling images very well and this printer (perhaps other models too) prints exceptionally good images <3.

Amazing photo quality: A two-page spread of a Men’s Fitness digital magazine printed in A4 size.

This printer is by far the easiest networked printers I have ever had to install over Local Area Network. I simply connected the printer to my Cisco router, ran the installer on two PCs and two laptops running both 32-bits and 64-bits Windows 7 including a PC that’s still running XP and printer detection had never been so straightforward.

Working from home this printer is now an indispensable addition to the office and at the same time a wonderful convenience for the children when it comes to school assignments and projects. On a month to month basis I scan and print a lot of documents, everything from bank transcripts, children’s school assignments, copies of personal IDs, customer invoicing (very few corporate clients allow electronic invoices), and printing them in colour adds much greater appeal than a black and white print. Both printers have their place in this studio and they complement each other nicely. This is not a product review but an experience I’m happy :) to share with regards to the choice of equipment I use.

The local Canon distributor in Brunei is Interhouse Company and they deserve a mention for looking after my photography and printing needs since I started my Jan Shim Photography business 10 years ago. Thank you! ;)

Updated: April 12, 2014 Reprocessed images to include additional shots from the park and monument adjacent to the hotel to produce an even wider panoramic shot of Kuala Belait.

I drove to Kuala Belait town on a whim this sunny morning not for the usual coffee meet-ups with my friends but with one purpose in mind — to capture an aerial view of my “KB” from the top of the V Plaza Hotel. I brought along my EOS 5D Mark III, EF 17-40mm, EF 24-70mm and EF 70-200mm, the widest and the longest lens had their share of sunshine on this almost windless day. The end result is a 3-piece stitched panoramic shot that required a fair bit of intelligence on the part of the software to align the elements.

Click on image to view large version (2100 x 1105 pixels, 1MB)

More pictures on Facebook …

It’s been three weeks since I last driven to Bandar Seri Begawan. That also means it’s been the longest time I’ve stayed away from my favourite hills — Bukit Shahbandar. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working out. In fact, this week alone I exceeded my cardio workout with a record 13 sets of badminton and a few runs in the Sungai Liang forest. Yesterday afternoon, I returned to the Sungai Liang hills this time with my wife and we covered five hills to reach the peak that overlooks both Brunei LNG and Brunei Methanol Company plants. Previously I had only my S3 and images lacked details so this time I brought the G11 along this time, maybe 5D Mark III and a tele lens next time just to add some weight to the workout.

Click on image to view larger version.

3.6 kilometers is a good stretch to run several times a week to build and maintain stamina. The time recorded below reflects our slow hike stopping occasionally to admire the views and also a short chat with four mountain bikers we met on the same trail.

It’s a well established fact that inkjet printers are far superior than their laser counterparts when it comes to critical photo printing. Those of you who have just recently discovered this blog, I am a freelance photographer who runs a small photo editing studio from home. I have two Canon A4 inkjet printers that are one or two generations apart. The PIXMA iP6700D is a few years old, quickly heading into obsolescence but still produces brilliant photos though I limit its use to DVD printing. Last year I added a Canon PIXMA MG6370 All-in-One for the other features the iP6700D can’t do notably high quality document scanning.

A few months ago, my 12 years old HP LaserJet 1200 laser printer died :’( and I found myself in the market for a replacement and an upgrade. Colour laser printers are a lot more affordable today compared to a decade back — I went all out to look for a unit that handled not just colour but also supported network and duplex printing at a price range I could afford. Sounded like a tall order except it’s not, and I found everything I needed in the Canon Laser Shot LBP7200Cdn and more. Yes, more — photo quality blew me away. Laser printers aren’t exactly known for handling images very well and this printer (perhaps other models too) prints exceptionally good images <3.

Amazing photo quality: A two-page spread of a Men’s Fitness digital magazine printed in A4 size.

This printer is by far the easiest networked printers I have ever had to install over Local Area Network. I simply connected the printer to my Cisco router, ran the installer on two PCs and two laptops running both 32-bits and 64-bits Windows 7 including a PC that’s still running XP and printer detection had never been so straightforward.

Working from home this printer is now an indispensable addition to the office and at the same time a wonderful convenience for the children when it comes to school assignments and projects. On a month to month basis I scan and print a lot of documents, everything from bank transcripts, children’s school assignments, copies of personal IDs, customer invoicing (very few corporate clients allow electronic invoices), and printing them in colour adds much greater appeal than a black and white print. Both printers have their place in this studio and they complement each other nicely. This is not a product review but an experience I’m happy :) to share with regards to the choice of equipment I use.

The local Canon distributor in Brunei is Interhouse Company and they deserve a mention for looking after my photography and printing needs since I started my Jan Shim Photography business 10 years ago. Thank you! ;)

Updated: April 12, 2014 Reprocessed images to include additional shots from the park and monument adjacent to the hotel to produce an even wider panoramic shot of Kuala Belait.

I drove to Kuala Belait town on a whim this sunny morning not for the usual coffee meet-ups with my friends but with one purpose in mind — to capture an aerial view of my “KB” from the top of the V Plaza Hotel. I brought along my EOS 5D Mark III, EF 17-40mm, EF 24-70mm and EF 70-200mm, the widest and the longest lens had their share of sunshine on this almost windless day. The end result is a 3-piece stitched panoramic shot that required a fair bit of intelligence on the part of the software to align the elements.

Click on image to view large version (2100 x 1105 pixels, 1MB)

More pictures on Facebook …

It’s been three weeks since I last driven to Bandar Seri Begawan. That also means it’s been the longest time I’ve stayed away from my favourite hills — Bukit Shahbandar. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working out. In fact, this week alone I exceeded my cardio workout with a record 13 sets of badminton and a few runs in the Sungai Liang forest. Yesterday afternoon, I returned to the Sungai Liang hills this time with my wife and we covered five hills to reach the peak that overlooks both Brunei LNG and Brunei Methanol Company plants. Previously I had only my S3 and images lacked details so this time I brought the G11 along this time, maybe 5D Mark III and a tele lens next time just to add some weight to the workout.

Click on image to view larger version.

3.6 kilometers is a good stretch to run several times a week to build and maintain stamina. The time recorded below reflects our slow hike stopping occasionally to admire the views and also a short chat with four mountain bikers we met on the same trail.

It’s a well established fact that inkjet printers are far superior than their laser counterparts when it comes to critical photo printing. Those of you who have just recently discovered this blog, I am a freelance photographer who runs a small photo editing studio from home. I have two Canon A4 inkjet printers that are one or two generations apart. The PIXMA iP6700D is a few years old, quickly heading into obsolescence but still produces brilliant photos though I limit its use to DVD printing. Last year I added a Canon PIXMA MG6370 All-in-One for the other features the iP6700D can’t do notably high quality document scanning.

A few months ago, my 12 years old HP LaserJet 1200 laser printer died :’( and I found myself in the market for a replacement and an upgrade. Colour laser printers are a lot more affordable today compared to a decade back — I went all out to look for a unit that handled not just colour but also supported network and duplex printing at a price range I could afford. Sounded like a tall order except it’s not, and I found everything I needed in the Canon Laser Shot LBP7200Cdn and more. Yes, more — photo quality blew me away. Laser printers aren’t exactly known for handling images very well and this printer (perhaps other models too) prints exceptionally good images <3.

Amazing photo quality: A two-page spread of a Men’s Fitness digital magazine printed in A4 size.

This printer is by far the easiest networked printers I have ever had to install over Local Area Network. I simply connected the printer to my Cisco router, ran the installer on two PCs and two laptops running both 32-bits and 64-bits Windows 7 including a PC that’s still running XP and printer detection had never been so straightforward.

Working from home this printer is now an indispensable addition to the office and at the same time a wonderful convenience for the children when it comes to school assignments and projects. On a month to month basis I scan and print a lot of documents, everything from bank transcripts, children’s school assignments, copies of personal IDs, customer invoicing (very few corporate clients allow electronic invoices), and printing them in colour adds much greater appeal than a black and white print. Both printers have their place in this studio and they complement each other nicely. This is not a product review but an experience I’m happy :) to share with regards to the choice of equipment I use.

The local Canon distributor in Brunei is Interhouse Company and they deserve a mention for looking after my photography and printing needs since I started my Jan Shim Photography business 10 years ago. Thank you! ;)

Unusual cloud formation seen above Seria town this morning (7.02AM according to image EXIF) as my wife and I started to leave the tamu (open market) to get breakfast. Shortly after getting a parking space at Metro, drizzles began to dot the windscreen. It didn’t take long before flash storm started pouring down hard on Seria town.

“A shelf cloud is a low, horizontal, wedge-shaped arcus cloud. A shelf cloud is attached to the base of the parent cloud, which is usually a thunderstorm, but could form on any type of convective clouds. Rising cloud motion often can be seen in the leading (outer) part of the shelf cloud, while the underside often appears turbulent and wind-torn. Cool, sinking air from a storm cloud‘s downdraft spreads out across the land surface, with the leading edge called a gust front. This outflow cuts under warm air being drawn into the storm’s updraft. As the lower cooler air lifts the warm moist air, its water condenses, creating a cloud which often rolls with the different winds above and below (wind shear).”

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is a mere two weeks away and while a few suggested that these images should have been taken and promoted earlier I hardly think it’s late at all, if initial orders from enthusiastic clients were an indication. Part of the delay was figuring out how best to showcase their products and workmanship. I wanted to offer something different this time so I went environmental, took a hamper basket to Anduki Recreational Park for a trial shot, the one you see immediately below.

After a lengthy discussion, my client and I agreed that while this image is conceptually strong, switching back to studio images would satisfy his more immediate requirement. The photo montages consist of shots taken at my studio and others at the client’s kitchen. If you’re in the market for  Hari Raya gift baskets hop over to Mr Baker’s Bakeshop website for order information.

 Assortment of freshly baked cookies includes cranberries walnut, Choc chips walnut, Oatmeal raisins, Buttermilk cookies, Original biscotti, Choc biscotti, Raisins and coconut biscotti, Cornflakes cookies, Chocolate chunk cookies, Chocolate praline, White chocolate cashew nut cookies — all make exceptional companions to coffee and tea!

My personal favourite of the lot are these Italian cookies called Biscotti. I particularly like the original and raisins/coconut ones. I have to warn you though, they’re so fresh and crunchy I took one bite and another and another, and before I realized, I had finished a whole container of them just a few days ago while sipping espresso. Clearly, one of the dangers of working from a home studio — over indulgence! :D

Images from Excapade Sushi’s 2014 Ramadhan Sungkai Buffet

All images © Jan Shim Photography

All images © Jan Shim Photography

Seafood Night at Pondok Sari Wangi Restaurant

All images © Jan Shim Photography

These images are available for commercial use. All enquiries welcome.

 Two days ago an urgent photography assignment had me scouting a number of locations within the Belait District. Due to its urgency, waiting for a good day with nice blue sky and nice cloud formation wasn’t an option so I was fairly fortunate to have driven the distance to Luagan Lalak Forest Recreational Park and all elements in the scene were looking good. Out of three locations I had visited, Luagan Lalak was the only one picture worthy and promising. The client had a very specific wall measurement where a suitable image was going up to — 7700mm x 600mm (25 x 1.9 feet). Given the rather narrow height, this panorama image had to be cropped without compromising essence of this composition, and uprezzed to exact measurement without losing image quality.

Click on image to view larger version

[This panoramic landscape was the result of stitching 5 TIFF files each measuring 5760x3840 pixels from the EOS 5D Mark III. Stitching was rather effortless for the custom built Core i7-3770K 4.4GHz powered PC but the real crunch that sent processor temps soaring into high 80 degrees Celcius was during the upscaling for printing at 7700mm wide. Heat wasn't much of an issue when it was water cooled but due to problem with the pump, the stock heat sink was refitted while waiting for a replacement cooler.]

Happy with the shoot, I hung around the area a bit more, chat with a guy from Lumut who happened to be fly fishing in one of the huts. There I set up the camera for the image below — one that nicely conforms to the photography Rule of Thirds.

There’s a time to feast on delicious cooked crabs and there’s a time to just … watch them. The last time I set foot on the beach I had an amazing time watching and photographing crabs local to the Seria shoreline. Hard to believe it’s been 6 years since I took these closeups — a test of patience with a dose of luck and opportunity. The price I paid for being extremely patient was bait for sandfly to feast on. This time, however, I covered myself a lot more than I did before — sunhat, long sleeved top and jeans along with socks and shoes — which somewhat helped except I had left my neck completely uncovered. As a result, I came home with three bite marks (as opposed to more than half a dozen before) that are now swollen and itchy. Still, a small price to pay to be up close and personal with these very interesting creatures, watching them dig holes. Because

This crab scoops tiny balls of wet sand to create a hole deep enough for it to hide in.

Walking back to the car with the front of my top and jeans completely wet (I laid on wet sand in order to get a good vantage point) I came across another catch — horseshoe crabs. Before today, I had only seen dead ones that people kept as display items in their house but these were alive and kicking on the very shoreline where the hundreds or thousands of tiny crabs hang out. I was ecstatic that a few hours on the beach had been so productive!

A fruitful morning for this family of four to have picked up four horseshoe crabs.

Can’t believe it’s been three years since I ventured out to the rooftop of The Empire Hotel & Country Club for a breathtaking panoramic shot of the hotel’s gorgeous beachfront. I happened to have just finished a photo shoot that day and had some time to kill before the hour long drive home. Directional shadows from the evening sun added an extra dimension to give this beautiful landscape a surreal, high contrast and dramatic finish. But something was amiss — the hotel’s very popular Pantai Restaurant was undergoing a full tear down renovation work at the time so the iconic roof isn’t in the picture.

Three years on, I made arrangement to revisit the rooftop for a fresh shot of the landscape this time with the inclusion of Pantai Restaurant. I coincided this shoot to fall on the morning my cousin and I had planned to hike Bukit Shahbandar. During the entire time I was on the rooftop, the sky remained overcast which explains why the image isn’t nearly as dramatic as the previous one — sun direction and timing makes all the difference. We were pressed for time so I wasn’t going to hang around to wait for a better moment.

Click on image to view a larger version ( 1.18 MB)

My host Hafiza preferred to stay near the door away from the unnerving edge where I parked the camera mounted on a tripod.

I kept the camera bag in the car and brought along the PowerShot G11 for the shot below taken from the top deck of the observation tower at Bukit Shahbandar. I’ll have to drag my 5D Mark III and EF100-400mm lens up to the tower some day in order to get a better quality view of the Empire rooftops above the forest canopy. I think that would make the distant landscape more interesting when viewed close up.

A view of The Empire Hotel & Country Club landscape from the top deck of the Bukit Shahbandar observation tower. The white arrow indicates location from where I composed the hotel’s beachfront panorama. Photo: PowerShot G11

My photo editing rig uses Asus ROG Maximus V Gene motherboard with Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz RAM modules installed in all four available slots. These modules feature aluminium heat spreaders and they take up precious space making it impossible to mount a larger more effective CPU cooler. Preferring not to swap out the memory modules with low profile ones, I found that Noctua makes a cooler — the NH-U12S —  that’s 100% compatible even when fitted with a second fan. If all this fits your profile and you’ve been uncertain about this, you’ve come to the right page.This isn’t a review but a testimony of how well the Noctua cooler works under full load.

Download screenshots of my stable BIOS setup for reference if you have the same or similar ASUS ROG motherboard.

Noctua coolers are among the priciest in the market for good reasons (highly effective radiator coupled with one or two exceptionally quiet, high flow fans). Being pricey means you won’t find them in local stores. In fact, you won’t find them in Singapore stores either as I painfully discovered — contacting countless stores via email, Facebook even enlisting help of friends in Singapore to phone them, to no avail. I had no choice but to get one from an online store in the US.

A Noctua NH-U12S fitted with two Focused Flow NF-F12 120mm fans for maximum air flow.

From Noctua: “The NH-U12S is composed of a single aluminum-finned radiator with five nickel-plated copper heat pipes seamlessly integrated into the copper base plate.” While not clearly visible in this picture there is ample clearance between the slim profiled radiator and the Corsair Vengeance RAM modules to fit two 120mm fans.

The motherboard is mounted vertically inside a sexy and elegant SilverStone Fortress FT03 chassis so the picture you see below is in its actual orientation. The back of the board where USB ports, DVI and audio connectors including a high flow Cooler Master exhaust fan are located is pointed upwards to take advantage of hot air’s natural tendency to rise, according to its designer. Here’s a picture of the FT03 chassis next to the DELL U2711 LCD which also means I’m seated within earshot of any fan noises that might drive me up the wall.

ASUS Fan Xpert 2 is as the name suggests a brilliant fan controller app. I had the entire suite removed for over a year because I didn’t understand how incredibly useful it is at configuring and controlling the CPU and chassis fans to work the way you want them to. Looking at the screenshot below you can control up to five fans independently on this motherboard — if this isn’t cool and empowering I don’t know what is, says the geek writing this post! :)

Screenshot of Noctua cooler custom profile. NF-F12 refers to the Focused Flow fans mounted on the radiator.

CONCLUSION: All that’s been said and done, it all boils down to keeping the notoriously hot Intel Core i7 3770K @ 4.4GHz 1.20 volts processor cool when it’s crunching full throttle. At 100% CPU load on all four cores, I’m seeing an amazing 20 degrees Celsius lower across all cores compared to the stock cooler. I have had to down clock to 4.0GHz and lowered voltage to 1.15 volts with the stock cooler in order to keep temperatures manageable at full throttle.

Instead of standard overclocking stress tests to ensure system stability BIOS tweaks are tested under real world conditions using Canon Digital Photo Professional, Corel Paint Shop Pro X6, Photoshop CS6, Perfect Photo Suite 8, Autopano Giga. Of these, the CPU gets pushed to 100% load when I’m uprezzing images many times its original size with Perfect Photo Suite 8 or when stitching large number of images using Autopano Giga.

As an experiment, I had a panoramic image that measures 10543 x 3750 pixels uprezzed to 27000 x 9000 pixels (90 x 30 inches). The process had the machine throttle CPU load between 85% and 100% for 7 minutes to produce a 1.80 GB 16-bit TIFF file — processor temps stayed below 70 deg C.

Click on image to view full screenshot

I cannot ask for a better month — two photo shoots in a month with two international franchises: KFC Brunei and Starbucks Brunei. Three premium desserts for KFC and a Starbucks menu just a week apart have kept me busy with post processing work. Somewhere in between I have had to rush a client’s request to uprezz (yes, there’s such a term) a panoramic landscape shot of Tasek Merimbun to 343 megapixels (45472×7543 pixels) to go onto a wall of JPMC Cancer Center. I am so glad that I had my computer’s cooling sorted before I have had to deal with an avalanche of CPU intensive processing work.

The setup at Starbucks Mabohai outlet: A pair of light stand mounted, radio triggered Canon Speedlite strobes including a third handheld Speedlite, 5D Mark III tethered to a 17-inch Dell Studio laptop for instant, critical review.

It is Starbucks policy to conduct their photo shoot in private but after juggling the idea of just a handful of preferred locations Starbucks Mabohai outlet was chosen even if that meant shooting in full view of passers-by and dine-in patrons. The display and merchandise section of the cafe was cordoned off for food styling and preparation and those who are familiar with my workflow know that I’ll bring a lot of equipment on location. A 17-inch laptop for tethered shooting is an absolute must when dealing with commercially critical images. I can’t imagine four pairs of eyes fighting to view the camera’s 3-inch LCD versus the convenience of a 17-inch display.

Testing light placements and checking exposure of the first item to shoot. A third unmounted light (not pictured) was used where required to provide additional lighting to hard to lift shadow details. Thank you Eric for this picture.

If you own a Canon Powershot G series that features a tilt and swivel LCD screen, you already have a camera that takes phenomenally better selfies than your latest smartphone — that is, if image quality matters to you. I was never drawn to taking selfies because smartphone front cameras are largely still supremely inferior when compared to a 5 year old battle-scarred G11. Also, you may have read about RAW support in Android 5.0 Lollipop, I am shooting RAW+JPEG with the G11. Only slight drawback with this camera is its rather narrow 28mm field of view (newer compacts feature 24mm). Regardless, I would take distortion free any day except in rare circumstances where fish eye would be more desired.

The Lollipod tripod is light, affordable, telescopic and extremely versatile. I have a pair that I picked up in Singapore to mount my remotely triggered Canon Speedlite 580EX flashes. The legs when folded turn into a monopod and let you grip the stick better to maintain camera orientation. The G11 is heavier than a smartphone so a rounded selfie stick is going to be a bit of a challenge if you get what I mean.

Before mounting the camera onto to the Lollipod, be sure to enable Face AiAF, Servo AF, Continuous AF for facial recognition and continuous tracking. Flip the LCD forward and you’re good to go (with some experimentation to find what works for you).

Attached to the G11 is a wired shutter release RS-60E3 with more than enough cable to run the entire length of the stick. I originally tested the setup using a 10 seconds timer setting but it got too cumbersome as the camera resets itself each time camera power timed out. Other than triggering the camera, the remote shutter release button also wakes the camera from sleep so that’s convenient.

So yesterday, I put the rig to the test (without the remote shutter cable solely relying on 10 seconds timer for each shot) at our 4 km Bukit Pak Natu hike in Sungai Liang. These pictures were taken between 3.30pm and 4.45pm on an extremely sunny afternoon and what’s the first thing that springs to mind when shooting under such conditions? Yes, harsh shadows, strong contrasts and if you’re taking pictures using a smartphone, front or back camera, you would most probably end up with pictures of dark faces or blown out background, not to mention images with no discernible background detail.

Taking pictures the way it’s always been taken using a tripod. I have on many occasions hiked with friends and used the Lollipod as a tripod to take group pictures. A tad inconvenient to set up compared to a quick smartphone selfie but priority being image quality over speed.

The G11 and the Lollipod combined weigh a bit more than your regular selfie stick and a smartphone. The weight may not be to everyone’s liking (it’s really not heavy) but the same principle associated with handling a DSLR applies to this setup — the weight helps with stability in addition to the camera’s optical image stabilization.

The following images were taken at various scenic spots throughout our hike — no forest canopy here just full on direct sunlight leaving subjects with dark faces especially when hats are worn. Here’s the thing with this setup: the G11 has DSLR-like controls so it’s extremely useful to have FEC dial to balance flash power when shooting under such extreme conditions. Conditions that overwhelm even the mightiest of smartphones (their tiny LED flash do not stand a chance). I shot RAW+JPEG and each of these images are good for A3 prints.

Why choose between properly exposed faces or blue skies when you can have both. The G11 on-board flash (dialed to correct power) takes care of that at the same time captures landscape with good detail (as opposed to a lump of green artifacts resembling distance trees.

Another great example where fill flash gives the subject the light it needs while camera meters for the background preserving all details behind the subject including blue sky and white clouds with no washed out highlights.

With my Columbia Omni-Freeze top and wife’s Patagonia Capilene® 1 both fairly recently acquired, we get to stay outdoors longer and stay cool both with UV protection. Love the heat, love the outdoors!

I couldn’t think of anything better to ring in the new year than a group hiking activity with like minded enthusiasts. So a few days ago I sent out casual invites to friends on Whatsapp, followed by a quick Facebook post on the eve. At the same time I was worried about bad weather ruining the plan (we’ve had good sunny weather in between). Came Dec 31st, my family and I had Thai cuisine for lunch, wife and I squeezed in a 4.75 km hike in Sungai Liang (Jewel had weekly track training while Jamie was at the cinema watching Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb with a friend) before we all got ready for for dinner at Kaizen Sushi (deviating from our regular haunt, Excapade Sushi)

Excited about the hike, I slept early only to be woken up by looping sounds of relentless rain. Half dazed, I went back to sleep with great hopes that rain would stop by dawn — it never did. In fact it had rained non-stop since midnight and I was pretty sure the trails would be soaked, muddy and expectedly slippery by now. I was close to calling the whole thing off but Eric was going ahead with the hike with his staff from various Mr Baker’s Bakeshop outlets I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity especially when rain had finally stopped. Woke everybody up, grabbed breakfast and made a beeline to Bukit Shahbandar despite the persistent gray weather.

14 of us in total comprising mostly staff from Mr Baker’s Bakeshop led by owner Eric Pui, including Joe and my family of 4. Both Jamie and Jewel are wearing their new Skechers Go Run Ultra. I’m happy to report that in spite of the muddy and slippery trails, the Ultra’s outsole lugs have been proven effective in handling the unforgiving trail conditions.

As soon as I took the first picture (above) battery indicator went from full charge to blinking red. (second battery after Singapore holiday). Mistake of not packing a spare and I wasn’t sure how long the remaining charge would hold but surprised I was still able to shoot many more, with flash!

The break away intersection to Pondok 7 is one of my favourite photo spots although not the easiest to set up, more so when the surface is wet and slippery. The Canon G11 is set up on the Lollipod with 10 second timer activated shutter to fire 3 shots.

The scenic lookout between Pondok 4 and 5 is another popular photo spot. Flat ground makes it a lot easier to set up camera. Behind us is part of the extended landscape that stretches the Shahbandar trail by another 3km. A leisure hike that includes the extended trail would take up to 4 hours to complete.

I’ve crossed this bridge located between Pondok 5 and Pondok 6 countless times but this is the first time I took this shot from a higher vantage point — 13 people on the bridge makes the picture more interesting than usual.

Here’s a photo on the slope before Pondok 7 where the group stood randomly. Every photo op was an opportunity to rest for those who are exhausted from the steep hills.

Another picturesque landscape tucked away in a corner of the rocky trail before Pondok 9.

Slowly but surely every one of Eric’s staff made it to the final pit stop, the observation tower. From here on back to the starting point, it’s downhill and flat all the way. Well done first timers!

Aerial view of Shahbandar Hills | see MapMyHike for map details and workout stats.

My workout stats for this hike and the longest time I’ve done for a 9 hills hike. The upside of staying in the forest longer is higher calories burned. I’m sure it’s not a linear computation and MapMyHike algorithm takes into account movements tracked by GPS and time it took to work out the burn rate.

So I finished and tracked a year and four months of my workouts recently adding badminton to the stats and ended 2014 with some hard working numbers to reflect on. 2015: Burn more calories! :)